| Mission index (for /m param): | 085 |
| City name on PC: | Bangkok |
| Map and level files (PC): | map003.mad, c003l002.dat, |
| PC Campaign: | Church of N. Ep. mail 18 |
| Citydrop code name: | The Dead Zone |
| First objective: | Abduct Eurocorp captive |
Blessings, Chosen One.
Bring us the secret EuroCorp is protecting in Bangkok and we will pray for your salvation.
The stink of chaos spreads to every street corner as UTOPIA forsakes the populace at large and takes
its favoured children deeper underground. In Bangkok the Syndicate has abandoned all attempts to
restore their regime. Instead, it has imposed a dead zone there. What goes on there we do not know for
certain.
One of our brothers recently attempted to find out what EuroCorp is going to such lengths to hide. He
learned that the enemy's agents occasionally venture through the dead zone, in order to abduct Unguided,
many of whom still cling to their forlorn hopes among the shattered remains. The agents then return to
their stronghold with their captives. The Nine do not understand why the Syndicate should do this when
it eliminates the Unguided on sight everywhere else.
We seek enlightenment in this matter. Direct your Acolytes through the city's hostile outskirts and into
the dead zone. Find out what EuroCorp is up to and take any steps you consider necessary to deal with
the situation you find. Then return and confess to us everything you have learned, so that we may
cleanse you of the evil to which you have been exposed.
Forgive nothing.
Virgil
A war refugee sought the Master. He said, "You are wise and serene. Teach me to escape the
horrors of this world." And the Master blinded him with fire-irons.
- The Book of Cataclysm.
Bring us the secret Eurocorp is protecting in Bangkok.
It's mission time.
After leaving HQ, the place will be quickly destroyed by multiple explosions. Make sure you're not in the area when it happens.
The only way to get to the Eurocorp facility is by a lift on the far right of the map. Unfortunately, to get there you have to go to Unguided territory, so you must deal with any Unguideds who oppose you. Don't let the lifts be destroyed by the explosives they drop.
There is a bank on the bottom right of the map. Approach it carefuly, it is booby trapped. Run away from the explosions, then return and blow it up. Then quickly grab the money, and run before more explosions go off.
Now take one of the lifts to the Eurocorp base. Walk across the bridge and draw the Eurocorp personnel out. Use the launcher to destroy them in large groups.
Now go further into the compound and destroy the four sentry droids. Then go upwards to the buildings and kill the few remaining Eurocorp agents, and persuade all the civilians.
Now go to where your target is, and persuade him. Carefully return him to HQ.
Well, that was extremely hard. If you managed to rob the bank, you should have a nice bit of money - enough to buy the Displacertron, and Body Level three you just researched.
...seriously, the game does not want you to beat Bangkok. I had to beat it three times before the game decided not to crash and to let me through. Kind of appropriate for The Worst Mission.
Prepare for frustration. With perfect execution, you will never be in serious trouble here, but mistakes are punished harshly.
Your major challenges in this mission are, in this order, buried traps, satellite rain, the shape of some of the terrain, and the Unguided.
The Syndicate aren't really much threat unless you screw up. Before I go over what you have to do to win, some brief tips on not dying are in order, since that's the hard part. Keep these in mind as you follow the walkthrough.
Buried traps
Don't walk over any of the potholes in the ground. They'll explode. This also means never move the screen off your agents while they're moving, because you can't trust the game's pathing to ignore them.
Satellite Rain
Never hits the same place twice. Whenever you hear the satellite rain trigger noise (it's a sort of two-tone beep) then run back to an area which has already been rained on and you'll miss. IML links are also safe.
So, starting off.
You can wait at the IML link for the first Satellite Rain to hit and it'll miss you, or you can head around the fence to the waterside nearby. Set up opposite the door of the small building in the corner of the Eurocorp complex and shoot the operatives who will come out of it until no more come. Once they're dead, move around to the edge of the area that's been hit with the Satellite Rain. You'll likely be attacked by a steady stream of Unguided now; you can see them off with Rifles and Electron Maces. Be alert for some of them to drop explosives.
In between Unguided attacks, your zealots should be in LR Rifle range of the operatives patrolling the other side of that building; kill them. Advance along the waterfront, retreating from Satellite Rain as necessary. It's important to kill the lone Agent in the Syndicate compound - I don't quite know what triggers it, but sometimes if you don't he'll kill your target and that fails the mission. Shoot as many operatives as you can with LR Rifles, always keeping an eye on your zealots for Unguided attacks. You can also kill the two IFFs nearest you.
Once you cross the road here (expect yet more Satellite Rain), there's two patrols of agents to kill. You can actually get both of them, though the nearby ones (in the road) are much easier. The ones on the pavement can be killed, but only if you're right on the edge of the water and they're right opposite you, and even then the crosshairs won't go red, you've just got to shoot and hope. With a bit of practice you'll have most of them down. It can be helpful to run around the corner to the far side where the IML rail runs to get another angle on them; you will trigger more Satellite Rain when you do this.
You'll trigger that barrage anyway when you move to the IML link, be sure to be in it or behind it and you''ll be safe. It's important not to let Unguided get too close to the IML, since you can't afford for the explosives they drop to blow it up. Before you take the train to the Eurocorp compound you want there to only be 7 or 8 operatives left there (excluding your target).
Once you arrive, get to the highest point of the bridge connecting the IML to the main compound, so nothing obstructs your LR rifle field of fire. From there you can probably shoot down most of the Operatives as they approach since they're in single file; you may have to switch to Electron Maces for the last couple. If you do, activate supershields - they're well armed but lack staying power.
Now advance through the compound, destroy the two IFFs with LR Rifles and then hit supershields to run past the laser turrets to out of their range. Let your energy recover, then slowly creep back towards the turrets and destroy them with launchers. You can hit with a launcher from outside launcher "range" (crosshair white), so just trial and error again really to find a good range.
Now, you need to persuade that operative. To do that, you need 15 "points" of persuasion power, which is generally equal to 15 civilians (unguided count as 2, if you can get them). Head back to the mainland and start persuading. Be careful of the traps and the satellite rain, since they'll kill civilians you're trying to persuade. You'll probably need to trigger another couple of rains, but if you retreat fast your civvies will make it out too. With alot of patience you'll get to 13 persuaded. Then you can train back over, persuade the two scientists and finally the operative. Pick up the four plasma lances that the Eurocorp troops were armed with, then head back to your original IML, once again being mindful of the hazards - I suggest hugging the waterline again.
Whew. That wasn't at all fun, was it? But it's over.
Prophecy transcript
Resolution uncertainty: Moderate
New research: none
New weapons: Plasma Lance
Enemies: 50 Unguided, 38 Militia
Possible loot: 2500k cr, 2 Scientists, Epidermis v3, 1 Nuclear Grenade, 4 Plasma Lances
This level has high rewards, but it is also ultra irritating. Satellite Rains are falling everywhere - which wouldn't be that bad by itself, you just need to back off for a bit after walikng into any new place. But there are also those buried mines - there is no way of spotting them in game, and they explode if you're within proximity, killing your Zealots even with top mods. And in that environment, you are asked to run around persuading people..
Fortunately you have locations of all the mines on the map below. Study it in detail - the locations will be hard to tell after Satellite Rains blow up all the surrounding buildings.
With the information here, it's not that bad. Looking at the map, notice that if you are just next to the moat, you're safe from any buried mines. You are not safe from Satallite Rains though - only the IML Stations are safe from these, and the Bank - at least as long as it's standing.
Passage between IML Stations
So first, we will want to trigger all the Satellite Rains in the areas we will use - we won't be sightseeing the whole map. So just after the game gives you control, start running with your Acolytes. Run just next to the moat, through narrow passage behind buildings. If enemy fire slows you down, use supershield and continue running, until you're between the moat and the fence of second IML Station.
Now pump up Red Mist, and wait there for the Satellite Rains to stop falling. Fence of the IML Station may get destroyed, but the station will remain - after all, it is required to complete the mission. Some Unguided will continue to come at you - make sure your LR Rifles shoot them from far away, as many of them have High Explosives.
Stopping the experiments
You can now safely use the passage between both IML Stations. Use that to kill the Eurocorp Agent who is moving between Armory building and the captive Adversary. Otherwise, the experiments will kill the captive after some time, which would mean mission failed for you.
The Agent is followed by two Scientists - they will stop when he is killed. To keep a chance of persuading the scientists, make sure you kill the Agent when he is close to the Armory, otherwise it may turn out that the Scientists will stop too close to the Stationary Laser Turret, and will die when the turret is destroyed (but that later).
While at it, you should also kill as many Adversaries as possible. You don't want to deal with all of them at the same time, which may happen when you use the second IML Station to cross the moat.
Robbing the bank
Now you need to clear Satellite Rains on the road to Bank. Actually, you may want to clear two roads - through edges of the level from first IML Link, and through the road from second IML Link (going on edge of the map between secod IML Link and the Bank while the Bank is still standing, could and up badly).
Remember the paths you take - you will later want to use the same roads for persuading without killing your crowd with more Satellite Rains.
So let's start from first IML Link. Run up, alongside the fence to Zealot church. You may either pick outer fence or inner one, or do both to allow yourself to use both paths later. When you reach the the roed at top of the map, start running towards the bank. Run on the edge of the road towards center of the map - if you run at center of the road, some Satellite Rains will not get triggered.
Stop on the edge between the Bank and top of the map - that is your safe spot, as long as the Bank stands. When you reach the Bank, you should trigger its one-time defense - Stasis Fields and KO Gas in front of the bank entrances. Fortunately you're nowhere near to the entrances.
When Satellite Rain explosions stop, make some distance to the Bank wall, and shoot it with Launcher, then immediatelly retreat right, to the road you've cleared already. Satellite Rain will fall on remains of the bank. When it's finished, go pick up the credits in 3 suitcases, in total 2,500,000 there is credits.
Run through edge of the road leading down to second IML Link. This time using the edge towards center of the map is not to make sure Satellite Rains are tiggered, but to make sure you won't run into buried mines. Take note on there the 3 mines are near that road, and direct your Acolytes accordingly.
Cleaning up all the Adversaries
Now make sure no more Adversaries can be sniped from beyond the moat, then take the IML Train to get inside. Quickly pass the initial pedestrian bridge avoid it being shot by Stationary Laser Turret, and prepare for defense. Adversaries will come. Note that 3 have Plasma Lances - kill these ASAP, as this weapon can kill your Acolytes in just a few shots.
When all are dead, use Launchers to destroy Laser from outside of their firing range. Do not go near Scientists with Red Mist maxed out - they do have weapons and so will get shot at by your team.
Pick up Plasma Lances from dead Adversaries. You may leave the Plasma Lance inisde Armory for later - you don't want to upset the Scientists.
When all hazards are eliminated, and only mission target and Scientists remain in the compound, take the IML Train back to the city. You need to persuade some people to be able to persuade the Adversary.
Persuading
Use only the paths you've cleared. If civilians are somewhere else - wait, they will walk here and there and sooner or later cross one of your clean paths. Do not risk triggering more Satellite Rains, or you may lose your crowd. And avoid the buried bombs.
When you have over 15 people, take a train into Eurocorp compound again and persuade everyone. Make sure you don't have your drugs administered there, or you may shoot some of the targets.
Remember to pick up fourth Plasma Lance and a Nuclear Grenade from the Armory.
Evacuation
Here there are no suprises. Just use the clean path just nex to moat, and you will get to the evac zone intact.
After the mission, one of your Acolytes will be awarded with Epidermis v3, without a need to pick up anything in-game. Now you know what was being tested there.
Tech ex machina
Those buried mines, are only scripted events on some levels. You never get that as a weapon for your team.
When you have the Clone Shield active, your Acolytes will not trigger Satellite Rains nor the buried mines. If you're not currently persuading peole, it is best to walk through the town with Clone Shields.
Buried mines are not destroyed during Satellite Rain explosions. There is no safe way to disarm them.
Buried mines and Satellite Rains are not triggered by your persuaded crowd, only by your Acolytes.
Plasma Lance is a crucial weapon, but useless if not researched. Make sure you switch your research to it as soon as the mission ends. Until it is researched, you can give it to your unused Acolytes - it drains way too much power, so it's better to have a free slot.
You were blessed by this premonition from Bangkok episkopy, please do not reply.
⨁ Start point
⨁ Scientists
⨁ Eurocorp Agent which performs the experiments
⨁ Buried mines with proximity trigger
⨁ Armory building, with weapons selection inside
⨁ Stationary Laser Turrets
⨁ Target captive Adversary
⨁ Bank