E1M3: Phantom Express
Episode 1: The Way Of All Flesh
Phantom Express (E1M3) is the third level of the first episode in Blood. In the level the player must quest from the front of a train to the rear and back, while battling Cabal forces and finding the key to the engine compartment, where Caleb can blow up the boiler and derail the train.
Song Track: 9 - Double, Double, Toil and Trouble (CD-Audio), None (the .ini file says PESTIS, but is commented out) (MIDI)
| Number of Enemies | |
| Still Kicking | 31 |
| Pink on the Inside | 49 |
| Lightly Broiled | 72 |
| Well Done | 84 |
| Extra Crispy | 111 |
| Number of Secrets | |
| 6 + 1 Super Secret | |
Walkthrough[edit]
"Follow the ledge either way until you get to the Fire key door at the rear of the engine car. Walk over the coal car, and jump down in front of the door to the first passenger car. Open it, fight your way to the second passenger car (the Skull key door is in this car), fight your way through it, and you'll get to the storage car. Over on the left side is the door which leads to the dining car (strange that the storage car is between the passenger cars and the dining car). Grab the Skull key in the dining car, and return to the 2nd passenger car. As you enter the 2nd passenger car, use your Skull key on the elevator to your left. Ride it up, open the door, grab the fire key, and ride it back down. Now head for the Fire key door all the way back at the beginning of the level. Open it up, and walk around the furnace to the very front of the car. Turn to your right to see the train controls. On the right side, you'll see a lever. Hit it, and turn back toward the furnace. You'll see two switches on both sides of the furnace's grill. Hit both of them, step back, and wait for all hell to break loose, ending the level." — Baytor's Guide
You should now find yourself on the front of a moving train. Carefully walk on the edge surrounding the engine car until you reach a door. Turn around and walk to the coal car and then jump to the first passenger car. Enter the passenger car, and then keep moving through the second passenger car until you reach the storage car. On the left side of the car you will find a door that leads to the rear dining car. Take the key found in the room and return to the second dining car, and then use the key on the elevator. Ride it up to the upper level, and then look for the next key. Once you have found it, take the elevator back down and return to the engine car. Enter through the door and walk around the boiler. You will find two control switches on the front of the furnace, press both of them and then proceed to the front of the car. Wait there until the boiler explodes, stopping the train and leading to the next level.
Enemies Present[edit]
Weapons Available[edit]
Secrets[edit]
- When entering the train car full of cargo and crates, walk straight ahead and jump on the box. Turn around and there is another crate near the ceiling with the secret. Reward: Life Seed
- In the diagonally opposite corner of the previous secret, there is a blue steamer trunk on a pile of boxes. Reward: Beastvision
- In the diner car (the last car), the bar on the left side has a switch which opens a wall panel on the opposite wall. Reward: Reflective Shots
- In the kitchen, there is a secret in the upper oven (you need to go into the oven to activate the secret). Reward: Flare Gun
- The first room in the passenger car has a crack near the ceiling. Blow it up to reveal the car's attic space with zombies and supplies. Reward: Tommy Gun, Dynamite Bundles, Box of Flares
- In the train's engine, blow up the grate on the boiler and enter it to gather the supplies. You can also blow up the grate on the other side. Reward: Tommy Gun, Sawed-Off Shotgun, Flare Gun, Life Seed (in Multiplayer, there is also a Super Armor and Guns Akimbo)
- Super Secret - In the passenger car's ground floor, there's a space showing as unexplored on the map. After blowing up the wall with a dynamite bundle, there will be a hole to the outside. Go to the edge of the hole and hang partially outside, facing the back of the train. Falling off means instant death, so be careful. Jump towards the part of the train that says "666", and you should land on a nearly invisible ledge. Push the wall and it will open. Reward: Sawed-Off Shotgun, Tommy Gun, Super Armor, Life Seed, Guns Akimbo
Note: since opening the exit door from the Super Secret spawns enemies *each times the door is opened*, if you don't want to fight additional cultists after exiting the Super Secret, simply go back the way you came, using the invisible ledge.
Fun Stuff[edit]
See also: References in Blood
- Before opening the door to the passenger car, you can hear a cultist call out "Next stop, Green Town." Green Town is the city where Something Wicked This Way Comes takes place, which refers to the next level, "Dark Carnival".
- There is a glitch on this map where you can get infinite secrets by opening and closing the blue chest that holds beast vision. This glitch was patched in One Unit: Whole Blood by requiring the player to pick up the beast vision for the secret to be counted.
- Also in the Super Secret room, when opening the exit door multiple times, it will spawn 4 Cultists and 2 Innocents. Doing this several times without increasing DOSBox's memory value or replacing the game's main DOS extender may cause the game to crash. The door may eventually stop closing and remain open in some cases.
- The field the train is traveling through is actually classified as a fire surface (such as lava) by game logic. This can also be observed in game by equipping Basic Armour or Super Armour then jumping off the train; you'll notice only the Fire Armour component will degrade whilst the Body and Spirit remain unaffected.
- A re-imagined version of this level is available in the fan add-on The Evergrowing Army of the UnDead.
- The Blood Team released Weekly Blood Development Updates on the 3D Realms website, and said this about this level:
- Update: 06/14/96: Now that the train level is nearly done, we're all hyper to add some digitized train textures in. This may force the train into the registered version since our artwork alone is already over 20 meg. Maybe we can just >squeeze< it in...
- Update: 10/14/96: The Phantom Express was shortened by one car to make it tighter in BloodBath and single play.
- Update: 12/02/96: Jay finished the work on his mine level, as well as redoing parts of Phantom Express.
