Shadowrun #25 - Tenth Street

1. The Corpse Awakens, Tenth Street

Items

Torn Note, Scalpel, Slap Patch

Keywords

Dog, Firearms, Hitman

Enemies

*1 Karma point equals 8 Experience (EXP) points

The game opens with your character falling off a morgue slab knowing only that his head hurts and that he has no idea who he is or what last happened. For a while the game will play as a mystery, and you will need to piece together clues about both your character's identity and the mission that nearly resulted in his death. Be warned in advance that many clues, messages, and items will remain cryptic at first.

Examine The Morgue

Explore the morgue and your own inventory. The only item you start with is a Matchbox. Examining it will reveal the "Wastelands Club" logo, but this will not make sense for a while. Move the cursor over and examine the Slab. The name on it reads "Armitage J." (J is short for Jake, your character's name). A TORN PAPER also falls outs. You can pick up this item and add it to your inventory. Examining it reveals "Warehouse No. 50."

You can save time in this game by using the R- and L-buttons instead of always pressing B, then choosing an option. R can be used to pick up items and open doors with a single click. L can be used to examine something. The R button in particular will save a lot of time when moving between areas and collecting dropped nuyen (money).

Pick a SCALPEL from the tray below the second table. The Scalpel cannot be equipped as a weapon, so just hold onto it for now. To the left side of the screen, open the top fridge and you can pick up a SLAP PATCH. The Slap Patch can be used to recover 10 HP, but you should save it until the end of this area.

After picking up these items, open the door and watch the morticians run off screaming at the sight of walking corpse. You would think they might act, say, a little more professional (especially since one commented that you did not even look dead). If you hover the cursor over the rest of the room, you will spot a couple of locked filing cabinets that will have to wait until later. Time to leave the room and begin exploring.

Outside the morgue is a hallway with another locked door. As with many locations in the game, this door can never be opened. It is purely for show to add the semblance of a larger world. Keep this in mind in the future to avoid frustration.

Get Armed

Outside the building, a thug runs up to you and expresses amazement that you are still alive. His opening dialogue teaches you the *HITMAN* keyword, which is in bold text as all keywords are. As with all conversations, you should choose to Talk to him, which will teach you the *FIREARMS* keyword. You should then Ask About both of these words (as a rule of thumb, always ask a character about any new keyword they teach you). The thug's advice to you is to get armed, and it is some good advice.

You have choices of places to explore. However, you are in a lot of danger without a weapon given that there are hitmen after you. The first thing to do is follow the thug who recognized you (he runs off to the SW). There will be plenty of time to look around shortly. Continue to follow him SW on the next screen too.

As you walk down a dark alley, you will hear a gunshot and a scream. Apparently our friend took a wrong turn and was just gunned down. Walk toward his corpse and an orc will begin shooting at you. You will notice that past the Orc there is a BERETTA PISTOL on top of the dead body. Make a race for it and pick up the gun. Note that if you walk to the far right curb after the dumpster but before the body, you will probably get out of the Orc's line of fire and save some health. To equip the gun, press start, select Weapons, and Use the Beretta Pistol.

The Beretta has an attack power of 3 and an accuracy rating of 1. While there is a more detailed explanation of these stats in the "Weapons and Armor" section of the Appendix, attack power is basically the maximum damage the weapon can do and accuracy rating (out of 6) reflects how often the weapon will hit. One point of accuracy rating is equivalent to one points in the Firearms sdefeat. Overall, the Beretta is not a great weapon, but it is the best you can get for the time being.

Defeat the Orc. You will need to be fast and target him quickly. Press the A button to bring up the crosshair and move it over the Orc until you see a green box in the bottom right corner of the screen. Blast away as fast as you can. Keep in mind that this is not a modern day first-person shooter, so the damage is not any better if you aim for headshots versus body shots. it is best to just aim for whatever is easiest to target.

Once the Orc is dead, examine his body. You will find the LEATHER JACKET. Equip it by going to the Armor menu and choosing Use. This is now your first piece of armor. It will reduce the damage you take by 1, which is very helpful.

Walk to the end of the alley and a small dog will approach you from the darkness. If you Talk to him, he will teach you the *DOG* keyword and tell you to seek out his shrine. Again, this will make sense later. If you forget to Talk and do not get the Dog keyword, leave the screen and reenter. This dog will appear again. Once you have the keyword, this dog will no longer appear when you return.

You will also notice a billboard that boasts about a new generation cyberdeck that comes in keyboard size. This adds some nice emersion, but is not directly useful.

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2. Exploring Tenth Street, Tenth Street

Items

Cyberdeck, Dog Collar, Iced Tea, Memo, Paperweight, Ripped Note, Shades, Sassie's Telephone Number

Keywords

Datajack, Decker, Grinder, Healing, Hiring, Lone Star, Maria, Shadowrunner, Street Doc, Tickets

Enemies

*1 Karma point equals 8 Experience (EXP) points

The map below tries to graphically depict this region. It is understandably poor and does not show when new screens begin, so please bear with it; it is the best I can do in a text walkthrough. The index below shows the building names and events that occur on this map.

Going Home

Shadowrun is rather non-linear, so there is no real hint as to where to go next. To avoid some time and aggravation, the first goal will be finding Jake's apartment and establishing a place to recover health and save the game. Head back to the first screen where you exited the morgue building. You will notice a large gate surrounding a fountain and a little dog inside. If you go to the topmost part of the fence, you can open the broken gate and let the dog loose. Unlike the dog in the dark alley, this one does not talk, but it does bark a lot and drop the DOG COLLAR. This is another item that has no use now, but pick it up for later.

You will also see numerous pedestrians and businessmen walking around the town square and sitting on the benches. None of these people are of any use and most are quite nasty. If you are frustrated, feel free to unload and defeat them all. These NPCs (non-playable characters) can be defeated without any penalty.

Head toward the SE side of the screen and follow the street to the next screen. Enter the first building you come to. You will see an L-shaped hallway with two doors. In the first room, there is a fat man lying on the floor who seems to be injured and unresponsive. His label when you place the cursor on him is "Seems Familiar." Wonder if his "injury" is related to the same hitmen trying to defeat Jake? If you examine him, you will reveal a DOOR KEY in his pocket. The key reads "6" when examined, and you should pick it up. On the desk you will see a MEMO that reads "Armitage to perform courier run to Matrix Systems. 70-30 Split." Again, a clue to piecing together your past, but nothing that should make sense yet. You can pick up the Memo.

The second doorway in this building is a small restaurant that houses enemies (Heavy Dudes and Mages). This is one of many "enemy areas" in the game that has respawning foes every time you return to the screen. These are good places to build karma, but you are better off avoiding fighting at this point until you have had a chance to save the game.

Exit the building and continue walking NE. You will come to the Tenth Street Monorail Station, which is currently closed for repairs. Occasionally, there will be a Hitman on the roof of this building that wears a trench coat and top hat. He drops 30-60 nuyen when defeated and is a pretty good source of money. However, avoid fighting for now until you have raised your stats a bit. Proceed into the alley on the top of the screen.

Follow the next screen around the bend and enter the apartment building. There are eight doors in this hallway (all of which have numbers when examined). The one you should look for is the third on the right. This is apartment 6, which corresponds to the 6 on the Door Key you found. Use the Door Key on the door to unlock it and head on in.

This is Jake's apartment and is quite sparse – apparently he does not need much to survive, including any sort of kitchen, bathroom, or toilet. You will see a bed at the bottom of the screen, an end table on the right, a desk and filing cabinet near the top, and a blinking video phone on the left. Start by picking up the SHADES on the end table above the bed. Go to the item screen and Use these, which will change Jake's picture on the menu. The Shades also provide you with some level of disguise.

Go to the filing cabinet, open it, and Examine it to find 20 nuyen (nuyen is the currency in the Shadowrun world. it is a made up term, but is probably a derivation of "new yen," a play on the Japanese currency). On the desk next to the filing cabinet you will find the RIPPED NOTE. The important thing is to examine the Note, which has a phone number for a woman named Sassie. You can pick up the Note, but this is not necessary; you will remember the number automatically once it has been examined.

If you check the video phone, there is a threatening message from Drake telling Jake to cancel his run and turn over the files. While you can check messages, you cannot use the phone to place calls yet; it will ask you insert a Credstick first (which you obtain a little later). Rather odd that Jake would have a pay phone in his apartment, but maybe these have replaced monthly billing plans in the future.

Head down to the bed and Use it. Jake will go to sleep (restores HP) and you will be given the choices to Save Game (you should do so) or Use Karma. Using Karma is the game's equivalent to "leveling-up," more or less. You can use karma to increase attributes and sdefeats (and later, magic spells) in various categories. The stat to increase first is Firearms, which improves the accuracy of your weapon and lets you hit more frequently. A few points will make a very noticeable difference, so put any karma you may have earned into this.

Now that you have a base for recovering and saving whenever you want, it is time to power-up a bit and explore the rest of the area.

Power Up Location

The two doors before Jake's apartment lead to an office that houses respawning enemies. This is a great place to earn karma and nuyen. Enter the apartment from the bottom door, as this gives a clear shot of all enemies without having to move around. it is useful to pick off the Mages first as they have a stronger attack but less than the Heavy Dudes. Each enemy here gives you 2 EXP Points, which is twice as much as most of the street enemies. EXP Points are not displayed on the status screen, but 8 EXP equals 1 karma point. You receive a karma point for every four enemies you defeat. You can also make quite a bit of nuyen here, although picking it up increases the time it takes you to earn karma.

The first 6 karma points you earn should go into the Firearms sdefeat. Boost this sdefeat up to level 4 and you will greatly increase your defeating rate. Next, increase your Body attribute to level 4. None of the other sdefeats are of any value in this area, so there is no need to raise them. Alternate between raising Firearms and Body with any additional karma points.

The goal should be to leave the Tenth Street area with Body and Firearms at level 5 or higher. You can probably do all the fighting you need to in 10-15 minutes in this area if you want. If you are picking up nuyen as you defeat, you should have at least 500 by the time you are done.

Glutman's Building And Grim Reaper Club

Now it is time to gather some information, and there's no better place to do it than your friendly neighborhood Grim Reaper Club. Head back past the town square and head toward the exit on the SW side corner of the screen. On the way to the Grim Reaper Club, you can pick up a few items. You should now be on a street that heads NW and has a couple of building entrances on the north side (location E and F on the map). Enter the first building (Glutman's Building), which contains two doors on the right side. The first door leads to an enemy area, but you will notice a PAPERWEIGHT on the desk in the center of the room. This item is useless now but will be required later.

The second room holds a rather dim-witted secretary who tells you her boss is out. She does not respond to any keywords you will have yet, so do not waste your time. The real jewel is in the back of the room. Laying on the office desk is a CYBERDECK, which is your ticket to accessing the Matrix. You will be able to access (or log into) most computers in the game that have "Computer" labels when you hold the cursor over them. As luck would have it, the computer in this office has such a label and can be accessed. You can attempt to do so by going to the item menu, choosing the cyberdeck, and trying to use it on the computer. Doing so now will bring you to a login screen, but you will quickly get an error saying that something is wrong with your datajack (datajack is the connection on Jake's head that allows him to "enter" the Matrix. Much more on this later). You will need to either fix your datajack (this happens later) or come back with someone who has a working datajack (a Shadowrunner). For now, exit the building and continue to the end of the street.

Enter the building with a neon "Club" sign on the outside. This is the Grim Reaper Club, the Tenth Street townie bar. The man at the entrance is a street doc (someone who repairs cyberware) and he teaches you the *STREET DOC* and *HEALING* keywords. Talk to the bartender and he will recognize you, offering to serve up your favorite drink. Apparently Jake is a regular here. After a few moments, he serves up an ICED TEA drink on the counter. The Grim Reaper Club may not strike you as the place someone would order an iced tea, but, you cannot actually drink it. The item screen only has the option to Give it to someone, so just hold on for now.

Take this time to talk to the bartender again. He teaches you a few important keywords, including *SHADOWRUNNER*, *DECKER*, *DATAJACK*, and *HIRING*. This last keyword, *Hiring*, is the most important. This is the word you will use whenever you approach a Shadowrunner who you like to hire. Most will never join you (or offer their services) without it.

At the table in the middle of the bar is a tired patron who does not seem up for conversing with you. That the game lets you Examine him is probably a clue that he is important somehow. Odds are that he'd enjoy a nice drink, maybe the Iced Tea you just received. Give him the Icea Tea and try talking again. He is appreciative and now opens up a bit. Apparently, he is bummed out because he lost tickets to the Maria Mercurial concert when a scalper named Grinder was defeated by Lone Star (the police). It is important to get the *TICKETS*, *GRINDER*, and *LONE STAR* keywords from him, as these are all needed to advance the plot.

As an interesting aside, this man will have different dialogue depending on which version of the game you are playing. When you ask him about *Grinder*, he will either say that he was taken away by the "Morgue Guys" or the "Chop Shop" guys. There are not many gameplay differences between the two versions, but the "Chop Shop" version has slightly more explicit dialogue in a few places (will be discussed in those sections).

The remaining patrons in the bar include an irritable Jamaican on the phone (you cannot speak with him now) and an orc named Hamfist. Hamfist is a Shadowrunner who will join for 500 nuyen. He identifies himself as a decker, which is a type of shadowrunner that can log into computers and access the matrix. He is surprisingly knowledgeable and responds to many of your keywords. There is no reason to hire him right now, but see the "Hiring Hamfist" section below for some interesting uses.

If you exit the Grim Reaper club and proceed to the next screen, you can complete your tour of Tenth Street. There is a Graveyard on the left and a club at the very end called "The Cage," as one of the street patrons will tell you. He will also give you a little more color on Grinder being shot by the cops and let you know that Maria is performing at the club.

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3. Maria and the Tickets, Tenth Street

Items

Credstick, Ghoul Bone, Lonestar Badge, Magic Fetish, Tickets, Glutman's Telephone Number

Keywords

Calls, Ghouls, Glutman, Negotiation, The Cage

Enemies

*1 Karma point equals 8 Experience (EXP) points

The game does not provide incredible guidance on where to go next. You have some clues on Grinder being defeated by Lone Star, the tickets, some concert, etc., but no real purpose that should make the next step apparent. For now, all you can do is follow-up on some of these clues and see which ones play out.

Cops and Morge Guys

it is safe to assume that we want to find the tickets and enter the club where Maria is playing. We know the deceased Grinder possessed them, so the morgue is not a bad place to look. If you head back to the morgue, the morticians will no longer run from Jake (assuming he is wearing the Shades). Definitely not the brightest bulbs... If you ask the bottommost mortician about Grinder, he tells you that he can only open the file for "family or a badge."

Head back to the street where the Grim Reaper Club is. Enter the building below the club but above the Glutman building. The first room in an enemy area, but the second contains a shady businessman. This character holds quite a few goodies. If you ask him about *Firearms*, he will offer to sell you Grenades for 100 nuyen. Grenades are not worth it, so pass him up on his offer (more about this in the "Weapons and Armor" section of the Appendix). If you ask him about *Lone Star*, and he will sell you the LONESTAR BADGE for 150 nuyen. Take him up on his offer and Use the badge. You are now a police officer.

You can also sell the businessman your Beretta Pistol or Leather Jacket. Go to the Weapons or Armor screen and Give the desired item to the businessman. He will then propose a price that you can accept or refuse. You can do this to make some easy money (Leather Jacket fetches 1000 nuyen; Beretta fetches 200), but these items are far more valuable on your body.

One last thing to do before leaving is ask the businessman about *Hiring*. He will then teach you the *NEGOTIATION* keyword, which comes in useful later. He is the only person in the game who teaches this keyword.

With the badge equipped, head back to the morgue. Speak with the bottommost mortician and ask him about *Grinder*. He will offer to pull Grinder's file and belongings from the cabinets. After you accept, he opens the two cabinets and then tells you to dig out the file. Examine the nearest filing cabinet and you will find the CREDSTICK, which can be used to place calls at the video phone. Examine the next filing cabinet and you will find the TICKETS. You can now use these Tickets to enter The Cage and see the Maria Mercurial concert.

With your newly acquired Credstick, it is time to make a couple of phone calls. The closest working video phone is in Jake's apartment, so head back there. This will also give you a chance to save and use karma before finishing the stage. When in Jake's apartment, Use the Credstick on the video phone and a number list will open. Assuming you read the Ripped Note on the desk, only Sassie's number should be available. Give her a try.

Well, Jake does have good taste in women. Unfortunately for him, Sassie has moved on and trashed all his belongings after she heard he was dead. Talk to her and she will give you the *CALLS* keyword. Ask her about *Calls* and she will tell you about *GLUTMAN* along with giving you his number. Interestingly, as soon as she tells you this, the Calls keyword will disappear from your list forever. No worries, as you won't be needing it again.

Say goodbye to the ex and call Glutman. His secretary picks up and says that the boss is out. This is same woman you encountered earlier in the office where you picked up the cyberdeck. You can actually have this identical conversation with her in person if you want, but this makes it easier. Ask her about *Glutman* and she tells you that he is at *THE CAGE* on the edge of town. This comment is very important, as Glutman will not appear at The Cage unless his secretary has said this first. Hang up and head to the other end of town.

Hire Hamfist

Before getting into Hamfist in particular, a little aside about Shadowrunners. Yes, the game is named after them. In case you have not figured it out, Shadowrunners are a type of mercenary who are paid to handle certain tasks or missions. There are many throughout the game, and Jake himself was (is) a Shadowrunner.

In the game world, Shadowrunners are divided into three classes: mercenaries, deckers, and mages. Mercenaries are soldiers. The are designed for physical combat and often sport superior firepower and armor. Deckers are specialized Shadowrunners who carry cyberdecks and can access the Matrix. Their fighting abilities are usually worse than mercenaries. Mages are the least hearty of the three types, but they wield magic spells. Some mages specialize in offensive spells, some defense and support, and some both.

In practical terms, it is never necessary to hire a Shadowrunner. This game can be easily beaten without them. This is due mainly to the fact that Shadowrunners are almost always inferior to Jake in terms sdefeats and survivability. Some Shadowrunners (particularly the mages) are pretty horrible and will die in even moderate fighting situations. A complete ranking and evaluation of all Shadowrunners can be found in the "Shadowrunner" section in the Appendix.

This brings us to Hamfist. Tenth Street is certainly easy enough to complete that he will never make a difference as far as battles go. However, Hamfist does have some interesting uses:

1. Being a decker, Hamfist has a working datajack and can access the Matrix. Particularly, he can enter the computer in Glutman's office. Once you are in the office, Examine Hamfist, go to his items, and use his cyberdeck on the computer. There is some risk of him dying in the Matrix, so make sure his health is full when attempting this. Successfully entering the computer will allow you to steal 1,000 nuyen from Glutman's account, basically paying for the cost of Hamfist and netting you 500 nuyen. You can still access this computer later, but you will need to wait until about the half way point in the game.
2. Hamfist makes an excellent graveyard companion, resulting in a very quick way to earn karma. Simply take him to the Graveyard and run around. This will lure numerous Ghouls that Hamfist will pick off. Ghouls typically leave him alone and only target Jake, so he's relatively safe. You can earn about 2-3 karma per minute this way. Note that there is a limit to the number of ghouls you can fight in any one trip and they do become harder as you make more visits to the Graveyard.
3. More of a novelty, you can Give the Beretta Pistol to Hamfist and he will keep it for you. You can then pick it up later by rehiring him, as he will keep it in his inventory. What's the point of this? Well, it is the only way to finish the game with BOTH the Beretta Pistol and Zip Gun (for more on the Zip Gun, see three sections below). This is a strategy for those "perfectionist" and "100%" players who just have to have every item in the game. There's no benefit to doing it otherwise.

Grave Digging

On the screen past the Grim Reaper club, you can find the entrance to a Graveyard. The graveyard holds four crypts and numerous Scary Ghouls who rise from the earth to attack you. While they may seem infinite, there are only nine ghouls in the graveyard and they always spawn from the same points. These ghouls do reset each time you exit and reenter the screen, however. The damage you inflict on a ghoul will remain if it enters the ground and reemerges later. If a ghoul does enter the ground, it will always reappear from its original spawning point.

One interesting thing to note about ghouls is that they become harder as you fight them. All ghouls start with 4 maximum HP, but they receive 2 additional maximum HP every time you defeat one and it later respawns from the same point. Their HP will increase up to a maximum of 40 (which make them very difficult to defeat). This increase is PERMANENT. While this may be a bug, if it is intentional it is probably designed to prevent rapid karma earning by hunting in the graveyard. You can still earn karma quite easily (especially using the Hamfist trick described above), but your progress slows a lot after about 7-8 trips.

You will notice that each crypt's doors are sealed shut, but you can pry them open by using the Scalpel. The three rightmost crypts contain coffins. When examined, the coffins will contain either Ghouls or nuyen. If you receive a message of "Nothing special here," keep examining until you find something. If a coffin does hold nuyen, you will receive three bills worth 10-20 nuyen each (or 30-60 in total).

While in the graveyard, you will find that someone is yelling for help. Enter the leftmost crypt and you will discover an injured shaman. You can heal him by using the Slap Patch from the morgue. do not worry if you have already used the Slap Patch -- more are available later and you can return here. Once healed, the shaman will talk to you. He teaches you the *SHAMAN* and *MAGIC FETISH* keywords. He will also give you the MAGIC FETISH (item) once you Talk to him. Note that when examined, the Magic Fetish says "engraved on the item is a bat." This is a subtle clue at its use later, but the item is meaningless for the time being.

After healing the shaman, one of the next ghouls you defeat will drop the GHOUL BONE. As with the Magic Fetish, hold onto this until later.

The Cage

With everything else completed, head to the end of the street and enter The Cage. In the entranceway you will see a massive bouncer and a video phone to your left. The video phone is useful if you have not called Sassie or Glutman's secretary yet, but this is probably not an issue if you have been following this walkthrough.

The bouncer lets you know that you need tickets to pass, and he has no intention of moving without them. Select this item and Give it to him. Once the bouncer has stepped aside, you can enter the club. does not seem nearly as crowded as one might think from all the hype. After all, there are only twice as many people in the club as there are members of the band. Still, most people do not have much to say. Both the waitress and bartender do respond when asked about *Glutman*, noting that he's sitting by the band and has run up quite a tab. Interestingly, they both say the same thing even if you have not called Glutman's secretary and he is not at the club yet.

There is also an odd man on the left side who talks about "Ghoul busting." He says that he once met a Shadowrunner who claimed he could handle them. The Shadowrunner he is probably talking about is Jangadance, the Jamaican who is on the phone at the Grim Reaper club. Once you learn the *GHOUL* keyword, Jangadance will be off the phone and can be hired, however, he charges you 1,500 nuyen and is quite useless. Ignore this guy for now and talk to the man just above him, sitting on the couch.

You have finally found Glutman, who seems quite amused to see Jake based on his picture. He expresses his surprise that Jake is still alive given the value of the tech he is carrying in his head. When you Talk to him, he offers to hide you somewhere that you will be safe. Once the conversation has ended, Jake is blindfolded and taken somewhere. The area ends at this point.

The Zip Gun

You could very easily have beaten this game many times and never even heard of the Zip Gun. The reason is that you need to do something quite counterintuitive to ever get it. The Zip Gun is always given to you by Glutman if you talk to him in The Cage and do not have any other gun in your inventory. The game does this so you cannot get stuck in the next stage (caryards) with no way out. The Zip Gun has the same attack power as the Beretta (3) but has a lower accuracy rating (0 vs. 1 for the Beretta), making it a worse weapon. The difference in accuracy can be quite significant at this point in the game. You need an extra point in Firearms to make up the Zip Gun's lack of accuracy. With the Firearms sdefeat at level 1, you will miss almost every time with the Zip Gun.

So how does one get the Zip Gun? it is impossible to miss the Beretta, since you need to defeat at least some enemies to earn enough nuyen for the Lonestar Badge. However, once you have the Beretta, you can get rid of it either by 1) giving it to Hamfist the Shadowrunner, or 2) selling it to the Business Man (who also sells the Lonestar Badge). If you ever wish to get the Beretta again, you will need to give it to Hamfist (this trick is for the perfectionists who want every item in the game).

Since the Zip Gun is essentially a poor man's Beretta, there is no reason to try to obtain it. It is primarily there as insurance to protect a curious (or careless) player.

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