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THE TURNING OF THE LEAVES - [1 Million Units Contest] This
is my favorite mission from the 1 Million Units Contest from 2021. This and
Alcazar were in a league of their own, in my opinion, although the contest
overall hosted a high average quality. Nicked’s drenched forest is rich in
atmosphere and story, packed full of secrets and hidden surprises. Modern
looking custom content is normally not my cup of tea, but this one has great
gameplay to boot, which makes for a stellar combo. Do not miss this gem! Forest I
had quite the laundry list of objectives right from the start, despite not
being on a voluntary mission. More were also to spawn later. For now I had to
find some weapons, figure out who was responsible for my kidnapping, and
break into the thieves’ hideout in order to retrieve my stolen chalice. I
also had to pick up 3,200 worth of valuables, as well as retrieving my
lockpicks. Not
much to report from the initial part of the forest. Got a sword in the hut so
I could whack down the foliage north of the river (left image below). This is
not counted as property damage. Decided in the ghost discussion thread a
little while back was to exclude natural, non-constructed objects as
property. From here I needed to choose my path. In order to complete all the
hidden objectives, I needed to manufacture some objects in the machine in the
thieves’ hideout. The problem was, in order to make the wolfsbane grenade, I
needed to obtain bloodroot, only found in the temple. Getting into the temple
required lockpicks, which was only found in the thieves’ hideout. In
conclusion, I had to make two trips to the hideout. I
went through the caves and reached the cabin, picking up some flowers along
the way. Took the bolt cutters, but didn’t use them on the basement
footlocker. It could be picked open using my lockpicks later, and I’d have to
return here to cure Rebecca anyways. Headed south to the catacombs to get the
coffinrot fungus. Also cleaned the church while I was here, primarily due to
the shack key. I didn’t raid the cultist village now, but I did steal the two
loot items from the northwest hut. I could take them by leaning in from the
steps by the north entrance (right image below). The patrolling cultist had
to be in the hut and the stationary one facing away, but it wasn’t that
tough.
Hideout I
did not find a way past the entry gate to the hideout without breaking the
padlock. This was discussed shortly after the release of this mission to be
property damage. The padlock does end up looking the same as if you used lockpicks on it, but obviously
bolt cutters would cause an irreversible change to the lock. There might be a
way to clip through the gate, but I haven’t been able to. I honestly think
the NewDark clipping maneuver (occasionally referred to as “gentle clip”)
should be removed from the engine in a future update, as it completely breaks
the game. And I honestly think it should be disallowed in the Ghost rules,
despite being an engine exploit. Since Supreme doesn’t allow for such
exploits regardless, I didn’t think any more of it. It was a bust, but as a
result of design only, not from bad ghosting. After
gaining entry, I couldn’t close the gate without alerting the nearby frog.
The door bumped into the padlock left on the ground, making a huge clang. The
thief didn’t hear it if he was in the nearby shed. I could move the padlock
with a water arrow, but the frog heard that as well. I’d try to find a different
way and hopefully solve this problem later. I took the thief’s key instead of
the one from the toolbox in the alley. The key had to be returned to the top
of the box, which also made a loud clunk. This could be done without a bust,
but only if the thief was in the shed at the same time as the frog was at the
farthest point in its patrol. It was easier to just grab it off his belt. I
could not enter the hideout basement while the thieves were having their
conversation. They didn’t alert at the time, but they would give settling
remarks later, indicating they had indeed hear the door. One of them came
upstairs and stood by the fire. I could sneak down at that time. Next the bar
posed an issue. A patrolling thief had a short route between the nearby wine
cellar and the bar counter. It’s one of those annoying patrols where he
stopped for a few seconds at either end. It’s annoying because he doesn’t
first alert while standing still, but will give a settling remark once he
resumes his patrol, indicating he did alert. Kind of like the other guys in
the first room, except they didn’t alert because they were in the middle of a
conversation. What I had to do was block the door to the wine cellar as he
opened it, then hide between the barrels in the next room after getting the
loot in there (left image below). Then I had to sneak out when he was by the
table and close the door as he was coming out, so that he frobbed it open
before it made noise. I had to do this while the other patrolling thief that
walked between here and the kitchen was away.
Two
thieves in the barracks had a conversation that triggered a new objective,
then they started patrolling. I waited with this as long as I could so that I
had fewer patrollers to deal with. The next issue was the kitchen. One
stationary thief in there had random pivots; east, south and west. I had to
have him face east when I opened the door (right image above). I also had to
make it over to the pantry and grab the plate in the sink without him turning
away from that position. It’s just one of those randomized moves that could
be successful on the first or tenth try. Margot’s
bedroom was surprisingly easy. I could only open the door when she was
stopped at the western end of the room, otherwise she first alerted. Again
this was a situation where she only gave settling remarks if I alerted her
when she didn’t patrol, but I’ve learnt the ways to anticipate and detect
that. The northeast corner of her room was the best and only place to hide
safely (left image below). She didn’t hear her safe opening. The bedroom east
of Margot’s chambers had another patroller. The biggest issue here was him
not alerting to me using the doors. He stopped in three different locations.
I could hide in the secret chamber behind the banner and wait for him to
leave (right image below). Once I realized this, it was simple enough.
Cleaned the armory and returned the armory key to Margot’s safe afterwards.
These last rooms would’ve been a pain with those two extra patrollers roaming
around.
Then
I went for the machine room to make myself some equipment. Getting through
the archery range wasn’t that tough once I found I could hug the partition on
the left side. The end of the range underneath the target was dark. Neither
of the guys in here alerted to the secret panel opening. They did however
alert to heavy items dropping out of the machine, like inert potions or mine
bulbs, even if the secret panel was closed. Eavesdropping, I could hear them
roaming around in hunt mode. I could muffle the drop with something soft to
eliminate this problem. Flowers didn’t work, but the instruction manual from
the table worked just fine. Next
I wanted to get the coins from the guard station further up the hall. The
stationary thief in there alerted to the door, so I had to go in through the
left window. He pivoted back and forth, always turning towards the window I
was in. In order to get the coins without alerts, I had to wait for him to
face south long enough, which of course is totally random. The only way to
get them was to sneak along the eastern wall, crouch, then quickly lean
around the corner and grab them (left image below). If I held the lean too
long, he alerted. There was only a few inches to spare, but I managed to
sneak back with no comments before he turned back around. One of the guards
from the upcoming conversation also stationed himself in there, which made it
impossible to get the loot then. Unfortunately, both of these thieves alerted
to picking open the door to the storeroom, which meant the loot in here had
to be skipped for Supreme. Sad, but true.
Back
outside I finally found a way to move the padlock enough for me to close the
gate. I could simply use one of the flowers (right image above), as they were
completely silent! I even tried with a scouting orb I had made in the machine
before realizing the baffling truth. Cultists Before robbing the temple, I needed the wand from
the cultist village. I headed through the catacombs again, but took the southern
route. I had to skip some loot for all ghost modes. Two hammers were hidden
behind a banner and only cutting it was gonna let me pass (left image below).
Coming from the south, the cultist village wasn’t
that bad except for the northeast hut. This was the one that held the
required wand and also a coin pair. A stationary cultist heard the door open,
so I had to use the window. There was one other hut too where the door
couldn’t be used, but the goblet in there was easily accessible from the
outside walkway. The northwestern hut was worse, but I found I could mantle
up from the east side silently (right image above). There was a very
convenient pillar here that blocked the light source further west. However,
the stationary cultist could not face east after this point, as he would
instantly catch me. He had three facing angles. If dropping onto the outer
ledge of the walkway, I was able to lean over and grab the wand from here,
but I could not reach the coins this way. To get those, I had to sneak along
the extremely thin ledge on the north side of the hut. It was so thin I
couldn’t even let go of the run button, as that would make me slide off
within a second or two. Pushing along the wall like this and hoping the
cultist wouldn’t turn east, I got over to the window and could grab the coins
(left image below). Dropping into the water was silent. I had first tried
getting the coins by leaping from the corner of the walkway where I reached
and got the wand, but this I was never able to do without alerting the
cultist to hunt mode. This was a pretty reliable alternative, plus Supreme
clean.
Temple The
exit to the east took me to the temple’s front entrance. Unfortunately, the
first unavoidable enemy comment came when picking the lock on the temple
door. There was another stationary cultist outside that heard the lockpicks
(right image above). I decided to clean the entire inside first, getting all
the loot I could. The idea was to light the upstairs braziers with the wand
in order to access the hidden switches downstairs. This spawned several
patrolling ghosts, making it very difficult to sneak through successfully.
Instead, I found I could light the braziers through the windows from the
outside, then reenter via the open front doors. This was a lot easier, as I
at most had to deal with one or two of the ghosts at a time. The
innermost tomb brought more Supreme busts. I had to turn off the loud arrow
traps by flipping the two levers; that it itself was not a bust. However,
rearming them is required if possible, which would set off the traps
instantly. I thus left them disarmed, which ended up being a Supreme bust.
Furthermore, I had to drink the invisibility potion in order to get out of
the tomb unseen (left image below). The hideous skeleton monster would spot
me immediately if not. I managed to get the idol, leave the tomb and get to
the secret room by the front entrance before the potion wore off. I had to reflip
the lever in here in order to close the gate to the bottom tomb. Then I timed
the ghost in this room in order to leave safely. The outside cultist had to
be facing away for me to get out. He gave another first alert when closing up
the front doors though.
All
I had to do now was go back to the thieves’ hideout and make the wolfsbane
grenade. Luckily, I could heal Rebecca from the dark doorway outside the cage
(right image above). I was worried I had to hit her dead on and thus getting
an alert, but this could be done Supreme clean. The hidden objective of
finding the entire map was not possible for Supreme, as you had to enter all
the village huts in order to map them. The last objective was lighting the
fire in the hut by the start, using the firewood, firelighters and flint
& steel. I managed to do it and close the door before the mission ended,
but there was less than 1 second to spare. The easier thing would’ve been to
not take the frying pan at the start of the mission, and let that be the
mission-ending trigger. Oh well, I’ll do that when I record my let’s play. Statistics: Time: 1:31:23 Loot: 4510 out of 4710 (Supreme: 4138) Pickpockets: 1 out of 1 Secrets: 6 out of 7 Locks Picked: 9 Damage Dealt: 0 Damage Taken: 0 Consumables: 1 Invisibility Potion, 1 Wolfsbane
Grenade Ghost: Failed! Perfect Thief: Failed! Supreme Thief: Failed! Perfect Supreme Thief: Failed! Notes: -
Busted Ghost when breaking the padlock to the thieves’ hideout
courtyard using the bolt cutters. This is considered property damage and not
allowed for any mode. -
Had to skip all 372 loot in the thieves’ storeroom for
Supreme. The nearby thieves heard my lockpicks. -
Skipped 200 worth of loot in the hidden tomb in the
catacombs for all Ghost modes. Slashing the banner is property damage and not
allowed. -
Triggered a first alert from the stationary cultist
outside the temple’s main entrance. He heard the lockpicks. Got a second one
leaving when closing the doors. -
Had to use an invisibility potion in order to obtain
the Idol of Blood safely. Allowed for Ghost, but a bust to Supreme. -
Couldn’t rearm the two traps in the temple’s basement
tomb. Supreme busts. -
You cannot get the hidden objective of mapping the
whole forest for Supreme. Three of the village huts trigger first alerts when
opening the doors, and these are required to enter in order to be mapped. |
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