Shadowrun (Sega Genesis)/Walkthrough

BEGINNING INFO
This section is basically for those who aren't familiar with Shadowrun and/or don't have access to a game manual. A lot of the stuff here is very basic and rudimentary, so you may want to skip it if you already know how to play. On the other hand, there is a lot of good info and tips here (especially in the "Other Stuff" parts of each section), and I bet that even advanced players would learn a thing or two if they read this section thoroughly. So, if you want to familiarize yourself with the different gameplay aspects of Shadowrun, by all means, read on. But if you want to get right to the zesty lists, spoilers, and advanced techniques, then you should probably skip to Section III.

Around Town
While a great deal of the plot hinges on spending time in the Matrix (see part 2 of this section for details), you'll still probably spend most of your time walking around in the "real" world. Here's some info to get you started.

Screen --  Most of the time, you'll work within the main action screen. Along the right side is a bar with three windows, one for each member of your party. You, Joshua, will always be in the first window, and, where applicable, your fellow runner(s) will use the other two. In each window, you'll see the character's portrait. Down the left side of the portrait is the character's  physical health bar. Across the bottom of the portrait is their mental health bar. If either of these reach zero (empty) while in the real world, you'll lose consciousness. If you're in the Matrix, a different set of rules apply -- see the Matrix part in this section for details. Below your character's face is a picture of the weapon he or she has equipped, and to  the left of the picture is a number representing the number of rounds left in the weapon. The character that you're controlling won't automatically reload when that number reaches 00; you need to hit the fire button to load the next clip, assuming you have one. The computer-controlled characters will reload when necessary, but will walk around with an empty weapon if  they spend their last round as the battle ends. If this happens, you may want to switch over to the character and reload for them, just so they'll  be a little more ready for the next battle.

Controls D-pad: Moves the character you're controlling. A: Attacks with equipped weapon or spell. B: Targets an enemy for an attack. If there are multiple enemies, continually hitting B will cycle through the enemies. C: Changes the character that you're controlling, and re-targets the current enemy. Obviously, not used when alone. Start: Goes to the pause menu.

Other Stuff ---  Here are some other tips for general non-Matrix gameplay.

* You don't need to hit many buttons to interact with your surroundings. To    enter a building, walk through the door. To talk to an NPC, operate a    computer terminal, or confront a locked door, just walk up to it and stand in front of it. To pick up an item lying on the ground, walk over it. If    you don't pick it up, then that character is already carrying as much as     he or she can hold.

* You can't enter buildings or leave the area when under attack. There are a    few loopholes, though. The terminals still work during battle, so you can call a cab out of there. Also, if you're really desperate, you can try to    lead your attackers on a wild goose chase throughout town. If you manage to get them far enough off screen, the battle system will "forget" about them and you'll be allowed to enter buildings. There's a good chance that they'll still be chasing you when you come out, however.

* If you're walking around and your movement seems to slow down all of a    sudden, or you notice some other sudden odd change in your movement speed, you probably have some thugs on your tail. When out of combat, your party moves at a fixed speed. When in combat (and you are "in combat" as soon as    the hostile enemies are generated, regardless of if they're on screen), your attributes determine your walking speed, so you'll probably notice a    slight difference when entering or ending combat. Just use it as a heads- up.

* Your party members (when you have any) are generally good at following you, but sometimes they will wander off and get lost. This is particularly likely to happen in mazelike areas such as corporation buildings and caves. If you find yourself missing a runner, they probably got distracted by an enemy... or maybe they're just plain confused. You can switch over to them and get them back with the rest of the party, or just go through a    door or to a different area and reunite everyone.

* Dead bodies of enemies will disappear as soon as they are offscreen. Dead bodies of fellow runners, as well as items that are lying on the ground, will stay there until you leave the area.

Combat
-- Now that you know how to get around the Seattle area, here are some tips on battles, with which you'll soon become quite familiar.

Screen --  Since all battles will take place in the normal action screen, you can just read the previous part for a description. However, there are a few things that are slightly different when in combat, so you might want to check them out before you continue. First, as mentioned before, you can use the B  button to cycle through targets. But aside from directing your fire, the crosshair will also tell you the enemy's health. It starts out green, but will gradually turn to yellow and then red as the target loses more life. This is useful for a number of reasons, especially in situations when you're  dealing with a bunch of enemies and you want to know which one is closest to   dying so you know where to focus your attacks. Another thing about the screen during battles is that if you target a civilian, the target will wear off after a moment or two. I presume this is to keep you from murdering innocent bystanders, but I guess the programmers didn't realize how fun and profitable this would end up being. So, if you're going to go on a shooting spree downtown, make sure to re-target the guy you're shooting at every few seconds. Remember, you don't need to do this for real enemies, only innocents. You sicko.

Controls The controls are the same as above. One thing perhaps worth noting is that holding down A will autofire, even for melee combat. In fact, a lot of  battles aren't really much more than standing still, holding down A, and seeing whose life runs out first.

Other Stuff ---  Despite what was said in the previous paragraph, there is a fair amount of   strategy involved in at least the setup of your party for battles, if not in   the battles themselves. Many different elements combine to determine the effectiveness of your and your enemies' attacks.

* Perhaps most importantly, you should set your fellow runners' Postures to    Full Offense. Posture does two different things for human- and computer- controlled characters. For your character, it affects overall offensive and defensive power. Of course, there's a tradeoff between the two, so    Neutral or Mid Defense are good settings for a nice balance. For the computer-controlled people, though, Posture determines how they'll act during combat. Full Defense characters will basically run and hide during battles, and Full Offense characters will charge right in and start blasting. Now, strategy has a place in gunfights, especially in real life. In this game, though, there's not much you can do other than sit there shelling the guy. So, unless you have a seriously frail runner that needs to be protected, you'll want your runners to earn their salt by backing you up in firefights. The point is, even in a Neutral posture, the members of your party will probably be too hesitant in battle to help your cause, and changing them to Full Offense will help this. Just remember, if you switch characters, the Posture has a different effect, so don't change control and then wonder why your character was killed so easily. A Full Offense Posture on the character you're controlling makes him or her very susceptible to attacks. Be careful.

* If someone in your party is killed (or knocked unconscious or whatever    happens when you run out of life), remember that all you need to do is use a healing item to bring them back. Unlike a lot of RPG-type games, there is no special item or technique required to revive someone. Just pump a    little more health into them and they'll be fine. You can even use items from the dead person's own inventory. It's no big deal.

* On the other hand, NOT reviving a dead character can be bad news. If    someone is out of commission and you leave the screen without reviving them, that person is out of your party and must be re-hired, even if they were signed on as permanent runners. Plus, when you go back to them, they will like you less and may ask for more money. Also, if Joshua dies and you leave the screen without reviving him, it will be as though your whole party got wiped out. You'll wake up at Little Chiba, your runners will be    gone, and if you were in the middle of a courier- or acquisition-type run, you will have failed. Bummer. So keep plenty of restoratives handy.

* Each weapon has ratings for Damage and Power. These are two very different things. Power is the chance that attacks with that weapon will penetrate the enemy's armor. Damage is the amount of damage that will actually be    done if the attacks go through. A high Damage rating is good, but if the weapon doesn't have enough Power to actually get through the target's    armor, no damage will be done at all.

* A few things to consider when choosing weapons: the best guns in the game are shotguns, in terms of raw power. The Allegiance is the most destructive gun around, while the Roomsweeper is nearly as powerful while holding more ammo. Despite this, it's probably best to carry around SMGs or heavy pistols along with your shotguns. Why? Because unlike shotguns, SMGs and pistols can be accessorized, making them more accurate, and more importantly, quieter. During corp runs, one blast of a shotgun will set off the alarm and cause all kinds of headaches. But you can fire off your silenced pistol or SMG all day without setting off the alarm. This may seem like a minor detail, but once you start doing corp runs, you'll know how much time and trouble can be saved by avoiding setting off alarms. Also, SMGs and pistols make better use of their ammo as opposed to    shotguns, which can only hold 5 or 7 rounds at a time. So, if you want to    be a badass and kill everything without thinking, sure, grab a shotgun. But if you want to rely more on finesse, stealth, and efficiency, pack a    modified HK227-S or my personal favorite, the Predator heavy pistol.

* I'm not a big fan of grenades. Maybe you will have great success with them, but in my opinion, they're darn near worthless. It takes so long to    distance yourself properly from your target, turn, throw it, and wait for it to arc way up and then land, that in the same amount of time, you probably could have killed the guy with a few gun blasts. Plus, the splash damage can seriously hurt you, and it's not like you can hide halfway across the screen and hurl them from a safe distance. Enemies will always follow you, so if you try to leave some space between yourself and the target you'll probably end up either missing (because the guy followed you    when you ran away after throwing it) or hurting yourself (because the guy     was so close that you ended up getting hit by the splash damage). And as    far as that "Frag Grenades can open locked doors" thing, um, buy a     Maglock Passkey. Jeez.

* Just a reminder, no matter what weapon you're using (except your fists,    and even then, it's tough to miss), you won't need to aim. Just select your target and fire, and your character will automatically train his or    her shots toward the target, even if their back is to the enemy.

* No, you and your teammates can not hurt each other with your own gunfire. Grenades are a different story, though...

* If you have Spurs, or to a lesser extent, Hand Razors, you may want to try them out on enemies who seem to be absorbing all your shots. For someone who has high physical attributes, melee attacks can be among the most powerful in the game. Even to a maxed out character who's using an    Allegiance shotgun, it may take several shots to kill a Renraku agent, but that same agent will usually go down pretty easily if you move in and start attacking with Spurs.

* How effective your attacks are depends heavily on your attributes. Make sure to read the section on attributes to determine which ones you need to    work on in order to improve your attacks.

* How close you're standing to your target has a small but significant effect on the damage done to both you and it. Generally, it's best to    avoid standing toe to toe with your enemies during a gunfight. Back off a    little and you'll take less damage.

The Pause Screen
Pressing Start from the normal screen will pause the game and take you to the pause screen. This is a very important screen, and it has more useful things than I can list here. Just make sure you read this part to become familiar with this screen and how it can help you.

Main Screen ---  When you first hit Start, you'll see a rather convoluted screen with several pictures, lists, and buttons. Here's a description of what you're looking at.

In the upper left is a full portrait of the selected character. Below the portrait are the character's eight inventory slots. Weapons and armor with a light border around them are equipped. In the upper middle part of the screen, the largest area, is basic info about the character: name, race and class, physical and mental health (expressed in percentages instead of the  life bars you normally see), the equipped weapon/magic with its corresponding Damage and Power ratings (and Drain, too, if you have a magic  spell equipped), your overall attack and defense levels, and finally, your equipped armor and its ratings against weapons (melee combat and grenades) and guns.

On the right side of the screen is the same bar that's there throughout most of the game with your characters' portraits, health, ammo, and weapon. At  the bottom of the screen are the controls. The buttons running along the bottom will take you to different screens within the main screen; more on  those in just a sec. Above the buttons is the Posture slider.

Note that the cursor starts out on the buttons at the bottom. To access your inventory, simply move the cursor over to the left until it's in the inventory area. To use the Posture slider, just move the cursor upwards from the buttons, use left and right to adjust the Posture, and move it back down when you're done.

Subscreens --  Within the main screen are several subscreens that have even more detailed info about your party and the game itself. Move the cursor to the desired button and hit A to enter the screen. From left to right, the subscreens are: Clips, Attributes/Skills, Cyberware, Magic, and Pocket Secretary. Also covered in this part are your options with inventory items.

Clips -    In this screen, you can manage the clips each character is holding. When you hit the Clips button, you'll be shown the number of clips the character is holding and you'll be given the following choices:

Reload - Reloads your weapon with a new clip, even if it's not empty. Reloading in this manner is not necessary when your weapon is             empty -- just hit the fire button again and you'll reload. Trade - Not really trading, more like giving. Pick a runner and choose how many clips the current character will give them. Distribute - Takes the total number of clips held by all runners and divides the clips evenly among them. A useful feature. Cancel - Takes you back to the main screen.

Attributes/Skills -    This screen will show you a list of the selected character's ratings in     all the different attribute and skill areas. Also shown is the amount of    Karma the character currently has. This is a pretty important screen, so    make sure you read the section on Attributes and Skills to understand how everything works.

Cyberware -    Probably the least useful screen, this simply lists whatever Cyberware that the character has. Multiple installations of the same cyberware are denoted by a number in parenthesis.

Magic -    Takes you to the Magic subscreen where you can equip magic spells and change their settings. If the character can't use magic, it just shows his or her ratings for defense against magic. If the selected character is a    mage or shaman, however, you'll want to familiarize yourself with the following screen:

-Magic Subscreen- This is where you manage your magic spells. Across the bottom of the screen are spaces for the spells you've learned. Unlike the cyberdeck screen, which otherwise is very similar to the magic screen, magic spells are added in the order that they are learned -- each spell does not have its own spot that it always occupies. Just a note for the obsessives out there who want their spells to be arranged a certain way...

The top of the screen shows the spell currently highlighted by the cursor (not the currently equipped spell; check your portrait in the       sidebar for that), and a brief description of its effects. Below this are four bars (sometimes five -- see below) and two sliders: The Success bar shows the selected spell's chance of success at the current Force and Posture settings. The Drain bar shows you how much mental drain will occur each time you cast the spell -- unless you have a       fetish, of course. If this is starting to sound odd to you, you may want to check out Section VIII to learn how magic works.

Anyway, the Damage bar will appear above the Force and Posture sliders when an attack spell is chosen. It simply shows the spell's Damage rating with the current Force and Posture settings. The Damage ratings of magic spells are comparative to the Damage ratings for any weapon or       grenade that you've previously seen.

The last two bars are your magic defense ratings against the two types of attack magic: Physical and Mana. As mentioned before, these two bars will be all that non-magic-users will be shown when selecting the Magic option from the pause menu.

Finally, there are the Force and Posture sliders. If you've played a       fantasy RPG before, you're probably familiar with the concept of spells that have multiple "levels" of power. That's kind of what the Force of       a spell is here. Depending on your character's Magic attribute, as well as how many levels of a spell you've bought, you can use the Force slider to choose how powerful the spell cast will be. Increasing a       spell's Force will increase its Success rate while also increasing its drain rate. Changing your Posture (note that the Posture shown here is       NOT separate from the Posture shown in the main pause screen -- it's        just duplicated here to let you analyze its effects on your spell) will have about the same effect. It's important to use a good combination of       the two sliders in order to efficiently manage the tradeoff between Success and Drain.

That's it for the screen. Use the D-pad to move the cursor around. Hit A to change a spell's settings for Force and Posture (use Up and Down       on the D-pad to switch between sliders), and hit A again to equip that spell. When you're satisfied, hit Start to leave the Magic screen.

Pocket Secretary The Pocket Secretary is probably the most useful part of the pause screen. It keeps track of everything that's going on in the game through several subscreens, listed here:

Notebook - Contains all the info you need to help you in your quest. Has five features:

Current Run - Lists all the relevant info from the Shadowrun you're currently on, assuming you do have a                               job. Tips & Clues - A very useful feature. This lists all the information you've gathered as you've played. Pages will automatically be added as you learn new things and advance the plot, and pages will automatically be deleted as they become irrelevant or are replaced with better or more detailed information. If you're ever stuck, check here. Contacts - This is a list of contacts you've made with people in and around Seattle. Select a name for a short description of the person, along with a list of                            the various information, equipment and services that he or she has to offer. Mr. Johnsons - If you don't know what a Mr. Johnson is, read the section on Shadowrunning. Once you've made a contact with a Johnson, he will be listed in                                this screen. Selecting the Johnson's name will bring up a short description of him, including the types of runs he contracts and where to                                find him. Shadowrunners - Like the last two, this is a list of the Shadowrunners you've met. Select a name to                                 see the runner's race and class, as well as                                  where to find him or her.

Group Items - This subscreen is simply a list of "key items" (to borrow                  from the Square RPG vernacular) that you are carrying. Things like permits, passports, packages for runs, and other items which can't be used per se, but have an effect on your party while they are being carried.

Cyberdeck - This takes you to your Cyberdeck screen where you can check out the stats of your deck, and load programs for use in the Matrix. This is an important and complex screen, so it won't                be covered right here. Refer to Part 4 of this section for info on how to use the Cyberdeck screen.

Dismiss Runner - Just what it says, picking this option will list your current fellow runners, and you can pick one to let go. This is useful for when you want to hire a new runner, but have a full party already. Beware, though, dismissing a runner will have the same effect as failing a mission: The next time you talk to them, they won't like you as                     much and will probably ask for more money.

Save/Load Game - Another self-explanatory function. Use this to save and load your game. The game can't be saved or loaded in a                     building or during combat.

Inventory -    If you move your cursor all the way to the left of the buttons (or wrap it     around from the right), it will be in your inventory window. From here, you can select an item and usually do one of the following things with it: Equip/Unequip (for weapons... for items, this changes to a context-    sensitive action equivalent to "use"), Discard, Trade, or Cancel. Picking Equip/Unequip does just that -- toggles the item between equipped and unequipped. You can only equip one weapon and one piece of armor at a    time. Discard drops the item (for good... it doesn't appear on the ground    next to you or anything), Trade lets you pick a fellow runner to give the item to, and Cancel brings you back to the main screen.

Controls D-pad: Moves the cursor around. A: Selects a choice. B: Same as A, except, uh, it doesn't work for some buttons or choices. Just stick with using A for this screen. C: On the main screen, it changes the selected runner. On other screens, it     behaves like the B button. Like I said, just stick with A.  Start: Cancels a choice and/or backs out of subscreens.

The Matrix
-- Also known as Cyberspace, the Matrix is the other half of the game. It's nearly impossible to go through the game without experiencing the Matrix at least once, and a lot of really important things can be done by using cyberspace. This part will give you enough info to get you off the ground. For advanced strategy, cyberdeck stuff, and Matrix run info, consult the Guide to the Matrix section.

Screen --  The Matrix actually has several screens that you'll often see. When you first jack in, you'll be taken to the cyberdeck screen to check your info and tune your deck before actually entering cyberspace. This cyberdeck screen is split down the middle. The right portion is where all the text appears. The left portion contains a list of all the programs you have stored on your deck, divided up into three categories, each containing four programs. From the top down, you'll see Combat utilities, Defense utilities, and Mask/Sense utilities. Highlighting any program with the cursor will show you its stats and a short description in the text window. If you want more information on what the programs are and what they're used for, consult the Matrix section. For now, just know that they're shown on the cyberdeck screen.

The last row, below the Mask/Sense programs, is the all-important Command row. The four icons found here aren't programs to load, but commands to  execute. Make sure you are familiar with each function, as they are easy to  forget about, but can very helpful to you:

CyberInfo -     This first selection gives you two choices: Deck Stats and Run Info. Deck Stats simply shows you the stats of your current deck (see the Matrix     section for discussion of the stats themselves). Run Info is only used when you're under contract for a Matrix run and are actually jacked in     (in other words, even if you've been contracted for a Matrix run, this      option won't tell you anything if you access the cyberdeck screen via      your pocket secretary). If you are, you can choose this option for a     brief description of the run you're on, including which Node you need to      get to, the title of that Node, and what action you need to perform once you get there.

Storage ---     Selecting this item will bring you to a screen that gives you your deck's      total storage capacity, followed by its remaining free space. Then, you'll be given a chance to view or erase data files that you have stored. Pick View to see a list of the data files you have, or pick Erase to erase a few to free up space. If you pick Erase, the screen will cycle through all your data files, one at a time, from oldest to newest, each time asking you if you want to delete the file.

Sysmap --     Sysmap's two options are pretty handy. You can pick Show Map to see a map of the current system, or choose Retreat to retreat to the Node you just visited. Note that there are several situations in which retreat is not possible, such as if the current Node is the only one you've visited (duh) or if you just hopped across the system via the CPU. Most importantly, though, you can't retreat once combat has begun. So, be sure you know what you're up against before running any programs, because once you launch an attack or get tripped up by the Node's ice, it's a fight to     the death.

Jack Out! -     Choose this option when you want to leave the Matrix. You'll disconnect and be returned to the real world. You can do this at any time. The only other thing you may need to know is that if you're at a Node with live BlackIce, any attempts to jack out may be blocked by the BlackIce, and you'll probably end up taking physical damage, too.

As for the rest of the cyberdeck screen, the only other part is the bar across the bottom of the screen that shows the status of the Persona and of  loaded programs. The Persona is the electronic manifestation of your character in the Matrix. It's the character that you're controlling. Most of  the time, the first box on the left will show you a portrait of the Persona. When you fight BlackIce, though, the portrait will change to the actual character's portrait to signify that the ice is directly attacking your body, not just your online Persona. To the right of the portrait is your energy meter. This works just like any other life meter in the game. In the Matrix, if your Persona loses all its energy, it gets dumped from the system. If you're fighting BlackIce and lose all your energy, you get dumped as well as suffering the normal effects of losing all your physical health: You get knocked out. Some ice can even fry your deck on the way out, rendering you unable to access the Matrix until you've repaired your deck.

Across the rest of the bar are the five slots for programs that you have loaded. Before you can use any of the programs on your deck, you have to  load them into memory. To do this, move the cursor to the utility you want to load and select it. Providing you have enough free memory (check the text  window to see if it'll fit) and at least one open slot, the program will be   put in a slot. To remove a program from memory and put it back into storage, select its icon, just as you would to load it, and answer yes when asked if  you want to remove the program from memory.

Regardless of your system's memory capacity, you can only have five programs loaded at any one time... hence the five slots. You'll notice that along with the space for the program's icon, each slot will have two bars. The vertical bar on the left of the icon is the success bar and the horizontal bar below the icon is the loading bar. The success bar is an approximation of the chance of that program succeeding when run. Naturally, having low- grade programs or fighting powerful ice will diminish the chance of success, while the opposite will result in a high reading. It's just a simple way of  gauging which program will work the best, so that you can make a better decision about what strategy to use.

The loading bar is only used if you load new programs after entering the Matrix. If, at some point, you decide to pause and load a new program, you will have to wait a while upon returning to the Matrix before the program can be run. Only one program can be loaded at a time, so if you put in  several new programs, the deck will load them from left to right. As you may have guessed, the loading bar shows the loading progress of each program. When the bar fills all the way up, the program is ready to be run. Keep in  mind that the programs that you choose while in a Node, or before you first enter the Matrix, are instantly loaded -- the load time issue only comes up  when switching your programs on the fly. Also note that this load time, which is only done once, is different from the refresh time of the program, which is done every time you run it (there are a few exceptions, however --  see the Guide to the Matrix section for more info). Finally, as you may have expected, upgrading your deck's stats will reduce load times.

Besides the pause screen, the rest of cyberspace is pretty straightforward. The screen you'll see most of the time, which I'll call the action screen, consists of your Persona, the electronic environment that is the Matrix, two HUDs (heads-up displays), and the same bar across the bottom of the screen that was described above.

When you're in the Matrix, you'll see large geometric shapes known as Nodes. Nodes make up the structure of each system. In order to get anywhere in  cyberspace, you'll need to be able to move in and out of the hundreds of   interconnected Nodes. To gain access to a Node, you need to defeat the ice guarding it by using the programs on your deck. For a list of ice types and the programs that can be used against them, consult the Guide to the Matrix section. On the screen, ice looks like a small animation that stands between you (the Persona) and the Node.

The HUD in the upper left has the following information:

* Name and level of the program currently selected by the cursor * Program status (loading, ready, in progress, effects, etc...) * Alert status

The first two probably don't need any explanation, but if you haven't heard of alerts, then you should pay attention. Beside voluntarily jacking out, or  as a result of attacks by ice, the only other way to get dumped from a   system is to max out the alert system. When you enter a network, no alerts are activated. Sometimes, though, the system will notice your actions and activate an alert. You can trigger an alert in a number of ways: basically anything you do from inside a Node, even including going to the pause screen, can trip up the alert system. Also, many forms of ice have attacks whose sole purpose is to sound an alert if successful.

The first time you slip up, the system will go to Passive Alert. All enemy programs will become more powerful, ice will become more hostile, and ice that has been hidden may start to attack. If the system is in Passive Alert and you trigger another alert, the system will go to Active Alert. All enemy Nodes, ice, and programs will become even more powerful and hostile, and more dormant ice may come out to attack. Finally, if you trip up the system one more time during an Active Alert, you'll overload the system and will be dumped immediately.

Alerts can seriously hurt you, so you should know that if you manage to get into the system's CPU, you can cancel all alerts as often as needed. Also, ice behave in odd ways that will sometimes affect how alerts work. The most important examples of this are the Tar Paper/Tar Pit Nodes, which are able to send the system from No Alert directly to Active Alert. For more info on  this and other little tidbits, check the Matrix Guide section.

The HUD on the right has Node information:

* Type of Node, Node color, and Node level * Name of Node (and energy bar, when in combat) * Primary ice type and level * Secondary ice type and level

If you want detailed explanations of these things and how they work, consult the Guide to the Matrix section. Otherwise, here's a general rundown: The first line has info on the Node itself: its function, and how powerful it  is. The second line is its name, which will usually tell you what kind of  stuff it's used for. This is helpful for when you're looking for a certain type of file or control. If you attack the Node or otherwise enter battle, this line will alternate between displaying the name and displaying an  energy bar for the ice so you can see how close you are to defeating it. The third and fourth lines, when applicable, list the ice programs guarding the Node, along with the level, or overall strength, of each ice.

NOTE: When you first encounter a Node, only the Node type will be displayed in the HUD. To find out more info, you must run the Analyze utility, often several times before all info is displayed. Also, if you defeat the ice and enter the Node, you'll see all the available info the next time you jack in and fight the Node, as long as you didn't jack into another system in between visits.

In addition to the cyberdeck screen and the main cyberspace screen, you'll  also see screens from the inside of each Node that have lists of options. How to manipulate Nodes is more for the Matrix Guide, so you'll have to look there for the info... but it's not that hard. You just pick an action and it  will be performed. Of course, if your decker's Computer rating is too low, you can easily screw up and risk detection by the system.

When you leave a Node, you will be shown a system map. As said before, this map is also accessible from the cyberdeck screen. When moving from Node to  Node, you'll see a human icon for your current location and a question mark cursor for your destination. Use left and right on the d-pad to cycle through destination Nodes, then confirm and you'll be whisked to the next Node. The map will only show the Nodes you've been to, along with all the Nodes that are accessible from the ones you've been to. Visited Nodes appear in their respective colors (unless you sleaze them or use the backtrack  technique to gain access), while unvisited Nodes will show up gray. Finally, once you get inside the CPU, all the Nodes will be shown on the map. Plus, you'll be able to go directly to any Node on the system. It's a one-way trip, though, so make sure you know where you're going.

Controls D-pad: Moves the cursors around. A: In the main screen, runs a program. If using the Attack program, launches a heavy attack. In the cyberdeck and other screens, confirms a choice. B: Acts just like A, except if used to run Attack, it launches a medium attack. C: Same as above, but launches a light attack if used to run Attack. Start: Cancels a choice and backs out of menus. When you initially jack in         and are taken to the cyberdeck screen, hit Start to enter the system. Other Stuff ---  * As mentioned before, ANY action made from inside a Node can potentially trigger an alert. So, you should limit the number of actions you take when inside a Node. Don't be fickle and keep canceling out of the map screen when you're trying to decide where to go next; don't lock IOPs or disable SMs when you don't need to, and especially don't dig for datafiles in a    DS unless you're on your way out of the system anyway, or if you're only one or two hops away from the (hopefully already-subdued) CPU. Also, remember that you can access the pause screen from ANYWHERE in the Matrix. So, if you want to switch programs around or check your run info, try to    avoid doing it from inside a Node.

* If you want a ballpark estimate on how tough an ice is, just look at its animation. Weaker ice animates much more slowly than stronger ice. So, if    you've just uncovered a Barrier that's spinning like mad, you're probably going to be in for a tough fight.

* Datafiles and programs share the same storage space, and higher-level programs take up more space than lower-level programs. This means that if    you intend on making some money by selling datafiles, you shouldn't buy so many programs that you have no room to store your datafiles. Make use of the Storage command in your cyberdeck screen and keep an eye on your Available space. Datafiles can be up to 60Mp in size, and you have five slots to hold them, so if you have anything less than 300Mp (60x5) of    available storage, you're not guaranteed to be able to get a full load of     files every time you jack in. Most files are in the 30-40Mp range, so if    you have less than 200Mp of storage, you're going to have a rough time sorting through the files you find until you get five that will fit in    your deck.

* A good rule of thumb for fighting Nodes is to always try Deception before attacking. If you know for a fact that the defending ice is incompatible with Deception, you can go ahead and attack, but otherwise you should try Deception until one of three things happens: 1. You successfully deceive the ice and enter the Node; 2. You fail while running the program and enter combat; or    3. You enter combat after running the program against an incompatible ice. Many types of ice are susceptible to Deception, and these types won't    attack unless you fail to run the program. So, to avoid combat, it's best to start every encounter with a Node by running Deception as much as you can, and only using Attack as a last resort.

* This kind of goes along with the last tip: When you first encounter a    Node, the ice, no matter what kind, will take the form of a spinning polyhedron. Only after you enter combat will the ice reveal itself and start attacking. This means that, assuming you don't fail and start combat prematurely, you can run any non-Combat program you want before battle, and you won't run the risk of being attacked.

=PHASE 2: ADVANCED INFORMATION=

Guide to the Matrix
This section will tell you all you need to know about the Matrix, cyberdecks, programs, ice, and on and on. Make sure you have a working knowledge of the basics before reading this section. If you don't understand, I suggest reading part 4 of Section II first. Now then...

Introduction
The Matrix is evidence of how well-thought-out this title is: there's actually a point to Matrix runs. It's not just eye candy, or thrown in just to remain loyal to the license. There are a number of legitimate reasons to hire a decker (or to get cybered and jack in yourself) in this game. First of all, there are the actual shadowruns themselves. For an experienced decker, Matrix runs can be very lucrative. The most expensive contracts in the game (6,000¥-plus) are always Matrix runs. And, as one would expect, the Karma bonuses for these runs are accordingly high (+6 Karma for a big-time run). Or, if you want to make some serious cash without having to work through a Johnson, you can jump right in and rustle up as many datafiles as you can, then sell them to Roscoe for potentially huge sums of cash.

Besides using the Matrix and its subsystems for direct financial gain, you can use it as a tool that can help you in corp runs -- jacking in from inside the building and playing with SMs and crashing CPUs can make your job a lot easier. Also, downloading datafiles from corporate systems is a great way to learn more about the plot. There are some very illuminating files stashed away in those DS Nodes.

This section is made up of charts, figures and strategies that will help you navigate the Matrix and corporate networks more easily. If you're trying to find out the stats on a deck, or which program to use, or how to hack into networks like a pro, then read on.

Cyberdecks
The cyberdeck is what allows you to take the form of the Persona and enter the Matrix. It's a lot like a personal computer in that it uses memory and storage, can be upgraded, and can run programs and manipulate files. If you have a basic understanding of computers in real life, then you should be able to figure out cyberdecks pretty quickly.

Stats
This part will explain the various statistics for cyberdecks, as well as  give a rundown of what actions they affect and which ones are the most important. Deck specifications fall into three categories: The inherent base values that can't be changed, the stats that can be improved via hardware upgrades, and the attributes that affect the representation of the Persona. First, the two base values (the ones that can't be changed) will be listed, then the hardware stats, and finally the attribute ratings.

-Base Values-

MPCP - Stands for Master Persona Control Program. A deck's MPCP rating can never be changed, as it is an inherent signifier of the deck's         overall worth. Virtually every function that you perform with your deck uses the MPCP at least a little bit. Perhaps the most relevant piece of information I can give you about the deck's MPCP is that it         reflects the potential of your deck. Cyberdecks cannot be upgraded beyond what their MPCP values can handle. That is, if your deck's         MPCP is 6, then that's the highest level you'll be able to raise its attributes. Because of the reasons listed here, the MPCP is perhaps the most important deck statistic, and it should be taken into careful consideration when shopping for a new deck.

Hardening - Another important statistic, Hardening is basically your deck's              defensive power. Like the MPCP, it cannot be changed via hardware upgrades. Despite some people's strategies, the Matrix is really more about avoiding detection than destroying everything in your path (think about Metal Gear Solid versus              Quake). For this reason, Hardening plays a large role in the Matrix, while there is no statistic specifically relative to              attack power. Your ability to avoid, absorb, and withstand attacks from hostile ice is of much more use than how hard you can hit with your own attacks.

-Hardware Stats-

Response - This statistic is pretty broad -- it affects a wide range of             actions, most of which have something to do with how you perceive and interact with your surroundings in cyberspace. Perhaps most noticeably, a higher Response rating will substantially increase the overall speed of your deck in performing a number of actions such as running, loading, and refreshing utilities.

Memory - Similar to real life computers, your deck has a limit on how much it can do at one time. Each program takes up a certain amount of           memory, and a given deck can't load any more programs than can fit within its memory limits. Regardless of memory, though, you can't           load any more than five files at a time, period. If your deck is           short on memory, you'll find yourself having to unload programs in            order to load other ones. This is time-consuming, tedious, and risky, if you're trying to switch programs in the middle of an           encounter with enemy ice.

Storage - Unlike Memory, which is how many programs you can have "equipped" at one time, Storage is how much you can carry, total, regardless of what programs are loaded. If you plan on doing a lot of Matrix runs and data sales, you should know that Storage is used not only by programs that you buy for your deck, but also for datafiles that you download from systems in the Matrix.

Load/IO Speed - Whereas Response is an inherent value that has some effect on cybercombat speed, Load/IO Speed is an upgradeable rating that has a direct effect on how fast your Persona operates inside the Matrix. As its name states, Load/IO Speed controls how quickly programs can be loaded into memory while in cyberspace.

-Attributes-

Bod - Bod is your deck's actual defense rating while in the Matrix. Don't        confuse this with Hardening, which is an unchangeable value attached to each deck. If you want to use the analogy of fighting in the real world, you can think of Hardening as your natural toughness, and Bod as your toughness after you factor in what type of armor you're        wearing.

Evasion - Evasion controls the Persona's capability to dodge incoming attacks from hostile ice. The higher its rating, the more often your Persona will be able to evade attacks.

Masking - This is perhaps the most important rating of the deck. It affects two important areas: Node detection and the Deception program. A            high Masking attribute means that a.)it will take longer for the             system to detect your actions and sound alerts; and b.)you will have more success when running Deception. Since these are two very important parts of the matrix run process, it's usually a good idea to invest in a high Masking rating.

Sensor - This attribute only has one use, and it's not even a very good one. Decks with high Sensor ratings will have more success when running Analyze. Whoopee.

Upgrade Tips
After reading the above information, you should have a pretty good idea of  which stats to upgrade in order to be a more effective decker. But, if you still want a little more help, check out these deck tuning tips:

* The only attribute worth upgrading is Masking. The others will only come into play in rare situations, and even then will be of limited value. A    high Masking rating, on the other hand, will greatly help you avoid many kinds of ice, making Matrix runs much easier.

* As far as the hardware stats go, Load/IO Speed isn't that important since you won't have to change programs on the fly very often -- provided you have enough space. That's why you should take the time to upgrade your Storage and Memory specs often. However, the most important hardware stat is Response. Nothing's worse than being matched up against high-level ice that you can only hit once out of every 10 or so shots, and having it take what seems like forever to refresh the program for each attack. Especially against a tracer-type ice, this can be infuriating. So, to give yourself at least a fighting chance, you'll want to make sure you can attack at a    somewhat brisk pace. Pump up on Response and you'll notice an immediate difference.

* When buying programs, watch your available storage! Make sure to leave yourself enough room for datafiles. If you get stuck with less than 200 Mp    of space, you'll have a tough time trafficking data and will have to     upgrade your storage or your entire deck.

Deck List
Here's a list of all the cyberdecks in the game, along with all relevant stats and info for each one, including where you can purchase them. The columns listed are, in order: The name of the cyberdeck, initial/maximum Memory, initial/maximum Storage, initial/maximum Load/IO Speed, Hardening, initial Response, MPCP, the store at which the deck can be bought (MT=Microtronics, CM=Crime Mall), the price, and the Negotiation value of the buyer that corresponds with that price. Also note that all decks have a maximum Response value of 3, so that stat wasn't included in the list.

Finally, note that you can get a Fairlight Excalibur, identical to the one found at the Crime Mall, from Kipp David for 185,000 nuyen. This price never changes, regardless of the character's Negotiation stat. And, of course, no price data on the Allegiance Alpha is available, since you start out with that deck and it isn't sold anywhere.

Deck Name          Memory  Storage   Load/IO H R MP St Price   At Neg. --- --- - --- - - -- -- --- ---  Allegiance Alpha     30/120   100/250   10/30 0 0  3 --      --      -- Cyber Shack PCD-500 50/160   100/325   20/40 1 0  4 MT   5,000     0-2 4,844      3                                                             4,688       4                                                             4,532       5                                                             4,376       6                                                             4,220       7                                                             4,064       8                                                             3,908       9                                                             3,752      10                                                             3,596      11                                                             3,440      12

Fairlight Excalibur 500/500 1000/1000 100/120 5 3 12 CM 250,000    0-2 240,240      3                                                           230,480       4                                                           220,720       5                                                           210,960       6                                                           201,200       7                                                           191,440       8                                                           181,680       9                                                           171,920      10                                                           162,160      11                                                           152,400      12

Fuchi Cyber-5      100/240   500/500   20/60 2 1  6 MT  25,000     0-2 24,219      3                                                            23,438       4                                                            22,657       5                                                            21,876       6                                                            21,095       7                                                            20,314       8                                                            19,533       9                                                            18,752      10                                                            17,971      11                                                            17,190      12

Fuchi Cyber-7      300/400 1000/1000  50/100 4 2 10 CM 125,000     0-2 120,120      3                                                           115,240       4                                                           110,360       5                                                           105,480       6                                                           100,600       7                                                            95,720       8                                                            90,840       9                                                            85,960      10                                                            81,080      11                                                            76,200      12

SEGA CTY-360       200/320   500/650   50/80 3 1  8 MT  60,000     0-2 58,125      3                                                            56,250       4                                                            54,375       5                                                            52,500       6                                                            50,625       7                                                            48,750       8                                                            46,875       9                                                            45,000      10                                                            43,125      11                                                            41,250      12

Deck Notes
Just a few quick notes about deck shopping... You start with an Allegiance Alpha. You end up (I assume) with a Fairlight Excalibur. What you do in between is up to you. Personally, I only make one extra hop, usually buying a mid-level deck from Microtronics such as the Cyber-5 or CTY-360. I think that buying any more than that is a waste of time. On the other hand, all the programs and upgrades carry over to the next deck, so if you think it's worth the extra money to be constantly increasing your MPCP, Hardening, and max values, then go ahead -- the cost of the deck itself is the only extra money you'll be spending. Still, the low-mid-high route should be more than enough to get you through the varying difficulties of each Matrix system. My advice is to get your Alpha to the point where it can take out green DSs easily, then start working toward the mid-level deck. After you buy the mid- level deck, hold on to it for as long as you can until you have the money for the Excalibur.

Programs
Programs are perhaps more commonly referred to in the game as "utilities," but I'm calling them programs in this FAQ just because it sounds better. So there.

Program Tips
The programs in Shadowrun are perhaps one of the few areas in the game that are kind of weak. That is, most programs are unnecessary and basically pointless. Only a handful are truly useful inside the Matrix, and I recommend that you not bother with wasting space by buying the others unless it's to feed a Tar Pit (see Part 5 in this section, Matrix Strategies).

The two essential programs if you want to do any Matrix running are Attack and Deception. If you don't have these programs in decent levels, you can forget about being able to do anything in the Matrix. I know I've said this before, but I can't stress it enough: Use Deception first, and switch to Attack ONLY after the ice has become hostile. Battles can be long, drawn out, boring, and quite dangerous, if the Persona is overmatched. On the other hand, even if it takes five or six tries to crack a Node with Deception, it would still probably have taken longer to kill it with Attack. This is assuming you have equivalent program versions and deck stats, of course. If you want, you can even focus most of your upgrades on your deck's Masking stat and higher versions of the Deception program. It's truly the most important program there is.

There are other programs with a lesser amount of usefulness, and some with none at all. If you want to know what I think of each program, check out the comprehensive listing in the next subsection.

When buying programs, it is very important to consider your deck's storage and memory limitations. More and more advanced versions will use more and more storage and memory, so make sure you will have enough. Keep in mind that you need enough memory to have at least Deception and Attack loaded simultaneously, and hopefully one or two others, as well. Also, you need around 300 Mp of free storage in addition to your programs if you plan on collecting and selling data.

Program List
Here's the full list of all the programs in the game. For the purpose of this FAQ, I've divided the programs into four Types: Small, Medium, Large, and Special. These categories define the program's size and price for all versions. The stats are consistent, so you can expect two different Medium programs to always take up the same amount of space as one another, and to cost the same too. In fact, the scheme is very simple: the prices and sizes of Medium programs are exactly two times those of equal-version Small programs, and the Large programs are three times as big and expensive as Smalls. Using that information, you could extrapolate all the data you need, but this is a FAQ after all, so I've tried to help by typing out the tables below. Also, the two Special programs -- Rebound and Degrade -- follow their own pricing scheme, so you'll need to look at each program's entry for that information. SMALL PROGRAMS follow this size/price scheme:

+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+  Program Level      |  L1  |  L2  |  L3  |  L4  |  L5  |  L6  |  L7  |  L8  | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+  Program Size       |   2  |   8  |  18  |  32  |  50  |  72  |  98  | 128  | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+  Price @ 0-2 Negot. |   60|   480| 1,620| 3,840| 7,500|12,960|20,580|30,720|   Price @ 3 Negot. |   59|   465| 1,570| 3,720| 7,266|12,555|19,937|29,760|   Price @ 4 Negot. |   58|   450| 1,520| 3,600| 7,032|12,150|19,294|28,800|   Price @ 5 Negot. |   57|   435| 1,470| 3,480| 6,798|11,745|18,651|27,840|   Price @ 6 Negot. |   56|   420| 1,420| 3,360| 6,564|11,340|18,008|26,880|   Price @ 7 Negot. |   55|   405| 1,370| 3,240| 6,330|10,935|17,365|25,920|   Price @ 8 Negot. |   54|   390| 1,320| 3,120| 6,096|10,530|16,722|24,960|   Price @ 9 Negot. |   53|   375| 1,270| 3,000| 5,862|10,125|16,079|24,000|   Price @ 10 Negot. |   52|   360| 1,220| 2,880| 5,628| 9,720|15,436|23,040|   Price @ 11 Negot. |   51|   345| 1,170| 2,760| 5,394| 9,315|14,793|22,080|   Price @ 12 Negot. |   50|   330| 1,120| 2,640| 5,160| 8,910|14,150|21,120|                      +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+

MEDIUM PROGRAMS follow this size/price scheme:

+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+  Program Level      |  L1  |  L2  |  L3  |  L4  |  L5  |  L6  |  L7  |  L8  | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+  Program Size       |   3  |  12  |  27  |  48  |  75  | 108  | 143  | 192  | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+  Price @ 0-2 Negot. |   90|   720| 2,430| 5,760|11,250|19,440|30,870|46,080|   Price @ 3 Negot. |   88|   698| 2,355| 5,580|10,899|18,833|29,906|44,640|   Price @ 4 Negot. |   86|   676| 2,280| 5,400|10,548|18,226|28,942|43,200|   Price @ 5 Negot. |   84|   654| 2,205| 5,220|10,197|17,619|27,978|41,760|   Price @ 6 Negot. |   82|   632| 2,130| 5,040| 9,846|17,012|27,014|40,320|   Price @ 7 Negot. |   80|   610| 2,055| 4,860| 9,495|16,405|26,050|38,880|   Price @ 8 Negot. |   78|   588| 1,980| 4,680| 9,144|15,798|25,086|37,440|   Price @ 9 Negot. |   76|   566| 1,905| 4,500| 8,793|15,191|24,122|36,000|   Price @ 10 Negot. |   74|   544| 1,830| 4,320| 8,442|14,584|23,158|34,560|   Price @ 11 Negot. |   72|   522| 1,755| 4,140| 8,091|13,977|22,194|33,120|   Price @ 12 Negot. |   70|   500| 1,680| 3,960| 7,740|13,370|21,230|31,680|                      +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+

LARGE PROGRAMS follow this size/price scheme:

+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+  Program Level      |  L1  |  L2  |  L3  |  L4  |  L5  |  L6  |  L7  |  L8  | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+  Program Size       |   4  |  16  |  36  |  64  | 100  | 144  | 196  | 256  | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+  Price @ 0-2 Negot. |  120|   960| 3,240| 7,680|15,000|25,920|41,160|61,440|   Price @ 3 Negot. |  117|   930| 3,139| 7,440|14,532|25,110|39,874|59,520|   Price @ 4 Negot. |  114|   900| 3,038| 7,200|14,064|24,300|38,588|57,600|   Price @ 5 Negot. |  111|   870| 2,937| 6,960|13,596|23,490|37,302|55,680|   Price @ 6 Negot. |  108|   840| 2,836| 6,720|13,128|22,680|36,016|53,760|   Price @ 7 Negot. |  105|   810| 2,735| 6,480|12,660|21,870|34,730|51,840|   Price @ 8 Negot. |  102|   780| 2,634| 6,240|12,192|21,060|33,444|49,920|   Price @ 9 Negot. |   99|   750| 2,533| 6,000|11,724|20,250|32,158|48,000|   Price @ 10 Negot. |   96|   720| 2,432| 5,760|11,256|19,440|30,872|46,080|   Price @ 11 Negot. |   93|   690| 2,331| 5,520|10,788|18,630|29,586|44,160|   Price @ 12 Negot. |   90|   660| 2,230| 5,280|10,320|17,820|28,300|42,240|                      +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+

For each entry, you'll see the name of the program, the program's  description in the game, the program Type (as shown above), where it can be   bought, and finally, my personal comments on the usefulness of the program, including a numerical rating on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most useful.

###ATTACK### Attack is used to destroy ("crash") IC. Attack becomes necessary when Masking fails.

Type: Small

Available: Crime Mall, Microtronics

Usefulness: 9 Attack is mandatory for defeating hostile ice, which can be found on     nearly every system. If you want to take a CPU of any kind, you'll need to rely on a strong Attack program. Here's some trivia for you: out of     the 397 total Nodes in the game, 152 use either Barrier or BlackIce (the      two ice types that must be destroyed using Attack), or both. That's about 38%, so you can expect to be forced to use Attack against more than one- third of the Nodes you come across. Make sure to have the highest version of this program that your deck can take before doing any decking.

###SLOW### Slow reduces the IC's reactions, delaying attacks and alerts. Slow does nothing against Trace IC.

Type: Large

Available: Crime Mall, Microtronics

Usefulness: 3 Using Slow just, well, slows the ice down. It doesn't make it any weaker or damage it, it just makes its actions take longer. This is of marginal use against ice forms that can sound alerts or damage the Persona as time goes by, but once you've entered combat, you shouldn't waste any time messing around. This could have been a little more useful if the programmers would have allowed it to slow the movement of Trace-type probes across the screen -- but, alas, it has no such effect. Finally, if     you use Slow enough to slow an ice down to its lowest speed, then just keep Slowing it, it will eventually be destroyed. I can't think of any use for this, since it takes much longer than old-fashioned attacking. Well, maybe if you just lost your Attack to a Tar Pit and you need to     finish the run... but let's face it, after you lose Attack, your run is     pretty much screwed no matter what.

###DEGRADE### Degrade attempts to lower a Node's Security Rating. Both the Node's & the IC's defenses become weakened.

Type: Special

Available: See notes below

Usefulness: 6 This program is only available in two versions: a 36-Mp Level 3 version available from Wilma Temmenhoff for 3,000 nuyen, and a 144-Mp Level 6 version available from Kipp David for 30,000 nuyen. Technically, it's     also available as a 64-Mp Level 4 version, but that's only if you use the debug cheat and use Test Deck. As far as the program itself, it can be     pretty useful if you are in over your head and need to weaken the Node a      little bit before attacking -- after one or two shots, you'll notice a      significant difference. Then again, it won't save you a whole lot more time than if you had simply attacked all the way through. And of course it goes without saying that using Deception is better than entering combat in the first place.

###REBOUND### Rebound bounces attacks back at the attacker. Rebound weakens slowly with each interception.

Type: Special

Available: See notes below

Usefulness: 2 This program is only available in two versions: a 27-Mp Level 3 version available from Wilma Temmenhoff for 3,000 nuyen, and a 108-Mp Level 6 version available from Kipp David for 30,000 nuyen. Technically, it's     also available as a 48-Mp Level 4 version, but that's only if you use the debug cheat and use Test Deck. It's a largely useless program, too. Unless you have the highest version of the program and a seriously pumped-up deck, it won't work well enough to be worth the effort. And if     your deck is that buff anyway, you won't need to run a goofy helper program such as Rebound. In typical usage, Rebound will deflect each attack back at the ice, but will usually break after only two or three deflections. It's basically a defensive program, but you usually don't     need that much protection anyway, and it's not sturdy enough for it to be      worth re-running each time it breaks. Just keep blasting with Attack and don't waste time on fluff like this.

###MEDIC### Medic repairs damage taken by the Persona. Seriously damaged Personas repair at a slower rate.

Type: Large

Available: Crime Mall, Microtronics

Usefulness: 4 Medic is good at what it does, the problem is that what it does is rarely needed. If the program is a decent level, yeah, you'll be able to heal yourself up pretty well. But as long as you're not trying to hack a     system that's way out of your league, you probably won't be in a      situation where you would need to heal. Even high-level ice will miss most of the time against evenly-matched Personas, and when they do hit, they don't often cause any damage. Finally, just so you know, Medic is     one of those programs that must reload -- not just refresh -- after each use.

###SHIELD### Shield reduces damage from most attacks. Each hit it degrades. Shield is  useless against Black IC.

Type: Large

Available: Crime Mall, Microtronics

Usefulness: 3 Pretty worthless if you use the stealth approach to decking. Even if you like to duke it out with each Node you come across, though, Shield is     still pretty weak. As mentioned before, most attacks by ice are very inaccurate and weak, so you won't need that much protection anyway. Of     course, the one ice type that is actually dangerous enough to warrant a      little extra protection -- BlackIce -- will not be affected by Shield. Thanks, Sega.

###SMOKE### Smoke creates electronic chaos. ALL actions have added difficulty. Smoke degrades every 4 seconds.

Type: Small

Available: Crime Mall

Usefulness: 1 Holy lord, this is one awful program. Just read the description -- every single thing that either you or the Node tries to do will probably fail. Wheee! How could this possibly help you?!? Well, there's a TINY upside to     it -- see the next part, Matrix Strategies. Oh yeah, this is another program that must reload after each use.

###MIRRORS### Mirrors confounds IC and Deckers, decreasing their attack accuracy. Mirrors degrades every 4 seconds.

Type: Medium

Available: Crime Mall, Microtronics

Usefulness: 2 Less retarded than Smoke, but still pretty retarded, Mirrors only makes attacks less accurate, instead of all actions. The problem is, if the Node has been tripped up and the ice is attacking you, what else can you do but run Attack? I mean, it's not like you can still try to run Deception while under attack from a hostile Node. In that case, Mirrors would be at least kind of useful, to help you dodge attacks while trying to crack the Node with Deception. But, that's not how things work, and the result is that the most you can get out of Mirrors is a few extra seconds to run non-attack programs like Medic and Analyze, which you probably don't need to run anyway. Finally, note that Mirrors is one of     the three programs that must reload -- not just refresh -- after each use.

###SLEAZE### Sleaze allows the Persona to bypass the Node without affecting it in any manner.

Type: Medium

Available: Crime Mall, Microtronics

Usefulness: 7 Assuming you have a higher-level version of the program, Sleaze can actually be pretty helpful. It's a non-combat program that will allow you past the Node if successful, no matter what type of ice is guarding it. In this respect, it's better than Deception, since you can even fool Barrier and BlackIce with Sleaze. However, there are two downsides. For one, it only allows you PAST the Node, not inside. So if you need to do     something inside the Node (such as retrieving data from a DS or shutting      off an alert from a CPU), you'll still have to beat the ice the old- fashioned way. The other drawback is that since the program doesn't     actually defeat the ice so much as sneak around it, the ice will still be      there if you revisit the Node, and you'll have to deal with it all over again. All in all, it's a pretty decent program, but don't hold back on a     new version of Attack or Deception just to have Sleaze on your deck. It's     not THAT great.

###DECEPTION### Deception creates passcodes to fool Access & Gray IC. Deception has no  effect on Barrier or Black IC.

Type: Small

Available: Crime Mall

Usefulness: 10 Deception is hands-down the most useful program in the game. First of     all, one successful run will instantly kill the ice. Second, it will work against every ice type except for two (even Trace ice, which is great     since it can take a dangerously long time to destroy some Trace ice via      Attack, and also, you won't have to waste space and money buying      Relocate). Finally, by using Deception as your first move every time, you will avoid a LOT of combat, greatly increasing your chances of staying on     the system. If you read the notes on Attack, you'd see it mentioned that about a third of the Nodes in the game require Attack to kill. Well, that means the remaining two-thirds of all Nodes in the game can be defeated with Deception! That's really a great statistic, and I recommend giving first priority to upgrading your deck's Masking attribute and getting new versions of Deception whenever possible.

###RELOCATE### Relocate leads any Trace IC on a wild goose chase. If successful, the Trace ends immediately.

Type: Small

Available: Crime Mall

Usefulness: 4 This one was hard to set a number on because it can be pretty useful in     the right situation, but most of the time isn't necessary. For the record, Relocate will instantly defeat any Trace ice if successful. But, running Deception will have the same effect. So, Relocate is largely redundant. The only time when it's better than Deception is when you've     tripped a Trace IC and it starts sending the Trace probe across the screen. At this point, you've entered combat, and Deception will no     longer be able to be run. However, you can keep trying Relocate to the bitter end... though some would say that you might as well invest all that time in running Attack...

###ANALYZE### Analyze scans the Node and its IC for information. Multiple Analyzes may be  required for hidden info.

Type: Medium

Available: Microtronics

Usefulness: 3 I think this program would be more useful to people that aren't using this FAQ. As it is, nearly all the info that Analyze can give you about a     particular Node and its ice can be found in the System List section of      this FAQ (Section XII). Also, unless you have a monster system and the best version of the program available, it will take several scans to get all the information. One thing that Analyze can give you that this FAQ can't, however, is the little life bar that appears once you've scanned all the info available for a Node. It's kind of helpful knowing just how close to defeating the Node you are. The other thing that Analyze can tell you that this FAQ can't (well, technically, I could compile a list,     but it would be the biggest waste of time ever known to man) is how successful your loaded programs will be against this particular Node. The vertical success bars next to each program icon will only give a reading if the Node and its ice is completely scanned. Kind of helpful, I guess, to have an estimate of how effective your programs will be, but is it     going to influence your decision of which programs to run? Probably not. Overall, Analyze is kind of a waste of time. Tar Pit fodder at best (see     Part 5).

Matrix Systems
This part is kind of an advanced version of the Matrix intro section, offering more information in much more detail about the ins and outs of Matrix running.

Nodes
To review some basic information, there are six types of Nodes in the game: CPUs, DSs, IOPs, SANs, SMs, and SPUs. Each has a distinct function, and each is classified with a color (Blue, Green, Orange, Red) and a security rating (1 through 7). The color and rating of a Node determine its overall strength and power. It's hard to generate concrete evidence, but it appears that the colors represent different levels of power while the ratings represent varying degrees of power within each level. That is, the order of strengths, from weakest to strongest, is Blue (1-7), Green (1-7), Orange (1-7), Red (1-7) -- so that, for example, a Red 1 Node is slightly more powerful than an Orange 7. Again, this is the best theory I could come up with and while it appears to be correct, it's hard to say for sure.

Anyway, here's a list of each type of Node. Each list entry will have the following information: Node abbreviation, Node name, stats on how often you'll see the Node (expressed in a percentage of all Nodes that are of this type, then the average number you'll encounter on each system), the shape it takes on the system map, the shape it takes inside the actual system, my personal notes about the Node, and a list of the functions you can perform once inside, complete with explanations of each. ###CPU### Central Processing Unit

Occurrence: 6.3% (1.0 per system)

On Map: Hexagon with smaller concentric hexagon inside

In Matrix: Hexagon-based polyhedron (technically, an octadecahedron - 18             sides) with three orbital rings

Notes: Each system has one, and only one, CPU. It's the brain of the system, so it's naturally the most heavily guarded.

Functions: Go To Node - Transports the user directly to any Node on the system without stopping at any Nodes along the way. Note that it's a one-way trip, and after you've been dropped off at your destination, you'll have to                          fight your way back through any unconquered Nodes.

Cancel Alert - Resets the alert system, canceling both Passive and Active Alert status. Very handy... the only way that alerts can be canceled, too. Note also that when an alarm is going off inside a building, the corporation's matrix system will be on Active Alert as well. If you wanted to jack in at such a                            time and were able to make it inside the CPU, canceling the alert will end the alarm as well.

Crash System - This crashes the system, ejecting you while crippling the CPU. It only really has two uses: Some Matrix runs will require that you crash a                            CPU -- but more importantly, if you crash a corp's                             CPU from inside the building, it will deactivate all cameras and maglocks. Pretty nice.

###DS### Datastore

Occurrence: 30.7% (4.9 per system)

On Map: Square

In Matrix: Cube with a hole in one visible face and pairs of triangular studs on each of the other two visible faces

Notes: These Nodes are where you'll get all your data to sell. The vast majority of Matrix runs also involve some kind of data transfer from within a particular DS.

Functions: Leave Node - Leaves the Node to travel to one of the adjacent Nodes.

Transfer Data - If you're on a Matrix run where you have to                             upload a file to this particular DS, Transfer Data will perform that function. Similarly, if                             you're on a run that requires you to retrieve a                              certain file from this DS, Transfer Data will do                              that as well. In all other situations, choosing this option will begin a search for random data files. The higher the decker's Computer attribute, the more likely you'll find something. If something is found, you'll be given the option of keeping the file on your deck. Pay attention to the file sizes, as you can only hold as many datafiles as can fit into your deck's free Storage. Regardless of the Storage limitations, though, your deck can only hold a maximum of five files at a time, period. Rarely (unless you've                             studied this guide and know where and when to                              find them), you'll download a file that has information that will help you in your quest. When this happens, the screen will tell you that you've found "an interesting file that you                       	download to your notebook." After you jack out, be sure to check out your notebook for the new clue.

Erase - This command's only purpose is if you're on a Matrix run to delete a file. Otherwise it's a waste of time, and one more chance for the system to catch you and set off an                     alert.

###IOP### Input/Output Port

Occurrence: 16.3% (2.6 per system)

On Map: Triangle

In Matrix: Triangular pyramid with rounded bulges on each face

Notes: These things are pretty useless. It may be worth noting, however, that IOPs (not SANs) are where you enter the system if you jack in         from inside the corp building. Each terminal inside the building corresponds to a particular IOP, and generally speaking, terminals on         higher floors with tighter security will lead to IOPs that are closer to the CPU.

Functions: Leave Node - Leaves the Node to travel to one of the adjacent Nodes.

Lockout - As near as I can tell, this does nothing. It SOUNDS like it does something, giving you the message and all, but I've never noticed anything different after locking out an IOP.

###SAN### System Access Node

Occurrence: 6.3% (1.0 per system)

On Map: Rectangle

In Matrix: Rectangular computer chip with seven pins visible on the front face (kind of resembles the chips you would see on a SIMM for             your PC)

Notes: This is the first Node you will come to if you enter a system from a         public terminal. SANs are generally very low security and will often be unguarded, even on high-end systems. Like the CPU, each system has one, and only one, SAN.

Functions: Enter System - Leaves the Node to travel to one of the adjacent Nodes (same as Leave Node in other Nodes).

###SM### Slave Module

Occurrence: 19.4% (3.1 per system)

On Map: Circle

In Matrix: Sphere with two sets of square notches around it

Notes: These can be a little bit of a help from inside corp buildings: each corp system is guaranteed to have both a Maglocks SM and a Cameras SM. Shutting off the former will disable all cameras, while shutting off the latter will open all maglocked doors. Besides that, though, SMs don't really have any other purpose. Note also that shutting off an Alert Control SM has no effect on either Matrix alerts or corp building alarms. Bummer.

Functions: Leave Node - Leaves the Node to travel to one of the adjacent Nodes.

Turn Off Node - Takes the Node offline. As mentioned in the notes above, this only has two uses, and is largely for atmosphere, like the IOPs.

###SPU### Sub-Processor Unit

Occurrence: 23.2% (3.7 per system)

On Map: Hexagon

In Matrix: Hexagon-based polyhedron (technically, an octadecahedron - 18             sides)

Notes: These types of Nodes are basically only there for structure. SPUs usually don't serve any purpose but to be just another Node with ice that deckers have to get through in order to reach the juicy CPUs and DSs. You'll spend a lot of time going from SPU to SPU in your travels.

Functions: Leave Node - Leaves the Node to travel to one of the adjacent Nodes.

Ice
IC, the abbreviation for Intrusion Countermeasures, is usually referred to as ice. In this game, there are several types of ice, each with its own behavior, characteristics, and weaknesses. Ice are ranked from 1 to 7 in terms of overall strength, but that rating is increased by 1 during Passive Alert, and by 2 during Active Alert. So, it is possible to have a level 9 ice, if only temporarily. The rating of the ice represents all of its stats: how powerful its attacks are, how hard it is to hit with Attack or crack with Deception and others, how often it attacks, et cetera.

Lower-end systems will have Nodes that use only one ice, or none at all. By the time you have worked your way to the big-time corp systems, though, almost all the Nodes you encounter will be guarded by two ice. For Nodes with two ice forms, which one you see will depend on the alert status.

What follows is a list of all the ice types and their characteristics. Occurrence is how often you'll come across the ice, followed by the percentage of all ice forms that are of that type. Graphic is a description of what the ice actually looks like. Combat is a description of what the ice does during combat, whether it be sending out probes, attacking the Persona, etc. Weak Against will tell you if the ice can be instantly defeated by using Deception and/or Relocate. Finally, Notes is any extra notes I have about the ice.

###ACCESS###

Occurrence: Common (20.0%)

Graphic: A square hatch with doors that repeatedly slide open and shut

Combat: Access will send out one probe for each failed attempt of the Persona to run a program. Each probe that reaches the edge of the screen has a small chance of triggering an alert.

Weak Against: Deception

Notes: The most common form of ice, and one of the simplest. Almost never a         real threat, even in combat.

###BARRIER###

Occurrence: Common (15.9%)

Graphic: A rotating three-spoked circular spark

Combat: Barrier will send out one probe for each failed attempt of the Persona to run a program. Each probe that reaches the edge of the screen has a small chance of triggering an alert.

Weak Against: None (must be attacked)

Notes: The only ice form besides BlackIce that has to be attacked instead of         destroyed via Deception. Kind of a pain, but the ice is generally pretty weak and doesn't often manage to set off any alerts.

###BLACKICE###

Occurrence: Common (13.3%)

Graphic: A dark form that changes color while morphs back and forth between a circle and a four-point star

Combat: Will periodically launch attacks directly at the decker, damaging his or her Physical health instead of simply hurting the Persona.

Weak Against: None (must be attacked)

Notes: The game makes it seem like this is the absolute worst ice you will come across, but I think that's nonsense. It's a distant third behind the two Tar ices. The worst BlackIce can do is dump you from the system and knock you out. Big deal, that's what medkits and healing spells are for. Now, if a Tar Pit eats your level 8 Attack program, suddenly it's Active Alert and you have no way of attacking so your run is totally fragged, but even worse, you have to spend all those hundreds of thousands of nuyen to get back up to the program level that you had.

###BLASTER###

Occurrence: Average (12.6%)

Graphic: An orange and black explosion

Combat: In combat, Blaster will periodically attack the Persona.

Weak Against: Deception

Notes: Really nothing to worry about. Even if you somehow screwed up trying to run Deception and entered combat, it would take ten years for the average Blaster to knock a decent decker off the system. Blaster will often hide behind Barrier or (less often) Access.

###KILLER###

Occurrence: Average (10.2%)

Graphic: Blue-gray sphere with electrical current circling around it

Combat: In combat, Killer will periodically attack the Persona.

Weak Against: Deception

Notes: This thing behaves exactly like Blaster. What's the difference? I'm         not sure, but I think that Killer is slightly more advanced. Once provoked, it seems to attack more often. That still doesn't make it         much of a threat. Also, it seems to have a preference for hiding behind Access, whereas the opposite is true for Blaster. Still, that's not much of a difference.

###TAR PAPER###

Occurrence: Rare (6.7%)

Graphic: Brownish goo (tar, I guess) teeming and bubbling

Combat: When triggered by a run failure, Tar Paper will erase the program the Persona was trying to run from memory only, not from the deck entirely.

Weak Against: (not applicable)

Notes: When you get hit by Tar Paper, you'll still have the program on your deck, it will just have to be reloaded -- not a big deal. The more annoying aspect of Tar Paper is that, like its cousin Tar Pit, Tar Paper will also immediately go to Active Alert upon activation, before disappearing. A real pain to come across. Also like Tar Pit, Tar Paper will always be found hiding behind another ice of almost any kind.

###TAR PIT###

Occurrence: Average (8.9%)

Graphic: An orange circle with tar bubbling inside of it

Combat: When triggered by a run failure, Tar Pit will PERMANENTLY erase the program that the Persona was trying to run, immediately switch to          Active Alert, and then disappear.

Weak Against: (not applicable)

Notes: The biggest pain in the ass in the entire game, I'd say. This thing is the reason you should save before entering any mid- to high-end system. Tar Pit (and its slightly less harmful cousin, Tar Paper) always occurs hiding behind another form of ice -- any form, except for Trace ice and, of course, another Tar ice. As soon as you fail in         the presence of Tar Pit, it will work its magic and leave you with a          seriously crippled program lineup.

###TRACE & BURN###

Occurrence: Rare (6.4%)

Graphic: A dark cylindrical base with a spherical probe topped with a flame

Combat: When combat begins, Trace & Burn will send its probe slowly across the screen. If it reaches the edge of the screen, the Persona will be dumped from the system and the deck's MPCP may be damaged.

Weak Against: Deception and Relocate

Notes: This ice can actually be a pain in lower levels, when you may not be         able to destroy the ice in time to keep the probe from reaching the edge and dumping you. After you have some good hardware and software, and after your decker has gained some experience, though, they will be much less of a threat. Remember, if you get dumped by Trace & Burn, your deck will probably be fried and you won't be able to jack in again until you've taken it to a computer shop for MPCP repairs.

###TRACE & DUMP###

Occurrence: Rare (5.9%)

Graphic: A dark cylindrical base with a spherical probe topped with a plume of smoke

Combat: When combat begins, Trace & Dump will send its probe slowly across the screen. If it reaches the edge of the screen, the Persona will be dumped from the system.

Weak Against: Deception and Relocate

Notes: Not that much of a hassle, unless you're in the early levels. If your decker and/or deck is underpowered, you may find yourself getting dumped by this ice quite often, since it can be hard to get in enough hits to destroy the ice before the probe gets to the edge. Kind of         frustrating when it's like that, but after you start upgrading, Trace & Dumps won't be a nuisance at all.

System Notes
There isn't a whole lot about Matrix systems that hasn't been covered in the preceding subsections, but here goes:

First of all, it's helpful to keep in mind that SPUs are used as the 'backbone' of many systems. If you're not using the maps provided, a good way to find the CPU is to follow the SPUs. Nodes such as IOPs, DSs and SMs are sometimes used to connect different parts of the system to one another, but not often. If you want to fully explore the system in as little time as possible, just hop from SPU to SPU until you see the Node you're looking for.

Although this FAQ doesn't recommend running a variety of programs, there will be those who want to use more than just Attack and Deception, for one reason or another. For these people, I suggest you not forget the importance of the time when you first arrive at a Node. Until you enter combat by either failing a program run or attacking, you can use Medic to heal up, equip a Shield, run Analyze, just about anything. Don't waste time by doing these things after combat has begun. Get them out of the way while you have all the time you need.

This was briefly mentioned in the beginning info on the Matrix section (Section II, Part 4), but it's pretty handy, so I thought I should clarify here. Suppose you enter a system for whatever reason. You do what you need to do and jack out. Afterward, you return to the exact same system without visiting any other system in between. When you come back, you'll notice that the system map is the same as it was when you left -- you don't have to start from scratch. Also, all Nodes that you defeated the first time around will be color-coded on the map and fully identified when you travel to them. Of course, you'll still have to battle the ice and everything, but it's kind of nice to have a Node fully identified without having to run Analyze a bunch of times.

If you've gotten into combat with Access or Barrier and want to keep the ice's probes from triggering any alerts (this won't happen often if your Persona is generally evenly matched with the Node and its ice, but against powerful Nodes, it's definitely something to worry about), you should know that if the ice gets hit, it cancels the probe. So, time your attacks so that the ice is hit while the probe is going across, and it will disappear. For this purpose, you should know that the light attack is the "quickest" attack: it takes the shortest amount of time to get to the target once it is fired. The hard and medium attacks take slightly longer.

Matrix Strategies
Here are just a few miscellaneous notes and strategies for decking that didn't fit in anywhere else.


 * One way to get around Nodes with Tar Pit is to store copies of low-level programs on your deck. When you come to the Node with Tar Pit, run the low- level program a few times until it fails and gets eaten by the ice. Yes, this will kick the system up to Active Alert, but on the other hand, Tar Pit will be gone and all of your important programs will be intact. If you don't mind the tradeoff, this is a good way to guarantee that you won't lose your expensive high-end programs. Level 1 programs are very cheap and can be replaced easily, before each time you go into the Matrix. If your deck and decker are both very advanced and you're having trouble getting a program to fail, just use Smoke which, if it doesn't fail itself, will almost certainly make the next program you try to run fail.
 * Another use of Tar Pit and the Smoke program is if you have a program that you want to get rid of because it's unused, or just to save space. Since there is no way to delete programs from your deck, you have to rely on Tar Pits when you want to get rid of one. It's kind of a pain, but at least it works. Find a Tar Pit, run Smoke (if it'll help) and then run the unwanted program until it fails. Let me stress it again: Yes, this is the ONLY way you can delete programs from your deck. Sorry.
 * Data selling can be the most efficient way to make money in the game -- if you're prepared for it. You simply can't just jump in and start doing it. The most significant upgrade you need to make before trying to sell data is your decker's Computer attribute. This has three extremely important effects that relate to stealing and selling data:


 * 1) A high Computer rating will make all programs you run more effective. This means fewer failures, so less combat... and even in combat, a high Computer rating will increase each attack's damage and accuracy.
 * 2) As your Computer rating increases, it will take less effort to find a datafile when searching a DS. If you try to search a DS with a low Computer rating, you'll probably only find one file every 5 tries or so. It's a very inefficient way of doing things, even more so when you consider the last point:
 * 3) The lower your Computer rating, the more frequently your actions will be detected by the system. I would say that the #1 reason most people have unsuccessful data runs is that they trip up the system too many times and get booted before they have a full load. By the time your Computer rating is up to 10 or 12, you'll almost never get caught inside a Node.

So, if you're getting frustrated because your data-selling scheme isn't proving to be as lucrative as you thought, you should take a look at your decker's Computer attribute. I would say that a 5 or 6 is the minimum requirement for consistently successful runs -- then again, it all depends on your programs and equipment.


 * Don't forget that the Combat skill is just as important in cyberspace as in the real world. If your attacks are always missing, consider upgrading your decker's Combat skill. You should notice a difference.

Walkthrough
Here's the walkthrough portion of the FAQ. There are two separate walkthroughs in this section: Part 1 is what I call the "Bare Bones" walkthrough. It consists of the absolute minimum information you need to get through the game, start to finish. You could look at it as a walkthrough for people who just need a quick hint here and there, as it contains no directions, advice, or other information -- just the essential moves you need to make to get through.

You could also look at the Bare Bones walkthrough as a kind of abstract for the Full walkthrough. Part 2 is a more traditional (and therefore, very detailed) walkthrough of the game. It contains the exact same layout and information, but it goes into much more depth. It's probably what you were expecting when you wanted to read a walkthrough of the game.

As I just mentioned, both walkthroughs contain the same layout, which I'll briefly discuss here. The four parts are The Beginning, The Big Three, The End, and Side Quests. Shadowrun is technically a linear game, meaning that each time you play, you go through the same steps and get to the same ending. However, the order in which you go through each of those steps is up to you. It's like the Mega Man series, where you can pick the order in which you fight the stages, but you always end up at Dr. Wily's fortress.

In Shadowrun, there are three main plot lines that each need to be resolved before you can finish the game. Each plot line can be done in any order, and you can work on all three simultaneously (which most people do). Since I'm trying to write a somewhat organized walkthrough, though, I've grouped them together and presented them in order. So, for each walkthrough, the layout is this:

a. The Beginning - What you need to do at the very beginning of the game to get started and to introduce the three main plot lines. b. The Big Three - The three main storylines of the game. Keep in mind that you can tackle them separately, in any order, or all at once. The Big Three are: David Owlfeather - Dealing with the AmerIndians to find more information on your brother's murder. Mako Sochou - Dealing with the Renraku corporation to                                determine their part in the killings. Caleb Brightmore - Dealing with the elves to gain their support and to reveal the plan behind the killings. c. The End - What you must do after completing all three storylines to get to            the end of the game. d. Side Quests - There are two major side quests in the game which can be done at any time after you've gotten through the "The Beginning" part. Walkthroughs for each side quest are provided.

One note about the layout: As mentioned in Section XI, Part 1, some of the titles of the steps have numbers in parenthesis beside them. These numbers represent the amount of Karma that you will gain after doing the step.

So, do the Beginning, work on each of the Big Three however you choose, do a side quest or two if you feel like it, then do the End. Simple, right? On with the walkthroughs...

Bare Bones Walkthrough
As the intro mentions, this is only the bare minimum amount of information you need to get through the game and actually requires a significant amount of prior knowledge about the game. If you're looking for an in-depth, traditional walkthrough, use Part 2.

The Beginning
1.) Go to Stoker's Coffin and get Michael's stuff. (1)  2.) Go to the Tarislar City Inn and ask about Tabatha Shale. (1)  3.) Go to Boris Errascoe and ask him about Michael. (1)

The Big Three
REMEMBER, each of the three plotlines can be done in any order. See the intro to this section.

David Owlfeather 1.) Go to the AmerIndian village and ask Owlfeather about Michael. (1)     2.) Go to the Big Rhino and ask Mortimer Reed about Aragorn. 3.) Go to the Mitsuhama building in Penumbra District and free Aragorn.     4.) Go back to the AmerIndian village and talk to Owlfeather. (2)     5.) Go to Council Island and talk to Spirit Eyes.      6.) Bring Spirit Eyes a gargoyle horn. 7.) Bring Spirit Eyes a hellhound pelt.     8.) Go to the dragon cave and save Licourtrix from Renraku. 9.) Go to Council Island and talk to Spirit Eyes. (3)

Mako Sochou ---     1.) Go to the Big Rhino and ask Mortimer Reed about Mako Sochou.      2.) Go to Club Penumbra and talk to Mako. (3)     3.) Go to Gates Undersound.      4.) Go to Matchsticks and kill Ito Ogami. (3)     5.) Go to Renraku HQ and get the map overlay. (3)

Caleb Brightmore 1.) Go to Icarus Descending and talk to Caleb Brightmore. (2)     2.) Go to the Tarislar City Inn and ask about Frosty. 3.) Go to Sinsearach, speak to the elders, and agree to be tested.     4.) Go to Red Buffalo Woman. 5.) Go to the Sinsearach and ask to speak to the elders. (1)     6.) Go to Icarus Descending and ask Caleb about Ilene Two Fists. 7.) Go to Hollywood Correctional and rescue Ilene. (2)     8.) Go to the Sinsearach, speak to the elders, and join them. (2)

The End
1.) Go to the Sinsearach and ask to see Frosty. (3)  2.) Go to the Tarislar Garden Apartments. (2)  3.) Go to the Jump House and ask Gunderson about Vigore.   4.) Go to the Rat's Nest. (2)  5.) Go to the Tarislar Garden Apartments.   6.) Go to the Tarislar Garden Apartments and tell Harlequin you are ready. 7.) Go to the inner part of Ellisia's Tomb and defeat Thon.

Side Quests
These can be done at any time after the Beginning part.

Stark -     The order of steps 1 and 2 can be switched as long as you re-visit Dr. Haversheen after visiting the remote hut.

1.) Go to the remote hut in the Salish-Shidhe.     2.) Go to Seattle General and ask Dr. Haversheen about her Holopix. 3.) Go to the Fuchi building in Penumbra District, get the cyber-heart.     4.) Go to Seattle General.

CHERNOBYL -     The order of steps 1 through 5 is completely arbitrary and you may do      them in any order you wish.

1.) Get the clue from the Aztechnology system.     2.) Get the clue from the Renraku system. 3.) Get the clue from the Fuchi system.     4.) Get the clue from the Mitsuhama system. 5.) Get the clue from the Ares system.     6.) Get the clue from the UCAS system.

Full Walkthrough
Here's the fully detailed, traditional walkthrough of Shadowrun. When you begin a new game, you will have to decide among being a Samurai, Decker, or Gator Shaman. It's really outside the scope of this section to explain the differences from archetype to archetype, but I do want to mention that you probably shouldn't be a decker. If you're into magic, be a shaman. If you're into guns, be a samurai. Choose your character and watch the intro. Afterwards, you'll walk into Stoker's Coffin motel in Redmond Barrens, where your journey begins.

The Beginning
1.) Go to Stoker's Coffin and get Michael's stuff. (1)  --   When you enter the motel, you can ask about Michael's stuff if you want.   Stoker will ask for 250 nuyen before you can get his belongings back. C'mon,   the guy died! Jerk. Anyway, you only have 20 nuyen at the beginning of the   game, so Stoker will direct you to the Jump House so you can get some money.

You'll be back out on the street in front of the motel. Walk to the left and up, then left a little more until you see a street terminal. Ordinarily, you'd be able to catch a cab to a different part of Seattle with one of  these, but, conveniently, traffic is so bad that the cabby can't get out to   you. Bah. Anyway, enter the door to the left of the terminal.

You'll be inside the Jump House. Walk to the booth in the back left corner and you'll meet Gunderson. You can talk to him if you want some basic information, but you're really here for cash. Ask for a job ("I'm looking  for some work") and Gunderson will offer you a Shadowrun. At this point, ANY bodyguard or courier run is acceptable, but NO ghoul bounty run is  acceptable (see Section IV for definitions). The pay will be bad, but you don't really have much of a choice at this point. If you want to cheat and sell your equipment (Ares Weapon Emporium is next door to the motel), I  guess you can, but you need the Karma from these runs just as bad as you need the money.

Besides, if you REALLY want to cheat, though, get a hundred or so nuyen, hire Ricky, and sell HIS stuff. You'll end up with several hundred nuyen. If  you do this, I still suggest spending that money on a Predator pistol at   Ares. This is the best weapon in the game. That's right, five minutes in and you've already got the best gun. If you don't have enough money after buying the gun, you can always go to Gunderson and earn the money the old-fashioned way.

So, anyway, you'll have to go on runs that are essentially walking from one building to another. This can get pretty monotonous and can actually waste a  lot of time if you don't know where the buildings are. So, here's a (very  crude) map of Redmond Barrens so you'll know where you're going on these first few runs:

+---+--+             ++               +---+   | Jump  | Jackal's |              | Boris'     |               | Abandoned | | House | Lantern |              | Greenhouse |               | Building  | +---+--+             ++               +---+

+--+        |              |       | Hollywood    |          +--+  +--+        +---+ | Correctional |         | Stoker's |  | Ares     |        | Little    | | Facility    |          | Coffin   |  | Weapon   |        | Chiba     | |             |          | Motel    |  | Emporium |        | Chop Shop | |             |          |          |  +--+        +---+     +--+          +--+               +---+             ++               | Rat's |             | Shiawase   | | Nest |             | Nuke Plant |            +--+ +---+            |            |            | Halloweeners | ++           |              |                                                               +--+

Make any sense? Well, at least it's a little help. Anyway, if you run into enemies during your runs (which will probably happen a few times), don't try to fight back. You'll just be wasting your bullets. At the very beginning of  the game, you're so weak that you just have to take getting killed at random by street thugs as a fact of life. You'll wake up outside Little Chiba, lose a few nuyen, but will otherwise be fine. Just go back to Gunderson and ask for a new job. No harm done.

By the way, if you're into killing innocent bystanders (and who isn't?), you can pick up decent money and items by mowing down the little pedestrian guys who cross your path during runs. You may have to do a little chasing, but by  and large, the occasional clip, medkit, or nuyen is worth spending a few bullets. Don't go out of your way, though. Just shoot if you're doing a run and you happen to come upon a civilian... don't hunt them down. The shadowruns are still your main source of income here.

Once you've got your 250¥, head back to Stoker's and pay him. The game will explain the stuff that you receive better than I could, so just pay attention to the item descriptions. Note also that you'll get 500¥, too, so  your balance will be back to what it was before you paid Stoker. Regardless of what the game says, the irony of that STILL hasn't worn off, and it's  been years. Those clever Sega designers. I bet the guy who thought that up  is still relishing the irony.

2.) Go to the Tarislar City Inn and ask about Tabatha Shale. (1)  First of all, now that you've gotten Michael's stuff, a few things have   changed. Traffic has magically cleared up, so you're free to explore the   Seattle area. You got a cyberdeck, so now you can start hustling the Matrix   as soon as you find someone with a Datajack. Hopefully, you will have gotten   some Karma from doing those runs. You did do the runs, didn't you? Aw, you   just cheated. Oh well. If you have some Karma, you may want to stay at the   motel and upgrade a few stats. There's not much you can do with 5 or 10   points, but early on in the game, I suggest concentrating on Reputation,   Biotech, and Firearms. Magic users may want to work on Sorcery. Characters   who plan on getting cyberware down the road (read: All non-magic-users)   should avoid upgrading the Body, Quickness and Strength attributes -- see the intro to Part 5 of Section VII for details.

You'll also want to buy that Predator if you haven't done so already. You need some protection when you get out into the different parts of the city. If you're feeling extra diligent, you can keep working until you have enough to buy the Vest w/Plates armor, or even better, the Armor Jacket. Even if  you don't get one now, keep it in mind that you do need one or the other before you do any real fighting.

The other items you got can be investigated later. First, you need to track down Tabatha Shale, who sent Michael the note you got from Stoker. Go to a  street terminal and call a cab for Puyallup Barrens. When you get there, make your way to the far top-right corner of the area and enter the large building there -- the Tarislar City Inn. Once inside, ask about Tabatha Shale. Eventually, you'll meet her and she'll tell you what she knows about Michael's last shadowrun. She mentions how the run was through Caleb Brightmore, whose holopix you have, and that Michael stopped at Boris Errascoe's place. She also mentions that they usually go through Mortimer Reed before giving you a bit more information on both Boris and Caleb.

Then, no matter what you tell her as you're leaving, the same thing will happen: an unknown group will break in and assassinate Tabatha. You don't  have to do any fighting -- when it's all over, Tabatha will be dead and you'll be left with a holopix of David Owlfeather that she left behind.

3.) Go to Boris Errascoe and ask him about Michael. (1)  ---   The last thing you should do to get the ball rolling on the story is to   visit Boris Errascoe, who you may have talked to before. This time, though,   you'll know what to ask him about. Take a cab back to Redmond Barrens and go   to Boris' place. Before you enter, you may want to go on a few more runs   from Gunderson to get some extra Karma because after you complete this step,   you'll have to fight two armed enemies. You'll also need 500 nuyen to give   to Boris, but the enemies are probably your first concern -- you're too weak   in your initial form to kill them. If dying isn't a big deal to you   (nothing happens if they kill you and whether you kill them has no effect on   the story), then you can lay down and take it before being hauled to the   hospital and continuing in the story. If you want to be able to kill your attackers, though, you'll need to improve both your offense and your defense.

Whenever you feel that you're ready, enter the greenhouse. Tell Boris that you're looking for some information and agree to pay the fee. You can ask about David Owlfeather if you want, but it will be an extra 500 nuyen and it won't progress the storyline any. When you ask about Michael, though, Boris will tell you about how Michael came by and was later followed by Mako Sochou, a Renraku executive. After that, a Renraku Strike Team will bust in  and you'll have to fight two of them. Like I said before, whether you kill them doesn't really matter. What matters is that Mako Sochou, the last of  the three plotlines, has been introduced and you now have your choice of how to find your brother's killers.

The Big Three
REMEMBER, each of the three plotlines can be done in any order. See the intro to this section.

David Owlfeather This plotline is the longest and most demanding. You'll need to raise quite a bit of Karma and money to be able to make it all the way through.

1.) Go to the AmerIndian village and ask Owlfeather about Michael. (1)     --      This actually entails a few different things. First of all, you may want      to spend some time doing runs to gain Karma and cash. Even though it'll      only be a short trip when you get there, you're still likely to be      attacked when you walk through the Salish-Shidhe. To avoid multiple trips      (not to mention the increasing costs of making multiple trips) to the      AmerIndian lands, you should be pretty well equipped. If you don't have      the Armor Jacket by now, get it. Same goes for a Predator and plenty of      ammo.

The hard part about getting there is, well, getting there. There are two ways to get into the Salish-Shidhe wilderness. Actually, there are three, but one is so ridiculous that it's not worth mentioning here. For those of you wondering, it involves demon buildings (see Section XII). Anyway, you have two choices for getting into the Salish-Shidhe: The legal way and the illegal way.

THE LEGAL WAY is cheap, but if there's a warrant for your arrest, it will be costly and inconvenient. Another minus is that you have to repeat the same procedure every time you want to visit, which can be kind of a     hassle. If you're early in the game, however, this is probably the way to     go. Take a cab to Council Island. When you get there, walk down and enter the building there (with the "P" sign hanging outside). This is the Passport Lodge. Ask to buy a passport and pay the 500 nuyen. The clerk will run a background check on you and if it's clean, you'll be given the passport. At this point, all you need to do is take a cab to the Salish- Shidhe lands. Remember, the passport is only good for one trip.

If the background check shows that there's a warrant for your arrest, you have a few options. You can get into Salish-Shidhe the illegal way (see     the next paragraph), you can have someone delete your criminal record, or      you can do it yourself, the old-fashioned way -- by turning yourself in. Including all meeting fees, the cheapest you can get your record deleted for is 7,000 nuyen. Ouch. If you actually have that kind of money lying around, though, check out the illegal way. It's simpler and actually a     few hundred nuyen cheaper. If you're pretty much broke, I suggest turning yourself in. You'll lose all your money, which hopefully won't be more than a few hundred nuyen. Then you'll be free to raise 500¥, go back to     Council Island, and buy the passport.

THE ILLEGAL WAY of getting into the Salish-Shidhe costs 6,800¥ plus maybe a little cab fare and the cover at Matchsticks, but it's pretty simple and you don't have to worry about whether there's a warrant out for you. Plus, return trips are only 3,000¥ and you'll make two good contacts along the way. To use this method, take a cab to Downtown Seattle and go     to Matchsticks. From the Space Needle, which is where the cab drops you off, it's a little down and to the right. It's the building with all the "M"s. Pay the cover charge if applicable and go inside. Move to the back booth and you'll meet Julius Strouther. Ask him for information, then ask him about a contact. Pay the 1,000¥ and you'll have Capt. Quinton Jaymes as a contact. Leave the bar and go to a street terminal (the closest one     is the one by the Space Needle, where you just came from). Use the Vidphone to call Jaymes and ask him for a contact. Pay the 2,800¥ and you will then have contact with Sharkey. Hang up and use the Vidphone again to call Sharkey. You will now have the option of being flown into the Salish-Shidhe for 3,000¥. It may seem like a lot if you're early on in     the game, but as you get farther, 3,000¥ is less and less of a big deal and riding with Sharkey will be quite convenient.

Okay, so, one way or another, I assume you've gotten to the Salish- Shidhe. If you haven't been before, try to remember the street terminal near where you are dropped off. It's the only one in the entire wilderness and therefore is your only ticket out, besides dying. From the drop-off point, make your way southeast, as straight as possible. You should come right to a bridge over a stream. Cross the bridge and you'll     be in the AmerIndian village. After crossing the bridge, walk down and you should see a lodge that's much larger and more decorative than the others. This is where Owlfeather is. Enter the lodge and talk to     Owlfeather. You can ask about the AmerIndian lands or Council Island if     you like, but be sure to ask about Michael.

You will discuss things with Owlfeather and he will tell you that he     knows someone who can help. Of course, things are never so simple and he     asks that you find his brother, Aragorn, before he will tell you who can help you. Bleh.

2.) Go to the Big Rhino and ask Mortimer Reed about Aragorn.     First, you need to find out where Aragorn is. Leave the lodge and      backtrack to the street terminal. If you want a little supplementary info      on Aragorn, go to Redmond Barrens and ask Boris about Owlfeather (if you haven't done so already). If you want to just cut to the chase, though,     visit the Penumbra District. From where the cab drops you off, go      straight down until you hit the little cluster of seven bushes, then go      right and you'll be at the Big Rhino. Enter the restaurant and move to      the back booth. You'll meet Mortimer Reed. Tell him you want some info      and that you need some questions answered. Ask him about Aragorn and      he'll tell you that Aragorn screwed up on a shadowrun against Mitsuhama.      He's being held inside the building, which means that you'll have to go      on a shadowrun of your own to find him.

3.) Go to the Mitsuhama building in Penumbra District and free Aragorn.     ---      Easier said than done, right? Actually, it's not that hard if you have      decent equipment. You'll be set if you have corp badges (6,750¥, including Max's meeting fee for Vigore and Jarl) and a Maglock Passkey     (all you need is a Level 2, which you can get for 15 or 20 grand from the Crime Mall, but I still say you should hold out for the Level 5, which is     only a couple thousand more, including Mortimer Reed's meeting fee, if      you get it from Alesandro Hobbs), but you can get by without either if      you have a good (5 or 6) Electronics skill and/or a little bit of luck.      And although no one expects to get caught, you should be pretty tough      physically in case you have to deal with the corp security. If you're      worried that you aren't prepared, it may be worth it to hire Rianna      (located in Matchstick) and/or Winston (located in the Big Rhino), for      some extra Electronics skill and firepower, respectively.

When you feel you're ready, go to the Penumbra District and find the Mitsuhama building. It's the building just above the Big Rhino. The first floor of Mitsuhama is pretty much one long hallway that runs right and then up to the elevator. This makes it simple, but it also means that you'll run into the guard unless you're very careful. If you're confident in your badges and/or your Charisma score, just go through the lobby and follow the hallway right and then straight up to the elevator. You're     pretty much guaranteed to get stopped by the guard unless you're using the Invisibility spell. If you have access to neither Invisibility nor some corp badges, and your Charisma skill isn't good, what are you doing here?!? No, just kidding. You can avoid the guard by doing the following: Wait in the upper corner of the lobby when you enter. Watch the hall to see when the guard passes by. He'll pass by to the left, then turn around and start back to the right. After he passes, go out into the hall and follow him, staying close but not so close that he'll stop you. Try to keep him just off the edge of the screen. Keep following as he turns upward and continues up the hall. When you see the door on the left, make a break for it and wait inside, watching the hall again. After the guard reaches the far end, he'll turn around and start downward again. After he     passes, you'll be home free. Go back out into the hall and continue upward to the elevator.

Take the elevator to the fifth floor. Unless you have managed to disable the cameras, you'll have to deal with a security camera on the wall by     the first door. This isn't as tough as it seems, as long as you follow the directions: Before you get out, hold left on the controller. Then, still holding left, hit start and just continue going to the left toward the camera. Don't change direction or stop moving until you're right up     against the wall. They key is timing and if you did it right, you'll be     sitting right under the camera, but the alert will have not been sounded.

Again, this will be much simpler if you have Invisibility or a corp badge. If so, just go out into the hallway, walk downward into the open room, and continue downward to a door leading down. This is the door to     Aragorn's room. Same as before, expect at least one encounter with the guard. If you'd rather avoid the guard, do this: Wait under the camera until he turns downward. As he goes offscreen, hurry out into the hall, take a couple steps downward, and enter the room via the door (Level 2     Maglocked, hope you brought your passkey or your 5 in Electronics) on      your right. Wait there for the guard to pass again. As he walks up past the room, dart out into the hallway and continue down through the open room to the door to Aragorn's room.

The door to Aragorn's holding room is Level 2 Maglocked -- if you don't     have a passkey, it's still not much of a problem. Enter the room and walk downward. Just past the big table is Aragorn, held between two chairs. Approach him and talk to him (as with extraction runs, you may need to     target him with B -- see Part 8 of Section IV). Turns out Aragorn is a     little punk. He'll insult you and then run away, leaving you to find your way back to the entrance. If you don't mind the 10% fee, you could just set off the alarm, get shot, and die. Hey, it's quicker. Either way, leave the building after you've freed Aragorn.

4.) Go back to the AmerIndian village and talk to Owlfeather. (2)     -      After you're done with Aragorn, you need to go back to his brother,      Owlfeather. As described before, get a ride out to the Salish-Shidhe one      way or another and go back to Owlfeather's lodge. Once there, you'll talk      with him and just as he tells you he hasn't seen Aragorn, the "ungrateful      wretch" will walk in the door. Quite the interesting situation.      Owlfeather will eventually thank you and tell you that the one who can      help you is the "most wise one" at the Medicine Lodge.

5.) Go to Council Island and talk to Spirit Eyes.     -      Leave the AmerIndian village (or just die again) and catch a cab to      Council Island. Once there, walk down and take the wooden bridge to the      right. Pass the first two buildings (the restaurant and the inn) and then      turn up and walk along the edge of the inn. Continue upward and you'll      get to the Medicine Lodge, which doubles as a magic shop. Enter and ask      to speak to the "most high one". You will end up on the other side of the      fence in the 'back yard' of the lodge. Walk to the right and approach the      man sitting on the carpet. This is Spirit Eyes.

Spirit Eyes will tell you that in order to determine the identity of     Michael's killer, he will need to conduct a ritual that uses three items. You are asked to gather the items, the first of which is a gargoyle horn.

6.) Bring Spirit Eyes a gargoyle horn.     --      Personally, I think the next three steps are pretty boring and tedious.      Oh well, the rest of the game is fun. All that you have to do is kill a      gargoyle and collect its horn. If you've fought gargoyles before, this      may strike you as odd, since they don't drop anything when you kill them.      Well, they do now. Make your way to an abandoned building or, if you have      the money to throw around, a cave in the wilderness -- where gargoyles      will appear slightly more often. Then, it's just a matter of sitting in      one place and trying to stay alive until gargoyles attack. When they do,      try to kill one (they can be pretty tough) and pick up the horn it drops.      You only need one horn, and every slain gargoyle is guaranteed to drop      one, so actually getting the horn shouldn't be that tough. As Tom Petty once said, "The waiting is the hardest part."

Once you have collected a horn, return to Spirit Eyes. He'll tell you that next you need to bring him the pelt of a hellhound. Great, this should be fun.

7.) Bring Spirit Eyes a hellhound pelt.     ---      It's the same thing as the previous step, only with hell hounds. The only      real difference here is that while gargoyles will show up in pretty much      any abandoned building, hell hounds will only show up in demon buildings      (see Section XII). Of course, both types will show up in caves, and hell      hounds in particular will show up in the wilderness (i.e. not necessarily just in caves), so feel free to take the trip out to the Salish-Shidhe,     if it's not too much trouble. Just don't wander into a random building      hoping to find hell hounds. And finally, to appease the smartass fanboys      out there, and for the sake of being painfully complete, I suppose I      should mention that hell hounds can also be found in the Renraku      building. It probably goes without saying that to try to get a pelt in      this manner would be a colossal waste of time.

So, anyway, go and wait in your favorite spot for the doggies to come out. The thing that makes this step slightly more tricky is that hell hounds are probably the most dangerous enemies in the game short of the final boss. This is especially true for characters who don't have a lot of Essence, since hell hounds' attacks are all magic-based. So, it may come down to just firing until you kill one and making a mad dash to     collect the pelt the second before you get killed. Remember, there's no     shame in dying. There's also no shame in hiring an extra runner or two to     help you take on some hell hounds. When you have your pelt, return to     Spirit Eyes. He'll tell you that the last thing you need to do is bring him a dragon scale. But where do you find a dragon?

8.) Go to the dragon cave and save Licourtrix from Renraku.     ---      This last step is different from the other two. you need to bring Spirit      Eyes the scale of a feathered serpent, i.e. a dragon. There are no      dragon enemies to kill, though, so obviously you won't be doing any      hunting. Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, the dragon scale that you      occasionally find while helping the AmerIndian boys look for the      arrowhead doesn't count.

I suppose what the game expects you to do is wander around the Salish- Shidhe wilderness until you kind of stumble upon the dragon. Well, screw that. It took me forever the first time I played and other first-time players will probably have a similar experience -- the wilderness is     extremely vast and takes hours to explore fully. So, I'm going to tell you exactly how to get there. Of course, just finding the dragon is half the job. Once you get there, you'll have to face a Renraku Strike Team, some of the toughest enemies in the game. If you didn't already buy a     suit of Combat Armor for the hell hounds (I told you they were hard!), you should probably get one now. Also recommended is some good cyberware and stat boosts, keeping in mind that the cyberware must be bought before you upgrade its corresponding attribute (see the intro to Part 5 of     Section VII). Finally, get some decent runners who are good in combat. If     you don't have Ilene Two Fists (see the "Caleb Brightmore" part of this      subsection) or Stark (see his part in Subsection d), now's as good a time as any to get them. The point is, you need to start developing a serious team because this step will be a long, hard journey culminating in a     fairly tough battle. It's not all THAT hard, but it is a challenge and if     you've reached this point in the game by yourself, you should really start working with a permanent team of runners.

Ready? OK. First I'll deal with how to get to the cave, then what to do     once you get there. There are two routes that you can follow to get to     the cave: If you want to get a passport and take a cab (or if you want      Sharkey to drop you there), you can start from the beginning of the Salish-Shidhe by the highway. Or, if you want to pay Sharkey the extra money, you can start from out in front of the Sinsearach.

From the highway: Head to the AmerIndian village to the southeast as before. Once in the village, continue southeast until you're at the far lower-right corner of     it. You should see a cave entry. Enter the cave. When inside, walk down to the lower edge and go right until you come to the exit along that bottom wall. Take it and you'll be in another outdoor clearing, close to     the western edge. Follow that edge down to the far southwest corner and you'll see another cave entrance. Enter and make your way down-left, then continue to the left until you see another exit in the bottom wall. Take this and you'll be in another section of the cave. Now just follow the wall a little bit down-left until you see another exit in the left-hand wall. After going through this you'll be in another section of the cave. Go down-left and follow the wall around to the left until you come to the exit in the bottom wall. Take it and you'll be in another outdoor clearing. Follow the dirt path downward but ignore the bridge that you'll     see to your left (incidentally, this bridge leads to the Sinsearach). Instead continue southeast, where you'll see a cave entrance. This is the dragon's cave.

From the Sinsearach: It's considerably easier to get to the dragon's cave if you're starting from the Sinsearach. From the front gate, follow the dirt path south until it splits. At this junction, take the path leading east and continue DUE east (ignore the next two branches that lead south and     north, respectively) and you'll reach a bridge. Cross the bridge and then go as far southeast as you can, where you should see a cave entrance. This is the dragon's cave.

From the dragon's cave: Once you enter the dragon's cave, stay along the bottom wall and walk to     the right until you reach the exit. Take it and you'll be in another section of the cave. From here, follow the wall down and to the left and you'll see another exit in the left-hand wall. Take it and in the next section, walk straight across the cave to the left, sidestepping the rocks and lava pits. Take the exit that you'll come to in the far left side of the cavern, and repeat the process one more time: walk straight left, edging around the lava pits and miscellaneous debris. You'll see another exit in the left wall. Before you enter, heal up and get ready for a battle. As you enter the next section of the cave, you'll discover a Renraku Strike Team. After a moment of surprise, they'll come at you. There are a total of five members, and they all have good armor and high-powered weapons. I don't have any special advice for this fight, just keep moving, as always.

After you finish off the Renraku agents, walk to the left-hand side of     the cave. There will be a lot of obstacles in the way, but there's only one exit, so just keep going left until you find it. When you enter the next room, you'll meet the dragon, Licourtrix. The two of you will talk for a while after you help him defeat the Renraku forces, then he'll ask you why you're here. For the record, telling him about the dragon scale is the 'correct' answer, but in the spirit of Dragon Warrior for the NES, he'll just keep asking you if you give the 'incorrect' answer.

So, finally, Licourtrix will bind himself to you (something worth     remembering for the end of the game), give you a scale, and leave. You've     got the last ingredient; now all you need to do is bring it back to      Spirit Eyes.

9.) Go to Council Island and talk to Spirit Eyes. (3)     -      Backtrack all the way out of the dragon cave (it'll be right, right, right, up, left). If you have 1,000¥ to spend and want to save a little     time, walk northwest across the bridge and continue northwest, following      the dirt path, until you get to the Sinsearach. Enter and then leave. The      guard will offer to fly you back out to the highway for a grand.      Otherwise, continue backtracking until you get out to the terminal, then      call a cab to Council Island.

Once there, go back to see Spirit Eyes one last time. He will perform the ritual and tell you that your enemy is a demon with the head of a jackal named Thon. I don't know if there are any other Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans out there, but Thon kind of reminds me of the 'monsters' in the movie "The Killer Shrews." Just a thought. Anyway, you now know who the murderer is, and that completes this part of the game. Congratulations.

Mako Sochou ---     This plotline isn't really that tough. You'll just need to buy decent equipment to fight the battles and make the run against Renraku, but it's     not very long or complicated.

1.) Go to the Big Rhino and ask Mortimer Reed about Mako Sochou.     If you're at the beginning of the game, do some runs for Gunderson to      earn enough money for a Predator and Armor Jacket. You should also buy      some clips and Medkits, and upgrade some of your basic attributes.

When you're not so much of a weakling, catch a cab for the Penumbra District. When you get there, walk down to the cluster of seven bushes, then take a few steps right and you'll be at the Big Rhino. Enter the restaurant and make your way to the back booth, where Mortimer Reed is. Approach the booth to talk to him and tell him you're looking for some information. Say you need some questions answered and ask him about Mako Sochou. He won't give you any terribly useful information about the guy, but will mention that he's been spending a lot of time in Club Penumbra.

2.) Go to Club Penumbra and talk to Mako. (3)     -      If you're at the beginning of the game, you may have to spend some time      getting ready for this step. If you've already done some other stuff and      have decent characters, then you should be alright. I'll tell you now:      You'll have to kill three Renraku Strike Team members plus Mako, who's      about as tough as the rest. In other words, you'll basically have to kill      twice as many of the guys who jumped you after talking to Boris. I      recommend hiring a decker to get you 10,000¥ for some Light Combat Armor,      as well as spending time upping your physical and weapon stats with the      help of Karma and cyberware. I should also mention that in order to get      into Club Penumbra in the first place, Joshua needs to have a Reputation      rating of 4 or higher.

When you think you're ready, head to Club Penumbra (it's in the lower     right corner of the Penumbra District) and ask to go in. Hope you brought 75¥ for the cover. As soon as you enter, you'll confront Mako. Before anything can happen, though, another Renraku Strike Team will burst into the club and start firing at you. Despite what the narration says, Mako will also grab a gun and attack. Hopefully you brought some good equipment and maybe a friend or two.

As soon as you kill the last enemy, you'll approach Mako and act like a     jerk to him in his final moments. Tough love, I guess. Mako will tell you that his Renraku team was assigned to monitor Michael's team, not to kill them. He'll also give you some information about Caleb Brightmore, mentioning that Caleb was the Mr. Johnson behind Michael's last run (although you already knew that from Tabatha) and that he hangs out in     Icarus Descending. Finally, he'll tell you more about Renraku's     involvement before saying that his replacement in the project was Ito Ogami, who may be staying in an area hotel. After everything is done with, you'll pretty much leave Mako for dead while you start looking for Ito Ogami.

3.) Go to Gates Undersound.     ---      If you didn't pay much attention to the exchange with Mako, you may not      have noticed him mentioning that Ito is in a local hotel. The clue that      you have in your notebook makes no note of this and the only other clue      that even hints at it has to be found on Gates Undersound's Matrix      network. Maybe I'm the only one who had trouble figuring out what to do      next when I first played, but if others are confused, all you have to do      is walk into the Gates Undersound hotel in Downtown Seattle, next door to      the right of the Space Needle (where you get dropped off if you take a      cab). Enter the hotel and the man there will tell you that Ito just left      for Matchsticks.

4.) Go to Matchsticks and kill Ito Ogami. (3)     -      The title kind of gives it away, but if you wanted suspense, why are you      reading a walkthrough? Go to Matchsticks -- it's the building directly      below Gates Undersound -- and prepare for another battle. If you got      through the battle with Mako and the Renraku Strike Team okay, then you      should be fine for this one.

There is one thing worth mentioning, though: after Ito is dead, Vigore and Jarl will vanish. This introduces a few significant points: - You can't do any more runs with them. I don't like using them anyway, because of the Karma penalty, but if you enjoyed using them, then you need to do all the runs you want to with them before you kill Ito. - Also, if you are under contract for a run from them at the time of       Ito's death, you won't be able to get paid. You're not stuck without a       job, forever, though -- visit their now-vacant booth at the Wanderer to        have your run contract terminated. - Perhaps most importantly, you won't be able to get the contact with Max the fixer from them after they're gone. If you haven't done so, you need to get that contact before you go after Ito. Although Max mostly sells ridiculously overpriced items, the one good thing that he alone can provide are the corp badges. Be sure to make contact with Max while you can; those badges are extremely useful.

Enter the club and you'll be shown a narrative as Ito sees you and calls to his cronies to help fight you. You'll have to deal with three pistol- wielding thugs -- two tough ones and one weaker one -- as well as Ito himself, equipped with good protective armor and an SMG.

After you kill the last one, you'll see a cutscene of the gunned-down Ito as the events unfold. You'll get a Holopix of Michael and Stark, another of the crime scene, a surveillance paper detailing Renraku's activity in     relation to Michael's team and with mention of Vigore and Thon, and finally, 10,000 nuyen. You'll also find Ito's passcode, which will let you get into his Matrix system. His system has some of the toughest ice in the game, but on the other hand, it has a very simple layout and contains a lot of interesting information. For details, see its entry in     Section XI.

While it's not specifically mentioned, the game kind of hopes you see the opportunity you have to raid Renraku and find out more. If you check your Tips & Clues, you'll see that a run against Renraku may turn up     something. Indeed it will.

5.) Go to Renraku HQ and get the map overlay. (3)     -      Unlike other runs where you can get by with mediocre stats and equipment,      this run will be genuinely tough even though I'll tell you exactly where      to go. You'll want to spend some time making money for the best equipment      so that this will go as smoothly as possible. You may just want to put it      off until you've gone through some other parts of the game. I recommend      having at least two runners in your team, each with fully modded      Predators and Light, if not Heavy, Combat Armor. Plenty of ammo and      Medkits will help, as will good weapon stats and cyberware. High      Electronics ratings and corp badges will help a lot, and a Level 5      Maglock Passkey is almost essential.

When you've got everybody all ready to go, head to the Renraku Arcology and make your way to the upper part of the area, taking the escalators. The entrance is in the central part of the upper level. Take it and you'll be inside. Now, if you don't already know how to do this, I     COMMAND you to read the notes in Part 7c of Section IV. They will explain how to get through the first floor without being detected and how to shut down the security cameras -- two keys to getting through this run with minimal trouble. Go ahead, read it, I'll wait.

Done? Okay, after you've gotten to the second floor and have shut off the cameras, go back to the elevator. Note that there are two elevators side by side. Coming up, it didn't matter which one you used because they both led to the same place. To get to where you're going next, though, you need to make sure you take the elevator on the LEFT. Get in and take it     to Floor 6. When you get out, walk down a little bit and take the first door you come to. In the next room, head up to the door, which is Level 4 Maglocked. Enter the room through that door and open the safe there.

You'll see a cutscene showing Joshua getting a strange transparent map overlay. Apparently the corresponding part of the map has not been found yet, but it looks like that's what Renraku is after. Things are starting to make sense, but as the narration mentions, your immediate concern is     to get out of the building alive as you've set off an alarm.

The sixth floor has no security terminal to turn off the alarm, but if     you have a hotshot (and I do mean a serious badass) decker, you can go to      the lower left room and jack into the Matrix in an attempt to silence the alarm. All told, though, it's probably better to just wait it out. Backtrack to the elevator and wait for the alarm to stop. Then get in and take it back down to the first floor. Hopefully, you shut off the cameras earlier, or else you'll probably have to wait out another alarm as you pass by the original one you had to sneak by. So, when all is said and done, you should be safely out of the Renraku with their precious map in     hand. Congratulations, you've found out why Renraku was involved and are now done with this part of the game.

Caleb Brightmore This plotline may cost you the most money, between the contacts, the equipment, and all the rides from Sharkey. Besides that, though, there's     not a lot of action. With the exception of the prison escape, this plotline is basically just running from one place to another.

1.) Go to Icarus Descending and talk to Caleb Brightmore. (2)     -      Icarus Descending has some restrictions (6+ Reputation or an Elf in your party) on letting you in, but they only apply before you ask Boris about     Michael at the very beginning of the game. So, as long as you've done      that, you should be able to go in. Take a cab to the Renraku Arcology and      go left to the next section of the city when you get there. You'll now be      in Downtown Seattle, right in front of Icarus Descending. Enter and move      to the back booth to meet Caleb. He'll tell you about your brother's last      shadowrun and give you some info on Frosty, the elf who was partly behind      the run. Caleb says she hangs out in the Tarislar City Inn in the      Puyallup Barrens, the same place that you found Tabatha Shale in at the      very beginning of the game.

2.) Go to the Tarislar City Inn and ask about Frosty.     -      Go back to the Tarislar City Inn, this time asking the man there about      Frosty. He'll tell you that she joined the elves of the Sinsearach.

3.) Go to Sinsearach, speak to the elders, and agree to be tested.     --      As the guy at the Tarislar City Inn tells you, the Sinsearach is a part      of the Salish-Shidhe wilderness. If you've been there before, great. If      you don't know how to get to the Salish-Shidhe, read Step 1 of the "David      Owlfeather" entry in Part 2b of this section. That'll explain it in much      greater detail, but basically you can either get a passport or have      Sharkey drop you off. If you choose the latter, just save up an extra 2      grand and have her drop you right at the Sinsearach's front door. If you      are forced to start out from the beginning of the Salish-Shidhe by the      highway, though, I'll tell you how to get there.

Before I do, though, you should know that you need some decent equipment if you expect to survive in the wilderness. It helps to have an extra runner or two, and all characters should have at least an Armor Jacket, but preferably some Combat Armor. Get Predators (or strong magic) all around and bring plenty of ammo and Medkits. If you're still going down to the demons that live out there, I suggest upgrading your characters' defense-related attributes through cyberware and/or Karma. And finally, I suggest you make contact with Sharkey before going and bringing along an extra 10 or 11 grand. This will let you skip the walking and just be     flown back and forth to where you need to be.

From the highway, walk southeast around the logs and trees and you'll     find a bridge leading east. Cross it and you'll be in the AmerIndian village. Go to the far southeast corner of the village and enter the cave at the opening. Once inside, follow the cave wall down and then to the right. You'll come to an exit which you should take. You'll be outdoors again. Move to your southwest until you find another cave entrance in the western edge of the map. Go in and follow the wall down and left until you come to another exit. This will take you to another cavern, where you should walk a little bit down-left until you see another exit. Take this and you'll be in a third cavern. Walk down-left and keep following the wall as it goes left until you see the final exit in the bottom wall. Take it and you'll once again be outside.

From here, follow the dirt path south until you reach the first bridge. Cross the bridge and continue following the path. You'll see an upward branch, then a downward branch, then another upward branch. Take that one upward and keep following the path until you get to the Sinsearach gates. When you get there, go ahead and enter. You can ask the elf at the gate about Caleb Brightmore and Frosty, but you won't get much useful information. When you ask him to see the elders, though, he'll show you in to see Lady Gillian and the rest of the elders.

After you ask Gillian about Frosty, she'll say that you have to be tested before she'll help you. What is it with people and tests in this game? Doesn't anybody take people at their word any more? I guess not. Anyway, say "yes" when she asks you if you are willing to be tested. The first part is simply to deliver a package to Red Buffalo Woman who lives in the AmerIndian village.

4.) Go to Red Buffalo Woman.     After you speak with Gillian, the guard will offer to fly you back to the      highway for 1,000¥. You brought that extra cash, right? If you did, take      the ride and head back southeast from where he drops you off to get to      the village. If you don't have the money, you'll just have to backtrack.

When you get to the village, go to Red Buffalo Woman's house. There are a     lot of lodges in the village, but only two that you can actually enter. The big, tall, decorative one at the southern end of the village is the ranger station, and the small, squat, plain one a little north of that is     Red Buffalo Woman's. Simply enter the lodge and she'll accept the package, giving you another one. Now you have to take this back to     Gillian.

5.) Go to the Sinsearach and ask to speak to the elders. (1)     So... you still have 5,000¥ hanging around, right? If so, go back to the      street terminal and get Sharkey to drop you off at the Sinsearach. If      not, you gotta walk all the way back. When you get there, ask to speak to      the elders again. This time Gillian will ask you to find a fellow elf,      Ilene Two Fists.

6.) Go to Icarus Descending and ask Caleb about Ilene Two Fists.     You know the drill... if you have a grand left over, fly back out to the      highway. If not, backtrack. Either way, get to the terminal so you can      call a cab to the Renraku Arcology (or Downtown Seattle, if you're not fond of shortcuts) and walk to Icarus Descending. Once inside, talk to     Caleb and tell him you're looking for information. Ask him about Ilene      and he'll tell you that she's locked up in Hollywood Correctional.

7.) Go to Hollywood Correctional and rescue Ilene. (2)     --      In case you forgot, Hollywood is in the left end of Redmond Barrens,      surrounded by a concrete fence. Before you go, though, you need two      things: a way to get inside, and a way to open the jail cell that holds      Ilene.

The second one is easy. Her cell is Level 5 Maglocked, so you need either a Level 5 Maglock Passkey (20,000¥ from Alesandro Hobbs, whose contact     you can purchase from Mortimer Reed for 1,500¥) or a high Electronics skill (6 or 7 is good). In this case, you can even use a Frag Grenade, since the prison has no alarm system to speak of and setting off the 'alarm' only affects in guards that happen to be on screen at the time.

The other thing, getting into the prison in the first place, may be     slightly tougher, but still isn't much of a challenge. The game comes up     with several creative ways to get you inside, but most are too expensive. If you'd rather throw money around than fire a gun, though, I guess I     should at least let you know that including meeting costs, Sgt.      Chillicutt can get you into Hollywood for the least amount of money (2,000¥ for the contact from Caleb and 3,000¥ for access). Henry J.     Culver (6,500-7,250¥ total) and Sgt. Macklemann (14,500¥) aren't worth bothering with.

As I said, though, these ways are too expensive. As far as costs go, you can't beat free. All you have to be able to do is to kill -- at the most -- six moderately armed enemies. To do this, just walk right up to     Hollywood (making sure you have decent weapons and equipment first) and go in. When the guard stops you, choose to open fire. If your stats are good enough to score a direct hit, you'll get inside, immediately attacked by two (weak) prison guards. If your shots "miss the mark," as     the game says, you'll end up out front of the building, under attack by      two security guards and a mage. If this happens, STAND IN ONE PLACE and fight them. After you polish them off, try again. Hopefully, all three bodies will still be on the screen. This way, if you miss again, you'll     only be fighting one or two enemies because of the Genesis' limitations on rendering sprites. If you miss a third time, you won't be fighting any! Repeat this process until you finally get in. Take care of the aforementioned prison guards and make your way downward.

After going down through the two open doors, turn left and work your way up and to the left. That's where Ilene is -- the cell all the way in the upper-left corner. When you get there, open the cell door one way or     another and talk to her. As I've mentioned elsewhere in this FAQ, you may need to target her with B in order to be able to talk to her.

Once you meet her, you'll exchange a few words before she makes her escape. She mentions that she'll be at the Jump House. As the game says, it looks like you'll have to risk the front door again. Not that it's a     risk of any kind, since the guards here won't attack unless provoked. Oh     well.

8.) Go to the Sinsearach, speak to the elders, and join them. (2)     -      After you've backtracked to escape from Hollywood and are back out on the      street, the only thing left to do is return to the Sinsearach. Make your      way back (you shouldn't need me to tell you how by now) and ask to speak      to the elders one last time. In another Dragon-Warrioresque question (see Step 8 in the "David Owlfeather" part of this walkthrough), Gillian will     ask if you really wanna join. Say "yes" and the ceremony will begin.

Afterward, Gillian will answer questions about Ellisia, the elf who Caleb or Ilene may have told you about, and Thon. She says that Vigore and Jarl are working for Thon... interesting. Finally, you'll ask about Frosty. In     kind of a half-assed attempt to write dialogue that complements the plot mechanics, Gillian will refuse to tell you about Frosty until you have attained "wisdom," which is really just a way of saying you have to     complete the Spirit Eyes quest (see the "David Owlfeather" entry in this      subsection) before you can go on to beat the game. Bleh.

On the other hand, if you've already done that, Gillian will skip to Step 1 in Subsection c below. Either way, you've completed this part of the game, picking up a very good runner in Ilene along the way. Congratulations.

The End
After you've done all three plotlines listed in the previous subsection, do  these to get to the end of the game. Note that you can do the first step or  so without having done any of the "Mako Sochou" quest, but soon you'll be   forced to go back and do the things you missed. So, to keep things as easy as possible to follow, you should just try to do things in the order listed. If nothing else, it's fun to have Harlequin give you a little clue, only to  have you say, "Oh, yeah, I already took care of that. Where have you been?"

Since this is the end of the game, I suppose I should tell you that the type of stats and equipment it takes to get to this point is a far cry from the type of stats and equipment needed to beat the game. In other words, you may be able to make a killing selling data and you may be able to use that money to get otherwise mediocre characters to the end of the game, but money can't  compensate for the surprisingly high levels you'll need to be able to stand in against the final boss. Unless you have over-leveled your characters along the way (i.e. spending way too much time building money and stats in  in order to steamroll over the challenge at hand), you should expect to   spend a lot of time with everything done, just working for more Karma and more money so you can have your characters armed to the teeth for the final fight.

1.) Go to the Sinsearach and ask to see Frosty. (3)  ---   As is mentioned in the previous subsection, this will happen automatically   if you've already done the Spirit Eyes quest when you complete the   Sinsearach quest. If that's not the case, return to the Sinsearach whenever   you're done with all three plotlines and ask to see the elders again. When   you see Gillian, you'll ask her about Frosty again and she'll let the two of   you meet.

Frosty will tell you a little bit about Thon, Renraku, and Michael before telling you about her master, Harlequin. Harlequin was the one behind Michael's last run and Frosty believes that you should meet with him. She'll  tell you that he's at the Tarislar Garden Apartments in the Puyallup Barrens and that he is looking to defeat your archenemy, Thon.

2.) Go to the Tarislar Garden Apartments. (2)  -   After the meeting with Frosty, you'll be escorted back out of the   Sinsearach. Get back to the highway one way or another and take a cab to   Puyallup Barrens. Go to the Tarislar Garden Apartments and you'll meet   Harlequin. He'll tell you a whole bunch of stuff that I'm not going to   mention here because a.) it's very spoily and b.) you're going to be reading   it, after all, so putting it here would be kind of redundant.

Harlequin tells you to seek out Vigore and Jarl, who have since split town.

3.) Go to the Jump House and ask Gunderson about Vigore.  Yep, that's pretty much it. Catch a ride to Redmond Barrens and ask Ol'   Gunderson about the pair. You may have asked him that question before, but   this time, he'll give you some new information about Vigore being holed up   in the Rat's Nest.

4.) Go to the Rat's Nest. (2)  -   Walk down the street to the Rat's Nest. After what you've been through, you   may expect some epic battle here, but no, you just get a screen telling you   that voila, you found the map. Hmmmm, was there perhaps a little bit of a   rush to get this game out the door? Oh well. The next step is to take the   map back to Harlequin.

5.) Go to the Tarislar Garden Apartments.  -   Go back to the apartments and show the map to Harlequin. He'll say that the   final plan is to go to the tomb where Thon must be and to defeat him once   and for all. Harlequin tells you to go assemble your final party and report   back to him when you are ready. This is just what you should do. Now is your   last chance to prepare for the final battle of the game. Get your best three   runners together and just run them like crazy to get the nuyen and Karma   that you need. Here's a rough list of what you should have going into the   final battle to ensure victory:

- Three runners. - Each character with a set of Heavy Combat Armor. Hopefully, you haven't    chosen to side with the Mafia. If you have, well, Light Combat Armor will have to do. - Each character with an Allegiance Shotgun. Yes, that's right, an    Allegiance Shotgun. Most of the advantages the Predator pistol has (able    to be silenced, holds more ammo) are irrelevant at this point. You want all-out power. - For magic users, the highest-level offensive spells they can use and the Level 4 Power Focus. Again, I hope you didn't align with the Mafia. - Each character stuffed to the gills with Medkits. Perhaps the most important detail. - All Attributes totally maxed out and boosted with cyberware. Well, maybe not Charisma or Strength, but definitely all the others. - The following Skills as high as possible (shoot for the 9-12 range): * Sorcery (for all magic users) * Shotguns (or Pistols, if you prefer to use them) * Biotech (for at least one character)

Note that if you have ALL of the things listed, the final battle will probably be a breeze. If you don't want to do a lot of leveling, just make sure that you have at least two runners, one of whom has a decent Biotech rating. Buy each an Allegiance Shotgun and a full supply of ammo and Medkits. Make sure each gets a suit of Light Combat Armor and good Attribute ratings, and send them in. Even with a relatively weak team, you can hold your own against Thon if you manage your Medkits wisely.

Once you feel you're ready for the final battle, all you have to do is give Harlequin the word.

6.) Go to the Tarislar Garden Apartments and tell Harlequin you are ready.  --   When you're ready to take on Thon, return to the Tarislar Garden Apartments.   Harlequin will ask if you're sure you're ready. This is your last chance to   back out. Tell him "Yes" and you'll be whisked into Ellisia's Tomb to do   battle.

7.) Go to the inner part of Ellisia's Tomb and defeat Thon.  ---   You'll start in the outer part of the tomb. Well-armed henchmen will be   attacking from all over -- six in all. You MUST kill all six henchmen before   the door will be opened to the inner part of the tomb. Once they're dead, do   whatever healing you need to do and prepare for the real battle. When you're   ready, walk all the way to the top of the area and go through   the door.

Inside, you'll see Thon with two henchmen. Although it doesn't specifically say so, I'm pretty sure that these two are supposed to be Vigore and Jarl. Anyway, you'll see a cutscene showing Thon talking about how he's going to  rule the world... same old stuff. After the Council starts channeling their powers into the tomb, Thon will be susceptible and the battle will begin.

I only have two points of advice for the final battle. First, get rid of  Vigore and Jarl before attacking Thon. They're not that tough to kill and it'll be much easier when you only have one attacker instead of three. Second, while fighting, keep a very close eye on the health meters of your party. I know it sounds obvious, but seriously, watch those bars like a  hawk. As soon as one dips down to 30 percent or so, pause and heal everyone. Don't wait until someone dies to heal them, and don't be afraid to draw out the battle by pausing and healing every few seconds.

Other than that, just hit 'em with your hardest stuff. Magic is good, but if  there's a difference in damage between magic and the guns, it's probably due to the differences from character to character. Grenades work rather well, but the splash damage can be tricky and more importantly, they take up too much room in the inventory. You really can't go wrong with 16 or 18 Medkits, so don't sacrifice any inventory room for grenades or otherwise.

After you've done some considerable damage to Thon, Licourtrix will show up. yay! Remember him? He'll burst through the wall and attack Thon, then speak to you. At this point, you've effectively won, so sit back and enjoy the great ending. Well, not great. Not even good, in fact. The ending is really a letdown. Sorry. But the rest of the game was good, wasn't it?

Side Quests
These can be done at any time after the Beginning part.

Stark -     Finding Stark is a very important part of the game. It's totally optional to go through with it and you can certainly finish the game not having done it... but if you do it, you'll get a lot more plot info, a fun corp run to do, and the best runner in the game will work for you for free. Pretty cool, I think. Stark is a really good character to have, and it's     actually not that tough to get him.

As the 'bare bones' counterpart of this section says, the order of steps one and two can be switched. If you did step two first (which is common     since a lot of people ask Dr. Haversheen about the Holopix when they      first see the question appear), just remember that in order to get the corp run assignment in step 3, you have to go back to Seattle General after finding Stark.

1.) Go to the remote hut in the Salish-Shidhe.     --      Anyway, you need to find Stark, who is in a remote hut in the Salish-      Shidhe wilderness. If you don't know how to get to Salish-Shidhe, read      Step 1 of the "David Owlfeather" entry in Part 2b of this section.      However, I must say that if this will be your first visit to the      AmerIndian lands, it doesn't sound like you're far enough along in the      game to be strong enough to do this quest. The quest essentially boils      down to a trek through the wilderness (which can be tough, with all the wild monsters that will attack) and a moderate-level corp run (for which you need a Maglock Passkey and corp badges, or high Electronics and Charisma ratings). It's up to you, so keep in mind that you can always     come back and finish the quest later. Despite what people tell you during      this quest, there is no time limit to complete it.

When you're ready to go, head out to the Salish-Shidhe. From the highway where you start out, walk southeast through the trees and such until you get to a bridge leading east. Cross the bridge and you'll be in the AmerIndian village. Work your way to the far southeast corner of the village and you should see a cave entrance. Enter the cave.

Once inside, stay along the bottom wall and move to the right a screen or     two and you'll see the exit leading downward. Take it and you'll be     outside again. From here, follow the dirt path you see. After a couple twists and turns, it will split into two paths leading east and west. Take the east path and it will lead you to a bridge. Cross the bridge, walk a few steps south, and take the other bridge that you see. After crossing, just take a step or two north and you'll see the remote hut. Enter it.

After a little bit of dialog, you'll be taken to see Stark, where you will find out that he's badly injured and needs medical help in order to     move him. You'll have to go to Seattle General.

2.) Go to Seattle General and ask Dr. Haversheen about her Holopix.     ---      After you leave the hut, backtrack all the way back to the terminal (or if you don't mind losing your runners plus 10% of your money, just die).     Go to Seattle General Hospital, which is in the far lower-right corner of      Downtown Seattle. Once inside, ask Dr. Haversheen about her Holopix if      you haven't already done so. After you tell her of Michael's death,      she'll give you some information about him and Stark, at which point you      will say that you've found Stark. Haversheen will go out and transport      him to the hospital and do work on him. Finally, she'll tell you that      Stark's heart is failing and he is in need of a new, prototype cyber-      heart that's being stored in Fuchi's headquarters. Now it's up to you to      run Fuchi and get the heart to save Stark.

3.) Go to the Fuchi building in Penumbra District, get the cyber-heart.     ---      If you know where to find the heart, this run is a piece of cake for      runners with decent levels and equipment. After you exit the hospital and      feel ready to take on Fuchi, go to their office in the Penumbra District.      It's in the far upper-left corner of town, just a step or two down-left      of where you get dropped off if you take a cab. Once inside, you'll be in      a small lobby. Note that the room next door to the left has a security      terminal which will shut off any alarms, turn off the cameras, and tell      you which floor the goods are on. However, since you probably won't set      off any alarms, and you won't have to deal with cameras, and I'm already      telling you where to find the heart, the terminal may not be of any use.

Anyway, exit the lobby and head straight up through the huge main hallway. You'll probably get stopped by security if you just walk up     through it, so you'll need a badge, a good Charisma score, or the Invisibility spell. If you have none of these, just do a little bit of     sneaking. The hallway is so vast that you shouldn't have a problem evading security.

So, at the top of the main hall is the elevator. Enter it and ride it to     the third floor. Each of the doors out of the first room there are level 2 maglocked, just so you know. Take the door on the far right that leads out into the hallway. You'll be facing another door, but don't take it. Instead, walk down the hall, passing the next door, and take the door after that one (in other words, the third door down). Notice that it's     level 4 maglocked, which is quite high for only the third floor. Hmmmm...     Enter the room and open the safe. You'll find the cyber-heart.

4.) Go to Seattle General.     --      After you have the heart, leave the building and return to Seattle      General Hospital. Dr. Haversheen will kiss you (which is totally uncalled for, coming from a Janet Reno lookalike who dresses like Elvis) and go to     work on Stark. Later, she'll come out and tell you that the heart works      fine and that Stark split town to go to Underground 93. Guess he couldn't      wait to start drinking again. Anyway, from this point on, you'll be able      to visit Underground 93 in the Puyallup Barrens and see Stark. When you      first meet him, you may want to talk to him about Michael for some more      information. Then you can ask him to sign on, which he'll do, for life,      free of charge! What a guy! You can even get him killed, fail runs, or      dismiss him and he'll keep coming back for more. And, of course, he's the      most advanced runner in the game, coming with a full set of cyberware and      very good stats (for more details, see Section IX, Part 3j).

CHERNOBYL -     Okay, the upside of this side quest is that it's pretty simple if you know where to look for the clues and you get a cool 50,000¥ in your bank account for accomplishing the task. The downside is that you have to go     against some serious Matrix systems and you'll probably spend most, if      not all of the 50 grand just getting your deck and its programs up to the point where they can take on the corp systems. So, if you want to do     this, I hope you're doing it for the glory and the congratulatory note in      your notebook, because you don't stand to gain much, materially speaking.

As mentioned in the previous part, the order of steps 1 through 5 is     arbitrary and you can tackle them in any order that's convenient. The systems are pretty equal in terms of challenge, except perhaps for the Ares system whose linear path filled with Tar ice can be very tough to     wade through.

As for your deck, you need to be running high-end versions (at least     Level 5) of Attack and Deception on a deck with good Masking and in      general, a high MPCP. You don't necessarily need to be running a     Fairlight Excalibur, but I would advise against trying to take on these systems with the old Allegiance Alpha, no matter how good your decker is.

And speaking of deckers, a Computer rating of at LEAST 6 or 7 is a must. Make sure also that your decker has good ratings in each of his or her Attributes, especially Combat. When you feel you've got a pretty strong setup, you can go ahead and start hunting for the clues.

Where to start? Well, you need to have access to each system. You could keep trying random systems with the System Search option, but that would take entirely too long. Your best bet is to visit Caleb Brightmore and keep asking him for jobs. He gives out a fair share of expert matrix runs and most of these will be against the systems of the corps involved in     this quest. Remember that as soon as you accept a job, the system passcode is stored in your deck if it's a named system. Remember also that there is no penalty whatsoever for backing out of a run. With these things in mind, your best strategy is to keep asking for jobs until you are offered a Matrix run against one of the corps. When this happens, take the job and immediately cancel it (or go through with it, doesn't     matter). The corp's passcode will be stored on your deck and you'll be     able to visit the system whenever you want. Repeat this process until you have the codes for all the systems you need stored in your deck. Then all you have to do is get to a terminal and run through each system, picking out the clues.

So, assuming now that you know how to get into the systems, the following steps will deal with what to do once you're inside:

1.) Get the clue from the Aztechnology system.     --	The Aztechnology SAN is pretty weak. Punch through it and move on to the      next Node, an SPU. This one doesn't pose any threat either. After you      defeat this one, you'll have a few choices to make. To get to where you      need to be, you can choose to go to one of two SPUs: the one straight up      or the one to the far left. I strongly suggest going straight up as the      one to the left has a nasty Barrier/Tar Pit combination.

After getting through the second SPU, go to the next SPU to the left, which is only guarded by an Access and a Trace & Dump. After this, you'll     have access to the CPU. Go on in, and don't be too scared. It has BlackIce, but no Tar Pit and the BlackIce is only Level 4 anyway. After you take out the CPU, go to the DS directly to the right (not the one a     little bit down and right). Be careful, because this one has a Tar Pit. If you didn't use the double retreat maneuver (see Section XII) to get into the CPU, you may want to use it now. Once you're inside, just choose Transfer Data and you'll have the clue.

2.) Get the clue from the Renraku system.     -      Despite the Renraku system being tough in general, the road to the clue      is actually pretty simple. The SAN only has a Trace & Dump and the next      Node isn't much tougher. After you get through that one, continue      downward to the next SPU, which has Tar Paper. Just be careful and hope      you don't trigger the Tar Paper because the CPU is next and you don't      want to have to deal with it under Active Alert.

After disposing of the SPU, continue downward to the CPU. This one has Barrier and BlackIce, but shouldn't be too much trouble as long as you have a good deck and a talented decker. After you get inside, go to the DS that's just down and to the right. Be careful, this one has Tar Pit. If you didn't use the double retreat (see Section XII) to get into the CPU, it might be a good idea to use it now. On the other hand, the DS is     only guarded by a Blaster, so one shot of Deception is all it takes. Once you're inside, just get the file and you're done.

3.) Get the clue from the Fuchi system.     ---      This one is probably the easiest of the runs. The SAN has no ice, so go      to the next Node, which is an SPU guarded by only Access and Blaster.      After you get inside, you'll have a whopping six choices for where to go.      Go to the SPU that is far up and to the right. It has a lone BlackIce      which shouldn't be that tough. From there, go up to an easy green DS,      then all the way over to the DS on the far right side of the map. This      one has BlackIce, but the primary ice is an Access, so just run Deception      and you should get in relatively easily. Once inside, just Transfer Data      to get the clue.

4.) Get the clue from the Mitsuhama system.     ---      This one can be a little tricky. First off, the SAN is weak, so get      through and go to the first SPU. That one's a pushover too, so get inside      where you'll have a few choices. Go right to the next SPU, which is armed      with only a Trace & Dump, so it won't be much tougher than the Nodes      you've seen so far. After you get in, continue straight to your right.

You'll come to another SPU which still isn't that much of a challenge. After this one, go to the SPU that's down and to the right. This one is     slightly more difficult with Access and BlackIce, but still not that big of a deal. Get through and then move to the SPU that's up and to the right. This one can be kind of tough, but you should be able to take it. Finally, when you get in, go down to the DS below. It's another Node with Barrier and BlackIce, which I guess the game thinks is scarier than it     really is. Get inside and get the clue.

5.) Get the clue from the Ares system.     --      This system can be a real pain in the rear, even for the best character      using the best deck. For one thing, its layout is very linear, forcing      you to go through a long, narrow path. For another thing, the Nodes along      the path are very tough, and a lot use Tar Paper and Tar Pit. My only      advice is to save your game before you go in, and not to be afraid to use      the double retreat move (see Section XII).

The Ares SAN starts you right off with a Tar Paper. Don't do anything stupid because if you trip it, there's no way you'll make it through the rest of the system on Active Alert. The next Node you get to, an orange SPU, gives you a break with only a Blaster. After you get through that one, go to the SPU far to the left. Be careful, as this is an     exceptionally tough Node that uses Tar Pit. Hopefully, you'll be able to     get by somehow. From inside the Node, go to the SPU straight up from where you are. This one's another break, guarded only by a Trace & Burn.

Go to the SPU to the far right and it's back to the grind, this time in     the form of a high-end red Node with Killer and another Tar Pit. Hopefully, this will be a bit easier than the last Tar Pit Node, since you can use Deception to get by in one shot. After you beat it, go to the SPU that's straight up. This one is as tough as you seen, another red 5 Node that uses Barrier and Tar Pit. If you managed to legitimately get into the last Node, it would probably be a good idea to use the double retreat here. Regardless of how you get inside, your next move will be     straight left to the next SPU, which is a bit of a break since it has no      Tar ice.

After that one, continue to the left and you'll come to a red SPU with Access and BlackIce. Not too tough. From this Node, you'll see the CPU straight below. This is where you need to go, but it's one of the toughest Nodes in the entire game. Be VERY careful and use the double retreat if at all possible. After you manage to get inside the CPU, go to     the DS just to the right of it. This one has Barrier and BlackIce, so it     may be tough if your stats are on the low side, but otherwise shouldn't      be too much trouble. After you finally get inside, pat yourself on the back and get the clue.

6.) Get the clue from the UCAS system.     --      After you've gotten each of the five clues, you should be able to piece      them together to find out that the corps are trying to sabotage the      computer at a nuclear plant somewhere! Or something! Oh no! Actually, I      don't think the notes make it very clear exactly what you need to save      the world from, but the point is that you need to enter the Matrix system      that uses the password that you've just pieced together: CHERNOBYL.

If you made it through the Ares system okay, then you shouldn't worry about CHERNOBYL. Go to a terminal and choose the password from your screen. It turns out that the passcode is for the UCAS Federal Government system. All you need to do is go to a certain DS in the system and get the clue inside, and you'll be done. Here's how:

The SAN is pretty easy -- just a Blaster. From the SAN, go to the first SPU, which is fairly easy as well. From that SPU, you're going to go     straight down to the next one which can be tough. It has an Access and can therefore be defeated by a single shot of Deception, but beware if     you fail: there's a Tar Pit lurking behind. After you get inside this Node, go left to another easy SPU. From here you'll need to go up and to     the left to the next SPU. This one has Tar Paper, but the only other way to get to your destination involves going through a Node with Tar Pit, so     you'll just have to tough it out.

After that Node, continue to the left to yet another SPU. This one is     pretty simple, and after you're inside you'll have access to the final Node, which is... one of the weakest Nodes you've had to face in the entire quest. Oh well. Head down and to the left to the green (!) DS, guarded by a single Trace & Burn. Dispose of it, enter the Node, and download the clue. Congrats, you're done! Feel free to jack out and enjoy the cash and props from Sega.

=PHASE 3: LISTS AND CHARTS=

Skill/Attribute list
Having a lot of money can help you. Getting the right equipment can help you. Owning the best cyberware and the finest deck can help you. But no single factor will influence your performance in ALL areas as much as Skills and Attributes. Unlike most RPGs where you gain levels by collecting experience points from slain enemies, in Shadowrun you accumulate Karma points based on accomplishing Shadowruns. Killing enemies (and hacking the Matrix) will also earn your character Karma, but to a far lesser extent.

When you've accumulated some Karma, the next step is to use it to upgrade your Skills and Attributes. When you check into any hotel, you'll be given the option to go to the Karma Screen to spend your Karma on boosting the Skills and Attributes of your choice. Each stat must be boosted one point at a time (with the exception of the weapons Skills -- see Part 3) and each successive upgrade to a stat will cost more and more Karma.

There are a total of eight Attributes and twelve Skills, although they don't all operate in the same manner. The quirks of each category will be explained in Parts 2 and 3 below. Note that you can check your stats, as well as your current Karma, at any time by pausing and choosing "Attributes/Skills" from the main pause screen.

So, those are the basics. Part 1 of this section will talk about Karma and how to go about getting it. Part 2 is a list of each Attribute, including what parts of the game it affects and my personal rating of how useful it is and therefore how much priority you should give to upgrading it.

Karma
Karma is probably the toughest resource to come by in the game. Although you can hire a decker and make thousands of nuyen in a few minutes, Karma can only trickle in at a couple points a minute, if you're good. Therefore, don't waste it on upgrades that you don't need. Read the following sections and determine which stats are most important to your character, then spend time working on those areas.

As is mentioned in numerous places in this FAQ, Karma primarily comes from completing shadowruns. Read Section IV if you want to see a list of the amount of Karma you'll get for each type of run. When you finish the job and get your money, each character in the party will also gain the amount of Karma specified for each run type.

There are three other ways of getting Karma, but they are so minor that you shouldn't see them as methods to pursue. Instead, just keep in mind that they exist, and they are why you may have a point or two more than you thought when you check your Karma totals.

The first way is by killing things. It's kind of odd to think that killing things would ever really have a positive effect on your 'real' karma, but in the world of Shadowrun, you gain one Karma point for every few things you kill. The type of thing you kill matters, too -- innocent citizens are 'worth less' than more threatening thugs and demons, so if you're into killing innocents, it will take longer to gain Karma. In real terms, you'll probably end up with a healthy mix of victims, so all that's important is I guess a rough estimate: on average, you'll get a Karma point every 15 or 20 kills. I've done some testing with different types of enemies, and the fewest amount I've seen is 12, with the greatest amount being 23. Like I mentioned, it's such a minor detail that I really don't think it's worth doing extensive research on -- just know and accept that you'll get an extra Karma point every now and then by killing enemies.

The second way to gain Karma besides shadowrunning is by defeating Ice inside the Matrix. This is similar to the previous method -- every 15 or 20 times you defeat an ice, you'll gain a Karma point.

The third way is by advancing the plot. Many times when you make a significant discovery or pass a major point in the story, you'll be given a Karma point. For the specific points where you'll be given Karma, check Section V.

Finally, some may be wondering if there's any way to lose Karma. Nope. I know, those random encounters when you kill a wounded civilian or let the thugs beat up an old man seem like they were made for the specific purpose of costing you a Karma point or two if you chose to do them, but they don't seem to have any effect. So, die as many times as you want, fail or cancel as many runs as you want, heck, even kill all the innocent people you want. You may even be rewarded if you kill enough, as explained above. Boy, now that I think of it, this Karma thing works completely backwards. They should have called it something else.

Anyway, once you have your Karma, what should you spend it on? Refer to the next two parts to see what the different Attributes and Skills can do for you.

Attributes
Attributes are the stats that pertain to inherent character abilities -- general things like strength, speed, and intelligence. By and large, Attributes are more important than Skills, because they affect nearly everything that the character does while Skills are more specialized and may only influence one or two things.

Each race has different maximum values for each Attribute. For example, humans are well-rounded and have a maximum of 6 for everything. Trolls, on the other hand, have great size and strength (high Body and Strength maxes) but are ugly and dumb (low Charisma and Intelligence maxes). Below is a table laying out the Attribute maxes of each race. It's kind of interesting to note that if you total all the max stats for humans you get 36, while every other race has a total of 39. Doesn't seem very fair... +--+---+---+---+---+---+ +--+---+---+---+---+---+ +--+---+---+---+---+---+ lowered through the installation of cyberware, however. character's Essence rating, rounded down to the nearest whole number.
 * | Human | Dwarf | Elf  | Troll |  Orc  |
 * Body        |   6   |   7   |   6   |  11   |   9   |
 * Quickness   |   6   |   5   |   7   |   5   |   6   |
 * Strength    |   6   |   8   |   6   |  10   |   8   |
 * Charisma    |   6   |   6   |   8   |   4   |   5   |
 * Intelligence |  6   |   6   |   6   |   4   |   5   |
 * Willpower   |   6   |   7   |   6   |   5   |   6   |
 * Essence*    |  6.0  |  6.0  |  6.0  |  6.0  |  6.0  |
 * Magic*      |   6   |   6   |   6   |   6   |   6   |
 * Essence starts at 6.0 for every character and cannot be raised. It can be
 * For non-magic-users, Magic is always 0. For Magic users, Magic is equal to the

Note that installing cyberware BEFORE your character reaches the maximum in a certain statistic will effectively stretch the upper limit of the stat. For instance, if a human character gets one set of Dermal Plating while his or her Body statistic is 5 or below, that stat will be artificially boosted by one point. Meanwhile, the character will still be able to upgrade their Body stat and when they reach the 'maximum' of 6, the cyberware boost will render their Body rating as a 7. For a listing of cyberware and its effects, see Part 5 of Section VII.

The final thing to address before the list of Attributes is their cost. That's simple: the cost in Karma points to upgrade an Attribute is equal to the rating you're trying to upgrade to. In other words, it costs 3 Karma to go from 2 to 3, 4 Karma to go from 3 to 4, etc.

That should be all the background info you need on Attributes. Now, here's a list of each one that includes notes and descriptions that can help you understand which ratings do what.

Body "Body resists damage from weapons, firearms, physical spells, and Black  Ice."

Body is one of the most important ratings. Defense is probably the most important aspect of your character, and your Body rating is essentially the same as your defense rating. I suggest spending a lot of your Karma at the beginning of the game making sure that this Attribute is as high as  possible.

Quickness -  "Quickness determines movement and attack speed, and increases combat and   cybercombat success."

Quickness is probably the most significant Attribute as far as offense goes. While it doesn't have much of an effect on damage or success, it has a great influence on the character's attack speed. Being able to attack quickly will put you at an advantage over enemies, regardless of how much damage you're  doing with each attack.

Strength "Strength increases melee damage and grenade accuracy."

That's true, although most people use guns to fight and you should already know how I feel about grenades. I haven't been able to find any other aspects of the game that are related to Strength, so it looks like this one isn't as important as other Attributes.

Charisma "Charisma reduces the hiring price of Shadowrunners and increases fast-talk  success."

This one is pretty useful. High Charisma will enable you to hire runners for less money (see Part 3 of Section IX for details) and, perhaps more importantly, will give you a greater chance of getting out of sticky random encounters. The most prominent example is during corp Shadowruns when you're  stopped by security without a badge, or when you meet an employee and have the chance to ask for information. Generally speaking, the higher your Charisma score, the better the encounter will most likely turn out.

One caveat for this Attribute is that it really only comes into play with the character you're actually controlling. So, unless you have a habit of  leading the party with one of your hired runners, you should probably only worry about upgrading Joshua's Charisma score.

Intelligence "Intelligence determines attack speed, plus increases combat and cybercombat  success."

Intelligence is one of the most useful Attributes, particularly for offense. Note that it influences both success and attack speed, which are the two main parts of offense (damage is influenced by the weapon being used). It is  certainly important that you upgrade this stat as often as you can.

Willpower -  "Willpower resists damage from mana spells and magical drain. It also   increases combat success."

As you can see, Willpower does a few things. Resisting mana damage is nice, but most enemy magic is physical. Resisting drain is VERY good for magic users, but of course worthless for non-magic users. Willpower's effect on  combat success is small, but significant enough to warrant upgrading the statistic whenever you get the chance.

Essence ---  "Essence allows fast magical healing. It decreases when cyberware is   installed."

Essence is an oddball Attribute. Everyone starts with 6.0, and it can't be  raised. Getting cyberware installed permanently lowers Essence. To keep it  simple, here's the strategy: For magic users, don't ever get cyberware. For non-magic users, get all the cyberware you want. If you need a more detailed explanation of this reasoning, read the intro to Part 5 of Section VII.

Magic -  "Magic determines the maximum Force of spells cast. It decreases when   cyberware is installed."

As I've mentioned elsewhere in this FAQ, Magic is the same thing as Essence, only expressed in whole numbers, rather than tenths. The only difference is  that Magic is automatically 0 for all non-magic users. Read the Essence entry above if you simply must have more info on this Attribute.

Skills
While Attributes are kind of the natural abilities of each character, Skills are the character's area of specialization; things that they have trained for and learned. Skills apply to specific talents and affect a limited number of specific tasks that you may need to perform at one time or another. Attributes as a whole are probably more important than Skills, but certain Skills are extremely useful and perhaps even necessary for survival.

Another difference between Skills and Attributes is that while the maximum values for each Attribute is usually around 6 or 7 and is different for each race, the maximum values for Skills is 12 (with a couple exceptions) and that's the same for every character.

Skills don't have anything like cyberware, which boosts the base values of different Attributes. You can buy gun accessories to improve your success with firearms, and you can buy the Electronic Kit to supposedly give your Electronics skill a little boost when trying to open a Maglock, but neither of these actually add to your character's rating in the specific Skill.

The final difference between Skills and Attributes is the Karma cost. While the Karma cost to upgrade Attributes is equal to the rating that you are upgrading to, the Karma cost for Skills is DOUBLE the rating. That means that to upgrade to level 3 will cost 6 Karma, 4 will cost 8, and so on. All Skills follow this pattern except for the three weapon categories -- see their entries for details.

Well, that's it for the explanation. Skills are pretty straightforward. Make sure to read each individual entry so you can decide how to specialize each of your runners. Sorcery ---  "Sorcery determines success with spell casting."

This one is simple: For magic users, upgrade this Skill as often as  possible since it influences how effective your spells will be. Non-magic users don't even have a choice -- their Sorcery rating will always be 0.

Firearms "Firearms determines success with ALL types of guns."

Firearms is a complex and interesting statistic. It shares a special relationship with the three subcategories under it: Pistols, SMGs, and Shotguns. For one thing, your Firearms rating replaces any lower ratings that you have in the subcategories. For example, if your Firearms score is 6 and your Pistols score is 2, your character will be able to handle a pistol as though he or she had a 6 in that category.

Another good thing about Firearms is that it can be used to jump ahead in  your ratings for the three subcategories -- but only if the rating you're   jumping from is zero. For instance, if Joshua's Firearms rating is 8 and his SMGs score is 0, you can upgrade his SMGs score directly to 9 instead of  going through all the upgrades starting from zero.

You can't 'jump' from a nonzero score, though. If the SMGs score in the previous example was, say, 2, then you would have to work your way up, one point at a time, as usual. During that time, though, your effective SMGs score would still be 8.

So, Firearms replaces all lower scores for its subordinate categories. What, then, is the point of those categories? Why would you want to spend Karma on  three separate stats when you can work on one catch-all? The answer is that each individual weapon category costs slightly less to upgrade than the Firearms stat. This results in a choice: To be a Jack-of-all-trades or to  specialize in one type of firearm. Of course, you don't really have to  choose one or the other. If you can decide on upgrading only one of the three, though, you'll save yourself some Karma.

Pistols ---  "Pistols determines success with both light and heavy pistols."

Pistols is the first of the three weapon skills. Obviously, it is a factor in determining hit rate, damage and pretty much anything else when you're  firing a pistol. Take into consideration the Firearms skill and how it works when deciding whether to upgrade this skill. Of course, if you don't use pistols, then don't worry about it.

SMGs "SMGs determines success with sub-machine guns."

The second of the three weapon skills. This is naturally very important if  you use SMGs, since each level will improve all areas of SMG use, but if you don't use SMGs, well, then forget about it. If you do decide to work on this skill, however, remember the Firearms skill before you spend any Karma.

Shotguns "Shotgun determines success with various forms of shotguns."

The last weapon skill. As with the other two, this specialized skill is very important if you use the weapon in question, and pretty worthless if you don't. As always, remember the value of the Firearms skill before you dump any Karma into this one.

Melee Combat "Melee Combat determines success while fighting hand-to-hand."

This skill's priority depends on the amount of hand-to-hand fighting you do, of course. In my opinion, upgrading this skill without getting Spurs is a  waste. Keep in mind that, as I've stated in several other parts of this FAQ, Spurs and a good Melee Combat rating (as well as Strength) can be the most effective weapon in the game.

Throwing "Throwing increases accuracy and damage when tossing a grenade."

Do I really have to tell you how I feel about grenades? If you're a sucker for 'em, then go ahead and upgrade this skill. If you understand the concept of splash damage, then don't. Seriously, though, even with a 12 in this skill, things won't get much easier as far as timing, accuracy, and avoiding damage to your own party.

Computer "Computer increases success in cybercombat and the operation of Nodes."

Another simple decision: If the character in question is the one (and  hopefully you only have ONE) designated Matrix runner, this skill is one of   the most important ones and should be upgraded whenever possible, assuming you'll do a typical amount of decking in your game. As is mentioned in the sections dealing with the Matrix, Computer affects many different Matrix- related functions, and directly affects your chances of success once you're  jacked in. On the other hand, if your character won't be doing any decking, don't waste your Karma.

Biotech ---  "Biotech determines success while using a Medkit."

Yep. Pretty simple. In the long run, using Medkits is more effective than slap patches, assuming your levels in this skill are decent. If your levels are high enough, you can heal someone to 100% with only one or two uses. So, unless you do the vast majority of your healing through magic (and that  isn't necessarily a bad idea if you can do it without drain), the higher your Biotech level is, the better.

Electronics ---  "Electronics determines success when attempting to force open a Maglock."

What the description says is true, but it leaves out a much more important detail: A high Electronics score will help you hack terminals inside corp buildings. The ability to hack terminals is probably the most important factor in your success when running a corp, and that ability is influenced solely by the Electronics skill.

That said, for the purpose of hacking terminals, you don't really need a  super-high score in Electronics. You can get by with a 6 or so, especially when you consider that if you mess up when at a terminal, you can just try again until you get it right. Then again, there's the convenience of being able to get it right the first try or so, and there's the random encounters with terminals that you *can't* go back and try again, and also the Maglock thing previously mentioned. Yeah, those are all minor points, but some may consider them important enough to get a few extra levels of this skill. No  matter what, though, you really need to have at least a 6 in this before you think about anything other than the smallest, simplest corp runs.

Reputation --  "Reputation determines overall notoriety of the character."

Having a high Reputation rating won't cause drastic changes in the game (unless you're trying to get into Club Penumbra or meet a mob boss), but it  will give you a little help in a number of areas. As mentioned below, it  affects hiring prices of Shadowrunners, and it also gives a few other perks when trying to get into certain clubs, meeting with gang leaders, and dealing with potentially hostile random encounters. Even then, all it really boils down to is saving you maybe a few thousand nuyen over the course of  the game. My recommendation is to get up to level 5 (at that point you can  get into Club Penumbra without an elf in your party, as well as meet the mob   boss of your choice) and leave the Skill alone until you've built up the more important Skills and Attributes.

Negotiation ---  "Negotiation increases Shadowrun payments and influences buying and   selling."

This Skill is straightforward enough. Almost any buying, selling, or  Shadowrunning you do will take Negotiation into consideration when determining the amount of cash involved. The effects aren't overwhelming, but certainly significant enough to warrant you spending some time on this Skill.

There are a lot of RPG players out there, myself included, who have a habit of spending a lot of time leveling up (or in this case, gaining Karma). Because of that habit, when it does come time to buy new equipment, the money's usually there. The end result is that saving money here and there isn't very important to a lot of people, and those people may not care too much about what the Negotiation stat has to offer. However, there are two things that make Negotiation important despite all this.

First, when you consider the aggregate effect of a good Negotiation rating over the course of the whole game, it really does make a noticeable difference. Simply put, there are a lot of things to buy in Shadowrun, and even if you're one of the aforementioned over-levelers, there will still probably come a time when you're a little short on cash. In this respect, Negotiation helps.

Second, and apart from the long-range thing, you'll notice an immediate effect when you start to get serious about Matrix running. As soon as you set out to build up your ace decker, you'll realize that decking is just about the most expensive hobby this side of racing thoroughbreds. When you consider the cost of your deck, your upgrades, and your programs, you might do well to pump up the Negotiation a little bit before you start buying. Consider the Fairlight Excalibur deck, which is nearly 100,000¥ cheaper with a 12 in Negotiation. It's ultimately up to you to decide how important this Skill is, but there's no denying that it will help anyone in any game.

People
This section is made up of several lists covering the people you'll run into while playing Shadowrun. The Mr. Johnsons are your source of income and Karma, your contacts will help you with information and equipment, runners will join your party for a fee, the local gangs can harass or help you, Lone Star will push you around unless you behave (or just start terrorizing them), and the two main gangs, the Yakuza and Mafia, run the city and will help you greatly if you align with them.

Mr. Johnsons
If you need the basic information on who Mr. Johnsons are and why they are so important, review Section IV, Part 1. If you need more info on the different types of Shadowruns listed in this section, as well as tips on doing them more efficiently, see Section IV.

This part lists all five Johnsons with their relevant information. Each entry has the following: by the base amount (before negotiations) offered for payment. contact (see Part 2 below) for a price. This tells you which contacts will be available through that particular Johnson. Notebook part of your pocket secretary. end.
 * Located -- Which bar or restaurant you'll find the Johnson at.
 * Runs Offered -- What type of shadowruns the Johnson will give you, followed
 * Contacts -- Each Johnson will be able to get you in touch with at least one
 * Description -- The in-game description of the Johnson, as seen in the
 * Notes -- As always, I'll put in my personal notes about each Johnson at the

Caleb Brightmore

Located: Icarus Descending, Downtown Seattle Runs Offered: Moderate Matrix (2,550-2,750¥) Expert Matrix (6,000-6,100¥) Moderate Acquisition (1,400¥) Expert Acquisition (3,850¥) Moderate Extraction (2,100¥) Expert Extraction (3,500¥) Contacts: Sergeant Chillicutt (2,000¥) Kipp David (2,000¥) Description: Caleb Brightmore is an upper-level Johnson who specializes in            Matrix runs. Can be contacted at Icarus Descending in Downtown Seattle. Notes: You won't be able to meet Caleb until you've asked Boris Errascoe about Michael. Caleb is the most high-end Johnson in the game, and is probably the Johnson who will get you the most Karma and money. I recommend using him exclusively, as long as you can handle his runs. Yes, Vigore and Jarl will give you slightly more money, but you'll soon find that an      extra Karma point is way more important than a few extra hundred nuyen per run. See the entry for Vigore & Jarl for more info.

Julius Strouther

Located: Matchstick, Downtown Seattle Runs Offered: Bodyguard (200¥) Courier (180¥) Enforcement (160¥) Moderate Matrix (2,600¥) Simple Acquisition (600¥) Moderate Acquisition (1,000¥) Contacts: Captain Quinton Jaymes (1,000¥) Description: Julius Strouther is a mid-level Johnson who operates out of the Matchstick nightclub in Downtown Seattle. Notes: To tell the truth, I'm not a big fan of the mid-level Johnsons. Personally, I just take low-level Matrix runs from Vigore and Jarl, then milk the systems until I have enough cash to buy the supplies for Caleb's high-end corp and Matrix runs. But, if you're really interested in going on mid-level runs, Julius is a fine Johnson to work through.

Mortimer Reed - Located: Big Rhino, Penumbra District Runs Offered: Bodyguard (200¥) Ghoul Bounty (40¥/kill) Courier (180-190¥) Enforcement (190¥) Simple Matrix (425¥) Simple Acquisition (550¥) Simple Extraction (450¥) Contacts: Allesandro Hobbs (1500¥) Description: Mortimer Reed is a mid-level Johnson who operates out of the Big Rhino Restaurant in the Penumbra District. Notes: Mortimer is the other mid-level Johnson in the game. Like I said above, I don't recommend using mid-level Johnsons. If you want to do so, however, just take a note of the jobs offered by Reed versus the jobs offered by Julius Strouther. Strouther's jobs are a little more advanced than Reed's. Just something to be aware of. Personally, I don't ever use Reed for runs, but he is definitely worth meeting, at least for the contact he gives you with Allesandro Hobbs -- the fixer who can get you a Level 5 Maglock Passkey for only 20 grand.

Mr. Gunderson - Located: Jump House, Redmond Barrens Runs Offered: Bodyguard (45-55¥) Ghoul Bounty (10-20¥/kill) Courier (35-55¥) Contacts: Wilma Temmenhoff (1,000¥) Description: Mr. Gunderson is a small-time Johnson who works out of the Jump House bar in Redmond Barrens. Notes: Gunderson is basically only in the game to get the money you need at the very beginning. He's extremely small-time and shouldn't be used after you get out of Redmond Barrens for the first time. One possible exception to this rule is that his short, simple bodyguard and courier runs make it easy to rack up Karma. If you use the Walk Fast cheat (see      Section XII), you can earn Karma (each run is worth 1 Karma) at a rate that's very close, if not quicker than, going on the high-end runs. In      the end, though, it's probably more worth it to stick to Caleb's runs since they offer quite a bit of money along with the generous amounts of      Karma that you'll reap.

Vigore & Jarl - Located: Wanderer, Puyallup Barrens Runs Offered: Enforcement (230¥) Simple Matrix (500¥) Moderate Matrix (3,000¥) Expert Matrix (6,350¥) Moderate Acquisition (1,700¥) Expert Acquisition (4,500¥) Expert Extraction (4,000¥) Contacts: Max (750¥) Description: Vigore & Jarl offer mid-level runs and specialize in acquisitions. They operate from the Wanderer in the Puyallup Barrens. Notes: Vigore & Jarl will disappear after you confront Ito (see the      walkthrough, Section V), so get whatever business you have with them out of the way before you go to meet Ito. Also note that while they do offer slightly better percentages, as many characters in the game tell you, each of their runs are worth 1 fewer Karma point compared to doing the same job for other Johnsons. It is for this reason that I would strongly advise you to do your runs through someone else. As I've said before, the extra money you'll get here is far outweighed by the extra Karma you'll get elsewhere.

Contacts
Your contacts are people who you'll only see via vid-phone (and even then, some will refuse to turn the video on when you speak with them), but they can be of tremendous help to you. As soon as you get a contact, his or her name will show up in your pocket secretary and also in the vid-phone menu when you use a street terminal. On the vid-phone, choose the person's name to call them and carry on a conversation as usual. By talking to contacts, you can arrange the sale of rare items, gain information, or secure other helpful services. It would really be worth your while to try to get hooked up with as many contacts as you can, as soon as you get the chance.

This part lists all the contacts in the game in the order that they appear in the pocket secretary and vid-phone menus. Contacted Through gives the person who gives you the contact (as well as a reminder about who the person is) and how much you'll have to pay. Title is part of the pocket secretary description of the contact -- it's just what occupation the contact is. Description is the other part of the pocket secretary description -- it lists all the goods, services, and information the contact has to offer, and how much you'll have to pay to get each one. Notes has my notes on each contact, as well as additional info on parts of the description that may need clarification.

Capt Quinton Jaymes --- Contacted Through: Julius Strouther (Johnson) - 1,000¥ Title: Ex-Merc Description: Has info on Hollywood Sells Frag Grenades for 400¥ Sells stripped HK227-S for 1,000¥ Offers Rigger contact for 2,800¥ Notes: Pretty worthwhile. The info and the grenades are equally worthless, but the cheap SMGs are nice, and Sharkey, the Rigger contact, is one of the most useful contacts in the game.

Alesandro Hobbs --- Contacted Through: Mortimer Reed (Johnson) - 1,500¥ Title: Company Man Description: Has info on paranormal creatures Sells Lvl 3 Maglock Passkey for 10,000¥ Sells Lvl 5 Maglock Passkey for 20,000¥ Offers Hollywood contact for 8,000¥ Notes: Hobbs is useful only for his level 5 Maglock Passkey, which he sells for less than half of what Max asks for it. You should definitely get this contact, but don't expect much out of his info, his other passkey, or      the contact he offers (Sgt. Macklemann).

Sharkey --- Contacted Through: Capt Quinton Jaymes (contact) - 2,800¥ Title: Rigger Description: Offers passage to Salish-Shidhe for 3,000¥ Offers passage to Sinsearach for 5,000¥ Sells Smart Goggles for 3,000¥ Notes: Probably the most useful, if not the most essential, contact. In my      opinion, the thousands of nuyen you spend on her rides are well worth not having to trudge through the dangerous routes to the Sinsearach by      memory, and not having to jump through all the hoops and pay all the money to get a visa to Salish-Shidhe. on top of all that, Sharkey is the only one who sells Smart Goggles, which can be a very useful item in      itself.

Kipp David -- Contacted Through: Caleb Brightmore (Johnson) - 2,000¥ Title: Corp Decker Description: Info on Corp Matrix Sells Lvl 6 Rebound for 30,000¥ Sells Lvl 6 Degrade for 30,000¥ Sells Excalibur cyberdeck for 185,000¥ Notes: Kipp David is a decent contact for deckers. He's the only source of the highest-level versions of Rebound and Degrade, although those programs really aren't as useful as others you can buy in stores (see Part 3b of      Section III). His offer of the Fairlight Excalibur is pretty good, with a decent price break over the one available at the Crime Mall for characters with a Negotiation skill of 8 or lower. However, if you have a 9 or higher, or if you got the Crime Mall discount from Mr.      Faradouchi, Kipp David's offerings probably won't help you out very much.

Wilma Temmenhoff

Contacted Through: Mr. Gunderson (Johnson) - 1,000¥ Title: Street Decker Description: Info of Matrix Sells Lvl 3 Rebound for 5,000¥ Sells Lvl 3 Degrade for 5,000¥ Notes: Pretty worthless. Sells low-level versions of marginally useful programs and has information that probably won't help you much.

Sgt. Macklemann --- Contacted Through: Alesandro Hobbs (contact) - 8,000¥ Title: Hollywood Security Guard Description: Info about Corp Security Info to avoid Corporate Detection Offers access to Hollywood for 5,000¥ Notes: The other two contacts that offer to get you into Hollywood can do it      for cheaper than five grand, but Macklemann isn't a total bust since he's one of the few contacts whose information is actually worth listening to. Check out what he has to say for a few decent tips for when you go on corp runs.

Gregory Wilns - Contacted Through: Prof. Jefferson (contact) - 2,000¥ Title: Corporate Mage Description: Info on Corp security Offers Lvl 2 Power Focus for 50,000¥ Offers discount at Merlin's Lore for 4,000¥ Notes: Probably the best contact that a magic user can have. The Power Focus is      simply wonderful, right up there with the one you would get from Agira Tetsumi, and the discount can be very helpful too. Even Wilns' info on      corp security is pretty good.

Mr. Faradouchi -- Contacted Through: Mauler (Eye-Fiver boss) - 10,000¥ Title: Mafia Don Description: Gives free stay at Wylie's Gala Inn Gives discount at Crime Mall Keeps Lone Star at bay. Notes: You won't be allowed to speak with Mr. Faradouchi unless you have a      Reputation rating of 5 or higher. Then, when you call him, you'll have to align with the Mafia before he will give you any of his offers. Aligning with the Mafia prevents you from taking Yakuza benefits, and vice versa. For more info on how the two main gangs work, see Part 6 below. Also, Faradouchi is one of the three contact you won't be given if you use the Contacts cheat (see Section XII).

Agira Tetsumi - Contacted Through: Ratspike (Halloweener boss) - 10,000¥ Title: Yakuza Boss Description: Gives discount at Little Chiba Offers Hvy Combat Armor for 30,000¥ Offers Lvl 3 Power Focus for 80,000¥ Notes: You won't be allowed to speak with Agira Tetsumi unless you have a      Reputation rating of 5 or higher. Then, when you call him, you'll have to align with the Yakuza before he will give you any of his offers. Aligning with the Yakuza prevents you from taking Mafia benefits, and vice versa. For more info on how the two main gangs work, see Part 6 below. Note that Agira Tetsumi is one of the three contacts you won't      get when you use the Contacts cheat (see Section XII).

Henry J. Culver --- Contacted Through: Roadrash (Ork boss) - 5,000¥ Title: Seattle City Official Description: Offers to delete Lone Star record for 2,500¥ Offers access to Hollywood for 1,500¥ Offers Weapon Permit for 8,000¥ Notes: There are a couple misleading things about this guy. First, regardless of what Roadrash tells you, you don't have to pay Culver to talk to him, or anything like that. Second, the game will tell you that Culver notices your Ork armband even if you haven't bought one. Anyway, when you consider the money it takes to get this contact, it may not be worth it, depending on how you play. His prices are the lowest around for all three services he offers, but then again, the services aren't really that important. It's really your choice whether you want to spend the extra money for a little less hassle from Lone Star and the Hollywood guards. Finally, it's worth mentioning that Culver is one of the three contacts not present when you use the Contacts cheat (see Section XII).

Max --- Contacted Through: Vigore & Jarl (Johnson) - 750¥ Title: Fixer Description: Sells Corp Badges for 6,000¥ Sells HK227 for 1,500¥ Sells AK-97 for 2,000¥ Sells Lvl 4 Maglock Passkey for 30,000¥ Sells Lvl 5 Maglock Passkey for 42,000¥ Notes: Max is really only worth having for his corp badges, which he alone sells. They are a must for anyone doing a corp run (as long as they      don't go away after each run -- see the notes at the beginning of Part 7       of Section IV). The SMGs and Maglock Passkeys are nice, but you can get them cheaper elsewhere. This isn't very likely to happen, but I just thought I'd remind you to establish this contact before killing Ito. If      you haven't bought the contact by the time Vigore & Jarl skip town, you won't have access to Max or his badges for the rest of the game.

Sgt. Chillicutt --- Contacted Through: Caleb Brightmore (Johnson) - 2,000¥ Title: Lone Star Detective Description: Offers to delete Lone Star record for 5,000¥ Offers access to Hollywood for 3,000¥ Offers Weapon Permit for 10,000¥ Notes: Not very useful. You probably won't find yourself using his services. If      you do need your record deleted, or access to Hollywood, or a weapon permit, though, just get in touch with Henry J. Culver. He can do all three for less money than Chillicutt.

Prof. Jefferson --- Contacted Through: Trent Delisario (runner) - free Title: University Mage Description: Info on paranormal creatures Offers discount at Riannon's for 1,500¥ Offers Corp Mage contact for 2,000¥ Notes: Pretty decent contact for mages and shaman. The info is somewhat useful, the discount is good, and he offers a contact with Gregory Wilns, who is      even more useful to magic users. Plus, Jefferson's contact price is      free, so you really have no excuse for not having his number.

Runners
Here's the list of all the shadowrunners available for hire. Note that you won't have access to all of them at the beginning of the game, so read the notes for each subsection so you have an idea of what you'll have to do to get the runner on your team.

Each subsection is named for that particular runner -- 10 in all. Under each name is the in-game description of the runner as seen in the notebook portion of the pocket secretary. Note to nitpickers: I switched the order of Stark's description so it would adhere to the same format that the others follow.

Below the description is the hiring price scale, which is probably one of the most complicated concepts in the game. I'll explain it now.

First of all, you should know that all prices listed are for one-time hires. If you want to know the equivalent full-time fee, just multiply by 10. This is always the case, so making up a whole different set of tables would have been a waste of time and space.

The hiring price of each shadowrunner will vary according to several factors: your Charisma, your Negotiation, your Reputation, and the runner's attitude toward you. The first three factors I mentioned are pretty self-explanatory. The one about the runner's attitude has to do with the fact that depending on your history with that particular runner, he or she will be more or less willing to go on a run with you. If you successfully complete a run with a runner that you hired for the short term and go back to hire the runner again, he or she will be encouraged by your success and their hiring price will probably drop a little. If you fail in a run, or if you dismiss the runner, they will be a bit more surly the next time you talk to them and their price will be higher.

Obviously, you can't increase your relationship with a runner by hiring them for life, since the only way to keep hiring them is to keep dismissing them or dying. But if you prefer to keep hiring them for the short term, you'll see their fees gradually drop. The scale of their attitudes has 5 degrees:

Lowest: Represented on the charts by three minus signs. Having a bad relationship with a runner will get you the highest hiring price. Note that the runner will be more surly when you ask him or her to sign on. Medium-Low: Represented on the charts by a single minus sign. This is the level that you start out at with all the runners. If their attitude is on           this level, you'll still get a neutral reply when asking them to            join you. Neutral: Represented on the charts by an equal sign. Having a neutral relationship with a runner will get you fair hiring prices, and you'll        get the neutral reply from them when asking them to join. Medium-High: Represented on the charts by a single plus sign. With medium-high respect from a runner, you'll still get the neutral dialog when you ask them to join you, but their prices will be very good. Highest: Represented on the charts by three plus signs. When a runner has the highest attitude towards you, you'll get rock-bottom hiring prices, since they enjoy running with you so much. Also note that they will give a cheerful, eager reply when you ask them to join you.

So, there's a 5-point scale of each runner's attitude toward you. Each successful run (not counting courier and bodyguard runs, which don't count since the runners don't get paid and go home afterwards) will move the runner's attitude one spot in the positive direction, while each failure or dismissal will move the attitude one spot in the negative direction. There is an exception, however: It takes two moves to go between medium-high (+) and highest (+++) attitudes. That is, if the runner's attitude is medium high, you'll have to go on two successful runs before you'll get the highest attitude and the lowest hiring price. The same thing goes for moving in the opposite direction: If the runner has the highest attitude, you'll have to fail two times in a row with him or her before their attitude will drop and their hiring price will go back up. Got it? Hey, I told you it was complicated... but we're not done yet.

The runner's attitude is only one of four factors that determine the price. The other three are Joshua's (and not anyone else's) ratings in the Reputation and Negotiation skills, as well as the Charisma attribute.

For the purposes of this FAQ, I've created a system for determining how much you'll have to pay to hire each runner. You'll notice on the charts below that across the top is the runner's attitude, as we've already discussed. Down the side, though, is a point total. This total is determined by doubling Joshua's Charisma score and adding it to his Reputation and Negotiation scores.

Here's an example: If you had a Charisma of 4, a Reputation of 7, and a Negotiation of 3, your point total would be (4*2)+7+3 = 18. You'd then fall into the row marked "16-19" on the chart. Suppose you were trying to hire Ricky and he had a neutral attitude toward you. Follow the "16-19" row across to where it meets the "=" column and you'll see that his hiring price would be 100 nuyen for a one-time job, or 1,000 for a full-time hire.

So, that's the system. I hope it makes sense to you. The one thing I wanted to mention is that the charts are correct and some runners in certain situations will charge you MORE if they have a high attitude than a lower one. Ricky is an example of this, and his hiring price scale also has another flaw: For the two highest attitudes, your Charisma, Reputation and Negotiation scores don't even make a difference. It's weird, I know, but don't blame me. Blame the Sega programmers.

As far as the rest of each runner's subsection goes, it's pretty straightforward. Below the hiring price scale is the equipment each character comes equipped with (amounts are in parenthesis), how many clips they are initially carrying, what cyberware, if any, they already have installed when you meet them, what magic they have at first (for shaman and mages), their scores in each skill and attribute when you first meet them, and, of course, my notes on each one. The notes include my opinions of each one, as well as things such as directions on how to get the runner, when required, and other quirks about each character.

Ricky
Description: Dwarf Rat Shaman He can be found in the Jackal's Lantern, Redmond Barrens. Hiring Price: +---+---+---+---+---+---+  | Total |  ---  |   -   |   =   |   +   |  +++  | +---+---+---+---+---+---+  | 4-7   |  230  |  155  |  115  |   80  |   72  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 8-11  |  220  |  150  |  110  |   80  |   72  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 12-15 |  210  |  145  |  105  |   80  |   72  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 16-19 |  200  |  140  |  100  |   80  |   72  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 20-23 |  190  |  135  |   95  |   80  |   72  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 24-27 |  180  |  130  |   90  |   80  |   72  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 28-31 |  170  |  125  |   85  |   80  |   72  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 32-35 |  160  |  120  |   80  |   80  |   72  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 36    |  150  |  115  |   75  |   80  |   72  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   Initial Equipment: Streetline Special Armor Clothing Stim Patch (3) Trauma Patch (3) Fetish (10) Rat Totem Initial Clips: 2 Initial Cyberware: none Initial Magic: Stink - 3 Flame Bolt - 1 Invisibility - 1 Rockskin - 2 Initial Stats: --Attributes--       --Skills-- Body............4  Sorcery.........3 Quickness.......2  Firearms........2 Strength........3  Pistols.........0 Charisma........1  SMGs............0 Intelligence....3  Shotguns........0 Willpower.......4  Melee Combat....2 Essence.........6.0 Throwing........0 Magic...........6  Computer........0 Biotech.........0 Electronics.....0 Reputation......0 Negotiation.....1 Notes: He's the weakest runner in the game, and also the cheapest. He may be         worth hiring at the very beginning, just to have an extra body around until you can fend for yourself. After you get Michael's stuff from the motel, you may want to hire him for the short-term (without         taking a run) and just let him hang around until you have the money to hire a stronger runner.

Winston Marrs
Description: Troll Samurai He can be found in the Big Rhino, Penumbra District Hiring Price: +---+---+---+---+---+---+  | Total |  ---  |   -   |   =   |   +   |  +++  | +---+---+---+---+---+---+  | 4-7   |  570  |  380  |  285  |  190  |  175  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 8-11  |  540  |  360  |  270  |  180  |  170  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 12-15 |  510  |  340  |  255  |  170  |  165  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 16-19 |  480  |  320  |  240  |  160  |  160  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 20-23 |  450  |  300  |  225  |  150  |  155  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 24-27 |  420  |  280  |  210  |  140  |  150  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 28-31 |  390  |  260  |  195  |  130  |  145  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 32-35 |  360  |  240  |  180  |  120  |  140  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 36    |  330  |  220  |  165  |  110  |  135  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   Initial Equipment: Allegiance Shotgun Lined Duster Medkit (6) Scatter Grenade (6) Initial Clips: 4 Initial Cyberware: none Initial Magic: N/A Initial Stats: --Attributes--      --Skills-- Body............7  Sorcery.........0 Quickness.......2  Firearms........2 Strength........5  Pistols.........0 Charisma........1  SMGs............0 Intelligence....2  Shotguns........4 Willpower.......3  Melee Combat....4 Essence.........6.0 Throwing........1 Magic...........0  Computer........0 Biotech.........1 Electronics.....0 Reputation......0 Negotiation.....0 Notes: Winston's the only samurai available at the beginning of the game. If         you aren't playing as a samurai, you will want to hire him for the long term, to protect you until you get around to meeting Stark or         Two Fists. Even if you are a samurai, Winston is a solid character who gets good physical bonuses for being a troll. I recommend hanging on to him for a while, but you probably shouldn't invest too much time trying to upgrade his stats.

Trent Delisario
Description: Human Mage He can be found in the Space Needle Bar, Downtown Seattle. Hiring Price: +---+---+---+---+---+---+  | Total |  ---  |   -   |   =   |   +   |  +++  | +---+---+---+---+---+---+  | 4-7   |  430  |  285  |  215  |  145  |  130  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 8-11  |  410  |  270  |  205  |  140  |  125  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 12-15 |  390  |  255  |  195  |  135  |  120  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 16-19 |  370  |  240  |  185  |  130  |  115  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 20-23 |  350  |  225  |  175  |  125  |  110  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 24-27 |  330  |  210  |  165  |  120  |  105  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 28-31 |  310  |  195  |  155  |  115  |  100  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 32-35 |  290  |  180  |  145  |  110  |   95  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 36    |  270  |  165  |  135  |  105  |   90  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   Initial Equipment: Streetline Special Armor Clothing Stim Patch (6) Initial Clips: 3 Initial Cyberware: none Initial Magic: Flame Dart - 2 Heal Wounds - 2 Rockskin - 3 Initial Stats: --Attributes--      --Skills-- Body............2  Sorcery.........3 Quickness.......3  Firearms........1 Strength........2  Pistols.........2 Charisma........2  SMGs............0 Intelligence....3  Shotguns........0 Willpower.......4  Melee Combat....1 Essence.........6.0 Throwing........0 Magic...........6  Computer........0 Biotech.........0 Electronics.....0 Reputation......2 Negotiation.....2 Notes: He only has three spells, but at least he has Heal Wounds. His equipment and stats leave something to be desired, too. Just like any other runner, he has the potential to be a very powerful character, but you would have to invest a lot of time, money, and Karma for that to happen. If you want a powerful magic user, I recommend holding out for Walking Bear or Freya. Finally, it may be worth mentioning that Trent is the only runner who will give you a contact, and for free, too. Just ask him and he'll give you Prof. Jefferson's number (see         Part 2 above).

Petr Uvehr
Description: Dwarf Decker He can be found in the Wanderer, Puyallup Barrens. Hiring Price: +---+---+---+---+---+---+  | Total |  ---  |   -   |   =   |   +   |  +++  | +---+---+---+---+---+---+  | 4-7   |  430  |  285  |  215  |  145  |  130  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 8-11  |  410  |  270  |  205  |  140  |  125  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 12-15 |  390  |  255  |  195  |  135  |  120  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 16-19 |  370  |  240  |  185  |  130  |  115  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 20-23 |  350  |  225  |  175  |  125  |  110  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 24-27 |  330  |  210  |  165  |  120  |  105  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 28-31 |  310  |  195  |  155  |  115  |  100  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 32-35 |  290  |  180  |  145  |  110  |   95  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 36    |  270  |  165  |  135  |  105  |   90  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   Initial Equipment: American L36 Light Pistol Armor Vest Trauma Patch (6) Stim Patch (6) Initial Clips: 4 Initial Cyberware: Datajack Initial Magic: N/A Initial Stats: --Attributes--      --Skills-- Body............4  Sorcery.........0 Quickness.......3  Firearms........2 Strength........3  Pistols.........4 Charisma........2  SMGs............0 Intelligence....4  Shotguns........0 Willpower.......3  Melee Combat....1 Essence.........5.8 Throwing........0 Magic...........0  Computer........2 Biotech.........0 Electronics.....3 Reputation......0 Negotiation.....0 Notes: A decker with a 2 in Computer? What's the point? Even though his attributes are decent and his fees are low, it's still not worth hiring him. If you want a cheap decker to use until you can afford Rianna, I strongly recommend choosing Phantom over this has-been.

Walking Bear
Description: Ork Bear Shaman She can be found in the Friendship Restaurant Council Island. Hiring Price: +---+---+---+---+---+---+  | Total |  ---  |   -   |   =   |   +   |  +++  | +---+---+---+---+---+---+  | 4-7   | 1,000 |  665  |  500  |  335  |  300  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 8-11  |  950  |  630  |  475  |  320  |  285  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 12-15 |  900  |  595  |  450  |  305  |  270  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 16-19 |  850  |  560  |  425  |  290  |  255  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 20-23 |  800  |  525  |  400  |  275  |  240  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 24-27 |  750  |  490  |  375  |  260  |  225  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 28-31 |  700  |  455  |  350  |  245  |  210  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 32-35 |  650  |  420  |  325  |  230  |  195  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 36    |  600  |  385  |  300  |  215  |  180  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   Initial Equipment: Warhawk Heavy Pistol Armor Clothing Fetish (10) Fetish (10) Heal Wounds Spell Focus (Lvl 2) Bear Totem Initial Clips: 6 Initial Cyberware: none Initial Magic: Mana Zap - 1 Mana Storm - 4 Sleep - 3 Heal Wounds - 2 Confusion - 2 Initial Stats: --Attributes--      --Skills-- Body............6  Sorcery.........4 Quickness.......3  Firearms........3 Strength........4  Pistols.........0 Charisma........1  SMGs............0 Intelligence....3  Shotguns........0 Willpower.......5  Melee Combat....4 Essence.........6.0 Throwing........0 Magic...........6  Computer........0 Biotech.........0 Electronics.....0 Reputation......2 Negotiation.....0 Notes: A solid magic user. She's a little pricey, but she backs it up with a good spell selection and some nice initial stats. Plus, she's an         Ork, so she'll get some nice defensive bonuses for a little extra protection. She can't hope to compare to Freya, but for the price, she'll definitely do until you can hire Freya and start working on         her as a permanent member. If you want to hire 2 magic users for your team, I suggest using Freya and Walking Bear.

Phantom
Description: Elf Decker He can be found in the Frag Grenade, Renraku Arcology. Hiring Price: +---+---+---+---+---+---+  | Total |  ---  |   -   |   =   |   +   |  +++  | +---+---+---+---+---+---+  | 4-7   |  855  |  570  |  430  |  285  |  260  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 8-11  |  810  |  540  |  410  |  270  |  250  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 12-15 |  765  |  510  |  390  |  255  |  240  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 16-19 |  720  |  480  |  370  |  240  |  230  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 20-23 |  675  |  450  |  350  |  225  |  220  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 24-27 |  630  |  420  |  330  |  210  |  210  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 28-31 |  585  |  390  |  310  |  195  |  200  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 32-35 |  540  |  360  |  290  |  180  |  190  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 36    |  495  |  330  |  270  |  165  |  180  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   Initial Equipment: Security 500 Light Pistol (w/Laser Sight) Lined Duster Medkit (6) Medkit (6) Initial Clips: 4 Initial Cyberware: Datajack Hand Razors Wired Reflexes Initial Magic: N/A Initial Stats: --Attributes--      --Skills-- Body............3  Sorcery.........0 Quickness.......5  Firearms........1 Strength........3  Pistols.........4 Charisma........3  SMGs............0 Intelligence....6  Shotguns........0 Willpower.......4  Melee Combat....1 Essence.........3.7 Throwing........0 Magic...........0  Computer........5 Biotech.........2 Electronics.....3 Reputation......1 Negotiation.....0 Notes: The way I play, Phantom only has one purpose, but he serves it well. As soon as I have the resources, I hire him for the short term, get a Matrix run on a weak system, and then use his skills to mine data until I can afford Rianna, the premier decker in the game. You only need to make a few small upgrades with Phantom to be able to rustle up the thousands of nuyen you need to hire Rianna full-time. In this game, though, there's no reason to have more than one decker in your party, so I wouldn't recommend viewing Phantom as a permanent member worth investing a lot of time, money and Karma in.

Ilene Two Fists
Description: Human Samurai She can be found in the Jump House, Redmond Barrens. Hiring Price: +---+---+---+---+---+---+  | Total |  ---  |   -   |   =   |   +   |  +++  | +---+---+---+---+---+---+  | 4-7   | 1,140 |  760  |  570  |  380  |  345  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 8-11  | 1,080 |  720  |  540  |  360  |  330  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 12-15 | 1,020 |  680  |  510  |  340  |  315  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 16-19 |  960  |  640  |  480  |  320  |  300  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 20-23 |  900  |  600  |  450  |  300  |  285  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 24-27 |  840  |  560  |  420  |  280  |  270  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 28-31 |  780  |  520  |  390  |  260  |  255  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 32-35 |  720  |  480  |  360  |  240  |  240  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 36    |  660  |  440  |  330  |  220  |  225  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   Initial Equipment: none Initial Clips: 0 Initial Cyberware: Hand Razors Muscle Replacement Wired Reflexes Initial Magic: N/A Initial Stats: --Attributes--      --Skills-- Body............5  Sorcery.........0 Quickness.......5c6 Firearms........4 Strength........6c7 Pistols.........0 Charisma........3  SMGs............0 Intelligence....5  Shotguns........0 Willpower.......4  Melee Combat....6 Essence.........2.9 Throwing........2 Magic...........0  Computer........0 Biotech.........3 Electronics.....0 Reputation......3 Negotiation.....4 Notes: Ilene is one of the two human samurai who aren't available at the beginning of the game. Stark, the other one, is an absolute beast -- probably the best character in the game in terms of initial strength. One area in which I like Two Fists a little more, though, is the fact that she comes with a little Essence left over for you to spend how you wish. That's not the case with Stark, who comes cybered to the gills. For all intents and purposes, though, Two Fists is just as         good a character as Stark. So, if you want to hire only one samurai, you can skip getting Stark (which is optional) and just hire Ilene (who you'll have to meet eventually) when you get the chance. Don't         settle for Winston.

Here are the bare-bones directions for getting Ilene Two Fists. If         you want more detailed directions, consult the walkthrough (Section          V). From the beginning of the game:

1.) Pay Stoker the money to get Michael's stuff.          2.)  Go to the Tarislar City Inn in the Penumbra District and ask about Tabatha Shale. 3.) Go to Boris the fixer in Redmond Barrens and ask him about               Michael (you'll be attacked by 2 Renraku Strike Team members).          4.)  Go to Icarus Descending in Downtown Seattle and meet Caleb Brightmore. 5.) Go back to the Tarislar City Inn and ask about Frosty.          6.)  Go to the Sinsearach, ask to see the elders, and agree to be               tested. 7.) Bring the package to Red Buffalo Woman and return to the               Sinsearach with the other package. Lady Gillian will tell you               about Ilene.          8.)  Return to Icarus Descending and ask Caleb about Ilene. 9.) Go to Hollywood Correctional in Redmond Barrens. Get inside the               prison and open Ilene's cell (last row, cell farthest left).          10.) Talk to Ilene.

After you do that, Ilene will be there when you go back to the Jump House and will be available as a runner from that point on.

Freya Goldenhair
Description: Elf Mage She can be found in Club Penumbra, Penumbra District. Hiring Price: +---+---+---+---+---+---+  | Total |  ---  |   -   |   =   |   +   |  +++  | +---+---+---+---+---+---+  | 4-7   | 1,710 | 1,140 |  855  |  570  |  515  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 8-11  | 1,620 | 1,080 |  810  |  540  |  490  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 12-15 | 1,530 | 1,020 |  765  |  510  |  465  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 16-19 | 1,440 |  960  |  720  |  480  |  440  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 20-23 | 1,350 |  900  |  675  |  450  |  415  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 24-27 | 1,260 |  840  |  630  |  420  |  390  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 28-31 | 1,170 |  780  |  585  |  390  |  365  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 32-35 | 1,080 |  720  |  540  |  360  |  340  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 36    |  990  |  660  |  495  |  330  |  315  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   Initial Equipment: Predator Heavy Pistol (w/Silencer and Laser Sight) Lined Duster Fetish (10) Fetish (10) Hellblast Spell Focus (Lvl 3) Initial Clips: 8 Initial Cyberware: none Initial Magic: Mana Blast - 3 Hellblast - 3 Super Barrier - 2 Invisibility - 3 Sleep - 4 Heal Wounds - 4 Initial Stats: --Attributes--      --Skills-- Body............3  Sorcery.........5 Quickness.......5  Firearms........1 Strength........3  Pistols.........6 Charisma........5  SMGs............0 Intelligence....5  Shotguns........0 Willpower.......5  Melee Combat....3 Essence.........6.0 Throwing........0 Magic...........6  Computer........0 Biotech.........0 Electronics.....0 Reputation......4 Negotiation.....4 Notes: Freya is an expensive runner, but her impressive magic arsenal and her excellent initial stats are worth it. She's the finest magic user in the game and if you're looking to hire a permanent magic user, you should definitely get Freya. Note that she's located in Club Penumbra, which you can't get into unless Joshua's Reputation score is 4 or higher. It's Joshua's score that counts, not anyone else's.

Rianna Heartbane
Description: Elf Decker She can be found in the Matchstick, Downtown Seattle. Hiring Price: +---+---+---+---+---+---+  | Total |  ---  |   -   |   =   |   +   |  +++  | +---+---+---+---+---+---+  | 4-7   | 1,995 | 1,330 | 1,000 |  665  |  600  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 8-11  | 1,890 | 1,260 |  950  |  630  |  570  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 12-15 | 1,785 | 1,190 |  900  |  595  |  540  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 16-19 | 1,680 | 1,120 |  850  |  560  |  510  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 20-23 | 1,575 | 1,050 |  800  |  525  |  480  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 24-27 | 1,470 |  980  |  750  |  490  |  450  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 28-31 | 1,365 |  910  |  700  |  455  |  420  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 32-35 | 1,260 |  840  |  650  |  420  |  390  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   | 36    | 1,155 |  770  |  600  |  385  |  360  |   +---+---+---+---+---+---+   Initial Equipment: Mach 22 SMG (w/Smartgun System and Gas Vent II) Lined Duster Medkit (6) Medkit (6) Stim Patch (6) Trauma Patch (6) Initial Clips: 6 Initial Cyberware: Datajack Smartlink Wired Reflexes (2) Initial Magic: N/A Initial Stats: --Attributes--      --Skills-- Body............1  Sorcery.........0 Quickness.......7  Firearms........1 Strength........3  Pistols.........0 Charisma........5  SMGs............4 Intelligence....6  Shotguns........0 Willpower.......6  Melee Combat....0 Essence.........2.3 Throwing........0 Magic...........0  Computer........6 Biotech.........3 Electronics.....5 Reputation......3 Negotiation.....0 Notes: Very expensive, but she has the decking skills to match her fees. Rianna is the weapon of choice if you want a hotshot decker to make you some money or, if you must have a decker on your team, to hire permanently. Her initial attribute stats are just great and that 6 in         Computer isn't too shabby either. Overall, a very good runner.

Stark
Description: Human Samurai Stark is the only surviving member of Michael's team. He was Michael's best friend and is more than willing to help find who set them up. He can be found in Underground 93, Puyallup Barrens. Hiring Price: +---+---+---+---+---+---+  | Total |  ---  |   -   |   =   |   +   |  +++  | +---+---+---+---+---+---+  | 4-7   |                                       |   +---+                                       |   | 8-11  |                                       |   +---+                                       |   | 12-15 |                                       |   +---+                                       |   | 16-19 |                                       |   +---+            N/A (See Notes)            | | 20-23 |                                      |   +---+                                       |   | 24-27 |                                       |   +---+                                       |   | 28-31 |                                       |   +---+                                       |   | 32-35 |                                       |   +---+                                       |   | 36    |                                       |   +---+---+   Initial Equipment: HK227-S SMG (w/Sound Suppressor, Smartgun System and Gas                                  Vent III) Lined Duster Smart Goggles Frag Grenade (6) Frag Grenade (6) Medkit (6) Medkit (6) Initial Clips: 10 Initial Cyberware: CyberEyes Spurs Muscle Replacement Dermal Plating (3) Wired Reflexes (2) Initial Magic: N/A Initial Stats: --Attributes--      --Skills-- Body............5c8 Sorcery.........0 Quickness.......6c7 Firearms........6 Strength........5c6 Pistols.........0 Charisma........3  SMGs............0 Intelligence....6  Shotguns........0 Willpower.......5  Melee Combat....5 Essence.........0.1 Throwing........6 Magic...........0  Computer........0 Biotech.........5 Electronics.....0 Reputation......5 Negotiation.....0 Notes: Stark is an interesting runner. He's kind of a "hidden character" in         the sense that it's quite possible to go through the entire game, start to finish, without so much as seeing him. But, for those who happen to stumble onto him (or for those reading this FAQ), he can be         the best runner around. He's already got a full set of cyberware, a         large arsenal of weapons, and some great initial attributes and skills. The best part, though, is that once he's available, he will join your group, for life, free of charge -- no matter what. You can dismiss him or fail as many runs as you want, he'll keep on coming back for more. If you want a samurai in your final party, getting Stark is kind of a no-brainer.

Here are the bare-bones directions for getting Stark. If you want more detailed directions, consult the walkthrough (Section V). From the beginning of the game:

1.) Pay Stoker the money to get Michael's stuff.         2.) Go to the AmerIndian village in the Salish-Shidhe and take the cave entrance in the southeast corner of town. 3.) Take the southern exit from the cave and walk southeast, over the             two bridges and enter the hut in the clearing that you come to.          4.) Go to Seattle General Hospital and ask Dr. Haversheen about the Holopix. 5.) Go to the Fuchi building in the Penumbra District. Get the             prototype heart (third floor, third small room down off the hallway immediately to the right of the elevator).         6.) Return to Seattle General with the heart.

After you do that, Stark will be at Underground 93 in the Puyallup Barrens when you go there.

Gangs
There are three local gangs in the Seattle area. The Halloweeners are aligned with the Yakuza and are based in Redmond Barrens. The Eye-Fivers are aligned with the Mafia and are based in the Penumbra District. The Orks aren't aligned with either main gang, but have ties to Seattle city officials. They are based in the Puyallup Barrens. Each of the gangs are similar: they have a hideout in an abandoned building, they have a boss who will meet with your for a bunch of cash (or not that much, or for free, depending on your reputation score), they will each put you in contact with the boss of their main gang for several thousand nuyen, they each offer a gang symbol to wear that will supposedly keep their members from harassing you on the street, and they each have info about the other gangs, although it's not very useful. Here's a quick rundown of each gang.

In each gang entry, you will see which part of town their hideout is in, which main gang they are affiliated with, and the name of their boss. Below that, there's a simple scale regarding how much you'll have to pay to see their boss. Before you can get protection or a contact, you have to pay a one-time fee to meet the boss of the gang. Depending on your Reputation score, though, you may be able to get in for a reduced price, or for free. Consult the scale, where the numbers on the left indicate what your Reputation needs to be in order to pay the price listed on the right.

After the Meeting Price Scale, the name and cost of the protection item for that gang is listed. The protection item is a Group Item that, when carried, is supposed to prevent members of that gang from attacking you at random. I never see much of a difference, though, so whether you get the protection item is up to you. Finally, the name and price of the contact the gang can give you is listed at the bottom.

Two quick (and somewhat important) notes about the Orks' protection item, the Ork Armband. I recommend getting this one as soon as you have the money for it. When you're wearing it, all your cab rides will be free. I know, it doesn't save you a WHOLE lot of money, but it can really help out in the early parts of the game when every little bit counts.

The other note goes along with the previous one: When you buy the Ork Armband, Roadrash will mention being able to ride in cabs for free. It's just a trick to try to squeeze another 500 nuyen out of you, and whether you bite or not has no effect on the cab fare, so you might as well save your money and choose not to learn what the 'secret' is.

And now the list:

Eye-Fivers -- Located: Penumbra District Allied With: Mafia Boss: Mauler Meeting Price Scale: 1-5.....2,000¥ 6-12....free Protection Item: Eye-Fiver Ear Cuff (4,000¥) Contact: Mr. Faradouchi, Mafia boss (10,000¥)

Halloweeners

Located: Redmond Barrens Allied With: Yakuza Boss: Ratspike Meeting Price Scale: 1.......1,500¥ 2-3.....1,000¥                    4-12....free Protection Item: Halloweener Patch (3,000¥) Contact: Agira Tetsumi, Yakuza boss (10,000¥)

Orks

Located: Puyallup Barrens Allied With: none Boss: Roadrash Meeting Price Scale: 1-4.....750¥ 5-12....free Protection Item: Ork Armband (2,000¥) Contact: Henry J. Culver, Seattle city official (5,000¥)

Clue List
If you're familiar with the list of tips and clues in your pocket secretary (read part 3 of Section II if not), you will know that it is what keeps you focused on your quest. Clues will be added (and taken away) constantly as you progress through the storyline. Many are very important, but many are also completely optional for you to get. This section is a list of all possible clues, where to get them, and where applicable, when they go away.

The "Clue Text" column is a word-for-word reproduction of each clue. The Gained column tells you what actions are necessary to find the clue. The Lost column tells you what has to happen for the clue to go away (for those of you wondering about this, don't worry. Clues will only go away when they become irrelevant or are replaced by more detailed info).

As for those clues that are gained by downloading info from the Matrix, note that not all will be available at every point of the game. Sometimes, a clue won't be put on the network until you've reached a certain point in the game. Similarly, sometimes a clue won't be available after a certain point in the game. Because of this, all Matrix clues have extra info in the Gained column telling you when the clue is put on and taken off the network, if applicable.

As with all lists and info in this document, if you have PROOF of an omission or inaccuracy to this list, please let me know. I'll fix it and credit you.

--+--+-       Clue Text         |          Gained          |          Lost --+--+-                 | Going to the Tarislar    | Going to Boris the fixer | City Inn and meeting    | and asking him about David William Owlfeather | with Tabatha Shale      | Owlfeather |                         |  Salish-Shidhe Rangers   |                          | Wilderness Patrol    |                          | --+--+-                 | Going to Stoker's Coffin | Going to the Tarislar | and paying the money to | City Inn and meeting Mr. Caleb        | get Michael's stuff      | with Tabatha Shale Brightmore, Esq.    |                          | |                         |     Problems solved. |                         |                          |                          |   Worries eliminated. |                         | --+--+-                  | Going to Stoker's Coffin | Going to the Seattle | and paying the money to | Hospital and asking Dr. Dr. Ivanna       | get Michael's stuff      | Haversheen about the Haversheen, M.D.    |                          | picture |                         |         Seattle          |                          | General Hospital    |                          | |                         |    Haversheen Clinic     |                          | --+--+- <The letter addressed to | Going to Stoker's Coffin | Going to the Tarislar Michael reads as follows: | and paying the money to | City Inn and meeting | get Michael's stuff     | with Tabatha Shale M--I don't trust our   |                          | Johnson, and neither     |                          | should you! His story   |                          | just doesn't wash and you |                         | know it. I'm out on this |                         | one and I hope you are   |                          | too. I'll wait for you  |                          | at the Tarislar City Inn |                          | in Puyallup Barrens. |                         |                          |                          |      Tabatha Shale >     |                          | --+--+- Aragon was caught by     | Asking Mortimer Reed     | Freeing Aragorn from Mitsuhama in a failed    | about Aragorn            | being held at Mitsuhama Shadowrun. |                         |                          |                          | He is being detained      |                          | inside the corporation. |                         | --+--+- Aragorn, Owlfeather's     | Going to Boris the fixer | Asking Mortimer Reed brother, was quite vocal | and asking him about     | about Aragorn around town about taking | Owlfeather               | on a corporation for a   |                          | local "Johnson". |                         |                          |                          | He has not been seen      |                          | since. |                         | --+--+- Caleb Brightmore, a Mr.   | Going to the Tarislar    | Talking to Caleb Johnson taking orders    | City Inn and meeting     | Brightmore for the first from another unknown     | with Tabatha Shale       | time Mr. Johnson, assembled   |                          | Michael's team to go     |                          | into the Salish-Shidhe. |                         | --+--+- Fr: Ares                  | Searching the Confidntl  | | Data DS (6,11) on the   | To: Aztechnology         | Aztechnology system      | |                         | NewsNet Data:             | On Network: the          | | beginning of the game   | Seattle Corps band      |                          | together to form power  | Off Network: never       | cartel... Prices rise. |                         |                          |                          |                          |                          | Passcode: --B--       |                          | --+--+- Fr: Aztechnology         | Searching the Confidntl  | | Data DS (12,7) on the   | To: Mitsuhama            | Mitsuhama system         | |                         | NewsNet Data:             | On Network: the          | | beginning of the game   | Nuclear winter for      |                          | Bismark, North Dakota,  | Off Network: never       | after reactor mishap. |                         |                          |                          |                          |                          | Passcode: CO---       |                          | --+--+- Fr: Fuchi                | Searching the Confidntl  | | Data DS (5,5) on the    | To: Ares                 | Ares system              | |                         | NewsNet Data:             | On Network: the          | | beginning of the game   | State-of-the-art        |                          | computer installed in   | Off Network: never       | Shiawase Atomic Nuclear |                          | Plant, Redmond Barrens. |                         |                          |                          |                          |                          | Passcode: -H-R-       |                          | --+--+- Fr: Hotel Reception      | Searching the Financial  | | Data DS (4,9) on the    | To: Hotel Reservations   | Gates Undersound system  | |                         | Mr. Ito Orgami has        | On Network: killing Mako | requested the penthouse  | Sochou                   | suite. |                         |                          | Off Network: never       | Mr. Ito will be staying  |                          | indefinitely. |                         |                          |                          | Forward bill to Renraku   |                          | Accounting. |                         | --+--+- Fr: Mitsuhama             | Searching the Confidntl  | | Data DS (8,2) on the    | To: Renraku              | Renraku system           | |                         | NewsNet Data:             | On Network: the          | | beginning of the game   | Corps indicted in       |                          | Matrix sabotage. | Off Network: never      | |                         | Renraku, Fuchi, Ares,    |                          | Mitsuhama and Lone      |                          | Star all suspected. |                         |                          |                          |                          |                          | Passcode: --EY-       |                          | --+--+- Fr: Renraku              | Searching the Security   | | Files DS (14,10) on the | To: Fuchi                | Fuchi system             | |                         | NewsNet Data:             | On Network: the          | | beginning of the game   | Virus brings down new   |                          | computer system in      | Off Network: never       | South America. |                         |                          |                          | Origin traced to         |                          | system files. |                         |                          |                          |                          |                          | Passcode: N---L       |                          | --+--+- Frosty is a member of    | Asking about Frosty at   | Asking Lady Gillian if the Sinsearach elves. | the Tarislar City Inn   | you can see Frosty, |                         | after completing both The tribal lands of the  |                          | Gillian's and Spirit Sinsearach are south of  |                          | Eyes' quests the AmerIndian village. |                         | --+--+- Harlequin is Frosty's     | Asking Lady Gillian if   | Meeting with Harlequin employer. | you can see Frosty,     | for the first time | after completing both   | He can be found in the   | Gillian's and Spirit     | Puyallup Barrens at the  | Eyes' quests             | Talisar Garden Apts. |                         | --+--+- Harlequin suggests a run  | Returning to Harlequin   | Finding the map during against Renraku to       | after killing Ito (will  | your run against Renraku search for information    | only happen if you       | after killing Ito they may have on your     | hadn't already killed    | brother or Thon.          | Ito before you met       |                          | Harlequin)               | --+--+- Harlequin thinks that    | Meeting with Harlequin   | Finishing the game Ogami and Renraku may    | for the first time, if   | have some information you | you haven't gotten the  | are lacking. | map from Renraku        | --+--+- Ilene is doing time in   | After being asked by     | Springing Ilene from Hollywood Correctional   | Gillian to find Ilene,   | Hollywood for a botched run on     | asking Caleb Brightmore  | Ares. | about Ilene             | --+--+- Ito Ogami is holding a   | Entering Gates           | Killing Ito Ogami meeting at Matchstick    | Undersound for the first | in Downtown Seattle. | time after killing Mako | | Sochou                  | --+--+- Ito Ogami is part of a   | Asking Caleb Brightmore  | special projects team    | about Ito Ogami          | that gets sent in to     |                          | clean up botched         |                          | missions. |                         | --+--+- Mako has been spending    | Asking Mortimer Reed     | Killing Mako Sochou a lot of his time at     | about Mako Sochou        | Club Penumbra lately. |                         | --+--+- Mako's orders were to     | Killing Mako Sochou      | Killing Ito Ogami keep track of Michael's  |                          | progress. |                         |                          |                          | After the team's demise,  |                          | a new project director   |                          | replaced Mako. |                         |                          |                          | His name is Ito Ogami. |                         | --+--+- Michael's last credstick  | Starting the game        | Going to Stoker's Coffin transaction:             |                          | and paying the money to                          |                          | get Michael's stuff Stokers Coffin Motel,    |                          | Redmond Barrens. |                         | --+--+- Must pay Stoker 250¥ to   | Entering Stoker's Coffin | Going to Stoker's Coffin get Michael's stuff. | to get Michael's things | and paying the money to                          | and not paying the 250¥  | get Michael's stuff --+--+- Now that you know the    | Returning to Harlequin   | exact location of the    | after finding the second | tomb, Harlequin has      | half of the map          | arranged transportation  |                          | for you to get there. |                         |                          |                          | He is waiting for you to  |                          | assemble and equip your  |                          | team of shadowrunners    |                          | to go and confront Thon. |                         | --+--+- Owlfeather is stationed   | Going to Boris the fixer | Going to the ranger at the Ranger Outpost in | and asking him about     | outpost and asking the AmerIndian village. | Owlfeather              | Owlfeather about Michael |                         | A Visa is required for    |                          | entrance to the          |                          | Salish-Shidhe. |                         | --+--+- Owlfeather tells you to   | Talking to Owlfeather    | Speaking with Spirit seek out Spirit Eyes. | after freeing Aragorn   | Eyes for the first time |                         | He is a powerful shaman   |                          | at the Medicine Lodge on |                          | Council Island. |                         | --+--+- Owlfeather will name      | Going to the ranger      | Freeing Aragorn from someone who can help,    | outpost and asking       | being held at Mitsuhama but only if his brother  | Owlfeather about Michael | is returned. |                         |                          |                          | His brother's name is     |                          | Aragorn and he was last  |                          | reported in Seattle. |                         | --+--+- Renraku began harassing   | Going to Boris the fixer | Killing Mako Sochou Boris after Michael had  | and asking him about     | visited him to purchase  | Michael                  | equipment for his run. |                         |                          |                          | Mako Sochou is heading    |                          | the Renraku inquiry. |                         | --+--+- Renraku suspects that     | Killing Ito Ogami        | After showing the map Vigore and Jarl are      |                          | to Harlequin, asking working for Thon. |                         | Gunderson about Vigore --+--+- Seek out Vigore and Jarl | Talking to Harlequin     | Finding the other half for answers concerning   | after finding the map    | of the map from Vigore's Thon and your brother's   | during the Renraku run   | hideout death. |                         | --+--+- Spirit Eyes needs three   | Speaking with Spirit     | Returning to Spirit Eyes spell components so he   | Eyes for the first time  | with the dragon scale can discern the true     |                          | identity of your enemy. |                         | --+--+- Stark is dying in the     | Finding Stark in the     | Talking to Dr. wilderness. | remote cabin in the     | Haversheen after showing | Salish-Shidhe           | her the holopix and also He needs medical help    |                          | after finding Stark in order to move him. |                         | --+--+- Stark's heart is          | Talking to Dr.           | Finding the cyber-heart failing and a normal     | Haversheen after showing | in the Fuchi building transplant won't be      | her the holopix and also | strong enough to power   | after finding Stark      | his cybernetic body. |                         |                          |                          | Fuchi has a prototype     |                          | cyber-heart that is      |                          | being kept in their      |                          | building awaiting        |                          | shipping orders. |                         | --+--+- Tabatha speculates that   | Going to the Tarislar    | Going to Boris the fixer Boris Errascoe was the   | City Inn and meeting     | and asking him about last person to see       | with Tabatha Shale       | Michael Michael alive. |                         |                          |                          | Boris Errascoe is a       |                          | small-time fixer working |                          | out of an abandoned      |                          | greenhouse in the        |                          | Redmond Barrens. |                         | --+--+- The first item is the     | Speaking with Spirit     | Returning to Spirit Eyes horn of a Gargoyle. | Eyes for the first time | with a Gargoyle Horn --+--+- The second item is the   | Returning to Spirit Eyes | Returning to Spirit Eyes pelt of a hellhound. | with a Gargoyle Horn    | with a Hellhound Pelt --+--+- The third item is the    | Returning to Spirit Eyes | Returning to Spirit Eyes living scale of a        | with a Hellhound Pelt    | with the dragon scale Feathered Serpent. |                         | --+--+- The run contract was      | Talking to Caleb         | Asking about Frosty at given to Caleb by and elf | Brightmore for the first | the Tarislar City Inn named Frosty. | time                    | |                         | He says that she hangs    |                          | out in the Puyallup      |                          | Barrens. |                         | --+--+- The Sinsearach Tribal     | Talking to Gillian at    | Talking to Gillian at Elders will not answer    | the Sinsearach and       | the Sinsearach after your questions until     | agreeing to undergo the  | freeing Ilene and you've proven your       | Ritual of Binding        | agreeing to join trustworthiness. |                         | --+--+- Thon is a powerful free-  | Meeting with Harlequin   | spirit who must destroy  | for the first time       | magical artifacts to     |                          | replenish his energies. |                         | --+--+- To: All Concerned         | Searching the Security   | | Files DS (2,8) on the   | Fr: Head of Security     | Mitsuhama system         | Mitsuhama         |                          | | On Network: the         | We had a break-in!! | beginning of the game   | Perp was a lone male     |                          | AmerIndian. | Off Network:            | |                         | We have neutralized him   |                          | and are holding him for  |                          | questioning. |                         |                          |                          | We will detain him until  |                          | he tells us what we want |                          | to know. |                         | --+--+- To: All Detectives        | Searching the Case Files | Re-downloading the | DS (12,9) on the Lone   | warrant after killing Fr: Lone Star Dispatch   | Star system              | Ito Ogami |                         | Wanted: Caucasian male,   | On Network: going to     | age 18-24, 6 ft 1. | Boris the fixer and     | | asking him about Michael | Goes by the street name  |                          | Joshua. | Off Network: killing Ito | | Ogami                   | Suspected of breaking    |                          | various laws. May be     |                          | armed and dangerous. |                         | --+--+- To: All Hunting Parties   | Searching the Case Files | | DS (12,9) on the Lone   | Fr: Lone Star Dispatch   | Star system              | |                         | Wanted: Caucasian male,   | On Network: killing Ito  | age 18-24, 6 ft 1. | Ogami                   | |                         | Goes by the street name   | Off Network: never       | Joshua. |                         |                          |                          | Currently a fugitive of   |                          | justice. |                         |                          |                          | Terminate with extreme    |                          | predjudice. |                         | --+--+- To: All Officers          | Searching the Case Files | Re-downloading the | DS (12,9) on the Lone   | warrant after the Fr: Lone Star Dispatch   | Star system              | Renraku ambush at Boris |                         | Errascoe's place Wanted: Caucasian male,  | On Network: the          | age 18-24, 6 ft 1. | beginning of the game   | |                         | Preliminary reports       | Off Network: going to    | suggest the suspect goes | Boris the fixer and      | by the name of Joshua. | asking him about Michael | |                         | Wanted for questioning in |                          | in relation to various   |                          | crimes. |                         | --+--+- To: Cell Records          | Searching the Prisoner   | Springing Ilene from | Files DS (4,3) on the   | Hollywood Fr: Guardpost #12        | Hollywood system         | |                         | I have received prisoner  | On Network: the          | Fists. |                         |                          | Off Network: springing   | She is located with the  | Ilene from Hollywood     | other women prisoners on |                          | north block. |                         | --+--+- To: Cell Records          | Searching the Outdated   | | Files DS (8,8) on the   | Fr: Hllywd Parole Board  | Hollywood system         | |                         | Prisoner #575832, AKA     | On Network: the          | Boris Errascoe, should   | beginning of the game    | be be released from      |                          | incarceration. | Off Network: never      | |                         | Errascoe has not been the |                          | ideal prisoner, but has  |                          | served his sentence to   |                          | completion. |                         | --+--+- To: Cell Records          | Searching the Outdated   | | Files DS (8,8) on the   | Fr: Hllywd. Parole Board | Hollywood system         | |                         | Prisoner #597030, AKA     | On Network: meeting      | Vigore, must be released | Vigore and Jarl for the  | from incarceration. | first time              | |                         | Vigore has been a model   | Off Network: never       | prisoner and it is the   |                          | qualified opinion of this |                         | board he has reformed. |                         | --+--+- To: Fuchi Security        | Searching the Security   | | Files DS (14,10) on the | Fr: VP of R&D            | Fuchi system             | |                         | We will be receiving the  | On Network: the          | prototype cybernetic     | beginning of the game    | soon. Be sure to place   |                          | it in a secure area. | Off Network: returning  | | to Seattle Hospital with | I suggest you use the    | the cyber-heart          | third floor, as it is    |                          | the most secure. |                         | --+--+- To: Head of Security      | Searching the Confidntl  | | Data DS (5,5) on the    | Fr: VP of Publicity      | Ares system              | |                         | Due to the unfortunate    | On Network: the          | nature of the recent     | beginning of the game    | security breach, we must |                          | give up this Ilene Two   | Off Network: springing   | Fists to Hollywood Corr. | Ilene from Hollywood    | |                         | In the future, I suggest  |                          | we cancel our contract   |                          | with Lone Star Security, |                          | and deal with problems   |                          | like this ourselves. |                         | --+--+- To: Lone Star Records     | Searching the Prisoner   | | Files DS (3,3) on the   | Fr: L.S. Detention       | Lone Star system         | |                         | The prisoner Boris        | On Network: the          | Errascoe has been        | beginning of the game    | transferred from our     |                          | detention facilities to  | Off Network: meeting     | Hollywood Correctional. | Vigore and Jarl for the | | first time              | Errascoe's files have    |                          | been transferred also. |                         | --+--+- To: Lone Star Records     | Searching the Prisoner   | | Files DS (3,3) on the   | Fr: L.S. Detention       | Lone Star system         | |                         | The prisoner Vigore has   | On Network: meeting      | been transferred from our | Vigore and Jarl for the | detention facilities to  | first time               | Hollywood Correctional. |                         |                          | Off Network: never       | Vigore's files have      |                          | been transferred also. |                         | --+--+- To: Mako Sachou           | Searching the Project    | | Files DS (13,2) on the  | Fr: Renraku Surveillance | Renraku system           | |                         | Frosty has unwittingly    | On Network: going to     | given us assistance on   | Boris the fixer and      | the Ellisia Project. | asking him about Michael | |                         | We have retrieved an      | Off Network: never       | ancient parchment        |                          | which appears to be      |                          | a map of some kind. |                         |                          |                          | The map has been moved    |                          | to the Renraku Arcology. |                         | --+--+- To: Mako Sachou           | Searching the Mngmnt     | | Files DS (8,5) on Ito's | Fr: Strike Team Captain  | system                   | |                         | The men are becoming      | On Network: as soon as   | restless. I request a    | you get Ito's passcode   | Recon unit be assigned   |                          | to watch over these      | Off Network: never       | Shadowrunners, unless    |                          | you want them dead soon. |                         |                          |                          | --+--+- To: Mako Sochou           | Searching the Security   | | Files DS (14,10) on the | Fr: Renraku Surveilence  | Renraku system           | |                         | We have located Frosty. | On Network: going to    | | Boris the fixer and     | Last seen leaving the    | asking him about Michael | Tarislar City Inn. |                         |                          | Off Network: never       | She then headed for the  |                          | Sinsearach. We lost      |                          | track of her soon after. |                         | --+--+- To: P&L Accounts          | Searching the Financial  | | Data DS (6,11) on the   | Fr: Fuchi Finance        | Lone Star system         | |                         | The payment has been      | On Network: the          | transferred to your      | beginning of the game    | account for the armed    |                          | escort. | Off Network: returning  | | to Seattle Hospital with | The cybernetic heart is  | the cyber-heart          | safely in our Corporate  |                          | Office. |                         | --+--+- To: Renraku Accounting    | Searching the Confidntl  | | Data DS (13,6) on Ito's | Fr: Ito Ogami            | system                   | |                         | Please deduct further     | On Network: as soon as   | Vigore payments from     | you get Ito's passcode   | the Thon account. Vigore |                          | is under his employ. | Off Network: never      | --+--+- To: Strike Team Captain  | Searching the Financial  | | Data DS (11,5) on Ito's | Fr: Ito Ogami            | system                   | |                         | Do not follow Thon or     | On Network: as soon as   | his men any longer. | you get Ito's passcode  | |                         | We cannot risk alerting   | Off Network: never       | him until we have both   |                          | pieces of the map. |                         |                          |                          | The piece we have will    |                          | be secured in the upper  |                          | levels of the Arcology. |                         | --+--+- To: Strike Team Captains  | Searching the Security   | | Files DS (14,10) on the | Fr: Ito Ogami            | Renraku system           | |                         | A meddler named Joshua    | On Network: going to     | has become too involved  | Boris the fixer and      | in our affairs lately. | asking him about Michael | |                         | Hunt him down and make    | Off Network: never       | him understand we are    |                          | none of his concern. |                         | --+--+- To: VP of R&D             | Searching the Project    | | Files DS (13,2) on the  | Fr: Head of Security     | Renraku system           | |                         | Sir,                      | On Network: finding the  | I regret to inform you   | map during your run      | our copy of the map to   | against Renraku after    | Ellisia's tomb has been  | killing Ito              | stolen, perhaps by Thon's |                         | men. | Off Network: never      | |                         | With the map gone, and    |                          | both Sachou and Ogami    |                          | dead, we cannot hope to  |                          | find the Tomb. |                         | --+--+- To: VP of R&D             | Searching the Confidntl  | | Data DS (8,2) on the    | Fr: Ito Ogami            | Renraku system           | |                         | Confirmed - Frosty after  | On Network: killing Mako | Ellisia. | Sochou                  | |                         | Have recovered the map,   | Off Network: never       | and it's locked in my    |                          | safe in the Arcology. |                         |                          |                          | All Project files have    |                          | been transferred to my   |                          | personal system. |                         | --+--+- To: VP of R&D             | Searching the Project    | | Files DS (13,2) on the  | Fr: Ito Ogami            | Renraku system           | |                         | I have resumed a dialog   | On Network: killing Mako | with Vigore. Thon is     | Sochou                   | anxious for the Project  |                          | to proceed. | Off Network: never      | |                         | I will stop at nothing    |                          | to complete this Project. |                         | --+--+- To: VP of R&D             | Searching the Project    | | Files DS (12,8) on Ito's | Fr: Ito Ogami            | system                   | |                         | The Tomb of Ellisia is    | On Network: as soon as   | confirmed to be somewhere | you get Ito's passcode  | in the Salish-Shidhe. |                         |                          | Off Network: never       | Thon is certain the tomb |                          | contains powerful magical |                         | artifacts we can profit  |                          | from. |                         | --+--+- To: VP of R&D             | Searching the Mngmnt     | | Files DS (13,2) on the  | Fr: Lone Star Security   | Fuchi system             | |                         | Prototype cybernetic      | On Network: the          | heart set for transport. | beginning of the game   | |                         | Full security procedures  | Off Network: returning   | will be followed. | to Seattle Hospital with | | the cyber-heart         | We are awaiting the      |                          | final paperwork. |                         | --+--+- To: VP of R&D             | Searching the Mngmnt     | | Files DS (2,4) on the   | Fr: Renraku Personnel    | Renraku system           | |                         | We have removed Mako      | On Network: going to     | Sachou as Project Leader | Boris the Fixer and      | of "Operation THON". | asking him about Michael | |                         | His failure in tracking   | Off Network: Never       | the subjects has been    |                          | noted. |                         |                          |                          | His replacement is on his |                          | way and will resume the  |                          | search ASAP. |                         | --+--+- Vigore and Jarl have a    | After showing the map to | Finding the other half secret base somewhere    | Harlequin, asking        | of the map from Vigore's in the Rat's Nest. | Gunderson about Vigore  | hideout --+--+- With Ito dead, maybe     | Killing Ito Ogami        | Finding the map during a run against Renraku    |                          | your run against Renraku will garner something. |                         | after killing Ito --+--+- You freed Aragorn from   | Freeing Aragorn from     | Talking to Owlfeather Mitsuhama who then ran   | being held at Mitsuhama  | after freeing Aragorn off without any "thanks". |                         |                          |                          | Ungrateful wretch! |                         |                          |                          | Maybe Owlfeather will     |                          | give you the name of     |                          | his friend anyway. |                         | --+--+- You have a return gift    | Giving the gift from     | Talking to Gillian after from Red Buffalo Woman   | Lady Gillian to Red      | receiving the return for Lady Gillian. | Buffalo Woman           | gift from Red Buffalo |                         | Woman --+--+- You have completed you   | Springing Ilene from     | Talking to Gillian at second task by freeing    | Hollywood                | the Sinsearach after Ilene from Hollywood. |                         | freeing Ilene and |                         | agreeing to join --+--+- You have deleted the     | Searching the System     | virus and saved the      | Files DS (1,7) on the    | citizens of Redmond      | UCAS system              | Barrens. |                         |                          | On Network: putting the  | You also manage to       | CHERNOBYL passcode       | divert a large sum of    | together                 | creds to your account. |                         |                          | Off Network: never       | SEGA of America thanks   |                          | you for your efforts! |                         | --+--+- You have Ito's personal   | Killing Ito Ogami        | Finding the map during passcode. |                         | your run against Renraku |                         | after killing Ito It is quite possible     |                          | that all his information |                          | is still in those        |                          | datastores. |                         | --+--+- You have the prototype    | Finding the cyber-heart  | Returning to Seattle cyber-heart! | in the Fuchi building   | Hospital with the cyber- |                         | heart Now back to Seattle      |                          | General to see if it'll  |                          | help Stark. |                         | --+--+- You have vowed to aid,    | Talking to Gillian at    | defend, and respect the  | the Sinsearach after     | Sinsearach for the rest  | freeing Ilene and        | of your life. | agreeing to join        | --+--+- You now possess both the | Finding the other half   | landmark map and its     | of the map from Vigore's | overlay. | hideout                 | |                         | The completed map now     |                          | shows you what you're    |                          | looking for. |                         | --+--+- You possess a map which   | Finding the map during   | Finding the other half is meant to overlay a    | your run against Renraku | of the map from Vigore's second map. | after killing Ito       | hideout |                         | Without the second map,   |                          | it doesn't do you much   |                          | good...yet! |                         | --+--+- Your current task is to   | Talking to Gillian at    | Giving the gift from deliver a gift from      | the Sinsearach and       | Lady Gillian to Red Lady Gillian to Red      | agreeing to undergo the  | Buffalo Woman Buffalo Woman in the     | Ritual of Binding        | AmerIndian Village. |                         | --+--+- Your current task is to   | Talking to Gillian after | Springing Ilene from find Ilene Two Fists     | receiving the return     | Hollywood and see her safely       | gift from Red Buffalo    | returned to the          | Woman                    | Sinsearach. |                         | --+--+- Your enemy is an evil     | Returning to Spirit Eyes | being with the face of   | with the dragon scale    | a jackal. |                         |                          |                          | His name is Thon. |                         |                          |                          | He is the one who had     |                          | Michael killed. |                         | --+--+-
 * 1) 639946, AKA Ilene Two   | beginning of the game    |

Chernobyl
This is not really a trick of any kind, but it is easily missed because no part of it is required to beat the game, and you can only find out about it if you spend a long time in the Matrix, hunting around for data more or less at random. The CHERNOBYL side quest consists of five clues in the form of datafiles, and a final run against the federal government. The first part of the quest is putting the clues together. You must enter the networks of the five biggest corps in Seattle -- Ares, Aztechnology, Fuchi, Mitsuhama, and Renraku -- and download datafiles containing communication among the corps that expose a vicious plot to band together and control industry and government. Each file will reveal a little more about the corps' plans, as well as provide a small part of a passcode of some kind. Once you find all the clues, you will know the passcode in its entirety and will be ready to make one final run. If you manage to beat the UCAS system and thwart the corps' attempt to seize power, you will be awarded with 50,000¥ and a congratulatory note from Sega! To get started on this quest, make sure you have a pumped up cyberdeck and a hotshot decker, then jump into the systems and start looking for the info. The exact location of each file will be listed below. You can also consult the Clue List section for the full text and location of each clue.

Ares: (5,5)

Aztechnology: (6,11)

Fuchi: (14,10)

Mitsuhama: (12,7)

Renraku: (8,2)

Search those DSs for the clues. Once you have them all, you'll be able to access the UCAS system via the CHERNOBYL passcode. Note that CHERNOBYL disappears after successful completion of this quest, just in case you wanted to have access to it for a while...

Have Anyone in the Matrix
This one is simple, albeit not very useful. If, for some reason, you want to send someone without a datajack into the Matrix, simply enter the passcode screen with someone who DOES have a datajack, then use C to switch over to the other person before picking your passcode. Voila, now you can watch your shaman with a 2 in Computer get fried by the first ice he comes across. Whee!

Hold More Clips
There is a way to escape the 20 per person clip limit by using the Trade command. That is, a person can hold much more than 20 clips, as long as they are traded to him or her. The ideal strategy would be to trade all the party's clips to one person, then have the other two buy more and keep trading. After your shopping spree, you could then use the Distribute command and end up with all three members carrying way more clips than they're supposed to be able to hold. Unfortunately, many things, including picking up dropped clips from the ground, will send the counter back to 20. Since enemies dropping clips are very common, you probably wouldn't go through your supply before someone accidentally picked up a clip and ruined the plan. In the end, it's just not worth it. For pistols especially, 20 clips at a time is plenty anyway.

The Double Retreat
This is one of the most useful bugs in the game. You can think of it as a Sleaze that not only works 100% of the time, but will also allow you inside the Node, instead of simply bypassing it. The drawback is that in order for it to work, you must be coming from a Node that you've been able to legitimately access by defeating the ice. In other words, you can't use this on back-to-back Nodes. Also, since it involves retreating, you can't use it on the first Node you come to in a system, or after a CPU hop. But, in all other cases, this will allow you inside whatever Node you want. It's especially useful for getting through a Node that has really tough ice that you won't be able to defeat, or if the Node has high-level tar ice and you don't want to risk losing your program and/or tripping the alert. Here's what you do: From inside a Node that you have gained access to legitimately, go to the Node you want to enter. Once there, immediately pause and choose Retreat. You will be taken back to the previous Node and you should be automatically taken inside. Once inside, pause and choose Retreat again. You will instantly be taken to inside the target Node. You will be able to perform all functions and operate the Node as normal, but notice that the Node on the map will remain gray, since you haven't actually defeated the ice. One last thing: if you use this technique to gain access to a CPU, don't freak out when you choose Go To Node and it gives you several choices that don't exist on the map. You will only be shown the whole map when you defeat the ice; therefore, while you have the choice to go to any Node in the system, not all Nodes will appear on the map. So, it'll look like the CPU is trying to send you into empty space, but don't worry, there's really a Node and it will work as normal.

The Vanishing Runner
This is the only bug in the game that can be harmful, or at least annoying, to you. Depending on several factors, some runners that you hire for life will leave after a run, just as though you had hired them for one run only. This kind of sucks, since you paid ten times the amount to get them permanently and will now have to re-hire them. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to determine exactly what factors contribute to this, but I know that it has a strong correlation to what runners are in the party, the order in which you hired the runners, and which spot in the sidebar that each runner uses. All I can tell you is that if you experience this bug, don't just re-hire the runner and try again, because it's almost certain to repeat itself. Instead, try something radical. Dismissing all runners and re-hiring them in a different order almost always works. Hopefully, in a future version, I'll be able to tell you exactly what to do to avoid this bug.

Delete Run Datafiles
For those who live off Matrix runs and selling info, this should help out a little bit. Many people like to take a Matrix job that requires uploading or downloading a file, then after the job is done, stuff their deck full of as many datafiles as they can to make some extra cash on top of what they are being paid for the run. These people will be pleased to hear that, in the cases where they are required to bring Mr. Johnson back a specific file, they can safely delete the file in question without penalty, thereby freeing up an extra spot to store one more datafile in. It's the action of downloading the file from the DS, not of bringing it back, that fulfills the goal of the run (at least in the Genesis' logic). So, if you want to free up some room, delete the file that's for the run. When you return to the Johnson, the transaction will be completed as usual, just as though you still had the file.

Leave a Corp ASAP
On the other hand, for those who live off Corp runs, particularly against Renraku, this one can help a little bit. Those who use Caleb Brightmore know that he often hands down contracts for runs against Renraku. If you've been on some runs there, you should know that a.)Security is everywhere, especially in the very first room on the ground floor; and b.)The first floor has no computer terminal, so if you trip the alarm, you just have to wait it out. These two factors can combine to create some really big headaches for parties that need to leave the building after a run, but keep running into security guards and tripping the alarms. Waiting out an alarm is hard enough, so there's a way to make it at least a tiny bit easier, provided you're not working alone. If an alarm is going off and you need to leave as soon as it stops without risking setting it off again, choose one of your party members to wait by the entrance while the other(s) hide out of the way somewhere. Take control of the person who will stay and wait and move them up against the exit. Then tap up on the D- pad briefly, and the character will turn around, but move into the exit a little bit. Tap down and they will straighten up, but will have taken another step toward the end of the exit. Repeat this process until you have worked the character all the way to the bottom end of the exit. Now take your other party member(s) and head off to a quiet room somewhere to wait out the alarm. Notice that the person in the doorway will not be able to follow you. When the alarm stops, quickly switch to the character that was waiting and you'll instantly exit the building without having to risk the front room again. It may not seem like much, but once you've been pinned on the first floor of Renraku a few times, you'll appreciate the work and time it saves you.

Get a 13 in all Firearms Categories
For what it's worth, you can attain a rating of 13 in each of the firearms attribute categories: Pistols, SMGs, and Shotguns. This is done by taking advantage of the Firearms attribute, which is unique in that it allows each subcategory to skip levels, but only if the subcategory is currently at 0. In other words, if (and only if) your SMGs rating is 0, but your Firearms rating is 4, you will be able to upgrade SMGs straight to 5 without having to first get levels 1,2,3,and 4. Again, you can only do this if you're upgrading from 0. If you wait until your Firearms rating is 12 before upgrading any of its subcategories, you'll be able to make the jump straight to the next level -- 13 -- for all categories that are currently 0. It's up to you to decide if spending the extra Karma (Firearms costs more to upgrade than each of its subcategories) will be worth the extra level, but at any rate, the bug is there if you choose to exploit it.

Retain Runners for Bodyguard/Courier Runs
This really isn't a trick that you have to do anything to trigger, it's just a fact that many people might not know, and it can be helpful, so it's worth pointing out. However, since it applies to the two most basic runs, it will probably only benefit those who are just starting out in the game and don't have enough cash or strength to hold their own yet. Here it is: If you hire a runner for short-term (one run only), the runner will only leave when you get to the screen that talks about the Johnson paying you for the run. Since Bodyguard and Courier runs are the only ones where you are paid by the client himself, the screen mentioned before will never come, and you'll get to keep your runner indefinitely, until you finish a "real" run. This can be kind of handy at the beginning of the game -- you may want to hire Ricky for a little extra protection. Just ask about the short term and he'll stick with you until you do a ghoul bounty or some other run in which you need to return to Mr. Johnson for payment. It's a nice way to save a little money.

Demon Buildings
I'm still not sure if this is intentional or not but for now, I'm calling it a bug. While most abandoned buildings will contain ghouls, thugs, and the occasional gargoyle, some buildings' enemy environments are the same as the Salish-Shidhe wilderness -- complete with bandersnatch, wendigo, hell hounds, and even the same random encounters (the hair on the back of your neck rises, AmerIndian boys looking for an arrowhead, etc). Some demon buildings are the far upper-left building in the Puyallup Barrens and the lower-central building in Downtown Seattle.

=PHASE 4: ENDGAME=

Final notes
Here are just some random thoughts and observations that probably won't help you in the game, but you may like if you're a fan of it.

The Shadowrun Culture
If you are new to Shadowrun, you should know that the video games were spawned from the original Shadowrun pen-and-paper RPG. If you're into those, you will probably like Shadowrun, as it is very similar to the Genesis game. Even if you don't know what a pen-and-paper RPG is, you may want to check out some resources. Unfortunately, FASA, the company that created Shadowrun, has gone out of business. The FASA web page is still up, though, for the time being. If you're quick (The date as this is being written is June 19, 2001), you should be able to check out their expansive Shadowrun section. It's mostly a big catalog of licensed stuff to buy, but there are also a few features such as a discussion board. The URL is: http://www.fasa.com/shadowrun/index.html

Fortunately, the Shadowrun franchise has been sold to WizKids, LLC, and will continue. Unfortunately, the WizKids web site is focused only on their current game, Mage Knight. But, I would assume that at some point, they will begin to host pages containing info about the Shadowrun line of products. Maybe this will happen about the time the FASA site goes down. The WizKids site is at: http://www.mageknight.com/

Another site, which is very in-depth and will likely stay around for a much longer time (since it's run by fans) can be found here: http://archive.dumpshock.com/

Media
You will be hard-pressed to find multimedia resources for Shadowrun, the video game. It's still best known as the pen-and-paper RPG, and even some hardcore fans don't realize that the video games even exist. The only useful resource I could find is a page that has some nice scans of the original Shadowrun box, game cartridge, and manual. You may want to check it out if you don't have access to some of these: http://www.gawd.mb.ca/babybear/videogames/genesis/shadowrun.html

Emulation
If you didn't already know, you can play Shadowrun on your PC (assuming it isn't a total POS). Emulation will allow you to play the original game, in its entirety, on your home computer. It's really outside the scope of this FAQ to explain emulation from the ground up, so you may want to start poking around sites like Zophar's Domain (http://www.zophar.net) to find out what, exactly, emulation is. If you're interested in emulating Shadowrun, you can probably find a working rom at Edge Emulation (http://edgeemu.com). As for the emulators themselves, I recommend Genecyst for good emulation and compatibility, or DGen for premium performance for those with higher-end systems. Both of these can be found at the aforementioned Zophar's Domain.

Cyberpunk and Neuromancer
You may have heard the word "cyberpunk" being tossed around to describe many different things. The truth is that Shadowrun almost perfectly embodies the relevant aspects of cyberpunk culture. This is because the Shadowrun franchise is strongly (and I mean STRONGLY) based on the Cyberpunk Bible itself, William Gibson's 1984 novel, Neuromancer. Contrary to what I wrote here in previous versions of the FAQ, Neuromancer DID in fact collect several significant awards, including the Nebula (previously awarded to such landmark publications as Flowers for Algernon and Dune) and the Hugo (which has also gone to Dune and more recently -- ahem -- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire).

The more significant result (at least to us Shadowrun fans) is that the book spawned an entire subculture that includes this game. If you want to read the novel that started it all, check out Neuromancer -- you'll be amazed at how far ahead of its time the book seems to be. You'll also be able to understand a lot of the subtle references that exist in the game. And if nothing else, it's an enjoyable read that can be finished in a day or two. There's even an eText at: http://www.fuchsiashockz.co.uk/etext/gibson/neuromancer.htm

Other Resources
There are tons of books, games, and merchandise available for Shadowrun. Most of these can be found on the sites listed in part 1 of this section. The one thing that you may not find, and also the one thing that readers of this FAQ may be most interested in, is the SNES version of Shadowrun. Shadowrun on the Super Nintendo is a completely different game, with a different story and everything. The SNES game is driven more by point-and-click action and detective work that makes it feel much more like an adventure game (think Monkey Island or Maniac Mansion). I try my hardest not to be biased, but I really think that the Genesis version is way better. The interface and cursor- based style of play just doesn't fit the game setting. The game never displays a fixed atmosphere, and it's easy to get stuck or just plain bored. Those are just general aspects, but there really are a lot of little differences that you'll notice.

Of course, I don't want to scare people away from it. In and of itself, it's a good little game with almost as much depth and variance as the Genesis version. If you're a Shadowrun fan, you'll definitely want to check it out.