Part 56

When the scene starts to fade in, turn left a bit to see the nearby parts of the large island. Watch for two huge rocky spires to rise up out of the ground and note the hole the second one rises from. Restore your game from the end of "Gonarch's Lair," then drop into the teleporter again. Turn and run for the second spire's hole as soon as you can see where you're going.

When you make it to the edge of the hole, look down into it to see the rocky spire's top. When it starts moving up, drop onto it and ride it all the way up.

Look around for a floating rock platform nearby that you can jump to. Quicksave and start shooting down all the nearby alien controllers. Use the gluon gun until you run out of ammo, then switch to the .357 and/or assault rifle. The shotgun is good for controllers that fly by really close.

After all the nearby controllers are dead, quicksave again. Look for the next-lowest moving platform in the series. Instead of getting onto the island's surface, aim for a stationary rock platform with an ammo canister on it that's a ways above the surface. Keep watching for and shooting down alien controllers as you make your way down to that rock.

Once you're on the stationary rock platform, you'll be in range of all the vortigaunts (enemies) on the island's surface, so stay crouched and move around when necessary to avoid getting zapped.

Watch for an alien flyer to appear and fly right by your rock, close enough that you can run onto it without having to jump. Once you're on it, get out the assault rifle and crouch near the flyer's center, quickly using grenades to eliminate any vortigaunts that are in a position to zap you as you ride along.

When you get close to the large floating rock with an alien teleporter gadget on it, quicksave before long-jumping to the rock in case you miss it. Once you make it, enter the teleporter to get to section c4a1b.

When the scene starts to fade in, turn left just a little bit, then run forward so that you land near the right edge of the island below. Run along it to get up onto one end of a rocky hill.

Get out the crossbow or .357 and snipe the vortigaunt that's standing around near the other end of the hill. Run over there, get out the gluon gun, and quicksave.

Crouch down on the lower part of the hilltop so any vortigaunts on the ground nearby can't see you. (One may run up after you, so be ready to blast it quickly if it does. A couple of aggressive alien controllers will swarm you, too.)

Locate the stationary floating rock that's a ways beyond your hilltop position. Keep a close watch for an alien flyer to appear near it and fly right past it.

Before one does, use the gluon gun to blow away alien controllers, switching to the .357 (or assault rifle) after you run out of gluon ammo.

As soon as a flyer appears near the rock, quicksave again and try long-jumping onto the flyer. This is a very hard jump, so you may have to quickrestore and retry many times. It's best to long-jump off of the highest point of the hilltop while running toward the flyer.

Once you make it onto the flyer, crouch-walk to the approximate center of it.

Get out the assault rifle and start using grenades to quickly blow up any vortigaunts on the ground below that can zap you. For any remaining alien controllers, it's probably best to ignore them and focus on the vortigaunts, since they can hurt you a lot faster.

When you get close to the large floating rock with an alien teleporter gadget on it, quicksave before long-jumping to the rock in case you miss it. Once on it, enter the teleporter to get to section c4a1b.

No matter how damaged you are, make a regular save and two quicksaves, as you've just passed the last of the three really hard parts of the game.

Go through all of your weapons and make sure they're all reloaded. Get the armor batteries that are next to a dead HEV suit wearer and behind the teleporter structure you appeared on.

Leave the cave and turn left, then crouch-walk over next to a large broken-off rocky spire piece. Move around slowly until you can see an alien grunt on top of a hill in the distance.

Edge over to where you can only see the lower part of the grunt, then fire hornets toward it until it falls over dead.

Crouch-walk under the broken spire piece, then move over to the base on the left that it broke off of. Strafe right until you can see the other grunt-on-a-hill a ways ahead. Move to where you can only see part of it before sneak-shooting it with hornets. (If either of those grunts see you, they'll signal for a flyer to drop off more grunts.)

As you move carefully forward between spiky plants, look around the two up-and-down machines ahead to see if you can spot any vortigaunts near them. If so, quickly hornet-shoot them before you approach the machines, using the spiky alien plants for cover (press the cover button to crouch behind walls or objects).

After the outdoor vortigaunts are dead, look to the right of the rightmost up-and-down machine for a cave entrance.

Quickly hornet-