LEVEL SEVEN: Ruins (rough)

[Guest Darth Wart]

LEVEL SEVEN: RUINS

 

Welcome to the Ruins, a cool-looking level that’s home to one of the most maddening bugs in the entire game. What’s more, many people consider this level very difficult to max out without “cheating,” i.e. doubling back. A definite must on this level.

 

Get the long lightsaber behind the tree and start down the hill.

 

Warning: make sure you get that yellow thing before you finish making your way down to the bottom of this hill. If you don’t, a game glitch will keep it tantalizingly out of reach until you’ve killed practically every droid in the area.

 

You know the routine: kill everything, rifle droids first. Probably a good idea to stand around until all the droids have emerged from the neighboring dimension (I mean it: throughout this level they literally come out of nowhere). Simply running off after you’ve made a superficial clearing of the area can come back to haunt you.

 

See that pit with all the computers? Get the yellow thing first, then hop down (once you’re in there, you can only rarely come back this way, although I have done it).

 

I don’t know of any “trick” to this pit: simple martial prowess. The droids come in what can seem wave after wave. Try to keep the majority of them offscreen until you take care of whatever’s close. (In this game, a monster’s IQ seems to drop about 100 points the second he’s not on screen anymore.) Don’t neglect to search among the computers for goodies.

 

Personally I stand below that ledge where they all drop in for the party. You can typically take them out one at a time before a crowd builds up, and before a crowd has a chance to gather.

 

The plasma droids are best handled by a long-range force technique, if you’ve got one. Mace in particular shines here. They’re not fooled by Adi’s invisibility gag.

 

Don’t neglect that extra life up there on the ledge. But don’t explore the ledge above THAT too thoroughly; more “invisible voids” await you there. Did I mention to kill everything as you go?

 

Eventually the waves of droids will stop (trust me), and you can move on.

 

Here’s the critical trick to this level:

 

Once you get to the dilapidated bridge, touch the checkpoint and leap into the abyss WITHOUT GOING TO THE OTHER SIDE. When you're resurrected in that exact same spot, work your way back into the pit with all the computers and kill all those guys again. Just don’t cross the bridge until you’re finished.

 

This is a tricky backtrack; you've got to make sure you live until you get to the NEXT checkpoint (after the bridge) for it to work, but if it does, your points will be through the roof.

 

One major problem: sometimes a game glitch will stick you in that pit with all the computers and the camera won't scroll you out. This happens about half the time, I'd say, and I don't know how to do anything about it. Occasionally I get the program to scroll me out by pressing diagonally to the lower right of the screen, but this is hardly reliable. This glitch sometimes goes into action your first time in the pit, too, although that seems to be rarer.

 

If you’re backtracking and you get stuck like this (and you will), here’s my advice. Make sure you get the extra credit up and left of the pit. Then, jump to your death from the highest cliff into the computer valley below. You’ll be placed back at the bridge again for another chance, and no loss of life. This time, run like mad past the plasma droids and rifle droids without engaging. Don’t pick up any goodies in this area. Then, beginning from the left side of the pit (wisely beginning with the extra credit), start clearing the area systematically, left to right. The game should allow you to move out of the pit by the time you’ve worked your way over to the rifle droids.

 

In my opinion this is the most serious glitch in a program already famous for its glitches. And it IS a humdinger. Where’s the QA, Lucas?

 

Once you’ve done all that a second time, continue with the next section.

 

There’s an ultimate powerup to the left just before you jump onto that first platform where that droid is.

 

WARNING: Do not go for a swim in this level. The green water counts as an abyss. For all your recondite Jedi powers, you are evidently incapable of a simple backstroke.

 

The giant lightsaber you get near the next checkpoint is just a trick to get you to hurry through the next jumping sequence in your eagerness to stab something. Don’t give in. Take your time, watch your shadow.

 

Speaking of that checkpoint, seize it and then backtrack two platforms. See the platform there in the corner? If you can manage to jump to it and survive you’ll get a 2,500-point bonus.

 

Kill the kreetles methodically, one at a time as they approach you. NEVER allow them to gang up on you or you might never escape. And don’t dismiss them as unworthy of your Jedi attentions, either. Each one is worth 100 points, same as a droid. Make sure the swipe you’re using touches the ground, though, or you may find yourself swinging haplessly through the air while they eat off up feet.

 

It helps to lock onto them, but NOT near a tree; that’ll throw everything off. (The trees, incidentally, are utterly invincible, lock-on ring notwithstanding.) Give them your full attention the minute you hear that distinctive click. There are not, as I first thought, endless streams of them on this level. Kill all the ones they give you and you will be left in peace.

 

Note that the trees barely damage you, despite your pathetic grunting (Qui-Gon is egregious in this department).

 

When you make it down to the ground again, be sure to check behind the tree for the giant lightsaber.

 

See that yellow thing? A trap! The health-up itself is on solid ground, but the area just right of that is a pit. Once you fall for it, the droids are waiting to ensnare you. Literally – waiting. If you’re wise to them and try to kill them all without hopping into the trap, many times the droids will fail to appear until you oblige. Come on. Give them a break. Hop into the stupid pit already.

 

Although you won’t be able to see what you’re doing while you’re down there, just keep hacking away until nothing is moving.

 

Notice that behind the giant tree just east of this pit (just in front of the bushes) is one of the three Gungan artifacts; the location of the other two having been described in the guides for Tatooine and Naboo. It’s only worth 50 points, but if you have all three, you can unlock “secret” level 13: Gungan Roundup. Note that if you failed to get the other Gungan artifacts on your trips through those levels, the game doesn’t require you to collect them all with the same character. (Many people are confused or mistaken about the nature of these artifacts; what nobody is mistaken about, however, is that “secret” level 13 is hopelessly sucky.)

 

You’ll move on for a ways, killing kreetles, until you come to a checkpoint. (Notice that the kreetles only appear near trees? They’re hoping you’ll try to lock on to the kreetles for more effective blows but wind up locking onto the tree instead and wind up getting bitten to death right before the final battle. That’s how they get ya! Engage the kreetles in the spaces between the trees, where you can lock-on all you want.)

 

Take the checkpoint. If you’re low on life Simply jump into the water and backtrack from where you were resurrected. This trick will enable you to go as far back as that last pillar you jumped from (although not easily), killing the droids near the trap again and all the kreetles along the way.

 

If you choose to do this, get those yellow things last. Those kreetles can take a serious toll on even the best Jedi’s health bar, and you’ll want to be plenty healthy for the upcoming boss monster, since there are no powerups during that sequence I’m aware of. Keep in mind again that this strategy assumes you’re going to vanquish the Gungan boss on THAT GUY; if not, you’ve got to do the backtracking all over again.

 

Incidentally, at 5:00 from the abovementioned checkpoint, there’s a kreetle trying to get at you, madly hopping up and down out of God knows where. I don’t think you can kill that kreetle, but amazingly, the area in which he’s jumping is NOT another one of the program’s “invisible voids.”

 

THE GUNGAN BOSS

 

Many people report this boss giving them problems, but I’ve never had any difficulty with him. Simple psycho-style hacking. Make sure, however, that when he starts throwing those balls around, you ain’t in lockon. At that point, you’ll just want to run circles around the arena until he comes down again.

 

The first thing to remember (unless you’re Qui-Gon) is that the health you came in with is all you’ve got to work with. I’ve been unable to find any goodies concealed in the “arena” for this final battle, nor anything special in the trees preceding it, for that matter.

 

What seems to work best here is your back-and-forth horizontal slashing attack; all of the basic characters have one. What definitely WILL NOT work is any “powerful” attack, such as a giant, lunging attack (typically running triangle). He’ll just prod you in the belly.

 

 

[Guest Jericho]

I've found the best way to avoid the energy balls that the boss tosses is to stand right up against the rock that he stands on. He always tosses them out and away and the blast radius doesn't hit you.

 

Great posts, Wart.

 

Jericho

Break the walls down.