Jagged Alliance 2 Tixa Prison Dungeon, Crepitus (Part VIII)

Part VIII of Jagged Alliance 2 Walkthrough.

Yes, there is more to Tixa prison that meets the eye.

Tixa Prison Dungeon

At Queen Deidranna's command, the basement is where the Tixa prisoners' bodies are being butchered and fed to the crepitus that lurk in the caves below. The crepitus, as with the bloodcats, were engineered by Deidranna's scientists at the research facility in Orta. Thus, they are not aliens but rather gigantic, mutated bugs. We learn more about them when we take on the Queen Crepitus in Part X:

Before heading down into the basement, there is a checklist:

• Is everyone rested and healed? Are their arms and armor in good condition?
• Do we have the prison key? The prison key opens many doors in the basement.
• Do we have a Locksmith with a Locksmith Kit? The prison key won't open all of the doors in the basement. Barry and Dynamo fit the bill.
• Do we have gasmasks? Any squad member intent on battling the bugs in the caves would do well to have one on.

The basement is like something out of a horror flick. There is blood and guts everywhere on the slabs where bodies have been cut up. There is, however, a ping-pong table that reminds us that there are actually human beings down here. There are, in fact, two innocents locked down here. One of them, however, is mentally ill and cannot be saved. Evidently, he's seen too much.

The basement is straightforward in terms of combat: there are only eight redshirts stationed.

One redshirt was hiding behind a set of filing cabinets. Didn't he get the surprise of a lifetime:

Looks like my IMP blew his balls clean off!

Stealth, as I hope I've made clear by now, is powerful. It allows us to get the jump on the enemy. Conrad sneaks down the corridor and spots a redshirt patrolling in an unexplored chamber. Unaware of Conrad's presence, he was bursted in the back:

Itemization in the basement is rewarding: one each of CAWS, MAC-10, H&K G41 and Dart Gun.

Shank Location

Once the basement sector of the Tixa Prison has been cleared, we can find and free Shank from one of the cells, and recruit him, for $20 per day.

Shanks story is a bit sad, too. His rich parents busted him for growing some weed in their Balime backyard. As punishment, they turned him in. Thus, he ends up in the basement of one of the worst prisons in the world, waiting to be butchered and fed to crepitus...

Speaking of which, the crepitus caves are accessed via a manhole in the basement. The caves are dark and tinted in purple for that sci-fi feel. As with all combat zones in JA2, the composition and positioning of the crepitus varies from reload to reload. Only two types are encountered in Tixa: one small and worm-like; the other larger and sort of like a Fallout Deathclaw.

The worm-like crepitus eject a blinding and toxic acid, but it's pretty inaccurate. The worm-like crepitus can easily be dispatched with the CAWS shotgun.

Wearing a gasmask grants protection against the blinding negative status effect, which is crippling.

Here my I.M.P gets blinded; she's dead:

Nasty stuff:

While the larger crepitus also eject acid...

... they are most dangerous when they close in for melee. Their claws are as damaging as bloodcat claws:

Thankfully, we encoutered only three in these caves.

The best way to take out crepitus is with rocket rifles, by the way, but at this point in the proceedings that is overkill. We only have one, and not much ammo for it, anyway.

I love how, upon first use of a rocket rifle, a robotic female voice intones, "Finger print I.D acquired". There is no game in existence on par with JA2's attention to detail. This game is GOAT.

As with the bloodcats, crepitus bits may be harvested and sold off or made use of.

From memory, they are sold to Gabby (whose location is in the wilderness somewhere).

Once Tixa in its entirety has been taken, there is a cutscene in which Deidranna orders Elliot to release the crepitus on Arulco.

I'll report on that as it happens.

For now, though, let's get the hell out of this awful place.

At this point, given our location, it makes sense to push on into the SAM site of Cambria, just to the north of Tixa.

That way, once it's been taken out, we can have Skyrider air-lift Dynamo back to Alma (for +Loyalty). And then air-lift Flo and Gumpy back to Drassen (to receive our shipments and keep our militia peaked). This saves us 10 days of travel time.

Note that white dot to the right of the question mark. That's where the humvee is. But the humvee is not so useful until we have taken Balime and opened up its surrounding roads, and I don't want to quest in Balime just yet.

Next up: Cambria SAM site.

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