Recap pages are Spoilers Off by default, so in all these pages all spoilers are unmarked. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned
After obtaining information about the Strogg Gravity Well, Stepchild enters the Hangars area, a huge section full of dangers and enemies ready to make his life a living hell, including one at the very end that will make him fight for his life.
The levels of the area are "Research Hangar", "Waste Processing", "Waste Disposal" and "Maintenance Hangars", and the main task is to secure and prepare an experimental Strogg Fighter.
Followed by the Warehouse Unit.
These levels show examples of:
- Ability Required to Proceed: In "Research Hangar", the Airstrike Marker that a Gladiator is guarding is later placed in an artillery room. Said room has a gun that destroys the hangar doors before it is taken down by the airstrike.
- Adaptation Expansion: Downplayed. The levels are more or less the same as they originally were. However this unit in the 2023 remaster introduces the previously cut weapon Disruptor near the end of the first part of "Research Hangars". It also eases the Guide Dang It! level of the Invulnerability secret of "Maintenance Hangars".
- Artificial Stupidity: There's a Gunner and an Enforcer that will run towards the player in "Waste Processing" and eat the deadly green lasers in the process.
- Book Ends: The Unit starts and ends in the level "Research Hangar".
- Broken Bridge:
- The exit from the unit is located on the other side of a lava river in "Research Hangar".
- The exit from the level "Waste Processing" is located on the other side of a lava river which must be filtered and turned into water.
- Creator Cameo: Much like the "Willits" Easter Egg in "Security Complex", there's an egg in "Research Hangar" with a crashed pod referencing a dev of the game, in this case, Berenger "Zor" Fish. The inscription "ZOR" is also found in an area only visible via noclip.
- Death from Above:
- "Research Hangars": Once the Airstrike Marker is placed, the player has a few seconds to get out before the anti-aircraft gun is destroyed by enemy fire and the area is rendered inoperable.
- "Waste Disposal": In the first container conveyor room, the platform next to the entrance to the area will blow up and fall.
- Death Trap:
- The container conveyors scattered across some of the levels, when they're active.
- Not only does the reactor of "Waste Processing" has an engine, which can destroy you when you step on it, but if you get trapped in the area, it slowly takes your health until you die.
- Two of the pipes in the pipe room of "Waste Disposal" are cracked and will release a toxic gas that destroys anything inside of it and damages over time anything nearby it.
- Explosive Decompression: Found in the level "Research Hangar". Go ahead, try to see what's at the end of those pitch black tunnels after the Carrier fight.
- Fast-Killing Radiation: The level "Water Disposal" contains a reactor that Stepchild must enter to activate it. The problem is, once the reactor is activated, the player has a time window where they must get out of the reactor before the door closes. Once the doors are closed, there's no way to escape the area and everything inside of it (except Turrets) is killed. And not even the "God" cheat code will save them.
- Game-Breaking Bug: Some source ports break the level "Waste Disposal". In that game, you need to jump over a fan shaft to be pushed up to the next level. What happens instead is that you get sucked down and killed, never being able to leave the map without cheating.
- Guide Dang It!: Two from "Maintenance Hangars":
- To obtain the secret Ammo Pack, you need to avoid shooting the explosive barrel near the computer in the room closer to the entrance and shoot at one of the computer racks in front of said computer. Failure to do so will prevent the secret from being discovered.
- To obtain the secret Invulnerability, you must come from the "Waste Disposal" level taking the Cargo Lift (thus completing all of the missions), then try not to get fried by the incinerator's conveyor belt, then take the elevator and step above one of the caps, then look for a shootable button. The item will fall into a container that hasn't been released, so go and take the Environment Suit located in that area and then try to swim into the opened containers and get the item, taking care of not getting dissolved (by enclosing yourself into a closed container) or incinerated (if you manage to get to the incinerating part with the Enviro), whichever comes first.
The 2023 remastered version of the level mitigates the GDI factor. All containers are empty when they enter the area, making it trivial to see which container has the Invulnerability item.
- Monster Closet:
- "Research Hangars":
- Right at the start, there's a chamber that's revealed with a wall explosion, from where a Medic and a Gladiator come from.
- Stepping in the window intersection of the first corridor after the elevator triggers two explosions on the floor from where two Berserkers emerge.
- Returning from "Maintenance Hangars", this is how the Mid-Boss appears: once the arena's entered, a ceiling explosion will reveal it.
- "Waste Processing":
- Approaching the back of the first elevator will open three chambers in the area it belongs, releasing a Gladiator, two Gunners and two Daedaluses.
- Activating the Reactor will open two hidden chambers, from where two Technicians will come out. Since the area's going to be filled with radiation, you better escape and ignore them. They'll die anyway.
- After activating the Reactor, a secret chamber will be revealed next to the sludge pool room, from where a Gladiator will come from. Similar closets containing Gladiators and Technicians are opened on your way to the level exit.
- "Waste Disposal":
- After passing the first corridor, the two turnings explode and reveal four Flyers, two on each turning.
- Entering into the scanner and it revealing the presence of a "humanoid lifeform" releases two Gunners from a secret chamber that also contains the cables powering up the red lasers.
- Right after the chamber of the buried containers, turning right and following the path will trigger a wall explosion behind revealing a Stalker.
- "Maintenance Hangars":
- There's a wall near the entrance which contains a secret Double Damage and a Mutant. It must be blown up manually.
- After activating the primary door, two hidden chambers are revealed from which two Gunners emerge.
- On the way back to the "Research Hangars" level, the player finds two chambers from where two Berserkers come from.
- Once the Body Armor platform was lowered (a sign of a trap), a Gladiator will (somehow) create an opening on the wall in front of the player and blow it.
- "Research Hangars":
- No Fair Cheating: These deadly hazards will still work even with the "God" Classic Cheat Code active:
- Getting trapped in the Reactor in "Waste Processing".
- Stepping into the container conveyors in "Waste Disposal".
- Permanently Missable Content: Two from "Maintenance Hangars":
- There's a section where you must turn on a reactor, and once it's activated you have a frame time of 15 seconds to escape from the area before dying slowly from radiation, and not even the God cheat code can save you from death. This area also holds a secret Megahealth, so you better pick it up and every item the area holds before pressing the button or the time expires.
- There's one secret right after the player comes from completing all of the objectives in the "Waste Disposal" level, whose execution can be annoying and require swiss-clock precision: the player must try not to get fried by the incinerator's conveyor belt, go to the upper floor, drop above one of the caps, and look for a shootable button. A secret Invulnerability will fall into one of these containers. Which one to look for is a case of Trial-and-Error Gameplay, but "Quick Save" and "Quick Load" are your friends here. And not only there's a chance of missing this item, but the player may also get locked into one of these containers and killed.
- Rewarding Vandalism: "Research Hangars" has some stuff that can be destroyed to get goodies:
- The first secret requires you to shoot into a button located atop a pillar in the room after the big first room. This prompts the pillar to fall and break a water conduit, filling the room and short-circuiting the laser that guards the Body Armor. The conduit itself also has an Adrenaline.
- The last secret requires you to blow up the tallest computer in the room you enter after returning from "Maintenance Hangars".
- Suspiciously Cracked Wall: Three at "Waste Disposal":
- Right at the beginning of the level there's a broken section in the floor (next to the ETF Rifle) that leads to a secret Double Damage.
- In the buried containers cave, one of these has a cracked seal which can be destroyed.
- In the chamber where the power conduit override is destroyed, two pipes have broken sections that can be destroyed and instantly damage anybody who goes near them.
- Teleporting Keycard Squad: On "Maintenance Hangars", on your way back to "Waste Disposal", two Daedaluses will spawn outside.
- Unique Enemy: The Mutant that emerges from behind a destroyable wall in "Maintenance Hangars" is the only one fought in the entire mission pack.
- Vent Physics: "Waste Disposal" has a part where the player must jump into a fan to proceed to "Maintenance Hangars".
