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Updated 2005-10-20

Hard Nova stuff

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What's Hard Nova?

Hard Nova is a computer role-playing game with some action elements, set in the same science-fiction universe as "Sentinel Worlds I: Future Magic". Karl Buiter worked on both of these games, but there is no direct link between them. The game was released on the PC and Amiga around 1991, but I only played the PC version.

Who's Nova?

Well, I think this is a good likeness of her:

Where's Nova?

The only useful information that I've found for this game was in the game walkthrough book "Quest for Clues IV", or on two other websites of importance. One of them is defunct since 10 January 2000, but I saved a copy of the text before it went away, and converted it to HTML. The second website provides the same text file plus a PDF manual and the PC game for download as abandonware. The PC game (downloadable if the link's working), a manual in PDF, and a text walkthrough (unedited version of what I have here) are at this page at "Home of the Underdogs" (HoTU), an "abandonware" site. The Sentinel Worlds game and many others are available as well there. The "other guy's walkthrough" provided below is also there as a text file, but it hasn't had the errors fixed. I wonder who actually wrote it...

On the rest of this page, you'll find:

• the "other guy's" walkthrough after my editing and conversion to HTML;
• my own material and walkthrough, including character and store data;
• my comments on what's in "Quest for Clues IV", but not the walkthrough itself because you can buy the book if you're that desperate;
• Lance Lee's contribution of an item duplication trick;
• saved game file hacks (unverified) originally found by Peter Keel.

The Other Guy's Walkthrough

Back in 1997, when I first added a spreadsheet for "Hard Nova" to my website, the only other walkthrough that I could find on the Internet was at http://www.pcxcess.com/html/software/cheats/cheats/hardnova.txt. But by 10 January 2000, all except the top level of that site was apparently gone, and hasn't come back since. There wasn't any author name on the walkthrough, and it's been copied all over the net ever since. I don't expect there were any recent changes regarding how to play this old game, so I'm going by what I have in my archive. I'll also mention that I disagree with some of what's asserted, but your mileage may vary. Here it is converted from text to HTML, and with obvious spacing and spelling errors corrected:

HARD NOVA
Part 1

INTRODUCTION

This walkthru of HARD NOVA is divided into three parts. Part 1 contains basic game mechanics information and should be considered a supplement to the manual. Part 2 is the walkthru. Part 3 contains location information for the hopelessly lost.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

As in any role-playing game, character development is necessary to win; however, in HARD NOVA, the player has an additional problem: You cannot dismiss a character that has been added to your party. Several characters you find are duplicates of each other in their abilities to help you win. Others exist only for one mission and have no other use. This means the player must decide what characters are to be developed. All characters can gain experience points, but key characters need to be sent on ground missions to gain the extra points needed to properly develop their abilities.

Experience points can be gained only in combat. In ground combat each character gains points by just inflicting damage on the attackers. In space combat every character shares equally in the points gained by damaging an enemy ship. Characters who are sent to the ground in an away team gain the most points due to ground combat. Your ground squad is limited to three members, and Stark/Nova must be the squad leader. You can have less than a full squad. There is a slot (the recruit slot) for a fourth character; however, any character in that slot remains there only until you return to the ship. This is an important point to remember since it makes a significant difference at one point in the game.

APTITUDE

Each time your character reaches a new level, you are given ability points to spread around your abilities. The number of ability points your character gets is based on the Aptitude ability. When Aptitude is 8, your character gets 3 ability points. When Aptitude is 11, your character gets 4 ability points. So, you get one additional ability point with every 3-point increase in Aptitude. The maximum level for Aptitude is 20. This is a very important ability to increase quickly and early on.

AGILITY

This ability determines how fast your character can shoot in ground combat. It is very important to increase this ability as soon as you can for characters who will be sent on ground missions. This ability determines the Speed as shown on page 31 of the manual. A Speed of 10 or better is needed; a Speed of 15 or better is preferred.

FITNESS

This ability determines how many hit points your character gets with each increase in level and is crucial to ground combat successes. A Fitness of 10 or better is needed; however, this ability can be increased gradually.

FIREARMS

This ability determines your character's accuracy with Standard Weapons. It determines the "To Hit" value on the screen on page 31 of the manual. You want a To Hit of 50% or better. A To Hit of 95% is the maximum your character can get; there is no point in increasing Firearms once your character reaches 95%. Firearms are the only weapons you will find in the early part of the game, so this ability should be increased early. This ability is only of use to characters in your ground squad.

SPECIAL WEAPONS

This ability determines your character's accuracy with Special Weapons. You do not have to increase this ability until you find some Special Weapons. When you do find Special Weapons, it's better to not use them until a character has enough points in Special Weapons to have a To Hit of 50% or better.

CLOSE COMBAT

This ability determines your character's accuracy with melee weapons. Melee weapons are generally useless in this game; you can ignore this ability.

TACTICS

This ability is added to Firearms, Special Weapons, or Close Combat to determine the To Hit percentage. Increasing this ability is not as effective as increasing the actual weapon ability, but it does apply to all weapons.

DEMOLITION

This ability applies only to Nova or Stark and is generally not necessary. It is used in conjunction with grenades.

STEALTH

This ability generally is not useful except for Darcators; all the Darcators you can add to your party have this ability at a very high level already.

THE REMAINING ABILITIES

The Ship-Based abilities are fairly straightforward. They should be at least 8 to be effective but are really only effective when they reach 10 or better. The exceptions are Programming and Star Comm. Your ship starts out with Level B Programming. You cannot safely increase the programming until Programming ability reaches 12. Thereafter, you can safely increase the programming level one level for every additional point. You cannot do effective ship scanning until Star Comm reaches 14 or better.

OTHER WEAPONS

Close combat weapons are useless; ignore them. Upgrade weapons as fast as possible. There are three exceptions to this rule. First, the SMG-70X has a high rate of fire and can compensate for a low Speed. Second, Special Weapons should not be used until a character has a high To Hit percentage; otherwise, you just waste ammo. The third exception involves ammo. You can only carry a limited supply of ammo. To avoid having one character run out of ammo, you should try to have everyone use weapons that use the same ammo because then you can share. Of course, if you find an exceptionally powerful weapon, then you should use it as soon as someone has a high To Hit percentage with that weapon.

ARMOR

Upgrade all armor as fast as you can. The only warning about armor is that it can reduce your character's Speed stat. Your selection of who wears the armor may depend on how it affects their Speed. Also, the enemy mainly shoots at the lead character. That character should always have the best available armor and highest hit points or they will die early and often. Similarly, the lead character in the ground squad should have the best medical lining you can find.

DROPPING OBJECTS

Dropped objects do NOT disappear; they stay around for you to pick up later. Pass cards are one-use items and should be dropped as soon as they are used. When in doubt, drop the object. Objects only disappear when you sell them or give them away.

GIVING AND USING OBJECTS

To give an object, make it the top item in the pool. Then, target the person to whom you wish to give the object, go into the inventory screen (shown on page 13 of the manual), and press "I" to give the object. It will vanish from the pool. Next, press "F7" (Talk) to get the result of giving the object. WARNING: Giving an object deletes it from the game. If you give something to the wrong person, it is gone. So save before giving anything away!

Only the lead character can use an object. To use an object, put it in the inventory of the lead character. The "Use" option will automatically come up when you reach the place where the object can be used.

SHOPS

Different shops sell different items at different prices. They will also pay different prices for items. Be sure to keep good notes on what is sold where and for what price. Sold objects disappear, so do not sell something unless you are sure that you no longer need it.

FRIENDLIES AND NOT SO FRIENDLIES

In general, any character that shows up as a blue dot is a friendly and should not be killed. However, in some situations, a blue-dot character is really an enemy. The blue dot is just an indicator that you should talk to the character first, then you can kill him or her. This should be obvious from the story context.

THE ENDLESS HORDE

In most cases, a dead enemy stays dead; however, in some mazes, dead enemies regenerate. In these mazes doing ANYTHING that clears the maze screen regenerates the enemy. This includes pressing "F9" to view data disks. Pressing "F10" and immediately returning to the game without doing anything regenerates the enemy. Once you find such a maze, be very careful when you clear off the maze screen, or you will have to refight the entire battle all over again.

HARD NOVA
Part 2

RECRUITS AND CASH

Your first order of business is to recruit a new crew and make some money.

Making money is easy: Smuggle. At first, just smuggle to Tikorr. The payoff is low but the trips are short and easy. Ariel is very dangerous and should be avoided unless you are going there anyway for other reasons. Ciberan is also very dangerous but has a very high payoff. Smuggle to Ciberan as soon as you are ready for the big bucks. The key to being a successful smuggler is get in fast and get out fast: don't stick around to fight.

You start off on Mastassini where you can easily pick up Ace Elcator in the bar immediately. On Tikorr, there are two cities. In the bar of one, you can pick up Cerallon. Galejay is in the bar at the other city, but you need to get a Grav Blocker for him before he will join. Galejay makes an excellent Gunner. These are the only people you can recruit initially. You can pick up a Grav Blocker later in the game.

GET A'KRI JANR OFF THE GROUND SQUAD ASAP. You cannot win the game if he dies. He is useless in ground combat and is easily killed. He cannot be replaced.

The robot maze on Mastassini is a safe way to get experience points. The maze is also a long and boring way to get experience points, but its usefulness ends quickly. The maze is a multi-level maze, so search each floor carefully to find the entrance to the next level. When you can survive the fourth level, your characters have exhausted the usefulness of the robot maze.

THE CIBERAN TANKER AFFAIR

This is the first mission and rather tough if you jump right into it. A little training in the robot maze is nice to have before taking on this mission. It is also a good idea to upgrade your equipment before heading out. Locating the shops is left as an exercise for the player, but you can buy flak vests, rush AMLs, SMG-70Xs, and M23-30ARs; the prices are quite high. You will have to make quite a few smuggling runs to afford everything.

The tanker is one of the ships hanging around the star gate in the Ciberan system. Just target ships until you find a Ciberan tanker that you can board. If you cannot board, you have the wrong tanker. Good tactics are the keys to winning this battle. Isolate each hijacker and overwhelm them with superior numbers. Trapping them in a room is best, but if you can keep the other hijackers off screen, you can isolate individual hijackers in the hallways. You need to give the hijackers' leader's head to Kendal as proof of your success.

THE LANTA DISPUTE

You get this assignment at the same time as you get the Ciberan assignment. It is an optional side mission, but it also has the right difficulty level for your characters at this stage of the game. It is worthwhile doing this assignment first. The mission is simple: You are given a location. Once you arrive, you are given another location. From that location you get the location of the Lanta leaders. Talk to them before killing them for an interesting side story. The gems you get as loot should be sold. The best price is found locally.

ROGER AMARO

You are also given the location of Amaro when you get the Ciberan assignment. He is a good fighter to add your party, but you have to do something for him. What you have to do is obvious. Read the section in Part 1 on "Using and Giving Objects." Roger comes with some nice weapons that he will share; however, at this point the best thing to do with his weapons is store them for later use.

CIBERAN

This is the main mission that will lead to the endgame. It is a long, involved mission that will take several tries to complete. You must recruit Janai or you cannot hope for success. Both Janai and Cerallon are qualified to be the ship's Technician, but only one of them can take that position. You have to chose how to assign these two.

The first step is to talk to Sebastian in Meridian city. He gives the first location to go to. The first three locations are Ciberan bases. Help the defenders clear out the invading Arielans, then talk to them to find out where to go next. At the third Ciberan base, an Ariel soldier will tell you the location of the main Ariel base.

At the Ariel invasion base, you will find General Camede Rodgen. Talk to her first before killing her. You must kill her to proceed to the next step. She has the pass card you need to see Damien on Ariel. The Ariel base is the largest and most complicated maze in the game. Part 3 contains information on how to get around the maze.

ARIEL

To find Damien, you must show your prowess by killing his guards in Ariel city (they're on the top floor). One of the Arielans is a rebel spy who will give you the location of the rebels' secret base. There, you will get the location of Damien's headquarters. While you are in Ariel city, talk to the people in the bar. Two of them will be important later on. You can find a Grav Blocker for Galejay somewhere in Ariel city.

Taking out Damien is a two-part mission. First, talk to Damien. The entrance to his office is in the northwest corner of the floor. Once you see him, you must fight your way past his guard because the way you came in is closed off. Remember the people you talked to in the Ariel city bar? One of them is the key to defeating Damien. Recruit that person and head straight back to Damien. That gives you four squad members to fight your way past the guards again. An extra set of kevlar armor and rush AML is useful to have at this point. However, it is a good idea to hold off taking out Damien until you have seen what is going on at Rouyn.

ROUYN

Your assignment is to get rid of the probes that have been attacking the miner at Rouyn. They will point you to a DSRE base on Tikorr. Talk to the people at the bars on Tikorr. One of them knows the location of the base. The DSRE base is a dead end for now, but you learn the location of the Darcator base there.

At this point the probes have turned into a major invasion of aliens: the Typhon. Board one of their ships and retrieve data disks "R" & "S." With those data disks you can go back to Ariel and take out Damien. You can learn something interesting about the disks from Damien. After you get that information, you can go back to the DSRE base.

DSRE BASE

You will find a Delta Coro force besieging the DSRE base. You have to kill them and find a way past the DSRE security robots. Locate the blue button on the first floor before trying to enter the research area. You cannot get past the stun level; you can only bypass it. The first trip will be a dead end but it's necessary. Once you have the information on the Typhon data disks from Damien, the DSRE scientists will give you the solution to the Typhon problem.

There are two possible endings to the game based on what you decide to do at that point. You will find Alice and Waldro at the DSRE base. Alice is not worth recruiting; however, Waldro will lead you to the Darcator base where you may pick up a very good engineer and some really nice weapons.

BREMER SHIP

The Bremer ship is the asteroid that is farthest away from Rouyn (outside the cluster of asteroids near Rouyn). Find the data disk on the Bremer ship and you will know the name of the person on Ariel you need to recruit to get the Bremers to help you. That ends the game.

DARCATOR BASE

This is an optional side mission. Because of their stealth, only one Darcator is visible at a time. The key to winning this fight is to isolate the visible Darcator since that is the only Darcator you can shoot at. Pressing the space bar will cycle through all potentially visible Darcators. This mission is worth doing for the loot. The only thermocaster in the game is here.

DELTA CORO BASE

There is no way to find this base except to stumble upon it. Look for a shielded area on Holbrook; the base is somewhere under the shield. Nothing will happen here until AFTER you clear out the Delta Coros at the DSRE base. Then, a very interesting side story will be revealed.

TYPHON WARSHIP

You need to board one Typhon warship (not a probe ship) and retrieve data disks "R" & "S." Once you defeat Damien Altron, he will translate the disks for you.

HARD NOVA
Part 3

ARIEL MAIN BASE

The Ariel invasion base has four floors. The floors are usually divided into sections that cannot be reached from the same floor; you need to go to another floor to get to those sections. The following is a rough map of the floors. The number indicates the floor number and the letter is a section name. For example "2B" is Section B on Floor 2. This section can only be reached from Section A on Floor 3 or Section A on Floor 1. You enter the base on Floor 1. The 1B to 2C elevator requires the 391A pass card. General Camede Rodgen is at 2C.

      +---------------------------------------+
      |                                       |
 +---3A         +-3B-----------------------+  |
 |              |                          |  |
 |   +----------+             +---------+  |  |
 |   |  +------------+        |         |  |  |
 |   2A-+     +--2B  | +- 2C  | +- 2D   +- 2E |
 |            |   |  | |      | |   |         |
 +------------+   |  | |      | |   +---------+
     +------------+  | |   +--+ |
     |               | |   |    |
     1A          1B -+ |  1C ---+
     |            |    |  ||
     |            +----+  ||
     0A-------------------+|
     |                     |
     +---------------------+

Pass cards used in the game:

ZERO-L BASES

There are three abandoned Zero-L bases on Holbrook at 790,408, 1309,409, and 1126,190. Visit them to grab some useful loot.

If the original author of this walkthrough ever objects to my editing, just let me know and I'll delete this.

Pete's Walkthrough

This portion is slightly edited from what used to be available as a text file. Just for historical curiosity, the Word file had a creation date of 9/18/96.

This info is for "Hard Nova", a future space/sci-fi RPG for the PC. When I initially wrote this, there was only one place on the Net where I was able to find anything about playing this game, and it's copied/referenced above. Although I disagree strongly with some of the stuff there (especially not using Close Combat weapons), it is otherwise complete, and even has some other abandoned Zero-L locations on Holbrook you should check out, plus a map of the Ariel base.

General notes on play:

• You have a choice of two different characters, Nova or Stark, to play as the main (Point) character. If your Point dies, the game forces you to quit or reload. You also have a Bremar Navigator named A'kri Janr, a.k.a. Punch, with you from the start.
• From here on, I'll refer to Nova or Stark as "Point character," "Point," "you," or "yourself."
• If one of the other characters (those you recruit while adventuring) dies, the game pauses momentarily with a message, but then resumes combat. I don't know what happens if Punch dies, but the manual mentions that you are stuck in the current star system if you don't have a Bremar. Note that Orai Volamar knows Navig Song, but you can't recruit her until nearly the end of the game.
• You start with two characters - Point and A'kri Janr (Punch) - and recruit others. The most you can have while indoors (the landing party) is 4: yourself (Nova or Stark) as "Point," up to 2 others from your ship in "Center" and "Trail" positions, and maybe one other found in that area in "Recruit" position. You can send a Robot or Daractor scout out on their own, but they are in the landing party when not out. The Recruit position can only be filled by somebody you find in the current indoor area. When you leave, the Recruit is placed in your ship crew, and must be assigned a position on the landing party to appear again.
• You start with 2 characters to put in 6 ship positions (Point character is always Commander), but only Point can have multiple jobs. The game starts you with one Bremar, the only race that can navigate a ship through a star gate. Punch is automatically assigned as NAV, and you start off filling all the other positions.
• No limitation on carrying around multiples of any item, but each character has up to 12 items, and the "pool" can hold up to 20 items. The game will beep if you try to put more than 20 items in the pool. Special interactions require that a special object be either at the top of the pool, or in the Point character inventory, so try the other if something doesn't happen when you are told it should.
• Dropping items from the pool doesn't destroy them, so putting things on the ground for storage is viable. You can use this to create stockpiles at frequently visited locations, such as Mastassini 804, 427 and Holbrook 1669, 847.
• Giving an item to an NPC removes it from the game, so save before experimenting.
• Personally, I used Close Combat weapons the entire game, so I could have sold all the other items I didn't need (guns & ammo). I'd rather take the inability to shoot "at range" than have to hassle with limited ammunition. You only need the various Mag Card items once each.
• Most blue sentients will not turn hostile (red) if you attack them. But a few do, and others may turn hostile if you talk the wrong way or talk at all. Save before talking to or attacking blue sentients the first time.
• There is no intelligent reactive movement by enemies during indoor combat. "Sentients" are either fixed or move about randomly, and only attack you if in range.
• Point can attack most friendly (blue) sentients, and get experience, and they will not turn hostile! The others in your crew don't join in.
• Attacking friendly sentients with high hits, like the Merchant in the Malibu Bar (72), or Gerard Kendall in Starkiller HQ (400), is a great way for the Point character to get experience. I got Stark to SL25 in about 2 hours, and spent most of the time deciding where to put points or waiting for Kendall to regenerate. This is only workable if you're using Close Combat weapons, or you will run out of ammo.
• Maximum To Hit is 95%, even if calculated total of weapon hit bonus, Tactics, and relevant weapon ability are higher. The defender's Armor is then deducted from the attacker's % Hit to get the final chance of hitting, and doesn't protect against damage if hit.
• While you know how many hits your target has left, everybody regenerates rather quickly. Having faster and more accurate attacks can suddenly turn a target that won't die into one that does. I concentrated on Close Combat rather than the other weapons abilities, because ammunition is expensive and a pain to go buy and carry around. Once Close Combat is at 20, then put points into Agility, then Tactics, and then other weapons abilities.
• Killing somebody, either friendly or hostile, doesn't get you any of their equipment. In a few cases, killing a fixed hostile will reveal a special item (e.g. Hijack Head or Rare Gems).
• The characters you start with or recruit have fixed ability values that you can modify only through gaining levels, or by using the 1 or 4 points that they start with. Except for abilities unique to a particular race (e.g. Bremar "Navig Song"), or exceptional Stealth for a Darcator, anyone can be used in any position, although higher relevant ability values are recommended. Ability level rather than character level is used for all ship and combat activities.
• While experience isn't visible during combat, the fact that a character has points to spend is always visible during indoor combat. In ship combat, you have to press a function key to check.
• Raise "Aptitude" to maximum (20) quickly so that you get the most (7) points for ability advancement at each level.
• I never found any places like the special areas in the Caldorre Towers of Future Magic, so apparently raising "attribute" abilities to the maximum won't get you anything or anywhere special.
• The manual mentions levels only in that the characters are considered Enlisted from level 1 to 9, Officer from level 10 to 19, and Leader from level 20 and above. You can keep advancing after level 20; I got Stark to SL47.
• With a low (like 0 or 1) Star Comm ability, you NEVER get new signatures. Aside from the J17E for Ariel, you really don't need to play with signatures anyway.
• The manual implies that only the Point character needs Demolitions ability.
• This game says it's better than Future Magic in the NPC interaction area, but I'm not really impressed. There aren't enough options to really give you a choice of how to act with an NPC, although it keeps you on track. The manual has a full page on talking to NPCs.
• There is elevation in space movement, but in practice you can ignore it. Jumping to another system requires going to a specific location in space to enter a star gate. Otherwise you just drive around at various speeds, with the map from the game box to help for directions. There are hard map boundaries in space for each system.
• In space, your ship is a green dot on the long range scan. Harmless ships (Core Merchant, Core Explorer, CS11, Tanker) are dark blue. Mercenary ships (J21C, J17E, J84)(from all 3 mercenary groups, so be sure before you shoot) are light blue. Ariel ships are bright red. Typhon probes and ships are yellow. The Bremar Astership, and the asteroids near Rouyn (which you can't lock on) are light gray.
• The planetary orbit screen wraps in both directions, the Y direction doing so short of the north and south boundaries. Unfortunately, the hovercraft has such a low endurance that it is difficult to fly around to look for special locations. Also, some areas are shielded, forcing you to land far away. The step size of the orbit map is 20, but you have to land on an exact location on the ground map.
• Visibility both in space and in the hovercraft is about 5 squares in each direction, and you are always in the center. Visibility indoors is up to 8 squares horizontal, 4 squares vertical, but the map scrolls around as you move so that sometimes you don't see things 3 squares away. There is no long range scan indoors, but there are 4 different scan levels in space, and a fixed long range scan in the hovercraft.
• "Monsters" are created only at the start of a new game, and don't come back when killed. EXCEPTIONS: the Robot Maze on Mastassini will restore robots when you press F10, and Ariel 1411, 426 will regenerate soldiers if you F10 or leave the level and return. Ships in space appear to be generated randomly from planets or star gates as time passes.
• The same problems with character movement occur here as in Future Magic. It can be difficult to arrange the other characters the way you want them, for instance so one enemy can walk through a door and all can attack it. Except for a different silhouette for a Darcator, or watching who is attacked by hostiles, sometimes there is no way to tell exactly which of your other characters are in a particular spot. In Future Magic they were numbered, here they aren't.
• Hostiles will always attack you if you are one of the closest characters. If another character is closer, they will attack that one instead. Pressing F10 or going to another level will put all the characters in your spot when you resume play. It is possible to arrange positions such that one or more of your characters can attack hostiles, but the hostiles will attack only you. In those cases, you can remove armor from the other characters to enhance their attacks, but remember to put it back on before moving around!
• Other characters in your party will only attack the closest hostile, but Point can only attack the current target.
• Space and hovercraft movement is in 8 directions plus elevation, but indoor movement is only in 4 directions.
• While space combat is a great way of getting experience, you get no money or equipment out of it, and could easily lose a lot of money fixing broken things or refueling.
• The Robot Maze on Mastassini is good for only one entry while still at a low level, unless you play it straight and never restore the robots, in which case you will die on Level 3.
• There is a single non-animated picture for the Point character's current target plus information about target armor, weapon, and current hits.
• Indoor combat isn't automatic for the Point character. You have to target a monster with the Space bar, then keep hitting Enter when your weapon is ready. The other characters in your party fight automatically. Booty and advancement are pretty easy, though it was better in Future Magic.
• As with Future Magic and Wasteland, weapons that don't need ammunition are the way to go. At least here they are all "Close Combat" instead of being split up into different abilities. Monsters don't run out of ammunition, but you will have problems in that regard if you use Firearms or Special Weapons.
• All armor and weapons that you can use are listed in the manual. Anything not listed may be useful in NPC interactions, e.g. Fish Tank or any Mag Card.
• A walkthrough (this one, the one above, or "Quest for Clues 4" were all I could find) lets you go and get items and recruit characters that you shouldn't know about yet. At least there isn't a paragraph book in this game, so you could cheat without a computer.
• Exploring can be a real pain, depending on presence of hostiles, and if they regenerate when you press F10 (to save game). There is a lot of talking with NPCs, but not much to learn.
• Healing fast enough to survive lots of damage is more important than armor! Combat isn't a matter of killing something in one blow, but hitting it over and over faster than it can regenerate, or running away when you start getting close to dying.
• While the game encourages you to take smuggling missions to make money, there is also a roulette game (which on average will give you money), or buying up to over 20 of an item at one store and selling it at another for a profit (e.g. Issue AML is 200 at Holbrook and 480 at Mastassini). I'd say those are the way to go instead of smuggling.
• You should buy fuel at a Space Station after doing space movement or combat. It's very easy to lose ship systems (or a hovercraft) that need to be replaced. The most expensive thing I've seen so far is 25000 for a better ship laser that uses up more fuel.
• Buying better equipment is rather difficult, since stores have a very limited selection. The best equipment (Rush AML, Battle Armor) is found, not bought.
• I haven't seen a limit on how much money you can accumulate (306,000 was my high).
• There is a calendar of days and years that appears in one space combat screen, but it increments rather quickly. I'm not sure if the plot is gated by time or events.
• The hovercraft has a rather short endurance, making it difficult to get anywhere on a planet. It uses fuel even while not moving, so you have at most about 60 seconds before it crashes. Speeding up doesn't use much more fuel, so if you have to land far away due to shielding, line up in one direction and floor it!
• You have to maneuver, target, and attack in real time for indoor combat. Healing occurs in real time too. Because you may not kill tough monsters right away, it is possible to gain lots of experience by attacking them until you are close to killing it (or vice versa), and then running away to heal for a while. You gain experience for hitting, not for killing!
• Similar to Future Magic, but you start out too weak to do much of anything in space combat. The hovercraft is too unwieldy for combat, and its limited fuel supply makes using it up on shooting a disaster. Without cheating and getting a character I wasn't supposed to know about yet, I don't think I could have survived the first mission. Taking the game's advice to start out doing smuggling missions is a quick way to get yourself mobbed by lots of other ships or lose an expensive hovercraft.
• You can board very few ships in the game. My list is: any Ciberan Tanker, the Bremar Astership, Ariel Cruiser (SAVE FIRST!), Ariel Auriga (SAVE FIRST!), any Typhon warship. For a universal boarding system, it wasn't very universal.
• This game eventually ended up in the discount bins, and was apparently so unpopular that only one other person wrote a walkthrough for it that I could find on the Net. I had a copy of "Quest for Clues IV" too, which had some useful information.
• If I ever play this game again, I should: find number of ability points for 5 Aptitude, get all the missing store price information, check out Lance Lee's trick, verify the savegame hacks, explore the unverified abandoned bases on Holbrook, explore the shielded area on Tikorr, and see what happens with Orai Volamar as NAV.
• You start the game at Mastassini 804, 427.

MASTASSINI

• Space Station: Refuel for 15 each, Replace for 400 each, also Weapons & Smuggling. The first 4 missions are listed in the table below, but others can appear.
  

  These tables may look ugly if your browser doesn't understand HTML 4.01

  Weapons Name Price A7 Comet 25,000 D24 Pike 300 D52 Shark 200 D91 Manta 200

  Smuggling Missions Destination Payment Tikorr 210, 870 5,000 Ariel 1710, 810 9,000 Rouyn 832, 110 15,000 Ciberan 730, 410 29,000 some others are: Rouyn 1710, 690 9,000 Rouyn 1010, 370 15,000 Tikorr 650, 410 5,000 Ciberan 1650, 250 30,000 Ariel 1250, 610 8,000 Tikorr 1370, 430 8,000 Ciberan 590, 390 29,000

• Location 804, 427: Store, Robot Maze, Malibu Bar
  
  • Store: see the Stores data below. One good trade route early in the game is to buy Issue AML at Holbrook 1669, 847 for 200 each, and sell them here for 480.
  • Robot Maze: Entry costs 300 per level of Point. Droids on the first 2 levels have 15 hits each, droids on level 3 have 25 and are a lot nastier! Find Bronze Flags (3 on Level 1) and sell them at the store for 60 each. Pressing F10 will restore all flags and robots on the level. There are actually 4 levels to the maze, but you need to use F10 a lot to get some levels before you can go down to the third and fourth levels where the Silver and Gold flags are.
  • Malibu Bar: Lots of NPCs to talk to, you can recruit Ace Elcator, the fish needed to recruit Rogers Amaro is here, get a Case of Mud here, and two roulette tables are here. The young Del Coro drops some hints about changing your signature to get through Ariel, but doesn't give you all the information at once. Talk to Ace Elcator to recruit her, and she kills the Lanta. The two roulette tables (top one limit 100, bottom one limit 250) are a backdoor to money. The return on the 3, 4, or 5 bet is actually 4 times instead of 3, so you will make money on average!
• Location 1186, 173: DSRE Lab
  Can get some ammunition (4 each for SMG70, M23) in the first room, but the droids on the first level can easily kill weak characters. Other items on the first level are a Comp Blaster, a JW2 Blaster, and some ammunition for them.
  The second level has items too, but the Chief Scientist isn't helpful until you've translated the Typhon disks and gone to the other lab at Tikorr 667, 367. Then you get to choose to kill or save the Typhons. If you talk to the Chief again, you can go get both the SAVE ROM and the KILL ROM from northeast room. The other two force fields don't ever go away.

HOLBROOK

• Space Station: Refuel for 10 each.
• Shielded Area: approximately X=320 to 640, Y=500 to 820.
  This is apparently protecting the Delta Coro base at 386, 673.
• Location 386, 673: Delta Coro Base
  Visit here before you get ALICE to have the Commander tell you the J17E signature trick (unverified).
  Visit after ALICE and he will turn hostile when you talk. If you attack, they all turn hostile too. Press F10 to make them friendly again, and they don't replenish. No items at all.
• Location 429, 270: Rogers Amaro
  Get the "Fish Tank" and talk to him, then go to the Malibu Bar on Mastassini and get the fish (must have Fish Tank in Point inventory). Come back here and give him the "Tank and Fish", then talk to him to recruit. He starts out with 3 M III Lasers, and he only needs one, so be nice and share with the crew! You may also want to trade the Extend AML to Point, and give him the Issue AML, because he probably has more hits than Point at this stage of the game. There is no need to wait until late in the game to recruit this guy.
• Location 790, 408: an abandoned base according to the "other" walkthrough (unverified).
• Location 1126, 190: an abandoned base according to the "other" walkthrough (unverified).
• Location 1309, 409: Abandoned Zero-L Base
  Visit this place early! Find a Rush AML, a BATTL ARMOR, a Rare Gems, and 4 Rad Grenade.
• Location 1669, 847: Starkiller HQ & Store
  I suggest you buy 3 or 4 Edgespinners here for your human landing party members. As I've said elsewhere, you can buy Issue AML here for 200, and sell them on Mastassini for 480 each. A run where you sell over 20 of these is an honest way to make money.
  Meet a Darcator named Leod, a Human female Comm-Tech Janai, and Gerard Kendall. The first two will join you later.
  Your first mission is to clean out a hijacked Ciberan water tanker that is just northeast of the star gate from Ariel. Bring back the "Hijack Head" and talk to Kendall for a 5,000 reward. Leave, and you will be summoned back for your second mission by comm.
  Your second mission is to assassinate Damien Altron and General Camede Rodgen for 40,000. You are told to start by seeing Max Sebastion on Ciberan in Meridian City at 588, 387. Janai has the Mag Card you need to get to Max. Janai can join you now. Kendall also tells you to go get Rogers Amaro, and gives you the coordinates 429, 270.
  He also tells you about a side mission to Varon to kidnap the head Lanta Disp and take him to the Frag leader. Your starting point is the Disp Temple in a crashed Core ship at Varon 570, 286. This mission takes you to several places on Varon and is apparently unnecessary to completing the game.
  After killing General Camede Rodgen, Kendall asks you to come back here to tell you to go to Rouyn 1524, 608 and finish other missions later. Leod can join now.
  Kendall will order you to Rouyn again once the Typhon warships appear.
  After the Typhon menace is gone, Kendall will congratulate you, and the game is basically over although it doesn't end.

CIBERAN

• In Space: Advice
  The Tanker signature seems to be the one to use here. Try flying at high speed to avoid Ariel ships and their missiles.
• In Space: Ciberan Water Tanker for first Starkiller mission
  The Tanker for your first mission from Gerard Kendall is northeast of the star gate from Ariel. It isn't moving, so it may be tough to spot on the long range scanner. Board it and fight a bunch of randomly moving Ariel soldiers. There is an SMG70X and one ammunition for it in the far west room. Take it slow and save often, these soldiers don't replenish if you use F10. The one Ariel Commander is fixed in a small room just east of the far west room. Run in and whack away, but get out before you die. If you get lucky or can go up a level, eventually you can take him out and get a "Hijack Head." Return to Gerard Kendall and give him your "proof" for $5000. Do not destroy the ship!
  Any Tanker might work for this?
• Space Station: ?
• Shielded Area: approximately X=540 to 1140, Y=280 to 880, which forces rather long hovercraft runs in from the clear area
• Location 588, 387 (shielded): Meridian City - Max Sebastion, Store
  Need the CIB MAG CARD in Point inventory to get to Max, who tells you to go to 610, 608.
• Location 590, 390: Smuggler Drop (shielded)
• Location 610, 608: Research Center (shielded)
  They tell you to go to 912, 473.
• Location 730, 410: Smuggler Drop (shielded)
  some sort of base nearby protected by lots of hostile hovercraft!
• Location 747, 348: Processing (shielded)
  Find a number of items here including several Mag Cards, a Kevlar Suit, an Extend AML, and a JW2 Blaster. The one friendly here tells you about 907, 650 and 747, 348.
• Location 907, 650: Ariel base (shielded)
  Lots of levels and items here. Follow the detailed map in Quest for Clues 4, or the schematic one at the end of the other walkthrough, rather than me explaining it here. I just walked around and killed everybody. Need Mag Card 391Z in Point inventory to go up to the level with Rodgen. Kill her (I think she turns hostile after you start attacking) to get MAG CARD 942Z.
  After you leave here and go to space, you get a message from Holbrook telling you to drop everything because of trouble on Rouyn.
• Location 912, 473: Quality Control (shielded)
  They tell you to go to 747, 348.
• Location 1010, 370: Smuggler Drop.
• Location 1650, 250: Smuggler Drop.

TIKORR

• Space Station: Refuel 15 each, Replace 300 each, Weapons available (see Mastassini)
• Shielded Area: approximately X=180 to 240, Y=380 to 620 - don't know what it protects
• Location 210, 870: Smuggler Drop
• Location 326, 547: Darcator Ship Repair Garage
  Lots of hostile Darcator here, and they can be really tough to spot. Keep trying to target them, and eventually they show up. Others in the landing party apparently don't have your problem! Eventually you can rescue the prisoner (Denner Citann), but be careful that a Darcator doesn't kill him while he's still in the cell! Lots of items here including an EBLADE CELL, a BATTL ARMOR, a Blast Rifle, a Rush AML, a Thermocaster, and 4 RAD GRENADE.
• Location 650, 410: Smuggler Drop
• Location 667, 367: DSRE Base
  Some hostile D-Coros and droids, and ALICE on the first level. Find the Circuit Board next to ALICE, and have it in Point inventory to fix the droid and be able to recruit it. Send ALICE as a scout to clean out the next two levels. Also find on this level one BATTL ARMOR, one Rush AML, and one Comp Blaster.
  The next two levels are full of hostile security droids. The ones on the third level will put all your characters except ALICE in the cell on the fourth level if they hit at all! Find one Blast Rifle on the third level.
  The fourth level is full of friendly scientists. Also find one Rush AML and two Extend AML. You have access back to the hovercraft from here. Talk to Infoman Waldro, then attack him once. Talk to him again to learn of 326, 527 but it is actually 326, 547! Infoman Waldro can then be recruited, but you will have to make another trip to get both he and ALICE out of there. Either Waldro isn't aggressive, or he never hits!
  Talk to the Chief Scientist once you have the translated Typhon disks to be told about Mastassini 1186, 173.
• Location 1370, 430: Smuggler Drop
• Location 1472, 530: Store and Bar
  In the bar, you will learn there is a DSRE lab on Tikorr, and another elsewhere, and that DSRE has sort of rebelled against the Core. You can also learn that Ariel is buying lots of raw materials from the Core, rather than the Rouyn miners, and there is a bar on Ariel. There are 5 Case of Mud items and one Kevlar Suit in the back room. You must go to 1531, 468 before you can go upstairs. Give the one sober Darcator (Galejay) a Gravblocker armor before it will join.
  If you aren't nice when you talk to the Zero-L or D-Coro in the bar, they will separately turn hostile.
  Once you learn the password by visiting 1531, 468, tell the bartender here and you can go upstairs to play roulette with a 1000 limit. You can save the game after killing each D-Coro to avoid continuing combat after you talk nasty to them, and thereby kill them one at a time. They turn friendly when you press F10, and don't replenish. There are several items here, including a Rare Gems.
• Location 1531, 468: Store and Bar
  Can recruit Cerallon here. A merchant tells you the password for the bartender at 1472, 530 bar so you can get in the upper room. A drunken scientist tells you there is a DSRE lab at 667, 367.

ARIEL

• In Space: Advice
  Use the J-17E signature, supplied at the start of the game, while in this system. Otherwise Ariel ships will swarm you when you refuse to pay. Even then, they will still come after you near Ariel, so fly in and out of the planet at high speed.
• Space Station: Refuel 5 each, Replace 1000 each
• Shielded Area: none?
• Location 1250, 610: Smuggler Drop
• Location 1305, 488: Bar, 2(!) Stores
  Recruit the Lanta (Skreed) here at the bar (on level up from entry) after you meet Damien Altron at 1411, 426. One store is on the entry level, the other is two levels up. Need MAG CARD 174J to enter the elevator for level 3 up.
  Lots of hostiles on level 3 up, and items too. Among other items, find a Comp Blaster, a Kevlar Suit, an Extend AML, a Gravblocker, and a Grav Gun. Talk to the friendly Janitor, and he will tell you to go to 1571, 546 and talk to Jared the Rebel Leader.
• Location 1411, 426: Damien Altron
  On level 1, use Mag Card 942Z to get into the west elevator. You will be coming back through the north elevator once you meet Damien Altron.
  On level 2, there are lots of items including an Electron Blade, a Kevlar Suit, and an Extend AML. Avoid the soldiers by moving quickly around and going north to the elevator to level 3. When you come back after meeting Damien Altron, the original elevator is blocked, and you have to exit through the soldiers. Pressing F10 will replenish them! You'll be fighting these soldiers a lot.
  On level 3, you have to visit here once and meet Damien Altron, then go get the Lanta at 1305, 488 and bring him here to destroy Damien (or most of it), and then come back here with the Typhon disks to translate them. There are 3 Case of Mud items here.
• Location 1571, 546: Rebels
  Jared tells you to go to 1411, 426 to find Damien Altron.
• Location 1710, 810: Smuggler Drop

ROUYN

• In Space: Bremar Astership is roughly east of Rouyn. You can board this one to get a copy of disk Q, which is a Bremar prophecy. Come back with the KILL and/or SAVE ROM and give it to the head Bremar, then come back here one last time with Orai Volomar from Ariel, and you will see the ending sequence when you leave.
• Space Station: Refuel 20 each, Replace 500 each
• Shielded Area: none
• Location 832, 110: Smuggler Drop
• Location 947, 306: Miners
  Lots of items here, including an Extend AML, two Mag Card 845B, a Kevlar Suit, a Gravblocker, and a Grav Gun. Note that there is no Foreman here.
• Location 1010, 370: Smuggler Drop
• Location 1524, 608: Miners and a Store
  Several items here, including one Mag Card 845B needed to get into the Library, one Extend AML and one Kevlar Suit. In the Library you can copy disk P about the DSRE. The one Foreman mentioned by the Miners is here.
  There is one location that asks you if you want to introduce Nerve Gas into the vents! I assume this lets you kill all the Typhons on the base if you come here after Typhon warships appear. There should be another disk in the Library too then.
• Location 1710, 690: Smuggler Drop

VARON

• Space Station: Refuel 18 each
• Shielded Area: none
• Location 570, 286: Lanta Disp Temple (crashed Core ship)
  Nothing here but directions to Ulgurch.
• Location 670, 629: Leaders Hall
  More hostiles plus the Disp and Frag leaders. Since the guy who hired you won't pay, kill them all! Find a Rare Gems he was sitting upon.
• Location 1373, 614: Store
  When you leave, your hovercraft starts at 1749, 344 which is the main Frag Temple.
• Location 1726, 634: Ulgurch (the Great Debates)
  Chock-full of easy hostiles, including Zero-L mercs, and directions to the Leaders Hall at 670, 629.
• Location 1749, 344: Frag Temple
  Nothing here but directions to Ulgurch. When you leave, your hovercraft starts at 1373, 614!

CASCADE

• NO Space Station
• NO Locations?

PETE'S WALKTHROUGH:

• Start at Mastassini 804, 427 and get Ace Elcator, buy 3 Power Fists, visit Robot Maze. Spend a long time at the roulette table so you don't have to worry about money for the rest of the game. Learn to save the game when all characters and the ship are fine. Use Close Combat weapons for the whole game. Sell all the other weapons, ammunition, and miscellaneous items, and any MAG CARD once you use it. Upgrade your landing party members to Rush AML and best armor when possible.
• Go to orbit and move slightly away from the planet so you have access to ship functions. Assign Ace to GUN. In general, assign newly recruited characters to ship positions if they have the best abilities. Get familiar with ship controls, and try shooting up any hostiles. If you stay still, missiles tend to miss you, and you only use fuel when shooting the laser or using countermeasures. I didn't bother getting a better laser, and never used the missiles.
• Travel to Holbrook and refuel (refuel every chance you get!). Land at 1669, 847 and talk to Kendall, could buy Issue AML if you want to make money through trade. Buy 4 Edgespinners here. Go to 429, 270 to get the Fish Tank. Also visit 1309, 409 for nice items, and maybe 386, 673 to be neighborly.
• Travel to Mastassini 804, 427 and get the fish to make Tank and Fish, could sell Issue AML here.
• Back to Holbrook 429, 270 and get Rogers Amaro. Assign him to ENG. Use Ace and Rogers as your landing party for the rest of the game.
• Switch to J17E signature and travel through star gate and head east to Tikorr. Land at Tikorr 1531, 468 and talk to the merchant and drunk scientist, and recruit Cerallon. Assign her to TECH. Take some time to hack all your programs up to level H. Travel roughly southwest to Ciberan star gate, to unmoving Ciberan Tanker northeast of star gate.
• Kill all the Ariel soldiers and the commander, get the Hijack Head and other booty.
• Travel (repair any damage at Tikorr or Mastassini) to Holbrook 1669, 847 and talk to Kendall. Give him Hijack Head for $5000.
• Leave to space, come back to Holbrook 1669, 847 when next message from Kendall decoded. Talk to Janai to recruit her. Move the CIB MAG CARD to pool or Point inventory if you aren't going to put Janai in your landing party. Assign Janai to TECH? You already have Rogers Amaro.
• To get some experience before continuing the main quest, go to Varon and follow the trail from 570, 286 to 1726, 634 to 670, 629. Kill the two leaders and sell the Rare Gems. Maybe go to the store at 1373, 614 and the other temple at 1749, 344.
• To follow the quest, go to Ciberan 588, 387 (need CIB MAG CARD in Point inventory to get to Max), then on to 610, 608 then 912, 473 then 747, 348 and finally 907, 650. Kill General Camede Rodgen to get MAG CARD 942Z.
• Leave to space, Kendall sends you a message about trouble on Rouyn. Head back to Holbrook 1669, 847. Talk to Gerard and recruit Leod.
• Go to Rouyn with a refueling stop at Tikorr. Scan and board the Bremar Astership east of Rouyn. Land at Rouyn 1524, 608 and also visit 947, 306. Be sure to get a Grav Blocker there, or you could borrow Leod's if he's not in your landing party.
• Now that you have at least one Grav Blocker, go to Tikorr 1472, 530 to recruit Galejay by giving it the Grav Blocker, and get some experience and items in the bar and upstairs.
• Land at Tikorr 667, 367 and recruit ALICE. Send ALICE as a scout to kill all the robots on the next two levels, probably incidentally getting enough experience to go to maximum abilities. Go down to the fourth level and recruit Infoman Waldro. Use the handy exit on the fourth level if you need to make two trips to get both ALICE and Waldro out of there.
• Land at Tikorr 326, 547 and fight your way through Darcators to rescue Denner Citann (be careful, they might kill him!). You may have to have Waldro as your Recruit to get to Denner Citann. Recruit Denner Citann too. Assign him to ENG and Waldro to TECH?
• Head over to Ariel at high speed, and orbit immediately so you don't get swarmed. Land at 1305, 488 and use MAG CARD 174J to get into the third level up. The Janitor tells you to go to 1571, 546 where Jared tells you to go to 1411, 426 to find Damien Altron. Buy 2 Grav Blades in the store on the second level up of 1305, 408 if you want to equip the 2 Darcators you can recruit in the game.
• Land at 1411, 426 and use MAG CARD 942Z to get to the second level. Quickly go up to the third level and meet Damien Altron the first time. Leave and fight your way out. Go to 1305, 488 and recruit Lanta. Improve his equipment before you go to 1411, 426 again. Fight your way in, then Lanta will basically destroy Damien when you talk again. Fight your way out again.
• You may have to wait a while until the Typhon warships appear in the Ariel and Rouyn systems. Board one and copy the Typhon disks found in the north room on the third level. The Nerve Gas that you could use on Rouyn is found on the Typhon ship too. You should be able to go to Rouyn 1524, 608 to do the Nerve Gas and maybe get one last data disk from the Library. I didn't bother going to Rouyn again.
• Go back to Ariel 1411, 426 and fight your way in again to get the disks translated. Once translated, go to Tikorr 667, 367 and talk to the Chief Scientist. Then go to Mastassini 1186, 173 and talk to the Chief Scientist on the second level there. Choose the KILL ROM or the SAVE ROM, or talk twice and take both!
• Go to the Bremar Astership near Rouyn, and talk to the head Bremar. Give him a ROM, which determines the ending sequence you see later. Leave and go to Ariel 1305, 488 and talk to Orai Volamar to recruit her. Now go back to the Bremar Astership, talk to the head Bremar, lose Orai, and this time you see the ending sequence after you leave to space.
• The game is basically over, except for maybe visiting Gerard Kendall again, or talking to various people to see if they know what you did. You can't get to Rouyn anymore.

Characters

This used to be a "characters" page in my Microsoft Excel HN_SPRED.XLS spreadsheet. Then I converted it to an HTML table. This rather wide table has the categories in rows down the first column, and the various characters in the other columns. I did it that way only because there are 14 characters and about 38 categories, and I thought HTML tables were supposed to scroll down more than across.

Some notes from the former HN_WALK.TXT text file about this data:

• You choose either Nova or Stark at the start of the game, that's where your starting 1000 cash comes from. Nobody else has any money.
• All abilities cost one point to increase by 1. Almost all abilities have a minimum value of 0, and maximum value of 20. The only exceptions are Navig Song for a Bremar, and Stealth for a Darcator, which start at 21 and go up from there to at least 35.
• The experience cost for a level is 100 times current level. All crew in ship positions gain experience when ships are destroyed. Unknown if you get experience for destroying other hovercraft. Experience in indoor combat is equal to damage done when a character hits.
• Point is assigned by default to all ship positions except NAV. Assign the best person for a position if you have a choice.
• The Tactics ability raises To Hit by 5% at each even numbered level.
• Aptitude determines the number of points you get to increase abilities at a new level:
  

  Aptitude value	ability points
  ?	1
  6	2
  8 - 10	3
  11 - 13	4
  14 - 16	5
  17 - 18	6
  20	7

• Fitness determines the number of Hits gained at a new level:
  

  Fitness value	Hits gained
  (ALICE)	1
  5	2
  6 - 7	3
  8 - 9	4
  10 - 11	5
  12	6
  14	7
  16	8
  18	9
  20	10

• You choose either Nova or Stark when you begin the game. They're almost identical. I chose Stark because Ship Evasion is more important at the start of the game than Programming, and he has slightly higher Close Combat and Agility.
• A'kri Janr (Punch) is all you have in the way of followers at first. Because it can't get experience as fast as you (Nova or Stark), it will be a weak link for a long time. As soon as you get Rogers Amaro on the ship, shift Punch out of the landing party. Note that Navig Song starts at 21 and goes up from there.
• Ace Elcator is your first recruit, from the Malibu Bar on Mastassini 804, 427 where you begin the game. Talking to her such that she will join will also kill the Lanta in the bar. Assign her to the GUN position when you get back to your ship.
• Rogers Amaro can be your second recruit if you know where to find him. Go to Holbrook 429, 270 to meet him. Get the "Fish Tank" and talk with him. Then go back to Mastassini 804, 427 and go to the bar. Put the Fish Tank in your inventory and do the special option (get fish) at the location next to the yellow fish. The Fish Tank turns into "Tank and Fish." Then go back to Holbrook 429, 270 and give the Tank and Fish, then talk again and Rogers Amaro will join you. He starts out with 3 M III Lasers, and he only needs one, so be nice and share with the crew! You may also want to trade the Extend AML to yourself, and give him the Issue AML, because he probably has more hits than you at this stage of the game. Assign him to ENG on the ship.
• Other characters that you can get with no combat are: Cerallon at Tikorr 1531, 468 and Galejay at 1472, 530. To get Galejay, go to Rouyn 947, 306 first to get the Grav Blocker and other items; there is no combat there.
• When you get ALICE, don't mess with the equipment! ALICE has an inherent Extend AML that will disappear if you remove any items from inventory. You can put items into inventory, but the Extend AML is lost if they are removed. ALICE also has no Fitness stat or Close Combat ability, so Health increases at only 1 per level, and Unarmed combat is stuck at 5% until you can put a lot of points into Tactics (16 gives you 15%).
• There are a total of 5 characters available on Tikorr: Cerallon at 1531, 468; Galejay at 1472, 530; ALICE at 667, 367 first level; Infoman Waldro at 667, 367 fourth level; and Denner Citann at 326, 547. If you don't leave to space, you can keep your current recruit and so have up to 4 people in the landing party.
• The game has some confusion about Darcator, using Darcater and even Darcatar. Similarly, Varon is sometimes called Varan.
• All characters start with 10 Exp.
• All those stats and skills and equipment are as of when you get them to join. Of course they can change after that.
• The "Wpn Stats" include a Speed value of 27 for all characters but Nova and Stark, in the weapons they have equipped when you find them. This goes away if you change weapons.
• A Lanta is apparently considered a Human for equipment.

Stores

Here's the "Stores" data from the former HN_SPRED.XLS spreadsheet file, with the notes about the stores that used to be in the HN_WALK.TXT text file:

• Items sold by a store are emphasized like this and should appear left-aligned in the table cell.
• All known (verified) prices for selling to a store are right-aligned in the table cell. There's more of those!
• I figured out that each store has a constant price multiplier. For instance, you should be able to sell a Stiletto for 60, 25*, 100*, 75*, 75*, 90*, 80, 95*, 120* (where the "*" values are unverified). The only exception that I know about is the PLASMAGENER. If you know any others or have more data, let me know please!
• There is no loss for selling items back to a store. All stores will buy any item.
• There are two stores on Ariel at the same map location, but different floors.
• One store sells the YOHZAN GUN, but the game says only Typhons can use it or the ENFORC ARMR.
• You can make money by buying an item at one store and selling it at another. An easy example is buy Issue AML from Holbrook 1669, 847 for 200 and sell it at Mastassini 804, 427 for 480.
• I haven't checked to see if you can sell partially used ammunition at full price.
• A Lanta is apparently a Human for equipment.

Quest for Clues IV

Pete's Comments on the Quest for Clues IV material:

• In "The Rest of the Team", the phrase "the top item" isn't needed. You just have to have the tank in Nova/Stark's inventory somewhere.
• The maps of Ciberan (907,650) are invaluable, but I won't include them here.

Lance Lee's Duplication Trick

I received a "thank you" from Lance Lee for this web page. He included an item duplication procedure that could be useful:

1. Collect stuff (BATTL ARMOR, Rush AML, ammo, etc.) you want to duplicate and go to Mastassini 804,427.
2. Drop those items on the ground near the shop of Mastassini.
3. Save game.
4. Pick up those items you want duplicated (you don't have to take back all the items).
5. Enter RoboMaze Arena.
6. Do anything you want in there, but press <F10> before leaving.
7. Leave RoboMaze Arena.
8. The items you dropped should have reappeared on the ground.

Save Game Hacks (unverified)

I found a file containing save game file data that could be modified to hack your saved game for Hard Nova. Assuming that the author Peter Keel permits (according to OP/L, he shouldn't object), the following modified (by me on 2005-10-20) excerpt applies to this game. These have not been verified yet.

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