Right from the beginning youīll encounter the two most important innovations of D2: your annoying partner the Guidebot and your annoying enemy: the Thiefbot. Both are there to make your life more exciting and if you think itīs not enough you can waste your energy on triggers which open doors... only once so you should use markers to keep them open. Certainly thatīs not everything!

Though most of the strategies of D1 still apply a lot of nice and very useful weapons like Flash Missiles and my favourite: Guided Missiles have been added.

Well, Iīm always a little bit torn apart about this one. Doubtless itīs very useful when youīre looking for goodies in the mines. Just tell him what to find and itīs gone. So it helps you finding energy centers or hostages or even the exit. In vast levels youīll know if you already rescued all hostages when you ask it to search for them youīll get the reply "no hostages left" and know you donīt have to look on for them. Nice! As well itīs awfully useful to explore the dangerous parts of the mines. Just stay somewhere safe and let the Guidebot check out the land for you switching to itīs view (SHIFT+F2). You can see whatīs awaiting you in the tunnels ahead!

From version 1.1 on you can use the Guidebot also to find your markers (cool idea - typical Parallax); to find your marker #3 just hold SHIFT and hit 3 twice and the Guidebot leads you to it. The Guidebot *cannot* find secret doors or teleports etc.! That would be too easy. As well it doesnīt necessarily take the shortest way to the tings you ordered him to find.

How to kill the Guidebot:

Itīs really quite annoying sometimes especially when it comes back to you and starts firing flares on you to grab your attentention. You cannot kill it by direct fire but only by exposing it to explosions like those done by missiles or lava. Place it towards a wall and fire missiles against it. The closer to the concussion it is the less missiles (or Gauss ammo) youīll need. In any case itīs better just to tell it to leave (SHIFT+7) beacuse youīll need up to 35 missiles to get it done. Another less missile wasting method is to program it to find the red key in level one; it suspends in front of a lava fall. Now fire at the lava and the Guidebot gets hit by the lavaīs explosions. When itīs finally destroyed it leaves behind a marker stating "R.I.P.: Guidebot".

BTW, my favourite name for it is still Floyd though itīs called Wing Nut officially. If you donīt like that name press ALT+SHIFT+F4.

I *HATE* that damn guy! Always when youīre in a hurry or fighting someone it sneaks up from behind and grabs the weapon your using at the moment leaving you in big trouble. Itīs so fast youīve problems to follow it even with the Afterburner. Fantastic AI though!

How to kill the Thiefbot:
Actually there are two (!) ways to do it whereas it mainly depends on your patience and skill which one you prefer; however, itīs always better to kill it right from the beginning. Concentrate on him first so that the level exploration is less hectic. Sometimes youīre fighting bots and suddenly your beloved Gauss Cannon is snapped cause you didnīt hear him creeping up behind cause all of that battle noise. Certainly, if you like more action just try to watch your back and kill him while exploring the mines. Good luck.

After you encountered it place yourself somewhere where you canīt be attacked from behind; preferebly at the end of a long hallway and wait...

1.) The Smart Mine method

Place some Smart Mines in front of you (not too close to yourself!) and turn your back against them. Soon youīll hear him appear and heīll definitely run into the mines and take a lot of damage. It depends on how good you placed them and youīll need only 2 tries to kill him.

2.) The Flash Missile/Gauss Cannon combination

Just wait until itīs very close and then launch a Flash Missile! It gets stunned for a few seconds in which you should attack it with e.g. the Plasma or the Gauss Cannon. Meanwhile fire another Flash Missile so that it canīt recover again. If you didnīt make it and the Thiefbot flees do not follow behind! Just stay where you are and wait until it comes back (always in less than 30 sec.). When it comes up to you again wait until itīs very close and release another Flash Missile. It doesnīt matter if you got affected by the explosion cause when you destroyed it itīll leave behind up to 4 bluespheres and 3 energy But watch out: do not stay too close to it when it explodes!

One thing I experienced was that when I waited behind a closed door and it got opened by the Thiefbot it somehow got "surprised" by myself and didnīt flee as fast as usual as I opened fire with the Gauss Cannon.

Well, thereīs been a lot of discussion wether they actually add to the game or not and I think they do. It gives some adventure aspect to the whole thing and makes it more interesting. The problem however is, that you can use them only once and never after. So if you werenīt fast enough to get to a certain door opened by a specific trigger (once youīve finally found out which trigger opens which door!) itīs closed again and thatīs it. Or youīve made it in time but later when you come back to pass through the door again and itīs locked. So you have to reload and try it again which is especially frustrating in secret levels.

Use MARKERS to keep those doors open and you save a lot of time. Sometimes itīs even necessary to do it so you can fire distant triggers with Guided Missiles.

Though they are the least powerful of all the new and even the old missiles they are quite useful in several situations. If you ever got hit by that Sidearm or itīs modula you know what I mean: you canīt see anything for a few seconds. It looks quite as if you couldnīt make it to the exit in time and get incinerated in the mine. This weapon is awfully useful to kill that damn Thiefbot.

If you fire a Flash Missile on your opponent heīll be stunned for at least 2 seconds in which youīve got a neat chance to:

a) change your weapon
b) flee
c) change your tactic
d) nail him!!

Another new weapon that I like very much. More destructive than a Homing Missile and much more useful to ambush e.g. when you canīt enter a room cause the door is guarded on both sides from the inside just fire a Guided Missile and send it round the corner. As well you can use them to check out long tunnels by switching over to missile view (SHIFT+F2). A big advantage is that you can turn it into a Homing Missile by pressing fire again. So you donīt have to fire "into the blue".

If youīre firing from a distance just wait until you can see your opponent and then let the missile "home" to itīs aim. However, this turns on your opponents "Lock"-indicator so itīs not too useful in multiplayer. But the most important thing: itīs awfully useful to switch triggers that canīt otherwise be reached!