My Mercenary demos are currently OFFLINE!

Mercenary is a 7-level addon from Outrage themselves which has some really cool levels! Unfortunately it did not turn out to be as tricky and twisted as expected yet I did record several demos. As said in my D3 howtos: keep using the Guidebot!! He's especially helpful in telling you something about the next step! There are a lot of goals you got to achieve in the levels and the Guidebot tells you something about the order and also leads you through these gigantic levels!

Well, the only difficult thing in level 1 was to slide down, so I put up a demo (157 KB). Nice to do a little triple-chording, though ;)

In the room with the Threshers hanging at the ceiling simply afterburn through and shoot the two switches to the left and then use the ceiling door on the opposite end. The room above has a cloak and ivuln so you can easily fly back through the room with the Threshers and up to the reactor to place the disruptor.

This one's not as difficult or complex as level 2 of Retribution. This is the the pile of boxes you got to shoot to enter the restricted area; I also did a short demo (256 KB).

Keep an eye on those camera monitors on your way to the mainframe. Take them out to keep the automatic intruder defense system inactive. In case you did activate it, simply shoot the security monitors to proceed. Look at the tubes, some of them are open and you can follow them down unter the floor to grab some additional ammo.

Create a diversion by destroying the turret control system and then go on to replace the data cartridge. Before you do so grab the invulnerability which is hovering under the ceiling behind the mainframe opposite to the entrance of this room. Then fly out and get back to the door you entered this complex through. It's no locked but the fan in the ceiling has stopped so you can escape this way easily. You'll be ambushed shortly before you can leave this level so be prepared :).

DANG! This level is incredible!!! Never seen such a large one and it's really twisted. As well, it's your first time to fly that cool Black Pyro, yeah! Don't let yourself get confused by the ton of goals you have to work through, the Guidebot will always know what to do next. Remember though, to get him back into your ship before you use those wind tunnels! It's quite difficult to find your way back to him when you're up on a one-way wind tunnel and he got stuck down there! Also do save often.

Concerning that Black Stormtroopers: Matt Long from Outrage mentioned on the DBB that killing them is easy by hitting their backpack; the explosion takes them out immediately so best use an MD yourself. Following are some quick tips to overcome the several minor obstacles, the corresponding demos are listed below:

Do a quick search in the hangars for tons of powerups. Especially the floor doors in hangars 2 and 3 are important, keep your headlight on. To get to the next hangar simply shoot the right one of the levers and rush out through the now unlocked door. This lever also starts a hangar decompression sequence which will suck out all bots. Let yourself get sucked out from hangars 2 and 3 to find secret areas ;)

On your way from hangar 2 to hangar 3 you'll find a large room with a generator. Shoot the Napalm barrels to get some kinda football. Use your ship to nudge the ball into the hole on the ground. This will make the generator produce a powerup (Mega or Frag). You can do this till all the balls are used up. Later in the game you'll find a similar generator close to one of the cooling junctions. This time you do have to plunge only one ball to make the generator produce several goodies; however it's more difficult to get the ball in.

Disable the harzardous storage forcefield by shooting it in a certain angle to hit the trigger in the room behind. Slide down into the room below and get the energy to shield converter. This tool is invaluable throughout the level cause there are plenty of small drones flying around. Destroy them to get quite some energy powerups which you can then convert to shields. Below the converter to the left is the first Cooling Junction, the way to the right leads back on an alternative route to the hangars whereas this time you land in the control booths. Try the levers to see how you can torture those bots in the hangars, KABOOM!

After that go on and destroy the ventilation shaft fan by nudging the large ball into it. Before, use the "+"-trigger outside to strengthen the suction to get rid of those Stormtroopers. Fly up into the shaft till you come to a windy tunnel. Again shoot the forcefields in the right angle to disable the primary cooling fan. Now you're on you're way up through several Sharc protected rooms. They do not attack you as long as they're not activated by the security drone patrolling the rooms. Hide under the mirror and wait till the drone passed by and blow it up from behind. If it spotted you hurry up to blow it before it can hit the alarm trigger, otherwise the Sharcs will shred you to bits.

Once you've finished these rooms you'll get to a very large wind tunnel which makes you slide up and down alternately. Place the GB in your ship and press yourself against the outer or inner wall to slide up. Check the map for the two doors (one in the ceiling and the other 3/4 of the way up and afterburn in with the wind's help; did you notice the goodies behind a window in the central pillar?. We'll get to them later, first you'll arrive in a large circular floor with lots of goals. The Cooling Junctions are locked up but you can call a Maintenance bot to open the door by shooting a trigger. Keep out of the bot's sight to avoid him calling for Black Stormtroopers.

The Captain (aka boss 1)

This one is a little bit more tricky than the First Mate since he teleports through the room. However, there's a Cloaking Device behind the wall in the Mate's cabin. Take this one (after blasting the wall) and afterbrun to the Captain. As soon as he starts attacking get close to him and blow him off. The closer you are the less you won't be effected by his Impact Mortars. In case he starts shooting Smarts just dodge behind one of the columns.

BTW, you might have noticed a strange looking texture in the right wall next to the window. I guessed there would be a secret behind but unfortunately it was skipped due to time constrains. Here's what Josh Foreman (the cool guy from Outrage who did the level) mailed me about it when I told him that I planned to investigate this part a little further:

That texture has a door behind it. The room on the other side had to be cut because there was not enough time to polish the scripting that happens in there. Originally the Capt. runs into that room when you see him. In that room is a force field bubble contraption that he hid in. One of the force field walls would lower momentarily for him to toss some seekers out at you. You had to shoot lasers or other energy weapons in during that moment. They would bounce around inside the bubble till they hit the capt.. It looked really cool. But we couldn't get the seekers working right in time. So Luke took the liberty of closing that section off and scripting the current encounter. (Which is still pretty cool.)

The First Mate (aka boss 2)

As soon as you enter his room he'll summon 5 identical bots who keep attacking you with Impact Mortars. Simply afterburn behind them and wait, they won't turn around. The bots are only destroyable when they attack. Keep an eye on all of them and whenver one shoots an Impact Mortar immediately blow him up. Go on like this till the First Mate is destroyed.

Now when you got the two keys be sure to go to the Pole North first but do not yet place the key! Instead slide into the wind tunnel to go down and keep checking for a small opening that leads to the main pillar and it's goodies. Once you get them go on with the wind tunnel till you come up at Pole South. Now place the first key and use the wind tunnel; you will notice that this one has less obstacles and is faster so you will make it in time to the other pole to place the second key. After placing the key you simply got to slide down a bit and to the left of the monitor to touch the data interface "arm" to download the data. Then be off to your escape!

Wow, another cool level, remember Tycho Brahe? This one looks quite freaky, the textures remind a bit of that alien end level in Half-Life.

Again use the Guidebot to lead you through the level. One note on the alien forcefield generators you got to destroy to disable the forcefield that protects the Hive. As soon as you destroy one's surface it starts sucking everything in close range into it. Use this effect to get rid of those annoying alien insectoids: let them follow you through the tunnels and when they are getting close blow the surface and see them getting smoked. Wait till it's cooled down a bit and get the remaining powerups. As you were told in the beginning those insectoids are most vunerable to matter weapons and Napalm; they also blast off some shrapnel when hit so don't get too close.

tons of goodies and Guidebot powerups

In case you have the time just explore the level for tons of goodies like missiles, Vauss ammo and even some for the Guidebot. Actually I even found a "new" one I haven't seen previously in D3: the manual pilot powerup (which has some striking similarity to a Joystick!). The problem is that it obviously doesn't serve any purpose cause everytime I use it the GB simply tells me to "be gental" and that's it. Strange enough this powerup can be found in the original D3 HOG file though it hasn't been used in the game. My guess is that they just did not have the time to finish the scripting routines for this powerup so they never used it. Therefore the sudden appearance might be a mistake of the level designers where they intended to use another GB powerup and overlooked they put this one into the level.

Never mind, here's how to get it: there's one room with four large pillars that connects three levels of the planetoid. Fly up to the top level and then go straight ahead through the middle tunnel and over a small pond. Pass an insectoid generator to your left and shoot the second "mirror forcefield" on the left side. Inside it you'll find the "new" GB powerup as well as an invaluable energy to shield converter. Now when you fly out of this honeycomb take a close look at the texures on the opposite wall. There's a flythrough texture you definitely should examine to give a yell to Jeff Slutter and friend ;).

If you still don't have enough check the rest of the level for the (useless) fire extinguisher and Wingnut powerup.

burning the alien queen (aka boss 3)

Another really cool bot sequence. After you disabled the Alien Forcefield Generators the sealed off quadrant (1) of the alien hive can be acessed, you're entering the Queen's Lair. Though the Queen is vulnerable to Napalm you can't kill her with your weapons but you need to use the thruster (6) of the derelict spaceship. To activate it grab the fuse (3) and place it into the generator (2). Operating the switch (5) now is of no use since you got to ignite the thruster manually. Before you do this go to the other derelict ship (4) which has a powerup generator plus tons of Napalm canisters and missiles. In case the Queen spots you on your way simply afterburn into the tunnels and don't waste your ammo on her. BTW, the windows in the floors of both adjacent tunnels (generator) are good ways to explore the caves comparatively unharmed from the Queen.

Once you've replenished your ammo go back to the "entrance" (1), grab the invuln and rush to the thruster to ignite it with your Napalm. Start attacking the Queen with missiles and Napalm. As soon as the invuln wears off get the other one beside the thruster and keep fighting the Queen. Soon she will have enough and go back to refuel her energies (7); use that *short* period of time to afterburn back to the switch and push it. This will catch her during her refuelling process and you'll succeed! The small shuttle thingy at the wall opposite to the thruster will explode giving way for the exit (8).

Aarrgh, this one is quite enervating due to it's sheer complexity; it reminds me a bit of Retribution level 9.

However, the alien caves do really look cool. Concerning the giant boulder, just use your AB everytime it loaded up and you'll get down through the tunnel in time. Be sure to dodge all the bots instad of fighting them, otherwise you won't make it; someone obviously watched a bit too much Raiders of the Lost Arch ;) To enter the laboratory complex you just go to shoot the 4 surrounding "gems" which focus on the entered one which in turn produces an energy beam that blows the ceiling.

Ok, as said in the briefing the automatic turrets only fire in case they are attacked. Unfortunately this also involves using *flares*! As soon as you or even the GB uses a flare (not to speak of any weapons) the turrets get activated and will try to blow you to bits. You do not even have to aim at them, they'll attack anyway. This means that you have 2 alternatives:

1. use the GB and by doing so alert all turrets you're passing by which will quite possibly kill you serveral times even when you're flying under the "path".

2. don't use the GB and try to find your goals without getting attacked by the turrets which at first takes some more time but later pays you back. However, just dodge all attacking bots and afterburn your way through the tunnels. You can easily blast the follow-up-bots in those closed up rooms without alarming the turrets outside.

finding your way without the GB

Actually it didn't turn out to be that difficult as I'd expected. Leave the room you burst into from the cave (1) to the left and follow the tunnels. Take the second door to the left (2) and slide up one level. This is an important pivot (3) on your way to the hubs. From here you can reach both hubs and when you've placed the virii slide through the now unlocked top door (4) to the main computer interface.

hub beta

• go through the pivot door (3) and turn right
• follow the tunnels and take the first door to the right
• always keep on the right side
• take the first door to the right (5) and slide up

hub gamma

• go through the pivot door (3) and turn right
• take the first door to the left
• follow the tunnels and always keep on the right side
• take the first door to the left (6) and slide up

Once you've placed the virri return to the pivot door and slide up. The door (4) that leads to the main computer interface will now be unlocked so you can fly to it. In case you got the time or the nerves keep exploring the level yourself. There are tons of goodies like cloak, invuln, missiles, shields and even a temporary Anti-Virus.

Hhmh, not too much to say about this one except that the Mini Bosses really rock. To load/align/unload the cargo on the turn table simply enter the control tower and shoot the left - middle (until you get a message) - right switches.

In case you got problems to get through the defense line to the reactor just lure those bots out into the large hall and the Mini Bosses will deal with them. Before you blow up the reactor leave the CED station and follow the ravine to the right, at it's end you'll find a Black Shark.

Another large and well protected level. There are TONS of those dangerous Black Stormtroopers that actually can aim!! It took me some time to figure out how to get rid of them easily: in this level you'll also find a lot of those mega turrets that shoot both multiple homing missiles and Mass Driver rounds. They all have some kind of energy device behind them. If you destroy it they suddenly start attacking all your enemies!!! This is fun to watch and saves you lots of time and shields!

You should take the time to explore this Stormtrooper maze cause between these tons of goodies you'll also find 2 Black Shark Missiles. The 1st is hovering under the ceiling between the two turrets that are placed opposite to another turret. The second is hovering behind a pipe close to that single turret on the floor.

Once you've entered the maintenance are create an alarm by shooting the flame barrels and follow the Maintenance Bots to the delivery pad. Plant the bomb and follow the Maintenance Bots down through the elevators till you can't go down any further. You're then far away enough and the bomb will detonate automatically. If it hasn't yet for you you've simply been too close still :)

defeating the PTMC Assault Bot (aka boss 4)

Well, took me some time to figure out the right technique: obviously his only weak spot is the large Gatling Gun. As you can imagine this poses quite a problem since you can't attack him from behind but always need to get into his field of view making yourself up as a real nice target.

However, your best help against this one are homing weapons! Collect as much Black Sharks, Megas, Cyclones and Homings as possible and don't ever forget to use the EMD Gun (one of which can be found in the central command). With these weapons you don't need an all to clear aim yet you'll always hit his weak spot. Right at the beginning rush to the invulns and Black Shark missile to the left and then face him blasting him with everything you've got except the Black Shark. Use the pipes to hide behind when he starts using the Gatling Gun.

Sooner or later the GB tells you something about attacking from behind. At this time the boss will have switched his weapon to an even deadlier combo. Now afterburn to the other side to collect the Megas and the cloak. Now while shooting periodically (to make your position less guessable) blast the two Megas and try to approach him from the side. Try to shoot your Black Shark *at his gun* and once it's fired keep backing out while continuing EMD fire. This should do the trick, I killed him on HotShot without getting killed once.

To keep this demo as small as possible I recorded it on 10 frames per second so please adjust your framecap settings accordingly!