System Shock 2 Melee-Only Walkthrough

God save the UNN . . . their weapons sure won't.

Walkthrough

Where Am I?

1. Getting your bearings
2. Raiding Citadel, by Enchantermon
3. The Final Battle

What the hell is going on here? / Top

When you arrive here, you'll get an e-mail from Shodan. Seems like you need to deal with her quickly. The last upgrade units in the game are directly ahead of you, so whatever you want, now's the time to get it. This level is as basic as they come, so you shouldn't have much trouble in combat. Head through the door to a slightly altered Rickenbacker bridge, *and pick up the Delacroix log. Head through the tunnel, and mantle the cubes in this room to get another log from Delacroix.* When you step back into Citadel station, slaughter the assassin to your right. If you haven't played SS1, this place will mean nothing to you. Even if you play SS1 later, returning here is like coming home. It's a very welcome sight after the chaos of the BOTM. *On the ledge to your right is a med hypo,* in the same place there's a med patch in SS1.

In the room to your right, you'll find a surgery unit. If you complete it, all the bumps, bruises, internal bleeding, and burst arteries left over from the BOTM will be a distant memory.

Ignore the cameras here, they didn't alert security in SS1 and they don't here. When you stand at the end of the surgical unit, look straight to your left, then go up the ramp here to hit a recharge station. Can anyone say good as new? *There's a crate in front of the recharge station which holds a psi hypo, and under the ramp and behind a computer is a med kit.*

Yet again, I slacked off, and didn't bother searching the Where Am I level for goodies and recommended a run for Shodan's throne room. However, Enchantermon wrote a walkthrough for this section for me, so here it is!

Raiding Citadel, by Enchantermon / Top

If you go left through the small corridor here, you'll come out in a large open area.

There will be three cyborg assassins scattered around up here; slay them all, then go back and stand facing away from the corridor you came out of. Opposite and a little to the left of you is a room with three crates. One is empty, one has a psi hypo and one has a med hypo. What, no Charleston's Chewy Skulls(tm)? When you turn to leave, you'll see another crate in a corner by the doorway; it contains a speed booster.

Come out of this room and head left. A side note: I incorrectly stated that they all of the colored shapes (data packets) flying around hurt you if you get hit by them, but TNT corrected me by pointing out that the only ones that hurt you are the depicted in the below screenshot:

So, when I refer to data packets, the dangerous ones are what I am referring to. The others can be safely ignored. Anyway. The next room on the left is empty, the one after that has a med kit on a ledge beside a microscope.

Keeping the wall on your left, you'll find a room that has data packets flying in and out of it periodically. Wait until one of them comes out, then run inside, turn right just inside the doorway, follow the corridor to an intersection, then turn right again. On a ledge in the room is a psi hypo. Backtrack to where you came in and get out of the doorway before another data packet comes out or goes in.

Continuing left, there's a speed booster in a recess in the wall, and directly across from it is a ramp that leads down to a psi hypo. Snatch it (the hypo, not the ramp), then head back up the ramp and around the corner, keeping the wall on your left. When you come to another corner, stop, and ready your melee weapon.

Quickly run into the hallway and up the slant on the wall, turn left, and kill the assassin. If you're quick enough, you should be able to take him down without getting hurt yourself. Now, from the hallway you just came down, go right, nab a psi hypo off the slant, and turn the corner. Go down the hall and turn another corner, then get the log from Delacroix and listen to it. Isn't that nice? Shodan's vulnerable to everything you can't use. Wonderful. Don't stand in front of the doorway for too long, because data packets like to come and go through there.

Now, you have a choice. There are a bunch of goodies at the top of these stairs, but as soon as you walk onto the first step, you only have 24 seconds to get to the top, or everything except a maintainence tool is deleted. However, every time you sucessfully mount one stair within the 24 seconds, one of the objects is saved from being erased when your time runs out. Easy? I wish. Mantling these things without falling is a real pain. Plus, when playing melee only, all you can do is recycle the stuff for extra nanites that you won't need, since you should have saved at least three ICE-picks for hacking Delacroix's terminals. And, even if you're not using the ICE-picks, the nanite cost is only 3 per hack. Simply put, you shouldn't bother getting the stuff unless you have very few nanites or you want a challenge. TNT did some extra investigation on this subject:

*If you're having trouble deciding whether you want to try your luck on the stairs, I made a list of which item is saved when you get onto each step. Step #1 is the step that you walk onto when you leave the Citadel look-alike area, Step #2 is the first step you have to actually mantle.

1. 1 maintenance tool
2. 12 standard bullets
3. 12 armor piercing bullets
4. 20 prisms
5. psi hypo
6. 12 anti-personnel bullets
7. med kit
8. 1 maintenance tool
9. ice-pick*

Whether you try for the goodies or not, you want to eventually head down the stairs. Keep an eye out for data packets and be careful. It's far too easy to overshoot your target, especially if you maxed out your Agility. When you see an opening to your right, mantle onto it, listen to Delacroix's final log, heal up, listen to any unread logs, and steel yourself. When you're ready, take the plunge.

Shouldn't the final boss battle be tougher than the secondary boss battle? / Top

Hop into the hole, and when you land, you'll be in Shodan's throne room.

From where you first land, run to your left around the room, using your ice-picks on the computers. *Watch your step, though, when the floor turns red, you get electrocuted.* When the shields are down, take a running jump at the platform where Shodan's head is. If you have the laser rapier, smack Shodan in the face with it.

If not, quickly check to see where Mini-Shodan is. If she's not in sight, then carefully position yourself underneath the head. The missile the head fires will hit the floor near you if you're too close to the center of the platform. Familiarize yourself with how close to the center of the platform is too close, and wait for Mini-Shodan.

When she shows up, it's time to move. Get Shodan's head between the two of you. When you see Mini-Shodan prepare to fire, jump. She'll target too high; she's not that great of a shot to begin with. You'll take damage being so close to Shodan's head, and you take damage at the same rate that the red squishy annelid organ thingy, which you get from the eggs, heals you. If you keep healing yourself, manage to avoid being hit by Mini-Shodan's projectiles, and keep your jumping in time with when Shodan's aiming, you should survive. When Shodan's head blows up, you'll see the end cutscene. And you'll probably wonder where the hell Goggles got the pistol he uses to shoot Shodan...