Chapter 9: Nova Prospekt

Open the door and walk down the steps. To your left will be a prison cell with a hole in the back of it 1. Climb in and kill the headcrab there. Go out the door and to the right. Use your gravity gun to knock over the turret that is sitting there shooting antlions. Keep going right 2 and up the steps. Climb over the broken fence 3 and follow the path around to the left. In the small rooms around there are supplies. Two more turrets appear 4; these you can push over with the gravity gun 5 or pick them up and throw them 6. (Note: The turrets start shooting randomly for a few seconds when knocked over so be careful not to get shot.) Through the next door is a flooded room. Make your way to the steps on the other side; watch out for barnacles 7. Exit the room by climbing the steps and following the catwalk to a door. Ascend the debris into the next area 8. Three fast headcrabs fall through a skylight. In the next section, you’ll be in another prison block. There’s a hole in the floor itself (not the one in the middle of the room): drop through it and go into the next area.

Two turrets are perched above you. Using your gravity gun, lob barrels at them to knock them over so they can’t shoot you 9. If you run out of barrels, you can pull radiators off the wall and throw them. At the top of the stairs are two sealed doors, but a window next to them has been broken and is boarded up 10. Smash through the wood and jump through: there are supplies in here. Exit the same way and continue up the stairs. Look left and make sure the turrets are completely on their side and not leaning up against anything. If they’re not totally on the floor, they’ll still be active and will shoot you. Go to the right and round the corner. There’s a supply crate here with a headcrab behind it. Grab the stuff, kill the crab, and bash the boxes on front of you. At the end of the hallway save your game 11. When you leap over the fence to the floor below, an antlion guard plows through the wall 12. Throw everything you’ve got and kill it as fast as possible, being sure to keep moving to avoid taking serious damage. Note: you don’t have to remain in that little room. There is a hole in a wall you can crawl through or you can go out the door the antlion guard came in through, but remember that it will follow you.

Once the antlion guard is dead, go into the main room that it came through. There is a door opposite the row of sinks. Clear everything out of the way of it 13. (At this point, the normal antlions will start spawning again and will continue following you, helping kill enemies.) Hang a right and battle the combine there. Around the next corner are more combine and manhacks as well as combine turrets. (Don’t forget to look up!) These cannot be destroyed so you have to knock them to the floor. Be wary, though: there is one turret you can’t reach at the moment because a gate is blocking it; however, it does have the capability to shoot you. More combine will appear behind you shortly through a door they open. When you enter this next area, there will also be more manhacks. In the corner is a room blocked off by a force field 14. Two combine are behind it and normally don’t come out until you go over there. Kill them and shoot the plug that is powering the field (you can also pull it off with the gravity gun). Go into the little guard shack on the right and flip the switch on the wall. Return to the former room and start walking back to the first room with all those combine. Don’t go that far, however; there is a hallway on the left. Go there and up the steps. You’ll see a red beam crossing the floor. Jump over this; it’s the laser beam for a trip mine. Watch out, though; the antlions following you will trip it. In the next room there are some combine and a button. Vaporize the combine and push the button 15. Back out in the hallway, go left, gather the supplies all around that upper catwalk, then drop down and return to the main room.

The path forward is to the left. Sprint across the hall, knock over the turret, and go through the vent in the floor on the left 16. There is a small room here with a massive fan and a lot of debris on the floor 17. Using your gravity gun, take an object and wedge it in the fan’s path to stop it 18. The recommended item is the large board, but the shovel, cinder block, or bucket will work fine so long as you do it properly (stick it in between the blades and the big metal cross bar). Crawl under the fan and into the opposite vent. Shoot the combine that’s on the other side. Deal with the plug on the wall how you want, then go right and knock over the turrets. Turn around, go back, gather the supplies, and go to the right 19.

In this next area will be a large staircase. Save before ascending it. At the top are a series of trip mines and lots of combine, including a turreted pulse rifle 20. Kill the combine, being careful not to explode yourself on the mine. Near the end of that cell block is a path on the right. The next area has some explosive barrels and turrets. Either use the barrels to knock over the turrets or shoot them before you get close because if the turrets hit them, you’re toast. There will be some manhacks in the next area. Shoot them and climb the stairs. As you get to the end of the catwalk, a combine rounds the corner 21. Quickly dispatch him with a double-tap from your shotty. More combine appear and another will man the turreted gun. Shoot them all and climb the next set of steps. There are even more combine up here. Walk towards where a catwalk bridges the central portion of the cell block and go left, careful of the mine. Keep going, kill the next set of combine, and go left into the room. There are two or three combine in here and a turret in a closet. If you’re quick, you’ll be able to kill the combine and shut the closet door before either enemy does serious damage to you. If you’re too slow, well, then you’ll be Swiss cheese. On the wall under the monitor is a row of switches 22. Flip the only one it lets you then exit the room and go straight. More combine appear on the right, but you want to keep going straight.

There is a guard shack in this hallway that has supplies and a health charger 23. Combine soldiers await you around the next corner, hiding behind tables, mattresses, and other such things. It will help to toss a grenade or two around the corner instead of bum-rushing the enemy. Two turrets are situated at the end of the next hallway. Duck into the room on your right, and shoot the mine in the adjacent room. Enter that and now you’ll be next to the turrets: they won’t see you and therefore won’t shoot you. Knock them over and enter the laundry room.

Numerous combine and two turrets are in here, but luckily the antlions following you do a lot to help. With everything dead, look for a small hallway on the right blocked by a low fence 24. Back here are supplies, a health charger 25, and a poison zombie in a dark corner. If you go down the path that is closer to where you entered the room, the zombie will be on the left. It will come out and attack you if you go straight to gathering supplies. Exit the laundry room by going up the steps and moving off to the right 26.

Combine are waiting for you here and have set up mines across the floor. Almost immediately on the left is a dark hallway with two turrets at the end. Don’t try to deal with these; you’ll only end up dead. Instead, kill the entire combine force (including ones in a room vaguely off to the right) 27 and enter the kitchen 28. Two turrets are in here. If you’re quick about knocking them over, they won’t ignite the gas leak caused by an antlion bursting into the room by shoving a stove out of its way. If the turrets don’t start a fire, crawl out of the kitchen through the hole the antlion made 29; if there is a fire, just go out the door. Either way, crouch down to hide behind the barrier on the other side of the wall. On the stairs across the room are two combine and two turrets. Kill them and climb the steps.

Your next path is to the left. When you follow it around, you’ll be in a room with two combine, one in front of you, the other behind. Kill them and charge your suite with the charger on the wall. Jump out the window next to the charger 30. Five combine will appear followed by an antlion guard. The combine ignore you and shoot at the antlion guard. They won’t kill it, however. You will have to. Once done, go to the upper left hand corner of the room (from where the antlion guard entered). Use your gravity gun to push the debris and dumpsters out of the way 31. Walk forward and the path will be on your right. You need to be fast here. The citadel is moving forward in this spot and will crush you if you don’t get out fast enough. The exit is a little ledge above you on the left, about halfway down the path 32. You’ll need a box to jump on to hop out. After you get out, a headcrab will leap at you and the citadel will block that path. Go left and fall down the hole. You made it through the level... but unfortunately for you, you're still stuck in Nova Prospekt!

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