…there’s an ammo crate? I’ll need to look out for it. I thought those 7 rockets were all I got!
Yep. It’s by the rocks on the left side, beyond the cots. It’s also a nice way to get gunned down or blown up, since the path to that spot doesn’t have much cover.
Hmm. I also had difficulties with this battle. First attempt, I fired all 7 rockets (I also didn’t find the ammo crate) to no effect. The second attempt had me fire the rockets unguided, with god mode on, from open ground. That time it took 2 rockets + a couple of charged blasts from the Tau Cannon and it went straight down.
The Tau cannon fully charged does more damage than the rocket launcher as well, so if you have ammo for that, blass away! 
Know that this is the only part of the game that is so horribly designed. Once you get past the chopper, the game picks up again.
I’m guessing they never had time to balance that part properly. So tell the devs about it and hopefully they will change it.
As for how to get past that horrendous chopper… Luck.
Make a regular save before picking up the RPG. Hide behind the tall rocks on the opposite side of the infinite rocket box. Make a quick save after every successful hit on the chopper; successful as in, you hit the chopper and the chopper doesn’t hit you or does only very little damage. Remember you need to fire 16 rockets to take it down, so do not get hit. If you need more rockets, wait until the cannon stops firing and then make a dash for the infinite rocket crate and run like hell back to the rocks.
Load up the regular save and try again when you find out your quick saves won’t lead to a victory. It can happen because, like I said, there’s lots of luck involved. But the quick saves help a lot to balance the luck into your favor.
EDIT: Or do what the guy above me said. I never used the Gauss during the cliffs (no ammo), but I noticed on the dam that you can very quickly damage the chopper by firing with the regular attack.
Okay getting more rockets solved the problem - the damn thing only needed one more! running over and back was hell, but I killed it. Might wanna tweak this, it crossed the line between challenging and frustrating for me, but idk how others found it.
The little scene with the attack planes after was a nice touch - onto the tank fights I guess!
I am loving this mod so far by the way. I’d like to see what you do with Xen - it’s in dire need of an overhaul.
Yeah, that fight could benefit from some redesign; it was one of the only parts of the mod that I found underwhelming. It has no room for strategics, really. There’s only one way to approach it without getting mowed down: camp behind the crates, and sprint out for more rockets as quick as you can in between bursts of fire.
Extremely frustrating, that’s what it was for me…
But completely love the rest of the game!
I agree, the apache fight was the only fight that had almost zero depth to it. The rest of the game is great though.
Ahh, the problem with that was I had no ammo for that otherwise immensely helpful weapon.
After I turn off the generator and climb in through the roof, there’s a scientist that warns you about the path ahead. There are trips mines with explosive boxes and barrels, if set them off they blow the place up and kill you instantly. HTF! do I pass it. :’(
Do not trigger the trip mines. Either duck underneath them or jump over them. First, get into the warehouse area. There is an elevator in the middle of the room, but the entrance is blocked by tripmines. You need to jump over those mines, into the elevator. You need to go up and gain some height to be able to jump over those mines.
There is no other way pass the mines, its a straight corridor. The scientist is in the room with the collapsed ceiling I just entered. And the other room has a few trip mines i can pick up.
Like I said, either jump or duck your way past the mines. Don’t forget to crouch jump when you do jump.
Thanks for the help. I have tried crouch jumping and I even found a little box to stand on. I think I’ve died about 30 times. Stupid and frustrating level design.
That’s how it was in the original. The whole area is supposed to be a jumping puzzle. I only died once and the part took me about 10 minutes.
The chopper fight was fine for me. I died several times, but I never got upset and I never felt like my death wasn’t my fault.
Was there tau cannon ammo in the room with the rocket? If not, that would be a great place to put some.
Does anyone have a manual save close to (but not during) Surface Tension?
Due to some bug the gave will only give me both the pistol and the crowbar, and that’s really no good, is it? If this is an illegal post, sorry.
The Tau cannon does do damage to the chopper. Of course, the way I got past that fight was because the copter AI spontaneously combusted, so the chopper was caught in a sideways facing up and down loop, allowing me to easily pelt it with rockets until it crashed into the hillside XP