Reunion at the Old Trellis is one of the shortest levels in Oddworld: Soulstorm — and it might just be the hardest for you. On my first try, it took hours to complete the absolutely annoying, soul-sucking, and seemingly impossible ladder defense section at the end. Seriously, I was banging my head against the part for two hours.
Thankfully, there are a few tricks that make this beatable. After resetting and replaying, I was able to complete all three Ladder Defense challenges in a single try. During Ladder Defense, you need to fight Sligs to avoid losing too many escaping Mudokon friends. You only need to save 80% — but saving the Mudokons isn’t the hard part. The hard part is saving yourself.
Below, I’ll explain all the tips and tricks I used to finally conquer this ridiculous section of the game. Looking online, I’m not alone — and here’s hoping future patches address just how impossible this area sometimes seems.
More Oddworld: Soulstorm guides:
Good Ending Unlock Guide | Last Boss Guide | The Blimp | All Mudokons | The Funicular | All Mudokons | Sorrow Valley | All Mudokons | Phat Station | All Mudokons | The Hijack | All Mudokons | Reunion At The Old Trellis | All Mudokons | Slig Barracks | All Mudokons | Necrum | All Mudokons | The Escape | All Mudokons | FeeCo Depot | All Mudokons | The Yard | All Mudokons | Brewery | All Mudokons | Eye of the Storm | All Mudokons
Ladder Defense Guide
The Ladder Defense is a difficult new challenge exclusive to Soulstorm — in it, you have to complete multiple phases as your Mudokon gang climbs a ladder in the background. While they’re climbing, Sligs will spawn from security boxes and shoot the Mudokons. To earn a Platinum and get the best ending, you need to save at least 80% of the group.
The first Ladder Defense is found in the second level — and it is fairly simple. You just need to plant IEDs or possess a Slig and shoot any incoming bad guys. Most people can complete that without any issue.
It isn’t until the second Ladder Defense that players are having problems. The second ladder defense is in the Reunion At The Old Trellis level. A very short level, but your will to live might be sapped by the Ladder Defense at the end. To beat it, follow these tips we’ve earned through multiple (and I mean multiple) replays.
Reunion At The Old Trellis | Ladder Defense Tips
- To complete this section, you need to save and bring all four Mudokons. Two are found in the initial Slig security area, and the last two are right before the Ladder Defense. You need all four! If you miss them, reset the level.
- To complete this section, you need to equip all the Mudokons in your party with Fizzy Pop and set them to Aggro — instead of Passive.
- To equip Mudos, open your Crafting Menu [Triangle] and press [R1/L1] to swap to the Followers menu.
- Select Fizzy Pop, then press [D-Pad Up / Down] to equip or unequip 10 Fizzy Pops.
- If you don’t have enough money for Fizzy Pops, reset the level and loot every container you can. It is essential your Mudokons get 10 Fizzy Pop per section. You can purchase Fizzy Pop from the vending machines.
- Equipping your Followers will give everyone following you access to the same inventory. Give them 10 — that’s enough for each section. You’ll need to refill between each Ladder Defense phase.
- Make sure the Mudokons are marked as AGGRO! The icon in the lower-left corner needs to be RED.
- Place the Mudokons near the Slig Poles where they will emerge. Place them at about medium range — not too far, but not right on top of the pole. It’s okay if you place them within a Slig’s vision cone. Mudokons will act faster than Sligs.
- After a Mudo knocks out a Slig with a thrown Fizzy Pop, make sure to rush over and tie them up. Pick-pocket if you have time, but if a Slig is about to wake up, rush over and tie them up — or knock them out again quickly, then tie them up.
- Try to tie up each Slig in the order they were knocked out. Then scan the area for unconscious sligs — Abe can traverse these areas very quickly, so your goal is to reach them before they wake up. Mudokons have trouble knocking out a Slig twice.
- If your Mudokons are placed too close to a Slig — melee range — they’ll break normal standing routine and follow you instead. That’s what you want to place them at about medium range of the poles.
- For the first and third section, you can place one Mudokon near all four poles and catch all the Sligs that spawn. During the second section, you can’t — the top-right corner is left exposed. Either place IEDs here (you can place three apart from each other) or move a Mudo onto the parallel platform to the left. They’ll throw a Fizzy Pop — but it’s likely at least a few ladder Mudos will get shot.
- The trick to victory is placing your Mudokons at MEDIUM range. Walk to each exit pole location, tell a Mudokon to stand, and make sure they’re equipped with 10 Fizzy Pops before starting the sequence.
- After moving everything into position. use the lift to backtrack to the previous checkpoint. That way you can re-save and you don’t have to redo your setup if you fail.
- Sligs don’t always kill Mudokons! Your followers will sometimes be tied up — if they’re attacked with melee, or even sometimes shot, they’ll be tied up and incapacitated instead of killed. See if you can untie them before resetting to checkpoint!
And that’s about it. That’s a whole lot of tips — but these sections are ridiculous! Thankfully, the final Mudokon Ladder Defense isn’t nearly as difficult as this one, and doesn’t require using the (sometimes) spotty AI to win.
If your Mudokons simply aren’t throwing Fizzy Pops, you might want to restart — as your instance might be bugged, and your Mudo Followers might be stuck on Passive instead of Aggro. This happened to me, and a quick reset solved the problem. It’s incredibly annoyed, but if your Mudokons don’t throw, then this section is literally impossible to complete.
