painkiller guide - walkthrough

8/13/2019 Painkiller Guide - Walkthrough

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| PAINKILLER GUIDE / WALKTHROUGH |

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Guide author: Useless

E-mail: [email protected]

Guide version: 1.10

Game version: 1.0

System: PC

Copyright: Useless 2006

This entire document is (c) 2006 Useless. All trademarks are property of

their respective owners. No section of this guide can be used without my

permission. This includes, but is not limited to, posting on your website,

making links to my guide, including parts of my guide in your own, or makingreference to any material contained within.

Please do not email me to ask for permission to host this guide, as I will

be unable to give it to you. I don't have enough time to manage and upload FAQ

versions at any sites other than the two listed below. These sites are

therefore the only ones permitted to host this guide:

GameFAQS.com

NeoSeeker.com

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TABLE OF CONTENTS\-----------------/

1. INTRODUCTION

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1.1 INTRODUCTION

1.2 USING THIS GUIDE

1.3 CONTACT ME

2. GAME

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2.1 MENUS2.2 MOVEMENT AND COMBAT

2.2.1 MOVEMENT

2.2.2 COMBAT

2.3 GAME FEATURES

2.3.1 WEAPONS

2.3.2 PICKUPS

2.3.3 HAZARDS

2.3.4 SECRET AREAS

2.3.5 MISCELLANEOUS

2.4 TAROT CARDS

2.4.1 GOLD CARDS

2.4.2 SILVER CARDS


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2.5 MONSTERS

3. WALKTHROUGH

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3.1 - LEVEL 1/1 CEMETERY

3.2 - LEVEL 1/2 ATRIUM COMPLEX

3.3 - LEVEL 1/3 CATACOMBS

3.4 - LEVEL 1/4 CATHEDRAL

3.5 - LEVEL 1/5 ENCLAVE

3.6 - LEVEL 2/1 PRISON3.7 - LEVEL 2/2 OPERA HOUSE

3.8 - LEVEL 2/3 ASYLUM

3.9 - LEVEL 2/4 SNOWY BRIDGE

3.10 - LEVEL 2/5 TOWN

3.11 - LEVEL 2/6 SWAMP

3.12 - LEVEL 3/1 TRAIN STATION

3.13 - LEVEL 3/2 ABANDONED FACTORY

3.14 - LEVEL 3/3 MILITARY BASE

3.15 - LEVEL 3/4 RUINS

3.16 - LEVEL 4/1 CASTLE

3.17 - LEVEL 4/2 THE PALACE

3.18 - LEVEL 4/3 BABEL

3.19 - LEVEL 4/4 FOREST3.20 - LEVEL 4/5 TOWER

3.21 - LEVEL 5/1 CITY ON WATER

3.22 - LEVEL 5/2 DOCKS

3.23 - LEVEL 5/3 OLD MONASTERY

3.24 - LEVEL 5/4 HELL

3.25 - FROM NIGHTMARE TO TRAUMA

4. CONTRIBUTORS / CONTRIBUTIONS

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5. VERSION HISTORY / UPDATES

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| 1. INTRODUCTION |

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1.1 INTRODUCTION

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Welcome to my Painkiller guide. This is my sixth guide, and since I was

getting tired of the format I used in my first five I decided to change it to

some sort of barbed wire thing. Not quite convinced it works, but it's meant

to suit the feel of the game. Or something. Who cares.

Before I go on: if you're reading this guide for no other reason than to get

help with secret areas, please skip to section 2.3.4 now.


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My guide to Painkiller's expansion, Battle Out Of Hell, is available at the

usual two sites.

---

In Painkiller you play the role of generically named Daniel Garner, who gets

killed in a car crash along with his wife, Catherine, in spite of having the

requisite stubble, dark hair, leather jacket and pissed off facial expressions

you'd expect of any car crash survivor. Daniel spends thirty years battling

countless demons in limbo, until Sammael, an angel from Heaven and a hot

basketball prospect, offers him a chance to redeem his sins and escape fromhis torment. Daniel could also be reunited with his wife, who after thirty

years of waiting could reasonably be expected to have shacked up with someone

else by now. But anyway.

Daniel only has to do one piddling little thing to get his afterlife sorted

out once and for all. Fight his way through over twenty of Hell's realms -

which, by the way, are all based on things which can be found in human

civilizations - in order to rid the place of four of Lucifer's horriblest

generals, not to mention Lucifer himself. Because, frankly, demons of their

sort are just not welcome in Hell.

There are certain things Sammael isn't telling Daniel; such as whom to trust

and whom not to trust, where Daniel's supposed to go, and where Sammael getshis hair done.

Daniel will have to figure these things out with the help of the people he

will meet along the way, be they friend, foe or barber. So get on with it.

---

Painkiller is not a complicated game. You run, you shoot, they die. The game

it reminds me of most is not Doom or Hexen, but a game called Smash TV which

used to be on the SEGA Mega Drive years and years ago. The premise of Smash TV

was that you got locked in a room on your own (topdown view) and you ran

around backwards with your finger pressed on the firing button while tons of

enemies swarmed mindlessly at you. You erased everything from one room and you

moved onto the next. And that was it.

You might not run around backwards quite so much in Painkiller, but there is a

lot of moving from area to area, eradicating everything you see until the game

lets you move on. The only requirement for being able to complete this game is

an ability to point your crosshairs at monsters and fire at them until they

die, while simultaneously avoiding death yourself. If this sounds like

something you might find entertaining then please read on - I was pleasantly

surprised by how cool this game is, and hopefully this guide will help other

people appreciate it too.

---

I've loved FPS games ever since I first played Doom, and I've spent far, fartoo much time playing past greats such as Heretic, Duke 3D and Thief. Merely

for the sake of it, I've decided to list here the games that Painkiller

reminds me of, and has probably borrowed from - if you like or love Painkiller

then you will definitely want to check out some or all of the following games:

Doom

Duke Nukem 3D

Halflife

Heretic

Hexen

Quake

Return To Castle Wolfenstein


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this guide is now closed and will not be revised again, unless only to make

corrections.

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| 2. GAME |

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2.1 MENUS

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Before you begin playing Painkiller you'll probably want to customise it so

you can get the most out of it. Here are some notes on things you might want

to look at in the Options menu.

CONTROLS > General

------------------

Arrange your keys so that they are pretty close together - this will make it a

lot easier to manoeuvre through the game.

You can pretty much ignore the next / prev weapon keys, as they are far too

sensitive.

Make sure you put distance between your quicksave and quickload keys - the

defaults are fine. This is in case you accidentally hit one when you're trying

to hit the other. Quickloading when you don't want to is not fun.

Mouse sens. was a bit high for me - I put mine down to 33, though this is

subjective and depends on your style, make of mouse, etc.

For once in a FPS game, mouse smoothing is a good thing.

CONTROLS > Advanced

-------------------

Assign a number key to each of your weapons and select them this way during

the game. I recommend making the electrodriver number four instead of five, as

it's the fourth weapon you'll find in the game.

Make sure you have a key for the flashlight, and remember what it is. The gameoften turns the light on automatically in certain dark levels and areas (eg.

Cemetery, Asylum), but your game tends to suffer from frame loss while the

flashlight is on, so you'll want to be able to turn it off. If your game is

slow, it might be because of the flashlight.

CONTROLS > Weapons

------------------

Configure your primary and secondary weapons for yourself in here; though I

suggest you swap the chaingun and rockets around, so that the chaingun is the

primary.


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Turn off Pickup Priority if you don't want the game to automatically switch to

every weapon you pick up.

HUD

---

Take headbob all the way down to 0, as anything else will affect your aim

while moving. Plus it just looks bloody stupid.

I tend to go with a bright green cross for a reticle, as this colour is

probably the easiest to see against Painkiller's background colours.

SOUND

-----

Turning off battle music will allow you to hear the sound effects and great

ambient music better; but leaving it on will give you advance warning every

time you're under attack. Now that I know from long experience where every

enemy is I tend to turn if off, but suit yourself.

VIDEO

-----

This is where to sort out any speed issues you're having. The lower the videosettings the faster the game will play. Just don't disable stuff if you don't

have to, because Painkiller is a good-looking game and you'll want to

appreciate it.

Some levels and areas are much more likely to slow up than others. The rule

is: the more polygons on screen at once the slower the game will move. So big,

wide open areas with falling rubble, monsters everywhere, weather effects,

lots of buildings standing around the periphery - these areas will move pretty

sluggishly if, like mine, your computer is not quite up to the task.

Three of the bosses' arenas are also pretty dodgy at times, since there's a

lot going on and the boss sprites are so enormous. Try to find a nice balance

between looks and speed, though this depends on your own system.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________V1.7 CONTRIBUTION_______________________________

jetscope

"in the beginning, when you're explaining about the video settings, you say

that the boss sprites are really big. Actually, the bosses use models, not

sprites - sprites are two-dimensional (they have only one side and rotate with

your view), as opposed to models, which are fully three-dimensional. Doom used

eight main sprites for each enemy, to create the illusion of them being three-

dimensional - when you walked around them, different sprites switched on and

off."

-=#=-

Yep, I remember that from Doom. I also remember thinking "how clever!". I was

young and foolish then; now I'm less young and more foolish. Doesn't seem

fair.

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2.2 MOVEMENT AND COMBAT

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This section is here to help any new players deal with the basics of

Painkiller - how best to move through the levels and kill the monsters

populating them.

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| 2.2.1 MOVEMENT |

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Movement is important in combat - covered below - but it's also vital for

progression through each level. You will encounter plenty of obstacles

in this game: some can be ignored; some will need to be overcome to proceed;

some will let you reach secret areas or bonuses.

It's easy enough to jump over small gaps, or to aim to land on sloped areas

while dropping through the air to avoid taking damage, etc. But other barriers

are more complicated, and you'll need to practice certain things before you

can get by them with ease.

For example, some ladders are buggy and they will only let you climb on at a

certain angle. Some conveyances move while you are standing on them, and

you'll have to compensate in order to avoid falling off. Some routes are verynarrow and can cause you to slip off either side, meaning you'll have to go

all the way back to the start and try again.

It's important to know how to jump properly. It's not quite as simple as

jumping forward or sideways and then landing. There are a couple of other

factors: one is that you slide a little when you land after a moving jump, so

if you land on an edge you could well fall off; another is that if you jump

forwards off an edge and press backwards at any point of the jump, you will

suddenly stop moving forwards and simply drop straight down. This is good if

you need to land on a certain spot underneath you, but bad if you mistime it.

Quick-jump:

The most important thing to know about is the quick-jump (my name for it -dunno if other people have a different term). To quick-jump you just keep

running and jumping, but press jump every time you land, so that you do a

series of long skips in quick succession (remember this from Thief: The Dark

Project?). You get a great speed and distance increase, you can get past any

nearby enemy before its melee attack has a chance to hit you, and quick-

jumping can also let you jump up slopes and ledges to reach places which

normal jumps can't.

Try to jump onto a low, sloped ledge with just a normal jump. If the ledge is

too high you won't make it, but if you quick-jump onto it you can get all the

way to the top. There is a great example of the difference between jumping and

quick-jumping in the Docks level: there is a part of a crane which is almost

vertically sloped - one normal jump would barely let you get off the ground,but if you quick-jump onto it and keep pressing jump while you move up, you

can reach the very top.

Quick-jumping off an edge can let you soar a great distance to reach a ledge

opposite; whereas one normal forward jump would never be able to scale many of

the gaps in the game.

Throughout this guide I refer to quick-jumps; and also standing quick-jumps,

which is my term for the quick-jumps you have to do when you have no space for

a run-up. To do a standing quick-jump you just jump straight upwards and then

press forwards and jump as you land - this lets you do a forward quick-jump

which will reach farther than a normal forward jump.


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If ever you find yourself unable to reach a certain area, try experimenting

with the quick-jump. Every single level has places where quick-jumping will

greatly benefit you, and most secret areas are only accessible through quick-

jumping.

Directional arrow:

The arrow at the top of your HUD points to the nearest enemy. When there are

no enemies left in the current section, it turns red and points to the next

checkpoint.

When there are still some enemies remaining in the current area but none of

them are near enough, the bloody thing breaks and points due north. This means

that you're going to have to hunt in every corner until you find those hidden

monsters and kill them off, at which point the arrow should work again.

The tiny red arrows above or below the main arrow tell you whether your target

monster or checkpoint is laterally above or below you. So if you're on a cliff

and the arrow has a red arrow under it, you'll have to get all the way down

the cliff until the small red arrow disappears and you know you're level with

your objective.

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| 2.2.2 COMBAT |

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The most important thing to learn if you want to stay alive right to the end

of Painkiller is that you have to keep moving while in combat. Unlike in

certain other FPS games, Painkiller's monsters are almost totally inept at

hitting moving targets, even at Trauma difficulty.

If you want to just stand still and fire you will find it easier to hit the

monsters teeming around the place, but you yourself will be much easier to

kill. You can often find vantage points where the monsters can't reach you (at

least the melee ones), and you can get sniping or chucking grenades down ontheir heads.

However, the majority of the combat will come in areas where you'll have to

run around constantly, keeping out of the way of any monsters while doing your

best to create big problems for any chasing you.

Running is good, but quick-jumping is unparalleled when it comes to avoiding

enemies. No monster who moves along the ground is as fast as you while you're

quick-jumping.

Avoiding missiles is a little more difficult than avoiding melee attacks, but

all missiles in the game fly in horizontally straight lines (some arc through

the air but none can change direction), so predicting their flight paths iseasy. Some are faster than others (zombies' missiles are much slower than

vamps'), and some have limited range (they'll evaporate before reaching you if

you put enough distance between you and the monster firing at you).

Use your weapons intelligently. Using stakes against big groups of skeleton

soldiers is just dumb - break out the rocket-launcher and remove them all with

just three or four rockets. Use instant-hit weapons like the shotgun and

chaingun against fast-moving monsters. Quick-jump around in circles, drawing

lots of monsters into one tightly-packed group so that they're easier to take

out at once with a few grenades.

Use as much cover as possible too. Let monsters come to you if you can,


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letting them walk around a corner and into a shotgun blast or a burst of the

electro. You don't have to run around in big open areas where you're

vulnerable: peek around corners instead and eliminate one monster at a time.

Hide behind non-explosive objects and shoot out the explosive ones when the

monsters get near them.

Basically, just think about the monsters you're meeting and the area in which

you're meeting them. Gain any advantage you can by using the terrain, and

remember each weapon's capabilities and each monster's vulnerabilities.

Strolling around mindlessly while you empty your shotgun is not a technique

conducive to easy completion of this game.______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________V1.8 CONTRIBUTION______________________________

Thomas Tarpey

"if you are about to be trapped by melee creatures (the skeleton troopers from

the Train Station and Abandoned Factory, for example) you can bunny-hop

(quick-jump) onto the monsters - it'll give you a much larger jump than a

regular quick-jump, one large enough to even get you onto a building if one is

close enough, and certainly big enough to get you out of the group."

-=#=-

Nice trick, I don't know why I didn't think of this :)

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2.3 GAME FEATURES

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This section describes most of the things you're going to find in the game, as

well as how to use, destroy, or avoid them.

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| 2.3.1 WEAPONS |

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Painkiller has five weapons for you to eradicate beasties with, and each

weapon has two modes of fire (the painkiller and electrodriver have three).

Once you pick up a weapon it will stay in your arsenal from then on, which

includes being carried over into future levels. Even if you don't pick up a

weapon when it first occurs, you will be given it in the next level. For

example; the rocket-launcher appears for the first time in the Train Station,

but you can avoid it and yet still be carrying it from the beginning of theAbandoned Factory.

The weapons each have primary fire and secondary fire, but each will activate

only if you carry the appropriate ammo.

It's important to know not only which weapons to use in each level, but which

to use in each section of each level. You may find yourself swapping weapons

constantly in each map, once you learn where the monsters are and what the

level's layout is.

---


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PAINKILLER

----------

The painkiller is your default weapon - you have it from the very start of the

first level and onwards.

Primary:

The primary mode of fire creates a whirl of blades spinning in front of your

face, which can cause severe damage to any monster who tries to hit you in

melee combat. As cool as it looks, this is only something to fall back on whenall else fails, such as when you're trapped in a corner. The best way to use

the blades is to hold down the fire button and strafe your enemy in circles,

hitting him on his sides and back before he has time to react.

The blades can also be used to quickly reposition certain indestructible

objects found in the game, which is easier than simply pushing the objects.

Secondary:

This launches the killer, a warhead which flies straight ahead until it

impacts on a wall, object or monster. If it hits an object the object will

explode.

If it hits a wall (within a certain range) the killer will stick to the wall,

and then, when your crosshairs are pointing roughly at it, a yellow beam will

be drawn between your hands and the warhead. This beam will cause damage to

any monster passing through it, even killing the weaker ones altogether.

If the warhead hits a monster before it hits anything else, the monster will

take damage and the warhead will return to your hands. Sometimes the monster

will be thrown in the air, taking damage or dying; sometimes the monster can

be thrown far across an area, though this only happens if you hit it over a

great distance with the warhead. This feature is useful to spring otherwise

unreachable enemies in close, so you can finish them off and collect their

souls.

Don't ignore the killer - it is a fantastic weapon, and also the mostsatisfying to become good with. Later in the game you will get tarot cards

which allow you to deal double or quadruple damage, and the warhead is

fantastic when used in conjunction with such cards. Plus you'll save a lot of

ammo.

The killer has another use in relation to gold - see section 2.3.2.

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_______________________________V1.5 CONTRIBUTION______________________________

Earnest Shadie

"The painkiller weapon has three modes. (1) Hold primary fire, spins primary

blades. (2) Secondary fire, fires killer warhead. (3) Secondary fire whileholding primary fire, launches spinning blades for a short distance then

returns ah-la boomerang in Zelda."

-=#=-

Nice one, I never knew about this at all.

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_______________________________V1.7 CONTRIBUTION______________________________

Saraphan


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"World-objects that are moveable using the secondary fire of the painkiller

weapon, can act as a sort of catapult or personal elevator. Examples of such

objects are the cart in the beginning of the Town level, the light fittings at

the Train Station level, but rubble from destroyable objects also work (but

they disappear so you have to act quickly). Stand on the object in question,

and hit the middle of the object with painkillers secondary fire (the killer

part). If the object you're standing on is very small and light, you might get

catapulted upwards immidiately. If it's a heavier object, just reapeatedly use

the secondary fire and notice how the object carries you upward (or sideways

if you didn't hit the middle of the object). Using this method, you can get tosome secrets areas in an unconventional way, or reach areas that are otherwise

unreachable. This trick is rather hard to to control and the practical use of

it is minimal, but it can be fun to play around with regardless.

Depending on the object, you hardly bob up or you can reach the ceiling of the

level (in outdoor levels) but the height of the jump is very unpredictable and

I can't seem to get all the influencing factors thought out. Like I said, tiny

objects may launch you up high with a single shot. Using one of the tiniest

pieces of the rubble coming from the strange cube-shaped thingies (when you

destroy them) in the cathedral level, I managed to catapult myself on the

ledge with the holy item. So yes, it may be practical in that situation. Since

there are several of them objects, you have several tries. I tried the same

thing with the chunks of pottery on the bottom of the same area in order toget on the ledge where the superhealth lies. I wasn't able to pull that one

off. Perhaps it's the shape of the pottery, or perhaps I just had to try

harder (read: longer) but I'm pretty sure you just can't catapult yourself

that high.

It is, however, possible to get that high with other objects. For example, the

cart in the beginning of the Town level can get you to great heights (if

you're good and lucky). Because it's larger and you can actually step inside

of it, it won't slip from under your feet so easily. Shooting it continuously,

I managed to get on the balcony in the very first area where the cart lies. I

also managed to get over the right wall (immidately to your right when you

start the level and face the enemies in the second area). There's nothing

special there, but many gamers experience a small thrill visiting areas that

weren't meant to be visited. I also managed to get to the first secret areausing the cart (using my way, not yours :P). I didn't try any more, but the

cart might actually take you to some nice places.

In the train station level, you can reach the superhealth on the ledge where

the maso commando is using 'my' trick on the light fittings. With some

practice, this is actually one of the easier ones since the fitting doesn't

dissappear and you have relatively few choices of shooting it (aim down as far

as you can, and make sure the killer hits the middle of the fitting and shoot

repeatedly. You may have to move around a bit to get the balance as well as

your direction right.). You can also use this trick fairly easy to get the

holy item atop of the room that appears to be some kind of cantina (lot of

tables lying around)."

-=#=-

I tried this in the Town, bouncing up and down on the first cart, and I

managed to send it right over the wall and into oblivion, which wasn't much

good. I can see how this would be very useful for reaching quite a few

secret areas in the game, though I'd stress that none of the secrets are

unreachable without it. If you practice with it it could do you big favours,

and anything that helps people reach tough areas is surely a good thing.

Good luck in the Forest though, har har...

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_______________________________V1.7 CONTRIBUTION______________________________


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SHOTGUN / FREEZER

-----------------

This is a useful weapon, available from the first level of the game. It never

stops coming in handy, and you will probably use it a lot until you get the

chaingun.

Primary (100 ammo):

This is the shotgun and it's pretty basic. Point and fire it at close tomedium range and it will drop most of the lesser minions and severely

discommode many of the bigger guys. If the monster is close enough when you

hit it, the shotgun blast can thump it backwards into the air, gibbing its

remains all over the place.

It's probably the most efficient weapon in terms of how much ammo it can

carry, and its only downside is that it's virtually useless at anything

greater than medium range. Its spread becomes much narrower when you are

carrying a quad damage, however, which in turn increases the shotgun's

accuracy.

Secondary (100 ammo):

This is the freezer, blatantly nicked from Duke Nukem (though improved upon as

well), and it's the weapon to go to when nothing else seems to be working. All

the non-boss monsters in the game can be frozen with just one shot, leaving

them very vulnerable to a simple blast of the shotgun or a few rounds of the

chaingun.

The freezer has a horribly slow reload rate, but it's not often you'll be

using it anyway. Most of the monsters just don't need to be frozen for you to

take them down. If you run out of freezer ammo then you're over-using it.

The freezer is useless against bosses and mini-bosses.

STAKEGUN / GRENADE-LAUNCHER

---------------------------

This is the closest thing you'll get to a sniper rifle. It becomes available

in the Atrium Complex level.

Primary (100 ammo):

The stakegun is the second best long-range weapon in the game, but it's the

most satisfying one to score hits with. Its reload rate is slow, so don't rely

on it in close-range melee battles; but one stake can impale and kill all but

the most powerful enemies, which does you a favour when you're trying to

conserve ammo for your other weapons.

The stakes can often stick enemies to the walls or spear two monsters at atime. The stakes will burst into flames during flight if your target is far

enough away, doing more damage and therefore making them more effective at

destroying far-off monsters than closer ones.

The stakes fire in parabolic arcs, so you do have to adjust your sights and

aim just above your target. The quad damage removes the stakes' flight arc

and lets you fire them in straight lines, which comes in handy once or twice.


The grenade-launcher is probably going to be the most overlooked weapon in

your arsenal, with the possible exception of the painkiller. It becomes a


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little redundant when you finally get a hold of the rocket-launcher; but the

grenade-launcher's reload rate is surprisingly quick, and it often pays to

dump several grenades into groups of enemies, rather than just one at a time.

I recommend it be your first choice weapon against bunches of templars.

The grenades bounce off walls and objects before exploding (though they

explode on impact with a monster), so make sure they don't bounce back and

smack you in the face. Unfortunately, their range is pretty limited, though

the splash damage is of course considerable. The grenade-launcher uses the

same ammo as the rocket-launcher, so try not to go overboard with the ammo.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________V1.10 CONTRIBUTION_____________________________

rofl pwn

"When you have the stakegun equipped, if you shoot a grenade and time it

right, you can hit the grenade with a stake from the gun and it makes your

steak explode wherever it hits. It's not too useful because of the timing

involved, but I thought I should let you know about it to help improve your

guide."

______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________V1.10 CONTRIBUTION_____________________________

CHAINGUN / ROCKET-LAUNCHER--------------------------

This is pretty certainly the most effective and efficient of your weapons.

There are very few situations that this weapon can't handle on its own. It's

just a pity that you get it so far into the game, but I guess that's the point

- it's too powerful for the early levels. It first appears in the Train

Station.

Primary (100 ammo):

This is the rocket-launcher, though I suggest you swap it to secondary.

Anyway, it fires rockets fast and in straight lines, and the rockets explode

on impact with anything. The reload rate is really good, and you can get great

results against groups of minions by firing the rockets at the ground in themiddle.

Be careful with the rocket-launcher, as it's the weapon most likely to do you

return damage if your target is too close. It's not a close-range weapon, so

whatever you do don't use it as one. On the other hand, it has a limited

range, and the rockets will just burst harmlessly once they've gone a certain

distance without hitting anything.

There's a bind available in the Controls menu for rocket-jumps, but they only

ever seem to shoot me in the feet. If the bind works for you then it might be

worth adding it to your repertoire, though as far as I know there are no

secret areas which can only be reached by rocket-jumping, so you'll never need

it in single-player.______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________V1.7 CONTRIBUTION______________________________

Saraphan

"Using the rocketjump hardly bobs you upward, but it does hurt you a lot -

don't use it... in singleplayer! In multiplayer, the rocketjump certainly can

be useful. Using the rocketjump key, you make a big jump but it does hurt you

a little. Not as much as with SP, though. Strangely, using the primary fire of

the rocketlauncher does not get you as much height as the rocketjump key. I

suspect the rocketjump key means both a jump and shooting a rocket. For that

reason, jumping and using the rocketjump key at the same time does not get you


14/110

any higher. So for best results, just walk or run, aim downwards and press the

rocketjump key."

-=#=-

Meh. Knew it wouldn't work in single-player. Sod it.

______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________V1.7 CONTRIBUTION______________________________


The chaingun, the best weapon in the game. There's nothing this thing can't

do, other than take out more than one enemy at a time. It has unlimited range,

tons of ammo, extreme accuracy, fantastic reload rate, no return damage and

even cool sound effects. Combining this thing with certain tarot cards can

transform you into a one-man death machine, especially versus bosses.

You'll find that the freezer is better for certain high-level enemies, but I

would otherwise recommend the chaingun for just about every combat situation

in the game.

ELECTRODRIVER

-------------

This is one of those weapons that polarise opinion - you'll either use it as

much as possible or forget all about it until your other weapons run out of

ammo. You can find it in the Snowy Bridge.

Primary (250 ammo):

The driver's shurikens are like chaingun rounds, but without a lot of the best

features. Reload rate is slower; range is far from unlimited; ammo is at half

the capacity; perfect accuracy, but why use the driver when you can use the

chaingun? Great against bones and maso commandos though, especially if you can

get a quad damage, at which point your shurikens will explode on impact,

dealing even more damage.


The electro is the better half of this weapon, and should not be ignored if

you find yourself surrounded by melee enemies. In fact this is the best weapon

versus large groups of monsters running at you - even better than the

chaingun, as you can take out multiple minions at once without having to be

accurate at all, though you do have to be very close for the electricity to

reach them.

The ammo capacity is pretty decent, since you won't need to use the electro

very often, so you should always have the ammo available when you do need it.

The electro is also the one to use against those tough guys at the back end of

the game, especially if you've run out of freezer rounds. This is particularlytrue at the beginning of The Palace.

Electroburst (10 ammo):

Like the painkiller, the electrodriver is set apart from the other weapons

by virtue of its special attack feature: you can dump an electrically

charged shuriken into a group of tightly packed enemies (make sure it hits

one of them - if it hits a wall or the floor it will stick there for a

while, acting like a landmine), and watch the pathetic minions spark and die

on the deck. This is immensely useful against every single type of non-boss

minion (well, except witches).


15/110

To launch a special shuriken, hold down the secondary fire - electro - and

press the primary to fire the shot. It takes a while to recharge, uses 25

shuriken ammo rounds at once (hence the 10 shot limit), and is useless if it

misses the monsters. Use with caution, but keep it in mind as an option. And

don't go too near any dying enemies quivering and sparking on the ground, or

you'll take damage.

DEMON MORPH

-----------

I've lumped the Demon Morph in with the standard weapons because it isbasically a weapon, with the souls of your enemies as its ammo. Collect 66

souls (or 50 if you have the Dark Soul card equipped) and you will

involuntarily transform into an indestructible juggernaut. All enemies

(including minibosses) become killable with just one shot of your weird,

ranged energy blast attack, and you cannot take any damage from anything

except Lucifer and his attacks (unless you're daft enough to jump into

oblivion or water).

You will see everything in black and white while Morphed, which makes it

difficult to see the souls of the enemies you are killing; though living

monsters are easy to spot, glowing bright orange.

The Demon Morph will wear off after about thirty seconds, at which point youwill have to collect another 66 (or 50 with Dark Soul) to reach another Morph.

You can collect souls while Morphed, which helps a bit.

Unless a tarot card condition demands otherwise - as some do - you should try

to plan your Morphs to coincide with your entrance into areas where you're

going to meet a lot of enemies. Using a Morph in an empty hallway is a total

waste, so try to avoid any stray souls which will push you over the limit, and

control your Morphs to maximise their effect in each level.

I've encountered a bug (only once) in the Abandoned Factory, where I Morphed

and then quickloaded. When the game was reloaded my FOV (Field Of View) was

extended the way it is when you're Morphed, even though I wasn't Morphed on

reload. To fix this I just reloaded while not Morphed, and the FOV sorted

itself out again.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

/===============\

| 2.3.2 PICKUPS |

\===============/

Painkiller is littered with things you can pick up to help you progress

through each level.

---

GOLD----

The only purpose of gold is to allow you to mess about with your tarot cards

between levels. Gold is less important if, like me, you never use gold cards,

though you'll definitely want to use the silver cards. The more gold you pick

up from each level the easier it will be to manipulate your cards. Gold will

vanish from the ground after a while, so pick it up when you see it.

Gold is most important in level 1/4 Cathedral, as collecting 500 gold from

that level will unlock the tarot card.

Gold can be collected by smashing breakable objects and then running over the


16/110

coins scattered on the floor. The game uses each coin to represent any amount

between 1, 2 and 3 (I think); so you may pick up 6 coins but find yourself up

by 15 gold.

______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________V1.3 CONTRIBUTION______________________________

Tiit Teder

"Hi! I just read your walkthru. In the gold section,You say, that special gold

are spawned randomly, but it isn't. These random times are,when You hit them

hard with a granade or a rocket. And you can get up to 4 pieces of specialgold per body. When they die,hit them rapidly with the PAINKILLER weapons

secondary fire and gold keeps appearing."

---

Thanks for this, as I believed they were purely random. I was amazed to

discover that this actually does work - I hardly use the painkiller, so maybe

that's why I never found this out earlier. The most I've ever gotten out of

one body was two trinkets, but if someone wanted to take the time to bounce a

lot of corpses around then they could really rake in the gold.

______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________V1.3 CONTRIBUTION______________________________

Once in a while you will find special gold items lying around, dropped by a

vanquished enemy (who of course normally wouldn't drop gold). They'll look

like gold circlets or bangles, and they're worth 20 gold each. You'll know

when you've picked one of these up, because there will be '+20' or '+40' or

whatever, written in grey after the gold count in your stats window - 20 gold

per trinket.

HOLY ITEMS

----------

These are always hidden in secret areas, and are shaped as either crucifixes

or cups. They glow a golden colour, and you can see them easily even at a

distance.

Each holy relic will give you 100 gold upon pickup, though they're usually

hard to find or reach.

AMMO

----

The game contains boxes of ammo for all weapons except the painkiller, and

each type of box is pretty distinctive from the others. See section 2.3.1 for

more information about weapons and ammo capacities.

Ammo also comes in megapacks - big boxes which give you small amounts of ammo

for each weapon (though not beyond capacity).

SOULS

-----

Green souls are dropped by all killable minions, and each one will boost your

health by 1 point. As far as I know, souls ignore your base health limit, so

if you start off with 250 health (health pickup max) and then collect 50 souls

your health will be a huge 300. I'm unaware of whether there is an upper limit

on the amount of health souls can give you, but I've managed 415 health and

190 armour in City On Water.

Like gold coins, souls will disappear after a few seconds, so pick them up

while they're available.


17/110

Some monsters - lepper monks, executioners, skulls, minibosses - drop red

souls instead of green ones, and these rare pickups will give you an extra 6

health points.

Bosses don't drop souls, and neither do ghosts (which can't be killed anyway).

Some minibosses do drop souls, and these are always red.

Picking up 66 souls will allow you to Morph into a Demon: see section 2.3.1

for information on the Demon Morph.

HEALTH

------

There are two types of health pickup (other than the souls).

One is a swirling ball of pale gold, and it will give you a half-decent boost

to your health points, up to base level.

The other is the super-health, a swirl of green and red resembling a soul.

This will give you 100 health up to a maximum of 250.

ARMOUR

------

Armour comes in three types: the light armour will set your armour rating to

100; the medium will set it to 150; and the heavy sets it to 200.

Try not to pick up armour or health if you don't currently need it. If you

have 150 armour and you've just found a heavy armour, wait until your 150 is

mostly gone, then come back for the heavy armour later. This is much more

efficient than wasting the heavy for the sake of 50 extra armour points.

QUAD DAMAGE

-----------

You won't find this very often - it only appears a few times around the last

few levels in the game. It's a big skeleton helmet thing with glowing eyes,and it will quadruple the damage you do for about thirty seconds, while

surrounding your HUD with a red border.

The quad damage makes stakes fire in perfectly straight lines; shotgun blasts

much narrower for greater accuracy; and gives shurikens an explosive

component.

______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________V1.7 CONTRIBUTION______________________________

Taylor

"I've got additional info about how certain weapons are different when you

have the quad-damage powerup.

Painkiller: With the killer stuck in the wall, the energy beam allows you to

be pointing at it very loosely; I think about 70 degrees off, instead of

about 10.

Chaingun/Rocket Launcher: Rockets travel at about 1.5x speed."

______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________V1.7 CONTRIBUTION______________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________V1.10 CONTRIBUTION_____________________________

Kelsey K


18/110

"[When using the Quad Damage] The Electroburst special attack of the Electro

Driver uses 75 electricity and no shurikens. I find it's best to shoot it at

the ground underneath a group of enemies or on a wall next to them because if

you do hit a monster the "mine" disappears with the corpse.

With the quad damage pickup or card activated (weapon modifier), the grenade

launcher shoots incendiary grenades."

______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________V1.10 CONTRIBUTION_____________________________

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

/===============\

| 2.3.3 HAZARDS |

\===============/

These are all the things in the game that aren't monsters but can still do you

damage.

---

FIRE

----

Fire occurs in various places, but it's more dangerous in some places than in

others. Some fire won't harm you at all (eg. torches); some fire will do you

gradual damage for as long as you are standing in or next to it (eg. molotov

cocktails); and certain other fires will kill you immediately, no matter how

much health you have (eg. flames from the tops of the exploding tanks in the

Abandoned Factory).

Just avoid it in general and you should be OK, though baiting chasing monsters

into a burning molotov cocktail puddle is never a bad idea.

EXPLOSIONS

----------

Explosions can be caused by a few things, but they're almost always a result

of having shot out some barrels or ammunition boxes or gas tanks or whatever.

Don't be near any of these things when they're going off, though drawing

monsters in close can do you a favour and save you some ammo.

There are lots of objects you can explode in the game, such as barrels,

fireworks, ammunition boxes, and so on. Most will drop gold once they've been

burst, and certain other unique objects must explode in order to let you

progress through the level.

RUBBLE

------

You won't encounter much rubble in the game, but avoid it when you do. Falling

rocks hurt and falling pillars and masonry hurt more. Bosses are fond of

piling rubble onto your head, so keep an eye out for it.

MECHANISMS

----------

You'll only meet these occasionally, mostly in the Military Base, and they

consist of gun turrets, mortar platforms and moving tanks.

The turrets sit in corners of the ceiling and you'll have to figure out where

the chaingun fire is coming from to take them out. One shotgun blast is


19/110

enough.

The mortar platforms are ranged around large outdoor areas and they fire

arcing shells at your present position. They have limited range but can do a

lot of damage - keep moving and keep your distance and the shells are easy to

dodge. The platforms themselves take five or six rockets before exploding, and

look out for the souls of the dead monsters who were controlling them.

The tanks move back and forward in straight lines, like mobile mortar

platforms. Five or six rockets again, and if there's more than one tank try to

put one behind the other so that only one of them can see you.

DROPS

-----

Don't drop off any high ledges or platforms if you can avoid it - you'll lose

armour and health.

WATER

-----

Water appears in some levels, and since you can't swim you will drown

immediately instead. Avoid, unless you're in the Old Monastery.

OBLIVION

--------

Dunno if this is its real name, but oblivion is when you jump into an area the

game was designed to block you from entering. You'll recognise these areas

when you find them, as you will die straight away. They include pools of lava

or the outer reaches of open-air levels.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

/====================\

| 2.3.4 SECRET AREAS |

\====================/

I drove myself nuts trying to find all the secret areas and holy items in the

entire game, and as of v1.1 I've finally managed to find every single secret

and relic in every single level of the game, and now I need to lie down.

I've made screenshots of myself standing in each of the secret areas, so if

you can't understand my written descriptions you could always email me to ask

for the screens you want.

To enable you to quickly find (Ctrl + F) the mentions of each level's secret

areas, I've marked them all with a ~ symbol.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

/=====================\

| 2.3.5 MISCELLANEOUS |

\=====================/

These things don't fit into any other category, so I've lumped them together

here.

---

CHECKPOINTS

-----------


20/110

These look like swirling blotches of red mist on the floor, and passing

through or touching them usually closes the area you've just finished and

opens the next one along. Some checkpoints in the Old Monastery appear as big

red metal pentagrams, and they don't act as savepoints (listen for the absence

of the usual whoomph sound when you hit them).

There are some buggy checkpoints that you should be aware of, where you can

get stuck in the level if you attempt to move on without first touching them.

The checkpoints almost always have to be hit in the correct order, so if you

skip one you could end up locking yourself in. Touch them when you see them,

and don't go too far ahead of them if you can avoid it.

EXITS

-----

This is a big blob of creamy white energy, and moving into it will finish the

level and present you with stats and a tarot card (if you completed the level

while abiding by the tarot card condition).

You can tell when the exit has appeared in place of a normal checkpoint, as

you will hear a very cool murmuring voice in your ear.

When the exit appears all (well, most) of the previously locked doors and

passages will open and allow you to explore the places you couldn't get toearlier. Sometimes you can get all the way back to the beginning of a level,

though some levels just aren't designed for this. Use the opportunity to grab

those inaccessible holy items and secret areas. The exit deletes from the

level any monsters you missed on your way through, such as in the Military

Base.

CONVEYANCES

-----------

My pretentious word for things like lifts, conveyor belts, ladders... anything

that moves you through a portion of a level without you having to do so

yourself.

Lifts only go up or down once, and then they'll never move again. Some haveladders going up the lift shaft, in order to provide you with a route up again

if you should fall to the bottom of the shaft.

Some of the ladders are a bit buggy, and you have to walk or jump onto them at

just the right spot in order to go up them. Be careful walking off the top of

a ladder - sometimes you jump and then fall off the other side of the top

platform. Sometimes ropes are used instead of ladders, but both ropes and

ladders are often difficult to spot, so look out for them.

Once in a while you'll be required to step onto a cable car roof, or a trolley

on a track, or a conveyor belt. These are often designed to carry you into a

group of enemies, so you might want to jump off before they reach the ends of

their preset routes.

PUSHABLE OBJECTS

----------------

These are all things you can shove around to provide you with a stepping

stone to a hard-to-reach area. You often have to move things about to reach

secret areas, and the bigger the object you use the better.

You can use boxes, barrels, light fittings, carts - anything you can move or

shoot off the ceiling or whatever. Move the thing into a good position and

then quick-jump up into it. You'll have to experiment for yourself, but you

can often get very cool results with long or tall objects.


21/110

Many objects can also be used as magic carpets if you whip out the

painkiller (see section 2.3.1).

CORPSES

-------

You'll find corpses in various maps; they're usually brown, featureless bodies

just lying on the ground. What makes them special is that you can repeatedly

zap them with the painkiller's warhead in order to get up to 5 trinkets out of

them for free.

-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2.4 TAROT CARDS

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Each level in the game has a tarot card waiting for you at the end of it, and

all you have to do to obtain the level's card is to observe a certain

restriction while battling your way through the level.

Tarot cards come in silver and in gold. When equipped before starting a new

level, silver cards' effects will remain active throughout the level. Goldcards can be activated once per level with your gold card button, and will

usually last thirty seconds, meaning that you should think carefully about

when you want to use them.

The game calls the cards 'Black Tarot Cards': don't let this confuse you. All

twenty four cards are 'black', but you only need to know which ones are

silver-black and which are gold-black. Don't Do What Donny Don't Does...

Tarot cards can make a huge difference to whether you fail or succeed in

completing Painkiller's levels. You need to pick the right silver cards to

take you through each mission, and also pick the right gold cards to trigger

at special points during the levels.

Make sure that you have enough gold coins to let you mess about with thecards, since all cards need gold before they can be placed on the tarot board.

Collect as much gold as you can during each level to make this easier.

Bear in mind that you can skip cards that you're finding difficult to reach,

then use what cards you do get to go back into the levels containing the cards

you missed before. In other words, you can play a Nightmare game, skip the

Train Station card if it's too difficult, pick up the Vitality and Forgiveness

cards from later levels, then equip them both and revisit the Train Station,

where those two silver cards will make getting the Soul Catcher card much

easier. I didn't do it this way - the guide is written to allow you to acquire

the cards in order.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

/==================\

| 2.4.1 GOLD CARDS |

\==================/

These can be used once per level (unless you have the silver Forgiveness or

Mercy cards) and will last thirty seconds (unless you have the gold Time Bonus

or Double Time Bonus cards).

As far as I'm concerned the gold cards suffer from magic potion syndrome: you

tend to put off using them until you "really" need them, which turns out to be

never when you find yourself strolling through the exit.


22/110

Remember your three gold cards when you find yourself unable to get past

certain enemies, though to be honest I never use them. The perfect person to

advise you, in other words...

Here are the gold cards and their details, arranged in the order in which you

will find them in the game. I've included my own ratings of each card, but

ignore these by all means if you think I'm talking bollocks.

---

Endurance: Take only half the damage

Cost to place: 50

Rating: 2/5

Meh. The idea is to take no damage, and allowing yourself to be hit just so

you can revel in only taking half the damage is monumentally stupid. Stay away

from the monsters and don't be daft enough to let them surround you, and

you'll never need this. It's good while you're learning the game or just

generally sucking at it, but you can ditch it once you get good.

Haste: The world moves 2x slower

Cost to place: 100

Rating: 3/5

This comes in very handy at times, and in fact it may be the only one of the

three time-based cards you're likely to use. It gives you plenty of leeway to

react and avoid fire while it's in effect - useful if you're finding certain

battles a bit too hectic, and very useful for those tricky bosses.

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________V1.10 CONTRIBUTION______________________________

Hiu Zhan Yuan

"the haste cards slow the world but NOT u.u still make in the same speed but

they got slow. Tat means u are 2x,4x or 8x faster than the demons or boss.

these card are extremely useful during boss fight. For example,while u are in

triple haste mode, 8 seconds have pass while it only count as 1 second. ( ihave test this myself). This 8x increase your firing rate,while u can easily

hit the boss because it moves like a snail. i have managed to beat the

guardian in 1 minute and 10 seconds using the double haste card and alastor in

3minutes and 20 seconds using double haste card.."

-=#=-

Yeah, it did occur to me that there must be something more to these cards.

Maybe it's just how I perceived their effects at the time, but if they help

they help.

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________V1.10 CONTRIBUTION______________________________

Time Bonus: Golden Cards last 10 seconds longer

Cost to place: 100

Rating: 2/5

Well, it does what it says, but you only have three slots for gold cards, and

passive cards like this could be considered a bit of a waste. Have it equipped

if you can come up with a pair of proper cards which will be greatly enhanced

by this: otherwise ignore it.

Speed: Move faster

Cost to place: 100

Rating: 1/5


23/110

You move faster, but not by much. The quick-jump-in-circles approach makes

this one pretty worthless, and you don't need 100 gold to quick-jump.

Fury: Deliver 2x more damage

Cost to place: 200

Rating: 3/5

Painkiller's weapons are powerful enough to be able to cope on their own. I

can't think of many situations where you really need to do double damage -

single damage suffices pretty much all the time; except when you're up againstbosses, which is where it earns its crust.

The good news is that your painkiller's warhead becomes pretty formidable,

allowing you to save lots of ammo and wipe out enemies either one by one or in

groups.

Double Haste: The world moves 4x slower

Cost to place: 300

Rating: 3/5

Same as Haste, but doubly effective.

Dexterity: Weapons reload 2x fasterCost to place: 300

Rating: 4/5

[Thanks to vic rabb for pointing out that this card

was missing from previous versions of this guide, and also for providing me

with its details.]

An absolutely excellent card, which only loses one mark out of five because it

eats your ammo, as you would expect. Quite apart from allowing you to off

enemies twice as quickly, it also makes you feel like a titan of death. Or

something. Equip it.

Iron Will: Enemies can't hurt you

Cost to place: 666Rating: 5/5

It's what you probably wanted Endurance to be, and although you should never

be pish enough to need this in non-boss levels, it really comes to the fore

when you are fighting a boss, especially since you can't Morph in the bosses'

arenas.

Invulnerability is the ideal in a frantic game like this, and all the other

cards are just props compared to this one. Just make sure you take full

advantage of it - equip it alongside cards that will let you rack up the kills

toot sweet.

It's not just enemies that can't hurt you - your own weapons won't do youdamage either, or explosions, long falls, etc.

Rage: Deliver 4x more damage

Cost to place: 500

Rating: 3/5

Well, as with the Fury card, you'll save a fair bit on chaingun ammo. But

there are still too few places where I can really see you needing to do this

much damage. True, you can mow down enemies faster, but that's not too hard to

begin with, as long you're smart about how you approach battles.

It earns its stripes when you carry it into a Trauma game - you're not going


24/110

to be able to Morph in Trauma, so this card is the next best thing. Use your

painkiller with this one and watch the enemies fall while your ammo count

stays the same.

Double Time Bonus: Golden Cards last 20 seconds longer

Cost to place: 300

Rating: 5/5

OK, you're using up a 'precious' gold card slot, but twenty seconds is a very

significant boost if you're someone who uses the gold cards - much more

noticeable than the effects of Time Bonus. Only useful against one Nightmareboss - Alastor - but equip it intelligently and the benefits will be obvious.

Definitely take this one into a Trauma game and stick with it.

Someone has mentioned that this card doesn't work even after patch 1.61, but I

can't say I noticed. Might be worth watching out for though, and dump it if

it's not working for you.

Triple Haste: The world moves 8x slower

Cost to place: 500

Rating: 3/5

Same as Haste, but trebly effective.

Confusion: Confuse enemies

Cost to place: 200

Rating: 1/5

This is fun the first time you use it - a big bunch of enemies milling around

and turning on each other is a laugh - but to be honest I don't want enemies

confused, I want them dead. Ignore this fun-for-two-seconds gimmick and go

with the decent cards. No-one's ever going to be this short of ammo.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

/====================\

| 2.4.2 SILVER CARDS |\====================/

Not for no reason are these generally more expensive to place on the board

than gold cards. They stay in effect for the duration of the level (if you've

equipped them beforehand), and the advantages are enormous. You may forget all

about gold cards, but the silver ones can greatly facilitate your passage

through this game.

The silver cards tend to be locked behind the harder of the levels, eg. boss

arenas or the hidden Prison. They are more difficult to get, but far more

valuable and worth working for than the gold cards. Though you can only have

two equipped at once.

Again, the cards are in order and I've rated each one.

---

Soul Keeper: Souls stay longer

Cost to place: 500

Rating: 2/5

Souls stay around just about long enough for you to grab them anyway, and this

card can be bumped as soon as you get a better one. Obviously. Use it if

you're a slow git, or if you keep finding yourself in difficulties when

getting rid of big bunches of monsters.


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Blessing: Increase the initial health to 150

Cost to place: 200

Rating: 1/5

150 health is pretty nice, but the novelty wears off once you get below 100

and the card becomes utterly useless for the entire rest of the level. Replace

as soon as you get the chance.

Replenish: Double the ammo in ammo boxes

Cost to place: 500Rating: 2/5

Hmm, it's good if you're a crap shot; but Painkiller's weapons are pretty

user-friendly and well-rounded, and the game's levels aren't exactly short on

ammo as it is. 500 gold is a lot for this effect - avoid.

Dark Soul: Morph into demon form at every 50 souls

Cost to place: 400

Rating: 4/5

This one is subjective. If you enjoy Morphing then this is heaven; but if,

like me, you actually wish you could turn Morphing off, this one won't be your

cup of hot mud. Definitely use it in Abandoned Factory, whatever your tastes.

Soul Catcher: Leech souls from a distance

Cost to place: 500

Rating: 5/5

I rely on this one for a long time. Your work to retrieve those souls is cut

in half by this card, and you can rake in the health even if you're just

standing in a corner, pumping chaingun rounds into the bodies of your enemies.

One of the most useful cards in the game, in my opinion.

One strange thing about this card is that it technically works even after

you're dead. If you die while you have it equipped you can still suck in the

souls of recently vanquished dead enemies while your body is lying on the

ground, unable to move. It would have been nice if this brought you back tolife, like a kind of safety net, but it won't.

Forgiveness: You can use Golden Cards two times per level

Cost to place: 1000

Rating: 3/5

I don't use the gold cards much at all, but if I did I would want this one

equipped. Tired of only getting one shot at gold cards, then realising you've

left them to the very end of the level yet again, where you no longer need

them? Problem solved.

Get your money up first, though. And bear in mind that this is worthless if

you're not going to hit that gold card button.

Greed: Double the amount of hidden wealth

Cost to place: 2000

Rating: 1/5

A card which appears very near the end of the game; doubles the amount of gold

just after you've settled on a general card configuration and no longer need

the gold; and that costs 2000 to friggin' place? I don't think so.

Vitality: Increase base health capacity to 150

Cost to place: 100

Rating: 4/5


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Half the battle of Painkiller is staying alive, and this one gives you 50

health towards that object. It resets the normal limit of 100 (this is where

Blessing falls down), and so any health pickups you collect will be able to go

up to 150.

Not quite so great when you consider that souls and super-health could always

take you way above 150 anyway, but it's better to have it than not have it. I

recommend that this be one of the silver cards you rely on in a Trauma game.

Last Breath: Health regeneration when you're dyingCost to place: 500

Rating: 2/5

This acts as an extra life - if you take enough damage to kill you the card

will automatically hand you 33 health at the very second you're expecting the

GAME OVER message. It sounds pretty decent but there are better silver cards

than this to help you stay alive, and it's maybe not worth using up one of

your two slots on a card that will only be used once, if at all.

Soul Redeemer: Souls provide more health

Cost to place: 1000

Rating: 3/5

It would have been nice to have been given this one a little earlier in the

game than just before the final level, since there are no souls in Hell and no

souls in Trauma difficulty.

The only way this card is useful is if you get it through Insomnia and keep

your cards when starting your Nightmare game. It gives you two points per soul

instead of one (including freaks' souls).

______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________V1.8 CONTRIBUTION______________________________

Thomas Tarpey

"the Soul Redeemer doesn't just give 1 extra health; it counts each soul

you've gotten as two for the purpose of health - when you use it and kill anexecutioner (or any Red-Soul monster), you get 12 health, not 7."

-=#=-

Thanks, I didn't use it enough to spot this.

______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________V1.8 CONTRIBUTION______________________________

Mercy: You can use Golden Cards three times per level

Cost to place: 2000

Rating 4/5

You get this one by killing off Lucifer himself; and for those people who usegold cards a lot, this one's for you. If you won't use it don't equip it, but

it comes in EXTREMELY useful in a Trauma game to which you carried your cards

over.

Divine Intervention: All cards can be placed for free

Cost to place: 0

Rating: 1/5

Hmm, so this is my crappy reward for completing the horribly tough Forest

level. At this point you don't need your cards placed for free: you've got

every card in the game and you'll pretty certainly have picked your best five

and will continue to use them until you complete the game on Trauma.


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You'll also have lots of gold (I had over 6000) since you won't have been

messing with your cards, so this card is doubly useless. The only good thing

about this card is that it completes the whole set.

-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2.5 MONSTERS

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This section describes every monster that comes in numbers throughout the

game. They're all visually different, but many of them have special abilities

which you should be aware of. Some also have immunities or resistances to

certain weapons, and most of the monsters are designed to suit the levels in

which you meet them.

I've given each minion a danger rating from one to five, where a level of one

represents little or no danger, and a level of five represents big trouble.

These ratings are based on my experiences of each monster - you might totally

disagree with them.

I've given certain monsters a recommended weapon - these are just my choices

based on the fact that some monsters are particularly vulnerable to certainweapons.

Some of the monsters come in miniboss form - I've noted these here and in the

guide sections.

---

AMPUTEE

-------

Danger: 2/5

They only have two features worth mentioning: they can cling to the ceiling,

and they can do a standing jump to hit you with melee damage. Otherwisethey're slow, weak and little problem.

ARABIAN WARRIOR

---------------

Danger: 3/5

They're almost the fastest enemies in the game (rolling beasts and special

witches are faster), and they have various ranged weapons. Plus they can

teleport around at will. In spite of all this they're still grunts, and are

easy to take down, especially from a distance.

They'll also often do ostentatious jumps into the air, with the aim ofslashing down at you with their swords. They may not feel quite so smug when

you stake them beautifully out of mid-air, or merely step forwards and turn

around, ready to unload your shotgun into their backs.

BANSHEE

-------

Danger: 1/5

These things are virtually harmless when not in the company of other monsters.

They have only one attack - a melee scream which dims your vision and slows

your movement for a second or two. This makes you vulnerable to attacks from


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other enemies, but if the banshee is on her own she should be no trouble to

take out.

Later banshees have more powerful screams but are still easy to kill.

You can do pretty cool high jumps off the bodies of banshees if you're

standing on them just as their corpses erupt into a cloud of ravens.

BEAST

-----

Danger: 4/5

Recommended weapon: Freezer

These things will scamper about until they get a decent line of attack, at

which point they will ignite and start rolling towards you really fast, kind

of like Blanka from SF2, on whom they're probably based. These rolls are hard

to dodge, and perhaps the best weapon versus these things is the chaingun -

the only one capable of hitting them continuously while they move (assuming

you're out of freezer ammo).

MINIBOSS: GIANT BEAST

The Giant Beast is basically the same as the normal beast, except about tentimes tougher and three times as big.

BONES

-----

Danger: 3/5

These things can steal souls from your total if you let them too close, so try

to bring them down from a distance. Bones take time to assemble themselves, so

you can destroy them before they get a chance to stand up by shooting at the

green, glowing part lying on the ground.

They have a weak kamikaze attack they will use when you get them down to very

little health without killing them. The best weapon to use against bones isthe electro, the only one which will always let you hit them and will also

bring them down almost immediately. They also don't much like shurikens - two

shots into their green hearts (always aim at the glowing hearts) will kill the

smaller bones.

You might meet big bones in later levels - twice as big and twice as tough.

DARK NINJA

----------

Danger: 3/5

Exactly the same as Arabian Warriors, except they appear in different levels.

DEVIL MONK

----------

Danger: 3/5

Another monster dangerous only when it's too close (at least the earlier

versions). Their attacks both damage and slow you for a significant time, and

their scythe-staffs remain active for a couple of seconds after the monks die.

The green staff versions are slightly less dangerous than the ones with red

staffs.


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Later appearances will have an instant-hit lightning bolt attack that you

really need to watch out for in that particular level.

The glowing staffs have a cumulative effect - the more you touch at one time,

the slower you'll become.

The devil monks inhabiting Hell, the final level, are almost invisible.

EVIL MONK

---------

Danger: 2/5

A basic grunt of a monster, available in three flavours. The melee version

will just lumber at you and swing his big axe when he's close enough. The

ranged version will throw his axe from a distance; but the axes are slow and

easy to avoid, and the monk will sometimes die immediately afterwards, since

he has now lost his only weapon. Idiot.

The third version, whom you will only encounter very late in the game, is just

as slow and weak, but can now throw fizzing bombs around, which are easy to

avoid but do big damage if unavoided. These guys also come equipped with

flamethrowers.

The evil monks inhabiting Hell, the final level, are almost invisible.

EVIL SAMURAI

------------

Danger: 5/5

These guys are very fast and they do horrible damage when they get too close.

They often charge at you, swinging their swords as they come. They also have a

ranged fireball attack, a ranged ice attack, and can pull you off your feet

towards them (watch for them stopping and waiting for no apparent reason).

They are rarely found alone, and should be frozen and shotgunned with all

speed.

Another thing to watch out for in Snowy Bridge is the samurai's kamikaze (or

seppuku) attack, where they bend to the ground and suddenly explode in a burst

of ice. This one gives your health level SERIOUS issues, and it might be the

most destructive attack in the game, bosses included. Hit the samurai with one

stake and then watch him break his sword / staff into two bits - this is when

you should get the hell out of the vicinity.

Some monsters will turn on each other if one hits another accidentally, and

the samurai are great examples of this. Wait until one samurai is about to

send a fireball at you, then move aside so that another samurai gets between

you and the fireball. If the fireball hits the nearer samurai he might turn

around and pick a fight with his friend.

EXECUTIONER

-----------

Danger: 5/5


At first glance they're just lumbering grunts, but these things do big melee

damage if you let them near enough. They don't attack in large groups, but

they're pretty tough to take down if you're low on freezer ammo.

Some are fond of chucking their axes at you or using their own double

painkillers to hook you in close - think Scorpion from Mortal Kombat - where


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they can hack your face off. Try to take them out before any other creatures

in the vicinity, as the executioners can also hack at the bodies of their

fallen comrades, releasing spiders which will start chasing you. These spiders

can feed on corpses and grow in size, the biggest being about the same size as

a beast.

Executioners are probably the second most dangerous non-boss monster you'll

meet in the game, and as satisfying as it is when you score a direct hit with

the stakegun into their orange bellies - their only voonerable - stick with

the freezer if at all possible.

If you freeze them just as they throw their painkillers, the warheads will

stick to the wall and the beam will remain, doing you damage if you pass

through it.

Executioners' souls are worth 6 health points instead of one, and are coloured

red, not green.

FREAK

-----

Danger: 3/5

If their heads are not spitting electrical current they're slow, weakpussycats. If their heads are sparking everywhere they can do serious damage

if they get close enough to detonate themselves. They're always fantastically

slow, however, which renders them very vulnerable to whichever weapon you

choose.

They're also among the best enemies in the game for getting pinballed around

by your painkiller's warhead; and listen out for the very cool sounds they

make through their masks.

The manual says that the souls of these guys will make you drop a health point

instead of gain one, but I've noticed no difference between freaks' souls and

normal ones.

______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________V1.10 CONTRIBUTION_____________________________

ken whitaker

"I read the description about the 'Freak' monster from the game. And saying

that you didn't notice a different between regular souls and freaks soul's. I

discovered that occasionally when you pick up a freak's soul that it won't

make the distinct noise that usually sounds when you pick up a soul, and

noticed that my health has dropped 1 point. But this happens rarely... In fact

it only happend to me twice. Just wanted to fill you in."

-=#=-

Hmm, fair enough, thanks.______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________V1.10 CONTRIBUTION_____________________________

GHOST

-----

Danger: 1/5

These rare monsters can't be harmed, but they can harm you (a little). Just

avoid them and you should be OK. They sometimes die when you move to the next

checkpoint, adding to your kill count.


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HELL ANGEL

----------

Danger: 3/5

These are a bit more than basic foot soldiers. They can chuck molotov

cocktails around and some come equipped with rocket-launchers. They also

appear in medium-sized groups, and it takes a while to mow them all down.

They're not too fast, but you're in trouble if you let them get close with

their tazers, especially in such a confined level as the Prison.

HELL BIKER

----------

Danger: 4/5

Their first incarnations will most likely try to chaingun you until they run

out of ammo. They also have a headbutt attack, but you'll probably have

dropped them to the floor before they have to resort to it. It's always

pleasant to see these bullies get pwned by the skulls.

Later versions appear as fat, drunken dock workers: some can belch poison gas,

some attack you with pipes, and others are armed with their own shurikenswhich they fire in bursts of four.

LEPPER MONK

-----------

Danger: 3/5


These are pretty rare, and are at first invulnerable. They will hurl corpses

of recently vanquished enemies at you, and only when they run out of this

ammunition will they try to fling their staffs at you and then become

vulnerable to damage. They can also use their staffs to bounce you away from a

distance. Try to get rid of any surrounding enemies quickly so that they run

out of bodies to throw.

Or you could just freeze them, though you may not have the ammo you need when

you do run into them.

Lepper monks' souls are worth 6 health points instead of one, and are coloured

red, not green.

LOKHI

-----

Danger: 1/5

They can heal themselves after they take damage - watch for them stopping andpraying halfway through a battle. They also have quite a jump on them, but

other than this they're just basic melee monsters, and very rare at that.

MASO COMMANDO

-------------

Danger: 3/5

Recommended weapon: Chaingun

They're immune to almost all weapons (unless you shoot at their guns); they

have half-decent speed; very dangerous weapons; and can set fire to skeleton

soldiers to increase the soldiers' speed and attack damage.


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Despite all this they're not actually too hard while you have your chaingun or

painkiller guide - walkthrough

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