System Shock SDA Comments

Medical

Most of Medical level is setup for the Laser mission. There’s plenty of health items on this level that are right along the route that take little extra time to pick up and are necessary for surviving some encounters as you spend much of the early game underpowered. Essential early game weapons and ammo are also acquired on this level (Laser Mission lives and dies based on your Teflon round drops), as are items I’ll be using throughout the run such as the Turbo Motion System.

At 2:11 I skip activating a force bridge because you can easily clear the gap with a running jump; the jump at 2:26 skips having to pass through a large number of enemies at the expense of a gorillion Cyborg Drones swarming you after you destroy the computer nodes.

Research

Not much happens on Research outside of the Laser Mission objectives and grenade pickup which are used for death warps. I flip a cyborg converter to allow a death warp after destroying the laser.

I skate in blind at 5:09 to get the SCI access card from a Drone because flipping a light switch in another quadrant takes too long. It isn’t mandatory to skate out as you can just be brought back at the converter, but my health was high enough that I decided to go for it.

Reactor

The first thing that needs to be done on Reactor is flipping the converter. Without it set to revive you this floor is impossible to survive as you simply don’t have enough Detox patches and getting the radiation suit takes too long. After depositing the X-22 and turning on the shields, I enter the laser safety override code and kill myself with a frag grenade. To survive this floor, it is necessary to stay out of range of the robots by backing up from them and sniping them with Teflon rounds.

Research 2

SHODAN sets the area around the laser switch with energy mines that push you away and sap your energy. I take off my skates and slide on past an ambush of cyborgs to fire the laser then death warp to the restoration bay. This part takes a few attempts but doesn’t cost more than 20 seconds. From there I destroy the nodes but my EMP grenade was badly thrown leaving me to have to destroy the nodes with my pistol.

Maintenance

A quick stop to pick up the Laser Rapier turns this game into a Jedi Knight knockoff. I’ve scavenged corpses like crazy up until this point so that I have enough Teflon ammo to take out the Sec-1 robot guarding the Rapier, but many runs have died trying to kill him when I’m not sufficiently armed. After this short detour I take the freight elevator to Storage.

Storage

The only mandatory objectives Storage are taking out the computer nodes for the 4th digit in the reactor destruct code and picking up 4 Plastique charges. You’re supposed to hit a switch to trigger force bridges spawning in the main storage room but that takes too long and you can make it to the end with clever jumping and skate usage.

Flight Deck

You don’t have to do anything on Flight Deck to complete the game. It is faster to guess the 5th digit in the destruct code than to actually go destroy the node.

Executive

This is where the meat of the run is. The main objective is to flip 3 switches inside of mutant infested areas, but before that I flip the converter and pick up the ADM access card and Flechette. The groves are all very short and you can deathwarp from inside all of them except for Beta. You’re supposed to get a hazard suit to survive Beta Grove but if you’re fast enough you can hit the jettison enable and exit before the bio contamination kills you then remove it with Detox; from there just clear out the node room and a room after with a Magpulse I picked up in Beta and then deal with Edward Diego. Diego is supposed to be a scary boss but you can either apply Berserk and kill him with a single Rapier swing or shoot around the corner with the Magpulse.

Maintenance 2

Enter the relay number 428 into the systems analyzer so that you learn how to repair it, pick up an interface demodulator, destroy the computer node, and repair the relay.

Executive 2

Now that the master jettison control is fixed, pull the lever and head to Beta to eject the grove. I clear out the room with splinter rounds because they do insane damage to mutants.

Engineering

You have to blow up 4 antennae with the Plastique charges you picked up Storage to prevent SHODAN from downloading herself to Earth. As long as you’re clear of the timed explosion there’s not much on this floor that’s a threat.

At 24:54 I crouch down and skate past several Cyborg Enforcers. Crouching reduces your profile and greatly increases your chances of not being shot to death as you go to the second antenna.

SHODAN springs a trap on you as soon as you place a charge on the south antenna by closing a force door on you. There are a few ways to survive this. You can crouch behind the antenna opposite of the explosion with shields on, apply Reflex and solve a puzzle to open the force door, or use a logic probe to instantly solve the puzzle. I opt for the last option because it is by far the fastest.

There’s a fairly large skip at 28:06 where I lower an elevator as I use it that allows me to backtrack through this area at a later time. This saves around 45 seconds.

Reactor 2

Spam Magpulse and guess the 5th digit of a 6 number long code to start the reactor destruct sequence. SHODAN has a swarm of Sec-2 robots guarding the elevator that are easy to take out with Magpulse at a distance.

Engineering 2

After backtracking through the route I prepared earlier I stumbled with a finicky jump and ledge grab while trying to get to the elevator. Eventually I managed to drag myself up and get to the next level.

Security

Security is intended to be a complex vertical maze but you can skip the entire floor. The jump at 33:09 is the most inconsistent trick in the game and thankfully I get it within a few tries. Diego 3 (I skip an encounter of his at the lifepods) goes down with two Berserk Rapier swings. I apply a Reflex and turn on my shields so that I don’t get killed by the ambush after Diego’s death. A quick Detox removes the adverse effects of the dermals.

Bridge

The only threat on this floor is the autobomb maze. I pick up Shield V4 to make this maze possible to do quickly and without eating through more damage than I could possibly heal. Besides that the floor is simple to deal with. The SHODAN fight messes with your controls and if you take too long in the central chamber you will game over.