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STRATEGY
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Difficulty: **
Intro:
A more obvious gimmick level, as you’re fighting nothing but Over Patrol troops. And, of course, they can trap you in a net… or they’re supposed to anyway. For some reason, they barely ever throw nets at you in this level. Don’t quote me on this, but it might be because they’re very close to each other (you often fight crowds of them); kind of the same thing with the enemies in this game that they don’t attack you if another enemy is too close to them around the front. The level name probably also refers to shooting a swish.
The only reason this gets ** is because of the end segment; a bit tricky so it’s a fatal error point. Also, having the MP-40 by this level could really speed things up. You would only get it by luck from a High Guard who drops it after dying in any of the previous levels, or from the secret level (Through And Through).
Strategy:
Before anything else, I just want to emphasize that you should pay attention to fences and look out for wall nests. They usually have 1 or more enemies on/in them, waiting to ambush you.
In the starting area, follow the rising path of the GAD stairs through those fences and across the big gap to get a Firebomb. Hold onto this as it’s a key to success at the end (or at least one of the best options). Along the way, you can swap weapons as long as you can retrieve the Firebomb once you’re done with the other. Get it at the start before doing anything further as some triggers shortly after will block off access to it. I also want to point out that, even at the end, there is never a situation where it’s crucial to use a missile weapon.
When you follow the curve around the starting room, watch out for a touch plate near the door; it moves a wall that’s behind you in your direction. Besides the wall crushing you, it reveals a small ambush. Get the knife, if you want, before the wall conceals that space.
An interesting, unofficial secret is that most of the beginning area can be skipped, including the silver key, if you can run across the GADs at the start and hit the switch in the air. I don’t suggest this, just because of the sake of completion and whatnot. If you’re pistol starting, the silver key door room has a series of push walls that will grant you an extra pistol and bonuses.
After you hit the switch, a long side door is accessible; it’s a potentially painful trap with just a knife as a reward.
In the next section, if you fall into the fire pit, you’ll activate a touch plate when coming back out that will make further screw ups here much harder to get out of. Honestly, this is not a hard section, except maybe with slower characters.
When you reach the drop with the enemy audience at the bottom, here’s a fun trick the dev didn’t think you’d remember to use. Press the DELETE key to drop your currently equipped missile weapon; you can’t drop it on top of GADs (and other platforms), nor objects. But you can drop it on the ground, which includes from the air as you’re falling. So, notice the bulletproof vest and Firebomb in the high wall nests on either side while standing on the GADs?
If you want to keep BOTH Firebombs, first run to the GAD line’s edge, run off of it very briefly to drop your current Firebomb and QUICKLY reverse to retreat; you’ll be back on the GADs instead of falling to the ground and your main Firebomb will be on the ground below. Now get those 2 aforementioned items, fall down there at a good, safe distance and blast them away.
The second Firebomb isn’t absolutely needed, nor is using any Firebomb ammo, as the vest should last until you clear the room. You can even expend rounds from your sole Firebomb if you want; it’s just better to tackle the end with more rounds.
Anyway, you have to step on a time-based touch plate in the alcove at the left of the room, then run all the way around through the temporarily opened door. Next, after you flip the switch, stay in that same spot until the moving wall behind you forms an alcove of your position. From here, you can safely pick off the crowd in the newly opened area.
Soon, you’ll come across a Drunk Missile Launcher and an Asbestos Armor. Reject the former. When you have an opening from the napalm trap, sprint to the right, sticking to the right wall until you see the opening in it to enter. You activated a touchplate in the process that opened a very wide door full of enemies; but to your delight, you can hide safely atop the climb or behind the wall and watch as these poor lemmings obliviously walk into their DooM.
Eventually, you’ll reach a rather annoying “maze” made out of GADs of varying height that form the walls to this maze. On top of that (pun intended), enemies are in raised fence nests along the actual walls. From where you stand on the ground, try to aim up and shoot them down, which you’ll learn can be pretty annoying since your bullets are often blocked by the GADs; but if they’re hitting you more than you are them, get out of their sight. They’re honestly the more difficult part of this maze. Since this isn’t a single-space path maze, here’s a rough layout of getting through.
“-” are barriers or generally not part of the route
“0” is the path you take
From Ground:
– 0 – – – – – –
– 0 – – – – – –
– 0 – 0 0 0 – –
– 0 0 0 – 0 – –
– – – – 0 0 – –
– – – 0 0 – – –
– – – 0 – 0 0 0
– 0 0 0 – 0 – 0
– 0 – – – 0 – 0
– 0 – 0 0 0 – 0
– 0 0 0 – – – 0
You’ll come across Large Monk Crystals along the way; unless you really need any, I recommend saving them for later.
Going up the GAD layer:
– – – – 0 0 0 –
– – 0 0 0 – 0 –
– – 0 – – – 0 –
– – 0 – – – 0 –
– – 0 – – – 0 –
– – 0 – – – 0 0
– – 0 0 0 – – –
– – – – 0 0 0 –
– – – – – – 0 –
– – – – – – 0 –
– – – – – – 0 0
Eventually, you’ll come to a gap leading to a drop with some enemies caged in by GADs. I highly recommend keeping a distance from the edge, but slowly approaching it while shooting your bullet weapon until you autoaim down. At some point, you can snipe them safely without them being able to return the favor.
Now, remember how there was a monk crystal in a ground nest at the bottom of the maze room? Go back there and push the far wall in this nest to unveil a Mercury Mode powerup. Get it and rush back to the drop. Now, you’ll go down there, open the door, set off the touch plate in front of the deceitful exit and activate the overly angry patrol mob. Retreat back up out of the drop to elevated safety.
Do I need to tell you what to do with the Firebomb at this point?
Outro:
Another really fun level that is actually quite flexible in how you approach it and tackle certain sections. Again, if you feel that my methods make it too easy, too slow, or otherwise inefficient and inferior (although this is factually a fantasy and never a reality), start by deleting your entire ROTT directory from you hard drive; follow that by closing this browser and then never play ROTT or Extreme ROTT and don’t ever view this guide again. Or not.
As an aside, Over Patrol is one of my favorite enemy types of the whole game just because you can’t really take their pain and death screams seriously. Their pain grunt sounds like they’re losing balance or about to drop something fragile. Their death scream sounds like they’re being thrown across a hall, falling down a hole, dragged away away fast, pulled into a vortex or any other comic scenario. My favorite Over Patrol kill spots are while they’re on elevated GADs and whatnot, because they fall through and down to the ground.
EROTT-Worthy: Yes
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SECRETS
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-Not a true secret, but may be overlooked; especially since it has a useful weapon, the Firebomb. Go up the stairs in front of you at the start and enter the fence opening to the right. Follow this path up and cross the long gap across the room into that opening. This might not be possible with all characters.
-Unofficial, non-recommended secret. You can skip most of the starting area if you carefully cross the GADs to the high switch of the silver key door room. You can activate it from the other side, too. In the previous semi-secret, don’t run across onto that fence opening; to its left is a GAD you can reach. After 2 more crossings, the switch is reachable.
-In the silver key door room, press the northwest corner wall to enter a room with an extra pistol.
-In the previous secret room, press the northeast corner wall (you need to go over the columns) for another secret room with bonus points.
-In the previous secret room, press the next northeast corner wall to get some points and a touch plate to get out of there.
-Yet another not-so-secret. Back in the main room, follow it around until you see the pink doors and stop. Look down and slowly advance until you see a touch plate. Avoid it; at the right end of the room from it is a little passage with a knife-containing statue. Follow its passageway around for points.
-Now hit the touch plate mentioned in the previous secret to move a wall for health, netters and a Heat Seeker. The previous pseudo-secret is now inaccessible.
-More of a risky area than a secret. In the large room with the wall lined with napalm traps, as you’re crossing the thin floating walkway, you’ll notice a seemingly empty alcove in the southwest corner with a single fence panel. Well there’s actually a 1-Up floating behind that single panel.
-In the GAD maze room make your way to the southwest alcove on the ground; has a monk crystal at its end. Push the end wall to find a Mercury Mode powerup.
-Save the Mercury Mode powerup of the previous secret until you cleared the enemies up until where you need to fall into the final area across the gap with fire pits. Once you return with the powerup, open the door but DO NOT hit the touch plate. Instead, fly around the central structure with the exit to find a secret passage that leads to Scott’s Mystical Head. This bonus is… pretty well guarded.
-This is an inaccessible secret. Adjacent to the southwest alcove with Mercury Mode, on the west wall, is a small recessed corner. One of the upper layer GADs is floating in this corner. Behind the far wall of this recess are 2 Over Patrol guards and a bulletproof vest. Problem is, that area is completely inaccessible (and based on the game’s wall moving mechanics, there’s no way for that blocking wall segment to move out of the way in that corner due to the stage geometry there). I’m pretty sure this was intended to make the final battle room that much easier.
© Alum “Cass Paze” Tarly
Extreme Rise Of The Triad Guide 