The ball

If you have found this walkthrough via google search or via another site then you have probably not visited my site.

The Ball is an Action-Puzzle Game. Originally, The Ball was a Mod for Unreal Tournament. This Mod was such a success that it was further developed into a complete "stand-alone" game and it is now released as a separate game. The game runs on the Unreal engine. The Ball is for sale via STEAM and costs Euro 17.99 when it was first released in 2010 but you can now by it for 8,19 euro. When I did the Dutch walkthrough, back in 2011, I played the Ball on my Windows 7 machine, but on the discussion page of the Ball on Steam you can read that the game is also playable with Windows 10, but I can't confirm this because I do not have this game anymore

The year is 1940 and you are an archaeologist excavating on the slopes of a dormant volcano in Mexico. Suddenly the ground collapses under your feet and you crash down and end up in a cave. Your partners tell you that it will take some time before they can lift you out of the cave. Fortunately, you notice that there is a tunnel through which you can leave the cave, so you decide to look for a way out yourself. However, it does not take long before you realize that you did not end up in just any cave. No... you have ended up in a huge underground world. An underground world full of ancient ruins and a world that has been hidden from outsiders for centuries. You soon discover a mysterious artifact, a Golden Metal Ball. And as you go deeper and deeper into the depths of the volcano, you'll discover some of Humanity's greatest hidden secrets.

You start the game on the Start screen. In the game, you can reach this start screen by pressing your ESCAPE Key and then clicking "Menu".

In the "Settings" section you can adjust all kinds of settings for the game to your own preference. These are the graphical settings, but you can also determine with which keys on your keyboard you want to control the game. I just used the default keyboard settings. The Hammer, with which you control the Ball, is best operated with your Mouse, because that really works best. For more details about the Settings, please refer to the Manual, which is supplied as a PDF document with the game and which you will find in the "Manuels" folder after installation of the game.

You CANNOT SAVE YOURSELF in the game. The Game works with Checkpoint and the game is automatically saved when you reach a Checkpoint. But not all Checkpoints makes a saved game point. The game is only saved at the Checkpoints that are at the end of an Area. You can reload the Checkpoints via the "LOAD SCREEN".

When you die in the game, you can choose "Resume" or "Load" to resume the game from the last Checkpoint reached. Everything you've already done in the level remains resolved when you die, so it's just a matter of following the level again to the point where you died and then resume the game from there.

The Ball has 2 Game Modes which are "Campaign" and "Survival". The Ball does not have a "Multi-player" option, so you play the game all alone. Also, The Ball does not have the option to play the game over the Internet against other gamers. "Campaign" is the mode where you play the whole story. "Survial" is the "Death or the Glory" mode. So the walkthrough will try to guide you through the "Campaign". If you want to play "Survival" then my walkthrough is of no use at all.

Survival has several levels and in each Survival level there are 6 game rounds. The goal is simple.....SURVIVE and make it to the end of each level in one piece. Only at a Checkpoint can you exit the game in "Survival" without losing your progress. Checkpoints are saved but are always overwritten by the next checkpoint. This means that you continue to play from the last checkpoint reached. However, if you die in a Survival Level, the penalty is harsh, because then it's Game Over and you have to start all over from the 1st level. So dying means losing the last checkpoint reached, so nothing is saved and you have to start over from scratch.

in Campaign you play the actual story of The Ball. So this is the so-called "Singleplayer" game. In Campaign there are 9 gigantic levels that you have to go through. Each level is further subdivided into several Areas. Also in "Campaign" The Ball works with "Checkpoints". So you make your way through the game from Checkpoint to Checkpoint and the last checkpoint reached will overwrite the previously reached checkpoint. Once you reach a Checkpoint, the game will be saved automatically. You CANNOT SAVE YOURSELF in the game. If you die in the game, you will automatically start again from the last Checkpoint reached. This is called "Respawning".

But.....if you've died and are "Respawned" it means that you don't have to do everything you had done in the level up to that point. You won't have to redo the puzzles you've already solved and the enemies you've already defeated won't be encountered again. This then applies until you have reached the point in the level where you died again. However, this does not apply if you voluntarily leave the game, between 2 Checkpoints, because then you have to do everything again from the last reached checkpoint. Unfortunately, the Checkpoints are far from each other, so you'll have to traverse quite a bit to reach the next Checkpoint.

The Ball is an Action-puzzle game. This means that you will encounter monsters in the game.....LOTS OF MONSTERS. You have to think of Mummies, large Insects and very large Monkeys. All those monsters only want one thing...TO KILL YOU. To prevent you from dying you have to kill those monsters and you only have 1 weapon for that and that is the HAMMER / BALL combination. Fighting the monsters will cost you Health. Your health meter always starts at 100 and goes back to 0 if you are touched, bitten by the monsters, who also have other weapons at their disposal.

Unlike in "normal" action games, such like Half Life, Fear and I don't know what else they might be called, in The Ball you don't have to look for Upgrades for your health or for your weapons (Drinks, Medkits, ammunitions). There are no such upgrades. You only have 1 weapon and that is the HAMMER/BALL combo and you do not need ammunition for that. If your health drops in a level, it will be restored to 100% when you reach the next Checkpoint.

The Hammer does require energy, so the Hammer will go "empty" with frequent use and then can't shoot the Ball because the Hammer has no more energy. You then have to recharge the Hammer, but it's very simple... Just press your left mouse button and hold it down until the Hammer is fully charged again.

So the figurines are hidden in secret hiding places, so you won't see them unless you manage to find such a secret hiding place. By finding these 38 Secrets you will eventually "Unlock" 1 secret code. You can read this in the Achiefments screen. I'm not going to try at all costs to find all those 38 hidden figurines. The walkthrough will therefore only report the locations of the figurines that I have been able to find. I can't promise that they will be all 38.

If you click on "Achievements" on the start screen, you'll see a list of what you need to do to get certain "rewards" in the game. Furthermore, there are "unlock codes" to be earned by doing certain things in the game. However, this is not cheating. But you can cheat in the game. The Game runs on the Unreal Engine and that means there is a Console. In the Console, you can type in Cheats that will cause you to cheat.

To open the Console In-game, press your TILDE ~ key. This TILDE key is located at the top left of your keyboard, below the ESC-key. To use the TILDE, simultaneously press your SHIFT + TILDE keys. The Console screen will then open. You can then enter the cheat commands between the green lines. Cheats you type are case sensitive, so the first letter of the Cheat must always be capitalized. After typing in a Cheat command, confirm the Cheat by pressing your Enter key. You then close the Console again via your TILDE key

I only know of 3 Cheats that actually work in The Ball and they are "God", "Ghost" and "Walk"

God = You will not die anymore
Ghost = You can fly through walls and doors etc (Ghost is the NoClip cheat
Walk = This will disable the Ghost Cheat again.

To use the God Cheat you have to type God 2 times between the green lines. The first time the game asks you to type the cheat again. So you should do that and you will read "God mode on" to indicate that this cheat now works.

After every LOADING in the game the Cheats expire, so after a Loading you have to enter the Cheat again in the console. This also applies if you exit the game and restart it to continue playing from where you left off.

I don't know if the Cheats also work in "Survival" and I also don't know if they work with Windows 10. I'd love to hear this from you and if you find any more Cheats that can be activated in the Console, I'd love to hear from you. Then I will mention them in the walkthrough

There is however a Penalty associated with Cheating. Because if you Cheat, no statistics are kept in the game. You will then no longer see how many enemies you have killed or how many points you have scored for all Achievements, but who cares about that. It's your choice whether or not to cheat

The HAMMER has 2 functions: Primary Fire and Secondary Fire. Primary Fire is done with your left mouse button. You then shoot the BALL with the HAMMER to kill enemies or the destroy boxes for push buttons. If you hold down the left mouse button, you will recharge the Hammer again. Secondary Fire is done with your right mouse button and this activates the Magnet of the HAMMER, pulling the BALL towards you. Then you can shoot the BALL with your left mouse button.

If you have pulled the Ball towards you and then hold down your right mouse button, the Ball will remain attached to the Hammer. The Ball is therefore transparent so you can see through the Ball to see where you are. You can also choose to have the Ball permanently transparent. You can do this with a key on your keyboard, or you can check this function in the Settings menu of the game. I personally don't like a permanently transparent Ball because then you can't see that damn thing properly and often you can't see where your fucking Ball has gone. So.....With the HAMMER you control THE BALL

The Ball needs no Health and will NEVER BE BROKEN. You should take The Ball with you at all times, unless you end up in hallways and rooms that the Ball cannot enter. The BALL, combined with the HAMMER, is your only weapon against all the terrible monsters that you encounter in the game and who only want 1 thing...TO KILL YOU.The BALL can do special things in some levels. You can read more about these special things in the Gamemanuel. But in my walkthrough I will also explain this when it is required to do something special with the Ball.......The game starts with: Level 1 Pehua