MDK2 Level 3 Strategy Guide: What Is the BFB?!

Level Briefing: Dr. Hawkins

With both Kurt and Max abducted by Shwang Shwing, Dr. Fluke Hawkins is now forced to defend his ship, the Jim Dandy. The Doc is so confident that his ship is invulnerable that he mocks Shwang Shwing, but this balloon of hubris is soon to burst as Shwang indeed finds a way onto the ship. Now, as Dr. Hawkins, your job is to defend your ship from the enemy infestation. It’s time to put your MacGyver-esque brilliance to work. You need to combine the items in your inventory into some useful goodies to help your cause!

• Enemies: Poopsies, Bottrock, Bifs.
• Boss: BFB
• New Weapons/Items: See Doctor’s Orders 1.1

Level 3 Strategy Contents:

• Area 1: The Jim Dandy’s Main Areas
• Area 2: The Head (Ship’s Washroom)
• Area 3: The Garden
• Area 4: Girderville
• Area 5: Even More Girderville
• Area 6: Life in a Fishbowl
• Area 7: Zero-G Delight
• Area 8: The BFB

Area 1: The Jim Dandy’s Main Areas

• Although you begin on the bridge, you are quickly warped to the kitchen, where you can begin to collect items.
• In the kitchen, you are instructed to pick up the loaf and the toaster on the counter in front of you. Pick them up and watch them plop into your inventory.
• Take the colorful Mr. Fizzy drinks from the fridge before leaving the kitchen area.
• At the bar, take the bottles of The Sauce and the dirty towels. These are combined later into homemade Molotov cocktails.
  • Take the time to learn how to combine items into effects and creations (see Doctor’s Orders 1.1). Dr. Hawkins’s scientific skill will be used repeatedly throughout this level, so having a handle on how everything is used will help your cause considerably.
  • For some fun, step up to the hi-fi unit and watch Dr. Hawkins do a jig.
• Doctor’s Orders 1.1: The Items and Their Combinations
  As Dr. Hawkins, you can pick up items and combine them to create exciting new weapons and handy devices. For example, put Pipes and a Hand Dryer together to make a Leaf Blower that’ll send four of those Bottrock's morons tumbling toward a nasty giant Venus Fly Trap named Kermit. The folks at Bioware were good enough to supply us with a complete list of all the items, and the possible effects and creations:
  
  Items (Picked up by the Doc throughout the entire game)
  • Atomic Toaster (supplied by Kermit)
  • Baguette
  • Duct Tape
  • Electrical (power) Cord
  • Fishbowl
  • Hand Dryer
  • Kurt’s Coordinates
  • Ladder
  • Lighter
  • Loaf
  • Magnet
  • Mr. Fizzy
  • Palatial Locator
  • Pile of Rags
  • Pipes
  • Plutonium
  • Positronic Doohickey
  • Pumpernickel
  • The Sauce
  • Toaster
  
  Creations (What the doc can make by combining items)
  • Antigravity Boots (Magnets + Duct Tape)
  • Atomic Toaster (created by Kermit from the Toaster)
  • Ladder (Pipes + Electrical Cord)
  • Leaf Blower (Pipes + Hand Dryer + Duct Tape)
  
  Effects (These emanate from each item or creation, or as a result of combining items and creations)
  Item or combination Resulting Effect
  • Atomic Toaster (created by Kermit from the Toaster)No effect by itself, but when combined with the Loaf it creates a deadly bouncing piece of Atomic Toast
  • Atomic Toaster + Baguette create a Guided Toast Missile
  • Atomic Toaster + Ladder create an Electrical Shock
  • Atomic Toaster + Loaf create an Atomic Toast Projectile
  • Atomic Toaster + Pumpernickel create a Dry Toast Mortar
  • Duct Tape is used to fix a hole later in Level 3; also used with the Magnets to make Antigravity Boots
  • Empty Fishbowl is used in Level 3 to prevent choking when the atmosphere is sucked out of a room
  • Fishbowl is used in Level 3 to start the Fish Game
  • Hand Dryer has No effect by itself
  • Leaf Blower (Pipes + Hand Dryer, with Duct Tape) Blows enemies aside
  • Lighter Lights up darkened areas
  • Loaf has no effect by itself
  • Magnet has no effect by itself
  • Molotov (The Sauce + Rags) has no effect by itself, but when combined with the Lighter… kaboom!
  • Molotov + Lighter = Thrown Molotov
  • Mr. Fizzy Heals 50 points
  • Pile of Rags has no effect by itself
  • Pipes have no effect by itself
  • Plutonium (first from Kermit) When consumed, it turns Doc into Hyde
  • The Sauce has no effect by itself
  • The Sauce + Lighter create an Explosion
  • Toast (Loaf + Toaster) has no effect by itself
  • Toaster has no effect by itself
  • Toaster + Loaf makes Toast
• The ship’s computer will show you how to combine the Toaster and Loaf to make Toast, which restores one Health point to Dr. Hawkins. You must complete the training before you can leave.
• Follow the corridor to this hub room with colored steps. The yellow steps lead back to the kitchen, the blue steps to the bridge, the white steps to the washroom, and the green steps to the garden, where you will go last.

Area 2: The Head (Ship’s Washroom)

• Be sure to note the Dirty Towels on both washroom counters that you can collect for creating Molotovs.
• Enter the stall in the washroom, where Dr. Hawkins will do his rather crude business. Sit and listen to the result…
• With the Doc’s lovely sounds drifting through the air, pick up some Pipes and the Hand Dryer. These items are critical because they allow you to assemble the Leaf Blower.
  • If you try to leave without washing your hands, the computer will remind you to go back and wash. If you don’t, eventually the computer will punish you by shocking you and you’ll lose life points.
• Return to the hub room, and head up the blue steps to get back to the bridge.
• The only thing to collect here is the Duct Tape, over to the right of the command console on the lower platform. You must have this tape in your inventory for use later on, so don’t forget to pick it up!
• Again, go back to the hub room. This time take the green steps up to the garden in Area 3.

Area 3: The Garden

• Select the Hand Dryer and the Pipes, and use them together to create a Leaf Blower. You’ll need to have Duct Tape in your inventory, too.
• Arm the Leaf Blower and walk down the garden hallway until you see these Bottrock goons.
• The garden Bottrock's open fire on you, but you have the Leaf Blower! Use it to deflect their shots, and sweep the uglies ahead around the corner.
  • Don’t worry about the Bottrocks’s shots. As long as you’re firing your Leaf Blower, you’ll be safe.
• Keep pushing the Bottrock's ahead of you as you move down the hallway toward Kermit, the giant Venus Fly Trap with an appetite.
• Kermit eats each of the four Bottrock's as soon as you blow them within its reach. When the last one is gone, the Leaf Blower is automatically dismantled and you’ll get the Pipes back.
• Kermit is full and very grateful to you for feeding him the tasty Bottrock's. In return, he takes your Toaster and makes it atomic.
• Step through the door near Kermit, and take the long ride down to Girderville.

Area 4: Girderville

• As you step off the elevator, you hit a checkpoint (a save point for the Dreamcast version of the game).
• There’s only one way to go in this room: down. But don’t jump into the radioactive water at the bottom! Use the girder that leads from your platform toward the middle of the room.
  • If you jump into the water, you’ll be electrocuted every few seconds until you are dead. It’s possible to jump onto the lower girder, but you have to move quickly.
• From the girder, jump down to this pipe.
• Follow the pipe as it curves down and look for this girder below, sticking out from the center of the room.
• Use your Duct Tape to seal the crack in the central column.
• When the crack is sealed, the room will drain and it’ll be safe to jump down to the floor.
• Follow the cord to where it plugs into the center column, and unplug it from the wall.
• Combine the Cord and the Pipes to make a Ladder. Find the glowing red X on the floor and use the Ladder there.
• The Ladder opens up and allows you to climb up to a new pipe.
• Look down from the new pipe and spot another red X on the girder below. Jump down to it.
• There’s an alternate strategy for reaching the second red X: You can jump onto the wall, then onto the girder. However, this method is harder than using the Ladder at the first red X.
• At the second red X, use the Ladder to reach a girder that leads to an exit from the room.
• Follow the passageway as it turns and drops, until you come to another large room with more girders.

Area 5: Even More Girderville

• From the entrance to this room you can see some easy-to-reach girders just below you.
• When you’re on the first set of girders, you can see another group below you to the left. If you make it to these girders below, you’ll shorten your stay in this area considerably.
• Use the Ladder on the red X to climb to a pipe, then make the jump to the girder ahead.
• Follow the girder to the left.
• Finding Mr. Fizzies
  • At the point where you would jump to the exit from this roomful of girders and Pipes, you can instead continue on into the darkness. As you move along in the darkness take your time because it’s dark enough that you could literally walk off the end of the girder. Eventually you’ll come across a Ladder pad (a red X) leading up to an area above that, where you’ll ultimately find three Mr. Fizzies. Use your Ladder to climb up, then get ready to make a hair-raising jump to the final girder where the Mr. Fizzies await.
• Jump into the exit from this room by hopping onto the girder slightly above you.
• This passage delivers you to another room with a central column, and girders sticking out at various levels.
• You have to jump from girder to girder to get high enough to reach the small exit in the wall, at about the same height as the pipes above.
• This doorway is difficult to spot from below, because it’s quite dark and obscured by the girders and pipes.
• The small exit leads to another good-sized room.
• Jump onto the short girder in front of you and look down to the left.
• This girder leads to the exit.
• Look up to the left and you’ll see the original entrance—you’re back where you came in!
  • If you’d made the shortcut jump back at the first set of girders, you’d have saved all the trouble in the last two rooms!
• In the next girder room, another set of girders towers above you.
• Again, hop from girder to girder to climb as high as you can get.
• When you’re high enough, jump onto this lifting platform that will take you up to the exit.
• When the rising platform reaches its apex, hop onto the girder on the left.
• The exit is below you. Jump down to the pipe and into the portal.
• The next room is a deep chasm with girders jutting out, a long one running through the middle. Follow this girder to the left toward a red X Ladder-anchor.
  • The jumps you make in this area often have to be very precise. Take your time! There’s nothing hurrying you here, so be sure of each jump. If you’re not careful, you’ll have to repeat large sections over again.
• Use the Ladder to reach the next Ladder-anchor.
• Again put the Ladder to work to help you reach the short girder at a higher level.
• The exit from this area is just below you. To reach it, jump down to another girder.
• The last girder room looks like the very first one you saw.
• Just walk around the edge to reach the exit.
• At the top of the elevator is a large room, which contains a checkpoint in the Dreamcast version.

Area 6: Life in a Fishbowl

• Move toward the crates to find the exit, and go through it to the room up above. (Don’t worry, there are no enemies here.)
• The glass in this room is impenetrable, so don’t worry about attacking or being attacked.
• Pick up the Lighter and the Fishbowl, then head back down to the first room.
• Find the broken grating in the middle of the floor, near the rocket ships.
• Select the Fishbowl and use it. Watch as the water and a fish are dumped into the pipes below.
• Secret: Chuckleberry Fin
  • This is one of the many charming “minigames” in MDK 2. When Dr. Hawkins drains the fishbowl through the grating, a little fishy (Chuckleberry) falls out into the sewer below. Once this happens, you take control of Chuckleberry. You’re able to move left, right, up, and down, as well as to squiggle forward by hitting the Fire button. The key to staying safe is to just keep moving and avoid the mines—and look out for the larger fish that’ll try to eat you and force you to restart this underwater mission.
  • Fortunately, you get an unlimited number of chances to make this work! Greg Zeschuk from Bioware tells us that Chuckleberry usually needs to simply make all right turns from the starting position to find the button that’ll finish this area off.
• Are you ready for this? You’re now a fish and your name is Chuckleberry Fin. Your task is to swim around the pipes to activate a button that opens a door.
• These mines will kill you if you swim into them. However, they won’t track you, so just wriggle around them.
• Look out for the killer fish; it’ll try to catch you.
• Whenever you’re skirting a mine or avoiding a killer fish, keep in mind that you can only swim in short bursts—you cannot maintain your speed.
  • If you get eaten, turn around immediately after you regenerate and check out your position. You may be right where you want to be, but make sure. Sometimes you’ll be placed right at the button.
• Here’s your destination, Chuckleberry Fin!
• When you regain control of Dr. Hawkins and the wall opens, a Generator and quite a few annoying Poopsie’s are waiting for you.
• You don’t have to kill all of the Poopsie’s —just make a run for the elevator. Use the Atomic Toaster and the Loaf to kill the ones in your way.
• When you reach the elevator, get in. Take a moment, Doc, and rest all those left-brain cells.

Area 7: Zero-G Delight

• The elevator carries you to a roomful of crates. Step to your left and find the giant switch at the end of the room.
• Ready the Fishbowl and use it—it goes on your head like a space helmet. Next, hold the Duct Tape in your left hand. Finally, flip the switch by jumping under it.
• To succeed at this level, you must have the Empty Fishbowl and the Duct Tape, so be sure you have both in your inventory as you head into Area 7.
• A door to outer space opens—and starts to suck in everything in the room, including all the air. Good thing you have the Fishbowl!
• As you’re drawn across the floor, crates break apart and a Magnet appears. Make sure you pick up the Magnet.
• Combine the Magnet and the Duct Tape to make magnetic Antigravity Boots. These are automatically put on your feet.
• After everything else (except you in your Antigravity Boots) is sucked from the room, head for the exit.
• You have to cross this open area while a large alien ship fires at you from above. Keep moving!
• As you progress toward the other side of this chasm, move randomly sideways and in curves, because the alien ship will home in on you quite accurately.

Area 8: The BFB

• You’ll ride an elevator to the final area in Doc Hawkins’ first level. When you get off the elevator, go through the doors to meet awesome BFB.
• After your conversation with BFB, you’ll be in the thick of a showdown, so batten down the hatches and get your Atomic Toaster ready. Bring it on…
• Shoot the BFB with your Atomic Toaster until he activates his blue shield.
• Once the BFB’s shield is on, your goal is to hit both the switches at the two ends of the room. Push these switches up, and you’ll arm a powerful laser beam in the middle of the room.
• When the BFB wanders into the vicinity of your deadly laser beam, jump on the red button to fry him!
• After you’ve hit the BFB twice with the laser beam, his shield will be disabled. Then you can take him down nicely with the Atomic Toaster and Loaf.