Guide - Guide for Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2 (PC) guide
by KeeperBvK aka Burkhart von Klitzing
Contact: [email protected]

Dedication: I dedicate this work to my beloved dad who passed away on the  
            07/13/2005.
            I always loved you and I always will. Thank you so much for the  
            time we had.

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                               0.1 Legal Stuff
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This Guide may not be posted on any other website other than 
www.gamefaqs.com
www.supercheats.com
www.dlh.net
www.mogelgott.de
www.honestgamers.com
www.xboxevolved.com
www.gamesradar.com
www.cheatplanet.com
without my permission and it may not be used commercially in any possible way.
If you want to post it on another site please contact me via E-Mail or via 
the Message Board.
Do not claim this guide or any part of it to be your creation.
If you find any mistakes (even regarding the language as I'm German) please 
let me know.
Copyright 2008 Burkhart von Klitzing

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                             0.2 Version History
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Started working on this on May 30, 2006.

1.0: Finished on 06/18/2006, 179 KB large

1.01: Finished on 06/22/2006, 179 KB large
- Added www.supercheats.com

1.02: Finished on 07/09/2996, 179 KB large
- Improved on the museum section of the walkthrough.
- Added the secondary fire of the Pulse-Rifle as an alternative way to 
destroying the Striders, thanks to Bruce Zhang.

1.03: Finished on 07/26/2006, 180 KB large
- Changed Dog to D0g. Thx to Robbie Vancourt.

1.04: Finished on 10/27/2006, 180 KB large
- Walker Wilson told me that the pheropods can also be used to distract 
Combines, so I added that.

1.05: Finished on 01/18/2007, 180 KB large
- Added the secondary fire for grenades, thx to Dominic_rules.

1.06: Finished on 02/17/2007, 180 KB large
- Added www.dlh.net and www.mogelgott.de

1.07: Finished on 03/12/2007, 181 KB large
- Added www.honestgamers.com.

1.08: Finished on 08/07/2007, 181 KB large
- Minor tweaking and a better strategy against Hoppers added.

1.09: Finished on 09/30/2007, 182 KB large
- Added a great new way of beating the siege part in Entanglement. Thanks to 
Vidmo for that.

1.10: Finished on 12/17/2007, 182 KB large
- Added www.xboxevolved.com.

1.11: Finished on 01/23/2008, 183 KB large
- Added a tiny bit to the description of the Magnum. Thanks to Andrew Carts.

1.12: Finished on 01/24/2008, 183 KB large
- Added www.gamesradar.com and www.cheatplanet.com.

1.13: Finished on 01/28/2008, 184 KB large
- Added a new strategy in Entanglement, thanks to MeestahChanggg & Darkpark.

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                                0.3 Contents
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                                               | Latest Update | Search Key |
-----------------------------------------------|---------------|------------|
0.1 Legal Stuff                                |      1.12     |            |
0.2 Version History                            |      1.13     |            |
0.3 Contents                                   |      1.13     |            |
-----------------------------------------------|---------------|------------|
1. What is Half-Life 2?                        |      1.0      |     AAA    |
2. General Hints                               |      1.0      |     BBB    |
-----------------------------------------------|---------------|------------|
3. Walkthrough                                 |      1.0      |     CCC    |
  3.1 Chapter 1 - Point Insertion              |      1.0      |     CC1    |
  3.2 Chapter 2 - A Red Letter Day             |      1.0      |     CC2    |
  3.3 Chapter 3 - Route Kanal                  |      1.0      |     CC3    |
  3.4 Chapter 4 - Water Hazard                 |      1.0      |     CC4    |
  3.5 Chapter 5 - Black Mesa East              |      1.03     |     CC5    |
  3.6 Chapter 6 - "We don't go to Ravenholm..."|      1.0      |     CC6    |
  3.7 Chapter 7 - Highway 17                   |      1.03     |     CC7    |
  3.8 Chapter 8 - Sandtraps                    |      1.0      |     CC8    |
  3.9 Chapter 9 - Nova Prospekt                |      1.0      |     CC9    |
  3.10 Chapter 9a - Entanglement               |      1.13     |     C9A    |
  3.11 Chapter 10 - Anticitizen One            |      1.03     |     C10    |
  3.12 Chapter 11 - "Follow Freeman!"          |      1.03     |     C11    |
  3.13 Chapter 12 - Our Benefactors            |      1.0      |     C12    |
  3.14 Chapter 13 - Dark Energy                |      1.0      |     C13    |
-----------------------------------------------|---------------|------------|
4. Weapons                                     |      1.11     |     DDD    |
5. Enemies                                     |      1.02     |     EEE    |
  5.1 Combine                                  |      1.0      |     EE1    |
  5.2 Xen Aliens                               |      1.08     |     EE2    |
  5.3 Bugs                                     |      1.0      |     EE3    |
  5.4 Heavy Gear                               |      1.02     |     EE4    |
  5.5 Small Machines                           |      1.08     |     EE5    |
-----------------------------------------------|---------------|------------|
6. Closing Comments                            |      1.0      |     FFF    |
7. Experimental                                |      1.0      |     GGG    |
8. Credits                                     |      1.13     |     HHH    |
-----------------------------------------------|---------------|------------|

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                          1. What is Half-Life 2?                         AAA
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Half-Life 2 is the sequel to Half-Life. Now who would have thought? Half-Life 
probably was one of the biggest gaming surprises in 1998 and together with 
Starcraft it showed what the PC was capable of in terms of gameplay. Other 
than Starcraft which was also released in 1998, Half-Life took graphics a 
step ahead, too. Half-Life 2 (being an Ego-Shooter like HL1) also boasted 
great visuals, has an extremely well crafted sound and tries its best to be 
an intelligent representative of its genre with lots of dialogues, trigger 
events and a fantastic physics engine, theoretically allowing for massive 
possibilities of jerking around or advancing in the game.
You are Gordon Freeman (again) waking up in City 17 after having accepted to 
work for the mysterious G-Man. Will our beloved, charismatic, nerdy hero shed 
light onto some of the mysteries that are still unsolved? I know the answer, 
but I won't tell you...yet.

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                               2. General Hints                           BBB
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Try not to use the flash light while diving as it also uses the same energy 
as your air supply.

Holding down the jump key makes you stay on the surface when swimming.

Yellow lambda symbols painted onto the wall usually indicate there's 
something good around, so search for items nearby when seeing one of those.

Small crates with a yellow sticker saying supply contain just what it says: 
Supplies, so open them. Also note that these boxes don't always contain the 
same items. They seem somewhat intelligent, as they hold whatever you are 
most in need of when opening them.

Metal crates with an ammo sign on them contain an infinite amount of this 
ammo type, so open them as often as you want to and maybe use the 
corresponding ammo for a while, backtracking to the crate to regain your ammo.

The buggy has an SMG ammo crate at its back.

Use explosive barrels to your advantage: Shooting them twice sets them on 
fire so they explode after a few seconds; shooting them thrice blows them up 
instantly. Oh and please don't ever use your crowbar on them. You can't set 
them on fire with it.

When aiming over great distances, zoom in via Z, take aim and zoom out again. 
This allows for shorter cross hair moves. 

Don't rely on your squad mates. You might sometimes hide and let them do some 
of the shooting, but don't use the squad commands or greatly change your 
style of playing when the allies are around. They don't take a lot of damage 
and they are far less effective than you should be.

There is no friendly fire on the rebels' side, except for explosions. Hence 
you can accidentally hit your allies as often as you wish and run around in 
front of your buddies even when they are amidst a fire fight. Just don't drop 
a grenade, or miss-throw an explosive barrel or such.

It is possible to duck and still fire when manning a stationary machine gun. 
While this gives you some protection it also probably lowers your precision, 
so only do it if you desperately need to save every single health point.

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                                3. Walkthrough                            CCC
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This guide was written for the hard difficulty setting. As far as I know the 
number and position of enemies are the same for every difficulty, so this 
guide also works perfectly for easy and normal.
I divided the walkthrough into the chapters given by the game and I further 
divided those into the various areas that are connected by loading pauses. To 
allow for an easier navigation of the guide, I also named those areas, trying 
to omit spoilers given by the titles.


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-3.1 Chapter 1 - Point Insertion-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=CC1

[City 17 Train Station]

Be awed by the stunning face textures and animations of the G-Man while you 
can: You won't be able to come up this close to him in a while. He says 
something about a mission (remember accepting to work for him at the end of 
Half-Life 1?) and then you wake up in a train heading for the City 17 station. 
Valve definitely seems to like the idea of beginning a game in any sort of 
transport devices. Disembark the train only to be flashed by some sort of 
sentry drone. It is just scanning you, so don't worry. As you go on, though, 
you see some masked humanoid creatures, called Combine, working as the local 
poilce which can already hurt you although you are still amidst the prologue. 
Simply don't touch them or throw objects at them and you're in no danger. 
Listen to the old man (Dr. Breen) on the big screen to further realize you 
are in some sort of totalitarian city, reminiscent of Orwell's 1984. Take a 
look on the right to see an alien from HL1 cleaning the floor. Finally 
everybody should have realized there is something strange going on in this 
world.

As you move on you can listen to some civilians further deepening the feeling 
of something bad going on, but luckily Valve gave you the Source Engine, 
meaning you can throw bottles at people, rip out a phone receiver, get 
infinite cans out of a vending machine (like in HL1) and so on to distract 
yourself. After a while you are told to enter a cage and to follow a Combine 
past an interrogation room (look inside to see some civilian explaining 
himself and a Combine closing the viewing hatch) into another interrogation 
room. Oh oh, he wants to take care of you on his own, even turning off the 
cameras...phew, it's Barney; your old pal from Half-Life 1. After a short 
conversation with Dr. Kleiner via the terminal the Combine get suspicious and 
try to enter the room. Hurry, leave the room through the door Barney opens 
for you...or stay a bit longer, hop onto Barney's head and relax. The Combine 
won't come in at any time.

As you enter the dirty storage room you are given your first assignment: 
Press E to pick up objects (crates in this case) and use this "talent" to 
build a stack under the window so you can leave the room into a small court.

[Leaving the Station]

Enter a new part of the station and watch one of those wicked guards tossing 
a can onto the ground, telling you to throw it into the trash can. Do so and 
he will let you pass. Exit the station via the door on the left, allowing you 
to get a view of City 17 and especially of the citadel in its centre. Take a 
right, watch another interrogation in a small room and move on to a street 
barricade. Climb up the ladder in the alley on the right and drop down onto 
the crate on the other side of the fence. On the left you can see your first 
strider; War of the Worlds, anyone? Follow the path past two civilians, 
talking about the Combine investigating lots of buildings, to a play ground. 
And, oh goodie, it really is a play ground: Pick up the doll making a fun 
sound, hop onto the swings, drop a concrete block on the teeter totter and so 
on. Can't just everybody play like that? The rotten HL2 world would be a 
better place for everybody. Anyway, enter the building on your left once 
you've had enough.

[Miscount] 
There's only one possible way: Into the hallway with a few Combines standing 
up ahead. Get into the kitchen, talk to some people and again enjoy the 
Source Engine as you pull the TV out of the wall and throw it through the 
window (eventually hitting a Combine down below). Proceed to the end of the 
corridor and listen to the announcement: They have detected there's a person 
in your sector that doesn't belong there...you! Run up a storey (any other 
paths are blocked either by locks or by Combines) and into a room a guy waves 
you into. Don't waste too much time now, as the enemies beat their way 
through your newly found allies, but you're not in a big hurry. At the other 
end of the hallway you'll have to walk up another set of stairs to yet 
another room guarded by a civilian. He tells you to move on quickly, but 
actually you can stay in that room and go to the bathroom or such, given he 
manages to hold back the Combines as long as you wish to stay.

[Cutie]
Up to the loft and quickly out of the broken window onto the roofs. By now 
the Combines should have come close by, starting fire from behind. Stick to 
the right wall and carefully walk along the ledge not falling down into the 
abyss. Eventually you reach a window to climb in, bringing you into another 
loft. Go down the ramp, take a right and don't panic as a Combine busts open 
the door. Simply turn around, go to the other door and...see that one also 
get smashed open. There's only the way back up the ramp left, so take it; or 
at least try to. It breaks as you hop onto it so be a man about it and stay 
where you are so the Combine can beat the crap out of you. After going down, 
Alyx arrives to the rescue. Follow her into the lift. Listen to the one-sided 
conversation and finish the first chapter.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-3.2 Chapter 2 - A Red Letter Day-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-CC2

[Face Humper]
Follow Alyx to the first yellow lambda symbol in the game. Every time you see 
one of these you know there's something good around. In this case Ms. Vance 
opens a secret path to Dr. Kleiner's lab. Listen to the dialogue between the 
two characters and also Barney joining it after a while, and distract 
yourself a bit by teleporting a cactus, looking through the cool lens, 
touching the little hula-girl-figurine, discovering an old photo of Dr. Klein 
on the pin wall, having a look at an old picture from Black Mesa or maybe 
just hopping onto any character's head and staying there for a while. ^^
Eventually Barney walks into a small storage room, finding Lamarr who turns 
out to be a debeaked and sexually active Face Hugger. Put on your Hazard Suit 
and tank some suit energy at the Combine power station in the corner of the 
main lab room.

Then enter the teleporter room and get your first look at Alyx' father (Eli 
Vance) on the screen. As Alyx is about to be teleported something seems to go 
awfully wrong...great machinery: It's only the plug that has fallen off. Put 
it back into the wall and activate the switch to both finally transmit Alyx 
and to get some exaggerating praise from Dr. Kleiner. At least Barney shares 
your thoughts and cracks a nice joke about it. ^^ Now it's time to be 
teleported yourself. Step into the transmitter and watch yourself being 
transported to various places thanks to Lamarr. Oh goodie, Dr. Breen now 
knows you are in City 17. Oh well, at least you don't get eaten by that ugly 
fish and after finally ending your travel outside the lab near some Combine 
scanners you are in a better condition than President Scroob was in 
Spaceballs after being teleported.

Anyway, you are told to hurry, yet again there's no need to. Drop down and 
search for a door behind another fence, leading you to a passage that's 
blocked by some wooden bars. Hmm, how to get through? Barney joins you above 
giving you the original, famous crowbar from Half-Life 1. Slash your way 
through the wooden planks and a crate to reach the first (unarmed) enemy to 
beat: A Combine Sentry Drone. Drop down and quickly take a left into the 
train, as some Combines open fire from up above on the right. Hack your way 
through the wagon, leave it and hide behind the train on your left since 
another train is coming in, which might roll over you. Get rid of another 
sentry drone and follow the incoming train. Zip in between two trains on your 
left without stopping and enter another wagon nearby. Climb up the ladder, 
turn left and jump onto the wagon ahead and over the fence while being 
attacked from behind. Swiftly move on, crack the lowest wooden bar at the 
opening and go down the ramp.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-3.3 Chapter 3 - Route Kanal-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=CC3

[Battle on Rails]
Refresh at the health station on the left wall. Hear that cry for help? We 
can't ignore that, now can we? Haste around the corner and smack the pistol 
wielding Combine with your crowbar. You should be able to catch him off guard, 
allowing for a few blows before he and his companion start attacking you. 
Once the first one is down, go for the Combine with the tazer stick. Go back 
to the health panel if you haven't depleted it before this struggle. Then 
move on, go up the ramp to the locked door and stay there, waiting for 
another Combine to walk down the stairs. Aim for his head. Move on until you 
see daylight coming down. Around the corner is another Combine whom you 
should give a head shot.

Step out of the dark, walk down the metal stairs outside to trigger a train 
coming to a halt right where you need it. Go back up and use the train to 
reach the other side of the trench. Turn around and blow up one of the 
explosive barrels to buy yourself some more time when breaking the upper 
wooden plank in the entrance to the house. Enter it and break apart another 
Sentry Drone while watching out not to come too close to the windows, as 
infinite Combines aim at you from the other side of the trench. See the 
yellow lambda symbol on the left wall? And do you remember what I said about 
it? Approach it to find some ammo and health. Move over to the other room and 
simply hop onto the explosive barrels and crawl out of the house instead of 
wasting a bullet on the barrels.

Stay left of the exit and aim for a barrel on a ledge up ahead. Its explosion 
takes care of some Combines nearby. Next, look at the small crate with the 
yellow sticker on it. Yellow? Seems like some Ivan Pavlov-experiment to me, 
as yellow once again means goodies, so keep in mind to watch for those small 
crates throughout the game. Move on and climb over the deformed fence which 
gets you back into the line of sight with the endlessly respawning Combines 
on the other side of the trench. Speed to the containers on the right and 
crawl through the vent (picking up some more items) still not getting you 
away from those guys.

Continue to the right and drop down onto the pallet to avoid falling damage. 
Shoot the barrels and watch out for some more barrels rolling down the stairs 
around the corner. Hitting them, too, should take care of any Combines around, 
giving you the time to pick up some suit energy under the stairs. Watch out 
for the incoming train, go up and kill two more Combines before it's time for 
some serious fun: Pick up one of those explosive barrels (I hope you left at 
least one) and move on. Two enemies will hop down to the rails behind the 
force field. As they do, they are unable to attack, allowing you to somewhat 
safely toss the barrel near them and shoot it.

Do you still have one of those red barrels intact? Great if you do, since you 
can pick it up and drop it near the other force field now. Then go up the 
stairs and step onto the metal bridge to trigger lots of Combine Soldiers 
closing in from where you placed the explosive gift. Shoot it from here when 
they are close to it (if you aren't that confident in your aiming skill, 
place the barrel at the force field you are about to get past and shoot it 
after going down). Break the crates ahead and go down to see some additional 
Combines. If you want to you might get back up and to the medical energy 
station to clear the whole area once and for all. The loads of ammo and the 
medical panel should outweigh any risks here. Otherwise you can drop down 
behind the force field and kill your enemies from here, but in this case much 
of the ammo that's being dropped probably stays out of your reach as you 
cannot get back to the other side of the force field. Now relax and restore 
yourself at the new medical station and the small crates.

An alternative way of dealing with these hordes of Combine is to speed over 
the metal bridge, run down and keep running to the left, avoiding any direct 
battle with the humanoids, but if you choose this alternative you have a 
rather hard time nabbing the suit armor inside the crates.

Jump into the water and enjoy the reflections on its surface until you reach 
a red container. Climb up the ladder on its left to get in and meet part of 
the resistance...and a nice vortigaunt alien, powering a TV with its 
electrical power. ^^ Get some of its power to strengthen your suit and break 
some obstacles outside to enter the next area.

[The Railway]
Crawl through the rubble, watch a Barnacle eating a raven and witness an 
execution. There's still a survivor in the canal on your right so haste to 
him before it's too...ok, it's too late, no matter what you do. Position 
yourself on the rubble and take down the executioner on the far left as well 
as another one coming around the right corner. Get around the corner yourself 
and run for the stack of crates. Crouch after a few steps to hide from the 
machine gun and quickly enter the canal on your right. Kill a lone Combine in 
Underground Station 12 to gain access to lots of suit energy and the com 
showing how drastically the rebels are being attacked. Climb up the ladder, 
shoot the explosive barrel and take care of any survivors before taking 
control of the machine gun yourself.

There will be few waves of Combine and Sentry Drones coming from two points 
on the lower level and from two on the upper level, but as long as your 
aiming is somewhat good and as long as you concentrate on the Combine you 
shouldn't be in for a lot of trouble. Once the normal enemies are defeated, a 
police car opens fire with heat-seeking missiles, so quickly leave the 
machine gun and keep moving to not get hit. In case you need it, there is a 
health pak near the stack of crates you used to hide behind a few moments ago. 
Shoot the barrel on the levelled ledge to your right to lower the platform.

Follow the ledge to a lambda symbol. There's some health behind the red car 
wreck. Avoid the Barnacles, but shoot the last one before reaching the 
daylight again, as it blocks the path out. Listen to the only survivor of the 
nearby rebel station and enter another canal.

Are you in for some killing? If the answer's yes, then look up and try to hit 
the two Combine guards as often as possible before they run off to the right. 
Follow them underground into a water basin and watch out for the burning 
explosive barrels they drop down once you go for a swim. Either stay at the 
surface a bit prior to diving out of the way of the explosions or climb out 
of the water to avoid the explosion. Then look up again and finally dispose 
the two bad guys.
If you don't want to kill them and just want to get along peacefully, ignore 
them completely and speed through the canal.

Leave the canal, shooting a few more enemies either by hitting explosive 
barrels or by attacking them while they jump down. Crouch behind the van to 
see some more barrels at a bridge. Shooting these prevents some Combine to 
appear after a few more moments. Move on and quickly dispose two Combine 
dropping down on the left and on the right. Use the crowbar to push a 
harmless barrel into the tentacles of the Barnacles up ahead and quickly pass 
by when they pull it up, expecting some prey. Then grab one of the explosive 
barrels and feed it to the mass of Barnacles that comes next. Stay near the 
other barrel and shoot the thrown barrel twice when it is pulled up, so it 
starts burning and explodes right at the aliens. Afterwards repeat for the 
other barrel and move on.

Don't get out of the canal just yet. Instead watch the explosive "treat" 
falling down into the water ahead. This is a warning, so be on your guard. 
Jump into the water, hiding behind the wooden wall to dodge another barrel. 
Then peek around the corner where an explosive barrel near some Combine 
couldn't possibly be placed any better. It creates a big chain reaction, 
leaving behind only one Combine at maximum. Climb up the ladder ahead and 
swim on, ignoring a barrel being dropped behind you on your way. Walk up the 
ramp and hide behind the wooden poles to have a better position against the 
two Combines entering the action on the bridge. Hop from platform to platform, 
only retreating once to dodge a barrel, to reach just another canal, yay...

[First Act for the Helicopter]
Put some concrete blocks onto the left side of the seesaw to enable yourself 
to use it as a path up to the exit. Yikes, a helicopter! You'll deal with it 
for quite a long time and it won't be a pleasant time. Slide down and hide 
behind a wooden board on the right until the copter's first burst is over. 
Then to the closed canal entrance in front of you and as the third hideout to 
the Barnacle on your left. Afterwards open the door nearby and enter the 
building. See that lambda below? Climb down a ladder to some goodies before 
moving on. Crawl through the shallow water, shoot the explosive barrel in the 
place with the low ceiling and pick up some stuff. Now pick up another 
explosive barrel to feed it to a few Barnacles. Its remaining pieces should 
distract the Barnacles further down the ramp, but if you're too slow, just 
grab a normal barrel as a distraction. Slide down and repeat the whole 
procedure against two more packs of Barnacles. Leave the building and quickly 
sprint around the left corner, because the copter opens fire again, without 
leaving you any good place to hide.

[Manhacks]
You'll reach another small outpost of the rebels, only held up by a single 
man. After a short conversation some manhacks break through the door. Either 
use the crowbar to quickly destroy them and rescue your ally or (as he 
actually serves no purpose to you) stick with the pistol and move backwards 
through the corridors while fighting the manhacks. This takes longer and it 
uses ammo, but it saves health. Afterwards climb up the ladder to find some 
goodies. Move on and attack three manhacks through a girder door. Eventually 
they will find their way to you above the door, but then they should already 
be damaged quite well. Hit an explosive barrel around the next corner twice 
to aid you against some more of those pesky machinery things.

When you see the daylight, don't exit already, but go on to find a few 
goodies. Only then step out and kill two Combines up above. Hear those 
manhacks coming? The best thing to do now is to retreat into the corridor and 
to close the door. There are five manhacks around, but they can't reach you 
now. Take your time and shoot them through the door. Then go out again and 
enter the next corridor. Ignore the barrel for now and crawl through the vent 
on your left. You have to face a manhack in here, but the loads of supply 
crates at the end of the vent are well worth it. Go back and blow up the 
barrel as a Combine has positioned himself next to it.

Drop down and move on until some Combines rope down. Give the one nearby a 
headshot and retreat behind the small stone edge. Wait for the other two guys 
to come by the explosive barrel to have an easy time against them. Pick up 
the SMG they dropped and place the other red barrel where the first one was 
lying. There's a narrow passage behind the barrel: Crawl through, pick up 
goodies and kill your first zombie. Then crawl back out to see another 
Combine being triggered to rope down. Luckily you have placed a barrel right 
next to him. You know what to do.

Time for a dive: Search for the underwater passage in which you have to 
surface once to refill your energy. Then follow the pipe to two Combines 
roping down again and to a Sentry Drone. The easy way now is to walk up the 
stairs (watch out for the Barnacle) and to hop onto the pipe from there. This 
path might be easier, but it also makes you pass up on some good stuff. If 
you want that, step outside and face two Combines and two manhacks prior to 
jumping onto the pipe. No matter which path you choose, you have to walk 
along the pipe, wait for the steam to pause, destroy a manhack in a narrow 
spot and dodge some Barnacles. The best way to get through here is to quickly 
grab the barrel around the right corner, let it be pulled up by the first 
Barnacle and to hit it twice on its way up.

Break the boards near the lambda sign to reach another place in the outside. 
Equip the pistol to quickly get rid of the guard at the truck up ahead. As 
you do, the truck unloads some explosive barrels which you should blow up in 
midair. This takes care of another Combine nearby. Equip the SMG and go 
around the corner to trigger three Combines. Retreat and try to deal with 
them one by one. The dark corridor you have to follow now, contains two 
niches with items, but also triggering two manhacks. The items are worth it, 
though. Afterwards go to the end of the corridor and retreat backwards. A 
bunch of manhacks will follow you, allowing for a great use of your grenade. 
Use the SMG to deal with the rest while still walking backwards.

The next room has some nice goodies, but you will need them. Crawl through 
the vent and after a bout 3 to 5 seconds you better start a big chain 
reaction with those explosive barrels to clear the room of loads of manhacks. 
Destroy any remaining with your crowbar. Climb up the ladder, jump onto the 
pipe, go left and drop down to a passage leading to a room with another big 
pool of water. Don't open the supply crate yet, if you can take a bit of 
frustration and if you want some suit energy. I'll tell you what I mean in a 
few sentences. Drop down from pipe to pipe to find a valve pumping more water 
into the two rooms. Now pick up the crate and carry it over to the first room 
where four manhacks have spawned in the meanwhile (is "spawn" actually the 
correct term for manhacks after all?). Lay down the crate while fighting them. 
Then pick it up again, jump into the water, climb up the ladder while only 
seeing it at the left end of your screen (or else you cannot carry the crate 
while moving up), hop onto the pipe and place the crate at the bend on your 
left so you can use it to reach the bar directly in front of you and the vent 
behind it. There is only one single suit energy item in the vent, so decide 
for yourself whether this is worth all the hassle (and don't forget to bust 
open the supply crate).

No matter how you decide, you have to swim down into a tunnel and break some 
boards underwater in the other room. This makes some objects float at the 
surface so you can use them to get up onto the ledge leading to the next area.

[Radioactive Man]
Get up the ladder, dispose a Sentry Drone and mentally prepare yourself for a 
rather difficult fight. Jump down behind the fence, turn right and run in on 
a manhack while shooting your SMG at it. Continue to a dead end, turn around 
and destroy another manhack. Shortly after two Combines rush in, so I hope 
you have taken care of both manhacks before. Use the SMG on these four 
enemies. Go on, jump up via the barrel and let three manhacks taste your 
crowbar before nabbing some items. Up ahead are even more goodies you can 
earn by distracting a Barnacle with a barrel. Climb up another ladder and 
feast on the two lambda symbol spots before dropping down on the other side 
of the wall (watch out, though: I once got stuck and squished in midair when 
dropping down here).

Return to the daylight. This time around it is gonna last for a while. Stay 
away from the radioactive waste and traverse it on the pipes for some items. 
Then move on at the lower level and assist a rebel against two headcrabs. The 
crate on your right holds an infinite amount of SMG ammo. The next section is 
best dealt with by advancing slowly, watching for all those headcrabs to 
unbury themselves. There are also a few zombies mixed in, but as you can 
always go back to pick up SMG ammo you can shoot around as wildly as you like 
to. Close to the end of this place (which seems to have been a living place 
for some rebels) you come across an electrified cable (wait for it to swing 
right before running past it on the left) and an electrified container which 
seems to be more of a problem than it really is. Only the container walls can 
hurt; standing inside of it doesn't do anything. So go through it and stay in 
it when a headcrab missile crashes down. The headcrabs will jump against the 
container, dying instantly. Hehe.

After a short walk you arrive at a hovercraft garage of the rebels. Board 
your new vehicle and ride along the radioactive river up to a shut gate on 
your left. Get out of the hovercraft near the headcrab missile ahead and kill 
one of those aliens behind the stack of boxes. Then open the gate and drive 
through to the next chapter. Look closely to see a supply crate in the liquid, 
which you should break open by driving over it.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-3.4 Chapter 4 - Water Hazard-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-CC4

[Station 12]
Disembark and climb up the ladder at the lambda symbol for some pistol ammo. 
After a short bumpy ride you will see a big red house. Remember how you were 
told to get there to seek help at station 12? Get off the hovercraft, enter 
the house and...face two zombies. The Combine were faster than you. Use the 
crowbar against these two foes as well as against a face hugger on the planks 
below the ceiling. Climb up to the room that controls the block and pulley. 
Hitting the barrel with the crowbar lets the cage fall down into the water, 
releasing some goodies.

Ride over the ramp and come to a halt at the bridge on the right. A fellow 
rebel drops some supplies before running away from a Sentry Drone. After 
picking them up, grab the blue drum, take a dive and set the barrel beneath 
the open cage. Leave the basin and go through the passage at the yellow 
lambda symbol to find two more of those blue, light barrels. Place at least 
one of them in the cage as well to build a ramp you can jump over with the 
hovercraft.

New enemy crafts: These things that look like some sort of an alien-
helicopter-hybrid serve only as troop transporters at the moment, but later 
in the game they will be way more annoying. Either stop on one of the small 
islands and kill the three Combine from there, or simply drive over them, 
taking a bit damage while approaching them. Afterwards place a barrel under 
the opening with the lambda symbol next to it and swim through to reach a 
zombie and some items. Move on with the hovercraft, crashing into three 
Combines on the way and speeding over another ramp. Upon your landing you 
drive through some thin wooden poles that hold a platform. See hoe the Source 
Engine nicely crashes the whole construction? Don't you, too, think this is a 
great sight? Perfect: Quickly race on and repeat this crash on the right side 
to surprise two Combine soldiers. The Barnacles under the bridge shouldn't be 
a problem to you.

[A Hero...wow]
Give another Combine an involuntary swim. The water way is blocked by a gate, 
so disembark to search for a switch or something else. Climb up the ladder, 
listen to Dr. Breen (yeah, we're a hero!) and pick up the items in the two 
small rooms before peeking around the corner and shooting the explosive 
barrel on the left and some Combines. See the grenade crate? This means you 
can and should use grenades over the course of the next rooms. Toss some 
through the windows near the manhacks, so only a few of them can get out of 
there and attack you. Open the door and haste behind the wagon to your left, 
as a Combine stands at a machine gun up ahead. Push the wagon forward while 
crouching to eventually get close enough to the enemy to throw grenades at 
him. Restock on grenades; you'll need them in the next room. After opening 
the door, throw in two grenades and repeat. While this might not take care of 
all Combines in there, it eases the situation a lot. Now storm in and finally 
clear the area. Climbing over the blue tanks on your right earns you an SMG 
grenade.

Outside you find the gate opening mechanism. Ok, it's broken, but at least 
you've found it. Don't worry, though. Shoot the barrels behind the fence to 
break open the gate. Then get back to the machine gun and use it to get rid 
for four Combines. Back in the Combine garage you will have to face some more 
Combines, but the infinite amount of grenades ought to make this battle 
rather easy. Just watch out for the newly installed machine gun behind the 
liquid barrier.

Return to the hovercraft and get going. The oncoming passage is crammed with 
Combines, Barnacles and even missile-shooting police cars, but there isn't 
anything good to nab. Ergo: Keep driving at high speed and move a bit to the 
sides to dodge the missiles. After a right bend you will see a barricade 
that's even being lit up. Stick to the right wall to get over a ramp. After 
that stick to the left wall to be somewhat hid from the Combine cars.

[Comeback]
Stop at the lambda symbol, taking the concrete blocks out of the basket. This 
lowers the other basket, which contains some items. Hop into the hovercraft 
again and ride out into the open, where the gate is shut down and you are 
being shot at. Ignore the Combine; drive to the door on the right, pick up 
the Magnum inside and aim it at the door behind the table. Three Combines 
open it, but your new weapon quickly takes 'em out.

Prepare for what is the most difficult area so far: Remember how I said the 
copter would bother you for a long time? Now he really is after you. Go up 
the stairs and keep on running as you shoot a Combine. Also kill the next 
Combine at full speed and then hide in the container from the copter fire. 
Here you should also take care of the manhack. When the copter fire ceases, 
run out of the container and move on. Hit the third Combine and hide inside 
the big container where you can also take the time to pick up some supplies. 
Leave the container on its other end to face two Combines, guarding a supply 
crate. During the whole course of running around in this area you should keep 
an eye on the position of the copter and on when it is about to fire, so you 
can crouch behind any objects to hide.

Now haste into a storage hall past some manhacks. Fire your SMG grenade at 
the two Combines up on the left and equip the crowbar when standing just 
beneath them. Destroy the manhacks, before the other Combines in this hall 
close in on you. Shooting them down probably is the easiest part of this area. 
Then search inside the containers and the rest of the hall for lots of items 
and advance by walking up the stairs and hopping onto the containers. As soon 
as you see that you've triggered three Combines up ahead, drop down and hide 
from them, allowing you to eliminate two other guards entering the hall from 
the big gate you came through. Then aim up and finally clear the area.

Behind the place where the three Combines came from, you have to duck under 
some windows to get past the copter slowly, but safely. Break the crates with 
the crowbar and throw a grenade against the wall in the next room in such a 
way that it bounces off to the right, killing an enemy. If you attack him the 
direct way, two more Combines would rush up the stairs, causing quite some 
trouble in this tight place and with your health probably being a bit low by 
now. But since you (hopefully) used the grenade to get him, his buddies won't 
notice you, allowing for you to slowly move down (after picking up some 
health) and carefully aim for their head from behind. Relax at the health and 
suit energy panels, as your way gets you back into the copter's sight.

Run out and around the right corner to find a grenade in a supply crate. Then 
carefully observe the copter to hide successfully on your way to the upper 
right end of the court where a single Combine awaits you. From here on there 
isn't much to take cover so simply zip over to the guard tower, killing a 
Combine behind the fence and two more up inside the tower. Duck behind the 
windows so the copter can't hit you and in between the bursts you have to get 
up and counterattack with the machine guns around until your flying nemesis 
parts off. Hit the switch to open the gate and return to the hovercraft by 
jumping over the railing.

Speed through the gate only to be facing another copter. This one doesn't 
only have a machine gun, but also proximity mines. Stick on the right wall as 
you haste through this canal. Race up the ramp and move right on it to 
proceed. Directly after that the copter employs his machine gun, so head for 
the passage on the right in which you are safe from that attack.

[A Bumpy Ride]
Take a left, speeding directly to the copter. It drops quite a lot of miens 
now, so you might want to stay right of the enemy. After a while you will see 
a broken ship on the right and a pile of dead trees on your left. Ride over 
the trees to cut the track short. A bit later you see some concrete tunnel 
pieces up ahead. Before heading there, take a left and drive over the supply 
crate. It's worth it. Then go through the tunnel pieces and try your best to 
stay in the centre of the track so you jump onto some more of those pieces, 
leading into a real tunnel.

[Even Bumpier]
Break open the two supply crates ahead and move on up to two dead trees lying 
there as a ramp. Naturally, you have to ride it up, but as you do, try your 
best to fly off to the left at its end. If you manage to land on the left 
ledge you automatically dodge most of the mines and you get to feast on 
another supply crate. Take a right and fully concentrate on going fast and on 
dodging the mines; there's only one supply crate on the way and you pick up 
the goodies inside almost automatically as the passage is narrow and gets 
even narrower due to a mine dropped right next to the crate. Stay left under 
the first bridge to avoid some Barnacles, then go right and stay on the right 
under the second bridge. Keep your balance on the way up to the ramp so you 
fly over to the red storage building.

Ride into it and park on the metal platform to your right. Get out of the 
hovercraft to break open some supply crate and to use the stations on the 
wall, while always listening for the sound the copter makes just before using 
the machine gun. Also activate the valve to lower the platform (you might 
have to park the vehicle a few times before it finally moves down with the 
platform, due to some strange clipping). Hop down and get back into the 
hovercraft. Behind you is a supply crate with some health in it, but you 
should already be at good health, so ignore it. It was probably only placed 
there for if you miss the jump over to the red building. Instead, move on. 
Keeping a good speed and staying left will get you past the collapsing 
factory chimney without having to search for a way to get over it. Then stay 
right to avoid the first few mines. Dodging the other mines and the missiles 
shouldn't be too much of a problem now. Speed into the tunnel in front of you.

[Payback]
Get off the hovercraft, nab some health in a crate on the right and then some 
more in the dark area, guarded by a zombie. Climb up the ladder, hop over to 
the washing machine, which you need to push down into the cage where the 
supply crate lied. This raises a ramp you can ride over. Move on to another 
rebel outpost where you get a copter gun attached to the hovercraft after a 
short conversation.

Move out and test your new gun on some Barnacles and even already on a copter. 
Fortunately your gun makes the copter flee in no time. Then shoot some 
explosive barrels and a watch tower on the right for some health. Continue to 
two open gates right after one another. They close as you are in between, but 
don't worry: Just position yourself at the second gate, turn around and hit 
the explosive barrel to take out three of four Combines. Shoot the other one 
before turning left where three more enemies will rush out of a door. While 
it is possible to get up to where the four enemies came from, it is 
completely unnecessary as there is nothing to pick up. Instead, ride up the 
broken fence and disembark. There are quite some goodies in the room where 
the three Combine came out.

Get back into the hovercraft and speed through the fence ahead right into the 
metaphorical arms of a police van. Don't slow down; ride around the bend as 
quickly as possible and shoot the heat-seeking missiles to take them out. Now 
ride up the ramp to pick up some health and to make the instable tower 
construction collapse. Around the next bend you will face some more Combines, 
but they are no match for your new gun. Hit the explosive barrels and after 
that some Combines in the tunnel. Again, it is possible to get up to the 
ledges, but the scarce items around here aren't worth the risk.

[Close to the real Payback]
Do yourself a favour and ignore the Combine on the far left, even though 
there is a tempting red barrel next to him. Instead, swiftly advance, only 
concentrating on the missiles you should blow up in midair. Shoot the Combine 
transporter in the next passage. Now relax a bit, train your aiming on some 
Barnacles and...wait a second! It's him! Up on the left you can see the G Man 
for a brief moment.

Get off near a Combine and walk around the passage until you see a zombie 
standing up. Equip the pistol, retreat a few feet and kill five headcrabs and, 
of course, the zombie, prior to climbing up the ladder to a sleeping place 
that holds some items.

Get back into the hovercraft and ride up the pile of dirt to reach a ramp. 
After traversing the tunnel, shoot some more Combines and drive to what seems 
to be a dead end. Look up as you, since a Combine and an infinite amount of 
explosive barrels will be triggered. The barrels can actually be pretty much 
ignored as there isn't anything around that could blow them up. After a few 
more Combines and a tunnel you see two red containers ahead. Inside one of 
them you can nab some items.

Then ride into the big open space and keep moving around while shooting two 
police vans. Definitely concentrate on one of them until it blows up, before 
attacking the other one. Also don't bother hitting the missiles: It is nearly 
impossible to hit every missile of both cars and in addition you better 
destroy the vehicles as quickly as possible. Once the area is secure, break 
two crates in the water between the cars and move on to the highly dented 
orange container on the left for another crate. Disembark to get through a 
tight hole in the fence near the other container. Blow up the barrels inside 
the container to allow for the hovercraft to get through. Jump over the ramp.

[Duel at Noon]
A large open area and not a single threat around. Come on, we all know that 
there has to be something big coming and yes: There is. You finally get to 
destroy one of those helicopters. Give it all you've got, only stopping when 
the copter fires back at you. Hide behind some rocks for a few seconds when 
that happens. After a while the enemy starts dropping mines as well, but if 
you look at the path the copter takes while dropping them, you can easily 
tell where it will fly to over the next few seconds, as it drops his 
explosive treats only in a straight line. Then a bit later again, the copter 
totally freaks out, dropping hundreds of mines. Still look at where he flies 
and calculate where he is going to fly to and simply move a few feet away 
from that line. The other mines will fall down far away from that line, so 
you're in nearly no danger.

Afterwards look around for some supply crates, prior to closing in on the 
shut gate. Climb up the ladder to find the valve that opens it. Ride up the 
ramp behind it with your hovercraft to ease the battle against some Combines 
in front of the big building. Go in to find a lightly guarded Combine station, 
crammed with everything you need.

Leave the building and get to its back where you will not only see the G Man 
again, but also a lever which opens the flood gate. Board the hovercraft and 
use the rubble in the water to jump through the gate into the next chapter.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-3.5 Chapter 5 - Black Mesa East-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=CC5

[Arrival]
Leave the hovercraft behind at the dock and search for the entrance to the 
rebel headquarters. Judith Mossman takes you straight to Alyx and Dr. Vance. 
Listen to the dialogues; unfortunately there isn't much around here to keep 
you entertained. At least get a look at the family photo of the Vances before 
Alyx takes you over to the scrapyard where you will get to practice with the 
gravity gun. Taking a right in the tunnel makes her give you some additional 
info on Ravenholm...a place they don't go to anymore...

[D0g]
You are given the gravity gun...or the zero-point energy gun, if you prefer. 
First use it to push some things, then to pick up stuff, then to pull the 
barrels high up towards you and finally to stack some objects, allowing you 
to get up to Alyx. The easiest way to do this is to put the small box on the 
right onto the bigger box.

Follow Alyx to meet D0g, her robotic pet. Keep the secondary fire button 
pressed as you play fetch with him, so you don't risk getting hit by the 
crates or later by his ball. When you have had enough of plying around, go to 
Alyx to trigger an assault by the Combine.

Alyx takes you back into the tunnel system where you get separated, being 
told to go to Ravenholm (I thought we don't go to Ravenholm? So why is D0g 
supposed to follow Alyx and you aren't? Can't D0g just clear the path from 
the rubble? Oh well.). Push some obstacles out of the way and break the lock 
on the ladder using the gravity gun to reach Ravenholm.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=3.6 Chapter 6 - "We don't go to Ravenholm..."=-=-=-=-=-=-=CC6

[Physics can be fun]
Welcome to Ravenholm, a forsaken place infested by headcrabs and their 
buddies. Go straight to the hung lower body part to find a lone zombie. After 
killing him with the crowbar, it's time to enjoy the gravity gun. Enter the 
hut to your left, containing lots of gas tanks and metal blades. Use mostly 
the latter ones to fire your way through some zombies until you hear a human 
voice. You will meet this guy later on, but for now he's rather unimportant.

Approach the spinning thing ahead. This triggers two zombies to walk right 
into it, being torn apart by it. If the trap makes you feel uncomfortable 
(e.g. in case you might consider retreating after a fight) you can crawl to 
it and turn it off. Otherwise carry a metal blade with you, crawl past the 
trap and activate another trap in the next room, while crouching. There's 
only one headcrab directly in this room, but in the left corner is an opening 
with some more zombies. Just lure them into the trap and you should be doing 
fine. The table holds a new metal blade and some health. As you move on you 
will face a few more headcrabs and zombies which should taste your metal 
blade as well or maybe an explosive barrel, but the spin trap in the next 
room is quite useless as activating it would require you to run right into an 
enemy-infested area.

Toss anything at the zombie sitting outside to clear the way to see Grigori 
for the first time. Approach the fire to trigger him appearing as well as 
some zombies of which your new ally takes care of. Kill a lone zombie to the 
left of the bonfire and turn the valve that controls the gas, thus 
extinguishing the fire. To proceed you have to enter the building in which 
Grigori was, but first of all you better enter another hut nearby, guarded by 
two zombies. Inside you will find some gas tanks, metal blades and health 
paks. Turn on the gas and press the red switch for some fun. Grab one of 
those gas tanks, extinguish another fire via a gas valve and use your 
explosive treat on some zombies around the corner.

As the fence is electrically loaded, you cannot move on here, yet, so return 
to the first fire and enter the building. Shooting the explosive barrel on 
the upper level should take care of most enemies here and the crowbar does 
the rest. Climb up onto the left energy generator to reach a vent shaft 
leading to some goodies. Get back in and walk up the stairs. Ignore the first 
explosive barrel, but blow up the second one and deal with any survivors at 
the end of the staircase. Traverse a few more rooms to finally find the lever 
that turns off the electricity at the fence. Watch out for two new enemies, 
though: Poisonous headcrabs. If you are confident about your aiming skills 
you can use the gravity gun on them, otherwise employ the pistol.

As you leave the building you have to face three more of those. Then climb up 
the ladder over the fence and eventually get up onto the roofs where you get 
even closer to Grigori than before. Drop down onto the planks and into the 
room at their end. The gas tanks here actually aren't a big help, as tossing 
them around with the gravity gun is too dangerous and lighting them up after 
dropping them down probably misses all enemies. Just use the gravity gun 
against the headcrabs while standing in the upper room and the crowbar 
against the zombie after dropping down. Leave the building. Yay, a new trap: 
Your priest friend has attached some cars (!) to block and pulleys. Attract 
the enemies to go under the cars and activate the switches to smash them. 
Some will probably get past the cars, requiring you to either use the crowbar 
or the pistol.

Once the area is clear, make the first car go down, jump onto it and go over 
the planks to get into a good position for a jump over to the yellow lambda 
symbol. To get back out of this hidden place you have to climb over the 
girder at the right wall. Use the second car to enter another building and to 
reach the next loading sequence.

[A Heavily Infested Court]
Behind the door you'll both find some very tempting barrels and a poisonous 
headcrab. Still, don't blow up the barrels, but use the gravity gun against 
this foe. Waiting for the explosion takes too long here. Enter the next room, 
shoot a zombie and watch Father Grigory take out lots of zombies outside. 
Briefly climb out of the window to lure some of them into the priest's line 
of fire. Then use the gravity gun against two fast headcrabs on the ledge 
opposite of the windows. Look down: Lost of enemies around, right? Well, 
simply blow up one of the barrels on the right and use the gravity gun on the 
barrel to the far left to (hopefully) clear the area without getting near any 
enemy. Then carefully drop down (killing the survivors, in case there are any) 
and blow up the barrel behind a screen to access the hideout of some poor guy 
who has been overrun by a couple of poisonous headcrabs.

Climb up the ladder at the other end of the passage and walk over the girder 
not to the first window, but to the one on the left. Deal with a single 
headcrab that is guarding some items. Kill a zombie at the other window 
(using the pistol, as the crowbar is too dangerous up here) and get into the 
building. Prepare for some fun: There are lots of objects to be grabbed and 
tossed and down the stairs you will face lots of zombies. So use the gravity 
gun on anything you can find to wipe out the enemies.

[New Faces]
Thought Ravenholm wasn't so scary after all? Grab the items around prior to 
leaving the building. Look straight...see something coming your way? That's 
some freakin' fast mutant and his companions will surely panic you a few 
times. Use the SMG on them; the gravity gun takes too long. After celebrating 
your first kill of a super zombie, walk over to the left and hop down to the 
rails, disposing a total of three headcrabs and three zombies, all with the 
gravity gun to save precious ammo.

Enter the centre building with your gravity gun equipped to wipe out two 
zombies on the ground level, a zombie and two headcrabs behind the wooden 
boards on the first storey, two zombies (guarding health paks) behind the 
door on the first storey and then again another one of those easy targets 
crawling about on the ground level. Go to the top storey to crush to 
headcrabs before being given the shotgun by Grigori outside.

Either use it against a troop of super zombies or simply aim for the water 
tank ahead and jump into it. This way the enemies ignore you, leaving Grigori 
to take them out. Climb up to trigger some additional super zombies. If you 
are quick about it, you can grab a hold on some gas tanks in the room nearby 
to deal with them. Otherwise use the shotgun and consider backtracking for 
health paks after the battle. Call the lift in the room with the gas tanks. 
See two super zombies climb up again? Shutting the door seems like a good 
idea, but unfortunately it doesn't help a bit: They just break through the 
ceiling, so you have to fight them anyway (use the shotgun).

Ride down the lift and kill any poisonous headcrabs the fat zombie throws at 
you, with the gravity gun or simply walk over the ramp on the other car 
directly to get out their reach. Dealing with the fat zombie himself is both 
too dangerous and a waste of ammo, so don't do it in any case. Clear the 
small goodie room ahead from a single headcrab, restock and leave the area.

[Big Battle]
This set of alleys holds nearly no items, but an infinite amount of all kinds 
of zombies and headcrabs (except for super zombies). Even the door in front 
of you that can be opened from the other side is totally useless. Hence, only 
go for the important places and try to be as quick about it as possible...oh, 
and the spinning trap also is of no big help, since it breaks apart after a 
few spins. Still, head for the trap and look right. There is a small balcony 
with a lever and you have to pull the latter one. Go to the back of the 
building and up to the lever. Then drop down and turn right where you can 
climb up onto the small building there. Move on over planks and roofs, but 
watch out for a super zombie that has been triggered to come after you.

For the moment, you are quite safe up on the roofs. Some poisonous headcrabs 
eventually leap up, but that's it. Pick up some goodies on the roofs, hop 
over the platform you have moved via the lever and note that you have just 
left safety again. Speed over to a balcony above the entrance to this area 
and climb through the window as most of the balcony collapses. Now you have 
the time to turn around and see why you hastened through there: Infinite 
super zombies! Shoot them from a distance, watch Grigori fire at them or just 
move on; it's up to you, as they somehow cannot get to your position. The 
upcoming passage is pure relieve. Pick up the saw blades via the gravity gun 
and fire off at lots of normal zombies.

[King of the Hill]
Go down the stairs on the left to get back to a goodie room you already 
visited a few minutes ago. You've probably left some items here the last time, 
so the lone zombie guarding it shouldn't hinder you from going there. Next, 
throw a grenade up the ladder as a direct battle with the three headcrabs up 
there is pretty health consuming. Leave through the door, give two super 
zombies a taste of your shotgun shells and hop from roof roof until you can 
safely drop down. Run past the poisonous headcrabs and their big mate and 
walk up the stairs just next to a headcrab missile. As you proceed, a super 
zombie climbs up from behind, so await him with the shotgun.

Shortly after, you will find yourself on a roof. Turn right to see Father 
Grigori, who tells you to defend yourself while he brings over a cart that 
will get you over to him. Grab the ammo around and look straight down the 
street. From time to time super zombies will come along here, climbing up 
either the left or the right red pipe. Watch where they are going and 
position yourself on top of a pipe accordingly to shoot them down in their 
attempt to get up. Luckily you basically can only hit their head in this 
situation and they cannot dodge your attacks, so this should be rather easy 
to you. Another nice aid by the designers is that you can clearly hear those 
beasts climbing up, so even if you have overlooked one of them, you will know 
that it is coming. Since there are infinite zombies coming your way, you 
better jump into the cart as soon as possible (Grigori is definitely taking 
his time, though) and release the hand brake on the roof right next to the 
cart. Stock up on items, listen to the somewhat crazy priest and follow him 
to the next area.

[Tales from the Crypt]
After a short walk past the fence you are attacked by numerous super zombies. 
Keep moving around as you first of all kill any enemies that go after you. 
Grigori can take quite a lot of damage, so only help him out when you are 
safe or if he has to deal with three enemies at once while you are only 
pestered by a single one.

Then over another fence and onto the graveyard. Equip the gravity gun and use 
it against lots of normal zombies. You will find many saw blades and concrete 
blocks and in addition Grigori helps out a lot, so you really don't need to 
waste any ammo. Your main task should be to look out if any enemies come from 
behind. Once your back is clear you can have a look if it is necessary to 
help Grigori. Watch out with those explosive barrels and you probably won't 
have any problems here. At the end your ally opens a gate for you to crawl 
through while he stays back to watch over his people...yeah, whatever. If you 
want to, stay there for a while and watch Grigori kill lots of zombies or 
just move on.

[The Mines]
Look down the shaft. There are wooden bars at the walls, which can be used to 
carefully drop down. Fall from bar to bar until you come to some health paks. 
Turn left to find some supply crates in a small room. Carefully drop down to 
the ground where an infinite amount of different headcrabs roams around. Thus, 
quickly run over to some stairs near a blocked tunnel, walk up the stairs and 
jump over to the bars on top of the gate. Try to stay up there, so you can 
easily shoot the (non-infinite) headcrabs below with the pistol. Also use the 
explosive barrel to your advantage. If you happen to fall down behind the 
gate, equip the gravity gun, clear the area and ignore the barrel; it's too 
dangerous.

Across the gap you can see some health and ammo. In order to get them you 
have to quickly step over the bar on the right, as it breaks apart when you 
do. Down in the water you better not turn on the flash light. There's near to 
nothing to see and you need quite some air to get through. Surface near the 
Branacle tentacle, jump over the wooden gate and dive on to a long tunnel, 
leading to the surface. Turn on the mine cart which will constantly ride up 
and down, being a threat both to you and any enemy. Walk up to bait a few 
zombies following you out of a niche on the left. Go back to watch them being 
overrun by the cart, then go into the niche yourself. This triggers some more 
zombies up ahead, as well as some more as you go into the second niche. At 
the end of the cart path you will face your last zombies before running up 
into the sunlight.

[Daylight]
Wonder what Valve had in mind for you once you reach the daylight for the 
first time after leaving Ravenholm? It's, it's, IT'S...a railroad 
track...oh....wow.

Besides the health on your left and some supply crates you can also grab some 
good ammo by climbing over the crates to your right, disposing a poisonous 
headcrab and crawling in at the yellow lambda symbol. As you move on, a super 
zombie starts its long way towards you. Without the darkness and with so much 
time for preparations they kinda've lost their scary impact. Blast him with 
the shotgun. A few moments later you will see three zombies being taken out 
by a Combine sniper up in the bridge-like construction. Wait until he's done 
with them and then toss a grenade into the sniper's window. Don't worry: He 
cannot hit you unless you go out too far.

Another sniper, but this time you are right in his area of view. Hide behind 
the train, wait for him to shoot, then run over to the crates on the right, 
again wait for him to shoot, advance a few feet and after that hide behind 
the next wagon (the one with the wood on it). Do yourself a favour and don't 
try to be too smart, by picking up some junk with the gravity gun, using it 
as a shield; a single sniper hit will break through the object right into 
your body. Crawl along under it on the left and kill a headcrab with the 
gravity gun. The rest is fairly simple. Move around the red wagon on its left 
side and throw a grenade up into the window. Inside the wagon you can find 
some ammo.

Pass the dark area to witness a small battle between two Combines and some 
aliens. Don't just watch it, though, but manipulate it to your advantage: 
Blast the soldiers with the shotgun while they are distracted. The remaining 
zombie and headcrab are a pushover for your shotgun. Grab the pulse-rifle in 
the container. Out in the open you trigger two Combines to enter the yard on 
the left and another one to come along the rails up ahead. Light up the 
explosive barrels on the left and retreat back into the tunnel, so only the 
lone Combine in front of you can possibly hit you. Use the pulse-rifle 
against him and eventually against the two others if they survive the barrel 
explosion. Go around the train wreck and onto the yard to trigger two more 
Combine coming out of the building ahead. Pick up a barrel with the gravity 
gun and toss it at them. Then enter the building where you witness another 
battle; this time between four Combines and a few rebels. Assist them (you 
know who I mean). The rest is only conversation and restocking.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=3.7 Chapter 7 - Highway 17=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-CC7

[Antlions]
Enter the buggy (See the ammo crate at its back? There's unlimited SMG ammo 
in it.) which will be set down by the crane automatically. Also note that the 
buggy can be put back up if it gets knocked down, by using the gravity gun. 
As you might have already heard, it's mating season for the antlions. You 
don't risk being humped like when meeting Lamarr, but these big insects crawl 
out of the sand, afterwards trying to assault you via jump attacks. 
Unfortunately there's an infinite amount of those creatures in the ground, so 
you should hurry and get away from the beach. Since there is absolutely 
nothing to find anywhere near the beach, just follow the shore on the right 
until you get to a cliff near a pier. Once you have driven up there you are 
completely safe from the antlions. Take your time to jump over the gap up 
ahead (use the turbo by pressing Ctrl as the standard key config). Search for 
items in the hut and drive through the tunnel.

[Gunship #1]
Head back to the beach past the cliff ramp on the right and quickly move on 
to the machinery on the far left. It may resemble an oil pump, but it 
actually serves as an antlion blocker. Those pesky creatures cannot come near 
it...when it is turned on, that is. You can shut it down, but why would you? 
Ok, except for some antlion annoyance: Turn it off, watch the enemies close 
in and turn it back on again. ^^

Go over to the house and to the cellar entrance on the right. Swiftly clear 
the opening with the gravity gun as this spot is out of reach of the antlion 
blocker. Hop down to be safe from the insects again. Kill a poisonous 
headcrab (gravity gun) on the upper level, before getting up yourself. Go 
over to the chimney (there's an SMG grenade in there) which triggers a fat 
zombie. Simply drop down and make use of the grenade crate. Time to leave the 
house through the main entrance.

Drive through the thin wooden fence and haste along the beach to the next 
antlion blocker. Get off the buggy, pick up everything in the barn (there is 
an SMG grenade on the truck) and walk up the stairs to the main house. Inside 
you have to prove yourself against two Combine (shotgun) and another one that 
is triggered outside the house in the meantime. Activate the zoom station (or 
send me a better term for it ^^) to realize the Combine are already watching 
a rebel outpost you are heading for. Speed on in your buggy, only stopping 
for a Combine squad at an antlion blocker. The buggy cannon shreds the patrol 
apart in no time. Simply "reel in" the two supply crates with the gravity gun 
instead of jumping down.

After reaching the repel outpost, get off the buggy, search for items in the 
various buildings and only then enter the basement of the big house (one of 
your allies will show you to it after a while if you can't find it for any 
reason). You are handed out the bazooka, given the perfect chance to practice 
with it as a gunship appears outside. You have already seen some of these in 
Water Hazard, but now they are armed...highly armed. Go up the stairs to the 
balcony and fire off a missile. Not directly at the gunship, though. Then 
wait for it to get behind the gunship and steer it in on your adversary. This 
way you will probably get hurt quite a bit, but since you'll find loads of 
medi kits around, it is more important to strike as hard as you can. Gunships 
can blow up your missiles in midair if they hit them; that's why you need to 
play with them. When you run out of missiles first look in the basement, then 
in the small hut near the basement entrance, then inside the garage and if 
you still haven't won the battle you should look inside the second to largest 
house. One of your allies eventually gives medi kits to you and another one 
gives new missiles to you.

Once you're done, restock and talk to the colonel in the basement to get the 
gate opened. Board the buggy, approach the gate and get off the vehicle again 
to let your suit be powered up by a vortigaunt. Then ride on.

[Magnet Power]
Try to break open the first supply crate ahead (at the crash site) from a 
distance with the secondary fire of your buggy cannon. If you really need it 
you might also get off for the second one and open with the gravity gun, but 
this is pretty risky. Ride on on the right strip of sand until you see a 
Combine buggy being crashed on the left. Shoot the two Combines trying to 
escape from a distance as well as the other one on the pier on the right. 
Then position the buggy near the crane and disembark. Activate the antlion 
blocker. Walk up, equip the shotgun and go around the container to face a 
Combine. Another one has spawned near the antlion blocker. Open the supply 
crates before climbing up the ladder to kill two more Combines. Use the 
pulse-rifle on the remaining enemy on the crane.

Find another supply crate inside a container prior to entering the crane 
platform. Lower the ladder on the right to create a quick path you can take 
if you have to reposition the buggy. Why reposition it? Well, you have to use 
the crane's magnet to carry the buggy up to the warehouse nearby. As you turn 
the magnet over to the building, three Combines open the gate and rush 
outside, desperately trying to hit you. Relax and take your time thinking of 
fun ways to dispose of them. Drop the buggy, grab a container, swing the 
magnet, etc.. Then hit the bridge with the crane to lower it and go over it 
towards your buggy. Hit the explosive barrels behind the gate to rid the hall 
of three enemies and activate the switch at its end. See the map? Seems like 
the Combine know about all the rebel outposts.

Drive through the newly opened gate and decide whether you want to act like 
some movie hero or like your typical Ego-Shooter hero: Either drive past the 
four Combines, into the next hall and up the ramp through the window, or halt 
nearby and clear the area before driving up the ramp. Either way you should 
stop after the jump to break open a supply crate. Continue on the street 
along the cliffs.Boost over the gap and ignore the gunship for the moment; 
the buggy gun is totally useless against it. Stop near some car wrecks 
blocking the path and give the insectoid copter a taste of your rockets. Medi 
kits and rockets are scattered around, the latter one even in a bottomless 
crate. After your victory, toss the obstacles down the cliff or at least 
somehow out of the way, employing the gravity gun and drive on. Stop at the 
blue van for some supplies.

[Mines]
Oh, how nice. Isn't that D0g's ball? Kinda! These things really are 
intelligent mines that will electrify Gordon or explode in water or near an 
explosion. Hence disembark, equip the gravity gun and play fetch with the 
ocean. Near two car wrecks you will have to destroy two more of them and 
after a little while, guess what, three of them.

Approach the shack in your buggy. Its cannon will definitely be of great help 
against the three Combines. Get off, open the back door of the house and 
climb into the buggy again as you have just triggered three more of your 
nemesis. Search the whole estate for goodies, but watch out for two Combines 
being triggered as you close in on the supply crates in the loft.

Drive on, disposing off three Combines almost already by simply shooting a 
truck that's loaded with explosive barrels. Then disembark near a pile of 
wrecks that block the path and pick up the crossbow on the small hill. Use it 
to take out at least one of the enemies in the provisional Combine outpost up 
ahead. Clear the street, drive near the force field and pick up a barrel with 
the gravity gun. Go straight and just around the corner to see lots of 
Combine near a police car. Toss the barrel over and repeat with another one 
before retreating to your buggy. Stay on the bridge and wait for your 
opponents to show up so you can snipe them away one by one with the crossbow. 
Use the pulse-rifle in case you run out of ammo. Afterwards easily deal with 
two mines, search for items and then push the police van away as it powers 
the force field.

[Leaving the Buggy]
Roll over the stupid Combine that comes running out of the small house. Then 
approach the small settlement, disembark and clear the first house on the 
right. Luckily, this won't trigger any other enemies to head for you. 
Afterwards run to the left-most house and kill the lone enemy while you keep 
running. A few enemies will appear behind you in the meantime, so the house 
provides some cover for you. Once you have killed everyone, enter the big 
house, place a table or anything else under the broken stairs and get up. 
Besides some items you will also find a fat zombie here, but he shouldn't 
cause any problems; run past him. Outside is a path leading down and to the 
underside of the bridge. Ignore the headcrab and the fat zombie.

[The Bridge]
Walk straight to some stairs. Either go up for some health and suit energy or 
just directly get outside. Drop down onto the girder platform and proceed on 
the bars, only watching out a bit for the Barnacle. Give the headcrab inside 
the shack a taste of physics, pick up some stuff and again proceed on the 
metal bars up to a platform with a ladder both leading down to some medi kits 
and up to another shack. Step out, snipe at two Combine on your right, climb 
up the ladder in front of you and drop down on the bars at the end of the 
walkway. Advance to the next shack, kill two headcrabs with the gravity gun 
(I wonder why they didn't attack the Combine) and take the right walkway to 
reach the end of the bridge. Look for a supply crate before entering the 
bridge's interior.

Move on until you see an explosive barrel standing on a platform to your left. 
Wait in the entrance and blow up the barrel to get two Combine caught under 
some metal bars. Step onto them and shoot another enemy with the shotgun. 
Return to the entrance, look up and defeat quite a lot of Combine with the 
pulse-rifle. Killing them a bit later face to face is too dangerous and 
tossing grenades at them rarely succeeds as they dodge them. Then open the 
supply crate nearby, traverse the room, go outside and take out a lone guard 
high up on a sentry turret with the crossbow. Climb up and look for two more 
supply crates and eventually any Combine survivors. Walk up the stairs in 
another room and throw a grenade through the force field to hopefully kill 
two Combine. If they survive, stay back and welcome them with the shotgun 
once they leave the room. The grenade has already lowered the force field (if 
you haven't got any grenades, simply use the gravity gun on the 
plug...talking about high tech), so restock at the wall panels and activate 
the switch which deactivates a force field near your buggy.

Get back down, killing two Combine as you quickly run back to the entrance of 
the bridge's interior. Why quickly? There's a gunship on your track. Haste 
over to the first shack via the walkway, hide there for a moment and the 
REALLY haste over the bars and broken platforms over to the platform with the 
ladder that leads up to another small hut. Don't think too much on your way 
there, just look down at the platforms and mainly aim for the broken 
platforms lying on the bars. The path is relatively straight forward, so you 
can do it. Oh and watch out for the Barnacle. Enter the hut and walk outside 
to begin the battle with the gunship. Luckily your opponent will circle your 
platform mostly staying close to you, so he rarely gets a chance to blow up 
your missiles in midair. Afterwards, climb down the ladder to where you 
hopefully still have some medi kits left. Then back onto the medium storey 
and up the other ladder. Follow the walkway to its end, switch over to the 
metal bars and advance to the next shack. Now only along the left walkway and 
after a quick drop nearly straight ahead you are back to the exit of the 
bridge.

[Back to the Buggy]
Watch the scene a bit until you feel like the path is somewhat clear. Equip 
the gravity gun, ignore the fat zombie if he still lives and push any other 
enemies out of the way as you run by. Equip the pulse-rifle once you are back 
up at the houses and take cover in one of them as four Combine await you. 
Board the buggy (admit: You've missed it...right?) and ride up the steep path 
near the rocks onto...another railway. Valve really loves those, eh? Speed 
past the train and as you hear another tarin approaching from ahead, either 
boost through or switch to reverse and wait for the train to pass by. Then 
drive up the broken bridge into a tunnel to reach the next chapter.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=3.8 Chapter 8 - Sandtraps=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=CC8

[Battery Search]
Crash through the first zombie, shoot another one while he still lays on the 
ground and disembark. Don't worry; it's not for too long. Open a supply crate 
on the right (you probably need it at the moment). Crawl through a vent and 
kill two headcrabs with the gravity gun for a lot more good stuff. Cute how 
the zombie bangs at the window, isn't it? Leave the room and kill him as well 
as another one behind the fence. This triggers three super zombies to rush in 
on you. Retreat to the buggy. Its gun will shred any enemy apart in no time, 
so also use it against some normal zombies eventually showing up. Then clear 
the path via gravity gun and ride out of the tunnel.

Surprise two Combine in front of the house by hitting them hard with your 
buggy gun. Get off, break open the supply crate and enter the building at its 
back. As you search for goodies, equip the gravity gun, because on the 
highest storey two mines will fall down a hole in the ceiling. Grab one of 
them, toss it into another corner of the room and then pick up the other one, 
throw it against a window and through it. Now also grab the first one again 
and throw it out as well. As you walk back to the buggy three more mines come 
crashing down; simply repeat the procedure.

Drive on to a Combine outpost. Eliminate the guard on the tower with the 
buggy gun, disembark and toss two mines away down the beach. Don't take the 
path the Combine had in mind for you; instead walk around the barricade on 
the left, enter the house, grab the radiator with the gravity gun and use it 
to kill two Combine which expected you to come along the street. Leave the 
house where you entered it and look up at the barricade to see another 
Combine. Still carry the radiator with you, walk over to the entrance of the 
outpost and wait for an enemy to leave the base and run right into your arms. 
Again, grab the radiator and walk over to the shack where the last enemy 
awaits you. Use the health panel if you need it and then drive on. Try to 
avoid those yellow-black striped ground panels which are likely to stop you, 
requiring you to disembark and push the car out of the trap.

Drive on until you see a crashed truck in your way. Ride up the little hill 
to the right of it at full speed (no turbo boost) to get past it. Disembark. 
Two gunships will come by, but luckily they won't attack you directly (or at 
least not that hard as they usually do), but drop down five Combine behind 
the gate up ahead and two mines before the gate. Throw the latter one into 
the water and climb back into the buggy before the real enemies close in on 
you. Have the buggy stand just behind the truck to have the whole street in 
sight. The Combine come in from the left (only one) and just above the cliffs 
on the right (four of them). The buggy gun should easily deal with this 
situation. Now look around for items (there are lots of them) as well as for 
two batteries you need to insert into the gate console inside the house. One 
of the batteries lies on top of the mill (throw something up there or shoot 
the objects on the mill) and the other is on the bed in the house. Proceed 
into the tunnel.

[The Light House]
Ah, finally: The light house. Proceed to the rebel outpost and park the buggy 
in the garage to your left as you are told to. Head for the stone wall behind 
the garage, hide there and equip the pulse-rifle. You are about to fight the 
fiercest battle in this game so far. Stand on the left side of the low wall 
section and look over it to see when the first dropship has landed. Once it 
has, run around the wall and position yourself left of the dropship. Four 
Combine are about to debark and since they always hop out onto the very same 
spot you can quite easily nail them with a short pulse-rifle blast. A nice 
shoot-hit-ratio is when you have to reload after every two Combine. When the 
transporter leaves again, turn around to see another one. Carefully move 
along the wall and once the enemy vessel has landed, position yourself to its 
right where you can kill four more Combine with ease. Then run straight to 
the play ground and up to the rock near the house. Duck here to avoid the 
dropships fire. Equip the crossbow and try to hit as many of the Combine with 
it as you can, before switching to the pulse-rifle. Next, head for the light 
house and run around it on the left side. Two Combine will head for you, 
while the other two stay at the front side of the light house. Quickly kill 
the latter ones as a gunship has appeared. Enter the light house and pick up 
some health and rockets. Head for the top to fight the gunship. There's a 
rocket crate a storey below and throughout the whole building you will find 
medi kits, but still this battle is hard. It takes a while to take cover, you 
usually need some time to find out where the gunship actually is whereas it 
already opens fire and it stays far away for most of the time. Luckily 
there's a rebel inside the tower who provides you with medi kits from time to 
time, so just relax for a few minutes at the basement if you have already 
nabbed all the items here.

Phew, finally the battle is over. Head for the settlement to loot it from 
anything you need. The rebel in the light house opens up a secret path down 
in the basement when you follow him. Take the path, break open the supply 
carte and afterwards just ignore the newly landed Combine and the headcrab. 
Run past them into the next area.

[Sand...lots of Sand]
Don't even bother trying to save the two poor rebels from the antlions. Once 
they are dead, kill the antlions with the gravity gun and pull any good 
objects to you with it. He said not to get onto the sand and you better 
listen to him, because if you don't antlions will appear...every time you do. 
Jump from rock to rock (place pallets between them via gravity gun if you 
feel unsure), pulling in two supply crates from the left. Then hop over the 
trash onto another rock and pull in the trash afterwards to build a path over 
to the next rock. Continue your jumping until you reach a big valley.

Take the obvious path, which means to hop up to the big rock, go along, hop 
down to the wooden bars and walk over them to a small puzzle: Jump onto the 
seesaw, grab the crate at its end and place it at the other end. Then quickly 
run to where the crate used to lie and jump onto the rocks. On the right you 
can see a small house. Go there, picking up some good stuff and finding two 
supply crates at the end of the pier. Duck on the pier and aim at the broken 
boat to pull in two more crates, but make sure to duck and to aim well all 
the time or else they disappear under the pier. Far behind the boat are more 
crates, but the hassle to get them isn't worth it: You would have to place 
crates and such in front of you, jump over them, pick them up again, place 
them in front of you and so on. Instead either create a short path over the 
sand back to the rock or simply jump there. If you're lucky you won't even 
trigger an antlion here when briefly landing on the sand.

Now you have to get over to the hut behind the trench. Place the plank so 
that it is half over the trench and half on the rock you are standing on. Put 
any objects you can find on the rock side of the plank to stabilize it when 
you run over it. Pick up all the stuff in the hut and if you want to you can 
also place the barrels on the rocks behind the hut to get up to another shack. 
I don't really recommend this, though, as there is nothing to be found except 
for a supply crate and it is pretty hard to get up there. Head right for the 
rock under another hut and place the pallet in the sand in front of you. Then 
grab the door, drop down onto the pallet and place the door in front of you. 
Walk onto it, grab the pallet and place it in front of you. Grab the do- oh, 
you've already got the idea? Great.

Place the door on the sand between the rock and the wooden ramp to get up to 
some goodies. Then walk to the back of the house on the lower rock. Turning 
on the generator activates the antlion blocker. Ignore the crates on the rock 
and on the beach to your right. Simply run to the antlion blocker and past it 
up the rocks near some junk. Also ignore these crates here unless you are 
desperately in need of health. Drop down to start the battle with some sort 
of antlion queen. Run straight to the other end of the pit and circle around 
a rock to protect yourself from the ram attacks of the queen. Use the shotgun 
mainly on the normal antlions when they come too close and in between the 
antlion attacks, also damage the queen. After a while a rebel will assist you 
by manning a machine gun. Stay in the area you are at the moment so your 
buddy can continuously deal damage to the antlions and the queen. At the 
beginning of the pit you can find some supply crates, but the path to them is 
too long and furthermore they are out of sight of your ally. Wait for the big 
bug to be defeated before opening the crates.

A vortigaunt comes out of the rebel hideout, telling you to pick up the 
pheropods inside the queen. Do so and follow him into the outpost where 
nothing special awaits you, except for some crates and a nice dialogue 
between two vortigaunts. At the end of the base you will get a training unit 
in the use of pheropods. From now on no antlion will ever attack you and 
furthermore you can even control them. Toss one of those bug baits into the 
pit, then one at the Combine suit and then use the alternative fire mode to 
make the bugs follow you. Afterwards approach the provisional gate and wait 
for it to be opened.

[Pheromones]
Deactivate the first two antlion blockers (climb up the ladder to do so) and 
approach a rock on the beach. As you do, some Combine will rush out of a 
bunker. Throw a pheropod at them before hiding and waiting. Then loot the 
bunker and move on to another one which you clear the same way. Enter the 
bunker, deactivate the alarm and use the machine gun against four Combine 
closing in from the beach. Some supply crates are behind the bunker. Turn off 
the third antlion blocker. Note that you have four antlions at your heels. 
Even if one of them dies, others will spawn so you always have four of them. 
This makes them a great and cheap weapon you should always use unless you 
want them to distract some other threat.

Throw pheropod in the direction of the next bunker. Once your bug friends 
have run past you, head for the first rock on the beach ahead. Throw a 
pheropod at the Combine in front of you while you stay hid behind the rock. 
Then again bait the antlions towards the bunker and run along the beach up to 
a big heap of rocks. Run up the grassy area onto the hill and past any 
Combine. Try to kill them (with the pulse-rifle) but don't stop. Eventually 
the pheropod's smell wears off so the antlions automatically come by to help 
you out. Throw a bug bait at the bunker. Unfortunately your bugs won't reach 
it as the machine guns inside will tear them apart, so go back to the 
beginning of the grassy area. The enemies inside the bunker will concentrate 
their fire on you, but they won't hit you, giving the antlions enough time to 
clear the area. Nab all the goodies inside.

Now enter the big bunker in the rocks, sending in your new friends first. 
They will both powerfully and intelligently wipe out any manhacks and Combine 
they encounter here. At the far left corner is a room hidden behind a barrel 
in which you will find lots of items. Leave the building and clear out 
another small bunker with the pheropods. Either wait for the bugs to clear 
the second one far up ahead or enter the first one and use its machine gun.

Walk out to the big open field and throw a pheropod in the direction of the 
(so far) unmanned bunker. Infinite Combine rush in from the far right, trying 
to reach the bunker. Your bugs should take care of them while you head for 
the bunker. As soon as you enter it, the Combine stop spawning. Go along the 
cliffs, jump over the pole and shoot down two zombies with the pistol. Push 
the two wooden bars aside so the plank can be used as a ramp.

Throw up a pheropod against two Combine, climb up the ladder, hop over to the 
supply crates, look closely for two more (guarded by a headcrab) and again 
use the power of the pheromones against some Combine high up. Climb up the 
rocks to enter the sewers.

[Sewers]
As you leave the canal, toss up a pheropod to the left. This will distract 
the guard towers while you can safely climb up the ladder. Snipe at the two 
Combine on the leftmost tower; then send in the bugs on the centre one. 
Finally hit one of the guards on the third tower with the crossbow and let 
the insects do the rest to clear the yard. Move on and throw a bugbait over 
the fence to get rid of some more Combine.

For a few minutes the antlions will sadly lose their power as you will face 
two gunships. Attack the first one as hard as you can and nab the missile 
under the low roof on the left and another one on top of a supply crate at 
the left wall. Then rush into the corner room, killing two Combine with the 
pulse-rifle (the antlions would be too slow here) and refilling your health 
and suit energy. Throw a pheropod at the guard hut up ahead and run around 
the left corner into a container. Assist your bugs by firing at the Combine 
above you.

Step out of the container, turn around 180 degree and throw a pheropod up 
ahead. Then walk up the stairs, grab the two missiles and retreat back to the 
container. I hope you've been aiming well so far, because if you did you can 
destroy the first gunship now, which makes the whole situation a lot easier. 
Run up the stairs again and open the missile crate. Against a single gunship 
you can run around the area where the crate lies and hit the enemy as hard as 
possible while constantly strafing around. Search for items after this really 
fierce battle (don't overlook the medi kit inside the container near the 
missile crate).

Nearby is a newly blown opening in the wall. Step in and shut down two gas 
valves. It's time to leave your new insect friends.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=3.9 Chapter 9 - Nova Prospekt=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=CC9

[Help the Bugs]
Down the stairs, into the hole and past a headcrab (gravity gun) is all it 
needs to see your antlions again. Admit it: You've missed them, right? Show 
your love by tossing the sentry gun away as well as two more up the stairs. 
Recover in a prison guard room where you also should switch the cameras to 
see what to expect later on: Another antlion queen! Go up another set of 
stairs, push two cannons aside and swim through the next room. Feed some 
objects lying on the ground to the Barnacles to zip by.

Climb up the rubble. See and hear the glass breaking above you? As you open 
the next door four super headcrabs fall down the ceiling. Stay in the hallway 
and use the gravity gun while constantly moving around. Leave the hallway and 
drop down one level and enter the hall. Try your best to hit the two sentry 
guns above you with the barrels and radiators strewn around. If you can't do 
it, go up the stairs, hide behind the columns and try again with new objects. 
If you still keep missing you have to run up all the way (guarding yourself 
by carrying a barrel) and use the gravity gun directly or try to push them 
aside with a normal gun. Go through the hallway on the highest level.

[Force Fields]
Kill a headcrab to clear the path to the queen. Drop down and quickly crawl 
through the holes in front of you to get to the lavatories where you can 
circle around while fighting the big bug. Use the gravity gun on anything you 
can find (except for the explosive barrels which should only be shot at from 
a distance) to deal lots of damage, especially with the radiators. Once 
you're done with it, your smaller antlion buddies are at your side again.

Open the door and send your bugs along the hallway to rid it of some Combine. 
Against the two sentry guns, though, you have to act yourself. While they 
concentrate on the bugs you can run along on the left side and crash the guns. 
Quickly turn around and send your allies down the hallway on the right to 
fight some additional Combine and manhacks. After the dust has settled, 
approach the force field at the end of the passage. There are two Combine 
hiding behind it, but they are dumb enough to come out eventually, being easy 
enemies for your antlions. Now pull the trigger with the gravity gun and 
activate the switch inside.

Leave the room. Around the corner is a newly opened gate. Look under the 
stairs for a supply crate before moving up. Toss a pheropod at the entrance 
ahead to both clear the trip bomb and to dispose of the Combine around the 
corner. Activate the next switch to open yet another gate and search for 
items on the upper level. Drop down and send your bugs through the gate to 
take out a sentry gun. Afterwards haste through, pull away the vent girder 
and crawl through. Hold the plank and the concrete block into the fan to 
destroy it eventually. Move on, killing a lone Combine with the pulse-rifle 
and pulling the plug with the gravity gun. Wait a few seconds to give the 
antlions the time to at least kill any remaining Combine here. The sentry gun 
on your left has to be dealt with by you, though.

[Big Hall]
Walk up the stairs and lob a pheropod down the hall which should be enough to 
clear it. Advance further, sending the antlions up front so they attract the 
fire of the machine gun station up ahead. Run behind them and around the 
corner to get out of danger. Pick up the explosive barrel with the gravity 
gun and throw it at the sentry guns down the corridor. If you miss you have 
to enter the room, hide on the right and throw other things at them.

Go up the stairs and let your insectoid buddies do some more work. At the end 
of the passage, briefly go up to see two Combine and retreat into one of the 
cells. Simply let the antlions take care of these Combine as well as of some 
more in front of the machine gun. It may seem tempting to use it against them, 
but don't do it (at least not on hard) as you would be under fire from two 
directions.

Don't go over the small bridge, but turn left and once again send the bugs in 
first to clear the oncoming corridor of a bunch of Combine. Proceed, go over 
the other small bridge and throw a pheropod into the opening on the left to 
eliminate a sentry gun and two guards. Stock up in the guard room, activate 
the switch and watch loads of Combine desperately trying to close in you. You 
don't even have to do anything to make the bugs tear them apart.
Simply enjoy. ^^
Go through the gate nearby.

[Laundry Hall]
Freshen up your health in the room ahead. Phew, luckily the Combine have 
already killed the queen that roamed around here. Toss a bug bait around the 
corner and then again around the next corner. The antlions distract the 
sentry guns, while you can attempt to throw a radiator at them or just run 
into the corridor and hide in the room on its right side. Watch out for the 
trip bomb in the dark when using the gravity gun through the far-most opening.

Next, throw a pheropod into the big hall. It might not seem to be good for 
anything at first, but if you stay patient the bugs will eventually kill an 
all too courageous Combine and after that they should be powerful enough to 
clear the hall. Look at the right side of the hall for a dark passage with a 
toxic zombie. Since there are lots of big objects scattered around, he isn't 
any true danger. Search for some items and return to the hall.

Walk up, throw a pheropod into the short corridor on the right, run past it 
and open a supply crate in a room nearby. Use a pheropod in the kitchen and 
rush in, hiding behind any solid objects afterwards. Toss something against 
the left sentry gun and then run to the other one. Stay away from the gas at 
the hole, since it will easily be lit up. Send the antlions into the corridor 
behind the hole and once the Combine are dead, run in there yourself and head 
for the two right-most sentry guns. These can't hit you here, but afterwards 
the other two can, so hurry when tossing them down. Go back to the open 
entrance to the corridor in which the two guns stood to find a supply crate.

Walk up the first set of stairs. Before walking up the second one, throw a 
pheropod up there. Restock and say good bye to the antlions. Who knows if 
it's forever this time? Well, I know, but I won't tell you. Don't wanna spoil 
anyone. Anyway, drop down through the broken window to find out where the 
gunfire you can hear comes from: The right door is blown open and some 
Combine come through it. Ignore them, though, as they are totally fixed on an 
antlion queen. Wait for the queen to win and then first use the gravity gun 
and afterwards the shotgun to end this battle, which actually is pretty easy 
in comparison to the other queen encounters.

Push aside some junk in a corner, crawl outside, break open two supply crates 
and kill a zombie. You've basically just left Nova Prospekt, but the prison 
still doesn't want to let you part off. Go through the strange-looking 
passage and place any object under the ledge on the right so you can hop into 
the opening before the metal structure outside crushes you. Fortunately 
you're in no hurry as it takes a while. Defeat a single headcrab and drop 
down.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=3.10 Chapter 9a - Entanglement=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-C9A

[She's back]
Drop down and move along until you meet Alyx. Follow her into a lift. Take 
out three Combine with the pulse-rifle after the ride, but also let Alyx do 
some of the work. After she has hacked two consoles you are in for a rather 
hectic battle: Follow Alyx while eliminating various Combine with the pulse-
rifle and be quick about it as Ms. Vance is about to take lots of damage 
otherwise. Once up the stairs, go around the left corner to kill a lone 
Combine in Alyx' back. When the area is secure, enter a dark room for a 
supply crate. Then follow her to an interesting story scene. Seems like you 
didn't really leave Nova Prospekt, but you have just entered its interesting 
parts.

Alyx opens the next door, but retreats to assist you from a distance. Open 
the left door in the dark passage to access two supply crates guarded by two 
super headcrabs. Afterwards enter the guard room. Find a hidden vent by 
pushing the cupboards away. Crawl through, killing three headcrabs on the way. 
At the end, toss the girder outside and hop down to give any surviving 
headcrabs the rest with the gravity gun.

Wait for Alyx to open the left gate. Advance to the guard room and look at 
the monitor. It shows four Combine approaching the other entrance to this 
room. Wait for the correct moment to lob some grenades through the broken 
window towards the gate. Then switch to the pulse-rifle and do the rest. Look 
into the next hallway to see two more Combine. Give 'em a grenade. Now just 
one more grenade to the sentry guns inside the hallway and you're done for 
this battle. Go back to the guard room for a grenade crate.

Return to the sentry gun hallway, enter the left corridor and throw a grenade 
around the corner. Equip the pulse-rifle to kill any Combine that has 
survived there and in the upcoming room. Throw a grenade through the force 
field into the room with the plug to advance. Lay down a sentry gun with the 
gravity gun and two more of them with a wide grenade toss down a corridor.

[Defence]
Dispose of two Combine with the pulse-rifle. After that you have to act 
relatively quickly. Open the right cupboard (there's a button right at it) 
and pick up one of those sentry guns, Alyx has just recalibrated. Place it 
down one of the sets of stairs. Put the other one at the end of the other 
stairs. Behind the force field Combine soldiers are about to rush in for a 
few minutes, as well as three manhacks near the end. Stay on the upper level, 
assist either sentry gun a bit with the pulse-rifle and when one side is 
clear for the moment, run over to the other side. If you hear a sentry gun 
siren and a heavy shooting where the gun stood, it has been thrown down. 
Quickly go to it and put it back up by simply pressing E, walking a few steps 
forward and backward and dropping it again. Then go back up and assist the 
other gun. In between you can also use the health panel at the wall. Once the 
manhacks appear, concentrate on them and crash them at any wall via the 
gravity gun.

Alyx appears once again, revealing a shocking bit of story. Carry one of the 
sentry guns and take a left behind where the force field was. Clear the path 
from all the junk, go down the stairs and place the gun right in the doorway 
to easily kill three headcrabs. Break open a supply crate pick up the sentry 
gun again and proceed to a flooded and electrified room. Shoot the gun over 
to the platform up ahead (with the gravity gun) and follow it over the pipes. 
Kill two headcrabs, shoot the cannon over to the exit out of this room (at 
the fence) and pull in two crates to build a small bridge over to the exit. 
Jump onto the first one, drop the second one in front of it, pick up the 
first one, drop it ahead of you and so on until you are back on solid ground. 
Turn left to see some ammo you can reel in with the gravity gun.

Move on with the sentry gun. First enter the left room to recover; then walk 
up to the Combine, which triggers some zombies to stand up and attack you. 
Simply retreat to the flooded room and place the sentry gun. Up the stairs 
(at the very top is a supply crate), past the crates and the cupboard which 
block an entrance and up some more stairs (while still carrying the sentry 
gun along) to face two Combine. Place the cannon at the opening on the left 
or if you don't carry it along: Use the pulse-rifle. Pick up some ammo in the 
guard room and jump down.

I consider this to be one of the most difficult situations in the whole game 
if not even the most difficult one: You have to defend yourself against 
hordes of Combine and manhacks, spawning just about everywhere. Enter a small 
room with three sentry guns behind a force field. Place two of them at the 
left entrance of this room and the other one at the other entrance. If you 
have kept another one all the way as I told you, use it to reinforce the 
single cannon. Have the pulse-rifle in your hands and watch out for anything 
around you. If a cannon is pushed aside, put it back up. If a Combine 
attempts to attack a cannon in close-quarter, kill him. If a Combine appears 
in front of the cannons, trying to shoot at you, hide in the cupboard. When a 
manhack appears, switch to the gravity gun and destroy it. The main threat 
are the grenades. Whenever one rolls into your little fort, you better run 
out and head back after the explosion, putting the sentry guns back in place. 
Switching to the gravity gun to toss them away is too risky in my opinion. In 
between the attacks you should refill at the two wall panels.

===Alternative Way===
Vidmo told me of a great way of beating this passage, which affords way less 
shooting skills, overview of the situation and micro management, but just 
some quick hopping. I wasn't aware that the attack commences once you have 
placed all three sentry guns instead of after a set amount of time. So before 
touching any of them you should grab six crates to build a set of stairs in 
front of one of the balconies you might have jumped down from. The first step 
consists of just one crate, the second one of two and the last one of three. 
Then pick up two of the sentry guns with the gravity gun and toss them up on 
the balcony. Jump up to position them at the left end of the hallway in the 
dead end, pointing them to the right side. Get back down and prepare to be 
quick. Grab the final sentry gun, hurl it up, swiftly follow it and position 
it as well, before hiding behind the pillar on the left. Combine an Manhacks 
are going to come for you, so you might want to carefully assist your sentry 
guns by shooting some Combine and especially by having your gravity gun ready 
whenever you hear a Manhack closing in.
===End of the Alternative Way===

===Alternative Way - Even Better===
MeestahChanggg & Darkpark saw Vidmo's strategy and they improved on it even 
further: Do not place the crates below the above mentioned balcony, but 
rather in front of the closed gate, with a health and a suit panel behind it. 
Now, again, bring up two sentry guns to a short, empty hallway either by 
hurling them via gravity gun or by jumping up and pulling them up with said 
weapon. After that, pick up the remaining sentry gun, drop it immediately and 
make your way up to the other two guns. Just hide in the back of the hallway, 
letting your two guns do all the work. If a manhack comes near, use the 
gravity gun, and put the sentry guns back up if a grenade throws them down 
(which happens pretty rarely). You should be able to defeat the hostile 
armada with nearly no hassle and no health loss.
===End of the Alternative Way===

Look around for items (there is an SMG ammo crate, but the pulse-rifle is way 
better of a choice in this fierce battle and you should find more than enough 
ammo for it after the battle as well) and follow Alyx down the stairs.

[Dr. Mossmann]
The lights are turned off, but don't worry: The Combine light up the place 
soon after. Still have the pulse-rifle equipped and head for the single 
Combine around the right corner. Move along the right side of the fence and 
hide between the crates as you somewhat surprise the enemies on the other 
side of the fence. If you run out of pulse ammo, switch to the SMG. Restock 
at a health panel and follow the only available path to another story 
relevant scene. After entering the Combine teleporter hall, turn left and use 
the two wall panels to fill up your health and suit energy.

Listen to the dialogue and watch the whole scenery until Alyx tells you to 
cover here. Place two of the sentry turrets at the glass openings and the 
last one in front of the force field next to the Combine teleporter. Stay on 
the centre platform while lots of Combine try to rush in from three different 
places. The turrets will settle the situation nearly all on their own; just 
put them back into place if they get struck down by a grenade. If you get 
hurt, heal yourself at the wall panels. After a while Alyx finally gets the 
teleporter back up, allowing you to escape.

[Dr. Kleiner]
Enter Dr. Kleiner's lab and search for a suit energy panel, an energy item 
and a supply crate while your allies have a conversation. At the end, drop 
down into the hole near D0g.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=3.11 Chapter 10 - Anticitizen One=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=C10

[D0g]

Walk out, approach the car wreck and watch D0g going rampage on the Combine. 
Afterwards D0g will open up a path for you. Go through, climb over the fence 
and walk over the rubble on the left inside the house.

[The Uprising]
Ah, you're back to the play ground - but - they have nearly completely 
destroyed it. Not it's personal! Proceed to the main station, destroying two 
sentry drones and meeting four rebels on the way. The uprising really has 
begun, so take them with you as your squad. Pressing C sends them to where 
you currently aim at; pressing C twice makes them follow you again. Another 
rebel drops down some supply crates. Pick up their contents and look out for 
two Combine opening a gate to your right.

[Hoppers]
Usually you would have to clear the hole, jump down and try your best to 
avoid the blast of the hopper mines, but there is an easy way to get through 
here safely: Stand on the corrugated iron, look straight down and fire the 
gravity gun at it. This catapults you high up, allowing you to steer over the 
fence to the rebel in midair. Enter the left house for some goodies. Clearing 
the rest of the area is rather useless. You would have to deal with some 
headcrabs and a lot of hoppers, with only sometimes one of your squad members 
coming along later on as a reward. Since you meet three new squad members on 
this side of the fence anyway, I'd say you just move on.

The strider on your right luckily isn't interested in you and your squad, but 
the lone Combine on the guard tower on the left is. Use either the crossbow 
or the pulse-rifle. Then equip the gravity gun and hunt down those headcrabs. 
A bunch of hoppers drops down from above, so you better know how to deal with 
them: If the light on top of them is green, they mean no harm, but if it is 
red, they will hop up (now you know why they're called hoppers) when you get 
too close and blow up upon landing. Unfortunately you cannot do anything 
about them until they are in midair. Once they are, hurl them away with the 
gravity gun, hence you better watch out to approach them in such a way that 
they can fly over a rather long distance and not straight into a wall in 
front of you. If there is no big space behind them, approach them and retreat 
when they hop up.

Look on the truck for health, turn on the flashlight and clear the right path 
of two hoppers. Use the pulse-rifle against a Combine appearing in the window 
up ahead and another one running in from the left. Search for a medi kit in 
the hut on the right which triggers another Combine to appear in the window 
above the other shack. Pull in an explosive barrel and hurl it at him. Move 
on, firing the crossbow on a Combine down the alley. Then look left to the 
lambda symbol. Long time no see. At first I though you would have to climb up 
the shack and onto the balcony, but actually it is far simpler: Approach the 
left end of the shack to open it.

Watch out for the hopper near the explosive barrel. It's best just to ignore 
it and to stay out of its reach. Pick up the barrel with the gravity gun and 
throw it at the three Combine around the corner. If any survives, fire off 
some pulse-ammo. If the one behind the barricade still lives, blow up the 
barrels that stand near him. Pick up the medi kit inside the shack.

[House Battles]

Ignore the stairs (there's only some ammo and two zombies upstairs) and leave 
the building. Go right, fill up your squad with new rebels and enter the 
house nearby. Down in the basement are some supply crates, only guarded by a 
single headcrab. Walk up the stairs to the second storey and position 
yourself at the second glass door on the left. Pull out the shotgun, aim for 
the Combine behind the door, open it and quickly kill this enemy as well as 
another one on the left. Now go back and walk around a different corner to 
find some more Combine. Once the storey is clear, look around for supply 
crates. Snipe at a Combine standing outside, drop down the hole in the floor 
and hurl two sentry guns away with the gravity gun, before using the health 
panel.

Keep the gravity gun equipped, haste along the street to the right, break 
open the window on the right with the gravity gun to find a supply crate and 
when you get close to the Combine barricade, simply ignore it. It will be 
closed and guarded by infinite enemies, so instead of battling them, enter 
the building on the left where you kill two Combine with the pulse-rifle (one 
of them is on a higher level). Watch out for two hoppers, kill another 
Combine on the stairs and smash some supply crates on the highest storey. 
Drop down twice.

You're at the back side of the barricade and somehow the Combine have stopped 
spawning. Hmmm. Shoot the few enemies around and walk up to the other 
building. Enter the right-most room, strike a Combine with a close-up shotgun 
burst and while you open the crate your squad should deal with the other 
enemy in the next room. Enjoy the suit energy panel. Enter the cellar, open 
three crates and wield the shotgun against quite a few Combine in the hallway.

Walk down the stairs, switch to the SMG (you probably don't have that much 
shotgun ammo left by now) and again kill lots of Combine in a hallway and in 
some adjacent rooms. Push the cupboards forward with the gravity gun for some 
easy kills and use the gravity gun against the manhacks as soon as they are 
in range.

Down the stairs (refill at the health panel) you have to say good bye to your 
squad. Pretty surprising actually; they just suddenly aren't with you anymore. 
Deactivate a sentry turret on the left and then two more on the right. Look 
down at the ledge to see a zombie crawling around. Kill him with the crowbar 
before walking up the stairs to some supply crates. Pull them in with the 
gravity gun, move the gun over the fence and see the goodies come in. Get 
back down and go along the hallway.

[Tunnels]
Meet up with a new squad. Run straight down the corridor, only hurling away a 
manhack if it gets too close. Since new manhacks will appear ever after, it 
is useless to destroy them. Climb up the rocks at the end of the tunnel, up 
onto the truck and on the fence. Drop down, shoot the lock and go on.

Here now you should wait inside the small room and wait for manhacks to come 
in so you can smash them against a wall. Open the supply crates; then kill 
the two Combine right behind the door with the pulse-rifle and head to a 
lambda symbol down the tunnel on the right. Return to the door and try to 
position yourself in such a way that you can see the Combine at the right 
machine gun on the far end of the tunnel, but he doesn't shoot at you. Aim 
the crossbow between the pillars and take him down. Approach the car in front 
of the other machine gun to get close enough for another crossbow hit. Open 
three supply crates. Approach the blocked opening to make a rebel plant some 
charges at the stuff that blocks the path. Quickly return to the left machine 
gun and man it. A few Combine and infinite manhacks will rush in on you. As 
soon as you can, hit the Combine (just look at those explosive barrels; 
tempting, right? So hit them!) with the machine gun. Against the manhacks the 
gravity gun is the better choice as it allows you to dodge attacks.

After a while the opening is...well - open...so go through, try to open the 
left door and then crawl through another even smaller opening up ahead. I 
hate this passage...hop onto the car (it sinks!), over the crates and onto 
the truck. It's time to build a bridge with two objects again. So pick up one 
of the cable wire things, place it in the radioactive water, pick up the 
other one, step onto the first one, drop the second one, walk onto it, turn 
around, pick up the first one and repeat. Don't try to take the seemingly 
easy way over the solid platform in the centre, as this would trigger lots f 
zombies to stand up. Instead, stay on the water all the time, also just 
pulling in the medi kit later on with the gravity gun. This way you will only 
have to fight two zombies (shotgun) up to the end of the passage. Ignore the 
two other zombies there, turn left, jump over to the pipes at the wall and 
walk up. Open any of the vents (it really doesn't matter which one you pick), 
drop down, smash some crates, open the door for your ally and walk up the 
stairs.

[Bridges]
Meet another squad member and let him aid you against some super headcrabs 
while you use the gravity gun and keep moving. Pick up the suit energy on the 
right side of the car and open a supply crate. Enter the house, kill a single 
headcrab with the gravity gun and open the crates after dropping down at the 
Combine barricade thing. Go outside, wait for one of your allies to say the 
correct password (what a great password, actually... ^^) and enter the 
building on the right.

Kill a Combine on the stairs with the shotgun, look for two supply crates in 
the dark room nearby, rid the stairs of two more Combine with the pulse-rifle 
and once you're at the top, look down into the small hole and eliminate 
another soldier with the pulse-rifle. Drop down, head for the room straight 
ahead, surprise a Combine with the shotgun and approach the window to get the 
bridge lowered (enter the other room in this building for magnum ammo). Cross 
it, search for some items and walk up the stairs to find lots of super 
headcrabs. Use the shotgun as you haven't got much space to dodge attacks. 
Around the right corner is a medkit, guarded by a super zombie. Drop down, 
hit the burning super zombie on the lower storey before he gets to jump up to 
you, drop down, aim for a normal zombie below, drop down one last time and 
hit two super headcrabs with the gravity gun. Feast on the numerous supply 
crates, prior to leaving the building on the left.

Take out the grenade throwing Combine on the roof to your right with the 
crossbow. Then kill another Combine up ahead with the pulse-rifle and two 
more in the building on the left. Before entering it, though, you have to 
clear the path of two hoppers. Equip the gravity gun as you are about to face 
lots of pesky super headcrabs. Climb up and meet your new squad members.

Stock up and go outside, sniping at a Combine on the left and three on the 
right. Lower the bridge with the lever, run across it and defeat two Combine 
in close quarter with the pulse-rifle. Just ignore the other enemies on the 
roofs. As you enter the building another Combine hops down from above. Give 
him a taste of your pulse-rifle as well as two more below. Drop down, smash 
the supply crates and position yourself near the windows; several Combine 
will rush in from up ahead, so be quick and precise with the pulse-rifle. 
Move along the right corridor, look out for an explosion at the ceiling and 
kill some more Combine on the upper level. Further move to see some more 
enemies on the left. Go up the stairs and hit a Barnacle above it as well as 
some more around the corner.

A super zombie drops down, but the shotgun should take him out quickly. Jump 
down, dispose of another super zombie and a Combine with the SMG and watch a 
nice battle down on the lower storey. If a super zombie comes up to you, kill 
him, of course, but otherwise wait for the battle to end and easily eliminate 
the few survivors. Go around the corner to where the yellow lambda symbol is. 
Like a few minutes ago you have to pull in some supply crates with the 
gravity gun and move them over the gate. Afterwards go around the corner into 
another hallway.

[Guarding Alyx]
Duck to get the sentry tower into the reach of your gravity gun. Then drop 
down, kill a headcrab and restock at the wall panels while Alyx makes for a 
great return. Enter the living room to trigger a lot of Combine to come by. 
Use the pulse-rifle against them and hide behind the furniture every few 
seconds. Proceed to another suit energy panel, go down the stairs and take 
out another Combine with the pulse-rifle. Alyx assumes there's some sort of 
command station in the next room. While she will storm through the right door, 
you are assigned the left one. Open it and strike hard at three Combine with 
the pulse-rifle.

Walk outside onto the square. Alyx heads for the control station at the 
liquid shield thing, trying to expose a crucial energy core. In the meantime 
you have to defend her. This might seem hard and it can be, but it doesn't 
have to. Ignore the single guards on the watch tower and on the balcony; your 
squad will deal with them. You just position yourself close to Alyx. Destroy 
the manhacks with the gravity gun and except for that, mainly stay behind the 
shield and use the panels if you need to. Infinite Combine rush in from the 
sides. Your allies stay close to you and if you are where I tell you to be, 
they will be pretty safe (especially since they duck behind the low walls) 
and they should keep most Combine away. Whenever an enemy still manages to 
get close to Alyx or even just close to the fountain, get out and quickly 
kill him with the pulse-rifle. Otherwise watch the Combine and if you see 
that a few of them stand close together, step out and toss a grenade at them. 
Even if it misses them, it still slows them down. Absolutely do not try to 
run to the enemies here. It is dangerous and useless at the same time as new 
ones spawn nearly immediately. The tactic I suggest you keeps the Combine 
alive for a long time, but this isn't a bad thing, as they don't do any harm 
and as none will spawn as long as the older ones still live. After a pretty 
long while, the energy core will finally be visible, yet it still is 
protected by a final layer. Wait for Alyx to tell you that it is time to use 
the gravity gun on the core. Do so, kill two elite Combine (yup; a new kind 
of enemy) and retreat with Ms. Vance through the newly opened gate. Watch her 
climb up if you want to or just enter the canal instantly, smash a supply 
crate and go down the stairs.

[Separated again]
Use the gravity gun to pull up the wooden bar that blocks the door. Open it 
and while you're at it, stick with the gravity gun. Destroy two manhacks with 
it. Then pull away one of the barrels on the right, climb up onto the pipes, 
destroy two more manhacks, crawl through the vent and, guess what, destroy a 
manhack. Don't drop down just yet. Instead pull down some of the cardboard 
boxes up ahead to reveal a supply crate which you also pull down. Once you 
are down, too, several manhacks come from the left. Destroy them to get 
access to some health and suit energy behind them.

Enter the staircase and toss a grenade up and left to hopefully dispose of 
three Combine. If any survive, use the magnum. Drop down from storey to 
storey (ignore the zombies or use the pistol against it) until you see two 
more Combine in front of you. Like so many times before, the pulse-rifle 
works best. Then turn around and search for a ladder at a pipe. Get to the 
upper end of the ladder and climb down to find two supply crates. Climb back 
up, enter the room to the right of the Combine corpses and take care of a 
toxic headcrab with the gravity gun. Also use it to pull up another wooden 
bar which blocks a door.

Open the door and hit a Combine around the corner. Wait for a normal headcrab 
and a toxic one to come by. Then go around the corner, kill another headcrab, 
then a Combine at the end of the passage, a Barnacle on the right and a toxic 
headcrab up the stairs. The suit energy, grenades and health should be worth 
the additional shooting (note that you have to use the gravity gun in order 
to get the items).

Go back and into the trench. There has been a severe battle between Combine 
and zombies here, so there shouldn't be a lot of opposition here anymore. 
Follow the trench to the right for a medikit. Afterwards search around for 
lots of various headcrabs and even a fat zombie. The reward is some supply 
crates at the end of a hallway. Also look out for a yellow lambda symbol 
where the fat zombie was; pull in some items in a small hole in the wall.

Climb up the ladder, defeat another headcrab and climb over the rubble into a 
big hall. Move up (there is some health on the right behind two barrels), 
haste over the bridge, use the health and energy panels and snipe at two 
Combine up ahead above you. Call the platform via the lever and snipe at two 
more Combine. Once the platform has arrived, push the lever again and quickly 
board the platform. Turn around to not be surprised by a Combine during your 
ride. Kill another one on the other side and debark. Shoot a Combine above 
with the pulse-rifle and/or the SMG, climb up the ladder, snipe at two elite 
Combine and proceed on the right rail of the platform lift. Shoot another 
elite Combine above with the pulse-rifle, climb up the ladder at the green 
tower (this sure took me a while to find...) to the highest level and turn 
right to quickly kill two white Combine. Hide behind the barrels on the left, 
pull in an explosive barrel and hurl it down at the two enemies pretty much 
right in front of you. Climb down the ladder one level, look for good stuff 
(especially behind the red container) and then drop down to the hopper. 
Ignore it and go through the door where another hopper awaits you. Approach 
it and briefly retreat once it jumps up.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-3.12 Chapter 11 - "Follow Freeman!"-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=C11

[Snipers]
Open some supply crates and go outside. Haste along the left wall, hiding 
from the sniper up ahead whenever possible. Then, once you are next to a 
truck and a trash bin, run behind another truck, then behind a car and 
finally rush towards the sniper. Beneath the window you are safe, so take 
your time and throw up a grenade. Open the supply crates. Carefully go around 
the corner where another sniper controls the street. Haste across the street 
into the room with the big windows. Break open a supply crate, leave the room 
and run on to the right, while strafing and jumping to hopefully avoid some 
of the sniper attacks. 

Enter the left building; kill two headcrabs with the gravity gun and a super 
zombie in the dark area with the shotgun. Enter the bathroom for some medi 
kits. Head down the ramp and go over to the hurt rebel. Defend him against 
some zombies with the shotgun. Further down the water corridor are two super 
zombies. Either use either use the pulse-rifle or the shotgun. It depends on 
which ammo you can afford to use at the moment.

Go up the stairs to some zombies you can luckily ignore completely: A sniper 
on the left takes care of them. Once he's done with them, lob a grenade into 
the sniper's window. In case you keep missing, there is a grenade crate 
nearby. Move on to meet Barney, asking you to eliminate two snipers. They 
aren't visible at the moment, so walk up onto the roof to trigger them. One 
is at the end of the roof (go down one storey to get him) and your second 
victim is on the left, attackable from the roof (of course both of them are 
behind windows again).

Approach Barney, help him against two toxic headcrabs and follow him down a 
pile of rubble to a Combine console he manages to hack to open the path to a 
supply crate and two poisonous headcrabs (gravity gun).

[Big Bertha]
Go outside to a small backyard and pull in an explosive barrel from the right. 
Hurl it up at two Combine and a Sentry Turret. Smash the supply crate and 
move on to see the true power of the Combine weapon you are aiming to destroy. 
Go down the stairs, destroy the hopper, use the gravity gun against the 
Sentry Turret on your left and destroy yet another hopper.

Outside you will have to tackle the super weapon: A devastating beam comes 
down at a certain spot every few seconds. This spot is always right at the 
point you are going to be at when the beam strikes. Since you can see where 
it will strike next, you can try to dodge it. When you see it in front of you, 
stop and go back a few feet, as the weapons also has a blast radius. Note 
that you are safe under a roof or any under solid object. Head for the 
container near the pit for some health and some cover. Then get back out, 
turn left and run over the rubble. Somehow you seem to be more safe here than 
on the street. Head for the door, enter the building and kill two Combine 
with the pulse-rifle.

After patching yourself up at the health panel, open the next door, wait for 
the beam to strike again and run outside, heading for the small bunker ahead, 
which is only lightly guarded. Ignore any other enemies on the right and just 
proceed ahead to the next building. Two Combine will leave it when you 
approach it and another one waits inside. Pick up some more stuff and leave 
on the right. Head for the museum or whatever it is to be safe from the super 
weapon, but on the other hand you will have to face four normal Combine and 
an elite Combine. You might want to consider using not only the pulse-rifle 
but also its secondary fire. Walk past the main entrance, pull a plug behind 
the force field and enter the museum.

[A Visit to the Museum]
Open the left door. See those blue laser lines? These activate sunken Sentry 
Guns which observe a certain area after having been activated. This one, 
luckily, is rather harmless. Walk into the laser, step back and you should be 
fine. Roll a grenade at the Gun while it is up to destroy it. In a small room 
behind you are infinite grenades and two supply crates.

The main hall. Hurl a grenade at the Combine appearing behind the force field 
at the exit sign and finish them off with the pulse-rifle. Then break the 
blue lasers nearby and destroy the two Sentry Guns. The first one can be 
struck without entering its area of sight, but for the other one you have to 
swiftly go around the corner, throw the grenade and retreat. Eliminate two 
Combine in the dark.

Go up the stairs, pass by on the lasers and rescue some reinforcements. Then 
equip a grenade, break the lasers, quickly step around the left corner and 
toss a grenade into both Guns without them being able to even see you. 
Afterwards enter the room behind the Guns to find two wall panels and the 
first shield generator. Use the gravity gun as you did when Alyx lowered the 
shields on the square. Go back to face lots of Combine and an elite Combine 
coming up the stairs you already came up from. I highly suggest a well aimed 
secondary fire of the pulse-rifle.

Now search for a bridge near the stairs (not the one opposite of it), walk 
over it, take a right and enter a room you are about to get trapped in. Stay 
close to the various openings in the walls (patrol along all of them) to get 
a shot at some Combine behind them. After a while one of the doors is about 
to be opened. Hit the two hoppers with the gravity gun so they land near that 
door. Once the door is open, a few more Combine enter the room, getting a 
taste of their own hopper medicine. Finish them off with the pulse-rifle. 
Also watch out for the other door which will also be opened (not as obviously, 
though) by two soldiers. Move on, go through the lasers and do not destroy 
the guns. Instead bunny-hop towards them and wait in between them for them to 
cease fire. Then deactivate the generator, which also takes care of the Guns 
and restock at the health panel.

Go over to the other wing of the building (either via the bridges or via the 
main staircase), tell your squad to stay back and break another blue laser. 
Toss a grenade at the only Sentry Gun and hide behind the table until the 
grenade explodes. The Gun guarded some grenades and health.

Now again tell your squad to halt and enter a nearby room with lots of red 
lasers and a hopper at the entrance. Dispose of the hopper, jump onto the 
structure right in front of you, walk left past the first few lasers and hop 
onto the block up ahead. Turn right to jump over the next lasers. Get onto 
the round thing with the pipes sticking out, walk around it and jump onto the 
pipe at the wall. Your way leads up the shelf, onto the right shelf and then 
onto the big solid console nearby. The rest should be self-explaining over 
the pipes to the switch which turns off the whole security including the 
hoppers.

Destroy the last generator which triggers loads of Combine and elite Combine 
to spawn on the ground floor at the main hall. Throw down a few grenades and 
kill the survivors with the pulse-rifle. Follow Barney down through the exit 
passage, destroy three hoppers, use the wall panels and proceed to a Combine 
console, Barney is about to hack. Enter the newly opened gate, take out a 
Sentry Turret (gravity gun) and two Combine (pulse-rifle) to clear the way up 
to the roof.

[On the Rooftop]
Simply run along the roofs, killing some Combine with the pulse-rifle (and 
taking cover, while your men keep fighting) until you reach a health panel 
and a suit energy panel. As you use these, a gunship takes off. Fire off your 
first three missiles from where you are at the moment and then head back to 
the beginning of the roof area. There is a missile crate and luckily the 
gunship stays rather close here so you can take it down pretty easily.

Stay near this crate for a while until you see a dropship coming from the 
right. Hit the strider down below to not get bored as you wait. The dropship 
drops three Combine and an elite Combine which will open the gate at the 
panels, rushing towards you. Staying close to the gate is pretty much 
suicidal on the hard difficulty setting, even if you use the hoppers, but 
staying near the missile crate allows for a good overview of the situation 
and the enemy position and it allows for the use of the missile launcher. 
Just wait for the enemies to come into reach and kill them.

Move on to near the gate and snipe at an enemy in a guard tower. Move on 
until you stand behind a container. Pull in the three supply crates, smash 
them, bunny-hop to the switch near them, activate it and hop back. This 
lowers the bridge over to a heavily guarded building where infinite enemies 
keep coming. Fortunately you also have just triggered four rebels to join you. 
Stay behind the container, waiting for the first three enemies to run over 
the bridge. After having killed them, get onto the bridge yourself and use 
the secondary fire of the pulse-rifle to kill three more enemies across the 
bridge. Now let your squad lead the way and use the secondary fire again upon 
reaching the other end. There shouldn't be much resistance left and as the 
Combine stop respawning as soon as you successfully cross the bridge, you can 
simply clear the rooms in close-quarter battles with the pulse-rifle. Drop 
down the stairs.

[War of the Worlds]
Welcome to the spectacular battle against the striders. Run to the front 
porch of the museum where some rebels are already fighting against the 
striders. Fire off your first three missiles and run on into the pit up ahead. 
Walk through the canal, wait for the second strider to cease firing and 
quickly run out of the canal and up the rubble. Then take a left into the 
building where you can nab some missiles. Fire them off, leave the building 
through where entered it and head for the bunker in the centre of the plaza. 
Again, pick up some missiles and use them to finish the job.

Proceed to the big pile of rubble, search for a passage through it and 
restock at the missile crate. Take down another strider up ahead. Afterwards 
step back and witness the striders' true power: A new strider coming from the 
right fires its laser beam at the corner of the building, blowing a hole into 
it. First destroy the strider then search for a health panel inside. Get back 
and use the missile launcher against some Combine at a barricade down the 
street. Go there, walk down the stairs and smash some crates.

[Big House]
Briefly step out onto the street to attract a Combine on your right. Retreat 
and kill him when he's gotten close to you. Then head down the street on the 
right, escaping into a basement on the left. Pick up the explosive barrel 
with the gravity gun to hurl it at three Combine coming through the doorway 
in front of you. Throughout this area new sentry drones appear, but as they 
can only pester you, first defeat any real enemies or take cover before 
dealing with them. Walk up the stairs while wielding the shotgun. Lure the 
two Combine down into the staircase to make the shotgun more effective. Enter 
the bathroom on the left for two supply crates; then pass up on the ramp to 
find three more crates. Walk up the ramp, shoot the crossbow at a Combine on 
the left and run over to the staircase to find some health. Leave the 
staircase and walk up the concrete bar in the centre of what used to be a 
room. Hide behind the debris as long as you need to safely run out and over 
to the next storey of the staircase. There's a missile crate here, but you 
absolutely don't have to defeat the strider outside. Only do it if you feel 
like. Anyway, the next step is to hop into the passage next to the crate, 
smash three supply crates and drop down.

[Big Battlefield]
Hop down into the basement, smash a crate on the left and assist your allies 
in a fight against four Combine with the pulse-rifle. Smash another crate, 
run up and ignore both the strider and the elite Combine. Drop into the hole 
on the left and quickly head for the room up ahead where you will find cover 
and two supply crates. Go around the corner, hide on the right and wait for 
the second strider to pass by. Drop into the hole the strider came out of and 
prepare of the three elite Combine to catch up with you. Use the pulse-rifle 
against them. Break open a supply crate in the dark.

Move on until the ground below you is blown apart. Look up and use the 
secondary fire of the pulse-rifle against the right-most Combine. This should 
also take care of another Combine, only leaving one behind. Kill him, climb 
up, smash a crate and get outside. Take cover behind the various walls, 
eliminate some Combine above and run away from any grenades, but don't waste 
too much time here. Don't try to kill ever enemy; instead go around the 
corner, pick up some items, lean against the wall to hide from the strider 
and haste into the closed room nearby. Shoot a Combine with the shotgun and 
break open a few supply crates.

Go up, take down a Combine with the shotgun and definitely ignore the goodies 
nearby. If you get close to them, the strider in the background will fire off 
its big beam at you. Instead, drop down and keep fighting for a while until 
the strider opens a new path in front of you. Drop down, hide in the small 
room on the left where some crates wait to be cracked open and then haste out 
and up on the left. Kill a few enemies without stopping. Afterwards enter the 
building, look for some goodies on the left and walk up the stairs to the 
roof. Defeat another Combine and equip the missile launcher to battle the two 
striders. But before that, retreat into the staircase until the gunship flies 
off. Then ignore the Combine on the other roofs, restock at the missile crate, 
hide in between your attacks and whenever all of your squad members are dead, 
retreat into the staircase until you have some rebels at your side again, as 
these draw most of the striders' attention on them. Also don't refrain from 
patching yourself up at the health panels on the ground level whenever you 
need to.

After taking down the two striders, clear the roofs from the Combine, using 
the missile launcher. Hey, it's fun and you there's a missile crate nearby. 
Then balance over the girders at the side of the roof where the stairs end. 
Drop down behind the wall, kill a Combine, pick up some suit energy in a dead 
end on the left and move on, triggering D0g to appear. While he doesn't 
defeat the whole opposition, he at least draws the attention to him, giving 
you the chance to clear the area. Go to the barricade and drop down into the 
hole, D0g reveals for you.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=3.13 Chapter 12 - Our Benefactors=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=C12

[Outside the Citadel]
Carefully climb down the cliff on the left, kill a headcrab in the dark (it 
guards a medkit) and drop down onto the upper pipe. Wait for the machinery in 
front of you to come up, hop onto it and then quickly to the right. Turn left, 
move on, drop down a bit, enter the big hall on the right, follow the rail 
beneath the ceiling and drop down again, this time to the left. Drop down to 
a small ledge in the hall where the human capsules come through a laser beam. 
Carefully advance to enter one of those capsules yourself. Press E at the 
second one you come across, as the first one would get you fried in the laser.

[A Bumpy Ride]
Yeah, Monster's Inc...ok, sorry for that. ^^ Look around on your journey to 
see Combine not wearing suits and masks and also to see some other 
interesting stuff. You end up in a rather small room, with the hatch opening, 
making you fall out. Whatever you do, don't commit the same mistake I did 
once: You can turn around quickly and press E again to stay inside the 
capsule forever. There is no way out there again, besides loading the last 
autosave (or some other save file, of course).

[A New Weapon]
Sometimes a bug instantly kills you after this area has been loaded 
completely. If this happens, you have to load a save file from the last area 
and hope for the bug to not appear again.
Anyway, you are taken away all your weapons (hey, didn't this already happen 
in HL1?), but the machine somehow can't handle the gravity gun, which is 
turned into a super gravity gun in the process. Wait for four Combine to 
storm the room. This is the perfect chance to try out the new gun. How? There 
are no loose objects around here? Well, simply aim at the enemies directly 
and either pull them in or hurl them away. Furthermore the new gravity gun is 
able to heave heavy objects like the computers found all around the Citadel.

Restock at the wall panel (from now on those panels both give health and suit 
energy; the latter one even up to 200). Rip out a monitor, move on and hurl 
it at the Combine in front of you. Quickly proceed as new Combine keep 
spawning. Pull them in briefly and drop them to be able to pull in another 
one. If you and the enemies build a straight line, then pull in the first 
enemy and toss him at his companions. Hop over the railing and hurl the two 
Combine into the light pole to see its devastating effect on any living 
being...which includes you as well, so watch out not to get too close to it.

Go along the right, kill a lone Combine and ride up the lift. Pull in the 
left-most energy ball both to turn off the force field and to have a powerful 
weapon at your disposal: Toss the ball at the elite Combine and then pull in 
another energy ball to also dispose of the normal Combine. Patch yourself up 
at the wall panel.

Shut down another force-field, kill numerous Combine and keep up the pressure 
on them as they keep spawning. Swiftly move on to stop the spawning. Use 
another wall panel and leave this area.

[A sloooooow Lift]
Easily dispose of two Combine. Then head for the open hall, press the switch 
and run to the wall panel. Defend yourself against hordes of scanners, 
manhacks, Combine and elite Combine coming from various directions. Ignore 
the computer and the energy balls. All it takes here is a straight forward 
attack against the enemies and some healing whenever possible.

After a while the lift in the centre of the hall will reach your level, so 
step onto it to be taken up automatically. This is one of the most difficult 
passage of the game and it can get really tedious on hard, but unfortunately 
there isn't a lot to tell you about it. Keep moving, look up to see where 
enemies might stand and hurl energy balls at them. Whenever you are close 
enough to an enemy, try to pull him in directly instead of using the plasma 
balls.

Once you're finally up, you definitely deserve the health panel. Stop before 
the force field on the left to wait for a few Combine running into your arms. 
Move out into another high hall and haste through as you eliminate a few 
small groups of Combine. Use the health panel.

Drop down and quickly pull in the capsule on the left. Use it to safely reach 
the second capsule, hurl the first one at the Combine in front of you, pick 
up the second one and also hurl it at the enemies after reaching capsule #3. 
As you are extremely close to the Combine now and as there should only be a 
few of them left you can attack them directly. Run on, pick up another 
capsule and shoot it at the other Combine across the bridge. Hide behind the 
capsules on the left, wait for any survivors to come near and dispose of them.

Not it's time to fight a strider with the super gravity gun. Stay behind the 
capsules, pull in an energy ball, peek out on the left and fire at the 
strider. Hide again and repeat. If your cover gets blown apart somehow, 
constantly strafe from the left set of capsules to the right one and back 
again while rapidly shooting off energy balls. Lower the force field at the 
other end of the bridge after the battle and hop down.

[Another Bumpy Ride]
Heal yourself and enter another capsule. A laser scanner unfortunately 
recognizes you, forcing you to take another path than the other capsules. See 
those big frog-like things below you at one place during the ride? I wonder 
if those appear in Episode 1 or any later episode.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=3.14 Chapter 13 - Dark Energy=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=C13

[The Portal]
After the long and interesting dialogue you have to follow Dr. Breen. See 
that thing he speaks with? I guess that has to be some sort of Combine Queen 
or something like that. Shortly after you get back your super gravity gun and 
Alyx enables you to enter the lift your nemesis escaped with.

Listen to some more text; then move along the wall on the right, kill three 
Combine and move up the ramp until you can pull in the six energy balls of 
the first two force fields. Proceed to third one. As you shut it down you 
should ignore the enemies coming up from behind. Hop onto the thing that goes 
up and down and let it take you up to some enemies. Kill them and move on to 
a small platform at the inner circle. It takes you up to near a health panel. 
Jump towards it, patch yourself up, ignore the enemies below and hop onto 
another platform near the panel. Just watch out not to fall down. Ride the 
platform up, close in on three enemies, kill them, turn left and take one 
last platform up to the final battle.

Position yourself at the far end of the platform. Two gunships will come in 
through the portal. Since there are two streams of energy balls around you 
will have to use these to crash the gunships. Stay at the far end, pull in 
energy balls, fire them off at the left enemy (luckily, they don't zoom 
around as they usually do) and strafe around a bit to hide behind the column 
in between your attacks. Once the first one is down, strafe to the right to 
repeat the procedure against the second gunship.

After that, return to the far left of the platform and hurl plasma balls into 
the portal core to break off those spinning plates.

That's it! You've just beaten HL2. Congratulations.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                                  4. Weapons                              DDD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

--------
Crowbar:
--------

Primary Fire Mode  : Swing the crowbar.
Secondary Fire Mode: n/a

Ah, the famous crowbar; one of your most reliable aids in the original Half-
Life. Unfortunately, though, it loses almost all of his purposes once you get 
the gravity gun. Before that, use the crowbar to break crates apart, to 
destroy manhacks and to fight headcrabs when trying to save ammo. Afterwards 
you can at least still use it against normal zombies and toxic zombies unless 
there are objects lying around you can toss at them with the gravity gun. Oh, 
and also don't use the crowbar against Barnacles as you could do in HL1.

------------
Gravity Gun:
------------

Primary Fire Mode  : Toss something away.
Secondary Fire Mode: Pull something to you and make it float in midair right  
                     in front of the gun.

Probably the best idea Valve had: The gravity gun can be extremely fun to use 
and it allows for a lot of experimenting. Use the gravity gun to destroy 
crates, to defeat manhacks, antlions and any kind of headcrabs (by attacking 
them directly), as well as against antlion queens, normal zombies and toxic 
zombies when there are heavy solid objects lying around.
Furthermore it can perfectly toss away those pesky sentry guns and mine balls 
and in combination with concrete blocks, explosive barrels and radiators it 
even is a great weapon against the Combine as long as you know how to aim.
Explosive objects that are thrown away with the gravity gun explode on 
landing, so this can both be a great danger to any enemy and to you, so makes 
sure to only do this when there is a lot of space around you and when the 
enemy is quite far away.
Also employ the gravity gun to pull in items that would be out of reach 
otherwise.
While you can use the gravity gun to pick up grenades and throw them away, I 
really don't recommend this as they might explode right in your face this way. 
Only try this in multiplayer when it's a make or break situation.

-------
Pistol:
-------

Primary Fire Mode  : Normal Shot
Secondary Fire Mode: n/a

The standard pistol works well against headcrabs before obtaining the gravity 
gun, but after that it should only be used against single normal zombies. 
Unlike other Ego-Shooters, Half-Life 2 has a pretty lame pistol and you 
definitely shouldn't use it except for the two situations I mentioned above.

-------
Magnum:
-------

Primary Fire Mode  : Normal Shot
Secondary Fire Mode: n/a

The magnum kicks ass in any game it appears in and so does it in Half-Life 2. 
It is somewhat slow, its reload time is a pain and its ammo is rare, but it 
sure hits hard and accurate. Use it when you need to take out any kind of 
(non-mechanical) enemy quickly or when you just feel like going rampage.

----------------
Sub Machine Gun:
----------------

Primary Fire Mode  : Rapid Fire
Secondary Fire Mode: Grenade

This gun used to be my weapon of choice in the first Half-Life. Unfortunately 
it is way less effective in the second one. The normal fire is decent, but a 
magazine is a lot earlier empty already than you'd expect, it is imprecise 
and it doesn't deal as much damage as it should. The grenades on the other 
hand are great as they are powerful and as they explode immediately upon 
contact. Still the grenades on their own don't make a good weapon and 
switching to the SMG just to fire off a grenade also isn't a good thing to do. 
Bottom-line is: Use the SMG when you are low on pulse-rifle ammo and on 
shotgun ammo or when you have lots of health left and not too many enemies 
around.

------------
Pulse-Rifle:
------------

Primary Fire Mode  : Rapid Fire
Secondary Fire Mode: Disintegrator

Best. Weapon. Of the game.
Seriously, the pulse-rifle has a high rate of fire, it is pretty precise even 
at long distances, it is extremely powerful and after about half of the game 
you will find pulse ammo at many fallen Combine. Furthermore the secondary 
fire is a feast to use as well. You fire off a big ball of plasma energy 
which bounces off any walls a few times, instantly killing any living enemy 
upon contact. Since its ammo is scarce, though, you should save it for really 
hard passages. Another (minor) downside is that the secondary fire not only 
dissolves the enemies, but also their weapons.
Use the pulse-rifle against Combine and elite Combine and also on super 
zombies if you feel like you need to. It can even be used to snipe at enemies 
if you run low on crossbow ammo. Just don't waste the pulse energy which 
especially means not to use it against weak enemies and to aim for the 
Combine's heads.

--------
Shotgun:
--------

Primary Fire Mode  : Single Shot
Secondary Fire Mode: Double Shot

Well, it's a shotgun. I guess you know what that means: Great damage in close 
quarter, but extreme scattering at long distances. The shotgun is of good use 
against any kinds of zombies and headcrabs, but should also be used against 
Combine inside of buildings to save the pulse ammo. The secondary fire 
basically is the same as the primary one, differing in that it takes two 
shells and hence dealing twice the damage. If you are confident in your 
aiming skills, I recommend the double shot against Combine, as it would 
otherwise usually take two hits ion hard difficulty to kill a Combine.

---------
Crossbow:
---------

Primary Fire Mode  : Single Shot
Secondary Fire Mode: Zoom in / zoom out

Other Ego-Shooters might have sniping weapons that are both more effective 
and cooler, but at least you have a sniping weapon after all. Zoom in at an 
enemy (never even think of fighting enemies up close with the crossbow) and 
fire off a slow bolt. Not only are they slow but they also are bound to 
gravity, which means that they lose height as they fly. Furthermore the 
crossbow bolts often don't hit, somehow disappearing in midair for no obvious 
reason. Still, since it is a one-hit-kill weapon and since it has a great 
zoom, this should be your first choice against Combine standing far away, at 
least as long as they don't move around too much. If the Combine are at 
medium distance or if they keep dodging your attacks, I rather recommend the 
pulse-rifle.

---------
Grenades:
---------

Primary Fire Mode  : Press to lob a grenade or keep pressed until you want to 
                     lob it. It doesn't make a difference.
Secondary Fire Mode: Light throw.

Grenades either explode a few seconds after having been thrown (no matter how 
long you kept in your hand) or upon contact with anything, when being picked 
up with the gravity gun and hurled away.
Sadly the latter choice is too risky and the first one is rather useless in 
most situations as fast enemies that try to rush in on you are too hard to 
hit and as Combine most often run away from the grenades. Only throw grenades 
to clear a stationary machine gun or against numerous enemies in tight places.
Secondary fire makes Gordon rather drop the grenade than really toss it, so 
use it to attack close targets, but make sure to run from the explosion.

-----------------
Missile Launcher:
-----------------

Primary Fire Mode  : Fire off a missile. 
Secondary Fire Mode: n/a

The missile launcher is an extremely strong weapon, just as it is supposed to 
be. Like in HL1 you can steer a missile after having fired it off, making it 
easier to hit moving targets. The bad thing, though is that it actually isn't 
a can, but rather a must. Unlike HL1, HL2 doesn't allow for turning off the 
steering function, so you cannot fire and forget. Its most important use is 
against gunships, which require the steering function, but still I feel like 
they shouldn't have changed the weapon in the second game.
The missile launcher is crucial against gunships and striders, but it should 
also be used against strong groups of Combine. Don't worry: If you definitely 
need the missile launcher to proceed you will always have a missile crate 
somewhere not too far away.
Also note that the blast radius isn't as effective as you might think. In 
order to kill a Combine you have to hit him directly or the 
ground/wall/ceiling extremely close to him.

----------
Pheropods:
----------

Primary Fire Mode  : Toss a Bug Bait to determine a target for the antlions. 
Secondary Fire Mode: Squeeze a Bug Bait to make all antlions follow you.

The pheropods grant you control over all antlions (except for the big ones) 
even if you don't have 'em in your hands. Still you should use them for most 
of the time when antlions are around as they are not only fun to use, but 
also pretty effective when commanding the insects to charge in before you. 
After leaving Nova Prospekt, however, the pheropods become rather useless, 
since you leave your insect friends behind. The only remaining use for them 
is to distract Combine by throwing the pheropods right at them. Only do this 
if you need to kill a Combine desperately without risking to lose any health 
and also only if that Combine has no friends around, though.

------------------
Super Gravity Gun:
------------------

Primary Fire Mode  : Toss something away.
Secondary Fire Mode: Pull something to you and make it float in midair right  
                     in front of the gun.

Ok, actually this isn't listed as a weapon on its own in the game, but I fell 
like the enhanced gravity gun deserves its own section.
Basically the super gravity gun works the same way as the normal gravity gun, 
but it wields so much more power than its little brother. It allows for 
manipulating Combine, plasma balls, heavy computers and monitors and, of 
course, all the stuff the normal gravity gun can.
Since it is your only weapon once you get it, you surely have to use it, but 
let me give you the advice to mainly use the gun on the enemies directly. 
Hurling heavy objects takes too long and you don't have a clear view. Plasma 
balls also take a while and they are rather hard to aim with. Pulling in an 
enemy directly takes him down quickly and you can hurl it at its buddies. 
Alternatively, when fighting Combine over a big distance, you can pull in the 
first one, drop him while he flies over to you and quickly lift the second 
one and so on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                                  5. Enemies                              EEE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In this section, the first field for every enemy holds its name (or what I 
believe to be its name), the second one holds my opinion on how dangerous 
they are (from 1 to 5 asterisks, with five being extremely lethal) and the 
third one holds its outer appearance.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-5.1 Combine-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=EE1

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Combine Soldier |   ***OO   | Humanoid alien wearing a blue suit and a mask|
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Pulse-rifle | 2. Shotgun / Crossbow       |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|The common Combine Soldier probably is the enemy you will encounter the    |
|most. They either wield a shotgun, an SMG or a pulse-rifle, all of which   |
|are rather strong weapons. Furthermore they can toss grenades, smack you   | 
|with their gun I close-quarter and man machine guns. They also dodge your  | 
|grenades and sometimes hide behind objects. Definitely kill them quickly,  | 
|especially when being close to them as a shotgun can rip you apart in no   | 
|time.                                                                      |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Elite Combine   |***OO + 1/2| Humanoid alien wearing a white suit          |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Pulse-rifle | 2. Shotgun / Crossbow       |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|These are pretty similar to the usual Combine Soldiers, but they always    | 
|carry a pulse-rifle, even employing its secondary fire mode. In addition   | 
|they can take a bit more of damage than the blue Combine. On the other hand| 
|their pulse-rifle obviously does the same damage as the one of the normal  | 
|Combine and the white guys cannot throw grenades. Bottom-line is that they | 
|are a bit more dangerous than their blue buddies, making them your first   | 
|target whenever you see one of them.                                       |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=5.2 Xen Aliens=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-EE2

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Headcrab        |   *OOOO   | Little alien trying to jump at you           |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Pistol / Shotgun         |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|I guess you know these pesky little creatures from HL1 or from the Alien   | 
|movies. Although they tend to be tedious as they can be hard to hit, they  | 
|are only a minimum threat as they deal few damage. Early in the game you   | 
|should use the crowbar, later on the gravity gun. If you want to get them  | 
|out of the way quickly you can also use the pistol or the shotgun.         |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Toxic Headcrab  |   *OOOO   | Similar to headcrabs, but thinner and black  |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Pistol / Shotgun         |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Like the normal headcrabs, these try to assault you with a long jump, but  | 
|they don't deal damage the usual way. Instead they lower your health to one| 
|point as they poison you. Your health slowly restores to nearly the amount | 
|it was at before the attack, so toxic headcrabs on their own can only take | 
|away a bit of your life, but in combination with other enemies, they can   | 
|mean a quick death. If these appear together with other headcrabs, you     | 
|should use the shotgun, otherwise there is no need to worry.               |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Super Headcrab  |*OOOO + 1/2| Similar to headcrabs, but thinner            |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Pistol / Shotgun         |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Probably Valve had some other name in mind for these, but I think super    | 
|headcrab gives you a good idea of what they are: Better headcrabs. They are| 
|a lot faster than the normal type, but that's about it. Because of their   | 
|speed they also do more damage in a short amount of time, but still they   | 
|aren't too much of a threat.                                               |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Zombie          |   *OOOO   | Mutated human with a headcrab on its head    |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Crowbar / Shotgun        |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Zombies are human beings that have been overtaken by a headcrab. They are  | 
|dumb, they move rather slowly, they only attack in close-quarter and their | 
|dead after a few hits. Unless you're trapped, hurl objects at them with the| 
|gravity gun or use the crowbar, but if you lack space to dodge their pretty| 
|strong attacks, just give them a blast from your shotgun. Sometimes the    | 
|headcrab survives the death of its host, so be prepared. Sadly, you don't  | 
|have any effect on whether this happens or not.                            |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Toxic Zombie    |   *OOOO   | Fat human with toxic headcrabs on it         |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Crowbar / Shotgun        |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|These bulky (or even fat) guys have been overtaken by toxic headcrabs,     |
|three of which they hurl at you. Just kill those three headcrabs and either| 
|ignore the host or take him down with the crowbar.                         |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Super Zombie    |   ****O   | Human with a super headcrab on its head      |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Shotgun     | 2. Pulse-rifle              |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Super zombies are heavily mutated human beings that have been infected by a| 
|super headcrab. Other than the normal and toxic zombies, these are         |
|extremely fast and dangerous. Try to strafe and back off all the time while| 
|aiming the shotgun at their head. Like the normal zombies, the super       |
|zombies sometimes give you a second fight as the parasite can survive.     |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Barnacle        |OOOOO + 1/2| An alien creature hanging from the ceiling   |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Pistol      | 2. Shotgun                  |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Ahh, the lovely Barnacles get a comeback. Simply avoid walking into their  | 
|tentacle and you should be fine. If you cannot easily get around it, either| 
|kill them from below or feed them some object that lies around to quickly  | 
|pass by. If you still get caught by one, swiftly eliminate it on your way  |
|up or else you will not only get hurt by the Barnacle directly, but also by| 
|the fall.                                                                  |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-5.3 Bugs-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-EE3

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Antlion         |*OOOO + 1/2| A big insect                                 |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Shotgun / SMG            |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|These insects behave similar to headcrabs, but they keep respawning in the | 
|sand and they deal more damage. Stay in your buggy as long as possible and | 
|stay off the sand. Those machineries that look like oil pumps can hold them| 
|off when being activated. Once you've got the pheropods, the antlions stop | 
|attacking you.                                                             |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Antlion Queen   |   ****O   | An even bigger insect                        |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Shotgun     | 2. Gravity Gun / Pulse-Rifle|
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Luckily you encounter these huge antlions only a few times. When you do,   | 
|keep running from them backwards and try to get solid obstacles between you| 
|and it. Antlion Queens usually try to tackle you, but they can also hurl   | 
|loose objects at you, so keep strafing when one of them aims for a radiator| 
|or a crate or whatever.                                                    |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=5.4 Heavy Gear=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-EE4

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Helicopter      |   ****O   | Well...it's a helicopter                     |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Machine Gun | 2. None                     |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|These appear only at the beginning of the game. Later on they are          | 
|substituted by the gunships. As you don't have the missile launcher when   | 
|facing the helicopters, try to avoid their heavy fire, hide and move       |
|quickly. The only way of destroying them is with stationary machine guns   |
|and with the one you get attached to your hovercraft.                      |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Dropship        |   ***OO   | An insectoid flying machine with a black box |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. None        | 2. None                     |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Dropships cannot be taken down (except for one scene where it is absolutely| 
|trivial), but they have a machine gun at their front side and they carry   | 
|four Combine, that they drop out right at the machine gun. Try not to get  | 
|into the view of the machine gun; the best position is next to them, so you| 
|are safe and can easily kill the Combine while disembarking. Otherwise,    |
|stay away from them and wait until they are gone.                          |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Gunship         |   *****   | Similar to dropships, but thinner and w/o box|
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Missile L.  | 2. None                     |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Gunships are the hardest enemies in HL2 in my opinion. Not only do they    |
|deal lots of damage, but they also withstand a lot of damage and they can  | 
|blow up your missiles in midair. Since the missile launcher is the only way| 
|to take them down you still have to use them. Step out of your hideout,    |
|fire a missile rather far away from the gunship and steer it in, in a      |
|zigzag motion. Another good way of dealing with a gunship is to wait for it| 
|to get close and/or to turn around, so you get to aim at it directly.      |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Strider         |   ****O   | Three-legged walkers                         |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Missile L.  | 2. Pulse-Rifle second. fire |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Imagine the walkers from War of the Worlds and put in some insectoid looks | 
|and you know what you have here. Striders are powerful and they take a lot | 
|of damage before going down. Luckily, though, you will only face few of    |
|them and most of the time you will have a missile crate and allies nearby. | 
|This means you get to hide, shoot, hide and so on, with your buddies even  | 
|distracting the Strider, further easing the fight for you.                 |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=5.5 Small Machines=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-EE5

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Hopper          |   *OOOO   | A mine with a light on top of it             |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. None                     |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Hoppers first of all indicate if they mean any danger: If the light is     | 
|turned off, they don't do anything, allowing you to use the gravity gun on | 
|them, so they get a green light. When the light is green, they explode if  |
|an enemy closes in. If the light is red, they react on Gordon and his      |
|allies. Either ignore hoppers or carefully approach them, backing off, once| 
|they hop up, or use the gravity gun to pick them up, which also allows you | 
|to hurl them at enemies. Hoppers are sometimes dropped by small            |
|transporters. Simply ignore those.                                         |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Sentry Drone    |   OOOOO   | A flying camera                              |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Crowbar                  |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Scanners cannot hurt you. In fact the only thing they can do is annoying   |
|you with their flash light. Destroy them when you aren't amidst a real     | 
|battle.                                                                    |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Laser Ball      |   *OOOO   | A Metal ball with blue laser light           |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. None                     |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|They try to get close to deal some damage, but as they are weak, you don't | 
|have to worry too much. Pull them in with the gravity gun and throw them   | 
|down a cliff or into the water.                                            |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Sentry Turret   |   ***OO   | A small turret that fires automatically      |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Shotgun                  |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Sentry Turrets hit hard and they cannot really be destroyed. Hide from them| 
|and either hurl objects at them or close in to use the gravity gun directly| 
|to knock them over.                                                        |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Sunken Gun      |   ***OO   | A sunken gun, that pops out of the ground    |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Grenades    | 2. None                     |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|When you see a blue laser line, first of all search for differently colored| 
|metal plates on the ground. This is where the sunken guns pop out once you | 
|cross the line. Equip a grenade, hold the primary fire button, aim at the  | 
|plate and break the laser. Once you do, instantly release the button and   | 
|hide somewhere. Hopefully the grenade rolls right into the hatch of the    |
|gun, destroying it in a single blow. If it misses: Repeat.                 |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Manhack         |   **OOO   | A small mechanic flying thing with saw blades|
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Crowbar                  |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Actually manhacks are a big threat early on in the game, requiring you to  | 
|dodge well and swing the crowbar with skill, but once you get the gravity  | 
|gun, they become nothing but a little annoyance. Simply hurl them against  | 
|the walls with it and they will explode on the first hit when being close  |
|to the wall. Otherwise you might also use the SMG before getting the       |
|gravity gun.                                                               |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                             6. Closing Comments                          FFF
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Probably lots of people disagree with me on this, but I was kinda 
disappointed by HL2. Half-Life 1 basically had it all (plus those stupid Xen-
levels), whereas I really didn't get the same feeling carried over by the 
atmosphere in HL2 as I did in its predecessor. I missed the cool setting in 
Black Mesa, I missed the aliens, I missed the great weapons and I certainly 
hated the puzzles in HL2; one of the strong points of HL1. I mean: Come on, 
stepping onto a crate, dropping another one in front of you, stepping onto it, 
turning around, picking up the first crate, dropping it in front of you and 
so on isn't fun once and this game requires stuff like that various times. 
What could've been...hopefully Dark Messiah of Might & Magic makes better use 
of the potentially great Source Engine.
Oh and I haven't mentioned the final boss and the ending so far: HL1 had one 
of the most intricate Ego-Shooter bosses in a world where the highest trouble 
makers in games like RTCW, Duke Nukem 3D, Goldeneye, Painkiller and so on 
disappoint in terms of creativity and difficulty, but in HL2 you can stand 
still at a place and keep firing to beat the final boss. That's just plain 
bad game design, directly leading to the ending: You might think differently 
on this, but I thought the ending of HL1 was cool (with the decision-making 
part and the teleportation) and made me long for a sequel, whereas the ending 
of HL2 just made me mad. I don't want to spoil you (maybe you read this part 
prior to finishing the game, although I doubt anybody reads this section at 
all ^^), so I won't say anything more about it, although there actually isn't 
much to spoil about it.
Still HL2 is a good game and I enjoyed it. The gravity gun was a great, yet 
not fully taken advantage of, weapon, the graphics are still stunning at 
times and there's lots of variance in gameplay...so please don't email me how 
much of a moron I am for criticizing "teh Uber-Shooter!!1!eleven". ;)

I'd appreciate any comments, questions, high scores, critics or whatsoever, 
so please mail me at [email protected] if you have anything to tell me (even 
misspellings and stuff).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                               7. Experimental                            GGG
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In some other guides I've seen the author implement the following and I 
thought "Why not give it a try for your own guides?":

If you really like this guide and you think it helped you or entertained you 
a bit or whatsoever and you feel like rewarding me not only by writing a nice 
e-mail, feel free to send some money to my paypal account at:

[email protected]

Of course I don't want to make somebody send me money who doesn't really want 
to (even if I could, I wouldn't ;) ), but (also of course) I'd appreciate any 
contribution.

Thank you very much for reading this guide and hopefully some more of my 
stuff on gamefaqs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                                  8. Credits                              HHH
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thx go out to:

O Bruce Zhang, for pointing out that the secondary fire of the Pulse-Rifle 
  also hurts Striders.

O Robbie Vancourt, for telling me that Alyx' robot pet's name isn't Dog but 
  D0g.

O Walker Wilson, for sending in some good info on the pheropods.

O Dominic_rules, for informing me that grenades also have a secondary fire 
  mode.

O Vidmo, for hinting me to building a set of stairs in Entanglement, making  
  that level drastically easier.

O Andrew Carts, for hinting me at mentioning that the Magnum is not only 
  strong, but also pretty accurate. Seems obvious, but I missed out on that 
  before he told me. ;)

O MeestahChanggg & Darkpark, for refining Vidmo's great strategy even more.