MAP04: Power Station (Strife)




 * Note that in the interests of image size and usabilty, a purely cosmetic part of the bottom of this map (the part of Town visible, but not reachable, from this level) has been omitted, as has a reachable but not plot-relevant part to the right.

Tarnhill Power Station is a nuclear power plant providing power to Tarnhill, including The Order and The Front.

(The "bloody" side mission continued)
On entering, go forward to the end of the corridor (A), then head right at the bottom of the elevator; to unlock the passages into the Warehouse, press the switch in the north alcove to the side of the Warehouse sign (B) (the one that was to your left when you entered), then go down the north staircase (C). After turning right, hook around the boxes in front of you (right, left, left, left, right), and in the alcove on your right is Derwin (D). If you talk to him and take either of the first two options, he will alert the guards, so it's best to just kill him without preamble. You now have what the Governor sent you for, so retrace your steps to Town. (If you talk to the guy who looks like Derwin but is just a docker, he will tell you that he suspects that The Order is planning a massive raid on The Front.)

Third mission: Destroy the Power Crystal
Note: If you want to pick up the secret stashes in this level without pointless retracing of your steps, be sure to read the Secrets section below before reading this section further.

Go to the Warehouse (see above). If you did the "messy" side mission, this is your first visit, so you will need to operate the switch in the north alcove (B). In any case, you will also need to flip the switch in the south alcove to disable the forcefield shielding the storeroom; you can do this now, or wait until you are headed this way again with the Gold Key, it doesn't matter which.

Head down the south staircase (E). When the path forks, turn right; you will soon meet Worner (F). Talk to him and he will give you an ID card (and tell you about the storeroom, but you can't go there yet as you don't have the Gold Key). There are two routes you can follow to complete the mission:

Standard (easiest) route
Exit the Warehouse and go straight down the entrance corridor to reach the Reactor Core (G). You can talk to the guard and he will open the door, or you can open it yourself (as usual, the lock is to the left); suit yourself. To the right once you enter is the entrance to the guardpost you just passed; you need to go in here and grab the Mini-Missile Launcher, and if you have maintained stealth up to this point you can do this without killing the guard.

Go left to the switch, and flip it to raise a walkway (M). Through the doorway (the alarm will sound) and left. Hit the switch at the end, go down and around to an elevator (just south of H2). At the top, it doesn't matter which way you go (left, ahead or right) as you will in all cases drop (or walk) down to the room below; go through to the next room, talk to the technician (J), he will give you a new ID card and tell you to go talk to Ketrick. So take the elevator in this room (if it's blocked, a switch on its left side raises the bars; but with any luck, a guard will open them for you) down to the next one (K).

Optional sequence
Doing this part isn't essential, but could make the mission a bit easier by raising some floors to remove lethal drops.

Start optional sequence

Go through the right (northernmost) passage and across the room, push the button (just west of H1). It's a good idea to save at this point. To avoid the crushers, it's not a good idea to run back because the path is now dangerously narrow, and you'll fall off and die that way; instead, whenever it is safe to do so, walk to the next yellow/black striped area, where it is safe to wait for the next crusher.

Return to the previous room and take the left passage. Go down into the room (L) and break the big screen at the back (with the Punch Dagger, to conserve ammo and stealth). Now return again.

End optional sequence

Non-optional part continued
Go through the middle passage and you are back at (M). Drop into the water and cross to the walkway, then turn left to the door (N). Up the stairs on your right, pushing a button (T) on the way, and through another door, then down the stairs on your right (O). Turn around when halfway down, and shoot the sentinel in the hole, then jump into the hole for goodies. Kill the tech in the room, unless the guards have done this for you (talking to him is optional) and pick up the Gold Key. Back up and into the next room (P) for some Med Patches and an Environmental Suit, then either retrace your steps to (N) or (better) take the secret passage from this room (see "Secret Stashes" below).

Stealth route (harder)
Taking this route is essential in order to obtain the "How hard can it be?" achievement in the Veteran Edition.

After talking to Worner, exit the warehouse by walking across the water(!) from the northern part of the Docks to hidden entrance (S). Be sure to have the Punch Dagger selected. Go along the passage (turn right at the end; left will dump you back into the river, in which case try again) to the cubbyhole mentioned in "Secret Stashes", and go through to (O). Kill the tech with the Punch Dagger (because the alarm isn't out, the sentinel won't appear) and take the Gold Key. Then go to room (P) and jump over the railings (you can't go through the door because you didn't get the key from (J)), head for the button (T) and press it. Drop into the space which was to your right as you pressed the button, and from there head back to the big room just inside the Reactor Core door. Go to the guardpost, pick up the Mini Missile Launcher, then use the switch to open the exit from the main room and head back to the Warehouse. From there go back to room (P) as described at the start of this section, then go through the secret passage and the rest is as described below but remember to maintain stealth (it's OK to use the Assault Rifle to kill the sentinel in the secret passage, but otherwise keep the Punch Dagger equipped); in particular, don't talk to Ketrick until you've pressed the switch to reveal the Power Crystal.

Both routes
If you enter through the secret passage, wear an Environmental Suit just before doing so. If you go via (N), enter the niche to the south (your left) for some Environmental Suits, then don one of them and go through the Reactor Core room to the room north of it. (If your vision turns green, your Suit has run out; wear another one. Guards in this area drop them when killed.) However you have got to this room, go to the north and then south through the gap to the elevator. Ride it up to Sammis (Q); talk to him and he will give you the key, or if you prefer to be sadistic, kill him and take the key anyway. Then flip the switches.

In the Reactor Core Room, take either pathway up to Ketrick (R). Again, talking to him is optional (it will just provoke him to attack); kill him and press the switch. Step up to the window, ready your Mini-Missile Launcher, shoot the Power Crystal and then immediately step back. Mission accomplished! Now all that remains is to collect Environmental Suits from guards here (you will need them for your next mission), loot the storeroom you couldn't enter before (see last item below), then head back to Town.

Secret stashes
None officially tagged as such in the 1996 edition, but:
 * On the way from the Reactor Core entrance to the first elevator is a large octagonal pillar in a niche (H1). Behind it is a switch; pressing this will open a cache just before the elevator (H2). Reaching this is a perilous leap across a lethal drop — and another one back.
 * If you go left after this elevator you will eventually come to a stairway. Entering the sector at the bottom, either from the stairway or from the room to the east, will open a cache at the top of the stairs (I).
 * When you have activated the crusher gauntlet after room (K), and are about to press the button before making your way back to (K), to the south (on your right) is a hidden door (just west of H1).
 * In room (L), the structure in the middle has four Energy Pods in it.
 * When you cross back into the large central room (M), the bars in front of the waterfalls in the southeast and southwest corners of this room vanish. (As do those in front of the one in the northeast corner, but that one doesn't have any goodies.) In the Veteran Edition, these are secrets which count towards the Completionist achievement.
 * To the east (left) of where you get the Gold Key is a cubbyhole. Inside are two ammo clips. (You can continue down it for a shortcut to the docks surrounding the Warehouse.)
 * After killing the tech for the Gold Key, the next room (P) has three niches on the north wall. The westernmost one is a different texture from the others; open it for a passage to the area north of the Reactor Core (Q). Be ready to fight the Sentinel here.
 * Once you have the Gold Key, above the Warehouse is a storeroom (just south of F) accessed by a short corridor from the south (the one guarded by a conspicuous laser tripwire). You can't avoid the tripwire (jumping over it still sets it off), so be careful. (However, the only time you're likely to be going here is at the end of this mission, when the alarm is already out.)

Trivia

 * Examining this level with a level editor reveals that the sign above the Reactor Core entrance is supposed to read "Reactor Core Area", but the last word is cut off.
 * On the map, the Core looks like a radiation-warning trefoil.
 * This level is numerically the first to have sectors tagged as "Instant Death", which will kill you (unless you're in God Mode) if you fall into them. (Walking into such sectors is safe; it is only falling into them which triggers their special action. In the Training Facility, you need to walk through an Instant Death sector at one point.)