LEVEL SIX strategy guide: Coruscant (rough)

[Guest Darth Wart]

LEVEL SIX: CORUSCANT

 

Welcome to Coruscant! I was here two days, playing ten hours a day. This level is not only really hard, it’s really long. I mean REALLY long. So long it has to load twice!

 

Reeve Thompson, LucasArts production manager, had this to say regarding the dizzying length of this level (in an interview culled from http://ant.com;features/askjedi/index.php3): “Q: Why did you make the Coruscant level so long? A: Ha! You'll have to ask the level designer Carl about that one. He just started building the level and kept going, and going, and going... In the end we knew it was long, but we also loved all the individual elements that went into it. The taxis, the air vents, the walkways... We tried, but we couldn't come up an agreement as to which parts we could cut so we decided to keep them in….”

 

So get going already.

 

Kill everybody in the first hall and hop on that first taxi. Warning: bend all you’re energies to killing that green guy who hops aboard your taxi – he is extremely dangerous. (Evidently “Acongo wongu, Jedi” is Ishi Tib for “That’s my taxi, you ugly American!”)

 

My basic suggestion for this level is to beware of the green guys. They’re the strongest of the thugs, and they can take up to four hits to knock out, depending on the strength of your attack. The real problem with them is that they attack you with a combination, the last blow of which is a vicious uppercut which, if it lands, will send your character reeling back 20 feet. (Try not to think about how inexcusably absurd this is.) I don’t care what fancy combo you’re using; those blows will stop you mid-stroke. Frequently the result is that you fall off an edge to your death.

 

The way to avoid this is to avoid engaging the green guys unless your back is against a wall, or unless there’s walking space directly behind you. That’s one good thing: when they knock you back, they knock you STRAIGHT back, not at a slight angle, like Maul does. So just make sure there’s something for you to be knocked back to.

 

Another general thing to do on this level is avoid – if you can – blowing your enemies off the roofs with such techniques as Qui-Gon’s L2 + triangle. You’re not getting any credit for the deaths, no matter how dramatic they were.

 

Kill everything you can and then go touch the first checkpoint. And then (you guessed it) leap to your death. Then go back and blah blah blah. You can return all the way up to the point where you got off your first taxi. But remember, for these hijinks to work you’ve got to live with this guy until the NEXT distant checkpoint, or you’ve got to do it all over again.

 

A couple things about this area: there’s a randomizer on the roof in the middle, where the orb droids are. There’s also one of your special items on a roof you can jump to east of that; that one’s not obvious.

 

Once you’ve doubled back and cleared everything out, hop on the next taxi. Only one jump, my friend. From there, jump across two more cars and proceed. You know that part where you go up your first flight of stairs? There’s a roof near that (at 7:00) you can jump to with a whopping point bonus.

 

From there, cross the bridge with the two black droids. Then enter an area and fight more green guys. Don’t neglect the extra life on a separate ledge just off to the left as you leave this area. And I would suggest taking that challenge (and THEN the randomizer). Why? You’re probably about to die from a fall in a second, but not because your “levels” were low. If you do manage to live through this next section, you’ll have 500 extra points.

 

From here, jump onto that sloping roof, and just as you’re about to slide off, jump to the next roof. Jump from rooftop to rooftop, killing droids. Frequently it’s possible to jump up and down from the roof you’re on, enticing them to leave their “post” and come over and harass you early. That way, you know you won’t be blown out of mid-air when jumping to your next destination. But this is the first thing everybody learns here.

 

Eventually you’ll work your way to what seems like a dead-end: an impossible-looking jump confronts you to that building with the force-up and the air vent on its side. You know the one.

 

Strangely, the program will let you make this jump without any special “tricks,” although why your character should be able to leap farther merely because the camera’s higher is beyond me.

 

You can jump directly onto that roof for the forceup, or, if you prefer, you can target your jump to land on the air vent, in which case you’ll be neatly blown over to the next rooftop. But in any case, step on that air vent you must, or you won't progress. It took me a long time to figure this out when I first played – “Surely they don’t mean for me to jump THERE!”

 

But they do. Keep going from rooftop to rooftop using these air vents (no need to jump while you’re airborne, pal).

 

You arrive at last to a platform with three goons. Kill the goons, touch the checkpoint.

 

This next part held me up for agonizing hours.

 

When you hop on that car, the boss monster, a tall thin fellow with white skin, appears and says archly, “We’ve been waiting for you.” Don’t try to follow him. This was my mistake: I lost about 40 guys here because I thought you were supposed to get back on the platform from which you came and go running after him. You aren’t.

 

When he says “we’ve been waiting for you,” run and jump toward the ship that he’s on. And stay there; your old one is about to explode. Before he loads, you CAN (if it amuses you) jump on the first ship, then immediately back to the platform where the checkpoint was. The ship will leave without you, but it’ll be back in a few moments.

 

And by the way, congratulations on making it to this checkpoint. That means if you doubled back like I suggested (and you live through the rest of this level), you’re going to easily clear the 51K you need to max it out.

 

NOTE: Make very certain you have killed all three guys on that platform before hopping on that ship. If you don’t, this boss won’t load at all and you’ll just be stuck on that ship, unable to move. You’ll have to exit and restart the level. At first I thought this was because my overall score was low (I like to play this level on “mad-dash” mode; my best record yet – 12 minutes, 37 seconds), but no; it’s those three guys that cause him to load.

 

Also, when your “new” ship moves down a little, there’s a space with two green guys to your right to which you’re obviously expected to proceed. Duh. But if you look to the left, you can see the roof of a building to which it looks like you might be able to jump. You can’t, although I think you were able to in an early version of the game. There’s actually a green guy on that roof, and I don’t know what else. Don’t try hopping to that roof from the back wing of the boss’s ship, though; program glitches, once again, will make you fall. The back wing is not solid ground (as a matter of fact, this game makes me think that Lucas’s whole universe is degrading into entropy). I once (I think) took this guy out with Panaka’s laser, but there was no way of getting the camera to “look” left to make certain I had done the job. And that guy doesn’t shoot at you.

 

In any event, wait for the taxi to come up, and jump across it to the next section. Kill, maim, plunder.

 

After you kill the goons on that tiered thing (and Adi’s bubble is superb for this), you’re gonna die. Here’s why:

 

You’ve got to slide down that sloping terrace to the next sloping terrace, and from there to the next roof, then to more of the same. Meanwhile the black droids are firing at you, and there’s no way of taking them out BEFORE you start leaping.

 

Here’s how Darth Wart does this part: I slide down the first roof, then jump to the second. Here I stay, continuing to slide down and jump back up lamely while the droids shoot at me. I’m waiting for the lower droid to fire. Once he does, you can time your jump to the next roof knowing you won’t get pegged in midair. (Happily, if you get nailed while you’re on one of these sloping roofs, your character will “hang on” at the bottom, thereby preventing you from dying, The only danger is getting caught in midair.)

 

On the section after that, where you have to fight all those green guys on another tiered-like building, I find it’s best to entice them down level by level till they get to the “main floor” where you’ll have more room behind you should they knock you back.

 

Get the checkpoint. Do the next catwalk sequence between the air vents walking, not running. These are not Jedi-friendly air vents. Methodically block all fire. Be prepared for the green guy in the center to come running out at you while you’re still on the catwalk; he uses only his fists.

 

Should the wind take you away, for a while your character will rise off-screen and still have an “arrow” indicating where he is and that he’s still alive. Don’t get any ideas; he’s dead. Just wait a second.

 

Hop aboard the purple taxi and pause. You’ll need to take care of those two guys on the left (the only ones who fire at this point) before jumping to the platform over there. As always on Coruscant, green guys have priority.

 

From there, you’ve got to leap across a row of moving taxis to the next section. I have never discovered a way to kill your offscreen enemies at this point advance; so you must time your jump with two things in mind: the presence of a taxi beneath your feet and the laser shots that fly regularly through the air.

 

From this section, there’s another series of roofs and their attendant block droids. Adi’s L2 + X is highly valuable here, particularly on the first one.

 

When you step on that elevator platform, the second stage of this level loads, and there’s no going back (the elevator counts as a checkpoint; notice also it fills up your bars). Many people have suggested they should have made a Coruscant part one and two, since this level is so unreasonably long. Such suggestions, of course, are futile at this point.

 

You might notice around here certain black droids hanging in the air that won’t fire at you no matter what you do. Game bug. The only way I’ve ever been able to get them, after countless failed strategies, is with Mace’s sword-throwing thing. From that moment on, he was my favorite character. (I originally thought that those non-firing droids were hovering over ANOTHER rooftop, toward which you were expected to make a blind leap of faith; I can assure you that is definitely NOT true.)

 

You’re gonna fight some more guys, then take an air vent across to another floating ship (presumably the boss’s ship again). If you’re playing in “mad-dash mode,” make sure you give said ship a chance to arrive.

 

When you jump down from that ship, you’ll be on – you guessed it – another platform fighting – you guessed it – more green goons. You see that little brownish building at about 11:00? Jump up on it; it leads to a semi-secret area.

 

And you will not be able to max out this level unless you fleece this scemi-secret section. I say “semi-secret” because, although it’s spelled out in the Prima guide, it took me several trips through Coruscant before I “discovered” it. When I first did Coruscant with 55K, I was giddy with excitement. But now, because of this section, I rarely finish with less than 60K.

 

And do not neglect to notice, when you return to this platform, that there is a building 6:00 from the stairs leading up out of it. On that building is another extra life.

 

When you fight your way down to the next landing, three clowns will jump off a taxi and go at you. Jump on this taxi and ride it to the platform at which it stops.

 

Fight more goons on this next aseptic landing (it just occurred to me: despite the obvious problem Coruscant seems to have with thugs and lowlifes hanging around on its rooftops, the mayor certainly doesn’t have any littering or graffiti problems to be ashamed of, does he?)

 

There’s another taxi waiting for you.

 

Hop on it. This second taxi’ll take you for a short ride. Then it’ll stop. You’ll have to jump over to the next taxi and kill everybody there. Then get back to yours quick; the one the goons were standing is about to be involved in a little accident.

 

Your ride continues a short ways, then you must hop onto a (barely visible) platform and kill another guy. (The rooftop accessible from this point has a randomizer on it). Get the checkpoint.

 

Be careful. This part is difficult for many.

 

Your task is to jump onto one of the taxis running below. If it helps, turn the sound down on your TV; it can be misleading. Position your character in such a way as to allow you to see the taxi coming in under the bridge as well as exiting; this will help you time your jump better.

 

A thrilling little ride, this. (All that happens is that a guy whom only Captain Panaka can kill will shoot at you from a distant rooftop). But listen carefully. Right after that, on the same side as the shooter, you’ve got to jump off the taxi onto that whitish part of the upcoming blue building. If you don’t, you’ll be “scraped” off the top of the taxi by the approaching overway. I don’t know why, but I find it’s best to run toward the back of the taxi for at least a couple steps before making this leap – it seems to help.

 

Scamper up to the right and kill everybody. You must kill everybody here; a politely-worded memo simply will not do the trick. And kindly notice to your right, where all the black droids mass, there’s an extra life on a ledge.

 

You’ll continue going from platform to platform, leading the Jedi life.

 

Currently there’s a rumor floating around the internet about a possible glitch in the game: when using Adi, when you get to the part where there’s a guy on the platform above you and one on the platform beneath you (both directly to the right), use her L2 + square, step in close to the guy, and you’ll be taken directly to the boss monster. I personally haven’t been able to get this to work, or not work, as the case may be. I should note that if it did, you’d be in danger of finishing the level with less than the necessary 51K.

 

THE BOSS MONSTER OF CORUSCANT

 

Easier than you think. What a shame he turned to crime, though. With his ability to effortlessly teleport around at will, he could have made millions revolutionizing the entire shipping industry of the galaxy. But he’ll pay.

 

First stage: keep him off camera, then run at him madly. About two bodies length, swerve. The ball should be thrown where you were, providing you with a slashing opening as he stands there admiring his handiwork. The only thing to watch out for this that if you’re on the same linear path as the balls, they’ll explode immediately without clattering around on the floor.

 

Second stage: a little harder. He teleports around, taking potshots at you. Stand in one place and block his fire. On occasion you’ll be able to deflect it back at him, but the real way to damage him here is by waiting for him to appear next to you and whacking him a good one when he does, before he’s able to get an attack off. Watch out for his energy balls, though. When he starts throwing them, that’s your cue to keep on the move. There’s a lightsaber powerup in the right alcove.

 

Third stage: mainly unimaginative hacking here, although he takes a breather a couple of times when he sends his goons after you. What can I say about fighting strategy at this point? Have at him with everything you have available: grenades, force attacks, your lightsaber, a rubber band, whatever.

 

Suggestions, anybody?

 

[Guest Jericho]

Wow...

 

That's great. Good job.

 

How do you guys know what a checkpoint is? Everyone's talking about them like it's an obvious thing...is this something out of the strategy guides?

 

My only additional comment for Coruscant is regarding the first die and double back scenario. There is an extra life early in the level to the left of a staircase and just before the sliding roof jumps. Grab that first then let yourself die and retrace the first part of this level for the points. That way you don't actually lose any lives.

 

Jericho

Break the walls down.

[Guest Jedi Trunks]

I agree with my friend Jericho here, i applaud you Wart. Good job. but i need help on five if you could take a little time out of your busy scheguel, i can't exactly find the Jawa house or the gungan artifact.

 

------------------

 

Trunks, Supreme Jedi

"I was merely here to save a life, now I must kick some Cell Ass."

[Guest liquidkid]

there should be a picture of a checkpoint in your game manual... if u've got one of them. otherwise there little red loopy lookin powerups. by that i mean there's arches and stuff. geez... that's a pretty bad description. it would be best to see the picture.

 

------------------

 

p.l.u.r. - J9K-4-LIFE - MCL

 

JEDI-4-LIFE

[Guest Darth Wart]

get into level one.

 

run past all the monsters till you get to the room from which you jump onto that treadmill.

 

see that whitish-reddish globe on the floor in front of those three droids? \

 

that's what a checkpoint looks like

[Guest Jericho]

Ohhhh....

 

See, the rented game didn't come with a manual...so we had to guess on what stuff does.

 

Thanks.

 

Jericho

Break the walls down.

[Guest BigBud]

Hey Jericho.

[Guest nkbyter]

Thank you kind Jedi on your elaborate detail of level 6. I've had much difficulty passing that board. Hopefully now I can.