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Background: The Royale Apartments

You roll up on the most impressive bit of tenement squalor you've seen in a long time. There's few streetlamps here, and what light there is flickers with uncertainty. Most of the buildings are damaged and tagged. The smell of old, rotting trash mixed with you-don't-want-to-know is overwhelming.

It's no wonder people living here turn to BTLs. Anything's better than this. The Better Than Life chip is the newest drug on the market. You don't need a good life -- you can slot someone else's, live through them, and wreck your brain in the process.

The front doors of the Royale Apartments aren't even locked. As you step inside, you can hear a junkie crying for another hit. It's time to find Coyote, and find out what she knows about the night of Sam's murder.


Background: The Penthouse Suite

Stevie J's penthouse apartment might have been nice at one point in time. Classic, even. But now it's filled with neon tube lighting, broken-down furniture, piles of rubbish, and crates containing who-knows-what. Still -- compared to the rest of what you've seen, it's positively palatial.

The only thing marring the penthouse's pseudo luxury is a woman's cry of pain in the distance, followed by laughter. Someone being tortured, for another's pleasure.

You step deeper into the apartment...


Karma Points

• [1]  Save Zipper for Symp (#6).
• [3]  Gain access to the Penthouse (Exit A or B).
• [3]  Enter Coyote's cell (#8).
• [3]  Wipe out Stevie J and his gang.
• [1]  Steal Rare Stones from Stevie J (#9).

Walkthrough

You'll meet a depressing collection of residents on the Ground Floor of the apartment building. If you talk to the Sad Old Man (#2), then you'll learn that a "pretty young thing" -- aka Coyote -- came through the building earlier, and that shortly afterwards a gunfight erupted in the Penthouse where Stevie J lives. Unfortunately, Coyote never came back down. That means you'll have to go up and rescue her. There are three basic ways for you to do this:

• With Charisma 4 or Strength 4 -- or Charisma 3 if you move a nearby dresser (#3) first -- you can convince the Sad Old Man (#2) to let you into his apartment (#4), which will give you access to a staircase (Exit A). After moving the dresser, you can also using Spirit Summoning or Drone Control to get the apartment door open without the Sad Old Man's consent.
  
  
• After dealing with Ryker et al (see #6), you might up with a BTL recording. If you acquired it without anybody in the Penthouse noticing, then you'll be able to use the intercom next to the elevator (Exit B) to bluff your way up.
  
  
• After dealing with Ryker et al (see #6), you might end up with the passcode for the elevator (Exit B), which will allow you to use it without a bluff.

When you reach the Penthouse, if you didn't bluff anybody to get there, then combat mode will automatically start, even if no enemies are nearby. This will force you to fight your way to Coyote (#12).

If you bluffed your way to the Penthouse, then when you arrive, Tranq will tell you where to find Coyote. However, when you enter her cell (#12), combat mode will start up, and Stevie J and a bunch of his goons will immediately rush over to confront you. This will put you into a bad situation right from the start, but if you talk to Coyote, then she (and her Benelli Raffaello shotgun) will help you out.

That is, no matter how you approach the Penthouse, you'll have to fight everybody up there. For the easiest battle, we'd recommend attacking Ryker on the Ground Floor and then killing Tranq and Harker when they come down to investigate. That will thin out the ranks upstairs. Then if you go up via the staircase (Exit A), you'll show up behind Stevie J's goons, and you'll have a convenient row of cover to hide behind so you can shoot enemies as they come into view. Depending on how the battle goes, you might have to send somebody out to lure enemies back to you. You might also have time to rescue Coyote so she can help you out.

Note: Don't forget that Paco has an Uzi III that he can use instead of his Baseball Bat.

At the end of the battle, you'll earn 3 karma points for wiping out Stevie J and his gang. When you enter Coyote's cell (either before or after completing the battle), you'll earn another 3 points. Then when you talk to Coyote, you'll learn that she came to the Penthouse to steal a stash of gems for the fixer Mr. Delilah -- plus kill Stevie J. But she'll be in bad shape after being tortured in her cell, and you'll have to send her and Paco back to the Seamstresses Union, and look for the gems on your own. Or you can just leave, too, but then you'll miss out on a karma point.

When Stevie J died, he should have dropped a set of passcodes. These codes will allow you to enter his bedroom (#9), where you'll get attacked by a hellhound named Serrano. After winning the fight, you'll find a set of Rare Stones in Stevie J's safe. Picking them up will earn you 1 karma point.

To complete the mission, you'll just need to use the elevator (Exit B).


1 - Tweaker

The tweaker is a BTL addict. She won't tell you anything useful.


2 - Sad Old Man


3 - Dresser

Moving the dresser here will give you a view of the staircase behind it (Exit A).


4 - Sad Old Man's Apartment


5 - Hallway

When you approach the hallway here, you'll witness a conversation between Symp and Ryker, and you'll learn that Ryker has taken Symp's son Zipper as payment for some sort of debt. Once the two men have finished talking, they'll move to their apartments (#6, #7).


6 - Symp's Apartment

Inside this apartment, you'll meet Symp. He'll tell you that Ryker has kidnapped his son Zipper so Zipper can "star" in a torture BTL for Stevie J upstairs. Symp will then ask you to rescue Zipper. You'll have two ways to do this:

• You can work with Ryker (#7). With Intelligence 3 or the Street etiquette, you can convince Ryker that he's better off taking your side rather than sticking with Stevie J. This will cause Ryker to give you the passcode to the elevator (Exit B) and open the door to the BTL studio (#8).
  
  
• You can attack Ryker. This will cause him to flee to the elevator (Exit B) and call for help. If he's successful, then Tranq and Harker will come down and assist him. This isn't necessarily a bad thing since it means you'll face fewer enemies in the Penthouse. If Ryker doesn't make it to the elevator, then you'll only have to face him (and perhaps Tickler, see below), but you can always call down Tranq later (by threatening him using the intercom by the elevator) if you want.
  
  At the end of the battle(s), you'll find the elevator passcode on Tranq's corpse (or you can get it from Ryker's computer using Decking 3), and you can open up the BTL studio (#8) by using the "reboot studio software" option on Ryker's computer.
  
  Note: If you don't want to fight Tranq and Harker yet, then the easiest way to keep Ryker away from the elevator is to use the Charisma 3 dialogue option when talking to him. This will allow you to ask for a tour of the studio, which Ryker will be happy to oblige. Then when the battle starts up, you'll get to go first, and you should be able to kill Ryker before he can run off.

When you enter the BTL studio (#8), you'll meet Zipper and Tickler, and you'll have to decide what to do about Tickler -- kill him or let him go. It won't make any difference in the game. Regardless of your choice, with Tickler and Ryker no longer threats, Zipper will be free, and you'll earn 1 karma point for saving him.

Note: In the back of Symp's apartment, you'll find Jazz.


7 - Ryker's Apartment


8 - Torture Chamber

You can loot the BTL recording from this chamber. You can also get a copy from Ryker's computer (#7) using Decking 2.


9 - Stevie J's Room


10 - Storage Room

You'll need Stevie J's passcodes (dropped when he dies) to enter this room. Inside, you'll find an Advanced Medkit and 25 nuyen.


11 - Hellhound Cage

If you have the Zebra Meat from Manny at the Pike Place Market, then when you click on the cage door, you'll be able to feed the meat to the hellhounds in the cage, which will cause them to ignore you. Otherwise, they'll attack you. The hellhounds can attack you through the cage door, so you should feed them as quickly as possible.


12 - Coyote's Cell


Exits

1. Staircase.
2. Elevator.