Chapter 5-4

After saving your game, walk up the path to stumble across a group of soldiers that are going to be seriously gunning for you. These guys have fortified themselves into a number of bunkers, and possess a few chaingun emplacements which they'll use to blast you, but luckily for you, you have a helicopter along to do most of the killing.

Getting To The First Gate

The Mercenary Camp is dense with enemies, but if you let your helicopter pal do the heavy lifting, it's not too difficult to survive.

As you run through the area, you'll have a number of small cutscenes pop up; these will let you know what areas the helicopter will be able to destroy if you wait long enough. When you come across a cutscene, the best course of action is usually to just find a good hiding spot, cover the entrance with your shotgun, and wait for your helicopter friend to yell "Take cover!" This will portend the arrival of some air-to-surface missiles, and the destruction of the bunker. The first of these areas is easily found by walking up the path; marked 1D on our map, you'll be able to easily take cover by ducking into the tent to your left. Wait there until the bunker's destroyed by the helicopter before moving on.

Now, your ultimate goal here is to follow the path down to 3D and bypass that; if you want to grab an extra green herb, and whatever cash and items the defenders of 2D drop, then you can approach it until you see the cutscene there, backtrack a bit, then wait for the helicopter to take it out. Just make sure you don't stay too close, though, as one of the soldiers there will be packing a rocket launcher. This is optional, though; the better path to 4D will lie down the road beyond 3D, but again, if you want to grab the items the defenders drop, feel free to explore. You'll find that the helicopter will kill many of the foes in the area as you hide, since it'll do strafing runs with its machine guns, so sometimes you may notice ammo or cash lying around; it's worth taking a break from the path here to pick these up, when possible. The only set items are a hand grenade in the ruins of 1D and the aforementioned green herb in 2D, so if you don't need those, it's probably not worth making the trip.

Anyway, if you hide away in the southeastern corner below 3D, you can wait there until it's destroyed, then shoot the lock off the gate on the road beneath it and head into the tunnel beneath 4D. Be careful of shield-bearing enemies, of which there'll be a couple on the path behind 4D. You'll also have to be careful of soldiers you bypassed coming up in the tunnels behind you; they can be difficult to hear with all the commotion. When the tower's shot out by the helicopter, you can climb up and use the switch inside the ruins there to open the nearby door.

Slide over to this soldier before blowing him away at close range.

Through that door lies the first gate here, as well as another chaingun soldier. This guy is in a position to be unkillable by the helicopter gunship, so you're going to have to take him down yourself. First, you'll have to have a path cleared for you, so run up the path nearby until you find a small area where you'll be safe from the chaingun fire; wait here for the soldiers on the steps above you to come down, where they'll be killed, either by the helicopter or by your shotgun. When the steps are clear, head up and use the handslide to glide over to the chaingunner's position; you should be right on top of him, so you can either use your Magnum or shotgun blasts to the head to finish him off. Near his position will be the gate's lock, so flip it. Before heading through, though, drop down to the area with two tents; you can find red and yellow herbs here, along with some TMP ammo and 5,000 pesetas.

Through the Second Gate

Getting to the second gate is a lot like getting to the first gate, save for the fact that all of the defensive positions of the soldiers are compressed into one little area. Gotta say, though, at least Saddler's showing respect for your skillz; he's fortified his base enough to hold off an army, let alone a single guy. There are three turrets here, two elevated on either side, and one down on the lower level near the gate. The two elevated turrets are helicopter targets, and each guard the path to one of the two switches required to open the gate; the third destructible target is the bunker above the gate itself, where numerous soldiers will come from as you attempt to reach the switches.

Let your helicopter take these emplacements out before you expose yourself too much.

This place can be a major moneymaker for you, if you're willing to run out into the thick of fire and grab the cash that the soldiers drop after you or the helicopter takes them down. This is obviously going to get you hurt quite a bit, but if you've gotten through the area without too many nicks and bruises thus far, you should have plenty of green herbs to use, and you can easily make 10,000 pesetas here just from soldier drops. If you spot cash on one of the elevated platforms; you'll need to climb up a ladder to reach it. The ladder for the western platform is on its southern end; the ladder for the northeastern platform is actually located in the tunnel to the south of the gate through which you enter. You'll need to get up through both platforms to reach the switches, so you can either get to them while the turrets are still active, or just run into the tunnel and wait near the ladder while the helicopter takes care of business. Even in the latter plan of action, plenty of soldiers will be coming for you, so keep your shotgun near at hand.

(Alternately, you can try to climb the ladder in the tunnel, work your way around to the turret at point D5, kill the gunner there, then use a rifle to get a headshot on the gunner of D4. Since the turret on the lower level will be deprived of its gunner by the helicopter shortly after you enter this area, this will remove any source of danger to you save for that posed by the soldiers.)

After flipping both switches and checking the area for loot and drops, head through the gate to move on.