Pathways Labarynth?
Ron Hunsinger
>Actually, you can save time by going through the secret door in the
>southwest wall of HHCC (very well hidden, i don't know how you're
>expected to find it unless someone tells you) and taking the middle
>transporter directly to "a plague of demons."
I tried it that way, and finally decided I liked the slow path better.
There are several reasons for this:
Most importantly, you have to clear out "Feel the Power" sometime anyway.
Believe me, it's a whole lot easier when you approach it from above
(from "Ground Floor") then when you approach it from below (from "Plague
of Demons"). I've done it both ways.
The reason you want to clear out "Feel the Power" is that it contains
a gold ingot and a blue potion. The gold ingot is treasure, which you
don't want to leave behind. But more importantly, you want to have as
much blue potion as possible when you tackle "Ok, Who Else Wants Some".
(Of course, if you feel you can do without that blue potion, you could
postpone FTP until after OWEWS, by which time you will have some awesome
weapons available to you. I didn't try doing "Feel the Power" from below
with grenades and heavy-duty crystals.)
I had another, possibly less important reason for wanting to do FTP from
above. I'm something of a perfectionist, and I was trying to get through
with the absolute minimum damage and maximum accuracy. I can reach this
point in the game without having taken any damage at all, and the time
that I did it had only missed four times: three times with the knife
(before I knew about option-underscore as a way to find out if you have
missed), and once with the P4 (in the final room of "Ascension"). I can
come through FTP and reach the save rune on POD without missing or getting
hit. If I take the shortcut, I materialize in POD in a room that has
some demons (I forget the real name, it's been a while) in it, and I
could not survive that room without either missing or getting hit. (They
are invisible, after all.)
(You eventually take some unavoidable damage at the end of POD. There is
a long hallway you have to go down that has some demons in it, where there
is no room to dodge. I couldn't get through there without getting hit.
Kind of a let-down after doing HHCC without taking any damage. I was
beginning to think I would be able to get all the way through unscathed.
But of course there is no way to get through "Watch Your Step" unscathed,
so it was hopeless anyway. And I gave up trying to do "Labyrinth"
perfectly, although it's theoretically possible.)
-Ron Hunsinger