Skaphander: Der Auftrag/Michelangelo

The transmitter in this sector stopped functioning when the Michaelangelo [sic] virus took control. Your objective is to locate and toggle the correct IRQ switch so that you can re-enable the transmitter.

Chapel
You begin in the chapel, which the mission briefing tells you is a virus-free zone, so you are safe here as long you don't open the motion-sensitive door yet. There is a debugger sitting on a lift to your left. Drive the Skaphander completely onto that pillar (so that you don't fall off the edge when it starts to rise) and grab the debugger. You are now armed.

If you'd like to check on the transmitter now, drive around the second-story walkway to the north end of the chapel where the organ is and look for the red switch on the west side. (You can ignore the recharges on the east since the Skaphander had a full charge to start with.) While in front of the switch, press Space to try activating the transmitter—you will confirm that there is an IRQ conflict.

There is nothing else plot-related in the room, so if you are already familiar with the game and controls, just hop back on the lift that brought you up and head out the exit to the south when you reach ground level, which will take you to the loop hallway. Otherwise, like the mission briefing said, you should take a moment to become familiar with your Skaphander before venturing out from this haven. There are four or five skills you should consider practicing to succeed on this level:

Strafing turns
First, make sure that you can comfortably execute a strafing turn. The Skaphander turns slowly without turbo (which you probably won't be using when exploring new areas), so you'll be vulnerable if your weapons aren't already facing down the next corridor whenever you round a corner. To make that happen, you'll want to begin rotating with ← or → a little before the turn and then let up on ↑ and press down on < or > as appropriate to carry you around the corner. The timing can take a little to get used to, so practice some strafing turns on the corners of the second-story walkway, which is about the same size as most hallways. A perfect strafing turn is one where you finish the 90° rotation right as you come even with the corner and then slide the rest of the way to line up with the next passage.

If you happen to fall, don't worry. Your Skaphander should be able to survive four or five such tumbles, and, whenever you feel ready, you can easily get back up to the walkway using either the same pillar you came up or the one across from it.

Ledge peering
After you've mastered strafing turns, next make sure that you're also okay with peering over ledges. The hardest part is probably getting a sense of how close to the edge you can drive before slipping. To help with that, bring up your HUD map by holding Tab and then simultaneously hold + to zoom it in as much as possible. Turn to face the center of the chapel (but make sure you're not looking right at a stained-glass window, as that will make the map hard to read) and creep toward the ledge. Holding tab as you creep, you should be able to get the red dot that represents the Skaphander to just overlap the tan ledge line without falling. Pay attention to how that looks and feels in the first-person view so that you can judge similar approaches later by eye.

Again, don't worry too much if you fall—that's why you're practicing here and not in combat.

Once you're sitting right at a ledge, use PgUp or PgDn to unlock your weapon and then hold PgDn to pitch it down so that you are staring at the chapel floor. Alternatively, hold PgDn to stare up at the ceiling. Both of these techniques will be useful for scouting the less obvious places that enemies might try to ambush you from, particularly pits.

Holding pitch
You may have noticed that the Skaphander automatically resets and relocks your weapon pitch after a few moments. But sometimes you will have to hold a pitch as you line up a shot to hit an enemy above or below eye level. To practice that, pick some target on a far wall and use the pitch controls to place your targeting reticle over it, but then alternate light taps on PgUp and PgDn so that the Skaphander knows you are still aiming. See if you can remain locked on your target for several seconds. Don't be afraid to actually take a few shots when you're done—there's nothing you can damage in this room, and it's a good experience to get a feel for how much recoil swings your weapon around when its pitch is not locked.

Dogfighting
For training this last skill, first go find the currently raised pillar and ride it down to ground level since there's much more risk of falling if you make an error.

In early levels you will be facing a fair number of spiked viruses, which, though they have weak weapons, are some of the most maneuverable enemies in the game. One of their tricks, if they get close to you, is to duck past the Skaphander and attack you from behind. If you can perform an accurate turbo turn (Shift+← or Shift+→) in time, you can repel them with a shot before they hit you. But otherwise you need to be able to put some distance between you and their spikes while also pulling off an about-face so that you can re-engage.

This dogfighting move is like a double strafing turn: you press ↑ together with either ← or → to lurch away and start spinning. Maybe 40% of the way through the turn you'll switch from ↑ to < or > for just a moment (perhaps with a burst of turbo), and then segue into ↓, all the while moving away from the enemy so that it can't ram you with its spikes. At the end of your 180°, it should be sitting in your crosshairs and not yet have caught up with you.

Go to the center of the chapel and pretend that an enemy as fast as you has just slipped behind your back. If you can pull away and turn on it in one smooth motion, then you're plenty prepared to dogfight spiked viruses. Extra style points if you can even transition smoothly to letting off a few shots.

Judging steps
Finally, though it's not really a skill that you can practice yet, you'll need to be able to distinguish small and large steps to avoid damaging the Skaphander on rough surfaces. Take a look before you leave at the depth of the depression in the center of the chapel—that's a small step and the largest change in floor height that you can traverse at your normal full speed without taking damage. If later you see a step bigger than that, you'll need to slow down a bit to cross it safely.

Ready for exploration
All of this practice maneuvering and firing may have depleted your energy reserves. Pick up some of the recharges in the room to bring your energy back up to 300ish. Also use Tab and - together to zoom your map back out to a more reasonable scale. When you're ready, cautiously take the exit out into the loop hallway.

Loop hallway
Right outside the chapel is a wide hallway that circles it. You may hear some strange "aah-ahh" noises from the south, but ignore them for now—depending on your difficulty level and your luck, there may be one or even a few spiked viruses hanging outside the door that require your immediate attention. If you see any, engage and destroy them. If you see nothing, use your strafing keys to peek around the corners and make sure. Usually they like to hide on the right side of this intersection more than the left.

The direction you proceed once the chapel's exit is clear depends on your priorities. If you're doing fine on data, take a left toward the tartan room, the recharging station, and the storage room to improve your offensive capabilities and then finish a counterclockwise loop. If you're low on data, head right toward the Creation of Adam room and the repair station to address that problem and make your loop clockwise. If you don't care about your resources, your score, or your paycheck, proceed straight forward to the Matma room.

Tartan room
The first room counterclockwise from the chapel exit along the loop hallway is a claw-shaped room with a red tartan pattern on most of its screens. The stretch of hallway leading to it may contain a spiked virus and a clamp, but if you notice them from afar, you can take both of them out before they have any chance to retaliate. The room itself may also contain up to three spiked viruses, so be ready for combat as soon as you open the door. (If you are facing multiple spiked viruses, concentrate your fire on the one in front so that its lateral dodging bottlenecks the doorway.) Inside you will find some data refreshes to heal with in case you took any damage.

Counterclockwise from the tartan room is the recharging station; clockwise is the entrance to the Matma room.

Recharging station
The second room counterclockwise from the chapel exit is a recharging station. If you are approaching from the tartan room, watch for a back entrance along the right-hand side of the hallway; with care, you can use it to sneak up on the spiked virus guarding the station. Once the room is clear, the station has an abundance of energy to draw on, so drink your fill.

Counterclockwise from the recharging station is the storage room; clockwise is the tartan room.

Storage room
The storage room is a green room with flickering lights that may be guarded from the outside by another spiked virus. If possible, engage that virus at range to minimize its opportunity to use its mêlée attack. Once in the room, scout carefully along both sides, but don't go to the back yet. There may be as many as three spiked viruses here, and they will do their best to catch you offguard. When you are sure that both side passageways are clear, use a strafing turn to pop around the corner and catch any viruses lying in ambush. Don't hesitate to retreat if they come at you en masse; they will be reluctant to all leave their cover. When you've cleared the viruses out, check the storage area, where you should find a second debugger and a data refresh or two for your troubles.

Counterclockwise from the storage room is the bug room; clockwise is the recharging station.

Bug room
The bug room is a green room with a C-shaped lift that moves up and down when the Skaphander approaches. Its hallway may be patrolled by as many as two clamps, but they're in a long straightaway, so you can use your superior range to dispatch them from afar. Once inside the room, head left, toward the large part of the "C" and wait for the lift to descend toward ground level. Drive onto it while the floor height difference is small, squash the silver bug, pick up the sixpack if you need it (if you are at around 200 energy or less), and drive back off the lift either before it ascends into the ceiling or once it descends back to ground level. (There is enough room to fit the Skaphander in the ceiling slot, but take care not to get crushed against the slot's edge.)

Counterclockwise from the bug room is the repair station; clockwise is the storage room.

Repair station
The repair station is a room with a red-striped floor and single round pillar. It may be guarded from the hallway by a spiked virus, and if you are coming from the Creation of Adam room, you may also spy a clamp patrolling back from the bug room. Keep these enemies at a distance, and they will not pose too much danger. Once the area is clear, drive up to the station to top off your data.

Counterclockwise from the repair station is the Creation of Adam room; clockwise is the bug room.

Creation of Adam room
The Creation of Adam room is the first room clockwise from the chapel along the loop hallway, a cross-shaped room with nine data refreshes where the walls are covered with Michelangelo's Creation of Adam, presumably because the Michaelangelo [sic] virus did some interior decorating. Its hallway segment is normally unguarded, though with poor luck you may attract the attention of a spiked virus in front of the repair station. On the other hand, opening the room may unleash up to three spiked viruses, at least one of which usually tries to escape attention by hiding in the points of the cross. As with other crowded rooms, fire on the foremost virus to provoke it into lateral movement so that it gets in the way of other viruses trying to exit the door.

Counterclockwise from the Creation of Adam room is entrance to the Matma room; clockwise is the repair station.

Matma room
After clearing the loop hallway and the rooms off of it, you should have access to a large stockpile of resources, including stations of both types. Make sure that you have plenty of data and a decent amount of energy and then advance on the blue-striped wall at the southern tip of the hallway. It is a pillar door and will lower at your approach to reveal a red room with a pool of Matma and a floating face at the far end. Fortunately, despite appearances, the face is not actually dangerous to you. But on higher difficulties there will be spiked viruses waiting to spring, so do have your weapon at hand.

After the guard viruses are taken care of, look carefully at the far side of the Matma pool. There is usually a spiked virus waiting on that side, and if it is hanging out near the pool's edge, it might push you into the pool after you cross, which would doom you to die from corrosion. If so, you'll have to creep right up to the pool's edge (like you hopefully practiced in the chapel) to get within range to shoot it down.

Now, it might appear that there is no way to progress, but remember Dr. Whitecoat's aside from the backstory: "Sometimes it's a good idea to submerge in Matma." So take a leap of faith and dive into the pool. You will begin suffering damage, but there's no helping that—proceed to the far end of the pool where you will find a lift ready to carry you back above the surface. If you did not earlier see a virus to destroy from across the pool, turn 90° right to face west as you ride the lift up; the spiked virus is almost certainly waiting to that side, so you'll want to strafe left and engage it as soon as you're at the top.

When you're sure the vicinity is clear, approach quite close to the floating face, unlock your weapons' pitch, incline them up, and shoot it. Unlike other enemies, it does not take damage normally, and only a very-short-range shot from a debugger can kill it. (So, if it doesn't die, adjust your aim or get closer.) The Matma should freeze in response, leaving behind frozen data, which you can cross safely as long as you watch your speed so that you don't hit the steps too hard.

If you feel the need, you can backtrack to retrieve data and/or energy, but otherwise proceed to the altar room to the west.

Altar room
The altar room holds a switch on a altar-like pillar on a huge dais just to the west after the Matma room. One to four spiked viruses lie in ambush against the sides of the dais or in recesses behind the sides of the doorway, so use strafing turns to bring the fight to them. Once the threat is clear, pick up any items you need and climb the dais. Squash the bug in front of the altar and tap the switch to lower it, netting you a breakpoint. If, as is likely, you do not plan to use the breakpoint right away, you can switch back to debuggers by pressing 2.

From here, head to the big room, which is just outside and to the south. Be careful not to pick up too much speed descending the dais, as you could damage the Skaphander.

Big room
Just inside the door of the big room is a long line of resource items and even another debugger, but if you have dual-mounted debuggers already, then you probably want to leave that stash alone for now—just past those items you may see up to nine spiked viruses on guard and up to five clamps on patrol, so a big fight is ahead. To even the odds, sneak up to just within range of the nearest spiked viruses (if there are any) and fire on them when no clamps are nearby. The group will all give chase at once, but you can back through the door and, if you time it right, leave its motion sensor range so that it slams on one or two of the enemies, splitting their numbers. Clear the viruses that made it into the hallway, approach the door to release the others, and then repeat. That should take care of the nearest spiked viruses.

Once again, creep forward and look for small groups of enemies at eye level to attack. The idea is to get their attention, kite them away from their friends, finish them off, rinse and repeat. But avoid leaving the entranceway until you have to, and when you do, stay in the center of the room. The two strobe-light-and-siren combos on poles to either side are alarms, and if you get too close to either one, they will notify all enemies in the room of your location.

If something goes wrong, and you find yourself swarmed, press 5 to arm breakpoints, throw one, and run. The explosion should take care of enough viruses that you can handle the rest with dual debuggers (2).

Eventually you should be left with just clamps patrolling at altitude against the far wall. Unlock your weapons' pitch, angle them to a point that the clamps will cross, and hold that pitch (as you practiced in the chapel), staying ready to fall back. When a clamp passes in front of your targeting reticle, fire, and then beat an immediate retreat. If you handle the retreat well, you can keep the lead clamp in range of your debuggers while staying out of the range of its allies' guns.

When the room is clear, stock up on resources (there are extras up a lift on the far wall, though you will need to time your drive back onto the lift carefully to avoid falling damage) and prepare to raid the pit to the east.

East pit
East of the big room is a pit down which there are as many as a dozen spiked viruses, so bring a lot of energy to shoot with. The best way to clear this room is to take advantage of the viruses' slow vertical speed, using ledge peering (like you hopefully practiced in the chapel) to target and destroy them before they can get free of the pit. However, should any escape, there are two dangers to watch out for: they will try to push you down the pit or, if that's not so easy, they will try to push you into the step that rings the room, which is just large enough that you can take damage from the impact. Your best defense then is to keep your back to the wall—they won't be able to get behind you to throw you in the pit, and they won't be able to push you into the step if you're already sitting on it.

Make sure that you check this room thoroughly with ledge peering before leaving as it is easy to miss viruses still rising from deeper in the pit. Also take care when leaving not to hit the large step at the door too quickly.

From the east pit, you can go visit the west pit on the opposite end of the big room if you want another breakpoint, but there is nothing else interesting to see there, so otherwise leave the big room and turn right, heading for the maze.

Maze and IRQ room
When you enter the maze room, you'll be atop a balcony under which one or two spiked viruses are hiding. Drive around to either side where there is no railing and use ledge peering to find and destroy them before they can ambush you. (Ledge peering will also help fill in your HUD map before you have to navigate the passages below.) Pick up any items you need and then proceed to the lift to descend to the maze proper.

Using your HUD map as a guide, make your way to the back of the room. Depending on your chosen difficulty level, there may be spiked viruses tucked inside the nooks and crannies—most of these will be in the back of the maze where they can't be spotted from the balcony, so don't let your guard down when the front of the maze seems fairly empty. Use strafing turns to avoid any surprises.

At the back of the room, approach one of the blue-striped walls at either the southeast or northeast corner to open a tunnel entrance. (Later level design suggests that entering via the southeast corner is the intended route—if you use the northeast entrance, be careful of the large step on the threshold.) Use strafing turns to clear that tunnel of spiked viruses, saving the side path with the strobing lights for last. Once the tunnel is safe, enter that side path carefully since its threshold is a large step that will damage the Skaphander if taken at speed.

Proceed down the spiral side path, which will descend as you go further. There are two points at which moving pillars will try to crush you against the ceiling, the second of which (with a golden bug) ironically works in your favor since it happens to hold back spiked viruses while you shoot at them. To cross these pillars in complete safely, start driving against them when they are raised; the Skaphander will leap forward as soon as it is able, leaving plenty of time to cross before the next upstroke.

At the end of the tunnel, in the center of the spiral, is the IRQ room with switches for various IRQs. Toggle the switch for IRQ5, which is on the south side of the switch block, return the way you came (if you accidentally raised the lift, you can call it back by driving up to it and pressing Space), and trek back to the chapel.

Return to the chapel
Now that the conflict on IRQ5 has been resolved, ride a lift up to the second-story walkway around the chapel and travel to the organ at the north end. To your left, on the west side, activate the transmitter switch and enjoy a snippet of Handel's Hallelujah. (If you want to hear it again and rack up your score, toggle the switch even more.) Your mission is complete; your only remaining task is to exit the level. Travel back to the big room and head west to the west pit.

West pit
The west pit looks much like the east pit but has the Firm's two-headed-snake logo suspended above it and a safety ledge around the pit, suggesting a more benign purpose. Indeed, the snake logo marks it as an escape shaft—this is your exit. Snag the breakpoint on the far side of the room if you haven't already, hop in the pit, and celebrate your victory!