Planet Alcatraz - Part 5: Twenty Bear Asses

The animal encounters

So, to gather 20 bear asses, uh, 21 gerbil skins for Blacky, Boar must kill gerbils, or steal the skins from people around. I didn't want to invest any point in Thieving (since I decided that Sullen would be the thief), so Boar will be killing gerbils for the skins.

In case you're wondering, this is what a Gerbil looks like (sort of like a chipmunk)

Each of the 3 animal encounters contains a limited amount of Gerbil, like this:
- Rat grove (difficulty 1): 11 Gerbils
- Forest hunting (difficulty 2): 7 Gerbils
- Prairie game (difficulty 3): about 15 Gerbils

So, I decided that I would go to the Rat Grove and Prairie game encounters

Rat Grove

The map contains a few neutral animals, such as Gerbils (duh)...

After killing 7 Gerbil, Boar is awarded with 100xp. The game intends for me to visit all 3 maps, and collect 7 skin in each. Fat chance!
Another neutral animal is the Pigbull, which drops some much-needed meat at this early point in the game.

There are also several types of rat (it's not called Rat Grove for nothing!) such as young rat, battle rat, and ...

Boo! Ratwolves!!

Everytime Boar levels up, he is automatically healed, which is rather handy. Also, by now you've probably figured out that some of the animals on Sailor's Silence are somehow hybrid of Earth animals.

There's also two deads guy at a corner of the map. Boar swiftly relieves the guys of their properties.

After killing everything that moves, Boar heads back to the market, sell off every unnecessary things (yes, even his clothes) and buy ammo for the Submachine gun. The next one will be tough.

Prairie game

This mission introduces a few new monsters. We've already met the wild dogs.

The molochs (or moloches) are new. But nothing too special.

The ostriches, however, are another matter entirely. They are fast, has nasty attacks with their beaks and legs, and crit very often.
Note: Critical hits in this game knock down human characters and make them drop their currently held weapon. If you're unlucky enough to suffer another crit when you haven't finished getting up, then the character will fall down again AFTER getting up. And the cycle of hurt repeats itself.

At this stage of the game, facing down two or more of these often result in a lot of cursing and reloads. I burned through my ammo before I can kill these guys, so I cursed and reloaded.

After reloading, I was more careful and used my ammo more sparingly. I also wear the Industrial Zone guard clothes, which provides a tiny bit of protection. Things went relatively well.

Except this one time when Boar gets insta-killed by a critical hit in the head by an ostrich. Critical hits in the head are insta-kills, against both human and animal enemies. Quick load!

Against dangerous enemies, it's recommended that you put them down as fast as you can. That usually means using guns.

Next to the dead Pigbull are two Baboons with a knife. Yes. Baboons with knives. No, they don't drop knives when killed.

These things are also fast and crit often. They can only attack Boar's legs, so they are not as annoying as the ostriches. Still a pain in the ass though.

They sometimes carry necklaces, presumably from their dead victims.

Two more dead guys. More stuff!

Boar finds a Chinese hat. Also, he's gathered 21 Gerbil skins. Time to see Blacky now.

Blacky's errands (two more)

Boar visits the market to sell of his loot then brings the skin back to Blacky, who quickly finds more things for Boar to do that have absolutely nothing to do with his real mission.

Boar: Yeah, rough up an old cook. My kind of thing.
Fortunately, Boar is not alone on this mission.

Blacky shows contempt at the Golden Rooster cook. Also, naked Boar with a spear.

Uhm, isn't the salute somewhat conspicuous? Aren't you guys supposed to be local secret agents?

Whatever, we're off to Yellow District (yes, the game calls it Taipen District for whatever reason, but that's the original name)

For those of you who find Boar's lack of clothes disturbing, it'll be solved soon.

Anyway, our three guys are put at the Southern edge of the map, and cannot leave the area until the mission is completed.

The plan, as I've got the hang of it now, is to position the team at a choke point, like a doorway. and beat the crap out of anyone coming through. And there are many doors in this area, this being a city and all.

Many of Li Ho's henchmen carry Sai as their weapon. These are much better than the clubs our three guys are given, so naturally they all switched to Sai. Note that Boar is given a handy robber's mask for this mission.

Two dozen or so guys later, our trio stands in front of Li Ho's house, which is called "Repair all".

The henchmen dropped a Juda sawed-off shotgun, which is given to Ash. The difference in weapon skill doesn't matter anyway, considering we're shooting from point-blank range.

We get rid of the three guards...

Then it's Li Ho's turn. He carries a Chinese Sword, which can cause quite a bit of damage. And Ash's shotgun runs out of ammo in the middle of the fight.

Anyway, we finished him off without much hassle.

Boar reports back to Blacky

Blacky's happy! Look how he rubs his hands together!

Boar gets rewarded with a brand new Infantry Helmet. Awesome!

After the excitement dies down, Blacky shoves another task at Boar. If you don't remember Hunchback, it's probably because I didn't post a screenshot of him on the previous update

Oakbreaker and Ash kindly dropped all the stuff they were carrying in Taipen District on the ground. Cue Boar spending a few minutes running back and forth selling the junk to the food merchant, who literally buys anything.

Time to see Hunchback...

There's an option to run an errand (yes, another!) for Hunchback to get those earrings, but Boar is sick of errands now.

He promptly kill the lackeys ...
... then Hunchback himself. Watch that Chinese sword in action!

Boar brings back the good news... and the earrings... and the ears...

It so happens that by the time Boar completes Blacky's completely pointless tasks, SOMEONE brings a few slaves to the market. And out there, at the corner of the market place, in a cage, stands a guy looking gloomy...

Boar: Sullen!

To part 6: Boar frees Sullen, and the two embark on a series of random arbitrary "Main quests"