Noctopolis

Noctopolis

Submitted by: Dj Simo

If you're stuck and don't want a complete spoiler, make sure you go through
a wild pixel-hunting frenzy, or maybe just a thorough re-examination of the
following screens which seemed to me to be the most tricky:
Outside the cathedral
In Shadowlair
The second fan room of the maze
In the thorny room in the dreamworld
The furnace room near Cygnus Construction late in the game

Also, don't forget to talk to the newsstand clerk or Hall of Records clerk
(who is that small shadow below the center of the viewing screen in the Hall)
about new topics or locations in order to open them up on the map or else
you'll get stuck pretty quickly.  Most of the time simply talking in the
conversation thread isn't good enough--you must ask a person about a
particular topic from the conversation icons in order for new map locations
to appear.  Talking with Stiletto is also very productive after some
encounters when you're totally unsuccessful.


APARTMENT:
Go to the adjacent room.  Get the sweepstakes material off the top
of the desk.  Get at the comic.  When you wake up and the buzzer rings,
tell the delivery person that you're Peter Gray and give her the
sweepstakes ticket.  After reading the new comic, use the silver token to
be transported to Noctropolis.

MAIN STREET:
Talk to the newsstand clerk and offer him the comic in trade for the
newspaper.  Ask him about Father Desmond to open up the cathedral on the
travelling map.

OUTSIDE CATHEDRAL:
Talk to the boy sitting on the fence, if you like.  Get the wire to the
left of the fence and the loose metal fence strut.  Open the access panel
in the right fencepost.  Use the wire and strut to kill the gargoyle.

INSIDE CATHEDRAL:
Go to the confession booth.  Save (you can die here).  Ask with Father
Desmond about Stiletto.  Note that he gives you a skull jawbone.

STILETTO'S APARTMENT:
Try talking to Stiletto if you like.  She'll just reject you now, though.

MAIN STREET:
Go to the Hall of Records.  Use the bone to find out about the masoleum
from the records clerk.  (Note that the clerk is the small shadowy figure
just below the middle of the huge screen.  You can talk to him again
later if necessary.)

MASOLEUM:
Go to the side gate and door.  Move the corpse in the foreground.  Get the
key from underneath the corpse.  Read the tag on the locked coffin.  Use
the key to unlock it and get inside the coffin.

INSIDE MASOLEUM:
After getting bitten, move the statue in the back.  Go to the den below
via the stairs.  Get the spear from one of the rightmost statues to pry
open the grating and make sure to move the pillow in order to expose
and look at the Succubus' journal.

INSIDE CATHEDRAL:
Talk to Father Desmond and hunt for the bomb by moving the pillow in front
of the altar.  Grab the chalice and fill it with holy water.  Save the
game (you can die in the following scene at Shadowlair).  After Stiletto
appears, use the chalice to splash holy water onto the Succubus.

SHADOWLAIR:
Talk with Stiletto, attacking back every time she attacks you and then
kiss her after she's incapacitated.  Otherwise she'll head back to her
apartment where you can apologize and get her to join you again.  Examine
the two hidden panels in the back and rightmost columns and get the
Darksheer suit, noctroglyph, and grenade.  Goto the pool in order to
charge the grenade and noctroglyph when used.

SUNSPIRE BUILDING:
| Talk to the guard and try to convince him you're a city inspector.  After
| failing to get into the site, talk to Stiletto and get her to distract the
| guard.  Go to the wooden planks and get the glass cutter.  Move the bricks
| on the lift and move the left lift motor to raise it up to the second floor.
| Grab a shard of glass from the bucket there, then go back to the area near
| the guard.  Look at the truck to find out about the greenhouse.  You must
| have heard Sam Jenkins' name from the guard, otherwise talk to him again.

| *IMPORTANT*  You must talk to the guard and masquerade as a city inspector,
| eventually find out Sam Jenkins' name and then proceed to Cygnus and talk
| with Ms. Shoto, otherwise a debris item later in the game may not appear.
| if you end up in Dr. Macabre's Maze before you've talked with Ms. Shoto,
| reload a saved game and go through the Cygnus bit first.  You must hear
| Sam Jenkins' name from the guard and talk with Shoto early-on in order
| to finish the game.

CYGNUS CONSTRUCTION:
Talk to the secretary, Wanda.  Mention how warm it is in the lobby, and
agree to convince Leon the workman to fix the air conditioning in order
to see Sam Jenkins.  (If you came here earlier, this wouldn't have been
a possible conversation thread.)  Go through the right door into the A/C
room.  Talk with Leon to turn on the air.  When this is unsuccessful, talk
to Stiletto and let her find out about the A/C.  Move the red switch to
turn the A/C back on.  Back in the lobby, get Wanda to let you into
Sam Jenkins' office.  Talk with him about his boss, Ms. Shoto.  Go back
into the lobby and talk with Wanda about Ms. Shoto.  Pick up the elevator
access card by the desk and when Wanda goes upstairs, head for the elevator
and use the card.  Talk with Ms. Shoto on the 99th floor about the Sunspire
building and it's source of funding.

MAIN STREET:
Talk to the newsstand clerk and ask about the greenhouse in order to open
up that location on the map.

GREENHOUSE:
Make sure to investigate the truck to the right.  Get the seeds and the
plant formula.  Use the glass cutter on the glass panel to the left of
the door and go inside.  Sit through the unintelligible speech by Greenthumb,
then use the liquidark grenade to slip free of the plants.  Get Stiletto and
go back outside.  Pick up the opera notice that is outside the greenhouse.

SHADOWLAIR:
Heal yourself by going into the liquidark pool.

MAIN STREET:
Ask the records clerk in the Hall of Records about the opera house in
order to open up the opera on the map.

OPERA HOUSE:
Talk to the prostitute if you want.  Go inside and talk with Tophat
and eventually agree to get the lens for her.

OBSERVATORY:
Use the noctroglyph to become invisible.  Go to the front door of the
observatory and use the seeds and plant formula to crack a entrance hole
in the wall.  Save the game (it's easy to end the game here).  Go inside
and watch the pattern of the three searchlights moving across the floor.
Walk to the lower right portion of the screen and pick up the screwdriver.
Wait until the timing is right and walk across the screen to the left steps
near the oil can.  Get the can and journal from the platform lift, then move
the lift up to the telescope.  Use the oil and screwdriver to open the
telescope panel, then get the lens.  Move the lift down and save the game.
Walk back to the right and then to the exit doors in between searchlight
sweeps.

OPERA HOUSE:
Talk with Tophat again, giving her the lens.  After she wounds you and
leaves and you wake up, talk with the janitor and get him to free you.
Save the game in case you end up running out of time before healing.
Get Tophat's knives.  Look at the collection of items near the large
disk.  Try moving both stage controls to find the location of the electric
trap door.  Move the trap door back up and get a brick from the pile
there.  Stand on the trap door and use the brick to throw it at the trap
door control, activating it and moving you underneath the stage.  Look
around in the area there, getting the jewelry and makeup kit.  Move the
costumes to your right, exposing the door.  After you go through the door
into the next room, use the screwdriver on top of the boiler to pry open
the next door, then turn on the water supply and use the hose to knock
down the freshly laid mortar.  Go through that door and talk with the gang.
Trade the knives and jewelry with the gang to get the information that
Stiletto was taken to the butcher shop.

SHADOWLAIR:
Heal yourself in the liquidark pool.

MAIN STREET:
Find out the butcher shop location from the newsstand clerk.

BUTCHER SHOP:
Talk with the butcher, trading a newspaper for some sausage.  Go through
the left door into the meat locker.  Get one of the meat hooks and move the
carasses to the right and expose to door.  After you've been trapped on
the operating gurney, move the acid with your foot and then move the
tray just to the left of your feet, freeing Stiletto.  Grab one of the
empty beakers from the wall and leave.  Save, in case you run out of
time later (this can be critical with a puzzle later).

MAZE:
Act quickly in order to have time for the puzzle at the end of the maze.
In the corpse room, get some battery acid using the beaker.  Go through
the door to the first fan room.  Go through the fan into the second fan room.
Get the wheel from the left pile of junk and use the glass to cut a rope
free.  Go back into the first fan room and use the rope to swing the weight
through the wall.  In the next room, use the acid to dissolve the chain
and create a path to the next door.  In the following hanging sphere room,
go the central door (before the wooden segment of the catwalk).  Past this
door is a large pipe room.  Get the cement rod from the floor and go back
to the catwalk/hanging sphere area.  Use the rod to reinforce the catwalk
and then cross the catwalk to the next room.  There, use the wheel to cut
off the water supply.  Head back through the catwalk room to where you
found the cement rod.  Go into the pipe and ahead to the glowing end of
the tunnel.  Talk to the victim and offer him the makeup kit.  Save the
game so you can have repeated attempts at the puzzle, if necessary.
Align the pegs so that each row has three white, blue, or red pegs in
a row, matching the arrows at the ends of each row.

One working puzzle solution:
Call the pegs in the white, red, and blue rows, 1-3, 4-6, and 7-9,
respectively, and the out-of-door peg 0.  The positions look
like this:
1           4
2       5
3   6
9
8
7    0

One solution (though perhaps not the shortest) is to move in order:
7 2 5 9 6 3 8 5 9 6 3 8 2 5 9 3 6 2 8 4 1 7 0.

SHADOWLAIR:
Heal yourself in the liquidark pool.  Watch the completely gratuitous
nudity, then get transported to Drealmer's realm.

DREAMWORLD:
Talk to Drealmer, if you want.  Get the bucket of paint near the funhouse.
Go inside the grinning face.  Go into the tower there with the demon
and get the lamp on the floor.  Go out and into the clown's mouth and
pick up the dentist's pick.  Go back outside and use the pick on the
boarded-up funhouse.  Go inside and get a spare match.  Go back into
the grinning face, then move the screen near the clown.  Go through
the screen door into the thorny room.  There, use the lamp to incinerate
the corpse.  Pick up the egg sack/cross that falls down.  Grab a strand
of web from beside where the egg sack fell down.  Go back to the demon
and use the egg sack/cross.  Grab the diamond and head back to the
screen room/table area.  Use the diamond to cut the glass, move the
pepper shaker, and get some pepper.  Go back inside the clown mouth
and use the pepper.  Get the brush that is coughed up and use it just
outside the clown's mouth on the canvas.  Go through the canvas door
to the rook tower and use the web to climb up to the window.  Move
the mat to find a key there, then go through the door and talk with
Drealmer and fall.

CYGNUS CONSTRUCTION:
Talk with Ms. Shoto again on the 99th floor.  Find out about Whisperman
from her.  Go outside the Cygnus Building to the manhole.  Grab a spar
from the lamppost base and use it to pry up the manhole.  Go into the
manhole.  Search the debris in the furnace room; pick up chunks of
broken chairs and put them into the furnace to open up the floor grating.
(The broken chair segments aren't there until you talk with Shoto this
late in the game.)  Go through the grate and talk with Whisperman to find
out Flux's location.  Go back to the Cygnus elevator and use the journal's
code to head for the roof.  Use the meathook to swing across the electric
line to the Sunspire building.

SUNSPIRE INTERIOR:
Head up two flights of stairs, getting the broom handle, tape, and rope.
Use the sausage and rope to get rid of the dog, then use the handle, hook
and tape to retrieve the end of the rope and swing across.

SUNSPIRE TOP:
Talk with Lumisheer and use the gold token when the quintessence is created.


Finally, watch the inane outtakes during the credits and hope that the
wide-open opportunity for a sequel results in a less sexist game with
better acting in the video clips, more complex puzzles and situations,
less cheesy dialogue, and a hero without such a dorky hairstyle.


Odds and ends:
DYNATEX/INCARNATE BUILDING:
You can talk with the guard there and also visit the Neon Noose to talk with
the former Dynatex/Incarnate exec.  You need to follow the 'special
equipment' thread in the conversation with Sam Jenkins in order for this
to pop up on the map, though.

BORNICK MANSION:
You have to read the tag on the coffin at the Masoleum for this to
appear on the map.  The widow will talk to you with varying levels
of information if you pretend you're an investigator for the police
department.