Venus Hijinks is an optional side mission in Episode 5, staring Geoffrey.
Mission Summary[]
Geoffrey takes the Snowflake on a joyride, and runs out of fuel on Venus...
Plot[]
One night at the AMC Base, Geoffrey was hanging around the hangar, thinking on what to do. Everyone else were either on missions, or were asleep in their rooms. After looking around a bit, he noticed the Snowflake. Snowfall was out on a mission with Zaxtor in Antarctica, and didn't take the Snowflake with him.
So Geoffrey hopped aboard, and decided to take it on a joyride. However, unknown to him, the Snowflake was low on fuel, and had to make a emergency landing on Venus. Thankfully for him, there was a tourist spot nearby, and it had a docking area on it. So he can get fuel from there.
However, it was abandoned. And the planet began to be terraformed by the unknown structures formed on it, with mechanical droids coming out of them. To make matters worse, Cycloids were rumored to be on the planet, scavenging on what they can find.
So Geoffrey must go and explore Venus to find fuel for the Snowflake, while also eliminating any droids or aliens that he come across. However, he must do so before anyone notices he's gone with the Snowflake.
Gameplay[]
Note: there are many armoured and robotic enemies in this mission, so armour-piercing and/or electric weapons are recommended.
Good news - this area is terraformed, so there's no need for a space suit. Go forth and fight through the canyon. When you reach the cycloid camp, head to the cave nearby. All the way through, there's a brick of C4 in the supply box, guarded by a cyberalien. Backtrack to the colony building, kill all the aliens and use C4 to blow up the doors inside. Go upstairs, get the blue plug key and use it downstairs behind the desk. Take out robots and proceed through the door. Go right and right again through some police fences. You'll find a master swipe card in there. You can use it on multiple backdoors around this area. Use it on the "Employees Only" door nearby. Inside is the red plug key and and a broken switch. Also use it to open the door near the bookstore you came out of to get access to the blue plug again.
Go to the backdoor of Applevee's near the bar. Inside, use the blue plug behind the shelf. Go in the main entrance, wreck all the bots here and get the red keycard. Go to the Venus Security Center and use the red key card. There's an optional cracked wall on the right that will benefit you greatly if you go there. Use the VR terminal to open Gate A back all the way to the entrance of this building. Fight through the dark tunnels till you get out to the open area. Take out the turrets. Head to the big great structure and fight Sentry Bots and the Conservator. Go in.
Keep going till your find a forcefield. The rune key is in the supply box right there. This will trigger a 2 minute countdown. Go in and blow up all the yellow cubes (not to mention the robots) and then the next door will open. Continue till you reach a triangle-shaped door. There will be another countdown and a huge robot boss. Shoot 3 yellow cubes and deal with the boss. If you unlocked the AMC-209 earlier (and it does not gets blown up or stuck somewhere), this fight will be much easier. Afterwards, exit the area. Climb out of the cave to the spaceship hangar and get the fuel.
The wall will blow up and a Battlelord will appear. (You can also grab a toolbox here for a future secret) Head out through the hole in the wall. There's a C4 and other stuff outside, guarded by cyberaliens and overlords. Use it to blow up the door in the Arcade further. You are now back in a familiar shopping center of the colony. Fight through the alien bastards. (You can also use the toolbox here) Start heading back to the start. There's a Cyber Enforcer boss waiting outside. After defeating him, head back to the Snowflake.
Job well done?
Secrets[]
There are 7 secrets in this mission.
- Where you get the C4 from the Cyberaliens, there are some alcoves sticking out. Jump onto them to find a cave with a dead Enforcer, as well as a gold amulet, and a Nailgun.
- There is a movie theater in the plaza which is locked. Toss a grenade in the window stand to blow open a wall. Inside is a little homage to a well known video game from 1996, and there's also some goodies in here. A slot 2 weapon, basic armour, a silver amulet, and some cash.
- In the Venus Security Center, there's a half-opened door to a drone chamber. There's a crack inside. Blow it up to find a Riot Shield and the Heavy Gauss weapon in a briefcase. There's also a VR Terminal here. Use it, solve the puzzle and a friendly Drone will be waiting to assist you, along with a platinum amulet.
- When you get outside from the caves, there's some rocks you can climb onto to the right, go to the tallest one to find an M82A1.
- Inside the purple cave area, climb the blocks across from where you entered the cave. Climb onto them to find a sawn-off shotgun, explosive shells, and a gold amulet.
- In the cave with the Oracles (the glowing yellow square thingies), there's a small cavern entrance with the purple liquid at the right corner opposite from the entrance. Hop into it, then continue the passage way to enter a huge purple cave with an invisible bridge. Cross it, face the Lava Monster, then enter the small cave to find a Zilla missile launcher, an atomic bomb, some platinum amulets, and a special painting on the wall.
- In the hangar, where you get the fuel, there's a toolbox sitting on a counter. Pick it up. At the plaza, enter the side door of the Billards building. Use the toolbox to open the front door. Inside are another platinum amulet, and heavy armour.
Weapons & Artifacts[]
Heavy Gauss (Weapon for Geoffrey): Found in secret #3 described above.
Other Items of interest[]
There is a gun store at the plaza area that can be opened with the red plug key. Inside you'll find many weapons and supplies, including AR-65, M16, 40mm grenades, armour and bandanna. However, there are enemies here too.
Trivia[]
- This level was originally a user map before being adapted and enhanced for Episode 5 proper.
- This level was inspired by Destiny. The robots here, especially the Vexinators, and the boss, Atheon, resembles the Vex from that game.
- Also the Cycloids in the map could be considered as stand-ins for the Fallen/Eliksni from Destiny.
- There was gonna be an area involving Gorgons, who were gonna be per-map art of the Beyonder, appearing as a paletted Sentry Bot. They were meant to be found in a dark tunnel after the first Oracle section. This ended up being cut from the map as it wouldn't fit the pacing of the map (and the per-map art was never made however).
- The cinema theater with a secret is a reference to the Hollywood Holocaust level from Duke Nukem 3D.
- You can stumble upon a single Lego block lying on the floor. Don't step on it - this will be painful. Like, a lot.
- There are some "spooky" easter eggs out of bounds.