This is it; the last door. Despite the efforts of the Elders, you've made it this far, and you don't intend to stop. Your followers will set up a camp for anyone who wants to come and join your cause, but it's up to you to brave the darkness. Why are you here? What exists beyond the long, dark tunnels full of strange machinery and menace? This is Sanctuary 17, the new retro, action, exploration game with roguelike influences from Twofold Secret.
Initially, you can see very little; all you have is a weak flashlight that severely limits your vision. Use the [arrow] keys to move around the randomly generated map, [X] to charge your shield (if available), and [Z] to interact with certain terminals and fire your weapon. But you might not want to do that unless you absolutely have to, since you have a limited amount of battery power and each shot uses it up. Most enemies are minor annoyances. Robots, however, are another story; you can spot them at a distance because of the glow they give off, and you'll probably want to steer clear whenever possible. A single hit from a robot laser means instant death, and with narrow corridors like these, maneuvering can be difficult.
Keep an eye out for terminals; each one you boot up provides a save point. They also allow you to communicate with Rusty, someone who stayed behind (wherever "behind" is), but is still pulling for you and can be of great help. Unfortunately, most of the terminals you'll find need to be jump-started with some of your battery power... a significant chunk, in fact. Looks like you'll have to hunt down some robots after all, since they drop valuable batteries when destroyed.
If you die, well... stop it! Your group has a limited number of followers, and as long as somebody is still alive, you can continue the journey as a new person. More people join your group the longer you last and the farther you go, so learning how to keep your eyes and ears open for danger becomes important if you want to last. Of course, the farther you go, the more dangerous the robots you'll face become.
Analysis: If pressed by a pressing sort of person, I might describe Sanctuary 17 as a "kinda roguelike". It's got the randomly generated levels and items, but is realtime rather than turn-based. Strategy will get you far; trick robots into firing on each other, and learn to be an opportunist... whoever said shooting someone in the back is cowardly probably wasn't talking about deadly robots. While the tools at your disposal are initially pretty meager, if you're lucky you can find better items within boxes in certain rooms; from more powerful weaponry to lanterns to night vision goggles. With the simple, pick-up-and-play style and intriguing story, Sanctuary 17 is pretty addictive. Unfortunately, it can be pretty frustrating sometimes, too.
The problem is that since the map is randomly generated, you tend to see a lot of long, meandering corridors, and the game doesn't really offer much in the way of scenery to liven them up other than "Robots!", "Oh God, other robots!" and occasionally, "STUPID, STUPID SPIDER CREATURES." It really makes you wish the layouts tended to be more involved than just hallway after hallway. As such, you can go a long time without anything happening, and it's easy to get discouraged, particularly when your heroes are so inclined to burst into squishy redness at the slightest provocation. The end result is a somewhat uneven experience, swinging between periods of atmospheric exploration that have you going "Oooo" and keyboard-snappingly frustrating instant death that has you going "ARGH".
Fortunately, the game's randomly generating layout comes to the rescue when you least expect it to. After several playthroughs (okay, attempted playthroughs), I was still finding new rooms and bits of plot that fascinated me, and it was enough to keep me coming back for more, at least until I finished it. There are apparently three endings to discover, but if you've played Sanctuary 17 all the way to the end at least once, you've probably seen most of the little events and rooms it has to offer, and trying to complete it two more times might be asking a bit much. Still, if you've been looking for that elusive "something different", Sanctuary 17 will provide, and despite its limited appeal, is still worth a look.
Walkthrough Guide
(Please allow page to fully load for spoiler tags to be functional.)
Hello everyone,
I've compiled a walkthrough + spoiler for Sanctuary 17. I may be missing some email texts, and I suspect that I am missing some follower names, since these are selected randomly. Other than that I think this guide is complete.
Also, I've discovered a glitch that can occur with the game's save system, important enough to go outside of the spoilers:
Important Note: If you allow a character to die, pick up their gear, and then refresh the page without visiting another terminal, you will start from a checkpoint prior to picking up the items, and the items will be GONE from the spot where you died. When you go to pick up your stuff after a death, make *sure* that you can get to a terminal without being killed again. If you do get killed again, do not refresh, you need to start with another follower and get them to your corpse to get your items.
Enjoy!
Areas of Sanctuary 17
There are 36 areas in total, laid out in a 6 by 6 grid. You can view your current exploration by hitting the escape key.
There are:
1 starting passageway
26 regular rooms
The regular rooms each use a preset layout, picked randomly from a set of at least a dozen layouts. You will come to recognize each layout with a few playthroughs. Besides the starting passageway, these are the only rooms with regular terminals that can be used to communicate with Rusty and 'save' your game. Activating the terminal also switches on some faint red lamps in some of the layouts.
4 supply rooms
There are four small supply rooms to find, each one containing one item to pick up. Look for the blue bins in the centre of the room, the closed bin with the green light contains the item.
3 facilities
There are three facilities that you have the option of activating. If you choose to, they must be activated in order: the water pump, the geothermal power plant, and the scanner / communications array. It costs a full 5 bars of energy to activate them. If you seem to have enough energy but the terminal refuses to activate, it's possible that you have spent a fraction of the fifth bar and are just short. Go shoot another robot.
After activating the power plant, any time you access its terminal, your energy bar is refilled.
Use a regular terminal to talk to Rusty, and he will let you know what beneficial effects have occurred for the others when you activate a facility. Activating the facilities is only required to get the best ending.
1 history room
This huge room is here purely for flavour, the two computers at its centre hold some historical records written by Sanctuary 17 officials
1 exit to the surface
Access the computer in this room to download the door's encryption key, which is the first step toward all of the game's endings
The only room that is not placed randomly on the map is the starting room, which is always at 3,3 (with the top left room on the map being 0,0). In the regular rooms, the terminal numbers indicate that room's position in the grid, ranging from 0,0 through 5,5)
The 26 regular rooms are the only ones where robots and animals will appear (excepting that harmless bat who shows up in the starting passageway), all of the others are safe rooms.
Equipment
Shield - Hold x to activate, drains energy while active. Blocks incoming shots, invaluable when caught in a long hall by a robot. You begin the game with this item, but you will need to retrieve it from your corpse if(when) your first character dies, as with all the other items.
Lantern - Drains energy while active, illuminates a small area around you. The distance is less than that of your flashlight. Not very useful. Press [X] to toggle on and off.
Heavy Laser - The biggest gun you've ever seen, fires a very fast, and very powerful laser shot. This weapon will destroy the 2hp hover bots in one shot, and in the unlikely event that you can line up multiple robots, will destroy all of them. The downside is its massive cost: 4 energy per shot means that you need to hit at least 2 robots just to break even. Most of the time, when robots get lined up, if you pop in at one end of the column they will end up shooting each other anyway. Tough to recommend this one.
Night Vision Goggles - These green goggles drain energy while active, and reveal the entire screen in monochrome green. An incredibly useful item! You can briefly flick the goggles on to scout the passageways nearby, and then turn them off while moving to save energy. Press [X] to toggle on and off.
EMP - Described as a coil with a lightning bolt marking. At the cost of 8 full energy bars, destroys all robots in the region. Robots respawn very rapidly though, so you will be dodging lasers again before you know it. If you destroy at least three robots and collect their batteries, you can regain the energy spent to trigger the EMP (combined with your built in recharge). Becomes much more useful when the 2 hp robots appear in the late game, and is godly when combined with the night vision goggles. Once the region has filled up with robots, trigger the EMP, and use the night vision to quickly hunt down all of the batteries, you can easily restore full power this way. The EMP is limited in that pursuing your goals (activating terminals and facilities) leaves your battery low most of the time. Press [X] to trigger it.
Press [A] to switch between the standard laser and the heavy laser,
Press [S] to cycle through all of the other items.
Enemies
Bats - move quickly, stun you briefly if you run into them. You will be ambushed from behind many times by bats.
Spiders - move very slowly, stun you for a good few seconds if you bump into them. Spiders also drop webs throughout the maze, which makes a staticky splat sound that you will hear in the distance. Webs slow down movement for anything traveling through it, and can be destroyed with a shot. Webs absorb the entire shot though, which can block your robot sniping opportunities, and occasionally save you from a robot's shot.
Green wheeled robots - moves randomly, will fire at you even if there are walls between you and them
Blue trashcan robots - turns corners to move toward you, will fire at you even if there are walls between you and them
Blue multi-armed robots - turns corners to move toward you, do not fire into walls
Red tracked 'Samus'-faced robot - turns corners to move toward you, and will spin around and fire if you sneak up behind them
Green hovering masked robot - turns corners to move toward you, will spin and fire if you sneak up behind them, take two shots to kill
All of the robots will fire on you if you are in their line of sight: on a straight horizontal or vertical line to them, even from offscreen. It's sometimes possible to dodge shots, but the laser moves faster than you do, avoid long hallways! The best way to hunt robots is to destroy them as they approach a corner, but you can also sneak up behind the initial green and blue robots, and shoot them in the back.
Robots illuminate a few squares in front of them, much as your flashlight does (though they don't depend on this light to see you!) You can use the movement of these beams of light, and their colours, to locate the robots and their types in the maze. Animals emit no light of course, making it easier for you to be ambushed by them.
Regarding robot turning, robots always turn a corner if they can, even if taking a straight path through an intersection would get them to you faster. You can use this to your advantage to escape them.
Energy Costs
Your energy meter has 10 bars, each of which is divided into 8 subunits of energy. Your battery slowly recharges up to 1.5 bars when it gets below that amount.
Activating a Terminal: 3.5 bars
Activating a Facility: 5 bars
Firing your gun: 1.5 bars
Battery pickups add: 2 bars
Firing the heavy laser: 4 bars
Using the EMP: 8 bars
Lantern, shield, and night vision goggles: drain 1/8 of a bar every few seconds, with the shield draining much faster than the other two items.
Using the power plant terminal (after activating it): refills all 10 bars.
Hunting robots one at a time and picking up their batteries after every shot adds a net 1/2 bar per kill. Missing a single shot will set you back three kills worth of energy. Storing up energy this way can take quite some time.
There is a faster way: after destroying a robot, wait until you have recharged up to 1.5 bars before picking up any batteries. If you are above 1.5 bars, wait before picking up the batteries all the same, and allow your charge to go down after several kills. If you can destroy multiple robots without pickups, relying on the automatic recharge instead, you earn a net 2 full bars per kill. This is faster, but more dangerous, the slow recharge may leave you without enough energy to defend yourself in a pinch.
Note that the automatic recharge plus one battery adds up to 3.5 bars, enough to activate a terminal. Killing one bot, waiting, and grabbing its battery will let you move quickly through each area. (Be careful not to use your night vision after grabbing the battery, or you will have slightly less than 3.5 bars of energy, and will need to kill again.)
Note also that the toughest robots in the game take two shots to kill, costing 3 energy, but still only drop 2 bar batteries. Generally, avoid these guys and hunt the weaker blue robots, you'll lose energy otherwise!
The Save Trick
Sanctuary 17's roguelikeness shines through in its difficulty: death is sudden, frequent, and permanent. Other commenters found a way to get around the game's permanent death though: when your character is killed, quickly hit escape to pause the game, and then refresh the page. You will begin from the last time you accessed a terminal, with the same energy and equipment as before, the same facilities activated, and the same number of followers in reserve. You do appear to lose progress in the random messages that Rusty had sent though, he begins sending messages that you have already seen again, in the same order as before as you make new progress.
Important Note: I've discovered HUGE GLITCH in the game's save system. If you allow a character to die, pick up their gear, and then reset the game without visiting another terminal, you will start from a checkpoint prior to picking up the items, and the items will be GONE from the spot where you died. When you go to pick up your stuff, make *sure* that you can get to a terminal without being killed again. If you do get killed again, do not reset, you will need to start with another follower and get them to your corpse to get your items.
Whether the game is more enjoyable with this ability to restart, or is more properly played with no reloads and instant death, I leave to you.
Miscellaneous Notes
When you reset the game, the graphics for the facilities and terminals revert back to their 'disabled' state. Don't worry though, the game still remembers your progress even though it doesn't appear so.
You begin the game with yourself, and two other followers, for a total of three lives. Locating enough terminals will add an additional two followers to your group, but activating the facilities does not attract any followers.
Activating terminals also seems to increase the difficulty of the robots you face. At the highest level, there are two or three of the 2 hit point robots, for every 1 hit point blue robot, making it a challenge to build up energy!
The starting followers are named Topher and Elisabeth; Kyra is always the next to follow. Other follower names that I have seen after that include Alex, Gilbert, Ashish, and there may be more.
The red robots and hovering robots will notice you if you try to sneak up behind them, or pass them while their back is turned. Don't try it unless you know you can get out of the way before their shot arrives! Alternatively, you can exploit their quick trigger fingers to cause robots packed together in one hallway to attack one another.
The game does not display a count of the number of open terminals anywhere, except for the victory screen at the end. Choose a systematic strategy if you try to activate all of the terminals. (Getting to the end with one terminal missing is a major letdown!)
When using terminals and opening supply room bins, make sure that the gun icon switches to the hand icon before pressing 'z' on your keyboard, or you will waste precious energy shooting the walls.
The random layout of the game can make it very difficult or fairly easy, depending on what you get. On one playthrough I was fortunate enough to have all of the facilities, the exit to the surface, and a supply room with the night vision goggles all connected to the main entrance, making for an easy (well, easier!) play through.
When you do arrive at a safe room, check all of its other exits to see if they are also safe rooms, you can frequently find several safe rooms chained together.
Rusty's Emails
Rusty will send emails to you throughout the game, which you receive at the terminals in regular rooms. There are a few messages that he sends when major events happen, and some random messages that don't seem to have any bearing on the game, besides establishing the post-apocalyptic setting.
Some events that can trigger random messages appearing are: activating a facility, finding the exit to the surface, and beginning with a new character after one is killed, but the game may randomly not give messages at those times too. Only rarely does activating new terminals trigger these emails.
For all of these messages, [you] is replaced with the name of the current character. Also, the messages you see may have the same body but with different opening or closing sentences than the ones I've listed, they appear to be randomized per message. I've written down the combinations I've seen here, I bet that any opening or closing sentence can appear with any of the messages, though.
Major Event Messages
Water Plant Activated:
Hello [you], what did you do out there? Our water reserves just doubled! Fresh water, too, not recycled stuff. The others are amazed, and we know we have you to thank for it.
Please send us more stories as soon as you can.
Rusty
Power Plant Activated:
Hello again, [you]. The strangest thing happened; our power supplies just shot through the roof. The elders are confused, but I know that it's some thing you did, isn't it? The people here are really starting to believe you can really make things better.
Try not to get killed.
Rusty
Scanner Activated:
Hello again, [you]. You received a message from the surface!? But that... that flies in the face of everything the Elders have ever told us!
Could there really be people still living up above...?
This could change everything... I have to talk to the others right away.
Try not to get killed.
Rusty
Exit to the Surface Found:
Still alive, [you]? You sure are something else. / Hello again, [you].
So you think you've found the door to the surface? That's incredible! But the fact that it's sealed is kind of discouraging. I took a look at the handshake key you sent along; it's got some pretty heavy encryption on it. Since we don't have the matching private key anymore we'll have to do this the hard way.
Unfortunately, if I tried to do it on the mainframe here, it would eat up the whole system, and I think someone would notice. Don't worry, though, I figured out how to distribute the workload onto the terminals you've opened up to let it run in secret!
I'll be waiting for your next message.
Rusty
Key Decoded:
Great news, [you]! Thanks to all that computing power, the decode is done!
I'm attaching the results now; this sequence should allow you to open that door, wherever it leads to.
You'll have to let me know what you find.
Stay safe out there, [you].
Rusty
Random Messages
Hi, [you]. My sister gave birth to a son yesterday - her first child. This made me very happy, of course, but seeing the child also made me kind of sad. I realized that he, and all the other children here... even us, since we were children... we know nothing of a world beyond these walls. These hallways that all look the same, these cold, electric lights...
We've all seen pictures of the surface as it once was; of the sun, burning in those strange blue skies we can only imagine. That a child could grow up in such a place, where they could wander with no walls to contain them, it's incredible to think about. But also kind of scary.
Not to you, though. When I have these thoughts, I feel like, maybe just for a moment, I understand you and the others a little better.
[you]... just watch out for yourself, ok?
Rusty
Still alive [you]? You sure are something else. The Elders held a meeting last night to discuss the recent disappearances. They told us that you and the others had left to "reaffirm your faiths in the plan."
Most everyone believed them, but those of us who have heard your stories know better...
Be careful out there, [you]
Rusty
I'm here [you]. I didn't think I'd hear from you again.... / It's a relief to hear from you, [you]. / Hello again, [you].
You're building up quite a camp out there, aren't you? I've noticed the people missing... the others who have left to follow you. You're really shaking things up in here.
Please send more stories as soon as you can.
Rusty
It's a relief to hear from you, [you]. I don't know what it means, but I've been seeing a lot more spiders lately. Not big ones like you talk about, thank goodness, but lots of little ones. Maybe they know something we don't?
Try not to get killed.
Rusty
I'm here, [you]. I didn't think I'd hear from you again... I've been thinking, lately... we've been living down here for generations; we don't know how long exactly, since the Elders don't want us to know. But, it's just... it's all I've ever known. That you and the others could even envision a life outside of here - a life on the surface, no less! - it was just something beyond me.
Now, though, since I've been talking to you... I've had a hard time thinking of anything else.
We're all pulling for you. / Be careful out there, [you].
Rusty
I'm here, [you] I didn't think that I'd hear from you again... What made you leave in the first place? So much of our history is kept from us... the Elders say it's "for the best" that things just go on as they always have. I guess maybe you got tired of asking questions and never getting answers.
That's what makes you different from most of us... we just keep up being happy in the dark...
Be careful out there, [you].
Rusty
Hi [you]. There was an explosion by the exhaust vents this morning. We thought it was a robot attack at first, and then I thought maybe it was them taking revenge for all that you have killed.
It turns out it was a gas build-up, and no one got hurt. For a moment though, I was angry at you. I'm sorry.
I'll be waiting for your next message. / We're all pulling for you
Rusty
Hi, [you]. I heard that someone snuck out last night to join up with you. I wish I was that brave... I'll just keep passing along your stories from in here. For now...
I'll be waiting for your next message.
Rusty
It's a relief to hear from you, [you]. I asked Elder Caughman something I'd been pondering... "where do the robots come from?" I thought he was going to strike me right there on the stop. There was such anger in his eyes, and he said I "shouldn't think about such things." They probably just don't know. Or they used to know, but have forgotten.
If we used to live on the surface, and the robots drove us away, they had to come from somewhere. Did man make them? Could they have made themselves? Could they have come from... somewhere else?
I just don't know. Maybe you'll find the answers out there somewhere...
[you]... just watch out for yourself, ok?
Rusty
Hi [you]. The Elders have gotten word of your survival, [you] and it makes them nervous. You've given many of us a hope we've never had before, that we might someday escape this place. They have forbidden us to speak with you or anyone who has followed you anymore, but I've shielded this terminal from their spying.
As long as you and the others are out there, I will make sure that your stories are told.
I'll be waiting for your next message. / We're all pulling for you.
Rusty
Hello again, [you]. One of the hydroponics systems failed yesterday. They think we'll lose a third of next quarter's crop. Food is going to be tight, but the Elders tell us we'll persevere.
Please send us more stories as soon as you can.
Rusty
It's a relief to hear from you, [you]. Is it lonely out there, [you]? All that darkness, all that death... that you and the others can still keep up the fight is just amazing. You've shown us in here that we can be more than just prisoners hiding in our tiny bubble of light.
Maybe this isn't what you intended, but every robot you slay, every story you tell, they brings[sic] other to your cause. We're counting on you to be our lights in the darkness... don't let us down.
We're all pulling for you.
Rusty
Hello again, [you]. Something that's been weighing on my mind... if there are still others out there - if people really are still alive on the surface - why haven't they ever come to save us? We've been trapped down here in the darkness for so long, and no one has ever tried to seek us out.
Have they completely forgotten us? Did we do something so wrong in the past that they chose to abandon us? Or do they really not exist... I'm sorry; I don't mean to discourage you. Talking to you has put so many questions in my mind, it's hard to sort everything out.
Be careful out there, [you].
Rusty
Endings
Ending 1:
To get the first (worst) ending:
Find the exit to the surface and download the encryption key from the terminal
Activate at least 9 terminals (not including the terminal in the starting passageway)
Return to the exit after receiving the decrypted key from Rusty, use the terminal to open the door, and leave for the surface.
You will get this ending if you ever leave through the door to the surface, regardless of how many of the facilities you have activated.
Ending 2:
The second ending is slightly better, and only slightly more difficult than the first:
Find the exit to the surface and download the encryption key from the terminal
Activate at least 9 terminals (not including the terminal in the starting passageway)
Return to the exit after receiving the decrypted key from Rusty, use the terminal to open the door
Now return to the starting passageway, and return down the starting door
Ending 3:
The third ending takes a little bit more work to attain, the difference being that the three facilities scattered around the sanctuary need to be activated:
Find the exit to the surface and download the encryption key from the terminal
Activate at least 9 terminals (not including the terminal in the starting passageway)
Return to the exit after receiving the decrypted key from Rusty, use the terminal to open the door
Activate all three facilities. They must be activated in order: water pump station, geothermal power plant, and scanner array
Return to the starting passageway, and go to the starting door
It isn't important what order you deal with the terminals, facilities, and finding the surface exit, you will naturally work toward all of these objectives as you play.
I've confirmed that only 9 terminals need to be activated for any of the endings; going for more than that number doesn't seem to be necessary. I can confirm that nothing special happens for activating all terminals, facilities, equipment, and getting the best ending. Nothing besides the nice feeling from all of the large numbers on the ending screen, at any rate...
Ending Scripts
Ending 1 Script:
As you step across the threshold, the huge metal shutters slam closed behind you.
Up ahead, you see something bright... something warm...
As you ascend the passageway leading ahead, your nostrils fill with scents you've never smelled before.
You take a few more steps forward and pause... you could look back at the darkness you are leaving behind, but the choice has been made.
The others will go on without you... they will forget about you in time...
Ending 2 Script:
[you], what is it?
You've found the door to the surface? That's incredible! We knew you wouldn't fail us.
I'll get the others, now is our time to taste true freedom.
As the last of your group steps through the doors, the giant metal shutters slam down behind you.
A light such as you have never seen before pours through an opening ahead. Though your eyes sting at the sight of it, you push forward.
As you ascend the pathway leading ahead, your nostrils fill with scents you've never smelled before.
The others murmur in amazement; could this truly be the freedom you have all dreamed of?
The others push ahead eagerly. You follow, though the tears streaming from your aching eyes makes every step a stumble.
You pause for a moment and consider looking back. Those that you have left behind... they could have followed you to freedom... but they made their choice.
If they wish to hide in the darkness, so be it.
Ending 3 Script:
[you]?
Is that you?
It's me... Rusty!
It's happened... it's really happened. Once I told the others that you had heard from the surface, well, things just started happening faster than I could have imagined.
The Elders... they were so angry, so full of hated towards you. But we had seen through their lies, and we weren't scared anymore.
They... they're gone now. They and those that still wished to hide from the truth. We're in control now, and we're ready to follow you back to the surface.
Lead on; I'll be right beside you.
I've disabled the door, [you]; now anyone should be able to come and go as they please.
Do you see that ahead?
That light... it's so bright, so warm...
My eyes are stinging, [you]. It hurts, but I know we must keep pushing forward.
Do you smell that in the air? These are scents I've never smelled before... everything seems so strange here.
This is it, isn't it? What you've been dreaming about is just ahead. If it weren't for you, none of us would be here.
When I got your first message after you left, I thought you and the others were mad. I thought you would die out there, and that, in the end, maybe you'd realize how wrong you were.
But you weren't though, it was all of us who were wrong. Not anymore, you promised us freedom, and now here we are! No matter what we find up ahead, no matter what the future holds, I'll always thank you for that, [you]. All of us, we will always remember this.
C'mon let's keep moving.
"Try not to get killed." --Rusty, words of wisdom
Posted by: Pathogen
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July 31, 2010 12:57 AM