SymBioCom - Walkthrough

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Episode 1: The Rident

Your essential task on board the Rident is to find your way off. The Rident's propulsion systems are down, so you need to find another means of transportation. The answer is a craft you find in the shuttle bay. The shuttle is not equipped for long distance travel, however, so in order to make it off the Rident you must use the Rident to open a wormhole (something the shuttle is not equipped to do) and then fly the shuttle into the wormhole. Although your shuttle is low on fuel, wormholes connect two points of great distance in space. The wormhole will take you to the nearest space station (and the next episode).

Gaining Access To The Shuttle:

There's a shuttle on Level 2 in the bay which is your ticket off the Rident. The first thing you'll notice is the shuttle's entrance is blocked against a window. On Level 1, among the missing passengers' items, you'll find a suitcase containing a pair of explosives-the belongings of a would-be terrorist on board. Take these. Returning to the shuttle observatory, place a bomb on the window. This will get you through the window. Before entering the shuttle, access the panel next to it. You need to route the bay door control to the shuttle. This system is locked out with an access code. You'll find this code in the next section.

Activating The Wormhole:

Wormdrive, the system that harnesses the power of a wormhole, has been taken off-line. First you must activate the system. Wormdrive is locked out at the moment, due to the attack, so you must find the code. This is found on the ship's computer in the flight room, which is also locked out. To gain access to the ship's computer, you have to crash it. Go to Level 1 and access the panel opposite the elevator in the hall. This is the environmental control for the ship. Find the code for the computer core (740) and using the environmental controls, raise the temperature a bit. Eventually, you'll cause a fire in the computer core and crash the system. Return to the flight deck level and access the ship's computer in the flight room. You'll find the system has experienced a core dump. Reading through the muck you'll discover the code for the wormdrive (2931). You'll also find the code for the shuttle bay door (5892). Make a note of it; you'll need it later. Onto Engineering, you find the wormdrive system. Enter the code, and activate wormdrive. Don't forget to re-route wormdrive control to the flight cabin (the system near the door on the way out). In the flight room, access the panel opposite the ship's computer. This is a star map. Click on the nearest object (other than the lifeboats) and your sym will record the coordinates. Go to the flight controls. Access the Nav system. Next, access the wormdrive control. You've opened a wormhole. Access the wormdrive control again to get the coordinates for the wormhole, so you'll know where to fly your shuttle.

Piloting The Shuttle:

You can now access the panel outside the shuttle using the second code you found in the stray core data (5892). Route bay door control to the shuttle. Once inside the shuttle, you're ready to go. Access navigation to register the coordinates, and hit the flight systems.

Episode Two: Plasfo

Plasfo Space Buoy was the nearest outpost and the only place you can reach with your shuttle. Once you explore the station, you'll learn that the vessels which attacked the Rident have just passed by. Your task here is to fuel and arm your shuttle and to find out which way these ships went. To fuel your shuttle you need to commit a minor fraud involving your credit computer. To get the vessel's coordinates, you need to get to the station operator's booth.

Getting A Few Extra Credits Out Of Your Credit Computer:

With 100 rin., you'll learn from Rendel (the station's drone) that you need 105 rin. to fuel your shuttle. An ancient station, Plasfo has some obsolete systems. An example of this is poorly shielded conduits on Level 2. Your sym will remind you here that stepping too close to the conduits may cause your credit computer to magnetize. To get an extra five credits, use your credit computer (found in your inventory) with the conduits on Level 2. Some areas will actually deduct your credit total, so be careful. You're aiming for the area just above the word "with" in the sentence "Use Credit Computer with what." Click five times to increase total to 105.

Getting Into Rendel's Booth:

Rendel keeps a log of passing ships, but he's not volunteering his information. First, you need to get him out of his booth. To do this, you must provide a distraction. Go up to the bathroom on Level 2. Attach the other bomb you found in Episode 1 to the mirror. This will keep Rendel busy for awhile. Rendel, a suspicious sort, has locked his booth. Before returning to Level 1, stop by the bridge. On the side on the right of the stairs, you'll find a section of loose piping. Take this. Back at Rendel's booth, use the pipe to break the lock. Inside the booth, read the log. Your sym will record the coordinates of the "dog ships." From here, return to your shuttle and move on.

Episode 3: Carswell Colony

Apparently, the next place the dog ships hit was Carswell Colony, an uncharted colony of "rebels" from the ITC. Your task here is to find out what happened to the colonists and to try to connect this mystery with the missing passengers on the Rident. Unlike the Rident, there is one living survivor left on Carswell (other than you). You can communicate with him via a monitor in the hall on Level 3. He'll need you to get him out of the control room. To free him, you'll have to get the elevator on-line, but you can't get to the utility room without figuring out a way past a barricade. Once you've "freed" the colonist, you'll have to track down those pesky dog ships again.

The Barricade:

One of the colonists has locked out a room on Level 3 by disabling the conduits which control the doors to the room. One of these doors is found in the bathroom. Here, you'll notice a section of conduit has actually been removed, cutting off power to the door. Take the tool the colonist used to slice up the panel. Go downstairs to the kitchen. Here, you'll have your first glimpse of an attack drone, left behind. He leaves you alone. Apparently, he's been programmed to ignore you. Inside the kitchen, you'll find more conduits. Using the tool, cut a piece out. Say Hi to the cat! Back up stairs, use your new piece of conduit with the bathroom door's conduit. You can now enter the locked-out room.

Getting The Elevator On-Line:

The guy on the monitor in the hall on Level 3 tells you to get the elevator on line. He may be able to answer some questions so you need to help him out. The utility room which controls station operations is accessed via the vents in the room you just opened. Explore the vents until you find the utility room. You'll also find a camera in the vents. Take this; you'll need it later. Inside the utility room (there's that annoying drone again), link to the controls. You'll notice the elevator has no power going to it. Route the source power from SL to the destination power for EV. The elevator is now on-line. Don't forget to talk to the guy in the hall again before going downstairs. He'll need to take the locks off the elevator.

Finding The Next Destination Of The Dog Ships:

In the control room, you'll find the attack drone got to the colonist before you. Link to his sym to find out some useful information. Now you need to track down the dog ships. Link the camera you found in the vents to the computer in the control room. The camera has weeks of footage, and somewhere on it there's some shots of the attacking dog ships. You don't have weeks to wait around, so you'll need to find the exact time the dog ships attacked. To find the time of attack, go to Carswell's room. Ignoring the colony leader's corpse, read the speech he was dictating. The attack struck while he was recording the speech and at the top of the PDA is the time the speech was logged (2034.12.1). Back in the control room, link the camera to the computer again. Jump to the counter entry matching the time on Carswell's PDA. From the footage of the dog ships, your sym can calculate the vessels' trajectory. Apparently, their next target is SYNSYM-the corporation which designed your sym implant. Return to your shuttle and take off. 

Episode 4: Synsym

This branch of SYNSYM, the original office, has long since closed, but for some reason the dog ships were heading this way. First you need to get inside the building. To do this, you'll have to use the delivery entrance. Once inside, the various office memos left by the partners, Reynolds, Lowery and Debrise, will shed some light on the inner workings of the SYNSYM corporation. Someone also left you a hologram message here, indicating you have an ally in all this. His identity will be revealed later. As you explore, you discover Reynolds' log book is missing. Finding it will lead you to a hidden laboratory-a discovery Reynolds made herself a few days before her "accidental" death. When you try to leave SYNSYM after completing all this, you'll find the dog ships waiting for you.

Getting In:

The front door is locked, so begin by hopping over the wall on the right. Around the back of the building you'll find another door to which cargo was once delivered. Search the cargo crates on the side of the building. On top of one, you'll find an old clipboard once used to inventory cargo shipments. The delivery computer which controls this door works on a basic principle: a shipment clipboard like the one you just picked up tells the computer what cargo is being delivered (its description and weight) and a scale by the door weighs the cargo to confirm the inventory listed on the clipboard. You need to pose as cargo. Examine the clipboard in your inventory. You can select items on the list which together add up to various weights. The magic weight you're looking for is the player's weight.-To find the player's weight, bring up the STATUS screen. It appears you weigh 2.7 Pelists. Returning to the clipboard, select the items which weigh 1.9 P, 0.6 P and 0.2 P. Together they weigh 2.7 P. Use the clipboard with the delivery computer and step on the scale. You're in.

Memos And Finding Sandra's Missing Log:

Jacques Debrise and Christian Lowery both kept logs of their office memos. Sandra Reynolds, the late CEO, has no log book, however. In Lowery's office, you'll find an "antique" computer in the corner which Reynolds gave him. On the computer screen, Sandy typed a hurried note instructing Lowery to "check out the Coleridge." In Reynolds' office, you'll discover she was something of an art collector, with a particular focus on the artist Jolfoar. One painting behind her desk is especially interesting because your sym will tell you that Jolfoar based the painting on the poem "Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. On her desk, you'll find a button to release this painting, revealing a hidden safe. The password for the safe has to do with her message and the nature of the painting hiding it. Both your sym's database and Lowery's memos will remind the player that the poem "Kubla Khan" was about a magic place called Xanadu. Enter "Xanadu" to open the safe.

Finding The Hidden Lab:

The log in Reynolds' safe speaks of a hidden lab she found one night, a laboratory she knew nothing about. Repeat what she does in the log entry. First, go to the laboratory on the bottom level. Inside the lab, there are some more work drones. Activate them with the computer behind them. You'll notice one drone is down and appears to function on a different subroutine. You're going to need a routine disk for the separate drone in the lab. You'll find one in the trash can in Debrise's office. Use the routine disk with the dormant drone in the lab. A schematic will come up. Repeating the procedure outlined by Reynolds in her log, connect E1 to A7, E2 to A2 and E9 to A5. This will activate the drone, who will open a hidden door in the back of the lab.

This reveals yet another keypad. To figure out this password, you'll have to remember all signs are pointing to Debrise. The disk for the drone was in his office, and in her log Reynolds hinted that Debrise knew about this secret lab. By reading through Debrise's memos in his office and Lowery's logs, you'll learn that Debrise's favorite term was "monumental." Enter "monumental" to open the door to the secret lab. Inside the lab, you'll find some curious and frightening equipment, including a bed with hand restraints. Here, your sym malfunctions and appears to have "flashbacks" of some sort, presenting you with some strange images that neither of you can explain. These flashbacks allow your sym to lead you to a PDA, hidden in a nearby table. The PDA, a note from Debrise to an unknown person, refers to "experiments" and "a secret base." From the PDA you get the coordinates for the secret facility.

Taking Out The Dog Ships:

Curious about the secret base mentioned in the note, you return to your shuttle to take off. Unfortunately, the dog ships show up. You can't outrun the dog ships, so you'll have to stand and fight. Access your weapons system. Firing on the dog ships produces no effect. Their armor is too strong. You'll notice SYNSYM's power generator is in view, however. Fire on it. The chain reaction will take the dog ships down. On your way, you hear a voice communication from the mystery ally who left you the holograms. He's going to meet you at the facility-the final episode.

Episode 5: The Facility

Crash landing on the planet, you'll find an entrance to the facility. First you need to get inside, with a little help from your sym. After bypassing a series of security drones you'll find kept here, you'll learn SYNSYM's secret. With no where to go but onward, you have to bypass a PhysioScanner. At this point, you meet up with your ally from Episode 4. Together, you and he will destroy the facility. Before doing that, your sym will insist on having some questions answered, which leads to a confrontation with Debrise face to face. Finally, you have to destroy the base.

Getting Inside:

Getting inside is relatively easy. Linking to the elevator controls, your sym will make some suggestions of possible security codes. Although it might not seem so at first, your sym does have the right code.

Bypassing First Drone:

Once inside, you'll find a security drone (like the one left behind in Episode 3) is blocking your progress. First, you need a blunt object. You'll find a section of loose piping in the utility closet. Take this. You can't attack the drone just yet. You need to distract him. To do this, videotape him. After you make your movie, use the camera with the panel near the video monitor in the hall. This will upload the movie and play the footage you recorded. The drone, noticing the image, will fly toward the monitor. Quite taken with his likeness, he'll keep his back to you as he watches the movie. Sneak up behind the drone and hit him with the pipe.

Bypassing Second Drone:

Remembering that the drones run on a network, link to the downed drone in the hall. Apparently, there is another drone waiting for you in the next room. You'll notice this new drone's batteries are low. Instruct him to recharge. You're now free to enter the room on the left. A panel in the back, a doorway for the security drones, will lead you to the drone recharging center.

Bypassing The Third Drone:

Stepping out into the hall off the recharging center, you find yet another drone waiting for you, and they seem to be getting meaner and meaner. To take it out, you'll need to fight fire with fire. Link to the drone you sent to recharge. From the local menu, you can select a target. Don't select the target on the left-that's you. Select the target on the right, and you'll get the drone's perspective as it flies off and shoots down the last drone. You're now free to explore.

Learning Synsym's Secret:

The most important information to find on this level is Professor Miller's log, found in the first room on the left. From this log, you'll learn the fact that sym implants, like yours, are actually copies of another human being's brain, and that in order to create a sym implant the person's life is taken. Also on this level, you'll find one of the passengers from the Rident, Senator Fellows, who appears to have been prepped for a sym implant.

Tricking Physioscanner:

At the end of the hall, there is a door locked off by something called a PhysioScanner. A PhysioScanner scans your genetic profile to determine if you have access. Your sym reminds you that if you had a record of some DNA of a person who did have access, the sym could trick the scanner. In one of the rooms, you'll find a DNA sampler and a computer to identify DNA. Currently, a sample of Senator Fellows' DNA is on the sampler. You need to find a sample of DNA of someone who has access to the rest of facility, however. In another lab, you'll find a coffee cup. Scan the coffee cup with the DNA sampler. Return to the lab with the DNA computer and upload the sample. Apparently, the beverage belonged to Norma Miller, the missing professor and mastermind of sym technology. Back out in the hall, try the PhysioScanner again. By tricking the computer into thinking you're the professor, you can now pass.

Getting Off The Dog Ship And Finding Some Answers:

After another nasty spill, you black out and have another flashback. Awaking, you find yourself inside one of the dog ships. The voice of your ally from Episode 4 tells you you're safe, however. Apparently a busy man, your ally left a PDA in your inventory explaining himself. Reading the PDA, you learn that your ally is none other than Christian Lowery, Reynolds' other partner. Suspicious of Debrise's activities, Lowery found out the truth about sym technology, too. His plan is to destroy the base. He won't admit it, but he needs your help. After you leave his ship, you can explore a wormhole room and the reactor room. From there, you can take another elevator (by entering the code Lowery gave you on the PDA, "conscience").

The only room you can get to via the elevator at this point is a room that contains a database of all those victims who died to become a sym. Once inside this room, your sym will not let you back out the door until you look up its identity. Check your status screen again to get your sym's ID number (SYM001103). Enter it into the computer. Ironically, your sym was once Sandra Reynolds, the CEO of SYNSYM, whose death was anything but accidental. Once she found out Debrise's secret, he had her eliminated. No wonder Lowery, Sandra's long time friend, wanted to keep your sym implant safe.

Taking Debrise Down:

Now you can go to the observatory room. On your way in, you're nearly shot by Debrise who sneaks up behind you. Hiding behind his desk, Debrise taunts you. Your only exit is over the railing behind you. It's quite a fall, but luckily the gravity is low because the room serves as a shuttle bay. Having made your escape, you return to the passage way, but find there's no where to run. Returning to the wormhole room, you'll find Debrise waiting for you. You can't run, but you'll notice a control panel across the room. Thanks to the ingenuity of sym technology you can link to computers over a great distance. Link to the panel and turn on the gravity in the room using the code your sym gives you. That takes care of Debrise.

Leveling The Base:

To destroy the base, you'll need to sabotage the wormdrive. Like the Rident, this facility can harness a wormhole, the only difference being that the facility can open a wormhole within the base, inside the room where you smashed Debrise. There's a wormhole beacon in the wormhole room. You need to move it. Return to the observatory room and access the panel on the desk. Release the beacon. Go back to the wormhole room. Pick up the beacon, and take it to the reactor room across the hall. Place the beacon on the reactor. Back in the observatory room, activate the wormdrive. Opening a wormhole in an improper place will cause a reactor meltdown. Lowery's dog ship will show up and take you out of there in the nick of time.

You've won Symbiocom, but the story is not over.......