Mission 8: Romeo and Juliet/The House that Queen Built
Romeo and Juliet
Time to put an end to the House of Cards, and the Spider's the girl to do it. This mission is split into two parts - the first taking part above ground in the Jack of Diamond's mansion's grounds, the second in the bowels of the mansion where Mission 4 took place.
The first thing to do in the first part is to get the spider to the computer at the mansion door (highlighted by the arrow) and turn off the security systems. She can do this while shrunken, with the Fly accompanying her if you've brought him along. If you don't do this and one of your characters gets seen, then reinforcements will teleport in every 10 seconds until you do deactivate the computer, and all the fountains turn into irradiating turrets like the ones in Mission 2.
On the way there, the Spider can cause a bit of trouble:
Analyse commands
Air compressors on the bouncy castle and hover machine can be turned up, to fling the two of clubs soldiers into the air when they play on them.
The speakers near the dancing tart and hunk robots can be modified to enrage the robots permanently.
Get her to do this on the way across, deactivate the computer and wait invisibly for the rest of the team to cross the grounds en masse once its safe to do so.
The King, Queen and Jack in this level are all holograms, meaning they do no damage and pop instantly on taking damage. So ignore them, and take down the minions - you've fought them all before and should know what to do by now.
The House that Queen Built
Once inside on the second part of the mission things get considerably tougher. The real King, Queen and Jack are down here, along with a few nasty surprises. Your characters start off in an entrance room facing the Jack, and four holograms of her. As soon as she enters the room, or one of your characters leaves, hunks and tarts will appear from the back teleporters and the door will close, effectively separating your team members from each other. Getting everyone out in one piece is very tricky.
Teleporters:
These mostly start off inactive. If a teleporter is active, then any hero can Use it and teleport to the destination point. The Spider and Fly can use special commands on these:
Analyse will add an arrow to the destination, reprogram will move the destination point elsewhere and highlight it. So they can effectively teleport around the mansion using this system.
NOTE: The Spider and Fly can use all their custom commands when shrunk. This allows you the time to quietly redirect the teleporters.
Holograms:
Several rooms have hologram projectors in them (big square boxes like the microwave towers in Mission 5). If a villain enters one of thee rooms the generator will start producing copies of them. Scientist characters can rewire the hologram projector to produce copies of the good guys instead to confuse the enemy AI.
As stated before, holograms do no damage, and pop instantly on taking damage or being frozen/webbed etc. and vanish if they leave the room of their parent projector.
Both teleporters and hologram generators will be periodically reset by the queen if she's still conscious and at a computer terminal. She'll say what she's doing over the intercomm, notifying you to maybe revert control of nearby items to your side.
Computer Terminals:
From the computer terminals the Spider or Fly can hack the CCTV system (close circuit TV) to effectively see all enemies in the level. They can also Hack Security, causing the robots and turrets to get hypnotised.
The queen will also reset security systems periodically, effetcively unhacking your work (which you can re-hack etc.)
Traps:
The two teleporters near the door in the start room are active at the start of the level - BE CAREFUL! The left one leads you to a room full of oil drums and TNT- if any hero enters this room the King will come running and open fire. The resulting explosions are unlikely to hurt him, but the same can't be said of you!
The right one leads to a locked room with gravity turrets - anyone in here will attract the attention of the Jack Of Diamonds. Since the gravity beams prevent flight in this room it can also spell a quick death for the wrong heroes
The room through to the back complex contains a couple of power null devices and energy drain turrets. These can be used to your advantage - if you can lure the Jack in here you can temporarily neutralise her invulnerability by triggering a power null close to her and then take her down much more easily than normal. (You'll even see her skin tone change!)
The next room contains a salt circle similar to the one DD was trapped in in M4 - this one requires all candles be extinguished before going down, and will work on Chaos as well as DD (since she has devil's blood, right?)
If you've taken Adam Zorn along, dont let him teleport into any room beyond the main gallery - a z-field neutraliser will grab him and teleport him to a podium elsewhere, surrounded by Seven of Diamond guards. He may well be able to fight them off, but then needs rescuing by another hero.
Ace:
When one of your team goes down, Ace appears in the main gallery and offers to help. Win this mission and he's on the team, thanks to Spider and DD.
Combo Moves:
SuperTaser:
This mission introduces one of Ace's combo moves, with the Spider, naturally. Ace is able to provide a zero-EP-cost taser that affects everyone around the target- get him to SuperCharge the spider and as long as he stays close, she'll be able to fire off a SuperTaser. This not only delivers extra damage but causes an electrical explosion around the target. if Ace moves too far from the Spider, she loses the Supertaser command whether she's fired it off or not.
(His other move, the Lightning Rod with King Zero, doesn't work inside. And I'm going to stick to that :) So you can use it first in Mission 9.)
Release Alcubus:
Chaos gains the ability to release AlCuBUS from her body in this mission. She has a command on herself that causes her to become permanently stunned, and you get to control the energy spirit as he zips around constantly exploding and irradiating everything in sight whenever he's far enough away from Penny. To recombine and gain control of Chaos again - either use Alcubus's Return command on her, or simply move him close to her and they'll merge again.
Alcubus actually gets recruited onto the team at this point (but is never available for missions) and you can train him. To begin with his only power is to disrupt objects by touch (safer than it sounds since he absorbs most energy attacks). However, whenever he's a safe distance from Penny he constantly explodes, doing both heat and irradiation damage. So be careful with your teammates when he's out.