Gameplay
General Play
Use the quick inventory keys (5 through 0) to avoid having to go to your inventory all the time.
Remember that some puzzles are solved or activated between levels; watch for the yellow text to let you know when something has happened off-level. In some cases, events can be triggered several levels in advance, so try not to miss any switches or secret areas.
Most stained glass is breakable. Sometimes there’s a puzzle item behind it, sometimes a goodie, sometimes nothing. Sometimes it’s a monster. Feel lucky?
Those little piles of dirt on the ground aren’t always just dirt. Standing on them could be fatal.
Long falls can damage or kill the player. Even when the player is invulnerable or in god mode.
Player Classes
Fighter: Conserve your projectile weapons for the toughest monsters; the fighter is designed to take out weaker opponents hand-to-hand.
Cleric: Use the poison clouds from the flechette to block doorways and kill off smaller monsters.
Mage: try to keep as much distance between the Mage and monsters as possible; he has little armor and dies quickly when surrounded by a lot of creatures.
Deathmatch
Remember what class you are if you are playing in Random Class play: some items work differently for different Classes, and you need different weapons, too.
When you enter a level, even if you have been there before, everything has been reset. This means that all weapons, items and creatures (if any) are back to their original location and state. Only the players remain unchanged.
Pick up everything you can, including other Classes’ weapons. Even if you can’t use it, it keeps someone else from getting it.
Learn to use your Chaos Device effectively
If you stand near an item/switch which you cannot get/activate because of a rapidly lowering ceiling, try selecting the chaos device before you make an attempt. When you get the item/activate the switch, immediately power up your chaos device, so that you won’t get crushed. It will work for the switch in the moving walls area in the Griffin Chapel, the Platinum Helmet in the Caves of Circe, and many other places.
The Cleric’s Potions
The Cleric’s potions are the most effective weapon in the arsenals of all classes. For example, you can kill the Heresiarch with the Cleric just by spawning 4 potions. I just defeated Korax with less then 10! And all monsters can’t move while in a gas cloud, except Korax but he teleports just one time when his health falls below half.
Easter Eggs
In Locus Requiescat (map 11 in Deathkings of the Dark Citadel), look for square tombstones in the different sideyards. There are three special ones you can read:
- The one with the name “Kevin” says: “Film in an hour?”
- The one with the name “Chris” says: “Gimme some sugar, baby”
- The one with the name “Ben” says: “Don’t touch my gloppy”
Names
The name of the project was Heretic II originally. The name Hexen has been invented in the latest stages of development. And as programmers go, the Hexen source code has the header “Heretic 2” in all source files up to this day… 🙂
It’s anyone’s guess what the game’s title, “Hexen” does mean. In German, the word means “Witches” but it might imply at something else. Also, it’s most probably not by chance that the word begins with “he” like “Heretic”.
Some of the names in Hexen aren’t just foreign-sounding… they also have a meaning. The ultimate enemy’s name is taken from the ancient Greek language where “Korax” means “Raven”. The “Heresiarch” is the “Prince of the Heretics”, and “Chronos” (name of the world of Hexen) means “Time” (both from ancient Greek as well).
Regarding some other names, one can only speculate. While “Parias” might come from “Pariah” which means “Outcast” and “Daedalon” might come from “Daedalus”, a figure in ancient Greek mythology (the father of Icarus), I might be wrong on these ones. Same goes for “Zedek”, which might mean “Righteous”, and “Traductus”, which might mean “The One Who Has Been Led Over To The Other Side”.
Bestiary
Ettin
- Hit Points: 175
- Attack: 2-16
Hit it, jump back, hit it, jump back. With good footwork, you’ll as good as never be hurt by these slow critters.
Chaos Serpent
- Hit Points: 250
- Attack: 5-40
Fire and dodge. Don’t let yourself ever be closed into a small room with a large group of Chaos Serpents, or you won’t live long enough to tell about it.
Wendigo
- Hit Points: 120
- Attack: 8 shards, each up to 8 points
Don’t be afraid to use the Mage’s Ice Shards upon these beasts, it actually works. The fighter’s Flechettes work pretty good provided you hit them at first toss. The Serpent Staff of the Cleric is maybe the easiest way to kill Wendigos.
Centaur
- Hit Points: 200
- Attack: up to 10
When using projectile weapons, fire in short bursts or single shots, because once these creatures freeze into “defense” mode they not only take no damage from further shots, they reflect the attacks back at you.
Slaughtaur
- Hit Points: 250
- Attack: up to 10 in close, up to 32 at long range
When using projectile weapons, fire in short bursts or single shots, because once these creatures freeze into “defense” mode they not only take no damage from further shots, they reflect the attacks back at you. Watch out for their blue fireballs, they’re strong but slow. If you see one coming, most of the time you can dodge it easily.
Stalker
- Hit Points: 90
- Attack: up to 40
These creatures remain hidden (and invulnerable) until they attack; you only have about 1 second to kill them once they erupt from the water. When playing with the Fighter, just run around in Stalkers-infected ponds waving your axe (ie. using attack mode continually), this way you’ll hit them before you even see them. This also works with the Sapphire Wand of the mage, what’s more, it’s even better; once a Stalker has been hit by the Sapphire Wand, it can’t plunge in again as long as you keep firing at it. With the Cleric, you might want to activate a Flechette in ponds with lots of Stalkers (just keep in mind not to enter the poison cloud yourself).
Afrit
- Hit Points: 80
- Attack: up to 8 per projectile
Although they are easy to kill, Afrits do a lot of damage with their fireballs and frequently attack in groups. Fire right after an Afrit moved, they will always pause for a second or two between dodging moves.
Dark Bishop
- Hit Points: 130
- Attack: up to 4 per projectile; up to a dozen projectiles at one shot
Don’t stand too close to these monsters when you kill them; their death explosion does damage to everything nearby.
Reiver
- Hit Points: 150
- Attack: 5-40
Letting them loose upon these undead in the Necropolis is maybe the best thing you can do with your Dark Servants.
Death Wyvern
- Hit Points: 640
- Attack: up to 128
If there’s a Wings of Wrath nearby, grab it and fly tail for the lizard boy. Wyverns can’t turn around in mid-flight so as long as you follow its flight route closely from behind, you don’t have to be afraid of being attacked.
Zedek
- Hit Points: 800
- Attack: up to 128 per projectile; 5 projectiles at one shot
Watch out, he’s fast. Kill him quick or he’ll do the same to you.
Traductus
- Hit Points: 800
- Attack: highly variable (wraiths)
You don’t need anything else to kill him but a good supply of Discs of Repulsion. Every time he releases a new horde of ghosts from his Wraithverge, activate a couple of Discs and the ghosts will fly back to Traductus and attack him. If you’re good enough, you won’t have to fire a single shot, he’ll as good as kill himself.
Menelkir
- Hit Points: 800
- Attack: up to 128 per projectile; 3 projectiles at one shot
Run around him and keep close to the walls. This way, you’ve got a good chance that his homing missiles will hit the wall instead of you.
Heresiarch
- Hit Points: 5000
- Attack: up to 255 and more
Watch out for his invincibility spell: once you see purple spheres swirling around him, don’t waste your ammo because he’s just activated his defensive spell. If you stick close to him, he’ll have this shield up most of the time, so you better run away every time he activates his defensive spell. Wait until you don’t see the purple swirling, and fire a couple of shots from your mightiest weapon. Once he’s lost more than half his health, he’ll start summoning Dark Bishops. Ignore them because they’ll just keep coming until the Heresiarch dies.
Korax
- Hit Points: 5000
- Attack: fires with practically everything you’ve seen in the game
Watch out, he can manipulate his environment, activating lethal traps below your feet or above your head. He’s also able to teleport away if you get too close. And once he’s dead, spirits will rise from his body and attack you – if you aren’t on your guard, you might die at the same spot where your arch enemy did.