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The “Prodean” part of Prodeus starts to come into sharper focus in Descent, a multi-tiered stage that forces you to pursue a dangerous Harbinger further into its makeshift prison. It’s one of the longer and more complicated stages in the game, but has an appropriate number of rewards along the way.
Here’s where to find all the hidden loot, including 11(!) Ore Fragments, in Descent.
Prodeus Secrets & Ore Guides:
Sacrum | Research | Fuel | Wretch | Genesis, Part 1 | Genesis, Part 2 | Excavation | Chaos Generator | Memoriam | Marksman
How to Find All the Secrets & Ore on Memoriam
The central gimmick of Descent is that you’re working your way down through the Harbinger’s prison complex, retracting a giant electrical plug on each floor, until you finally confront the freed Harbinger on the lowest level (B3).
What makes this stage unusual for Prodeus is that it features a significant sequence break. If you have the double-jump and air dash upgrades, you can get into an open duct on the ground floor of the Harbinger’s prison (1F) and drop down to a secret room in the first basement (B1), which lets you bypass everything else on the ground floor and continue the stage as you normally would.
The problem this secret presents for level completion is that there are a good two dozen enemies and an Ore Fragment in the plug room on the ground floor, which is rendered permanently inaccessible by the power failure you cause at the end of the level. It’s a nice speed boost if you’re looking to get to the back half of the stage a little faster, but it prevents you from getting 100% completion of Descent.
Secrets: 5
#1: From your starting position, use the nearby lamppost as a stepping stone to get onto the ledge behind you and claim this stage’s Automap.
#2: As noted above, there’s an alcove high on the wall on the ground floor’s central chamber that has an Ore Fragment in it (below, right). It doesn’t look like you’re meant to be able to reach it, but as with a couple of other similar secrets, there’s a small ledge below the alcove that isn’t really visible from the ground. If you sprint off the cell’s roof, double-jump, and air-dash at the right time, you should just be able to reach it.
That’s not the secret, however. There’s a hole in the floor at the back of the alcove that lets you drop down to B1, where you can destroy a switch to find two large rocket packs.
As noted above, you can use this as a sequence break and skip the remaining combat arenas on 1F, but you’ll miss out on Ore Fragment #4 (below). Alternatively, if you’ve already gotten the Ore on a previous visit, you can lob a grenade into the alcove to destroy the switch, which lets you grab the secret on your way to B1.
If you get to the end of Descent and realize you’ve missed something, you can use this secret passage to backtrack into most of the floors below you, although a couple of rooms do still end up inaccessible.
#3: When you enter the arena for the first direct confrontation with the Harbinger (i.e. it’s shooting at you), break right upon entry and go towards the unlocked door.
Inside, you’ll find a Lunger, a large health pack, and a small, easy-to-miss switch on the wall below the observation window.
While you won’t get a contextual prompt for the switch, interact with it to open a hidden compartment next to you with an Ore Fragment and a couple of rockets.
#4: In the same arena as the last secret, one of the pillars in the corner has a hidden red switch on its side.
Press it to retract the pillar’s housing, which reveals an Ore Fragment and a cache of four rockets.
#5: After you hit the switch to disconnect Plug #2, turn right. There’s a very well-hidden gap in the wall nearby that lets you drop down into a hidden cavern with four rockets, a lore terminal, and an Ore Fragment.
Alternatively, you can double-jump into the same cavern from the ground below it, which means it’s easy to find this secret accidentally if you’re just after the health flasks on the ledge.
Ore Fragments: 11
#1: It’s just directly ahead of you as you start the level. You can have a little Ore just for getting here, as a treat.
#2: See Secret #2, above.
#3: See Secret #3, above.
#4: Once you hit the switch to retract Plug #4, you can climb on top of it to reach the Ore Fragment that’s on the wall above it.
#5: See Secret #4, above.
#6: On your way to hit the switch to retract Plug #3, you’ll enter a snipers’ alley full of Fiends and armed zombies, including one with a minigun (below).
There’s an open crate in front of you with a large plasma ammo pack in it. If you circle around to the other side of that crate, the one on top of it contains an Ore Fragment.
#7: As you run through the ducts towards B2, you’ll spot an Ore Fragment on the other side of a grate (below). The same Ore Fragment is visible in B2’s central chamber, behind an unbreakable window over your point of entry.
Fortunately, hitting the switch to retract Plug #3 also opens that window, letting you backtrack and claim the Ore Fragment.
#8: When you drop down to B2 for your second confrontation with the Harbinger, this can be found on its cell’s roof.
#9: See Secret #5, above.
#10: After you disconnect Plug #2, return to the Harbinger’s chamber. You should spot this Ore Fragment right away on the other side of an unbreakable window. Getting it is as easy as going into the next room, which was formerly blocked by a red force field, and circling around towards it.
#11: On B4, in the combat arena where you face the Harbinger, this can be found on a high ledge on the opposite side of the room from the switch you hit to retract the final plug.
Shopping Trip #4: Accessorizing
At this point in Prodeus, if you’ve been following along with this series of guides, you should be as insane as I am sitting on a stash of 25 Ore Fragments after a full clear on Descent.
If you’ve bought everything else that’s been made available to you at the Shop, you should be able to pick between the Bandolier, Auto Shotgun, and Swarmer.
The latter is a double-barreled pistol that loads rocket ammo and fires clusters of unguided missiles, with an alt-fire that lets you target-lock enemies before launch. For sheer job satisfaction, it’s hard to top. The auto-shotgun is significantly less interesting, although its alt-fire lets you bounce shells off of walls and ceilings for around-the-corner kills.
As you get into the back half of the game, the primary benefit to having more guns in your arsenal isn’t so much that they do new and interesting things – with one notable, spoilery exception – as that it’s one more fully-loaded weapon on your quick-select screen. Enemies often come at you in big enough numbers in close enough quarters that it’s easier/faster/more efficient in the moment to do a New York reload by swapping to a different gun.
The boring but practical choice for right now is the Bandolier, for 25 Ore Fragments. In the Early Access version of Prodeus, this required a lengthy unlock process that involved finding three separate secret exits in Sacrum, Marksman, and Meltdown, but in the release version you simply buy it from the Shop.
The Bandolier significantly expands your ammunition capacity with every weapon, which is a big quality-of-life increase. It’s particularly vital in the last third of “The Kingdom Between” campaign, where several levels are effectively endurance challenges with minimal available resources.
Buying the Bandolier also unlocks ammo vendors in the Shop, so you can burn your surplus Ore on reloads if you’ve got nothing better to do with it. Don’t do that until you’ve bought all three guns that remain in the Shop, however.
