X2: The Threat

Written by Christian 'Simon Moon' Riesen
simon [at] gomp [dot] net
Created:     26.03.2004
Last Update: 26.03.2004 17:12 (GMT+1)

Game developed by Egosoft
Homepage: http://www.egosoft.com/

Notes: This document is talking about the version 1.3 of the game. If you
dont have that version, go to the homepage mentioned above and patch your
game to that version, it fixes a lot annoying bugs. If you find something
that is unclear, wrong, or find a better strategy for something, let me know
by email.


Walkthrough

This is a walkthrough to the mainplot. It does not claim to be 100% accurate,
but it should help you in general to get through. If you have alternative
ways to solve one or another problem, let me know. For simpler way finding,
or when you have no clue about the universe yet, the text contains point to
point movements. This means it guides you through the gates with the easy
naming of the direction. W = West gate, E = East gate, N = North gate and S =
south gate. The system you arrive then is named, and all text below is
regarding that system. When you have to go somewhere else from there, the end
of that text tells you how to get there and then the next (the arrivals)
system name comes in the text flow. Sometimes if the route is long or
complicated, there will be systemnames in between, that will look a bit like
this: "W, S, (Argon Prime) E, S". This means that in the system Argon Prime
you will take the east gate, and that mostlikely in that system the route
makes an important turn or just a turn after a long "straight" line of
systems. In case you get confused, look into your universe map and follow the
course from your starting point to see if you are lost or not.

System: Argon Prime

Your Journey starts here, talking to Ban Danna, the chief of the Argon Secret
Service. You get the order to report to TerraCorp HQ (TCHQ) in the System
Home of Light. This is south of Argon Prime. As soon as you are in your ship
just fly straight, that ring in front of you is the south gate. Fly through
it and you arrive in Home of Light.

System: Home of Light

Fly towards the gate to your right, you will find near it the TerraCorp HQ. A
good hint on how to locate things faster (as it wont be always precise in
this walktrhough where its exactly), when you fly around, and have knowwledge
about the most of the sector, you can type the dot key (.) and see the sector
map. In this case we want a station, so type the arrow key to the right so
you only have stations. Now you see in this list TerrCorp HQ when you are
close enough. Highlight it with the cursor (use up and down keys) and press
the T key. Now its your target and you can easy follow the arrows on your
screen to find it. Stations and ships answer to you when you are in
commrange. This means close enough for communication. That is below 8
kilometers. Press C and select the first one, to get permission to land.
Follow the green lights in the V shape to find the entrance of the station.
Its not always easy to find, depending in the station. There are two good
hints. First, the TerraCorp HQ has its docking port on the other side from
where you approach it. Second, when you have a station as Target, the port is
mostly the thing in the middle of the image you see there, so it might help
finding it. After docking with the station, talk to a person abord (press C
in the menu for fast navigation, using these keys will save you good time).
Talk to Elena Kho. She tells you that she has a job, pickup and drop. When
you leave the station, the components are already on your ship. Look after
leaving the station to your left and you see the southgate. Use it to get to
Ore Belt.

System: Ore Belt

Find the "TerraCorp Crystal Fab" and dock with it. Go into the trade menu
(the D key) and sell the "Computer Components" you have on board. You've done
your job. Leave the station and you get a message. You can either skip this
now or do something for your credits, although not much. Go to a nearby solar
power plant, like alpha, and buy as many energy cells as you can. Then sell
them to pretty much any station in Home of Light. My try gave me 90 credits,
but thats compared to what you CAN make, nothing. Leave the system through
the North gate.

System: Home of Light

Go to the TCHQ, dock and talk again to Elena Kho. Now she has a transport job
for you, that requires you to transport a person called Mi Ton. Your job is
simple to pick him and Saya Kho up and bring them to the TCHQ. When you leave
the station you will have a ship that is slower, a person transporter, that
has no front lasers, but a turret. I advise you to set the turret to
autodefense for this mission, but its not really needed. Fly from here the
following route (added systems for security at first): (Home of Light) N,
(Argon Prime) N, (Herron's Nebula) E, (The Hole) E.

System Atreus' Clouds

Fly a bit to the left and down into this sector. You will see something that
looks like a spiral, thats the Royal Boron Trading station you have to dock
with. You will get a message telling you that too. Dock with it (port is on
the left side, make sure you dont hit those rotating arms) and talk on board
with Saya Kho. After the nice sequences, you are back in space and have a
very unfriendly Boron on board. Before the route back, here a warning: In
Argon Prime, you will get attacked (shortly after you enter the system) by
pirates. You can fly a few maneuvers and let the turret do its job or take
the turret yourself and try to shoot down some pirates. Either way, a ship
will come and rescue you guys, then vanish again. Just keep flying until you
reach the TCHQ. The route is: W, W, S, S.

System: Home of Light

Dock with TCHQ and talk to Elena Kho. She thanks you, and leaves you her
transport ship, an old Mercury. This is handy for making cash if you need to.
You can buy now wares and transport them to other places, making cash with
this method, but first you should upgrade its shileds, buy some upgrades such
as a trading extension and software. If you need some credits, do the energy
trading, pickup where its cheap and sell it to pretty much any station, its
always good to have money, but if you want to advance in the plot, here is
how it goes on. After talking to Elena Kho, leave the station in your
Discoverer, dont mess with other ships. Leave the system through the north
gate, you have an appointment with Ban Danna on Argon One.

System: Argon Prime

Fly close to Argon One, talk to Ban Danna on the communications and then dock
with Argon one. The docking port is near the engines, at the back of the
carrier. On board you talk with Ban Danna and finally get to know your father
is behind this, Kyle Brennan, CEO of TerraCorp. Ban Danna sends you to the
Goner Temple. He advises you to prep your ship a bit. Buying better engines
is highly advised. You should also buy wasp missiles while you are at it, if
you dont have any yet. Buy at least 20, you need them to come through the
next part. Now fly this route: W, S, S.

System: Cloudbase South West

The Goner Temple is here in the left side of the sector. Easiest to find from
your entry point if you just go left a bit into the coulds and keep straight.
You will see something inside this redish cloud, thats the temple. Dock with
it and talk with Noah Gaffelt on board. You get to know more about your
father, and also you see Bret again. Make sure you select the option that
this is a job for you and Bret. The Goner Temple is the only place where you
can buy two things: The transporter Device, and the salvage inssurance.
Specially the last one is very handy. You should buy 20 or so of those,
becuase they let you save at any given moment in time. You leave the station
and meet up with Bret. He is heading the right gates automatically, just
follow him or steer towards the gates yourself. The route he takes is as
follows: S, E, E, E, N, E.

System: Brennan's Triumph

As you enter the System "Yago" as Bret calls him is leaving with info. Let
Bret tag him while you take on the gate. Be careful not to come too close.
When you are at about 8 kilometers you should be able to scan the squash
mines. Pick one thats close and you have an open view to it (nothing of the
gate in between) and go close to it, at about 5 kilometers. Now remember you
should have bought the missles? Here you need them. Shoot the wasp missile at
the mine, only ONE missle. Wait till the missile hit. Sometimes it doesnt
work at first try, so send another. Wait till the mine exploded, because then
it will explode a few others around it as well. Go on and take out all the
mines this way. You only have to kill one per "cluster" as one will explode
all the other mines in the smae cluster. After repeating that game for 4 - 6
times you should be clear of mines. Go close to one of the Nacelle's of the
old gate. Exit the ship (Shift-E) and go close to where the target leads you.
When you are extremley close a sequence will tell you if you are at the right
one. Since there are two, you have to maximum try twice. For me it was the
Nacelle with the sort of debreee around it, that looked like red triangles.
After the sequence that tells you you got the data, hop back into your ship
and fly a bit away from the gate and you get an incoming message. Elena Kho
tells you Bret tagged the Teladi Yago, he fled to Antigone Memorial. So we go
there as well. The route is: N, W, W, N, N, N. If you have Problems: Its
directly north of "The Hole" which is west of "Atreus' Clouds" where you were
before during an earlier mission.

System: Antigone Memorial

Fly into the middle of the System and you should be able to see Bret's ship,
the Saien II. Talk to him by pressing the C key. After the chat, you go down
to the planet and the game drops you off in a argonopedia terminal. Go left
with the cursor, until you see the ship AP Sonra-44 in the second last line
of the text in the middle, then hit enter. Funny, thats the ship you are
looking for, it left 08 15 (a synonym for mass production). Watch the
sequence and you meet Ferd Harling. After the talk you are back in space.

Fly towards the south gate, and you get a message, listen to it. Terracorp
wants to upgrade your ship. If you have a fighter that is M4 or above you get
a jumpdrive from them, a 100'000 credits saving. Since this is good for a
ship you might want to fly a lot, buy first a Argon Nova, you will need it
badly in later fights An Argon Buster can do, but i highly advise you to go
with a Nova. Go to the TerracorpHQ in the Home of Light System, by using the
gates as follow from the Antigone Memorial: S, W, S, S

System: Home of Light

Dock with Terracorp HQ and talk to Saya Kho. The technicians take their time
and install the jumpdrive. You are ready to leave the station now. You have
to go to Priest Rings. To get there from Home of Light follow the Gates as
follows: W, S, S, E, E

System: Priest Rings

As you enter the system, fly straight (direction of east gate) until you can
see Brens ship, the Saiien III in your ship list of this system. Fly close to
him and talk to him. He says that you need some reputation to be able to land
on the paranid installations. The only way to get that reputation is by
killing pirates in the paranid sector. So you have to find some pirates and
shoot them out of the sky. Your best approach is go to the pirate base in
Priest's Pity. Fly through the east gate and fly around till you have the
pirate base on your screen. The problem is, you have to shoot down pirates to
get reputation. So first, ignore the base and kill the laser towers around
it. If there arent any pirate ships in the space around you now, shoot at the
base, and it will release some. Dont engage in a fight with the pirates when
the towers are still there, they will shoot you down in no time. When you
cleared the pirates, you can try to dock in this system with any station
(just try if they let you, dont dock actually). If they allow you, your good.
REturn to Priest Rings by flying through the west gate.

System: Priest Rings

Dock at the Paranid Trading Dock. If it doesnt let you, you didnt kill enough
Pirates. Once inside, talk onboard to Manckossak. This trader is a bit picky.
Choose the second option then the thrid when talking to him. When you got
33'333 Credits, you can pay him right away (first option), otherwise you have
to get that first. When you have the LFL, leave the station and you run into
Saya. Talk, and choose the route you want to take. If you choose the red
route with Saya, thats shorter, but only advisable if you have firepower.
It's anyways advisable to have a GOOD firepower in your ship rightnow. So if
you fly a nova you should have 3 times an 25 MW shiled and 2 Beta High Energy
Plasma Throwers installed and a Gamma Particle Accelerator Cannon in the
turret (set to attack enemies). If you dont have that, forget to survive
whats ahead of you.

Then follow Saya. The easiest way is to take her as target (ship with the
name Nikkonofune) then press U on your keyboard for autopilot that will
follow her. Before you enter a gate, switch it off, there seem to be problems
with it. You travel through save space, into the last save System called
Eighteen Billion. You get there by Saya's lead: S, E, S, S, E, E, E, E, E, E,
N, E, N. You are now in the last save system. Good idea to save here. You
leave trhough the east gate. In the Xenon sector run for the north gate (to
your left) and avoid all ships. Once through you are in Scale Plate Green. If
Saya is not with you, go back, find her ship, target her, use your autopilot
and wait till shes through the gate, then take it yourself. Follow Saya again
to the east and you reached Nyana's Hideout.

(As guidance the way from Priest Rings to Nyana's Hideout the safe way: W, W,
N, E, N, (Home of Light) E, E, E, S, S, (Danna's Chance) E, E, N, N, N, E, E,
E, S, E. S, E, S, and then you are in Scale Plate Green and from there its
again to the east.)

System: Nyana's Hideout

The LFL locates the AP Gunner. But the lizard guy Yago is there and Khaak
attack at the same time. After the cutscene, go and kill all the Khaak
together with Bret. Do this as fast as possible, in this part (until you can
leave the sector) time is of importance. Be fast with all parts, or you will
have to fight more enemies. After that, the "friendly" lizard wants to take
off with the gunner. He leaves some lasertowers and fighter drones. Kill the
turrets and ignore the drones. Once the turrets are down, take out the
drones. Bret takes care of the lizard and shortly after Khaak come in again.
Take them down. Once they are defeated, the mammoth arrives. Dont worry if
they shoot the first down or even the second, theres always a new one it
seems. Then Teladi come in that want trouble, kill them and wait for the next
message. Again a Khaak cluster, kill that cluster too. The gunner is now save
and loaded away. Follow Bret, he knows some guys in Black Hole Sun that have
nice buisness, worth checking out at least. You follow him, through the
following gates: E, E, E.

System: Black Hole Sun

You can make some profit here if you want to, its pretty nice, but it doesnt
bring you further in the plot. If you fly around a bit, you get a message
from Ban Danna, he wants you back on Argon One, in the system Argon Prime.
Jump there or travel however is comfortable with you. You should be able to
backtrack it, and you can use different routes, so i am not going to describe
it here.

System: Argon Prime

Go to the Argon One and talk with Ban Danna (just over the Comm). You get
told what happened to your father or at least what they think happened. Ban
Danna tell you to go to Ore Belt (S, S) what we do after buying an Mineral
Scanner at the Equipment dock if your ship doesnt have one yet. Also, get
Hornet Missles, 4 or more. You will need them. Before you take off, you might
have a lot of cash by now (if you did some trading and/or have a station). It
might be wise to buy an Argon Centaur, make sure it has 2 times an 125 MW
shield and good weapons (of course also hornet missiles) and use that one for
this mission. Your chances of survival are significantly higher.

System: Ore Belt

Go to the Argon Colossus in the system and talk to the Captain (that is Mik
Balser). He wants you to go and scan the asteroid field. Well, lets do that.
You need a mineral scanner in your ship, otherwise it wont work, so get one
if you dont have one (Argon Prime, Equipment Dock). The Asteroid is in the
nebula, thats northwest of the north gate (upper left corner when you look on
the nav screen, in that grey nebular). So dont waste time scanning all the
others, unless you want to find some nice yields in some of them. The exact
asteroid is random, for me it was ASWE-50 (second time i tried, ASWE-28, the
third time ASWE-82) but as saied, its random, you have to scan them all. Be
prepared to be attacked shortly after getting there. Best is if you can
disappear fast. You have two ways on how to handle this. First, do it one by
one, or do most of it at once. After identifying the asteroid you can either
blow it right up (using Hornet Missles or a mobile drilling System, which you
mostlikely cant carry on your ship, dont bother with any other weapon, you
wont even scratch it) and collect the fragments, or go and report back, then
get sent back etc. There are three pieces left over you can pick up. You do
that like with other things you can pickup in space, by flying close and
opening cargo hold (with the O key). Keep in mind, the shield will be down
while you do this, so dont do it while a ton of Khaak breath down your neck.
Make sure you got 3 objects, otherwise you get sent back. Its pretty hard to
do because as soon as you blow up the base a whole swarm of Khaak want to
kick you. Once you got the three pieces, go back to Balsers Colossus and
report to him. He will beam the pieces out and you are done here. You get
told to return to Ban Danna, lets do so. Fly through these gates to Argon
Prime: N, N

System: Argon Prime

Fly to the Argon One, comm and request to talk to Ban Danna. They found
obviously another suicide mission for you. You are to meet up with Saya Kho,
again, in Rolf's Drift. To go there use these gates: W, N, N, N, E

System: Rolk's Drift

As Ban Danna told you, you are to meet Saya Kho here in the Quantum Tube Fab
Alpha. Fly there and dock with it. Then talk to Saya on board. Well, Mi Ton
the nasty bugger from the second mission is the guy who should save you. You
can try and talk to Mi Ton once your back in your ship. Talk to him then you
will have to pay him 150'000 credits. There is no way around that. After you
paied, talk to Saya Kho again. She will talk a few things over then you leave
the station. There is a Boron Hydra outside and you get it as target, this is
your new ship. Go and get yourself on board. If you never flew with an M6
class before, then this will be an expierence for you. First give your turret
the command to guard your ship, or you will forget. A small hint the Hydra is
capable of holding 2 125 MW shields but only one is installed. So if you want
to enhance your chances of survival, get this second shield, and you might
want to upgrade the rudder and very surely you want to upgrade the engine to
the maximum, you will need that. Mi Ton was cheap on that part. When you are
ready, open the jumpdrive menu (Shift-J) and select "Unkown Enemy Sector".

System: Unkown Enemy Sector

After jumping in, open fast your map and look on the bottom of the list for a
Data Storage Device. Go for it fast and grab it. Ignore all Khaak ships. Dont
fight with them, its pointless. If you upgraded the engine you will fly away
from them fast enough. A good idea to do it. Grab the device while flying
close by and open your cargo hold in the last possible moment. It takes a few
tries maybe but you can do it. Worst you bump it further away and have to try
again. Usually you are faster with a fully upgraded engine then the Khaak.
Once you got it jump out of there quickly. Once you are in safe space, go
back to Rolk's Drift.

System: Rolks Drift

Fly again to the Quantum Tube Fab alpha and dock with it. You cant dock with
the Hydra, so you have to change the ship or use a scout in your hydra, which
is a good way to fly around in M6 crafts by the way. Talk to Saya Kho in the
station again. You see the last seconds of your father before the Khaak
peeled him out of his ship. Then this mission is over.

You are to see Ban Danna, but you dont have to go far. Leave the station then
fly around a bit, you will get a message from Ban Danna telling you to jump
to Omicron Lyrae, West Gate. Also Saya will contact you instantly and so will
Bret. Talk and let them jump, then get ready yourself. This will be the last
big fight, make sure your ship is at the best possible level. You need a
fighter class ship (Nova) an M6 Corvette or real big ships wont do the trick.
When you can, use your jumpdrive, otherwise here the gates from Rolk's Drift
to there: E, E, E, E, E, (Family Whi) S, S, S, (Rhonkar's Fire) E, E, E, S,
E, S, E, S, E, E

System: Omicron Lyrae

When you arrive theres a huge fight going on. You have to fight Khaak waves,
so be prepared. Fight them down as fast as you can and at some point there
comes a cut scene. Ban Danna tells you to fly to the Khaak capital ship and
beam out your father. First get close to the ship, then you get the nav
beacon after a cut scene. Go to that position and be careful not to hit one
of those big lasers, they kill instantly. Best is to fly close then find your
way to the beacon in the narrow part. Make sure you stay there until the cut
scene comes. The lasers wont hit you if you stay there, so they are only a
hazard while making it there. Also, there are some rotating parts that might
get into your way. Either way, you need to make it very close. Like 10 - 20
meters. Thats very close. After that, theres something blocking. You have to
kill a few objects that are attached to the hull of the huge vessel. Its
rotating and you cant shoot them all the time. They are located around the
hull, in the front part, the one facing the planet, and labeled as unkown
objects. You have to be careful as there are ships around attacking you. The
best you can do is ignore them, have a turret on missle defense and then
shoot those things down. If you have a good weapon, like Beta High Energy
Plasma Throwers, they should fall quickly. Missles didnt seem to do well with
the rotation of the ship. Also be quick with this, if you take too long, the
ship will fire, kill that planet and you lost. You have some time, but not
too long. Once those are killed off, you see another scene and are told to
fly again into position like before. Do so, be careful around those lasers
again and keep the position. After the cutscene, where Bret is going down
hero style, you have to pull out. The sector still has Khaak ships all over,
and your orders are to kill them off. Which you can do now. Destroy all Khaak
ships you can find, there are like 10 to 15 ships left, but scattered all
over and no real big threat to you anymore. Once they are all down, you get a
message from Ban Danna, asking you to be present at a ceremony for Bret, on
the Argon One in the Argon Prime System. Jump there or backtrack your way.

System: Argon Prime

Fly to the Argon One, so you are within 8 km and talk to Ban Danna on board.
He tells you to dock with the Argon One, so you can join them. Dock and watch
the cutscene. Congratulations, you finished the plot of X2 The Threat.


After that part, you can still continue to play. Explore all systems, find
the secret systems, the secret gates, the xenon sectors, revisit the Khaak
sector, and so on. You will still have khaaks around but usually they are not
as strong as before, meaning you will have less of those buggers around.
Also, you get at least 2 more messages. One is a last will from Bret. The
other is from Ban Danna telling you they still try to make sure your father
wakes up again from his coma. Thats all there is to the plot, and theres
nothing else to my knowledge.


Written by Christian 'Simon Moon' Riesen
simon [at] gomp [dot] net