This FAQ/Strategy Guide is (c) 2003-04 G. Kern. All rights reserved. If you would like permission to display this guide on your site, contact the author (contact information in Credits). This FAQ/Strategy Guide is available for use via two sites currently: www.whatisexistence.com www.GameFAQs.com Ask if you'd like to host this guide. AIM: its just Gene If you have anything to add to the guide, let me know! CURRENT VERSION: v 0.9 -First public release. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Section I Introduction i. What is Existence? ii. Where do I get the game? iii. What is the goal of the game? Section II Gameplay i. The Flow of Existence ii. Purchasing Weapons/Equipment/Abilities iii. Using Weapons/Equipment/Abilities Section III Weapon Analyzation i. Rebel Weaponry ii. Agent Weaponry iii. Equipment Section IV Strategy i. General Strategy ii. Weapon Strategy iii. Map Strategy Section V Credits ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ********************** * Section I * * Introduction * ********************** i. What is Existence? ---------------------- A cyberpunk themed Half-Life modification. It is team-based, and you work with your team of characters to achieve a goal, or destroy the opposing team. You can play as the defiant Rebel Force, or the elite guard of Neurotek, the infected human agents. ii. Where do I get the game? ----------------------------- I direct you to the mod's homepage: www.whatisexistence.com. There, you will find numerous mirrors to download the file at. Once you download the file into your Half-Life directory, you can install it, and play it as you would any other Half-life "Custom Game". iii. What is the goal of the game? ----------------------------------- REBELS: Ensure Dr. White lives, as you plant the C4 at the Neurotek Bomb Site. The C4 is randomly given to a rebel at the start of the round, and cannot be dropped unless said rebel dies. Once the bomb is planted, it goes off in 30 seconds, which is when Dr. White must escape via any phone. To do this, the "hardline" must be turned on. The Hardline is the electrical generator you see on every map, and you turn it on by pressing your "USE" key up close. AGENTS: Apprehend Dr. White any way possible. If Dr. White dies, he gets teleported to his holding cell, which the location of varies by map. If he is kept there for 3 minutes (or whatever sv_jailtime is set to on the server), the Agents are victorious. Alternatively, the round ends when either all Rebels are dead, or all Agents are dead. ********************** * Section II * * Gameplay * ********************** i. The Flow of Existence ------------------------- Existence goes by round. It was stated earlier how to win each round, and the winner of each round gets one point added to their Score. When the map time runs out, the game waits for the last round to end, then displays the scores, and the next map in the cycle is loaded. In the beginning of a new map, nobody has any Loading Points (LP from here on out), so the first round is fought using Pistols, and is also known as the Pistol Round. After that round, LP begins to accumulate, via kills, round wins, C4 successfully going off, and other such things. At the beginning of the round, until 90 seconds has passed, you can equip your Cell phone, and press the "Fire" button to bring up the Buy Menu. From here, you can use your earned LP to purchase Primary and secondary weapons, as well as Armor, grenades, and even abilities for use during the game. Dr. White MUST be in the game to play. If you join the rebel team, you automatically become White if no one else is. If you die as White, you are imprisoned in the cell. In certain maps, you may be able to escape yourself with some good thinking. But generally, you are at the mercy of your teammates, and they must rescue you. If while you are in prison, all your teammates die, the Agents win the round. If you are a rebel aside from White, and die, you become a Civilian. Civilians have only 10HP, a pistol, and a knife. You have infinite lives as a Civilian, so don't be afraid to take chances. However, you are counted as "dead", so if all the other rebels become Civilians, and White is in jail, Agents win. Agents, on the other hand, have no one to protect. If any agent dies, they respawn as a Swat member, rather than a civilian. Swat members are the same deal, though: pistol, knife, 10HP. If all Agents are reduced to Swat members, Rebels win. The Rebels can also win by bombing, and Dr. White escaping afterwards via phone. C4 is randomly given to a rebel at the start of a round. This can even be given to White. This person must get to the bomb area of the map, then crouch to plant it (instructions appear on screen as you get in the bombing area). The bomb CANNOT be defused, so escape as fast as possible. The bomb goes off in 30 seconds, and anyone anywhere NEAR the blast area dies instantly. Even if you are an Agent, RUN. Once the bomb goes off, White now must escape. If you are an Agent, you should guard the hardline,because if that is on, phones are accessible, and White may escape if he gets to one. Meanwhile, if you are a rebel, ensure the hardline is on, and that no Agent has switched it off, and escourt White to a phone of any sort. White can now simply "USE" the phone, and you win the round! That is the general flow of the game. It is very fast-paced: the quicker you can buy your gear, the better. Getting the jump on your opponent is key. Generally, Agents want to kill White and keep him holed up, and the rebels want to get the bomb planted. It's quite simple; really. ii. Purchasing Weapons/Equipment/Abilities --------------------------------------------- Whip out your cellphone (default: 1). Use your "Fire" key, and select your category. From there, you can click to buy, or use the numbers given as hotkeys. Note that after 90 seconds has passed, only abilities can be purchased. Ammo can be purchased for the first 90 seconds as well, with the default f9 and f10 keys, or you can of course reassign those to any key you'd like. Learn to do this fast, and even while moving, if you can! Time spent hanging around buying is time wasted. iii. Using Weapons/Equipment/Abilities ---------------------------------------- WEAPONS: Fire1 will always fire the gun, obviously. Fire2's usage varies by gun, some have no Fire2 use. Any dual gun, Fire2 will fire the second gun. With scoped weapons, Fire2 will zoom in. With the AK47, the Fire2 will stab with the sharp edge. The XM, the Agent's superweapon, fires an explosive round with Fire2. EQUIPMENT: Armor is automatically used. Grenades, you simply select (default: 5), and hold button down until when you want to throw it. Once it's thrown, two seconds later it blows. ABILITIES: Crouch, then jump. You have 3 uses before it runs out and you must re-purchase. 1. Long Jump: Sends you FLYING forward in a long leap. Has practical uses in escaping, making rooftop to rooftop jumps, and giving you time to reload against an opponent who is firing at you. It's so fast that you can do it, pull a quick 180, and most likely startle your opponent! VERY useful. 2. High Jump: HUGE vertical leap, that when done, disables fall damage. This means you can use this to safely descend (QUICKLY, I might add) off very high places. You can also use it as you would the Long Jump, to safely reload or confuse your opponent in a duel. It also allows you to get to some areas you could not normally access, including good sniping points, other entryways to certain buildings, and more. 3. Speed Boost: Just slightly increases your speed for 5 seconds. The boost you get from this is less than you'd get if you made one Long Jump forward, so in all honesty, this ability is completely and totally worthless as of Beta 1.4. Buy Long Jump instead. ********************** * Section III * * Weapon Analyzation * ********************** Ah, weapons. The bread and butter of the game. The Rebels and Agents each have their own unique stash of purchasable weapons. However, any team can use any weapon if you pick it up on the battlefield from a slain enemy. Keep that in mind. Here is the template for weapon descriptions: NAME OF WEAPON (LP Cost) PRIMARY/SECONDARY CLIP SIZE: MAX AMMUNITION: RATE OF FIRE: ACCURACY: (Perfect, good, bad, etc.) WEAPON RATING: (* to ***** stars) (description) i. Rebel Weaponry ------------------ 1. USP Match (100 Loading Points) SECONDARY Clip Size: 17 Max Ammunition: 30 Rate of Fire: 1 bullet/s Accuracy: Very Good Rating: * -The most basic weapon, and what you begin with, so you'll never need to purchase one. It's only worthwhile if you have access to nothing else. However, work on your skills with it, as it's what you'll be using 90% of the time as a Civilian, and opening round of the game will likely be all pistols. 2. Dual Beretta (200 Loading Points) SECONDARY Clip Size: 17 Max Ammunition: 50 Rate of Fire: 2 bullet/s Accuracy: Very Good Rating: **** -For 200 loading points, you can NOT go wrong with this. Sure, it's just two normal pistols, but if you alternate your fire (left, right, left right) fast enough, you can do heavy damage in a short period of time, and also 'stun' the victim a little. Also, the rate of fire is understated, as you can get off more than 2 bullets per second if you fire very fast. On top of all this, it's a Secondary, so you can keep it as a backup! 3. AK47 (600 Loading Points) PRIMARY Clip Size: 30 Max Ammunition: 120 Rate of Fire: 10 bullet/s Accuracy: Horrible Rating: * -I don't recommend buying this. For it's cost, it does not justify the damage, rate of fire, and general inaccuracy. You'd be better off with the duel berettas. It does have a secondary fire which stabs with the knife on the front of the gun for good damage, but close combat is not practical very often. 4. Dual MP5s (1000 Loading Points) PRIMARY Clip Size: 50 Max Ammunition: 250 Rate of Fire: 18 bullet/s Accuracy: Very Good Rating: ** -Sort of pointless when the Dual Scorpions are only 200 points more, and almost completely better. Other than that, they are nearly the same. 5. Dual Scorpions (1200 Loading Points) PRIMARY Clip Size: 60 Max Ammunition: 200 Rate of Fire: 23 bullet/s Accuracy: Very Good Rating: **** -Very nice set of guns. When you fire with them, they vibrate a little, but wherever your crosshair is, they WILL hit, no matter how far away. For this reason, their accuracy is great. You can actually use these to pick off enemies from far away, and since it fires so fast, it kills very effeciently. The only downside is how fast the clip runs out. Take cover when reloading so you don't get fragged, and try to make your shots count! 6. Stoner Silencer (1300 Loading Points) PRIMARY Clip Size: 50 Max Ammunition: 120 Rate of Fire: 12 bullet/s Accuracy: Below Average Rating: ** -Not much cheaper than it's big brother, but yet it takes a hit in Rate of Fire, and the fact that it's "silenced" doesn't help much. VERY damaging, but my advice is to toss the extra points towards the Stoner Scope instead. 7. Stoner Scope (1500 Loading Points) PRIMARY Clip Size: 50 Max Ammunition: 120 Rate of Fire: 18 bullet/s Accuracy: Below Average Rating: **** -Sure, the accuracy isn't too good, so the zoom won't be TOO helpful. However, this is such a damaging gun, it doesn't matter much. I rank it higher than it's silenced brother because the scope is much more handy than it being "silenced". Also, this Stoner variation seems more accurate, but that may be just me. Overall, very solid, damaging gun, worth the cost. 8. Arctic Warfare Magnum (2200 Loading Points) PRIMARY Clip Size: 7 Max Ammunition: 50 Rate of Fire: 1 bullet/2s Accuracy: Dead On Rating: ***** -Ridiculously good. Wherever that crosshair is, is where the bullet will go, whether you're running, jumping, crouching, falling, you name it. It only has a crosshair zoomed out, though, so you have to go by instinct up close. Not exactly a fast firing rate either, so make the shots count. Then again, one shot is all it will take on most victims, unless they have level 2 armor. Yes, a chest shot HURTS with one of these. 9. Vulcan (3200 Loading Points) PRIMARY Clip Size: 150 Max Ammunition: 250 Rate of Fire: A Freaking Lot of Bullets/s Accuracy: Good Rating: ***** -The Rebel's uber weapon. While not as dangerous as the Agent's uber weapon, it's still beyond lethal. It will rip even level 2 armor to shreds in seconds, it can take out entire GROUPS of enemies if you can get the jump on them, and to top it off, you'll hardly ever need to reload thanks to the HUGE clip size. Obviously worth the price. ii. Agent Weaponry ------------------ 1. Beretta (100 Loading Points) SECONDARY Clip Size: 17 Max Ammunition: 30 Rate of Fire: 1 bullet/s Accuracy: Very Good Rating: * -This is the Agent's basic weapon, you always start with it. When you die and respawn as a swat member, this is also your main weapon. As such, learn to use it, as you'll be needing to use it at times. But everything else is better, obviously. 2. Desert Eagle (300 Loading Points) SECONDARY Clip Size: 7 Max Ammunition: 40 Rate of Fire: 1 bullet/s Accuracy: Very Good Rating: *** -For it's price, very good deal. Not a "Dual Berettas for 200LP" good deal, but good anyways. The firing rate is actually slower than 1 shot per second, but the damage is VERY solid. If you have good aim, you'll enjoy this gun a LOT. One shot to the chest of an unarmored victim is peace out for them. NOTE: Some servers using plugins will 'bug' this gun, making it so you cannot buy ammo for it 3. Dual Uzis (650 Loading Points) PRIMARY Clip Size: 30 Max Ammunition: 200 Rate of Fire: 14 bullet/s Accuracy: Below Average Rating: *** -Not too bad for the price. However, they're horribly inaccurate, and blow through their clip like crazy. You'll be reloading a lot most likely, and the reload time isn't exactly speedy. If you can get up close and get the jump on someone though, they are as good as dead. 4. Mp5 (700 Loading Points) PRIMARY Clip Size: 30 Max Ammunition: 120 Rate of Fire: 10 bullet/s Accuracy: Average Rating: **** -Another pretty good deal for the price. The kicker with this little gun, is that is has a scope. Of course, the scope doesn't help the relatively poor accuracy at all, however, it does ensure you'll be aiming at far away enemies dead on. It also has solid, solid power, and can really do damage at close to medium range. 5. SPAS Shotgun (1000 Loading Points) PRIMARY Clip Size: 8 Max Ammunition: 25 Rate of Fire: 1 shell/s Accuracy: Depends on distance from enemy. Rating: * -I find this gun very shoddy for it's price. It only does intense damage up close. From far, and even medium distances, it takes AWHILE to drop someone. And up close, you are better off using a rapid-firing weapon to kill, as it will do the job faster than this! Hell, I would say take the Desert Eagle over this if you want raw power. This is simply not worth the LP you'll pay. 6. M16 (1200 Loading Points) PRIMARY Clip Size: 50 Max Ammunition: 120 Rate of Fire: 18 bullet/s Accuracy: Above Average Rating: ***** -Relatively accurate, VERY damaging bullets. Will kill intensly fast up close, and from a distance, can do enough to make someone think twice about engaging you. Big clip, so reloading is hardly ever a problem. All this is rolled into one package for 1200 loading points. You can't really go wrong here. Of course, it lacks the zoom of the Mp5, but it frankly doesn't even need it. 7. Stoner 9mm (1300 Loading Points) PRIMARY Clip Size: 50 Max Ammunition: 120 Rate of Fire: 16 bullet/s Accuracy: Below Average Rating: *** -It is a lot like the M16, only frankly, it's not worth paying more for. In fact, I don't think it even does as much damage. While it is a solid gun by all means, when you can have better for less, there's really no point in going for it. So, stick with the M16 if you're looking for high power and fast firing. 8. PSG (2000 Loading Points) PRIMARY Clip Size: 7 Max Ammunition: 50 Rate of Fire: 1 bullet/2s Accuracy: Dead On Rating: ***** -Good for the same reason the Rebel's AWM is, however, this is 200 LP cheaper, at the cost of a little power. You may not get as many one hit kills with this as you would the AWM, but it hardly matters, because you still weild considerable power. And, JUST like the AWM, it's accuracy never wavers, whether you're jumping, running, rolling, you name it. 9. XM (3200 Loading Points) PRIMARY Clip Size: 50/20 Max Ammunition: 250/20 Rate of Fire: 20 bullet/s Accuracy: Very Good Rating: ***** -The most abusably powerful weapon in the game. It's basic fire, which is just a stream of quite accurate bullets, will rip even Level 2 armor to shreds in about 1.5 seconds. It's secondary fire (which has seperate ammunition, see above) is an explosive shot that will kill in one hit, no matter what, if it connects. Of course, the secondary fire has a little lag between the time you pull the trigger and the time it fires, but does that matter? You don't even need the secondary fire. iii. Equipment --------------- 1. Level 1 Kevlar (1000 Loading Points) -Basic armor. Armor is VERY crucial to success in a lot of cases. This particular armor will about double your lifespan, and you won't need to purchase it every round. They are made to last, and they will, unless you die obviously. If you have 100 health and armor, and are brought to 1hp, you'll still have around 50 armor left. So even under heavy fire, you will get two rounds out of it. Again, INTEGRAL in most cases, get it if you have the cash, possibly over an expensive weapon by itself. 2. Level 2 Kevlar (2000 Loading Points) -Expensive, eh? That's because it's incredibly good. Will last you even longer than the Level 1 most likely, and it takes quite a bit to take someone down wearing this. Whether you opt to get LV2 and a lower tier weapon, or LV1 and a higher tier weapon, is up to you, but know that it's noticably harder to take down someone packing this armor. Very useful. 3. Grenade (250 Loading Points) -Cheap, and somewhat good if you expect the enemy to be camping, or coming in a group. Hold to prime, but it won't go off in your hands. It always goes off 2 seconds after you throw it. You can only hold one at a time, and it doesn't do incredible damage or anything, but it still has it's uses, and the cheapness of them is just another incentive to keep one handy. ********************* * Section IV * * Strategy * ********************* i. General Strategy -------------------- -Don't waste bullets on destroying objects. Use your knife. This includes windows, grates, wooden boards, and such. Saves on reload time, ammo, and is generally quicker. -Speaking of the knife, it HURTS. If you can get sneak up on someone, knifing them is a quick way to catch them a dirt nap, ESPECIALLY if they do not have armor of any sort. -Be stealthy. It's imperative. Map the "walk" key to a convienent key, and use it often. Good players will listen for footsteps, and be ready for your attack. Walking eliminates the footstep sound! -If you are Dr. White, don't go taking insane risks. Your team has to rescue you if you die, and that is a major inconvenience for the Rebels, since the Agents will usually stake out the area of White's cell. -When you die, you come back as a civilian/swat member. Sure, you only have 10hp, but the handgun can do damage, and the knife can simply wreak havoc. Don't underestimate this. Also, deaths are NOT counted when you're a civ/swat. So, go crazy! ii. Weapon Strategy -------------------- COMING SOON! iii. Map Strategy ------------------ COMING SOON! ********************* * Section V * * Credits * ********************* Author: Pidge, who can be found on any Existence server, but usually the {REM} clan's, where he is an admin at (and pings best at). ;) Major Thanks: The Existence Team, for making such a spectacular mod. Keep up the good work, and don't give up no matter what! Thanks: Fireman (REM clan head), for granting me admin to his server and being very nice Ayiga (EX mapmaker), for putting out awesome maps, and listening to me ramble =) The EX Forums, for being a mostly delightful source of information and talent Choco/Kageneko, for playing EX when I'm bored and no one is on ;) And last but not least, all the regular EX players, specifically the ones who play with me on the Clan {REM} server. =D This document copyright 2003-04 G. Kern, all rights reserved. If you'd like to use it on your website, contact Pidge/G. Kern on AIM: its just Gene. Thanks again!