Descent II Vertigo, Level 7, insane difficulty, cold start, no death, full rescue, 100HP at exit
7Difficulty rating: 4 (very hard)
This level is FRUSTRATINGLY HARD to play on cold start. This level introduces the MAX which fire homing flash missiles.
The main problem is the lack of energy and ammo at the beginning of the level.
The second problem is the thief bot.
Also each part of the level needs special tricks to beat.
I tried to write as detailed walk through as I can, but a lot of things are still ad hoc and lot of luck needed.
So let's start:
0:10 You meet a fiddler right at the beginning. Lure it out of that chamber so you can finish it with fewer shots. Then fire a missile into the chamber. It seems when the bots see a missile they think they saw you (probably a glitch regarding the pic in pic rendering).
So you can lure the two smelter 2s and finish them. With relative ease.
0:50 The first tactical droid near the ceiling is hard to hit, often flees just to attack you later. The second one is easy to pick to with a well aimed consussion missile.
In the waterfalls one you need to engage that TD to kill it. This time I was lucky enough to hit it with both lasers so killed it immediately.
Then I used my homing missiles for those foxes to save energy. Energy is very precious on this level.
1:40 In the blue key chamber. It took me ages to find out the trick of it. Stick to right wall and lure the fiddler, kill it.
Stick to the water floor and kill the advanced heavy driller.
Then it will easy to pick down the sidearm there. It seems it's programmed to always drop 3 modulas upon destruction.
2:10 There are 2 tactical droids behind the waterfall you can like lure both them by firing a concussion missile into the waterfall (sometimes doesn't work...)
2:40 Upon picking up the blue key look for the fiddler that's behind the wall that disappears. (hope for 2 shield spheres which didn't come).
2:50 Now return to the blue door. There are 3 tactical droids await you at the ceiling. Now fire a concussion missile between the lines of the texture: the 3
droids will activate and likely run into your missile destroying all of them! That's funny! :D
This was the EASYER part... This can be practiced and I could do this any time.
The real nightmare begins behind the blue door. First the thiefbot is let loose. You are almost already out of energy and don't have the vulcan cannon yet.
Despite the low energy, whenever you can corner that pesky thief, fire at it (4:50) . It's one of the main treats there. If it steals your vulcan cannon you are doomed.
3:45 So after killing the two foxes that likely rush to you (this time only 1 came), go in for the vulcan while sticking the right wall, so you can prevent the tactical control droid from seeing you.
Then you can finish it with a flash missile + vulcan combo.
4:00 Then clear you way towards the yellow key in the corridor, but don't go for it yet. The primary purpose of clearing is to avoid ambush when you finally manage
to corner the thief into the corridor with the switch. And to let you pick up the stuff behind the drain.
5:15 When fox robots and new fiddlers begin to come you'll know you managed to lure all mechs from the larger room behind the grate under the blue door, so that area
is practically clear.
5:20 Now I pick up the stuff behind the drain.
5:50 Now destroy the switch which will open the wall and go for the afterburner. You'll open the door which will unlock it for you so you can reenter.
6:15 Rushing to get the gauss cannon, narrow escape with that smelter2 ugh...
6:30 3 ice spindle are in that blue area (they often drop a helix cannon), also there is a sidearm guarding the hostage room but it often selfdestructs itself releasing some modulas which can ambush you draining gazillions of shields.
7:20 Going back clearing the area, that's risky even with the gauss as the MAX can pop up any time I use the mega to neutralize him. This area is quite ad hoc, as robots can flank you any time. Be careful.
10:40 Eaten a homing flash missile from a MAX ugh... I thought I killed that robot before...
11:50 Going for the converter
13:00 Going for the yellow key. MAX drops only normal flash missiles... That's not fair I want the homing ones!!
16:45 After a bit of matcen farming decided to enter that yellow door and pick up the red key. I rarely got this far so I couldn't practice this area too well. Most foes can be lured easily though.
Blasting the screens in the hostage room will remove the grating from the waterwalls making returning easier.
18:30 Picking up the red key releases several foes near the yellow door.
19:40 Matcen farming to get a lot of shields, feel free to skip this part.
24:30 Entering the red area, preparing the boss fight. The rocket luring tricks works well for the tactical control droids.
25:00 Boss fight. Make sure to keep at least 1 guided missiles with you to access the cloaking device near the boss. Don't waste you time use you HELIX against this boss.
You can blow it into smithereens before it wears off.
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