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This matryoshka doll of a stage, the first in Prodeus‘s default campaign that’s set in the Prodeans’ home dimension, is only a little easier to navigate than it looks. As you explore Progenitor, you gradually drain away more and more of the dirt that covers it, until you present a third front in the ongoing war between Order and Chaos.
Here’s where to find all the carefully hidden secrets in Progenitor.
Prodeus Secrets & Ore Guides:
Sacrum | Research | Fuel | Wretch | Genesis, Part 1 | Genesis, Part 2 | Excavation | Chaos Generator | Memoriam | Marksman | Descent | Hazard | Meltdown | The Forge | Corruption | Atonement | Progenitor
Trials: Shotgun | Shredders | Rockets | Grenades
Finding All the Secrets & Ore on Progenitor
The Prodean stages in Prodeus are all notable for their relative lack of available resources compared to the levels that were set on the mining base.
Ammunition is primarily found by using the pale green replenishment pads strewn throughout each level, which automatically give you a bit of ammo every second for as long as you stand on them but do not reload your weapons’ magazines.
It also means that you regain ammo by standing still, and in Prodeus, you never want to do that in the middle of a fight.
Health in the Prodean levels is at a premium, and armor is a rare find. In fact, many secrets in Prodean stages have armor shards in them, and it’s worth not taking those shards until such a time as you really need them.
Secrets: 6
#1: If you’re facing the Prodean scanner at the start of the level, look to your left. If you position yourself exactly right, you should be able to see a hidden cache of items on the wall to your left.
Double-jump across the gap to find some armor and an Ore Fragment.
This sets the tone for a lot of secrets in Progenitor and the Prodean stages in general. It can be difficult to figure out if a given area is an actual usable ledge or just part of the alien architecture.
#2: This is vaguely unfair. After you take your second jaunt through a Prodean portal, clear out the room, then go up the ramp towards the platform with the Nexus Point on it.
If you jump from this platform to the ledge nearby (brightened/circled, below), which doesn’t even look like a viable ledge, a secret compartment opens in front of you to reveal an armor pickup.
#3: When you emerge from the 4th portal, you’ll end up at the top of a high chasm. Walk forward and drop straight off the first ledge.
You’ll land next to a hidden large health kit.
#4: After the bit where you have to shoot several paired yellow icons, face the newly revealed Nexus Point, the one with a yellow pyramid on the dias just below it. This is a useful point of visual reference for the next two secrets, which are found on either side of it.
Look to your left. There’s a secret area here that’s accessible via a concealed gap in the wall (circled below), which contains a hidden Ore Fragment and some armor plates.
#5: From the Nexus Point mentioned in the previous secret, go around to your right and jump onto the ramp on the front of the altar-esque structure (circled below).
Run up to its highest point, then jump onto a lower ledge and work your way around to find a hidden cache of Ore and armor.
Ore Fragments: 10
#1: This is found directly underneath the bridge before the Prodean scanner.
You come back through this room enough times early on that you’re almost guaranteed to spot the Ore Fragment, especially when a destructible icon spawns right next to it, but you can grab it immediately upon entering the room if you want.
#2: See Secret #1, above.
#3: After your second trip through a Prodean portal, defeat enemies until one of the walls opens up to reveal this Ore Fragment.
#4: As you’re shooting your way through the area after the fourth portal, this will show up in your path.
It’s actually pretty easy to pick it up without meaning to, just as I did, below.
#5: See Secret #4, above.
#6: See Secret #5, above.
#7: After you hit the first switch on the bottom level, you’ll progress into a series of red corridors with a couple of red force fields blocking your progress. When you destroy the icon that brings the force fields down, it also lets you grab the Ore Fragment near the area’s entrance.
#8: When you leave the red corridors from the above Ore Fragment, you’ll destroy a procession of icons that will eventually drain even more soil out of the area. At this point, it reveals an Ore Fragment below the bridge to your right.
#9: Following the drain from the above Ore Fragment, face the two glowing yellow pillars by the Nexus Point and look to your left (pathway circled, below)
There’s a narrow passageway here with an Ore Fragment in a divot near the floor. It’s right next to Secret #4, but isn’t available until right near the end of the level.
#10: You’ll find this inside Escape Pod #02 at the end of the stage. Like the Ore Fragment in the train all the way back in Marksman, this is effectively unmissable, because you can’t get by it to the switch you need without picking it up.
Victory here should mark the point at which you have enough Ore Fragments banked, assuming you’ve gotten all of them so far in the campaign, to return to the Shop and buy the MAMMOTH. This is a railgun revolver that loads chaos ammo. Its primary fire effectively makes the Arc Rail’s alt-fire obsolete, although the Arc Rail’s chain lightning is still a very useful tool.
At this point, you also have no other permanent upgrades that you can buy with Ore and can safely purchase ammunition with it if you like. At the same time, though, as you’ve seen in Progenitor, the Prodean levels are full of pale green floor tiles that automatically replenish all your ammunition for free in seconds as long as you can afford to stand still. That relegates Ore Fragments from this point forward, at least at time of writing, to evocative paperweights.
