XGC KNIGHT XI
Administrator
Shortly after you enter the House of the Sovereigns, you’ll run across Augustus Cole, the one and only Cole Train, apparently some famous athlete before the war. He’s going to be in a spot of trouble at the outset, so head down the steps when the Lt. opens the doors and kill off all the locusts in the area.
The next hallway you come to, where Jack is used to pop open the doorway, will house an ambush of Wretches. Stay at the far end of the hallway, near Jack, and use your Lancer to take them down from a distance. When you hear the "multiple contacts" yell, though, turn around and use your shotgun to blast the wretches that come up out of the hole in the ground nearby. They’ll come up one at a time, allowing you to boomgun them back into the pit as they arrive. There’s another set of Cogtags at the end of the hall, near the vent through which the wretches were arriving.
It’s Hammertime!
In the next room, grab a Hammer of Dawn weapon near the door’s exit, replacing it for your shotgun. It’ll come in useful when you face off against the Seeder outside. To fire it, target your enemy and hold down the attack button; it’ll take a couple seconds to prime, then it’ll fire a beam from your satellite overhead. Be sure to keep the attack button held down, or the beam will cut out before it’s finished firing! The Seeder here will require at least two fires to kill; it’ll launch drones at you while you’re attempting to kill it, so you’ll have to rely on your teammates to fire at them and knock them down. Luckily, you can also use the Hammer to pop off enemies behind cover; just fire in their direction and move the reticule until you start hearing the lock-on sound. When the weapon goes off, any locusts nearby will be blown to smithereens, even if they’re not visible to you.
After moving around the walkway here, you’ll come to another Seeder. Hang back in the doorway here and let your teammates move out first; you should be able to lock on to the Seeder and kill it without exposing yourself to fire. When it’s down, finish off the wretches and locusts, then head down the stairs and past the body of the Seeder to move on.
After fighting your way through the church and finding Rojas’ body, check the area for another set of Cogtags on the ground in one of the corners of the room.
Wrath
The third Seeder is up ahead of you. You’ll have to expose yourself to fire somewhat to get eyes on it, but there’s not much; either it dies, or you do. Don’t worry overmuch about the locusts across the way; let your soldiers deal with them. They’ll all die when the Seeder does, so it should be your primary concern.
Move back into the building and through the door that the locusts come out of. Start making your way through the corridors, killing anything that moves. Along the way, you’ll be able to trade in your pistol for a magnum, which is an upgrade in firepower but a downgrade in firing rate, as is so often the case.
Eventually you’ll come to a long corridor with another Troika in it. Flank into the right corridor that runs alongside it, and you’ll eventually come out behind the gunner, letting you kill him and take control of the gun for yourself, the better to fend off the incoming wretches. Let your teammates worry about the enemies on the ceiling; just keep firing away at the enemies on the ground. If anyone manages to get close to you on the ceiling, they’ll almost always drop directly in front of you, so lock in that target zone and hit them as they fall. From there, take the stairwells down until you reach a small meeting room that the locusts have holed up in. Keep in mind that you can flank them by following the corridor to your left.
After passing through the Parliament room, you’ll come to a set of Troikas. Go ahead and get on top of one and go crazy! There are locusts on the ground and nemacysts in the air, but you can go ahead and concentrate on the locusts; there are plenty of them to shoot. Your teammates will deal with the nemacysts effectively enough. If one of the locusts hides where you can’t shoot it, grab the Hammer of Dawn weapon on the ground, aim it as best you can near him, then fire away to blow him to smithereens.
China Shop
With the lengthy cutscene out of the way, you’ll be trapped inside a building with a Berserker. If you watched the cutscenes to their end, you’ll know that these fine ladies are immune to your weapons; you’ll have to engage in a spot of trickery to finish it off. Be sure to grab one of the Hammer of Dawn weapons near the start of this level.
Note that there are no fewer than three separate Cogtags in this area. One is in the first small hallway, where the nameless soldier gets eviscerated, one is near the second or third doorway that you have to get the Berserker to smash, and one is in the final courtyard where the Berserker gets dead. You have plenty of time to grab them, assuming you can track them down.
Move along the corridors until the Berserker pops out of the wall. At this point, hang a right and start running down the corridors you spot. Every so often, you’ll come to a "smashable wall". These walls aren’t smashable by you, but the Berserker is definitely tough enough to bring them down. What you need to do is stand in front of these doors (there are three in all), lure the Berserker towards you by firing at it, then quickly dive out of the way right before it gets to you. When timed properly, you’ll avoid damage (most contact with the Berserker is an instant death), and the Berserker will smash into the door, causing it to fly off its hinges, allowing you to move on.
You have to repeat this process three times in order to finally clear out of the building. Don’t worry about Dom; if he dies, he’ll come back to life when you hit daylight, and he’s not needed for the real combat here. (On Hardcore or Insane difficulties, though, the Berserker will gib Dom if he goes down, forcing you to restart. Be sure to revive him if he goes down on those difficulties.) If you do manage to make it out to the sunlight, though, equip your Hammer of Dawn and wait for it to stop moving before locking on and firing at it. Like the Seeders, the Berserker will require two hits before it goes down for the count, so roast it!
The next hallway you come to, where Jack is used to pop open the doorway, will house an ambush of Wretches. Stay at the far end of the hallway, near Jack, and use your Lancer to take them down from a distance. When you hear the "multiple contacts" yell, though, turn around and use your shotgun to blast the wretches that come up out of the hole in the ground nearby. They’ll come up one at a time, allowing you to boomgun them back into the pit as they arrive. There’s another set of Cogtags at the end of the hall, near the vent through which the wretches were arriving.
It’s Hammertime!
In the next room, grab a Hammer of Dawn weapon near the door’s exit, replacing it for your shotgun. It’ll come in useful when you face off against the Seeder outside. To fire it, target your enemy and hold down the attack button; it’ll take a couple seconds to prime, then it’ll fire a beam from your satellite overhead. Be sure to keep the attack button held down, or the beam will cut out before it’s finished firing! The Seeder here will require at least two fires to kill; it’ll launch drones at you while you’re attempting to kill it, so you’ll have to rely on your teammates to fire at them and knock them down. Luckily, you can also use the Hammer to pop off enemies behind cover; just fire in their direction and move the reticule until you start hearing the lock-on sound. When the weapon goes off, any locusts nearby will be blown to smithereens, even if they’re not visible to you.
After moving around the walkway here, you’ll come to another Seeder. Hang back in the doorway here and let your teammates move out first; you should be able to lock on to the Seeder and kill it without exposing yourself to fire. When it’s down, finish off the wretches and locusts, then head down the stairs and past the body of the Seeder to move on.
After fighting your way through the church and finding Rojas’ body, check the area for another set of Cogtags on the ground in one of the corners of the room.
Wrath
The third Seeder is up ahead of you. You’ll have to expose yourself to fire somewhat to get eyes on it, but there’s not much; either it dies, or you do. Don’t worry overmuch about the locusts across the way; let your soldiers deal with them. They’ll all die when the Seeder does, so it should be your primary concern.
Move back into the building and through the door that the locusts come out of. Start making your way through the corridors, killing anything that moves. Along the way, you’ll be able to trade in your pistol for a magnum, which is an upgrade in firepower but a downgrade in firing rate, as is so often the case.
Eventually you’ll come to a long corridor with another Troika in it. Flank into the right corridor that runs alongside it, and you’ll eventually come out behind the gunner, letting you kill him and take control of the gun for yourself, the better to fend off the incoming wretches. Let your teammates worry about the enemies on the ceiling; just keep firing away at the enemies on the ground. If anyone manages to get close to you on the ceiling, they’ll almost always drop directly in front of you, so lock in that target zone and hit them as they fall. From there, take the stairwells down until you reach a small meeting room that the locusts have holed up in. Keep in mind that you can flank them by following the corridor to your left.
After passing through the Parliament room, you’ll come to a set of Troikas. Go ahead and get on top of one and go crazy! There are locusts on the ground and nemacysts in the air, but you can go ahead and concentrate on the locusts; there are plenty of them to shoot. Your teammates will deal with the nemacysts effectively enough. If one of the locusts hides where you can’t shoot it, grab the Hammer of Dawn weapon on the ground, aim it as best you can near him, then fire away to blow him to smithereens.
China Shop
With the lengthy cutscene out of the way, you’ll be trapped inside a building with a Berserker. If you watched the cutscenes to their end, you’ll know that these fine ladies are immune to your weapons; you’ll have to engage in a spot of trickery to finish it off. Be sure to grab one of the Hammer of Dawn weapons near the start of this level.
Note that there are no fewer than three separate Cogtags in this area. One is in the first small hallway, where the nameless soldier gets eviscerated, one is near the second or third doorway that you have to get the Berserker to smash, and one is in the final courtyard where the Berserker gets dead. You have plenty of time to grab them, assuming you can track them down.
Move along the corridors until the Berserker pops out of the wall. At this point, hang a right and start running down the corridors you spot. Every so often, you’ll come to a "smashable wall". These walls aren’t smashable by you, but the Berserker is definitely tough enough to bring them down. What you need to do is stand in front of these doors (there are three in all), lure the Berserker towards you by firing at it, then quickly dive out of the way right before it gets to you. When timed properly, you’ll avoid damage (most contact with the Berserker is an instant death), and the Berserker will smash into the door, causing it to fly off its hinges, allowing you to move on.
You have to repeat this process three times in order to finally clear out of the building. Don’t worry about Dom; if he dies, he’ll come back to life when you hit daylight, and he’s not needed for the real combat here. (On Hardcore or Insane difficulties, though, the Berserker will gib Dom if he goes down, forcing you to restart. Be sure to revive him if he goes down on those difficulties.) If you do manage to make it out to the sunlight, though, equip your Hammer of Dawn and wait for it to stop moving before locking on and firing at it. Like the Seeders, the Berserker will require two hits before it goes down for the count, so roast it!