Penny Charbonneau on 16/1/2006 at 05:09
Okay, I have gotten this far without having to ask for help but now I am really frustrated. I am playing on normal difficulty but cannot seem to manage this mission.
First of all, do I have to kill all of the haunts & Zombie's?
If so, what is truly the best way to accomplish this task? Every time I attack I am overwhelmed by so many haunts and zombies I have do not have enough amo or time to defend.
Also, is it better to attack from a higher vantage point or directly?
Thanks for any help. Especially, specific advice on how to eliminate haunts and zombies.
dlw6 on 16/1/2006 at 05:42
I can suggest some things.
Listen carefully, all the patrolling undead make noise so you can hear them coming. Start by going left and looking for a ladder up. There are some exposed beams in the cathedral you can shoot rope arrows into. This will give you access to the 3rd floor, and provide you an escape route they can't follow if you get into trouble, especially the beams located [SPOILER]in the area to the right of the altar. [/SPOILER] Some beams in this area can be traversed by the undead if they're chasing you, but they can't climb ropes or ladders.
Undead take damage from fire and explosives, including flashbombs. You will need a fire arrow to escape at the end so save at least one for that. Holy water hurts them, and there is a holy water fountain near the altar, but there are a lot of undead in that area who will wake up if you start shooting so it's better to be sneaky there. One of my favorite moves in "The Haunted Cathedral" was to get a bunch of zombies chasing me, climb a rope I had positioned for that purpose, and when there's five or size right under me, drop a mine on them, so one mine could take out all the zombies at once.
On higher difficulty levels it becomes an objective to kill the haunts. That is best done with a backstab -- hide in shadows well out of their way, and when they walk by follow them and backstab. You have to time it carefully so the others won't see you do this, so save often. Haunts can be killed with arrows, but it takes a lot of arrows to do it. Apparitions can be killed with the sword (or, oddly enough, by throwing a hammer at them) but they don't always die right away, so keep hacking to throw them off balance so they don't spellcast at you.
I don't usually bother with zombies, since you can outrun them and if you are well hidden they will walk right past you unless they're searching. There is one area where there are a lot of them (St Yora's) and killing a couple might make sneaking easier, but try not to stir them up near the altar because most of the zombies in that area are asleep and you want them to stay that way.
Finally, TDP (not sure about Theif Gold) will allow you to shortcut the mission [SPOILER]by blocking the front door open with a skull or something, so you can grab the eye and get out immediately [/SPOILER] but then you'd miss most of the level.
kamyk on 16/1/2006 at 09:05
The easiest way by far to get through this mission on Normal is ghosting the first half of it, and saving your ammo for the rest.
[SPOILER]Before the garden/courtyard:[/SPOILER]
If you wait until the haunts are looking away, and you crouch and crawl forward quietly enough, you can slip right past them. Just don't make ANY noise that you can avoid, even if it means [SPOILER]stopping in the shadows on the sides of the main room[/SPOILER] when the haunts turn back around. If you are quiet enough from the beginning of the mission, there will be no randomly patrolling undead (other than I think like 1 zombie). Then you can use your ammo to mostly clear out the rest of the mission, and give yourself a little breathing space.
If you really must do it the other way, [SPOILER]go to the door at the back on floor two on the right side, (the side with the elevator) - you are safe up here.[/SPOILER]Then wake everything up (make it aware of you). Then use all of your ammo (except the 1 fire arrow) and time it so that your strikes catch as many of the undead as possible per shot/mine, etc. Very similar to the technique described by dlw6 above. I managed to kill everything but like one zombie this way, but I didn't like what it did to the atmosphere of the mission, so I restarted, and did it by ghosting instead. Also the problem with doing it this way, is that leaves you no reserve ammo for the rest of the mission if you need it.
Speaking of which, there is a bug with the broken stairs that can kill you, so be careful of them, or better yet, jump off of/over them when there are no undead around to hear you.
ZeroFlight on 16/1/2006 at 12:32
In the first area, I killed everything by ghosting until I got to the upper floor on the right side. I waited in the shadows until a huge group of zombies, haunts, and ghosts were all together then tossed 3 flashbombs in the middle of the group. That killed all of them. The rest of the mission I used kamyk's strategy of hiding in the shadows until I got one haunt on its own then backstabbed it & grabbed the corpse. Same with the ghosts (though no corpse). I ignored the zombies altogether.
ejsmith on 16/1/2006 at 23:03
(
http://www.archive.org/details/thief1_gold)
My method was also pretty decent. I bumbled a few things, but the strategy is sound. It's my typical route through that mission, with plenty of undead ammo to spare.
Holywhippet on 17/1/2006 at 04:53
For the apparitions - the best killing method I've found is to get in behind them and perform a full overhead chop backstab. Then immediately do a quick side chop. This always kills them for me.
Saladin on 18/1/2006 at 12:06
My favourite method was jumping on the big hammer,so the undead ccould see me.
They run under the hammer and i just dropped flashbombs :D
The apparition in the garden i simply ignored the zombies too
on haunts the best way is as saied a overhead chop and then grab the corpse.But i really had fun with mines in the mission:cheeky: poor zombies...
Penny Charbonneau on 19/1/2006 at 21:25
Wow, thanks for all the help! I had attempted to kill pretty much everything and am now in St. Yora's with practically no ammo so I guess I will be replaying...
I hate to sound like a "newbie" but what exactly do you mean by ghosting. I'm guessing you mean just to sneak around without being noticed.
Norman Druart on 20/1/2006 at 22:08
That's essentially it although there's a range of ghosting variations and degrees.
