serious sam hd - melee & pistols only (serious difficulty) - luxor

played on: 23rd of january, 2025
rules:
only the pistols, the knife and chainsaw are allowed in combat
other weapons are allowed for utility purposes (rocketjumping, prop demolition, etc.), just not for actual fighting
saving and loading is allowed (this challenge would be incredibly tedious otherwise)
the second rule is because some of these are fights are flat out impossible without cheese
---------------------------------
luxor:
you start off in a big flat area with a bunch of enemies, but what's important here is to not over extend. as you walk further down the yard more enemy spawns get triggered, so take it slow.
4:23 this first part of the map involves a locked door and two keys. each key can be found on the left and the right. doesn't really matter which one you do first, the left one is more difficult though. i decided to go right first.
there's some kleers around corners and a big yard with some medium health enemies, but nothing note worthy by now.
11:40 this second part can be rather annoying, since it's a claustrophobic courtyard with a lot of clutter and some kleers running around. the kleers tend to bounce around all over the clutter making kiting difficult, so just take it slow again.
18:17 each key item spawns in some enemies of course, but the spawns here aren't too bad - a few harpies, a reptiloid in teh distance and a scorpion on a tower. you can use one of the obelisks as cover from the scorpion.
23:35 the second key's first yard has a seemingly scary lava golem fight, but you can just run backwards and these big guys won't fit in the door.
30:23 the second yard has a nasty encounter with some kleers rushing at you and a scorpion sniping you, forcing you to take cover in this tiny crevice (where dodging kleers is difficult)
37:43 once you pick up the key, there's another greeting party. it's more harpies and another reptiloid, but no scorpion this time. (oh and some kleers try to sneak up on you)
39:09 there's another nasty encounter involving scorpions - you try walking thru a doorway and some scorpions show up, hitscanning you at many angles. some kleers also start rushing you, luckilly there is a blindspot not too far, just be careful not to leave it while you're knifing the kleers.
44:33 once you walk through the locked door, there's some uneventful encounters, but further inside the building there is this sketchy fight over a death pit. you get rushed by a bunch of gnaars and harpies, too many to knife all at once, but thankfully you don't need to - there's a secret area that you get teleported to if you jump right into the pit. you can also just walk back thru the door you came.
46:30 after that there's a lore cutscene (that i skipped) and you get jumped by a bunch of mechs
49:15 and here comes the difficult part of the map, there's a bunch of ankhs that need to placed in the center, they all get spawned in one at a time. every time you pick one up a tough wave of enemies spawn in.
50:00 the first ankh is already a pain in the ass. there's kamikazes, there's kleers, there's scorpions, there's mechs... all of these need attention and have different counters making it frustrating. you could rocket jump away i suppose, but the wall is so steep that i'll cost you your overheal and armor (which you may need for the next fight that is even tougher)
there isn't much of a strategy, but try to keep the red mech within vision range, since he'll outrun you when he isn't attacking you. his rockets also help thin out the kleers. try and kill the scorpion ASAP since you can't dodge it.
58:18 you could also get the mech stuck on a pillar like so, but this is tricky to do.
1:01:38 ankh 2 is even worse, you get assaulted by a bunch of scorpions (that don't ever stop targeting you, even outside of sight) and you get mauled by a bunch of kleers on top of that. i eventually decided to just rocket jump, fuck this fight.
1:10:20 ankh 3 is also a pain, it's a bunch of reptiloids and bulls. i decided to just rocket jump this one too.
1:15:25 when you place the third ankh there's another fight - a bunch of reptiloids spawn near the door you came out of and some kleers start rushing you too. luckilly, you can stop the reptiloids from attacking you by hiding behind a pillar, the kleers are still a bit tricky to deal with though.
1:19:48 the final ankh is the easier i'd say. it's just a bunch of blue & red mechs. there's plenty of space to kite the red mechs, just keep them within sight range so they don't catch up to you.
1:23:20 oh and there's a secret exit on the map, right next to the regular exit, just like valley of the kings from way back when. walk left and you'll hit the secret exit.