Pathways into Darkness FAQ Sheet/Walkthrough
Last Update: February 2, 1994
David Reevely (david_reevely@magic-bbs.corp.apple.com)
On a mildy defensive note, there have been one or two complaints that the
FAQ is inaccurate. This is not, strictly speaking, true. Some of the
solutions may not be the best way of passing the puzzles to which they
refer, but they all work -- none of them are actually dangerous or outright
*wrong*. It does have, of course, my own biases in terms of combat style
and puzzle solutions, which may differ from those of other people, and
while readers may disagree with me on some solutions, those given here *do*
work.
That said, there have been sufficient changes to warrant a new full
posting, rather than an addendum. These include a different route through
the teleporter maze (the route that was given worked, it just took a lot
longer), some further combat notes, and several more minor changes. As
always, send me suggestions at david_reevely@magic-bbs.corp.apple.com, and
they'll be included in an update, should it be warranted.
These follow a rough chronological order within the game. Of course,
because there are several different ways of working your way through, some
might not apply to you or may be out of order.
This list is packed with spoilers, which is, after all, the point. Read it
at your own risk.
1. The manual talks about talking to dead people. Why can't I talk to the
German soldier? -You don't have the yellow crystal yet. It's behind a
locked door on the level above, "Never Stop Firing." When you find it,
double-click on it to activate it, then press TAB while standing on the
body.
2. What's the point of that blue rune? Why can't I open the doors at each
side of the hall? -You need to play the Alien Pipes while standing on the
blue rune in order for the doors to open. The Alien Pipes are found on the
Ascension level.
3. What do the chains do? -They open doors in other parts of the pyramid.
Pull each chain you run across once, then forget about them. Check the map
of the level you're on before and after you pull it, paying special
attention to the doors that are closed before you pull.
4. The manual makes such a big deal about conserving ammunition, but I
haven't had any problems. Why should I pay attention to that? -In the
earlier levels, you're fighting the easiest monsters in the game. Use the
survival knife whenever you're dealing with two or fewer zombies or
headlesses. It'll force you into learning some battle tactics that will
prove useful when you move up in weaponry. Furthermore, there's a very
limited supply of Walther ammuntion, and there are two occasions when
you'll need a lot of it; on the Ascension level, fighting your way to the
Alien Pipes; and after you've used the Pipes on the ground floor and
monsters are revealed beyond the doors.
5. I keep getting killed on that level where I come down the ladder and am
immediately surrounded by zombies. What's the best way to get past them?
-Once you've killed one zombie, start moving. Get out of the starting
chamber as soon as you can, and move down into one of the corners of the
hallway surrounding that room, so you've got walls on two sides. The
zombies can only come after you two at a time and from one-fourth of your
viewing area, instead of four at a time from all sides. Use the Walther
here, picking your shots carefully.
6. How do I kill those black spirits that don't seem to get damaged by
weapons? -Use the blue crystal, in the same way you'd use the yellow
crystal.
7. Where's the blue crystal? -There's a two-square hidden chamber just to
the south of one of the dead German soldiers on They May be Slow. He'll
direct you to it, if you question him closely enough. Enter the chamber by
walking south from the soldier's body and through the wall. Pick up the
blue crystal by stepping on it, just like any other item.
8. After I've used the crystal a few times, it recharges more and more
slowly. How come? -All crystals but the yellow one will run out of power
eventually. After you've used them a few times, they'll slow down.
Eventually, they shatter. There is no way of preventing this, besides not
using the crystal unless you absolutely have to. Don't use the blue
crystal on regular creatures, if you can possibly help it.
9. Can I do anything useful with the silver bowl? -No. Its only purpose
is as treasure. There are several such items in the game, and they should
all be kept, since they increase your point totals at the end of the game.
They're heavy, but they don't affect your performance in any significant
way, besides cluttering your inventory.
10. What's the best way of dealing with the roomfuls of monsters on
Ascension? -Tackle them one room at a time, resting as often as you safely
can. Use the knife whenever possible, and try to keep headlesses and
zombies in rows so they can only attack you one at a time. Another neat
aspect of this strategy is that the headlesses with fire their goo at you
but will hit one another in the back instead, causing damage to one
another. Have the blue crystal ready when you enter the northwestern room;
there's a banshee that's going to come after you.
11. What do I do with the Alien Pipes? -Use them on the first level while
standing on the blue rune. The doors to the east and west will open,
releasing some monsters. You'll want the Walther for this one.
12. How do I best deal with the grey things? -They're ghouls. If there
are only one or two of them and your vitality is relatively high, you can
attack with the survival knife. It will take about five hits, but the
blows will keep the ghouls off-balance and unable to retaliate.
13. Which ladder down should I take -- the one to the west or the one to
the east? - It doesn't *really* matter. The western ladder will take you
down to Wrong Way, which it isn't. The entry chamber in that level is
packed with ghouls, but nothing more serious than that. The eastern ladder
will take you down to Feel the Power, which is filled with marauding packs
of three oozes, which are nasty. With your firepower, you're probably
better off taking the western ladder, since ghouls are much easier to deal
with than oozes. Come back to Feel the Power later, when your weaponry is
more impressive.
14. How should I deal with all the ghouls in Wrong Way? -It'll probably
take a few tries to get past them. Use similar tactics to those given in
question #5, and never stop moving, except to shoot.
15. Why can't I get those doors to open? -They're locked. You need the
Silver Key, found on the level below, Welcome Tasty Primate. It's near the
northeast corner of that level.
16. What does the orange crystal do? -It's basically a more powerful
version of the blue crystal. It takes only one blast from the orange
crystal to kill a banshee, instead of two. Of course, the same use
limitations apply -- use it too often, and it'll shatter. That is
definitely something to avoid.
17. Where should I go from here? -It would probably be a good idea to go
back up to the Ground Floor and then take the other ladder down. Fight
your way past the oozes up to the northwest corner, then take the ladder
down to A Plague of Demons.
18. What keeps hitting me? -There are invisible wraiths that will do you
damage, if only slightly. The major danger here is when more than two set
upon you, and you have trouble finding one or more of them. Regular
weapons are effective against them, and they make a kind of hollow gasping
sound when you kill them. Around the north-center section of the level,
you'll find a dead American soldier. A search will reveal a pair of
infra-red goggles. Put them on and you'll be able to see the wraiths just
fine. Don't forget to turn off your flashlight to conserve the batteries.
19. What's the point of this level? -In the southeastern section, there's
a silver door (you have to pass another door that will open to reveal a
small horde of creatures, so make sure you're fully rested and properly
armed). Beyond the door, there's a cedar box, the inside of which is
"slightly warm to the touch."
20. What does the cedar box do? -It will duplicate any ammunition you put
into it. It will work once per minute, assuming you remember to remove the
second clip or magazine. It is probably the most useful item in the game.
21. Now what? -Go back up through the Ground Floor and down through
Welcome Tasty Primate. Take a ladder down from near the north center to We
Can See in the Dark, Can You? Turn out your flashlight to make the bugs go
away. Use your infra-red goggles to see well. Find your way down to Happy
Happy Carnage Carnage.
22. What do I do on Happy Happy Carnage Carnage? -Use your Walther and all
the ammunition you've generated using the cedar box to fight your way up to
either the northeast or northwest corners. Go through the door just to the
east or the west, depending on which corner you're in. You've found the
remains of the German expedition. Question and search them all thoroughly.
23. How do I deal with all the monsters? -Maneuver yourself so that you're
facing parallel to the wall with the three doors, with your back to the
rune. Back over it and go until your back hits the wall. Never stop
shooting once the monsters start to come through. Use a red potion to
speed yourself up so you can dodge missile attacks, and a blue potion if
you need one. Be prepared to try this level a few times.
24. What does the Red Cloak do? -It slows down your metabolism. The world
around you passes more quickly than your body moves, so wearing the red
cloak *except at particular moments* is something to be avoided.
25. What does the brown potion do? -It's a poison. Don't discard it
you'll need it later.
26. Why can't I open the gold door on Beware of Low-Flying Nightmares?
-You don't have the gold key. You won't run across it for several levels,
so don't worry about it now.
27. How can I navigate the Labyrinth? -Although its exact layout changes
every time you enter it, the essential features remain the same. There is
a ladder in each corner. The one in the northwest corner leads up to Happy
Happy Carnage Carnage, the northeast corner leads up to Beware of
Low-Flying Nightmares, the southwest corner leads to Need a Light, and the
southeast corner leads to Lasciate Ogne Speranza, Voi Ch'Intrate, which
isn't a typo. Most importantly, there's a violet crystal in the
approximate center of the maze, which you absolutely *must* get. There
isn't really a very good way of dealing with the electric orbs besides
shooting them from up close -- knifing them takes too long, and you're
almost always facing more than one. Afterwards, take the ladder in the
southwest corner to Need a Light.
28. What was it that killed all those soldiers? -A very nasty
flamethrowing monster. Have the orange crystal and a lot of ammunition
ready, because it'll start moving towards you as soon as the door shuts
behind you. Fire at it continuously with your machine gun, and when it
gets ready to fire, run around a corner so that its missile attack hits a
wall instead of you. Alternatively, use the blue or orange crystal to
freeze it briefly and just keep shooting. It is possible, though somewhat
tricky, to freeze it in one of the wider parts of the corridor and run past
it, so you don't actually have to kill it. Be very careful if attempting
this manouevre, and don't forget that the monster will be coming up behind
you. As always, be ready to try this level several times. Make sure you
question all of the soldiers about the bomb and search them.
29. Why can't I get past the little cross-legged guys? -They're generating
force fields that prevent you from passing or firing through them. You
need to use the green crystal (located a level below, on Watch Your Steps)
to quake down their barriers. Interestingly, projectile grenades can pass
through the barrier and harm skitters that are behind the sentinels, though
they won't do anything to the sentinel itself.
30. What are the jumping lizards? -Just what they seem unshootable
annoyances. If you walk over enough exploding purple pods, you'll kill
them all.
31. How do I get out of the chamber that locks me in? -Put on the red
cloak and wait for three hours until the doors open again. As long as
you're there, make sure you use the cedar box to mass-produce munitions of
all kinds.
32. How can I get past the green oozes? -They'll leave you alone if you're
already poisoned, which is where that brown potion comes in. Make sure you
use it in a place where they won't be trapping you when they stop moving --
they won't move, but you can't walk through them.
33. How do I kill the purple monster? -You can't. Put on the gas mask and
it can't hurt you, but it will block your path. You just have to maneuver
around it. (There has been some debate about whether or not the gas mask
is helpful against the purple monster's breath. It stopped me from taking
damage, and it's difficult to fathom any other purpose the programmers may
have had for it. Nevertheless, there are many people who report that it
does no good for them. If you find you're one of those people, all you can
really do is try to run around past it and trap it in the room whose doors
close behind you.)
34. Why don't my shots harm the blue greater nightmares? -They're
resistant to regular ammunition, including HE (High Explosive) bullets.
Use armour-piercing (SABOT) rounds for the AK-47 (ideal) or grenades
(wasteful and inefficient for use against only one monster due to the long
reloading time).
35. How do I get through all those teleporters on Don't Get Poisoned,
Please Excuse Our Dust and But Wait! That's Not All! -Patience. On Don't
Get Poisoned, take the south teleporter in the first room, the east
teleporter in the following room, and then the teleporter in the southern
section of that area to get to Please Excuse Our Dust. On PEOD, take the
south-center teleporter in the first room, then the northernmost teleporter
you find there, then the easternmost teleporter, then a teleporter in the
southwest corner to move onto BWTNA. On this level, you have to use every
teleporter before you can move on.
36. What about the teleporter rooms on Where Only Fools Dare Tread? -This
has been the subject of some discussion. The ideal route seems to be as
follows: Enter maze. Kill greater nightmare. Advance to middle of room.
Turn right. Take teleporter. Kill greater nightmare. Go straight. Take
teleporter. Kill greater nightmare. Advance to middle of room. Rest a
lot. Make ammunition (frag grenades recommended, along with quite a lot of
AK-47 SABOT and HE). Turn around. Take teleporter.
37. Is there any quick way of getting rid of all those monsters? -No.
Shoot them, fire grenades at them...generally deal with them like any
regular monsters. On the up side, this is the last army of monsters of any
consequence you have to fight, so you can deplete your entire arsenal, if
you feel the need. Crystals may be used indiscriminately once you've
eliminated the banshees (the violet crystal is especially good for this,
since it has an area effect). Save a few clips of ammunition, since you'll
have to work your way back up to ground level and will undoubtedly face a
few monsters in the process. There are also some ghasts to get past just
before you leave, but they're neatly lined up in a row in a 1-square wide
corridor, so they're not too much trouble.
38. What's that red floating thing in the middle of the room? -A
manifestation of the alien god. You can't get rid of any of them until
you've faced the roomful of Greater Nightmares, at which point a couple of
MP-41 shots will do in the last one. This is the place to deposit the
nuclear device. Set it to detonate as shortly before the estimated waking
time of the alien god as you safely can, in case your time is very tight or
you get held up somewhere on your way to the surface by some monsters you
missed.
39. How do I stop the Alien Gemstone from hurting me? -Put it in the lead
box from Warning:Earthquake Zone. The crystal is radioactive, and the box
will shield you from its effects. You need it to escape the pyramid, which
is done by going back up to the ground floor and walking directly south
from the blue rune.
40. Anything else I should know? -That should about cover it. Don't
forget to revisit the gold door on Beware of Low-Flying Nightmares to
retrieve the gold ingots, now that you have the key.
Some combat tips:
-Never put yourself in a position where you have to fight more than two
monsters at a time, especially when you're dealing with skitters and
nightmares. If you can, back yourself into a one-square alcove or short
passage, so only one can attack you at a time. Failing that, back into a
corner, so you at least don't have to worry about your back. If no corners
are available, at least put your back to a wall.
-If you can do so safely, back up as you shoot nightmares. Their energy
attacks will take longer to reach you and you won't be hurt by their acidic
juices when they explode. This may seem like a good idea with oozes, but
it's not. There's more advantage to getting an ooze dead quickly than
there is in trying to run away from it, and the best way to do this is to
shoot from up close.
-There has been some debate on whether grenades or bullets are more
efficient in terms of damage per second. I prefer even MP-41 bullets to
grenades, but I don't think that it really matters, except to the extent
that you're likely to have more clips of ammunition than you are to have
grenades. To speed up grenade reloading, particularly when facing large
groups of monsters (and most particularly when you're dealing with
skitters, who can shoot "through" each other to get to you), do it manually
by clicking on the inventory window, moving a grenade into the launcher,
then clicking back on the game window. This is a good two to three seconds
faster than waiting for it to happen automatically. The exception to this
is the fragmentation grenade, which is good for doing damage to a large
number of creatures, which can then be dispatched with many fewer rounds of
MP-41 or AK-47 ammunition, and is also good for the first one or two rooms
of Who Else Wants Some?, since headlesses and zombies are relatively weak.
On the subject of secret rooms, you can get through the game having found
only the one with the blue crystal in it. Other rooms, however, contain
things like potions and teleporters that make it easier and quicker. It's
generally fairly obvious where a room might be (look for small, blank
sections of your map and try to walk through the walls surrounding those
blank sections), and you should also look for pillars that you can see with
your eyes but not on your map. If you find one, try walking "through" it.
Good luck!
A great deal of credit for this walkthrough/FAQ sheet belongs to whoever is
behind the e-mail address of st2c9@jetson.uh.edu at the University of
Houston, the author of a more basic "PiD Survival Guide" that helped me
get through PiD myself and provided a little of the source material, though
all errors are, of course, entirely mine. Also useful is "Pathways into
Cheating," a little app written by Alain Roy that lets you modify your
character considerably. Both files are available via anonymous FTP from
mac.archive.umich.edu, in the game utilities subdirectory of the Mac
section, along with some hacked maps of each PiD level. Credits also to
Russ Taylor, (rtaylor@cie-2.uoregon.edu) for comments on the subject of
ammunition and secret rooms, among other things, and Jake McGuire
(MCGUIRE@FCRFV1.NCIFCRF.GOV), for the infinitely more efficient route
through the teleporter maze.