Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
For a description of DLTK FA, see my Aztec video:
youtube.com/watch?v=nPzo8qe-pkc
This is the first completion of Control DLTK FA, bringing the total number of levels beaten to 11. Control is certainly the hardest level I've beaten so far in this category. Before I even get to the control room, there's a gauntlet of enemies to fight my way through with very limited ammo. Since I start with only the PP7, the very first guard is quite tough to kill, and most of my run attempts didn't make it past him. The next four guards are more manageable since I have the D5K, but they're still dangerous and can easily kill me. After finishing the first room, I lure one of the guards stationed near the remote mines. He can't open the door to the first room, but if I look away and leave the vicinity, he can warp through it. I take advantage of this by waiting for a while, then leaving in order to let him warp the door. Because he's been chasing me for long enough, he gives up and stands still, which makes him relatively easy to handle. I kill the other guard stationed near the remote mines the same way.
Next comes the silver crate hallway. My strategy here is to bait the guards into throwing grenades and killing themselves. This can be difficult due to the random behavior of the guards. When they see you, they sometimes move a little bit. The movement is random, although the guards tend to drift toward you over time. Due to these random movements, it's hard to know where the guards are (except when I first enter the room). I have to move very carefully to try to figure out where they are. Another random factor is grenade pulls. Sometimes the guards pull lots of grenades (which I want), and sometimes they go a long time without pulling. This room can take a while if the guards don't cooperate, but in this run, I was fairly lucky and got through pretty quickly.
The reason I use the Japanese version of the game is to avoid the freeze glitch that only exists in the US version. The glitch causes the crate guards to stop attacking. Although it's easy to get past the guards when they freeze, I would rather let them kill themselves so I can take their ammo.
After the crate guards, there are four guards in the engine room. In the room after that, which I call the slope room, there are another four guards. I have enough remote mines that I can use one in these two rooms, but I can't spare another, so I need to kill one of these two sets of guards by shooting them. I found that luring and shooting the engine room guards is pretty hard because there aren't any great places to ambush them, but the slope room guards are easier to kill in this way. So, I use a mine on the engine room guards, then lure and shoot the slope room guards.
Once I reach the control room, the ammo situation gets easier. I take Boris's gun, then use a couple mines and a drone explosion to kill six guards, giving me plenty of ammo for the rest of the level.
Of course, the big question is: how on earth can I protect Natalya and myself from the spawn guards? I tried various strategies from regular DLTK, but nothing seemed to work. I also thought of using the same strategy I used in LTK FA. In that mode, though, the guards die in one hit. In DLTK FA, the hat guards have so much body armor that they're almost impossible to kill, making the ending very difficult. After testing many different ideas, I finally found one that works--and it works very well. I call it the crowded corner strategy. After placing a couple mines, I retrieve Natalya, stand in a certain corner, and detonate the mines with good timing. Some guards are killed in the explosions and others see them dying. When this happens, the survivors note my current position and try to reach it. After the detonation, I stand still until Natalya sets off the alarm. When that happens, the hat guards spawn instantly and do the same thing as the other guards: note my current position and try to reach it. But I time the detonation and the alarm such that the non-spawn guards get to the destination first. They occupy the space around it, preventing the hat guards from ever reaching it. Thus, instead of chasing me through the level, the hat guards will keep trying to run to the same unreachable location. The strategy is similar in principle to the "glass tank" strategy used on Streets DLTK. It doesn't work every time, but my success rate is well over 50%.
With the hat guards taken care of, it's fairly easy to protect Natalya from the hatless guards. In fact, she has enough health that I can abandon her in the middle of the protect and go kill the guards leading up the ending. Then, when the hacking is complete, I have a clear path to the elevator. Soon afterward, the hatless guards forget about Natalya and start targeting me, so I have to survive until Objective A completes, which in this run took about a minute. It was a very stressful minute, but I managed to stay alive and finish the level.
For a description of DLTK FA, see my Aztec video:
youtube.com/watch?v=nPzo8qe-pkc
This is the first completion of Control DLTK FA, bringing the total number of levels beaten to 11. Control is certainly the hardest level I've beaten so far in this category. Before I even get to the control room, there's a gauntlet of enemies to fight my way through with very limited ammo. Since I start with only the PP7, the very first guard is quite tough to kill, and most of my run attempts didn't make it past him. The next four guards are more manageable since I have the D5K, but they're still dangerous and can easily kill me. After finishing the first room, I lure one of the guards stationed near the remote mines. He can't open the door to the first room, but if I look away and leave the vicinity, he can warp through it. I take advantage of this by waiting for a while, then leaving in order to let him warp the door. Because he's been chasing me for long enough, he gives up and stands still, which makes him relatively easy to handle. I kill the other guard stationed near the remote mines the same way.
Next comes the silver crate hallway. My strategy here is to bait the guards into throwing grenades and killing themselves. This can be difficult due to the random behavior of the guards. When they see you, they sometimes move a little bit. The movement is random, although the guards tend to drift toward you over time. Due to these random movements, it's hard to know where the guards are (except when I first enter the room). I have to move very carefully to try to figure out where they are. Another random factor is grenade pulls. Sometimes the guards pull lots of grenades (which I want), and sometimes they go a long time without pulling. This room can take a while if the guards don't cooperate, but in this run, I was fairly lucky and got through pretty quickly.
The reason I use the Japanese version of the game is to avoid the freeze glitch that only exists in the US version. The glitch causes the crate guards to stop attacking. Although it's easy to get past the guards when they freeze, I would rather let them kill themselves so I can take their ammo.
After the crate guards, there are four guards in the engine room. In the room after that, which I call the slope room, there are another four guards. I have enough remote mines that I can use one in these two rooms, but I can't spare another, so I need to kill one of these two sets of guards by shooting them. I found that luring and shooting the engine room guards is pretty hard because there aren't any great places to ambush them, but the slope room guards are easier to kill in this way. So, I use a mine on the engine room guards, then lure and shoot the slope room guards.
Once I reach the control room, the ammo situation gets easier. I take Boris's gun, then use a couple mines and a drone explosion to kill six guards, giving me plenty of ammo for the rest of the level.
Of course, the big question is: how on earth can I protect Natalya and myself from the spawn guards? I tried various strategies from regular DLTK, but nothing seemed to work. I also thought of using the same strategy I used in LTK FA. In that mode, though, the guards die in one hit. In DLTK FA, the hat guards have so much body armor that they're almost impossible to kill, making the ending very difficult. After testing many different ideas, I finally found one that works--and it works very well. I call it the crowded corner strategy. After placing a couple mines, I retrieve Natalya, stand in a certain corner, and detonate the mines with good timing. Some guards are killed in the explosions and others see them dying. When this happens, the survivors note my current position and try to reach it. After the detonation, I stand still until Natalya sets off the alarm. When that happens, the hat guards spawn instantly and do the same thing as the other guards: note my current position and try to reach it. But I time the detonation and the alarm such that the non-spawn guards get to the destination first. They occupy the space around it, preventing the hat guards from ever reaching it. Thus, instead of chasing me through the level, the hat guards will keep trying to run to the same unreachable location. The strategy is similar in principle to the "glass tank" strategy used on Streets DLTK. It doesn't work every time, but my success rate is well over 50%.
With the hat guards taken care of, it's fairly easy to protect Natalya from the hatless guards. In fact, she has enough health that I can abandon her in the middle of the protect and go kill the guards leading up the ending. Then, when the hacking is complete, I have a clear path to the elevator. Soon afterward, the hatless guards forget about Natalya and start targeting me, so I have to survive until Objective A completes, which in this run took about a minute. It was a very stressful minute, but I managed to stay alive and finish the level.
