Empyre.wad Walkthrough
Warning: This gives away ALL of the secrets.

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Level 1 of 6 : Spaceport
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You start in the southern terminal.  Through the door and down the hall is the great room.  Search the diaognal walls, the ones with the windows, for textures that are slightly out of alignment vertically. These are secret doors.  There are also two places on the floor that look subtly different.  These are secret lifts that let you outside.

On the outside of the building, you should also search for secret doors on the diagonal walls.  On the SW wall is a lift that leads to a switch that opens a door in the caves to the east of the building.  Behind that door is a room with a nice view of a lavafall, and the red key.

Behind the door that the red key opens inside the building, is a switch that lowers a wall around the central tower, and the yellow key.  Behind the door that the yellow key opens, is a switch that raises a stairway that leads to the top of the tower, and the blue key.  Behind the door that the blue key opens is a switch that raises the wall that blocks the top of the tower.  The exit teleporter is on top of the tower.  One more hint: the top stair is also a lift, so you won't have to go all the way around.


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Level 2 of 6 : Spaceport Basement
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The overall shape of the basement is the same as the main floor, but the internal layout is quite different.  There are two concentric halls that go all the way around.  They are linked by four halls that radiate out like spokes.  All these halls divide the basement into four sectors and a central core.  In four places in the halls, the ceiling has collapsed, so you'll have to go around.

You start in a room under the east terminal.  The sector in front of you, the east sector, is a storage room.  There's nothing in there that you absolutely must have to finish the level, but there are lots of goodies in there, like a rocket launcher, a plasma gun, a berzerk pack, some green armor, and an invisibility sphere.  The rocket launcher is in a secret area in the southern end of the room, behind a crate that lowers like a lift.  There are some small boxes stacked so that you can climb them to get to the plasma gun.

Next, you need to go to the south sector, with the cracked walls. Look for sections of the walls that are more severely cracked.  These are switches that lower lifts, except for one, which is a door revealing a switch.  That switch lowers a wall which was concealing a door on the south side of the north sector.  Go there next.

Behind that door is a switch that opens the prison cells.  You will then need to go around to the northern doors to access the cells.  In the cells you will find an ammo backpack, some ammo, and the yellow key which grants you access to the west sector.

In the west sector is a slime pit.  In the slime pit you'll find radiation suits to protect you from the slime, a lift to let you out, and a switch that opens the door on the south side of the computer room in the center of the basement.

On the walls of the computer room are three switches.  The east switch lowers a section of counter on the north side of the computer core.  The west switch opens the door to the computer core.  Finally, the north switch reveals the exit switch inside the core.


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Level 3 of 6 : Nazi Fortress
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The halls of the fortress are in the shape of a giant swastika.  You start in a room on the outside of the east branch of the swastika.  The small rooms lining the halls contain SS soldiers and minor goodies.  If you don't kill the SS now, you'll have to face them all later.  It would be most efficient if you follow the arms of the swastika in a clockwise direction, making a left turn each time you reach the central hub.

On the next arm (south) there is a door leading outside the swastika.  The hall behind this door leads to a room that contains a switch that raises some stairs you'll have to climb later.  On the next arm (west) a similar door leads to a switch that opens a door at the top of the stairs that you raised with the previous switch.  On the last arm (north) there is a small alcove with a nazi symbol.  The alcove turns out to be a lift that lowers you to the base of the stairs you raised earlier.  At the top of those stairs is a room with a nice view of a familiar looking lavafall, and the blue key.

When you return to the top of the lift, you will discover that the whole fortress has been transformed!  It is now a large open space with dangerous monsters prowling around.  On the east wall, north of where you first started, is a door you couldn't reach before that leads to the exit.  Before you leave, though, you might want to check out the large central room full of goodies that should enable you to get 100% kills.  Also, on the west wall is a nazi symbol that conceals a secret room that won't show up on the automap.  What you find therein depends on what skill level you are playing.  When you're done slaying and looting, head for the exit.


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Level 4 of 6 : Lava Cave
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You begin in a cave on a ledge with a nice view of a very familiar looking lavafall.  Everything is peaceful right now, but that will end as soon as you step off the ledge.  Before you do, you will need some more supplies.  Right next to that familiar looking room, there is a secret door, marked by a column of skulls, that hides a room full of goodies.  Just to the north is a radiation suit that will protect you from the lava.

When you're ready, step off the ledge and the lavafall will lower, revealing all manner of beasts in the room beyond.  The steps in that room are much too big for a human, but if you use them, they will lower like lifts.  At the top, behind the invulnerability sphere, is a switch that raises stairs leading to the ledge opposite the one where you started.

Using the stepping stones to get out of the lava, climb the stairs and run to the other end of the ledge where the teleporter will send you to a small cave.  The door there is the exit.


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Level 5 of 6 : Castle Greenstone
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First you might want to read cstlgstn.txt for a little background story.

You start in a small cave with the door to the lava cave sealed behind you.  The castle is surrounded by a lava moat with the drawbridge submerged, so before you can enter the castle, you must first get past the lava.  In a cave behind the castle is a teleporter into the gatehouse, but it's behind a locked door.  The red key you need is in the Temple of Armor in a cave to the east (right) of the castle.  Go there first.

The teleporter in the temple leads to a sealed hallway inside the castle.  Behind the teleporter is a switch that raises some stairs leading to the blue armor in the Shrine of Armor inside the castle.  To reach the switch, you must teleport to the hall in the castle and then teleport right back.  Use the switch BEFORE you step off of the teleporter.

Now that you have the red key, go to the cave behind the castle.  The teleporter there sends you to the gatehouse.  The switch in the gatehouse raises the drawbridge out of the lava.  The door into the castle courtyard requires the blue key, which is in the Temple of Health in a cave to the west (right) of the castle.  Go there next.

Use the same trick again to throw the switch behind the teleporter in the temple.  That switch lowers a column (with a soul sphere (100% health boost) on it) in the Shrine of Health inside the castle.  Now that you have the blue key, return to the gatehouse, where you can now proceed into the courtyard.

The castle building is shaped roughly like a cross (no religous reference intended).  Each of the two wings of the building has a windowed hallway wrapped around it, accessible via a lift on the north side of the wing.  The one on the west (left) contains a megasphere; you'll probably want that.  The one on the east (right) has an ammo backpack; you'll definately want that.

Next, you could go on inside, or, if you're trying for 100% kills, you could exterminate the monsters infesting the courtyard, first.  In each corner, there are two lifts taking you up to the castle wall.

Right between each pair of lifts is another lift taking you to the top of one of the towers.  There are also lifts leading to the top of the gatehouse.  On each tower, you'll find a different kind of ammo (SW = bullets, NW = rockets, SE = shells, NE = cells) and a switch.  That switch lowers a platform (with the most powerful weapon that uses that kind of ammo) in the corresponding shrine inside the building.  You need to know that on the ultra-violent skill level, this also frees another monster in an already crowded room, so you might want to clear out the corresponding room before throwing that switch.

When you step inside the building, you will be in a hall flanked by guard rooms, in which you'll find a litte health and some armor.  Straight ahead is a hall and a door to the garden, which has a lovely fountain, except that it's filled with blood!  At either end of that hall is another hall and a door requiring the yellow key, which we'll find later.

Each of those two halls has two doors, each of which leads to one of the four shrines of different kinds of ammo, arranged in the same way as the towers (SW = bullets, etc.).  Beware, though, for between each of those pair of shrines is an illusory wall, behind which is a hall.  When you walk to the end of the hall on the west side, stairs will raise, allowing you to enter the Shrine of Health.  When you walk to the end of the hall on the east side, a lift will lower, allowing you to enter the Shrine of Armor.

Just to the north of all this is a long hall running East and West.  Let's go east first.  At the top of the stairs at the end of the hall is a door leading to a reverse L shaped hall, with one room on the south branch, two on the east side, and one on the north end.  In the southern room is a desk with a computer built in.  That computer is a switch that lowers the column in the Shrine of Armor, revealing a teleporter that sends you to the invulerability power-up on top of the fountain in the garden.  That will be really useful in a few minutes.  The computer in the next room up lowers a wall in the hall, revealing it to actually be a balcony overlooking the throne room.  Considering what's in there, you might want to wait to do that.  The bookcase in this room is actually a secret door with a plasma gun behind it.  In the next room, the computer lowers a wall just to the south, opening up the hall with the teleporter to the Temple of Armor.  The bookcase in this room conceals the automap computer.  The last room has a little health and some armor.

On the west side, we have a mirror image of what we found on the east.  The computer in the southern room lowers a wall just to the east, revealing a hall downstairs that leads to the throne room.  This room and its mirror image each has a hidden lift and a secret door leading to the hall just opened: a one-way short cut that will be handy in a couple minutes.  In the next room up, the computer converts the hall into a balcony, and the bookcase conceals a chainsaw.  In the next room, the computer opens up the hall with the teleporter to the Temple of Health, and the bookcase hides the yellow key.  You could now proceed directly to the exit, but that would leave many monsters unslain, and we can't have that, can we?  Besides, we're almost through anyway.  The last room is exactly like its mirror image.

Now you'll want to ready the BFG, go to the Shrine of Armor (the one on the east), teleport to the invulerbility power-up, head due north from there to the throne room, and kick some demon butt.  The back of the throne is a secret door, behind which is a megasphere!  Now go to either of the doors that need the yellow key and go down to the dungeon.  You will find yourself in a hall with a teleporter on either end and the exit switch in the middle.


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Level 6 of 6 : Greenstone Dungeon
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You start in the dungeon of Castle Greenstone, facing the switch you just switched.  It won't switch back.  The switch sealed off your escape to the upper level of the castle, and revealed a short hall behind you.  The southern door is locked and the other two doors each lead to some holding cells.  Beyond each set of cells is a pair of switches.  The southern switches open the cells and the northern switches lower hidden panels in the hall where you started, leading to hallways leading north.

These two halls each have two doors and an illusory wall between them, just like on the ground floor.  Those four doors lead to dining areas for 4 different kinds of monsters.  In each room is a different kind of ammo and either health or armor.  You'll want to clean out the southern rooms for the ammo, but wait until you have better weapons than the shotgun before taking on the monsters in the northern rooms.  The eastern illusory wall hides a teleporter that leads to a currently closed off corner of the library, and we will soon see what is behind the western illusary wall.  Don't go through either of the illusory walls yet, instead proceed to the long east-west hall just to the north.

Between the two halls you just left is a door leading to the source of the blood in the fountain on the ground floor.  In that room is the red key.  Grab it and then head to the western illusory wall.  Immediately behind the illusory wall is a sheer drop of several feet, so the only way out is the door in front of you.

Behind that door is the dungeon proper, with cells containing torture victims lining the walls.  On the far wall is two switches.  The left switch opens the cells, and the right switch raises the stairs so you can get back out.  The red key unlocks the door between the cells on the south side of the room.  The switch there opens the door just south of where you began the level.  That's where you go next, down the tunnel beneath the castle courtyard, and up the lift into the gatehouse.

In the gatehouse is the switch you used in the previous level to raise the drawbridge, and another switch that activates the elevators on either end of the east-west hall just to the north of the fountain room and dungeon proper, so that you can use them, once you have unsealed them.  Let's go do that now.

Return to the long east-west hall north of the fountain room and turn east (right).  The stairway at the end of the hall leads to a U shaped hall with two rooms each on the bottom, left, right, and top.  Go first to the eastern room on the bottom of the U.  The switch in that room opens up the elevators on either end of the long east-west hall, and also opens up the closed corner in the library with the teleporter.

Next, you want to take either the teleporter behind the east illusory wall or the east elevator up to the library.  You will find the blue key in the south-west corner.  There is also a secret room on the western wall that won't show on your map.  This room contains the auto map computer.

Take the blue key to the dungeon proper and unlock the door between the cells on the north side of the room.  The switch there grants you access to the soul sphere in the dungeon proper and the blue armor in the library.  Use them whenever you have the need.

Now it's time to return to the U shaped hall.  The switch in the western room on the bottom of the U enables the lift in the middle of the bottom of the U and reveals a stairwell between there and the long east-west hall.  You are not ready to go down that lift yet.  The switches in the four rooms on the sides reveal switches in the corresponding rooms (NW, SW, NE, and SE) off the two north-south halls on either side of the fountain room.  Caution: in the ultra-violent skill level, they also reveal monsters in those rooms.

Those newly revealed switches raise stairs inside the towers, your next destination.  At the top of those stair is the most powerful weapon that uses the ammo that was found in the corresponding room that had the switch that raised the stairs you took to get the weapon.

To get to the towers, take either elevator down and use the lift at the other end of the hall.  Now you are inside the castle wall.  Go to the tower to the south first and take the weapon you find there.  Before you go to the north tower, go through the other door in the south tower.  At the end of that hall, there is a small room overlooking the gatehouse.  The yellow key will be on one side or the other or both, depending on what skill level you are playing.  Now, go to the north tower, and from there to the other north tower, then the other south tower, and if neccessary to the other side of the gatehouse to get the yellow key. At the bottom of each lift to the inside of the wall is a secret door.  What goodies you find in those secret rooms depends on the skill level.

Now it's time to return once again to the U shaped hall.  This time you will take on the monsters in the rooms at the top of the U.  The switches in those rooms lower the walls on the inside of the U, revealing it to be a balcony over a large room closely resembling the throne room in the castle above.  Also revealed are two short halls between the rooms on the sides.  The doors in those halls lead to secret closets behind moving computer panels in the side rooms.

Before you go down into the big room and take on the particularly nasty monsters therein, you will want to get whatever ammo you need, and health and armor power-ups you haven't used already, and then grab the invulnerability in the secret room off of the southeast cell in the dungeon proper.  Then, before the invulnerability wears off, hurry down the lift in the middle of the bottom of the U and clean house.

Behind the daemon portrait on the north side of that room is a small room that leads to some stairs that lead to a lift.  At the bottom of that lift is a tunnel that leads through the lava of the moat and up some stairs to another lift.  At the top of that lift is a small room and the exit from the level.


Many, but not all, of the rooms in these levels can be explored in any order, but this is how I usually do it.