Nexus Hub Tunnels

Now that you’ve reached the hub, you’ll have to try and get into the subbasement of the Tetranode, where your team has been asked to set off its EMP. All of the other convoys have been destroyed, so it’s up to you to strike at the heart of the Strogg communication network.

After a while, you’ll have to break off from the main group and escort Strauss to the temperature control room. You’ll come across another Gladiator here. With the upgrades that you got a couple of levels ago, your Nailgun will work well against it, especially since it can’t be reflected by the Gladiator’s power shield. Kill it and the other Stroggs in the room before moving on. Be sure to constantly ask Strauss for armor fill-ups when you run low.

When you reach the temperature controls, you’ll have to protect Strauss while he overrides the freezing temperatures that block the convoy’s progress. More Icarus (Icari?) will attack you at this point, although these guys don’t have any missile attacks; they’ll just pound you with machinegun attacks. When they’re dead, you’ll have to leave Strauss behind and fight your way back to Voss, where you’ll continue further into the facility.

These are arguably the most annoying enemies in the game, so kill them quickly.

The major fight with these guys occurs when you get back on the transport path. You’ll have to take down five or six humanoids, as well as another Guardian. If possible, try to stay in front of Voss and the other soldier here; they can do good damage against your foes, and if you can get up front and take cover, most of the enemies will fire at you, letting your teammates expend their ammo while you just sit around and wait for the enemies to do. You might need to fire a few grenades at the Gladiator to hasten its demise.

Afterwards, you’ll be sent into a sideroom to deactivate the forcefield within. In the rooms with the large piping, you can jump onto the pipes and head into a little alcove underneath the upper walkway to find some armor and health; the upper walkway itself leads to a little ammo cache, which is helpful.

When you return to the convoy, things will start to go south right quick. After the Harvester passes by, you’ll be asked by Voss to reach Strauss somehow and help him get to the center of the Tetranode so that he can destroy the facility. It’s a long, linear fight to reach Strauss, with more than a few annoying Icari in your way, but you will find a hyperblaster lying in one of the crawlspaces to bolster your arsenal.

Nexus Hub

The very first small access corridor you come across here has some armor shards hidden beneath it, but those are kind of pointless when Strauss is along, since he can restore your armor at any time you’re not fighting.

After fighting your way through the many enemies between you and the power station, protect Strauss while it activates it and sets it to generate excess power. If you can then return to the Tetranode and disable the emergency shutdown procedures, it’s possible that the resulting energy overflow will result in the destruction of the facility. A Gladiator will appear to harry your progress as soon as Strauss is done with the power station, though; hide behind the control panels and use your shotgun to take it down.

When that’s done, fight your way to the override station, which will require a bit of backtracking to the room where you entered the level. When you reach it, Strauss will send you to find and shut down the coolant pumps. Without coolant, the energy core will overheat and hopefully cause a chain reaction. Note the huge ammo and armor cache near where Strauss parks himself, and outfit yourself as best you can.

Video Walk-through

Two Tanks and a Makron; what could go wrong?

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After heading through the nearby corridors, which should be uneventful, you’ll come to a large open room with a terminal in the center. This couldn’t possibly be a trap, right? Wrong! As soon as you activate the terminal, the two Tanks that have been waiting in the wings, and which curiously did nothing to stop you from shutting down the coolant pumps, will pop out and begin firing at you. While they are intimidating, they’re not unstoppable; just hide behind the coolant vents that line the room, and strafe out to fire grenades or any of your other weapons at them. They have a number of powerful attacks, so be sure to stay behind cover. However, they can’t follow you behind the pumps, so you should be able to retreat to cover whenever you like to reload or get ready for the next attack run.

Unfortunately, your problems aren’t over when you destroy the Tanks. You won’t have a chance to heal or retreat before the Makron pops out of the far wall and starts firing at you. Now, you can’t defeat the Makron here, but you can definitely die if he hits you too much, and he’ll be almost unstoppable at close range, between his multi-grenade launch and his other projectile attacks. What you have to do here is hide behind the pipes on the far side of the room and fire at him when you have a sliver of body to look at between a pair of pipes; hopefully he won’t be able to fire directly back at you. If you can deal enough damage to him, he won’t die, but rather will unleash an incapacitating attack on you, launching into the next level.