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1.0 – Introduction & Disclaimer c10
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Welcome to my guide on the black tarot system of Painkiller. I try to refrain
from giving too many details that aren't relevant to the card requirements, but
nonetheless, this guide does contain spoilers. I welcome criticism or praise as
long as it's intelligent and I can make sense of it. You can reach me by e-mail
at the address above, but before you voice a concern with something the guide
is lacking, please check www.gamefaqs.com for the latest version to make sure
your concern hasn't already been met. I only update my guide at this website so
you may be reading an outdated guide if you didn't get it from there; hence, if
you e-mail me regarding something that was fixed years ago, I may answer you
bluntly or just ignore you entirely. When e-mailing me, put 'Black Tarot Guide'
in the subject line, or it may end up being deleted. Lastly, a thanks goes out
to all the people who have given me their opinions and tips, and to People Can
Fly for making such a great game.
Anyone who wishes to host this document may, as long as these conditions are
met:
1. There is no fee or other means of payment needed to view this document.
2. The hosted document is not modified in any way from its original version.
If you wish to quote portions of this document, please use common courtesy and
cite where you took the information from. As far as personal use goes, feel
free to save this to disk or print it off as a reference.
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2.0 – Black Tarot Cards – A Brief Rundown c20
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The black tarot cards are power-ups earned by beating levels in certain ways.
From the map screen you can enter the tarot card screen by clicking the card at
the bottom right. From here you can place cards into the slots to use them in
battle. The silver cards are constant effect cards, and you can equip 2. The
gold cards must be activated during a level, by default with the e key, and you
can equip 3. You'll need gold to equip cards, which you can earn by picking up
coins, jewels and artifacts throughout the levels. Some facts regarding card
usage:
-Under normal circumstances, gold cards last for 30 seconds when activated.
-There are a number of cards that are broken. The Double Time card is still
broken as of patch 1.64, so it is completely useless and a waste of a slot to
equip it. The Greed card also works strangely. In theory it should double gold
received, but it seems to only allow higher gold scores. The actual gold you
receive would be the same as if you didn't have the card equipped, for example
if the gold score is 24 you would end up with 12 added to your current total
when you finish or quit the level. Therefore this card is only useful for
earning the card on the cathedral level and for boosting your gold scores (see
general tips).
-They are transferable between games. If you have all 24 cards, you can start a
game on insomnia difficulty and use them. In daydream you can't use cards, but
you can still retain all the cards you've earned.
-Because levels are locked on the lower difficulty settings, you can only
obtain 22 cards on insomnia and 23 on nightmare. The last card can only be
earned on trauma difficulty.
-In order to play on the highest difficulty, trauma, you need to unlock 23
tarot cards.
-Card effects don't stack. If you equip two cards that modify the same
property, the game will only use one of them. For example, if you equipped all
three game speed reducing cards, only one of them would take effect.
-You can't pick and choose which cards to activate during battle. When you use
them, it's all or nothing.
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3.0 - General Tips c30
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-Attempt to get the cards on your own before resorting to this guide. A large
part of the fun is trying to do it yourself rather than reading instructions on
how to. You should only use the guide when you're pissed off at the game, say
when you've been searching for the last secret on a level you've been playing
for 2 hours.
-The stats screen, by default the tab key, can be used to check on the
requirements. It also shows the card status, which will read FAILED if you have
lost any chance at getting the card, UNLOCKED if you've already earned it, or
LOCKED if you still have a chance at earning it.
-If you juggle an enemy in the air with the painkiller 4 times, a jewel worth
15 gold will drop. If you gib an enemy while they are in the air, a jewel worth
20 gold will drop. This extra gold will appear in grey beside the normal gold
score. In addition, if you equip the greed card, the jewels will add to both
the red and grey scores. You can take advantage of this to help get the tarot
card on the Cathedral level, or to get over-the-top gold scores on any of the
levels.
-Once you open the exit for a level, all the barriers will be lowered, allowing
you to backtrack and get anything you may have missed, the exceptions being the
two levels where you need to kill all enemies.
-In Painkiller you can bunnyhop simply by moving forward and repeatedly
jumping. You will pick up speed doing this, and can use it to make clear large
gaps, avoid enemies, etc.
-For most boss fights, you'll want to use damage dealing cards to minimize the
time taken to kill them. A good combo is Rage, Dexterity and Time Bonus coupled
with either Forgiveness or Mercy. Note that Double Time Bonus is broken and you
should never use it. You may want to swap out a card for Iron Will on some of
the harder difficulties, for example to avoid Necrogiant's tornado attack or to
negate the fall damage taken when fighting Alastor.
-To get gold fast, you can juggle enemies at the start of a level and then
exit, retaining the gold you earned. An early level well-suited for this is
Cathedral, where there are a lot of monks that are easy to juggle. If you have
Castle unlocked, you can get money even faster by jumping over the edge and
grabbing the 3 artifacts for 300 gold, then quitting the level.
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4.0 – Level Guide
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Level 1-1: Cemetery c401
Objective: Beat the level
Card: Endurance [Gold] [Halves damage taken]
Hardest card in the game to get!
Level 1-2: Atrium Complex c402
Objective: Destroy all the objects
Card: Haste [Gold] [Game speed is 2x slower]
A nice, easy card to acquire. The way I like to do this is beat the level
normally, by killing all the monsters and opening the exit. All the doors in
the level will be unlocked, so you can go back and systematically search for
anything you forgot to destroy. Most will be out in the open, barrels mainly,
but in case you are having trouble I will tell you of the more obscure
locations for objects. There is a statue of a man spreading his arms, with a
floating health in front of it. This is in the 2nd last room before the exit.
Behind the statue there is a chest you need to destroy. There are also many
rooms on the ground floor with chests inside, so walk a perimeter around the
rooms looking for them. There is a room near the beginning which is connected
to a spiral staircase, with burning lamps above it. There is a door in this
room that leads up to a secret area, where there is a small chest and a huge
one. The huge one needs to be broken too, it will take a bit more damage to
smash. The final spot you could have missed is in the 2nd clearing, or room
with no ceiling. This room has a staircase leading to the second floor walkway.
There are also rooms up here with chests and barrels, so go up and
make sure you take every route. Basically this level just takes time, as you
will need to check every area for every little barrel or chest to destroy.
Level 1-3: Catacombs c403
Objective: Defeat 112/112 monsters
Card: Soul Keeper [Silver] [Enemy souls last longer before they fade away]
Note: In order to get the card, there are 6 optional enemies you'll need to
kill as you progress through the level. You cannot backtrack to kill them; if
you missed them along the way you need to restart the level.
The first 4 enemies are at the area with the rope bridge leading across the
chasm. After clearing the area of the knife-throwing vampires, don't step into
the checkpoint yet. Instead, go into the room to the right.
The final 2 enemies are at another fork in the road, where you will need to
take the right hand path down a corridor to a coffin, where two zombie warriors
will jump out of the ground.
Level 1-4: Cathedral c404
Objective: Get at least 500 gold
Card: Time Bonus [Gold] [Gold cards last 10 seconds longer]
Not a very hard card to get. Keep your eye out for anything you can destroy and
make sure you collect all the gold you can find. You can use the Greed card to
help out if you are having trouble, but note that Greed is broken and doesn't
actually give you gold but will only help with earning the card, therefore it's
somewhat of a waste to equip. You can also use Greed in conjunction with
juggling to get ridiculous gold scores; see the general tips section.
Level 1-5: Enclave c405
Objective: Beat Necrogiant in less than 2:00
Card: Blessing [Silver] [Increases initial health to 150]
Begin by grabbing the shotgun shells just to the right and head forward,
grabbing the armour and charging Necrogiant. You'll want to stay close enough
to him that your shotgun shells will hit, and you should be firing on him
constantly. There are more shells down at the center by the corner of the
rubble that you can grab. As you chase him around the arena you should keep
your eye out for shotgun ammo, and collect it when possible. When he gets to
about half health, his chains will break and he'll gain access to his tornado
attack. This attack can be very hard to avoid and will likely end up killing
you if it hits. Your best bet is to activate Iron Will if he uses it, although
if you keep firing on him he may never get the chance, making things a lot
easier. Without using cards he can be beaten with a time of around 1:40.
Level 2-1: Prison c406
Objective: Don't use any explosive weapons
Card: Replenish [Silver] [All ammo boxes give 2x what they normally do]
Well this wasn't too hard, just dodge all the bullets coming at you and watch
out for those lame sentry turrets which will kill you in a few hits. Every
enemy on this level can be killed with one hit if you nail them with the
painkiller secondary fire, I can't remember using the shotgun once.
Level 2-2: Opera House c407
Objective: Collect at least 100 souls
Card: Speed [Gold] [Move Faster]
Make sure you kill the enemies so that they land close to you so you can easily
get their souls. When fighting large groups of enemies, you should pause every
once in a while to bunnyhop around collecting souls. Obviously, the Soul
Catcher card is ideal for this level, but without it it is still very likely
that you won't have a hard time getting the card.
Level 2-3: Asylum c408
Objective: Beat the level using only the painkiller
Card: Fury [Gold] [Deal 2x Damage]
This level is incredibly easy as long as you don't forget to only use the
painkiller. The enemies are all very slow moving, aside from the amputees'
leaping attacks, which can easily be avoided.
Level 2-4: Snowy Bridge c409
Objective: Find 6/6 secret areas
Card: Dark Soul [Silver] [Demon morph occurs with every 50 souls]
NOTE: The secrets are now in chronological order as of v1.01, and you will want
to get them as you go through the level. At certain checkpoints, barriers will
block you from returning to earlier parts of the level, and you'll need to beat
the level in order for them to open. You'll save yourself time by getting each
secret as you progress through the level.
Secret #1 - When you jump from the stairs onto the large pipe near the
beginning of the level, stay on the pipe and follow it through an opening in
the fence to find some ammo boxes.
Secret #2 - This secret is in between the two towers with the spiraling
staircases. After climbing the staircase and entering the area with the
electrodriver, you'll see a ladder segmented into 3 parts against the wall.
Climb the first segment of the ladder, then use the ledge to jump around to the
back of the tower.
Secret #3 – After riding the cables down to the main expanse of bridge, kill
the waves of ninjas and samurai that come at you. Now go to the checkpoint and
take the stairs down to the large pipe that runs along the underside of the
bridge. The door to the opposite tower will now be unlocked, and after you
climb to the top there will be some artifacts you can jump off and grab.
Secret #4 – In the area with the huge cranes and shipping crates, you can get
in behind the large L-shaped passageway from either end.
Secret #5 – Before riding the tram across to the other side, climb the ladder
part way and then jump off onto the fence. You'll be able to see another ladder
off to the side, below you, and you can jump onto it for the fifth secret.
Secret #6 – After riding the cable car, climb the ladder and walk around to the
back of the building.
Level 2-5: Town c410
Objective: Beat the level using only stakes
Card: Double Haste [Gold] [Game speed is 4x slower]
Beat this level using only the stakegun's primary fire. You can bring your
other weapons up, but if you fire anything other than the stakegun's primary
fire then you will fail. You can also use the stakes to detonate barrels
without failing the requirements. Not a very hard level. Move to your left and
right dodging chunks of flesh and flaming sticks that zombies throw at you. The
witches just take a bit of good aiming to bring down. There are also 3 leper
monks in this level which use an attack that levitates an electric corpse into
the air, then flings it at you. If you get hit with this attack up close it can
cause massive damage, and if you get close to them they'll knock you backwards,
so keep your distance while fighting them.
Level 2-6: Swamp c411
Objective: Beat Swamp Thing in under 4 minutes
Card: Dexterity [Gold] [Weapons reload 2x faster]
Start the level by maxing out your shotgun shells and then getting both boxes
of mega-ammo from the swamp. Now start blowing up the bubbles at Swamp Thing's
feet using the chaingun and reserving your ammo. When he takes enough damage,
his shield will go down for a split second and 6 large bubbles will appear in a
ring around you. Use the chaingun or rockets to blow them up, and they will
begin passing bubbles back and forth through the air. When a bubble gets close
to Swamp Thing blow it up and his shield will go down. Then switch to the
shotgun and keep firing on him as he goes to put out the fires. Once they are
all out, his shield will go back up, and you'll have to repeat the strategy
again. You should be able to unlock this card easily, without even activating
your tarot cards.
Level 3-1: Train Station c412
Objective: Beat the level without collecting any souls
Card: Soul Catcher [Silver] [Sucks souls towards you]
This level is really crazy. While the level is not terribly difficult, the
requirements for getting the card are. You can't collect any souls, in a level
where whole platoons of skeleton soldiers and sados are coming at you. Your
best bet is to use manual saves after each wave, while keeping an eye on the
souls caught counter, it's on the top right. This should stay at zero
throughout the entire map. If it goes any higher you'll fail, so reload a
manual save or die and return at a checkpoint. If you beat this, you'll get a
very useful card (at least when not playing on trauma) which will suck nearby
souls into you.
Level 3-2: Abandoned Factory c413
Objective: Kill at least 30 enemies while in demon morph mode
Card: Forgiveness [Silver] [You can use golden cards twice per level]
You need to get 30 kills in one demon morph, your kills won't add up. The best
way to get 30 kills is at the end of the level. You should save up 65 souls and
get to the last area where all the skeleton soldiers keep spawning. Bunnyhop
around, letting them chase you. Then when you get a large enough group, kill
only one of them, collect the soul and morph. Now gib as many of them as
possible. Save the game before trying this just in case you don't make enough
kills, that way you can try again. It's also important not to wait too long to
transform since the maso commandos will be lobbing grenades at you and probably
hitting the skeleton soldiers too. After you take out the group that was
chasing you, head to where the skeleton soldiers spawn, and take out as many as
possible before the demon morph wears off. You can also check your stats screen
just before you start the fight, so that after your demon morph wears off, you
can look at it again to see if you killed enough enemies.
Level 3-3: Military Base c414
Objective: Kill all enemies
Card: Greed [Silver] [Doubles amount of gold gained]
NOTE: You have to make all the optional kills before opening the exit, or else
you won't be able to get the card.
There are 5 optional kill zones you need to do before you can get all the kills
in this level. The first is on the large airplane in the first half of the
base. Walk inside and 10 skeleton soldiers will spawn in from each end of the
plane. The next 3 areas are in the 3 barracks, which are the long buildings
with windows running along the sides. You can get in at the back of each one
and kill the enemies that appear. The final optional area can be reached after
the massive battle on the second half of the base. There is a building in the
far back, with tanks enclosed by metal braces which can be seen from outside.
Go in the door here, kill everyone inside this area, jump out, and finish the
rest of the level to get the card.
Level 3-4: Ruins c415
Objective: Kill Guardian in under 1 minute 20 seconds.
Card: Iron Will [Gold] [No damage taken while active]
Begin the level by loading up on chaingun ammo; behind and to your left there
is a broken pillar with 5 boxes, and in front on either side there are pillars
with additional ammo. You will need to try and keep Guardian in range of your
chaingun while keeping him far enough away that he will charge you rather than
slam his hammer into the ground. Aim for his hammer and try and bunnyhop
backwards, letting him chase you. Aim only for his hammer at this point, and
note that when he swings it it becomes invulnerable for a few seconds, so use
the time to stop firing and get further away from him. Once his hammer is
destroyed, you can hit him anywhere to cause damage. At this point your
chaingun ammo will be drying up unless you managed to collect more, so switch
to your shotgun and keep on him. When he attacks the ground, there is a short
period of time where he again becomes invulnerable, although it's harder to
tell because he doesn't flash white to indicate he's taking damage like the
hammer does. Without using cards it's possible to beat him with a time a little
under 1:20.
Holy Items #1 #2 and #3: On the right side of the bridge at the start, there is
a ladder which is difficult to see. Go down the ladder, and jump over into the
little arch. There is another arch beside this one, jump off the side and then
as you start to fall turn back and you will be able to jump into this arch. Now
do the same thing for the next arch. There are 3 holy items under the bridge,
once you have them, jump back to the first arch then jump onto the ladder and
climb up the bridge.
Holy Item #4: There is a shack with a little window opposite the wooden
execution stand. The door will be unlocked once you open the level exit, and a
holy item will be waiting for you inside.
Holy Items #5 and #6: There are two ways to get these holy items. For the first
method, jump up on the roof of the shack where you got holy item #4. Now stand
in the corner where the shack's roof meets the side of the castle. If you jump
up you should be able to see something gold over the edge of the wall. That's
where you want to get to. You can hold forward and keep jumping to climb up the
wall but it may take some luck. The second method of getting these items is to
drop off the castle roof and land where they are. Instructions on how to get
onto the roof are described for holy item #7.
Holy Item #7: I got a lot of different methods of getting to this secret
e-mailed to me, so I will start with the ones I believe are the easiest.
The first thing you have to do is get onto the tower with the ballista at the
top. You need to jump from the tower over to the castle's roof. There are
four methods of doing this, so here we go...
Method #1: Look towards the castle roof from the tower. Notice how one of the
bricks is shorter than the rest? Jump just to the side of this brick into the
little gap, being careful not to fall off the edge. Now jump over on top of the
short brick. Face the castle roof and jump straight up. As soon as you land
jump forward towards the closest part of the roof and you will be able to make
it.
Method #2: Bunnyhop in circles around the ballista to pick up speed. Now jump
between the gap on either side of the short brick. You should be able to clear
the brick completely and land on the castle roof. Credits go to Oblivion for
telling me about this method.
Method #3: Push the end of the ballista so that the front is facing the tower.
The front end should be up highest. Now run along the ballista from back end
to front, jumping at the end of the ballista, landing on top of the bricks
at the edge of the tower and jumping again as soon as you land. You should be
able to reach the castle roof if you time this properly.
Method #4: This is just method #3 with the speed card equipped. Activate the
card, then run up the ballista like in method #3. This time you should jump
very early, almost as soon as you get onto the end of the ballista. Hit
the bricks at the edge of the tower and immediately jump again to reach the
roof.
After getting onto the castle roof, if you look over the edge towards where
the level began, you should see a holy item in the tower. Jump over into the
tower and get it. You can bunnyhop or use the same type of jump thats above
in method #1 of getting onto the castle's roof.
Level 4-2: The Palace c417
Objective: Defeat the level without using any armor
Card: Vitality [Silver] [Increases base health to 150]
The only real difficulty you'll have here will be remembering not to pick up
any armour. Most of the fighting is done in open arenas and there are a few
mega healths throughout the level, making it easy to keep your health high.
Level 4-3: Babel c418
Objective: Pick up every ammo box in the level.
Card: Double Time [Gold] [Gold cards last 20 seconds longer]
I really hate these scavenger hunt style challenges. Chances are you have
gotten 94/95 of the ammo boxes, and you're looking for the one that you missed,
so I'll tell you where this secret one is before I do the rest. At the second
to last checkpoint, the floor starts collapsing as you run across it. You will
run up a stone slab through an opening to the next floor. Now turn around and
go back in the same direction on this floor, past the hole you just came out of
with the wooden beams jutting out from the sides. There will be one of those
walls with the insets and doors, and chances are you will spot something shiny
up near the top of it. Look for a part of this wall that has bricks jutting
out. Yeah, you guessed it, it's a ladder. Climb up to get a holy item and the
hidden ammo.
UPDATE: While it's still easier to do on your first time through, I made a
mistake in saying that it is not possible to get back up here. I got an e-mail
informing me that indeed you can get back up here after you've gone through it
once. After the floor has collapsed, you can jump on whats left along the edge
to get to solid ground. Then take a ladder up the wall to get up to the part
where the hole is with the boards of wood jutting out. Now just climb up the
ladder as described up above to claim the ammo.
There is another secret you might have missed, although it is much more
obvious. At the checkpoint just before the columns in the roof which try and
crush you, you can jump over the wall to the left. Then keep bunnyhopping
around until you eventually make your way to the other side of the tower. There
will be ammo boxes along the sides here, as well as a huge cache at the wall at
the end. Once you're done grabbing all this ammo, there is a ladder going up
the wall so that you don't have to bunnyhop your way back, you can just climb
over the wall and fall back to where you were.
If you're still missing ammo even after these 2 secret areas, then I made a
full list of the ammo locations here. I suggest you print it off, keep track of
what checkpoint you are on, and check off the ammo that you grab. I divided the
level into areas to make it easier for me, and for you.
First area: This area is before the first checkpoint, and includes the first
courtyard and the broken building.
3 stake boxes to the right of the broken building.
*This will look like two stakes but it counts as 3 on the stats screen. My
guess is that the level designer dropped 2 stake boxes directly on top of each
other by accident*
3 shotgun shells by the wall to the left, by the level's starting point.
2 rocket boxes on the right side, in a corner beside a broken wall.
3 rocket boxes in another corner on the right side, close to the stairs leading
to the top of the broken building.
3 chaingun boxes in a dark alley which is close to the stairs on the left side
which leads to the top of the broken building.
Second area: This area is the room just after the 1st checkpoint. It is a
wooden barn on top of the broken building.
8 shuriken boxes are in the room, but on the left side it will look like theres
only 3 boxes, when there is 4. This level is messed up...
Third area: This area is right after the 2nd checkpoint, and includes the
staircase leading up and the secret area to the left.
2 rocket boxes, one on each side at the top of the stairs.
Along the side of the path leading to the secret cache of goodies, there are:
2 shotgun shells
3 stake boxes
2 chaingun boxes
2 freezer packs
2 rocket Boxes
Fourth area: This is at the 3rd checkpoint, and includes the large spiral
staircase leading up, which you get to right after the crushing columns, and
the large area it leads up to
1 freezer ammo at the bottom of the stairs
3 shotgun shells at the bottom of the stairs
6 shotgun shells at the center of the room at the top of the spiral staircase
3 grenades at the center of the room at the top of the spiral staircase
Fifth area: This area is after climbing the 2 staircases leading up in a curve,
right at the 4th checkpoint.
2 stake boxes in behind of the 4th checkpoint
3 chaingun boxes in behind of the 4th checkpoint
2 shotgun shells in behind of the 4th checkpoint
Sixth area: This area is after the 5th checkpoint and is the falling floor
part. You should also be able to get the secret ammo here, which is 1
mega-pack.
Seventh area: This area is right after getting past the falling floor. It is
the 6th checkpoint, when you enter the top of the tower. It includes the top
level of the tower, the middle level, and the floor on the bottom where the
exit appears.
Ammo on top floor:
2 shotgun shells
2 freezer ammo
Ammo on bottom floor (all of these are hidden under the staircase):
2 chaingun boxes
3 shuriken boxes
6 shotgun shells
Ammo on the middle floor (you can get here by falling from the top level, or,
after opening the exit there is a staircase that will lead here):
3 rocket boxes
4 chaingun boxes
3 shotgun shells
Level 4-4: Forest c419
Objective: Finish the level without using black tarot cards
Card: Divine Intervention [Silver] [All cards can be placed for free]
Before starting the level you will have to unequip your silver cards, and you
might also want to unequip the golds in case you're tempted to use them. Begin
the level by moving forward, which will start the enemies spawning in. Now back
up to the sparse corner at the side and camp there. The bones seem to move
slower than normal and you'll have a much easier time killing them. Use the
shotgun and kill the bones as they approach. Eventually vampires will start
coming too; you can use the freezer-shotgun combo or painkiller secondary fire
to kill them. The bones will keep pouring in, and will now come in swarms. Herd
them together and take out as many as you can with well placed rocket blasts,
finishing the rest with the shotgun. When you've killed 43 enemies they'll have
stopped spawning and you'll be safe from ground troops for a while. Switch to
the chaingun and take down the two witches. When you approach the armour in the
center of the arena, vampires will spawn in along with a witch that moves
lightning fast. Once they spawn in, move back to where you started the level
and kill the vamps from afar with the painkiller's secondary fire while dodging
the flesh they throw at you. Once you reach 63 kills, you only have to deal
with the 2 remaining witches. Take one of the side paths to the gate at the
other side of the map and stand close to it. Use the chaingun or stakes to kill
both witches and the gate will open. Scour the area for ammunition and then hit
the checkpoint.
Kill the two forming bones with a rocket blast, then stand close to the gate
and kill the witches passing overhead with the chaingun. Once the gate opens,
grab the weapon modifier and run into the next arena. Immediately turn to your
left and kill the vampires guarding the freezer ammo. Pick it up, then turn
around and work your way around the center of the arena, freezing and shooting
the vampires. Ignore the bones until they are in a large herd and then kill
them with the rocket launcher. When they've all been taken care of, use the
chaingun and finish off the two witches zig-zagging overhead. The walls will
then blow out and two heavily armoured bald guys will attack along with two
more witches. The bald guys aren't that hard to take down but they can shoot
fireballs so be cautious. Once they're down, kill the last 2 witches and head
into the back to get the final card in the game.
Level 4-5: The Tower c420
Objective: Kill Alastor in under 5 minutes
Card: Triple Haste [Gold] [The world moves 8x slower]
You should bring the Iron Will card into this fight, as the only difficulty
Alastor poses is the damage he causes from smashing the floors. At the start of
the level, grab the armour behind you and work your way in a circle grabbing
all the chaingun ammo on the outskirts of the ring. Now shoot away all of
Alastor's health and a short while later he will come flying down, smashing the
floor apart. This is where you will want to activate Iron Will, as the damage
taken from falling is massive. The only alternative is to jump before he hits
the floor and guide yourself to a pillar on the floor below. If you're really
lucky you can get away with this, taking a hit of only 20 hp or so, but it's
difficult. On the second floor you will have to fight Alastor again, preferably
using your shotgun or chaingun. Be sure to grab the health and armour power-ups
on this floor before you deplete his life. When his life is gone, he runs to
the center of the arena, winds up, and smashes the floor yet again. This next
floor has no health or armour power-ups, and you'll be forced to again take
down his life. This time when he smashes the floor there will be a long drop
and you'll be on solid ground. Keep firing on him until his life is gone. He'll
then run to the center of the arena and the statues will begin to charge him
back up; don't let them! Destroy as many as you can with the chaingun when they
are vulnerable, and take down Alastor's life when they are not. When all the
statues are destroyed, you can finally kill Alastor, although he doesn't stay
dead for long.
Level 5-1: City On Water c421
Objective: Find 6/6 Hidden Areas
Card: Last Breath [Silver] [Health regeneration when you're dying]
The first three secrets can all be gotten after killing the first wave of
enemies.
Secret #1 – Go to the roofed bridge near the beginning. At the middle of the
bridge you'll find a white barrel amongst the others; roll it towards where you
started the level. Push it up against the large metal crate and then blow it
up. Bunnyhop to pick up speed, then use the boost pad to get to the top of the
tower.
Secret #2 – After obtaining the first secret, cross the roofed bridge and then
the bridge closest to you. The secret area is a dark recess in the wall,
holding an ammo box.
Secret #3 – After obtaining the second secret, go back across the small bridge
and keep going forward until you reach the edge of the water. Now turn to your
right and walk towards the building. The secret is an unseen, recessed spot in
the wall that is facing the water. You'll need to jump out over the water and
steer yourself mid-air into it, much like with the Castle's first, second and
third holy items under the bridge.
Secret #4 – Clear the second wave of enemies from the area with the display
cases. There will be two closed off doors here; the one you want has two arched
windows set in the wall just right of it. Jump out the windows and use the
ledge to get to the balcony on the other side. Stick your face right into the
corner where the balcony and the covered bridge meet, and then hold forward and
keep tapping jump until you manage to get on top of the covered bridge. It may
help to jerk the mouse to the left and right as you do this. Once on top of the
bridge, you'll need to get onto the roof with the red shingles. To do this,
stand on the higher part of the bridge's roof at either edge, and then bunnyhop
forward until you make it on top of the building. Now walk to the opposite side
of the building, where you can see the cathedral and, on a balcony of the
building to the left of the cathedral, a golden artifact. You'll need to
bunnyhop along the edge of the building, and then jump from the end towards the
wall that runs perpendicular to the balcony containing the artifact. Once you
hit this wall you'll need to quickly jump and turn towards the balcony. Then
grab the artifact and jump off the balcony down towards the cathedral.
Secret #4 Alternate Route – After clearing the cathedral area, climb the
scaffolding to get onto the roof of the cathedral. From the large triangle on
the face of the building, jump from each of the 3 steeples to get onto the
balcony. I list this as an alternate route simply because it seems far harder
than the other method, which I can usually pull off most of the time. Some
people have found this method easier, so you're welcome to try.
Secret #5 – A hidden passage in the side of the water fountain.
Secret #6 – Along the outside of the final building there is a small ammo
cache. You can jump along the ledge poised above the water, and take it around
to the back of the building.
Level 5-2: Docks c422
Objective: Morph into demon hunter mode 3 times
Card: Confusion [Gold] [Confuse Enemies]
You can probably get this card on your first time through if you have Soul
Catcher equipped, just collect as many souls as possible. Each demon hunter
morph takes 66, so in total you need 198 souls to get the card. To make this
level even easier you could equip the dark soul card, allowing you to morph
with every 50 souls, but it's not really needed.
Level 5-3: Old Monastery c423
Objective: Stay above 50 health throughout the level
Card: Soul Redeemer [Silver] [Souls give more health]
Before starting this level you should equip the Soul Catcher silver card so
you can regain health easier. This level isn't terribly difficult, but there
are some hard to avoid projectiles. The monks will throw little explosive balls
at you, which explode a little while after they latch onto the ground, making
them easily avoidable. The banshees don't matter much, all they do is make the
screen darker so that its harder to see, but they can't hurt you. The toughest
monsters on this level are the demon monks with scythes. Not that they're that
tough, but they use a lightning projectile attack that is basically unavoidable
unless you hide behind something. They will use this almost always upon first
spotting you, and will raise their left hand into the air before they fire.
This is your cue to go hide behind something. There are also a few
power-up locations that can be used to help out. There is an armour in
the middle of the building with the columns, just up the hill near the start.
Also, in the well at the one corner of this building there is another armor. To
the one side of the path leading to the large tree/graveyard there is a health
power-up which can help out greatly. In the back end of the monastery there is
another armor, and with that, you should be able to stay above 50 health quite
easily.
Level 5-4: Hell c424
Objective: Kill Lucifer
Card: Mercy [Silver] [You can use golden cards three times per level]
Simply stand around killing ethereal monsters until your count is 65. Now do a
quicksave and kill one more to face Lucifer. Keep attacking him until he brings
meteors down from the sky; you'll want to shoot them back at him. If you manage
to do this, he'll throw his sword at you and you can reflect it back at him to
finish him off. If you didn't manage to kill him during the demon morph, reload
the savegame and try again.
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5.0 – Card List c50
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Level | Requirements | Card Name | Type | Cost |
|------+-------------------------------+---------------+--------+-------------|
|1-1 | Beat the level | Endurance | Gold | 100 |
|1-2 | Destroy all objects | Haste | Gold | 100 |
|1-3 | Defeat all enemies | Soul Keeper | Silver | 500 |
|1-4 | Collect 500 gold | Time Bonus | Gold | 100 |
|1-5 | Kill Necrogiant in under 2:00 | Blessing | Silver | 200 |
|------+-------------------------------+---------------+--------+-------------|
|2-1 | Don't use explosive weapons | Replenish | Silver | 500 |
|2-2 | Collect 100 souls | Speed | Gold | 100 |
|2-3 | Only use the Painkiller | Fury | Gold | 200 |
|2-4 | Find all secret areas | Dark Soul | Silver | 400 |
|2-5 | Only use stakes (no grenades) | Double Haste | Gold | 300 |
|2-6 | Kill SwampThing in under 4:00 | Dexterity | Gold | 300 |
|------+-------------------------------+---------------+--------+-------------|
|3-1 | Don't collect any souls | Soul Catcher | Silver | 500 |
|3-2 | Kill 30 enemies in demon mode | Forgiveness | Silver | 1000 |
|3-3 | Defeat all enemies | Greed | Silver | 2000 |
|3-4 | Kill Guardian in under 1:20 | Iron Will | Gold | 666 |
|------+-------------------------------+---------------+--------+-------------|
|4-1 | Collect all Holy Items | Rage | Gold | 500 |
|4-2 | Don't collect any armor | Vitality | Silver | 100 |
|4-3 | Pick up every ammo box | 2x Time Bonus | Gold | 300 |
|4-4 | Don't use any tarot cards | Divine Int. | Silver | 0 |
|4-5 | Kill Alastor in under 5:00 | Triple Haste | Gold | 500 |
|------+-------------------------------+---------------+--------+-------------|
|5-1 | Find all secret areas | Last Breath | Silver | 500 |
|5-2 | Morph into demon 3 times | Confusion | Gold | 200 |
|5-3 | Keep health above 50 | Soul Redeemer | Silver | 1000 |
|5-4 | Kill Lucifer | Mercy | Silver | 2000 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-1 : [G]Endurance - Halves damage taken
1-2 : [G]Haste - Slows game speed by 2 when activated
1-3 : [S]Soul Keeper - Souls will last longer
1-4 : [G]Time Bonus - 10 more seconds on each gold card activation
1-5 : [S]Blessing - Start the level with 150 health
2-1 : [S]Replenish - Get twice as much ammo from ammo boxes
2-2 : [G]Speed - Move faster
2-3 : [G]Fury - Double damage
2-4 : [S]Dark Soul - Morphing to demon form takes 50 souls
2-5 : [G]Double Haste - Slows game speed by 4 when activated
2-6 : [G]Dexterity - Weapons fire twice as fast
3-1 : [S]Soul Catcher - Nearby souls are pulled into you
3-2 : [S]Forgiveness - Cards can be activated 2 times per level
3-3 : [S]Greed - Gold is worth twice as much**
3-4 : [G]Iron Will - Take no damage
4-1 : [G]Rage - Quad damage
4-2 : [S]Vitality - Base health is 150
4-3 : [G]Double Time Bonus - 20 more seconds on each gold card activation*
4-4 : [S]Divine Intervention – Cards don't cost any gold to place
4-5 : [G]Triple Haste - Slows game speed by 8 when activated
5-1 : [S]Last Breath - When you die, you'll revive with 33 health
5-2 : [G]Confusion - Enemies ignore you and attack each other
5-3 : [S]Soul Redeemer - Gain twice as much health from souls
5-4 : [S]Mercy - Cards can be activated 3 times per level
* The Double Time Bonus card is broken and doesn't do anything. The Time Bonus
card, however, does work as intended.
** The Greed card is also broken, as it doesn't actually give you gold, it only
doubles the gold score.
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7.0 – Version Changes c70
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v.50 - Guide is only partially complete right now, but most of the card list is
finished. More details on tips and the rest of the card list will be coming in
the next version. -Uploaded on April 16, 2004
v.90 - Full card list is up, next version I'll go into more detail on some of
the other cards. -Uploaded April 19, 2004
v1.00 - Updates for level 4-3 Babel. There's now a full ammo list and I was
also informed that you can get the secret ammo even after opening the exit.
Added Iron Will tip for killing Alastor. 4-4 Forest updated. 3-3 Military Base
updated. Various grammar and spelling mistakes fixed. More tips added. 4-1
Castle updated, now with a much easier method for getting the 7th holy item.
Level 1-3 Catacombs updated. Level 1-5 Enclave updated. Added juggling trick
for getting extra gold. -Uploaded April 23, 2004
v1.01 - Updated level 5-1 City on Water. I got an e-mail informing me the real
way to get secret #1. Updated level 4-1 Castle - Rewrote holy items
descriptions for #'s 5,6 and 7. Juggling trick/level 1-4 updated. Rewrote 2-5
Town. Rewrote 5-4 Hell. Updated level 2-4 Snowy Bridge - Secrets are now in
chronological order so that you shouldn't have to backtrack. 5-3 Old Monastery
now has actual tips. -Uploaded August 27, 2004
V2.0 – New intro & disclaimer, improved boss strategies, rewrote many of the
levels to make the guide more terse, added info on broken cards.
-Uploaded January 25th, 2007
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