Descent 1 Level 6 Insane

D3Alien · Post by **D3Alien** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 9:46 am

Does anyone know of or have a demo of beating this without dying and without too much sniping? It's not that tough on ace, but insane really ratchets it up a notch. Or if anyone could make a demo that'd be sweet.

Lothar · Post by **Lothar** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 12:15 pm

As a cold start, or coming in with weapons and lives?

D3Alien · Post by **D3Alien** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 4:38 pm

Cold start, and killing all robots, preferably with a minimum of sniping.

Zantor · Post by **Zantor** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 5:54 pm

You're asking for a lot there. I haven't been able to go through many levels on insane without dying at least once.

D3Alien · Post by **D3Alien** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 7:14 pm

Well, I don't think just anyone can do it, but just from looking through a few back threads I recall Krom and Testiculese saying they'd beaten D1 on insane countless times, and Drakona describes levels 1-8, cold start on insane as easy-easyish. There's a poll that says at least 14 people have beaten D1 on insane, and level 6 isn't the toughest level.

Lothar · Post by **Lothar** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 10:02 pm

Drakona's standard game is D1 level 11 insane+cold. Most of her losses nowadays seem to be from D1x crashing.

Firewheel · Post by **Firewheel** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 1:48 pm

The first thing you'll want to do is go up to the area with hostages and go ahead and rescue them - you won't have to come back through the horrid first area that's constantly spawning Class 1 drones, which, as I'm sure you've noticed, are evil little punks on Insane. The rest isn't terribly painful - I think the room with the red door, lava pit, and piggies on either side is a bit tough, because it's hard to kill both pigs without taking any damage.

I suggest saving the cloaking device under the bridge for entering the yellow key door - when all the doors open to reveal a robotic horde of death, it will help a lot for them not to see you. And oh yeah: SAVE the invulnerability orb for the red door! The reactor room is packed full of evil red mechs, and there is just no way you're going to fly in there and kill all of them without the powerup.

D3Alien · Post by **D3Alien** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 6:11 am

Yeah, I know all the tactics. It's those damn vulcan drillers that eat away at my shield unless I snipe them. There's almost 30 of them in there, and there's not enough shield to go around to restore all the damage they do. I usually use the lava cloak and red key room invulnerability to waste those guys in there and jet back to the reactor room to take out a few drillers/heavy hulks before the invulnerability wears off. The remaining super hulks aren't that hard to pick off from outside the room. I can beat it on insane with a few save points, but I don't like to have to do it that way.

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 1:08 pm

going \"toe to toe\" with a driller on that level is certain death. don't worry about \"sniping\". There's a time and place for it. remember that that bot's bullets don't miss. Not a one. So if it shoots on insane, you're going to take a lot of damage and you only get about 5 sheilds per orb on insane.

Testiculese · Post by **Testiculese** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 10:52 pm

Use the cloak under the bridge to go through the yellow door. Before you go too far through the yellow door (the trigger for the bots is inside a bit), lift to the ceiling and shoot the floor under the red door, a secret opens, then slide through and into that room adn pick up your loot, you can make it in-n-out with that cloak. You don't need that cloak for the reactor, take the two vulcans out with homers, and you never have to enter the reactor room, just stay in the square area outside and laser the core. If any of the reds get in the way, they will go quick under green quads, if you hear a lock tone, just lift up, the missiles will hit the ceiling of the tunnel.

I used to have a demo of every level on insane, sequentially, going through without a lost ship. Wish I could find them...they were before I got lazy with D3's afterburner, and on a P1-90mhz...the perfect computer for D1...and yea, I can't count the times I've finished D1 on insane. I used to speed-play through all the levels (screw the hostages), but I forget my time, I think it was under 8 hours. I played a few times without missing a single bot, powerup, hostage, or secret level, by the time I got to the lvl 27 boss, I had over 60 ships left. (If you didn't notice, D1 is my favorite.) Last time I ran though all the levels was last year..I'm slacking.

Theftbot · Post by **Theftbot** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 12:28 am

wait until the goodie caches on the secret levels

D3Alien · Post by **D3Alien** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:13 am

Ugh, I just beat level 7 on insane on the first try, but level 6 is still harder.

Xfing · Post by **Xfing** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:50 am

Level 6 is harder than 7 due to all of these damn Drillers. Sorry, but sniping is a must here. Preferably by shooting Homers from around corners. I've beaten this level without dying on Insane, but only with the help of saving/loading. I can give you some general tips for the level:

1) Deplete the 2 Matcens in the beginning section by triggering them and immediately killing all of the Drones. They leave Energy powerups so you can load up, and with some timing you should be able to do it unscathed. You will have to deal with 42 of these peskies.

2) Eliminate all Drillers with extreme prejudice, not allowing them to even see you. Some can luckily be dealt with with the help of homers, for others you'll need more advanced tactics. Proximity Bombs are great, especially in the room with the 3 colored doors. First snipe the spider robot, then lay some Prox Bombs in the sideways corridors. Hide in the lava pit with the Cloaking Device. The drillers will certainly try to pursue, and they will subsequently meet their demise on your Prox Bombs. Nasty.

3) If you dream of surviving without a single death here, I strongly suggest that you take the Cloaking from the lava pit and \"waste\" it for the red keycard room. It's a real death trap, and in most cases you will simply have no time left to backpedal for that damn Invulnerability. This Cloak can give you the edge of being able to get the invul and pick off these damn drillers at your own pace.

4) What about the reactor room, you ask. Well, as you may know, there is another Cloak in the secret room in the floor tile above which the red key floats. Take it, speed to the reactor room, enter and do some circle-strafing rumble on the red hulks, hopefully you'll destroy them all before your cloak runs out. It is strongly recommended that you fire in some homers first to dispose of the two drillers that lurk there as well.

Do all this carefully and you just may get out in one piece.

D3Alien · Post by **D3Alien** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:21 pm

Cool, I love this sort of detailed discussion.

I already use most of the tactics, but I might have to give the prox bombs in the lava/keycard area one a try, since that room is generally what trips me up the most. I've also beaten it on insane without dying, but also had to use a few save points, and I'm hoping to get it down without any. I don't find the reactor room that difficult, as I try and quickly vanquish the bots in the red key room, and then race to the reactor room and take out the drillers and maybe a hulk if I can with the rest of the invulnerability. The final cloak makes it pretty easy to finish off the rest of them.

Firewheel · Post by **Firewheel** » Wed Sep 15, 2010 9:34 pm

I didn't think this level was so bad the first time I played through D1 on Insane, but going cold start + no saves, it's absolutely evil. I think I played Level 6 close to ten times before I finally managed to beat it, and even then I had about 5 shields left, on my last life. By comparison, I beat Level 7 on my first cold start no save try with only one death.

What makes this one such a headache is all those drillers, particularly because they hide behind corners in several spots and it's incredibly tough to get rid of them without taking damage (like in the main room with blue, yellow, and red doors.) What I found to be a real pain was trying to get the blue key. The Medium Hulks are incredibly unpredictable as a general rule, and fighting them in such close quarters is amazingly dangerous. Once you get the blue key and take out the Drillers in the main key door room, the rest is pretty easy. As others have said, you can just snipe the reactor for optimal results.

vision · Post by **vision** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 11:38 pm

Man this one is tough. It takes me all three lives to finish. It's the Medium Hulks that give a headache, not the Class 1 Drillers. A quick brush with a Driller and I've lost about 10 shield units. The same confrontation with a Hulk and I've lost about 40. I don't know if I'll ever beat it with one life. Then again, I've been playing KB only too.

All the advice in this thread is great. Helped a lot, thanks.

Xfing · Post by **Xfing** » Sun Oct 31, 2010 8:08 am

Keyboard only is perfectly suitable for single player. The essence of the mouse support is the enhanced aim, which you don't need as much playing single player.