Area 51 Weapons and Enemies Guide: Last Updated: December 16, 2006 by Alan Chan (joylock @ hotmail.com) The Usual: This document is mine. Please don't rip it off or take credit for it. That being said, feel free to post it on any site you want, provided you a) don't make any changes to it, and b) don't charge money for it. You don't even have to get my permission to post it (as long as it remains unaltered), but it would be nice if you emailed me and let me know (joylock @ hotmail.com). The information and statistics in this guide were arrived at through my own original observation and research, so you must credit me if you use my information or stats for your own guide or other publication. Version History: ******************************************************************************* * * *1.0: Initial Release * * * *1.1: General Updates and Corrections * * * *1.2: General Updates, more info on weapon rate of fire and enemy A.I. * * * *1.3: Moderate reformat for easier reading. * * * ******************************************************************************* The latest version of this FAQ can be found at www.gamefaqs.com. NOTE: Obviously, this guide contains ***SPOILERS***. Be aware. TABLE OF CONTENTS: - Game Mechanics - Weapons - Mutation - Enemies ***************** *Game Mechanics:* ******************************************************************************* - Difficulty Settings: - On Normal difficulty, your character can survive about 19 to 20 bullet hits or 4 to 5 melee hits. - On Hard difficulty, enemies do between 20% to 33% more damage than normal (20% more for most attacks, 33% more for assault rifle and BBG attacks). - On Easy difficulty, enemies do between 20% to 33% less damage than normal. - Difficulty setting does not appear to affect the amount of health enemies have. Enemies on Hard difficulty seem to drop ammo clips less often. - There are 2 types of health items in the game: small health syringes and large health syringes. Small syringes restore 50% of your health, while large syringes restore 100% of your health. The same holds true for the mutagen syringes which restore your mutagen, the difference being that mutagen syringes are orange instead of green. - Headshots do 1.5 times more damage than a shot to the chest, while a shot to the legs does 1.5 times less damage than a shot to the chest. - Weapon damage values and enemy health are educated guesses I made, because Area 51 has no SDK for me to browse the character files, and the damage system in the game is somewhat tough to figure out. - Your character can survive 4 times as much damage as the average enemy in the game. I.E. a BlackOps soldier dies after 5 assault rifle bullets, while it takes 19 to 20 assault rifle bullets to kill you. ********** *Weapons:* ******************************************************************************* Melee Attack: Damage: Above Average Base Damage: 10 Damage vs Flesh: 20 to 25 BRIEF BLURB: Press the melee button to perform a melee attack with your firearm. Press it 3 times in a row to perform a 3-hit combo on an attacking enemy. Use the 3-hit combo to kill enemy mutants that get too close to you, before they can hit you with their own attack. DETAILED DESCRIPTION: Another game that has jumped on the Halo bandwagon, Area 51 lets you perform a close-range melee attack with any weapon you're carrying by letting you hit an enemy with the butt of your gun if they get too close to you. If you miss your swing, you'll be off-balance and have to wait a second before you can swing again (giving your enemy a chance to whack you upside the head with their own melee attack). However, if you manage to hit the enemy with your swing, pressing the melee button again twice will allow you to perform a quick 3-hit combo that will kill most enemies in the game instantly. The 3-hit combo attack also stuns your enemy and prevents them from counter-attacking. The melee attack works great against the many swarming alien mutants you'll be facing. If an enemy manages to get too close to you or if you're caught reloading, bash them with a 3-hit combo to kill them before they can hit you. M11 "Scorpion" Pistol: Damage: Above Average Base Damage: 20 Damage vs Flesh: 24 Accuracy: Very High Rate of Fire: 150 rpm to 420 rpm Clip Size: 8 Max Ammo: 8 + 120 Ammo type: 10mm JHP Secondary Fire: Laser dot reflex scope Secondary Ability: Combat flashlight BRIEF BLURB: A high-caliber pistol. Has good stopping power, and is extremely accurate, but its limited clip size and somewhat uncommon ammo means you'll probably only be using it as a backup weapon. DETAILED DESCRIPTION: This high-caliber pistol is the first weapon you acquire in the game. It has surprisingly high stopping power; the bullets are almost as powerful as a sniper rifle round, and can kill most enemies with just a few shots. The pistol is also highly accurate, even during rapid-fire. Almost all bullets will hit dead-center on the crosshair if you aim using the laser sight. The pistol only becomes inaccurate at its very highest rate of fire, when you press the fire button extremely rapidly. The pistol is a semi-automatic weapon, and thus you need to press the fire button each time to fire every individual shot. The pistol nonetheless has a very high rate of fire if you press the fire button quickly enough. It is also equipped with a holographic laser dot sight you can use by pressing the secondary fire. The sight doesn't have a zoom feature, but it does make targeting somewhat easier. The big drawback to the pistol is its small clip size, which means you'll have to reload frequently in an extended firefight. For this reason, the pistol is more of a secondary weapon, and you'll generally rely more on the assault rifle or BBG to do the majority of your fighting with. Although the pistol does more damage than the assault rifle or BBG, the difference isn't too dramatic, and the low clip size significantly hinders the pistol's effectiveness. Pistol ammo is less common than assault rifle or shotgun ammo, especially in the game's later levels. This creates another reason why you probably won't be using it very much. Still, the pistol is a decent fallback weapon if you start running low on assault rifle or shotgun ammo, and it can also be handy for picking off one or two distant foes at longer range. XM-32 "Viper" Assault Rifle: Damage: Below Average Base Damage: 10 Accuracy: Average Rate of Fire: 500 rpm Clip Size: 30 Max Ammo: 30 + 270 Ammo type: 6.8mm FMJ Secondary Fire: 1.5x zoom Secondary Ability: Combat flashlight BRIEF BLURB: Your primary weapon for most of the game. Fast rate of fire allows you to mow down enemies, and 1.5x scope allows for zooming in on long range foes. However, accuracy decreases dramatically with prolonged fire, so fire in short bursts. DETAILED DESCRIPTION: The assault rifle will be your standard weapon throughout much of the game. It's a decent and reliable weapon, and its ammo type is the most common, so you'll be using it as your primary weapon for most levels. The assault rifle has a fast rate of fire and decent stopping power. While the individual bullets are the weakest in the game, they're still reasonably powerful against all but the toughest opponents; it only takes around 5 bullets to the torso to kill most of the humanoid enemies you'll be facing throughout the game. With the assault rifle's high rate of fire, you can kill most enemies quite quickly. The assault rifle is also equipped with a 1.5x scope that you can use to slightly zoom in on more distant targets. The only drawback to the assault rifle is that your accuracy decreases the longer you hold down the fire button during full automatic fire. The first shot is usually dead on, but each successive bullet will drift further and further from the center of the crosshair, so that after a second or so the bullets become wildly inaccurate. Thus, to use the assault rifle effectively at medium to long range, you should fire in short bursts rather than spraying bullets with full auto. A full auto spray works fine at close range, however, especially when a crowd of mutants is charging straight at you. One trick with the assault rifle is that the reload time is faster than it appears. You can start firing immediately once you slam a new clip into the rifle, you don't have to wait for your character to cock the rifle. This fast reload is useful to keep in mind when you're being swarmed by mutants. Assault rifles can be dual-wielded if you pick up a second assault rifle while already carrying one. Firing an assault rifle in each hand doubles your rate of fire, but it also doubles your inaccuracy as well. You also cannot reload or use the scope while carrying two assault rifles. Once you use up the current clips in the dual assault rifles, you'll discard one and reload the other, and be back to using only one assault rifle until you pick up another one again. M-170 "Hammer" Combat Shotgun: Damage: High Base Damage: 15 x 4 Accuracy: Average Rate of Fire: 108 rpm Clip Size: 10 Max Ammo: 10 + 40 Ammo type: 12-gauge XXX buckshot Secondary Fire: Fire 2 shells at once Secondary Ability: Combat flashlight BRIEF BLURB: A semi-automatic shotgun. Good for close range combat, and kills enemies with only 1 or 2 shots. However, the weapon has a VERY small spread (only 4 pellets per shot), so unlike many FPS shotguns you need to point the crosshair directly at your enemy to hit them. Dual-wielded shotguns are useful for killing the Alien Gray mini-bosses. DETAILED DESCRIPTION: The combat shotgun fires a spread of 4 pellets and does reasonably high damage, especially at close range. The pellet spread is rather tight and thus the shotgun is still effective at medium range, but it does the most damage up close and personal. However, due to the tight spread and small number of pellets, the shotgun doesn't have a wide hit area (unlike other FPS shotguns), so you need to be fairly precise with your shots. The shotgun's rate of fire is relatively fast and features fully automatic fire, but there is still a slight delay between shots. Although strong, the shotgun is not uber-powerful: at anything past 10-15 feet or so, it usually takes 2 shots to kill most foes (unless all 4 pellets hit, a single shotgun blast is not lethal). Still, it does more raw damage than any other weapon, especially against particularly tough foes such as turrets or Grays. The shotgun's secondary fire shoots two shells at once, resulting in a shot that does double damage. However, the extra recoil results in a wider spread, as well as a slower rate of fire, since the secondary fire is pump-action and thus requires a new shell to be pumped into the chamber after each shot. Although more powerful than the assault rifle, the shotgun is less effective at longer range. Still, it's a good weapon for close combat or for when you're running low on assault rifle ammo. Shotgun ammo is almost as common as assault rifle ammo, so you can use it relatively frequently. Like the assault rifle, the combat shotgun can be dual-wielded, doubling the rate of fire as well as the number of rounds you can shoot before needing to reload. The primary fire will shoot one shell from each shotgun, while the secondary fire shoots two shells from each shotgun for a grand total of four shells per shot. As with the assault rifle, you cannot reload while dual-wielding, and once you use up your clips you'll discard one shotgun and reload the other. SR-125 "Wraith" Special Purpose Rifle: Damage: Above Average Base Damage: 20 Damage vs Flesh: 35 Accuracy: Excellent Rate of Fire: 150 rpm Clip Size: 6 Max Ammo: 6 + 24 Ammo type: 7.62mm SLAP (sabot light armor penetrator) Secondary Fire: 2x and 10x scoped zoom BRIEF BLURB: A semi-automatic sniper rifle with a 2x and 10x scope for distant shots. Accurate, but not exceptionally powerful (requires 2 torso shots or 1 headshot to kill most enemies). Ammo is less common than for the assault rifle or shotgun. Also, most of the game's levels take place in close quarters, so there aren't many areas where the sniper rifle gives you a particular advantage. DETAILED DESCRIPTION: This is your basic FPS sniper rifle. It has perfect accuracy and a long-range zoom. The sniper rifle is good for picking off distant foes, and it's accurate enough for you to fire it from the hip unzoomed if you really want to. The sniper rifle is semi-automatic, and has a decent rate of fire. Unfortunately, the sniper rifle isn't significantly stronger than your other weapons. Against organic enemies (aka Leapers or Black Ops), the sniper rifle does only slightly more damage than the pistol. Against most other opponents (i.e. turrets or Grays), it does the same amount of damage as the pistol. On the whole, most of Area 51 takes place in tight corridors or small rooms, and much of the combat takes place at medium range. There aren't many long range areas where a sniper rifle would really be needed. In fact, the pistol does just as much damage as the sniper rifle, with a much higher rate of fire, and due to its high accuracy you can actually snipe quite well with it as long as you can deal with not having a scope to zoom with. Thus, you generally won't find much use for the sniper rifle. One advantage the sniper rifle has over the pistol is that the sniper rifle has perfect accuracy even when unzoomed, which allows you to run-and-gun with it if you really want to. If you do use the sniper rifle, try to aim for the head. It usually takes at least 2 shots to the body to kill an enemy, but a single headshot is sufficient to drop most foes. Ammo for the sniper rifle is rarer than for the assault rifle or shotgun, but you can still find a decent amount of it throughout the game. If you're playing the PC version of the game, the sniper rifle is a bit buggy. Unlike most FPS games, the mouse movement when zoomed does not become less sensitive to compensate for the fact you're aiming at a distant space. Thus, the scope view is actually TOO sensitive, making it hard to aim properly. It also doesn't move very smoothly, either. Thus, you'll generally want to use the sniper rifle unzoomed, and only zoom when the crosshair is already over your target. BBG-11 Meson Autorifle: Damage: Average Base Damage: 15 Damage vs Flesh: 25 Accuracy: Excellent Rate of Fire: 180 rpm Clip Size: 50 Max Ammo: 50 Ammo type: Meson particles Secondary Fire: Laser targeting BRIEF BLURB: An alien energy rifle that fires large, medium-speed energy balls in 3-shot bursts. Kills most enemies in a single 3-shot burst. Perfect accuracy and unlimited regenerating ammo makes it an excellent weapon, and it will probably replace the assault rifle as your primary weapon once you get it about halfway through the game. DETAILED DESCRIPTION: The Meson autorifle, aka the BBG, is an energy rifle using alien technology. It fires a 3-shot burst of fast moving energy balls about the size of a person's head. There's a slight delay between bursts, but the BBG still has a good rate of fire. The balls bounce off surfaces, and stick to enemies. Once they attach to an enemy, they'll explode after a second or so, damaging the enemy. (oddly, when enemies use the BBG against you, the projectiles explode upon impact rather than having a slight delay). Unlike the needler from Halo, damage does not increase exponentially based on how many energy balls attach to the target. Each individual BBG shot does the same amount of damage, regardless of how many other BBG shots are also attached to the enemy. The individual BBG shots do average damage, and are somewhat more powerful than an assault rifle bullet. Against organic enemies, the BBG does more than twice as much damage as the assault rifle. The BBG is an excellent weapon. It has perfect accuracy; each shot will land dead-center where you point the crosshair. A single 3-shot burst is sufficient to kill most of the game's humanoid enemies. Once you acquire the BBG, you'll probably end up using it as your primary weapon instead of the assault rifle. The only downside to the BBG is that there's a second's delay between when the energy shot hits the enemy and when it explodes and does damage. As a result, you'll want to fire at long range and/or from behind cover to avoid the enemy's counterattacks. The BBG also does not have an attached flashlight, so if you're in the dark you'll need to switch to the assault rifle or combat shotgun to light your path. One of the best features of the BBG is that it has infinite ammo. The BBG starts with a reserve of 50 energy units. Each 3-shot burst uses up 3 units, but the energy units automatically regenerate at a decent speed. The secondary fire of the BBG creates a laser beam that reflects off walls and thus shows you the path the BBG projectiles will take. The beam also turns red when it touches an enemy, showing you when bouncing projectiles would hit that enemy. This feature allows you to pull off trick shots, but this isn't particularly useful. Worse, the laser beam drains your BBG energy supply for as long as you have it on. There's really no reason to use it, since with the BBG's perfect accuracy you can do perfectly fine with normal straight shots. MC-11 Meson Cannon: Damage: High Base Damage: approx. 20 Damage vs Flesh: Instant Disintegration Accuracy: Excellent Rate of Fire: 30 rpm Clip Size: 1 Max Ammo: 1 + 2 Ammo type: Unstable Meson particles Secondary Fire: N/A BRIEF BLURB: A superweapon that fires an energy globe of death which instantly vaporizes all humanoid enemies within its line of sight. However, does surprisingly little damage against enemy machinery (i.e. turrets) or bosses. DETAILED DESCRIPTION: The game's superweapon, you won't acquire the Meson cannon until the last few levels of the game. The Meson cannon fires a blue energy ball that moves at average speed. When the ball impacts a surface such as a wall, floor, or enemy, it will form a funky blue vortex from which blue energy tentacles will emerge and start zapping every enemy in the room within the vortex's line of sight (kinda like those electric plasma globes you see in your local science museum). The energy tentacles will disintegrate humanoid enemies, such as Black Ops soldiers or mutants. At the same time, the Meson cannon actually doesn't do much raw damage; against enemies who can take a lot of hits, such as turrets or Grays, a hit from the Meson cannon only does about as much damage as a normal frag grenade. Thus, the Meson cannon is good for clearing a room of normal enemies, but it's wasted on high-end foes or boss monsters. Still, it's good for certain occasions, such as for mopping up the groups of Black Ops minions that Grays spawn into a room. Ammo for the Meson cannon is quite rare, so you should save it for when you really need it. M-25 Frag Grenade: Damage: High Base Damage: 50 Max Ammo: 5 Explosive type: High-explosive Dual-purpose This is your basic FPS frag grenade. You throw it, and it flies in a gravity-affected arc in front of you. Grenades explode either on impact with an enemy, or a couple seconds after hitting the floor. The splash damage has a decent radius and does decent damage. A direct grenade hit will kill any normal humanoid enemy, even those with higher-than-average health such as mutant scientists or RedOps soldiers. Like in Halo, you can toss grenades while carrying a rifle without having to switch between them manually. Frag grenades are great for taking out tight groups of mutants or soldiers. It's also good for taking out enemies hiding behind cover. Grenades are less common than bullets, but there's still a reasonable amount of them in each level, and enemies sometimes drop grenades when killed. Unfortunately, grenades aren't very powerful against tough enemies like turrets or bosses, so you should only use them against groups of normal enemies. XM-197 JB Grenade: Damage: Very High Base Damage: 150 Max Ammo: 5 Explosive type: Graviton-plasma An alien weapon, the JB grenade is thrown just like a regular frag grenade, but it doesn't simply explode. The JB grenade produces a small initial explosion; this creates a blue energy vortex which creates a much larger explosion a couple seconds later. The secondary explosion is powerful and has a large splash damage radius. This standard version of the JB grenade acts simply as a more powerful version of the frag grenade. An acquirable upgrade for the the JB grenade causes it to behave more like a self-contained rocket launcher. When thrown, the upgraded grenade behaves like a rocket and flies in a straight line towards where-ever you were aiming it. They will then explode when they either hit a solid object or pass very close to an enemy. For best results, treat them like you would a rocket launcher: if your enemy is moving around, aim at their feet to catch them with the splash damage. JB grenades are great for taking out groups of enemies clustered together, and the rocket propulsion means you can even use them at long range. A full hit from a JB grenade does approximately 3 times as much damage as a regular frag grenade. A direct hit will kill almost any enemy in the game, with the exception of Grays and other boss characters. When you pick JB grenades up, they "stack" on top of your frag grenades in your inventory, and you will be unable to use your frag grenades until you've thrown all of your JB grenades. JB grenades are less common than frag grenades, but become more common in the game's later levels. *********** *Mutation:* ******************************************************************************* About 1/4th of the way through the game, your character is infected with the alien virus and gains the ability to mutate into a more powerful mutant form. This mutant mode is fueled by a mutation bar, which appears over your health bar. Staying in mutant mode slowly drains the mutation bar, and when you run out of mutation you revert back to human form. The mutation bar slows regenerates itself over time. It can also be replenished by hitting enemies with the mutant mode melee attack, picking up mutagen syringes, or sucking mutagen out of particular mutant corpses (eww...) With a full mutation bar, you have approximately 65 seconds of mutant mode. While in mutant mode, your pupils become heavily dilated: your vision becomes softer, edges blur, and lights become much more intense. This makes it easier to see in darker areas, but also can almost blind you in brightly lit rooms. Enemies also become outlined with a red aura in mutant mode, making it much easier to spot them. The cloaking devices used by RedOps soldiers conceals this red aura, but the mutant vision's extreme sensitivity to light makes the distortion effect of the RedOp's cloak highly visible. Finally, time moves more slowly around you when you're in mutant mode (apparently as a result of higher mutant reflexes). Enemies slow down, but you yourself continue to aim, react, and move at normal speeds. This gives you a significant speed advantage, especially against fast enemies such as mutant leapers. In fact, in mutant mode, the world around you moves half as fast as it does normally, and as a result you yourself move twice as fast as normal. Unfortunately, mutant mode does not reduce the amount of damage you take from enemy attacks, so don't charge heavily armed enemies recklessly. Claws: Damage: High Base Damage: 10 Damage vs Flesh: 50 Mutagen Gain: 10% Your claws are your most basic mutant mode attack. In mutant mode your melee attack is very powerful, and will kill most enemies in a single hit. One claw swipe will kill both Leapers and Black Ops soldiers, and Red Ops soldiers die after 2 hits. Combined with the slight "slow-motion" effect granted by mutant mode, this can allow you to tear through a group of enemies with speed and efficiency. Additionally, every successful hit against an enemy with your claws will restore 10% of your mutagen bar. Although your mutagen bar regenerates itself slowly over time, meleeing enemies is a good way to fill the bar quickly so you can use your other mutant attacks. Just be sure to hit your enemies quickly once you get into melee range, otherwise they can counter-attack with their own very harmful melee hits. Also, you're still vulnerable to bullets in mutant mode, so be careful about charging a large group of soldiers at long range. Parasites: Damage: Above Average Base Damage: 60 per stream, 2 streams per shot Damage vs Flesh: 35 per stream, 2 streams per shot Mutagen Cost: 18% Health Gain: 20% You gain this special attack soon after you initially acquire your mutation ability. Pressing the fire button while in mutant mode will launch two streams of several quick-moving, flying parasites from your hands. These two parasite streams will home in on nearby enemies. Each parasite stream does decent damage (about equal to a shotgun blast), and if both hit the same enemy it will kill them in one hit. Also, the parasites steal your enemy's health and transfer it back to you. The parasite attack is a good way to heal your character, but it uses up your mutagen quite quickly. You'll either have to kill enemies with melee attacks to refill your mutagen, or return to human form and wait for it to regenerate on its own. The parasites also become less effective the further away from the enemy you are; the parasites' homing ability is below average, and can be quite random at times. Of all your weapons, the parasite attack appears to be the only one affected by difficulty setting. On Hard difficulty, the parasite attack does somewhat less damage than normal (i.e. a single shot of two parasite streams isn't enough to kill an enemy). Contagion: Damage: Special Mutagen Cost: 80% About half-way through the game, you gain your final mutant ability, contagion. Pressing the secondary fire button while in mutant mode will discharge a large stream of contagious material that flies out ahead of you. This attack will infect a single enemy, causing them to go berserk and attack everything in sight. They usually focus on attacking their former allies, but they will also shoot at you if there's nothing else around. After several seconds, the infected enemy will collapse and die. Unfortunately, this attack is pretty much useless. Not only does it use up almost all of your mutagen, but it only affects a single enemy. Also, enemies do very little damage to each other, and instead of killing your foes an infected enemy generally only serves as a distraction. Worst of all, any enemy you infect with contagious will only last for a dozen seconds or so before dying, which may make you feel cheated that you spend so much mutagen for such a temporary effect. ********** *Enemies:* ******************************************************************************* ================ =Major Enemies:= =============================================================================== Mutant Scientist: Description: Humanoid mutant wearing torn remains of lab coat. Health: 85 Attacks: Claws (25% damage) Hits to Kill: Melee - 3 Pistol - 4 Assault Rifle - 9 Shotgun - 2 Sniper Rifle - X BBG - X Meson Cannon - X Frag Grenade - 1 JHB Grenade - 1 Mutant Claw - X Parasites - X Mutated scientists are the first enemies you'll encounter in the game. Suprisingly, they're actually somewhat tougher than average, being able to do slightly more damage and take slightly more hits than the basic mutant security guard or BlackOps soldier. The difference isn't major, though, and individually they're still pretty easy to take down. Mutant Scientists are utterly lacking in tactics, they just charge straight at you and try to claw at you when they get close enough. Their attacks are quite strong and can kill you in 4 hits. Fortunately, they're actually rather slow; their speed is more of a loping gait than a full-scale sprint. It should be fairly easy to mow them down with your assault rifle before they can get close enough to hurt you. If a mutant does get within clawing range, immedietely use your rifle butt to smack them with a 3-hit melee combo attack. This should kill them before they have a chance to hit you. Mutants are encountered exclusively in the first 1/4th of the game, during the 5 missions when you'll be accompanied by a squad of fellow Hazmat Team members. Mutant scientists are mixed in together with mutant security guards, and large groups of the two will generally swarm you and your mates throughout the early levels. Mutant Security Force: Description: Humanoid mutant wearing black security uniform. Health: 50 Weapons: Assault Rifle (5.5% damage) Shotgun (35% damage) Other Attacks: Claws (20% damage) Hits to Kill: Melee - 3 Pistol - 3 Assault Rifle - 5 Shotgun - 1 to 2 Sniper Rifle - 2 BBG - X Meson Cannon - X Frag Grenade - 1 JHB Grenade - 1 Mutant Claw - 1 Parasites - 2 Mutant security guards will be your primary enemy throughout the first 1/4 of the game. Like mutant scientists, they swarm you in large groups, and their tactics are generally limited to rushing straight at you and clawing you when they get close. However, although many are unarmed, quite a few mutant security guards retain enough human intelligence to use weapons. They usually carry assault rifles, but some even carry shotguns. Fortunately, they're not very smart with regards to their weapons: they simply rush at you while firing. Also, their aim is below average, and when they get close they'll sometimes drop their weapons in order to try and claw at you with their hands. They also are unable to reload, and will discard their guns as soon as they use up the ammo clip. Mutant security guards are somewhat faster than mutant scientists; they can run at a full-scale sprint, and can occasionally leap at you from a dozen feet away. They can also slide sideways when shot in an attempt to evade your fire. However, they're not any faster than you are, and are still fairly easy to mow down individually. Fighting them is fairly simple; just mow them down with your assault rifle before they can get close enough to claw at you. Their firearm attacks often won't hit you and don't do much damage even when they do, but their claw attacks can kill you in 5 hits. Like mutated scientists, they're not particularly fast, so shooting them down shouldn't be too difficult to do. If one does get too close to you, a 3-hit melee combo should put it down before it's able to strike at you. Mutant Leaper: Description: Fully mutated creature with orange bulging skin and lizard-like face. Health: 40 Attacks: Claws (25% damage) Hits to Kill: Melee - 3 Pistol - 3 Assault Rifle - 3 to 4 Shotgun - 1 Sniper Rifle - 2 BBG - 2 Meson Cannon - X Frag Grenade - 1 JHB Grenade - 1 Mutant Claw - 1 Parasites - 2 DESCRIPTION: The final stage of the viral transformation; the Leaper has lost all vestiges of its humanity. Leapers are faster than regular mutants, and can leap at you from several feet away as well as crawl along the walls and ceilings. They also do more damage than regular mutants with their claw attacks, but they're also slightly less durable and can be brought down with slightly fewer bullets. Be careful though, because they can take off 1/4th of your health in a single swipe. BEHAVIOR: Like mutants, Leapers lack any form of finesse, and will basically swarm straight at you. They are usually pretty easy to see coming, but there are a few locations where Leapers will appear from all directions, including from behind you. The basic "mow em' down before they get close to you" rule applies, with the assault rifle, shotgun, and BBG all working quite well. It's a bit harder to do this with Leapers than with mutants, though, since they're faster (they're not quite as fast as xenomorphs or FEAR Asssassins, but are still faster than you are.) Leapers also have an unusual attack pattern. Instead of standing in front of you and constantly attacking, like mutated humans do, Leapers will slash you once, then back off and circle around you for a few seconds on all fours, before rushing forward to slash you again. It's an interesting behavior ("like a leopard strikes its prey", as the developers describe it), but in practical terms all it means is that it gives you an opening to blow the Leaper away if you weren't able to kill it before. KILL STRATEGY: Perhaps the best way to defeat Leapers is with your own mutation ability. When in mutant mode, time slows down somewhat, which counter-acts the Leaper's speed advantage and allows you to smash them before they can claw you, or strafe around their claw attacks and hit them from behind. This is a great way to beat up on Leapers and prevent them from sneaking up on you from behind. Leapers occupy the game's middle levels, replacing the mutated humans as your main mutated enemies. They begin to appear immedietely after you lose your squad and acquire your own mutant powers, and will stop appearing once you actually enter the alien dimension. BlackOps Soldier: Description: Soldier wearing face mask and futuristic black armor suit, glowing with green energy. Health: 50 Weapons: Assault Rifle (5.5% damage per 2 shots) Shotgun (35% damage) Sniper Rifle (10% damage) BBG (5.5% damage) Other Attacks: Rifle butt (25% damage) Grenades (30% damage) Hits to Kill: Melee - 3 Pistol - 3 Assault Rifle - 5 Shotgun - 1 Sniper Rifle - 2 BBG - 2 Meson Cannon - 1 Frag Grenade - 1 JHB Grenade - 1 Mutant Claw - 1 Parasites - 2 DESCRIPTION: The genetically engineered alien-human hybrid soldiers of the Illuminati, BlackOps troops fight intelligently, instead of with the savage fury of virus-mutated mutants. In fact, these enemies use the same A.I. and have all the same moves and abilities as your Hazard Team squadmates. BlackOps soldiers carry a variety of weapons; primarily they fight with assault rifles and (in the later levels) BBGs, but they also occasionally can be found carrying shotguns or sniper rifles. BlackOps also like to toss frag grenades at you; these really hurt, and it can be hard to avoid them since they detonate only a second after landing and have a large splash damage radius. Finally, if you get too close, BlackOps can smack you with the butts of their rifles, which can knock off a big chunk of your health. BlackOps begin to appear after the first 1/4th of the game, soon after you lose your squad and acquire mutant powers. They will be your primary opponents for the rest of the game. BEHAVIOR: BlackOps act relatively intelligently: They strafe while firing, often take cover, can fire from behind cover or lean around corners to shoot at you, and can both defend an area or pursue you aggressively. At the same time, they tend to stay in one area instead of spreading out in a room, and you can often catch them standing still in one place firing at you, giving you an opportunity to draw a bead on them with your weapon of choice. It's really not too difficult to kill a single BlackOps with your assault rifle or BBG. Unfortunately, they often attack you in squads of 4 or 5 BlackOps at a time, and have really good aim even at longer range. BlackOps squad A.I. isn't quite up to the standards of F.E.A.R. or Far Cry, but is still fairly decent. Enemy squads tend to stick together when attacking, but can also spread out throughout a room when defending. They can support each other with covering fire (i.e. one BlackOps will spray you with suppressing fire while another BlackOps advances forward towards you). They can also perform rudimentary flanking manuevers (i.e. one BlackOps will draw your fire while another tries to strafe around to your side). At medium range, BlackOps love to use frag grenades to flush you out if you try to hide behind cover. This is very annoying, especially on Hard difficulty, and can lead to frequent deaths. Always be sure to keep moving when fighting them, and don't camp out in a single spot for too long. Fortunately, BlackOps do not appear to be trained to full potential with their weapons. BlackOps equipped with assault rifles do reduced damage, and need to hit you with 2 consecutive bullets to harm you. BlackOps equipped with BBGs fire in single shots, instead of the usual 3-shot bursts. KILL STRATEGY: Mutant mode works great against BlackOps. A single swipe from your claw attack will kill them instantly, and you enhanced speed makes getting within melee range easier. If they do take down your health, you can refill it by using your parasite attack to suck the health out of them. Just avoid charging groups of more than 3 or 4 BlackOps, as their combined fire will mow you down before you can kill them. If you want to fight BlackOps with your guns, you need to take cover behind a wall or object, lean around the corner or strafe out, shoot them with your assault rifle or BBG, then strafe back behind cover before you get shot up. Use grenades against large, tightly spaced groups. Be sure not to get too close to a BlackOps, because their melee attacks really hurt. Also watch out for grenades, as BlackOps will often use them to blast you when you try to hide behind cover. If BlackOps keep throwing grenades at an area where you're trying to take cover, try going into mutant mode and charging them instead. Due to their good aim and hit-scan weaponry, you'll consistently lose health when fighting Black Ops. Fortunately, health pickups are quite plentiful in this game, so you shouldn't have to worry about running low. Just focus on not taking too much damage during each individual encounter. BlackOps Leader (RedOps): Description: Soldier wearing face mask and futuristic black armor suit, glowing with red energy. Health: 70 Weapons: Assault Rifle (5.5% damage) BBG (5.5% damage) Other Attacks: Rifle butt (25% damage) Grenades (30% damage) Hits to Kill: Melee - 3 Pistol - 3 Assault Rifle - 7 Shotgun - 2 Sniper Rifle - 2 BBG - 3 Meson Cannon - 1 Frag Grenade - 1 JHB Grenade - 1 Mutant Claw - 2 Parasites - 2 DESCRIPTION: BlackOps Leaders, or RedOps, are easily distinguished by the glowing red energy streams that line their armor. You will usually find one or two RedOps soldiers leading a squad of BlackOps. They are slightly tougher than BlackOps, but not significantly so: it only takes 1 or 2 extra bullets to put them down. They are also smarter, better trained, and more accurate than the regular BlackOps soldiers. BEHAVIOR: Most RedOps carry BBGs. Like BlackOps, they fire single projectiles instead of 3-shot bursts. RedOps equipped with BBGs aren't too dangerous, as the projectiles move slow enough for you to dodge them by strafing. However, many RedOps carry assault rifles instead. RedOps with assault rifles are extremely dangerous, especially on Hard difficulty. They have a high rate of fire and deadly accuracy, and can mow you down in seconds; you need to be particularly wary of them. RedOps are also equipped with cloaking devices, which allow them to become nearly invisible. They can still be spotted by the distortion effect created by the cloak when they move around (similar to the movie Predator). Despite their cloak, RedOps are relatively easy to spot because of this distortion effect, as long as you know roughly where to look. Alternatively, you can enter mutant mode; your enhanced sensitivity to light will make their cloak's distortion effect extremely visible. Finally, you can easily spot them by their muzzle flashes when they shoot at you. Red Ops will lose their cloaking ability after they've lost most of their health, so you should know that they're about to die if they suddenly become visible. KILL STRATEGY: On the whole, RedOps can be taken out using the same strategy you use against BlackOps. Just be extra careful against them if they're carrying assault rifles, and always be sure to use cover to avoid their fire. Gray: Description: Thin, 4-foot tall little gray alien with large head, big eyes, and small mouth. Health: 600 Attacks: Summon BlackOps Hits to Kill: Melee - X Pistol - 30 Assault Rifle - 100 Shotgun - 16 Sniper Rifle - ~35 BBG - 61 Meson Cannon - ? Frag Grenade - ? JHB Grenade - ? Mutant Claw - X Parasites - 10 DESCRIPTION: The Grays are the masterminds behind the whole mess, and you'll confront them in the game's last few missions. The Grays don't fight you directly; in fact, they don't do much of anything. They stand still in a fixed position inside a small personal platform, surrounded by a glowing energy shield. Instead of attacking you, Grays create floating balls of energy which transform into BlackOps soldiers and BlackOps leaders, who will proceed to attack you. Grays are also very tough, as it takes a lot of firepower for you to destroy their energy shields. As you damage the shield, it will change color from green to yellow to orange to red. Once you do enough damage to the shield, it will implode, killing the Gray instantly. Grays do not show up until the last few levels of the game, inside the alien dimension. Even then they're quite rare, and you will only ever fight 5 of them throughout the entire game. KILL STRATEGY: Grays can be quite dangerous opponents. They can take a lot of hits before going down, and their ability to constantly summon an endless supply of BlackOps soldiers can be deadly, as the soldiers will quickly gang up on your and mow you down. Thus, to kill the Grays you need to wipe them out as quickly as possible. If you're getting overwhelmed, you should kill some soldiers and try to retreat to cover and pick up some health syringes. The two most effective weapons against Grays are either your mutant parasite attack, or dual shotguns. On Normal difficulty, a full mutation bar's worth of parasite attacks should be sufficient to destroy the energy shield and kill the Gray. Alternatively, 16 or so shotgun blasts will do the job, which you can quickly deliver in less than a dozen seconds with fully loaded dual shotguns (use the rapid primary fire instead of the overpowered secondary fire to ensure more shots actually hit the Gray). If you run out of parasites and the Gray isn't dead yet, switch to the shotgun (or vice versa). If the Gray is too far away for you to use the shotgun, use your parasite attack then switch to JB grenades and the BBG if you need to finish it off. If the BlackOps soldiers the Gray is summoning in are giving you problems, you can use the Meson Cannon to wipe the room clean of them while also doing some damage to the Gray's shield. ================ =Minor Enemies:= =============================================================================== Mite: Description: Foot-long, spider-like orange bug with scorpion-like claws. Health: 10 Attacks: Bite (10% damage) Hits to Kill: Any Weapon - 1 These mutated insect pests infest many areas of the Area 51 base. They attack in swarms of several at a time and strike from air vent, ventilations shafts, and the ceiling. Mites skitter towards you at relatively high speed, and will leap at you and bite you. Mites can also hop sideways in an attempt to avoid your bullets. The Mite's bite does decent damage, and their small size and high speed can allow them to sneak up on you, especially when you're facing many of them at once coming from multiple directions. A single hit from any weapon will kill a Mite, so rapid-fire and/or high-spread weapons (aka the assault rifle or shotgun) are ideal against them, especially when they attack in groups. Mites also have limited jumping range, so you can avoid their attacks by climbing up a pile of crates to get off the floor. Alien Parasite: Description: Bouncing purple glowing bubbles. Health: Special Attacks: Burst (varies) Hits to Kill: Varies DESCRIPTION: These purple bouncing bubbles are actually swarms of many, many tiny alien parasites grouped together. They slowly bounce around a room, homing in on you. If a parasite swarm collides with you, it will burst open and do damage. The amount of damage you take depends on the size of the swarm: the smaller swarms do very little damage, but a hit from a big swarm will knock off more than half of your health. A single shot from any weapon will break up a parasite swarm, but the annoying thing about parasite swarms is that shooting them doesn't kill them instantly. Instead, they'll break up into several smaller swarms, which will continue chasing you. Swarms come in three sizes: large, medium, and small. You have to keep breaking up the swarms until they're all small, then destroy the small swarms to get rid of them once and for all. KILL STRATEGY: While it might be tempting to use the BBG against parasites to save ammo, this is somewhat ineffective. The BBG lacks the spread or rate of fire to effectively clear out multiplying parasites, and you'll usually run out of ammo before an entire swarm has been successfully exterminated. Instead, the rate of fire and wide spread of the assault rifle or shotgun makes them the best weapons for mowing down a parasite swarm. You can also use a Meson Cannon shot to disintegrate an entire roomful of parasites, but you might want to save your precious Meson Cannon ammo for more dangerous situations. JB grenades are also highly effective against parasite swarms. Each JB grenade explodes twice, so the first explosion will kill some parasites and break up others, while the second explosion will kill whatever's left of the rest. The large blast radius also helps you to clear out a large roomful of parasites with one blast. XM-88 "Archer" Automated Turret: Description: Ceiling-mounted, 3-barrel chaingun. Health: 300 Attacks: Depleted Uranium Chaingun Turret (9.5% damage) Hits to Kill: Melee - 30 Pistol - 15 Assault Rifle - 30 Shotgun - 5 Sniper Rifle - 15 BBG - 20 Meson Cannon - X Frag Grenade - 6 JHB Grenade - 2 Mutant Claw - 30 Parasites - 5 DESCRIPTION: These automated, ceiling-mounted chainguns are quite rare; I only counted 3 of them throughout the entire game. Automated turrets guard particularly sensitive areas of the Area 51 base and are programmed to attack mutants and unauthorized personnel, which includes you on both counts. When a turret spots you, it will unleash a stream of heavy-caliber DU rounds in your direction. Turrets have good accuracy and their bullets do decent damage; they can kill you in 11 hits. KILL STRATEGY: Not surprisingly, the best way to deal with turrets is to fight them from behind cover. Pop out, shoot them a few times, then dodge back behind cover before they can return fire. Turrets take a second or so to spin up before they can begin firing, so you can use this time to get free hits in on them without being shot. Ideally, you should fight a turret from as far away as possible to reduce its ability to hit you. Turrets can take quite a few hits before going down. The most effective weapon to use against them is the pistol; with it's high accuracy and rate of fire, you can destroy a turret using 2 clips worth of ammo. Just target the turret with the laser zoom, quickly unload a clip into it, then duck behind cover to reload. You can also use the same tactic with the BBG (with it's high rate of fire and perfect accuracy), but it will take more shots to do the job. Alien Turret Lifeform: Description: Glowing purple sphere emerging from nooks in the walls. Health: 100 to 200 Attacks: BBG Turret (9.5% damage) Hits to Kill: Melee - 10 to 20 Pistol - 7 to 14 Assault Rifle - 10 to 20 Shotgun - 4 to 7 Sniper Rifle - 7 to 14 BBG - 10 to 19 Meson Cannon - ? Frag Grenade - 2 to 4 JHB Grenade - 1 to 2 Mutant Claw - 10 to 20 Parasites - 4 to 7 DESCRIPTION: Alien turret lifeforms appear throughout the alien dimension, about 3/4ths of the way through the game. These spherical devices emerge from circular holes in the walls, and fire bursts of 4 consecutive BBG shots at you. Alien turrets usually are positioned guarding doorways: they generally appear on both sides of a door, and you need to destroy both turrets before the door can be opened. KILL STRATEGY: Alien turrets have a high rate of fire, so the best way to avoid them is to take cover behind a solid object such as a console or pillar. Lean out, shoot the turret, then lean back behind cover before it can retaliate. Turrets will sometimes retract back into the wall if they are unable to shoot you; to get them to reappear so you can kill them, stand in their line of fire until they re-emerge. If you're facing multiple turrets, be sure that you position yourself so that only one turret can see you: fight that one turret, while remaining hidden from any others near it. Bullets are generally more effective on alien turrets than the BBG, and you can kill them more quickly with the pistol or assault rifle than with BBG shots. On the other hand, the BBG is still reasonable effective against them, so if you want to save ammo and have a decent place to take cover, you can use the BBG as well. Sharks with Laser Beams: Description: Great white sharks with laser guns strapped to their heads. Health: 300 Attacks: Head-mounted Laser Beams (8% damage) Hits to Kill: Melee - X Pistol - 15 Assault Rifle - 30 Shotgun - 5 Sniper Rifle - 15 BBG - 20 Meson Cannon - ? Frag Grenade - 6 JHB Grenade - 2 Mutant Claw - X Parasites - 5 DESCRIPTION: Dr. Evil's pet of choice makes a secret appearance as an Easter Egg at the beginning of the first alien dimension level, "The Grays". After killing the first set of Black Ops, you'll enter a room with a console that raises the alien train up to the next level. Once you activate the console, backtrack to the beginning of the level, jump on the monorail track, and proceed down to the blue portal. This will teleport you to a secret room with 3 sharks. The first shark hangs from the ceiling, and rotates like a turret gun. The other two sharks are swimming around in the water inside the room. All 3 sharks are equipped with rapid-fire lasers mounted on their heads. KILL STRATEGY: The sharks can take quite a lot of damage before dying, and they can kill you surprisingly quickly. To kill the first shark, stay at the back of the tunnel outside it's range of fire, and shoot it from a distance until it dies (it will emit a high-pitched Dr. Evil shriek when it does). Afterwards, using the tunnel as cover, pop out to shoot at the swimming sharks, then retreat back into the tunnel before they can shoot you. The sharks can be tough to hit and take quite a few hits to kill, so the quickest way to kill them is to hit each one with a couple JB grenades (be sure to lead your shots to compensate for the fact the sharks are moving around). Your reward for killing the sharks is a crapload of ammo, as well as a Meson Cannon (which you would otherwise have to wait until the end of the level to obtain). These items will be waiting for you back at the end of the tunnel, near the entrance (which will take you back outside). ========= =Bosses:= =============================================================================== Crispy: Description: Humanoid mutant wearing Hazmat Team armor Health: 370 Attacks: Claws (20% damage) Hits to Kill: Melee - 15 Pistol - 16 Assault Rifle - 37 Shotgun - 7 Sniper Rifle - X BBG - X Meson Cannon - X Frag Grenade - 8 JHB Grenade - X Mutant Claw - X Parasites - X DESCRIPTION: A time will come when your wiseguy teammate Crispy ends up mutated by the virus, at which point he'll become a mindless killing machine and you'll be forced to put him out of your misery. Crispy has several times as much health as a regular mutated human, but actually isn't all that tough. I really only categorize him as a "boss" because there's only one of him in the entire game. He has the same moves and abilities as the regular mutant security guards. Like the regular mutated humans, Crispy's sole attack consists of charging at you and slashing you with his claws. Since you move at the same speed he does, it's relatively easy to avoid him by backing away and strafing around him. KILL STRATEGY: It doesn't take a lot to kill Crispy. He'll go down after about a full clip of assault rifle fire, or 7 shotgun blasts. Thus, you can mow him down in a dozen seconds or so with the assault rifle or dual shotguns (2 hits from the dual shotgun alt-fire will end the fight nearly instantly). Crispy IS tough enough that grenades are useless against him; you can score direct hits with all 5 of your frag grenades, and he'll still keep coming. The only caveat in this fight is that you'll be fighting Crispy in a relatively small room in nearly total darkness, and for some reason your flashlight seems ineffective at this particular moment. Still, Crispy moves slow enough that it's pretty easy to keep track of him, making it unlikely he'll be able to ambush you in the darkness. Theta: Description: Huge, 12-foot tall Leaper with two extra arms sticking out of its chest, and a organic BBG grown into its left arm. Health: 2500 Attacks: Claws (10% damage) BBG (5.5% damage) Stomp Attack (100% damage) Hits to Kill: Melee - 104 Pistol - ? Assault Rifle - ? Shotgun - ? Sniper Rifle - ? BBG - 97 Meson Cannon - ? Frag Grenade - ? JHB Grenade - ? Mutant Claw - 45 Parasites - ? DESCRIPTION: About 3/4s of the way into the game you'll finally confront Theta, Dr. Cray's monster responsible for the whole mess back at Area 51, including the deaths of all your Hazmat Team buddies. Theta's an old-school FPS boss: He's big, he's bad, and he can take a crapload of punishment before dying. BEHAVIOR: Theta has 3 basic attacks. At close range, he'll charge at you and try to ram you with his shoulders, or claw at you if you get right next to him. At longer range, he'll fire a burst of 3 shots from his BBG, then charge at you. Finally, he can leap into the air at you and slam into the ground close to you in a massive stomp attack. Theta's melee and BBG attacks are actually surprisingly weak. However, his stomp attack is absolutely deadly: a direct hit will kill you instantly, and even if you're a dozen feet away from the point of impact you'll still lose a large chunk of your lifebar. Fortunately, his melee and BBG attacks are the most common, while his stomp attack is quite rare... he'll usually only use it once or twice in the battle. When Theta charges at you, strafe sideways to avoid his attack. Strafing also allows you to dodge his BBG bursts rather easily. To prevent Theta from using his devastating stomp attack, stay relatively close to him: Theta only tries to jump on you if you get too far away from him. Theta's charge attack is relatively fast, but otherwise he's no quicker than your average mutant, and should be fairly easy to avoid. After you shoot Theta several times, he'll summon 4 Leapers into the arena to help him fight you. He does this twice in the battle: once when you've knock off about 20% of his health, and again once you've taken off about 50% of his health. The Leapers are best dealt with by using mutant mode, this slows down time and helps you keep track of multiple targets coming at you from all directions. KILL STRATEGY: There are two basic ways to defeat Theta: an easy way and a more challenging way. The easy way is to simply switch to mutant mode and circle strafe around Theta while clawing him relentlessly. Each time you hit Theta, it'll restore 10% of your mutagen bar, and thus you'll never run out of mutant mode mojo. The constantly circle strafing should also prevent Theta from successfully hitting you. If he does manage to damage you, just use your parasite attack to hit him and steal his health, then restore your mutagen by hitting him with your claws. This tactic often also has the added bonus of distracting Theta so much he totally forgets to summon the Leapers against you. The more challenging way to beat Theta is to take him on as a mere human. Theta is highly resistant against human projectile weapons, and takes less than 50% damage from bullets or buckshot. You can still beat him using your assault rifle and shotgun, but you'd use up most of your ammo in the process. The BBG works well against him, however. Just keep shooting Theta with BBG bursts while avoiding his attacks. Pick up a health syringe or use your mutant mode parasites if you end up taking damage. Theta should go down after a few minutes and a 100 or so shots. The helipad-type area where you fight Theta is rather large, and there are health syringes and ammo scattered around to help you if you start running low. There are also several exploding cannisters laying around, which you can use to damage Theta by shooting them when he's near them. Overall, this fight is relatively easy, as long as you're not unlucky enough to have Theta jump on your head and kill you instantly. Super Theta: Description: A Theta with huge boiling pustles of disease popping out of its back. Health: 3000 Attacks: Claws (10% damage) BBG (5.5% damage) Stomp Attack (100% damage) Infection Attack (25% damage) Hits to Kill: Melee - 126 Pistol - ? Assault Rifle - approx. 400 Shotgun - ? Sniper Rifle - ? BBG - 126 Meson Cannon - ? Frag Grenade - ? JHB Grenade - ? Mutant Claw - 45 Parasites - ? DESCRIPTION: You'll fight the game's big bad boss, the prototype Super Theta, near the end of the game's second-to-last level. This fight is actually very similar to your previous battle against Theta. Super Theta has somewhat more health than Theta, but otherwise uses the same attacks and behaves in the same manner. The main difference in this fight is that the arena is much smaller, and there are no exploding barrels or health/ammo pickups lying around to help you. You can still use your parasite attack to steal Super Theta's life and heal yourself, however. BEHAVIOR: After you shoot him several times, Super Theta will jump up onto one of the four large cannisters in the room and smash it, releasing the parasites swarms inside. Stay away from him when he does this, or else you'll die when he jumps back down and lands on you. Use your assault rifle or shotgun to mop up the parasites, then continue attacking Super Theta with your BBG. Alternatively, a shot from the Meson Cannon should wipe out the parasites and do some damage against Super Theta. After you've taken away about 60% of Super Theta's health, the pustles on his back will explode and swarms of tiny parasites will start orbiting his body. At this point, Super Theta gains a new attack: he'll spray the parasites all over the room, and they'll all gather together, slam into you, and fly back to Super Theta. This attack knocks off a large portion of your health and is impossible to avoid, and Super Theta uses it at regular intervals against you. Thus, once he starts using it, you need to kill him as quickly as possible or else you'll die after a few hits. KILL STRATEGY: Overall, the same two strategies that worked against Theta also work against Super Theta. For an easy win, just go mutant and circle strafe around him while slashing him with your claws. For a more challenging fight, use the BBG and dodge his attacks by strafing, being sure to stay close to him to prevent him from using his stomp attack. The only difference is that you'll need to kill Super Theta as quickly as possible once he starts using his parasite attack. So, if your BBG's low on ammo, instead of waiting for it to recharge you probably want to switch to your shotgun or mutant mode to finish Super Theta off. Remember, you can always use your parasite attack on Super Theta to steal his health if you start running low. Mothership Core: Description: A very large purple sphere, the size of a house, rotating in the middle of the room. Health: Core Shields = 350 Core Turrets = 200 Attacks: Plasma Flare (20% damage) BBG Turret (9.5% damage) Hits to Kill (Core Shields): Melee - X Pistol - 15 Assault Rifle - 15 Shotgun - 4 Sniper Rifle - 10 BBG - 5 Meson Cannon - X Frag Grenade - X JHB Grenade - X Mutant Claw - X Parasites - X Hits to Kill (Core Turrets): Melee - X Pistol - 14 Assault Rifle - 20 Shotgun - 7 Sniper Rifle - 14 BBG - 19 Meson Cannon - X Frag Grenade - X JHB Grenade - X Mutant Claw - X Parasites - X DESCRIPTION: For the game's final battle, this fight is actually surprisingly easy. Like in Half Life 2 or F.E.A.R., instead of fighting a big final boss, you'll just have to destroy the enemy's main power generator. The difference here is that the main power generator fights back, at least somewhat more than the ones in Half Life 2 or F.E.A.R. do. The fight takes place in a large circular chamber with a balcony running around the outer edge. The Mothership Core is a large rotating ball floating in the middle of the room. On the side of the Core are 6 Core Shields that you'll need to destroy. Initially, the Core won't attack you at all, so at first you can take your time destroying the shields. KILL STRATEGY (PHASE I): The best weapon to destroy the shields is the BBG. The shields are weak against BBG shots (taking twice as much damage as normal),and the BBG can crack each shield with 2 bursts. The delayed effect of the BBG also ensures you won't be standing in front of the shield when it explodes; this prevents you from being injured by the plasma flare that bursts out of the Core from each destroyed shield segment. Once a Core Shield is destroyed, a massive plasma flare will blast out of that section of the Core for the rest of the battle. The flares rotate around the room as the Core spins, and if you touch them you'll lose a large amount of your health. The only way to avoid the flares is to use the spinning red shields on your own side of the chamber as cover. It's a good idea to find a red shield as soon as the fight begins and follow it around for protection. KILL STRATEGY (PHASE II): After you destroy all six Core Shields, the Core will begin rotating diagonally, and a pair of Alien Turret Lifeforms will emerge from the top and bottom of the Core. You need to destroy both turrets. Because the Core is spinning so quickly, it can be difficult to hit the turrets with most of your weapons. The best weapon for the job is the assault rifle, which hits rapidly and instantly. A few bursts should be sufficient to destroy each turret. Be sure to strafe and use the shields as cover to avoid the turrets' shots as well as the rotating plasma flares. Upgraded JB grenades also do decent damage against the turrets, as long as you lead your shots to compensate for the Core's rotation. Try tossing grenades in between assault rifle bursts to destroy the turrets as quickly as possible. Once both turrets are gone, the Core will implode and a winner you will be. Copyright 2006 Alan Chan