Oltanis is a planet in the Solana Galaxy featured in Ratchet & Clank. It is home to the once-vibrant and highly developed Gorda City, a large urban environment filled with skyscrapers. The planet is plagued by deadly lightning storms, with the citizens using lightning attractors to harness the energy. The planet was then ravaged by Chairman Drek and the blarg, who launched an attack from the Gemlik Base in the planet's orbit in order to steal the city's generators,[1] leaving much of Gorda City in ruins. Due to the continuous lightning storms and the lightning attractors being destroyed upon arrival, Ratchet had to explore the planet alone, as it was unsafe for Clank.
History[]
Prior to Drek's attack, Oltanis was a completely unarmed planet,[2] which used lightning attractors to generate power through continuous lightning storms. After Drek attacked from the Gemlik Base to steal the generators for his new planet,[1] the city's lightning attractors were stolen, and Gorda City was left mostly in ruins.
Ratchet and Clank arrived after viewing a news broadcast on an infobot in Gemlik Base, to try and assist the planet's survivors. When they landed, Clank was immediately struck by lightning and had to stay behind in the ship, as it was unsafe for him. Ratchet then scouted the planet to search for survivors.
At first, after a long search, Ratchet found Sam, the scrap merchant and owner of a store, who had been left half-deaf after the bombing strikes on the planet. Sam sold Ratchet an infobot containing coordinates for Quartu. Ratchet also traversed several ramps with Magneboots and found "Steve McQwark", who sold the PDA for 1,000 bolts, a device he claimed was a legitimate Gadgetron product. Ratchet could also explore the city further, passing through several security systems, to find the Morph-o-Ray.
Once Ratchet had completed all of these tasks, a blarg bomber fired a missile at the statue in the center of the city, revealing a button that created a chain of versa-targets for his Swingshot, which lead to a gold bolt.
Geography[]
Overview[]
Constantly plagued by lightning storms, Gorda City features several, tall adjacent buildings, lots of which have fallen into disrepair as a result of the blarg attack, with several of them in flames. Piles of rubble are seen throughout the town. Several taxi cabs are found around the city, serving as transportation from one place to another, plus there are several Swingshot versa-targets scattered about as well. Many lit-up blue streetlights line several pathways. Constant lightning and thunder are heard as the player explores the planet. Some areas feature large platforms of ice and very strong winds blowing in one direction, making venturing through the city a bit dangerous.
Located slightly northwest of the landing pad is a lower elevated piece of land, which is accessed by a hover pad placed near the landing site. On this lower piece of land is a gold metal statue of the Gadgetron logo, which eventually got destroyed by a blarg bomber. All three mission paths converge at this area.
Route to Sam's shop[]
The first route is what leads to Sam's shop. It begins along a descending path leading through some tall wrecked buildings, leading towards a couple of high ledges. By turning left, one will find another higher piece of land, filled with debris. To the right is a smaller but higher platform that has a small series of grind rails attached to it. These rails lead down to a lower-elevated platform, with a versa-target above that can be used to reach a small alcove-like area containing crates and a sand mouse house.
Back on the path, following the aforementioned platform is a higher but rather narrow path that connects to a small section attached to a much longer series of grind rails that lead to Sam's shop. These rails feature a series of electrical barriers. The last bit of the rails end in an ascending fashion, allowing the player to leap off at a great height and land straight into Sam's shop. Sam's shop is quite small but contains a bunch of robotic items, some of which are just scattered on the ground due to the destruction of the city.
PDA path[]
This path is located in the southwest portion of the city. It is accessed by walking along a magnestrip attached to the central section. The magnestrip curves upward and leads to an upside-down, magnetic elevator, which leads southbound to an area containing slippery ice and an electric fence, with a small break in the center and a larger on the left side. The wind here blows heavily from the left side, making traversing this sheet of ice very dangerous. Stemming from this icy land is a long, curvy magnestrip that has several mines rotating around sections of it.
The strip ends at a platform, followed by three icy platforms, the second of which has three small electric fences. Attached to the third icy platform is a short, straight magnestrip leading to another platform connected to a longer and curvy sheet of ice, with more electric barriers and a couple of breaks near the end. A ledge awaits here and once on top, one will be lead north-east towards another long and curvy magnestrip, which starts off penetrated through a sheet of ice and features more rotating mines. This strip leads to another icy area, which is more expansive than the rest and features scorch marks. On the far left side is a short, narrow, dry platform sitting right below a long platform of ice featuring several electric barriers. It leads directly north to the final section where Qwark's PDA stand is, and the wind blows heavily in the same direction. A curvy magnestrip is attached to this section, leading to another magnetic elevator that returns to the central section of town.
Upper city[]
The path through the upper city begins north of the central plaza and mostly passes through high levels of terrain. The dilapidated path begins at two streetlights and passes through a wrecked arch. What follows is a more narrow path that leads to a wide-open section, featuring different levels of terrain. Hovering above the highest platform is a versa-target, followed by a much higher level of terrain. To the right is a wall featuring a series of handholds that would allow access to an even higher pathway leading east towards a building with a platform hovering continuously around it. To the right is a building that features a passage within that passes through to the other side.
What follows is a series of tall, cylinder platforms, followed by a short platform. The remainder of the upper city path leads southbound, featuring a series of hovering platforms and versa targets situated among many tall, dilapidated buildings. Near the end is a circular structure with a short grind rail connecting to its top, which winds back to the landing pad.