1. Not everything is as it seems--Secret or hidden doors connect many of the rooms you have to visit throughout Hexen II. Keep a careful eye out for anything that could be a potential button, trigger, or lever, making sure to swat around at seemingly static objects when you think you might have come to an impasse.

2. Thou shalt conserve thy mana!--Your character's projectile weapons require the blue and green mana crystals to operate. Unless you want to face one of the Eidolon's golems with nothing but a sickle, you'd better hold your fire when you come upon weaker enemies and play it mano-a-mano.

3. Backspace 101--Using the Backspace key to backpedal away from monsters while firing is an indispensable defense technique to use in this game. You can also employ the Backspace to help you during difficult platform jumping. Practice pressing Backspace the instant you wish to drop down safely to a platform. If you can master the Backspace key and coordinate it with your strafing, you should be able to get through just about any tough situation you may encounter.

4. Bound to succeed--With so many different power-up items in Hexen II, you'll probably want to have a few of the most important artifacts bound to easily accessible keys. You can bind your keys in the option menu or during a game by pressing the ~ key to bring down the console, then type in "bind " without quotes, inserting the key followed by the command you wish to bind to it. It's especially helpful to have the Tome of Power or the Quartz Flask right there at your fingertips during a risky combat situation.

5. Know your monsters!--Each monster class in Hexen II has its own offensive and defensive methods. Monsters can surprise you with their attacks and leave you wasting precious ammo on their sneaky defensive maneuvers. For example, the lumbering golems can dash out and bodycheck you with speed you wouldn't think they had the potential for. Also, the Were-Jaguar and Fallen Angel can both summon an extremely protective shield while you're in the middle of pelting them with ammo. Pick up on behavioral patterns like these and try your best to break them.

6. Eidolon: One tough cookie to crumble--Using the strafe keys to hide quickly around the architectural elements of Eidolon's lair is key to defeating Eidolon before he defeats you. Also, circle strafing around Eidolon - by holding the forward and strafe buttons simultaneously and pivoting your character slightly - can be an effective way to continually fire upon Eidolon without coming into contact with one of his devastating fireballs. These techniques could take a little practice. You can activate the Chaos Device when you're low on health, bringingyou back to the antechamber full of goodies just before the lair. Also, be sure to have a couple Tomes of Power, maybe even an Icon of the Defender (invincibility) handy. The Disc of Repulsion can be used to serve Eidolon's fireballs back at him, but this is not recommended.