Spider-Man 2 Boss Arena FAQ v1.0 Contents I. Introduction II. Update History III. General Strategies IV. Round Guide V. Copyright/Contact Info/Thanks ------------------- I. Introduction ------------------- In case you don't know, at any point after you finish the main game, you can purchase the battle arena from the Spidey Store. This will turn the Shocker warehouse into an area where you can face a number of challenges for both bragging rights and hero points. This guide will give you some strategies to follow in case you're having trouble with the Boss Battle portion of the arena. ****************************************************************************** Also, and this is *I*M*P*O*R*T*A*N*T*, you won't immediately have access to the boss rounds. You will first have to beat at least three of the regular (timed) rounds and then three endurance rounds. After that, you can begin the boss challenge. I've gotten a handful of emails asking about this, so I thought I'd include it. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused, and good luck on those other challenges. My only advice for those is, uh, bob and weave. ****************************************************************************** -------------------- II. Update History -------------------- Version 1.0 was, well, the first version. Version 1.1 (current) includes minor layout revisions, an expanded explanation on how to access the Boss Rounds, and a submitted strategy. -------------------------- III. General Strategies -------------------------- Thugs: Diving while spamming impact webbing is a decent way to immobilize thugs so you can concentrate on just one. Charge your jump while sprinting, use the webbing as many times as you can before you land (usually two), then repeat in a different direction. You can criss-cross through groups and get pretty much all of them trapped. Rhino: Rhino has a lot less health than you'd think, and is generally a pushover once you can get him alone. It's much easier to dodge his charge than it is to dodge his swing attack, so try to bait him into using that if you're low on reflex power. Shocker: The only difficult thing about Shocker is catching up to him. Just remember to run away when he gets ready for a big blast and you'll be fine. If you're fighting more than one boss, take out Shocker first. Calypso: Arg. She's not particularly easy on her own, and can be a real pain when other bosses are around. If you're ever near her wand give it a little tap, even if she isn't your target at the moment. Her ice can be a big problem if you're in the middle of fighting someone else. Same with her little force push thing. Even though it doesn't damage you directly, it can mess you up when you're trying to focus on someone else and there's no way to dodge it. Run if you're getting hit with it. Doc Ock: While Ock isn't the most damaging or the fastest, he's a close second in both. Or at least he can seem that way when he swoops in out of nowhere to thrash you while you're trying to fight another boss. Watch out for him. When fighting him, I suggest using your reflexes for dodging and pinning down his tentacles. Then (if it hasn't already run out), turn reflexes off and hit him norally. Each hit will give you a little bit of your meter back. That combined with just one dodged attack should be enough to activate reflexes for another four pinned tentacles. I suggest using the zip technique to get away from him after his tentacles are free again. ----------------- IV. Round Guide ----------------- Round 1 Shocker thug x2 Ock thug x3 Lizard thug x2 Robot suit x1 Mr. Eye Patch x2 This round is a joke. Sprint and charge up your jump and leap right onto the middle area. Take out the two Shocker thugs here so that they can't harass you with their ranged attack. From there, you should drop down to the right side of the arena, as this side is easier to take. After you beat the eye patch guys and as many of the Ock thugs as you can, you'll need to try and get the little lizards away from the battle suit so you can fight them alone. You can use webbing on them, but the suit will be firing at you. If you can't get them alone, just use impact webbing on the lizards while fighting the suit. The idea behind this is that you shouldn't fight anything while the lizards are around, as they can pounce very quickly. They don't have the best endurance though, and one or two combos will beat them. Round 2 Machine gun thug x4 Muscle thug x3 Rhino This one can be a little tricky. None of the enemies start off on a different elevation, so the key here is to divide and conquer. The guys in black coats seem to all have machine guns, while the shirtless guys have pistols. The shirtless guys will usually follow you around though, so if you can evade them you can usually isolate a jacket thug pretty easily. As always, snatching guns or using impact webbing can be helpful. Above all else, don't get involved in a combo and forget about Rhino. The only real danger here is him goring you while you're in the middle of hitting another enemy. Also, if you can't go into reflex mode, it is sometimes a good idea to avoid Rhino until he tries to charge you. This is much easier to counter than his canister swing. Round 3 Shocker thug x7 Shocker This round is pretty easy. While it can seem overwhelming to have all the thugs shooting at you, they have very low health and one air combo will finish them off. Simply work your way around the edge of the arena, picking them off one at a time. If you get a chance to hit Shocker, go for it. But remember that your first priority is to take out his support fire. After that is over, it's just a standard Shocker fight that shouldn't give you much trouble. Just remember to dive or swing to the other side of the arena if the rest of the screen starts to go dark. His shockwave has a large field, so you don't want to be closeby. Also remember that Shocker can sometimes nullify your attacks, so just run away and come back at those times. None of the attacks here are super damaging though, so you should have an easy time of this round. Round 4 Sniper x1 Thug x6 Calypso This round is pretty easy once you get used to Calypso's attack pattern. First run to the left and get behind the machinery there. This and the platform above will shield you from Calypso's attacks and from the sniper on the right side of the arena. This is also near where some thugs start out, so you're in a good position to take them out. Usually, the other groundling thugs will run over to that position so you can pretty much stay where you are and kill them. Next head to the pillar on the right and take out the sniper. If Calypso freezes you and he gets a clean shot, it can be pretty damaging. Combine that with the fact that Calypso will often hit you with a fireball when you're frozen, and you're looking at a lot of health gone. From there, drop down to the middle and take out the last of the thugs. I'm not sure if they're armed or not, but they go down easy so it doesn't really matter. Now all you'll have left is Calypso. Do not try to attack her! Her orbs offer a pretty good protective area and you don't want to mess with them. Instead swing around and looking for a little twirling sparkle on the ground. I don't mean it's on the first level floor, just that it's never floating. There are a number of places it can show up. It's not really worth listing them since you'll figure them out for yourself after fighting her a couple of times and where it shows up is random anyway, so I can't give you a pattern. Anyway. The sparkle, upon closer inspection, is a wand. Punch it and it should stop spinning. This will stun Calypso and stop her attacks for a time. Wail on her as much as you can. When she disappears, start looking for the wand again. Repeat. When she gets to very low health, it seems like the wand may stop appearing, or at least appear much less frequently. At any rate, if you've managed to avoid her attacks so far (which shouldn't be hard if you've been attacking the wand like you're supposed to) you should be able to finish her without dying. I recommend diving (using a charged jump while at full sprint) towards her, as this way you can avoid some of the stuff above her. Round 5 Ock thug x7 Doc Ock The Ock thugs start out pretty scattered, which is good for you since you won't have to fight too many at once. You start with three right in front of you. I usually start with these, but you can just as easily start off with a side Ock first. They really aren't much troubl so long as you remember to jump away if you see a grenade on the floor. All you really need to do here is avoid Doc Ock until after you've beat his henchmen. They're not that dangerous, but they do have much more health than an average thug. Leave one and come back if the heat is on you. After they're all down, beat the good doctor normally. Round 6 Sniper x2 Thug x2 Calypso Rhino Take out the two snipers first. One is on the same pillar as before (right side of the arena), and one is on the highest raised area in the center of the arena. Then take out the two things. I suggest impact webbing where you can, since they seem to both be machine gun thugs. Your main goal is to avoid Rhino and Calypso while you do this. After the thugs are down, take out Rhino. Only fight him in areas that offer you cover from Calypso, and remember that you still have a somewhat tough fight ahead of you after you beat him, so try not to get hit at all if you can help it. Don't freak out if you do get hit, since it's still very possible to win. Anyway, you know what to do as far as the bosses themselves are concerned, so use the same strategies as before. Although, remember Calypso's little pink push attack thing. If you see it come up around you, just run away from whoever you're fighting at the moment. It can be exceedingly hard to dodge while being pushed by that thing, and if Rhino hits you because of it, you're not gonna be happy. Also remember to hit Calypso's wand whenever you are near it, even early on. Don't go out of your way to hit it, and don't go looking for it, but if it's right next to you there's no good reason not to give it a tap. Round 7 Ock thug x2 Shocker thug x2 Doc Ock Shocker This round is actually easier than the one before it. While it may seems overwhelming to have to handle more than one major villian, you also have less different enemies to worry about. If you want, take out the shocker minions first, but it seems like you can really take the underlings in whatever order you want. Take Shocker first, then Ock. It's the same as before, for the most part. If you've made it this far, this round shouldn't give you much trouble at all. Round 8 Rhino Shocker Calypso Doc Ock This is, clearly, the hardest round you'll have faced up to this point. Your primary objective here is to avoid damage at all costs. Damaging enemies is secondary. I'd say taking out Shocker first is almost a must. His range and speed are annoying, but he's also relatively easy to beat if you can get him in a corner alone every now and then. Since he does jump around so much, he'll often end up in the middle of a group. In these cases, wait for him to move to a more isolated location and wail on him a few times. Also make sure you have an area to escape to when he gets ready for a big blast. Once he's down, it's kind of a personal preference. I like getting rid of Calypso first since she has the most annoying moves and can really mess you up from anywhere in the arena. Her little push move can cause you a lot of headaches. You know, that and the fact that Rhino and Ock will love slamming you whie you're getting knocked around by her spells. Not to mention her freeze. The only other way to go about it that seems to work is to take out Rhino, then Ock, then Calypso. I'd suggest just trying it out and seeing which works best for you. The freeze and all can be annoying, but Calypso is a lot easier if you don't have to worry about other guys hitting you while you go wand hunting. It really depends on how you want to approach the whole thing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Key Rose writes: "In the final 8th round if you go to the upper corner into the small tunnel, you can get doc oc alone, and only 2 other bosses can get into there to attack you, which is rare in its own. It is difficult to say the least anyways due to the small space to dodge his attacks and calypso using her magic to move you around, preventing you from adequately dodging." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sounds like a good way to minimize interference, but, as Key Rose said, also sounds somewhat difficult to manage. I'd say that you should probably only try this if you have enough on your meter for a full spider reflex session. Once I get a chance to try the strategy myself (my Gamecube is currently on loan), I'll let you all know how I managed with it. -------------------------------- V. Copyright/Contact Info/Thanks -------------------------------- This FAQ is copyright 2004 by William Watts. If you see this file anywhere other than www.gamefaqs.com or www.shitmymana.com, please contact me at Fumaofthelake@gmail.com. You can also reach me at the same address if you have any questions/comments. gr8 <3 to Activision, Treyarch, Marvel Comics, and Sam Raimi for helping make cool stuff. Super gr8 <3 to Key Rose for contributing an alternative strategy and to everyone who has sent polite questions and feedback. Surprisingly, this has been everyone so far.