[Necromancer]

Antlions

After fighting your way through the next building - be ready for the ambush near the locked doors - you’ll find yourself in hardcore, one-on-one combat with an antlion bull, a larger and much tougher variant of the antlion. It can’t fly, but it will attempt to run you down and bash you with its skull. It’ll also generally try to knock cars towards you, when there happens to be one between you and it. Add to all this the fact that there are two antlion pits in the area, and you’ve got a recipe for fun.

There’s no way to avoid damage here, so get used to the idea of getting hit - a lot. With any luck, you should be near full health/armor, what with the recharges you got inside the building, as well as the health packs near the drop to the antlion arena and below it. Still, you’re going to take a lot of damage here, so be sure to save your game before you drop down to face the antlion.

When you do make the drop, start by using your grav gun to grab the three explosive barrels near where you begin and chucking them into the antlion. There are four more barrels scattered around the area; if you can get a bit of distance between you and the bull, or can convince it to charge at them, then dodge out of the way and shoot them, you can do quite a bit of damage to the beast.

Beyond that, your best bet for dealing damage to the bull is to backpedal away from it while bunnyhopping. If it gets up a head of steam, it’ll be difficult to dodge, so try to keep rotating around it in smaller circles, and be sure to stay where Alyx can fire on both you and the antlions. She’ll prefer to fire on the bull, for the most part, but she’ll also clear away some of the small fries when she has a moment.

Tip: If you’re having a hard time with this fight, try running past the bull as it attacks the Combine tank, then knocking cars into the two antlion burrows while it’s still distracted. That will greatly decrease the number of antlions you’ll have to face off against during the fight, which in turn will let you use the small barricade/mounted gun as a point to rotate around and prevent the bull from attacking you.

When the antlions are done, use the mounted gun to blast away at the Combine soldiers beyond the far barricade, then head into the building nearby. Another powered door that’s unpowered...and another crawl through the air vents.

Getting The Shaft

One of the first things you’re going to come across here is a falling air vent, which brings you back into a throwback to one of our favorite parts of the original Half-Life: a room completely booby-trapped with laser mines. Trip one mine, and you die.

Fortunately for you, the solution here isn’t nearly as arcane as it was in the first game. All you have to do is pop the grille from the top of the vent (be sure to use the secondary fire on your gravgun), then hop on top of the vent and jump from the top of the explosive barrels into the elevator. Even if you trip a wire doing this, you should still be able to reach the elevator, which will automatically descend, before the explosives kill you.

Unfortunately, your elevator’s cables will be destroyed by the explosion, landing you in a pit of water. Zap the hatch off the top of the elevator to free yourself, then hold down your jump button to float to the surface of the pit. You’ll note three barnacles at the top of the elevator shaft; now might be a good time to kill them off with your pistol. Regardless, you’ll need to shoot one of the explosive barrels in the nearby room, then duck underneath the water when it explodes, before moving on. Climb through the cracked window here, but watch out for another toxic headcrab - they’ll getcha! You’ll need to move the table here underneath the ventilation shaft to get inside.

On the upper level, shoot out the barrel to your left, or chuck a grenade in there to blow the mines. Now, you need to get to the ladder on the far side of this shaft, which may be difficult to do if you haven’t killed the barnacles yet, so jump out into one of their loving grasps and use your weapons to finish them off if need be. The ladder here will take you to another ventilation shaft, at the end of which you should fire at the explosive barrels to destroy them before dropping down and activating the power to let Alyx through.

Back To The Surface

In the next room, destroy the barrels, then move around to the door with a blinking lock. Be ready with your shotgun when the door blows, and immediately shoot the explosive barrel there before it gets kicked down the steps. Clear out the room, and be sure to pick up the crossbow here before unplugging the power to the nearby shield with your gravgun.

After moving down the street, you’ll be taken to a safehouse, so start making your way through the rooms, being on watch for more zombines. Beware the warped floor in one of the rooms near the top of the building; you’ll have to walk near the walls to avoid dropping into the room below.

Barney will appear shortly thereafter, and the plan forms thusly: you and Alyx are the ones the Combine wants, so it’s up to you to take a different route to the train station everyone’s heading towards. This will let you draw off the pursuit...theoretically.