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Batman: Arkham Knight - ventilation shafts, hostage, helicopter assault, WayneTech

How to safely explore the ACE Chemicals vents, rescue the hostage, then survive the deadly firefight with the tanks, drones and helicopters.

Now that you're in the bowels of the ACE Chemicals plant, head west to leave the elevator and proceed into the control room nearby. There's quite the commotion going on in the next room but, luckily, the thugs are too preoccupied to notice you through the reinforced window. To reach their position, locate the air vent in the ceiling then grapple on up.

Explore the vents

Duck into the narrow vent directly ahead and take a left at the end, passing into the ventilation duct. There's a second vent in the wall to the right so prise off the cover and slip on through. This places you immediately above the next factory worker who, as you'll see through the grating in the floor, isn't having a particularly fantastic time. Aim your sights at the thug standing by him and initiate a Multi-takedown once the prompt appears.


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Rescue the hostage

The room below contains a wide assorted of goons, including standard thugs, heavily-armoured guards, sword-wielding assassins and a few gun-toting opponents. As soon as you touch down to the lower level, work quickly to defeat as many out as possible with Multi-takedown, then use standard combat tactics to deal with the remaining foes - as always, focus on the gunmen first.

Once all your opponents are out for the count, speak to the hostage to proceed. With the cut-scene over, head up the metal steps and wind your way round to the elevator. As we already know, the elevator is out - so activate your Batmobile Remote again, enter Battle Mode and reverse to return the carriage to ground level. Finally, switch control back to Batman, clamber out of the elevator and hop back into your vehicle.

Unfortunately, Scarecrow's drones have located your position and numerous tanks draw in to attack. Worse still, there's an unmanned chopper to deal with too, capable of launching a volley of missiles at you from the air. These can do serious damage and you don't have an enormous amount of time to react to them after they've launched.


Survive the tanks, helicopters and drones

Once the sequence begins, immediately enter Battle Mode and quickly familiarise yourself with your dodge thrusters. These enable you to slide quickly out of danger and should be deployed immediately if you're caught in the chopper's incoming missile strike, as indicated by the red circular markers that appear on the ground.

To curtail the assault, begin by focussing your attention on the drone tanks at ground level. These do far less damage than the chopper but their large numbers make them tricky to avoid. You'll find it much easier to deal with the your airborne foe once their ranks have been thinned, so open fire and be sure to keep moving to avoid incoming lock-on attacks.

Once the yard is clear, turn your attention to your the chopper and begin serving up a barrage of primary and secondary attacks. Launch missiles from your cannon while the ship hovers in the air or flies overhead, and switch to your Vulcan Gun when it needs to recharge. Keep a careful watch for your opponent's scattered missile strike however - as soon as you see the projectiles launching upward, begin dodge thrusting to avoid the impact points on the ground.

At certain intervals, the chopper stops moving and begins launching a volley of homing missiles directly at you, one by one. Use your Vulcan Gun to fend off the incoming projectiles, then resume your cannon strikes.

As the chopper's depleting health reaches critical levels, it introduces a new style of attack, flying in low and launching missiles as it twirls around. You've even less time to react than usual here so be extra vigilant. Keep up the assault, however, and your opponent will soon come crashing down.


Use WayneTech to upgrade your Batmobile

If you're finding the battle tough going, don't forget that the WayneTech portion of your Batcomputer menu features a wide range of upgrades for the Batmobile - and you should have accumulated a fair number of upgrade points by now. In particular, you'll find that the armour and Dodge Thruster Boost upgrades are useful here - as are the various recharge and power upgrades for your 60mm Cannon and Vulcan Gun.


Escort the ACE Chemicals worker to Gordon on the bridge

Once the chopper is down, switch to your vehicle's standard drive mode and make the winding journey back through the factory toward the entrance bridge. Note that to get through the tunnel and reach the eastern part of the factory yard, you'll need to park up on the yellow elevator platform then hop out to push the nearby button.

When that's done, clamber up the ledge and get back in your vehicle. Deposit the factory worker with Commissioner Gordon then prepare for your next objective.


- Keep reading for our guide to disabling the sentry guns.

- You can find the rest of our Batman: Arkham Knight walkthrough from the first page of this article.