STRATEGY GUIDE: Level four (rough draft)

[Guest Darth Wart]

 

LEVEL FOUR: THEED PALACE

 

The first part about running around the ballroom and killing everything is obvious. I would only note that you get 50 points for each potted plant you whack (apparently these potted plants are in the service of Darth Sidious).

 

Don’t forget to break the windows open (more mysterious points) and get the stuff in each little area behind them. You can get two extra lives and some other stuff this way. Every window can be hit twice, for 50 points each. Don’t scoff; two of those windows equals one droid.

 

Stand in front of the tall silver door. Sometimes you have to whack it with your saber for it to open. If your fighting technique basically consists of running into the middle of a crowd of droids and hacking away like an L.A. cop, this hallway was specifically designed to trap folks like you. Instead block the waves of droids as they approach; don’t go running after them. Most of them can fire non-stop, and this can devastate you berserker types; you won’t have a chance to get your character out of a constant string of pain-induced oooh’s and aaaah’s and the consequent immobility that these produce. We’ve all seen it. Deflect them one at a time.

 

After the two battle droids at the end of the hall, you’re gonna go to the right, obviously. BEWARE: as soon as you’ve stepped through that threshold, you’ve passed a “point of no return.” So take care of all business in this hall before you progress.

 

After getting the extra life, enter the room everybody hates (you’ll find out why in a second). Killing everybody on the ground floor, THEN get that checkpoint.

 

THEED PALACE CLIFF JUMPING

 

Okay, starting from where you take that checkpoint (by the way; kill everybody you can before touching that checkpoint, the points will stay with you when you die, which is coming up).

 

From that checkpoint, you've got to jump up to that first cliff with the droid. If possible, jump to draw attention to yourself and then deflect his lasers until he’s quite dead. Possibly a STAP is flying around shooting at you (although usually this isn’t triggered until you jump up on that first little post just under the first cliff). Jumping up on this cliff, you should approach from the right side. Why? The potted plant on the left side has a computer glitch that could result in your death; you can't get out of it, and can be helpless against STAP fire from above

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But wait! The right half of that cliff was blown off in the fray, you cry. Not to worry. That won't affect your ability to jump up on it.

 

Once up, you're going left. [if you know this part; skip this section. This is not the part that confuses everybody.] It goes without saying that you should have made sure everybody in this room is dead. If you haven't, this will come back to haunt you later in the form of getting shot in mid-air by some distant droid. Another thing that goes without saying is that you need to smash or shoot all windows, such as the ones behind you. One thing I like to do is just stand here until I have deflected the STAP into oblivion. It takes time, but if you are playing JPB in a hurry, you're practically asking to be sent into a towering rage. And a third thing that goes without saying: always fight these droids with your back to the windows.

 

So, like I said, go left, two jumps. Break windows. Another left, two jumps (try to avoid hitting your head on that little ceiling, something caused by the usually good habit of hugging the wall), break windows. Try to deflect droid on right. [AS ALWAYS, IF YOU'RE UNABLE TO DEFLECT DROID FIRE, WAIT UNTIL IMMEDIATELY AFTER HE SHOOTS BEFORE YOU JUMP.] And naturally, make sure you’re not in lock-on mode before making such a perilous leap. Then right two jumps. Break windows. Try to deflect other droid on right. Break windows. Then jump left twice. Kill two droids on this platform and get powerup.

 

From here, it’s possible to make out two conceivable landing points for your next jump: TWO platforms on the left. Listen to me carefully: YOU'RE AIMING FOR THE ONE ON THE LOWER LEFT. (You'll get to the upper one in just a second.) It's best reached by TWO JUMPS, just make sure to hug the wall in mid-flight and delay for as long as you can before pressing the second jump. Remember, if you die, you’ve got to go back and kill everyone (including the potted plants) on the ground floor again.

 

From here, two jumps up left to platform with force up. Now there's a droid to your right. I've tried everything, including calling his mother names, but he just won't shoot at you (Although if you're Mace, L2 + X has the problem solved, and sometimes I've seen droids like him simply leap off toward you, they're so eager to kill you.) So just two jumps right and engage. He's probably going to shoot you the instant you land, but that's pretty much unavoidable with this particular guy By the way, you’re remembering to break windows, right?) Then two more jumps right to empty platform.

From here, you seem to be facing a sheer wall to the right. Nevertheless two jumps right brings you up into a much wider platform with potted plants and killer droids. My left testicle for a checkpoint here!

 

Your immediate business: taking out the grappling droid. Then kill everybody else on this platform, including the potted plants, which, remember, serve the dark side.

 

From here you have to go to an identical section on the right by means of two jumps. Do not do these two jumps unless you're on that little banister, close to the wall. And make sure the left side of your body is as close to that wall as you can get it. (The safest way for getting on said banister is by jumping with your back to the camera, away from your point of view, if you know what I mean.) Do not bother trying to break these windows.

 

Kill the 5 droids on this platform and head right again. The doors here don't mean anything.

 

Another identical jump to a near-identical section. The problem is there's a droid waiting here to shoot you. Only Mace (I think) can take him out with L2 + X. The rest of you (including Panaka & Amidala) have to time your jumps until right after he fires. (Note: once on that banister, waiting to leap, do not dilly-dally. The droid's third shot will knock you backwards off that banister, forcing you to get up there again, and possibly causing your death in a frantic jumping panic.)

 

Kill droids in this section. There are 5 droids, something worth 50 points by the leftmost potted plant, one special Jedi weapon, three plants, and one yellow thing.

 

OKAY, HERE'S THE PART THAT CAUSES SUCH CONFUSION, AND RESULTS IN SO MANY PANICKY MESSAGES TO THE JPB BOARD...

 

Stop a minute. Look around. Specifically, move your character down to the bottom of the screen (running futilely against the banister) till you can see the 4 platforms on the wall behind you. That's where you're going. Memorize the terrain.

 

See the one furthest left? There ain't nothing more left than that. So, once you get to that one, you're going to have to jump back up to the one which is highest up on the wall (as seen from this position).

 

So go do it. Two jumps down to the platform on the right. Pause to deflect droid to lower right. Then ONE jump down to the platform he was on, to the lower right. Get the three goodies. Note: DO NOT TAKE A LEAP OF FAITH TO THE RIGHT FROM HERE. If you do, you'll soon be an atheist.

 

Now, jump back up left to the very same platform from which you came. This is what everyone means when they’re discussing this and they say "retrace your steps."

 

From here, it’s entirely possible to (erroneously) think you’re jumping to the UPPER left. You ain’t. Your eyes are playing tricks on you. Instead, from this platform, make ONE jump (it's a doozy) down to a LOWER platform left of you. Block droid. From there, ONE jump down to where this droid was, to the lower left. Once there, you are standing on the lowest of the four platforms that you could see from up there with the potted plants.

 

From here, ONE (long) jump to the lower right platform. There should be one droid here. And repeat again: ONE (long) jump to the lower right platform and dispatch the droid that's on that one.

 

From here you can see the ground! One more droid below; if you have a thermal grenade or something, this is a great place to throw it; just aim into the corner. You don't want anyone distracting you when you're trying to do this just right.

 

Once that droid's history, drop down onto the potted trough (or whatever) he was standing on.

 

From here, no explanation is needed. Proceed to the ground and start fighting. However, I usually run like mad to get the checkpoint just in the next room so I don't have to do this all over again. (Don't worry; there won't be an "invisible wall" behind you once you touch it.)

 

Please note that, even I, wart of warts, died like ten times during this sequence while writing this. You're not alone. All across America (and soon the world) there are people just like you, falling into the exact same abysses, and yelling THIS DAMN STUPID GAME! WHY CAN’T I SAVE MY GAME AT THE CHECKPOINTS? So chin up.

 

One more suggestion. People are moaning and groaning about how it ain't possible to get 39K on this level. It is, but you have to use trickery. Risky trickery.

 

Specifically, ask yourself right now... how long can I live on this guy I’m on? If you think you can battle the next room without touching that checkpoint yet, do it. Then, when you purposely die trying to rack up points, you'll still have those scores. The only thing is, if you die in that room without having touched that critical checkpoint, it's all the way back to cliff #1. A classic gamble. Happy decisioneering, and save that ultimate powerup for when you really need it.

 

If you do gamble, you usually work your way all the way forward to the room where the sarcophagus is. Just don’t jump down there yet. Sometimes, however, a game glitch will prevent you from re-entering that windowed hallway (you know the one I’m talking about). Rumor has it that Lucas browbeat the programmers into having the game ready to match the same release date as the video; consequently the program has innumerable glitches like this (wait till you see the one on Theed). Nothing we geeks can do about that now, though.

 

When you’re ready for the sarcophagus room, here’s how you avoid dying unnecessarily:

 

Jump onto that floor directly and you will die. This can be frustrating, since elsewhere in the game your character can drop easily double this height and nothing happens. But oh well.

 

Here's how to do it. Looking at the right edge of the "pit," there seems to be two pillars you can jump down onto, and from there to the floor.

 

The thing is, you can't jump onto the taller pillar, the game won't let you. There's an invisible wall that will prevent you from jumping over the banister at that point, forcing you to select the shorter pillar (the one with the extra life on it) as your destination. The problem is that it's difficult to judge space and distance and here, and you're sure to lose a few guys trying to “get it right.” Where to drop? From middle of the stairs? The top of the stairs?

 

Here's my advice: go up to near the taller pillar and use that invisible wall to your advantage. Keep trying to jump (or fall) into the pit. It won't let you, but keep trying as you slowly make your way down the banister. As soon as it'll let you drop, you'll drop neatly onto the shorter pillar. Just don’t jump during this process. From there you can drop to the floor without incident. I lost like ten guys trying to “get this right” before I figured out the secret.

 

Once you drop into that sarcophagus room (and live), however, you can’t go back.

 

An animation will load, and you’ll have to do a room full of pipes. There is no danger here that I know of, though that “checkpoint” is an immediate point of no return.

 

As for the next part, Darth Wart must admit he’s a little confused as to what happens. Here’s why: Queen Amidala has no voice on my game. I haven’t seen others complaining about this, so I assume it’s just my disk. She gesticulates like she’s talking to your guy, but no words come out. All she says is “Help!” (Actually, “Hell!”) Perhaps her droid captors cut out her tongue, who knows?

 

I gather you’re supposed to protect her as she walks her little course, right? Well, you can take your time, because despite her heart-wrenching cries, the droids won’t hurt her at all if she’s not in the same screen with you. Even then they rarely hurt her (on purpose). But don’t whack at her; she’s definitely killable.

 

Presumably you’re supposed to kill the droids just in front of her as she walks, but (like I said) if you dilly-dally she’ll be just fine. Other Jedi have spoken of a timer (?!?) right here, but there’s not one on my disk. I just clear everything methodically in that room (and there’s lots of goodies near that fancy desk or whatever it is) and then casually make my way up the spiral walkway. (NOTE: when battling on said spiral walkway, don’t fear jumping. An invisible wall prevents any suicide, intentional or not.) The challenge (theoretically) to this sequence is that Amidala is likely to get nailed by droid fire if you’re working IN FRONT of her. So work behind her. At least that’s the way I do it on my game. And there seems to be no penalty for this stratagem.

 

If you hug the near wall as you make your way up this staircase, there’s a small goodie you might not have seen. A point bonus, I think.

 

Enter the last room and do your duty. As always, touch the checkpoint last. There’s nothing hidden in either alcove that I’ve ever been able to find.

 

THE PLASMA DROIDS

 

These boss monsters take six hit points each; less if your character has earned an “attack bonus” or if you’re playing with Plo.

 

Players rarely have problems with these guys. Needless to say, steer clear of the funky green stuff. The problem here is that that green stuff seems only to exist in two dimensions, whereas you exist in three, so it can get you if you’re behind the plasma droid in terms of the camera, even though he fired it in the other direction. So steer clear. Like most monsters, they take a break. That’s when to attack, although they are vulnerable to damage when they’re greening, unlike the last boss. Adi can make short work of these goons with L2 + triangle.

 

There seem to be no hidden goodies in this room other than the health-up, which you can plainly see.

 

A jump toward the rolling green hills in the distance will result in your death. Try it.