Mission 08: Volcano Dome Facility

The Mountain Path

These scorpion foes can be taken out with a grenade to their undersides.

You're going to encounter a new enemy near the beginning of this level: a large quadraped scorpion-like Akrid that has a somewhat difficult-to-hit weak spot on its rear stinger. They're not overly difficult to kill, though; just lay down a hand grenade underneath them, then unload on them with your machinegun when they flip over.

Make your way down the path past a few scorpions to meet a new small Akrid, which can launch fireballs at you from their mouths. Destroy any generators for these guys when you spot them. Eventually the path will branch, with a couple of exits leading out above a large open area in which a VS awaits. If you want to make things a bit easier on you, drop down to the VS, kill the scorpions around there, and hop into the drilling machine. Like the bike VS from earlier in the game, you can morph this VS between a tank and a less mobile, but more powerful, crawling VS. Get used to the controls, as you'll be using it a fair amount through the rest of the level.

Lava Flow

Move through the entryway here and cross the bridge over the lava to reach an exterior area. There are a couple of VS's near the entrance here that you can use if you need to switch out for something fresh. Nothing too complicated here, although there are a lot of enemies, with some massive dongos and more scorpions for you to deal with. If you're having troubles taking them out (assuming you want to), jump and hover back and forth across the lava flow to get the dongos to fall into the lava and die. With a little luck, the scorpions will succumb to the flow, as well.

There are two exits from this area, with one to the south and one to the east. The one to the east is the easier exit, but they both lead to the same area.

Rivers Of Goo

Two entrances, but one exit for this zone, due east of where you enter. If you entered via the eastern doorway from the last map, you'll be in a large tunnel with a few drones. You can find an energy gun here, which will be helpful, as there are a lot of VS's in this area. If you find yourself running around on foot, use it to fire fully-charged shots at any enemy VS's that come your way to knock the pilots right out of the seat and neutralize them.

You can lure your foes into the lava here to finish them off quickly.

When you're ready to make a break for it, hop into a VS and drop down to the lower levels of this area. There are plenty of enemy VS's guarding the tunnel leading east, so you can either engage them or attempt to avoid their fire, depending on the speed of your VS. Inside the tunnel is a driller VS, so bypass it, drop down into the hole in the rear of that tunnel, then grapple or jump your way out to the other side.

There'll be an EM laser on your way up. If you don't have the energy gun, grab that and use it to zap the VS's there, but if you do have the energy gun, you can knock their pilots out from long range. Regardless, grab a VS around here and start making your way through to the next large room. You should smash as many of the fuel tanks as you can to retrieve energy, and try to outfit yourself with two EM lasers on your mech before heading up to the uppermost level and proceeding out to the boss fight.

Boss Fight: Giant Driller VS

This is a super-sized version of the drilling VS that you've ridden in a few times previously. Before you take it on, though, try to snipe out the three smaller VS's in this arena from a position of height. If you can zap them before dropping down, you won't have to deal with them and fight the driller at the same time.

When you get the driller on its own, it's time to whittle down its health. Assuming you entered the arena in a VS, you're going to have three of them available to you, including the two on an elevated platform at one side of the arena. That should be more than enough to get you through the fight, although you may have a tough time with it initially.

Attacks

The driller has few attacks, really. When it's in drilling formation, it will attempt to face you, then whip out its drill and ram you. If this hits, then you'll take a lot of damage, but all of the VS's you have at your disposal should be able to jump and hover long enough to avoid this attack. More dangerously, the four-legged mech version of the driller will be able to fire missiles and plasma vulcan rounds your way. The missiles are generally going to be unaimed, but the vulcan rounds can be damaging; try to avoid them by placing one of the small pillars on the side of the arena between you and the enemy.

Attacking the Driller

Video Walk-through

Simply jumping over this VS when it's in drill mode will put you a long way towards beating it.

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The driller can only be harmed in one specific spot: the bottom of the central stalk. And it can only be hurt when it's in mech form; it'll be invulnerable when attempting to drill you.

So, yeah...shoot it a lot in the dingus when it's crawling around on its legs. And avoid its attacks; that'll help, too. Sorry if it sounds reductive, but at this point in the game, there's not much else to say; you should have the basics of dodging and firing down by now, and although the driller can appear intimidating, a bit of practice should get you into the position to be able to predict its motions a bit. Two EM lasers are quite capable of taking the beast down, but if you're struggling to finish it off, there's a grenade launcher on one of the small raised circles in the center of the arena.