Rodriguez Route

The Rodriguez Route is an alternative route in LISA: the Hopeful, exclusive to Pain Mode. In this route, Rodriguez is spared his fate of decapitation at the hands of The Lovelies and instead becomes a party member, tagging along with Beltboy and co. on their journey.

## Accessing the Rodriguez Route

As established earlier, the player must have Pain Mode active to access this route. Additionally, the player has to have beaten the game first on one of the normal routes, as this turns on a switch that prevents the player from breaking the Boomerang.

Once the player has met both of these requirements, they must do the following steps:

1. Run away from Yogurt Masters. He will drop the aforementioned Boomerang on the floor.
2. Fight Yogurt Masters for real and retrieve the Boomerang after the battle.
3. Climb down a rope below the exit of the second section of Area 1. You will see a small crack in the wall, where you will meet Artie Choke.
4. Pay the 30 mags to Artie Choke and tell him it was a good jape. He will take notice of your boomerang, which he will ask for you to return. If you return the boomerang, he will give you the Toolbox.
5. Run back to Rodriguez and talk to him 4 times. The 5th time you talk to him, Beltboy will give him the Toolbox. He will at first be happy, but soon becomes angry as the toolbox contains nothing besides car decal stickers inside of it. He will give you the toolbox back and will join your party.

Congratulations! You now have Rodriguez in your party. You can proceed to "recruit" Reginald, if you so desire, but he will not be able to join your party until Area 4.

## Major Changes

The Rodriguez Route changes the course of the game quite significantly. The first and most notable change is that the Engine Enthusiasts do not kidnap Beltboy and co., as Dixon Bismuth gets his Dumbass Smasher blocked by Rodriguez, who will enter the following battle K.O'd. This allows the player to avoid the Engine Enthusiast's Base entirely, giving free access to the Jerrycan and allowing the gang to hightail out of Area 1 before the Lovelies can arrive. However, they will be chased by Gordy Golden, who will try to stop the gang from getting away with their precious gasoline.

Area 2 remains largely the same, but things start to change once more in Area 3; Master Masters will give Rodriguez the Art Style Scroll free of charge, as well as the True Art Style Scroll, which is used to recruit Yogurt Masters later on. The Sportsdome section is also skipped over, as the gang will fight the Sportsters (Hussein Volt, Francois Gaul, Ashley Hike, Terry Tackles, and Larry Balls) and escape before the tournament begins.

This gives the player further access to Area 3.5, which previously could not be progressed through as the Mining Charges are not present in the normal routes. The player will be able to fight The Deep Ones, otherwise known as the Seamen, a group of fish-like people who commit ritual sacrifice. The player is required to defeat Gar Strings in order to progress.

After defeating Gar Strings, Lanks will be kidnapped, the Lovelies will be met for the first time, and the player will be required to go through the first section of Area 4. However, instead of going over the mountain, the player will go *through* the mountain, fighting the Connect 4 Hearts in the process. This is the point in where Reginald will join the player in order to assist them, if one gave him the Pink Candy.

Instead of going through Area 4 as normal, the player will be taken to Area 4 ALT, a winter wonderland that can only be briefly explored in the normal routes. The player will meet Yogurt Masters here, who will move to attack Beltboy and co. per usual. However, Rodriguez will call for a cease fire, offering the vengeful karate man the True Art Style Scroll in exchange for his assistance in finding Lanks. He agrees, and Yogurt will join the party.

The game will eventually lead back to Area 4 once again, during the convoy section. Unlike in the normal routes, Jack Mycroft, Neil Down, Isaac Cox, and Ross Crodam will be fought together, Lanks will not have hung himself because he does not get raped, and the player doesn't get to kill Craig Fuchs (a disappointment to some). The bottle collector will give The Best Gun, the best equipment for Rodriguez, but Awan Afuqya drops the gun upon defeat, making it not worth the 50 bottles if the player fought Awan Afuqya and Lex Ryder back in Area 4 ALT.

Finally, in the final stretch of Area 4, Wang Phatt, Papa Woods, and Sawyer Snatch will be fought together. Both Wang Phatt and Sawyer Snatch will mutate halfway through, per usual.

Hart will also be fought alongside Wayne King, Barry McDikkin, Buster Cherry, and Eaton Beiver. A new phase to the fight is added, where the aforementioned Lovelies will mutate after all 4 have been knocked out. Hart will become vulnerable during this phase, and upon Hart's mutation, the 4 mutated Lovelies will be killed automatically.

## Exclusive Enemies

Due to the nature of the Rodriguez Route, it possesses the enemies that are added by Pain Mode. However, the Rodriguez Route also has enemies that are exclusive to this route. Below is a list of enemies exclusive to the Rodriguez Route, put in order of when they are encountered, including links to their respective pages, should one want more information on them.

## Notes

* While playing through this route, it's good to keep in mind that all the effects of Pain Mode will also be active. This means Pain Mode exclusive enemies, such as Iggy Eggson and Hans, will be present.
	+ This also means that stashes that are affected by Pain Mode will also give their Pain Mode payouts.

## Trivia

* The Rodriguez Route used to be accessible without having to beat the game on the normal routes first.
* Despite being called the Rodriguez Route, Rodriguez does not take the lead role like with the other normal routes.
	+ According to Taco Salad, this is because Rodriguez is lazy.