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"Xidia Gold" Walkthrough: Darklord

The Incident

Darklord

Map Author: Will "Mister Prophet" Drekker
Weapons: Shock Rifle, Flak Cannon, Eightball, Combat Assault Rifle.
Creatures: Pupae.
Bosses: Demon's Left and Right Hands, DarkLord (two fights).
Difficulty:

Finally, you arrived at the conclusion of Jones' adventure on Xidia. You are now arrived at the military outpost, and after the two previous maps you would probably expect one of the worst enemy assaults you ever seen in Unreal. It's false, though: the map's difficulty is just "LOL"... in other words, EASY AS HELL. Have fun with this one!

You'll begin in the last room seen in the previous map. Pass the first door and you'll be in a massive cave environment. Here you'll find lots of stuff which you will probably need after completing the nightmare known as "Derelict Surface"... There's firstly a message though:

"Mission Update: Jones! We just picked up your signal, good work soldier! Now listen up, the other dropship is waiting at the Military's landing pad, they were shot down earlier but managed to repair themselves and contact us. You have to hurry and reach the platform, get to the extraction point now!"

Near the crate on the left side, at the entrance, you'll see three cans of Eightballs. Go to the right and check the opened box which contains a pack of Razor Blades and Bio Ammo. Directly afterwards, there's a body with a Flak Cannon.
Advance always to this right side and near the end you should spot a Combat Assault Rifle (CAR) near a dead human. This one has a message:

"Lt. Ashley, journal: Judd got us here, we left 6 guys to guard the chopper as we horde the place. Judd says all we have to do is make it up the lift and find one of the military dropship ammo crates. He says chances are the ships will have been destroyed, but the explosives in the crates alone can level that entire Alien ship. I can't wait till we go back with one of the nukes, time for some revenge.( Dated on today's date, 5/25)"

Proceed to the next corner of the cave where you'll find two Nali Healing Fruit (NHPs). The last corner has some crates with four boxes of Flak Shells found nearby.

Now that you have done everything, use the lift and enjoy the trip to the top. Admire the incredible strength of the tower you're ascending as it manages to support an entire military base and be sure to set the music volume to max, as Nemesis is sooooooooooooo great! (Sarcasm)
Fortunately the song stops when you arrive at destination. Here you can find, near the two piles of crates, two Shock Cores, an Eightball Gun and a Power Shield (yes, the one in Unreal having 200 shield points).
Enter the next corridor where you'll find the dead body of Judd, along with a message:

"Judd, officer's journal: Ambushed. All this way only to die here. A few of the guys took their share of supplys and headed back, dunno if they made it, although I felt an explosion not long ago. I fear Deckard's team is dead, we failed to save the rest of the crew in time. Well, that winged demon bastard won't be laughing long when he realizes I've hidden the Bomb in this compound and set the timer. Auto defense grid won't pick it up till only a few minutes before explosion. If I'm going down, I'm taking this place with me. My name is Judd McCarthy, and I am proud to have been in command of Outpost Pheonix....( Message ends, ink is still wet)"

Time to avenge the dead people, players... Arrive at the next doors and enter the next, big and way too silent area.

"The Shadow Demons"

This is the chamber where you'll fight the first set of bosses. They'll appear when you try to walk in a certain part of the arena.
Remember that you'll find here some items. After the entrance, on the right side you'll spot a Shock Rifle and two Shock Cores (40 ammo in total). Proceeding in an anti-clockwise direction through the room, you'll find a Body Armor coming from an opened crate and lastly a group of two cans of Eightballs and two boxes of Flak Shells together.

Run around the room to make the first two bosses appear, from the hole above...


Boss Fight: Demon's Left Hand and Demon's Right Hand
Health of both Warlords: 1305
Difficulty: Attacks:
1) Strike (40 health per hit): usual insta-hit Melee Attack of the Warlords, that can be done only on the ground. Just stay away from them, and dodge if necessary.
2) Normal Rockets (45 health per perfect hit): unlike normal Warlords, these ones use a more damaging version of the Brute rockets. They are very slow and easily avoidable by moving and occasional dodging.
3) Flying dodge: every time you shoot certain projectiles, the Warlord will attempt to fly-dodge them, and succeed most of the time. When they are on ground, the fly-dodge will make them activate the "Fly" mode.
Description:
These are the two Warlord servants of the presumed leader of the Skaarj forces that landed on Xidia. They are more weak than a normal Warlord, by having less health and weaker rockets. After one of them discovered you in the caves, they now want to seek your death after the mess you left in the Derelict ship.

Probably the "hardest" fight of this map or not... these two Warlords coming from above will try to smack you down with their Artificial Intelligence or most of the time, Artificial Idiocy. They are easy, but it's possible that you may die. First of all they don't have so much health, so it's better not to waste explosive weapons in order to save them for the "real" boss of this final part of the game.

The Shock Rifle's bolts, Automags, the CAR's primary fire and the Sniper Rifle are perfect for this fight, as they are instant hit weapons. Warlords aren't capable of dodging them like they would do always with Rockets or Dispersion Pistol (DP) bolts.
I just recommend to run around the arena (mainly the exterior part as you can use the crates both for cover and as the Warlords will be fully vulnerable thanks to the narrow passage) going either clockwise or anti-clockwise. It's unlikely that a Warlord will get you from behind unless you stop running (but even then it's still rare).
Be sure to not to waste to much ammo for either the Shock Rifle or the Sniper Rifle, as you will need them later. Be mad with the other two weapons, though, especially with the CAR, as you'll recharge its ammo to max after this and another battle. Just keep hitting them as you run backward around the place.
The rockets are easy to avoid, mostly because of their bad accuracy and small explosion radius. Plus you have TONS of armor points.
Sometimes one of the two Warlords will get stuck behind a crate found in the lateral parts of the chamber. If this happens, take that as an advantage by staying away from that position and dealing with the Warlord who still annoys you.

My experiments revealed that Shock bolts does actually sometimes cause the Warlords to dodge, but after you hit them/shoot near them. By dodging, the Warlord will slow down his chase and you have more time to retreat (they damage you more easily at close range).
Bullet weapons tend to cause them to do some super-quick move to one side, but only by a centimetre so you're not going to miss with the next shots. This means that when you use the CAR or the Automags and shoot them continuously, they'll just do some fast, mad movements that will make them go far or NEAR you. So watch out.
Last advise: never stop and KEEP SHOOTING AT ALL TIMES.

Easy battle, nothing really to hard...


Both Warlords are dead, and now you must face the big boss. You have a few seconds before his arrival, though, so be sure to get anything you need around the arena, especially Shock ammo.

"A Warrior's Pride"

While you are waiting for him (he comes out from the closed hole in the middle of the area, using an elevator), position yourself on the side with the door leading to the unexplored part of the level. Stay behind the metal crates and when the WarLord song starts, this means he arrived in your area...


Boss Battle: DarkLord
Health: 2320

Difficulty: Attacks:
1) DarkLord's rockets (60 health per perfect hit): DarkLord's rockets he shoots are the same as the normal Warlord ones. They are just only faster.
2) Dark Strike (165 health): DarkLord's melee attack like any other Warlord would do. This one is very strong and you NEED TO AVOID IT! Just stay away, run around crates and dodge to avoid this happening.
3) Flying Dodge: normal Warlord dodge. Works exactly in the same way.
Description:
An enormous blue, yeti-like Warlord who seems to be the leader of the Skaarj forces landed on Xidia, after he survived the Derelict crash. He's somewhat big, has incredible strength and wants all of the humans to be killed, especially you.

If there's something that the DarkLord manages to do, is making himself look extremely cool. In reality he's a pushover, as are any other Warlords when you fight them with strong weaponry. Plus the environment here is so cramped that he'll have difficulties taking you down. This time, you can finally use the power of Eightball's grenades and the Flak Cannon in order to kill this cool monster.

The strategy for killing the DarkLord is just the same one used for the Warlords faced before. Just an identical fight, but here you have to face a stronger Warlord rather than two weak ones. I actually found the big boss's servant to be tougher, as they managed to hit me more times.
There are some things though that you may want to know, just tips to make the fight easy:

1) Unlike the previous fight, there's only one monster to face this time. You move to any position you want, obviously away from the boss.
2) Before the fight, I said to you to put yourself into one of the two sides that contain a door, clearly the one leading to the unexplored area. It has a pile of crates which you can use to hide until the beginning of the fight, so the boss will still not see you. Now go on the right side of these crates and you should see the DarkLord in the middle (awaiting for you) with his back turned at you.
Anything you shoot will make him spot you. Now if your luck is high and the boss's AI is dumb enough, the DarkLord will try to get closer to you. But there should be a railing in front of him, and if he tries to walk through it, he'll stop just to fire rockets.
He'll not move, and you can waste all your time by throwing Eightball grenades at his body (he can still dodge if you use rockets, DP, CAR grenades etc...). You can simply strafe to avoid the incoming rockets while you can damage him until he decides to move.
After that, start to use the strategy of the previous fight.
3) When you use the Flak Cannon, be sure to use the Flak Shells. DarkLord and Warlords dodge well the primary fire if you shoot it from far.
The Flak Shells should be thrown when he starts to become slower during moving, while primary fire should be used when he's close to you.
4) Never attempt to use Eightball grenades when he's near you or you'll just harm yourself for nothing.
5) Spam CAR if you have still any bullets left.
6) Shock Bolts don't seem to make him dodge...
7) Sometimes the DarkLord can destroy several crates through the arena. Less stuff to use as cover, but the battle still remains easy.

The rest of the fight should be pretty basic and easy.

 


When you defeat the DarkLord, he'll teleport away. Get anything you left in the arena and proceed through the next, now unlocked door. Here you'll get the final message of Jones' quest:

"Mission Update: Jones! What the hell is going on down there!? Our scanners show that the compound's internal security systems detected a level 6 explosive device that is on a timer of only a few minutes! You gotta get to that hanger before it blows, the drop ship can't wait forever. Move your ass soldier!

During your trip through the corridor, you'll see two Cannons trying to shoot you. They fail because they are out of ammo. You can't kill them though, unless you are patient enough to deplete more than 10000 health. :P
Be sure to get the Combat Assault Rifle and the two CAR Clips in order to fill your ammo of the CAR to max.
Enter the next room and check what's inside the three wooden boxes you see in the distance. They contain a Super Health and a Body Armor. Get these and proceed to the only accessible door. Run through the corridor until its end.

"Exodus"

Press the switch in front of you to activate the elevator. After a few seconds, you'll arrive at the top: an enormous circular area full of crates. In the middle of it, there's a helicopter with three humans fighting the cool guy known as DarkLord.
The boss shots a rocket which makes the chopper explode, killing the three humans in the process.

DarkLord has his skin ruined, full of blood. And you are going to ruin him until his death.


Final Boss: DarkLord
Health: 3190
Difficulty: Attacks: Same as before.
Description: The Skaarj leader is still alive and he's enjoying the blood on his skin after laughing at the death of his enemies. He seeks the death of any of his enemies. Give your anger to him and let his body disappear after the explosion of the base.

First of all, there's no counter to death. The bomb will automatically explode only in the last cutscene, so don't worry about that. And do the same against this loser, who still looks awesome but he has no chance of beating you with all of the health and armor (plus weapons) that you collected.
The boss is incredibly easy to kill, just run around the arena and shoot him with these weapons:

1) Charged BioRifle blobs if the boss is near you (not recommended).
2) Automags (Primary fire works better of course).
3) Shock Rifle (Primary fire).
4) Sniper Rifle.
5) Flak Cannon.
6) Eightball grenades.
7) Combat Assault Rifle (Primary fire).

Stay away and use the various piles of crates to confuse him, so you can retreat to a safe distance and avoid any chance of being literally kicked by his strikes. Dodge the rockets of course.

During the fight, you may encounter three Pupae that are found around the area. Easy to kill, of course, but they can be even more annoying than the boss.

The boss acts like he did before (plus his weird tactics, easy to counter), even by breaking some crates found across the area.
If there's one thing which you should be careful, is one of the two cranes found on the top of the area (it should be the one found the entrance lift). During the battle, it will drop a crate which can kill anything found below it. Just stay away from that position... and don't try to lure the DarkLord in that position, as he's pretty mad.

If you need help, you can find behind some crates two boxes of Flak Shells, two packs of CAR Grenades and a pair of Thigh Pads. One of the easiest battles of the Xidia Map Pack.


When the DarkLord finally dies, take out any Pupae remaining in the place and wait for the shuttle coming from above (don't stay in the middle or you'll may be crushed). When the ship arrives, go near it to finish Jones' adventure. Congratulations leet player!! :P

Previous article:
Derelict Surface
Next article:
Exodus
"Xidia Gold" Walkthrough