Character Creation
Put at least 20 points into Comprehend so you get four skill points when you gain a level. Alocate no more than 10 points each to strength and charisma. (You won't need to increase charisma past 10.) Give 15 each to Stamina and Dexterity. Try to build Speed quickly while advancing through higher levels. Later on Strength, Stamina and Dexterity can be increased in the Towers of Caldorre for $1,000 per point. You can increase any characteristic by one point for each level or rank achieved. Early on, forcus on increasing Stamina and Speed to 20. Start with at least one character who has Speed of 20, so the crew can enter the Sky Elk Club on level 793 of Caldore's third tower to find two Energy Blades (far better than the Gyro Pike), two Laser Reflect Armors and an Artesian Lens.
Assign skill points to Contact Weapons and Projectile Weapons at the outset. Buy a Gyro Pike for $160 on Ceyjavik at x212y480. Contact and Edged Weapons save money on ammo. Gyro Pike is the second best Contact Weapon. Loot your armory for enough cash to buy Gyro Pikes. If you opt to retrieve the Energy Blades from the Sky Elk Club, build Edged Weapons instead of Contacts.
Grager's Yacht
Right after warpoing into Caldorre, you will be attacked by Raiders. Fly quickly to the little blue ships (use long-range scans). When blue ships appear on the upper left-hand or main screen, target them. Most of them are transport vessels. You want the space yacht, which will hail you aboard. Talk to Grager till you get enhanced movement and targeting capabilities. Back on your ship, use "PRG" program and set the lasers to target engines. (When attacking Raiders, you must destroy their engines before you can board their ships.) You are now a match for the Raiders.
Norjaenn Shotguns
Don't go to your Ship's Armory yet. Go to Norjaenn (hyperwarp, using solar hyperdrives, which is cheaper than using thrusters over long distances). You will find chests with weapons and shotguns in the little western town at 1728, 992 on Norjaenn. One shotgun is in the south-western office (in the office building in the northwest part of town). A large Armory with shotguns and good armor is in the Ranchers Bar in the northeast part of town. The Armory is behind Kann's office. A chest with weapons is just behind the door to the room oof the office in the Farmer's Bar in the southeast part of town. In the Offworlders' Bar in the northcentral portion of town, extra ammo is in the room in the northwest.
Money and Statistics
You need money to buy ammunition. Except for the shotguns and steel-mesh armor, most good weapons and armor are found, not purchased. (By the time you need a Kevlar Suit or Laser Reflect, you will be in the Battle Station and able to get combat armor for free in that loacation.) Items not shown on pages 32 or 33 (Editor: The weapons index portion of the game manual) are treasure and should be sold for money as soon as possible. With Science Runs you can safely net $500 per mission, more for going to Norjaenn. Mine Elonium on Caldorre and sell it on Norjaenn. You can board the Raiders for reward money; the Tesselators are worth $600. In the middle and end game, selling Tesselators nets you most of the needed cash.
How to Gain Experience
Each time you go up a level, get enough money to increase your Dexterity or Stamina. A good place to advance levels after the initial few is with Ice Tigers at Borkin on Ceyjavik at 730,426. Enter an entrance room. Kill all the tigers that attack, then go back to your ATV and repeat the process. The Tigers will regenerate and you will get the same experience over and over again. You can repeat this until you get the needed experience or get bored out of your skull. The building with the most Ice Tigers is the Command Center in th southcentral area from the Science Outpost. Follow the ice canyon to the northwest of the Outpost, where there is another area to loot and kill vermin. Kill only red creatures. Kill only red creatures (Editors: Red creatures are those that show up as red dots on your radar). Do not fire on blue creatures unless they are Fighter Pilots.
Kill only red dots. Dark- and light-blue characters are friendly and should not be killed. Killing friendlies can result in loosing hard earned statistics. Killing dark blue characters may result in loosing energy that is acquired and needed later. To increase the levels of energy acquired later, travel in the ATV over the surface of the planet and heal injured animals. Do this before you start to earn energy points by solving some of the puzzles of the game.
As you advance in levels, initially increase your Weapons skills, then Reconaissance. Gunery is important only to the pilot. Mining is of negligible value.
Missions
As you earn more experience, check the "FED" channel for raids on convoys (yellow ships). This channel is used mainly as your source of missions, which will lead to treasure and the eventual solution to the mystery of Future Magic. You must wait for the missions to be displayed before you go and solve the riddle. Certain actions are necessary to activate special events. When docking at Caldorre, your ship will always be docked on the southern corridor in the first docking bay to branch off the corridor to the west.
Locations of Important Characters and Artifacts
- Alex Kann: bar on Caldorre tower #3. Bribe him with $2,000 for information.
- Grager and his assistant: on space yacht (little blue dot (ship) traveling about the Caldorre Solar System. Grager gives your ship enhanced movement and targetting abilities.
- Robert Kann: in the Rancher's bar in the western town on Norjaenn
- Grayper: in the Farmer bar in the western town on Norjaenn
- Jason Dephard: owner of the Offworlders' Bar in the western town on Norjaenn
- (Also talk to one other light blue character in the western town on Norjaenn)
- Warhawka leader: at the beacon that appears on Caldorre
- Koshal leader: in bear cave at x1012:6y622:8
- Shadar: first take to the dark blue Farmer in the Farmers' bar in the western town of Norjaenn, then go to the Stryker Rift at x1169y677. Follow the canyon to the cave entrance. Inside is Shadar, who is one of Malcolm Trandle's henchmen.
- Sentinals and Kedro, their leader: x922.7y1121:14
- Virginia Karamatu: in science laboratory on Ceyjavik, in the northwest part of lab
- Science laboratory: follow the ice canyon northeast of Borkin on Ceyjavik to the entrance in the snow at the dead end of the canyon.
- Key of Thor: level five of Volcano that's reached by using the sub in the sub bay at the northern end of the corriedor found at the bottom of the stairs in the Science Lab
- Book of Spells: level two of the Battlestation at x1786y958
- Malcolm Trandle: y1785x952 on level 2 of the Battlestation
- Battlestation: found by hyperwarpong ion your space ship from y2220x1321 to y3884x3305
Mission One: the Koshals on Caldorre
Talk to the Warhaka leader in the funny looking hut in the middle of the village. He will tell you where to find the Koshals. Keep using LNG in the mazes to check the location of your party. Don't bother exploring every room unless you are curious. Treasure is usually found at the entrance to the rooms or on the wall directly opposite the entrance (except in the Farmer's armory). Armories are in out of the way places. Have room for treasure: there is at least one Tessalator in the armory that is opposite the Koshal leader in the Koshal temple in the far northwest portion of the maze. Once you talk to the Koshal leader go back and talk to the Warhawka leader and settle their dispute.
Mission Two: Science Lab and Key of Thor
Go to Ceyjak when assistance is requested. Go to the command center. Enter the door and take the left corridor. One step toward the room at the end of this corridor, you will find a chest. Take the right-hand branch off the corridor and go into the second room on your left. Walk through the room until "1) View monitor" appears in your action window. Talk to V. Karamatu. Follow the ice cavern and find Virginia Karamatu in the northwest of the first floor of the laboratory. Loot the armory east of Karamatu and go to the second floor by the tubes, also found east of Karamatu. Follow the corridor north to the aquarium and sub bay entrance. (Further down this long corridor are the Electronic Arts offices, where you can gain experience by killing the EA rowdies.)
Work your way to the largest room and go to the far side to find the submarine. It automatically guides itself to the volcano entrance. The volcano is full of acid-breathing dragons. Your goal is to find the good armories and treasure and get past the dragons in the last series of rooms to get the Key of Thor. Do not get bogged down fighting dragond in this last set of rooms after and north of the temple on level five. Follow the passage around to the west and north and take the passage to the north off the map and away from an infinite supply of deadly green dragons. Get the key, which will take you out of the volcano to level one of the laboratory northeast of Borkin.
Mission Three: the Farmer-Rancher Dispute
Go to Norjaenn and speak with Jason Dephard. Then you must talk to the Farmers and Ranchers until a farmer tells where the rift is (read paragraph 53 in the paragraph book). Go to the rift and talk to Robert Kahn and Graeger. Convince the leaders that you will retrieve their kidnapped children. Then go down one level from the northeast portion of the screen. Use LNG when you get down the "elevator." Loot the armory in center screen and go to the north, then west, then south to contront first Shadar's henchmen and then Shadar. When you defeat Shadar, Dephard will appear and tell you where to find the Sentinels (read paragraph 30) at y992:7x1121:14. You will now gain the powers are (A)ttributes (activate by targetting with the space bar then pressing A). This lets you Mind Probe the Raiders.
Mission Four: Mind-Probing the Raiders
Save the game and spend some time programming the computers. Save the game, then attempt to program the computers. If successful, save and try again. If you fai, restore the saved game and try again. This is a time-consuming process, so be patient and wait till your communications officer finishes his or her job before you do anything else.
Board a Raider ship and sequester a Raider. Target him, activate attributes, select Mind Probe. The Raider does not have to surrender to be Mind-probed, just be quick and do it before your men kill him, or get him where your men cannot get at him. (Only one Raider in 30 surrenders, and when you are able to Mind Probe, even fewer surrender.) Do not talk to the Raider, or he will kill himself before talking. The Raider will give you the coordinates for the Battlestation. Hyperwarp from y2220x1321 to y3884x3305.
Mission Five: the Book of Spells
First go to Malcolm's chambers. He won't be there yet, but his treasure chest well. It holds a Neuron Flail, Edged Spinner, Neutron Gun (20-60 damage), Burbolator (worth $20,000), EA Passcard, etc. See mission six below for the route to Malcolm's chambers. Avoid the Battlestation until your characters are Commander or High Lieutenant level. Fight Ice Tigers to gain needed levels. Board Raiders for the Tesselators to raise money to increase attributes. Use Energy Blades or Gyro Pikes to kill the Tigers and conserve the needed cash.
The Battlestation is arranged on an 8 x 8 grid of 20 x 20 maps. There ar efive basic 20 x 20 map patterns scattered throughout the 8 x 8 grid. The five patterns on level one are solid rock, space ship bay, a map containing elevators, a map with an amory and a map with one ship tube.
All armories contain on LR laser, one thermocaster, three Crysprism (ammunition for all blasters), one Thermal Pak, 1-3 AK Magazines, 2-3 Gauss Magazines, 2 Uzi Magazines, 1 Tesselator, 1 combat armor. Quickly visit at least five armories and equip your men with thermocasters, LR lasers and combat armor. Do not throw away or leave behind any Energy Blades, Neuron Flails or Edged Spinners. Energy Blades are very good weapons for walking around the Battlestation with chracters at the level of captain, and save lots of ammunition. (Obtain the Energy Blades as loot along the way. The armories can only be entered from below or from the lower parts of the east and west sides of the maze 20 x 20 square. Use the long-range scan to pick up the general shape of these squares. All armory squares are exactly alike, as are all squares of a particlular type for a particular level.
All elevator levels have a ship bay tube to the south, and the elevator shafts to level two just south and east of center. Ship bay tubes transport you back to where your ship is parked and can be used as an emergency escape hatch out of the Battlestation. All squares except the solid ones have ship bay tubes. Armory ship bay tubes are north of center to the west and east. Use a long-range scan to find them.
To reach the Book of Spells, go from the bay where you ship is parked to y956x1792, x956y1793, x957y1793, x957y1792, x958y1792, x958y1791, x958y1790, x959y1790, then straight west to x959y1787, x958y1787, x958y1786. Here you will find the elevator to the second level where the book is located. Do not move. Save the game now. Use long-range scan to find the Book. The corridor that leads to the north has a guard with a rapid-fire Thermocaster. Before this battle, equip your men with Thermocasters and LR Lasers. STep into range, turn around and walk away. This allows the men behind your point man to take a shot at this character one at a time, in a wave as you move back throught the ranks. This technique is very effective in battle where men are wounded. The wave motion speeds up firing and speeds up healing the injured soldiers. If someone dies, reboot and try again.
The book is to the north and west of this guard. A Plasma Gun is found in the room just west of the guard, so have at least one weapons slot open to get this valuable weapon. Go back up to level one, then go south to the ship bay transport tube and take it back to your ship bay. Your ship bay will always be x955y1792.
Mission Six: Malcolm Trandle
To reach Malcolm go to y956x1792, y956x1791, y956x1790, y956x1789, y955x1789, y955x1788, y954x1788. Take the elevator down to level 3. From there (y954x1788) go to y954x1787, y953x1787, y953x1786, y953x1785, y952x1785. Take the elevator to level two, where you will find Malcolm. (Guards and Raiders on level three of the Battlestation are tough but the armories have plasma guns, and plenty of ammunition and treasure.)
To fight Malcolm, hold down the irght arrow or the 6 key on the numeric keypad until the dark blue "ATT" rectangles appear in the upper right and left corner of the screen. Then hit the left or number 4 key once, twice, three times for as long as the ATT rectangle is visable. Dark-blue is not good enough: ATT must be printed on the lower portion of the rectangle. The right arrow appears to change the rectangle, the left arrow appears to activate it. Activating a DEF red rectangle just gets you wounded.
Copyright 1991 by Alfred Giovetti. Use of this walkthrough for publication without written permission is prohibited.
References
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