Skaphander: Der Auftrag/Parity

In this sector, a coding sector, viruses have altered a gate password and a door password, sealed off a lift with parity errors, and reprogrammed a bridge control code. Your objective is to gain access to all four.

Continuing the theme from Rael, energy grows ever more scarce for those playing at higher difficulties. Conserve your fire and always check the Skaphander's batteries carefully before entering new areas, or your ammo may run dry midbattle.

Nexus
You begin in a central room looking north at a double eraser; you are at the top of a pillar surrounded by a ring-shaped lift. Collect the weapon and ride the lift down. Don't worry about being careful yet as there are no enemies in this room.

It would also appear that there are no doors, but in fact the brighter-lit segments of wall to the west, north, and south are "curtains", intangible walls that neither you nor the viruses can see through, but which can be driven or shot through.

Your first order of business is to secure various useful resources: a green pool, a recharging station, a repair station, and a heavier weapon. All four fall along an arc to the northeast, so turn right and head into the east hallway.

East hallway
The hallway east of the nexus makes a sequence of turns and climbs up four widely-spaced steps, each step the site of a viral ambush. There are alcoves with stashed resource items that you can sample along the way to keep your data and energy at healthy levels.

Coming from the nexus, don't charge headlong into danger, but instead glide to a stop before the first step and gun down as many as four clamps as they try to jump you. Similarly, at the second step, where the hallway juts to the south, strafe around that turn to catch another clamp in your crosshairs. Repeat that strafing tactic—more carefully this time—at the third step, which may have up to three clamps above it. Before continuing, flush out the false alcove on the right, which is actually a corridor leading to maybe two more clamps, a stash of data, and a breakpoint. Back in the hall, the turn just past that side path will put you immediately in front of a fourth step and a possible final clamp, so once more take the corner with caution. You'll arrive at the entrance to the parity room.

Parity room
The parity room is a larger room with a rectangular green pool in its center and nine bits (one byte plus a parity bit) of stanchions in each of the northwest, northeast, and southeast corners. While access to a green pool will give you a way to survive barnacles, you should still think of it as a last resort and strive not to get barnacled in the first place. The barnacles on this level mostly fight alongside clamps, which are pretty deadly if you're blinded and losing energy. Nonetheless, if you are later tagged, you can return here, submerge the Skaphander in the pool, and wait patiently for the barnacle to be washed off. In such an emergency, remember that strafing uses less energy than driving forward or backward.

Before opening the door to the parity room, check that you're sitting at almost 300 energy, and backtrack to the nexus to fill up if not. Then pop the doors and erase anything at the entrance, likely three clamps and your first barnacle. Prioritize the clamps with your shooting, but prioritize distance from the barnacle with your driving. You don't have a clear path to the pool just yet, so getting barnacled now would be awful.

When these guards are gone, peek around the door's corners and clear the groups to the north and south, each of which may be a strong as two barnacles escorted by a clamp. Then recharge with the items in the southwest corner, or you may not have enough ammo to make it through the rest of the room. Finally, eliminate the remaining targets, up to four barnacles and four clamps in an arc around the east side. Top off your resources once more.

There is obviously a puzzle in this room, but it leads to one of the toughest fights on the level, so save it for later. Rather, head north into the meanders, minding the step.

Meanders
The meanders are gently curving hallways that form a pair of wavy loops with sinusoidal branches north and south. Use strafing turns to maintain good visibility as you explore these clamp-patrolled passages.

Right out of the parity room, possible enemies include a clamp around the first turn, two more at the second bend, and then a fourth in the open to distract you from a fifth ambushing from your left. That will bring you to the first ring and some ceiling-mounted devices that make noise when you're nearby, but don't waste any energy disabling them. Instead, head right, toward the white joystick shapes, running into up to three clamps (if you count one that might stop by as part of its long patrol route). The passage to the right of the joysticks may have two more (ignore the one-way door you cannot use yet) and then the joysticks themselves may be guarded by three further clamps. With so many to deal with, watch your energy.

Once the area around the joystick shapes is safe, follow the hint on the opposite wall and tap both of them to lower the barrier to the recharging station. Fuel up and leave through the one-way door and continue north. At the branch just north of the recharging station, first hold left to go around the southern loop, downing maybe five more clamps. Recharge again if need be, and then follow the other two branches to clean out perhaps seven clamps from the northern loop. Recharge another time and find a narrow offshoot north of that second cycle that will lead you to the kiosk room. There are up to two clamps loitering along the curved part, but pause when the route is about to stop curving, when you can see it take a step down into a sharp left. The kiosk room lies ahead.

Kiosk room
The kiosk room has a floor-to-ceiling hexagonal kiosk with twelve monitors at its center, a constellation of letters ringing the kiosk, and various open-plan rectangular areas jutting off its sides. Coming from the east you will be barging into a crowd of possibly three clamps with more to come, so strafe-turn out of the meanders and handle those targets quickly. Don't advance yet; there will be as many as six clamps immediately to your right ready to shoot from storage-area windows, but if you keep east, you can pick them off one-by-one as they drift west trying to get a bead on you. There might also be one more clamp to the west through the window. After all that ruckus, top off your data and energy levels back in the meanders before returning.

You are now ready to push into the main kiosk space. When you enter, watch for two clamps to your left and then cut south, toward the orange-and-blue sign, before anyone else notices you. From far away the sign will show half of the gate password, and from nearby it will show the other half. Put the two parts together in your mind, forming the word "check". Then about-face and trash as many as four clamps on the west side of the room.

With the area secure, enter the gate password by tapping "C" in the southwest, "H" just east of it, "E" northeast of that, "C" again to the west, and finally "K" north of that. You may want to back away a little after each tap to avoid clipping the letter a second time by accident. If you mess up, start over spelling the password from the beginning.

Once the password has been entered, the force bars to the north will lower, granting you access to the interrupter, the heaviest weapon in the game. In an energy-sparse environment like this, it's probably best to stick with the eraser unless you really need the firepower, but it is nice that the interrupter comes with 100 energy. While here, also squash the clamp-guarded bug in the back.

Finally, replenish any resources you need with the repair station to the west or the storage area to the east and then depart southwest into the northwest tunnel.

Northwest tunnel
The northwest tunnel is a long, clamp-filled tunnel with alternating dark and light areas that runs for a while alongside windows to the north hallway. (Since the north hallway is so empty and has many annoying steps, it is simpler to just clear it through these windows.) While there is a nice stash of items near the tunnel's southern end, you can easily come up short on energy if you try to make it there in one trip, so don't take unnecessary risks with so many resources at your back.

There's not much else to say about this gauntlet except to detail what you're up against. In the worst case:
 * The dark segment before the windows can have seven clamps: one in the middle, then three more in alcoves, and then four more in the middle.
 * The light part with windows can have five clamps: one in the middle (which you can snipe from the end of the dark segment), one through the windows (which you can also snipe from the same place if you strafe right), and three more along the right edge.
 * The dark segment after the windows can have six clamps: one immediately to the right, four more in the middle, and then a final one in the right alcove.

The doors at the end will take you to the four-slabs room.

Four-slabs room
The four-slabs room is large green room dominated by the four domino-like slabs in the middle and holding even more letters than the Kiosk room. You can safely peek in the north door; if you stay in the shadows, you should not be noticed from there. So take a look around until you've scouted the room's up-to-six clamps and have them appearing as white dots on your HUD map. From the doorway, pick off the ones not among the slabs, backing up to stay in cover if they return fire. Then, when their numbers are reduced, enter the room to hunt the survivors, holding to the slabs to cover your flanks.

There's a door here to unlock, and it will lead to danger, so refresh and refuel. Then make your way to the west side of the room, turn east, and look at the first letter on each of the four dominoes. Those letters should spell "ßOOT", which might be puzzling if you read German, but if you make a common English-speaker mistake and read the word as a stylized "boot", you'll get a computer-related term, the only one to be found on the walls. So tap "B" in the northeast once, "O" south of that and past the "F" twice, and the "T" southwest of that once. (As before, if you mess up, start over spelling the word from the beginning.) Look to the south where a secret room should have opened.

Squash the golden bug and drive to the pillar door at the back at full alert, maybe even with your interrupter selected for an opening salvo. (But remember that it's splash damage can hurt you too!) The pillar door will lower, revealing as many as five angry clamps. Just focus on surviving; you don't need to be efficient because there are refreshes, sixpacks, and two breakpoints stowed in the back. You can ignore the lift sounds coming from another area behind the wall.

Once fully restocked, head back into the wider room and face the normal door to the south. It leads around and up a ramp to a lift, but the lift right now is dangerous to use from this side, so your goal for the moment is just to empty the ramp, something that will make your life easier later on. First, open the door while sitting on its left side so that you have cover from up to six clamps waiting for you, two of which are probably already poised to shoot. Engage these clamps one-by-one, slowly strafing right to bring each one into view. Keep tabs on your energy and go refill with a sixpack from the secret room if you drop below 150. The very furthest clamp in might not notice you. If that happens, it will be floating at altitude above Matma, so use pitched fire to hit it at distance. Even further in, at the top of the stairs, is another barnacle, the last virus to destroy from this side. Get its attention and draw it back to flatter terrain so that you can finish it off with weapon pitch locked.

On a similar, but less challenging, clean-up operation, pop through the four-slabs room's east door to finish off two clamps in the middle of the hall and one in an alcove on the right. Continue on through the nexus to return to the parity room.

Return to the parity room
The parity room's puzzle is fairly simple: tap the stanchions so that the words "even" or "odd" behind each byte describe the number of lit or unlit bits in that byte. Then set yourself up facing the south exit, turn slightly right to shoot the switch to release three clamps on a lift, and turn back to mow them down. (You could tap the switch with the Skaphander's body, but then it will be in your line of fire while the clamps are pummeling you from above. It's better here to use a little energy to get off clean shots.)

Now thoroughly stock up. The top of the lift is going to hit you with perhaps 13 enemies, not counting ambushers or reserves, so you'll need every edge you can get. Don't even let yourself take a scratch from the step before the lift.

The plan is to stay on the lift and gun from the right to the left, hitting the nearby clamps first and then the nearby barnacles, all without any stray fire reaching the two sleeping clamps further behind. On the highest difficulty, you can expect four clamps and four barnacles charging in from the right followed by three clamps and two barnacles assailing you from the front. One or two interrupter shells might be justified by the numbers, but don't risk it if you'd be in the blast radius. Let your eraser do most of the talking. If you do get barnacled, quickly scoot off the left side of the lift (the safest side) and back on, then take a dip in the green pool back in the parity room. Once the front of the room is clear, don't go any further, but drift left and then right so that you can ride back down to restock again.

On your second trip up, step off the lift to the right this time, and point your gun across the door that opens in the west, blasting everyone who comes out. Restock yet again from that side bay before taking on the pair of viruses you left alone in the back. Next, follow the west wall closely, and strafe around the right turn to catch perhaps two more clamps and two more barnacles in front of a door. Recharge, about face, and approach the door on the east with your interrupter. That bay can have two clamps and six barnacles, but the interrupter will soften up most of the latter, and your eraser will seal the deal. The story in the south is the same, this time with as many as three clamps and four barnacles.

Relax after all that carnage and prepare to open the west doors into the green-striped room.

Green-striped room
The green-striped room and the hall past it form the transition area between the parity room's lift and the eyeball room, also offering another green pool. Much like the northwest tunnel, you'll be clearing cliques of viruses mulling about the way and in its alcoves, though this time barnacles team up with the clamps. In particular, at highest difficulty:
 * The front of the room features one clamp and one barnacle.
 * The middle of the room has another clamp, this time with two barnacles.
 * The middle of the hall has a similar team of one clamp and two barnacles.
 * The first alcove on the right has one barnacle guarding its sixpack. But the second alcove's sixpack is undefended.
 * The back of the hallway has a final trio of barnacles.

Take these groups on one group at a time, and you should have no trouble. Just be sure to renew your resources before heading into the eyeball room.

Eyeball room
The eyeball room features a roughly oval-shaped plateau amid Matma, somewhat reminiscent of a sea stack. The plateau joins to a door on one end, leads to an alternating lift on the other, and has a bridge in the middle that can rise from the Matma with a valid control code. But, most noticeably, the center is surrounded by a ring of nine large eyeballs with colored splats set in white sclerae. The eyeballs change color when tapped, from green, to orange, to red, and back to green.

As you open the door to the eyeball room, be ready for a clamp and/or a barnacle right at the entrance. Then, before heading further in, glance to the sides for viruses from above the Matma that might have been watchful enough to spot you: a clamp on the right and a barnacle on the left. With the entrance secured, you can take on the up-to-three barnacles in the center front, then the group in the back having maybe two clamps and a barnacle, and finally drop the clamp in the back left, above the Matma.

Just past the eyeball room is the lift you saw earlier from the ramp when hopefully you cleared the viruses on the other side. But even with those enemies gone, this lift can be dangerous, because it is surrounded by gaps. Those gaps are narrow enough to drive over at speed, but also wide enough that you can fall into them if you're not careful or if you get tipped by the moving lift. So have a care crossing them. The first time you hop on the lift, you can at least position yourself so that, if you fall, you fall off the north side. That north side features an under-Matma lift that you can activate by pressing the nearby under-Matma button, which will pull you back to safety. But the other sides are all deadly.

With due caution, hop from the plateau to the lift and then turbo turn to scan your surroundings. There could still be one clamp on your left and one barnacle on your right, both of which like to hide until this moment. And, to top it all off, the clamp is smart enough to know it can push you into the Matma. So down the clamp fast to get rid of that greater danger and then spin on the barnacle before it can touch you. You then have access to both a repair station and a recharging stations, which you will need to make good use of once you raise the bridge. After topping off, head back to the plateau.

For the eyeball puzzle, the key thing is the number of each color. (Or, if you're colorblind, you can also use the differing number of arms on the splats to distinguish the eyes' states.) Obvious things to try include all eyes green, all eyes orange, or all eyes red, but none of those options do anything. So try the next-most obvious thing and make three eyes of each color. That will raise the bridge to the south.

With all codes cracked, all bugs squashed, full data, and full energy, you're ready to cross the bridge to the escape shaft.

Escape shaft
Unfortunately, leaving this level won't be easy. Past the bridge from the eyeball room, there's quite a crowd sitting behind the door: a vigilant welcoming party with a many as three clamps and four barnacles backed up by maybe six more clamps and seven more barnacles further in. Recoil is also a serious problem in this fight since the bridge has no railings.

Start by lining yourself up to directly face the door, so that as you fire, you're pushed back to the plateau, not into the Matma. Also have your HUD map fully zoomed in case you need to check your position on short notice. Arm your interrupter, creep forward until the door opens, and let off two or three shots, making sure not to miss those at the door and wake the reinforcements. Switch to your double eraser, destroy the clamps posthaste, and then defend yourself from the barnacles as you rebound onto the plateau letting the door close. The step up to the plateau is actually quite nice for your aim, since it compensates for the barnacles' tendency to rise when under fire.

When the dust settles, use the stations to restore your resources and, in your next raid, gun for the clamps further back in the room, working your way from left to right to neutralize the most immediate dangers first. Again, mind your recoil direction and watch your position on the HUD. If you can't secure the room in two raids, don't worry; there's no rush. Stay calm, navigate the lift safely when you use it, and keep yourself in the game with the two stations or, if you make enough progress, with the items around the escape shaft.

When the last virus is dead, dive down the shaft and enjoy your victory.