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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.
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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)
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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.
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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)
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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)
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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.