Walkthrough - Guide for Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix

Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix
A walkthrough for the children
by Thomas Wilde

==================
Table of Contents:
==================

- Disclaimer
- Introduction
- Weapons
- General Hints
- Walkthrough
	Part One: The Aqueduct
		- getting into and out of the aqueduct
	Part Two: The Palmetto Maze
		- Rain above the party
	Part Three: The Life of the Party
		- Hana at the party
	Part Four: An Elevator Clinch
		- reuniting Rain and Hana
	Part Five: Matchmaker
		- the Wing Chune Building
	Part Six: Weapons of Mass Distraction
		- Rain's clever escape plan
	Part Seven: No One Ever Goes There
		- the Temple of Xi'an: uniting the mercenaries
	Part Eight: Unrest Easily
		- Hana in the Queen's Tomb
	Part Nine: Tests
		- Hana and Glas' first tests
	Part Ten: Demons in the Garden
		- the Elemental Challenges
	Part Eleven: It Isn't Even Past
		- Glas' flashback
	Part Twelve: Final Exams
		- Hana and Glas in the Tower
	Part Thirteen: Showdown
		- the last boss
- Plot Summary
- Plot Questions
- Codes
- Hana and Rain
- Endings
- Conclusion

===========
DISCLAIMER:
===========

Hana, Rain, Deke, Glas, Mist, Jin, and all other heavily armed
or otherwise bastards are the intellectual property of Kronos
and Eidos Interactive, and their usage in this document does not
comprise a challenge to that copyright.

This walkthrough is copyright 2001 by Thomas Wilde. Please
report any unauthorized usage of or alteration of this
document to [email protected]. All requests to host or
use this document should be directed to the same address.
Please read the document in its entirety before e-mailing
me for gameplay questions; odds are, if it's not in here,
I can't help you.

This game deserves its Mature ESRB label. As a document
about this game, this walkthrough probably shouldn't be read
by the young or the easily offended; it contains talk of
demons, insectile gynocology, revisionist theology, murder,
and a straight guy talking about lesbian relationships.
All in all, it's pretty stupid.

=============
INTRODUCTION:
=============

You may be a king for the moment,
but I am a queen, understand?
and I got your pawns and bishops and castles
all inside the palm of my hand
    -- Poe, "Control"

This document is intended to get you through Fear Effect 2:
Retro Helix with as few problems as possible. This game is
an improvement in almost every way over its predecessor,
with the slight exception of its plot; the control is tighter,
the puzzles are a little more intuitive, the animation is
better, combat isn't as intensely difficult, and there's
actually some replay value. The voice acting is a lot better
than other video games could even dream of (incidentally,
Hana's voice is provided by Wendee Lee, who also played
Faye Valentine in the dub of Cowboy Bebop).

Make no mistake, though; FE2 is still out to kick you in the
face and make you like it. It's like six John Woo movies,
the MENSA test, and a punch in the stomach all mixed into
one. You know how in Gamefan, they used to talk about the
games that separated the "hardcore" from the "weaksauce" or
the "sausage?" Strange terminology notwithstanding, FE2 is
one of those games. It takes a special blend of hatred,
skill, reflexes, and sheer bloody determination to get all
the way through to the end of this game on Normal. If you
can, Hard isn't that much more difficult.

I do have to mention one thing here. Eidos has made quite a
big deal out of Hana and Rain's relationship in the months
leading up to this game's release. In the game itself, Hana
and Rain are quietly involved, and neither make a big deal
out of it. While the very inclusion of Hana and Rain's
relationship is completely gratuitous, made all the more so
by the way Hana and Rain both look (there are lesbians, there
are lipstick lesbians, and then there are porn lesbians; guess
which category Hana and Rain fit into), it's treated in a
more intelligent manner than I was expecting. I'll discuss
this more later, because, well, I just don't know when to
leave well enough alone.

This walkthrough is written using the assumption that you
have a copy of the instruction manual. Therefore, I won't
waste your time and mine with a description of the controls.

Also, so I've mentioned it: I have managed to write this
walkthrough without cheating or, for the most part, looking
at online guides. I did consult Edwin Chow's puzzle guide at
one point (I wish I hadn't, since that puzzle turned out to
be so bloody *simple*), which is available at www.gamefaqs.com,
and Kevin Kaelin's walkthrough--available at www.gameshark.com
--was invaluable when I was dealing with that %$#@ing floor
puzzle in the tower. I'd like to thank both for their help.

Other than that, this guide is brought to you solely by me. I
mention this, because I am quite proud of it. ("Pride... the
cancer within us all..." Oh, shut up.)

...and now, on to business.

========
WEAPONS:
========

Things need shot in the gritty futuristic dystopia of Fear
Effect 2, and you're here to shoot them. A note or two,
then, on your basic tools for that holy task:

Melee, Smakjack, Knife, Brass Knuckles:

Various characters' hand-to-hand weapons. FE2 isn't shy about
handing out the ammunition, and with the exception of one
optional boss fight, you're never forced into hand-to-hand
combat the way you were in FE. Melee weapons are the only
silent weapons in the game, so you'll be using these for
sneak kills.

For the record, though, if you *do* need to slug it out
with something, the melee weapons are a lot more powerful
in FE2 than they were in FE. You still shouldn't use them
on anything other on human opponents, though, and you
shouldn't use them on human opponents unless you've
got the element of surprise.

.90 Pistol:

When Hana's got these in a cutscene, she's an unstoppable
engine of destruction. When you've got these in gameplay,
they will make you feel woefully inadequate. Even when
you use them both at once, the pistols don't have the
stopping power to put enemies down quickly, or the rate
of fire to make them stop shooting back. You can get
some use out of them in the Temple of Xi'an to conserve
your other weapons' ammunition, and in the Aqueduct,
you can pair the pistols with judicious use of the EMP
and thus stock up on rifle ammunition. Other than that,
though, the pistols are worthless. They're even moreso
after the Temple of Xi'an, when their ammunition supply
dries up.

It's strange, though. In other games, .357, .45, and .50
caliber pistols are treated as though they're antitank
weaponry, but in FE2, a .90 caliber pistol is the weakest
gun in the game. This is indeed a bleak future.

Assault Rifle:

A full-auto death machine, the assault rifle is always a
decent choice. It kills many things with a quickness, and
knocks away what it cannot kill (i.e. the robed priests in
the Temple of Xi'an). Annoyingly, the teleporting demons in
the Garden can shrug off rifle fire, so don't even try it
against them. Against enemies that are close together, you
can simply hold down the X button and your character will
wave it around for you. The assault rifle and shotgun are
your basic bread-and-butter weapons, as well as the easiest
to find ammunition for.

The true value of the assault rifle is that most enemies who
are being shot with it will stop moving and/or shooting back
at you. This paralytic feature makes it *very* useful against
Fixers, skeleton warriors, and gun-wielding humans. It's also
the best weapon against most of the bosses in the game,
particularly the stone golem.

Shotgun:

Ammo is scarce for this at the start of the game, but the
shotgun owns the Temple of Xi'an and the Elemental
Challenges. Resident Evil players will be shocked to find
that the shotgun still packs a respectable punch at range in
FE2, but its slower rate of fire gives gun-wielding
opponents the chance to shoot back. Against enemies who are
going to return fire, use the assault rifle or Uzis, but
against teleporting demons, skeleton warriors, statues, and
other melee-minded opponents, the shotgun is your best option.
It's rare, but you can catch more than one opponent in the
shotgun's blast.

Hand cannons:

Deke carries a couple of sawed-off shotguns which he can dual-
wield. Do it. Deke's ammo capacity is somewhat limited, but
considering how fast the dual shotgun treatment will kill
almost anything that gets in his way, he'll have plenty of
time and space to reload.

Uzis:

Once again, you can't be seen in public unless you've got
one of these in each hand. Uzis hold 15 bullets, and can
throw all of those bullets at an opponent in about two
seconds. The Uzis' problem is that they don't really have
much of a punch; it takes about two clips' worth of Uzi
ammo to drop anything in the Wing Chune, and everything
from the temple mutants on up can shrug off Uzi fire.
For that matter, their rate of fire can actually work
against them, as a lot of creatures can absorb an Uzi
clip, then rush you while you're reloading. Further
hamstringing the Uzis is a lack of ammo for them, as you
simply cannot find any more Uzi ammunition once you've
passed the Palmetto Maze.

Arc Taser:

When *I* think "taser," I think "stun gun." When Kronos thinks
"taser," *they* think "electrocuting people from across the
room." Rain gets this out of Jin's Package in the Palmetto Maze,
Hana will get one from the package in the Wing Chune elevator
shaft, and Glas starts with one. The Arc Taser fires a bolt
of electricity which hits your initial target, then extends
out to strike anyone else within the room. Your direct target
will be injured the fastest, while secondary targets will
drop a bit later. Either way, hold down the X button until
everything involved drops.

The Arc Taser's big draw is that all the enemies hit with it
(usually) stop moving, so it's just the thing when you've walked
through a door and into a mob of guards. Additionally, it has
effectively infinite ammunition, as it'll slowly recharge after
you're done using it. It's your single best weapon on the 86th
Floor. Unfortunately, later enemies can walk right through it,
so ignore it once you've reached the Temple of Xi'an.

(On Hard Mode, the Taser's effectiveness takes a serious hit.
Most enemies are now durable enough that it takes the Taser's
entire charge to drop them. You'll need to take time to let
the Taser recharge after every fight, or you'll be left in
a bad situation.)

EMP:

An electromagnetic pulse generator. Hold down the fire button
until its whine stops getting higher and let go. The resulting
flash will stun mechanical enemies for a *very* short period
of time. In general, the EMP is a good "stealth" weapon for
when you see a Fixer around a corner waiting for you, but its
long charge time and short stun time limit its effectiveness.
Later, when Glas runs up against mecha, the EMP is your only
(slim) chance for survival.

Note that the EMP burst will work on all enemies within a
camera angle, regardless of whether you're pointing at them
or not. The targeting crosshair is superfluous.

Sonic Boom:

A strange weapon that Deke and Rain both have later in the
game. It works like the EMP; hold down the button until
the whine gets really high, and let go. The Sonic Boom will
release a pulse which will damage or kill everything within
a certain radius. Like the EMP, the time it takes to fire
limits its effectiveness, but if you have time to get it out
and charge it, it does all right as a "street-sweeper."
The only enemies you'll use this against are all temple
mutants, and the only characters who *have* it are characters
you don't use much, so the Sonic Boom's major use--conserving
bullets--becomes obsolete. If you've got it, you don't need it.
If you want it, you won't have it.

RL 480:

It's supposed to be a rocket launcher, but it winds up being
more like a shotgun with a contrail. The RL 480 has a nice
rate of fire, but it's got schizophrenic damage; it can knock
insane amounts of health off of bosses, but a human opponent
or a teleporting demon can handle two or more rockets before
kicking over. Furthermore, and more importantly, the rocket
launcher's explosion can hurt you if you fire it at point-blank
range. Seeing as how many of the enemies in this game are both
very fast and have a habit of charging you, this can wind up
being a severe liability.

The RL 480 is still the third best weapon in the game. You
do, however, have to put some thought into using it, or you'll
wind up blowing yourself into next week. It comes into its
own against slow opponents, and can be used to decent advantage
against the flamethrower-wielding morons in Glas' flashback,
but in any other situation, don't use it.

SS 2000:

A flamethrower with remarkably good range. It's very
effective against acrobats and Catseyes, but, as is becoming
a theme here, later opponents aren't terribly bothered by
it. The soldiers in Glas' flashback are particularly
irritating about this, as they need to get tagged three
times with it (five times in Hard Mode) before they die.
Its ammo does last a long time, though; you can load your
entire ammo supply into the SS 2000 with the Triangle button.

GL 120:

A grenade launcher. Deke starts with one, though you don't
use Deke much, and Glas has one during his flashback.
Launched grenades travel a fair distance, roll a bit
further, and explode upon contact with an opponent.
Unfortunately, both the blast radius and the grenade itself
are small and weak, making this weapon something of a waste
of time. As if to add insult to injury, you can't find any
more grenades. This, moreso than even the Smakjack or
Brass Knuckles, is a weapon of last resort.

Plasma Wrists:

Rain will have to use these on the 80th Floor, largely due
to a lack of alternatives. The Plasma Wrists fire three-round
bursts at a decent rate of fire, and have infinite ammo
Unfortunately, their advantages end there, as the three-round
bursts in question are neither powerful nor terribly accurate,
particularly against the acrobats you'll be firing the Wrists
at. The Wrists are okay, but it'd be nice if there were options.

==============
GENERAL HINTS:
==============

-- Save. Save often, save repeatedly, and save every time you
   get something done. This game will kill you just to watch
   you die, and the only way to cure your wounds is to have
   a Rush Moment.

   The lone exception is when you're running on red, and you
   know just one more attack will kill you. If you were in
   better condition on your last save, you might want to keep
   on going; the alternative is saddling yourself with having
   to keep restarting with a close-to-death character, right
   when he's about to head into a serious fight. Next time,
   you can tread more carefully on your way to the next save
   point, and hopefully save when you're in better condition.

-- After any firefight, get into the habit of tapping
   Square, Triangle. This will call up your current weapon on
   your inventory screen and reload it. This is particularly
   vital with the shotgun and pistols. Just don't do it twice
   in a row, without thinking, or you may switch weapons. There's
   nothing quite so infuriating as shooting at a group of people
   and realizing that the reason you're taking hits is because
   you're brandishing the EMP at humans.

-- Without an inventory screen to fall back on, you'll have
   to rely on your reflexes in the middle of a fight. The
   Square button calls up your inventory starting with your
   weapons, starting with whatever weapon you are currently
   holding and then cycling through the rest. The Circle button
   calls up your inventory starting with your "quest
   items"--keys, keycards, your cell 'phone, and so on. Later
   in the game, those spare seconds could mean life or death,
   so remember the distinction.

-- Practice movement until you can do it smoothly and
   intuitively. There are a lot of times in FE2 where something
   --a monster, an explosion, what-have-you--will be hot on
   your heels and you'll need to outrun it. Get into the
   habit early on of going straight down hallways without
   bouncing off of the walls or running "against" them, and
   you'll be better off when you have to race death.

-- Whenever you switch characters, you'll receive a Rush
   Moment, returning your health meter to green. You'll also
   switch arsenals and quest items, so try to take a moment to
   examine your inventory. Many times, a new character will
   have a new item that you should take into account, such as
   Glas' Grappling Hook or Rain's Sniper Scope.

-- Resident Evil players may be curious about the "running
   away" dynamic in FE2. In FE, running away was usually a
   bad idea and a good way to get killed, as both mediocre
   hit detection and narrow hallways were working against
   you. In FE2, on the other hand, simply evading opponents
   and leaving the room is much easier and incidentally, a
   really good idea. Granted, you'll probably want to drop
   anything that shoots at you, since you aren't going to
   be outrunning a bullet anytime soon, but most anything
   else is fair game. A couple of disclaimers do apply to
   this, however:
      -- if you leave enemies alive in a given room that
         you have to come back to later, those enemies
         will still be there, as well as event-triggered
         ones. For example, in the atrium at the Queen's
         Tomb, if you leave the guardian statues alive,
         they'll still be there when you come back through
         to use the lily-butterfly-moon door, as will
         two story-triggered skeleton warriors. In other
         words, if a room has a locked door or a puzzle
         you can't solve, clean it out before you leave.
      -- holster your weapons. Otherwise, your character
         will execute the "disarm-arm" animation upon
         trying to open a door, and you can get hit
         while you're doing it.
      -- human opponents and Fixers are both carrying
         firearms, and can drop vital items such as
         ammunition or vital equipment. Get into the
         habit of dropping them.

-- Sneak kills are good. This is when you crouch-walk up
   behind someone and your targeting crosshair turns red.
   This means that whatever you do to that enemy will be
   fatal, and if you do it silently with a melee weapon,
   you won't alert any other guards in the vicinity. Sneak
   kills both restore your character's confidence, raising
   you back towards Green condition on your Heart Monitor,
   and the enemy drops about half again as much ammunition.

   Unfortunately, you won't get the opportunity for sneak
   kills very often. For one thing, sneak kills are only
   possible against human opponents, and for another, the
   soldiers in Glas' flashback will all notice you trying
   to sneak up on you regardless of whatever else you do,
   with one lone exception. The guards in the Palmetto
   Maze, on the other hand, are much dumber and easier to
   sneak up on.

-- turn Quick Draw off in the Options menu before you start
   playing. It's never useful, since a character will always
   Quick Draw a single pistol, and there are a couple of
   places in the game (the party in the Wing Chune, the 80th
   Floor) where accidentally Quick Drawing will end your game.

============
WALKTHROUGH:
============

This document is written assuming you're using the default
control setting. I play a *lot* of RE, so I don't think it's
as clunky a control setup as most seem to.

============
Part One:
The Aqueduct
============

We start with a series of cutscenes, reintroducing us to our
antiheroes from FE. Deke's in a bad way, Glas is a suicidal
alcoholic, and Hana's... being Hana (she's exhibiting the
writers' "Eszterhasian sex-is-death phobia," to quote David
Smith's review on psx.ign.com, and that's such a great line
when applied to a video game that I have to repeat it here).

In Hana's sub, Jin, who FE players will remember, know,
and probably loathe, tells Hana about your goals. While
your mission objectives will be restated as you advance
through the Wing Chune, try to remember the images Jin
shows you. It'll save you a bit of frustration later if you,
say, remember what the genetics computer lab looks like.
Afterwards, you'll meet Rain and be dropped off in a hallway.
Follow Rain.

(There's a keypad on the wall in this first hallway, but you
 can't use it until your second time through the game. See
 the Codes section, below, for more on this.)

When you reach her, Rain will tell you what you have to do:
start up a nearby generator. Go out the left door.

Head down the hallway. One side door can't be opened for a
while yet; another leads to a small room with a red grating
on the floor. Ignore both of them for now.

Keep moving down the hallway until you hear clanking and
Hana's heart monitor starts up. Draw a weapon. (By the way,
take a moment to admire Hana's Croftpack (tm). Look at all
that *stuff* she's got in there!) Go around the corner to
make your first wary acquaintance with the Fixers. In this
situation, I recommend using the shotgun to blow them away
one by one. You'll net pistol ammo from the wreckage, as
you will from most Fixers.

============================================================
Enemy: Fixers

Fixers can be extraordinarily dangerous, although they're
manageable with practice. The EMP can come in handy against
mobs of them, letting you get the drop on the lot, while
the assault rifle can also come in handy.

Note that green Fixers have a gatling gun, blue Fixers
drop from the ceiling, and red Fixers roll moderately
powerful grenades at you. Red Fixers are also the most
durable, and are thus the greatest threat.

(Hard Mode Fixers are virtually identical to their Normal
 Mode counterparts, albeit a little tougher.)
============================================================

There's a locked door in the center of this room. Note that
the keycard reader next to it is yellow; this is what those
of us in the trade call a "visual cue." You can't get it
open yet, so don't worry about it. There's an EMP hidden in
the dark alcove to the right of the door, if you're into
that sort of thing.

However, to advance our plot, head down the hallway to the
left of the door. Move forward to the twisted grating, and
after the cutscene, Take the Metal Hook.

Go back up the ramp, past the save point, and into the
unlocked door in the hallway. Use the Metal Hook on the
grating to receive the Yellow Keycard. Go back to the yellow
door where you fought the Fixers, and Use the Keycard on the
keycard reader. You'll be let into the generator room. Climb
down the ladder and Use the generator lever. Rain will radio
and tell you to return to the main hall.

While you activated the generator, two Fixers have arrived
further down the hallway. As you walk towards them, another
one will drop from the ceiling. You can't just dash in and
start blasting away without getting killed, but you *can*
use the EMP to deactivate them briefly. While they're
stunned, hit them with pistol bullets until they explode.

Back in the main hall, the door will close in Hana's face.
Rain tells Hana to flip the switch again, so it looks like
you're heading straight back to the generator. On your way
there, another Fixer will be waiting in the hall by the
ramp; this one rolls grenades. EMP it from around the
corner, then switch to the pistols to finish the job.

There's one more blue Fixer ready to drop from the ceiling
in the room with the yellow door; have the shotgun ready and
blow it apart. Use the Yellow Keycard again, climb down the
ladder, and throw the generator switch. When all's said and
done, Hana's trapped, you're apparently not as sneaky as you
think you are, and you're now playing as Rain. Rain is carrying
most of the same weapons as Hana, so not much has changed. She
runs like a girl, doesn't she? (*Yes*, I *know* she's a girl,
I'm not *blind*, it's an *expression*, shut *up*.)

You'll start in a long hallway with a save point to Rain's
left. The steam jets are operating on a specific pattern;
this is basic platformer stuff. Picking your way through
them should be easy. Equip the shotgun before you leave.

What gets difficult is that you're between two Fixers when
you exit the room. Immediately run to your left, hit that
Fixer with two shotgun blasts, and ambush the second when it
comes around the short "corner." The gray door here leads to
a dead end, so head around the corner and go down the
ladder. There's another save point, and another door.

This hallway is lined with hydraulic steel platforms. Get
used to seeing it, because you'll come back through here
more than a few times. This isn't really all that difficult,
as the platforms move slowly. I've never been able to
discern a pattern, but I can usually get through if
I simply run for it.

There's a Fixer with its back to you in the next hallway,
and an invisible Uzi on top of a nearby crate. Destroy the one,
grab the other, and head to the next door. Ready the assault
rifle, because there's a cutscene lurking in wait.

============================================================
Enemy: Technicians

They're all over the place in the Aqueduct, and you'll meet
your first in this room. They can be a bit annoying, as
they may confuse your auto-aim, but they're harmless unless
you put a bullet in them first. Once you do, they'll run
closer to you and open up with a pistol.

Technicians are weak, and they drop useful things like Uzi
ammo and, in this first encounter, an Uzi. However, in the
long run, it's beneficial to leave them alive. See Part
Twelve, below, if you'd like to find out why.
============================================================

Now, things will get crazy. There are four Fixers and a
scared technician in this room. Ideally, you should shoot
the Fixer directly in front of you as you enter. Now, stop
firing; the target at the foreground is the technician. Wait
for him to run away, then take out the Fixers one by one as
they come marching in from the right. You can do this without
taking a hit if you're fast and smart.

There are two additional doors in this room, one on either
side of the large gray machine. Go through the one on the
right first; you can't do anything here quite yet, but you
can save your game. Return to the large room and go through
the left door.

You'll have to dispatch two Fixers here, but it's easily
accomplished with the assault rifle or your two-gun Uzi
mojo. The left-hand door in this hallway leads to a dead
computer, so it's useless for now. However, in the other
room, you can use the Flash Disc on what you may recognize
as the security console Jin showed you. Unfortunately, it's
got a toy surprise inside.

============================================================
PUZZLE: Gas Trap

Rain and her huge brain get the first puzzle of the game, and
it's a bitch, particularly since your objective isn't really
made clear. (It almost never is.) You need to manipulate the
buttons to form the numbers 80 and 86, to do so by pressing
only six buttons, and to do so within three minutes, or Rain
will be gassed to death.

Figuring out what you're to do here is the first obstacle.
After that, it's fairly simple.

Answers:
80: 1, 2, 3, 4, c, d
86: 1, 3, 4, a, c, d

(These codes worked for me. However, I can't help but notice
 that anyone else who's written a walkthrough for this game
 has a different set of codes. I am forced to conclude that
 this puzzle has multiple solutions, and as such, despite
 the time limit, is probably the easiest one in the game.)

Success will unlock the door and program your Flash Disc
with the security access codes.
============================================================

Head back to the main room, the corpse-strewn abbatoir, and
go through the right-hand door. Save your game again, and
this time, go through the unlocked door on the left.
Remember that the door on the right in here requires a
numerical combination.

Before, all of these doors were locked. Solving the gas trap
puzzle unlocked one of them, and your next objectives are
inside. Take note of the broken-down Fixer in this corridor,
as it'll prove useful to Hana later. Dispatch the lone surprise
Fixer that's waiting for you and open the door. There's a
technician in here, but, as before, don't bug him and he won't
bug you. Use the glowing console to find your next puzzle.

============================================================
PUZZLE: Security Console

The legend for this puzzle is in the upper right-hand
corner, and the alphabetical codes are on the right side of
the machine. When you figure out a password, which isn't
difficult, punch it into the system and hit the gray switch
on the right. You'll need to put them in in a certain order
to solve the puzzle.

Note the colors on the left side of the machine, next to the
three keypads, and the color of the flashing light on top.

The light on top of the machine is currently flashing blue.
Punch the code into the keypad with the blue light, then
activate it: 31452. The light should fill in a bit and turn
yellow; repeat the process with the yellow light, and later
the red one: 45123 and 23451, respectively.

Success will activate a machine in the room with the sunken
platform, turn on the dead computer you saw before, and
activate the console next to you. Go use it.
============================================================

No rest for the wicked:

============================================================
PUZZLE: Control System

Once again, it isn't so much the puzzle as it is figuring
out the puzzle's rules. The top row of numbers is positive
and the bottom negative, but that doesn't matter, since
these equations basically solve themselves; the answer to
the fifth equation doesn't appear on the top row at all.
I didn't notice the positive/negative symbols until my
third time through the game.

The puzzle's "trick," as it were, is that you can pick numbers
from the bottom row by highlighting them and pressing X, then
highlighting the space between numbers on the top of the puzzle.
Press X again to enter the number.

This is basic arithmetic, when you get right down to it.

The answer, from left to right:
Top row: 2, 5, 10, 13.
Bottom row: 1.
============================================================

Solving this puzzle drains the submerged walkway. You'll
switch back to Hana, standing next to the ruined generator.
Save your game.

Across the waterway, there's a videotape lying on the ground
and a door, shaking disturbingly. Walk forward a bit, until
the door splits open, then quick-turn with L1 and *run like
hell* back across the makeshift bridge, to your starting
point. The rats will fall into the water or scurry into the
wreckage, and it'll be safe to proceed. (The death-by-rats
sequence, incidentally, wins my coveted Golden AIGH! Award
for Nastiest Fate To Befall A Videogame Character. Previous
winners include Steve Burnside, Melissa Pearce, and anyone
hit with the Cerebral Bore in Turok 3.)

Take the Videotape A. There's a single Fixer around the
corner that's easily dealt with, and two technicians
cowering just past it. Head through the first door you see,
and take the Fixer Piston from the wrecked Fixer. There's
also a "hidden" Uzi inside the small fort made of barrels.

Back out in the hallway, passage is blocked by a wall of
steam. In order to get rid of it, you've got to solve
another puzzle.

============================================================
PUZZLE: Steam Vent

As frequently happens, there's a clue to this puzzle on the
opposite wall. Note the number of missing lines on each
graph, and their color. Also note that the gauges on the
console are both circled by lines of matching colors. I'll
give you another hint: it's not as complicated as you think
it is.

Plug in, left to right, the number of lines on each graph,
accomodating the colors.

In other words: 5 blue, 4 blue, 3 yellow, 2 yellow.

That's the puzzle I consulted Chow's guide for, and I still
feel like an idiot over how simple it turned out to be. In
any event, the steam will clear.
============================================================

At the end of the hallway, Hana will meet another technician.
He'll give her a Mirror Segment and a Green Keycard. Hana
radios Rain, and suddenly, they lose radio contact.

You'll switch back to Rain, still in the control room. Pull
out the assault rifle and head out. There's a Fixer just
outside, ready to be destroyed by point-blank rifle fire,
and some ominous things waiting down the hall. In the save
room, you'll find another Fixer, but the real trouble there
is if you left the technician alive. Turn away from him so
Rain's auto-aim doesn't get confused and take out the Fixer,
then save your game again.

In the wrecked lab, go straight toward the foreground, around
the barrels. As you reach the bottom of the room, a cutscene
will begin, featuring a large mutant with a large chunk of
pipe. This will start a fight, but the boss will start with
Rain behind him. Empty a rifle clip into him from behind, and
you'll drop him in short order. Use his body--you can't leave
the room, annoyingly--and you'll get a little cliffhanger.

You're back with Hana. Climb the nearby ladder. There's a
Machine Cog on a dead guy at the top of the ladder; take it,
and Use the Green Keycard to open the nearby door. You'll be
back in the second hall, at the side door you couldn't open
before. Head back to the main hall, and this time, leave
through the right-hand door. Be careful, though, as a
surprise ceiling Fixer has arrived while you were away.

On the formerly submerged bridge, take out the sentry Fixer
from the platform before you climb down the ladder. Grab the
Fixer Head Key from the wreckage at the bottom of the
ladder, then go out through the other door. You're back in
the room just past the steam vents, which means there's a
save point nearby, *and* Hana now gets to deal with that
same damn sliding metal corridor that Rain did before. There
are also two more ceiling Fixers to contend with, but they
should be becoming old hat by now. They drop, they turn,
you shoot them, they explode. It's an intricate ballet.

Past the sliding metal corridor, there's another Fixer and
another ceiling Fixer in that conspicuously long hallway.
The wrecked lab is empty again, however. In the lab, Use the
Machine Cog on that large gray machine. This will activate a
Fixer above the first corridor, which means you have to
backtrack *all the way back* to where you started the game
to destroy it. Save your game along the way; the sliding
metal corridor is actually quite difficult when you try to
go back through it from the other side. There'll be another
Fixer just outside the lab and a grenade Fixer in the main
hall. When you've destroyed the newly activated Fixer,
you'll get a Fixer Battery from the wreckage. Take it, and
go *all the way* back to the lab. Feel free to get really
annoyed about all of this running around.

Go through the lab door to the left of the machine. Two
ceiling Fixers are waiting in the hallway. You need to go
to the room at the end of this hall, the one with the
previously offline computer, and destroy a Fixer inside.
That Fixer will drop Videotape B when destroyed. Use the
computer; Hana will automatically insert Videotapes A and B
into it. Videotape A isn't really relevant--although it is
decidedly twisted--but Videotape B has a keypad combination
for you. Write it down.

Go back to the lab and out the right-hand door. Save your
game here, and input the combination from Videotape B into
the locked door. Be careful of the lone ceiling Fixer that's
standing guard.

In here, there are two grenade Fixers waiting on the upper
platform. Down the ramp, however, Hana will see a crowd of
Fixers repairing a work area, and refuse to go any further.
You need to provide a distraction. Go back to the upper
platform, and leave through the door across from where you
came in.

This is your distraction. Note that you can Use something on
the barrel in here.

Use the Blasting Cap on the barrel. Hana will muse that she
needs to hide before the Fixers come, so duck into the
darkened alcove and wait for the Fixers to run by. You'll
get a Rush Moment. Sneak out the door.

You'll have to deal with a parade of four Fixers, but they
come at you one at a time; they're all rifle bait. Destroy
them, as well as a final sentry on the lower platform, and
take the Fixer Chip from the desk. Head back.

You've now got all the parts you need to repair that broken
Fixer Rain saw earlier. Go over there, dispatching the
Fixers that will try to stop you, and Use the Fixer Head Key
on the wrecked Fixer. Match the chips at the bottom of the
screen with the appropriate slots, and it'll reactivate.
After fixing the nearby broken door, it'll break down again.

There's a lone technician on the other side of the door.
Leave him be and save your game. Climb down the nearby
ladder, and you'll see someone strapped to a circular
platform on the other side of the room. Guess what. It's
Rain, now starring in the community theater production of
_Barbarella_. Fasten your seatbelts, kids... 'cause this
bus ain't stoppin' til *weird city*.

============================================================
BOSS: Spooky

Call him what you will. He's big, he's got a big gun, he
looks like he was run over by the ugly parade, he
considers Hieronymous Bosch to be erotica, and he calls
people "kitties." He's pretty Spooky. As with all boss
fights, you'll receive a Rush Moment right before you start.

In any event, Spooky is apparently immune to small-arms
fire. He is not, however, immune to electricity, which makes
one wonder why he chose to ambush you near an electrified
waterfall. Maybe it was the only place where he could hook
up whatever the hell that thing is that he strapped Rain to.

In any event, haul out the assault rifle and get to the
shootin'. (I do so love the shootin'.) You'll notice almost
immediately that Spooky gets serious knockback off of just
about anything; your assault rifle can toss him around like
a hockey puck. Take advantage of this to send Spooky careening
into the electrified waterfalls at the top and bottom of this
room. He'll get shocked, but then he'll get right back up;
as he comes towards you, reposition yourself and knock him
into the waterfall again. Do this three times, and Spooky is,
quite literally, toast.
============================================================

After Spooky falls, go back over to Rain (oh, good, thank
you, *another* closeup, *that* was necessary) and Use her
(no laughing in the back, please). Rain will tell you that
Spooky set bombs elsewhere in the facility, and she'll unlock
two doors. You should recognize them; they were shaking
ominously earlier. You have two minutes to get the job done.

Head back there--these are two separate doors, incidentally;
the camera is not playing tricks on you--and Use the bombs
to defuse them. One room has a scared tech in it, and the
other, a single Fixer. In other words, this is a piece of
cake. A delicious, pointless, playtime-padding piece of cake.
On your way back to Spooky's lair, be sure to save again.

Climb back down the ladder, and Spooky will get right back
up, the loveable goof. Hana triggers an explosion to deal
with Spooky, and both women dash through the nearest door.
When you get control of Hana, just hold Up and start running;
when you get to the end of the tunnel with Rain, hit the
Triangle button to open the door. This may take a couple
of tries, but there's not that much to it. Just run for it,
and be very careful about the left-hand turn. After you
escape the explosion, Hana will get down to what she does
best: fanservice.

=================
Part Two:
The Palmetto Maze
=================

You'll begin this disc in control of Rain. As is de rigeur
upon a disc change, save your game. Head outside, and you'll
find yourself looking at a guard with his back to you. Creep
up behind him and sneak-kill him, then lay waste to the two
guards nearby. You'll get two Uzi clips and another Uzi.

Move forward, around the corner, and down the ramp. There's
a massive waterfall here that you should take note of, but
only after you're done shooting five guards to death. This
can get a bit tricky, but fortunately, guards can't shoot at
you unless they're in the same screen as you. If you crouch,
they'll usually miss their first shot, and you can make sure
that they don't get a second.

A nearby ramp heads up into the Palmetto Maze. Note that
there are two guards on either side of the top of the ramp,
and one more standing guard at the corner leading to the
Palmetto Maze itself. Sneak up the ramp with the R2 button,
and quietly dispatch these three with your knife. Otherwise,
you'll have to deal with all three at once, and three-on-one
gunfights never go well.

There's one guard at the start of the Palmetto Maze. Uzi
him, then cautiously sneak around. If Rain's heart monitor
starts up, a guard is coming into the screen. Wait for him,
then blow him away. The Maze is remarkably easy to navigate,
for a maze, so that won't be much of a problem.

There are two areas in the maze where there are red squares
next to a section of wall. If you step near them, a secret
door will open (be sure to check out the goofy look on Rain's
face as the panels drop). At the first door you'll probably
find, Rain will note the presence of guards on a small "island"
in the maze, as well as a banner moored nearby. You may
notice that you'll get a targeting crosshair while you're
looking out this door, but don't fire just yet. Go back
into the maze and look for a second secret door. Rain
will radio Hana, and Hana will tell her to take out the guards.
You'll wind up overlooking the island with the Use prompt
highlighted.

So. What do you have in your inventory that could possibly
help to take out guards from a distance?

Use the Sniper Scope. Rain will dispatch both guards,
although one of 'em will blow the Scope off the rifle with
a _Matrix_ homage. Then proceed carefully back to the first
secret door and shoot the banner. Rain will swing down to
the island.

A switch on the wall will raise a ramp back up to the
Palmetto Maze. Jin's Package is on the island nearby. Take
it to start a cutscene and switch characters.

=====================
Part Three:
The Life of the Party
=====================

Save your game in this front hallway. Almost everyone in
this area is window dressing, except the guards. The guards
themselves are harmless as long as you don't actually touch
one of them, but if you do, it's Game Over.

If you don't already play with Quick Draw off, I recommend
that you turn it off now. Accidentally drawing a weapon here
will end your game, unless you do it in the women's restroom.
Note your new selection of "quest" items, including the
Silver V.I.P. Bracelet and Hana's fragmentary Dress.

The party has three levels to it. The first level has
nothing of interest except the escalators. The second level
has a women's restroom (another save point), a men's
restroom (presently inaccessible), the elevators (currently
locked down), and an open bar. More on that later.

On the third floor, a red carpet leads to a special guarded
door. Your Silver V.I.P. Bracelet won't help you here; it's
V.I.P.s only past this point. No, I don't get it either.

Also on the third floor, for your viewing pleasure, is the
single most frightening thing in a game filled with mutants,
demons, devils, and mad gods:

THE MACARENA SURVIVED TO THE MID-21ST CENTURY.

Shake it off! Keep going! Fight on, Hana, for everlasting
peace! On the second floor, to the right of the ramp,
there's a guy in a tuxedo. Move towards him to get ineptly
hit on. (Points for courage, buddy.) Change screens, come
back, and Big Tom will have a Filled Glass for you. Hana
will take it. Head upstairs.

Walk past the red carpet. You'll have a brief conversation
with a mysterious benefactor, and receive a Bell and a Gold
V.I.P. Bracelet. Use the V.I.P. Bracelet on the guards at
the door, who will now let you through.

The V.I.P. balcony is crawling with guards. You might want
to backtrack to the women's restroom and save your game at
this point, as this part can get a little tricky. Carefully
thread your way through the guards and head right. Dr.
Gyen-Won Liu is the guy in the white jacket, leaning on the
right-hand corner of the balcony. Use the Glass on him to
make his damn year, and leave the V.I.P. area. You've gained
a Hair Sample and an Empty Glass.

One cutscene later, you're back in control of Rain. Go back
up to the Palmetto Maze using the newly opened ramp. Once
there, look around a bit; there are a few more guards to
deal with, and there's also a wheel on the wall around here
somewhere. Use the wheel to turn off the waterfall I mentioned
earlier, revealing a ladder.

Work your way out of the Palmetto Maze, back the way you
came. There'll be more guards in the Maze and another set of
three morons just outside it, ready and waiting to get
knifed to death. One guy's waiting by the waterfall, but
he's no big deal. Ready the Arc Taser and climb the ladder.

Three guards are waiting for you just inside this door.
Pivot slightly and hit the closest one with the Arc Taser.
The bolt will rebound to all three of them; hold down the X
button until they all drop. Use the Maintenance Keycard to
get through the door. There's a save point in the next room,
and one guy is standing guard in the room beyond that. Use
the Flash Disc on the computer against the left wall for the
first in a series of three puzzles.

============================================================
PUZZLE: Geometric Lock

Here, you'll have to shape the right symbol to look like the
left. You can choose which direction you'll stretch it with
the control pad, with the "neutral" position meaning you'll
leave it alone. X will make your choice. As always, hitting
Triangle will end the puzzle and let you start over.

Legend:
U = Up
D = Down
L = Left
R = Right
- = No change

Normal Mode:
#1: D, U, D, U, D, U, D, U
#2: U, D, U, D, U, D, U, D
#3: U, U, U, U, D, U, U, U
#4: D, D, U, D, D, D, U, D
#5: D, L, D, L, D, L, D, L
#6: D, R, U, L, D, U, D, U

Hard Mode:
#1: U, D, U, D, U, D, U, D
#2: D, L, D, L, D, L, D, L
#3: D, R, U, L, D, U, D, U
#4: D, U, L, D, -, D, R, U
#5: D, L, R, D, -, L, -, R
#6: L, D, R, U, -, D, L, U

Solving this puzzle will open up the maintenance system.
============================================================

Go into the next room and Use the control panel.

============================================================
PUZZLE: Electronic Loop

Listen to Rain; she knows what she's after. You need to use
these pieces you're given to set up a looped circuit which
begins at the blue dot on the left-hand side.

The game doesn't tell you that you can select a piece, then
rotate it with the Circle and Square buttons. The game
doesn't tell you a lot of things. The game... is a bitch.

Basically, you need to start and end a loop circuit with the
blue dot. Your circuit cannot connect to any of the other
pieces on the board, and it must reduce the voltage to
"zero." You'll know that you've placed a piece correctly
when you hear a "bloop" sound and the voltage drops.

Here's the puzzle solution, for you slackers. Consider the
circuit board a grid, like so:

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
A - - - - - - - -
B - - - - - - - -
C - - - - - - - -
D - - - - - - - -
E - - - - - - - -

Put Straight Connectors at:
B4, C1, C3, C7, D8, E5

Put Corner Connectors at:
A6, B2, B5, D4, E4, E7, E8

Put T-Squares at:
C2

Always rotate these pieces so they connect to those around
them. You should hear a "bloop" each time you put an
accurately rotated piece in place; this will drop the voltage
by one. When the voltage is at zero, hit the OK button.

Solving this puzzle will fool the video surveillance into
running a looped image, thus deactivating it.
============================================================

Go to the next room and Use the tangle of wires underneath the
bank of screens.

============================================================
PUZZLE: Fusebox

Listen to Rain. The key here is to rearrange the colored
rods so that they match the pattern shown on the bottom of
the left-hand graph. However, you must rearrange the fuses
so the rods can be moved in the first place.

In order for there to be no current running through a rod,
you must arrange the fuses so that the colored fuse housings
that match the rods you're trying to switch have no fuses in
them. For example, if you want to switch the blue and white
rods, switch the fuses around so the blue and white fuse
casings, on both the top and bottom of the fusebox, don't
have fuses in them. The little sparks of electricity on
both the blue and white rods will disappear, and Rain can
pick them up and move them.

Once you've figured that part out, this puzzle is as good as
solved. Just move the right fuses and rearrange the rods.
============================================================

Rain will radio Hana, and then you're back on your own. You
can't use the door in this room, as there are too many guards
behind it.

Go back the way you came. There's a new guard in each room,
both of whom have their backs to you. Knife them to
death--boy, that Sneak Kill count is just rackin' up, isn't
it?--and keep moving. You'll get the Bridge Control Card
from the first one.

In the room at the top of the ramp, go in with your knife
equipped. You can sneak-kill the first, switch to the Uzis,
and kill the guy on the next screen--who, judging by where
he is, was *looking at you* while you shanked his friend.
Nice guy. Good thing you shot him.

Sneak and shoot your way back through the Palmetto Maze,
through a fresh wave of guards. You see, you might've
noticed a control panel back on the island that you couldn't
do anything with. That's what you're after. Head right once
you're in the Maze, go through the first secret panel, and
go down the ramp. Use the Bridge Control Card on the panel,
and Rain's off to the party!

==================
Part Four:
An Elevator Clinch
==================

Buy the Fear Effect 2 clothes-changing theme, "The Sleaziest
Guitar Riff Ever," now on Elektra. Rain changes into an
evening gown (keep it in your pants, boys) and hits the
party herself. All the same rules apply to Rain as applied
before, with Hana, including the caveat about Quick Draw.

Hana's told you that you need to catch a security guard on
a break, and use their access to get to the elevator. Where
do you think that you could find a security guard on a break?

The first thing you'll notice is that the men's room is now
unguarded, and that should be all you need to know. Head in
there. If you get caught by a guard in here, you'll be sent
back out of the room, but it won't be game over.

Sneak cautiously up to the guy at the back of the room
and--ahem--Use him. When the cutscene's over, you'll have an
Elevator Keycard. Go to the elevators by the women's
bathroom on the second floor and Use it on the elevator.

You'll switch to Hana. Go to the same elevator and get in
it. Use Rain (one more snicker and you're out!), and then
walk over to the security camera in the corner. Use your
Dress on it. The resulting cutscene... well, um, it's not
porn, *but*...

Anyway, it's time to change discs. Ahem.

==========
Part Five:
Matchmaker
==========

You begin as Hana. Save your game, then head forward and
climb the ladder on the side of the elevator shaft. Keep
climbing even as the elevator starts heading up again, and
Hana will take care of the rest. You'll switch characters.

As Rain, equip the Arc Taser and head through the door to
your right.

============================================================
Enemy: Acrobat

Unlike the other human opponents you've fought up to this
point, the acrobats are very nimble. They'll start doing
cartwheels and backflips immediately upon getting shot at,
which makes them very hard to hit with bullets.

Right now, the Arc Taser is your best bet for taking the
acrobats out. It'll paralyze and eventually kill an entire
roomful of acrobats and assorted other enemies, as long as
you've got enough of a charge in the thing to do the job.
Be sure to let it recharge every time you use it. Later,
as Hana, you'll find that the SS 2000 is just as effective,
and if the acrobats annoy you as much as they annoy me, it's
also quite satisfying. BURN, YOU LITTLE--!! AHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

...excuse me. Ahem.
============================================================

Whack the acrobat here with the Taser as she strolls towards
you; she has the Biohazard Keycard. Head back out to the front
hall, across the skyway--pausing to save your game--and use
the Biohazard Keycard to open that door. Two more acrobats
aren't paying any attention on the other side, and they almost
demand a pair of sneak kills.

The only unlocked door in this next room is the one on the
left. Go to the flashing cocoon on the wall and Use it. Rain
will change into a biohazard suit. Take a moment to reexamine
your inventory. You've lost all your weapons, replacing them
with the considerably-less-useful Plasma Wrists. You've still
got the Flash Disc and a Blasting Cap, but you've gained a
Video Room Keycard and a Bypass Keycard. Remember what the
green-suited woman said in the cutscene; unnecessary rooms
have been locked down, and all codes have been changed.

>From here out, this becomes a stealth mission. If you pull a
weapon on the yellow-suited women, they'll respond in kind,
and they're much better with these things than you are. It's
easier and safer to pretend they aren't there and go about
your business. Head back to the main hall and go through the
door on the right.

In this hallway, there's a single locked door with six
digits on it. They don't work on this keypad, but write them
down anyway. Now, head back, through the main hall, into the
hallway on the right where you got the Biohazard Keycard.
Your Video Room Keycard will open the door on the left.

Go to the console with all the screens on it, and punch in
the number you just wrote down. You'll activate the video
archives system, and have to solve a relatively easy puzzle.

============================================================
PUZZLE: Video Maze

Note the direction that the arrows are heading in. When you
press the control pad, you'll release your marker into the
maze. Send it to the right; it should flow into the outside
lanes of the maze. When it reaches the top lane, send the
marker down twice, through two more lanes, and as it passes
over the red dot, hit down again. This is more a test of
your timing than anything else. (On Hard Mode, everything
about this puzzle is much faster, but nothing else has
changed.) When you solve this puzzle, you'll activate the
security screens.
============================================================

There are nine screens here. Seven are worthless except as
curiosities, but the middle right and lower right screens
hold valuable clues. The former shows someone entering the
code to the door in the next hall--4615207--and the latter
will tell you the solution to the next puzzle. You can
view a screen as often as you like, so you might want to
take the time to write these passcodes down.

Leave the Video Room, go to the front hall, and cross the
hall to the next door. In this hallway, punch the code into
the keypad and enter the lab. There's nothing here at the
moment but unsuspecting acrobats, so leave them be. Use the
Bypass Keycard to enter the next room.

In this lab, Use the Flash disc on the glowing red screen.
Unfortunately, the codes have been changed.

============================================================
PUZZLE: Alignment Code

You still have the code. It's across the bottom of the
screen. Rearrange the digits of the code in the same pattern
that you saw on the Video Room monitor to solve this puzzle.

In order, assuming the top slot is 1st and the bottom is 6th:
4: 3rd place
2: 5th place
B: 6th place
3: 2nd place
D: 6th place
A: 4th place

For further clarification:

- - - - - -
- - - 3 - -
4 - - - - -
- - - - - A
- 2 - - - -
- - B - D -

Arrange the letters in such a fashion. When you complete
this, you'll hear a chime.
============================================================

Problem solved. Rain will radio Hana, who will promptly
trigger a motion sensor. Oops.

============================================================
PUZZLE: Motion Sensor

Hana has 30 seconds to find a way out of this trap, or
she'll get nerve gassed. Y'know, if I were Hana (and for
the purposes of this game, I *am*; think about that for
a while), I wouldn't leave the house without some atropine.

Run across the room, to the door on the right-hand side, and
shoot the panel you find on the wall there. You'll turn off
the motion sensors and blow out a fusebox in another room.

I mention this as a puzzle because it's so counterintuitive
to every other puzzle solution in this game. I discovered
it by accident; I was just sweeping the room with Uzi fire
because I was frustrated.
============================================================

Before you leave this room, grab the Dispersion Canister off
of the counter and get out the Arc Taser.

There's an acrobat in the lounge here. Zap her, pick up the
Security Keycard she dropped, and save. Leave through the
door to the left, zap another acrobat, and use the Security
Keycard to get through the door at the end of this hall. Use
the fusebox in this room and switch the fuse to the top
slot. You can also enter the right room on this hall, and
find a valuable clue on a computer. Remember how DNA's
various parts relate, and remember what colors they're
identified by on the filmstrip.

Now, go back to the lounge and leave through the door on the
right. Hana will start walking across a bridge, and will
get waylaid by a cutscene about halfway across it.

============================================================
Enemy: Catseyes

This is your first encounter with everyone's favorite lazy
kamikazes, the Catseyes. They're slow, and fairly stupid,
but they're also persistent. If a Catseye touches you,
it'll explode for significant damage. Even a dead Catseye
is dangerous, as its wreckage will explode shortly after
you dispatch it. If you're standing near the explosion,
then you'll get hurt about as much.

The Arc Taser will paralyze the Catseyes, unto death. While
just about any other weapon will do the job nicely, the
Arc Taser is the only one that will make the damn Catseyes
stop moving while you're shooting them. Also, as with the
acrobats, the SS 2000 will cut down Catseyes like a scythe
through wheat.
============================================================

In the next room, two Catseyes are guarding a box of
Rockets, an EMP, a case of Flame Canisters, and two doors.
The door on the left has to be blown open with your Blasting
Cap, but it has radiant prizes inside: an SS 2000 and an RL
480. A Catseye and an acrobat are guarding them, but a
little taste of the Arc Taser will win the day. (You can skip
this without any problem, admittedly, but the flamethrower
comes in handy later.)

Through the other door, two Catseyes are guarding the first
of the four labs you'll need to visit. Zap them and Use the
Hair Sample on the computer Jin showed you. You'll get the
Genetic ID Card.

Head back to the lounge and save. Go change the fuse again,
this time to the bottom slot, and Use the Security Keycard
to get through the door to the left of the fuse room. Zap
both the acrobats in the decontamination shower, and Use
the Genetic ID Card on the door at the end of the hall.

This room looks safe enough, but you'll notice that not only
does the Use prompt come up, but Hana takes damage if she
takes more than a couple of steps forward. Use the
Dispersion Canister to reveal yet another timing-required
hallway, this one lined with infrared lasers. This is the
easiest hallway of its type in the game, with long safe
periods and plenty of space to stand. Once you get to the
other side, Use the door. Hana will radio Rain.

As Rain, leave the security room. A console that used to be
dark in the outside office is now lit up. Use it to get Hana
out of her present fix.

You'll go back to controlling Hana, who's had a Rush Moment.
Go through the now-unlocked door, and then through the door
right next to it. You'll be in a small room with a cylinder
-shaped object in the corner and a Catseye. Blast the Catseye,
and Use the E.L.P. (whatever that is) on the heavy steel door.
You'll get the Centrifuge Tubes. Now turn around and Use those
on the cylinder to receive the Purified Tubes.

Head back the way you came. You need to change the fuse for
the last time. In the fuse room, put the fuse in the middle
slot, then head back to the darkened room where you started
the level. Zap a couple of sentry Catseyes and look around
for a gadget you can Use in the far corner of the room. When
you find it--no, not the computer, the other gadget, the one
that didn't have power earlier--Use the Purified Tubes on it.

You'll receive Gland Blot G, Blood Blot A, Nucleus Blot T,
and Cell Blot C. Each of these slides is a different color,
and you've seen four computers with screensavers flashing in
those four colors at various points on this floor. It's time
to do a little backtracking. Find those computers again--one's
in this room, one's in the room with the DNA film strip, one's
in the lab where you made the Genetic ID Card, and the final
one is in the laboratory just past the infrared laser room--and
Use the appropriate Blot on them. You'll receive four Discs:
Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine, and Thynine.

Be *very* careful while you're doing this. As usual, enemies
will repopulate the stage while you're accomplishing
plot-related tasks (you can always tell when you're doing
something right in this game, because the game will summon
opponents from the ether to try and kill you). A particularly
nasty ambush is waiting for you as you go back across the bridge
from the yellow computer, where two acrobats and a Catseye will
be right on top of you as you come through the door. I recommend
that you pull out the SS 2000 and just kinda wave it around until
everything's dead. Dodge *this*, Carrie-Anne.

When you have all four discs, go to the room with the
centrifuge and go through the last door you haven't used.
You'll be in the DNA code room, littered with inactive
Catseyes. I've never seen these guys wake up, so don't worry
about them. Use the DNA Code disc on the computer in this
room for Hana's last puzzle on this mission:

============================================================
PUZZLE: DNA Sequence

As long as you remember a few things from your items and
from the film strip in the laboratory, you can breeze
through this puzzle. Specifically, remember how the colors
relate to each other.

Red always bonds to yellow, and blue always bonds to green.
Also note that you can use the Circle and Square buttons
to flip a "game piece" over.

In other words, match your "game pieces" to the empty spaces
in the DNA sequence. It's a bit time-consuming, but it is
easy. You can do this without any trouble unless you're
completely color-blind. If you are completely color-blind,
then you may want to recruit the nearest woman for this.
============================================================

When Hana finishes the DNA sequence, slow-motion hilarity ensues.

===========================
Part Six:
Weapons of Mass Distraction
===========================

You'll switch to Rain. You need a distraction. Fortunately,
one will present itself.

Head out to the main hall, and back through the Biohazard
door. Remember that big, shiny, candy-like red button that
you couldn't do anything with? Use it. You'll be ushered
into the room to the right that you couldn't enter before.
Walk up to the green-suited woman, and she'll hand you
a DNA Virus. After she leads you into the containment
room, save your game.

Distraction, hm...? What have I *possibly* got that could
provide a *distraction*...?

Explosives! Why, of course! What occasion *doesn't* call
for explosives? Use the Blasting Cap on the window in the
containment vault. Rain will blow a hole in the vault glass
and radio Hana.

Stealth is out the window at this point, and the acrobats
know that you're an impostor. Equip the Plasma Wrists and go
out shooting. Three acrobats are in the lab room, and they
won't die easily (although I've noticed that if you skip the
post-explosion cutscene, they'll be "inactive" and you can
sneak up on one of them). With luck, though, they *will* die,
and you can get out of here. On your way to the next save
point, you'll need to dispatch a Catseye/acrobat team, as
well as two acrobats and two Catseyes in the main vault
room. Finally, there are three acrobats on the bridge outside,
guarding the save point.

It can be difficult to get through these rooms via plain
combat. The acrobats are deadly accurate, and you aren't.
You can get through this with a great deal of luck, or you
can simply keep your guns in the Holster and run for it,
as recommended by alert reader Vincent Merken. I'd say that
you'd do well to run past the first three rooms' worth of
enemies, but the three acrobats on the bridge really have
to go. Either way, keep trying, and eventually, you'll make
it to the save point right before the bridge. Use it.

As you cross the bridge, run, and don't stop for anything.
An iris shutter will start closing as you run towards the
front hall, but Rain will Wachowski her way through it if
you reach it in time. See? There's a reason she's so slim.

On the other side of the door, you've got company.

============================================================
BOSS: Spooky #2

*Uh*-oh. Spooky's back, and this time, he's discovered the
wonders of the gun. He's *very* slow, not so much walking
as lumbering, but he's got a very impressive firearm. He
can attack with bursts of rifle fire, or an occasional
poorly aimed rocket. If you had any of your usual weapons,
he wouldn't be a problem, but all you've got are the Plasma
Wrists. This is going to be a little problematic.

Here's your key to winning this fight, a key that it took me
a shamefully long time to pick up on:

Duck.

That's right. Hold down R2 as the fight starts, and
immediately open up on Spooky with the Plasma Wrist. He
won't touch you with his machine gun barrage, and when he
goes to one knee, get up and run past him. When he stands
back up, quick-turn, kneel again, back away from him, and
fire at him all the while. He'll do some damage with his
machine gun, but his rockets will miss by a mile. More to
the point, you'll hit him hard enough and often enough
that you'll outlive him. The moment he drops, the game
takes over, and this mission is complete.
============================================================

======================
Part Seven:
No One Ever Goes There
======================

Hana and Rain get another change of plans dumped on them by
Jin. Meanwhile, a cutscene reintroduces you to Jakob "Deke"
Decourt, who I'd almost forgotten about by this point. When
you get control, pick up the Genetic Marker from the freshly
dead guy on the floor. This triggers a cutscene, after which
you'll have to make Deke outrun his own explosion. That's
some nice planning there, Deke.

After you've done this, Deke pauses to dress up like
Crocodile Dundee and meets with the Chinese guy. When the
cutscene's over, you're in some slums and you're being
swarmed by mutants. Ain't that always the way?

============================================================
Enemy: Temple Mutants

The mutants are very tough and very slow. They usually show
up in groups of two or three, making dual-wielded weapons
a good bet against them. They drop a wide assortment of
ammunition and items, and can take a *lot* of punishment
before keeling over. In close quarters, use a shotgun; at
long range, use whatever you feel like. It's a good idea,
as Hana and Glas, to use weapons like the pistols and Uzis
on the mutants so you can stock up ammunition for the rifle
and shotgun.

(On Hard Mode, the mutants' resilence shoots straight past
 "impressive" and goes well into "stupid." They're just as
 easy to knock down as they are in Normal Mode, but trying
 to kill them can sometimes seem like an exercise in futility.)
============================================================

Deke's hand cannons are your best bet for this stage. You
should be able to mow the mutants down with relative impunity
as long as you stay at a good distance from them. One of the
first mutants you kill drops a Machine Key.

Go through the next door you see, wiping out mutants as you
go. Head to the left in this area to find a massive truck.
Go to the next door, and you'll find Diesel Fuel inside.
Save your game, then head back to the truck. Use the Diesel
Fuel on the gas tank, climb the nearby ladder, and Use the
Machine Key on the truck's cab. Deke will start up the truck
and express his displeasure with the doublecross in a creative,
healthy fashion. Ugh. That is *not* coming out of the grille.

At the side of the crater that swallowed your new truck, you
can find an RL 480 hidden in the shadows on the crater's
other side. I'd save that for Hana or Glas, though. Blowing
away the near-constant stream of mutants that keep dropping
from the sky, go through the nearest door. Inside, you'll
fight three mutants, two of which have things you want. One
has an Elevator Lock Key, and the other sports an RL 480.

Of the three new doors in here, two are locked. Shoot the
lock off one of them with your current weapon (you'll get
a crosshair out of nowhere), and go through. Another lock
will need to be shot out. You'll come into a room with an
elevator nearby and have to take out two mutants in *very*
close quarters, but they're guarding a save point. Use the
Elevator Lock Key on the nearby--get this--elevator.

You're back outside. Ignore the two suicidal mutants ("Og
destroy intruderrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..." *splat*), and busy
yourself with the two "dragon doors" in this area. Both
doors hold a welcoming committee of three mutants, but each
door also has an Ancient Crank behind it. The red door leads
to the Ancient Gold Crank; the gold door, the Red Crank. Use
the Cranks on the appropriate dragons in the appropriate
rooms, and the door between the two dragon doors will unlock.

The next room holds a save point and two doors. The one you
first see is a dead end, although there's a .90 pistol
hidden in the right corner; save that for someone who you'll
actually use the pistols with. You'll have to waste two more
mutants as you head for the other door, and once you do, one
of them will shut it behind you.

============================================================
Enemy: Priests

It's time to make your acquaintance with what I think of as
the priests; they look like the Servants of Oblivion in
Turok 3. These guys are a slower version of the annoying beige
demons from FE. They float around, they screech, and they
throw themselves at you like robed lawn darts. They're easy to
dodge and you won't see them again after this disc, but I've
yet to find a weapon that will actually *kill* these jackasses.
They do fly back quite a distance when you hit them with rifle
fire, though, and that's your best tactic against them. They
also can't track targets worth a damn, so you can usually
dodge them without any trouble whatsoever. If you do get
caught in a bad spot by them, you can counter their lunges
with rifle or pistol fire.
============================================================

When you go to the door at the bottom of the room--your only
escape route, incidentally--you'll get another mini-cliffhanger
and lose control of Deke.

After a cutscene starring Glas, Hana arrives at the Temple
of Xi'an. She's not there a minute before she falls down
through a hole in the ground; you'll start off with her at
that same dead end you saw a moment ago with Deke. Grab the
.90 pistol now, if you like; this is the last time you'll
actually get some use out of the pistols, so go crazy. You
can't open the door Deke just went through yet, so head back
towards the elevator. At the bottom of the elevator shaft, in
the "infirmary," a dead mutant will drop the Archeology Key.

Going back into the room with two locked doors, the
Archeology Key unlocks the one closest to Hana. Inside, two
priests are having a sock hop. Keep them at bay with
judicious firepower and snatch up a RL 480 and the second
Mirror Segment. You now have a complete Mirror. This is your
key for the door Deke ran through, so go back and open it.

Dodge the trio of priests by the clever tactic of running in
a straight line--idiots--and go out the same door Deke did.
You'll wind up on a narrow mining tunnel, blowing away
mutants, which leads to *another* mining tunnel, which in
turn leads to an ambush. You'll switch back to Deke to
dispatch a trio of mutants, a task made irritating by Deke
having his Sonic Boom equipped at the beginning of the
fight. Switch weapons as fast as you can and take out the
mutants, then go through the door on the left.

You'll have to dispatch another mutant or two, but a
cutscene awaits behind the door at the top of the ramp.
Deke, Hana, and Glas meet again... for the first time, and
Glas gives Hana two Bandages. After a doublecross and an
interruption, you finally play as Glas--in his mech.

Muahahahaha.

You've only got one weapon: the chaingun on the mech. It's
enough. It might be all I'll ever need. Take out mutants and
walls along the way to... crashing the mech. Damn. (This is
a good example of FE Main Theme #2: Glas likes to be thrown
off of high places. Other themes include Hana using nudity
as a weapon and Deke getting screwed over at every opportunity.)

Meanwhile, Hana corners Deke, but then has to fight off some
mutants. You'll take control of Hana again. Cap the mutants
and head up the taller of the two ladders. In the next room,
Rain shows up in the nick of time, and you wind up taking
control of *her*. Criminy. And now, we shall play "Musical
Gunmen." Start the tape!

There's another .90 pistol lying right next to Rain. Grab it
and head down the tunnel. You'll wind up retracing Hana's
steps, right down to mutants dropping from the ceiling at
irregular intervals. The rendezvous point at the top of the
stairs is a wreck, but it's also a save point; of the three
mutants guarding it, two of them will drop RL 480s. If you
want the "good ending," *go here* and fetch one for Rain.

In the same tunnel, you may have noticed a previously locked
side door when you came through here as Deke. Go through that,
down the ladder, up the ladder, and through the door, where
you'll find Deke. One emotionally charged moment later, where
Deke reveals that he either isn't human or is the single most
extreme bungee jumper in the history of his race--so extreme,
in fact, that he doesn't use a *cord*--you'll switch to Glas.

Boy, when Kronos designs a level, they use it to its fullest
extent, don't they? You've crashed down into the courtyard
by the elevator, but debris is blocking the way to the
dragon doors. Take the elevator down to the lift room
and save your game. Go back out to the area where Deke
crashed his truck, and an old man will give you a Peach and
the Storage Room Key. That Key will unlock the last of the
locked doors around these parts, so quick-turn--ignore the
mutants--and get in there, but ready the Shotgun first.

Two mutants will catch you in very close quarters in the
storage room. Take 'em out quickly, and grab the Rockets and
the RL 480 that they drop. A bundle of Dynamite is on a
barrel in the upper right-hand corner, so take that as well.

Backtrack to the wreck of your mech--watch out for the
surprise mutant in the elevator--and Use the Dynamite on the
wall next to it. Be careful--the explosion can and will hurt
you. You'll clear the way to the dragon door. Go through the
center door, save, and go play dodge 'em with the priests
again. That's right; you're following this path for the
*third time*. When you reach the room where Hana caught up
with Deke, Hana will help you fight back a sudden rush of
mutants. Dispatch them with the Uzis Glas pulls out, or
switch to the shotgun. Either way, this isn't too tricky
unless you get cornered or you run out of ammunition at
a bad moment. (This can be a real problem in Hard Mode,
but it still shouldn't take you more than one try.) When
you win, you'll get a ridiculous number of rocket shells
and rifle clips, as well as a cutscene.

=============
Part Eight:
Unrest Easily
=============

As Hana, you'll start at a save point with Glas nearby;
irritatingly, this is the only save point on the level. (Okay,
maybe not. See below.) The entrance to the Queen's Tomb is
ahead and to the left. Take note of the strange glyphs on the
walls in here; you'll want to remember them later. There's a
plain door in the tomb, on the left side of the hallway; inside
are three skeleton warriors and 20 shotgun shells (fifteen in
Hard Mode). Only come in here if you're really low on ammunition.
Otherwise, skip it, as it's far more trouble than it's worth.
Using up twelve shells to get twenty isn't much of a trade,
particularly when you might very well get killed doing it.

Head down the path, to the circular room, and climb down the
ladder. You'll enter a cutscene where a ghost appears to
Hana. When it's over, you'll have been given a Hair Pin, a
chunk of Gold Buillion, the Sun Coin, and the Moon Coin.

============================================================
PUZZLE: Coin Panel

This panel is on the wall in the hallway. You should've seen
it on your way to the ghost's meeting. Now, revisit it, and
Hana will automatically insert the Sun and Moon Coins.

You should have noticed one of several panels on the walls
in the main hall has a sun and a moon on it. Press the Moon,
then the Sun Coin--the top, then the bottom--and press the
bottom switch. You'll give yourself thirty seconds to get to
that door before it closes, which is easy work unless you
still haven't mastered the game's control setup.
============================================================

Past the Moon-Sun door, you'll find a storeroom. The Terra
Cotta Key is on a desk, but to get it, you'll have to dispatch
a guardian statue.

============================================================
Enemy: Guardian Statue

Compared to most of the enemies in the game, I find the statues
damned near lovable. They're slow, lumbering, and generally make
easy targets. The first two shotgun shells you fire at them will
disintegrate their raised shields, and two more will blow off
their upper halves. Like anything else in this game, they're
trouble in enclosed spaces, but not so much that you can't
just blast them. In wide-open areas like the atrium of the
Tomb, you can either run straight past them, or you can take
them out at a distance with rockets.
============================================================

The Terra Cotta Key fits a door on the upper level of the
circular room. Use it. You'll be let into an atrium
surrounding a pool. On the raised dias, you'll be revisited
by the ghost. One cutscene later, you'll appear in front of
a Chinese building, wearing Chinese clothes, without any
of your weapons, and with a puzzle of sorts to solve.

============================================================
PUZZLE: The Haunted Inn

Something to take note of for these "puzzles" is that the
spirit guiding you is *never* just talking to hear the sound
of his own voice. He's giving you clues. The clue here is,
"...in a moment of self-reflection..."

Use the Gold Buillion on the man standing near you. He'll
give you back the Inn Room Key and the Butterfly Coin. Run
down to the other end of this hallway and Use the Inn Room
Key on the door.

If you simply Use the bed, Hana will only get a restless
night's sleep. You need to Use one of your items.

Use the Mirror on the bed. Hana will go to sleep with it on
her chest, and the ghost will recognize his own folly.
============================================================

You'll rematerialize in the poolside area. Take note of the
symbols on the door in here, as you'll need to know them. As
you leave, the statues will reanimate, so take care of them
now; if you don't, you'll have to do it later under far more
troublesome circumstances.

Outside, Use the Coin Panel again, and this time, press the
Butterfly and Moon Coins. You'll open another doorway in the
main hall. Head over there.

============================================================
Enemy: Skeleton Warrior

I should discuss the skeleton warriors at this point. They
show up a lot as "after-the-fact" enemies here; that is, you
encounter more of them when you're retracing your steps than
you do when you're going somewhere for the first time. They're
fast and extremely durable. However, the assault rifle has
its full paralytic effect, as mentioned above, on them. The
shotgun, on the other hand, is effective but unreliable; I've
found that it has a tendency to slow the skeletons down, but
not stop them until they've had the chance to take a swing
at you. Any other weapon is, quite simply, a waste of time.
============================================================

I mention this, of course, because two skeletal warriors are
just inside this doorway. Move a bit to your left, and only
one will reanimate. Take him out with shotgun blasts or
sustained rifle fire, then cautiously activate and dispatch
the other. Taking on more than one skeleton warrior in close
quarters is one of the fastest ways to die in this game, so,
well, don't do it.

There are three new doors among the winding paths in the
next room. Alert reader "the Krypt Angel" (which is
undoubtedly his Christian name) tells me that "as soon as
you enter this room, [you should] turn right, and walk a
couple of steps. The camera angle should switch to a closer
view, and you'll see that the path looks like a L connected
to the main walkway. At the end of the L is another save
point." I haven't checked this for accuracy, but I figured
I might as well mention it.

Anyway, about these doors... you can only open the one furthest
to the left. Ready the assault rifle and walk through it.

Remember what I said about fast ways to die? This room is one
of them. Once inside, stick the rifle in a skeleton warrior's
face and blow him away. Change clips and do the same to his
friend. Now, and only now, get anywhere near the guardian
statue. It'll reanimate, and you can take care of it with a
flurry of shotgun blasts. After all of this, claim the Dig Key.

Head back out onto the winding path. The Dig Key unlocks the
next door over. Inside, cautiously creep down, then against
the left side of the room. Two guardian statues will animate,
but from here, you can hit them both at the same time with
shotgun blasts. Dispatch them and take the Wood Planks.

Finally, outside, Use the Wood Planks on the last door.

============================================================
PUZZLE: Night and Day

Another hint, if you will: the important thing the ghost
says here is his speech about the dragon and the phoenix.

Talk to the villagers to get the Astronomy Key. It will open
the nearby door.

Inside, all you can Use are the two window blinds. One has a
dragon behind it, while the other has an egg (or something).
Remember what the villagers said about their daughter, and
the ghost's tale of how day becomes night and night, day.

Open one blind and close the other, revealing the dragon and
concealing the phoenix egg. When you leave the shack again,
it will be night, and a ghost will drift by you. Follow her
to the well, and Use it. You'll get the Remains.

Return to the house. Open the closed blind and close the
open one to bring back the day. Outside, Use the Remains on
the villagers to receive the Lily Coin.
============================================================

Now, because the ghost is a jerk and wants you dead, he puts
you back down in a room with a statue in one corner, 20
shells in the other, and holsters your gun for you. Ready
the shotgun before you take a step, and be ready to greet
the statue with five quick blasts.

Head outside and save your game, then put the Lily Coin into
the Coin Panel. Press the Butterfly, Lily, and Moon Coins in
order to open the door back in the atrium. You'll have to
whack a couple of skeletons on your way there, though. The
most bizarre boss in the game is through this door.

============================================================
BOSS: The Wall

This guy's tricky, but the Evasion roll will win the day yet
again. He shoots sprays of rockets at you, and they go in a
certain direction depending on what face he shows. The
minotaur shoots straight forward, and is the only face of
the Wall which can be injured. The skeleton shoots to the
right, while the samurai shoots to the left. Stay out of
their way and wait for your opening. Rifle clips occasionally
show up during this fight, but they do so right in front of
the Wall. I'm not going to get those. Are you?
============================================================

When the Wall's dead (crumbled?), run through the hole
you've created. You'll meet the ghost again, and be sent
into another dream of the past.

============================================================
PUZZLE: Justice

The important part of the speech here is that justice is blind.

Get the Clay Pot from the small stack of them to your left
to see a cutscene, then walk forward and Use the gong. The
judge will throw you out of court. Walk back to the same
stack of pottery to talk to the ghost of Wong Lin again.

The guardian statues are blocking her, huh? What could you
possibly do... Justice is blind.

Use the two Bandages on the statues. Hana will blindfold
them. (I'd be a lot happier if I'd actually reasoned this
out, rather than Using everything in my inventory on the
statues until something worked.) Use the Clay Pot on the
judge, and you'll receive the Bull Coin.
============================================================

When you reappear in the Tomb, you'll be standing on top of
20 shotgun shells. Outside in the Wall's room, two skeleton
warriors are waiting for you, and whatever you left alive in
the atrium is still there. Cap 'em and get outside the tomb
to save. You've got an Aussie to shoot at.

On the Coin Panel, press the Sun, Butterfly, Moon, Lily, and
Bull Coins. The large cube in the front hall will slide
into the floor. Unfortunately, those statues that have been
making Hana's heart monitor kick in since you started this
trip are also going to animate. Take care of them with the
fading remnants of your ammo supply, save your game, and
jump down after Deke.

Unfortunately, that might not be Deke after all.

============================================================
BOSS: Deke

Your assault rifle is the best thing for Deke right now, and
even then, it'll only do damage while Deke himself is
visible. Hold L2 and use your Evasion roll to dodge the
readily telegraphed, slow-as-hell grenades he's firing. When
Deke rematerializes, shoot him. Rifle clips will
occasionally show up, so watch for those. You probably need
them by this point. Note that other weapons don't really
phase Deke in the slightest.

This isn't difficult. The trick is to only roll back and
forth right in front of Deke, rather than letting him
chase you all over the battlefield.
============================================================

After he's gone, Hana will get the Emperor's Plaque, and
outside, Glas will get doublecrossed and dropped into a pit.
As Glas, save your game, equip the shotgun, and rampage
through the upcoming series of hallways. Guardian statues
will try to stop you. They will fail.

Eventually, you'll reach an old man. He'll only fight you
for about a second before Hana comes to Glas' "rescue." Hana
will then proceed to get both her and Glas into a bit of
trouble.

==========
Part Nine:
Tests
==========

After the Emperor's cutscene, you'll begin as Glas. The left
mirror takes you to a puzzle of sorts, while the right
mirror takes you to a dangerous maze. I recommend you start
with the left-hand mirror, and save your game every time
you're back in this room.

============================================================
PUZZLE: Conquest

You'll have to win four "chess" matches to continue. Your tools:

Small Soldier: 10/10
Medium Soldier: 20/20
Large Soldier: 35/35

The weaker a piece is, the further it can move in a round.

When one of these pieces tries to capture another, the
stronger one will win, but will take "damage" roughly
equivalent to how strong its opponent was. For example, a
Large Soldier beating up on a Medium Soldier will win, but
will walk away at 15/35 strength; the same is true if the
Medium Soldier attacks the Large. Soldiers with equal point
values will stalemate, and both pieces will be taken off
the board.

The AI for these four matches isn't really very good, so you
should be fine. The trick, I find, is to sacrifice a Medium
Soldier early on to dispatch your enemy's Small Soldiers,
thus giving yourself the movement advantage. When that's
done, whittle down your enemy's numbers and use your highly
mobile Small Soldiers to reach and capture your enemy's flag.

The fourth battle is a bit trickier, in that you have seven
Medium Soldiers while your opponent has two Small, three
Medium, and two Large. Once again, the key is in movement:
sacrifice one Medium to kill both of his Small, then whittle
away his forces until he's down to Large Soldiers. You can't
even force a stalemate in this fight; he's got more numbers.
However, Large Soldiers move like bricks, so you can easily
outmaneuver them with Medium Soldiers and snatch up his flag.

Note that as with most puzzles in the game, the General will
let you replay any match you lose.
============================================================

When you win, the General will give you the Bravery Medal,
and tell you the story of Qin Shiquahandi (and I know I
didn't spell that right). Afterwards, he'll return you to
the outside room. Step through the right mirror, and it's
back to straight platformer action. There are five tests on
this level, each of which depend more on reflexes than wits.

1: Pass the flame spouts. This is easy work; just watch the
patterns and move. Actually, Glas won't get into any real
fights for quite a while, so you could run straight through
this section, taking three hits, and still be fine.

2: As you round the corner, another stone golem will emerge
from behind you. Start running, and don't stop; hug the
curves and don't run against the corridors' "walls." Once
you get to the curved platform, quite some distance away,
the walkway will collapse and he'll get off your ass. This
is straightforward, but may take practice.

3: This intricate maze will collapse if you're on the wrong
part of it at the wrong time. Slowly work your way along the
bottom, staying as low as you can, and keep running. You
should be able to outrun the inevitable collapse.

4: Thread your way carefully through the geysers of fire. I
usually go straight through the bottom here, where the
pattern is thinnest and easiest to see.

5: The stone golem returns! You have a bigger head start
this time, but he's moving a little faster. Once you've
beaten him, move towards the glowing light in the distance.

Glas is done; it's Hana's turn. As before, the left mirror
is a puzzle, while the right is a "contest of speed... and
footwork!"

============================================================
PUZZLE: Sliding Maze

Oh. *This* puzzle. Damn this puzzle to *hell*.

Either this maze is random each time you play, or it's at
least different on the second play through. In general--once
again, the point of this puzzle isn't at all obvious--you
need to slide the colored stones into the tray at the bottom
of the board. Whenever you press against a stone with your
playing piece, it will skid all the way to the edge of the
board, in whatever direction you pressed it in. Pieces that
reach the bottom of the board, on either side of the tray,
will be taken off the board entirely.

Be *very* careful with your token. You can ruin the entire
maze by accidentally hitting a gray stone. The solution is
really just a question of time, but it can be awfully
frustrating. I've solved this in twenty minutes at one
point, and the next time through, it took me three hours.
============================================================

With the maze solved, Hana undertakes the same maze that
Glas just did. The differences here are small and subtle:

-- Hana is discernibly faster than Glas. Outrunning the
golems is much easier this time around.
-- Fire spouts are blocking the route Glas took through the
collapsing maze. You'll need to go through the bottom route,
then slowly work your way up to the top.
-- The pattern on the second set of fire spouts is a bit
different, but not tragically so.

When Hana passes her tests, you'll be given a Mercury Vial
and a Pearl. The door Qin Sheng opens for you leads to a
barge. As Hana, you'll need to convince the bargemen to move.

Use the Emperor's Plaque on the throne, then go to the front
of the boat and use the Mercury Vial. You'll get to steppin'.
Next stop: Penglai Shan.

====================
Part Ten:
Demons In the Garden
====================

Hana will lose track of Deke and Glas in the fog, and wind
up alone. For right now, this place is quiet and somewhat
peaceful, so you can relax.

Through the doors on either side of you, you can pick up
four Bridge Tiles off of floor tiles that look like Chinese
characters. Take them back to the main hall, where you can
Use them on the water. This will create a bridge.

Inside, you'll meet an old woman. She sets you onto your
latest challenges, gives you a Tiger Plaque and Dragon
Plaque, and sends you on your way. Meanwhile, our old friend
Yim Wau Long, the King of Hell, shows up and creates a pack
of purple demons. PROTIP: Uh-oh.

Outside, an old man will give you a Digging Tool and a
Chinese Fan. From here out, you're on your own. This part of
the game follows the Space Quest school of puzzle design,
where the answers don't always make a lot of sense, and
where seemingly ornamental parts of the level are actually
vital parts of the problem. Check *everything* here to see
if it can be Used or Taken, particularly if it's goofy-looking.

You can save your game in the gazebo area; in the Water
Garden, on the same screen as the water wheel; and in the
Earth Garden, just across the bridge to it. The Chinese
characters on the floor are now teleporters, which will take
you to different elemental realms if you Use them. More to
the point, there are now teleporting demons all over Hell's
half-acre, and they're arguably the most dangerous enemies
in the game.

============================================================
Enemy: Teleporting Demon

FE veterans will recognize thematic similarities between these
guys and the hook-wielding gimps from the second and fourth
discs of FE. They were mildly annoying there. Here, they're
weaker, since you have better weapons, but they're still
annoying.

The demons' mode of attack is to get in close and claw at you.
A teleporting demon will usually disappear again when you
hit it with a shotgun shell. They frequently alternate between
two locations when they appear and disappear, meaning you can
easily track them and fire a second, killing shot. They're
fast, and their ability to teleport can result in some
very, very bad situations. Your best weapon against them is
your own mobility, as they don't lope as fast as you can run,
and they never actually teleport right into your path. If more
than one of them comes after you at once, run until you have
space to quick-turn and shoot once, then keep running. You
have to be careful, fast, and smart, or they'll tear you up.
Single demons are best dealt with by careful and precise
shotgun blasts as they lope towards you.

(On Hard mode, the Elemental Gardens turn into a deathtrap.
 The demons take at least three shells to kill, they drop
 three shells, I could swear they're faster, they occasionally
 appear in groups of three, they *will* teleport right into
 your way like the world's ugliest speed bump, and they guard
 the save points with a fanatic's zeal.)
============================================================

So. In case it's not horribly obvious, here's where the
various garden tiles will teleport you:

 Upper left: Gold
 Lower left: Water
Upper right: Fire
Lower right: Earth

In each elemental realm, there are more tiles on the floor.
These tiles will teleport you to the other Realms, so you
don't have to backtrack through the main garden. A pale gray
tile will teleport you back to the Realm's corresponding
section of the Garden. Note that the Gold Realm is the only
area in the entirety of the Challenges that isn't overrun
by demons.

Blue tile: Water
 Red tile: Fire
Gold tile: Gold
Aqua tile: Earth

In order of the Challenges, here's the best way to proceed
(not mentioning anything about wiping out the demons,
because, well, yes, you *should* be doing that, what do I
have to do, hold your hand?):

1: Teleport to Earth. In this cavern, there's a weird
   section of earth that looks like a fanged mouth. Use the
   Digging Tool on it to get the Rock Salt.

2: Teleport to Fire. Pick up the Empty Gourd from the bench
   next to the furnace.

3: Teleport to Water. Use the Rock Salt on the cylindrical
   gadget next to the pier. This'll grind it fine, turning
   it into a bag of Salt.

4: Go to the end of the pier. Use the Salt on the water.
   This will kill the monsters, and Hana, of her own violition,
   will dive down to get the Water Crystal. In the process,
   she'll break the Digging Tool.

5. Use the Empty Gourd on the water to fill it. Now you have
   a Salt Water Gourd.

6: Teleport to the Water Garden. Be careful of the demons,
   and Use the water wheel by the save point. This will
   desalinate the water in the Water Realm, turning it fresh
   again (just how much salt did you dump in there?).

7: From the garden, teleport to Gold. (You didn't teleport
   straight there from Water because, well, you needed to
   use the water wheel anyway, and if you teleport into the
   garden from Gold, you'll materialize with demons on either
   side of you. It's not a good time.) Use the Salt Water
   Gourd on a section of the "mud" here to form a plank.

8:
============================================================
PUZZLE: Golden Platforms

This is simple. Watch the pattern and move. If your feet
touch the "mud," you'll take a hit; dying here means Hana
gets changed into a gold statue (or, if you prefer, she gets
"Midasized"). The only tricky part of this comes with the
upper right-hand platform, which is out to screw you over.
You'll need to alternate between it and the middle platform
a couple of times before you can move on.

Also, take note of the platform at the top center, which
connects the upper-right and upper-left platforms. This
platform appears twice during the main pattern, and the
*second* time is when it appears in conjunction with the
upper-left platform. Watch for that; it's probably the
single most irritating thing about this particular puzzle.

For all of this, you'll receive an Empty Goblet and the Gold
Crystal. With the Gold Crystal in your hands, the puzzle
deactivates, and you can cross it safely.
============================================================

9: Teleport to Water. Fill the Goblet and Gourd with fresh
   water from the pier.

(Optional: from Water, teleport to the Water Garden and save
 your game. The further along you get on this quest, the more
 demons show up and the more frenzied they get. Right about
 now, I started saving my game every time I accomplished
 something, but I usually had to waste two or three demons to
 do it. The Water Garden is also the single safest place to
 teleport back to the Garden, as here, and here only, demons
 don't typically hang out right on either side of the
 teleportation square.

(Furthermore, at this point, you can officially consider
 the save points in the Water and Earth Gardens off-limits.
 To quote one of the gamefaqs.com FE2 board regulars, the
 demons are "goal tending," which is as good a way to put
 it as any. Your best bet for a save is to cautiously proceed
 through Water to the main hall, blowing away demons as you
 progress, and save your game in the gazebo.)

10: Teleport to Fire. Stand on the center tile and Use the
    Fresh Water Goblet. One of the flames behind you will
    flare up. Step into it and only it--it can't hurt Hana
    now--and Take the Fire Crystal.

11: In Fire, note that the furnace is now lit. In order, Use
    the Empty Goblet and Broken Digging Tool on it; you'll
    fix the Digging Tool.

12: Teleport to Earth. Back where you found the Rock Salt,
    Use, in order, the Digging Tool, all three Crystals,
    and the Fresh Water Gourd. If you were wondering when
    the element of Wood came into play, there you go. You'll
    receive a Diamond.

13: Teleport to Water, then back to the Water Garden. Three
    more demons will try to stop you on your way out, so don't
    get too complacent.

14: Head to the gazebo. Use the Diamond on the wooden doors,
    and you've passed the Elemental Challenges. Hana walks
    into the light...

==================
Part Eleven:
It Isn't Even Past
==================

The past isn't dead. It isn't even past.
    -- William Faulkner

I enjoy using wildly inappropriate quotes for stuff like
this, or at least quoting "high culture" when discussing
"low culture." This level is the hardest part of the game.

Glas, wandering in the fog, has a flashback. Suddenly, he's
in military garb, short-haired, and barking orders into a
headset. Wherever he is, it's a while ago, and he's back in
the middle of something violent.

As usual when you're suddenly thrust into a new situation,
take a minute to examine your inventory. You've acquired a
Grappling Hook, your ammo supply has evened out some, and
you've got an EMP.

Cautiously creep towards the screen, past the inactive mech.
There are two guys standing on the mech's other side, and...

============================================================
Enemy: Flashback Soldiers

...I'll take a moment to discuss the nigh-complete bastardry
of all the soldiers in this stage. They can do evasion rolls,
just like you. They can also absorb a wildly ridiculous
amount of punishment... just like you. As a general rule, the
assault rifle or shotgun both work well against them, although
prohibitive amounts of ammo are required. Another useful
tactic is to get out a flamethrower and hold down the
trigger on them, following their rolls and hitting them
as they stand back up. Either way, you'll need to be careful.
This stage is your last chance to get any sneak kills, so
take advantage of that as much as you can.

Incidentally, Glas has an Arc Taser, but these soldiers are
apparently insulated; the Taser doesn't bother them at all.

(In Hard Mode, the flashback soldiers' resiliency shoots up
 to ridiculous levels. They aren't any more dangerous, per
 se, but you'll probably be struggling for ammo throughout
 the entire stage. Consider using the rocket launcher, grenade
 launcher, and Uzi against lone soldiers, the better to
 conserve ammunition for your more useful weapons.)
============================================================

Open up on these two with your rifle. It'll probably take
you a full clip, but try to follow them when they roll
out of the way. With a little luck, you can catch at least
one of them by surprise. When they fall backward shooting
into the air, they're dead. One has a Gate Key, so grab
that. Also, check around the parked forklift on the
right-hand side of this room for a SS 2000. You'll be
getting boatloads of flame canisters on this level, so you
might as well get to the settin' on fire.

Head out the door those two were guarding. There's a mech
coming right for you, so ready the EMP and fire the moment
it comes onscreen. While it's stunned--which won't be for
long; have I mentioned that the EMP is a gyp?--run past it
and use the Gate Key on the door.

Through this door, you'll find two guards. The one you can
see has a rifle, and you can pick him off from here. The
other has a flamethrower, and will casually attempt to creep
towards you, for he is an idiot. Shoot him as he does so.

There's only one door in here, and you can't open it right
now. Backpedal, and--hoo boy. The mech will crash through
the outside doors. The moment you regain control of Glas,
open fire with the assault rifle, and you should knock over
the mech. Glas will use it to climb to safety.

Up on the rooftops, there's one guy in front of you with a
flamethrower, and a second hiding in the shadows behind you.
Take out the one in the shadows first, and then you can
leisurely riddle the other guy with bullets. There's another
SS 2000 hidden in the second guy's hiding place. Use the
Grappling Hook where prompted to swing across to the next
rooftop, where two more riflemen and another flamethrower
await their gruesome deaths. Give it to them, then Use the
corner where prompted to jump across.

On this rooftop, there's a gridwork of fifteen fans in a
row. The one in the dead center stops occasionally.
Cautiously make your way across the fans and Use it while
it's stopped. Note that the fans will chop you up if you
step on top of one of them, and that if all the fans stop
at once, that's the background animation restarting; it
isn't a pause in the fan pattern. When you reach the center
fan, Glas will drop down a ventilation shaft into a warehouse,
where he'll grab a C4 charge. There's a save point here.

Outside, you'll climb into a thoughtlessly unattended mech.
Unfortunately, you'll then get into a fight with another
mech, which is an exercise in frustration. Open up on it and
any stray soldiers with your chaingun, and just try to be as
accurate as you can. It will die... eventually.

Once it does, turn and run down the street in the other
direction. A helicopter will open up on your mech, but it
can't do much damage unless you stand still and let it. Keep
moving, whatever happens, until you see a ladder. Glas will
automatically abandon his mech once you reach it, and you'll
be back on the rooftops with a helicopter shooting at you.
Glas seems to attract these kinds of situations.

Fortunately, this time, there's none of that stupid "shoot
the flags down" nonsense (okay, Glas, if you can shoot a
flag off its pole, why can't you shoot the gunner in a
helicopter?). Run over to the raised object next to Glas.
You can't Use it, but that doesn't matter, because Glas
will eventually use it of his own violition. It's an
anti-aircraft gun, and he'll shoot down the helicopter.
After that, he'll swing across the rooftops again, and wind
up behind a pair of soldiers. Kill them with all due speed.
One of them has the Utility Key. Use it to open the nearby
trap door, and hop down behind another soldier. A Crowbar is
your reward for killing him.

Open the nearby trapdoor again. Glas will come up behind yet
another unwary soldier. Kill him. The nearby door will let
you back into the first room of the stage, with a soldier
right nearby and two more coming. Save your game here after
the ensuing bloody fight.

Outside, where the mech was, two soldiers are standing
guard. Take 'em out. Two more are inside the hangar where
the mech ambushed you, and the locked door in here can be
opened with the Utility Key. One more guard is behind it
with his back to you, just asking for a sneak kill. Do it,
and exit through the trapdoor.

Glas will set the C4 and run for it. The explosion totals
large chunks of the base, and puts you in a bad situation.
Wait for the screen to finish scrolling forward before you
move, or you'll have to do everything over again. Note the
presence of a save point right near here.

============================================================
PUZZLE: Electric Maze

This does look completely impossible at first, but careful
study will show you how to do this. The electrical arc
always flashes at specific patterns--large flash, pause,
half-flash, half-flash, pause, large flash, and so on--and
the half-flashes follow the lines drawn on the floor.

Study the floor during large and half-flashes. There are
small bits of wreckage, scattered on the floor, which aren't
conducting electricity. You need to make carefully timed
dashes towards them, wait out the flashes, and move
carefully from wreckage to wreckage. This is frustrating,
and allows for almost no margin for error, but it can be done.
The bigger your television is, the easier this'll be.
============================================================

When you get to the door, pull out your EMP and Use the Gate
Key. The moment you're through the door, hold down the X
button and fire; there's a mech breathing down your neck. As
the mech is stunned, hit Square to change weapons and wax the
one soldier in here. When he falls dead, change back and fire
the EMP a second time to put the mech back down. Now, Use the
Gate Key to get out of this deathtrap.

Boy, never a dull moment, huh? The next two rooms have three
soldiers each, two with rifles, one with a flamethrower. Gun
them down with wild bursts of whatever long-range weapons you
have left and, in the second room, find the door under the red
light. It may take a bit of exploring. When you do find it, Use
the Crowbar to pry it open.

Inside this remarkably sterile and peaceful laboratory, Use
the guy on the table. This is the cue for a lengthy cutscene.
When it's over, run for the gun on the floor, which is about
two steps in front of you, and you'll be done with the flashback.
You'll receive a Paper Doll from Glas' brother.

Glas materializes in the Elemental Gardens, by the Gold tier.
I've never checked, but I believe he has the same weapons on
him that he had before the flashback. While he can teleport
to the Elemental Realms the same way Hana did, there's no need.
Cautiously slaughter a few more demons and leave via the gazebo.

============
Part Twelve:
Final Exams
============

All of those esoteric items Glas and Hana have been picking
up are about to come in handy. Each room they enter in these
tests has an emblem hanging on a door somewhere. Use the
item that you have which looks like that emblem. In order,
on each floor, you'll Use the Bell, Phoenix, Chinese Fan
(you actually Use this on the first two squares of the floor
puzzle, which makes it the exception that proves the rule),
Paper Doll, Mirror, Bravery Medal, Hair Pin (I was hoping
to use this to pick a lock; imagine my disappointment), and
Peach (and how that Peach has remained unsquashed after all
of the things Glas has been thrown off of, I'll never know).

===========
First test:
Hana will play an ancient Chinese version of "Simon." There
are eight steps, all of which are pressed fairly slowly.
This is a hard test to fail.

(On Hard mode, this test starts with three button presses
 and goes as high as eight, all of which are totally random.
 I recommend watching the pattern and writing down the number
 of the buttons as it goes, then putting it in. Otherwise,
 this gets real tricky. I always did suck at "Simon.")

============
Second test:
Glas will encounter the pasty white woman in the cheongsam
again. She challenges him to a child's game. You have to
beat her to the dragon's eye.

This is one of those games that's so easy that it's actually
difficult. In short, try to roll high at the beginning, then
try to roll low when you get near the end. Whatever you do,
try to stay just behind or way ahead of the Immortal's pip;
she has a nasty habit of rolling *just* what she needs to
knock you back a few spaces. If you lose, you can try again.
And again. And again.

(On Hard Mode, the computer rolls high with irritating
 consistency, but isn't as good as rolling just what it needs.)

===========
Third test:
This is the last real puzzle of the game, and it's a doozy.

============================================================
PUZZLE: Floor Tiles

This is the one that made me beat my head against the table
and go looking online for help. I wasn't able to figure this
out given the clues provided; alert reader Michael Piatko says
that the "safe" tiles are the ones marked with the characters
on either side of the exit door, and the "bad" tiles are the
ones that match the characters on either side of the entrance
door. Note to self: learn friggin' Chinese.

In any event, here's the solution to the puzzle, courtesy of
Kevin Kaelin's FE2 walkthrough at www.gameshark.com. You
need to step on the tiles in a certain order, or you will incur
wounds. (Incidentally, you get a Rush Moment at the beginning
of each new test, from the character switch, so don't worry
too much about damage.) Whenever you step on one of the key
tiles, you'll hear a faint, shallow gong sound.

Think of the puzzle this way, like a grid:

  +-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8
A | x x x x x x x x
B | x x x x x x x x
C | x x x x x x x x
D | x x x x x x x x
E | x x x x x x x x
          S

The solution to the puzzle then becomes:

S, E4, D4, C4, C3, C2, C1, B1, A1
retrace to C4
C4, B4, B5, B6
retrace to E4
E4, E5, E6, E7
retrace to E4
E4, D4, C4, C3, C2, C1, D1
retrace to E4
E4, E5, E6, D6, D7, D8, C8
retrace to E4
E4, D4, C4, B4, B5, A5
Clear.

Boy. Didn't *that* suck. Onward.
============================================================

============
Fourth test:
Glas must choose between his brother and his father. It's a
trick question; either way you play this, you have to fight
the Teleporting Demon From Hell.

============================================================
BOSS: The Teleporting Demon From Hell

In most ways, this guy's identical to the teleporting demons
from the Elemental Gardens, but if he gets close, he'll
exhale flame instead of clawing at you. This isn't a true
"boss fight," in that there's no life meter, but this demon
can take all the love you have to give. After using up three
rifle clips and three Uzi clips on him, then dying, I
switched to the rocket launcher, and yes, I know I said not
to use it. Shut up. *That* did the trick in about five shots
(eight shots on Hard Mode).
============================================================

===========
Fifth test:
Did you cap any of the cowering guys in jumpsuits, back in
the aqueduct? If you did,  o/~ you're in trouble... o/~ One
of the Eight Immortals was apparently masquerading as the
guy who gave you the first Mirror Fragment, and he objects
to your shabby treatment of his brethren, as do I, to his
face. Fortunately, I'll be caving in his face forthwith.

============================================================
BOSS: Immortal

What's-his-face will teleport from corner to corner in his
room, moving fast and not staying in one place for long.
When he does stick around, he'll raise his sword and throw
purple lightning at you. If it doesn't hit in that initial
blast--I'm not entirely sure it *can* hit--it collects at
the center of the room and sweeps around counterclockwise.
You can dodge it without much trouble.

The big problem in this fight is that the Immortal has
decreed that he's immune to your weapons. You have to get
up in his face and kick him to death if you want to get this
done. You can do this, regardless of how bloody stupid an
idea it seems to be. Run in when he raises his sword and
kick him a couple of times, then dodge his lightning and
repeat. All in all, this is remarkably simple.

(I was able to beat this Immortal on the first try in
 Normal mode, when a single kick skims about a tenth off of
 his life meter. However, in so doing, I was nearly killed.
 You can safely assume that the Immortal is far more dangerous
 in Hard mode, just like everything else.)
============================================================

If you spared all of the technicians, he compliments Hana
on her compassion (either he didn't watch the opening cutscene,
or he didn't much care for Leung either) and lets her pass
without further incident. Needless to say, this is why I was
encouraging you to leave the technicians the hell alone.

===========
Sixth test:
Why is it that more of Glas' tests involve mortal danger?
Glas must now face his ultimate enemy...

============================================================
BOSS: Royce Glas

A recurring theme in my leisure time recently is that of
oneself as one's worst enemy. First I watch "Evangelion,"
then I read _The Great Gatsby_, and now this. Criminy.

Evil Glas, or at least Considerably Less Morally Ambiguous
Glas, is really just you with more ammunition and a bigger
health bar. He alternates wildly between rolling grenades,
shooting rockets, and opening up on you with his assault
rifle. He's used the flamethrower on me, too.

Treat Glas like a particularly tenacious normal enemy. Most
any weapon will wear away quite nicely at his health bar. If
you're quick on the control pad, the only thing you have to
worry about is his assault rifle, and even that's only minor
damage. Use the pillars for cover, sneak up on him, and let
him have it. Some of the tactics you developed to deal with
the rolling soldiers in the flashback will come in handy here,
since Glas rolls around a lot if you get the drop on him.
If you hit him with an SS 2000 volley, Glas will roll to avoid
it, and you can just track him from roll to roll until the
flame runs out or he dies.
============================================================

============
Seventh test:
We get a glimpse of the deaths of Hana's parents (complete with
some nice synchronicity with FE; do you recognize the doll?),
her first meeting with Madame Wu, and how she met Rain. The
ghost from the Queen's Tomb offers her a choice: Rain, or her
parents? The life that might be yet, or the life that could
have been?

I haven't picked Hana's parents. Rain seemed to me to be the
natural choice, and as I didn't get killed or get into a
fight, it would seem to be the right one. The Immortal will
warn you that you've picked a path fraught with sorrow, and
send you on your way.

("Jimbo," on the Gamefaqs.com message boards, has posted
 that picking Hana's parents results in a fight with two
 Teleporting Demons From Hell. I'm *not* picking Hana's
 parents. *Ever*. Alert reader A. Stewart, however, mentions
 that you do get a different and longer cinematic after
 this fight than you do if you pick Rain.)

============
Eighth test:
To Glas' consternation, the old man with the missing donkey
is the Eighth Immortal. Glas must take a final gamble on a
platform floating in space, because he was brought into all
of this by sheer chance.

You start off with a choice between two blocks to step on.
One will hurt you; one won't. Pick one and trust to luck, as
they've been different both times that I've played through.
This theme continues, although, fortunately, you shouldn't
have too much trouble with this. Choosing wrong doesn't
really do much damage, so you can probably bulldog your
way through unless you pick *very* badly.

That's the last test. It's time to meet Rachel Kazra and settle
this. Glas gets some more background on the Retro Helix, and
steps through the last gate.

==============
Part Thirteen:
Showdown
==============

You start as Glas, in this, the Void. Save your game. Move
forward and Rain will teleport in, waving a *really*
vicious-looking needle. Suddenly, Deke shows up... with
Rain. Or is it Mist? Hana arrives just in time to keep Deke
and Glas from shooting each other (they had to do the John
Woo guns-to-each-other's-heads pose sooner or later), and
the choice is left up to her. Which Rain is which?

============================================================
PUZZLE: The Qin Twins

You'll be given a crosshair and both Qins to choose from.
One has a needle; the other, the Flash Disc.

Consider these factors, when choosing yourself a Qin to shoot:

-- the needle. That looks a lot like the needle from the
   opening cutscene, doesn't it? The one that got jammed
   into Rachel Kazra's bellybutton and turned her into
   some kind of demon?
-- the Flash Disc. Rain had this the last time you got to
   play as her.
-- the EINDS cure. Why would Mist give it to Deke?
-- why would Mist urge Hana to shoot them both?

All of these are valuable clues.

In other words, the Rain with the disc is the real one.
Shoot the one on the left; Hana's pointing at her anyway.
============================================================

Regardless of whichever Qin gets shot, Mist will wind up
jamming the needle, which turns out to be chock full o'
Dark Cipher goodness, into her own stomach. You'll be
introduced to Rachel Kazra, who is no longer even vaguely
human, and told that Mist intends to make sure the Perfect
Being is reborn.

That's the theory, anyway. Now you get to disprove it.

============================================================
BOSS: Mist Qin

If you shot Mist, you'll be fighting as Rain, who's carrying
the equipment she had the last time you played as her, plus a
flamethrower. Otherwise, you'll start as Hana, and after you
inflict a certain amount of damage, Glas, and finally Deke
("...I don't like you.").

Mist's new form teleports around the crazily spinning
battlefield. She launches an attack, and when it's over,
she'll disappear again. Mist has three basic tricks:

Flamethrower Mist
	Mist materializes, flops onto the ground like an
inchworm, and begins twirling around. She shoots fire from
either end; jokes about her "eating bad Mexican" would be
horribly uncouth. So don't make them.
	Mist will move from one side of the screen to the other
while she's shooting fire, and will dematerialize when she
reaches the opposite end. While she's doing that, try to run
around her, moving in the same direction as her flames, and
roll when the flames get too close. This is probably her
most dangerous attack, and it's the one she tends to use
the most often. I still get hit at least once every time
she does it.

Big Ass Blast Mist
	...okay, now she's just asking for it. Mist appears,
glows, and fires a massive beam straight ahead.
	This is easy to dodge unless she's got you in the
corner, especially because Mist stops pivoting right before
she fires. Once you're out of the way, move towards her and
start shooting; you should be able to do some serious damage
while she's recovering.

Lightning Ball Mist
	Mist appears, spins in place, and fires four balls of
static electricity.
	Here's the key. The moment Mist appears and does her
little flip, head straight towards her while shooting. She's
wide open, and the only safe spot from the lightning barrage
is directly in front of her.

I have noticed that many other FAQ writers, professional and
private, have written that the way to beat Mist is to use,
alternately, the Arc Taser, Sonic Boom, and SS 2000, depending
on which form Mist is in.

Many other FAQ writers are apparently smoking paint.

Don't let the flamethrower ammo on the battlefield fool you;
this fight is all about the rocket launcher. Remember how I
said not to use it? I lied. I lied like never before or since.
I'm a bad man. Use the rocket launcher.

On Normal mode, one rocket will knock about a fifth of Mist's
health bar off, while on Hard mode, you'll need to hit her with
about fifteen of them. Mist is too low for rockets to hit her
while she's in Flamethrower mode, but she is *meat* in either
of her other forms. You can fire another rocket just as soon
as the last one's detonated, so you can completely unload into
Mist while she's recovering from her beam or ball attacks. On
Normal Mode, this fight can be ended in about five seconds if
Mist opens with the Blast or Ball attacks.

If you don't have the rocket launcher--if you missed it back
in the Temple of Xi'an when you last played as Rain--you can
*barely* make do with barrages of rifle fire. Rain starts this
fight with 210 bullets for her rifle, so you've got the ammo
to do it. The problem here is that the difference between victory
and defeat now rests squarely with Mist; to wit, if she uses the
flamethrower too often, you probably won't survive long enough
to take her out.

When you win as Rain, Mist will curl up into a little ball.
If you don't do something fast, she'll get right back up and
you'll have to do this *again*. Don't let that happen. Walk up
to her, circle her until you get the Use prompt, and Use the
DNA Virus.

When Mist is dead, one way or the other, it's game over.
============================================================

======
CODES:
======

Upon beating FE2, you'll receive a series of button sequences
after the credits. These button sequences, when put in on the
----> TITLE SCREEN <---- of the appropriate game disc, will
unlock that disc's Art Gallery, in the Extras menu. The last
two codes were sent in by Kevin Myers, and I've tested the
first three.

Disc 1: L, R, U, D, D, Circle

Disc 2: U, U, R1, R1, R1, Square

Disc 3: L1, R2, L1, R2, L1, Square

Disc 4: Circle, Circle, Square, L2, Square

Furthermore, on your second time through the game, you can
use the keypad in the first hallway to input secrets. Kevin
Myers also provides these codes, all of which I've tested:

11692: All weapons
61166: 999 ammo for all weapons
       [Note: this isn't "infinite ammo." This is "more ammo
        than you will ever conceivably need unless there is
        something seriously wrong with you." It's a minor
        distinction, but one that someone had to make.]
10397: Big head code

It would appear that these three codes are it; there aren't
any more. One would imagine they'd've surfaced by now if
there were. How disappointing.

Please note that I do not and *will* not own a Game Shark.
Codes for that particular crutch will never appear in this
document, and I will not respond to letters asking for them.
If you can't beat this game on your own, you don't deserve
to beat it.

=============
PLOT SUMMARY:
=============

FE2 is sorta cumbersome, with all the plot twists it goes
through. I've written this down to help both myself, and,
hopefully, you, the reader.

====

Four billion years ago, the Ancients destroyed a creature
known as the Entity. The Entity chose to hide from his
destroyers, concealing himself within the primordial ooze
that would one day create all life on the planet. From this
ooze, humans were eventually born. The Entity is referred to
several times in FE2 as the Maker of humanity.

Three thousand years ago, a man named Qin Zhang tried to
unlock the secrets of immortality. He was only partially
successful, in that his potion made his body immortal, but
failed to prepare his mind. His body thus became an eternal
prison, and he slumbered for a time. This failed attempt at
divinity, called a paradox by one of the Eight Immortals,
created a Dark Cipher, which in turn was a possible way back
to the world for the slumbering Entity. This Dark Cipher is
also referred to over the course of the game as the Retro
Helix, the DNA sequence that causes EINDS.

Twenty-two years ago, the first case of EINDS (Environmentally
Induced Nucleotides Degeneration Syndrome), a disease that
attacks cell reproduction, is diagnosed. This disease rapidly
spreads, and by the time of FE2, roughly half the world has it
to some degree. Also, as is remarked upon by various Immortals
during the game, this is the same year that Hana was born.
Apparently, EINDS is the move and Hana the countermove, in the
chess game between the Entity and the Eight Immortals. (One of
the Immortals tells Hana that the Eight Immortals only act through
people, since they learned long ago that they only make things
worse if they directly intervene. If you pay attention, a *lot*
of the Immortals' tests are games, or versions of games--chess,
mazes, riddles, hopscotch, dragon's eye, the musical memory test
--making FE2 a game about games within games. The mind boggles.)

Twenty-one years ago (maybe; I'm basing this off of the
supposed age for Rain in the instruction manual), an
archeologist named Rachel Kazra discovered the sleeping body
of Qin Zhang at an excavation site. She injected herself
with his genetic material, attempting to create the Perfect
Being. Instead of dying like most mortals would have, she became
pregnant with twins; one would imagine that her injection
and subsequent pregnancy are what's depicted in Rain's dream.
These twins were half immortal and half human (which must have
made them insufferable in grade school; "*Our* dad can destroy
your dad on a cellular level! And our *mom*..."). She named
them Rain and Mist. Later, Kazra won past the challenges at the
Tower to gain access to the Genomic Void, and there conducted
her experiments in recreating the Perfect Being by uniting the
two children (sort of like the Wonder Twins, but with more
demons). Her countless failures, brainless mutants existing
only to kill, were scattered throughout the Temple of Xi'an.
Qin Zhang was set in place below the Temple as a guardian of
the path to the Void.

(It is probably no concidence that both Rachel Kazra, assuming
 that's her in the opening movie, and Glas' teammate Jake exhibit
 the same symptoms. One would assume based upon this that the
 Dark Cipher extracted from Qin Zheng, when introduced into the
 body of a human, will *usually* kill that human via accelerated
 EINDS. This would make Qin Zheng EINDS' "patient zero.")

The Entity was looking for his opening. If Kazra's experiments
succeeded, he would be reborn in the form of the Perfect Being.
In this he was aided by Mist Qin, who embraced her divine heritage.
Rain, on the other hand, embraced her human side and fled from her
mother and sister. She made it to China, where she collapsed outside
a graveyard and was found by Hana. They became friends, partners,
and lovers.

At the start of Fear Effect 2, Glas has a blood sample from
one of his former team members, and Deke is sent to obtain a
Genetic Marker. When Hana brings the DNA sequence disc to
the Temple of Xi'an, they've put together the pieces of the
cure for EINDS. Glas and Hana realize that Glas' blood
sample is unnecessary if Hana has the DNA sequence on disc,
and Deke's genetic marker is likewise obsolete. They've all
brought basically the same thing to the table.

That's because the courier job is a ruse by Mist and her
allies on Earth to get the cure's parts in one place, where
she can destroy them all at once. EINDS is the final stage
of the Entity's plans for humanity, and when the disease has
run its course, the Entity has plans for the survivors. Mist
is working to make sure the Entity's plans bear fruit, which
presumably makes her and her allies the people who made and
unleashed a more readily communicable version of EINDS.

However, Glas and Hana manage to survive the Temple of Xi'an.
Despite Deke being possessed and used as a catspaw, Hana
and Glas pass the Eight Immortals' tests and make it to the
Genomic Void, where Rain faces off against and kills the
mutated Mist Qin. Mist is dissolved at a cellular level by
the DNA virus Rain found in the Wing Chune building,
thus forever dividing the Perfect Being and foiling the
Entity's shot at rebirth. More to the point, Hana makes
the cure publically available to the world, and EINDS is
never allowed to complete its set task.

Of course, Rachel Kazra is still alive, out in the Genomic
Void past the Weak Water... and at some point, Hana will
apparently return to the Twin Juniper Garden, and become
stuck there for the rest of her life. There's a sequel
hook or two here, if you just look for them.

===============
PLOT QUESTIONS:
===============

Why is the older Hana waiting for herself in the gazebo?
Yim Wau Long's comment only complicates matters. Is time
itself warped somehow by Penglai Shan? Is Penglai Shan
in some way linked to the Chinese underworld? Will Hana
return to the Twin Juniper Gardens at some point, and
become trapped there for the rest of her life?

What the hell happened in that lab below the aqueduct? It's
easy to conclude that the lab is where Rachel Kazra was
injected, but the carnage is apparently too recent for that.
Are we to conclude that the aqueduct is the site of some
of Kazra's genetic experimentation, and that Gyen-Won Liu
is a participant in the same conspiracy that hired Deke?
That would seem to explain the Brothers Spooky, although
it's a bit too convoluted. A more ready explanation may be
that some of Dr. Liu's experiments had similar results to
the ones Rachel Kazra conducted in the Genomic Void.

How has Deke managed to survive EINDS more than twice as long
as anyone else? Has he been working for Mist's buddy that long,
and been provided those drugs to keep him alive?

One of the Immortals seems to suggest that Deke is one of
Rachel Kazra's mutants. Could we get some more information
on that, please?

=============
HANA AND RAIN
=============

So... yeah. When this game was initially announced, it
looked like they decided to take FE, tighten up the control,
and add some softcore porn. All the screenshots of Hana and
Rain were of them in their wetsuits, and every preview I
read mentioned their (coy wink, sly chuckle) mysterious
relationship. I thought it was going to be a complete mess
of gunplay and HOT GIRL-GIRL ACTION. w00t!

That's what I thought, anyway, when I rented the game. I had
heard that the storyline was flat-out strange, involving
genetic viruses, Chinese mythology, and the implications of
the existence of an insane God, and well, if you add
lesbians and the whole "survival horror" aspect of it all,
you've got a game that I can't pass up. I'm a philosophy
minor and I'm addicted to B-movies. This is my genre.

So I played it, and kept playing it, and, well, it wasn't as
goofy as I was expecting. Yes, there's a lot of undressing
and accompanying panty shots; yes, Hana's party dress is
more the suggestion of a dress than a dress itself; yes,
there's the elevator scene; yes, that thing Rain gets strapped
into is not right, will never *be* right, and now that I've
seen that, I'll never be clean again. (H.R. Giger called.
He wants his beetle back.)

But Hana and Rain never get really *stupid* about it. It's
gratuitous and sensationalist enough that they're apparently
lovers, and the game only rarely does anything with that.
They flirt occasionally in the aqueduct, they bicker a
little, Hana's very protective of Rain, they distract the
security guys in the elevator by making out, and that's
about it. Then you get out of the Wing Chune building, and
the fanservice comes to a shrieking halt.

In the Temple of Xi'an, when Rain more or less vanishes, Hana
and Rain's relationship is brought into clearer focus. Hana is
told multiple times that trying to find Rain will only end in
sorrow (a sorrow that has yet to materialize, unless the Immortal
is talking about one of the bad endings in FE), and she keeps
going; the very idea of abandoning Rain makes her lash out at
the ghost. Whenever she's talking to one of the Immortals, Hana
actually acts *desperate*, and then there's the kicker: a line,
spoken by one of the Immortals, about how Hana's love for Rain
is her strength.

While I don't care for the way it was used to sell this
game, I do have to admit that Hana and Rain's relationship
is treated with considerably more care than I was expecting.
While its being in the game in the first place is
sensationalist and more than a little distracting, I can't
honestly find any fault in the way it's depicted.

Why did I include this section? For one thing, I wanted to
say something about Hana and Rain, because, as I mentioned
above, I'm shocked by how mature their relationship is,
especially compared to what I was expecting. For another,
I wanted to do my bit to clear up any remaining misconceptions
that gamers might have about this game. FE2 is a lot of things,
but it ain't slash 'fic or all-girl p0rn.

========
ENDINGS:
========

THIS IS YOUR SPOILER WARNING.

Unless both I and the entire online fan community have missed
something, these are the only possible endings for FE2.

============================================================
Save Rain, Normal/Hard Difficulty:

Rain pushes Hana, Deke, and Glas back, saying that she needs
to fight Mist alone. She proceeds to spank Mist like a
naughty monkey.

Rain dips her knife into the DNA Virus (I hope that wasn't
an airborne virus, Rain!) and stabs Mist in the throat. Mist
screams and dissolves into a greasy stain. Hana offers Rain
her hand, and Rain accepts it.

A pair of newscasters say, smiling, that a cure has been
found for EINDS. Back on their hydroplane, Rain says that
she's surprised Hana didn't just sell the cure, and Hana
says that she didn't think that'd be right. Surprisingly,
Deke and Glas went along with it too. Rain asks to go along
on Jin's "retrieval mission," and Hana says that Rain's
staying home this time. She doesn't need a tech-head because
the job is so simple. Rain gives Hana her knife so Hana won't
break a nail, and Hana gives Rain Qin Zhang's Pearl: a gift
from Rain's father.

In a restaurant, Hana (wearing her clothes from the first
level of FE) invites Deke and Glas (likewise) to join her on
Jin's "little runaway mission." It's a big payday for easy
work, but Glas is wary of it. Deke signs up almost immediately,
Glas grudgingly agrees, and they set out on the job that winds
up becoming the first FE.

Elsewhere, the King of Hell laughs.

(It has been noted on the gamefaqs.com boards that this
 ending contradicts FE in a couple of minor ways. For one
 thing, this ending looks as though it takes place a few
 days, if that, after FE2, but everyone in FE is two to
 six years older than they are in FE2. This is yet more
 proof that when playing cinematic horror games, you should
 never trust the background information in the instruction
 manual. It lies. It always lies.

(If you finished FE, there are a lot of injokes in this
 scene. Glas' line about being chased by dragons is one;
 Deke saying "Just make sure you cover all the angles"
 is another.)

============================================================
Save Rain and Lose, Normal Difficulty:

The King of Hell is shown sitting on a throne. He muses how
"they saved [him] the trouble." He laughs, and the Game Over
screen comes up.

I think this might be foreshadowing for Fear Effect 3. I'm
not *sure*, mind you, *but*...

============================================================
Don't Save Rain, Hard Difficulty:

Dying, Rain says that she'd rather die in Hana's arms than
live forever without her. Mist laughs at her, saying that all
Rachel Kazra needs is Rain's body. Hana screams in rage and
grief and attacks the newly mutated Mist; after you knock
about a third of Mist's life off, she kills Hana and Glas
jumps into the fray. Glas gets similar results, and finally,
Deke is able to knock Mist down.

However, Mist clearly isn't dead. As she writhes in pain,
Deke picks up Rain's body and flees through a convenient
portal. The credits roll.

This is another surprise; the ending where Rain dies is
obviously not the right one. I expected that Rain's absence
from FE would be explained by having Rain get killed. No, no...
she just stayed home.

===========
CONCLUSION:
===========

Thanks to Kevin Myers, Brandon Chaput, Michael Piatko, Vincent
Merken, A. Stewart, and the "Krypt Angel" for their contributions
to this FAQ. Also, as mentioned above, thanks to Edwin Chow and
Kevin Kaelin for writing their guides, and to David Smith for
telling me where Spooky's sex table is from (specifically, it's
from the cover to Giger's _Necronomicon_).

This document can be found on the following websites:

http://www.gamefaqs.com
http://www.cheatcc.com
http://www.gamespot.com
http://www.psxcodez.com
http://www.fookes.clara.net
http://www.redcoupe.co.uk/
http://www.bdgames.net
http://www.dimfuture.net/elsewhere/junkdrawer.html

Note that the last site is my own, and as such, will probably
be updated more often than the other locations will. Please
report this document's presence on any websites other than the
above to [email protected].

I can be reached at [email protected] with comments, questions,
and whatever codes you'd like to pass along. I don't know how
helpful I'll be re: game advice, as I don't actually own FE2,
but I'll try. Please be literate in any letters you send me;
anything that I can't readily make sense of won't be replied to.

Thomas Wilde
a.k.a. Wanderer
a.k.a. Storyteller on the gamefaqs.com boards and Evil-Online
[email protected]
http://www.dimfuture.net/elsewhere/