Uncharted 2: Among Thieves/Desperate Times

Your goal in this chapter is very simple, and yet it is one of the longer ones. You're trying to get to the top of the Hotel Shangri La, from which you hope to spot the temple with the symbol from the dagger. Unfortunately, you'll run into many obstacles and enemies along the way. Keep in mind that you'll always want to use the best tool for the job, and toward that end you'll be introduced to some new weaponry to help you take out bigger foes.

Through the plaza
From the garden room in the building, go out the door onto a patio and down the steps off one side of it. This will lead down to a ledge with some broken railing where you can jump down into the alley. After formulating a plan with Chloe, you'll be in charge of taking out the guy with with the RPG in the back of the truck. From the cover you start at, head down the side of the buidling there and find cover behind the low wall at the bottom of the steps. When the guy in the truck's not looking, jump to the other wall beside it and sneak across the back of the truck to stealth attack the guard on the other side. Jump up on the side of the truck, and when the RPG-gunner walks by, do another stealth takedown. After that Chloe lobs the grenade and the firefight begins.

Running around with the Moss - 12 shotgun, just mowing people down when you get close is pretty effective here and it's really simple to get behind guys, because you can run all over the place. Once again there will be a riot shield for you to use once you take out the guy who has it. Once you kill enough guys, a support truck with a machine gunner and a bunch more bad guys will show up in the corner of the plaza opposite from where you came in. Approach with your riot shield and take out the crew of enemies and the gunner, then go take over his turret with psx: T and fire normally with the psx: R1 button. The machine has unlimited ammo, and you'll be in perfect position to take out the troops coming down the street toward you, as well as any in the main structure, where Chloe is likely to be.

Into the hotel
When the fighting's over, head back over to the first truck where you took out the RPG gunner before the fighting started. Next to the truck is a traffic light with a green and yellow box below it. Climb up to the very top of the pole where you'll find the Brass Bird Lamp in a small green box. Climb back down and head over to the front of the main structure in the middle of the plaza (the side where you first came into the plaza). Look up above the big archway to the temple symblo and shoot down the Silver Dress Clasp. Now head over to Chloe, who should be waiting in an alley off to the side below a ladder (if you're still facing the temple symbol, this would be to your right). Boost her up to the fire escape ladder to continue on.

There's no entryway at the top of the fire escape, so you'll need to hop over the railing on the plaza side and jump to the pole with all the signs on it. Climb up to the top and either jump from one of the signs to the roof, or swing and jump to it from the lamp post. Follow the narrow roof around, past the opening into the building, all the way around to the end where you'll find the Copper Rice Measure. After that, go back around to the opening and enter the building. When you get inside, a couple guards come up the elevator, so quickly get to cover behind the pillar on the right. The riot guard in black is a tough, armored enemy and requires far more damage to kill. Either lob a grenade back to them or just shoot them as normal, then get on the elevator.

Free Chloe
The elevator breaks down, trapping Chloe inside, so you're on your own to get the power back on. The junction box is on the top floor, so you'll basically just want to always head up. Start out by heading down the hallway and through the apartment to open-air bathroom. Walk along the slab of concrete jutting out like a gangplank, then jump to the closest flap pole and start swing-jumping across them. After one of them breaks, climb left across the ledges to another wall-less room. Hop in and blow the boards, then move into the next room where there's another slab of concrete leading out, this time to beams above you you'll be able to swing across to get to the building across from you.

When you get across, you'll jump down to an open window. Hang out below it until some guards come up to it, then start stealth attacking them with psx: S to pull them over and down into the street. They're not that bright and they haven a tendency to forget where you are if you don't actually enter the room, so if you're patient you can just wait there for another guy to come up and get thrown to his death or face away from you so you can snipe him while hanging. After you've killed three guys, jump into the room if you haven't already done so, and head farther in to the stairwell. A fourth guy will enter, so either take him out too, or wait for him to go into the room with the window and follow him in for a stealth kill. When he's taken care of, move out to the stairs.

Go up a flight of stairs, and through a dark doorway is a hall to another area where two bad guys are waiting. You can either go through the hall, or continue up the stairs and take them on from an elevated position. When they're down, go back up the stairs to the very top where it ends and jump to the elevator shaft. Drop down on top of the defunct elevator to retrieve the Yuan Dynasty Urn. Jump back out onto the stairs and continue on, past where the last two guys were. Off to the side of this area is a hall that will take you back to the hotel. As soon as you get into the hallway, a couple guys drop down into the room you're headed to, so either fall back and take cover, or just rush them.

Head out onto the balcony where another slab of concrete is waiting for you to climb, but before you do so, hop the railing to the left of it and follow the roof around the building to a suitcase with the Enameled Snuff Bottle in it. Back on the balcony, carefully head up the concrete and jump to the post sticking out on your right. Follow it back to the building and climb up onto the section of flooring, then jump across to the othe section on your right and head directly for cover behind the panel sticking out from the wall. Take out the guy shooting at you, and jump across to where he was. You'll see the elevator there, and to the right of it is a room with a hole in the floor where you'll want to drop down. Head over to the sparking panel and press psx: T to repair it. climb those same panels and jump back to the other side, where you'll see Chloe finally come out of the elevator.

Helicopter chase
In that same room with the hold down to the electrical panels, boost Chloe up the ladder and follow her up to the rooftop pool. Jump into the deep end for the Marco! trophy, then climb out and do it again for the Polo! trophy. On the other side of the pool, hop the railing by the sparking "Hotel Shangri La" sign, and go down the roof behind the building. At the corner you'll find some white bricks you can climb up to the roof. After spotting the temple you need to get to, head over to the post with colorful flags on it on one side of the roof. Press psx: T to slide down to another building.

You'll immediately note that the bridge you need to cross is down, so climb up the yellow boards on the side of the bridge entryway instead. This leads to a yellow rail that spans the gap to the other side. Unfortunately, as you cross the rail, a helicopter shows up and begins to shoot you. You'll crash back into the side of the building you were on, and then it's a run along the sides of buildings trying to stay one step ahead of the chopper – just follow Chloe. The last platform before you can jump to another building falls down, but when you climb to the top it provides good cover for you to take out the couple guards down where Chloe jumped. When they're down, jump over the platform, then jump to the rooftop.

As you cross the roof, two more guys will approach from atop another building. Take them out then head across to the building they came from. Over there you'll be able to drop down a floor to the inside of a building, but unfortunately, the helicopter's guns are strong enough to take out the building's wall, exposing you. Keep running through the building, stopping for cover to take out guards along the way. Sometimes the helicopter will take them out for you as it's blowing up the building. After a couple rooms, you'll drop down to a lower floor with three guys in it. Take them out and the helicopter will shoot out the wall, then send a volley of missiles into the building, bringing it crashing down. While it's falling you'll want to stay at the far end of the room away from the missing wall so you don't get crushed by the sliding debris. Take out the guys that jump in, and move closer to the missing wall as it's falling so you'll be able to jump through the window of the approaching building when you're close enough.

Helicopter showdown
From the room you end up in, head out into the stairwell and go up to the top floor, where you'll be able to jump across to the roof of an adjacent building. When you get up onto the roof, you'll be attacked by a squad on a different rooftop, and they have an RPG gunner. There's a FAL behind a wall up here, which should help you take out the missile launcher and mop up the other guys. When they've been taken out, head over to where they were and use psx: T to lower the bridge to get over to them. When you get over there, take out another squad of enemies on roof below and to your left. You'll want to pick up the M32 - Hammer, since that helicopter is still out there somewhere. Before jumping down to the lower building, get to the highest spot on this roof, where you'll find the Incense Burner on top of the air conditioning unit by the green water tank.

Keep stocking up on Hammer ammo as you look around and move down to the lower roof, because you'll soon be attacked by the helicopter again. You'll want to stay on the higher part of the lower building so you can maintain visual contact with the chopper, but do move around for cover a bit as needed. The helicopter moves slowly, but your Hammer shoots slowly, so you'll still need to lead it a little if it's moving. Just keep plugging away at it and eventually it'll crash and burn. There's ammo all over the place, so just look around if you run out. When the chopper's down, go down on the lower part of the roof and lower the bridge across like last time.

In the next building, jump down then jump across to the broken down billboard. Jump over to the other side, then jump out to building below it. From there look to your right and jump down to yet another rooftop. At the other side, press psx: T to zip line down. Climb the box next to the fire, then take the blue pipe up to another pipe going off to the left. Follow that pipe to a third one, then take that one farther left to a ladder. Climb down the ladder and the signs to the street, then head around the corner for a reunion.