Athena. NICE!

[Dark Reality]

Just dropped in to give mad props to whoever thought up this fight. First of all, she's about four times faster than anybody else (speed aug, I guess); second of all,she respawns when you kill her. She's insanely lethal with her flamethrower, so it seems like a near impossible fight until you figure it out. Good thing I quicksaved right before going in there. I would have been pretty mad if I had to go back any significant amount.

The problem with the logistics of that fight is that virtually no matter what you do to her, she's dangerous as you close all four valves to the Melk(tm). I can't imagine doing it any other way from how I did it.

Here's what worked for me: Refill bioelectric energy. Turn on the speed aug and equip the firestaff. Run in. Set Athena on fire. Run up ladder. Activate valve. Get down about halfway down the ladder, jump off. Repeat 3 times. Switch to Dual .45s. 2-3 shots to the head finishes the job (she doesn't move so fast on fire).

Without something tolight her up... how? Just... how? It just seems like it'd be impossible. You can't keep her down... maybe if you KO'd her?

Anyway, I had the right equipment so it was a blast; also, good job designing that entire area. Like a lot of TNM, the worst I can say about it is it's too spacious. Like they say, less is more, especially when you've gotta walk across it - but other than that, it's great!

There is a bug to be discovered here, though, and I'm sorry I didn't take a screenshot. I was just so into the fight, I had to jump right back into the game. I believe I tried to use the firestaff on her a second time or something, because the error said something about being on fire, and a status change, maybe it was complaining that I was trying toput her on fire when she already was on fire?

PS - Not sure if I need the spoiler tags in the spoiler zone, but I wanted to be safe; if anybody hasn't done this part yet, I'd rather not be the one who spoiled their experience, at least not without using the proper tags. It isn't too hard to figure out anyway, but still.

[DDL]

Without something to light her up ... how? Just... how? It just seems like it'd be impossible.

Snipe her from miles away, she runs out, you hide, she's now out in the main area, so you can sneak into the altar area unspotted, 4 valves later: job done.

[JC_Helios]

Gas works too(FE, pepper spray, gas grenade)... Also she only has a flamethrower and combat shotgun (I think), so she' can't really do much to you when you're at the top of the ladder, so..... Climb the ladder, turn the valve, snipe her dead, jump off and run to the other valve while she respawns, rinse and repeat?

[santherus]

I attacked with the DTS until I wounded one of her incarnations just enough to make her flee. Counter the flames with Regen+Env Resist Augs, and Extinguisher as necessary. Once she's running around in Panic, deal with the valves without further interruption!

[Jonas]

Snipe her from miles away, she runs out, you hide, she's now out in the main area, so you can sneak into the altar area unspotted, 4 valves later: job done.

That is a highly awesome solution.

I wasn't really sure how this scene would be received because it's basically a traditional boss fight in the middle of a Deus Ex like game (and one of Deus Ex's main points was that there are no typical boss fights), so I'm glad to hear that people like it

Incidentally I usually solve it like JC_Helios: Sniper rifle to face, climb ladder and turn valve while she respawns, repeat.

[Hassat Hunter]

@ DXNathan; Athena crashes your game if her flames die out without her dying out (always!!!) so that's a pretty risky way of doing it.

I usually solve it like santherus, just make her run in fear, then disable at your leisure .

As a last note:
If you joined the goats and want to backstab them, and she is in the middle (with DT) only kill her after disabling the valves. Because only then can you get the key, her clones don't have it

[RLS]

I snipe from the bottom of the stairs. Then run left towards the stairs to her apartment, go up but turn and cross the bridge over the main room. She will follow part way then seems to give up. You then sneak down the other side of the bridge and back into the spawning area. As you start up the steps, plant a lam on each side of the doorway so you are not disturbed. You can turn the valves off without any problems. Return to the bottom of the steps and snipe at her again, she is typically either wandering around the main entrance or wandering around the stairs toward her apartment. One of two shots to let her see you then run back up towards the melk fountain. She will come charging in and blow herself up when she passes the lams. You can do this typically without any damage to yourself.

A similar technique works with Kylie in the space station. You can see her waiting beyond the door using your vision aug, so just plant a lam on each of the door frame, push the button to open the door and slide straight backwards towards the hallway you just came up. By the time you reach the hallway, Kylie will blow herself up in the doorway. (lots of muss but no fuss on your part).

[Dark Reality]

Gas works too(FE, pepper spray, gas grenade)... Also she only has a flamethrower and combat shotgun (I think), so she' can't really do much to you when you're at the top of the ladder, so..... Climb the ladder, turn the valve, snipe her dead, jump off and run to the other valve while she respawns, rinse and repeat?

Oh, forgot about gas. I didn't have either of the first two (though IIRC there's a FE by the bathrooms?) and besides being untrained in explosives, personally I'm not too good at using gas grenades in active combat, let alone against someone who moves four times faster than normal.

@ DXNathan; Athena crashes your game if her flames die out without her dying out (always!!!) so that's a pretty risky way of doing it.

Oh! That must be it, then. Well, I guess that's where the speed aug (maxed out!) came in handy. I was able to take care of the valves pretty quickly. Jumping off halfway down was by accident at first - going down a ladder at max speed aug isn't exactly straightforward, so I kinda fell off. Saw I took no damage so I worked it into the plan. And she was still burning when I shot her in the face with the dual .45s.

I wasn't really sure how this scene would be received because it's basically a traditional boss fight in the middle of a Deus Ex like game (and one of Deus Ex's main points was that there are no typical boss fights), so I'm glad to hear that people like it

What's the difference exactly? That DX boss fights always give you a way out (killphrase, or run away, e.g. Simons both times)? Either way, it was a cool fight.

[Jonas]

There's never really a "trick" to Deus Ex's fights - there's nothing you have to figure out to win. It's just you against an enemy, and the only thing that changes is how powerful the enemy is. In terms of gameplay, there's little difference between fighting Walton Simons or a generic MJ12 Trooper, Walton is just a little tougher and differently armed. This gives DX a more realistic expression, underlining that even the real badasses are just humans like everybody else and can be killed just as easily.

Athena, by contrast, is immortal until you turn off the melk fountain so she can't respawn anymore. That's pretty typical for a boss fight: There's some trick that you have to figure out and some task you need to perform before you can win. Beefman's force field was meant to be the same thing: When you kick up a fuss in the temple, it goes up to protect him, and you have to take out his turrets before you can get to Beefman. I decided that I could probably get away with that because Athena and Beefman aren't part of the main storyline.

[Azeltir]

My solution was Melk and a speed aug. Not so fast now, is she?

Ben

[Jonas]

I'm assuming you're using Shifter. Melk does nothing useful in basic TNM.

[Jane_Denton]

I found her easy to kill off with using Dark Templar's Plasma weapon... I tried other weapons first but they only slowed her down and she kept respawning.

[santherus]

Sorry - are you saying that she dies dead-dead if you kill her with plasma?

[Jane_Denton]

Sorry - are you saying that she dies dead-dead if you kill her with plasma?

It did for me... I got tired of trying to gas her (which only slowed her down), blew her up (including rocket launcher) (which did nothing), basically tried every weapon on her and she would do the pink swirly thing and regenerate even if I drained her BE. Then I just decided to reload and ran back outside and picked up Dark Templar's Plasma weapon and the Dragon Sword... to try them. The Plasma worked so easy two shots and she was dead dead, pick up her corpse dead. You can get the Athena Apartment key off her corpse.

The room where you originally find Athena... Haven't figured out how to get into the vent thing on the right side of the entrance door, next to the goat statue yet. It has infinite strength and no picking..

I don't know if this matters but I'm not using Shifter.

[Jonas]

I can't even remotely imagine how killing her with the plasma rifle could possibly make a difference.