Outer Courts

	Outer Courts
Game	Quake II
Unit	Unit 9
Soundtrack	06 - Underworld
Previous Map	Outlands
Next Map	Lower Palace
	Specific Information
Enemies	Easy: 35; Medium: 61; Hard/Nightmare: 68
Secrets	5
New Enemies	Tank Commander
New Misc	Data Spinner
	[Source]

“	Proceed to palace area. Locate Strogg leader, codename: Makron... Terminate with extreme prejudice.	”
—Mission briefing

The Outer Courts is the outermost area of the Strogg Palace complex, and as such it serves as a security checkpoint and houses several support facilities.

The level begins with an outdoor area and an entrance blocked by a portcullis. Breaching the Palace grounds will inevitably sound the alarm and put all Strogg guards on alert. Tank Commanders patrol the hallways of the palace and become a common enemy from this point onward, effectively replacing the lesser Tanks.

Somewhere within this area is a Data Spinner.

Quick Level Completion

Coming soon...

Walkthrough

Coming soon...

Enemies

Enemy	Easy	Medium	Hard/Nightmare
Shotgun Guard	4	2	4
Machine Gun Guard	11	21	22
Icarus	13	25	26
Medic	1	2	3
Gladiator	3	6	8
Tank Commander	3	5	5

Secrets

#1) In the big, wide-open area you start in, clear out all the enemies (blow up their corpses as well, otherwise they will all be resurrected later on by Medics!) and head down the hill to the pitch-black area directly in front of you, to the right of the lava pit you must cross in a bit. You will see that this is a small cave hiding a Gladiator, and on the right you will see a cracked wall. Blow it up to reveal a large health and a Power Shield.
#2) In the same wide-open starting area, look above the door you exited through and you will see a button on a ledge above it. You can either rocket jump your way up here, or make your way around to it by jumping around the ledges surrounding the area. Push the button once you reach it; the message "A secret door has opened elsewhere" will appear on screen, and you will open a secret area in the small room that you started the map in. Go in here to find a suit of Body Armor, an Adrenaline, health and various types of Ammo.
#3) From the first wide-open area, cross through the gate past the lava pit, and go far enough into the second wide-open area (with the first two Tank Commanders you will come across) until the alarm sounds. Once that happens, go back to the first wide-open area (the Medics will have spawned here now) and you will notice that the door high up on the ledge that you may have previously spotted has now been opened. Go inside this new room for a large health box.
#4) In the room with the Data Spinner, you will notice a slightly-recessed piece of wall to the right of the glass panel where the Spinner sits. Shoot this wall to open it, revealing a floor plate. Step on the floor plate to open a secret wall across from the floor plate room which contains another Adrenaline.
#5) SECOND VISIT: After disabling the Red Forcefields using the switch in Lower Palace, head through the lower underwater area just past where the lower entrance into Lower Palace is located, and then surface once you pass the "tunnel" to find the red forcefield here has now been deactivated, allowing you access to the final secret, which contains Health, Ammo, a Power Shield and a Red Key for opening a very special item within one of the secret areas of Upper Palace.

Bugs

In the original release of Quake II, this level had missing kills on Easy difficulty; it was only possible to achieve 34/37 kills. This problem has been corrected in the 2023 remaster, with the enemy count changed to 35 and one Icarus added to the caverns in the starting area.

Deathmatch

Differences

This map features a teleporter which instantly takes the player to a different spawn point on this map. The teleporter itself only functions when the player is in a deathmatch on this map. In single player, this is inaccessible unless the player uses the 'noclip' cheat code.