Walkthrough

This walkthrough is intended to get you through the game on Normal difficulty. We'll describe most of the fights and have videos for each of the bosses, but we're not going to point out all of the target mark locations to you. The target marks are really only needed if you want to get achievement points; you can safely skip them without impacting the game at all. If you want a complete list of their locations, check the walkthroughs at gamefaqs.com.

Prologue

Before the game proper begins, you're going to find yourself running through a short tutorial mission / prologue. It's not too difficult, and indeed will mostly consist of simply learning the controls of the game. Begin by following your father Gale up the ramp near where you start; the X button will launch your anchor and pull you up and over the railing there. When he destroys a floor and drops through, follow him by simply dropping through the hole yourself; your anchor will automatically arrest your fall, and you'll be able to use the left analog stick to continue your descent.

You'll have plenty of teammates in this prologue, but you'll be flying solo for the rest of the game.

When you drop all the way down to the floor, a Dongo will roll in and attack. Your teammates will automatically kill it, but you can shatter the icy body and grab the thermal energy from its body. Move into the next room after that and start firing on the Trilid pods on the walls; if you don't destroy them, they'll continually pop out more Trilids, and that's no good. Again, you can collect the thermal energy from the Trilid's bodies and use it to power your thermal suit, which will keep you alive.

You can get a large boost of thermal energy from the Data Post nearby, which also lights a beacon to show you the direction in which you should be moving. There are plenty of Data Posts in the game, and they'll always be worth activating for the large thermal energy boost. The destination direction beacon can also be handy, but the game is fairly linear for the most part, so you'll rarely have too many problems finding out where to go.

The Green Eye

A large Green Eye appears now, forcing your team to retreat from the NEVEC labs. You can't kill it (yet), so don't bother even trying - just run! Head around the corner and up the stairs before it can catch up to you. Other soldiers in the area will be heading the same way, so follow them along until you reach the walkways above the hangar. When you reach your VS, activate the Data Post to get a boost to your T-Eng, then hop into the VS and take it out for a spin. Don't worry overmuch about attacking the Green Eye here, as you can't kill it. Fire your weapons at it for a while, then watch the cutscene that ensues.

Mission 01: A World Of Ice

It's time to take on your first mission for the ragtag group of ice pirates that you've been found by. There's a rudimentary VS in front of you that you can hop into and use on the Akrid in the area. If you need more thermal energy, destroy the oil tanks and cars near your starting point and absorb the goop that they absorb.

These Chryatis enemies will be appearing quite often throughout the game.

When you pass under the overhang, you'll be attacked by a chryatis that pops up from underground. You can defeat it, if you wish; it's easiest to do so by attacking its arms (the bright orange spots are where you need to aim), then unloading rounds into its bright, glowing abdomen as it writhes on the ground. You can't bring your VS into the building nearby, so ditch it (B button), grab the shotgun by the corpse, and wander into the Akrid lair.

When you reach the far side of the parking lot, head up the snowy hills and dig in the pile of snow nearby to find a rocket launcher. You don't need it, really; the machine gun and shotgun will be a fine duo for the fight ahead. As you enter the Material Storage warehouse, another chryatis will appear. You'll likely be on foot this time around, but the same basic advice holds: shoot the arms off first, then go to work on the abdomen. Watch out when it rears one of its legs up in the air; it'll likely sweep it across the floor after a second and knock you down. That's reason number one to destroy the arms!

Head Em Up, Move Em Out

When you're done in the warehouse, head outside, where a group of dongos will attack you. Dongos are definitely killable, but getting around to their rear, where their weak spot is located, can be difficult, especially when there are two or three of them attacking you simultaneously. It's best to simply run across the clearing and grapple your way up the cliff to the Data Post above you. The dongos won't be able to follow you up.

Proceed up the hill here and avoid shooting the boulders if at all possible. If you hit them, they'll tumble down the hill towards you and probably knock off a good amount of your health. Avoid or kill the other dongos on the hill as you proceed upward. Find the cave and head inside.

Akrid Hive

You'll likely be VS-less when you enter the cave here, so you'll have a bit of a walk in front of you. Head around the path to your right and find the Data Post. There's an energy gun nearby; you may want to trade in your shotgun or rocket launcher for it, as it has infinite ammo, and will kill most of the smaller Akrid here in one hit. Walk from there across the walkway in the middle of the room. The numerous small trillids will be coming your way, but individually they don't possess much stopping force, and won't do a huge amount of damage. If a number of them hit you at once, they may knock you off the ledge, but that's unlikely to happen. When you reach the far end, drop down to the small group of Akrid eggs, then move around to the next Data Post, on the far side of all the ground-based Akrids and their spawning machines. When you reach the Post, head across the gossamer threads connecting the cliff to the Akrid Hive, and head inside.

Boss Fight: Large Dongo

The super-sized dongo that awaits you in the center of the hive is, well, big. The confined space will make this fight somewhat taxing, but if you hop into one of the two VS's in the area, you can nab another gatling gun by walking over to it on the floor and equipping it to your unused weapon slot. With two gatling guns, you'll be able to unload on the dongo when it's possible to do so. There's also a rocket launcher in this area, but it'll be difficult to use it properly.

Video Walk-through

The giant dongo will go down if you concentrate on firing at its rear weak spot.
Watch It »

Why's that, you ask? Well, the dongo can only take damage if you fire at its abdomen, which just so happens to be at its rear, making it somewhat taxing to hit. You basically always want to be rotating around the creature as it attempts to attack you in an attempt to lay eyes on its glowing weak spot. You can dash with your Y button, and it may help to attempt to do so when you're almost in view of the beast's rear. It may sound difficult, but it's not incredibly so. The dongo takes a while to react when you start firing on its abdomen, so if you get a good view to a kill, you should be able to unload most of a magazine before it whirls around.

The creature has a number of attacks, most of which involve its stubby appendages. It can smash its arms into the ground in front of it or extend them out towards your VS and attempt to harm you that way. The most deadly, though, is its rolling attack. When it rolls, it will either attempt to charge you directly (quickly strafe or dash out of the way when you see this coming) or try to cling to the wall and start making revolutions around the room. This is a confusing situation for you, as rocks will start to fall and deal heavy damage to you when they hit. It's somewhat difficult to see where the rocks are going to fall, so you may want to stay as mobile as possible; try jumping and hovering in midair and moving around to see if that helps. The dongo will start whipping out this attack more and more often as you whittle down its health, but when it finally comes back down to the ground and hits a wall, it will smash into it and be dazed momentarily, allowing you to unload on its tail. If you have the rocket launcher attachment, now would be the time to use it.

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