14: Stairway to Heaven Part I

Chapter 14: Stairway to Heaven Part I

Taking Care of Derek

You wake up in the rat hole -- man I miss our house -- and the phone starts to ring  -- answer it to hear Joe telling you to hurry up!  Joe has a job from Eddie for us to do that might help putting together the scratch we need for Bruno -- or not -- Joe is not the most reliable of friends if you think about it...  You know we could easily make the money we need stealing cars for Derek... I am just saying...  Take an hour or so...

After the firefight in the restaurant I needed to hit Harry's to restock and you probably do too so do that and do not forget to buy cocktails and pineapples!  At this point the store should have a full stick, which means that if you want to you can purchase Grease Gun ammo, and the Italian .38 SMG and ammo as well!

Now it is time to head to our destination -- flip the radio on and tune to Empire Classics to hear the news report about Henry as you drive, and when you arrive you get a CS -- if you played the first game this instantly looks familiar!  You just killed the protagonist from the first game!  How cool is that?

Oh, by the way -- RUN!  The guy was in Witness Protection and you now have Feds after you!  Do yourself a favor -- there is a Body Shop and a Clothing Store real close together near here -- just go forward and turn right and follow that road and you will see them.  Shake the cops then clean up the car and change clothes, and that will make the trip across town a LOT easier though I do not think you are meant to be able to do it...

On your way to drop off Joe cruise the streets until you find an armored car and steal or jack it, then drop Joe off and unlock the Achievement "The Mafia Never Forgets" for taking out the protagonist from the previous game. 

-- The Docks --

If you are wounded stop at a restaurant and eat on your way tot he docks, so that you have full health when you get there.  When you arrive jump out and head upstairs to check in with Derek, and as you enter your trigger a CS in which Derek seems very happy to see you!  Steve comes in and tells Derek the dockworkers refuse to work -- so Derek asks  for your help in correcting the problem.  You agree to help, and follow Derek to the mee4ting to watch a CS.

You learn the truth about the death of your father from one of the workers, finally hearing the whole story!  Derek tries to get you to ignore them, but you listen, and now Derek has you marked for death!    The dockworkers have had enough and they want to help you, and head out into the dock to take on Derek's thugs.  Remember to fight from cover, reload often, and use your weakest weapons first so that you end up using up their ammo on the ones who are distant, and not the good stuff which you may need later.

I used the shotgun that Derek gave me to take out all of the thugs on the docks -- it is actually pretty effective at long range!  That and there is a certain measure of poetic justice in taking out the bad guys with their own gun...

When you reach your armored truck -- remember the armored truck?  Yeah, you are going to be happy that you have that in a minute,  Anyway, when you reach it, use it as cover to take out the thug in the open loading door ahead, then drive it inside the warehouse and use it to kill the two thugs on the lower level by running them over.  Once they are dead, park it near the far side of the warehouse at an angle so you can use it as cover.

The reason you want to use an armored car instead of a regular one is not that it is bullet-proof, as it is not.  You will still get wounded when they shoot at you, just not as bad as if it were a regular car.  No, the reason that you want it is that when Steve and Derek throw Molotov's at you the height of the truck keeps them from falling on the side you are taking cover on!

You know what to do now -- hop out, take cover, and kill those bastards!

Bear in mind that you do not get a checkpoint until you get the CS inside the warehouse, so if you die, you have to do the fight all over again -- and that will probably happen a few times if you are playing on Hard until you get the strategy refined, do try not to get frustrated here!  Just take your time, shoot from cover, and do not expose yourself to shots.

One thing you should be aware of -- one of the thugs on the lower level may climb into the truck with you, and sit patiently in the passenger seat -- he is NOT your ally!  When he gets out he will try to kill you so be sure you are ready to shoot him!  As the fight progresses they will be throwing cocktails down and more goons will try to get you by flanking you -- if you get in trouble get back in the truck to heal -- and pay attention in case another thug gets into the truck with you so you know to shoot him when you get out!

Watch your radar for when new enemies spawn, and mind that flame as Derek has a lot of those cocktails to throw at you!  You need to kill ALL of his troops first before you kill him -- simply move the truck around to lure them down.  There should be the initial pair on the inside not counting the guy you shot in the door before entering.  Another pair will instantly spawn after you take out the first pair, and then all you need to do is move around until the third pair spawns and kill them.  Now all of his henchmen are dead, and you survived largely unhurt thanks to the armored car!

Remember I said to go restock your kit at Harry's prior to coming here?  The important bit was the hand grenades.  Watch the video for this part, stand where I stood, and throw the grenade exactly where I threw it and Derek just dies.  Clean, simple, no complication.  Killing Derek unlocks the Achievement "Out for Justice" and clears the way for you to head up to his office and grab the $20,000 that is sitting on his desk.   That is most of the money that we need to pay off Bruno.

You know, I don't want to sound like a jerk here, but this is the fight that I see the most posts about on the chat boards, and all of my mates had trouble with.  I did it in one run-through, using the tactics outlines here and shown in the video, unaware at the time that it was supposed to be such a big problem.  If you follow the tactics that I used you should get this in one run-through, no worries!