When I first read about the gnome achievement, I knew I had to do it (partly because it sounded fun, partly because I love Amelie). I had already beaten Episode 2 on the PC, but we just got it for the 360, so I wanted to play through it again anyway (points!).
This actually isn't as hard as you might think. There are a lot of battles where you can just set him down somewhere until after the fight. If you know the game (I assume everyone will have played through this episode at least once before trying this achievement!), you'll know which rooms you'll be coming back to, so you can leave him for large sections of the game. The rocket is found well before the end of the game, so it's only a few hours of play anyway.
This is not a guide for the whole episode, just some tips on where to safely leave the gnome.
SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!!
SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!!
Getting the Gnome
About five or ten minutes into the game, when Alyx first turns on a monitor to talk to her dad, the gnome (also known as Trey by some) is under an empty wooden bunkbed, on the floor (to the left of where Alyx climbs up to get the plug). If you can't find it, see the gnome location in this video.
The Beginning
This part of the game is actually a little annoying, as it consists of a lot of gnome carrying. This means you cannot sprint, and you cannot keep a weapon out (but you can always drop the gnome and your gun will be ready). Don't worry, it'll get better.
The Antlion Attack (in the tunnels)
You can leave the gnome anywhere, but I would warn against anyplace it might get hit by an antlion. Don't leave it down by Alyx, as it could fall down the elevator shaft. I chose to put it up on the platform, away from the tunnels. This also allowed me to keep an eye on him.
After the attack is done, LEAVE HIM HERE. You will be back to heal Alyx, so go have fun getting the larval extract.
Double Antlion Attack (outside)
I set the gnome on top of the antlion repelling machine while I killed the two large antlions. Anywhere is fine, as long as you don't lose him.
Getting the Car
This is the section where Alyx mans the sniper rifle, and you go through all the sludge up to the bridge where the car is waiting. As I read on the aforementioned blog, you have to be really quick with the gravity gun if you leave the gnome with Alyx here (and you definitely don't want to take the gnome with you, ugh). Since I knew what was involved, I thought of a little trick to take care of this problem. I stacked a crate on top of a small health pack, against the door, with the gnome on top:
After I went all the way around and got the car, I was able to hit the switch to open the door, and have him fall through (with a little push from the Vortigaunt). You can see me do this trick in this video (sorry for the quality, I was being lazy and just filmed the tv screen):
Even easier:
Roger: Here's a shortcut when you have to get the car. You can blast the gnome onto bridge (the part where you will land the car) if you lean out the opening that's close to the sniper rifle Alyx uses. Be sure to save as it took me a couple tries.
My way was more fun though, I like making things overly complicated. ;) I guess it's the Rube Goldberg part of me.
Now you're going to have to drive the gnome around with you, which isn't much fun. Other people have been able to wedge the gnome in the car by placing him on the back window, driving forward and slamming on the brakes, causing him to get stuck. If you can do that, great, otherwise I'd put him right here, behind the steering wheel:
That keeps him from moving forward or back, though if you turn sharply he'll still slide out. If you're wondering why my health is so low in that shot, it's because I had just jumped off a cliff to save Mr. Gnome who fell out of the car.
The Hunter Attack
Alyx will contact White Forest, and you'll have to fight a bunch of Hunters. I think I left the gnome by the car, and no one messed with him.
The Advisor
Not much to say here, but note that after the "cutscene" your car will be teleported to the front, but the gnome will not, if you left him in the car. So you'll have to go find him, or just don't leave him in the car.
The Hunter-Chopper Attack
This is the hardest part of the achievement, normally, but I did it the easy way. It's hard because you need to drive fast enough so the helicopter doesn't shoot you, but slow enough so the gnome doesn't fall out. Well instead of that, I first shot the gnome as far as I could with the gravity gun, towards the train yard. Quickly jumping into the car, I sped down to where the gnome landed, jumped out, shot him farther, kept driving. When I got to the train yard (after breaking through the fence), I grabbed the gnome and left him underneath the very first train car.
I completed this section like normal, and drove through the train yard to the tunnel where it loads the next section. After it loaded, I hit reverse to make it reload the previous section, but now the helicopter was gone, so I drove back, got Mr. Gnome, and continued on. Maybe I could have left the gnome all the way back at the house, but I wasn't sure if this would work, and it was pretty easy to get him that far.
It's also possible to destroy the chopper, though you'll have to do it again here:
Destroying the Hunter-Chopper
Just leave him under one of the train cars for protection. One of the mines knocked him away, but he didn't go far.
Disabling the Autogun
After you destroy the helicopter and go inside, you can leave the gnome in the garage. You will come back to this room to get the car. You need to go around, ducking through the yard of dead cars to destroy the autogun. After you do that and come back, the car will be fixed, inside, and the door will be open; no tricks needed, anywhere is fine.
Ambush at White Forest Inn
Your car gets trapped between two forcefields here. I ran inside with the gnome, and put him safely in the fireplace:
No one bothered him here, and I wanted to make sure I'd be able to find him again.
You can leave him here as you run back up the road to knock out the energy ball, and you're just about done. You will continue driving, meet DOG, and get to White Forest…
Bye Mr. Gnome
The rocket is right inside, so don't pass it up and keep fighting! You basically have the whole last chapter left, without the gnome, thankfully.
Toss him in, shut the door, and you're done. On the 360, it will pop up the achievement icon right away. What do you get? Thirty lousy points. That's the downside of having so many freakin' games on one disc.
If you have any more tips, post them in the comments.
No related posts.
i named my gnome the travinlg pain i love the guide but it hard then heck sometimes i left it next to alex one time got it it went flyng in the car killed me O_O the guide reminded me to close it YAYA your get 30 points for lugging a stupid gnome areound 3 efffin chapters then supring you forgot the door good job you lugged the traving gnome evrywere like a securaty blakent for meney epic and less pice time ( note thios is waht i think about lugging him allso im trying to be funny) eather way the gnome is a good compain sometimes his pointy tip can kill anlionsn sometimes then he cued kill you sometimes
holy crap. thats a lot of work just to destroy the damn gnome and the beloved lamarr!!! :'( but im an achievement whore so ill do it anyway
I'm about 1/2 way or so done with the achievement, a couple notes to update the blog:
The Advisor) Did this bit before I found this post. I left the gnome in the car. The APC crashed in to where I left the car and dislodged the gnome, he just moved about 5 feet, no big deal. I left him there and drove the car through the tunnel and came right back like you suggested. The gnome was right where I left him, so you don't have to worry about bringing him to the train cars.
The Hunter-Chopper Attack) I spent nearly all my ammo before I realized I could throw mines at the helo. I missed an achievement here, so I'll catch it the next time I come around. Right next to where Alyx gives you med packs, there's a little machine or something in a corner and I put the gnome under it and it stayed put. I'll load an old save and take a couple screens of the hiding spot and email them to you.
Disabling the Autogun) I put the gnome in front of the table by the back door on the floor, apparently right where you find the car once you disable the autogun… this removes the gnome alltogether. I'd suggest putting it by the tires.
You seem rather protective of the gnome, making sure he's safe all the time and whatnot. Are you afraid he's going to get shot and die or something? :P
thanks for all the tips on this achievement, the chopper part was where I got stuck on figuring out how to make it further with it, going back after the level change at the tunnel made it alot easier.
Gonzobot wrote:
Nah, but if an explosion hits him, he'll go FLYING!
I did the achievement without that guide, and ended up bring the gnome with me when I was getting the car.
I put him down on an island while crossing the polluted river, and he got hit by a grenade from a zombine, and went 30 feet into the muck. Despite knowing the general area where he flew, I spent a half hour trying to pull him back with the gravity gun from the island. Not fun.
But there are plenty of times where he could fall where you can't get him, and then you either need to load a save or immediately die.
Hey, there is a little box that can be opened at the back of the car. Maybe if you cast a spell over the Gnome you can put him over there. Or if you reduced his size magically!
One question, if you saved the game and shut down the xbox. The Gnome will be where you left it before saving the game? Thanks!
[...] helt nye spilleregler, er å finne i Half-Life: Episode 2. Der kan du få 30 poeng for oppgaven «Little Gnome Man» ved å bære med deg en liten hagegnom gjennom hele spillet. Det er neppe noe du hadde gjort om du [...]
Don't leave him on the wooden table in the garage during "Under The Radar" or else he'll disappear once the car re-spawns inside. With no back-up saves, I wanted to throw my controller at my tv.
I took him with me to the Antlion tunnels, and he was a pain in the ass. I'm serious. You can't sprint while holding something, so I shot him down the hole when the guard is throwing rocks at you.
hey i have a question,
when gordon( I ) arrive with the voortigans that are healing Alyx, The gnome can stay with them or must be taken everywhere?
aaaaaaaaaaahhhhh
All this for a measly 30 points :P
If you want to find the best name for your gnome go to: http://nine.frenchboys.net/gnome.php
While disabling the auto gun, I left my gnome on a table in the workshop. When I was finished the table was gone, and so was my gnome. I would advise leaving him on the ground in a corner somewhere.
[...] was während einer Zombie-Apokalypse gut passt. Zudem hat Valve bereits in Half Life 2: Episode 2 eine Zwergenrettung [...]
Just wondering if anyone knows if gnome chompski can be purchased anywhere? my boyfriend loves the little guy and i thought it would be a cute christmas gift. please let me know. Thank you
[...] a look at Tommy Gun's guide at Cracked Rabbit Gaming. It gives more useful info, like where you can safely leave the gnome for certain [...]
Sounds like a good idea Amber! I know I'd appreciate something like that. However, unless you buy an actual garden gnome, I think you're out of luck. There is a chance Valve will do a plush toy as they have done with the Weighted Companion Cube and headcrab (those may do in place of Gnome Chompski!) – keep an eye on http://store.valvesoftware.com or their news page.
Alternatively, if your boyfriend likes Zero Punctuation (and who doesn't?), the Escapist store has an imp plushie for a more reasonable price (although I'm not sure about shipping). (http://www.splitreason.com/productdetail.php?id=789)
NB I am not affiliated with either Valve or The Escapist and I don't stand to gain financially from anyone who buys from there. Shame really, I could use the money!
CLOSE THE DOOR!!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CLOSE THE DOOR!!!!
I got the little &*#@er into the nosecone… and I didn't close the door… I figured once I got the rocket launched, I'd get the achievement…. so I go throw the entire Strider sequence, push the button, the rocket launches, and…. nothing…. NOTHING!! That's when I came to this site and read that you had to close the dang door…
Fortunately for me, I'd had a fairly convenient savepoint set and I only had to wade through some cutscene conversation and a group hug on an elevator to get back to where I needed to get to to finish up..
that was an adventure..
now..
to find a job..
pt…
i put the gnome in the thing left came back to my computer and saw that i had to close the door! WHAT THE EFFF I GOT OWNED
I got the achievement finally after forgetting to close the door and having to reload a save a little bit back. Did anyone else notice when Kleiner says something like \Payload variance of 8 and a half pounds\ and magnusson says \That's well within limits, nothing to worry about.\ I think that's the gnome! and maybe lamarr….anyways, it's a pretty cool achievment, tho I wonder what the secret achiement is….
OMG! i just finnished it! it was my 5000 gamerscore milestone :D awesome..
*** Important ***
DO NOT put the gnome on the table in the garage, this is where the car spawns, and the little guy goes MIA… had to do the whole helicopter sequence again :(
I despise this gnome. I wrote about it here if anyone wants to read. He is the devil!
The Lawn Statue of Frustration
lol that was funny u had to save mr gnome anyways i named mine hamburger cuz hes so fat!And one time the frickin gnome flew out of the back and i had to spend 2 hours looking for it!!!
and then i finally found it @ the white forest inn!
When I was getting the car I just the gnome to the bridge you have to jump across when you get the car and the bridge breaks. Your method is very clever though. XD
So the scientists would launch a rocket with the payload door open? Clearly those expensive educations pay for themselves. I guess we can console ourselves with the notion that they noticed the door was open later and went to close it. Finding the gnome, Magnussen probably launched into another tirade. Unfortunately we never get to hear it. :(
Thanks for the tips anyway. :)