RETURN TO CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN BOSS FAQ CREATED BY AZNSTARBOY LAST MAJOR UPDATE: July 10, 2004 Introduction: This FAQ is organized into three major sections. Each section describes strategies on beating the three bosses in the single player section of the game Return to Castle Wolfenstein. For each boss, advanced strategies will be discussed, and an in-depth level guide will be included. In addition, I've made a few rudimentary maps that should be of some use for any visually oriented people. Reader tips are either part of the main body of the FAQ if deemed sufficiently important, or at the very end. I'll first give you a few words of advice on how to read this FAQ. The most important thing is to READ THE ENTIRE SHORT GUIDE FROM FRONT TO BACK. Many strategies on how to defeat a boss is spread out in several different areas in a section. Since many strategies require redundant actions, I might say 'Refer to Strategy 1'. Each of the three sections contains the following. 1- General Difficulty of the [specific] Boss. This number is representative of how hard the boss will be if you fight it on how the game developers probably intended you to. In other words, how would a normal person, who has never seen the level or boss before, respond? 2- Specific difficulty of Strategy (with the strategy completely explained). Luckily, there are easier ways to kill the three bosses, ranging from tricks to strategies that the developer did not intend you to use. If you have any comments, refer to my e-mail at the end of this FAQ. SECTION 1: The Olaric-Boss 1 (Last area of 'The Defiled Church') Special note: The mission objectives include 'Eliminate Helga von Bulow', but she gets killed so you won't have to fight her. A common misconception that that boss you fight in this level is actually Helga. Instead, you must destroy the abomination once known as the Olaric. Read all the letters you find in the levels preceding this boss if you want to know the whole story. General Difficulty of this Boss:7/10 (10 being the hardest) This boss is rather difficult since it occurs so early in the game, and you don't have any of the good weapons yet. It has two primary attacks. One of the attacks is where the Olaric will slash at you. This attack hurts (and is pretty damn scary too). The Olaric will do this only if you get too close to it. The second attack is where he will stand still and summon spirits. His hands will go in a circular motion as black spirits spin around him. When he does this, you must run back to the supply room, since the spirits will follow you until they dissipate because of the distance. If you do get hit, these spirits will temporarily blind you, damage you quickly, and if you're still stupid enough to just stand still, the Olaric will run up to you and slash you to death. PRE-BOSS LEVEL WALKTHROUGH: Start out this level by just walking forward. You will suddenly fall into a supply room below, and onto an open coffin. This small room contains quite a lot of grenades and 9mm rounds, and on a table close to you- many packages of health. Refill your health to fullest from the packages, and stock up your mp40. Then move towards the small opening opposite the table containing the health. You won't be seeing any enemies yet. After you're out the opening, you need to climb up to ground level, where you will see that there is only one short, but wide corridor to follow. After you have walked down the corridor, turn right, and you should be at the center of the ruined church [PLEASE REFER TO MAP AT THE END OF THIS SECTION]. At the sides of this ancient structure are eight graves [AGAIN, REFER TO MAP]. Eventually, from each grave, a zombie will arise. But don't worry about that yet. Get your dynamite ready, keep going forward. You will see an iron gate to your right and the Olaric walking slowly up to it. Two zombies will arise from two separate graves, one might be right below you. Set the dynamite (at 5 seconds), run back to the center of the church ruins where you were before and follow one of the below strategies. (The Dynamite will lower the life of the boss significantly, if you have it, but the boss is still defeatable without the bomb) Note: From my calculations, the Dynamite, if detonated right when Olaric walks on top of it, will damage him 35-40%. SPECIFIC STRATEGIES STRATEGY 1: The Grenade Attack (Difficulty Level: 4/10)- Like I said, it is best that you set your dynamite, because it will bring down the life of the boss by quite a bit no matter which of these strategies you use. This particularly cheesy strategy involves going back to the short corridor, close to the supply room mentioned above- after taking a first look at the Olaric and setting the dynamite. Then you stay at the corridor and wait for any Zombie that to come up to you, which you can kill rapidly with 8 shots of the STEN (READ THE SPECIAL NOTES AT THE END OF THIS SECTION)- while the Olaric waits in the center of the ruins waiting for you to come out. After getting rid of the zombies, take out your grenades and pull the ring (hold on to the button), hold the grenade for one second, dash out toward the center of the church (allowing the grenade to tick two more seconds) until you see the Olaric (he will be at the center of the Church ruins) and toss the grenade aiming at his chest. Run back to the corridor, if the Olaric starts spinning spirits, quickly retreat further to the supply room (remember that the spirits dissipate with distance right?). Then, proceed to run near the center of the church ruins again, toss another grenade at the Olaric, and go back to the supply room. Repeat this over and over again, using your MP40 if your grenades run out, until the Olaric dies. STRATEGY 2: The MP40 attack (Difficulty Level: 3/10). This strategy is similar to Strategy 1, but is even easier. Instead of tossing grenades, you use your MP40 to shoot at the Olaric [Simply, use the above strategy but substitute MP40 shots for Grenades] then run back to the supply room- and repeat the process. However, this strategy will take longer since you can only fire about 10 rounds before you have to retreat (The Olaric will start spinning spirits) STRATEGY 3: The 'Bite the bullet' Approach (Difficulty Level:7/10). This strategy is probably what the game designers had in mind (and is definitely the most fun). Stock up your MP40, and after setting the dynamite, use your STEN (READ THE SPECIAL NOTES AT THE END OF THIS SECTION) to kill any of the zombies, while running around the edges of the church, avoiding the Olaric's melee attack. When you can, use your STEN to send 10 rounds into the boss. But when the Olaric spins spirits, you'd better run hard to avoid being blinded. I've only managed to perform this strategy successfully with the STEN. Although the MP40 is faster, you will run out of ammo if you attempt to use it. Confuse the Olaric by repeatedly sprinting in circles around the columns, attacking the zombies before attempting to take down the Olaric. The Olaric will spin spirits only if you attack it or run too far away from it. Also, remember that you can outrun the Olaric and even the spirits by moving quickly around the columns. Note: While the Olaric is still alive, DO NOT attempt to run to the area where the Olaric first comes out. It is a dead end and the Olaric will corner you. Special notes, Section 1: 1: The Olaric will not follow you to the corridor, but the pesky zombies will. This allows you to concentrate on one enemy at a time. So what makes the zombies come out of the grave? Only if the Olaric takes damage, or you step onto a grave will a zombie pop out of the ground. In addition, after Helga dies, all unopened graves will emit a zombie. 2: I've discovered experimentally that the STEN does twice as much damage against all Undead and living enemies. However, whether or not it does more damage to the Super Soldiers is unknown (Using any sub-machine gun on the super soldiers is suicide anyways). Map: This Level looks like this- (Every - and | represents a wall. To help you better, you should copy my sketch and draw over the dashes to form a line. Then you can better observe the map. Keep in mind that any junction like "|-" should be connected almost like a sideways "T" Do not falsely assume that the |- junction has a gap) |---------------| | | 8 | | |-----------------------------| ---------- | | 4 4 4 4 1 2 | | ---- ---- ---- ---------------------| | | | | 3 | 6 9 | | | | | | | | ---- ---- ---- ----------------- 7 -| | 4 4 4 4 5 | |---------------------------------------------| 1: Iron Gate (is broken by the Olaric) Set Dynamite here. 2: The location the Olaric initially is. 3: Center of the Church Ruins. 4: Grave- One zombie will come out of each eventually. 5: Short Corridor. The Olaric will not chase you here, but the spirits and zombies can. 6: The supply room. Contains health, grenades, and a lot of 9mm ammo. The spirits that the Olaric tosses will dissipate by the time you get here. 7: The hole in the wall leading to the supply room. 8: The Dagger of Warding. Do not worry about this because only after you have killed the Olaric can you access this area. 9: You start out here. SECTION 2: The Uber Soldat-Boss 2 (The last area of the 'X-Labs') General Difficulty of this Boss: 10/10 This Boss is pretty hard without some of the below strategies. The Uber Soldat has two weapons. One is a Tesla Gun, and the other is a Panzerfaust (With seemingly unlimited ammo). In addition, annoying scientists will attack you. Generally, if you are in medium or short range, he will use the Tesla Gun. If you run too far from him, he will use his Panzerfaust (Which, by the way, is a one shot kill assuming you have 75 health, zero armor, and the Panzerfaust rocket hits you directly). If you saved your EMP device, then boss will be easier. Refer to Strategy 2 if you saved your EMP device. PRE-BOSS LEVEL WALKTHROUGH Hopefully, you have the maximum number of Panzerfausts you can hold, because nothing else will work nearly as effectively against this monster. Start out this level by wielding your venom. Open the massive concrete door and walk forward. Turn left and an armored Super Soldier Prototype with Venom will attack you. Move back rapidly, and fire at him. After he dies, take his venom, and continue moving farther. Take out your MP40, and once you reach the end of the corridor, you should see small staircases to the left and right. Go either way, and after you reach the top, quickly turn left to shoot at the Nazi near the end of the hallway. Move to the end, another armored Super Soldier prototype as well as a flamethrower soldier will appear. This Prototype has Panzerfuast so be extra careful. I've found that paratrooper rifles are second best only to Panzerfaust against Armored Prototypes. So take it out, and fire a few rounds, before retreating. The Prototype and soldier will follow you. Use your paratrooper to eliminate both, every time, fire a few shots before retreating (Luckily, the panzer rockets are slow) After eliminating the flamethrower soldier and prototype, a scientist will help you open a door, opposite the door to the lab area [PLEASE SEE MAP AT THE END OF THIS SECTION]. Eliminate him, take all the health you can [PLEASE REFER TO MAP AT THE END OF THIS SECTION]. Then walk through the door the Scientist helped you open, and walk until the open door. After the cut scene depicting Deathshead, you will face the Uber Soldat. SPECIFIC STRATEGIES STRATEGY 1: The cheesy approach (Difficulty Level: 3/10). I will have to thank Jesse Rose for informing me about this strategy. (Other people also e-mailed me, but they were all too wordy.) In his words (with a few grammar mistakes corrected): "Dear aznSTaRBoY: I noticed that you have many strategies listed for killing the second boss (Uber Soldat) and all of them are very complicated in nature. However, I recently used this strategy with great success: Instead of rushing forward and trying to defeat the behemoth on fellow ground , simply retreat back into the corridor that you entered the arena from (do this at the very start of the fight). The door will now be closed, but you'll have enough room to hide from the Uber Soldat. Because you're so far away from him, he'll just stand there looking around. Simply use a weapon with a scope (the Mauser Rifle or the Paratrooper Rifle works) and shoot him in the head until he is dead. Use your choice of rifle to kill the scientists who rush in, too -- they're the only competition you'll have with the Soldat failing to return fire. Within minutes, the Soldat will fall. -Jesse Rose (Flamehead 3)" Basically, move back after Deathhead's speech and crouch down. Then snipe the boss to death. I've used this new strategy with considerable success at least six or seven times. However, you have to act fast. Respond immediately after Deathhead's speech. Sometimes, without doing anything wrong, the Uber Soldat will notice you anyways and start bombarding you with tesla. If this happens, you can restart or use of the below strategies. STRATEGY 2: The EMP Approach (Difficulty Level: 5/10). This is also a rather easy way of defeating the boss. But you have to save your EMP device. Right after Deathhead's speech, run to the armored room. Then, peek your head out and let the Uber Soldat fire a fraction of a second. Gradually, lure the monster closer. Then, with the EMP device ready, dash out, activate it, and use your Venom and shoot it to death in one continous blast. If you dont have the EMP device, go to strategy 3. I will have to thank David Slaymaker for giving me some of these ideas. STRATEGY 2.5: Without the EMP device, you can also use a harder version of the strategy above. Aptly named 'The Room Strategy' (Difficulty Level 9/10), basically, you jump off the platform and escape into the armored room to your left [SEE MAP AT THE END OF THIS SECTION]. The Super Soldier will make no move to follow you. Take out your Panzerfaust, suddenly move left until you see the Uber Soldat, and fire a rocket at him. Then scuttle back immediately. After you run out of rockets, proceed to the paratrooper rifle and continue doing this. The only problem is if the Super Soldier uses his Tesla gun, you will be damaged. You can usually avoid the rockets he fires as long as you can go back into the room. STRATEGY 3: The head-on approach (Difficulty Level: 8/10). Though the Uber Soldat will be on the grounds below you, he will still be able to attack you with his Tesla gun. What you do in this rather cheap strategy is to run forward, jump down the catwalk, and head straight toward the Uber Soldat, with your venom. For some reason, the Tesla is far less effective at point- blank (zero) range, so use your venom and fire it right in front of him, until it overheats. He should be dead assuming you aim correctly. Your health should also be close to zero. Unfortunately, this strategy is much harder than it sounds. It is quite difficult to maintain a point-blank distance with the Uber Soldat because the Tesla Gun will move you back slowly but consistently. If you aren't in point- blank (practically zero) range, the tesla will do heavy damage. After destroying the Uber Soldat, take all the health and flak jackets nearby, and proceed to eliminate all the scientists on the area above you. The door where the Uber Soldat came out of will open, and you will face more scientists. It would be a pity to lose to those scientists after defeating such a difficult boss. Walk into the room, and take out even more scientists. Then walk up the stairs, go into Deathshead's room (he had escaped already), and open the door to the left, and take the elevator up. You will finish the level watching Deathshead successfully escape on a rocket. Note: This strategy appears to work against any venom Super Soldiers, but it fails against Super Soldiers that only wield Panzerfausts. STRATEGY 4: The strafe strategy. (Difficulty Level 10/10). This one also sounds easy and might be the strategy used most often. I found it to be really hard though. Simply, you jump down, fire a few rockets, and strafe with Panzerfaust and venom. If he uses his Panzerfaust, it is easier. However, once he switches to Tesla, run and get the flak jackets, then strafe again. The main problem is that your Panzerfausts will miss too many times, and since your range must be long (for him to use Panzerfaust), the majority of the venom bullets will miss (you will miss even more often because you're moving). This strategy is not recommended for anyone but an expert. Map: This level pre-boss looks like this, where 9 is the door to the boss. |------- 8 --------| | | | |--------| | | | | | | |--------| | | | -------- 7 ----- | | | 5 | | 6 | ------- ------| | | | |-------------| | | | | | | 3 | | 4 | | | | | | | 9 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --------------| | | ---------| |--------- | | | 2 -------------- | | | | | -------- | | 3 | |--------- -----| | 1 | |----| 1: Where you start out 2: Initial Location of Super Soldier Prototype with Venom 3: Location of some Health 4: Location of Nazi Soldier 5: Location of Super Soldier Prototype with Panzerfaust. 6: Location of Flamethrower Soldier. 7: Door that Scientist 'helps' you open. 8: Door to the Uber Soldat. The MAP BELOW SHOWS THE AREA BEYOND 9. 9: Lab Area. Do not worry about this place, it's not important. Map showing the area beyond "9". |---------------------------- | | | | | | | 16 | 17 | | | | 18| | | | |----------- 10-------------| | 14 20 13 | | | | |---- | | | | |15 | 11 | |15 |---- | |15 15| |15 15 15 15 15 15 12| --------------19------------ 10: Uber Soldat's initial position. Once he comes out, the door here locks. After you destroy the Uber Soldat, a scientist will open the door. 11: Armored Room 12: Tanks of explosives (located below the Catwalk) 13: Health packs. 14: Armor packs (Flak Jacket) 15: Catwalk (Not drawn) 16: Scientists 17: More Scientists 18: Staircase to Deathshead's room (Deathshead's room extends farther but is not shown) 19: You start out here 20: Ramp where scientists will come out and shoot at you (inaccessible at first) SECTION 3: Heinrich Himmler-Boss 3 (The last area in the game) General Difficulty of Boss: 4/10 Would you believe that the final boss could be this easy? This boss has an enormous amount of health (My latest calculation show that he can take 5 times more damage than the Uber Soldat and 7 times more than the Olaric) but is relatively simple to beat. That's because he won't hurt you all the time. He stands still a lot and walks extremely slowly (If he ran all the time, he could prove to be a more formidable boss). When he runs, you can easily outrun him. Heinrich's main weapon is his sword. You need to watch out for this, because one swipe will take down more than half your life. [PLEASE READ THE TIPS AT THE END OF THIS SECTION] In addition to this, he has three skeletal warriors which can be killed, but will be re-summoned by Heinrich when killed. Thus, you don't want to focus on anything but Heinrich, since the arena of the boss fight will be big enough. Heinrich's second weapon is his summoning of spirits. As listed below, there are a few things you must not do, because only certain conditions must be 'met' before Heinrich tosses spirits like the Olaric did. In addition, Heinrich can summon an instant spell to toss you into the air, and closer to him. Rocks will fall from above, dealing a small amount of damage. When this happens, simply run back again. Note: DO NOT venture near the edges of the arena, stay only in the central area (except when you need health). If you are stepping out of the whiter concrete onto the dirt, then Heinrich will almost immediately summon the same black spirits that the Olaric used. These spirits don't come from him, but from the edge of the map, so if you run to the middle, the spirits can't get you. Specific Strategies: Start out by walking forward a bit and searching the room for all the health and ammo, and there is a LOT of supplies. Check carefully at every box to see if you left anything untaken. Then open the door to the left, and you're in the room with an extremely large circular hole in the center. Walk around the edges to get all the supplies, and then jump down. You cannot come back up, sadly enough. Then walk forward and open the door to the right, and run into the arena of the boss fight. Follow the below strategy along with the tip. STRATEGY 1: The strafe strategy (Difficulty Level 4/10). I've played and beaten this boss at least 20 times (to practice and hone my skills), so I'm the best at this one. Start out my using one rocket on Marianne. One rocket will be enough to shatter her to pieces. Then, walk around the boss and fire your rockets first, then switch to venom. You want to maintain about a 16-17 feet distance from him (how far in real life does it appear?). Aim the rockets at his crotch (or where his crotch seems to be), since it will explode dealing just the maximum damage. Then switch to venom, fire at his chest until the venom overheats, and switch the gun to the paratrooper rifle. Fire two clips, and switch back to venom. Continue this procedure until Heinrich dies (which, assuming you DO maintain a 16-17 feet distance, will take just one more cycle). Try to get out of the way of the three skeletal warriors, but do not shoot at them. They take many, many shots to kill because of their shields, and Heinrich will just re-summon them. Heinrich's spell to move you into the air is a thornier problem. If he tosses you right in front of him, sprint back because he will swing his sword at you. If you actually tossed to the other side of him, once again, keep running forward to maintain the 15-16 feet distance. In the beginning, Heinrich might run at you, but you're much faster than him. Simply, sprint away and keep firing. When Heinrich suffers enough damage, he will be severely weakened and will not run at you any longer. STRATEGY 2: CAVE-IN strategy (Difficulty Level: ?/10). Some people have reported that this strategy works quite well. I've done it many times and it still doesn't quite function. However, it can be used to make the boss fight significantly easier. After you walk outside, DO NOT look in the direction of Himmler. Walk straight into the wall in a way that no part of the opening of the cave appears on the screen. Then retreat back and wait. Soon, Marianne will walk up. At this moment, dash out and run out of the opening of the cave. If done correctly, Heinrich's minions will be trapped since the opening of the cave will collapse upon your departure from the cave. If you are very lucky, Heinrich himself will be standing right at the opening of the cave. The rocks will fall killing him. However, sometimes he will be trapped inside the cave himself. If this happens, restart since nothing at all can penetrate the rocks. But this boss should be easy enough so that you dont have to resort to this type of trick. TIPS 1: When your health is low, run to get one of the three large health packs at the left side of the map. It should be near a few large wooden boxes. Tesla ammo is there too, but don't bother to use Tesla because it does only light damage to Heinrich. 2: The location where thr rocks will fall is easily determined. Rocks will only fall under the huge stone monument that hangs above the boss arena. In other words, rocks will only fall if the monument is directly above you. Note: 350 Tesla ammo fired from medium distance seems to only damage Heinrich around 60-70% of his total health- considering how slowly Tesla ammo gets consumed, a Pistol not needing reloading will damage him faster. 2:One of the more advanced strategies that I have used is to run right in front of Heinrich when he is trying to summon and fire about 50 rounds [of Venom] into him. That way, 100% of the bullets from the venom will hit directly into him. (Usually, even if you stand 16-17 feet away from him, 40% of the bullets will miss) One way to make him summon is to run to the edge of the map. He should start summoning (just look at his hands, and the sound and you should immediately see that he is trying to summon), run up to him, fire right in front of him, and then quickly escape the black spirits and Heinrich himself. Its quite fun to do this, but make sure to run away in time, because you don't want to be hit by his sword. READER TIPS: 1-THANKS TO MICHAEL KING FOR THE BELOW TIPS The hardest boss in the game is the very first one, Olaric. After that, even the Uber is extremely easy... all you have to do is resist the temptation to use your X-Shield before getting to him. I've found that just walking into the room, flipping on the X-shield and unloading the Venom into him will usually kill him before it even overheats once. That's also plenty of time to kill all of the scientists who have come out on the second floor also since you can shoot through the railing. As for the final boss, We kind of did the same thing. I was really disappointed with him. :( The first thing I did was panzer Blavasky (sp?), maybe fire a few Paratrooper rounds into her if she survived to make sure she blew up. Then I'd fire more (usually get off two rounds if I don't rush it) Panzer shots at Heinrich I while I ran towards him, switch to the Venom, and fill him full of about 150 shots before it overheated (close enough so no hits miss, far enough back so he don't hit me). When I was waiting for the Venom to cool off, I'd take out the flame thrower. Instead of fighting him, I'd find his three skeletons and torch them. This doesn't take much time, since they will be coming towards me anyway. You only have to use about three ammo (you know how fast that ammo goes, too) per skeleton. Then they catch on fire, stand still, and burn till they die. This causes Heinrich to stand still and summon three more, in which time he should die to another Panzer and unloading of the Venom. if he doesn't, the skellies are miles away anyway! Like I said, the first boss fight was the hardest. Maybe it was because I was new to the game at the time. But the fight where you take on two Soldat's at once was the only other part of the game that truly gave me problems. It's still a great game though! 2-THANKS TO DJmasterK2178 FOR THE BELOW TIP On the last boss, I know u said that the tesla doesn't do much on him, but if you run away from him and use all of the tesla on him (300), then use the venom, it will kill him easily and will probably keep the zombies of ur back. LEGAL STUFF This Walkthrough/FAQ is created for personal use only. You must not use it for profit, such as for magazines, game guides, and Web Sites without asking me for permission. This guide may only be used for private and personal use. Any comments and questions or advice, please e-mail me at Yao_L_Ho@berkeley.edu