Red Faction Weapons, Enemies, and Bosses Guide: September 29, 2005 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). Why?: I know a weapons and enemy guide for Red Faction is a bit unnecessary, since for most of the game there's only two basic enemy types. Still, I wrote one anyway since I had the time. Note: This FAQ is based on the normal difficulty setting. The amount of damage enemies can take and the amount of damage they do to you varies based on the difficulty you play under. **************************************************************************** *Version History: * *(Latest version of this FAQ can always be found at www.gamefaqs.com): * * * *Update #1: - Made changes in enemy names and descriptions based on * * information from the RED editor. * * - Made major changes in weapon damage values and enemy * * health based on RED editor info. * * - Rewrote information on several weapons based on replaying the* * game. * * * *Update #2: - Corrected several typos, fixed errors in weapon information * * * *Update #3: - General corrections and additions * * Reformatted guide for better readability * * Added info about Hard and Impossible difficulty * * * *Update #4: - Large overhaul of weapon damage values based on info from * * source code. * * * *Update #5: - Minor reformatting for easier reading * * * **************************************************************************** ********** *Weapons:* ******************************************************************************* KEY: WEAPON NAME: Ammo Type: The type of ammo the weapon uses. Certain weapons, such as the pistol and SMG, use the same type of ammo. Maximum Ammo: The maximum amount of ammo you can carry, based on the current clip + the ammo in reserve. SP Damage: The amount of damage the weapon does to enemies in single-player. Since armor-piercing rounds do 150% damage against most foes, this value is noted in the weapon description. MP Damage: The amount of damage the weapon does to enemies in multi-player. Damage Type: The type of damage the weapon does. Accuracy: How accurate the weapon is, on a scale of 1 to 5. NOTES: - Armor-piercing bullets do 150% damage against most flesh-and-blood enemies (with the exceptions of Capek and Elite Guards). Thus, weapons such as the assault rifle or precision rifle will usually do more damage than their base damage amounts indicate (the assault rifle does 90 damage instead of 60 damage per shot, for example). Armor-piercing bullets also have the ability to travel through walls. - The weapons are listed in the order in which they appear in the weapon menu, rather than the order in which you find them in the game. =============== =Close Combat:= =============================================================================== Control Baton: Ammo Type: Battery Cell Clip Size: 6 zaps per battery Maximum Ammo: 10 + 1 Batteries SP Damage: 60 (swing) / 120 (zap) MP Damage: 60 (swing) / 80 (zap) Damage Type: Bash An electrified baton for riot control, the control baton is the first weapon you receive in the game, and really isn't all that useful since it can only be used up close, making you vulnerable to the various projectile weapons your enemies carry. To be fair, the control baton has a quick rate of fire and decent stopping power, one or two whacks to the head are all it takes to take down an Ultor security guard. Unfortunately, as a melee weapon in a firearms game you won't find much use for it. The secondary fire electrifies the baton, which does electrical damage to any enemies you poke with it. This actually doesn't do much damage at all, you can actually kill guards much more quickly by striking them with the primary fire instead of trying to zap them with the secondary fire. The secondary fire also drains the baton's battery pretty quickly, and control baton battery ammo is pretty rare when compared to bullets. On the whole, the baton should only to be used if you run out of ammo for all your guns, which really shouldn't happen if you're even halfway competant. Riot Shield: Ammo Type: None Clip Size: None Maximum Ammo: 1 SP Damage: 10 MP Damage: 60 Damage Type: Bash Health: approx. 475 health A transparent arm-mounted plexiglas shield, the riot shield can be used to protect you from bullets as long as you're facing in the direction of the people shooting at you. Bullet fractures appear on the shield as it takes more and more damage, and it will finally shatter after absorbing many bullets. The shield can take lots of punishment, and will protect you from 10 sniper rifle shots, 20 precision rifle shots, and close to three dozen normal bullets. Unfortunately, you cannot use a weapon while holding the riot shield, severely limiting its usefulness. Pressing the fire button while holding the shield will swing it like a weapon, but it's a fairly poor weapon working only at close range and doing a miniscule amount of damage (it takes several whacks to kill a single Ultor security guard). The shield also doesn't protect you while you're swinging it around. The shield also only protects about 75% of your body, and enemies can still harm you if they hit you in the head or legs. Once the shield is destroyed, you'll have to pick up a new one. Since they're fairly uncommon after the game's first few levels, you won't be able to use them much anyway. On Impossible difficulty, the riot shield has marginal usefulness in the game's early levels. If a couple guards have you pinned down at long range in a narrow corridor, and you don't have any long range weapons (such as the assault rifle or the rocket launcher's secondary fire), you'd normally be in trouble since your pistol lacks the range to hit them accurately, and if you try to run closer to them they're likely to cut you down before you can get within pistol range. By equipping your riot shield, you can absorb their shots while you run closer to them. Once you're close enough, find some cover, switch to your pistol, and take out your enemies. Flamethrower: Ammo Type: Fuel Cannister Clip Size: 20 Flames per Cannister Maximum Ammo: 10 + 1 Cannisters SP Damage: 20 (primary fire) / 100 (secondary fire) MP Damage: 60 (primary fire) / 150 (secondary fire) Damage Type: Fire The flamethrower fires a stream of flames which sets organic enemies on fire upon contact. Enemies wearing armor will have their armor rapidly drained away by the flames, and once the armor runs out the enemy will burst into flames. Upon being set alight, most enemies will cease fighting and instead run around screaming until they finally collapse. As a bonus, flaming enemies will set any other enemies they run into on fire as well. The downside is that they'll also damage you if they run into you, so you should try to keep your distance as soon as they begin burning. A single flame is all it takes to set fire to mutants, two or three flames will incinerate regular guards,while Elite Guards can resist a couple seconds of flame before being set alight. Mercs can withstand several seconds of flame and will continue fighting even as they burn to death. The flamethrower's short range makes it less useful than the submachine gun or assault rifle when fighting guards, but it's wide arc of fire makes it the ideal weapon against Capek's fast moving mutants. The only disadvantage is that flamethrower ammo is relatively scarce, especially in the levels you need it the most such as Capek's zoo. The flamethrower uses up ammo incredibly quickly, but you can conserve fuel by tapping the fire button and roasting your enemies with single flames, rather than focusing a continous stream on them for several seconds. The secondary fire unscrews the entire fuel cannister and hurls it like a grenade, which causes it to explode on impact, briefly creating a wall of flames that sets anything it touches on fire. The secondary fire isn't very useful as it takes a few seconds to wind up and is pretty much a waste of fuel, but you can feel free to use it when the fuel cannister's almost empty anyway. Flamethrowers and the fuel cannisters for them are fairly rare, so you won't use them all that often. They can be very useful in particular situations, such as when battling mutants in Capek's Zoo. ================= =Semi-Automatic:= =============================================================================== 12mm Pistol: Ammo Type: 12mm bullets Clip Size: 16 Maximum Ammo: 125 + 16 SP Damage: 40 MP Damage: 25 Damage Type: Bullet Accuracy: 4/5 (slow fire), 2/5 (rapid fire) You'll pick up a pistol from a fallen Ultor guard almost as soon as the game starts, and it will serve you well for a large portion of the game. The pistol is an excellent weapon... although it's semi-automatic, it has a very high rate of fire as long as you tap the fire button quickly enough. Additionally, the pistol is reasonably accurate at medium range, and the bullets are powerful enough to kill most Ultor guards with 4 to 5 chestshots or a single headshot. Even when you pick up more powerful weapons such as the shotgun, the submachinegun, or the assault rifle, you'll still sometimes find yourself using the pistol to save ammo. The only drawback of the pistol is that the accuracy decreases drastically when you fire rapidly with it. In order to hit targets consistently at long range, you need to fire very slowly and pause between each shot. Rapid-firing the pistol is still effective when fighting at close range, where speed is more important than accuracy. The pistol also has an optional silencer attachment that you can attach or remove with the secondary fire. The silencer reduces the pistol's noise level so that nearby guards won't be alerted to your presence when you fire a shot. Although the pistol's an excellent all-purpose weapon, it is somewhat under-powered when facing multiple enemies or tougher opponents such as Elite Guards, Mercs, or enemy vehicles, in which case you should break out the bigger guns. On Hard and Impossible difficulty, the pistol becomes somewhat less useful, because enemies do much more damage to you and thus you can no longer afford to stand in the enemy's line of fire. On Impossible difficulty, the only way to fight enemies without dying rapidly is to shoot them at long range, outside the accurate range of their weapons. To do this with the pistol, you need to use very slow shots to ensure maximum accuracy. Automatic Shotgun: Ammo Type: 10-gauge shotgun shells Clip Size: 8 Maximum Ammo: 48 + 8 SP Damage: 40 x 8 (primary fire) / 40 x 4 (secondary fire) MP Damage: 35 x 8 (primary fire) / 35 x 4 (secondary fire) Damage Type: Bullet Accuracy: 2/5 (primary fire), 1/5 (secondary fire) You'll get this weapon from the riot guards inside the miners' barracks. It's your standard FPS shotgun, firing a tight burst of pellets (12 per shell) that do damage based on how many hit your foe. The primary fire is a pump-action shotgun that fires two shells worth of pellets at once but needs to be pumped after each shot, causing it to have a relatively slow rate of fire. The secondary fire is fully automatic, each shot only fires a single shell's worth of pellets, but the shotgun can fire consecutive rapid bursts for as long as you hold down the secondary fire button, until the clip is completely empty. The primary fire is excellent. The spread is reasonably tight, so that you'll get decent damage against enemies even if they're a couple dozen feet away from you. A single shot will usually kill a normal Ultor guard even at medium range. Unfortunately, since the primary fire uses up 2 shells at once, you'll only have 4 shots before needing to reload. The secondary fire can be devastating up close, but the pellet spread is much wider and thus is much less effective than the primary fire at anything past close range. The secondary fire also eats up ammo like crazy, and since you can only carry a small number of shotgun shells at one time, you'll tend to run out of ammo if you use it too much. Because of the low ammo capacity, low rate of fire, and limited range, the shotgun is more of an alternative weapon to use when you want to conserve submachine gun or assault rifle ammo, rather than a preferred default weapon in its own right. Still, it's a decent weapon for the game's early levels, and a good one-hit-kill weapon against the Ultor guards. On Hard or Impossible difficulty, the shotgun becomes somewhat more useful, because of the greater need to deliver a large amount of damage in a short amount of time. On the higher difficulty settings you can no longer go toe-to-toe with Ultor guards and exchange fire with them. instead, you'll need to take cover, strafe out just long enough to fire off a shot, then strafe back behind cover before the enemy can retaliate. The shotgun's primary fire is pretty good for this as each single shot does lots of damage. Sniper Rifle: Ammo Type: .50 caliber AP rounds Clip Size: 6 Maximum Ammo: 36 + 6 SP Damage: 250 (375 vs flesh) MP Damage: 150 Damage Type: Armor-Piercing Bullet Accuracy: 5/5 (zoomed), 3/5 (unzoomed) A rifle. For sniping. The sniper rifle's very powerful against human enemies, capable of killing Ultor guards with a single bullet and Elite Guards or Mercs with a headshot. It's zoom feature also lets you pick off enemies from a distance, outside the range of their weapons. The 12x sniper rifle scope has a VERY long zoom (at least when compared to most other FPS sniper rifles), but the usefulness is somewhat limited by the fact that most of the game takes place indoors at close to medium range. The sniper rifle's a great weapon in the game's few large outdoor areas, but much of the game takes place inside tight, narrow corridors that neutralize the advantage of the sniper scope. However even unzoomed the sniper rifle is still fairly accurate and can kill the weaker Ultor guards with a single shot, allowing you to run around and use it as a one-shot-kill gun (just be sure to zoom for medium or long range kills, as the rifle is still somewhat inaccurate when unzoomed). Unfortunately, ammo for the sniper rifle is relatively scarce, which means you'll have to conserve your shots and rein in the desire to kill every bad guy from 100 feet away. The sniper rifle also has a relatively low rate of fire, and it doesn't do quite enough damage to be effective against the tougher opponents like Elite Guards or Mercs that you encounter in the game's later levels. Still, its quite a nice weapon in the game's first half, although you'll eventually replace it with the precision rifle when the Mercs show up. Precision Rifle: Ammo Type: 5.65mm explosive-tipped AP rounds Clip Size: 20 Maximum Ammo: 80 + 20 SP Damage: 125 (190 vs. flesh) MP Damage: 60 Damage Type: Armor-Piercing Bullet Accuracy: 5/5 An excellent weapon that's dropped by most Mercs in the second half of the game, the precision rifle combines the power, range, and accuracy of the sniper rifle with a large clip size and a quick semi-automatic rate of fire. You'll depend primarily on this weapon while battling the Mercs, not only because it does great damage against them but also because ammo for it is quite plentiful since the majority of Mercs carry it. Like the pistol, the precision rifle is semi-automatic; it has a very quick rate of fire, but only if you can tap the fire button fast enough. three or four shots, quickly delivered in the space of a second, can easily drop a Merc before he has a chance to retaliate with his own weapon. The precision rifle is excellent against Mercs, but since it only carries 20 shots per clip, there's a chance you can run out and need to reload in the middle of a firefight if you encounter a group of several Mercs. Against large Merc groups, the heavy machinegun may be preferable since it has a higher clip size and thus won't need to be reloaded as frequently. Precision rifle ammo is much more common than heavy machinegun ammo, though, so the precision rifle is probably best against small groups of 2 or 3 Mercs. The secondary fire is a sniper zoom similar to the sniper rifle's, allowing you to pick off enemies from a distance. Take out Mercs at long range whenever possible, as it reduces the chances of them hitting you with their own rifles. Just be sure to try and fire from behind cover whenever possible, because mercs CAN still hit you at long range. The precision rifle is a great weapon with only one very minor drawback: you can only carry a total of 100 bullets for it, which you can quickly burn through when firing rapidly. ======== =Heavy:= =============================================================================== Assault Rifle: Ammo Type: 5.56mm AP rounds Clip Size: 42 Maximum Ammo: 200 + 42 SP Damage: 60 (90 vs. flesh) MP Damage: 40 Damage Type: Armor-Piercing BUllet Accuracy: 4/5 (primary fire), 2/5 (secondary fire) The strongest rifle used by the standard Ultor guards, the Assault Rifle is generally wielded by the high-ranking guard captains. The primary fire shoots a quick 3-shot burst that's highly accurate, but requires a split second pause between each burst. The secondary fire is full-out automatic fire, spraying bullets as quickly as the submachine gun, but with twice the amount of inaccuracy. To conserve bullets it's generally best to stick to the primary fire, since a single 3-shot burst is generally enough to kill an Ultor guard. The 3-shot burst primary fire is extremely accurate, and is great at picking off enemies from a distance. It will be your weapon of choice on Hard or Impossible difficulty, as it allows you to pick off Ultor guards outside the range of their highly damaging firearms. The fully automatic secondary fire is less useful, since it's one of the most inaccurate firearm modes in the game, but it can be useful at close range to kill enemy guards that get too close for comfort to you. The assault rifle is a great weapon that you'll find after an hour or so of gameplay, useful at both medium and long range and against a wide variety of enemies. It's your weapon of choice against Ultor guards, and can even be used against the Mercs in a pinch (although the precision rifle is definately preferrable). Just try not to waste the bullets for it. Oh, and the digital ammo read-out on the side of the weapon is pretty cool, if not particularly useful. Submachine gun: Ammo Type: 12mm bullets / 5.56mm rounds Clip Size: 30(12mm) / 20(5.56mm) Maximum Ammo: 200 + 30(12mm) / 200 + 20(5.56mm) SP Damage: 40(12mm) / 45(5.56mm) MP Damage: 30(12mm) / 50(5.56mm) Damage Type: Bullet Accuracy: 3/5 An MP5-style submachine gun, this weapon isn't as accurate as the pistol and doesn't do a large amount of damage, but it has a high rate of fire and is fully automatic, spraying bullets into your enemies. The 12mm pistol can fire almost as quickly as long as you can tap the fire button quickly enough, but the submachine gun can be useful when facing many enemies, or a few particularly tough enemies such as Elite Guards. It's also an excellent weapon for close range combat and room clearing, and is accurate enough to do the job at medium range. Just don't try sniping with it. A few Ultor guards carry submachine guns in the game's middle levels, and they're standard equipment for the Ultor Elite Guards. The submachine gun's secondary fire switches the gun's ammo type, it can use either pistol ammo or assault rifle ammo. Assault rifle ammo is a tiny bit more powerful and can pierce walls, but the difference isn't really significant so you're best off sticking to pistol ammo. Conserve assault rifle ammo for use with the assault rifle, as that weapon does much more damage with it than the submachine gun does. The submachine gun is a good all-purpose weapon for close-to-medium range combat. Against single enemies, the pistol is normally preferable since the SMG uses up ammo more quickly, but the SMG is great for clearing rooms of multiple enemies. NOTE: Due to a coding error, 5.56mm rounds are NOT considered armor-piercing bullets when used with the submachine gun. Heavy Machinegun: Ammo Type: 7.62mm AP rounds Clip Size: 99 Maximum Ammo: 240 + 99 SP Damage: 75 (115 vs. flesh) MP Damage: 45 Damage Type: Armor-Piercing Bullet Accuracy: 3/5 (primary fire), 4/5 (secondary fire) While the majority of Masako's Mercs carry precision rifles, it's quite common for several of the heavy Mercs to carry heavy machineguns, and you can swipe one from them after you kill them. Besides having a high rate of fire and doing more damage than the smaller assault rifle or submachinegun, the heavy machinegun also has a huge ammo clip and can fire 99 bullets before needing to reload. On the down side, the primary fire is somewhat inaccurate, although it's not nearly as bad as the assault rifle's secondary fire (in fact, the primary fire of the heavy machinegun is actually of average accuracy, comparable to that of the submachine gun). The heavy machinegun's secondary fire has a somewhat reduced rate of fire, but it's much more accurate. It's no precision rifle, but most of your bullets will hit where-ever you point the targeting cursor, even at long range. The primary fire is excellent against Mercs at close or medium range, just unload a hail of bullets at them while strafing left and right like crazy. The primary fire's wide spread actually works in your favor as your aim doesn't need to be dead-on to hit the Mercs, allowing you to dodge around more to avoid Merc bullets. Not only will you damage them quickly, but the suppression fire will causes the Mercs to flee and take cover rather than fire back at you. The heavy machinegun is great for mowing down groups of Mercs and makes the later levels much easier, but the only caveat is you can burn through your ammo fairly quickly (although this isn't a huge problem since a reasonable number of Mercs carry heavy machinegun ammo). Rail Driver: Ammo Type: Rail bolts Clip Size: 1 Maximum Ammo: 10 + 1 SP Damage: 2550 MP Damage: 587 Damage Type: Armor-Piercing Bullet Accuracy: 5/5 Red Faction's ultimate weapon, which you'll receive a couple levels after the initial appearance of Masako's Mercs. Firing an aluminum spike several inches long at close to the speed of light, the Rail Driver hits instantly where-ever you aim at, and can drill through walls, doors, and several warm bodies and kills most enemies in a single shot. The chamber only holds one spike, however, and it takes a few seconds to reload after each shot, so you'll have to make each shot count. To top it off you can only hold a total of 11 spikes at one time, so you'll have to use it wisely. Fortunately, Mercs drop ammo for the rail driver on a reasonably consistent basis. You also have to be extremely accurate with this weapon, since the projectile must hit your target directly to cause damage, making it difficult to use against enemies that strafe around a lot, like the Mercs. The secondary fire is the real crown jewel of this weapon, as it activates a heat-seeing scope that allows you to see enemies' heat-signatures through walls. Not only does this help you spot potential ambushes, but you can also use it to shoot enemies through walls with the Rail Driver before they even spot you. Picking off Mercs through the wall before they spot you makes the last few levels of the game much, much easier. Don't worry to much about conserving rail driver ammo, Merc commanders drop these on a reasonably regular basis, and each Merc Commander normally drops about 4 rail driver rounds each. ============ =Explosive:= =============================================================================== Remote Charge: Ammo Type: Remote Charge Packs Clip Size: 1 Maximum Ammo: 20 SP Damage: 500 MP Damage: 350 Damage Type: Explosion Remote detonated explosive packs used for mining, you can find stacks of these laying around Ultor's underground mines. Remote charges are designed for clearing away rubble and debris, and you can use them to blow holes in mine tunnels and geo-mod through the landscape. Because they're high explosives, you can also use them to kill bad guys. Pressing the fire button will throw the remote charge several feet in front of you, pressing the fire button again will activate the charge's remote detonator and blow it up. You can place remote charges on the ground and lure enemies toward them, or you can actually toss the charges onto most human enemies. The explosives will adhere to their bodies, and they'll run around screaming in terror and flailing their arms in the air as they wait for you to blow them up (Mercs, Capek, and Masako can quickly throw off explosives, unfortunately). You can throw charges on the ground and use them as traps by detonating them when an enemy runs past, but this tactic has limited usefulness. It's only effective in narrow corridors, otherwise there's no guarantee enemies will be near enough to the charge when it explodes. Enemies are also smart enough to try and shoot any explosive charges they see lying around, so there's a good chance they'll blow up your trap from a distance rather than stepping near it. Still, you can occasionally nail enemies with this trick, although it's normally simpler just to walk up to them and fill them full of lead. Remote charges can also be used as distractions. If an enemy spots one, they'll often attempt to shoot it in order to detonate it harmlessly. While they're distracted trying to shoot the remote charge, you can go ahead and shoot them. Remote charges have a limited throwing range and become less and less common in the game's later levels, so you probably won't use them very much throughout the game. They can be useful in certain specific situations, however. Rocket Launcher: Ammo Type: Rockets Clip Size: 6 Maximum Ammo: 18 + 6 SP Damage: 400 MP Damage: 275 Damage Type: Explosion You'll pick up the rocket launcher surprisingly early on the game, during the first few levels. The rockets it fires do a relatively decent amount of explosive damage, but the weapon is hampered by its relatively slow-moving projectiles, its somewhat slow rate of fire, small splash damage radius, and the relative rarity of the ammo it uses. The splash damage usually isn't big enough to kill multiple enemies, and you need to fire multiple rockets to kill the stronger opponents like Elite Guards or Mercs. While a single rocket is powerful enough to kill the regular Ultor guards, bullets are generally more effective. Still, the rocket launcher is useful against big, armored opponents such as enemy vehicles or robots, and thanks to Geo-Mod you can use it to tunnel through the landscape. The rocket launcher's secondary fire allows you to lock onto enemies, causing the rocket to home in on them. To use the secondary fire, point the rocket launcher's aiming reticule at an enemy, then hold down the secondary fire button. The rocket launcher will emit an increasingly rapid beeping sound, and when the beeping sound becomes a steady hum the rocket will have locked onto your enemy, and you can release the secondary fire button to fire a homing rocket. Releasing the secondary fire button before a lock has been established will fire a regular old non-homing rocket. Finally, a computer screen scope attached to the side of the rocket launcher serves as a thermal imaging sensor, showing the thermal outline of any enemies in front of the rocket launcher. This is a cool feature that allows you to see bad guys even through walls, but since you can't use it to aim and since the rocket launcher can't fire through walls, it's not nearly as useful as the thermal imaging scope on the rail driver. Because the rockets fired from the launcher travel somewhat slowly, it's actually rather easy for enemy guards to strafe out of their way. You can get somewhat better results by aiming at their feet, but they sometimes strafe outside the blast radius before the rocket hits. The homing function of the secondary fire is extremely accurate, but takes a few seconds to lock onto an enemy. The secondary fire is mostly useless up close since enemies can shoot you up while you're waiting for the rocket to lock on. It can be very useful at long range, however, especially for striking fast-moving enemies that would otherwise be difficult to hit. One final quirk of the rocket launcher is that the rockets are NOT fired at the center of the crosshair. Instead, they'll hit slightly down and to the right of where the crosshair is. Keep this in mind and compensate for it whenever you fire off a rocket manually. Grenade: Ammo Type: Grenades Clip Size: 1 Maximum Ammo: 8 SP Damage: 150 MP Damage: 250 Damage Type: Explosion Futuristic, computerized weapons shaped like old WWI German potato mashers, despite their high-tech appearance these items behave pretty much like their 20th century counterparts... throw them at a bad guy and watch them go boom. Throwing with the primary fire tosses a timed grenade that bounces off objects and explodes after a set amount of time. The fuse on the grenades is VERY long, and it takes several seconds for the grenade to explode. Throwing with the secondary fire tosses an impact grenade that explodes as soon as it hits something. Grenades are uncommon, but that's OK because they're actually not that useful either. Their range is limited, their splash damage radius is actually pretty small, and it takes a couple seconds to activate, wind back, and toss them... time which could have been better used shooting half a dozen bullets at your enemies with a gun. I never ended up using grenades during the game, mostly because of the annoying two second delay it takes to throw one. Theoretically you could try hiding behind a low barrier and chucking grenades over it at your enemies, but I never encountered such a situation while playing the game. On the higher difficulties, grenades have some slight usefulness, in that you can toss them around corners to kill enemies, to avoid exposing yourself directly to their line of fire. Fusion Rocket Launcher: Ammo Type: Fusion Rockets Clip Size: 1 Maximum Ammo: 5 + 1 SP Damage: 1000 MP Damage: 1500 Damage Type: Explosion The Fusion Rocket Launcher is the last and biggest weapon you'll obtain. It fires a single energy rocket which travels very slowly, but which makes an enormous nuclear explosion upon impact, killing almost everything within its blast radius (try not to look directly at the blast). Like the Rail Driver, the Fusion Rocket Launcher can only carry one projectile at a time, and must be reloaded after each shot. It's excellent for clearing out large groups of bad guys, but you won't pick it up until the very end of the game, and ammo is incredibly scarce for it. Of course, with such a powerful weapon you don't really need a fast rate of fire. Unfortunately, this weapon takes up almost 1/3 of the screen, seriously blocking your view. The Fusion Rocket Launcher doesn't have a secondary fire, but then again it doesn't need one. Heavy Mercs will bring out Fusion Rocket Launchers to destroy you in the game's last few levels after you destroy Ultor's space station, and you should be able to pick one up from them then. ********** *Enemies:* ******************************************************************************* NOTES: On the higher difficulty settings, enemies do more damage with their weapons and strafe and evade more often instead of standing still. Enemies also appear to be slightly more accurate on the higher difficulties, but the difference isn't too dramatic (unlike, say, Halo's Legendary mode). Enemy health and durability is the same regardless of difficulty level. Damage values for enemy weapons are for Normal difficulty. On Easy difficulty, enemies do less than half as much damage (150% less damage). On Hard difficulty, enemies do approximately 60% more damage. On Impossible difficulty, enemies do more than twice as much damage (approximately 125% more). Impossible difficulty is extremely difficult. At full health and armor, Ultor guards can kill you in approximately 9 shots, while Mercs can kill you in 4 shots. Thus, on Impossible difficulty you and your enemies are nearly physically equal in terms of how much punishment you can take. Damage values indicate how much total damage a weapon does. If the player is wearing armor, half of the total damage is taken from health and the other half from armor. (At full health and armor, you essentially can survive 200 damage). Enemies also take 50% damage to their health if they have armor left.(So a Merc with 200 health and 250 armor would be able to survive 400 damage). Shots to the head do about 5.125 times the damage a shot to the chest would (thus, a headshot from the pistol would do 205 damage instead of the usual 40 damage). You cannot headshot robots or non-human mutants. Likewise, shots to the arms or legs do somewhat less damage than a normal shot to the chest would. Enemies use the same weapons as you, but the amount of damage they do with them is seriously reduced. For some reason, large enemies such as the Rock Worm and the Combot have significantly reduced health if you fight them after loading from a savegame on the same level as they are. ============================ =Allies and Non-combatants:= =============================================================================== Not everyone on Mars is trying to kill you. Fellow miners and Red Faction fighters are your allies, and will even fight on your side (albeit very poorly) in a few minor encounters. You'll also encounter many civilian employees of Ultor throughout the game, and although these people will fear and dispise you, they aren't actually armed with weapons and thus are technically non-hostiles. Red Faction Miner: Appearance: Miner in red envirosuit (outdoors) or red prisoner-like coveralls (indoors) Weaponry: Varies Health: 100 Armor: 100 Difficulty: None Members of the Red Faction rebellion against Ultor, miners (the guys in the red envirosuits) will fight on your side against any enemies you encounter. Unfortunately, miners are lousy fighters. In any given situation where you find miners battling security guards or Mercs, the miners will always lose unless you step in and interfere. In some cases the miners are simply outmatched (such as when battling Mercs), but often they're scripted to die the moment you step into a room. Throughout the game you'll find miners wielding a variety of weapons, from pistols to sniper rifles to rocket launchers. You actually won't find very many miners helping you, usually you'll only come across a couple of them during a few scripted sequences in the game. Eos: Appearance: Brunette woman wearing light armor, with a broken visor covering the Plague-deformed half of her face. Weaponry: Submachine gun (7 damage) Health: 500 Armor: 200 Difficulty: None Eos, the pushy Red Faction leader, will blast in to help you in the boss fight against Capek. She's somewhat helpful with her SMG, but most of the responsibility for killing Capek falls to you. Eos' has quite a lot of health and can survive a few more hits than you can, but it is quite possible for her to die in the fight after 3 or 4 shots from Capek. To avoid this, you need to shoot Capek constantly so he'll target you instead of Eos. Hendrix: Appearance: Black man wearing a blue Ultor technician uniform. Weaponry: None Health: 100 Armor: 0 Difficulty: None Hendrix, the guy who's been yakking with you on the radio through the game, shows up in the last couple levels. You'll need to follow him around and prevent Masako's Mercs from killing him. Hendrix is unarmed and unarmored, but fortunately he's smart enough to avoid combat and usually takes cover in a safe area. Enemies also won't target him, but he can still be killed by splash damage or a stray shot. Ultor Medic: Appearance: Male medic in white uniform with red cross, Female medic in nurse's uniform Weaponry: Healing Hypo Health: 25 Difficulty: None Ultor medics are sworn to heal anyone that needs their help, even Red Faction rebels such as yourself. Talk to them and they can heal you to 100 health an infinite number of times. Only medics equipped with a hypo will be able to heal you, the others will simply tell you that they're out of supplies. Medics come in both male and female varieties, but the males generally have hypos and the females generally don't (although this isn't always the case). Like civilians, medics will cower in terror if you approach them with your weapon drawn. Since they're no help to you in such a condition, you'll have to exit the room, holster your weapon, and wait a few minutes for the medic to calm down. Since medics can restore your health to full an infinite number of times, it's a good idea to keep them alive and revisit them whenever you need a pick-me-up. They're especially important on Impossible difficulty, where you'll burn through health very quickly and will definately need a infinite renewable source of it. Ultor Employee: Appearance: Technicians in uniforms, men in bio-hazard suits, executives in business suits, scientists in lab coats, etc. Weaponry: None Health: 25 / 75 Difficulty: None Workers, scientists, and executives employed by the Ultor corporation, civilians will neither support nor hinder you throughout the game. If you try to talk to them they'll simply refuse to help you, and if you approach them with your weapon drawn they'll either cower in terror or run away calling for the guards. In the spirit of the game (RED Faction... not particularly subtle) you can kill the capitalist scum if you're feeling particularly Marxist, but usually there's no point in wasting your ammo (unless of course you're in a stealth mission where keeping the guards unalert to your presence is important). Ultor Employees rarely if ever drop items or ammo, so even if you don't give a damn about commiting war crimes, killing them is still pretty much just a waste of bullets. ============== =Ultor Guards= =============================================================================== The boys in blue, easily distinguished from miners by their blue envirosuits and uniforms. These folks will be your primary adversaries throughout the game, and you'll fight them in practically every level until about 3/4ths into the game when the Mercs show up. They're smart enough to occasionally strafe away from your shots, take cover behind obstacles, and temporarily flee when injured, but their low durability, rather bad aim, poor selection of weaponry, and tendency to stand in the same spot for long periods of time while firing make them more of a nuisance than a challenge. Still, they can wear away at your health and armor as you face wave after wave of them, especially in some of the later levels where health and armor refills are scarce. Ultor Envirosuit Guard: Appearance: Man in blue, lightly armored envirosuit Weaponry: Control Baton (2 damage) 12mm Pistol (10 damage) Shotgun (40 damage) Submachine gun (7 damage) Assault Rifle (10 damage) Sniper Rifle (47 damage) Rocket Launcher (20 damage) Grenades (72 damage) Health: 100 Armor: 100 Difficulty:** When operating in the cold, airless enviroments exposed to the Martian atmosphere, Ultor guards wear their armored envirosuits into combat. Their envirosuits provide just a wee bit more protection than the bulletproof vests they wear indoors, but it really doesn't make that much of a difference; the small amount of extra armor merely means they can survive an additional bullet before dying. They're still easily dispatched with a few pistol shots, a single shotgun blast, or a single headshot from any weapon. Both regular security guards and guard captains can be found wearing envirosuits, and thus some envirosuit guards can be found using regular security guard weapons, while others pack captain-level weapons such as assault rifles and even sniper rifles. During the first few levels, a few envirosuit guards will try to rush up and whack you with control batons, these guards are particularly pathetic due to their limited range and measily damage (although they do run at you surprisingly fast). A few envirosuit-wearing guards also use rocket launchers or grenades against you, but the damage done is surprisingly light, and it's not too tough to dodge the incoming rockets at medium or long range. Ultor Security Guard: Appearance: Man in blue uniform with helmet and bulletproof vest Weaponry: 12mm Pistol (10 damage) Shotgun (40 damage) Submachine gun (7 damage) Health: 100 Armor: 50 Difficulty: ** The most common, lowest ranking member of Ultor's security forces, these regular security guards are equipped with the poorest weapons and are the easiest to terminate. Their bulletproof vests barely provide any protection against your weapons, and it only takes a few bullets or a single headshot to bring them down. Guards equipped with pistols or submachine guns have rather poor aim, and at medium range will often only hit you with only a few bullets from an entire clip. Coupled with the low damage done by their attacks, and these guards are barely a threat as long as you're even halfway competant. Guards armed with shotguns can be somewhat tougher, but as long as you keep your distance the damage from their attacks will be significantly reduced. At first security guards are mostly armed with 12mm pistols, but in the later levels they'll be more likely to use shotguns and submachine guns against you. Ultor Riot Guard: Appearance: Man in padded blue riot armor with yellow chest protector and boxy helmet with opaque faceplate Weaponry: Control Baton (2 damage) Shotgun (40 damage) Rocket Launcher (20 damage) Health: 150 Armor: 200 Difficulty: ** Ultor sends in riot guards after the first few levels to suppress the spreading rebellion in mine M-4 and the nearby miner's barracks. Some riot guards are equipped only with control batons, and thus shouldn't pose much of a challenge. However, many of them carry combat shotguns, especially inside the miner's barracks, which makes them the deadliest guards you'll face in the game's first few levels. Fortunately, they only use the shotgun's primary fire, so their actual rate of fire is fairly low. Also, due to the shotgun's spread, they don't do much damage at long range, allowing you to pick them off from a distance with your pistol. They can still do serious harm to you in narrow spaces and close quarters, though. Many riot guards can withstand somewhat more damage than the regular guards, but the difference isn't significant: it only takes a few bullets more to bring them down. You'll mainly encounter riot guards inside the miner's barracks near the beginning of the game, and won't be seeing them afterwards. Ultor Guard Captain: Appearance: Ultor guard in dark blue uniform with yellow-trim shoulder pads and red helmet visor Weaponry: Assault Rifle (10 damage) Sniper Rifle (47 damage) Health: 100 Armor: 75 Difficulty: ** These higher-level Ultor guards are equipped with assault rifles, and can be distinguished by their red helmet visors and gold-trimmed shoulder pads, as well as the yellow stripe that runs down the middle of their helmet. They like to spray bullets rapidly with their assault rifle's secondary fire, and are a little tougher and more agile than the regular Ultor guards. They're still not anything to write home about, especially since their aim is just as bad as that of the regular Ultor guards. Just be sure to take cover when you see them and kill them quickly with your own assault rifle, because the damage from their attacks can quickly add up, especially when you confront them in groups or alongside other Ultor guards. Guard captains are fairly common later in the game, you'll usually encounter one or two leading each group of Ultor guards you face. A couple guard captains are specialized snipers, and they can do serious damage to you if you get into their line of fire without realizing they're there. Fortunately guard captains armed with sniper rifles are extremely rare; almost all guard captains are equipped with assault rifles. Ultor Elite Guard: Appearance: Futuristic Secret Service Guy with dark sunglasses, comm headset, crew-cut, beige uniform, and bulletproof vest. Weaponry: Submachine gun (7 damage) Health: 500 Armor: 250 Difficulty:*** The personal bodyguards of Ultor's corporate executives, Elite Guards are incredibly tough, and if you think they'll go down as easily as the regular guards you fought before, you'll be in for an unpleasant surprise. Though they're 'only' armed with submachine guns, Elite Guards have excellent aim and can really reduce your health quickly if you don't try to get out of their line of fire. They're also more agile and intelligent than regular guards, and they can rapidly strafe out of your line of fire to avoid your shots, and can even drop and roll to evade you. Additionally, Elite Guards tend to have better armor and are often much more durable than the regular Ultor guards. The Elite Guards in the Admin Area near Gryphon's office can survive twice as much damage as a regular Ultor guard, while Capek's personal bodyguards are incredibly tough and can survive 4 to 6 times as much damage. Elite Guards are also the only human enemies in the game who do not take extra damage from armor-piercing rounds. Elite Guards can also resist a few seconds worth of fire damage, although when set on fire they still run around screaming just like regular guards. This makes the flamethrower an excellent weapon against them, but since ammo is so scarce for it you probably won't be able to use it very much. Ideally you should either snipe them with the sniper rifle at a distance outside their range of fire, or in close quarters engage them with the submachine gun or the assault rifle's secondary fire, as the repeated bullet hits will stun them and prevent them from attacking as often. =================== =Ultor Mercenaries= =============================================================================== Masako's Mercenaries show up in the later half of the game, after you kill Capek, and they quickly replace the Ultor guards as your primary enemies. Unlike the guards, Mercs are skilled and dangerous enemies that can kill you real quick if you're not prepared. Like the Elite Guards, they're much more agile and difficult to hit than the regular guards, constantly strafing out of the way when you try to point your gun at them. Remote charges don't adhere well to the Mercs' armored envirosuits, and will slip off and fall to the ground after a couple of seconds. Their heavy armor makes them resistant to flames, and it takes several seconds of being soaked in napalm before they catch fire. Mercs also continue to fight to the death when on fire, instead of running around and screaming in pain like guards do. The most dangerous thing about Mercs is that their weapons have a high rate of fire and do lots of damage; even if you're at full health and armor, their standard precision rifle can kill you in just 8 hits on Normal difficulty. With extremely damaging weapons and high durability, the Mercs increase the difficulty of the game by several orders of magnitude once they begin to appear. Ultor Grunt Mercenary: Appearance: Man in average-sized armored combat envirosuit with reflective faceplate (looks somewhat like Cobra Commander). Weaponry: Precision Rifle (25 damage) Grenades (72 damage) Flamethrower (1 damage) Health: 200 Armor: 250 Difficulty:*** The most common Mercs, Merc grunts are armed with precision rifles, which have a decent rate of fire, high accuracy, and do a significant amount of damage. Don't even think about trying to take these guys on with the weapons you got from the Ultor guards. Mercs can survive more than twice as much damage as the regular Ultor guards. It takes several submachine gun or assault rifle bullets or 2 or 3 headshots to bring down a Merc, during which time they'll be seriously hurting you with their much more damaging precision rifles. Instead, fight them with their own weapons. A few chest shots or a single headshot from the precision rifle will easily kill a Merc, and by tapping the fire button rapidly instead of holding it down you can fire the rifle several times in a split second. Occasionally it's possible to shoot them from long range with the assault rifle's primary fire, but for close encounters you really need to use the precision rifle. Be sure to make extensive use of cover while fighting mercs. Never stay in their line of sight for longer than a couple seconds, and strafe like crazy whenever you're within their line of fire. Inside the Merc Barracks in the game's last few levels, a few Merc grunts carry grenades instead of a rifle, but as long as you keep your distance from them they shouldn't pose too much of a threat, and sometimes even help you out by accidentally killing a few of their fellows with their careless grenade throwing. Also inside the Merc Barracks are several grunts carrying flamethrowers, and they can be murderous in close quarters as their flamethrowers will rapidly eat away at your armor and then your health as long as you're being set on fire. Be sure to quickly back away from any grunts you see with a flamethrower, and gun them down from a distance. Ultor Heavy Mercenary: Appearance: Man in extremely bulky combat armor with metal chestplates, wearing a boxy helmet with reflective faceplate. Weaponry: Precision Rifle (25 damage) Heavy Machinegun (21 damage) Fusion Rocket Launcher (79 damage) Health: 400 Armor: 750 Difficulty:*** Recognizable by their larger frame and bulkier armor, heavy Mercs are real powerhouses and can withstand a large amount of damage before going down. They're also equipped with some seriously big guns. Although heavy Mercs sometimes use precision rifles, more often than not they'll attack you with heavy machineguns. Some Heavy Mercs will even attack with fusion rocket launchers in the game's last few levels. Heavy Mercs can be murderous in close quarters due to their heavy machinegun's extremely high rate of fire, but their accuracy suffers greatly at long range and thus they're somewhat less dangerous than Mercs with precision rifles when engaged at a distance. Heavy Mercs can also survive almost twice as much damage as the regular Merc grunts, so be prepared to really lay into them when you fight them. Both the precision rifle and the heavy machinegun work relatively well against heavy Mercs, with the heavy machinegun being slightly better since it's high rate of fire and large spread make it easier to hit Mercs even when they strafe around, and the supression fire effect will often cause Mercs to retreat instead of firing back at you. Towards the end of the game heavy Mercs armed with fusion rocket launchers start to show up, but although they can knock out a large chunk of your health and armor, they can't kill you instantly like Merc commanders carrying rail drivers. The fusion rocket launcher makes a very big boom and the flash will blind you for a brief second, but the fusion projectile moves relatively slowly and you can actually survive a couple of direct hits. The big difficulty that comes up when facing fusion rocket launcher-armed Mercs is that the explosion radius is so large it's almost impossible to completely avoid the blast, so no matter how quickly you try to dodge you'll still take some splash damage. Mercs armed with fusion rocket launchers also carry precision rifles, which they will pull out if you get too close for them to safely fire their launchers. Ultor Commander Mercenary: Appearance: Man in slightly bulky combat armor with shoulder pads and plastic breastplate, wearing a boxy helmet with reflective faceplate. Weaponry: Precision Rifle (25 damage) Rail Driver (690 damage) Health: 250 Armor: 400 Difficulty:**** The leaders of Ultor's Merc forces are potentially the deadliest opponents you'll face in the game. Although they sometimes fight with only precision rifles and can survive only slightly more damage than the regular Merc grunts, Merc Commanders are often armed with deadly rail drivers that are highly accurate and can kill you with a single shot. When dealing with Merc Commanders armed with rail drivers, your only hope is to strafe left and right like crazy and hope that they miss. This is no guarantee, however, as the Merc Commanders are extremely accurate and can even hit you when you're moving around. If you do manage to avoid their first shot, you should kill them immedietely while they're reloading before they can get in a second shot. Like all Mercs, they're best killed with either the precision rifle or the heavy machinegun. The precision rifle kills them more quickly, but the heavy machinegun allows you to concentrate on strafing and doesn't force you to waste time aiming precisely at them. You need to be extra vigilant when fighting Merc Commanders, as a single mis-step will result in an instant game over. Since Merc Commanders are so deadly, you don't want to face them head-on if you don't have to. If you know a Merc Commander is waiting for you on the other side of a door or wall, instead of running into their line of sight to fight them, it's actually a better idea to use the heat-scanning mode of your own rail driver to shoot them through the wall. Alternatively, if the Merc Commander has been alerted to your presence, you can camp the door and wait for them to open it, at which point you should kill them quickly before they can react. ================ =Robot Enemies:= =============================================================================== Besides facing a small army of security guards and mercenaries, you'll also have to deal with a few scattered security robots and automated turrets. Robotic enemies are fairly rare and only show up in a few select levels. There's a small variety of them, and while some of them are mere nuisances, others can be quite deadly. Although they're not actually wearing armor, their metal bodies serve as permanent armor giving them increased resistance against bullets. Robots generally take 50% damage from both bullets and armor-piercing bullets. The Ultor Combat Drone and Ultor Personnel Suppression Combot do not resist bullets, but still do not take extra damage from armor-piercing rounds. Sentry Turret: Appearance: Automated machine gun mounted on a tripod Weaponry: Machine gun (6 damage) Health: 400 Difficulty:*** Automated sentry guns positioned at various points in Ultor's installations, these sentry turrets lock onto you as soon as you step into their view, and begin blasting at you with a rapid flurry of machine gun fire. Turrets are more accurate and have a much higher rate of fire than security guards, and you can quickly lose quite a bite of health if you stand in their line of fire for more than a couple of seconds. Instead of facing them head-on, your best bet is to duck in and out of cover and blast them with either a rocket or a explosive. Ceiling Turret: Appearance: Gun sticking out of a small metal pod on the ceiling Weaponry: Machine gun (6 damage) Health: 60 Difficulty:* Small ceiling turrets are much less durable than the tripod-mounted variety, but they can be very annoying since you'll often not spot them when you run into a room until they already started to shoot bullets into you. They're difficult to spot since they're small and the same color as the rest of the ceiling, and you'll usually be too busy looking ahead for Ultor guards or Mercs to look up at the ceiling. Blow them away as quickly as possible with whatever weapon you happen to be carrying when you encounter them. Their range is limited, so if you know where they are you can snipe at them from a distance without being shot at. Capek Mecha Turret: Appearance: Yellow TIE-fighter shaped probe Weaponry: Machine gun (6 damage) Health: 30 Difficulty:* These crate-sized robot turrets slowly hover through the air towards you. You'll encounter a couple of of them guarding the entrance to Capek's Zoo. They attack you with weak machinegun fire, and they're also quite delicate... a couple bullets is all it takes to blow them up. Their small size makes them a bit difficult to hit, but you should manage well with the assault rifle's accurate primary fire. Spike Robot: Appearance: Floating grey cylinder with a glowing red monoeye on top Weaponry: TriLaser (50 damage, ignores armor) Health: 150 Difficulty:* Slightly tougher than the mecha turrets, spike robots also float through the air, but they attack with a powerful green energy ball. It takes them a couple of seconds to charge the energy shot, but it travels quickly and bypasses your armor entirely to do a whopping 50 damage directly to your health. The energy balls are fast but can still be dodged by strafing, but it's game over if you get hit by them more than once. The spike robots can also withstand a decent amount of damage as well. You should fight them from a distance, as the further away from them you are the more time you have to sidestep their shots. A couple bursts of the assault rifle should blow them up just fine. Mercenary Mecha Turret: Appearance: Yellow TIE-fighter shaped probe Weaponry: Laser (19 damage) Health: 30 Difficulty:** Merc mecha turrets are essentially the same as those used by Capek, except they're been upgraded to attacking with rapid-fire laser bolts. The laser bolts are almost as damaging as precision rifle bullets, but fortunately these mecha turrets are just as delicate as the Capek version. A single shot from your own precision rifle should be enough to kill them. You'll encounter them onboard the Ultor Orbital Space-station, where they can ambush you from way above or below if you're not careful. As long as you proceed carefully and destroy them before they can lock onto and start shooting at you, you should do fine against them. Just be careful, because they have a fondness for lurking just behind closed doors waiting to ambush you. Ultor Combat Drone: Appearance: 10-foot tall robot with a humanoid upper torso (with a pair of cannons for arms) and a spherical lower torso equipped with floating jets. Weaponry: Machine gun (6 damage) Rocket launcher (20 damage) Punch (fatality) Health: 2500 Difficulty:*** The Ultor Combat Drone awaits you in a large airlock located early in the game, shortly after you witness the destruction of the evacuation shuttle by Ultor's ground defenses. The Drone's right arm-cannon contains a machine gun, while its left arm-cannon contains a rocket launcher. Although neither weapon does a large amount of damage, the Drone's fast rate of fire can cause you to lose quite a bit of health if you don't take cover from its shots. The best place to take cover from the Drone's attacks is the pillar in the center of the room. Dodge out from behind it, fire a quick three bullet burst from your assault rifle, then dodge back behind the pillar before the Drone can retaliate. It's missiles will chip away at the pillar, but if you act quickly enough you should be able to destroy the Drone before it completely blows away your cover. Alternatively, you can try rapidly strafing left and right, as this allows you to dodge the majority of the Drone's machinegun fire as well as the rockets it launches. By the way, if you're stupid enough to walk up to the Drone it will punch you with one of it's cannon-arms, resulting in an instant death for you. So don't. The Ultor Combat Drone is a unique enemy, and you'll only face one of them throughout the entire game. Think of it as a mini-boss. ================= =Mutant Enemies:= =============================================================================== The results of nanotechnology experimentation by the mad scientist Capek, mutants are mainly encountered inside Capek's zoo, although you may run into a couple loose sea creatures wandering the Martian oceans or a few mutated miners being studied in various Ultor labratories. The smaller mutants are fast but weak, while a few of the larger ones are bigger than anything else you've previously faced. Because mutants are unarmored, they are extremely vulnerable to the flamethrower as a single flame is enough to ignite their exposed flesh. Baby Reaper: Appearance: Dog-sized mutant animal with the head of a wombat, the arms of a monkey, and the body of a rodent. Weaponry: Claw swipe (5 damage) Health: 75 Difficulty:* Capek's hungry little nanotech-created pets, baby reapers will swarm you while you explore the Martian tunnels near Capek's lab. Although they're individually weak, baby reapers like to gang up on you in groups, and their high speed and small size makes them somewhat difficult to hit with firearms. Since mutants need to stand still for a split second before they can claw at you, as long as you keep moving they shouldn't be able to hit you. Unfortunately, the Martian tunnels you encounter them in are narrow and twisted, and it's quite easy for them to back you up against a wall and whack you from several directions. Baby reapers run faster than you do, so you won't be able to outrun them either. Although it only takes a couple of bullets to kill them, due to their high speed and small size baby reapers can be somewhat difficult to hit with firearms, especially if you're also occupied dodging their attacks. The submachine gun works reasonably well against them, but if you're low on ammo the pistol also works if your aim is good enough. The secondary fire of the shotgun also works reasonably well, a single close-range blast should put a baby reaper down. If you're having trouble hitting the reapers, try crouching down so that your view is closer to ground level. A great weapon to use against reapers is the flamethrower, since it's wide arc makes it easy to hit reapers no matter how tiny and fast they are. A single burst of flame is all it takes to set them on fire, and they will often set additional reapers alight by running into them while burning. Since flamethrower ammo is so scarce in the Martian tunnels, you'll need to use very short bursts (just tap the fire button, never hold it down) and conserve as much fuel as possible. Reaper: Appearance: Adult version of the reaper, about the size of a large cow. Weaponry: Claw swipe (10 damage) Health: 300 Difficulty:** The adult version of the reaper is larger and meaner, yet just as fast as the smaller variety. It also does twice as much damage and can attack and move at the same time. They're also quite a bit tougher than the baby reapers, and can survive slightly more damage than human opponents. Although their larger size makes them a bigger target when compared to the baby versions, they can still be difficult to hit with firearms due to the speed at which they move. Due to their high durability the pistol may be a little inadequent against them, especially in close quarters, so it might be a good idea to switch to the assault rifle or shotgun when you see one of them come into view. As with the baby reapers, the flamethrower is the best weapon against them, but due to the rarity of ammo for it inside Capek's zoo you'll have to use it sparingly. Sea Creature: Appearance: Wrinkled, blue, dolphin-shaped monster-fish Weaponry: Sonic blast (20 damage, ignores armor) Health: 200 Difficulty:*** Nanotech-mutated dolphins swim in the icy Martian waters, attacking all trespassers with a fast-moving, long-range sonic pulse that bypasses armor to directly damage health. Their attack is very difficult to dodge since your movements are slowed while swimming underwater, so you should kill them as quickly as possible with a rapid flurry of pistol shots (the only weapon that works underwater). Their bluish coloration often allows them to blend in with the background, especially when they're far away, and it can be annoying when you start getting attacked underwater without being able to spot the source of the attacks. Because their attacks bypass your armor, they can kill you very quickly. Strafing a lot won't allow you to dodge all their shots, but at least you'll get hit less than if you just stood still. Mutant Human: Appearance: Hairless, naked, incredibly bloated/wrinkled/melted-looking ex-human with either a "regular" or cone-shaped head. Weaponry: Punch (10 damage) Health: 75 Difficulty:* Captured miners who have been subjected to nanotech injections by Capek. Although theoretically nanotech augmentation is the key to creating enhanced supersoldiers, so far all Capek's experiments have been able to produce are these poor misshapened mounds of putrid, wrinkled flesh. They behave pretty much like reapers, charging at you and attacking with their fists. Like reapers they're incredibly fast and tenacious, constantly running in your face while whacking you with double punches. Fortunately they're much less annoying than the baby reapers as their larger body mass makes it much easier to pump them full of lead. Put them out of their misery with a single shot to the head or a couple shots to the chest. Your best bet is to fire a burst at them with the submachine gun while backing away to keep clear of their fists. Much rarer than the reapers, you'll only encounter a handful of these creatures throughout the game. Rock Worm: Appearance: Huge, upright, 60-foot tall, subway train-sized worm with tentacle-filled maw Weaponry: Toxic spray (46 damage) Body flop (fatality) Health: 5000 Difficulty:*** This huge mutant worm is immobile, but spits a spray of greenish toxins at you with it's enormous mouth. The worm's toxic spray does a considerable amount of damage, but it'is actually quite easy to dodge by strafing, and it's possible to defeat the worm without taking a single hit. Although your initial instinct may be to battle this behemoth with the rocket launcher, in fact the assault rifle is much more effective against it. Use the accurate 3-burst primary fire mode, aiming at the creature's mouth, and you should be able to kill it surprisingly quickly. Keep as far away from the worm as possible, keep strafing left and right to avoid it's spit attack, and keep firing your assault rifle into it, and the worm should die after a clip or two. Just be careful the creature's corpse doesn't fall on you when it dies, or else you'll be crushed to death. Also, do not approach the creature while it's still alive, or else it will body flop onto you, crushing you into a gory pulp. There's only one of these in the game, at the end of Capek's Zoo guarding the entrance to his underground lab. Baby Rock Worm: Appearance: Pint-sized version of the Rock Worm, still 25 feet tall and as long as a school bus. Weaponry Toxic spray(30 damage) Body flop (fatality) Health: 2000 Difficulty:*** A Jr. version of the Rock Worm, this creature is still larger than almost anything else you've previously seen. The Baby Rock Worm behaves pretty much the same as the regular Rock Worm, except it's toxic spray does slightly less damage, and it can only survive less than half the amount of damage its big daddy can. You'll find it in a large chamber just below the original Rock Worm, and shouldn't be much of a challenge after you've already killed the larger version. Just strafe left and right while unloading into it with the assault rifle's primary fire until it collapses. ================= =Enemy Vehicles:= =============================================================================== Enemy vehicles are quite tough, but fortunately you'll usually only encounter them in action sequences where you have access to a vehicle of your own. Enemy vehicles are extremely well armored. They are completely bulletproof against small-arms fire, and the pistol, SMG, shotgun, sniper rifle (and obviously the flamethrower, baton, or riot shield) do absolutely no damage against them. Enemy vehicles also only take 20% to 30% damage from your heavier firearms, such as the assault rifle, precision rifle, heavy machinegun, and even the railgun. They have no resistance against explosives, however. Additionally, they're usually easy enough to destroy with the on-board weapons of whatever vehicle you're currently driving. APC: Appearance: Blue armored transport with tank treads Weaponry: Minigun (18 damage) Ramming (fatality) Health: 900 Difficulty:** There's only one enemy APC in the entire game, and you'll encounter it near the very beginning of the game shortly before your escape from the mines. Emerging on a catwalk high above, you'll witness the APC being escorted by a guard patrol across a thin natural rock bridge. There's no reason for you to confront the APC, in fact you can just ignore it and proceed across the catwalk to the elevator which exits the level. If you want to have fun with Red Faction's geo-mod system, you can shoot out the rock bridge with your rocket launcher and watch the APC tumble down the long chasm. Alternatively, 2 shots from the rocket launcher should cause the APC to explode. However, this is really a waste of health and ammo as the APC isn't blocking your path and shooting out the bridge will cause both the APC and its guards to start shooting at you. The APC's minigun is relatively accurate and does a decent amount of damage, so you really don't want to face it if you don't have to. If you take a tunnel down to the rock bridge to confront the APC on its own level, it will quickly drive at you in an attempt to run you over for an instant death. Ultor Submarine: Appearance: Bubble-shaped, one-man submersible with four bright headlights and a large plexiglass viewport at the front Weaponry: Torpedo Launcher (33 damage) Health: 700 Difficulty:** Ultor one-man submarines patrol the Martian waterways, ready to attack any rebel miners with their batteries of heat-seeking torpedos. Their firing rate is quite slow, as it takes them a few seconds to load and launch each torpedo, but since the torpedos home almost flawlessly on you it's impossible to dodge their attacks. If you're piloting a submarine of your own, fighting enemy subs is essentially a slug-fest, with the two of you firing away and seeing who'll blow up first. Fortunately for you, your own sub can survive almost a dozen torpedo hits, while enemy subs should blow up after only three hits. It's also possible to avoid enemy torpedos by keeping a cavern wall or stalagmite between you and the enemy sub, which the enemy torpedos will run into as they travel towards you. If you encounter an Ultor submarine without a submarine of your own, you're essentially a dead man, since none of your heavy weapons work underwater and your dinky little pistol won't even be able to pierce the enemy sub's hull. Aesir Fighter: Appearance: Sporty, roundish one-man fighter with an underside-mounted gattling gun Weaponry: Minigun (8 damage) Rocket Launcher (21 damage) Health: 900 Difficulty:*** These airborne enemies hover through the air, raining down machine gun fire upon you as well as the occasional heat-seeking missile. Their rapid rate of fire and the homing abilities of their missiles make them highly dangerous if you face them on foot. Their hulls are too thick to penetrate with small arms fire, but they can be destroyed with two rail driver shots, three to five rockets, or 30 vehicle-mounted machinegun rounds. A few dozen shots from your heavier firearms such as the assault rifle, precision rifle, or heavy machinegun also work in a pinch. Aesir fighters are not terribly manueverable and thus it's fairly easy to hit them, but in the process it's almost inevitable that you'll take some damage from their attacks (especially the heat-seeking rockets). Fortunately, you'l usually encounter Aesir Fighters while inside a vehicle of your own, in which case their attacks aren't too threatening and they're fairly easy to destroy with vehicle-mounted weapons. ========= =Bosses:= =============================================================================== Ultor Personnel Suppression Combot: Appearance: Huge floating robot with two clawed arms, two cannon arms, and a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. Weaponry: Dual Chainguns (5 damage) Rocket Launcher (21 damage) Claw punch (fatality) Health: 6000 (to provoke) Difficulty: **** DESCRIPTION: This 25-foot behemoth is the ultimate in anti-personnel robots, and is significantly more vicious than the smaller combat drone you fought earlier. The Ultor Personnel Suppression Combot is equipped with a twin pair of chainguns which it fires simultaneously, as well as a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. Although neither weapon does a large amount of damage, the Combot's rapid rate of fire allows it to quickly chip away at your health and armor if you stay in it's line of fire. FIGHT STRATEGY: You need to keep your distance from the Combot at all times, and when you do end up in it's sights you should strafe left and right like crazy in an attempt to avoid as many bullets as possible. Oh, and don't get too close to the Combot either, or else it'll punch you to death in one hit. The Combot actually isn't too difficult to fight. As long as you keep moving, you should avoid the majority of its shots. Just don't get too close to it or caught out in the open. The Combot is also very large and rather slow, so you should have no difficulty whatsoever hitting it with your weapons, even at long range. Although you can fight the Combot in the large open arena, the arena actually isn't the best place to do so. The Combot can sometimes duck into one of the side-chambers, causing you to lose track of it. Smaller robots inside the side-chambers can also drift into the main arena to see what all the commotion is all about, and can do serious damage to you while you're occupied with fighting the Combot. Instead, trying luring the Combot into the corridors just outside the incineration chamber. You'll be able to keep track of the Combot more easily, smaller enemies won't bother you during the fight, and you can use the corners as cover while you whittle away at the Combot with your assault rifle. If you're low on armor or health going into the battle, the ladders in the large open arena you initially find the Combot lead to an attic area with many yellow chests. Running up to the yellow chests will cause you to pick up ammo, health, and armor. KILL STRATEGY: The Combot is too powerful to be destroyed with conventional weapons (except for the rail driver, which you do not have yet), but there's a handy garbage incinerator pit nearby that looks about the right size for it. You need to lure the Combot into the pit room, but it won't follow you inside until you've managed to provoke it by doing a certain amount of damage to it. Strafe like crazy and dodge it and out of cover while shooting the Combot with your assault rifle until Hendrix tells you to try luring it to the incinerator shaft. At this point the Combot is provoked enough to follow you into the incinerator chamber, so lead it there. It should take 100 assault rifle rounds, 150 SMG or pistol rounds, or 10 rockets to provoke the Combot into following you. Once the Combot is in the chamber, the conveyor belt should bring it directly over the incinerator door. Climb up the ladder into the control room, and hit both the incinerator door opening switch and the fan activation switch. The fan should shove the Combot into the opened incinerator shaft, causing it to explode. The Combot will continue firing at you even as it descends into the shaft, so be sure to keep out of its line of sight until you hear it blow up. NOTE: A bug in the game can cause the Combot to get stuck in one of the side doors. If this occurs, try to lure it through the central door that leads directly to the incinerator room. Capek: Appearance: Shrunken, bald, prune-face dwarf wearing a red robe over black and yellow body armor. The left side of his body and face consists of cybernetic implants. Weaponry: Energy Pulse Cane (56 damage, ignores armor) Health: 2500 (Nanotech Shield) + 300 (Normal) Difficulty:***** DESCRIPTION: Capek will float down from the ceiling within the purple bubble of his nanotech shield after you've killed all his Elite Guards. Throughout the battle he'll stay above his little platform, his only movement consisting of floating up and down. His sole attack consists of firing a single purple energy ball from his cane, but that energy ball is VERY powerful, bypassing your armor entirely to directly damage your health, which can easily kill you in two hits (a single hit from Capek will kill you on Impossible difficulty). Additionally the energy balls are semi-homing, and even if they miss you the first time they'll orbit around you for a couple of seconds. Because of this you can't simply circle-strafe Capek's shots. They can also travel through solid matter, so you won't be able to take cover behind objects. You'll be assisted in this battle by Eos, who's armed with a submachine gun. Whatever you do, don't stand near Eos or else Capek's shots will end up hitting her too. Eos can withstand a couple more hits than you can, but if she dies you automatically lose the game. The rocket launcher's not much good against Capek since his shield is resistant to explosive splash damage. If a rocket hits the shield itself it will still take damage, but Capek moves up and down too quickly for you to successfully hit with a rocket. Your best bet against the shield is bullets. A couple of clips from either the assault rifle or even the submachine gun should be sufficent to pop Capek's shield. The trick is to avoid his shots long enough to kill him. There are two reliable ways to do this. KILL STRATEGY #1: One way is to fire at Capek from the ledge immedietely behind his platform and just below the ramp where Eos emerges from. This vantage point is close to Capek and thus allows you to pump a large amount of bullets into him fairly accurately and quickly with the submachine gun, but it's much easier for him to hit you with his attack if you slip up. Instead of circle strafing him, you need to sidestep each initial shot and then stand still while it orbits you so you don't end up running into it. You should be able to see Capek charging up each energy ball before he fires it at you, so you should begin side-stepping a second before he's about to fire (when his entire cane is glowing purple), and stop moving once the energy ball misses you. It's tricky to get the timing right, but once you do you should be able to more or less reliably avoid his shots. KILL STRATEGY #2: Alternatively, you can attack Capek from just behind the pillar at the back of the room (the large pillar to your right when you first enter the lair from the stairwell). Standing to one side of this pillar, you should immedietely strafe over to the other side as soon as Capek fires his energy ball, then stand still once you get there and wait for it to orbit around you (only start dodging AFTER he fires, don't start moving when his cane starts glowing, or else he'll still hit you). In between strafing each of his shots, you should have a couple seconds to fire at him. Since Capek's pretty far away if you attack him from the pillar, you'll need to use an accurate weapon such as the sniper rifle or the assault rifle's primary fire. This method takes longer since it's harder to hit him from a distance (although his nanotech shield is actually a rather large target), but the upside is it's much easier to avoid his attacks if you dodge them correctly. Unfortunately, your view of Capek will be partially blocked by the girders on the ceiling if you fire at him from this angle, making it more difficult to hit him. Additionally, you run the risk of Capek getting bored with you and starting to attack Eos instead (although you can usually manage to get his attention again by shooting him). Once you get the timing right, you should be able to destroy his shield without too much frustration. When Capek's shield finally pops, he'll fall down to the platform but will continue attacking. Finish him off with a few more bullets before he manages to get off another shot. Masako: Appearance: Female Mercenary in black and yellow envirosuit, wearing a black helmet with a white screaming skull emblem on the top Weaponry: Precision Rifle (71 damage) Health: 1200 (Aesir Fighter) + 4000 (Nanotech Shield) + 2000 (Normal) Difficulty: ***** DESCRIPTION (Phase 1): After destroying her two Aesir fighter guards, Colonel Masako will emerge behind the controls of her own Aesir fighter. Masako's Aesir fighter can survive slightly more damage than the regular variety, but otherwise behaves the same as the normal Aesir fighters and can be destroyed with the same methods. If you're on foot, you'll have to take her down with a couple of rail driver shots while strafing or taking cover behind the crates to avoid her machine gun and rockets. However if you still have your own fighter, then by all means simply destroy her fighter with a sustained burst of machine gun fire. Just remember to stay low to the ground because your fighter will be destroyed the moment hers is, and you don't want to take any fall damage. DESCRIPTION (Phase 2): In the second phase of the battle, Masako will be floating towards you inside a nanotech shield. Like Capek's shield, explosives and rail driver shots are useless, so you'll need to wear it down with bullets. Additionally Masako's shield is more powerful than Capek's, and can take much more damage. She's also armed with a modified precision rifle that does almost three times as much damage as the ones used by the Mercs you previously fought (as much damage as a fusion rocket blast), which means that even with full health and armor she can still kill you in 3 shots (2 on Hard or Impossible difficulty). With her quick rate of fire she will easily perforate you in seconds if you allow her to get within firing range. Fortunately, the cargo bay which serves as the final arena is so large it shouldn't be too difficult to stay out of her attack range. Backpedal away from her while returning fire with either your own precision rifle (remember to rapid fire by rapidly tapping the attack button rather than just holding it down) or the fairly accurate secondary fire of the heavy machinegun. In fact, Masako's shield is such a large target you can even hit it consistently with the machinegun's primary fire, and with the high rate of fire you can actually destroy her shield in just a couple dozen seconds. Whatever firearm you use, Masako's shield should pop after you've fired off a few dozen bullets, causing her to drop to the ground. DESCRIPTION (Phase 3): Unlike Capek, Masako still has a lot of health even without her shield. She's no Cyberdemon or ridiculous bullet sponge and can only survive a few more shots than you yourself can on Medium difficulty, but she's still tougher than anyone else in the game. It takes almost a dozen precision rifle shots to beat her. A single shot from the rail driver will kill her instantly, but Masako is extrordinarily fast and will be moving and strafing constantly throughout the battle, making it quite difficult to hit her with the exact accuracy required by the rail driver. A far more effective strategy is to try blasting her with the enormous splash damage of the fusion rocket launcher, which can kill her in one or two shots. If you're having trouble hitting her with the fusion rocket launcher, you can always try the heat-seeking secondary-fire of the regular rocket launcher (you'll need between six to ten rockets to finish her). For a challenge, you can try taking her out with either the precision rifle or heavy machinegun, but her fast speed and constant strafing make it hard to hit her while staying out of her range of fire at the same time. Whatever weapon you use, be sure to keep backing away from her since her precision rifle is still as deadly as ever. Masako runs faster than you do, so if she starts to catch up try hiding behind the crates. If Masako starts shooting you, strafe and jump around like crazy and hope she doesn't hit you while you continue to retreat away from her. Like her mercenaries, Masako can throw off explosive packs and is resistant to flames (napalm does miniscule damage to her, and she cannot be set on fire). FUN FACT: If you take Masako's shield and health combined, she can survive approximately as many assault rifle bullets as Half Life 2's Gordon Freeman. Which just goes to show how tough Freeman is. OK, I'm done now. Copyright 2003 Alan Chan