Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow Multiplayer Tips and Strategies Date Created: October 19, 2004 Author: Strider32 Platform: Xbox Version: 0.7 Update and Version History Oct. 19, 2004(v.0.1) - Just began. Added the very beginning of the guide. I also added the foreword, legal stuff, some of the basics, system link, and the table of contents. Oct. 20, 2004(V.0.2)-Got a bit done tonight. I completed the spy controls started on the merc. controls, but more importantly I fixed a ton of spelling errors. Oct. 21, 2004(V.0.5)-I did a lot this afternoon. I finished up merc. controls and finished quick use and the spy gadgets. File size went from 4.5kbs. to 11.1kbs. I'm stopping for now as my typing fingers are getting sore, but I’ll probably come back later on tonight and do some more. Came back and did some more. Skipped versions 0.3 and 0.4 as I got all the info I wanted in them and more done today, which brings us up to v. 0.5. Came back again and added section 3. Also added a few gadgets that I forgot about the first time around. Fixed some spelling errors, and began the Strategies section. That's it for tonight. For real this time. Oct. 23, 2004(v.0.6)-Came back today after taking yesterday off. Finished up the strategies section and began on the maps. Made a few changes. Expect a ton of stuff on Monday. Oct. 27, 2004(v.0.6)-I lied. Didn't do anything on Monday, or Tuesday. I made a few changes so far today. Thanks to one of my friends who pointed out several spelling errors and other stuff. Began on the maps. Oct. 28, 2004(v.0.7)-Worked backwards today. Did the last three sections of the guide, which leaves only the maps to complete. Those will probably be the work of a week or so. Oct. 30, 2004(v.0.7)-Fixed one error. Nov. 30, 2004(v.0.7)-My computer has been down for about the last two months. Just got it back up and will and more soon. Fixed a ton of errors today. Table of Contents 1. Foreword 2. Legal Stuff 3. Brief Overview of the Multiplayer 4. System-Link 5. Controls 5a. Spy Controls 5b. Mercenary Controls 6. Quick Use 6. Gadgets 7a. Spy Gadgets 7b. Mercenary Gadgets 8. Security Systems 9. Strategies 9a. Spy Strategies 9b. Mercenary Strategies 10. Maps 10a. Museum 10b. Warehouse 10c. Vertigo Plaza 10d. Schemorhorn 10e. Mount Hospital 10f. Krauser Lab 10g. Cinema 10h. Deftech Below 11. Frequently Asked Questions 12. Rules of Contact 13. Who all Helped 1. Foreword This guide is meant as an in-depth look at the multiplayer side of Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow. I will attempt to explain all the aspects of what is in my opinion the best multiplayer game out there, pending Halo 2's release of course. I'll give you my best strategies, some useful tips, and I will not give you any glitches. I don't condone cheating, and in this game, glitches could very well be considered cheating. All that I say in this guide can be used online or playing a system link game. 2. Legal Stuff You can't recreate or take any part of this guide without first consulting me. If you want to, contact me and I’ll probably say it's fine so long as you give me credit and tell me where you're putting it so that I can check it out. The only sites that have access to this as of right now are as follows: http://mobygames.com/ http://gamefaqs.com/ http://gamewinners.com/ http://cheatplanet.com/ 3. Brief Overview of the Multiplayer Welcome to the wonderful world of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow. More importantly, welcome to the multiplayer world of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow. This section is simply going to give you an idea and general overview of this mode. First off you choose your sides, be it Mercenary or Spy. The Mercenaries are armed with deadly assault rifles, and other deadly gadgets. The spies on the other hand aren’t armed with lethal weapons, except for their hands and their feet. Yes, their feet. Their are three modes. Neutralization: Where the spies try to hack a series of smallpox containing ND133's. The amount of time that it takes to hack one is normally around 20 seconds, but depends on the map and the handi- cap. Extraction: In this mode the spy's try to steal a set number of ND's. Once they steal the ND's, they have to get them back to their spawn point. Sabotage: The last mode is also my favorite. The spies place a modem near an ND. Spy's can carry only one modem at a time and must get new one's from ammo boxes. The spies are free to leave the ND after they place the modem, placed by pressing down on the d-pad. They should probably stay and defend the modem though. The mercs. mandate throughout all of these modes is simple, defend the ND's for a certain time limit, or kill the spies until they run out of lives. There is also a fourth unofficial game mode called deathwatch. This was invented by players online. While probably not the developers intention, this is one the best game modes. This is pretty easy to set up. Simply select the map that you want to play and go to session options. From here set the game time to infinite, and give both the spy and the merc. the max. amount of lives. Respawn time doesn't matter, so set it at what you want. Now just play and try to kill each other. Keep in mind that every time you switch the map you will have to go back into session options and change back the settings. 4. System Link Well you might be wondering why I have system-link as a heading and haven't included online-multiplayer as well. The reason is this, it can take a while to figure out how to get 4 people playing the game at one time, when a single Xbox will only support one player. For those of you who don't know the fix is simple. You need 4 Xbox's, and thus 4 TV’s, 4 Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow discs, 4 system link cables, and a router. Basically, you need to plug one end of each of the system-link cable into each Xbox, and the other end in the back of the router. After you've done this you should have the option of going onto the same server and playing with and against each other. Also, you can use your Xbox-Live headsets when playing system-link. 5. Controls Normally I wouldn't bother with the controls, as that what the manual is there for, but you have to know the controls for this game. 5a. Spy Controls There are quite a few controls for the spy to master. start-pause game d-pad left-Night Vision d-pad right-Thermal Vision d-pad up-Turns off your laser when your gun is out. d-pad down-nothing L3-quick menu (Choose what gadget you want by pressing the correct key or moving the analog stick around.) R3-Brings up your binoculars (I'll cover this more in the Gadgets Section) A-Use, you can use anything that pops up in a little green box, just press A. When behind a mercenary(merc.)press A to grab a hold of him. Press A again to kill him, R to knock him out. If you hold him for too long he will suffocate and die. X-Pull out your gun, hold to pull out your gun without the laser Y-jump. You can't jump when your gun is drawn. You will grab onto ledges and other objects when you jump up to them. Press Y to swing your legs up when on a pole. B-crouch, You can crouch when your gun is drawn. When you're running or crouching and walking hold down B to roll forward. Black Button-Turn enhanced reality on/off. (more on enhanced reality later) White Button-nothing R-shoot when gun is drawn, quick use L-Shoot selected gadget if applicable. Hold down to throw grenades farther. Quick use. 5b. Mercenary Controls Lots of merc controls too. start-pause game d-pad left-Motion Tracking d-pad right-Electromagnetic Vision (EMV.) d-pad up-Turns on your laser. d-pad down-Turns on your torchlight. (The torchlight and laser will not work at the same time, one will cut off when you activate the other.) L3-quick menu (Choose what gadget you want by pressing the correct key or moving the analog stick around.) R3-Brings up your sniper scope. This has a 6x zoom. A-Punch with the butt of your gun. When running you can charge the spy. This will do greater damage, but cause you to run slower for about 2 seconds. X-Reloads. Hold down to switch your gun between full-automatic mode, and burst mode. Y-Jump. B-Crouch Black Button-Turn enhanced reality on/off. (more on enhanced reality later) White Button-nothing R-shoot L-use secondary weapon. Hold down to throw grenades farther. 6. Quick Use This part will be quick, but is a very integral part of the the spies game. Only spies have the quick use option, and only grenades can be placed under it. For example, you could select smoke grenades as your quick use for the right trigger. This means that so long as you have smoke grenades left, when you pull R you will throw down a smoke grenade. This works for the L trigger also. You only have two quick uses so put the grenades that you use the most into your quick use area. There are however some limitations to quick use. For starters, when you're crouched and can't stand up you can't throw down a grenade. When your just crouching then the spy will stand up and throw down the grenade. Also when you have your gun out you can't use your quick use. You have to switch to the grenade that you want through the quick menu. 7. Gadgets There is a wide variety of gadgets and equipment in the game, most of which can be easily equipped and used. Some are less useful than others and some of them you'll recognize from the main game. 7a. Spy Gadgets Smoke Grenade-The name is pretty much self explanatory. You throw down this grenade and a smoke cloud will appear. These are much more useful than most smoke grenades in most games are. When thrown and a merc. is inside the cloud he will move much slower. He will start to cough and if he stays in the cloud for too long he will drop unconscious. As a spy you can use his slow speed to get behind and grab him, and subsequently kill him. Another fun feature of the smoke grenade is that it will be quite hard for the merc. to see through all of the smoke. This grenade will not kill. Flash Bang-This is another very useful grenade. When a spy throws this grenade down it will create a very bright light, that will only affect the merc. The merc. will have a hard time seeing anything. If the merc. saw you when you threw down the grenade, or while he is still being affected by the light, he will start to see the spy on his visor as sort of an aftershock. This can confuse him and cause him to shoot at nothing. This grenade will not kill. Chaff Grenade-This grenade is not very useful compared to the smoke and flash-bang. When thrown the grenade will release a bunch of white tiny paper looking objects. These disrupt electrical equipment. This is a good way of sneaking by trip wires and other detection systems. It will also cause a bunch of static to form on the mercs. visor, and it will shut down his motion tracking and EMV. if he is using either one of them at the time. This grenade will not kill. Sticky Camera-This is a gadget that has been taken from the game and been modified. You still shoot it at a wall or any other surface upon which it attaches itself to that surface. The spy will have access to both night thermal visions while "in" the camera. What’s new is that you can't make noises to attract the others attention, but you can release a very powerful smoke. This smoke is much better than the smoke grenade’s smoke. All the smoke has to do is barely touch the merc. and he is out cold. Spy Bullet-This is a gadget that is good for information. When you shoot this at a merc, and he probably won't know he's been shot, the merc. will appear on your radar.(upper right hand corner) This is especially useful when trying to hack an ND133.(ND for short.) Also, an added bonus is that when playing on Xbox-Live you can shoot the enemy merc. with this, enabling you to hear what the two mercs. are talking about. Another feature is that if you shoot this on a wall then whenever a merc. goes near the bullet he will show up on your radar. The "wall bullet" has a very short range, so it's better to shoot the merc. Alarm Snare-This can be a very useful device if you know how to use it. When shot on a tripwire, or other security system, it will make an alarm go off. You might be asking your self now "Why is making an alarm go off good?" Well, now that you asked I guess I’ll tell you. If playing with a partner, or even by your self this can make the mercs. go to the wrong area, allowing you a relatively free shot at an ND. Try to shoot it as far away the from the ND. that you plan to hack as possible. Also, when you shoot this on any other surface, it will make the sound of footsteps, and cause a mercs. sound detectors to go off. Thermal Vision-Thermals, as I call it, is the vision mode that will probably prove most useful to you. This will show any and all heat readings within the spy’s area of sight. Basically you'll be able to see the merc. very easily. Another very beneficial feature of thermals is that you can see any mines, spy traps, and other merc gadgetry very easily. They will all show up at a fair distance, though they are not going to stand out the way the merc. does. You'll need to have at least a marginal eye out for these merc. devices. Then again you should always be looking for the mercs. assorted "Bag of Tricks." The last feature of thermals is that they let you see through many objects, including some walls, ceilings, and other objects. Night Vision-Night vision is the spy’s other vision mode. These goggles take any light in an area and magnify it, enabling you to see in the dark. These are very useful in really dark places and sometimes for spotting a merc. The latter is almost easily done with thermals though. Tazer Gun-That's probably not the technical term,(it looks to me like a modified P-90)but that what I’m going to call it. this gun under no circumstances will kill a merc. The gun shoots like a real gun save for the fact that it shoots what looks like a little blue ball. When you shoot a merc. with the gun he will go stiff and become covered in blue electricity for a matter of about 2-3 seconds. You can't jump on the merc, grab him and kill him though. The merc. can still partially see, so don't jump up in front of him and expect him not to notice. The gun can also fire the following gadgets: Smoke, flash-bang, and chaff grenades, alarm snares, sticky cameras, and spy bullets. You have to bring up the quick menu to select which gadget you wish to fire. The gun is also equipped with a laser. If you plan to play the game a lot then you should learn to aim without it as it will help to keep your position secret. The laser dot that "touches" the merc, wall, or what- ever is clearly visible, but the red laser line that leads to the gun isn't visible. Hold down X to take your gun out without the laser on. 7b. Mercenary Gadgets Frag Grenades-This is a very deadly grenade. Unlike the spy’s grenades, this grenade will easily and effectively kill. It is not suggested that you use this grenade in close quarters as it can very easily kill you. There is one instance when you should consider using them in close quarters. If you are being attacked by a spy and believe that you have no chance of winning, then you can throw a frag grenade at the ground. It will not bounce far, and as the spy’s are essentially close quarters fighter's when it comes to killing the merc. they will probably be killed by the explosion. The bad news is that you too will also more than likely be killed in the explosion. These grenades are very useful for stopping a spy from and ND. If the spy is out of your reach then you should try to get a frag over to where he is . This is also good for clearing out an area where the spy is entrenched. Tazer-This is a drastically much more powerful tazer than the one that the spy’s get. It is very close quarters and will only hit something a few meters in front of it. If you do hit the spy then you are pretty much guaranteed a kill. The spy will look like the merc. does when he is tazed. Unlike the merc, the spy will lose three-fourths of his health. The spy will also fall asleep. Be careful, if you don't see So and So has killed So and So, then you should shoot or taze him before he gets back up. Spy Trap-This device works very much like the spy bullet. The trap is a black little box that will put out an invisible trip wire. If the spy runs through the trip wire then he will appear on the mercs. radar. Like the spy bullet the mercs. will be able to listen to whatever the spies are saying. You should try to put these in dark areas so that the spy’s can't easily see them unless of course they are using thermal vision. Torchlight-This is a light that comes from the top of your helmet. It will help you to see the dark areas that you shine it at. The radius of the light is only as big as your crosshair-circle. This means that you can't cover every area of darkness at once. Sound Arrows-These are often overlooked by many people, even though they can easily be your best tool. If a spy is in your relative area and he makes noise an arrow will pop up on your crosshair-circle. These will tell you the direction that the sound came from and if the sound came from a level above or below you. Once you learn how to use these you can easily track down and kill a spy that makes too much noise. Mines-Never leave mines out of your equipment list. They are easily one of your most important assets. Quite simply these are small devices that explode when a spy either moves too fast beside it or goes through the trip wire. In Proximity mode the mines will explode whenever a spy runs or moves too fast near one. A spy can sneak up and disable the mine if he moves slow enough. There is also a Laser Tripwire mode. If a spy cross’s the tripwire the mine will explode. Mines can be easily detected, but usually aren’t until it is too late. You can see them clearly through thermals, and you can hear and see the flashing red light. Phosphorous Grenades-You will not find many people online who use this. These grenades are non-lethal. When they explode they "paint" a spy green if he is within the blast radius.(about the size of a frag grenades killing zone) You can see where the spy has gone because green footprints will show up on the floor and other surfaces. Unfortunately, these grenades can also work against you. You can just as easily paint yourself green as you can the spy. This would of course let the spy see where you have gone. Flares-Useless. This does the exact same thing that the torchlight does, only it lasts for about ten seconds. Motion Tracking-This is the first of the mercs. two different vision modes. This will turn your screen red, and makes it hard to see much, but if any- thing moves within your field of view, it will be highlighted in a gray box. Electromagnetic Vision-This can be very useful, and it takes a small degree of luck for you to use them fully. This mode works a little bit like thermals in that it lets you see through walls and other thin objects. The most important feature by far is that if the spy is using either of his vision modes he will stand out clearly. Laser-This is a laser that is activated by pressing up on the d-pad. This can be useful at times and worthless at others. If you shine this into an area and the spy is where the laser hits, it will put a gray box around him. This can be useful simply because the spy may not realize that you know they are there. Unfortunately when it comes to aiming it can be really hard to tell where you're shooting. Also, unlike the spy's gun you can see the entire laser that comes out from the gun. Assault Rifle-This is the mercs. main weapon. You can set it to either full- auto or burst. I recommend full-auto simply because it can be hard to hit a spy when firing in short burst's, and as you can get full ammo back for your gun from the ammo boxes at any time you don't need to worry about running out of ammo. You can switch between the two modes by holding down the X button. Like the spies gun you can throw grenades from your gun using the L trigger. 8. Security Systems There are several types of security systems placed in nearly each level. They include cameras, motion detectors, and visible and invisible tripwires. Setting off any of these can be deadly for the spy or for the merc. When a spy sets off any of these, than an area may go into lockdown. In lockdown mode metal doors will go over nearly all exits, and the merc. will be alerted to the spy’s general location. I say general because the merc. will only see the spot of the security device that detected the spy. If a spy is a good attacker then you can set lockdown off intentionally so that you can get a chance at attacking the merc. Cameras don't always set off lockdown mode. Sometimes they will and sometimes they won't. Most motion detectors won't set off lockdown, but there are a few that will. Tripwires, be it visible or not, will almost always set off lockdown. The best way to avoid the security systems is to learn where they are. Go into visit a map and just visit maps until you memorize them. This is a great advantage. Thermals is also a great way of seeing security devices, though it helps to know that there is something there. In certain levels, like the Museum, the tripwires will be randomly placed in each new game. Even as a Merc, you need to know the levels so that you can get to disturbances fast and easily. 9. Strategies This section will cover strategies that vary from attacking to defending to . Hopefully this will teach you some of my favorite strategies and even more importantly things to help your own game. 9a. Spy Strategies Attacking The spy's can be very very dangerous in tight quarters. This is the spy's greatest asset. If you can get in close to a merc. then you have a much better chance of killing him, in fact that's your only chance of killing him. If you plan on outright attacking him then make sure you have plenty of grenades on hand. Use your smokes and flash-bangs to confuse him, then move in and try to get behind him so that you can grab him in a choke hold. The other smart way to erc. is to someway knock him out, then find a large object that you can jump up on. When the merc. starts to get up, jump on his head. You may have to do this several times before you kill him. Remember when it says neutralized at the bottom of the screen, it doesn't mean that you killed him. If you killed him it will say killed. The last way that I know of is to jump on the mercs. head when he is crouched. When the merc. is crouched you can simply jump on his head without having to jump up on something that is higher than the merc. There is also a strike attack. This will not kill or hurt the merc. other than to knock him unconscious instantly. Generally this will work the most when the merc. is crouched. It is also not suggested that you attack a merc. straight on as it will probably result in your death if you are not very skilled in attacking. Defending The best way to defend against yourself as a spy is to simply avoid the mercs. If you don't attack the mercs. and manage to avoid any and all contact with them you stand a much better chance of staying alive. With that being said, staying away from the mercs. and thus staying alive isn't that easy. Try to keep your noise to a minimum by staying crouched most of the time. Also, don't hibernate. In other words don't stay in the same position for too long, your playing against real people, not mindless drones and they will more than likely notice you if you stay in one area constantly. Also try not to do the same thing every time and don't use the same entrance route all the time as the players will probably be able to pin down where your coming through and easily kill you. There’s not much that you can do to protect yourself once you start . The mercs. will be alerted to your position and will no doubt come to kill you. One thing that you can do is to throw down a smoke grenade just before you hack. If the mercs. get there very fast then the smoke can slow them down and possibly keep you alive. The other thing that you can do is to have your partner stay with you while you hack so that he can protect you from the mercs. Always keep away from regular hacks that just open doors and other items. 9b. Mercenary Strategies Attacking Opposite of the spy, the mercenaries greatest strength is keeping his distance from the spy. If a spy gets caught a fair distance away from the merc. then it will be much easier to kill him. Even if he throws down a smoke grenade or other kind of grenade you can simply switch to one of your other vision modes to track him as he tries to get away. If you keep your distance you have a much better chance of surviving the encounter. If you are forced into a close quarters fight you can still use your gun pretty effectively, but the spy will be able to run around you and make it very difficult for you to hit him. Instead use your charge or hit him with the butt of your gun. also try to get him with your tazer. If you get him with the tazer, consider him dead. Defending There isn't much that you can do to defend yourself from the spy other than to kill him. When defending the ND's know where they are and the quickest way to get to them and subsequently . 10. Maps This part of the guide is going to give you a look at the maps of Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow. I'll tell you the general overview, the best ND's to hack, and some of my favorite tricks. 10a. Museum Spy Walkthrough There are three main areas of this map: Café, Monolith room, and Exhibition room. When you first move in you will have no choice but to go through the Cafe. From here you can go into the Monolith room or the Exhibition room. Each area contains 2 ND's in most game modes, I’ll go over specific locations later on. This map is pretty big. The spy will start on the outside of the map from here he has three ways to get in the main areas. The first way is right in front of where you will spawn. It comes in the form of a small ventilation shaft. If you choose this way you will be presented with several more options as you continue down this path. You will enter into a small ceiling room that has three ways down onto the main floor. The first will be directly to your left. You'll see a motion sensor and a hole in the floor that you can drop down into. If you choose this route then shoot the sensor and drop down onto a pile of boxes. There will be an ND to your left. Switch on your thermals and check for any invisible tripwires. There are always invisible tripwires in this level, but every time you play this map the location of the tripwires will change at random. If you want, proceed to hack the ND, though it is not suggested that you hack this one. Mercs. always seem to watch this ND and the Cafe area in particular. The second way to get inside the Cafe from the ceiling room is to go straight ahead and then go left when you reach the wall of the room. There is another motion sensor and hole. Go through here if you want and you'll find two ways to go. Go right to get to the room where the first hole drops you down, or straight ahead to get to another part of the Cafe area. 11. Frequently Asked Questions This is a series of questions that a lot of people wonder about. Q. Can you see the spies goggle lights when he is hiding? A. The only way that you will see the spies goggles is when the merc. shines his torchlight directly on the goggles. You will then be able to see the goggles. Q. Can the spies gun kill? A. Nope. Q. Can you see through everything with thermals? A. No. Certain items that are very thick you can't see through. 12. Rules of Contact Okay there are a couple rules about e-mailing me, as that's the only info that I’m going to give away. Rule 1: Don't write me and tell me that I’m a bad writer and that I got everything wrong and that you hate Splinter Cell. I won't read it. Rule 2: If you do contact me then tell me what you want to talk about as far as strategy guides that I’ve written go. No offense, but I don't really enjoy just talking to someone. If you really want to tell me that something is wrong, add something, or something else then tell me my mistake and make suggestions nicely. My e-mail address is JRE3330bellsouth.net Replace the 0 with the at symbol. 13. Who All Helped There are a couple of people who contributed to this guide, and I would like to thank them. Karl Stefan-This is one of my friends who first started to use the annoying trick of launching a frag just before he gets strangled. He also pointed out several errors that I made. JPaterson-I modeled some of my guide after his. And thanks for writing his own useful guides. BGRRO5-He pointed out several errors that I made. This led to me copying the guide into word so I could spell check it. Fixed a ton of errors.