Chain Reaction is the seventh mission in the console version of 007: Nightfire. This is one of the most complicated missions in the game as there are many different ways to play the level depending on what category you're playing and your skill level.
Plot[]
Speedrun Routes[]
The route for this level can be very different depending on what category you're playing on as well as your skill level. Chain Reaction is one of the most broken levels in the game as it can be beaten in less than a minute and a half.
As soon as you spawn, jump into the large green vent in front of you and turn around 180 degrees. Move forward and you will enter a large room with several enemies. You will see a jetpack prototype at the opposite end of the room. Take a picture of it as you jump over the railing and once again, turn around 180 degrees. You should be facing away from the enemies and jetpack prototype at this point. Look on the right side of the room and you will see a corner where the back wall and a set of railing meet. You can use this corner to clip out of bounds and get outside. Now you should see a broken set of stairs outside next to the building labeled "TR-2". As you're running toward these stairs, there will be many snipers shooting at you. You don't have to worry about them on Operative difficulty but on 00 Agent they are a huge pain. Many speedrunners will take time to kill one or two of them when playing on 00 Agent.
Once you get to the set of stairs outside the TR-2 building, you can execute a wall clip dubbed "PAL clip" to clip through the outside wall and get inside the building. As you are falling into the void, crouch and more forward/left and you should land on an invisible platform. All of the collision inside the building is loaded but none of the textures are. You can navigate your way toward a set of stairs that will load the textures when you go up them. Now that you're on the second floor you should see a broken set of stairs nearby. It is possible to get up to the third floor by doing a precise jump while standing on the railing. The stair jump skips a large part of the room and saves several seconds. Simply press the action button at the last door to start section 2.
At the start of section 2, immediately make a left and you'll see a corner with some windows on the left side. You can clip through the floor here to land on a seam just outside of the level. Jump and move around the corner to land on another seam and keep moving along it. When you get to the end of this seam, you should be able to see a crane that is supposed to be in the last room of the level. Move your crosshair slightly to the right of that crane and jump forward. You should land in the last warehouse room. This is a very difficulty trick and can take a lot of practice to pull off consistently. Now run toward the laser gun and take a picture of it to complete an objective. You can also take a picture of the blueprints on the wall instead of the laser gun itself. Either one will complete the objective. You can mount the laser gun early if you stand under it, look up, jump, then press the action button. Now use the laser to blow up the blast door and run through it. The mission will complete earlier than normal if you jump into the last hallway instead of walking into it.The beginner route is quite different than the optimal any% route. This route only covers the safest strategies that a new speedrunner can do with very little practice. As you play the game more and get better at it, you can slowly add more optimal tenchiques to your gameplay to save time. If you're interested in a route that doesn't use the clipping glitch, check the No Clipping/OoB route.
As soon as you spawn, jump into the large green vent in front of you and turn around 180 degrees. From here you can crouch and equip the microcamera. Zoom in and take a picture of the jetpack prototype on the other side of the warehouse. Jump down to the ground floor and turn around 180 degrees. You should be facing away from the enemies and jetpack prototype at this point. Look on the right side of the room and you will see a corner where the back wall and a set of railing meet. You can use this corner to clip out of bounds and get outside. Now head over to the hangar which is on the right side of the level after you clip out of the first building. Navigate your way to a set of boxes in the back corner of the hangar and grapple up to the railing. Now jump onto the structure in the center of the hangar and use your watch laser to open a vent and get inside. Alternatively, you can clip on one of the corners of the building to get inside. A detailed explaination of this clip can be seen here.
Once you're inside, grab the Ronin and get out. The rest of the first section is done mostly in the way intended by the developers. Head over to the stationary forklift and jump on top of it. Now grapple up to the tower in front of you. This is faster than climbing up the nearby ladder. You need to kill almost all of the guards around you since they will almost always kill you as you're climbing on the cables between each tower. It's fsater to use your pistol to kill the nearby guards instead of the sniper. Now climb across the first cable to get to the next tower. There is a set of body armor on the left side of the tower after climbing across the first cable. This armor takes a few seconds to get but it can be a life saver, especially if you didn't kill all of the snipers. There is a cable between the second and third tower but you don't have to climb across it. The gap is small enough for you to simply jump across to the next tower. Switch to your Grapple and use it to get to the top of the building labeled "TR-2". Now go through the door and navigate your way to a large set of stairs on the other side of the room. When you get to the second floor, you should see a broken set of stairs nearby. It is possible to get up to the third floor by doing a precise jump while standing on the railing. The stair jump skips a large part of the room and saves several seconds. Simply press the action button at the last door to start section 2.
At the start of section 2, you can pick up a set of body armor that is right in front of your spawn point. You should see a ledge with some windows nearby to the left. Jump up there and walk along the ledge until you can land on a large platform below you. When you land on the platform you will see a ledge on the wall to your left. Get on the ledge and keep going until you reach the corner of the map. You should see a ladder nearby. Switch to the ronin and place it on the ledge near the corner. Now jump on top of the Ronin and this gives you just enough height to jump onto the ladder. A detailed explanation of this trick can be found here. Climb up the ladder and you should see a large twisted pipe to your left. You can execute a clip here to get inside the ST-3 warehouse building. Now run toward the laser gun and take a picture of it to complete an objective. You can also take a picture of the blueprints on the wall instead of the laser gun itself. Either one will complete the objective. You can mount the laser gun early if you stand under it, look up, jump, then press the action button. Now use the laser to blow up the blast door and run through it. The mission will complete earlier than normal if you jump into the last hallway instead of walking into it.The Chain Reaction route for No Clipping/OoB is very similar to the beginner any% route. As soon as you spawn, jump into the large green vent in front of you and turn around 180 degrees. From here you can crouch and equip the microcamera. Zoom in and take a picture of the jetpack prototype on the other side of the warehouse. Jump down to the ground floor and run toward the exit. When you get outside, make a left and go to the hangar. When you get to it, you will notice a large structure in the center of the hangar. It's possible to jump onto the hangar without using the grapple. Simply stand at the front end of the building and you can jump onto a small ledge and jump again to reach the top. A video of this trick being performed can be seen here. Use you watch laser to open a vent cover and get inside, grab the Ronin and get out. Head over to the stationary forklift and jump next to it and grapple up to the tower in front of you. This is faster than climbing up the nearby ladder. You need to kill almost all of the guards around you since they will almost always kill you as you're climbing on the cables between each tower. It's fsater to use your pistol to kill the nearby guards instead of the sniper. Now climb across the first cable to get to the next tower. There is a cable between the second and third tower but you don't have to climb across it. The gap is small enough for you to simply jump across to the next tower. Switch to your Grapple and use it to get to the top of the building labeled "TR-2". Now go through the door and navigate your way to a large set of stairs on the other side of the room. When you get to the second floor, you should see a broken set of stairs nearby. It is possible to get up to the third floor by doing a precise jump while standing on the railing. The stair jump skips a large part of the room and saves several seconds. Simply press the action button at the last door to start section 2. At the start of section 2, you should see a ledge with some windows nearby to the left. Jump up there and walk along the ledge until you can land on a large platform below you. When you land on the platform you will see a ledge on the wall to your left. Get on the ledge and keep going until you reach the corner of the map. You should see a ladder nearby. Switch to the ronin and place it on the ledge near the corner. Now jump on top of the ronin and this gives you just enough height to jump onto the ladder. A detailed explaination of this trick can be found here. Start climbing up the ladder, but do not climb all the way up. There is a small ledge on the right side that you can walk along. Jump off the ladder, land on the ledge, and move toward the large crane. When you get to the end of the ledge, jump around the corner to your left and you can land on another ledge to get to the warehouse entrance. Navigate your way through the building toward the mounted laser gun and take a picture of it to complete an objective. You can also take a picture of the blueprints on the wall instead of the laser gun itself. Either one will complete the objective. You can mount the laser gun early if you stand under it, look up, jump, then press the action button. Now use the laser to blow up the blast door and run through it. The mission will complete earlier than normal if you jump into the last hallway instead of walking into it.
The 100% Route for Chain Reaction is almost exactly the same as the optimal any% route because of Gold Medal Skipping. There are only a few minor differences such as playing on 00 Agent difficulty instead of Operative difficulty. 100% Speedrunners will often kill more enemies at the start of the level since it's very dangerous to run out in the open with 5 snipers shooting at you on 00 Agent.
007 Token Locations[]
- In the first building you can enter, the 007 token is on top of a forklift
- Grapple on top of the TR-2 building and use a zipline to reach a token in the Hangar
- Inside the building in the center of the hangar
- Inside the TR-2 Warehouse behind one of the generators on the ground floor
- In the large room with 3 broken windows in section 2. Climb up a ladder on the outside of the ST-3 warehouse building and climb up a slanted pipe. You can access the large room from there.
- Inside the ST-3 warehouse building in a room near the large blast door. Jump onto the set of boxes where the body armor is at and you can jump onto a large shelf at the back of the room. The token is behind a box on the 2nd shelf.
- On a steel beam near the mounted laser gun blueprints. The token is too high to reach normally but you can jump onto the railing and jump again to reach it. The intended way to get the token is to press a button at the main entrance of ST-3 and grapple onto a moving crane that will take you toward the token.
A video showing all of the token locations can be found here.
Trivia[]
- Chain Reaction is commonly referred to as "The most broken level in the game". The target time for the level is 20 minutes but it can be beaten in under 1:30 with relative ease. This level has the largest difference between the target time and the world record time.
- The fastest way to collect the ronin involves clipping through a wooden pallet to get to the hangar faster. It is not useful in any speedrun category since the only one that gets the ronin is No Clipping/OoB.
- This was the first level that Gold Medal Skipping was known to be possible in.
- Investigating building ST-1, photographing the Jetpack prototype, photographing the laser, and destroying the blast door are the only objectives that are required to complete the level.
World Records[]
Difficulty | Time |
---|---|
Operative | 1:13 by OllieNK |
00 Agent | 1:58 by OllieNK |