User:GroverSteinke

Area 51: Escape is the ninth level in Perfect Dark.

General strategy

Your main enemies on this level are not the SuperDragon-toting guards nor the tranquilliser-wielding scientists but Elvis and Jonathan. Jonathan follows you on a waypoint basis - wherever you go, you leave a trail of waypoints and when he's in "follow Jo" mode Jonathan always runs for the nearest one, eating up the trail. However, if he sees a guard, he'll switch to "kill the bad guy" mode and spend some time killing him before picking up your trail again. The main tactic, then, is to make sure Jon never sees a bad guy - sprint ahead of him and take them all out before he catches up. Jon also moves faster when you're looking at him than when you're not, and faster still if you persuade him to stand near a wall and then push him along it. Nevertheless there is still something of a random factor in how long it takes Jon to return from the meeting point to the room where he places the explosives for you, and this is the biggest random factor in the level.

Similar problems apply to Elvis although he never follows you, only the pre-determined trail from his bed to the flying saucer.

Other notes:

• The Remote Mines only appear if you get Elvis to his safe deposit area fast enough at the start of the level. "Fast enough" is pretty much impossible NOT to achieve on a speed run - it's something like 45 seconds.
• On SA/PA, the medpack completes not after a set amount of time but after a set number of guards are killed (unless you wait for about thirty seconds - then it completes automatically). That's what the Remote Mines are for - blowing up guards back in the explosion room.
• There are two ways to escape the level. Jonathan originally says he will open the hangar doors, allowing Jo and Elvis to escape by flying saucer, and try to escape himself by hoverbike. However, it's also possible to run past him, which will cause Jo to offer to take the consoles and let Jon and Elvis escape. This leads to a more lengthy (but fun) escape by hoverbike. Of these two ways, the first is the fastest: but faster still is to let Jon offer to take the consoles, but ALREADY be past him, and activate the consoles yourself, manually. This convinces the game that Jon just activated the consoles really quickly, and ends the level immediately.
• If, for some reason, you escape the level by hoverbike, Jon shows up on CI (though not in any particularly helpful location, speedrun-wise). If you DON'T, he doesn't show up, which strongly implies that he dies if he tries the hoverbike escape himself!

Agent

2:45 strategy

Skip the cinema. From the off, strafe right a tad and head straight towards the doors hoping that they open fairly sharpish. Once through, switch to left-strafing. Be careful not to get caught on the metal pillars. You should hopefully escape through the up-and-under door without coughing once. Turn right and go through. Feel free to shoot the tranquilizer scientist ahead of you if you want, but certainly not the one to the left, and on a fast run you should really ignore both and risk being shot.

Head down. Halfway down the ramp release the stretcher and run down to the door at the bottom, causing it to open. You can wait for the stretcher to pass through it before leaving or you can just run and hope that it gets through before the door closes of its own accord. Back up at the top, again ignore the scientists and run right through all the doors. Head around the cryo chambers and down to the bottom, turning right at the bottom. Hopefully you shouldn't be tranquilized more than once at this point, otherwise the darkened outdoor area gets pretty hairy.

These guys here are to be ignored as they'll slow you down - your priority here is to get to Jonathan as fast as possible. Go through the door and left shooting the guard ahead with your Falcon 2, and the next one along the walkway. Grab their guns and switch to the SuperDragon's grenade launcher function as you open the next door and get Jonathan's attention.

As soon as he finishes his second sentence, run back through the open door and shoot all your pursuing guards with your grenade launcher as fast as you can. If you don't, Jon himself will slow down to take a few pot shots with his DY-357 Magnum - and you really need him to be moving as fast as you can. At the next door reload and open it, firing a grenade into the midst of the ambush party, hopefully taking out any pursuing guards and scientists. Use normal fire to clear up the mess and turn around to wait for Johnny to turn up. Once he's through go, and get the Remote Mines from the corner. Chuck one of these on the wall panel to the right of Jonathan. Chuck a second one just to the right of the door, and the third and last one at the wall between the two. Then get your SuperDragon back out again and open the door you just came through. Snipe along here to take out the guards how have newly spawned and are coming down to shoot you. Once the door shuts itself again of its own accord, go and stand by Jonathan, grenade launcher out, facing downwards.

As Jon says "Right, stand back!", the explosive charge on the wall is placed. Shoot the grenade into the ground here to blow the hole in the wall nice and early - you'll be diving through less than a tenth of a second later, so you'll lose almost no health. Twist left as you dive through, go down the ramp, and be through the door to Elvis before the charge even has time to detonate.

The bomb will go off sometime during the cutscene. Turn right after skipping the rest, selecting normal machine-gun fire on your SuperDragon, and shoot the guard standing in the red area up on the walkway. Turn around and go up back to the hole. Shoot a few grenades through, setting off the explosive barrels, and shoot a few on the ground here and there to keep away the guards. The reason you do this is to keep Johnny moving - if he sees guards up here he'll stop to shoot them. And since Elvis follows Jon, Elvis will stop too. And since the next bit of speech can only be triggered once Elvis reaches his spacecraft, you want to keep them both moving fast.

Once you've done this, go back down to where Elvis will just be rounding the corner to the flying saucer. Try to push Elvis against the wall and push him up to catch up with Jon more quickly. Turn right and shoot the guard who snipes you from up above, then go back to the other two. Now the talking begins. While the chatting goes on push Jon against the wall and rapidly push him back to the ramp. Some guards will come around this corner and try to shoot Elvis, so take care of them while you push Jon as close as you can to the bottom of the ramp. Once Joanna says "But we can't leave you behind", stop pushing and start running up the ramps to the first and nearest panel. As you do this Jonathan will say "I'll get out on that hoverbike..." When this happens, trigger your remote mines to stop any potential guards slowing Jon down again.

If you don't have the music turned on (as well you shouldn't - it makes it harder to hear vital in-game sounds), you should temporarily turn it up now. When the music changes, that's when it becomes possible to activate the terminals. Run to the terminal and wait for the music to change if it hasn't already. Once the music changes, activate the terminal and run to the next one, activating that one too. This ends the level.

• World Record Video: Taka - Escape - A - 2:25 (Download!)

Special Agent

Strat here.

• World Record Video: Your Eliteness - Escape - SA - 3:22 (Download!)

Perfect Agent

Strat here.

• World Record Video: Your Eliteness - Escape - PA - 3:22 (Download!)

External Links

• Escape World Rankings
• Escape Videos

Template:Perfect Dark solo missions