Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter walkthrough

About this walkthrough

This is a complete walkthrough for Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter.

This walkthrough is for the EGA version of the game. It can be used as a general guideline for the VGA remake, but it won't cover the few puzzles that are different in the remake.

Using this walkthrough will get you through the game, but may spoil the game and fun of exploring.

Following this walkthrough exactly as it is written should result in the score with maximum points.

Items which can be picked up as inventory items and items which can be constructed by combining or using other items are written with bold text for emphasis. Input commands that are typed into parser are written with CAPITAL LETTERS.

Arcada

You are aboard the Arcada, being the only surviving member of the crew. The ship is full of hostile Sarien forces who will shoot you without questions asked. If you see the text "You think you hear footsteps!" appearing, a Sarien trooper is coming towards you. Exit the room using the nearest door and then return to avoid Sariens. Note that Sariens can randomly appear and disappear even in dead-end corridors, so no place aboard Arcada corridors is safe.

- Go west. This is the data archive room, a puzzle takes place here, but it doesn't activate yet. Go one more room west, and then go back east to return to the data archive room.
- An injured man comes into the room and tells you critical information before he dies.
- SEARCH MAN
- Walk to the computer monitor.
- LOOK MONITOR
- The computer asks what the data search is about, type ASTRAL BODY and wait for the library computer to finish its work.
- GET CARTRIDGE (new inventory item: cartridge)

- Go west, and then one more room west to find another dead crew member.
- SEARCH MAN
- The man is carrying a keycard.
- GET KEYCARD (new inventory item: keycard)
- Go east, take the elevator down.
- Exit the elevator, go east, take the elevator down.
- Exit the elevator, go east. This is the central control area.
- There are windows showing the vehicle bay below, there is a control panel under the window, walk in front of it.
- PUSH OPEN BAY DOOR
- Go east, there is another elevator, but it is locked. On the left side of the elevator is a keycard unit, walk in front of it.
- USE KEYCARD
- The elevator can now be accessed, use it to go down.

The location of the keycard slot.

- This is the Flight Prep room with two closets on the same wall as the elevator. Go to the closets, there are also two white buttons on the wall that open the closet doors.
- PUSH LEFT BUTTON
- The left closet opens revealing a gadget inside.
- GET GADGET (new inventory item: gadget)
- PUSH RIGHT BUTTON
- There is a flight suit inside the closet.
- GET SUIT
- You will automatically change the crew uniform into a spaceflight suit.
- Walk to the console that is near the bottom of the screen.
- PUSH AIRLOCK BUTTON
- You can now safely enter the vehicle bay.

- In the vehicle bay is a control console close to the door. Walk to the console.
- PUSH PLATFORM BUTTON
- An escape pod rises from the lower level. Walk to the left side of the pod where the pod door is open.
- ENTER POD

- Now you are inside the escape pod, and you must operate it properly to escape from the Arcada.
- CLOSE DOOR
- FASTEN SEATBELT
- PUSH POWER BUTTON
- PUSH AUTONAV BUTTON
- PULL LEVER
- The escape pod will leave the ship and head somewhere in space.

Kerona

- You crash land on a habitable planet called Kerona. You must explore your surroundings here and make sure you survive the many dangers. There are some items that you should pick up before starting to explore the planet any further.
- UNFASTEN SEATBELT
- GET SURVIVAL KIT
- OPEN KIT (new inventory items: knife, water)
- EXIT POD
- Walk to the front of the crashed escape pod. The pod can't be flown or repaired anymore, but there is some broken glass which can be picked up.
- GET GLASS (new inventory item: glass)

The location of glass.

- Go east, and then go further east.
- Now you are in a place where a natural land formation has created a bridge. The next necessary step is to go on that bridge. It can't be accessed here, so go east.
- There is a chance to pick up an optional item under the bridge. Before going east, go north, and there are some plants under the bridge. Go to the one in the middle. GET PLANT (new inventory item: plant). This item is not needed and picking it up won't give any points. Go back south, and now go east.
- Here you can go up along the path that is next to the rock formation, do that, but be careful not to fall off the path. The path goes first north, so go first north, and then in the next screen the path turns to left, so go west.
- Now you are on the natural land bridge. You can cross from one side to another, but be careful, as every crossing weakens the bridge. And like before, it is possible to fall off as there are no railings. See the rock boulder on the bridge. You can't pick it up, as it's too heavy, but go stand behind the rock.
- There is a killer spider droid patrolling the desert. If it hasn't showed up already, wait for a while for it to show up. The goal here is clear, you should push the rock down on the spider droid to eliminate it. The problem is, there is only one rock available, so any mistake will mean that the one chance to destroy it will be gone.
- If you haven't already saved the game, save it now!
- Next, type "push rock" in the parser, but don't execute the command yet. Wait until the spider walks right under the rock, and when that happens, simply hit enter to push the rock and destroy the spider droid.
- PUSH ROCK

Destroying the spider robot.

- After destroying the spider droid successfully, it is highly recommended to save the game again. There are dangerous areas all over, and redoing the spider part can be time consuming.
- Go west. In the following hazardous looking screen, go north. Keep on walking, this time go east, and then further east, until you come to a place where there are two halves of an arch raising from the rock.
- Go stand in between the arch halves, if you are standing in the right place, an automated elevator should appear and take you down.

- You are in a large underground cavern. Before going any deeper into the caves, see a rock that is close to the elevator. Walk near the rock.
- GET ROCK (new inventory item: rock)The location of the rock.
- Go west.
- You are in an area that has a metal grate on the floor. You need to get past the metal grate safely, so place yourself against the rock wall, and then cross the metal grate.
- There is a small geyser, releasing hot steam at short intervals. You need to block the steam in order to get further. Stand next to the geyser.
- PUT ROCK IN GEYSER
- A door in the backwall slides open, allowing you to go north.
- You come to a confusing looking area, which looks like it could be a maze, but really isn't. The upper pathway is where you will be eventually going, but it can't be accessed here. The only thing that needs to be done here is to find a place where you can go west. Navigating there is a bit tricky, as there are obstacles which you must go around, while the graphics really don't give much proper sense of depth. Basically you should enter the small access in the middle back, and from there go left and exit west. It may take a few tries to do this.

- This is a room with a laser beam blocking access to upper pathway.
- If you haven't already saved the game, save it now! There are several ways to die in the next few steps.
- First you need to get rid of the laser beam that is blocking your access further.
- PUT GLASS IN BEAM
- Now the laser is broken, and you can move on. Walk up and go east.The acid droplets and cracks on the pathway.
- This is the same place where you were earlier, except that this is the upper pathway. Unlike the lower area which was a safe area, the upper pathway is one of the deadliest areas in the game. There are small droplets that keep falling down, but they are deadly acid and even the smallest contact with them is deadly. The timing is random, but it is easy to see where they fall. Look for the cracks on the path, that's where the acid falls to. Look for a moment how this path is like before trying to go further. It is recommendable to wait for the two leftmost droplets to fall and immediately afterwards start walking. While the timing is random, there is a small interval between two droplets coming from the same place.
- Also notice that there is a wider area between the two rightmost cracks. Once you get past the first two, you can stop between the cracks, as it is a relatively safe area. No acid will fall there if you are standing between the cracks. Wait for the final droplet to fall and immediately after that start walking again and go east.
- Basically you just need to keep walking through here, with only one minor task to do. Before leaving this area pause for a moment. If you have visited this place before, you know that there is an alien in the next room who is trying to communicate with you. Unfortunately, you don't speak the same language, so you need to have the translator available.
- TURN ON TRANSLATOR
- Go east.

- After the conversation with the alien, you will be back on the planet surface. The goal here is obviously to do what the alien requested.
- Go south, then east and then east again carefully crossing the bridge you were on earlier.
- Go down, in other words south, and then when on the flat ground again, go north.
- There is a cave opening in the rock on the right side. It is a bit hard to see, but that's where you should be going next to fight Orat.
- If you haven't already saved the game, save it now!
- You should be carrying the survival kit already, but if you haven't opened it yet, do it now. Carrying the kit without opening it won't be enough.
- The way to kill Orat is by throwing water on it. There is very little time to act inside the cave, so it is recommended that you type "throw water" in the parser, but don't execute the command yet.
- Go east to enter the cave.
- When Orat comes near you, immediately hit the enter button to throw water.
- If you are successful, Orat explodes but a part of it remains on the ground. You should pick that up.
- GET CHUNK (new inventory item: Orat part)
- Go west to exit the cave and then continue south.
- Now you are back in the place with a path leading to the bridge.
- The goal is to go back to the underground caves and talk to the alien, so follow the steps you took before, including avoiding the same dangers, to get back there. The only things that can be skipped is destroying the spider droid (there was only one), and picking up a rock and using it in the geyser (it should still be where you left it, keeping the door open).

- When you get back to the alien, it wants proof about Orat having been defeated.
- DROP ORAT PART
- After doing that, a door opens in front of you. Go through it to enter an alien installation with weird machines and aliens.
- One alien will appear, talk to you and give you a skimmer which you can use to travel.
- There is a computer console in the middle of the room, walk to it. This computer has a cartridge slot and a monitor.
- USE CARTRIDGE IN SLOT
- Read the data entries, and take note of the numeric code.
- GET CARTRIDGE
- Now walk to the skimmer on the right side of the room.
- ENTER SKIMMER
- Now you can leave the area, but it might be a good idea to save here, as the flight across the desert will most likely end up in (several) deaths.
- TURN KEY

- You need to fly the skimmer to a town in the desert. You need to avoid hitting the rocks. The skimmer can take few hits, with its damage report changing to worse after each it: minor -> moderate -> serious -> situation critical. After that, the skimmer will be broken and the game will be over.
- The rocks come randomly, so there is no way to give instructions that would help much here. It is possible to save game during the skimmer flight, so if you manage to fly a while without hitting anything, it might be a good idea to save there, so you don't need to start the entire sequence all over again, if you can't complete it successfully.
- It might give a bit more reaction time to set the game speed to slowest, but this will also slow down the skimmer.

Ulence Flats

- When you finally manage to cross the desert, you will come to a desert town called Ulence Flats. The ultimate goal is a charming rip-off from the Mos Eisley part of the original Star Wars, to search in bars and other places in order to find a spaceship to take you to your next destination.
- Before leaving the skimmer make sure no one will steal it.
- GET SKIMMER KEY (new inventory item: power key)
- EXIT SKIMMER
- If a man comes and offers you money (30 buckazoids) to buy the skimmer, simply answer "NO", for now.
- You can walk around and explore the area, if you want. Basically the only thing that needs to be done is to leave and come back, so the fastest way is to enter the bar and then exit and return to the skimmer.
- Wait for the man to come again. If the man is making you a final offer for the skimmer (30 buckazoids and a jetpack), answer "YES" to accept it. (new inventory items: buckazoids, jetpack)

- Now enter the bar.
- It is time to eavesdrop on the people on the bar. Go to the right side of the bar and wait for the bartender. (Note, in order to have the next sequence working as planned, you should take your place right next to the man with green hair, facing the same way as the other people, not at the end of the bar table.) Soon the bartender should ask what you will have.The right place for eavesdropping.
- BUY BEER (new inventory item: beer)
- DRINK BEER
- Repeat this twice, in order to overhear a discussion.
- BUY BEER (new inventory item: beer)
- DRINK BEER
- BUY BEER (new inventory item: beer)
- DRINK BEER
- You will hear someone talking about cruising in the sector HH previously. Take note of that.
- There is no need to buy or drink any more beer, in fact it would only waste your money, so go to the slot machine that is near the bar. The slot machine minigame should start automatically when you walk to the right place.

- The goal here is to win enough money to buy a spaceship by using the slot machine. As always, gambling is risky, so you can also lose all of the money you are carrying. It is highly advisable to save the game every time you manage to increase the money you have. The slot machine also has a special reward for three skulls, which is death!
- Depending on the game version you have, there may be a "second chance" available, if you lose all your money and have forgotten to save. Go to the left side of "Droids B Us" and search the ground there. You should be able to find five buckazoids, which you can use as a last resort to continue if you have lost all the money in the inventory.
- It is possible to play the slot machine more carefully using smaller bets, or be more risky by having larger bets. To get the game done as fast as possible, highest possible bets are recommended, but ultimately the end result will be the same.
- When you keep winning and have at least 250 buckazoids, the slot machine will break down. You will have all the money you need, and you can exit the bar using the door on the left.

- The next place to go is "Droids B Us", so go first north, then east, and enter the droid store.
- You need to buy a droid here to navigate your spaceship.
- You can walk around the store and get descriptions of all droids, but the one you need to buy is the white one, which is upstairs on the right side.
- BUY DROID
- Now the droid is yours, and it will follow you where ever you go.
- The next thing to buy is a spaceship from "Tiny's Used Spacecraft", so exit the store first, and then go west and then further west.
- This is the ship you want to buy. You can buy some other ships too, but they can't take you to your destination. If Tiny isn't here or doesn't show up automatically, walk south where the store really is located, wait for Tiny to come and talk to you, and then walk back north and Tiny will follow you.
- Walk next to the spaceship to get a sales speech.
- BUY SHIP
- Now you own the ship, and with few preparations can leave the planet.
- ENTER SHIP
- You still need to have the droid on the ship too.
- PUSH LOAD BUTTON
- The droid will ask for a sector to set as a destination, answer "HH" and you will be on your way.

Deltaur

- After a flight through an asteroid field you will meet the Sarien ship, Deltaur.
- You need to find a way to enter the ship without being noticed by the Sariens. As you are going in space, you won't be inside a spaceship for a moment, so prepare for that.
- WEAR JETPACK
- EXIT SHIP
- You are outside an airlock, go towards the door. You need to find a right spot to open the door. It may take a few tries to position correctly, but there is a line that goes through the door, try to place yourself and your hands on the same level with that line.
- OPEN DOOR
- When the door is open, use it to enter the ship.
- Once inside the ship, wait for a maintenance robot to appear, and when it does, go through the door that it has opened. If you miss it, wait for another chance, the robot keeps coming and going.
- Now you need a place to hide for a while before you can do anything else. There is a trunk in the room you are in.
- OPEN TRUNK
- ENTER TRUNK

- You have been carried to a new location, which is laundry facilities.
- OPEN TRUNK
- ENTER TRUNK
- Now you need to create a disguise for yourself. There is a laundry cleaning unit on the wall.
- OPEN UNIT
- ENTER UNIT
- A Sarien comes in and starts the machine. After a while you have control again.
- EXIT UNIT
- When you come out of the laundry cleaning unit, your outfit has changed, and you can now walk anywhere on the alien ship undetected.

- Go east to exit the room.
- In the next room are two elevators and a guard standing nearby. You can simply ignore the guard, but for full points, you need to do two Answer "YES" to get full score!interactions with the guard. Other guards on the ship can be used for these extra points as well.
- TALK ALIEN
- Keep talking until the Sarien guard asks if you own King's Quest II, answer "YES". (Note, at some point you can ask the Sarien if he owns Kinq's Quest III, this is a different conversation.)
- KISS ALIEN
- When the conversations with the Sarien are over (or if you chose to skip them), use the leftmost elevator.
- Go west and use another elevator there.
- Go east, and then twice more east to reach the ship armory.

- You need to get some weapons, but they are only handed out when showing a valid ID.
- LOOK SUIT (new inventory item: Sarien ID card)
- You will take an ID that was in your clothes.
- Go to the counter with the robot.
- SHOW ID (new inventory item: pulseray)
- The robot will go get a weapon, and during the short while it is gone, you should go to the end of the counter. There you will find some grenades, which you can't get with your ID.
- GET GRENADE (new inventory item: grenade)
- The robot will give you a pulseray gun when it comes back.

- Now go back west one room, and there will be a guard standing next to the Star Generator below you.
- DROP GRENADE
- If you miss the guard, you have a second chance available, as there is one more grenade in the armory. Whether you were successful with the first grenade or not, picking up the second grenade is needed for the maximum score. If you want to do this, go back to the armory, show ID again (SHOW ID), and pick up the grenade (GET GRENADE) when the robot is gone.
- Now that the guard is dealt with, go back west as far as you can. Just before the elevator you stumble and lose your helmet. Now the guards will shoot you if they see you!
- The easiest thing to do would be to avoid the guards entirely, but for passing the game with full points it is actually required to use the pulseray gun and shoot at least one alien. The game can be completed without doing that, but for the full points, you must do it. Firing the gun is easy, all you need to is press F6. Shooting an alien successfully is much more difficult, as they shoot the moment they see you. The best way to shoot an alien is to keep saving the game in every room, and when entering a new room keep hitting F6 in case there is a Sarien guard there. Once you have shot one alien, or decided to skip it, it is time to take care of the Star Generator.
- To get to the Star Generator from the place where you lost the helmet, take the elevator down, and keep walking east as far as you can. If you go after aliens, then you need to find your own way around, but it is a good idea to return the same way you went to avoid getting lost. As Sarien guards keep walking around, it should be theoretically possible just stay in the corridor leading to the Star Generator and wait for one of them to show up.

- In the room with the Star Generator, go to the Sarien guard lying on the ground.
- SEARCH GUARD (new inventory item: remote control)
- You now have a remote control that controls the force field around the Star Generator.
- PUSH OFF BUTTON
- Now the force field has been turned off, and you can access the device.
- Go to the Star Generator.
- LOOK PANEL
- This is the control panel where you need to enter the numeric code you saw earlier. In case you don't remember it, it is 6858.
- This will activate the detonation cycle, and you will now have only few minutes to escape before the Star Generator will explode and destroy the Sarien ship with it.

- Go west and enter the elevator there.
- Exit the elevator and take the rightmost elevator next to the one you came from.
- This is the Sarien shuttle launch bay, where you can steal a shuttle to escape from the exploding ship.
- Go to the shuttle, but be careful not to fall into the launch chute.
- ENTER SHIP
- PUSH LAUNCH
- The shuttle will fly away from the exploding Deltaur. You will return home and get a hero's welcome.

The hero returns.


THE GAME IS FINISHED. CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Deaths

There are many ways to die in Sierra On-Line adventure games. Some players want to explore these, as Sierra used to have humorous deaths. For this game, here is a list of deaths. Note, this list may not be complete, as some other walkthroughs have listed deaths which are not listed here, and which may or may not actually be possible to encounter.

Failing to escape from the Arcada.	There is an invisible timer on the Arcada. Failing to leave the ship in time will cause you to die in the explosion.
Getting shot by the Sariens.	Get shot by the Sariens either aboard the Arcada or Deltaur. The difference is that getting shot aboard the Deltaur will disintegrate you.
Entering the vehicle bay without a spacesuit.	Enter the vehicle bay without a spacesuit.
Falling into the elevator shaft.	Fall into the elevator shaft in the vehicle bay.
Getting lost in space.	Don't activate the Autonav in the escape pod, and you will get lost in space.
Touching the "don't touch" button.	Push the "don't touch" button in the escape pod, and the pod will crash land in King's Quest!!!
Getting eaten by a Grell.	Walk too far out in the desert, and you will be eaten by a Grell.
Getting crushed by a meteorite.	Go to the northeastern part of the desert, after a short while you will be crushed by a meteorite.
Getting eaten by the hole.	Look into the hole in the desert and get eaten by whatever is inside.
Getting blown up by the spider droid.	Come to physical contact with the spider droid and you will be blown up.
Falling from a high place.	Fall off from a high place on the planet surface.
Breaking the bridge.	Cross the natural land bridge too many times and it will collapse under you.
Dying of thirst.	Walk in the desert without water and you will eventually die of thirst (there will be two warnings before this happens).
Getting eaten by a tentacled beast.	Walk over the metal grating in the caves and get eaten by a tentacled beast.
Drinking from the pool of acid.	Drink from the pool of acid and you will lose your head.
Getting cut by the laser beam.	Walk into the laser beam in the cave and you will get cut.
Getting hit by a drop of acid.	Get hit by a drop of acid in the caves.
Hitting too many rocks with the skimmer.	Hit five rocks with a skimmer during the skimmer flight minigame.
Losing with the slot machine.	Get three skulls with the slot machine, and the machine will reward you by firing a laser that will turn you to ashes.
Getting shot by a mugger.	When carrying 250 buckazoids, follow a suspicious alien who offers you a spaceship. After stealing your money, he will let you go, but trying to approach him will cause him to shoot you.
Buying a wrong spaceship.	Buy a wrong spaceship from Tiny and it will crash nearby soon after liftoff.
Leaving the spaceship without a jetpack.	Leave the spaceship without a jetpack and you will drift out into space.
Flying away from the airlock.	Use the jetpack and fly away from the airlock and you will be shot.
Getting killed by the armory droid.	There are reportedly several ways of getting killed by the armory droid. Two which have been tested to work are: - firing the pulseray gun twice inside the armory - getting caught when stealing a grenade.
Dropping the grenade in a wrong place.	Drop the grenade anywhere else but the passage above the Star Generator and you will be killed.
Getting disintegrated by a droid.	After losing the helmet of your Sarien disguise come to physical contact with a droid and you will be disintegrated.
Falling into the launch chute.	Fall into the launch chute in the Sarien shuttle launch bay.
Failing to escape from the Deltaur.	After the Star Generator detonation cycle has been activated, you have five minutes to escape. Failing to leave the ship in time will cause you to die in the explosion.