LEVEL TEN: Final Batlle Strategy Guide (rough draft)

[Guest Darth Wart]

LEVEL TEN: FINAL BATTLE

 

Here you're going to meet Darth Maul a total of five times, the fifth time is the final battle, occurring after the colored maze, although I divide the first meeting into two because he moves to another room.

 

When you enter the maze, don’t bother scouring nooks and crannies for goodies; I’ve never found any. Proceed to the animation; Darth will load, and the fight is on!

 

Relax, almost every character I’ve used to beat him so far has had an unbeatable thing that I just kept using over and over again until I won (this includes Panaka, Amidala, and Maul himself). The only characters I haven’t tried as of this writing are Plo and Adi. I should note that Maul is easiest with Queen Amidala (!); the problem with that is, you’ve got to beat Maul (with Obi-Want) in order to unlock her.

 

Other than that, the current wisdom is that battling Darth Maul is easiest with Qui-Gon and hardest with Plo Koon. The reason for this is that Plo Koon is simply very slow and unable to defend himself against Maul’s combos, and also that due to (what is evidently) a program glitch Darth doesn't seem to have any defense whatsoever against repeated XX combinations by Qui-Gon. Hence he is easily disposed of.

 

(Note: using said XX combination, it is possible to back Darth into a corner and continue whacking him on the head in a cruel repetitive pattern. This is especially possible in the second room, where he can be easily tricked into getting in the corner. Don't waste your time. I and a friend of mine did this for about a hour and a half, just whacking him on the head by constantly pressing X, tediously racking up a score of 15,000! Two problems: you only get a measly 5 points for each konk, and Darth must have drunk a lot of milk when he was a kid because he has one hell of a noggin. 1,500 blows to the cranium and he's still as good as new! [And we later lost all 15,000 points when that character died and we were re-placed at the beginning of the maze.] So don't waste your time or thumb muscles with this. The program simply won't let him die until the final room, which you'll recognize immediately from the movie.)

 

Basically, the way this level works is that you have to hit Darth a certain number of times before you’re allowed to move on to the next stage of the battle. You’ll know when you’ve hit him because he oomphs. So if you have a character weak against Maul (like Adi) and your strategy is to simply avoid him until he leaves you alone, that ain’t gonna happen. You must damage him a certain amount at every stage for this level to progress. How much? I don’t know.

 

Also, you can run around and stuff; but fight with Darth on the right of the screen, with you on the left (except perhaps after the color maze). The reason for this is that when he’s had enough, he’ll turn and run offscreen to the right. But if you’ve trapped him on the left he might not be able to do this, and the battle will continue longer than it needs to (and increase the chances that you’ll be killed during this confrontation). If you’re hacking him to pieces nonstop, give him a breather every so often to see if he’s ready to run.

 

On this level, whack every computer you see. This is important because if you don’t, the windmills won’t shut off and they’ll blow you into the stratosphere. (If you’re in a hurry you only have to take out the computers with the giant red buttons.)

 

Another Jedi writes: “. . . when having to move from a higher ring to a lower ring in that cyclopean arena, the best way is simply to fall off, and then jump, moving, back toward the lower ring. This wasn't obvious to me, and it took some practice.” (It just occurred to me that these vast chasms are not, as I thought, aboard some space ship, but in the bowels of “the palace’s generator core.” Roomy palace, this.)

 

When you’re walking on the final catwalk (just before the last battle with Maul before the final battle, be aware that when the view changes, you’ll have passed a point of no return.)

 

When you’ve damaged Maul enough during THIS sequence, your character will “freeze” momentarily as Maul makes his getaway.

 

PROGRAM GLITCH: You know that checkpoint right before the droids? Kill the droids first (as if I need to keep repeating that) and then get the checkpoint. But whatever you do, DO NOT return to area from which you entered. Maul will inexplicably be there again (this time facing the rings) and you’ll have to do this whole battle over again. As you have doubtless learned, whenever you engage Maul during this battle, fight with your back to the walkway, not the abyss. When Maul knocks you back (and he will), he obligingly knocks you predictably STRAIGHT back. Keep this in mind.

 

After you come up the elevator, there’s a thousand point bonus to the left. Don’t miss it.

 

THE BLUE FORCE FIELDS

 

You have been jumping across them in a panic and occasionally dying, right?

 

Here’s the pattern:

 

One jump to first ledge. Make sure the white line doesn’t run across you.

 

One jump to next ledge. Make sure the white line doesn’t get you.

 

One jump to resting ledge. Kill droid.

 

Rest.

 

One jump to next ledge; did you know you can stand here between the two white lines and have a cigarette, even though you (visually) appear to be in danger? Two jumps to the next platform (the one with the forceup on it). The droid there usually leaps to his death before I get there.

 

Here’s the hard part: Walk to the next section. Seriously, you don’t need to jump, even though that’s what it looks like. Simply walk straight on to it, taking care not to do so when the moving white line can get you.

 

From here, SINGLE jumps to each ledge. Do not get panicky and start pressing circle circle. You’ll die. Single jumps. Don’t freak if one of the white lines gets you; this will merely cause you to scream; it won’t kill you or cause you to fall back. My advice: if one of the white lines gets you, great! Sit there and get your bearings for a second, for that means you’re on solid ground. On the last jump (from the ledge with the lightsaber thingie on it), I usually jump TWICE to safety. Don’t worry if you’ve been fried a little; there’s a health-up coming right up.

 

Take some time with these blue force fields, and you’ll discover they’re not as dangerous as you thought.

 

(I’ve made myself clear on this before: that lightsaber thingie is overrated.)

 

THE WINDMILLS

 

Kill droids BEFORE touching checkpoint. Rifle droid, as always, has priority.

 

Avoid jumping near the windmills, even if you’re on solid ground, except when, obviously, you need to get from ledge to ledge. The wind is likely to take you away. Same thing goes for walking along the edge – risky. (It seemed to me that Panaka was lifted into oblivion by these windmills far more than other characters – maybe because he’s wearing a skirt that catches the wind? Last time I fight with a man wearing a dress!)

 

One jump to move from any console level to any intermediary ledge; a second jump to correct. This is pretty much a crapshoot; by the time you see your shadow, you won’t have time to correct if you’re off.

 

Then DROP straight to the next console level below. Watching your shadow here is more doable. Just don’t jump. DROP.

 

WHERE DO I JUMP WHEN I’M DONE WITH THE FAN SYSTEM?

 

When you're done with the fan system and you're at the bottom level, you'll know it because the central computer does not have a giant red button.

To get to the level below, simply go to edge (I go to the right edge) of the platform you're on, then simply drop. Drop to the right, not to the center, or you'll fall into some water you can't see from where you are. As I drop I also move back toward the pillar. So try to aim for that grate thing you can see in the floor. I wouldn’t advise jumping. Simply walking off while moving back toward pillar should do it.

 

You're not the only one who's died a zillion times right there jumping (or falling) toward 6 o’clock.

 

THE COLOR MAZE

 

There’s 12 rooms; three horizontal rows of four rooms each; and four vertical rows of three rooms each. You entered the maze through room 8. Take a minute to figure this out before you continue with these instructions (I don’t know if we’ll be able to get a graphic here).

 

That said, proceed through the rooms in this order:

 

8 7 6 2 3

4 8 12 11 7

11 12 8 4 8

12 11 7 6 10

9 10 11 12 8

7 3 4 3 7

11 10 9 5

 

Credit where credit is due: I didn’t figure this out myself; I got it from www.gamewinners.com/playstation.

 

Note that you can whack the computers in each little compartment if you’re shy of the 12K needed to max out this level.

 

THE NERVE-WRACKING LEDGE JUMPING SEQUENCE

 

Right before the final battle, you know how you have to jump across all those gray ledges? Did you know you can safely walk along the upper part of those “laser” ledges without jumping or getting hurt? I didn’t.

 

The minute you enter the room with Darth, make like you are an Ethiopian and that checkpoint is a turkey dinner. You don’t want to have to do those damn windmills all over again.

 

THE FINAL BATTLE

 

I forget where I heard (or read) this, but I heard that if you keep using the same thing with Maul, he’ll “wise up,” and you won’t be able to keep doing it. This has certainly not been my experience. To wit:

 

 To beat Maul with Mace, simply keep using Mace’s short range force thing. Maul never catches on. Make sure he’s close enough when you do it, though. You don’t want to deplete that valuable blue juice unnecessarily.

 

 To beat Maul with Qui-Gon, simply keep hitting XX maniacally when Maul’s close enough. This picnic is discussed above.

 

 To beat Maul with Obi-Wan, simply keep hitting square square.

 

 To beat Maul with Maul, simply keep hitting XX (I think; need to verify this) Maul is definitely quite decent against Maul (despite the brazen illogicality of such a battle).

 

 To beat Maul with Panaka or Amidala: as you’ve doubtless discovered, you can shoot him off camera and inflict damage with your laser, even though there’s no way he can get you. You coward! The problem is that if you do this TOO WELL, the program will glitch and Maul will disappear, even though you may still continue to hear his oomphs. I’ve had extensive experience with this. The camera won’t allow you to scroll forward, and you’ll have to go back to the previous sequence, if that’s even possible. Meanwhile there might still be a mysterious “explosion” just lingering in the air where Maul was (a “disturbance in the force” because you’re shamelessly cheating?). The best way to avoid this bug is by shooting him when he’s JUST off-camera, not very distant (even though I am aware you can rack up points that way), say, maybe where you can still see the tips of his lightsaber blades. When I fight Maul with Amidala or Panaka, I shoot him when he’s on screen, but somewhat distant. Then I give him a rest every few seconds, to see if he’s ready to run. If he comes toward me, I run around in circles. Darth will follow, but at a certain point, he’ll stop and do this fancy swishing thing with his lightsaber. This enables me to put some much-needed distance between me and him, and I turn and fire. Note well: I TURN and fire. Don’t simply press R2 + fire, because there’s a strong possibility your character won’t lock on to his location, and you’ll wind up idiotically shooting at the palace walls with a Sith lord is just ten feet away. So the minute you get enough distance to operate, TURN and face him. Eventually he’ll close in again. At that point, break and run. Rinse, lather, and repeat. (NOTE: Do not break out the champagne if your laser knocks him over the edge; he’s apparently immune to falling to his death. He’ll just magically reappear behind you. Wouldn’t it be great, though, if when you did this you simply won the game right there and then? That seems fair to me. Maybe at that point some Oompa-Loompas could come out and give you a tour of what was in store for you in the rest of the maze. “And we set up these windmills just for you, sahib!” As I said regarding the Loader Droid in level one, don’t get the idea that one swell and flawless blow will end the match; ain’t happening.)

 

As of this writing, nobody has been able to supply any articulate suggestions for how to reliably beat Maul using Plo or Adi, and the author of this page has yet to do this himself. One Jedi (I forget who) says that one of Adi’s combos “takes Maul to school” but he couldn’t remember which one. We will update this paragraph as soon as we can verify. I lifted this recent conversation from the JPB board:

 

Pizza the Hutt: I need a strategy, because I've played ten full games (with eight credits each) and I've only gotten to the second part of the level (the reactor room) once. Plo's combos are too slow...everyone now and then I'll get into a groove with the square, square, x combo, but Maul will do something to disrupt my timing or I'll hit the buttons a little to fast or a little to slow and I'm toast. I've come to the conclusion that blocking is a waste of time...you can never block an entire Maul salvo without depleting your meter and taking serious punishment. I've tried to "stick and move," but that only works as long as you have room to backup...when you back against the wall, it's all over. Can anyone help? I almost destroyed my Playstation last night in a fit of rage.

 

Shadeshifter: I feel your pain. I've made it to the second round of the reactor when he knocked me off. I keep using the x,x,square,force combo, but I still wind up taking way too much damage. To quote Jar Jar, "Any help here be nice."

 

So that’s the situation. You got suggestions? We’re taking them.

 

One other thing: this writer is aware of only one extra life available in this level –- the obvious one in the color maze. I feel like there should be others…