MDK2 Level 1 Strategy Guide: Beware the Hand of Hanz

Level Briefing: Kurt

Kurt is the first of your three heroes to go down to the Mine Crawler (the alien ship) to see why Edmonton is now being attacked. Kurt is reluctant but dives into the action after a little persuading from Dr. Hawkins. ’As Kurt, you’ll have your hands full with feisty Shwang Shwing and his minions.

• Enemies: Poopsies, Bottrock, Bifs, Coneheads.
• Boss: The Pilot
• New Weapons/Items: Sniper Mortar, Sniper Grenade, Super Chain Gun, Black Hole Bomb, Dummy Decoy, hovering alien ship.

Level 1 Strategy Contents:

• Area 1: Learning the Ropes
• Area 2: Target Shoot
• Area 3: A Decoy and a Secret Room
• Area 4: Two Bottrock’s and a Sphere of Death
• Area 5: The Two Bifs
• Area 6: Blue Balls Bounty
• Area 7: Sniper Mortar Heavenn
• Area 8: The Boss

Area 1: Learning the Ropes

• Things are just getting started for Kurt Hectic and his friends. As Kurt jumps toward the Mine Crawler, be sure to move him around so he avoids the missiles that are fired at him! (See Hectic Hint 1.1.)
• You begin in the center of a large room. There ahead in the distance is the only exit. Directly in front of you is a large circle that marks the center of the room.
• To get out of this first room and begin your mission, you need to shoot the blue Sniper Ball in the center of the exit with your Sniper Gun. Enter sniper mode and zoom in enough to get an accurate shot.
  • Be sure to experiment with the sniper mode’s zoom feature; you’ll need to use it plenty to take out the Sniper Balls as the game rolls along. All of these blue orbs must be deactivated by shooting them with Kurt’s Sniper Gun.
• Hectic Hint 1.1: Getting Settled
  • In Level 1 you’ll play as Kurt Hectic, a one-time janitor for Dr. Fluke Hawkins and now a brave if reluctant hero. After a few moments, Dr. Hawkins tells you that you can go through a short training drill by walking into the center of the circle and facing the exit. Veterans of MDK will feel right at home in this level and may want to move ahead right now and start the quest. But if you’re still trying to master the game’s controls or want a refresher, listen to what Dr. Hawkins has to say. In fact, even MDK veterans will benefit from this quick review of the basic moves.
  • If you’re a newbie, go for the training. The Doc may be eccentric, but he’ll help you to gather your wits about you before you venture into hostile territory. Listen to Hawkins as he guides you through the various skills you’ll use for jumping, parachuting, shooting, moving, and most importantly, using the Sniper Mode.
• Keep following this first hallway as it curves to the right. It ends in a short drop to the next hallway. Use your Ribbon Chute to drift down.

Area 2: Target Shoot

• At the end of the next hallway you’ll find another large room that’s bisected by a transparent but formidable divider. The divider is impervious to all attacks, except through the small portal in the center.
• A Bottrock taunts you by waving a target in front of the portal. Don’t let him get away with it! Shoot the target to break the divider.
• When you’ve destroyed the transparent divider, switch out of sniper mode and attack the Bottrock with your machine gun.
  • When fighting the Bottrocks, it’s important to keep moving sideways and turning to face him so that his fireballs don’t hit you. Keep a distance from these bad guys—if you come within their reach, they’ll hit you and knock you down, breaking your attack rhythm.
• After killing the Bottrock, continue into the hallway through the exit on the far side of the room. This hallway proceeds straight to another drop.

Area 3: A Decoy and a Secret Room

• This hallway opens to a platform where you’ll find a useful Dummy Decoy.
• Grab the decoy and throw it to the floor below, then Ribbon Chute down after it. The dummy will distract your foes as you float down.
• Two Poopsie’s and a Poopsie Generator await you on the floor of this room. Attack the Generator first. Until you demolish it, the Generator will quickly replace any of the Poopsie’s that you kill.
  • Remember, the Poopsie Generator is your first priority. The two Poopsie’s in this room should be kept occupied by your Dummy Decoy long enough for you to wipe out the Generator and at least one of the Bottrocks.
• Look for the uplift fan near the exit. Before you leave the room, use this uplift to get onto the floating platforms high above you—they hold valuable items!
• You don’t actually need the uplift fan to reach the floating platforms; they swoop down low enough for you to jump on. But using the fan makes it easier.
• Ride the platforms to collect items before you leave the room, there’s a Health power-up to be had way up high.
  • There’s a 50+ Health at the exit to this room. Pick it up if you can, because you won’t be able to come back for it later.
• Shoot the blue Sniper Ball that opens the exit. Your reward: access to a secret room full of stash!
• Hidden Stash in Area 3
  • Under the exit from the room where you shot the blue Sniper Ball is a secret compartment. There are two ways to get to it, but the easiest is to glide over to it using your Ribbon Chute and the uplift fan. Inside you’ll find some grenades and other cool goodies, including Sniper Grenades. Also, there’s some food in here to increase your health if you’ve taken a few hits.
• The entrance to a secret compartment lies below the exit from this room. Use your parachute and the fan to get the lift you need to enter the room.
• Shoot these boxes open to get at the goodies inside. Superb stash!
• The exit from this room is a platform below the one where you just entered. Use the uplift fan to float to the exit platform and follow the short hallway to the drop.
• The drop-off takes you into another passage that slopes down gradually, curving to the left until you reach another drop-off. You’ll have to destroy a couple of floating Spheres of Death along the way.

Area 4: Two Bottrock’s and a Sphere of Death

• The next drop leads down to a checkpoint. On the Dreamcast version, if you get killed or if you quit the game, you can restart here.
• Go forward from the checkpoint through the doorway and into a medium-sized room, where two Bottrocks are waiting to greet you (see Hectic Hint 1.2).
• Hectic Hint 1.2: Dealing with Multiple Enemies
  • In Area 4, stay in the hallway and attack the Bottrock’s. You can use the straight, narrow hallway to your advantage, by cutting down the angles you have to maneuver and putting only one of those annoying Bottrock’s at a time in your view. Whenever you have a chance to take shelter behind a pillar or wall, do it! You’ll reduce your chances of being seen or hit by the enemy.
  • The best advice about facing a roomful of enemies (like what you meet up with here in Area 4) is to keep moving from side to side.
  • Even if the Bottrock’s or the Sphere lead their shots to try and anticipate your position, your side-to-side movement (with a little front-to-back thrown in for good measure) will mean you’ll rarely be hit.
  • Side-to-side defensive movement (sidestepping) takes some practice because you have to keep shooting the enemies while you’re moving—but it’s well worth the effort to learn this technique.
• Keep moving around the enemies at all times as you’re firing on them. Be sure not to get too close or they’ll wreck your day!
• Push in and start sidestepping immediately to avoid the enemy shots. Keep moving! With three bad guys in this room, you’ll have shots coming from every direction until you can cut down your opposition.
• There are items in all four corners of this room (Health power-up and grenades). You’ll have to jump over the obstructions to reach each of the items.
• Use sniper mode to shoot the blue Sniper Ball that unlocks the exit. Beyond is a short hallway that drops down to another passage curving to the right.
  • Proceed with caution in hallways. The hallway after Area 4, for instance, is guarded by two fixed Sentry Guns on the ceiling. They’ll open fire on you as you round the curve.
• When you reach the Sentry Guns, back away as soon as you come under fire and switch to sniper mode. Then you can inch out sideways, to the left, until a part of the fixed Sentry comes into view.
• When you have a clear shot at a portion of the Sentry Gun, fire away. Take out both guns in this manner to protect yourself as much as possible.
• Just beyond the Sentry Guns is another drop-off, but don’t jump down too hastily. There are grenades and Health power-ups for you to collect from both sides of the drop-off.

Area 5: The Two Bifs

• The drop-off from Area 4 leads to a large room patrolled by two tubby Bifs. There’s a Cloak right in front of you; pick it up and then move back behind the pillar to avoid being seen by the first Bif.
• You’ll take out the Bif with one shot if you can shoot his eye while in sniper mode (see Hectic Hint 1.3). Conceal yourself with the Cloak while you line up the shot.
• Hectic Hint 1.3: Killing the Bif with One Shot
  • The Bif has a large belt buckle that opens and closes every few seconds, revealing the Bif’s eye. It’s this eye that you must shoot, in Sniper mode, to take out the Bif in one pop. The Bif fires homing missiles, so use the Cloak as cover while lining up a shot at the Bif’s eye. The Bif won’t attack until you fire your first sniper shot, so you’ll have time to line up the shot just right. However, the Bif will see you once the shot is fired, and then all bets are off.
• If your one-shot attack misses the Bif, attack it with your Chain Gun and grenades. If you’re going head-to-head with the Bif, be sure to keep dancing the entire time to avoid taking hits from his missiles.
• There’s another Bif at the other end of this room. He stays pretty much in one spot, so he’s easy to attack. Make short work of him by standing behind a pillar and lobbing grenades at him.
• After you kill the second Bif, move up the ramp and into the room and collect the food item at the other end.
• On the ledge that extends along the inside of the room you’ll find a small portal which contains a Sniper Ball. Shoot it to unlock the exit.
• If possible, use the grenades and your standard Chain Gun to kill the two Bifs in Area 5. There’s a Super Chain Gun power-up item in this room, near the ramp, but try to save it for later. It’ll come in very handy for another task in this level.
• The exit leads to another drop-off and another hallway. This one slopes down gradually and then curves to the right. Watch out for a Sphere of Death along the way, and another fixed Sentry Gun on the ceiling.

Area 6: Blue Balls Bounty

• The hallway opens into a huge spherical room. There are two Spheres of Death in this room; find ’em fast and shoot ’em down right away.
• If you move off the platform at the entrance to this room, you’ll come under fire from another Sentry Gun, so kick into sniper mode and take it out.
• This round room has blue orbs placed in several key spots. When you spot each one, shoot it with your Sniper Gun; you’re trying to turn on the uplift fan in the center of the room.
• This uplift fan will be activated after you’ve put all the blue orbs out of commission.
• There’s booty here—collect the various items at the bottom of the room before taking off on the uplift fan.
• Use your Ribbon Chute to ride the updraft to Area 7. It’s a long way up, so don’t worry if it takes a while!

Area 7: Sniper Mortar Heaven

• You’ll arrive at an outdoor platform high above the city. There are other platforms floating around you, and four Manta Rays taking shots at you. Use your machine gun to shoot down the flyers when they move into range.
  • If you feel like doing a lot of dancing, you don’t actually have to shoot down the Manta Rays that strafe you. In fact, the flyers don’t “lead” with their shots, so, as long as you keep moving you’ll avoid taking hits. However, the flyers are easy to kill and you’ll be that much ahead if you hammer them right now.
• Pick up the Sniper Mortar on the platform. To gain access to the glassed-in platforms, you’ll have to drop a mortar into the hole in the top.
• The uplift fan in the center of the platform activates when you get there. Kill the Bottrock on the platform before you jump to it (use your parachute to glide over to the fan).
  • To see exactly where one of your Sniper Mortars ultimately lands, watch the “camera view” in the small Mortar window in the upper-right corner of your sniper mode window.
• From this platform, you’re in a perfect to position to lob another Sniper Mortar. Aim for the opening at the top of the next platform’s shield.
• After you’ve destroyed the shield, use the nearby uplift fan to gain enough altitude to reach the next platform. You’ll get the maximum distance if you start forward just before you reach the top of the uplift.
  • Kill the Bottrock on the next platform, then lob mortars into the closest platform above. The third platform’s shield opening is smaller, but you can get a mortar in there if you persist. More mortars will appear if you run out.
• After you’ve destroyed the shield around the third platform, use the uplift fan to gain enough altitude to glide over to it. Don’t be lured away by the other, temptingly close platform to the left.
• This platform is beside another one that has a long hallway leading up from it. The entrance to this hallway is around the backside of the platform.
• There’s a Sentry Gun on the ceiling of the hallway, so as soon as you get inside, switch to sniper mode and select normal sniper bullets to attack the gun. Or, you can simply run past and sidestep the shots.
• Follow the hallway up and around to the next platform. Watch for two more ceiling guns along the way, and switch to sniper mode to destroy them. Remember that you can still sidestep in sniper mode.
• When you reach the other end of the hallway, turn left to find the next platform. Glide over to it and ride the uplift fan to the next area.
• Beauteous Booty: A Black Hole Bomb
  • If you’re adventurous, before you ride the airshaft up to Area 8 for your meeting with the big boss Pilot, look around at the hallway you just navigated. Outside it you’ll see an item. Glide down to retrieve it and you’ll nab yourself a Black Hole Bomb, which will make your visit to the next area considerably more pleasant. The folks at Bioware recommend very highly that you make the effort to get your hands on this way-cool weapon.
  • The Black Hole Bomb is basically a self-contained black hole. Once it’s activated, it will pull anything and everything into itself. Then it eventually implodes and disappears. And be careful when you use it—be sure to keep backing away from the black hole at all times, or you’ll get sucked in along with your foes!
• A Black Hole Bomb is hidden on top of the hallway structure in this area. It’s important to get this weapon—it’ll make your battle with Shwang Shwing much easier to win.
• As usual, it’s a long ride up! Enjoy the break; you’re about to meet up with the alien ship’s Pilot.

Area 8: The Boss

• Facing you in a floating arena is the giant alien ship. Its huge mechanical arms are equipped with laser weapons that will keep you dancing. Stay at the top so you don’t draw the attention of the Bottrock lurking below.
• The pair of small ships floating around will spawn new Bottrocks if you kill the two below you. To prevent a nonstop stream of these rude beasts, use sniper mode to smash the orbs on the bottom of the small ships.
• To disarm the huge, hovering alien ship use sniper mode to shoot the four orbs in the center of the ship. The mechanical arms will close for a few moments, but you’re far from the end of this confrontation!
  • Remember that when you’re in sniper mode you can move from side to side! And in fact, if you don’t sidestep you’ll be dead in a hurry. Shwang will take you with extreme prejudice.
• More mechanical arms open up and put out even heavier fire, so keep sidestepping to avoid the shots. Another blue orb appears in the center of the ship—shoot it several times to again disarm the alien craft.
• After you hit the orb you’ll see the alien piloting the huge vessel. Stay in sniper mode and attack him with Sniper Grenades (or whatever ammo you have left).
• The Pilot abandons his ship after getting popped a few times, and jumps down to your arena where the real fight will begin!
• Now’s the time to break out the Super Chain Gun that you’ve been saving. Keep sidestepping and concentrate your fire on the Pilot. Even if the other two Bottrocks are still alive, just try to avoid them and hit the Pilot.
• The Pilot uses two weapons: a homing missile that you can hop over, and a kind of “proximity blast” that puts out shock waves that can hurt you. When you see him lean backward, jump to avoid the shock wave.