Darth Vader

**Darth Vader**, often referred to as "Lord Vader" by his subordinates, is the Emperor's right-hand man and a powerful user of the Dark Side of The Force. He is  Luke Skywalker's arch-nemesis, and also (as Luke learned not long before the events of *YODA STORIES*), his father.

Darth Vader appears at the very end of three different Missions, serving a different purpose each time:

* On Bakkah, Vader arrives personally to collect the  Sith Amulet from the Sand People's temple. He turns into a very tough Enemy that Luke must defeat to regain the Amulet.
* On Etorasp, Vader kidnaps Rebel general  General Marutz to his personal Star Destroyer. He prepares to interrogate the general, and must be distracted by Luke in order to complete the rescue.
* On Lokondo, Vader receives  Yoda himself from the hands of bounty hunter  Boba Fett. He throws Yoda into a force-field jail cell and gloats over him, but retreats before Luke can engage him in battle.

Vader has two more minor appearances in the game: An illusion of Vader appears during an early Dagobah Mission, and his voice appears in Snow Puzzle Cell 45 when a Force whirlpool attempts to confuse Luke.

## Description and Lore

**Darth Vader** is a tall man, ever clad in a shiny but intimidating black armored suit with a skull-shaped mask. The suit is not just for show or protection; He is horribly disfigured, and the suit helps keep him alive. Nevertheless, there is no question that Vader is a powerful man, both physically and politically.

Vader was one of the first main characters to appear in the *Star Wars* saga, as his Star Destroyer apprehended a Rebel corvette, assaulted it with dozens of Stormtroopers, and captured  Princess Leia. He later flew an advanced TIE Fighter in a failed attempt to stop the Rebels from destroying the first Death Star.

In *The Empire Strikes Back*, shortly before the events of *YODA STORIES*, it was revealed that Vader is the right-hand man of the Emperor himself. Vader commanded the attack on the Rebel base on Hoth, and then pursued the fleeing Millenium Falcon all the way to the planet Bespin where he captured  Han Solo and was about to capture  Luke Skywalker. Instead, during a Lightsaber duel with Luke, he revealed that he was Luke's father, presumed dead, but in fact turned to the Dark Side of The Force. When Luke refused to switch sides and work with his father to take over the Empire, Vader cut Luke's right hand off. Luke barely escaped the fight alive.

Darth Vader is a very powerful Force user, but not quite as powerful as The Emperor or Yoda. He has the power to sense and identify other Force users in his vicinity, and can strangle people from a distance. His skill with the lightsaber was at least enough to defeat and kill his old master,  Obi-Wan Kenobi, though the latter also had reasons to lose the fight. Vader's primary skill, however, is in his ability to command and intimidate, which he does impressively throughout the saga.

## Vader as an Enemy

Darth Vader appears as an Enemy in two difference scenarios in the game. One scenario is at the end of the mission on Bakkah, in which Vader himself is present. In the other scenario, the first Dagobah Mission, an apparition of Vader is conjured by Luke's mind under the influence of The Force.

In both cases, Vader's behavior as an enemy is very similar. He is completely stationary, and as such does not strike at Luke normally. Instead, he can fire a wave of Dark Side energy in any of the four cardinal directions (north, east, south and west), which travels in a straight line for a maximum of 3 tiles. If it strikes Luke, it causes 8 points of damage on the hardest Combat Difficulty setting, down to only 1 point per hit on the easiest setting. The same amount of damage is caused if Luke collides with Vader, but since Vader himself cannot move, this will only occur if the player causes it to occur, intentionally or otherwise.

Vader's inability to move - nor to actively attack Luke other than firing his Dark Side projectiles, actually makes him incredibly vulnerable: If Luke stands diagonally to Vader, Vader cannot strike him at all, allowing Luke to use his  Lightsaber repeatedly to defeat the Dark Lord without taking any damage. However, care must be taken when maneuvering into that position to avoid standing directly orthogonally to Vader, otherwise Luke might suffer severe damage from Vader's attacks.

### Bakkah

During the Mission to Bakkah,  Luke Skywalker is tasked with retrieving an ancient  Sith Amulet from the hands of Imperial troops. Luke locates the convoy, only to discover that it has been ambushed by  Tusken Raiders. He finds his way into the Sand People's lair, and manages to reach their sacred temple, but is denied entry. Just then, the temple is assaulted by Imperial troops hoping to recover the Amulet.

After defeating the Stormtroopers, Luke is finally admitted into the temple. Just before he can recover the Amulet, **Darth Vader** suddenly appears and snatches it. As soon as he does, he turns into an Enemy, and a fight breaks out between him and Luke.

As soon as he turns into an Enemy, Darth Vader instantly teleports to one of eight possible combat positions around the pedestal at the center of the shrine - as shown in the image on the right. As explained above, he is a stationary enemy, and does not move from the selected position.

Vader can withstand several strikes from a  Lightsaber or shots from a  Blaster. Once defeated, Vader will simply commend Luke's fighting skills and relocate to a different position in the room - again one of the eight possible positions as shown in the image to the right. He can only choose a position *he has not selected previously.*

This process repeats exactly 8 times, with Vader ending up having selected each of the eight positions exactly once. When defeated for the eightth time, Vader once again commends Luke before retreating altogether, dropping the Sith Amulet on the ground.

### Dagobah Mission: Dark Side Forest

*Main article: Dark Side Forest*

After completing a total of 5 Missions successfully, the next World begins with  Yoda standing in an unusual place in Dagobah NW, telling  Luke to go into the trees and meet someone "he should know better".

Luke enters the gap in the trees, and arrives at a small clearing. When he steps into the clearing, an apparition of **Darth Vader** suddenly appears, and a fight ensues.

In this fight, Vader's apparition first appears at the north end of the clearing until he is defeated (position 1 in the image to the right). He then teleports to the south-east corner (pos. 2) and continues fighting. When defeated again, he teleports to the south-west corner (pos. 3), and finally back to his original position (pos. 4).

After being defeated four times, Vader suddenly disappears, and is replaced by an apparition of Luke himself. The apparition warns Luke not to fall to the Dark Side of the Force, and then hands him the  Green Lightsaber, a weapon to "match his growing skills".

## Vader as an NPC

Vader has two appearances where he behaves more like a regular NPC - an interactive character with dialog. This happens at the very end of the Etorasp and Lokondo Missions.

### Etorasp

*Main article: Etorasp*

The Mission to planet Etorasp has  Luke Skywalker attempting the rescue of a Rebel general named  Marutz. Marutz was kidnapped by Imperial forces, and will soon be taken to Darth Vader's personal Star Destroyer for interrogation.

Luke breaks into an Imperial base on the planet's surface where he believes Marutz to be imprisoned, but he is too late: the General has already been taken by Darth Vader up to his ship. Luke scours the base and finds a  Nav Card, which he installs into his own X-Wing. The data on the Nav Card takes him to Vader's ship.

Luke infiltrates the ship and discovers Vader already interrogating the general.

From this point, there are two variants that change Luke's interaction with Vader.

Luke searches the ship and finds a way onto the bridge, where he destroys the ship's shield generator. As alarms go off, Vader rushes to investigate.

 B

Vader leaves the interrogation chamber, allowing Luke to slip in and save Marutz. On their way off the ship, they run into Vader once again.

Nevertheless, Luke evades Vader and takes Marutz home.

### Lokondo

In the Mission to planet Lokondo,  Yoda is kidnapped by  Boba Fett and handed off to the Empire.  Luke finds a note from Yoda, written at the last minute, instructing him to go to planet Lokondo and affect a rescue.

On Lokondo, Luke discovers a small Imperial base, with Boba Fett's ship - Slave-1 - landed outside. He breaks into the ship and finds a key that lets him into the facility, discovering a much larger underground base underneath. Scouring the base, Luke finds Boba Fett and -- for a price -- learns from him that the facility is actually a research base for developing the Empire's new experimental  Cloaking Device.

Luke steals the Cloaking Device prototype and uses it to get past two  Royal Guards into the chamber where Yoda is held. He finds Yoda behind a powerful forcefield, with none other than **Darth Vader** gloating over him. However Yoda seems confident and unwavering, despite the presence of the Dark Lord.

Luke turns off his Cloaking Device and steps into the room. Seeing him, Vader seems to realize that things haven't gone exactly to plan, and decides to retreat.

With Vader gone, Luke shuts off the forcefield and frees Yoda. Yoda reveals that he had allowed himself to get captured, as a way to test Luke's cunning and resolve.