Navigate the treacherous floating islands of Xen in Half-Life: Opposing Force. This guide details how to survive alien controllers, find vital health and ammo, and reach the Gonarch's Lair.
Walkthrough
- 1After surviving the alien controllers, save your game.
- 2Long-jump to the floating rock with a dead HEV guy, collecting the health pack and armor battery.
- 3Use the hornet gun to kill the vortigaunt that teleports onto the next rock.
- 4Long-jump to that rock, then quickly kill the next vortigaunt and the houndeye that appear.
- 5Carefully navigate the moving platforms around the main island's spires, dropping down until you reach the lowest one.
- 6Quicksave after each successful drop.
- 7Move around the island's top surface border and carefully crouch-drop onto one of the four spiky protrusions, ensuring no nearby purple crystals can zap you.
- 8Use the hornet gun to kill any nearby houndeyes.
- 9Use altfire hornets to destroy all visible purple crystals, starting with the closest.
- 10Jump-crouch onto the ledge running around the lower part of the island.
- 11Slowly make your way along the ledge, using hornets to kill houndeyes and destroy purple crystals until you reach the big healing pool.
- 12Stand in the healing pool until your health is 100%.
- 13Examine the rocky wall near the pool with your flashlight to find a small space to crouch-walk through to a hidden alcove.
- 14Jump-crouch into the large hole in the alcove wall and bash through the vines to reach a room with an alien teleporter.
- 15Find and interact with the three mushroom-like objects with metal claws on top to open their claws. One is on top of a large rock and requires a jump.
- 16Find the vines imprisoning three little golden flyer things. Bash the vines to release them.
- 17Watch as the flyers settle into the open-top shrooms.
- 18Once all three flyers are in place, the exit teleporter in the center of the cave will open.
- 19Big rock "fangs" will emerge from the floor and ceiling; quickly run into the teleporter beam to reach "Gonarch's Lair."
Tips
- Quicksave after every wave of alien controllers if you didn't take too much damage.
- You might not hear the scientist announce the teleporter is ready; watch for it to form and try jumping in after each quicksave.
- As an alternative to waiting, run and long-jump around the chamber to avoid controller fire while the portal readies.
- The gate-opening scientist should remain safe due to the controllers' focus on you.
- If you are in bad shape after reaching Xen, save your game, then restore an earlier save and retry the teleporter chamber.
- When collecting the health and armor on the first Xen rock, hide behind the rocky spire immediately after landing to avoid a zapping vortigaunt.
- If you miss a long-jump to a platform, you can restore a save and try again.
- Crouching before landing on platforms might help.
- Quicksave after every successful drop onto a new platform while descending the island.
- If a dropped-on protrusion has a zap-happy crystal, restore and try a different spike.
- Use altfire hornets to destroy purple crystals from a safe distance.
- Move slowly along the lower ledge, using hornets for defense.
- Use your flashlight to find the hidden alcove entrance.
- Bash through vines to progress.
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