Sacrifices

You'll note a slave working on a keypad near where you start this level, but you won’t be able find the code until you move down the hall and kill a couple more slaves. When you reach a deadend, the code will be on the panel nearby; it's 0634. Return to the keypad and pop it in to reveal a small portal nearby.

Kids...why’d it have to be kids?

Abattoir

Hmm, a school bus. When have you encountered kids previously in the game? Oh yeah, when they were dispossessed spirits that were trying to kill you. Stand on the spirit marker here and spiritwalk up the ramp to flip the switch that opens the next portal. Before you reach it, you'll of course have to fight against more of the spirit-possessed kids that you fought earlier. Luckily, there'll only be five or six of them to kill, so stay back near the spot where you first entered the room, dodge their attacks, and hit them from long range with your rifle or Leech Gun. After half a dozen kills or so, the exit portal will open back up and you'll be able to move on.

Keep moving until you reach a room with Hunters and a disabled walkway. In order to move on, you'll have to activate the walkway and walk to the portal suspended from the ceiling, but be ready for trouble, as more Hunters will spawn in as you're walking to try and stop you. Kill them, reactivate the walkway, and repeat the process to hit the portal. More Hunters will arrive when you try again, but you can just run to the portal to avoid them.

Give Him A Big Hand

In the next room, kill the Fodders and blow the membrane with the explosive organic ball before dropping down and picking up an iomportant piece of the puzzle: an alien hand. You may have noticed handprint scanners scattered around the Sphere, but you haven't been able to get through any of them yet. When you find the alien hand on the ground, though, you'll be able to carry it around with you and use it on the handprint scanners to bypass them. Simple as cake!

Use the hand on the scanner nearby, then move around the corner and prepare for your first big boss fight, against the Centurian. If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get!

Boss Fight: Centurion

This first Centurion is significantly tougher than the ones you'll be facing off against later in the game. This is mostly due to his huge health reservers; at the beginning of the fight, you won't be able to deal much damage to him at all, leaving you vulnerable to the attacks from his chainguns if you don't stay behind cover. He'll be able to deal damage either with the chainguns themselves or with the grenade launchers attached to them, so keep your distance from him.

Stay behind the pillars while the Centurion fires at you, and kill the Fodders as they appear. The Centurion can bust through the pillars, though, so keep on the move, and look into the small nooks in the corners of the room for healing if you happen to get shot up.

Video Walk-through

The Centurion won’t be able to stand in your way after you steal its Auto Cannon from it.

Watch It »

After a bit of ducking and weaving, you'll notice a series of small electrical explosions appear, which open up the two shielded doors on either side of the room. As soon as this occurs, dash across to the now-open door and quickly activate the forcefield inside. At this point, the Centurion will attempt to smash through the field with his gun and fire inside; you should be safe from harm as long as you stay around the corner. The field will eventually drop, but stay where you are and wait for the control panel to recharge. When it does, activate it again to cut the Auto Cannon right off of the Centurion!

With the Auto Cannon on the ground and the Centurion reeling in pain, walk out of your little cubicle and grab the Cannon from the ground. With one hand removed, the Centurion is significantly weakened, and you do have a handy new weapon to blast him with. At this point, you should be able to much more rapidly affect his health by firing on him with the Cannon, so start blasting away! No more Fodders should appear, so feel free to blast the Centurion from whatever cover you can find. The Auto Cannon works well here; just hit him with as much of the primary ammunition as you can, and use up all of the grenades on him as well as you get used to how they fire. If worst comes to worst you can polish him off with your rifle, now that he actually takes appreciable damage.

Moving On

With the Centurion out of the way and a new weapon in hand, head out into the portal that opens up after the beast died and begin moving on. You'll come to a room with more walkways. Kill the Hunters here and head up and over the walkways to find the exit; there are two paths but one of them dead-ends. From there, you'll have to walk a bit before encountering more of the Hidden members of the resistance; you won't be able to interact with them, though.

You'll eventually come to a control room that opens up another portal to a distant part of the Sphere; use the control panel to bring it down to the floor, but watch out for the Harvester that appears through the portal, as he'll launch an explosive at you before disappearing. After stepping through, though, you'll be whisked off to the Spirit Realm again for another chat with Enisi.