Terra Nova - Strategy Guide Chucking a grenade at an onrushing cluster of besuited adversaries and watching them explode balletically across your field of view; launching yourself a hundred feet in the air then glancing down to hail laser death at a hapless guard who only has time to look up and murmur ‘What theÉ?’ before you end his dreary life; setting charges on the wall of an enemy installation then running away, turning back momentarily to enjoy the sight of said building detonating spectacularly! Ah yes, Terra Nova has many, many pleasures to offer the discerning gamer. It’s been carefully designed to allow you to complete most missions using a number of different approaches - a stealthy sneak here, a heavily-armed assault there - and as a result, you need only master a few basic techniques and get used to the control system, and you should find your way through the game fairly easily. But there are a few missions where things get a bit complicated, and many people can get stuck. To prevent you suffering a similarly humiliating fate, examine the illustrated solutions to these tricky six missions on the second and third pages of this guide. First, though, arm yourself with some indispensable basic instruction. General strategy The golden rule is to engage the enemy on your own terms. If they’re standing still, locate them (preferably using a long-distance EM scan), then jump in, all guns blazing, and surprise them. If they’re moving towards you, pull back, preferably behind a hill, then ready yourself, switch to your heavy weapons, and hit as they crest the ridge. Never, ever, let them get in the first shot. Keep moving, as this obviously makes you a harder target. And the sooner you can perfect a circling motion, running backwards while turning right and sliding left to keep a target in your sights as you move around it continuously, the sooner you’ll win the game. There are a number of missions where you need to take a specialist with you in order to destroy an installation, or perform some other critical task, and you’ll often find yourself cursing when they take a few hits, panic, and evac, effectively aborting the mission. To avoid this, simply order mission-critical personnel to remain at the dropsite until you’ve cleared the way for them. This may give you a few more bad guys to engage yourself, but you’ll avoid the frustration of having a demolitions expert persistently run out on you after ten hard-fought minutes. Be prepared A mission can be won or lost, even before it’s begun, at the team and equipment selection screen. Sometimes you’ll be forced to make some pre-defined choices; more usually, you’ll have a free hand. You’ll find team selection significantly easier if you can keep all your personnel unhurt in every mission. Don’t worry too much if you can’t manage it - essential team members will always return to duty as soon as they’re required to complete a particular mission - but the more people you do lose the more you’ll find yourself picking demolitions specialists when you wanted weapons experts, and losing team members as a result of the collective’s decreased accuracy. It’s a vicious circle that should be avoided wherever possible - after all, it usually only takes a few minutes to re-play a mission once you’ve cracked it, and complete it without loss the second time around. Equipment choices are a matter of taste, but if you’re in doubt then pick the heavy suit - it’s much harder to make mistakes inside one of these damage-absorbing exoskeletons. Similarly, pack damage prevention ASFs - first the Dynamo, then the Personal Shield - if you reckon you’re going to have any trouble. All the other devices may look slightly cooler, but you don’t get points for style - just survival. When picking weapons, choose a short-range weapon, a long-range weapon and a projectile weapon then, if you’ve got a spare slot, fit an EM Emitter. The ‘The tools of the trade’ table above should remind you of each weapon’s capabilities, but I’d strongly recommend you fit a Particle Beam, wherever possible, in all your suits, as its long range makes it invaluable for knocking out turrets from a distance. The Laser and Fusion Rifle are best for close-quarter combat - obviously - but should also be used for taking down drones, since the other weapons’ fire rates make them too slow to pick off the speeding robots effectively. Mission 17 - Operation Conductor Here’s one of Terra Nova’s earliest attempts to wrongfoot you - and it usually works. The briefing states that you’re to meet with a guarded convoy, but when you turn up there’s nothing but a few blackened patches of grass, and no convoy for miles. Less capable squad leaders have been known to wander the landscape for days, but all you need to do is follow the road south, take the right-hand fork (as indicated by the smoking patch of grass), then carry on down the south- western path. Don’t get put off by the fact that the road doesn’t show up on the map after a while; persevere, and you’ll eventually reach a rocky area, where you’ll have to engage some Swooper drones. Continue down the road and, right at the end, you’ll find the missing convoy, now heavily guarded by Heg troops. Go easy on the grenades as you assault the position, or you’ll torch the trucks. Oh, and watch out for an ambush on the return journey - scout ahead to pick off the marauding patrols before they hit the procession. Mission 19 - Operation Goblin Oh, this is a big upset. It works best as a surprise, of course, so if you haven’t got this far yet I strongly advise you not to read the rest of this paragraph. The bad news for those still reading is that there’s no way to save Schuyler. His death’s worked into the plot and there’s no way around it. All you can do is concentrate on getting yourself out - just run for the pickup point at full speed. Don’t even try to help your mates until you’ve reached the dropship, when you can turn around and pick off some drones with your Particle Beam if you like, while you’re waiting for the surviving pair to catch up. Mission 26 - Operation Cold War Slightly annoyingly, there’s only one way to complete this mission; a little bit more flexibility to experiment with the pirate PBA would’ve been fun, but if you don’t follow this prescribed plan of attack, you’re finished. Head west, ignoring the frolicking pirates, then drop down onto the base and stand by the relay station. Activate the scanning device and wait a few moments; you should see a couple of guards patrolling in front of you. The second the transmission’s intercepted, run straight forward, ignoring both the towers and the guards. If you try to shoot anything, you’ll quickly be overwhelmed. Instead, run off the ledge and into the ravine, then run along the river, on the left-hand bank, until you’re next to the dropship. There should be a small cleared area to give you a little manoeuvring space; turn left and use it to lift yourself out of the ravine and up to the ship. Made it! Mission 29 - Operation Sparkplug This is probably the toughest mission of all - it’s certainly the most frustrating. There are many ways to try and tackle it, but after a few hundred attempts I can tell you that the strategy with the highest chance of success is as follows. First, kit out your team with Personal Shield ASFs, Heavy Suits, Ionic Fusion Rifles, Grenade Launchers and Missile Launchers. While you’re still in the air from the drop, select the entire squad and order them to move to the southern edge of the shuttle base. Turn yourself north, and run down the road towards the convoy. Half-way down, order each team member, individually, to activate their ASF, then switch to your Missile Launcher and activate your own Personal Shield. Ignore the drones - they’ll only slow you down - then bear right and you’ll soon catch sight of the Heg tank which has come to destroy the convoy. Lock onto it and blast it with missiles, then switch to grenades, continue to head towards the accompanying infantry, and bomb them too. Pick off the survivors with Ionic fire, then turn around and help the rest of your squad to protect the shuttles. Get the drones if you can, but make the Heg troops your priority. The faster you get there, the more of your team will survive. Mission 30 - Operation Cadmium Again, you’ve got to split your squad here. Immediately on landing, despatch the entire squad east to the bridge, then order your demolitions expert to place a charge on it. While you’re doing this, move north, then skirt the rockslide, keeping on the mountainside to the south, and engage the Heg ambush. There are three groups of three troops, so you’ll have to keep your wits about you and move quickly. Miss any, and they’ll get the speedily arriving convoy. In the midst of the firefight, your demolitions man will probably finish laying his charges, while the other two team members cover him from the attacking drones. Immediately order him to detonate the explosives, and command the squad to follow you. Forge ahead on the Eastern road towards the base, and you should come across a fairly obvious ambush site - a high ravine. Neutralise theclones that are lying in wait for the convoy, and take out the Heg mechs on the south side of the bridge while you’re waiting for the convoy to reach the base. Mission 37 - Operation Absolute Zero The long-range capacity of the Particle Beam is the key to successful completion of this notoriously tricky final mission. First, order your brother to stand and wait, then lead your two remaining squad members towards the station and pick off the initial few clones who come out to meet you. Now destroy the two westerly heavy guard towers by running towards them firing your Particle Beam. Keep moving and the missiles will fall behind you, while your weapon’s long range gives you enough time to take out the structures before you run into the perimeter wall. If you stand in the opening of the western wall, you should just be able to pick off another gun turret, too. You’ll probably attract a few clones, but just retreat and take them down in the open space. Next, head around the wall until you’re facing the south side of the complex. Again, approach the gap in the wall and destroy a turret. Clones will attempt to counter-attack, but so long as you don’t allow yourself to go too far into the station you’ll always be able to pull out quickly and pick them off as they stroll through the gap in the wall. Destroy the south-easterly heavy guard tower, and at least one of the heavy turrets in the centre of the complex. Use your M-B Accelerator wherever possible to gain invaluable extra range. You’ll probably be attracting quite a lot of attention by now, and may have lost at least one of your companions, but don’t worry. Keep activating your personal shield whenever you enter the station, and stay cool. When you’ve done as much damage as you think you can - in other words, when your front shield’s depleted and your two companions have evacuated - make one last sortie, lead as many clones as you can away to the south, then tell your brother to set the charges. Depending on how well you managed to deplete the forces inside the station, he’ll probably manage to set the explosives, although it’s by no means certain he’ll make it out. That doesn’t matter - just run for the pickup point, press enter when you reach the dropship and marvel at the satisfying but all-too-brief end sequence.