Goldeneye 007 Tutorial: Dam Secret Agent

This is a tutorial for Goldeneye 007. For an outline of the strategies used in this tutorial, see the main level page.

Walkthrough

Target Time - 1:17

Expect to spend a lot of hours if you seriously go for this record, as it is quite possibly the best GE record. Anyway, start in by quickly looking down and in left strafe, you want to use as much lookdown as possible here, specifically at a 45 degree angle. There is a decent but still rather small chance that this guard will give you a boost, and if he does, great, but you can still get 1:17 without it. Continue along, and hope this guard in the tunnel doesn't backboost you. If he does back you, quit out immediately since you aren't getting 1:17. Now you want to start looking up as you approach this guard, as well, so that the gate opens ASAP. You want to be as close to the boxes to your left as you strafe through this area, as well, just make sure not to hit them or you wont get 1:17. Approach the gate button and press B on it as far away as possible, if the gate doesn't open right away, quit out. If it does open fast, strafe through with almost full lookdown here. Use lookdown to line yourself up with the wall to your left. Once you reach the part where the wall curves, look back up. There should be a guard running by right in front of you, if you get stuck on him quit out. You can get a boost here as well. If you hear the guard shooting at you for a bit, veer to the right so that the boost doesn't mess your line up.

Now this first alarm is crucial for this record. You need to quickly run forward and shoot it out with preferably 5 shots. If you take more than 6 shots you aren't going to get 1:17, but can easily get 1:18. A dot is also very helpful for the alarms on this level. Now you need to shoot this locked gate on strafe. What i do is aim a little above the normal plane, shoot when you see the dot hit the edge of the lock, or just feel it out, then hit B as soon as you hit Z, so it opens ASAP. Veer sharply to the right, then sharply back to the left. This way, you will go right through the hole of the gate as it opens. If you get stuck on the gate at all, quit out. You need a mid or so 38 quit out here to even have a chance at 117. Now use full lookdown on the dam, and line yourself up with the wall to your left. Just try not to get too close, or you'll get stuck. Now you should approach the 2nd alarm soon, and it is very crucial that you learn how to set these alarms up. The best way to get 1:17 is to left strafe till the door is a little in front of you, and then start running forward (NOT STRAFING) to the left-center side of the door. If you strafe too far to the left you wont see the alarm, and thus cant shoot it, but also if you strafed too far to the right you wont see it till the door it open halfway. The goal is to see the alarm right as the crack of the door opens. Also, line yourself up with the height of the alarm before the door even opens. Now as you press B on this door, shoot the pp7 like a madman. What you want to do is back up right on the 5th shot, because if you back up too early the shots will lag and you wont get 1:17. Hopefully the shots come out of the PP7 very fast (they have to come out insanely for 117 speed).

Now the 3rd alarm is basically the same as the 2nd, just a little more complicated since the door is at a more awkward angle. But basically, use the same strat for 3rd alarm. Now you will approach the hardest part of this record, the last alarm. This thing will cost you great runs, trust me. But once you get used to it, it isn't very hard. What you want to do is strafe to the corner, then quickly run forward to the alarm door. Try and aim for the center of the door, and also try and open the door from rather far away, so you can see the alarm early. Shoot the pp7 like theres no tomorrow, and hope you are aiming at the alarm right away. This alarm will never be really consistent this way, since you cant really hesitate for 117. All you can do is hope you are aiming at it already. If you miss a bullet, readjust yourself as quickly as possible and hope the next 5 bullets come out very fast. Back up just as you shoot the 4th bullet, and shoot the 5th while backing up. Now you want to use lookdown again, and in right strafe, strafe towards the stairs to exit the level. This turn might ruin some good runs for you, as it isn't hard to get stuck on the stairs a bit while turning off the dam. Try and turn sharply to the right just as you pass the sewer on the ground, and hope you do a nice sharp turn off the dam with no stucks. There is a small chance you will get a boost off the dam, and also sometimes a guard will see you and try and backboost you while you make your exit. Even with a great run with a boost 1:17 is never guaranteed, but with this strat 1:18 isn't too hard. Good luck!

Ace Tips

Following is a post Ace made to a user requesting help on Dam Secret Agent.

Most of the runs I've watched are reasonably good till the lockshot and the bulk of time loss stems from shoddy last three alarms and not so much from the lines. I like to divide each of those alarms into three segments: the approach towards them, shooting the alarms themselves, and the interval from when you decide to leave (backstrafe) till you strafe back on the main dam. Almost all of this hinges purely on your OCB. If you haven't mastered the art of both doing smooth turning as well as sharp turning then you'll struggle, especially for the last alarm.

For the first one, most people approach the door walking forward towards it as soon as they cut the edge sticking out of the Dam. Check out 0:58 to 1:00 in this video. Excellent example. Not the most optimized approach but definitely the easiest. Notice how his angle of aim is roughly aligned with the alarm before he even opens the door. This is something you want to do to ensure you don't lose any time with the second part, shooting the alarm, which is more straightforward. But If you're position isn't aligned like this or this, then you're going to lose time and have a tough time shooting the alarm. Look at this video. Or look at this video. So much unnecessary extra effort positioning the aim towards the alarm at the last moment and most of the time you won't get lucky doing a quick abrupt turn like that. Shoot the wall by mistake and it becomes ugly destroying the alarm. You want to approach the alarms nicely and smoothly. You have plenty of time to do it for the 2nd and 3rd alarm. Also don't worry about how close or far you are from the alarm when shooting it. This is trivial if you have something like 1:21. The closer you are the less lag you will probably encounter, but I don't think that's always the case.

Shoot two or three bullets before you back up and continue shooting the rest of the bullets. Don't shoot the entire alarm and then back up. That loses time. Lag may sometimes screw you over and that's alright. The moment you've destroyed the alarm you immediately release back strafe and do a sharp turn back towards the Dam. With practice and good judgement this shouldn't be a problem. Repeat this for the third alarm. The last alarm has the same idea. The only difference of course is it being positioned in a trickier position to shoot at and where most people lose time is aligning their aim towards this alarm. It's not as easy compared to any of the others! Again it's mostly on feel and puts your OCB (your aim in particular) to test. You can easily lose a second aligning your aim with the alarm. You can lose another half a second not backing up early enough. It's so easy to piss away so much time there.

People also lose time on their lines as well though. Not as much, but hey why lose an extra few tenths for no reason. This video is one of the very few I've seen that has a lot of great lines. Observe and copy them. Avoid taking wide turns. I haven't gone into the 1st alarm and it's possible you are losing time from that, but again without a video it's impossible to tell.