Descent Submitted by: Dj Simo A collection of tips and cheats, obtained from the Descent FAQ. The maze. Keep an eye on the map and look for landmarks -- i.e. a room full of monitors, a huge cavernous room, or a room full of doors. Keep returning to these rooms until you've explored every branch. A good technique will see you speeding down the tunnels, shooting buggery out of everything that gets in your way, this will make life a little easier for when you concentrate on exploring the area in more detail, collecting the keys etc.... Level 7 Boss Stay tight against the inside pillar, and keep circling. This is the best way to lose missiles that have lock. Take out the Vulcan Guys, SuperMechs (the red guys), and the Boss, in that order. Get the cloak in the alcove on the far side of the pillar. When attacking the Boss, make passes, don't sit still. And make extra sure none of those green missiles hit you in the face, they'll probably kill you." The secret resource: Lava I discovered something about the lava by accident, and a fairly costly one at that: the lava is REALLY explosive - like missiles. This can be EXTREMELY useful: Suppose you're in level 2 (the one with the very large room near the start), and you're going to get the red keycard, which is defended by about 4 or 5 robots. As you may recall, there'a large lava pit in the middle of the room, which at least one of the robots is always directly above. Instead of aiming at the robot, aim at the lava right below it and fire a blast or two. The blasts will cause the lava under it to explode, and blow the robot above it apart! Also, since the shots are sufficiently far from the robot, it won't try to dodge the blasts! The Vulcan can be nice here: it's extremely high rate of fire turns the lava into an exploding pool of fiery death (what vivid language :). This also can work well against humans: fire above them so they dive into the lava, then blast the lava around them. Either you'll kill them, or they'll accidentally shoot the lava and commit suicide - you get their stuff either way. Secrets In level 4 there is a long reddish tunnel which has a gate at the end.. one you open the gate you see one of these purple areas on your right... about 3 green medium lifter robots show up out of this area. if successful you blast them and three more show up you can shoot them until no more robots come out, and think that's it right? Well now for the bonus... if you back out of the area through the gate you came in, and come back in to the same area again...more robots come out again... shoot them, until no more come out... the benefit is that when you shoot them you'll get the blue sphere that replenishes your shields... I did this about three times... (that is back out from the area, and re-enter) and was able to replenish my shields all three times. After all the robots were killed for the 3rd time. no more came out but I had replenished my shields from 25 to about 85! By then I really needed the shields and it was the only place where I could replenish them... I found this by accident, and will try the same on other purple areas. I found a hidden room by accident in Level 1...there is a hidden room in the ceiling and it's full of goodies; it has about 3 or 4 packs of missiles and assorted ammo. When you get to the yellow area with the floating "stars" that replenishes your energy... find one of the video screens on one of the corner walls...look up at the area with the floating "stars" that replenishes your energy... find one of the video screens on one of the corner walls...look up at the ceiling, and you will see (faintly) a door... shoot at it and you will be able to go up into that room... There are two entrances to this area but the easiest one to spot is the one by the video screen on the wall. If you cannot see it... just shoot at the ceiling where you see the video screen in this area... First Level secrets by Sven Neuhaus: 1) From the start, turn right/down. Next intersection, turn right. Turn left in front of the prison, turn right in front of the ventilation. Now turn either right or left. The next corner you are approaching has a secret entrance at the ceiling. Contains vulcan ammo and rockets. 2) From the start, turn left/down. Follow the path. Turn up to fly into the new room. Fly towards the left back corner. The wall there has a horizontal seam on it. Fire at the door or fly close to open it. 3) Inside the second secret, right behind the second secret's entrance, but at the ceiling. Secret contains a Small Hulk and a Laser. 4) Inside the second secret, turn left after you entered the second secret door. Move down through the hole in the floor. Turn right. There's a secret door with a shield boost behind it. 5) From the start, turn right/down. At the intersection, turn left. There will be a hole in the ground. Move down. Fly forward slowly. There is another hole in the ground at the very dark spot. This leads to a room with a small hulk, the vulcan cannon and some energy boosts. Cheat Codes Type the following directly in the game, regardless of your current keyboard mapping setup. GABBAGABBAHEY = Cheats enabled! SCOURGE = WowieZowie Weapons! MITZI = All Keys! RACERX = Invulnerability On/Off! GUILE = Cloak On/Off! TWILIGHT = Shields Recharged! FARMERJOE = Warp to Which Level? You might want to change your "bomb" key to something that won't conflict with these codes, otherwise you might blow up before you finish typing it. Note that when you use cheat codes, your score drops to 0 and you can't save your game. Hence, use these codes only as practice runs. Also, you can't use the cheat codes in a multiplayer game. If you use the TWILIGHT cheat when your shield is over 100, the cheat will reset your shield strength to 100! (Geoff Simmons) Level 7 Complete Tips BIG thanks to Mike Lorant (mikel@ucc.su.oz.au, also "Dense" on IRC's #descent) for writing this section. Obviously, this section contains major spoilers. Read at your own risk. 1. Getting the blue key At the start of the level go straight ahead up the ramp and follow the corridor around to the right. At the room fly thru the far left hand door and into a large room with a passover bridge in it. Then exit via the corridor directly above from where you started. The corridor will bend to the left and then dip down the slope. Fly through the corridor with the grating on the left hand side and out the other end. Follow the corridor past a T junction and around through the rechargerator and over to the next T junction. See diagram 1. Turn left and grab the blue key. Diagram 1 _____ / R / ___ B = Blue Key / / 1 = 1st T junction | |_____| | 2 = 2nd T junction | 2 B 1 | R = Rechargerator | _____ | E = Entrance | | | | X = Exit |==| |==| | X| |E | 2. Getting to the blue door Head back to the second T junction and turn left where there should be a door in front of you. There will be grating on the left hand side with a door down the end. Continue up the rising corridor and down the other side until you enter a large spherical area and to the blue door on the southern side of the room. 3. Getting the yellow key Pass through the small corridor into the room with a red star shaped structure and exit straight ahead (upward direction). As the corridor points upwards watch out for the 2 cloaked Medium Lifters. The corridor will level out again and continue following it. It will then dip a short distance away and passes past a yellow grating with lava below it. The grating that is above you sometimes contains a Class 1 drone so watch out for its missles. It is recommended that if it is there you destroy it because it can be a hinderance when tackling the next enemy. The corridor will turn left at the bottom and at the end of it will be a Supermech firing missles that lock on. Level out and grab the yellow key. 4. Getting to the yellow door Return to the beginning of the level (where you started). There will be a yellow door on the left hand side, just below and behind the ramp you came from. See diagram 2. Go through the yellow door. Diagram 2 | |____ | |R | _Y __| | | | __ | S = Start | | Y = Yellow door | __ | R = Ramp | | | | | | |S | 5. Getting the red key Pass down the long dark corridor with grating on the left hand side with a yellow door down the end. There will be a small cavity directly ahead which you can fly up. Go through there and fly to the top. Watch out for the Supermech firing missles which lock on. There will be a cloaking powerup at the top and just over the other side will be the red key. Grab the red key. 6. Getting to the red door Return to the start of the level and and fly up the ramp that you initially flew through when getting the blue key. At the end of the corridor go through the door straight ahead and you will enter a tiny corridor with a door down the end. See diagram 3. Diagram 3 ___| 2|_ / 1 / | / | E = Entrance ____ / 1 = Go through on way to Blue door | | 2 = Go through on way to Red door / | / / | E| As you enter the next room there will be a door on the top far left hand side. After going through that you will find another corridor that will dip down downwards. However, watch out for two secret doors behind you that will open when you are halfway down the corridor. Two Automated Scout Robots will come from those two chambers (left and right side). Continue down to the end of the corridor into a large arena room. The floor will be volcano shaped entrance with a red door on the inner northern end. Go through the red door. 7. Killing the Shareware Big Boss Note that the red door will be unopenable from the other side so you will have no escape. Read section [2d] for details on tactics to destroy him. Good luck!