This guide will help you complete the Mercy Mental Hospital, Halls of Disrepair, and The Emerald City Ripper missions in Shadowrun Returns.
Mercy Mental Hospital, Halls of Disrepair, The Emerald City Ripper Map
Mercy Mental Hospital, Halls of Disrepair, The Emerald City Ripper Walkthrough
Background: Mercy Mental Hospital
The blood you found at the warehouse belongs to a man masquerading as one Dr. Holmes, and you’ve tracked him to Mercy Mental Hospital — located in the notoriously anti-metahuman farmlands of Snohomish. The drive to the hospital is long and unpleasant. Finally, you reach the walled and gated hospital compound.
Despite the pretense of security, the gate is unguarded, unlocked, and open. No one stops or greets you as you drive up to the large, crumbling building. Gothic ramparts top a damaged roof, cracked walls, and broken windows. All around the building is a lawn gone wild. Only the artificial light from within speaks of inhabitants.
You walk up the hospital steps to confront Sam Watts’ killer and bring an end to the Emerald City Ripper.
Background: Halls of Disrepair
As you venture deeper into the asylum, you see that the inside is every bit as bad as the outside. Gone is any attempt to uphold sanitary hospital aesthetics. With peeling paint, cracked floors, and exposed conduit, the pretense of mental care is shattered.
In this modern era, Mercy Mental Hospital is a throwback to the barbaric asylums of old — prisons and torture chambers rather than places of healing. It’s clear that Dr. Holmes is spending his money on something other than this facility.
You continue on. Holmes can only run so far….
Background: The Emerald City Ripper
Before you is a medical lab turned torture chamber. The smell of old blood and decayed flesh permeates the room. Gory stains speak of the body’s fluids spilled without regard for well-being or hygiene. There are bodies, probably former patients, trapped in hideous machines, enduring horrific experiments. The subjects you can see all appear dead. Any that aren’t must wish they were.
You’ve chased Holmes to his lair. Just as his face reveals an ugly soul, so does his safe haven, it would seem.
Holmes. Silas. The Emerald City Ripper. The elf is a monster beyond compare. It’s time to end this.
Karma Points
- [2] Investigate Josie for Lorraine (#2).
- [2] Accuse Holmes of being the Ripper (#4).
- [4] Reach the exit to Level 3 (Exit B).
- [8] Kill Holmes (#8).
Walkthrough
Inside Mercy Mental Hospital, you’ll meet a receptionist in the lobby (#1). No matter what you say to him, he’ll open up the way for you, and he’ll direct you to the common room (aka cafeteria) across the hall.
Inside the common room (#2), you’ll meet two patients named Donny and Lorraine. Donny will explain how “life is much easier” if you don’t attract the attention of Dr. Holmes. Lorraine will ask you to find Josie, a Super Brawl star, and she’ll give you the Infirmary Key so you can look for him there. You might also notice a computer in the common room, but you won’t be able to jack into it until later when combat starts up.
Inside the infirmary (#3), you’ll discover the remains of Josie (aka Josiah C. Dawson), and you’ll find a Super Brawl Ring and an Unlabeled Trivid Disc in containers by his corpse. You’ll be able to give the ring to Lorraine, or sell it later to Van Graas at the Union. You’ll be able to play trivid discs on Level 2 (#10). Also in the infirmary, you’ll find a computer with information about Josie. Reading this information will reveal that Josie’s body is being used to “improve other subjects” and to fulfill “custom requests.”
When you return to the common room, you’ll have to tell Lorraine the bad news about Josie. If you want, you can give her the Super Brawl Ring so she’ll have a memento of her friend, but you won’t receive anything in return. Either way, your conversation with Lorraine will earn you 2 karma points, and afterwards you’ll hear over the PA system that you should head to the north hall.
In the north hall, you’ll see Silas / Dr. Holmes in a locked security room where you won’t be able to get to him (#4). When you accuse him of being the Emerald City Ripper (through an intercom), he’ll shake his head at your “delusions,” and he’ll call for his guards to capture you. He’ll then flee while the hospital guards attack. This will earn you 2 karma points.
To start out, you’ll only have one guard attacking you, which should make him easy to defeat. When the guard dies, he’ll drop a Guard’s Key, which will allow you to unlock a nearby door (#5) and reach the northern part of the hospital. However, before heading that way, you might want to backtrack. By the entrance gate (now closed), you’ll be able to talk to the receptionist, who will taunt you about having to face Holmes and somebody named Pitezel. You’ll also finally be able to jack into the computer in the common room (#2), which will give you access to two nodes in the matrix:
- Door Control node. This node will allow you to open the bathroom door (#6). Inside the bathroom, you’ll find a
Basic Medkit and a 
Fichetti Concussion Grenade.
- Server Records node. This node will allow you to download Buyer Records, an item that you’ll be able to give to Mrs. Kubota (not Van Graas) later at the Union.
On Level 2 of the hospital (reached via Exit A), you’ll encounter more hospital security, plus some doctors and violent patients. None of them will be happy to see you, so you’ll need to fight your way through them as you make your way down to Level 3. Along the way, Holmes will share his philosophy on life with you via intercoms, and you’ll run into a locked gate (#8). You’ll find the key for this gate in a nearby operating room (#9). You’ll also find another Unlabeled Trivid Disc there.
When you get close to the elevator leading down to Level 3 (Exit B), you’ll earn 4 karma points. You’ll also find a trivid player next to the exit (#10). If you play back all of the trideos, then you’ll learn that Holmes has been experimenting with the “bunraku” business, which means he’s been turning his patients into programmable meat puppets, and selling them for a hefty profit. Just in case you needed extra motivation to kill him.
On Level 3, Holmes will finally get tired of running. When you enter his lab (#11), he’ll sic a mage and a surgeon against you, plus a Kluwe-sized troll patient named Pitezel (the same troll you might remember hearing about during the Pike Place Market mission). Then a couple of rounds into the battle, Holmes will show up as well. The mage and surgeon won’t have very much health (just 20 HP each), so we’d recommend finishing them off quickly before concentrating on Pitezel (100 HP) and eventually Holmes (70 HP).
Note: Pitezel will deal AOE 2 damage, so don’t keep your characters clumped together.
At the end of the battle, Holmes will be dying but not quite dead yet. When you talk to him, he’ll blame everything on some unknown female, and he’ll claim that “she was playing… both of us.” Then he’ll die, and you’ll earn 8 karma points for your work.
Note: Somewhere in the hospital, and most likely right at this point, you should gain +1 AP, which will give you 3 AP per round of combat rather than 2. This bonus is tied to receiving karma (somewhere around 118 total) rather than a particular point in the campaign.
With Holmes dead, you’ll be allowed to leave the lab to the north. But before departing, you should examine the workbench next to the exit. On it, you’ll find a disinterment order for Melinda Watts (Sam’s mother), a list of recipients for her organs (including Sam and the other Ripper victims), and 4500 nuyen, which you’ll be able to pocket.
Past the lab, you’ll come to the living quarters of two of Holmes’ bunraku patients (#12). They won’t be very interesting; they’ll just say their programming to you. But on a desk in the room, you’ll find a Personafix Chip Wiper. If you talk to the Male Bunraku after picking it up, then you’ll be given the option of erasing his programming. “Saving” the man won’t exactly make him happy, but he’ll probably be better off in the long run.
To complete the quest, you’ll just need to exit from the hospital (at Exit C).
Note: If you took Shannon with you to the hospital, then when you reach the exit, she’ll say goodbye to you. She’ll decide to stay and help the victims in the hospital, both living and dead, which means she’ll no longer be available as a hireling. If you didn’t take Shannon with you, then the same thing will happen, just without the farewell conversation.
Missions Overview
1 – Receptionist
2 – Common Room
3 – Infirmary
The infirmary will start out locked. You’ll need to talk to Lorraine (#2) to get the key.
4 – Security Room
5 – Locked Door
To open this door, you’ll have to wait for combat to start up. At that point, a nearby guard will drop a Guard’s Key when he dies, and the key will allow you to unlock the door.
6 – Locked Bathroom
To open the bathroom, you’ll need to jack into the computer in the common room during combat.
7 – Recovery Room
Inside this room, you’ll encounter three hostile patients, including an Unstable Mental Patient who will lob grenades at you. So shoot her first.
8 – Locked Gate
You’ll find the key for this gate in the operating room (#9).
9 – Operating Room
10 – Trivid Player
11 – Lab
12 – Living Quarters
Exits
- One-way elevator exit to Level 2.
- One-way elevator exit to Level 3.
- Hospital exit.
