Hangbrain’s Marathon Survival Guide [b] First of all: there are NO cheat codes in marathon. [/b] Cheat codes are for spazeroids. Live on the edge a little! Now for some basic pointers: Assign the Caps Lock key as your run key. This keeps you highly maneuverable without having to crush you pinky holding down the Ctrl key (the default run key) all the time. Only turn off the run key when you have to do fine-tune maneuvering. Others, however, find it easier to use the Ctrl key for running, so basically you are going to have to experiment and find what’s best for you. Since there is no jump key in marathon, you are going to have to learn how to Grenade Hop. The simplest form of the Grenade hop is demonstrated in the animated GIF below: [url=http://imagebay.org/users/2267/10816.gif] Grenade hopping [/url] To do this, all you need to do is turn to face in the opposite direction of where you want to go (the map is very useful for this,) aim down, and start running backwards. Before you get to the edge of whatever you are jumping off of, fire both the machine gun and grenade launcher down at the ground. Tricky but useful, this can give that extra bit of lift needed. This can also be used to pop yourself up onto small ledges. You can also grenade hop forwards. The easiest way to do this is to face where you want to go, give yourself some running room, look down, then run at the point where you want to go, firing a grenade at your feet just before you reach a wall (or whatever). You will take some damage, but you should find yourself at the upper level. Make sure you don't fire right on top of the wall, because you will most likely die. Instead, , you want to time it to be just before you reach the wall in order to take minimal damage. You can practice this on the second level, 'Bigger Guns Nearby.' You can also you SPNKR missiles instead of grenades...they'll take you much higher and farther than grenades, but are also much more deadly if mistreated. Another survival tactic you must learn is sidestepping. This can not only be used to [url=http://imagebay.org/users/2267/10817.gif] avoid enemy fire [/url] but also to [url=http://imagebay.org/users/2267/10820.gif] maneuver around your enemies [/url]. Remember, sidestepping saves lives… especially you own. Ug. Explody Bobs. The MSP has this to say about them: “Exploding Bobs: cunning. Daring. Deadly. They are innocent colonist that have been converted by the Pfhor into exploding bombs. These can be tricky the first time you run into them, but there are some easy steps that you can take to distinguish between a normal Bob and the exploding Bob. First, normal Bobs will always say 'They're everywhere!' (well, assuming you haven't played with the sound file), while the exploding Bob will shout 'Thank God, it's you!' Secondly, exploding Bobs are always green. Finally, if shot with the pistol, exploding Bobs will spill yellow blood, while normal Bobs will bleed red. Thus, if a Bob is in question, fire one shot at it and look at the color of blood that spurts out.” In short, if it’s green, kill it :-) Remember that on lower difficulty levels, there is a limit to how much ammo you can carry. The figures below are for Normal gameplay: 50 .44 Magnum clips 25 Fusion batteries 15 MA-75 clips 8 MA-75 grenade packs 4 SPNKR Missiles 3 Napalm Canisters Remember that you can also have a full load in any weapon, so theoretically, you have one more than what's listed above. On Total Carnage, however, the above limits do not apply. Some doors, such as ones on 'Couch Fishing', 'Cool Fusion' and 'Colony Ship...', can be propped open. These door are activated by a switch, and will close after a certain amount of time. However, if you deactivate the switch before the door starts it’s closing cycle, it will stay in that position indefinitely. From Jason Martin Levitt comes a simple methodology for approaching any level: 1. Search for switches and room entrances by using map mode. 2. Flip all switches. -If a switch stays on after you've flipped it, don't bother it again. -If a switch turns itself off soon after you flip it, that means either the change was permanent, temporary, or reversible. a. permanent change -- the switch is permanently off -- you can't turn it on again. b. temporary change -- An event occurred that you need to deal with immediately. Generally, this means you need to run to some nearby place to take advantage of the change immediately after hitting the switch. c. reversible change -- For example, hitting the switch causes a pedestal to lower itself and stop. Hitting the switch again makes the pedestal go up and stop. Sometimes, you have full control in these situations i.e. you can stop the pedestal at any point. 3. Look for switches in unreachable places on the walls. Use grenades or rocket launchers on those. [Ed: The Zeus Fusion Pistol will also activate some buttons, but only on overload (hold down alternate weapon button (default 'option') and wait a second). 4. Look for entrances in unreachable places on the walls. Ways to get to unreachable entrances: a. Jump to them by using the "run" modifier key. Often, switching to map mode before making a jump makes it easier to see where you're headed. b. Use pedestals if they're available by jumping across them. Usually, you must be running to accomplish this. c. Use a grenade or rocket to boost yourself up by aiming it at the ground and firing. You do this by backing yourself up to the ledge, aiming at the ground, and firing. On levels where you have friends, such as Bobs, friendly defense drones, and friendly S'pht, if you follow these around, you'll sometimes find additional secret areas. You can abort looking at a terminal by pressing 'ESC'. This may be helpful if you want to grab more ammo or shields before leaving a level. If you are looking for an alien weapon from one of the enforcers on the later levels, then put away that flame thrower! It'll toast both the alien AND the weapon. Both A SPNKR missile and grenades will do the same. One tricky maneuver that is especially useful when dealing with large groups of enemies (particularly when dealing with projectile fighters (ie. enemies that shoot crap at you)) is to run in circles around the groop of enemies. The Pfhor and S’pht cannot lead their shots, so as long as you keep moving, you should be relatively safe. The aliens, however, will inevitably hit their own men, causing them to turn and fight eachother. After they are finished killing eachother off, you can usually finish the few remaining survivors with a running punch or so. And this leaves us with my last bit of advice: the run punch. Believe it or not, your fist is actually one of the most powerful weapons in the game. In fact, it only takes three running punches to take out a purple fighter on Total Carnage. It is a good idea to conserve ammo by taking out lone enemies with your fists, instead of wasting your other hard earned ammo. To do the running punch, simply run at your opponent, and at the last moment (before you bump into him) punch his guts out! This technique is demonstrated below: [url=http://imagebay.org/users/2267/10822.gif] The running punch. [/url] Well, that’s all for now. If any of you have any advise you would like to include in this guide, tell me and I’ll stick it in here. Also, if any of the animated pics go down, please alert me immediately and I’ll re-host them. And always remember: Move Fast, Seize the Initiative, Wield Superior Firepower, Dive Into the Melee, Anticipate Enemy Movements, Slaughter the Defenseless, Endure. [I] All info for this guide was gathered from the Marathon Spoiler Guide, Bungie’s Marathon 2 strategy guide, and my own personal experience. Animated GIFs are from Bungie’s Marathon 2 strategy guide. [/I] [Edited on 7/14/2004 8:37:44 AM]