Hexen II: Game Guide for Assassins

Version 1.4 ©Alex Fung, July 2002.
Up-to-date version available at my Games page and at (at this URL).

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General

Version History

1.4	Jul 2002	Included info from reader Carie about the empty room near the bottom of the elevator at Mage’s Lab in hub 5. Fixed the answers to the “Steve” question.
1.3	Apr 2000	Exclusive rights for expired on 20 March 2000. This version can be freely uploaded to other sites under conditions stated below. Reminds reader to upgrade to latest patch.
1.2	Nov 1999	New information about Set and Nefertum in hub 3.
1.1	Oct 1999	Included info from reader Lucky Starr.
1.0	Aug 1999	Initial release.

About the Guide

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This is basically a walkthrough. The main objective is to solve the puzzles in Hexen II. Tips are also available on the use of inventory and weapons against the enemies. However, some usage tips are specific to the character class.

The sequence of visit used in this walkthrough is at times “unconventional”. I tried to order them so you see more things or see them in a more logical order, instead of trying to minimize travel time.

Each part of the walkthrough contains an objective, a summary and a detailed walkthrough. You can read just the objective and play the game yourself, read both the objective and the summary, or read them all. They provide three different levels of detail to suite your taste. In addition, the objectives let you understand what you are doing, instead of just following a spoonfed walkthrough blindly.

Each of the four hubs is a continent guarded by one of Eidolon’s Horsemen of the Apocalypse: War, Famine, Pestilence and Death. This is a reference to the Bible (Revelations 6:16). The boss of the last hub is, of course, Eidolon, the eldest Serpent Rider.

Game Play and Tips

Read the Chronicle of the Deeds. It is well written and contains lots of information.

Hexen II has a scoring system for your experience. When you kill enemies (other than sheep), you gain experience points. Press and hold the TAB key to check them. At certain thresholds, you gain experience levels. A higher experience level gives you a higher health maximum and mana maximum. Therefore, don't leave any monster alive. In a sense, the easier levels can be a bit more difficult because there are fewer monsters and you gain experience points slower.

It is a Quake engine so some Quake command line options and console commands are accepted. Try them out.

If you have played Doom or Heretic or Hexen before, you should know where to look out for secrets: wall cracks, buttons, floor plates, behind stain glass windows, inside wooden barrels, etc.

Remember to set music to CD. The Hexen II CD has very good music. Including some good old ones from Heretic.

Upgrade to version 1.11. Get the patch from Activision

Portal of Praevus is an addon to Hexen 2. By addon, it means you cannot install Portal of Praevus without Hexen 2. Moreover, you have to purchase it separately (it is neither free nor included).

Since so many has asked this particular one, I would explain how to walk through walls here. For other cheat codes, go to Adrenaline Vault. To walk through a wall, first press the “`” key (on the top left corner of the keyboard). A character mode black screen (like DOS) will come down and occupy half your screen. It is the console. To the console, type “noclip” — without the quote marks, followed by enter. This command toggles your clip state. Press the “`” key again to get rid of the console. To go back to normal mode (I assure you, it is very annoying to walk into walls and see a messy screen), just repeat the same procedure to toggle back your clip state.

Points of interest

An interesting piece of information provided by Carie. If you turn into a sheep, you can still attack enemies. The sheep (ie you) will bite them. If you succeed in killing an enemy, you get a special message sheep kill bonus.

To turn yourself into a sheep, call up the console (press ~ on the top left corner of the keyboard, the console looks like the DOS screen) and type “impulse 14”. Press ~ again to get rid of the console.

Another piece of information from Carie. If you want the front view of your character class type the following commands to the console (press ~ to get the console):
impulse 27
give health 0
~
The last ~ gets rid of the console. Now use the arrow keys to pan the view, so that you can see all around yourself.

Assassin

Character Classes

There are four character classes with different abilities. Press the TAB key and you see four integer values. They are assigned at random, with a different maximum value according to the player class:

		Paladin	Crusader	Necromancer	Assassin	Demoness
int	Intelligence	10	13	18	10	13
wis	Wisdom	10	18	13	15	14
dex	Dexterity	13	10	12	18	13
str	Strength	18	15	10	13	14

Don’t ask me why Assassin is the least intelligent among the classes.

Lucky Starr explained to me what these four values are: Intelligence and wisdom affects your Mana level; Dexterity determines how fast the character moves; and strength how much damage the character deals in an attack.

Demoness is only available in the mission pack Portal of Praevus. However, once you started the addon, you can use console commands to switch to normal Hexen2 maps to play the original levels using Demoness.

The maximum values of Health and Mana also varies:

	max Health	max Mana
Paladin	82	90
Crusader	75	96
Necromancer	75	105
Assassin	73	95
Demoness	75	110

These two initial values for maximum values also increases with experience. When you gain an experience level, the Health Maximum increases by 9-13 points, and Mana Maximum by 6-9 points. For Demoness, her maximum HP only rises by 5-10 points, but her maximum Mana rises by 8-11 points per experience level gain.

In the original game, Assassin is the only female figure in the character classes in the original game (in the addon Portal of Praevus, Demoness, the fifth character class, is also female). Assassin has the best weapon selection in the game, kills easily, but can also be killed easily. On the other hand, close-range combat or fast-moving opponents can be troublesome.

Don’t ever be misled that your enemies can’t see you because you are an Assassin! You need to gain Experience Level 3 before you can stay invisible in the shadow (you would notice it because your weapon turns shadowy). Check your Experience Level and Capabilities by pressing the TAB key. As you gain more Experience, you can stay invisible even when moving or under brighter light. However, your enemies always see you as soon as you start fire.

When somebody shoots at you, don’t stand still! Shoot and hide. Or strafe. Or run away. At least, crouch (you can duck some of Archer’s arrows this way).

Make active use of the environment during combat. Lure your enemies to jump (or fall, or be pushed) into water (most enemies will be drown in water) or lava or pits.

At Experience Level 6, you gain BackStab. It means if you hit your enemy from behind, the damage done is multiplied.

Besides stealth, detecting enemy in advance is also very important. Listen carefully. Most monsters make a lot of noise to announce its presence. It is you who are the Assassin, don’t allow them give you a surprise attack!

Weapons

Katar

The Sage of Mur says the Katar is deadly nonetheless. Deadly to the Assassin I suppose. The use of Katar requires you to fight at an arm’s length from your enemy. Hopefully, you only have to do so for the first handful of monsters before you get your weapon#2.

Since the Katar doesn’t use Mana, it is the perfect tool to break wall cracks, stained glasses, or wooden barrels.

Against enemies, it is only suitable for killing red Spiders.

Hand Crossbow

This is the weapon for Assassin. You are using it all the times, whenever you have to face your enemy, far away or right in front of you.

Hand Crossbow use Blue Mana. Even playing at the lowest difficulty, I frequently ran out of Blue Mana in Mazaera. So watch your Mana levels.

Grenades

Weapon#3 uses Green Mana.

If you ever think you can put away your Crossbow when you get your weapon #3, forget about the idea! The Grenades are only useful in specific situations. Use the Crossbow at all other times.

Arrows from your Crossbow travel in a straight line. As long as the direction is correct, it will eventually arrive at the target and hit it. Grenades travel in parabolic projectiles. A good opportunity to experiment with the Newtonian physics. Upon impact, they only cause damage to its immediate surroundings. Distance matters. Not only the target has to be at the right direction, it also has to be near the impact site at the impact time. Among all character classes, Grenades are the only weapon that is so difficult to use.

Granades are difficult to use and dangerous, but at the right places they are very useful. Play with it in an empty room. Understand their range and accuracy before using them on enemies. Press and hold the fire key before releasing: the longer you hold, the more forceful you throw it out. Rules for using:

First rule is obvious: don't fire it a anything less than 3 meters away unless you are in a real panic. Otherwise, it costs you aweful lots of health, if you survive it. Corollary: do not fire at quick enemies that can quickly moved to within that distance from you.

Do not use it if you cannot evade the counter attacks from your target. Grenades are slow to throw (and there is some annoying delay between firing), and you would be dead before you can cause much damage.

Do not throw it directly at your enemy more than 4 meters away. As soon as you throw a grenade, your enemy will notice it and start moving. In most cases, it will evade the granage which will explode far behind him without doing any harm. Instead, throw at the ground near his feet.

Use it around corners. Walk carefully around corners so you can learn of the presence of your enemy before it notices you. Walk back and bounce grenades around the corner. Listen carefully to judge whether it is dead.

Use it on enemies beneath you, look for something to bounce off your Grenades: walls, pool sides, slopes, stair cases, anything. The cleanest way to kill a Medusa in a garden is to throw Grenades from a window or ledge above her.

In general, Grenades are not effective against enemies higher than you are.

When the enemy is nearly directly above you, it is still possible to cautiously kill them with Grenades. Run away fast if the Grenade drops back to you!

With the Tomb of Power, the explosion is more violent, and you need to keep a larger distance from the target.

Staff of Set

Interesting weapon. Don't know what it has to do with an Assassin who came from Mazaera. But the Scarab Beetle is cute, especially when you are flying.

Set (better known as Seth) is an Egyptian god of war and his name appears several times in Thysis. The Scarab Beetle represents the force moving the sun across the sky and is a powerful symbol.

If you press and immediately release the fire button, it uses as little as one or two Manas of each color. The real power of the Staff is revealed when you press and hold the fire button. The Scarab Beetle swells and the accompanying sound effect give you the feeling of power building up. With sufficient power, it kills nearly anything in a single shot. And remember you can nearly always strike first.

After a certain level of power has been built up, it fires automatically. There is no way to hold it back or cancel the attack. Be careful when using against Fallen Angels. Their folded wings can deflect your fire power. I assure you you don't want to see the golden beetle flying back towards you. If you have pressed the button and see her folding her wings, quickly fire somewhere else! She is not unfolding her wings before you are forced to fire. The longer you wait, the more Mana you would be wasting.

With the Tomb of Power, the winged beetle departs as soon as you press fire, homing on the target. And uses up a lot of Mana too (30 blue and 30 green). Assign the Krater of Might to a convient key before using the Tomb of Power to fight Horsemen. Do try killing with a powered up Staff: the death scene is interesting. However, The cocoon of chains would not appear on the Horsemen so to see this you must apply it on less monsters. Fallen Angels are particularly good looking in chains, but be careful not to get chained yourself!

Inventory

Like Hexen, you preserve your inventory across levels and hubs without loss. However, the limits have been revised. Most items are limited to a maximum of 15 copies (25 in Hexen was a bit too high), while the number of Mystic Urns you can carry is limited to 5.

Quartz Flask: unlike Hexen and Heretic, Quartz Flasks are not used automatically even at the lowest skill level; the Mystic Urns are automatically used though. Keep pressing the key assigned to Flask when fighting the Horsemen!

Chaos Device: use it to regain your breath when you are faced with fierce monsters. There is a special use when fighting with Eidelon. More about this at his lair.

Disc of Repulsion: extremely useful against Archer Lords and Medusas. You can also use them on Black Spiders because they jump at you with astonishing speed.

Seal of the Ovinomancer is fun. The key assignment screen calls it Bo Peep (Lucky Starr explained to me that it is from a child poem called “Bo Peep and her Little Sheep”). Don’t try to lambinate a Horseman, and be very cautious on Fallen Angels: they will reflect the spell back!

Glyph of the Ancients is a dangerous tool. For Assassin, it flies forward like a missile. Strafe away fast! As soon as it hits a wall, the ground or the ceiling, a chain is formed and flies back towards you till it hits another wall, floor or ceiling. Anyone touching the chain causes an explosion. A good trap for Golems and anything who will walk a predictable path. You can also use it like a missile launcher. Direct it at your enemy and shoot. Explodes on impact. However, it doesn’t do very much damage.

Stone of Summoning brings a big Imp to fight against your enemy. Sometimes, it remains as a stone and you have to collect it and throw again. Besides attacking your enemies, the Imp is very useful in distracting their fire from you.

Ring of Flight has changed a lot: back in Heretic, you can easily cheat one; in Hexen, the only way to get a Ring of Wrath is to get 25 copies of everything; now in Hexen II, you cannot use cheat to get any rings (but you can cheat to toggle the fly mode). In Hexen, the flying capability lasts to the end of the level; in Hexen II, it fades out like in Heretic. Finally a new behaviour. Ring of Flight now regenerates. Shortly after your power of flight fades, another Ring will appear in the original position.

Hexen II Useful links

Developer: Raven Software

Publisher: Activision

Game review available at Adrenaline Vault, and a review for Portal of Praevus is available at Adrenaline Vault also.

Home page on Activision and Raven Software and Raven Games. Remember to get your latest patch (v1.11) from Activision before starting to play.

Official FAQ available at Raven Games

Cheat available at Cheats Codes Guides.com

My games pages available at My Home. Choose My Favorite Things and look for My Favorite Games, or go directly to this URL.

Pocket Hexen2 is available for Windows Mobile!

Walkthrough

Hub 5: Back to Blackmarsh

Demoness Guide to Portal of Praevus

Questions awaiting answers

Kindly let me know if you have answers for the followings:

In Blackmarsh, during the quest to cross the Crystal Barrier, there is a message You need sand to make glass. Anybody knows under exactly what condition does it appear?
In Thysis, at Palace of Pharaoh, you need to break a bust of Anubis. I believe there is a hint somewhere about this. where? At the same time, there is a message You DARE defile the image of Anubis! Where is this message?
In the Reflecting Pool of Septimus, I was told the Health Vials in the outer pool (the one in the hollow tower) would regenerate after you used them. I have never seen it happen. Can anybody confirm or refute this assertion?
In Septimus there is an area called Bath of Demetrius. Greek has Demeter but Romans called her Ceres. So it seems strange to use the Greek form of her name in the Roman hub. Who then is Demetrius? Does it mean "of Demeter" as suggested by reader Ed Halley, or is Demetrius somebody else? Ed Halley also gave me a web page showing four Demetrius appearing in the Bible. Among all these possibilities, I still have no idea what the Raven guys were thinking about when they choose this name.
Behind the Mage’s Lab in Back to Blackmash, there is a secret room next to the elevator (the elevator going down to Mage’s study, not the elevator going up from the Tower) behind the bookcase. Has anybody found anything useful inside? Inventory items, powerups, secretes, Easter Eggs, anything? I cannot find anything other than a room.
In the Eidelon’s Ordeal should be a message saying The Soul Key awaits those who brave the Ordeal and survive. Where is it? I know it is somewhere but I haven’t found it.
In Portal of Parevus, there is a message You've finally found the musical BAR-BE-QUE. Looks like an undiscovered easter egg, but where is it? Reader Caire, who raised the question, found the message himself. It is in a rather unbelievable location. In the Ice Caverns, just when you drop into a room to get the Stone of Seldoot, use cheat code NOCLIP to move down through the floor. Below is another room with the message. The question is, why is the message there, and why should anybody look for it there? Is there any hint that something is buried there?
A question raised by reader Carie. In Tulku (Portal of Parevus), there is a message about Ameis. What is the message and who is Ameis?

I am glad to have received answers to some previous questions:

What is intelligence, wisdom, dexterity and strength (the values assigned to each character)? How do they affect the ability of the character?
Thanks to Lucky Starr who supplied some information on this. Intelligence and wisdom affects your Mana level. The Mana values listed in the character class tables above are only the maxima, and the stats value determines the exact value. Dexterity determines how fast the character moves, and strength how much damage the character deals in an attack.
Why is the Seal of the Ovinomancer also called Bo Peep?
Many thanks to Lucky Starr who solve this mystery. Bo Peep comes from a child poem called “Bo Peep and her Little Sheep”, and Raven chose this as the nick name for the Ovinomancer.
In Septimus, there is message Only the charitable shall pass. Where is the message?
Thanks to Lucky Starr who answered this question. His answer has been incorporated to the Reflecting Pool part of the walkthrough.
Who is Steve? The game can produce the message You've killed Steve!!!! but I haven’t seen the message or Steve.
Thanks to Ed Halley who answered this question. His answer has been incorporated to the Forgotten Chapel part of the walkthrough. In brief, the message only appears when you kill a well hidden sheep in network game. It never appears in single player game.

However, when I post Ed Halley’s answer, I forgot to remove the question from the list. Worse, the heading of this very paragraph was written incorrectly. As a result, another reader, Carie, indepenendly answers this question again. Thanks Carie.
In the Temple of Mars of Septimus, there are 9 pedestals in the Mars Room, but I have only identified 8 Mars Prize Buttons in the whole hub. Does that mean 1 Mars Prize is still outstanding and evaded me and every walkthrough I have seen? Seems it never existed. Or has anybody found a 9^th Mars Prize?
Thanks to Ramborc who answered this. The reason is for the 9th pedestal is, the Icon of Defender is always there. You do not need to press any secret buttons for it.
In Portal of Praevus, why is a Gyagk called a Yakman?
Thanks to Ramborc who answered this. The Gyagk is a cross of a yak and a man. A yak is a buffalo-like animal living in the Himalayan region (Tibet, Nepal, South-West China, etc.).
For once I have converted a Shadow Fallen Angel to a normal Fallen Angel by hitting her continuously. Has anyone similar experiences with Shadow Fallen Angels or with other shadow monsters?
It is nice to know that reader Carie also has such experience. After conversion to a regular Fallen Angels, they die in one or two hits.

By the same author

Which other games do I like? Find out here.

See also my other game guides available at my home page [under My Favorite Games] and :

Deus Ex — Sector 4 Walkthrough under Action Games, EIDOS (at this URL).
Resident Evil Complete Walkthrough under Action Games, CAPCOM (at this URL).
Resident Evil II — editing saved games under Action Games, CAPCOM (at this URL).
Thief and Thief Gold Walkthrough — Getting all Loots under Action Games, Looking Glass (at this URL).
Thief II Walkthrough — Getting all Loots and Secrets under Action Games, Looking Glass (at this URL).

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