Complete Story Walkthrough
Pick a chapter below, then use the Previous / Next buttons at the foot of each one.
How to read the tags. Every pickup, document and detour in the walkthrough is tagged and colour-coded, so you can skim a chapter for one kind of thing without reading all of it.
| Tag | What it marks |
|---|---|
| ITEM | A consumable or an upgrade part |
| KEY ITEM | Opens a door, a locker or a path |
| WEAPON | A weapon, listed with its full stats |
| ARMOR | Body armor, with health, MP and slots |
| FILE 01 | A document you can read, numbered in the order you find it |
| CODE | The answer to a keypad, dial or puzzle |
| SAVE POINT | A telephone you can save at |
| BOSS | A named fight |
| MISSABLE | Gone for good if you walk past it |
| SIDE QUEST | Optional — tap it for the full steps |
| ENDING STEP | A choice that decides your ending |
PROLOGUEM.I.S.T. & Akropolis TowerLos Angeles — September 4
A hostage call at a high-rise turns into Aya's first field assignment against the creatures M.I.S.T. was built to hunt. The tower is a closed loop: you unlock a route, the story advances, and every room you already emptied fills up again. That is deliberate — it is where most of your early experience comes from.
M.I.S.T. Headquartersbefore you leave — and this all closes behind you
1
SIDE QUEST 1
The shooting range shuts for the rest of the game.Five levels sit downstairs, and each one pays out once — re-clearing a level you have already beaten gives nothing. Once you leave for Dryfield the range is gone for good, so run all five now and collect the prizes from Jodie at the shop.
The range opens again briefly when you come back from the tower, so anything you cannot clear now you can retry then — but not after that.
| Level | What it throws at you | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stationary targets, no clock | 50× 9mm Hydra |
| 2 | Moving targets, two minutes | Ringer’s Solution |
| 3 | Civilians mixed in — hitting one is a heavy penalty | Hunter Goggles |
| 4 | Parasite Energy allowed, denser waves | Lipstick |
| 5 | Attachments allowed, targets shoot back | Shoulder Holster |
2
Jodie’s shop. Two guns and two vests, and nowhere near enough points for all of them on a first visit. If you can only afford one thing, make it the shotgun.
PA3 · 12 gauge · 3 shells · rate 2 · 1,000 BP · cheap, and enough gun for the whole tower
M4A1 · 5.56mm · 30 rounds, 90 with the clip holder · rate 85 · 2,450 BP · the platform every muzzle attachment in the game bolts onto — worth saving for even if you cannot afford it yet
Turtle Vest · +5 HP · +20 MP · 3 slots · MP regenerates, resists paralysis · 1,680 BP
Combat Armor · +40 HP · +10 MP · 5 slots · motion detector, resists silence · 3,250 BP
3
ITEM Recovery 3 in the garage, in the medical stash behind the red SUV. Pierce briefs you here, and there is a telephone save nearby.
Akropolis Tower — The Squareground floor
4
SAVE POINT A telephone with a blue light sits in the lobby. Pick up the KEY ITEM Map from the white plaque on the statue base before anything else.
5
ITEM Recovery 1 on the officer lying under the billboard, and ITEM Recovery 2 on the second body by the guard rail to the south. A crate of unlimited 9mm is in the stairway nook off the lobby — top up here every time you pass.
6
An officer dying in the east hallway hands you the KEY ITEM Cafeteria Key. One Stranger waits on the patio beyond, facing away from you. Hit it from behind — a back attack does far more than a straight exchange, and this is the room to learn that in.
Cafeteriafirst boss
7
FILE 01 Mendel Magazine on one of the tables.
Only on this visit. The magazine is worth a large bounty bonus at the end of the game and it is not here later. Take it before you trigger the fight.
8
BOSS The mutated woman. A civilian transforms in front of you.
Great Stranger — 300 HP
Slow, melee only, and it comes at you in straight lines — the tables are the whole fight. Keep one between you and it, shoot, step around when it commits. Pyrokinesis lands well early on. It speeds up noticeably at about half health, so do not get greedy in a corner.
Afterwards, examine the body for the KEY ITEM Metallic Implant and pick up the Recovery 2 it leaves behind.
Afterwards, examine the body for the KEY ITEM Metallic Implant and pick up the Recovery 2 it leaves behind.
9
ITEM In the kitchen behind the counter: Recovery 1 on the officer and a Stim in the refrigerator.
Back through the towerthe first respawn wave
10
This is the pattern for the whole tower. Beating the cafeteria boss refills rooms you already cleared — two Strangers on the patio, one in the kitchen, and eight rats in the cafeteria hallway. If you are chasing the kill percentage, sweep back through now rather than at the end. Phoning M.I.S.T. from the lobby afterwards updates your map and seeds another wave on top.
11
Fight the rats from the mouth of the cafeteria hallway rather than walking in among them — short bursts, and they come to you.
Security Roomthe two locks
12
KEY ITEM Blue Key is in the yellow wall box marked KEY, in the corridor on the way in. The panel inside has two slots. The blue key goes in the left slot and opens the escalator route onward. The right slot stays empty until you find the red key much later, and that one drains the fountain.
13
FILE 02
The bridge code — and where it comes from
A note on the wall in here shows a musical stave with numbered notes. The trick is that odd numbers sit on the lines and even numbers sit in the spaces between them, counted from the bottom up; read the marked notes in order and you get the three digits.
The answer is 561, and it is the same on every playthrough. You will need it at the bridge panel later — nothing in this game is re-rolled, so you can write it down once and never think about it again.
The answer is 561, and it is the same on every playthrough. You will need it at the bridge panel later — nothing in this game is re-rolled, so you can write it down once and never think about it again.
Fountain, Forked Road & Observatorythe middle floors
14
ITEM MP Boost 2 in the bin by the fountain entrance, and a ITEM Protein Capsule down a path you only find by examining the red-leaved tree twice. The gate here stays shut until the fountain is drained.
15
ITEM Penicillin on the officer near the lift at the forked road — examine the body twice. One more Stranger stands with its back to you.
16
ARMOR Tactical Vest on the bench in the observatory. Equip it immediately. It is free, and it is better than anything on sale for the next several hours. Two Strangers are in the room with it.
Tactical Vest · +50 HP · +10 MP · 7 slots · quick fire, health regenerates · free — nothing Jodie or Douglas sells comes close
Leather Jacket (what you are wearing) · +10 HP · no MP · 3 slots · resists paralysis
Promenade & Sanctuarythe rifle and the red key
17
WEAPON MP5A5 on the officer at the far end of the promenade, with a torch already fitted. Load it and make it your main gun now.
MP5A5 · 9mm, fully automatic · 30 rounds, 90 with the SMG clip holder · rate 80 · 6,980 BP if bought · the workhorse of the whole middle game, and free here
ITEM 4× Grenades are in the box at the foot of the escalator. Two Fatties guard the room — they burn well and they are slow, so keep your distance and use fire.18
In the sanctuary, the masked figure attacks Rupert and disappears. KEY ITEM Red Key is on the floor where he was standing.
Meeting him is a story beat, which means it is also a respawn trigger — the rooms behind you have refilled again, including a wave of moths on the promenade. Use single shots on moths and keep the torch on them; letting one burst overhead blinds you.
Roof Gardenthe one thing you cannot come back for
19
SIDE QUEST 2
The Black Card — the single most missed item in the game.It is on the ground in front of the locked door, and it is small enough to walk straight past. You have to examine the spot twice to actually pick it up.
It opens a supply room in the Shelter much later that holds unlimited ammunition and a free shotgun. If you leave the roof garden without it on this first visit it is gone for the rest of the playthrough — you can walk back into the room, but the card will not be there.
Four worms drop out of the trees the moment you take it. They are flammable and they cluster, so one well-placed fire spreads between them.
It opens a supply room in the Shelter much later that holds unlimited ammunition and a free shotgun. If you leave the roof garden without it on this first visit it is gone for the rest of the playthrough — you can walk back into the room, but the card will not be there.
Four worms drop out of the trees the moment you take it. They are flammable and they cluster, so one well-placed fire spreads between them.
Bridge & Fire Escapethe last stretch
20
CODE Enter 561 at the bridge panel to raise it. The fish flopping around below stop being a problem the moment the bridge is up — you can simply walk over them.
21
SAVE POINT A telephone on the fire escape is the last save before the boss. There is a Recovery 2 on the half-dead Stranger here. Heal, reload, and put Penicillin somewhere you can reach it in a hurry.
HeliportBOSS — No.9
22
BOSS No.9, first meeting.
No.9 — 1600 HP
The room does the damage, not your gun. Three electrical boxes are spaced along the walls and there is a steam pipe near the far end. Bait him into charging past a box, shoot the box while he is against it, and it takes a chunk off him that no amount of 9mm would. The box only stays live for about a second, so the shot has to be timed rather than sprayed.
Work the boxes in sequence, unloading into him during each stun and backing into a corner to reload. Save the steam pipe for last — it hits hardest. The third box can be shot a second time for a gas burst.
What he does to you. A two-hit flaming blade combo, telegraphed by a short leap; a thrown charge that bursts into a cloud and paralyses you; and a straight charge that gets faster as his health drops. Paralysis is the real danger — carry Penicillin, and mash the d-pad to shake it off sooner.
He guards. His block only drops while he is attacking, so the clean windows are immediately after he commits to a swing. Attacks from behind bypass the guard entirely, and rifle rounds punch through his suit where pistol rounds do not.
He is not killed here — he leaves across the rooftops and the tower comes down behind you.
Work the boxes in sequence, unloading into him during each stun and backing into a corner to reload. Save the steam pipe for last — it hits hardest. The third box can be shot a second time for a gas burst.
What he does to you. A two-hit flaming blade combo, telegraphed by a short leap; a thrown charge that bursts into a cloud and paralyses you; and a straight charge that gets faster as his health drops. Paralysis is the real danger — carry Penicillin, and mash the d-pad to shake it off sooner.
He guards. His block only drops while he is attacking, so the clean windows are immediately after he commits to a swing. Attacks from behind bypass the guard entirely, and rifle rounds punch through his suit where pistol rounds do not.
He is not killed here — he leaves across the rooftops and the tower comes down behind you.
Back at M.I.S.T.before Dryfield
23
FILES 03–06 Examine all four documents in the debriefing. Each one pays out as a bounty lump at the very end of the run rather than at pickup, which is exactly why they read as scenery. Talk to Pierce until he sends you on.
24
Your gear gets taken off you. Almost everything goes into the car boot for the trip, and the game hands back a few consumables in exchange for the equipment it confiscates. Do not spend the run to Dryfield expecting the rifle you just found — but do spend your points at Jodie first, and run the shooting range again if you left prizes on the table.
CHAPTER 1 OF 4
DAY 2DryfieldNevada — daylight, then night
Dryfield is the only part of the game that is genuinely open. A dead motel town of maybe a dozen buildings, and you are free to walk it in almost any order — which is exactly why it is where most of a first playthrough goes wrong. Four numbers are written in four different buildings, a key is lying at the bottom of a drain, and the last event of the night decides which ending you are allowed to get.
Read the town before you solve it. Two codes come out of Dryfield — 3033 for the shop register and 4487 for the safe in the loft. Both are fixed on every playthrough, so you can enter them the moment each lock is in front of you. The clues are only there for the pleasure of working them out.
Main Streetarrival — day
1
The car pulls in and Aya is on her own again. A telephone here is your SAVE POINT save point, and it is also how you call Mr. Douglas later. The ammunition crate beside it refills 9mm P.B. without limit — treat it as the town's top-up station and come back to it constantly.
2
A single Chaser comes down the street at you. It is fast, it turns badly, and a knockdown buys you the whole reload. It leaves 50 rounds of Hydra behind.
Motel Rooms 1 & 2the paintings
3
Two Strangers per room. Room 2 has ITEM Penicillin in the bookcase — examine it twice — and ITEM Recovery 1 in the bathroom bin. Room 1 is laid out the same way.
4
FILE 07 SIDE QUEST 5
The gunfighter paintings — where 3033 comes from
A framed print of an Old West gunfighter hangs in each of the two rooms. Between them they give you the ages of two men who were both at Tombstone in 1881; put those two numbers together and you have the four digits for the shop register on the back street.
The answer is 3033, entered on the register keypad as # 3 0 3 3 followed by TOTAL.
The answer is 3033, entered on the register keypad as # 3 0 3 3 followed by TOTAL.
Public Toiletfirst digit of the safe
5
FILE 08 CODE One Stranger inside. Count the urinals: there are four. That is the first digit of the loft safe. A message scrawled on the wall tells you to count the telephones around town as well — that answer is also 4.
Parking Lot, Driveway & Water Holethe outer loop
6
Two Chasers sleep in the parking lot and wake together, so open on them from the entrance rather than walking between them. A dumpster off the lot holds ITEM 10× Buckshot.
7
ITEM Recovery 1 in a box at the back of the driveway, and a swarm of bats overhead. Bats are the one enemy in Dryfield worth burning — single shots waste time and they will not all come down.
8
ITEM Protein Capsule is inside a crumbling section of wall in the water hole; you have to examine the hole to reach it. Throwing the light switch here opens the gate through to the underpass.
Junkyard & Mr. Douglas’s Trailerthe dog and the shop
9
Flint. A German shepherd trots out and does not attack — he is one of the few things in this game that is exactly what it looks like. He matters enormously later.
10
ITEM Coil of Rope on the ground by the trailer door. Picking it up drops a pack of scorpions on you, so have something loaded before you reach for it.
11
Mr. Douglas opens his shop. He is the only merchant until the Shelter, and the telephone inside is a SAVE POINT save point. His stock never changes between day and night, so there is no reason to hold points back for a better list later.
| Category | What he sells | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Weapons | P08 pistol | 680 BP |
| Weapons | M9 | 980 BP |
| Weapons | PA3 shotgun | 1,000 BP |
| Weapons | Grenade Pistol | 1,680 BP |
| Weapons | M4A1 rifle | 2,450 BP |
| Attachments | Rifle Clip Holder | 1,800 BP |
| Armour | Shoulder Holster | 2,580 BP |
| Armour | PASGT Vest | 2,980 BP |
| Ammunition | 50× 9mm P.B. / 10× Buckshot / 80× 5.56 Rifle | 30 / 60 / 100 BP |
| Ammunition | 4× Grenade / 4× Riot Grenade | 280 / 80 BP |
| Items | Recovery 1 / Penicillin / Stim | 100 / 80 / 80 BP |
| Items | MP Boost 1 / Combat Light / Pepper Spray | 320 / 60 / 100 BP |
Shoulder Holster · no HP · +20 MP · 4 slots · quick fire · 2,580 BP — also the shooting range level 5 prize, so do not buy it twice
PASGT Vest · +20 HP · no MP · 6 slots · resists poison, health regenerates · 2,980 BP
Grenade Pistol · 40mm · 1 shell · long reload · 1,680 BP · one shot, but the shot counts — this is what makes the Glutton and the Burner manageable
P08 · 9mm · 7 rounds, 32 with the Snail magazine · rate 80 · 680 BP
What to actually buy. The Grenade Pistol and a stack of Riot Grenades are the best value on this list by a distance — riot rounds stun everything in a cluster, and Dryfield throws clusters at you all night. Armour before anything else if you can only afford one line.
The Garagethe car lift
12
KEY ITEM Monkey Wrench on the tool shelf in the corner nearest the trailer. Take it now — it is the only way into a locked dresser across town, and there is no second one.
13
Car lift & circuit breaker
The panel inside is dead until you find the power.
1. Walk around the outside of the building to the breaker box beside the window and throw it. The indoor panel lights up yellow.
2. Press UP to raise the car, then TURN to rotate it.
3. With the car up and turned, open the boot for ITEM 10× Shotgun Slugs.
4. Raise and turn it once more to swing it clear of the shutter, which frees the gate button and opens the route on.
1. Walk around the outside of the building to the breaker box beside the window and throw it. The indoor panel lights up yellow.
2. Press UP to raise the car, then TURN to rotate it.
3. With the car up and turned, open the boot for ITEM 10× Shotgun Slugs.
4. Raise and turn it once more to swing it clear of the shutter, which frees the gate button and opens the route on.
G&R Bar & Kitchenthe magnet
14
Sucklers hang from the ceiling in the bar and drop as you cross. KEY ITEM Dryfield Map is on the wall by the toilet, and there is ITEM Cola in the fridge near the parking-lot door.
15
KEY ITEM Bottlecap Magnet is in the refrigerator in the kitchen behind the bar. It looks like junk and it is the key to the whole west side of town.
Breezewayfishing for the Factory Key
16
Magnet fishing
A key is visible through a wire grate beside the locked gate. With the magnet in hand, examine the grate and lower it in. The key does not come up cleanly — you have to walk it into the corner of the recess first and lift from there. Take your time; there is no penalty for dropping it.
You come away with the KEY ITEM Factory Key, which unlocks the driveway gate from this side.
You come away with the KEY ITEM Factory Key, which unlocks the driveway gate from this side.
17
A Chaser drops on you in this corridor and leaves ITEM MP Boost 1.
UnderpassSUB-BOSS — Giant Spider
18
BOSS Giant Spider.
Giant Spider — 500 HP
It is barely visible, it moves along the walls, and it will be on you before the camera shows it. Stun it first — a Riot Grenade or Pepper Spray freezes it in place — then put Necrosis on it and back into the niche by the cellar door. Poison does the work while you stay out of its lunge. Trying to out-shoot it in the open is how this fight goes badly.
It leaves ITEM 10× Shotgun Slugs and a Protein Capsule.
It leaves ITEM 10× Shotgun Slugs and a Protein Capsule.
Cellarsecond digit — lights off
19
ITEM Flare in a box behind the barrels, and a ITEM Snail magazine in the wall cabinet. It turns the P08 from a seven-round pistol into a thirty-two round one, which is the single biggest proportional upgrade any gun gets in this game — but only if you own the P08 from Mr. Douglas.
20
FILE 09
The glowing message
There is writing on the back of the barrel wall in ink that only shows up in the dark. Turn the room's light off and read it: it asks how many barrels are in the centre row.
The answer is 8 — the third digit of the safe.
The answer is 8 — the third digit of the safe.
General Store, Backstreet, Souvenir Shop & Warehousethe back row
21
ITEM Cola in the coolers along the back wall of the general store and ITEM Recovery 3 past them. The pack of Sucklers in here leaves a Flare.
22
ITEM 10× Firefly in the barrels at the far end of the backstreet. Fire shells — save them for the bats and the moths rather than burning them on Chasers.
23
SIDE QUEST 5 CODE The register in the souvenir shop wants a code. Enter # 3 0 3 3 and press TOTAL for a ITEM Belt Pouch, which is a free extra armour slot for the rest of the game.
24
SIDE QUEST 6 The dresser in the warehouse is bolted shut. Use the Monkey Wrench from the garage to strip the bolts and open it. Scorpions patrol this room and a chair blocks half your firing lines, so reposition rather than shooting through it.
Motel Room 6, Balcony & Water TowerKyle
25
Mr. Douglas hands over the key to room 6, which becomes Aya's base. There is a storage box inside with ITEM 50× 9mm P.B. and ITEM 2× Stim, and a save nearby.
26
From the balcony Aya spots someone standing on the water tower. Three Strangers are up here with you first.
27
SIDE QUEST 8 The water tower is a staged fight. Every gate panel you trigger on the way up releases two more Chasers, and they keep coming until you clear the last wave and throw the lever at the top, which opens the gate permanently. Fight on the ladders and platforms where they can only reach you one at a time.
Expect up to eight Chasers across the whole climb. Do not start it on low ammunition — there is no crate up there.
28
Kyle Madigan is at the top. A corpse beside him gives up the KEY ITEM G&R bar keys and a recovery item.
Dilapidated HouseBOSS — No.9, and the end of the day
29
FILE 10 FILE 11
Read the dirt before you open that door.In the narrow hallway just before the fight room there are two windows. The far one shows you nothing but the trailer. The near one lets you read a message written in the dirt outside — and this is the only time you will ever be able to read it. Once you commit to the fight beyond, that vantage point is gone.
There is a second window under the deer head worth looking through as well. What it tells you does not matter here at all — it matters at a gate a very long way underground, hours from now.
There is a second window under the deer head worth looking through as well. What it tells you does not matter here at all — it matters at a gate a very long way underground, hours from now.
30
BOSS No.9, second meeting. Aya finds what was making the screaming, and the man from the tower walks in behind her.
No.9 — 1,100 HP
He is armoured and he blocks. His suit cuts roughly four-fifths off anything you shoot him with, and the shield on his left arm cuts about nine-tenths off bullets and spells alike. He cannot swing the sword and hold the shield up at the same time — that is the entire fight.
The four-corners method. Stand in a corner. Watch the radar: when he crosses into the inner ring he is about to commit. Step back so the swing misses, then unload while his guard is still down, then move clockwise to the next corner before he recovers. Repeat all the way around the room. It is slow and it is completely reliable.
What actually hurts him. Pyrokinesis is the only spell that does real damage — level 2 if you have it. Rifle rounds beat pistol rounds. Hitting him from the side or behind while he is mid-lunge does roughly triple damage, if you can get there safely. Chip in with the pistol between casts rather than standing idle.
He is not killed here either. Aya blacks out, dreams of a girl who looks like her, and wakes at night with the body gone.
The four-corners method. Stand in a corner. Watch the radar: when he crosses into the inner ring he is about to commit. Step back so the swing misses, then unload while his guard is still down, then move clockwise to the next corner before he recovers. Repeat all the way around the room. It is slow and it is completely reliable.
What actually hurts him. Pyrokinesis is the only spell that does real damage — level 2 if you have it. Rifle rounds beat pistol rounds. Hitting him from the side or behind while he is mid-lunge does roughly triple damage, if you can get there safely. Chip in with the pistol between casts rather than standing idle.
He is not killed here either. Aya blacks out, dreams of a girl who looks like her, and wakes at night with the body gone.
Dryfield at nightKyle joins, the phone dies
31
The town changes underneath you. Kyle now follows Aya and fights with a pistol — he soaks hits well but he will not carry a room for you. The car is wrecked, the gas station telephone is destroyed, and until you reach the motel there is nowhere to save. Everything you cleared in daylight has refilled, and it refills again several more times before the night is over.
32
Work the back row first: scorpions on the backstreet, two more in the warehouse, moths in the souvenir shop and the general store. Take the moths down the centre aisle with single pistol shots — they are not worth spells or shells.
Gas Stationthe Scavenger fight
33
Scavengers. They come in one at a time, never more than two on screen at once, and they keep coming for a long stretch — a dozen of them before it stops. This is the densest single fight in Dryfield.
They freeze in light. Any light source drops a Scavenger into a stunned trance, which is by far the cheapest way to handle them. Beyond that: Pyrokinesis very often kills one outright, Buckshot knocks them back and can catch two if they line up, and a Riot Grenade paralyses whatever is left standing. There is an unlimited 9mm can by the car, and the storage box here works mid-fight for recovery items — but not for swapping weapons.
Motel Lobby, Rooms 3–5 & the Loftthe safe
34
The lobby key opens the way to the KEY ITEM Masterkey, and taking that refills the balcony, the loft, rooms 3 to 5, the gas station, the general store, the backstreet, the dilapidated house and the junkyard all at once. If you are chasing the kill percentage, this is the moment to walk the whole town again.
35
ITEM MP Boost 2 on the shelf in room 3 — examine it twice.
36
FILE 12 CODE Room 4, bathroom, behind the curtain. Something is scratched into the mirror asking you to count them. The answer is 7 — the last digit.
37
SIDE QUEST 7
The black safe — 4487
The safe is in the loft, beside the petrol can. Four counts around Dryfield, in this order:
Opening it gives you ITEM Holy Water — about a quarter off all incoming damage while it is attached. Put it on now and leave it on.
| Digit | Count | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | Urinals | Public toilet |
| 4 | Telephones | Tallied across the town |
| 8 | Barrels in the centre row | Cellar, with the light off |
| 7 | Mirrors | Room 4 bathroom, at night |
38
The petrol can bites. Scavengers ambush you when you pick the can up empty, and again when you bring it back full. Do not walk into the loft with an empty magazine either time.
39
Fill the can at the gas station and give it to Mr. Douglas. That errand triggers another town-wide refill — bats in the driveway, Chasers at the gas station, Scavengers on the water tower, and packs in the parking lot, the toilet, the bar store, the back alley, the water hole, the underpass, the cellar, the souvenir shop and the loft.
The BalconyBOSS — the Burner. This is the one.
40
SIDE QUEST 9 ENDING STEP 1
This single fight decides your ending.Sleeping in room 6 starts it. The Burner comes for Flint on the balcony, and the fight runs on a three-minute timer. Deal enough damage inside that window and it is driven off. Fail, and it simply gives up and walks away — and the dog dies.
Everything else on the best-ending path is gated behind Flint being alive. Not one of the later rescues will even be offered if you lose him here, and the game never tells you that anything was lost.
Go in loaded. Full magazines, MP topped up, and your heaviest weapon equipped before you lie down.
Everything else on the best-ending path is gated behind Flint being alive. Not one of the later rescues will even be offered if you lose him here, and the game never tells you that anything was lost.
Go in loaded. Full magazines, MP topped up, and your heaviest weapon equipped before you lie down.
41
BOSS Burner.
Burner — roughly 3,000 damage in 3 minutes
The threshold is about 70% of its health inside three minutes. That is a lot of sustained output, so there is no room for careful poking.
Necrosis is the trick. Poison it and every time the effect ticks it interrupts whatever it was winding up. Recast the moment the flash on its body fades and it barely gets an attack out. With that running, pour everything else you own into it.
What it throws. A fist smash and a wide swipe, both of which miss you entirely if you hold a corner; and a flamethrower breath you dodge by running along the length of the balcony rather than away from it. Later in the fight it starts grabbing — mash movement and fire to break out.
How to tell you made it. If it is beaten in time you get a close shot of it bloodied and reeling. If it simply turns and walks off, you were short.
Necrosis is the trick. Poison it and every time the effect ticks it interrupts whatever it was winding up. Recast the moment the flash on its body fades and it barely gets an attack out. With that running, pour everything else you own into it.
What it throws. A fist smash and a wide swipe, both of which miss you entirely if you hold a corner; and a flamethrower breath you dodge by running along the length of the balcony rather than away from it. Later in the fight it starts grabbing — mash movement and fire to break out.
How to tell you made it. If it is beaten in time you get a close shot of it bloodied and reeling. If it simply turns and walks off, you were short.
42
Flint lives
The M950 is waiting in a box by Mr. Douglas’s trailer, and the whole best-ending chain stays open.
M950 · 9mm, fully automatic · 100 rounds · rate 90 · cannot be bought at any price, in any mode · loaded with Spartan rounds it stays useful to the final boss
Flint dies
The Chicken Plate is in the boot of the wrecked green sedan outside the trailer.
Chicken Plate · +60 HP · no MP · 5 slots · resists impact, health regenerates · the best raw survivability in the game until the EOD Suit
Leaving Dryfieldlast sweep
43
The fight refills the loft, room 5, the bar, the parking lot, rooms 1 to 4, the general store, the backstreet, the dilapidated house and the junkyard one final time. Clear them now — the town closes behind you.
44
Mr. Douglas meets you with a gift and the key to his truck.
Spend everything before you talk to Kyle. Save at the gas station, empty your bounty points into Mr. Douglas, and check your armour and loadout. There is no shop and no save between here and the bottom of a mine.
CHAPTER 2 OF 4
DAY 3The Mine & the Shelterand the sewers beneath them
Underground the game stops being open and becomes a corridor — with one exception, and it is the most important choice in Parasite Eve II. At the end of the sewers you are offered a lift that takes you straight on, and a gate that takes you the long way round. The lift is faster. The gate is the only route to the ending most people are trying to get.
The Mesathe crash
1
Kyle has come off the motorcycle and is nearly dead. A Desert Chaser is on top of him — kill that one first, then deal with the rest of the mesa, roughly ten more of them plus a mixed pack of moths.
Stay off the cliff edge. A Chaser hit knocks Aya back several feet. Fight with rock behind you, not open air.
2
ITEM Scattered across the mesa and the tunnel below it: Recovery 3, 50× 9mm Hydra, 80× 5.56 Rifle, 10× Firefly, a Belt Pouch and a quantity of 9mm Spartan. Five Scavengers hold the tunnel, and twelve bats are waiting past the broken bridge.
Mine Entrancethe broken track
3
KEY ITEM An Oak Board is leaning against the wall nearby. Lay it across the gap in the mine cart track to get over.
4
Mindsucklers and scorpions share this stretch. Wound the Mindsucklers rather than killing them outright where you can — scorpions ambush you the moment one dies.
Power Generator Roomthe jumper plug
5
Routing the power
A circuit board with holes and a lever decides which gates get power. One plug is already fitted, in the lower-right hole.
First pass, with one plug: move it to the top-right hole and pull the lever.
Second pass, once you have found the second plug: put the new plug in the top-left hole, move the original one back down to lower-right, and pull the lever again.
If you would rather work it out than follow it: find the box you want powered and trace its line backwards across the board, jumping between lines wherever the board lets you.
First pass, with one plug: move it to the top-right hole and pull the lever.
Second pass, once you have found the second plug: put the new plug in the top-left hole, move the original one back down to lower-right, and pull the lever again.
If you would rather work it out than follow it: find the box you want powered and trace its line backwards across the board, jumping between lines wherever the board lets you.
Motorcycle RoomKyle’s gun
6
WEAPON P229 — Kyle's pistol. It is silenced, hits slightly harder than the P08 and crits less often. The reason to carry it is the torch on the underside: it stuns Odd Strangers and it is the only thing that makes an invisible enemy later in this mine visible at all.
P229 · 9mm, and flash rounds · 12 rounds · rate 90 · 1,880 BP if bought · silenced, so it does not wake sleeping rooms — which matters twice in this game
7
There is a button on Ned's motorcycle that opens a hidden wall passage. The remote switch beside it does nothing until the severed line is repaired — that is what the second jumper plug is for.
The Barrel RoomBOSS — Blizzard Chaser
8
BOSS Blizzard Chaser.
Blizzard Chaser — 500 HP, then 2,500 HP
A ring-shaped room with machinery in the middle and four explosive barrels against the walls. Those barrels are the fight.
Round one is an ordinary Chaser with a leap, a grab and a running charge. The west and east walls are safe ground. Let it circle the machinery and put an Airburst or Riot round into a barrel while it is beside one.
Round two is the same creature skinned, and considerably faster. It gains a bite and an attack launched off the mining equipment. It is weak to poison and to wind, so Necrosis first and keep working the remaining barrels. Grenades cover whatever is left.
It leaves ITEM Recovery 2 and ITEM 4× Grenade.
Round one is an ordinary Chaser with a leap, a grab and a running charge. The west and east walls are safe ground. Let it circle the machinery and put an Airburst or Riot round into a barrel while it is beside one.
Round two is the same creature skinned, and considerably faster. It gains a bite and an attack launched off the mining equipment. It is weak to poison and to wind, so Necrosis first and keep working the remaining barrels. Grenades cover whatever is left.
It leaves ITEM Recovery 2 and ITEM 4× Grenade.
The Secret PassageBOSS — Ivory Stalker
9
SIDE QUEST 15 BOSS Ivory Stalker. The wall passage the motorcycle opened is not optional in practice — it is the way to the lift out.
Ivory Stalker — 1,000 HP
You cannot see it and you cannot poison it. Necrosis does nothing here. Fire and light are its weaknesses, and the P229's torch both stuns it and shows you where it actually is.
Never turn your back. Its pounce triggers specifically when Aya is facing away, it is close to unavoidable, and it hits hard enough to end a run that was going well. Keep the camera on it, keep the light on it, and back away in an arc rather than turning to run.
A loaded Grenade Launcher ends the fight in about five hits. If you have Apobiosis it locks the Stalker down completely.
It gives very little experience and drops 9mm Spartan — rare, and the hardest-hitting pistol round in the game.
Never turn your back. Its pounce triggers specifically when Aya is facing away, it is close to unavoidable, and it hits hard enough to end a run that was going well. Keep the camera on it, keep the light on it, and back away in an arc rather than turning to run.
A loaded Grenade Launcher ends the fight in about five hits. If you have Apobiosis it locks the Stalker down completely.
It gives very little experience and drops 9mm Spartan — rare, and the hardest-hitting pistol round in the game.
The Shelter — B1turrets, and a door you may not be able to open
10
The lift brings you up into the Shelter. It is clean, lit, mechanical, and full of turrets, which behave differently by colour.
| Turret | Behaviour | How to handle it |
|---|---|---|
| Red | Sweeps a laser before firing | Move out of the sweep line before it locks |
| White | Rapid, sustained bursts | Run until it stops, then shoot back into the gap |
| Yellow | Standard fire | Snipe from range with the rifle |
| Blue | Inflicts paralysis | Cast Metabolism first; wiggle the d-pad to recover |
11
ITEM A Parabellum supply box in the southern corridor refills 9mm without limit, and there is another in the storage room along with Ringer's Solution in the medicine cabinet.
12
The armoury. Free bounty-point recharge, and the first real shop since Dryfield.
| What | Cost | Worth it? |
|---|---|---|
| Hammer attachment (M4A1) | 3,720 BP | Yes — it knocks enemies down on hit and carries the whole midgame |
| Combat Armor | 3,250 BP | A solid step up |
| NBC Suit | 3,980 BP | Better again |
| Psy Suit | 4,580 BP | Best on sale here |
| Armour on sale here | HP | MP | Slots | Effects |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Combat Armor | +40 | +10 | 5 | Motion detector, resists silence |
| NBC Suit | +20 | +20 | 6 | Resists poison and paralysis |
| Psy Suit | — | +50 | 4 | Resists confusion, and shows you enemy health bars |
Hold off on armour if you are taking the gate route later — a free Tactical Vest (+50 HP, +10 MP, seven slots) is waiting in a parked SUV on that path.
13
SIDE QUEST 2
The Black Card pays off here — or it does not.There is a locked door in the armoury. If you picked the Black Card off the roof garden floor back at Akropolis Tower, it opens the Munitions Room: three supply boxes of unlimited Buckshot, 9mm and Hydra, and an WEAPON SP12 shotgun — examine it twice to actually take it. Seven shells, slow, and it kills most things in two to four hits.
If you walked past the card hours ago, this door never opens for the rest of the run.
SP12 · 12 gauge · 7 shells · rate 24 · free, and never on sale anywhere · the only shotgun you will need until the AS12
If you walked past the card hours ago, this door never opens for the rest of the run.
14
SAVE POINT The sterilization room at the north end has a telephone, a supply box and a storage box. This is the checkpoint you will keep coming back to for the whole chapter. Leave the Grenade Pistol, shotgun ammunition and spare healing here rather than carrying it everywhere.
15
FILE 13 Read the beds in the sleeping quarters, and the note in the locker. One of them is Bowman's, and it is worth the thirty seconds.
The Shelter — B2divers and the breeding room
16
Divers submerge and resurface, and they are weak to fire — Firefly shells, Pyrokinesis or Combustion. Amoebas go down to the Hammer or to fire as well.
17
ITEM In the breeding room: Cola in the right-hand cabinet by the door, an ammunition box, and MP Boost 2. FILE 14 The diary on the desk is Dr. Bowman’s, and it is the first straight answer the game gives you about what this place is.
18
A cutscene locks the door behind that room and refills B2 behind you — more maggots and amoebas in the breeding room, more divers in the corridor and the septic tank. Sweep it before moving on.
Dumping HeapBOSS — the Glutton, first half
19
SIDE QUEST 16
The Medicine Wheel is in this room and only this room.It is in a box at the edge of the arena. Once the fight moves through to the incinerator you cannot come back for it. Attached, it makes defeated enemies drop bonus items for the rest of the game; consumed, it takes a wind spell straight to its top level without spending experience.
20
ITEM There is 500× Hydra in the upper-left of the arena and 500× 9mm in the lower-left. Use them — this is a long fight.
21
BOSS Glutton.
Glutton — 3,000 HP per encounter
The mouth is the fight. An open mouth takes roughly double damage. Its shoulders take about a sixth. Its head takes essentially nothing at all unless you paralyse it. Paralysis or a well-placed grenade forces the mouth open — that is your damage window and there is no other one worth using.
The vacuum. When it inhales, get to the edge of the screen so you are not dragged in — being pulled all the way in at close range can kill outright. The recovery after it is your best free punish.
Do not let it eat the small ones. Any lesser creature sucked in restores its health. Kill the adds or keep them away from its mouth.
Other attacks: falling trash telegraphed by shadows, a green poison breath, a tongue slap and orange projectiles. Landing a critical on its shoulder can spawn a Mad Chaser.
Bring the launcher. A Grenade Pistol or M203 loaded with Energyshot is close to mandatory here.
The vacuum. When it inhales, get to the edge of the screen so you are not dragged in — being pulled all the way in at close range can kill outright. The recovery after it is your best free punish.
Do not let it eat the small ones. Any lesser creature sucked in restores its health. Kill the adds or keep them away from its mouth.
Other attacks: falling trash telegraphed by shadows, a green poison breath, a tongue slap and orange projectiles. Landing a critical on its shoulder can spawn a Mad Chaser.
Bring the launcher. A Grenade Pistol or M203 loaded with Energyshot is close to mandatory here.
Garbage Incineratorthe Glutton again — and Kyle
22
Five minutes. Kyle is being held in here and the arena runs on a five-minute clock. Let it run out and a cutscene takes the fight away from you.
23
SIDE QUEST 17
Kill it outright
Straight damage, same weak points as before. Rewards: Recovery 3, Eau de Toilette and 4× Airburst.
Crush it
There are floor switches and a compactor. Lure it onto the platform, raise it, and hit the second switch once it is down to roughly its last thousand health. Rewards: Recovery 3 and MP Boost 2.
Deep Shelter & the sewersthe flood gate
24
Mad Chasers in the lower sewer, Sucklercephs and Slouches above. Kyle carries an M4A1 with a Pyke down here and will not open fire until you do.
25
FILE 15
The reservoir flood gate — 18
A note on the wall asks you to total the legs of three creatures: a rat has four, a cockroach has six, a spider has eight.
4 + 6 + 8 = 18. Set the tens dial to 1 and the ones to 8. The reservoir drains, the sewer beyond floods, and the way to the water supply opens. Any Diver still in the room is left stranded and harmless.
This one is mandatory. There is ITEM MP Boost 2 in the north-eastern corner while you are here.
4 + 6 + 8 = 18. Set the tens dial to 1 and the ones to 8. The reservoir drains, the sewer beyond floods, and the way to the water supply opens. Any Diver still in the room is left stranded and harmless.
This one is mandatory. There is ITEM MP Boost 2 in the north-eastern corner while you are here.
Upper SewerTHE FORK — the most important choice in the game
26
SIDE QUEST 10 ENDING STEP 2
Two ways out, and one of them is permanent.There is a control panel here for the Full Moon Gate, and there is a lift that takes you straight back down to B2. Kyle will point you at the lift.
Take the lift and the gate is closed for the rest of the playthrough. Not delayed — closed. You cannot come back and solve it later.
Take the lift and the gate is closed for the rest of the playthrough. Not delayed — closed. You cannot come back and solve it later.
27
FILE 16
The Full Moon Gate — 15
The memo on the wall in here explains that the fifteenth night of the lunar month is the lucky one — the full moon. That is the whole riddle. If you looked through the window under the deer head back in Dryfield, you already read the same thing.
Enter 15. Then go back up the ladder from the panel and through the gates above; the second gate at the east end is the one that actually opens the route, and it takes you up a well into Dryfield.
Enter 15. Then go back up the ladder from the panel and through the gates above; the second gate at the east end is the one that actually opens the route, and it takes you up a well into Dryfield.
28
Through the gate
A whole optional return trip to Dryfield: the free Tactical Vest, the Lipstick, the ice-bag chain and the Ofuda, the Aeris magazine, and Pierce alive at the water tower. You solve the laboratory password yourself and earn your keycard from a boss. The best ending stays open.
Down the lift
Kyle hands you a keycard and the password in a cutscene, and the game moves on immediately. Everything in the column beside this one is gone, and so is the best ending — permanently, no matter what you do afterwards.
Back to Dryfieldthe return trip
29
Dryfield is repopulated and there are things in it that exist only now.
| Where | What is waiting | Worth stopping for |
|---|---|---|
| Main Street | A Chaser and moths — and the ice machine | Yes — three trips start here |
| Water Tower | A Mad Chaser, a Belt Pouch, and Pierce | Yes — this is the rescue |
| Water Tank | Mindsucklers, Hydra and Spartan rounds | Yes |
| Loft | Six Scavengers and the Aeris magazine | Yes — read the whiteboard first |
| Gas Station | A parked SUV | Yes — needs the SUV key |
| Mr. Douglas’s trailer | Restocked shop, including the Pyke | Yes |
| Underpass, cellar, boutique, warehouse, toilet, bar store, rooms | Fresh packs throughout | For the kill percentage |
30
SIDE QUEST 11 ENDING STEP 3 Pierce at the water tower. He is down and three Mindsucklers are on him. Clear them and he hands over the KEY ITEM SUV Key.
The SUV at the gas station then gives you the ITEM ARMOR Tactical Vest and a ITEM Lipstick.
Tactical Vest · +50 HP · +10 MP · 7 slots · quick fire, health regenerates, and it blocks the Silence status — free, and better than anything the armoury sells
31
SIDE QUEST 13 ENDING STEP 4
The ice bags melt.Take a bag from the ice machine on Main Street and get it to Pierce without detouring. Three separate runs, three separate rewards.
The Ofuda adds half again to Parasite Energy attack damage while it is attached. Let a bag melt on the way and you have lost that trip's reward.
| Trip | What you get |
|---|---|
| First bag | Cola |
| Second bag | MP Boost 2 |
| Third bag | He has already recovered — he gives you the Ofuda instead |
32
FILE 17 FILE 18 SIDE QUEST 14
The Aeris magazine. Read the whiteboard first — the magazine does not exist in the room until you have. It is then on the north-western beds in the loft sleeping quarters. It is the only thing that explains the rule behind the laboratory password — and it exists only on this route.
Back through the ShelterBowman
33
Coming back through the gate repopulates the entire facility. Two rooms matter more than the rest:
| Room | What is in it |
|---|---|
| B1 Storeroom | Six amoebas and a Red Amoeba — 280 HP, inflicts Berserk, dies to a single Necrosis, and pays 420 bounty points |
| B1 Northern Corridor | A Brain Stinger, which drops a Key Card. Necrosis stops it casting; the Hammer knocks it down. This creature is Dr. Bowman |
34
ITEM In the B2 operating room: Ringer's Solution in the storage north-west of the table and Eau de Toilette in a lab coat down the western hallway. Creeping Strangers in here take no damage at all from behind and inflict Berserk on contact — Buckshot to the front is the answer. The Skull Stalkers have one hit point each and explode if you step on them.
The Laboratorythe password
35
The computer — A3EILM2S2Y
The password was a name from the first game. A worm has scrambled it: take every letter, sort them alphabetically, and where a letter appears more than once, write the letter followed by how many times it occurs.
The entry is A3EILM2S2Y — three As, one E, one I, one L, two Ms, two Ss, one Y.
The entry is A3EILM2S2Y — three As, one E, one I, one L, two Ms, two Ss, one Y.
36
The visitor program. Three questions follow, drawn from a larger pool. Answer all three correctly for access.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Which organelles carry their own DNA? | Mitochondria |
| Who was behind the Manhattan incident? | The researcher from the first game |
| What desert lies above this facility? | The Mojave |
| Where does the Mitochondrial Eve theory place humanity’s origin? | Africa |
37
SAVE POINT There is a storage box and a telephone in here. The phone rings once the computer is done, and you are sent to the POD Service Gantry.
POD Service Gantrythree buttons
38
The control panel here opens the rest of the game.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Lower left | Opens the Golem Freezer and the underground parking |
| Third | Opens the Neo Ark lift, reached from the B2 main corridor |
| Last | Shuts down every turret in the facility. Press this one |
Killing the turrets first makes the whole walk back through B1 and B2 trivial, and it opens up rooms you sensibly skipped earlier. There is a telephone here too.
CHAPTER 3 OF 4
FINALENeo Ark & the Finalethe ecosystem, the invasion and two last fights
Neo Ark is an artificial world built underground — savanna, forest, a lake, a pyramid — and it is where the puzzles finally stop being three-digit codes and start being floors you walk on. It is also the last place in the game you are free to wander. Everything after the phone call in the underground parking is a straight line to the end.
Savanna & Shrinethe tile puzzle
1
Goat Chasers and scorpions on the way in. Knock the Chasers down with the Hammer and use Plasma on the scorpion cluster.
2
FILE 19 SIDE QUEST 18
The shrine — three colours, three outcomes
Sliding hieroglyph tiles, arranged to match the placard on the wall. The placard is the clue — nothing external is needed. Whichever colour you are solving, leave the bottom-right square empty or it will not register.
The puzzle resets every time you leave and re-enter the room, which means you can take all three solutions on the same visit. Order matters:
The puzzle resets every time you leave and re-enter the room, which means you can take all three solutions on the same visit. Order matters:
| Colour | Tile order | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Blue | weed, knife, plough, egg | A sarcophagus opens with MP Boost 2 inside, then a small beetle skirmish. Do this first |
| Yellow | fish, eye, cross, crown | A trap. The door shuts and three beetles drop from the ceiling. No reward at all — do it only if you want the kills |
| Red | king, legs, lips, box | Opens the western staff door toward the first generator. Do this last — it is what moves the story on |
Power Plant, southGenerator #1
3
BOSS Proto Generator. Not a boss so much as a fortified installation: enormous defence, constant regeneration from a life-support feed, and no attacks of its own. The turrets on the walls do all the damage.
Proto Generator + Generator Device + six turrets
Order of business: kill the Generator Device first — it is what keeps the thing healing — then clear the turrets, then break the generator itself. Doing it in any other order is just feeding ammunition into a regenerating target.
Rewards: ITEM Recovery 3 and ITEM MP Boost 2. The security shutdown opens the north route into the rest of Neo Ark.
Rewards: ITEM Recovery 3 and ITEM MP Boost 2. The security shutdown opens the north route into the rest of Neo Ark.
Forest, Pavilion, Bridge, Garden & Woodland Paththe loop
4
Horned Strangers hold the forest and the woodland path. Knock them down with the Hammer and finish with rifle fire — keep them engaged or they run off screen and heal the room's clock.
5
FILE 20 SIDE QUEST 20 The Stone Stela is in the corner of the pavilion near the tunnel mouth.
Reading it is a deliberate trigger. It seeds two or three extra enemy waves in every zone of Neo Ark. If you are chasing 100% kills, read it — those waves are a large slice of what is left. If you are not, walking past it makes the rest of the area considerably quieter.
6
ITEM Divers hold the pavilion and the bridge — fire again, Pyrokinesis or Firefly. The garden is ten beetles at once: Buckshot for the spread and Plasma for the crowd. There is a map marker in the garden's south-western corner.
The Pyramidboth floor puzzles
7
FILE 21 SIDE QUEST 19
The bridge panels — 6, 2, 3, 5
Coloured panels set into the floor. You solve this by standing on them, the right number of times each, in this order:
Getting it right reveals a lever. Pulling the lever slides a bridge to the west and opens the island.
Blue ×6 · White ×2 · Red ×3 · Yellow ×5
The clue in the room is a dial marked with dots and bars beside each colour, and that is where most people come unstuck: it is a counting cipher, not a decoration. A dot is one and a bar is five.Getting it right reveals a lever. Pulling the lever slides a bridge to the west and opens the island.
8
The blackout panels — twelve presses
A second floor sequence, this one twelve steps long, which opens the door to the second generator:
Red, Yellow, Blue, White — Blue, White, Red, Yellow — White, Blue, Yellow, Red
Three groups of four is the easiest way to hold it in your head. There is no penalty for a wrong step, so take it slowly.Island & Submarine GalleryBOSS — Great Diver
9
ITEM Lipstick is hidden under a bush in the southern part of the island. The ladder down leads to the gallery.
10
BOSS Great Diver.
Great Diver — 2,000 HP
Five ordinary Divers come with it. It fires a stream of electricity from its mouth and it chases — circle the arena rather than backing into a corner.
The Pyke trivialises this. Continuous fire damage stops it diving and resetting, so it never gets a safe moment. Without the Pyke, Necrosis first and then Pyrokinesis at level 3 does the same job more slowly.
It drops ITEM MP Boost 2 and the ITEM Crystal Skull — the fourth and last of the elemental attachments, and about +25% weapon damage while it is worn.
The Pyke trivialises this. Continuous fire damage stops it diving and resetting, so it never gets a safe moment. Without the Pyke, Necrosis first and then Pyrokinesis at level 3 does the same job more slowly.
It drops ITEM MP Boost 2 and the ITEM Crystal Skull — the fourth and last of the elemental attachments, and about +25% weapon damage while it is worn.
Power Plant, northGenerator #2
11
BOSS Beta Generator. Same shape of fight as the first: device, then turrets, then the generator. There is an unlimited Hydra stash down a narrow side path here. Rewards are ITEM Recovery 3, ITEM MP Boost 2 and ITEM Ringer's Solution.
Killing it sets off the biggest respawn wave in Neo Ark — fresh enemies in the woodland path, the pyramid, and two Red Amoebas in the submarine tunnel. Last easy experience before the endgame.
B6 Training RoomBOSS — Puppet Stinger
12
Speakers fill the lift and the corridor on the way down. Then the girl from the tower, with something attached to her.
13
BOSS Puppet Stinger.
Puppet Stinger — 4,000 HP
Plasma is the fight. A force field surrounds the girl, and Plasma both breaks the shield and cancels whatever the creature is casting. Nothing else does that.
The sequence: Energyshot, kill the two side Speakers, close to the girl, Plasma to strip the shield, then empty everything you have into it — the Pyke's whole fuel load if you have it, finished with the Grenade Pistol. Without those, the M950 or the P229 does it more slowly on the same rhythm.
Reading its attacks by colour. A short purple charge is two or three beams sweeping the room. A long purple charge is one beam that tracks you and paralyses. A red charge with a repeating sound is homing spheres. A long red charge is a large explosion — interrupt that one with Plasma.
An oddity worth knowing: running into it while it is casting gives you a moment of invulnerability.
Drops ITEM MP Boost 2, ITEM Eau de Toilette and ITEM Ringer's Solution. There is an MD Player on a shelf afterwards, and a telephone next door.
The sequence: Energyshot, kill the two side Speakers, close to the girl, Plasma to strip the shield, then empty everything you have into it — the Pyke's whole fuel load if you have it, finished with the Grenade Pistol. Without those, the M950 or the P229 does it more slowly on the same rhythm.
Reading its attacks by colour. A short purple charge is two or three beams sweeping the room. A long purple charge is one beam that tracks you and paralyses. A red charge with a repeating sound is homing spheres. A long red charge is a large explosion — interrupt that one with Plasma.
An oddity worth knowing: running into it while it is casting gives you a moment of invulnerability.
Drops ITEM MP Boost 2, ITEM Eau de Toilette and ITEM Ringer's Solution. There is an MD Player on a shelf afterwards, and a telephone next door.
POD Service Gantrythe phone call that decides the ending
14
FILE 22 ENDING STEP 5
Three actions, in this exact order.This is the tightest missable in the game and it is very easy to break by being efficient.
1. Check the phone. You receive Pierce's memo.
2. Open Key Items and actually read the memo (Triangle). Not doing this is the usual failure.
3. Check the phone again. This places the call to Jodie.
Get all three right — and Pierce has to have been rescued at the water tower earlier — and Jodie is waiting for you at the military camp. Get any of them wrong and Rupert is there instead, with a revolver and no epilogue.
1. Check the phone. You receive Pierce's memo.
2. Open Key Items and actually read the memo (Triangle). Not doing this is the usual failure.
3. Check the phone again. This places the call to Jodie.
Get all three right — and Pierce has to have been rescued at the water tower earlier — and Jodie is waiting for you at the military camp. Get any of them wrong and Rupert is there instead, with a revolver and no epilogue.
Underground Parkingpoint of no return
15
This is the real point of no return. A call comes through announcing the military's withdrawal. Once you push on from here, the Shelter and every exploration room in Neo Ark are closed for the rest of the playthrough. Anything you left behind stays behind.
Do your last full sweep, spend your points, and check your armour before you move.
Do your last full sweep, spend your points, and check your armour before you move.
16
A Sergeant sets up here as a permanent vendor from this point on, and there are free stashes of rifle and grenade ammunition.
Garagethe light panel
17
SIDE QUEST 21
The garage lights
Four coloured buttons and a CALL button. Two combinations do something.
Take the Belt Pouch first. The gate itself needs whichever keycard you came out of the Shelter with.
| Set these | Then press CALL | You get |
|---|---|---|
| Red, Green and Yellow | ✓ | A Belt Pouch — another armour slot |
| Blue and Yellow | ✓ | The jeep, which is how you leave |
Air Lock & Vehicular Airlockthe Teddy Bear
18
BOSS Knight Golem ambushes you in the air lock. It teleports and grabs — mash the d-pad to break free. Its fake teleports are see-through, which tells you when not to bother dodging. Fight with your back to a wall. It leaves ITEM 10× Shotgun Slugs and ITEM Ringer's Solution.
19
SIDE QUEST 22 ENDING STEP 6
The Teddy Bear.It is lying on the ground just south of the parked motorcycle in the vehicular airlock. Small, grey, easy to walk past — and there is no second chance at it.
It has to be shown to Flint at the military camp. Without it the top of the weapon shop never unlocks and the best ending is out of reach.
It has to be shown to Flint at the military camp. Without it the top of the weapon shop never unlocks and the best ending is out of reach.
Military CampJodie or Rupert
20
Flint meets you at the gate, if he survived Dryfield. There is a medicine stash, an ammunition stash and FILE 23 a letter about the canister worth reading.
21
ENDING STEP 7 Show Flint the teddy bear. That single action opens the rest of the shop.
Jodie is here
The M249 (15,800 BP) and the MM1 (23,500 BP) go on sale, along with the Turtle Vest, Aya Special rounds and MP Boost 2. Battery recharging opens up again, which brings the Javelin and the MP5A5 back into play.
M249 · 5.56mm, fully automatic · 200 rounds without reloading · rate 100 · 15,800 BP
MM1 · 40mm · 12 grenades in a revolver cylinder · rate 12 · 23,500 BP · the single best weapon against the Brahman Reactor
Aya Special · +30 HP · +50 MP · 7 slots · quick fire, MP recovery · 8,000 BP — only on this route
Rupert is here
You get the Mongoose and 25 rounds for it instead. It is a perfectly good revolver. It is also the sign that the best ending is already gone.
EOD Suit · +100 HP · no MP · 5 slots · resists impact and paralysis · 4,580 BP — the most health in the game, and what makes tanking the Core Blast viable
This is your last chance to buy the EOD Suit. There is no shop after this that matters.
22
ENDING STEP 8 The blind soldier. A wounded marine is in the sterilization room. With Flint alive and the bear handed over, Flint leads him back to safety himself. This happens on its own once the earlier steps are right, and it unlocks the MP5A5 at the Sergeant's stall along with free battery recharging.
Golem Freezerthe last rescue
23
SIDE QUEST 23 ENDING STEP 9
Talk to Pierce three times.He is trapped in the freezer. Speak to him at least three times before you leave — anything less and he does not make it out.
This is the final link in the chain. Everything else can be perfect and this one omission still caps you at the middle ending.
This is the final link in the chain. Everything else can be perfect and this one omission still caps you at the middle ending.
The Final ShowdownGolems everywhere
24
Every room you have already cleared in the Shelter and Neo Ark refills with Golems and turrets for one last pass. It is the largest single block of experience in the game and it is entirely optional.
| Golem | HP | BP | How to fight it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pawn Blade / Pawn Shooter | 425 | 100 | Weak to slugs; Plasma and the Hammer stun them. Backstep the shooter's fire |
| Rook Blade / Rook Shooter | 482 + shield | 400 | Destroy the backpack from behind while it casts or guards. High spell resistance |
| Knight | 600 | 1,000 | Teleport-grab; slugs and Energyball. Keep a wall behind you |
| Bishop | 800 | 2,500 | Faster and angrier than the Knight, and confuses you on a successful grab |
You can skip the Bishops. Walk along the wall with your back turned, mashing confirm, and they let you past. Worth knowing when you are low and the fight is not worth the risk. There is a Javelin attachment in the B2 southern corridor on this sweep, and the bridge in Neo Ark holds two Rook Blades together — the hardest Golem fight in the game.
B2 POD Service GantryBOSS — Brahman Reactor
25
SIDE QUEST 24 BOSS Brahman Reactor.
Brahman Reactor — seven separate targets
Every part you destroy here makes the final boss weaker. That is the thing to understand before the fight starts — this is not a health bar to chew through, it is a list to work down, and the leftovers carry into the next fight.
What each part does to you. The head fires a red beam — keep moving in one direction. Once the neck is destroyed it sweeps an exploding beam across the whole arena, and the only safe place is the lowest platform tier. The shoulders throw poison clouds, and the hole in the shoulder tells you which way the cloud is going. The lower front puts out a white paralysing cloud and is awkward to hit — use the high platforms or spells. The tentacles split in two every time you damage them and will multiply if you leave them.
The Core Blast. The core is only vulnerable when it opens, and when it opens it charges an enormous beam — enough to take well over a hundred health off you in one hit. Three ways to survive it: keep Antibody up and keep running the platforms; tank it deliberately in the EOD Suit or Chicken Plate and heal after every hit; or cast Apobiosis the instant the core opens and paralyse it before the beam ever fires.
Weapon order: MM1 with grenades, then Mongoose, M249, AS12 with slugs, M4A1 with the Javelin, Grenade Pistol, MP5A5 with Spartan rounds.
Full destruction pays 5,000 experience and 20,000 bounty points.
| Part | HP | Bounty |
|---|---|---|
| Core | 3,500 | 500 |
| Head | 1,500 | 500 |
| Neck | 700 | 500 |
| Arms | 700 and 1,000 | 5,000 |
| Tentacles | 500 and 700 | 3,000 |
| Lower rear | 1,500 | 2,000 |
| Lower front | 1,500 | 500 |
The Core Blast. The core is only vulnerable when it opens, and when it opens it charges an enormous beam — enough to take well over a hundred health off you in one hit. Three ways to survive it: keep Antibody up and keep running the platforms; tank it deliberately in the EOD Suit or Chicken Plate and heal after every hit; or cast Apobiosis the instant the core opens and paralyse it before the beam ever fires.
Weapon order: MM1 with grenades, then Mongoose, M249, AS12 with slugs, M4A1 with the Javelin, Grenade Pistol, MP5A5 with Spartan rounds.
Full destruction pays 5,000 experience and 20,000 bounty points.
The bridgeFINAL BOSS — Neo-Mitochondria Eve
26
Use your keycard on the orange device on the middle tier. A bridge extends into the arena.
27
SIDE QUEST 25 BOSS Neo-Mitochondria Eve.
Neo-Mitochondria Eve — 6,000 to 12,000 HP
Get off the bridge and stay off it. That is the entire fight in one sentence. She starts on the bridge, half her attacks only work while you are on it with her, and the outer ring of platforms is where you live for the next ten minutes.
Open with Stim and Penicillin — the protection lasts the whole fight — then Energyshot.
The rhythm: circle the ring constantly, break off only when she reappears on the bridge with her defence halved, land the biggest thing you own, and get back out. Life Drain gets better the longer the fight runs.
What to bring. M249, MM1 or Mongoose, whichever the camp gave you; M4A1 with the Javelin as backup. Chicken Plate or the EOD Suit for armour. For spells: Combustion 3, Healing 3, Metabolism 1, Antibody, Energyshot 3, and Life Drain if you have it.
Open with Stim and Penicillin — the protection lasts the whole fight — then Energyshot.
| Attack | What it does | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| Slap | Contact damage with status effects | Only reaches you on the bridge. Do not be there |
| Crash Landing | Leaps and slams the bridge centre | Dodge by being on the ring. She lands with halved defence — hit her hard |
| Dimension Dive | A spinning charge, then a portal | Tight window. Enough damage cancels it outright; the portal return is another halved-defence opening |
| Combustion | A screen-wide heat wave | Unavoidable, but it refills your MP. Damage her before it finishes to cancel it |
| Energyball | Three homing spheres | Do not try to dodge them. Keep circling the outer ring and they lose you |
| Doppelganger | Half-defence clones that chase and slap | Life Drain kills a clone outright, and each one is 300 experience |
What to bring. M249, MM1 or Mongoose, whichever the camp gave you; M4A1 with the Javelin as backup. Chicken Plate or the EOD Suit for armour. For spells: Combustion 3, Healing 3, Metabolism 1, Antibody, Energyshot 3, and Life Drain if you have it.
The elemental attachmentswear them or spend them
28
You reach the end holding up to four occult items, and each one can either stay attached for its passive effect or be consumed to push one spell line straight to its top level. You cannot do both with the same item.
| Item | Worn | Consumed | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crystal Skull | About +25% weapon damage | Inferno to level 3 | Wear it. The damage bonus is better than the spell |
| Medicine Wheel | Bonus item drops from every kill | Apobiosis to level 3 for free | Spend it before the last fight — Apobiosis is what neutralises the Core Blast |
| Holy Water | About −25% damage taken | Life Drain progression | Wear it unless you are committed to Life Drain |
| Ofuda | +50% Parasite Energy damage | Energyball progression | Wear it |
The three endingswhat you get, and why
29
Sad
Flint died at the Burner, or you never went back to Dryfield, or Pierce was never pulled off the water tower. Rupert meets you at the camp. Aya beats Eve, collapses, and soldiers find her. Nothing is resolved and Kyle carries most of the closing scene.
Normal
Flint alive, the gate solved, Pierce rescued at the tower — but you missed the Jodie call, or you left Pierce in the freezer. A clean finish, no epilogue.
True
All nine steps. A year later, Aya and Eve meet Kyle at the Natural History Museum.
30
The full checklist for the true ending, in the order it happens:
| # | Step | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beat the Burner inside three minutes so Flint lives | Dryfield, the balcony at night |
| 2 | Solve the Full Moon Gate (15) and go through it | End of the sewers |
| 3 | Rescue Pierce from the Mindsucklers | Dryfield water tower, return trip |
| 4 | Run the ice bag chain to the Ofuda | Main Street to the water tower, three times |
| 5 | Check the phone, read the memo, check the phone again | POD Service Gantry |
| 6 | Pick up the teddy bear | Vehicular airlock, by the motorcycle |
| 7 | Show the bear to Flint | Military camp |
| 8 | The blind soldier is led to safety | Sterilization room — automatic if 1–7 are done |
| 9 | Talk to Pierce three times | Golem Freezer |
31
It is a chain, not a list. Each step only becomes available because the one before it happened. Lose Flint on the balcony in Dryfield and steps 6 through 9 will never be offered to you at all — and the game will not say a word about it.
CHAPTER 4 OF 4
