MERCENARY – THE SECOND CITY
Simon symoonmyself@hotmail.com
1- Solution
This data disk was pretty harder than Escape From Targ. I never managed to finish it, but here is a great solution written by Paul Dixon.
Not as easy as the first, the creator has involved tricks here which are 'way
below the belt'. So we have to play hard ball back.
First off. I don't know where the antenna is, which destroyed the renting a ship
option. So I just found the spare interstellar ship and the nova drive, to do
this you will need almost all the keys, and the 'pass', which is hidden in one
of the mazes.
So you landed on Targ, time to buy the dominion dart and get moving. Fly over to 08-01, and listen to the talk from the Palyar commander. Okay you don't have, but it's a part of the spiritual feeling of the game. Back to the hangar and a sightseeing tour.
Getting the first keys - tackle the maze
Fly over to 13-08, and admire the buildings in the process. Land use the right
hand ine way teleporter in the hangar. Grab the '12939 Supply'. Run round
into the next room and grab the key and hop through teleporter.
You should be in 03-04. Run back out into the hangar, grab the sprint car,
and it's back to 13-08.
On the 270' wall there is a normal looking door, go through, welcome to the
maze. It's easy to get out of. go through the doors on the following walls.
180' ; 270' ; 00' ; 270' ; 00' ; 90'
Grab 'The Pass', and go into the teleporter
Now you should be in a nice yellow room, with lots of ends of one way
teleporters. There should be a nice sexagonal key here. Now the one and only
exit is on the 90' wall, and bad news it flips all the vectors round.
Find the exit to the room, grab the medical supplies in the next room,
out the door on your right, and then into the 2-way teleporter.
There should be a one-way teleporter on the other side of the triangular door.
That gets you into the yellow room again. Back through the rigga'ma'roll of
flipping the vectors to thier normal direction. When in the room where you first
found the medical supplies.
Now you are in an 'identical' fake green hangar, which looks like the
hangar in 13-08. Find the door with the triangle on it. A word of warning BEFORE
you go in. It's an all brown room, with brown background, and brown edges, you
can easily loose the way out. As soon as you are through the door, DROP
the medical supplies. Infront should be a hidden door with the skull and
crossbones sign. DON'T GO THROUGH IT! This will 'drop' you out of the colony
craft, leaving you stranded at 08-08. Now to your right should be a key. Grab
it, and make your way back to the medical supplies (your exit out).
Grab the supplies and exit
On the far wall 270', should be a normal looking door.
Welcome to the second maze. Go through the following doors
270' ; 00' ; 270' ; 180' ; 270' ; 270' ; 90'
This should get you to a red room. Take the 'databank'. Use the
teleporter and now you are back in the yellow room, with the flipping teleporter.
Jump through the teleporter and you are back in the yellow room. Exit, use the 2
way teleporters, to get back to the fake green hangar, and then use the one way
teleporter to get back to the yellow room again, so you can flip the vectors
back to normal.
Getting the Photon Emitter
You need to get back to 03-04. Now you have 2 choices.
1. Chance the random teleporter in the next room (a long thin yellow room, with
lots of locked doors).
2. Go back through the teleporter, to the fake green hangar. Go into the all
brown room, and through the door with the skull and cross bones.
Both choices may wind up with you having to quit.
If you drop out of the colony craft, you can drop all your objects in a neat
pile, then 'quit'. and all your objects will be 100 meters from your
restart position.
The random teleporter may drop you into a right hangar....if you are lucky.
Don't forget the left hand teleporter in 08-01 will get you to 03-04 as well.
Back in 03-04 complex, you should habe almost free run off the place, bar the
door with the triangle, which is a room with no lights. Time to sort out 'that'
problem. From the hangar in 03-04 you should see a door on the 90' wall, with a
sexagonal lock. Go through that. Head right, and through into the next room and
into the teleporter.
Now you should be in a pink room, with the photon emitter.
Grab it, and go through the one and only available door, the one with the skull
and cross-bones. Drop all your objects, 'quit', pick them back up again,
and head to 13-08(the one with the maze). Run through the door with the triangle
on the 90' wall. Head right, take the door at the far end of the corridor. Keep
following it round, you should see a vital key in the next room. Go to the next
room and you should be in the comm room. Yup, it's broken and I don't know where
the antenna is. That doesn't concern us though.
Head for 03-04 hangar. Go through the plain door on the 270' wall. Veer
right, into the unlit room. Lo and behold, lots of doors with lots of locks.
Behind these doors, are the anti-grav, anti-time bomb, catering provision, the
big box, and the usefull armanmant. Most importantly is the second door on the
left (almost infront of you as you come in). The lock should match the key, that
you grabbed from the all brown room in the 'fake' green hangar.
Inside is the anti-grav unit. Head back out into the previous room. Make you way
to the far end and into the next room. There is a 2 way teleporter to the 08-01
complex. Time to make another spiritual pilgramage to the palyar briefing room.
WHY?
You need to pick up the table in the briefing room, you see, it is the 'cheese'.
The Palyar Colony craft
Fly the cheese to the colony craft, and then aim for the 'dot' above. Here is
the neutron fuel. Head back down to the colony craft. Get out of the cheese, and
aim for the normal lookin door on the 90' wall. There is 2 exits one your
immediate left, and one to the far right. Turn right and aim to the door to the
far side.
Once through the door, look left, grab the key. Don't drop this key! There are
doors within the colony craft which looked unlocked, and once you are through,
they become locked. It is quite annoying. Thankfully they require this pentagon
key, and they all these doors reside on the bottom floor. You can go into the
next room and see that it has a door with skull and cross-bones. In there is a
2nd prison with the old cheese.
More sightseeing: head back to the hangar, BUT BEFORE you go into it, there
should be that other door that was very close to the door that leads to the
hangar. Go into this room now.
You are now transported to the 'identical' colony craft. Follow the rooms back
round to the 'skull and crossbones', and you should find it no longer exists.
Evil hey? Through into the new room, to see it is the palyar commanders brother
in laws room. The next room, you should find the metal detector. Head back to
the hangar, and notice the 'cheese table' is no longer there. I thought it was
bug in the game, for several hours, and I couldn't find the pentagon key.
Eventually it all came together.
Go into ANY OTHER room now, and you should be transported back to the normal
layout of the colony craft. The door on the 180' wall should be the Weapons
room. The doors on the 270' wall should take you to the upper level, and the
lower lever (this is also the stores room).
The ground floor, has the Power room (leave neutron fuel watch out for
one-way locking doors with the pentagon key). There is also the exchequer (only
good if you cheat), the interview room (leave mechanoid commander), conference
room (leave 12939 supply), the control room (leave the databank), and the
kitchen (leave catering provisions).
The upper floor, has the Power room (leave energy crystal), the infirmary (leave
medical supplies), and the labroratory (leave winchester)
Time to complete this thing (spritually)
You got a fast ship, lots of cash, a bunch of keys and the pass. In fact you
have everything to go to the **-08 hangar and pick up the novadrive. To get to
it **-08, you have to go through the maze (don't forget to right your the vector
flipping). The series of brown rooms that you wound up in, after the yellow room
with the one way transporters, this is the **-08 hangar complex. OR you can just
fly there.
In this hangar complex is every other object you need the' Novadrive',
the' Power Crystal', the 'Winchester', the last of the 'Keys'
and the' Sight'. The later two are in the two normal rooms, leading away
from the hangar.
The Novadrive
To get to the novadrive, you must go through the locked door in the **-08
hangar. Go 90' and then the pentagon door on the 180' wall. Work your way
through all the doors, and there is 'The Novadrive'.
The Interstellar Ship
There is three ways to get this thing. It sits in the **-08 Hangar complex.
a) cheat, using the authors short cuts.
b) Working your way through the series of all brown rooms from the fake green
hangar.
c) Fly there. You need 'The Pass' for the elevator.
Get on board and get out of there.
Mazes
Okay the mazes work on a one room principle. Each room hangs in deep space, and
each door is a magical link to another place.
Each room in the maze has one door which is the only one 'true' exit.
The other three will put you into a default room, of which there are two, one
green, and one blue.
The second maze, has a unique aspect. It has two routes.
You automatically start off running Maze number 2.
If you mess up and take a wrong turn, you will automatically drop into the 1rst
Maze.
Have fun. Drop a few objects and chase them around to see what I mean.
13-08
|
Maze 2
|
Cheating
Go on, you know you want to.
Those triangular doors in all the hangars, lead to the same place, The
Authors Short Cuts.
You always appear through the same door, which is the first one door on the
list.
| The Normal Hangars | Exotic Hangars | Duplicate Fake Hangars | Maze short Cuts | ||||
| 1 | 08-01 | 5 | 08-** | 9 | (Fake)Palyar Colony Hangar | 12 | Room with Pass |
| 2 | 03-04 | 6 | 05-13 | 10 | (Fake)05-13 | 13 | Room with Database |
| 3 | 14-15 | 7 | **-08 | 11 | (Fake)13-08 | The one that can't be categorised | |
| 4 | 13-08 | 8 | Palyar Colony Hangar | 14 | Room with Photon Emitter | ||
2- More hints
Hangars are at: 14-15 ; 05-13 ; 13-08 ; 03-04 ; 08-01 ; **-08; 08-**.
There are many traps in The Second City. For example, in the 13-08 hangar,
there's a maze when you cross the normal door. See the maps to get out of it !
As well, there's a door in the colony craft that seem to lead to 2 different
rooms every time you cross it.
Another strange thing (at least in ST and Amiga versions) is rooms that have
walls of the same color as the doors; so you get for instance a complete red
screen! One way to see where the doors are is to load a game, then the colors
will change before the screen displays the loaded game, and you got one second
to see where the doors are in the room. I guess there's another way to see
them?...
Here are some more hints I found on the Net on Ami Cheat's Page
Fly the Dominion Dart as usual, fly to above 350 meters, level off (your speed
should be 1,781 kph) and fire a missile. Pick the missile up once you get close
to it and then land. Go to 08,08 , and take the crashed intergalactic craft and
go to 08,06 (in fact 08-01 - Simon). Go underground exit your ship and
walk through the triangular door. You now have access to the authors cheat room
where you'll get keys to every door, passes out of prison and the ability to
carry lots of goodies in your pockets.
Some more help for the labyrinth, by Pawel Garycki:
There is a system to find the right way in labirynths. You should carry some
useless items with you when entering the labirynth and drop them whenever you
find yourself in an empty room. Though there are two colours of rooms, the rooms
differ from each other and the only way of recognizing them are dropped items.
Then you draw on a sheet of paper the connections via each door leading from
each of the room. You need at least 7 items to cover the whole maze and get the
Pass or Databank.
Remember there are two labirynths: in 13-08 and in 08-**. The primary is the
further. Note: if youmake a mistake in 08-** you'll be carried to the beginning
of 13-08 maze; so first mark the first maze with items, then the second. I know
you'll run out of those useless ones, but you might as well mark the maze with
those valuable; should you solve the problem of finding Databank, collect all
dropped items during your next trip through the maze. Good luck.
Finally, the military solution by Pawel Garycki:
With the help of the Metal Detector (and Sights if you find them helpful) you
can recognize those building which belong only to the one of the sites. Shoot
them all! If you loose one of them or e.g. don't want to destroy the church (St.Stallards)
you can afford not destroying two or three buildings in order to achieve the
victory.
But note that in The Second City some of the areas indicated by Metal Detector
don't contain any building: you must soot the empty space in the center of such
a place so that you hear the voice of fall-down.
If you make a mistake and ruin a building which doesn't belong to the enemy
site, you shall rebuild it by shooting at it while carrying the Anti Time Bomb.
You'll need it too, if you happen to crash the Author's Advert before leaving
the planet.
I've done the work for Palyars and they gave me The Pass! The Mechanoids haven't
paid me for the job, but Simon said they did: they gave him money.
Note from Simon: I was paid by the Mechanoids in Escape From Targ but didn't
try it in the Second City. Reminder for the Metal Detector: Palyars = green
light, Mechanoids = blue light, else it is neutral.
This is just to explain... Well, the use of some items! :) This list is almost complete, but if you know more about the game, don't be afraid to send a mail. Thanks go to John Selck again for helping (he did 80% of the table below :), and to Pawel Garycki for complementary information.
| --- Items: | ||||
| Antenna | use in Communication Room to contact Spaceship Rental | |||
| Anti Time Bomb | reconstructs a destroyed building by shooting at it again | |||
| Antigrav | allows picking up heavy items and vehicles (and more items in inventory?) | |||
| Bite The Bullet (shot) | lets you pick up fixed objects in The Second City (Prestinium!) | |||
| Cheese | the best vehicle (in The Second City disguised as a table) | |||
| Cobweb | lockpick in Escape From Targ - get the Kitchen Sink first | |||
| Coffin | useless - dead weight ! | |||
| Interstellar Ship | possibility to leave targ | |||
| Kitchen Sink | lets you pick up fixed objects in Escape From Targ (Cobweb!) | |||
| Metal Detector | indicates buildings owners: Palyars = green light, Mechanoids = blue light, else it is neutral. This is better to get the reward by destroying buildings | |||
| Novadrive | needed to engage interstellar ship | |||
| Pass | needed to enter Hangar 03-15 in Escape From Targ, 08-** in Second City | |||
| Photon Emitter | light in dark areas | |||
| Power Amp | enhance Dominion Dart (allowing it to reach the Orbital Complex) | |||
| Prestinium (crashed) | lockpick in Second City - get Bite The Bullet first | |||
| Sights | Head Up Display | |||
| --- Items which can be sold at specific locations: | Escape From Targ | Second City | ||
| Palyars: | Mechanoids: | Palyars: | Mechanoids: | |
| Large Box | 35000 (Stores) | 80000 (Stores) | 25 (Stores) | 202600 (Stores) |
| Medical Supplies | 40000 (Infirmary) | 30354 (Infirmary) | ||
| Essential 12939 Supply | 50000 (Conference Room) | 100000 (Conference Room) | ||
| Catering Provisions | 60000 (Kitchen) | 151021 (Kitchen) | ||
| Useful Armament * | 65000 (Armoury) | 120000 (Armoury) | 165445 (Armoury) | 10000 (Armoury) |
| Gold | 100000 (Exchequer) | 5000000 (Exchequer) | ||
| Databank | 100000 (Control Room) | 109100 (Control Room) | ||
| Energy Crystal | 100000 (Power Room) | 100000 (Power Room) | 22450 (Power Room) | 450 (Power Room) |
| Winchester * | 100000 (Laboratory) | 250000 (Laboratory) | 274130 (Laboratory) | 274800 (Laboratory) |
| Neutron Fuel | 200000 (Engine Room) | 250000 (Fuel Stores) | 909000 (Engine Room) | 23200 (Fuel Stores) |
| Mechanoid | 250000 (Interview Room) | 45000 (Interview Room) | ||
| --- Vehicles: | Loc: (Escape /Second) | Ground: | Air: | Max Height: |
| Car | 12-13 / Orbital Complex | 419 | - | 0 |
| Jet Car | 09-05 / 03-04 | 1921 | - | 0 |
| Hexapod | 03-00 / 14-15 | 208 | 832 | 13000 |
| Dominion Dart | 08-08 / 13-08 | 624 | 2498 | 23000 |
| Dominion Dart (with Power Amplifier) | 08-08 / 13/08 | 1249 | 4996 | 104000 |
| Concorde | **-** / **-08 | 935 | 3742 | 87000 |
| Cheese | 11-13 / 08-01 (table) | 1249 | 4996 | |
