Skaphander: Der Auftrag/Joker

The Joker virus has burrowed its way to the mass-storage control room, and now the hard disks are hung spinning forever. Your goal is to follow the ratholes it left behind to repair the mass storage, and then the Firm can put the disks in an idle state to let you out of the sector.

Three-pits room
You begin in a stone room with three rectangular Matma pits to avoid. There is at most one virus around: a clamp could be entering the room to your west-southwest, so arm yourself promptly and catch it as it comes through the door. That corridor, lined with green circuitry, leads to a stack of spinning hard disks that make up the mass storage system. You can take a look, but do not drive onto a spinning disk, or the high RPM combined with tight walls to bump into will make it almost impossible to navigate your way back off. Instead, look for the lift out in the northeast corner. It has an interrupter, but save its 100 energy for later by sitting on north side of the lift as you ride it up to the columns room.

Columns room
The columns room is an oddly-shaped room that overlooks the sculpture room to the north, though that may be hard to see though the dense fence of wide column sprites, and leads to the red path in the east. As you come up the lift in southwest, you should see as many as four clamps to the northeast before they spot you. Drive north first so that recoil from the fight doesn't push you off the ledge at your back, and then clear them with your double eraser. There is also the possibility of two clamps coming to visit from behind the columns, and you do want them eliminated now, but the columns provide good cover, so even if they notice you, you can pretty much ignore them until you're ready to continue down the red path.

Red path
The red path is a bit of deceptive architecture; while it might look like a Matma pool with sills along the sides, the floor is just red stone, and the sides are not traversable but there to provide lighting. As you enter, face left and shoot down any clamps behind the columns. Pick up the sixpack only if needed. The first turn is safe until you press the button to switch on the lights, so do so by facing north and strafing right, releasing up to four clamps. Take any refreshes you need on the way to the second turn, which can have two clamps, and continue forward to bring the nexus into view.

Nexus
The nexus is the sector's central hub, an octagonal room with 27 monitors on the walls and both kinds of resource stations. The enemy camp here is strong but not vigilant. You can expect as many as three clamps (often patrollers) in the room itself, four clamps in each of the southeast and southwest exits (usually organized as a van of three plus one in the back), and similar teams of three barnacles plus one clamp blocking each of the west and north exits.

You should have some energy reserves still at your back if you get low, but your first goal is nonetheless to carve a path to the recharging station across from you so that you can stop worrying about your ammo running dry. Given the lack of watchfulness here, switch to dual-mounted debuggers for maximum one-on-one clamp-killing efficiency and provoke duels with the patrolling clamps and the clamps along the south side of the room. When they're down, you can skirt around that left side to get to the charging area without the other viruses noticing you. But do keep an eye on them in case you make a mistake; being magnetically attached to a station is perhaps the worst possible situation to find yourself in when a barnacle is pursuing.

Once refilled, take advantage of the surviving viruses' close spacing and switch to your interrupter. In the west, target the middle barnacle with two shots, which should deal enough splash damage to leave only a weak clamp behind, and finish that clamp off with your eraser. Repeat the same tactic to your north.

Top off your data and energy once more and head west to the upstairs circuit.

Upstairs circuit
A rectangular "U" with stone walls, a red floor, and two triangular lifts that move in tandem in back, the upstairs circuit is comparatively safe, especially if you travel it clockwise. Find perhaps two clamps after turning north, ignore the lift in the corner for just a moment, surprise as many as three clamps caught looking the other way after turning east, and make a note of the debugger after turning south in case you need its 120 energy later. Ride the northeast lift downstairs facing east.

Downstairs circuit
The downstairs circuit looks like a longer version of the upstairs circuit. It leads to a silver bug in a brief curving section, but the rest is just clamps in corridors and resource items that you can collect as needed along the way.

After turning north, expect maybe one clamp, then after turning west plan on up to two clamps immediately, two more on the straightaway, and one before the south turn. Around that corner will be perhaps two more, and then another two could be at the T-intersection that leads into curves, one of the pair usually hiding to the right. Once the intersection is secured, look for a silver bug on the left branch, which you will want to squash while facing southeast. The bug is trapped, and will open a door that way with up to three clamps above eye level guarding a breakpoint and sixpack.

Once the bug and its trap are taken care of, resume your tour to find up to two clamps after the path starts curving from south to east and then another possible pair after it starts curving from east to north. Ride the triangular lift back upstairs and return to the nexus so that you can head southwest to the sculpture room.

Sculpture room
The small, almost square sculpture room's defining features are a lift in the northeast, a block of cubes to its west, and, in the center, a sculpture surrounded by four green stanchions that shows as a bowtie shape on the HUD map. After you come down the lift, loop around the sculpture to check for maybe one clamp in the northwest guarding a rathole. Unfortunately, you cannot follow the Joker virus yet, so instead take the southwest door past a barred window. That path leads to the crusher.

Crusher
The crusher lies at the end of a zig-zag stone tunnel. It is a small bay with orange circles above and below and red-and-yellow blinking arrows on the back; the top moves up and down to draw your attention if you haven't used it yet.

Each of the three legs of the zig-zag is guarded by a possible pair of clamps, and there's a fourth pair sitting at the last corner. As long as you're not low on energy, there should be no problem.

Once you reach the crusher itself, you'll want to drive into it to temporarily flatten the Skaphander for entry into ratholes. But be careful—you must enter and exit very slowly to avoid taking damage. Also just be generally careful with your driving while flattened since the effect starts to revert early when you take terrain damage. Take too much, and you'll be back to full size and have to trek back here.

When you're small, return to the sculpture room and enter the crawlspace through the northwest rathole.

Crawlspace
The crawlspace is a comparatively empty jumble of overlapping rectangles, most of them long. It has red stone walls, a low-pitched ceiling, and blinking lights. You may want your HUD map up here to simplify navigation.

Begin by driving west and then northwest until you hit a T-intersection. A breakpoint and a refresh are on the right if you want them, but otherwise you can ignore that path. Turn down the other branch to the south-southwest, toward the spot of green in the distance, but don't go there yet. Where the space opens up a bit, a U-turn into the first right would take you down a long hall to a recharge if you need that, and the third right-hand branch has even more resources, but the second right is the important one. It will take you to a sixpack and an undefended silver bug; squash that bug. With that taken care of, you can drive over to the green logo-emblazoned area leading to the causeways.

Causeways
The two causeway rooms climb over and bridge Matma to get you to the control room, but they are preceded first by a tiny green-walled room with ratholes on either end and then a wider bay leading up to the more open areas.

Before you enter, be aware that the steps on either side of the green space, while not too large by the standards you are used to, nonetheless inflict unavoidable falling damage on the crushed version of the Skaphander. You will need to cross the first very slowly to avoid reverting to full size and getting stuck in the second rathole.

The second rathole also presents another challenge: you can hear the sounds of barnacles coming through it and to the left, and once you pass through, you will be accosted by as many as four of them at very close range with literally nowhere to retreat. Unless you have lightning reflexes, it is best to face south and strafe right into the protector. Given the barnacles' extreme danger, focus your fire on any that get close, and only deal with the up-to-two clamps afterward. If you are barnacled, you don't have much hope, but see a little further below for one potential survival plan.

Refresh and recharge as you approach the first room, taking the opportunity to scout your opposition in the first causeway room. The steps around the "U", are a lot rougher than they look, so plan on having to climb them slowly, perhaps even with a slow strafe for extra safety. That means you don't want to be ascending or descending during combat, and you certainly don't want to do so facing viruses above you. Instead, the better idea is to draw them piecemeal down to the flat areas. Just be sure to avoid the lift to the east of where you come in; descending isn't going to help your tactical situation.

Start with the viruses on the first flight of stairs, as many as four barnacles and one clamp. When they're gone, use ledge peering to check west of the stairs for perhaps five clamps hovering secretly over the Matma, some well below eye level, and diffuse that ambush. On the second flight, clear off a team with up to two barnacles and one clamp, and finish with the possible pair of clamps on the third flight.

If at any point you are barnacled, your only hope is that your protector holds out long enough that you can burn the barnacle off with Matma. First do your best, despite your limited vision, to eliminate any clamps whose attention you have, or they may try to hold you under the Matma. Then make your way to the lift immediately left of the foot of the stairs. Unfortunately, it does not show on your HUD map, so you'll have to find it by eye through your obscured windshield. Ride the lift down to just above the pool and jump off to east, but don't rush, or the fall could kill you. Wait for barnacle to be destroyed, then ride a second lift even further east out of the Matma, being ready to take fire from above. The exit lift is a one-time lift, so you absolutely must not fall back in or get barnacled a second time.

After the room is emptied of viruses, you're fully restocked, and you've made it to the top of the stairs without too much harm to your suspension, enter the slit to the east, but do not step on the bridge yet. The sides are safe, but as many as four clamps at the other end will come out to investigate you, and it's much safer to gun them down when you're not sitting on a narrow causeway. Once nobody else is curious, cross the bridge to the control room, trying your best to save the resource items for later.

Control room
The control room is a stone hall with four clamp-staffed branches off to the left. Strafe turn to sweep those four jaunts clear. Assuming that you already downed the inquisitive clamps earlier, they might yet have up to one, three, one, and two clamps respectively. Use the refreshes here or backtrack if need be to restore your data, but don't bother with energy unless you're under 150.

Complete your primary mission objective by pressing the button at the end of the first left corridor to stop the mass storage from spinning. The voiceover says "exit", letting you know the exit is available past those drives.

Finally, proceed down the fourth left toward the sculpture room. Some bars block your way jumping out the window, but the two on the west side are frangible, so switch to a single debugger with 1 and use your pitch controls to shoot them on their blue targets. Grab the sixpack and leave, minding the fall over the ledge.

Escape hatch
Return to the three-pits room, drive over the hard disk that is now still, and jump down the tiny escape hatch to leave this sector.