Terra Nova - Strategy Guide

Chucking a grenade at an onrushing cluster of besuited adversaries and watching 
them explode balletically across your field of view; launching yourself a hundred 
feet in the air then glancing down to hail laser death at a hapless guard who only 
has time to look up and murmur What the? before you end his dreary life; 
setting charges on the wall of an enemy installation then running away, turning 
back momentarily to enjoy the sight of said building detonating spectacularly! Ah 
yes, Terra Nova has many, many pleasures to offer the discerning gamer.
Its been carefully designed to allow you to complete most missions using a 
number of different approaches - a stealthy sneak here, a heavily-armed assault 
there - and as a result, you need only master a few basic techniques and get used 
to the control system, and you should find your way through the game fairly 
easily.
But there are a few missions where things get a bit complicated, and many people 
can get stuck. To prevent you suffering a similarly humiliating fate, examine the 
illustrated solutions to these tricky six missions on the second and third pages of 
this guide. First, though, arm yourself with some indispensable basic instruction.

General strategy
The golden rule is to engage the enemy on your own terms. If theyre standing 
still, locate them (preferably using a long-distance EM scan), then jump in, all 
guns blazing, and surprise them. If theyre moving towards you, pull back, 
preferably behind a hill, then ready yourself, switch to your heavy weapons, and 
hit as they crest the ridge. Never, ever, let them get in the first shot.
Keep moving, as this obviously makes you a harder target. And the sooner you 
can perfect a circling motion, running backwards while turning right and sliding 
left to keep a target in your sights as you move around it continuously, the sooner 
youll win the game.
There are a number of missions where you need to take a specialist with you in 
order to destroy an installation, or perform some other critical task, and youll 
often find yourself cursing when they take a few hits, panic, and evac, effectively 
aborting the mission. To avoid this, simply order mission-critical personnel to 
remain at the dropsite until youve cleared the way for them. This may give you a 
few more bad guys to engage yourself, but youll avoid the frustration of having a 
demolitions expert persistently run out on you after ten hard-fought minutes.

Be prepared
A mission can be won or lost, even before its begun, at the team and equipment 
selection screen. Sometimes youll be forced to make some pre-defined choices; 
more usually, youll have a free hand.
Youll find team selection significantly easier if you can keep all your personnel 
unhurt in every mission. Dont worry too much if you cant manage it - essential 
team members will always return to duty as soon as theyre required to complete a 
particular mission - but the more people you do lose the more youll find yourself 
picking demolitions specialists when you wanted weapons experts, and losing 
team members as a result of the collectives decreased accuracy. Its a vicious 
circle that should be avoided wherever possible - after all, it usually only takes a 
few minutes to re-play a mission once youve cracked it, and complete it without 
loss the second time around.
Equipment choices are a matter of taste, but if youre in doubt then pick the heavy 
suit - its much harder to make mistakes inside one of these damage-absorbing 
exoskeletons. Similarly, pack damage prevention ASFs - first the Dynamo, then 
the Personal Shield - if you reckon youre going to have any trouble. All the other 
devices may look slightly cooler, but you dont get points for style - just survival.
When picking weapons, choose a short-range weapon, a long-range weapon and a 
projectile weapon then, if youve got a spare slot, fit an EM Emitter. The The 
tools of the trade table above should remind you of each weapons capabilities, 
but Id strongly recommend you fit a Particle Beam, wherever possible, in all your 
suits, as its long range makes it invaluable for knocking out turrets from a 
distance. The Laser and Fusion Rifle are best for close-quarter combat - obviously 
- but should also be used for taking down drones, since the other weapons fire 
rates make them too slow to pick off the speeding robots effectively. 

Mission 17 - Operation Conductor
Heres one of Terra Novas earliest attempts to wrongfoot you - and it usually 
works. The briefing states that youre to meet with a guarded convoy, but when 
you turn up theres nothing but a few blackened patches of grass, and no convoy 
for miles. Less capable squad leaders have been known to wander the landscape 
for days, but all you need to do is follow the road south, take the right-hand fork 
(as indicated by the smoking patch of grass), then carry on down the south-
western path. Dont get put off by the fact that the road doesnt show up on the 
map after a while; persevere, and youll eventually reach a rocky area, where 
youll have to engage some Swooper drones. Continue down the road and, right at 
the end, youll find the missing convoy, now heavily guarded by Heg troops. Go 
easy on the grenades as you assault the position, or youll torch the trucks. Oh, 
and watch out for an ambush on the return journey - scout ahead to pick off the 
marauding patrols before they hit the procession.

Mission 19 - Operation Goblin
Oh, this is a big upset. It works best as a surprise, of course, so if you havent got 
this far yet I strongly advise you not to read the rest of this paragraph. The bad 
news for those still reading is that theres no way to save Schuyler. His deaths 
worked into the plot and theres no way around it. All you can do is concentrate 
on getting yourself out - just run for the pickup point at full speed. Dont even try 
to help your mates until youve reached the dropship, when you can turn around 
and pick off some drones with your Particle Beam if you like, while youre 
waiting for the surviving pair to catch up.

Mission 26 - Operation Cold War
Slightly annoyingly, theres only one way to complete this mission; a little bit 
more flexibility to experiment with the pirate PBA wouldve been fun, but if you 
dont follow this prescribed plan of attack, youre finished. Head west, ignoring 
the frolicking pirates, then drop down onto the base and stand by the relay station. 
Activate the scanning device and wait a few moments; you should see a couple of 
guards patrolling in front of you. The second the transmissions intercepted, run 
straight forward, ignoring both the towers and the guards. If you try to shoot 
anything, youll quickly be overwhelmed. Instead, run off the ledge and into the 
ravine, then run along the river, on the left-hand bank, until youre next to the 
dropship. There should be a small cleared area to give you a little manoeuvring 
space; turn left and use it to lift yourself out of the ravine and up to the ship. Made 
it!

Mission 29 - Operation Sparkplug
This is probably the toughest mission of all - its certainly the most frustrating. 
There are many ways to try and tackle it, but after a few hundred attempts I can 
tell you that the strategy with the highest chance of success is as follows. First, kit 
out your team with Personal Shield ASFs, Heavy Suits, Ionic Fusion Rifles, 
Grenade Launchers and Missile Launchers. While youre still in the air from the 
drop, select the entire squad and order them to move to the southern edge of the 
shuttle base. Turn yourself north, and run down the road towards the convoy. 
Half-way down, order each team member, individually, to activate their ASF, then 
switch to your Missile Launcher and activate your own Personal Shield. Ignore 
the drones - theyll only slow you down - then bear right and youll soon catch 
sight of the Heg tank which has come to destroy the convoy. Lock onto it and 
blast it with missiles, then switch to grenades, continue to head towards the 
accompanying infantry, and bomb them too. Pick off the survivors with Ionic fire, 
then turn around and help the rest of your squad to protect the shuttles. Get the 
drones if you can, but make the Heg troops your priority. The faster you get there, 
the more of your team will survive.

Mission 30 - Operation Cadmium
Again, youve got to split your squad here. Immediately on landing, despatch the 
entire squad east to the bridge, then order your demolitions expert to place a 
charge on it. While youre doing this, move north, then skirt the rockslide, 
keeping on the mountainside to the south, and engage the Heg ambush. There are 
three groups of three troops, so youll have to keep your wits about you and move 
quickly. Miss any, and theyll get the speedily arriving convoy. In the midst of the 
firefight, your demolitions man will probably finish laying his charges, while the 
other two team members cover him from the attacking drones. Immediately order 
him to detonate the explosives, and command the squad to follow you. Forge 
ahead on the Eastern road towards the base, and you should come across a fairly 
obvious ambush site - a high ravine. Neutralise theclones that are lying in wait for 
the convoy, and take out the Heg mechs on the south side of the bridge while 
youre waiting for the convoy to reach the base.

Mission 37 - Operation Absolute Zero
The long-range capacity of the Particle Beam is the key to successful completion 
of this notoriously tricky final mission. First, order your brother to stand and wait, 
then lead your two remaining squad members towards the station and pick off the 
initial few clones who come out to meet you. Now destroy the two westerly heavy 
guard towers by running towards them firing your Particle Beam. Keep moving 
and the missiles will fall behind you, while your weapons long range gives you 
enough time to take out the structures before you run into the perimeter wall.
If you stand in the opening of the western wall, you should just be able to pick off 
another gun turret, too. Youll probably attract a few clones, but just retreat and 
take them down in the open space. Next, head around the wall until youre facing 
the south side of the complex. Again, approach the gap in the wall and destroy a 
turret. Clones will attempt to counter-attack, but so long as you dont allow 
yourself to go too far into the station youll always be able to pull out quickly and 
pick them off as they stroll through the gap in the wall.
Destroy the south-easterly heavy guard tower, and at least one of the heavy turrets 
in the centre of the complex. Use your M-B Accelerator wherever possible to gain 
invaluable extra range. Youll probably be attracting quite a lot of attention by 
now, and may have lost at least one of your companions, but dont worry. Keep 
activating your personal shield whenever you enter the station, and stay cool. 
When youve done as much damage as you think you can - in other words, when 
your front shields depleted and your two companions have evacuated - make one 
last sortie, lead as many clones as you can away to the south, then tell your 
brother to set the charges. Depending on how well you managed to deplete the 
forces inside the station, hell probably manage to set the explosives, although its 
by no means certain hell make it out. That doesnt matter - just run for the pickup 
point, press enter when you reach the dropship and marvel at the satisfying but 
all-too-brief end sequence. 
