Jagged Alliance 2 – Wildfire

Jagged Alliance 2 - Wildfire

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Author: Charles-Etienne Raynault
E-mail: c_raynault@hotmail.com
Completion date: 11-09-2009
Version: 1.3
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	Jagged alliance 2  : sci-fi mode FAQ
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Introduction:

 Jagged alliance has been released back in 1999 but, I only tried it in 2001 
when I found a boxed copy in a staple's store bargain bin. Since then it has 
become my favorite tactical RPG and I highly suggest it to everybody. When in 
2003 strategy first bought the rights for the game and released the wildfire 
version I decided to give it a try and was a bit disappointed. Really little 
changes were been made and the difficulty was disgustingly hard but, I will 
still cover the sci-fi aspects of wildfire for this FAQ.

 When you start the game you can choose between different game modes and 
difficulties and one of them is the sci-fi mode, it puzzled many gamer as it 
doesn't change much of the game especially early on. But you should still 
choose that mode as it add the best quest in the whole game. Plus you get the 
chance to obtain a special jelly that boost your armor% when applied to 
clothing and give you the best possible protection. Not to mention fighting 
those monstrous aliens bugs. 
 
 I decided to make this FAQ to answer all questions related to sci-fi mode,
questions that I asked myself and couldn't find any answer as they are not 
well covered in any of the currents walkthroughs. 
n.b.: The coordinates of the events or npcs are in parentheses.

 For the purpose of the FAQ the aliens, bugs, critters, insects and Crepitus
all mean the same.

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	Related NPCs
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 sci fi only npcs:
  Gabby(?): He will appear in a random square of the map, you will get a 
message: 'you encountered someone' when you pass on the same area he is.
Make sure you stay friendly and he will give you much information after a
While. He is living in a small house and will offer you to buy alien parts
and will sell you some of his own elixir* He is also selling 4 glass jars* 
at 100% for 10$ which is expensive. You can use them to collect alien's 
blood and sell it back to him. A character with high leadership will be 
able to get much information from him as he used to work for the queen 
as caretaker of the bugs.
    
*see related items section for more information.
   
 Rat(G9): Rat is Gabby pal but unlike him, is not talkative. You will have
to threaten multiple time to make it reveal information(require high 
leadership). He will appear a few hours after you met Gabby, in Keith's
store in Cambria(or the restaurant with wandering npcs in wildfire, can also 
appear in the store north of Keith's). 
He reveal useful information on aliens and their origins.
          
 Other npcs: Those appear in a normal game.
   Father(D13, C13): you can meet in early in Drassen, he will be either in his
church (morning) or in the bar(afternoon). Give him a drink(any will do) 
and keep on talking friendly until he tell you about dead body and the 
lack of graveyards. He can be in the 2 lower area of Drassen.

   Keith(G9): The storekeeper of Cambria will sell you glass jars you can use
to collect blood, they will be about 50% conditions(it will be enough). 
He normally sell you 3 jars. If you buy his stock it will replenish over time
and he sell them cheap.

   Jake(I6): He is the father of Mad dog, and he hold a store in Estoni.
He sell 3 heavily damaged but cheap jars for 1$ each. His stock will 
replenish with time.

   Mickey(?): He is a wandering npc, usually found in Drassen bar. He will 
buy animal parts including aliens one, he do give you more money by 
piece than Gabby but his buying budget is limited to 4000$ a day or so.

   Bob(F8): He is in Cambria hospital, on a wheel chair. Wounded and 
traumatized, he survived an Alien attack.(or bloodcats on realistic mode)
You can get some information from him. 

   Fred(D13): He is the head miner of Drassen, located in the mine office near 
the mine entrance. When the aliens invade his mine he will tell you.
You must also talk to him once the bugs has been cleared out so the 
production can restart.

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Related items
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1)Elixir: Gabby sell His elixir for 500$ and it is supposed to make you 
  invisible to aliens but it doesn't seem to work at all. Elixir is used like 
  a drug by clicking on a character portrait while holding the jar with the 
  mouse.

2)Glass jar: In order to use the glass jar you simply equip it on a character 
   hand and then use it on a dead alien to get it filled with blood. The final
   result will depend on character's dexterity and the jar's condition as 
   there is a chance the filling process fail if either is too low.
   You can do the same with dead humans but won't be able to sell it back.
   Expect about 50$ per alien blood jar. Make sure you only take blood of
   adults or teens as the blood of larvas is considered human...
   Glass jar can be bought at various shops(see npcs above).
   3 jars can be found in the aliens lair in wildfire version.

3)Aliens parts: There are 3 types of these: Flesh, claw or organs. 
  They randomly drop from dead aliens
  (the dropping rate is lower than bloodcats parts).
  They can be sold to Gabby or Mickey for high amount of cash.

4)royal jelly: This is the major reason why you should do the sci fi mode.
  You get 5 pieces of jelly when you kill the queen plus you have a small
  chance to find another piece in Tixa dungeon near the cavern entrance.
  (wild fire version only) The jelly is like compound 18 but better, simply 
  use the jelly on a piece of armor to improve it. It is possible to 
  obtain more than 105% of armor with 3 spectras gears and ceramic plates 
  all at 100% you can get 117%. 
  Be aware that using the jelly on an item that already have comp.18 on will 
  destroy it.
  (you will simply lose both items!). The bonuses are:
   +4% if used on helmet
   +7% if used to leg
   +11% if used on armor
***According to Harri Pulkkinen:
   You can get more Royal Jelly by using Jars on queen corpse. Jars with  a 
   durability of 28% are ok to get more Royal Jelly and I done it with my own 
   made guy ( Dex 75 ). You should try this out.***



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	The Aliens bugs(The Crepitus)
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 These are the new enemies you will face, there are several variant:

1)Larvae
  These are quite rare, they cannot attack and only move slowly.
  Use them to practice punching(make sure the adults are not close by).

2)teen(small white)
  Smaller than adults, they crawl slower than adult. 
  Move still faster than your mercs and use only weak ranged attacks.

3)Adult Male(large green)
  Those are getting tough, They are large, dark green and fast.
  They mostly do ranged attack, a green gas that will kill your units in 
  1 or 2 rounds if they succeed. They have a moderate accuracy.
  ***Sometime they do a critical hit that cause instant death.
  ***The ranged attack will leave a green gaz, make sure to stay away of it.

4)Adult female(large brown)
  The female are the toughest of the aliens. They are as large as the males 
  but faster. They mostly attack in melee but will do ranged sometime.  
  If they are in range and can perform multiples attacks that will kill your
  mercenaries quickly.

5)Crepitus queen
  The largest alien, only found once in the third level sublevel, you will 
  find the queen alone in a room. She cannot move but her attack is devastatig
  most likely an instantly kill(unless you get an interrupt).
  You need to kill her in order to complete the quest and restore the mine 
  production. She have an extremely high amount of HP.

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	Combat tips
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 Like Rat tell you, you can try to shoot the bugs in the butt, but in reality
it is hard to pull because you rarely surprise them. I suggest you take 
weapons with high damage output with HP rounds. Automatics like submachineguns
and assault rifles loaded with HP rounds should do the trick. You can also use
shotguns with buckshots with high agility mercenary. The HP rounds seem to do
a bit more damage than AP on them. In order to keep the upper hand in battle,
I suggest you aim less and shoot more, they wont stay far form you or seek 
cover anyway. Oh and bring the night vision goggles with you, that will help.

***according to 3717426 the robot merc will be invisible the bugs. even the
the queen wont be attacking it. So by using the robot you can clear the lair
easely.

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	Sci-fi mode quest
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	In order to start the sci-fi. quest you need to go in the Tixa dungeon
(J6). Once it is clear you will notice a hole(something not present in regular 
mode). In the wildfire there will be alien related items on a shelve near the 
entrance. When you enter the hole you will quickly notice the aliens coming
at you(it may be a surprise if it is your first game). They are not many
but enough to wipe your party. Make sure you searched every nook and cranny as
the larvas maybe be hidden there. ***Bug alert, when you kill the final alien
make the game acknowledge your victory: the music changed, the journal is 
updated and one of your merc comment on the battle. If it is not the case, then
The battle is not over(even if all alien are dead) and the quest will never 
start. Just reload a previous save to correct if things went wrong.

	Soon after this battle you will get a cutscene with Deidrana and 
Elliot where she order him to stop feeding the Crepitus...Things are going to 
go bad when they have to hunt for food.

About 24h after this event Fred*, the head miner of Drassen will tell you that
the production of his mine stopped because of monsters were spotted inside the 
mine. Now I suggest you go quickly to Drassen mine(D13) because as time 
progress aliens will start attacking the city. I am not sure they can win but, 
they can kill your militia and you don't get any money from that mine as long
they are still there. Oh and make sure you auto resolve the battles it will 
save the live of many of your militia. They seem to attack in the morning every
24h pass the mine closure.

So as soon as possible head to D13. You can talk to Fred but you don't need to
at the time. Make some preparation before going into the mine as it will quite
a long trek(about 6 battles with few supply to be found), bring at least 4 
mercenary, level 3 or more (to get enough interrupts). Load every gun with HP 
rounds, everyone should have a back-up gun and 2 extras magazines. Do not 
forget grenades and explosives(TNT or hmx will do). 

I will not describe in details the following section as the ennemies are
totaly random(sometime there will be none in the mine and the number and type
will vary a lot).

When you are ready go into the mine and you will quickly notice no one is 
inside. As you progress you will notice some females aliens. 
There are only a few of them and they will lead you to their nest.
Try to spot an hole on the ground (similar to the one in Tixa) and enter it.

You are now in the bugs nest. So be careful, move slowly and kill every
and any aliens you see. Make sure to pick up some blood and the parts they 
leave for later. There will be 3 area on sublevel 2 and then 2 areas on 
sublevel 3 to explore. The farther you go, the more males, larvas and teens
you meet. When they detect your presence, the bugs will quickly surround you
so try to find a spot by a wall or near the exit in case to you need to retreat
or seek cover.

Carefully explore every area, you may find some supply near skeletons.
Once you are on sublevel 3, the queen is nearby.
This part is quite small but be very careful of the queen, as she can kill you
quite fast (but remember she can't move at all). In order to kill her I suggest
to either throw grenades until she die or use explosive to blow her up.
There is a cheap way to kill her by using mustard gas but it seem to cause a
bug that prevent you from getting the royal jelly. Once she is dead, you can 
get your loot of jelly and use it carefully on your best pieces of armor.

For extra fun you can blow the eggs behind the queen. But thaqt serve no 
purpose.

There should be no aliens left when you leave the caverns, on the way back
make sure to talk to Fred the head miner so he can restart the ore extraction.

Congratulation you completed the sci-fi side quest. Hope you enjoyed it like I
did.

*I heard rumors that other mines can be infested by aliens but I never saw any.

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This document is Copyright 2009 by Charles-Etienne Raynault
Jagged alliance 2 is Copyright 1999 by Sirtech
Jagged alliance 2 wildfire Copyright 2003 by Strategy first
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