Walkthrough for Metal Warriors (SNES) By Mike Jenista mjenista@math.duke.edu Version 1.00 October 2007 Table of Contents ----------------- I. Introduction II. Suits and Controls III. Items and Upgrades IV. Enemies V. Walkthrough VI. Legal Mumbo-Jumbo I. Introduction --------------- Metal Warriors is a Lucas Arts game that really rocks. It has some really innovative aspects and only one drawback that I can see. The single player mode is challenging and the two-player battle mode is awesome (although not featured in this guide). It compares very well with Cybernator which I believe came before Metal Warriors. The story is that in 2102, the Dark Axis, led by dictator Venkar Amon, has waged a three-year with the United Earth Government. The Axis forces have taken over much of the surface and have established a heavy orbital defense system. Only your elite squad of Metal Warriors can break through and destroy the Dark Axis once and for all. Note that the Dark Axis is not a bunch of aliens--they are presumably space settlers that live on asteroids and such and they want to take the homeworld for their own. The game has excellent cut scenes and pretty decent music. II. Suits and Controls ---------------------- You are Lt. Stone, and when you are not in your armor suit you have a dinky gun (Y button) and a jetback (B button). When standing in front of an available suit (they face the screen and are gray) press Select to get in. The controls for each type of suit are different, but there are three universal controls: Start: toggle map Select: get in or out of armor suit L: use shoulder attachment, if available--also picks up shoulder attachments if you have one already and want to get a different one on the ground. Here are the basic controls, and then afterward some explanations: Nitro Drache Prometheus Ballistic Spider Havoc ---------------------------------------------------------------------- D-Pad walk,aim fly about walk,aim roll,aim walk,aim walk,aim Y cannon fire left mega cannon rifle gun rifle X drop shield fire up aerial mines plasma gun web zip B flight jets fire down bridge maker jump jump jump jets A beam sabre fire right flame cannon power spin strike chain whip R shield power dive shield shield cloak shield Nitro - Standard suit. Nitro has a good gun and the most powerful melee weapon. It flies (big advantage), and it also has a special drop shield. When you press X a little shield comes down and will temporarily block shots and enemies. There are many uses for this item, not least of which is to slow down pursuing enemies in a retreat. You can aim any direction, but when walking you can only shoot straight or at forty-five degrees up or down. Drache - Flying menace. Drache has no gravity effects, just fly around at will. The hard part about the Drache is getting used to shooting directionally by using the four buttons. The power dive works automatically so that when you press R you just start crushing things beneath you in a fiery dive. If you want to shoot diagonally, press two adjacent fire buttons at the same time. Prometheus - Walking weapon. Prom does not fly or jump--very bad! It has a little dropper that makes bridges one square at a time, but it is slow and not maneuverable. However, it is lethal. It's cannon fires all over the place, the aerial mines float straight up to kill enemies above and the flame cannon not only melts enemies quickly it also stuns them so that you will certainly kill one if it gets caught in the flame. Also, Prom's shield covers his whole body. Use aerial mines to kill overhead enemies. To use the cannon properly, hold the Y button. When you let go, the shell explodes. This is a great way to shoot around corners. The cannon and flame thrower can both destroy incoming shots. Larger projectiles (like missiles and energy shots) will go right through the flame thrower but can be destroyed by a well-timed cannon shell. Ballistic - Rolling threat. Ball is fast on the ground, especially with the power spin attack (watch the rebound, it's strong). It has a limited jump, but when it's weapons are out it will not move. It's shield is pretty good. The plasma gun is chargeable, and very powerful when you use that feature. The very big downside is the fact that you can't fire while moving unless you have some sort of shoulder mount. Spider - Spider/Scorpion. While certainly a cool idea and a necessary tool at times, the Spider is really hard to control on anything but the floor. When you are on the wall or ceiling, Spider's orientation is still from its own cockpit, so if you press Left on the d-pad, Spider will go to ITS left, not your left. Further, if you try to aim while on the wall or ceiling, you need to aim from Spider's point-of-view. This means that Up always points away from the surface you are walking on and Down always towards it. It is awkward, to say the least. But there are good spots! Spider has a cool web attack that blocks shots and stops enemies. Also, instead of a shield defense it has an invisibility cloak. It's melee attack is a giant scorpion stinger, and it is pretty okay. Havoc - Alternate standard suit. Havoc is like a standard suit but with different abilities. It only has jump jets, not flight jets, and its chain whip is not as strong as the beam sabre. But it does have a strong shield and the zip move that really zooms you around the floor to get in or out of situations fast. All suits have the same "health bar" which is the suit color. When bright red, the suit is at full health. When getting grayer, it is losing health. When dark gray and sparking, it is low on health and has lost the ability to attach upgrades on the shoulder. There is one stage below this when your gun does not work and you can only move left and right to maybe find some health before you die. I suggest getting out of the suit and looking for a new one or a health box nearby. When you take too much damage, you lose upgrades you had even if you are still capable of using them. III. Items and Upgrades ----------------------- In early levels, there are little areas labelled "port" that will continually spew out health boxes and occasionally a weapon upgrade. Learn their location and go back whenever you can to stay healthy. The gun upgrades last for a while as soon as you pick them up, but shoulder mounted weapons will not start their countdown to disappear until you start to use them. Also, the little boxes that have items in them don't always have the same item in them. Usually, missile launchers and health are the only items that stay the same. Other items besides health: Weapon upgrade--(a number 1-4) These boost the power of your standard weapon. Level 4 is so powerful that it slices through "shootable" walls like a hot knife through butter. Bouncing Shot--(a letter B) This lets your gun bounce off a few walls. Seeking Shot--(a letter S) Heat-seeking shots, useful for the Nitro which has no spread to its main gun. NOTE: Both the bouncer and seeker weapons are pretty weak compared with the strength of some standard weapons. I find that they are actually a burden rather than an upgrade. Shoulder-mounted items: Missile Launcher--(shoulder-mount with triangle) Exactly what you think; powerful shots that move in a straight line and destroy things. Gravity Switcher--(shoulder-mount with up and down arrows) When you use this item, it switches your gravity so that you fall up. You can switch gravity at will, but when it disappears you return to normal. There are actually some good places to use this. Speed--(shoulder-mount with flat top) Speeds up your movement AND attack speed so that you can slice up enemies quickly. Your body will be surrounded with swirly energy, but you are not invincible. Grenades--(shoulder-mount with a G) Lobs grenades that roll a bit and explode for good damage. Very nice for taking out enemies in a hole or over a ledge. There are also some other shoulder mounts in the two-player game, but they never appear in the single player version so I won't bother to talk about them. IV. Enemies ----------- Nitros - Basically just like your Nitro, but with less life and they fly all the time. They try to stay out of reach this way, but you can kill them easily two ways: Get ALMOST under them and fire up (if you get right under, they will shoot down) or get in with your sabre. Bazookas - They move really slow and charge up big shots to blow things up. Entice them to fire, then dodge. They take a few seconds to reload so you can get in and kill them. NOTE - In stages 3 and 4, Bazookas also will put away their weapon and use a small gun against you. When using this gun, they are no different from Nitros. Cannons - Large stationary cannons do big damage, but they can't aim down. Find a safe spot below them and fire upward, or get in close and use your melee weapon. Also, missiles are very effective because it's easy to aim at stationary targets. Little Dudes - These guys are running around and shoot at you with either guns, grenades, or rockets. You can't just run them over unfortunately, but one hit kills them. Make sure you don't get out of your suit near one of them because they will try to get in it and attack you! Shooter - Slow, wimpy shooters that are easy to kill. They have double-barreled lasers, but they are still wimpy. Havocs - A lot of times you see empty Havoc suits out in the open and little dudes running to them. Either kill the dude or the suit fast, because when they get in, they start zipping around and using the shield to avoid your shots. They aren't that hard to kill but they can be very annoying if you are surrounded. Mines - You will often see little flashing lights on the ground. They explode, so shoot them first if you can. Booby Traps - Near breakable floors, you can sometimes see purple ovals. These are mines that explode, and then a little drone comes out and flies at you until it hits something and blows itself up. Try to draw them out and blow them up on walls before you go past them. You can also shoot them directly since they move pretty slow. NOTE - On some levels, the drones are hanging out in the air without the purple oval. They are basically an aerial version of the booby trap. When you hear one, backtrack to cover. Sentry Guns - These guns appear out of secret ports and shoot at you. They are not very strong, and they usually only fire when you are looking away. Use this information to your advantage to draw the gun out of its hole and then blast at it. It will retreat a few times before you get it, but they are essentially stupid. Grenade Suit - Big hulky suits that usually lob grenades but also use a melee attack on you. Easy to attack from a distance, but watch out for the grenades if you have to get in close! Wall Turret - These are like small versions of the cannon, but can still do a lot of damage if you're not careful. Kind-Of-Havoc - There are purple guys that look like crosses between a Havoc and a Grenade Suit. They usually just hang out and block shots with their shield, but will fire when you are in a direct horizontal line. Stay behind your drop shield and kill them slowly for the safest method, or from above/below if you have the chance. Missile Launcher - Little tanks that fire POWERFUL missiles in many directions and in rapid succession. These are VERY dangerous enemies, but also very weak. Sneak up on it and use your melee weapon. Grenade Holes - Exactly as it sounds; a hole that lobs grenades. You can only damage it when it is open. Plasma Dropper - In the last two levels there are drones attached to the ceiling which zip back and forth and drop a powerful plasma burst on you. They are easily killed, but keep a sharp eye out for them. Cannon/Grenade Combo - On the final level you find little cannons with grenade holes on their bottoms. They are basically the two types of enemy in one little sphere. You need to destroy them seperately. V. Walkthrough -------------- Remember, backtrack to ports whenever you can for health, even if only mildly damaged! The basic strategy of the early levels is to clear small areas and go back for health. On later levels, learn the locations of health boxes and fresh suits. There won't be any ports after level 3! ******************************* * Mission 1: Rescue on Axis 5 * ******************************* This is a large level but easy because there are lots of upgrades. There are several enemies at the door to the Axis 5 base, so just take them out. Once inside, there is a series of elevators and doors. You can't just move through this area, you need to wait for elevators or doors to get out of your way. There are several Nitros and Bazookas in here, so get in close with your sabre for the easiest kill, but really you should be fine because on the right side of this area is a port for quick health. Along the bottom of this area are a missile launcher and health box, but you won't need them probably. Go down through a breakable floor and wait for a Bazooka to shoot the Oxygen drum. Quickly kill him before he reloads and then kill the Nitros from above. Below you is a box with a random item in it, and to its left are some Oxygen tanks. If you want to get a Spider, bring a missile launcher here (make sure it is fresh!) and start blasting the tanks and moving left. Shoot shoot shoot until you see the Spider and then DON'T SHOOT IT! Even if you do, there is a level 3 gun box down here, so you should still get something. Back at the vertical shaft, a Bazooka will blow a hole in a wall near the top clearing the way into a large hydroponics bay. There are several Nitros in here and a large cannon on the right side. But don't just fly in and shoot; there are booby traps near the center. Carefully draw the Nitros to the left to get them and clear the booby traps one by one. Then make sure to destroy the Bazooka in the lower right (you have to shoot through a little tunnel, but you can block his shots easily with your drop shield). Then take out the large cannon before proceeding. The little room past the first cannon has two more cannons. Destroy them and make sure you have full health. The lower route continues and the upper route (past some breakable wall) has an item box (usually gun upgrade). Taking the lower route, you find yet another cannon and a narrow tunnel with Bazookas, Nitros and Oxygen tanks. Just put down drop shields and move through here with care and you will be fine. There is a missile launcher below the breakable floor near the end of the tunnel. When you come to the vertical shaft, you are in a big room with lots of breakable wall and Nitros and Bazookas around. Shoot your way down to the bottom where Marissa is and walk to her. She jumps on and then two Nitros start shooting at you from the left. Take them out, shoot through the wall and then fly through this tunnel to the exit. There is also an item box in the big room that has health in it usually, so you won't need to backtrack to the port. ***************************** * Mission 2: Boarding Party * ***************************** This level is cool; you're going to take over a whole ship. In the initial area, there are two Nitros flying around. Fly up and kill them and collect the level 3 gun up there. Below you are two cannons; destroy them to proceed. If you want, there is a missile launcher in a box to the left of the cannons. Past the cannons are two shooters gaurding a large vertical shaft. Kill them and drop down to find more shooters, little dudes and two big cannons. If you still have the missile launcher, this is easy. Otherwise, use drop shields to protect yourself or use your beam sabre on the lower cannon to make a safe area below the upper cannon. Below these cannons is a port, but watch out for a Shooter hiding nearby. Once clear, go through the upper tunnel to the right. Down the shaft there are little dudes, an extra mech, and an item box. Destroy the suit to make sure that no dudes get in it, and grab whatever is in the box (usually grenades). Continuing, you will soon be in a large bay filled with missiles. Most of what you see is breakable, but your weapon is too wimpy to break them. However, the many Bazookas in here can break them, so look out (the missiles will not kill you if they explode near you, I mean look out for the Bazookas suddenly appearing through a hole they just blasted open). You will eventually make your way to a vertical shaft between racks of missiles. At the bottom is a missile launcher and at the top are a booby trap, two Bazookas and a Nitro. If you are fast, you can kill all the enemies and then blast leftward to find a level 4 gun upgrade, but if you want to do this the easy way, let the upper Bazooka live and tease him. He will blow up missiles until he opens up a path right to the upgrade, and then you can kill him. Beyond these guys is another larger vertical shaft between missile racks. At the bottom is some health, and a Bazooka gaurds the tunnel to the right. There is a booby trap in here as well, so be careful. The final stretch of this level is filled with Nitros, Bazookas, Shooters, and breakable boxes. Using drop shields is great because the tunnel is so narrow. There is a health box in an upper chamber, so you probably won't need to go back to the port. Soon you will find that your suit is too tall to continue. Jump out and start firing continuously to the right. You will kill many dudes, and probably take some hits. The little numbers over your head are how many hits you can take before you die (so it's a countdown to death!) so pay attention. The best thing to do is just keep shooting and running and once or twice use your jetpack to jump over a bullet. You should make it to the cockpit of the ship with a few hits left. Once there, you gain control of the ship and win. ****************************** * Mission 3: War on the Rock * ****************************** This is a cool level; inside an asteroid is a supply base for the Dark Axis that could be very useful once turned to your own control. Fight your way through the defenses and take control of the energy core. When you start this level, you will notice that you can go to the left. Do so, and kill the very many Nitros that are flying around. This has two effects: the first is that they will not be there at the end of the level and the second is that you can grab the level 3 gun hiding in a tunnel near the ceiling. There is a sentry gun gaurding the entrance to a secret cave and a bunch of mines on the floor below it. Put up a drop shield and use it as cover against the gun, then shoot the mines before landing. Shoot through the breakable wall for the gun upgrade. With your upgrade, you should fly to the right into the asteroid and wildly blast away at the many Shooters in here, then mop up the dudes, then grab health at the port. Above the port to the left is a series of tunnels with item boxes and a booby trap, but I find that these tunnels are not really worth the time. Maybe you find a missile launcher, maybe not. Anyhow, make your way up the vertical shaft. There is a Havoc on the left so make sure to take care of him first. There is an empty Havoc behind a door that you can open by getting out of your suit, but don't bother. Go right and take out the Havocs and dudes over here. To the right is breakable flooring, and then a series of more breakable flooring. DO NOT just start going down. FLY above the flooring, shooting down. This way you will not drop onto the booby traps and mines below. Clear out the vertical shaft this way (two booby traps and then mines on the floor) before going down there. To the left is a sentry gun and to the right is a cannon. Behind the cannon is a Havoc. Go get health, then take care of the cannon/Havoc using your melee weapon. Use drop shields right up close to the sentry gun to make a quick kill of it. DON'T go down the shaft beyond the sentry gun because it is just filled with mines and no goodies. The next part is tricky to do if you don't want to take much damage. There is a series of cannons going up a vertical shaft, and you can't just float around and shoot them because then the other ones will shoot at you. Put drop shields right in front of one cannon and then "hover" (which means use your jets, let go for a second and then put them on again--this has the effect of making you slowly fall and then rise repeatedly which, done properly, is as good as hovering) while shooting right to destroy the cannon. Repeat on the next cannons and the Shooter above. Get health as necessary Okay, once you clear out the cannons, you can't go any further yet. Go back to the first cannon's remains and get out of your suit. Float down and shoot the dudes down here. If you bring your suit, a dude will steal it. Anyway, once they are dead, go left and use the switch to open the door above. A dude will probably have appeared by now, so kill him and then fly back up to your suit. Kill the Havoc through the open door and then get ready for a little "boss" fight. You are at the energy core, but a drop ship from the Dark Axis has just dropped enemy Nitros to come and destroy the station rather than yield it to our forces. The key here is that you don't need to save the whole energy core, just one piece of it. So either get to the bottom pronto or get out of your suit at the top and fly down yourself. At the bottom is a Prometheus (on the right) and you should get in it right away (if you want to change back to the other suit, leave it somewhere above where dudes won't steal it and Nitros won't destroy it; otherwise just blow it up with your Prom). In the Prom, just stay near the energy bulbs at the bottom and shoot up at the Nitros around here. Release aerial mines all the time and just generally take them out. Your buddies will panic because the Nitros take out all the other energy bulbs, but they won't concentrate on the last ones until they kill you so you will be fine. The last few Nitros might not come down to you, so just waddle to the right until they do. When they are all dead, use the switch on floor to open the last door (the one you saw near the port in the beginning) and waddle left. If you want to get back in your Nitro or whatever, do so now. Once you get back to the port, you will have an easy task (assuming you blew up the Nitros in the beginning). In the Prom, use the elevator to get up on the platform above the port and then use the bridge dropper to build a little bridge over to the enemy drop ship. Once on it, it will start to back up. Move up to the guns and use your flame thrower to blow them up, then blow up the hatch into the ship. Get out of your suit and kill your way to the cockpit. You have to "pilot" the ship back into the hangar, but this means press the Right button on the D-pad until you park right in front of the port. Awesome. *************************** * Mission 4: Ship Defense * *************************** Defend the ship! This means "don't let the enemies destroy everything" which really means "save just one thing on the ship." You are in a super-slow Prom, and the key to success is to try and concentrate your defense in one place. What I do is go right to the first box and grab the Seeker shot inside. Start shooting (use aerial mines whenever you are moving, regular cannon whenever you are still) at any enemies around you. Don't go too far to the left of the ship. When enemies see you, they come after you. Otherwise they attack the ship and then move on. So what you should do is stay in one general area near the right side so that any enemies attack you instead of the nearby ship parts. This preserves those parts for the whole fight. When you start to lose a lot of health, go to the far right and grab the health in the box. From this point on, it's just a matter of staying near an undamaged ship part. If you can ever coax enemies into walking right in front of you, use your flame thrower. It is the best attack. You should have plenty of health to survive if you don't grab the health item too early and you should also keep the ship together by staying in one place to draw fire away from a few parts of the ship. Kill twenty-something enemies and you will win. NOTE: There is a missile launcher on the far left of the ship, but I usually leave it there because you can't elevate your fire. So you have to wait for an enemy to come low and really you will just be distracted trying to get in good missile shots. My advice is just stay on the right. ****************************** * Mission 5: Frontal Assault * ****************************** This will be the hardest mission so far because it is longer with tougher enemies and NO PORT. The key to success is to play to the strengths of your available suits and to be very conservative in your strategy. Also, stay away from the top of the level because A) there are floating mines up there and B) the Super Cannon at the end of the level continuously fires massive fireballs along the top that will really ruin your day. The two enemies to watch out for here are the wall turrets and the Grenade Suits. They will deal the most damage to you throughout the level. In the initial area, you will experience your first cave-in. It leads to a wall turret behind which is a level 2 gun. I say skip it. Over the next hump you will see a Ballistic Suit. Don't get in it yet! First destroy the wall gun below you WITHOUT opening the box behind it (the best way to do this is to stand on the ice below the gun, drop a shield, and fire up at the turret). The box contains a missile, but you will want to pick that up with the Ballistic. If you open it, just grab it with the Nitro and adjust the later strategy to the Nitro. Anyhow, with the Nitro also destroy the many Grenade Suits hanging around. Use your flight jets to stay out of grenade range. If you have lots of health, fly over the ice mound and take out the wall turrets in front of the base. Don't go in the base yet. Leave the Nitro in a safe place, get in the Ballistic and grab the missile. Go to the right along the train tracks and use the Plasma Cannon (X) to blow up the train cars blocking the tunnel, but DON'T go in there! There is a health box that you are certain to open if you fight the Havoc in there and you will effectively waste it on a healthy Ballistic. Go to the center of the ice below the tracks. Blow open the blocks there to get down into a tunnel. Go left and use your missile to kill the first of many suits down here. Blow open a hole into the lower tunnel and start using missiles on everything you see. Roll right and fire missiles to keep taking out tons of enemies in this corridor until you reach some elevators. Keep using the missile until it runs out and then use the Ballistic's Plasma Cannon to take out enemies at the top of elevators (wait for the elevator to go up, then get under it and charge up--when it comes to get you, you will be charged and ready to blow up anything at the top). The reason you want to do all this with the Ballistic and NOT the Nitro is that the Ballistic moves VERY fast and the tunnel is long. Now you are at the first part of the base. Above the base tunnels are more ice mounds covered in gun turrets and enemy suits. DO NOT GO BACK TO THE SURFACE. All you will get is trouble that you don't need. There is one health box up there but you will basically lose that much health just going to get it. There is a good item box (usually missiles) at the top of this little base, so get out of your suit and open the doors necessary to get at it. It doesn't matter which suit you pick it up with. So, continuing through the tunnels from the first base, you will find several enemy suits along the way--Havocs and Kind-Of-Havocs. I find that the Nitro is perfect for this because the drop shield works so dang well in horizontal tunnels. You will eventually come to the second part of the base. There are a number of suits below and above, but you want to concentrate on the gun turret on the right side of the elevator. Use your drop shield to block it and gun it down, then take out the one behind it that faces the other way. Go below and kill some more suits, then backtrack and switch to the Ballistic. With the Ballistic, you can charge up while riding the elevator and release a massive plasma shot at the two suits up there, killing them in one hit. DO NOT GO OUT THAT TUNNEL! It leads to the surface, where useless danger lurks. On the right side of this little secondary base is a health box and both your suits should need some health by now, so grab it with whichever one you want. (Backtrack at any time to the train tunnel near the beginning to kill the Havoc in there and take the health box). Once you clear out a few more suits here, you are ready to head into the final base area. The first part of the final base is a low tunnel with little guys shooting and a wall turret. Use the Ballistic to Power Spin into it and then finish it off with more Spins or your guns. Kill the annoying dudes here and then leave your Ballistic on the little catwalk above so nobody steals it. Get out and go through the tiny tunnel. You will fly up and over to the left (the Havoc has to shoot through a lot of platform before he can hit you, so just fly over him), then up and back to the right through a long tunnel with one or two guys in it. You will eventually find an empty Havoc. Open the door nearby and get in. With this fresh suit, you can go down and kill the enemy Havoc (open the door, then get back in your Havoc fast!). With him dead, you can open the door to the left of the elevator for your other suits to come through, but keep the Havoc for now. Go up the elevator and to the right, leave that box (it's health) and go up to the little energy thingy and blast it. Deactivate that giant beam and then use your Havoc to go to the left of this top area and destroy the two wall turrets. Once they are gone, go back down and get the Ballistic (if healthy or if you can grab an available health box). It will make short work of the Super Cannon by jumping to the ledge just under all that and firing a couple Plasma bursts at the two little attack drones (one shoots missiles, the other lobs grenades). Once they are gone, just fire up at the Super Cannon until it explodes in a fury of light. The damage zone is the flashing square at the end of the cannon, so you may have to adjust your position to hit it, although you can easily hit it when it recoils. Also, the Ballistic's rifle (Y) has a spread shot and will hit the damage zone about half the time. When it blows up, you win! ************************* * Mission 6: Jungle War * ************************* This is a very difficult mission. You must be even more cautious than the previous one, and there is less health. However, there ARE many many suits available to you. The level is split into three parts, so that you can continue partway through if you die later in the mission. PART I ------ You start in the jungle. The majot hazard here is the rocket launcher enemy and the cave-ins. There are just tons of spots where the walls suddenly crumble away and rocket launching dudes roll up firing tons of rockets at you. They are very powerful rockets and will spell certain doom if you just start running about. To begin, head right and kill the Shooter on the ledge. Over the ledge and across the pit are two Cannons and a Shooter. Fly as high as you can and go right until you see a big green beam. Go down and you can take out these enemies from behind/above. Also, stand as close to the beam as you can until you see a Havoc. Goad him into the beam and he will sit there until he dies! In the cave below this is a Prometheus suit. Change into it, then fall down to the large barrier below. Leave the suit on the left side of the barrier and get out. Head into the little cave and use the switch to open the barrier. Get back into your Prom and drop down to the catwalk below, making sure to get off it and fight the Havoc. If you stay on the catwalk, a Missile Launcher below you will catch you off gaurd. Once the Havoc is dead, get near the edge but don't show yourself to the Missile Launcher. Instead, start shooting your cannon over the edge until you see the spread shots hitting the Launcher. You can kill him this way without ever exposing your Prom. Go down and blast your way to the ramp to the right. Shoot the mines before going up it. Above the ramp you will see a ledge that is blocked by a shootable wall and there is also a switch there. But if you look close you will see the hatch for a Sentry Gun. So aim your cannon up and blast away the wall. Now comes a tricky bit. Walk up the ramp until you are almost in the line of fire of the Sentry Gun, then reverse and fire a cannon shot so that the spread hits the gun. It takes a little practice, but you can destroy the gun without ever exposing your Prom. ********************* * Secret Cache Note * ********************* There is a secret little cache of stuff inside the tunnels where the first switch is. It is a health box and a level 3 gun. If you think you will need extra health, then when you take the missile launcher shoulder mount that is behind the very first cannon you destroyed, take it over to the little tunnel and fire to the right. You won't see it, but you will hear a wall blowing up. Fire a couple missiles to be sure. Then get out and you can now reach a switch that opens the barrier below and lets you in to the secret cache with your Nitro suit. The only reason not to do this is if you want to use the missiles as a weapon in the stage itself. ********************** Go up the ramp to the elevator shaft. A Missile Launcher will blow up the wall across from you, so go back and it will try to follow. It will land below instead, so you can use your spread shot trick to get it. Take the Prom down to the lowest tunnel and destroy the mines in the dip. Then move into the dip until you see a Missile Launcher; fire at it from the dip and its missiles will sail over you. Go back up the elevator and destroy the Sentry Gun on the left. It may take a while because you need to coax it out and shoot before the elevator goes down again. Hit the switch when you destroy it. If the Prom has good health still, continue to the right (otherwise park it somewhere safe and get the Nitro). There are two cannons you need to destroy and Prom can use his flame thrower to make quick work of it. Don't get the box behind the second cannon; it's a level 3 gun, better for the Nitro. At this point, you should switch back to Nitro. Grab the level 3 gun and go back to the shaft leading to the surface. Instead of going up, go down (to your left is the elevator shaft, to your right is a tunnel with a seeming dead-end). A Missile Launcher will blow up the wall in front of you. Immediately move into the cave ahead and waste the two Missile Launchers in there with whatever weapon you can. As you move to the right in this cave, another Missile Launcher will blow up another wall and it will fall down an elevator shaft. Go kill it. You are now about a third of the way through the level. At the bottom of the elevator shaft are mines (to the right) and a health box (to the left past a blastable wall). At the top of the elevator is a Sentry Gun (left) and a Kind- of-Havoc (right, behind a blastable wall). I recommend killing the Sentry Gun from the left side (back in the previous cave), then using drop shields to kill the Kind-of-Havoc. Once you do this, you will have only one way forward-through the blastable wall where the Kind-of-Havoc was. But be warned! The whole next area will cave in and expose you to fire from cannons and sentry guns. In your Nitro, go forward in the tunnel with your flight boosters on until the cave in happens. Then fly up to the surface. Keep flying up until you are up against the railway with a Havoc on it. Don't blast through it yet. Instead, fly right until you see two Kind-of-Havocs. Because they don't fire upward, you can shoot down at them to kill them. Finally, kill the Havoc above. Now, if you really want to, you can go root out all the enemies in the tunnels below. However, I say skip it. The only reason to do this is so you can bring the Prom into the next section of the mission, and I don't recommend doing that either. So instead, go the left on the surface. You will find a small shootable floor to the left of the Sentry Gun that goes into the cave below. Kill the gun, go left to find the switch for the second green beam (watch out for another cave-in next to the switch!). There is health and a level 4 gun in this cave. Grab what you need and then fly right to the other side of the railway. You will find an elevator shaft and a Kind-of-Havoc to the right-kill him. Go down to kill some another Kind-of-Havoc and go right. This is another cave where Missile Launchers will blow up walls all around and things cave in, but with care you can kill them easily. Fly up and to the right to find the switch to turn off the third green beam. You can now reach the final area in your Nitro. Fly up and over the cliff and all the way to the right until you see a fourth green beam. Go down and kill the cannon below you. Then go left to kill a Shooter. Below you are many many enemies and mines. VERY CAREFULLY blast the mines and booby traps under the right side of this area until you can get at Sentry Gun located in the middle. To the left is a Kind-of-Havoc and more mines and a booby-trap. Below is a Missile Launcher. The best way to kill all these things is one at a time. You should be able to backtrack for a health box that you haven't used yet, or you can grab the Ballistic suit that is sitting under the cliff. In any case, once you have cleared out these big area, there is one last bit before the next part. In a large vertical shaft, you will find two cannons waiting below with a bunch of land mines placed for suckers who just jump down. If you have full health, just attack. If you have low health, instead fly up and switch into the Spider up there. Use it to take out the cannons. Now you have a decision. You can take ANY of the armors in this level into the next one. Nitro, Prom, Ball, or Spider. Here are my notes on these choices: Nitro: Basically a safe play--you can get through most of the next part easily but probably won't want this suit against the boss. Prom: An interesting choice--you will probably use other suits for much of the next part, and then can use the Prom against the boss. However, it is very difficult to win with the Prom. It is a neat challenge that you should try if you get really good. The bridger comes in handy with all the lava. Also, you will be able to get a Spider suit with the Prom's ability to shoot around corners. A massive drawback to taking the Prom is that you can't reach a lot of the health boxes. Ball: The plasma gun comes in handy, but the Ball will be the worst suit to have if you get stuck in lava. Also, it is essentially worthless against the boss because it can't move while firing. This means you will have to use a Havoc from the next part (which is fine). Spider: I don't like taking the Spider into the next part because it is very difficult to maneuver in the elevator chambers and also has weaker weapons. But it can reach all the health boxes with its wall-walking, and you can also get the other Spider suit. It is decent against the boss at the end. PART II ------- I am going to assume that you took the Nitro for this part, mostly because I will recommend that you use the Havocs in this part anyway. You should be able to adapt your strategy with a different suit. First, drop a shield and then destroy the Kind-of-Havoc. The box above is health, so save it. Go right and drop another shield because there is a cannon blocking the way. Destroy it, then fly up above and stand on the left ledge in front of the cannon. It should cave in. Now stand below the cannon and safely destroy it. Then fly up and use drop shields to cover you as you fire at the Sentry Gun to the right. When it's gone, use the switch to open a barrier nearby (it takes a while to open). Go up and kill the two Kind-of- Havocs, but try not to shoot open the box on the right. I will explain why later. When the barrier opens, fall all the way down. This is the subterranean lab where they engineered a new flight suit. Kill the two dudes, then get out and go into the tunnel at the left. Kill the two guys in the little cave, and keep going left but make sure to use your jetpack to go as fast as possible. You will see a Havoc suit waiting for you but if you are not using your jetpack, a little guy will beat you and that sucks! Grab the Havoc first and go left to kill a second Havoc. Flip the switch there, and then go back right. Leave the Havoc (no one will steal it) and get back in your Nitro. Take the Nitro right and go down. It looks like there is a Drache there, but it is just scenery. Carefully go left through the zappers until you can see a catwalk. There is a Havoc to the left, a Havoc below, and also a Shooter below. I find that just shooting the floor out will eventually lead all of these into a the lava where they will die on their own, but you can take them out in other ways if you wish. At the lower left near the lava, you see a tunnel to a switch. Go flip it, which opens the barrier above so you can get the Havoc you used before (the switch you flipped before deactivates a green beam to the next area). Take the Nitro to the right until you find the vertical shaft where the green beam was and go up it. You will see a second Havoc; shoot the floor to get at it, then switch. I find that the Havoc does better in the next areas. Back at the bottom, go right until you see a big elevator with chambers. Wait until it is going up to get in, and then get out to kill the Kind-of-Havoc. When the elevator goes back down, you will be able to get out on top of it. There are two shooters, booby traps, and a Sentry Gun at the right. Go all the way right and take out the Sentry Gun. Now, from here, fire up diagonally to kill the left Shooter and open the booby traps. Finally, go back left and shoot up diagonally to kill the right Shooter. When you are ready, exit the elevator chamber on the lower right to get to a small platform in the lava. A sentry gun appears, so just start shooting. Eventually, as the elevator goes back up, a platform appears for you to go forward. You see a second elevator; fire up diagonally to kill the shooter there. When you get up to the platform above, you will see a zapper in front of you and some booby traps beyond. Just fire through (at angles if needed) to land a few stray shots on the booby traps to trigger them, then back up and fire at the drone. Almost certainly, two Kind-of-Havocs will have shuffled around and will be waiting for you below. To get down, wait for the elevator to go down, and then as soon as the zapper turns off just jump down. You will see the two Kind-of-Havocs. Chase them to the right and they will fall into a lava pit and die. The box back to the left is health, so save it for when you need it. This elevator shaft goes up to last stretch, but you if you look in that lava pit you can see breakable walls. If you have a Prom or Spider, you can destroy that wall safely (it is very long) and get to the Spider suit on the other side. However, you probably don't need it. Anyhow, go up the elevator and ignore the box at the top. Go left past the zapper to a short elevator shaft. A Ball is nice here because of the plasma cannon, but a Havoc can kill the Sentry Guns and Kind-of-Havoc just through endurance. Go left until you see an overhead cave with a Kind-of-Havoc waiting for you. As you go left it will cave in and you can then kill him. Keep going left to find a shootable wall with a Shooter and a Kind-of-Havoc behind. At this point, you can get out of your current suit and switch to the other Havoc or get back in your Nitro (or backtrack for health if you want). With a healthy suit, go up the elevator, past a zapper to the right and up a short elevator to destroy a cannon. That is the last enemy until the boss. The boss is located past the next room, up the elevator and then all the way at the far right of the level. BOSS: Flight Suit ----------------- Before you fight the boss, backtrack to all the item boxes you can and pray for a missile launcher. If you get one, you will have a much easier time with the boss. When ready, go past the zapper into the boss's room. He will insult you, then start his attack pattern. It goes like this: he flies left and right at the top of the screen occasionally shooting grenades. If you fly up to him, he will use a gun against you. Periodically he drops to the floor to and fires a missile at you. Notice that his room has an entirely breakable floor. As you deal damage to him, he moves faster and fires lots more grenades. There is lava below you, so if the two of you break too much floor you might be in trouble. There are three health boxes in his room; one is on the wall to the right. The other two are hidden in the floor on the left and right sides. If you have a missile launcher, start firing. You have to anticipate where he will be because he moves too fast to be hit if you fire while he is already in your line of fire. With a half-dozen hits, you can then rely on the health boxes to sustain you through the fight until your gun kills him. If you don't have a missile launcher, here is my general strategy: constantly fire at him while trying to stay under him. If you stay under him, he won't drop down and use missiles. However, when he starts to spew grenades at a really high rate, you need to jump/fly as much as possible to avoid them. Go grab health before you think you need it because he can easily kill you while you are trying to dig it out of the floor. I find that the Havoc really is the best suit for the job because you don't need to aim as much and the spread gun makes it easier to get at the health. Once you destroy him, his fiery body blows a hole straight down through the lava that you can land in. When you get down there, you will see a tunnel. Get out and go right to find a Drache! Grab it and fly up for part III! PART III -------- This part is pretty easy because it is the first time you have the Drache and it is designed to ease you into it. If you fly down you will find a large shootable wall area on the right. Near the bottom is a level 3 gun. This is a pretty short area; when you reach the first catwalk, blast through it and start going right. You will encounter several enemies and a Sentry Gun, but you should be able to kill them easily since you can "stand" anywhere you want and fire spread shots in any direction. Past the zapper is a vertical shaft with lots of obsctructions and Sentry Guns. Take it a little at a time and you should take no damage. At the end of this you find a barrier and some tunnels above. Get out of the Drache and go through the left tunnel, over a long catwalk (a Havoc will shoot at you) and then into a tunnel on the left that leads down. Quickly jump in the Havoc and kill nearby enemies. Then go up and shoot through the hole to destroy a little grenade launcher (you have to turn your back sometimes to get it to open). When clear, blast the wall near the switch, then get out and flip it to open the way for your Havoc. Take the Havoc up and over to go kill the previous Havoc. Now you can get out and go down into the central area with all the switches. Kill any dudes, flip all the switches you can and get back to the Drache. With the barriers open, navigate back to the large vertical shaft and then fly up to the surface. Fly to the top of the level and then go left or right until you see "Mission Complete" (you can also check the map for the target icon). ******************* * Mission 7: Fire * ******************* The Dark Axis is burning down one of their bases and a nearby city rather than let your forces claim it. Your job is to stop them before they accomplish this goal. This level is a cakewalk compared to the previous one, but you should still be on your toes because there is not much health around (in fact, only two boxes are always health). The first half of the mission is a long trek through a ruined city to the base. You will find that basically every building can be completely destroyed--only a few have indestructible walls, and even these only make up small parts of the buildings. As such, I can't be very accurate about the level design since it keeps falling apart. When you start, you hear an aerial mine coming at you. Start shooting straight down and you will fall into the building and it will explode on the top. Blast your way past the first four buildings (don't bother going to the high parts of buildings) until you come to a seeming dead-end ramp of dirt. You can blast your way through the lower parts of this building to reach a switch that opens a door above (although you can also blast your way past that door). If you cause enough cave-ins here, you can reach an item box below that is usually a level 4 gun. Now fly up between the two buildings and carefully go through the middle of the one on the right (at the top are booby traps and Shooters). There is a Missile Launcher here, but he will most likely hit lots of building before coming near you. That door you opened is the best way to go. Just drop down the shaft until you are in a basement, then quickly go right and blow up some empty Havocs before the little dudes jump in them. Above you is one big building with lots of enemies in it that you should just avoid. Continue to the right and you will eventually encounter a Havoc--kill him. Then shoot through the wall to the right. This building has a solid right half, but you can ride the elevator to the top and fight the Grenade Suit or you can simply stay at ground level and fight two Missile Launchers in the next building before continuing. At the bottom of the elevator is the only gauranteed health box, as well as a missile launcher for you to grab. Between the two of these buildings near the top (in a little indestructible cup of walls) is a Ballistic suit if you want to have an extra suit to fight with. There are only two more buildings. The first is skinny with nothing interesting so you should just go under it to the big ramp. There are many mines above you so goad them into exploding before you go to the last building. Blast your way through the ground level to get into basement. There is a Prom here, and a switch halfway up the elevator that you can flip to open the door at the top. There is a Grenade Suit and a Shooter but nothing you can't handle so you should be able to stroll to the little exit tunnel at the right. I recommend taking the Nitro into the Boss area. Boss: Giant Metal Worms of Doom ------------------------------- This boss area is much larger. Your comms man tells you that there are three "Axis units" in the area. You can say that again! They are three humongous tunneling worms that are trying to reach the underground base nearby. You are on the left side of the map near the base; the worms are slowly tunneling from the far right. Immediately fly up over the two buildings before the base and then go down the hill and right. Eventually you will see a series of catwalks and spraying bullets--that's the first worm. The worms have three attacks. If you are over it's back, it will shoot missiles straight up at you. If you are over the head, it sprays bullets at you. If you are right in front, it will charge up a massive sphere of fire and hurl it at you kind of like the Super Cannon in Mission 5. The best way to kill these worms is to stand right in front, use your beam sabre two or three times on the head (depending on how quick you do this) then jump up and away to dodge the super-shot. Repeat until dead. This is actually very fast. The second worm is also near the surface and farther back. Go find him and kill him as well. Now backtrack to the base, go way down to the bottom where you find three boxes. One is a health, one is a missile launcher, and the other is a seeker upgrade. Grab all of them and go back to where you fought the first worm and check your map. You should see an extended tunnel below you. That is where the last worm is hiding. This worm is a little trickier because you can't fight him in the open. The best strategy is to wait in one of the little pockets that is slightly above the tunnel he is digging. You don't want to go in one that he has already reached because you might not be able to reach his head (the damage zone). When you see the shots making the tunnel below you, make sure to NOT stand on the dirt as it explodes (it damages you badly for some reason). There should have been a cave-in that allows you to move about in a little open area now, and you can use a combination of your sabre and the missiles to pulverize this worm into dust. There is a Ballistic suit in the base, but I never bother with it because I get completely owned when I try to use it. ***************************** * Secret Mission: The Tower * ***************************** Mission 8 is a super-secret mission for some reason. You need to steal the command keys, which apparently get you into the Axis base in the final mission. Anyhow, you start on the outside of the tower. Instead of going in right away, fly way way up until you come to a little ledge. Flip the switch here which opens a little hatch revealing a bonus on the inside of the tower. You will get there later. Back at the entrance, leave your Nitro behind and enter. The tower is arranged as a central shaft with elevators and tunnels on both sides. I will refer to these as Central Shaft, Left Side, and Right Side. Lower Levels ------------ Go to the Left Side until you see a series of small tunnels. Go all the way down and then to the right. You will come to another set of tunnels that go up and down. Go down first to grab the Drache. Then go to the small room on the Right Side to open the door to the control room. Back in the basement, flip the switch after you see the animation about the command keys. Now get back in the Drache and blast your way out back to the ground level (there is only a cannon in your way, but if you want, you can stop for an upgrade box behind a shootable wall on the Left Side. Ground Level to Midlevel ------------------------ The first thing you should do in the Drache is clear out the Shooters and the two booby traps in the Central Shaft. Don't go too high just yet. Instead, go back down to the ground level and go back into the tunnels on the Left Side. Go all the way up and flip the switch there to open a nearby door. If you flipped the switch in the control room, you can go through the tunnels to the left and then up to find a Prom. You should use the Prom for most of the level in order to keep the Drache healthy for the boss. From here, you do the same thing over and over: In the Prom, head to the Central Shaft and bridge your way across while blasting any enemies. Then flip any switches, go up the next elevator and repeat. You will meet many booby traps, cannons and shooters. There are health boxes every few floors, so don't sweat it. Every now and then, leave the Prom and get back to the Drache. Just blast right through the Central Shaft to the level of the Prom. It is tedious, but pretty easy to do as long as you are careful. Midlevel to Boss ---------------- Eventually you will see a Port. Don't get excited--it only drops the gravity switching shoulder mount (it's so the Prom can get out of there, I think, and maybe so that it can quickly blast through a few roofs to get through the level quickly, but you should not do this). Keep doing the same thing, but when you come to the level where you can see big ramps above you (check your map) you are closing in on the final bit. Clear out the area under the ramps then slowly go up to the ramps and creep forward. You will eventually get attacked by a grenade-lobbing hole, but the grenades will fall short and roll down the ramp if you go slowly. If you can see the other grenade hole, don't waste time on it because you can't get it to open from the side you are on. Go forward to fight some Kind-of-Havocs, but stay back if the grenades start to fall from above. At this point, you can switch back to the Drache permanently. Get in and shoot straight up through the vertical shaft near the center of this area--careful, there are grenade holes. When you get to the next level, you want to get to the ceiling and take out the two Plasma Droppers. You will see a Kind-of-Havoc below so powerdive on him. Flip the switch there to open the way to the top of the tower. Boss ---- Even if you like the Prom, stay in the Drache. Fly up and then into the boss room. It is another flight suit like Mission 6, but this time you will be able to win with no trouble. Get close to the flight suit, and when it drops to fire a missile, use a powerdive on it. You should destroy it in one hit. There is also a Havoc below you--use guns or coax it into the open for a powerdive (or get the Prom if you want). Once the coast is clear, flip all the switches, grab the health box, and go to the exit tunnel. There is Havoc in there but he should not stop you. Flip the last switch and go out through the exit to move on to the final mission! **************************** * Mission 9: Final Mission * **************************** Good News: This mission is definitely something you can conquer. Bad News: The final boss is pretty tough. By far the toughest thing you will have faced. Okay, the mission is split into two parts. The first part can be a little taxing, but it's nothing you can't handle at this point. Part IA: The Descent -------------------- The first part of the first part is a long drop down into the bowels of the base below. There are cannon/grenade combos, Sentry Guns, and TONS of booby traps. The best way to get down this shaft is to stand on something whenever possible to look below. When you can't see enemies, use your jets in a bursting pattern to slowly go down and look for booby traps. They are the biggest threat on the way down. When you see one, shoot at it and then just fly up to the first bit of cover you find (listen to make sure the drone has exploded). When you get to the bottom, there are several cannons and a green beam. Don't take them on right away; instead fly under the one to the right and then fly into the upper right corner above the third cannon to take them out from above and behind. Then go left again to kill the last cannon and grab the health behind it. PartIB: Get to the Core ----------------------- There is a series of green beams, tunnels, and enemies below you gaurding a Drache, if you want it. I never bother because you won't be able to take it to the next part anyway. So go right to the vertical shaft and drop to the bottom. A gun appears at your left so drop a shield and kill it. Then flip the switch and go back up. If you go very high, you will see a large chamber with a big lock going back and forth. There are some upgrade boxes if you want to check them out. Go through the lower tunnel (there was a door here, but the switch at the bottom opened it) and take out the Sentry Gun. It's best to go under it and then fly up a little until it comes out before attacking. Your drop shields will be too low to block its fire. You are now over a large chasm with a green beam below and a moving platform. Above you is a plasma dropper, so destroy it before you go farther. Get on the platform and aim down a little. You will be able to use the platform as cover to destroy the two cannons to the right. The second cannon is hard to hit, so you may want to just fly down and get above it to save time. Now weave through this little series of tunnels and green beams, kill the Shooter and grab whatever is in the box. Go up to find another moving platform and a cannon/grenade combo. Get in close and destroy it with the sabre to minimize your exposure. To the left is the same large chamber with a large moving lock. Be careful in here, because you could get smashed! Go up and right to find a ledge for your Nitro. Get out and go left to open the door there. Back in the Nitro, navigate the lock chamber to get to the door from the other side. There are many tunnels and shafts here, but also many barriers which do not open ever. If you go up and left, you will find an ambush of Sentry Guns and a Havoc, so instead go up and right to fight some Havocs and a booby trap until you come to a vertical shaft with a tunnel that only your little man can get through. Get out of the Nitro and go through. There are two empty Havocs, but an enemy dude grabs the upper one. Get in the other and kill your enemy. Go left and kill the enemies you meet until it looks like you can't go further. Look up and you will see a shootable ceiling. Go up through this. You need to go up one more level, but above you is a plasma dropper, a Shooter and a Havoc, so be cautious. Once they are dead, you should be able to go right and blast your way to the Axis Core. Part II: Axis Core ------------------ This is the last stage, so if you die you will start here. There are a large number of boxes in this stage, but only one extra suit near the end which is a Prom which you won't want because the final boss is too hard with the Prom. So needless to say, BE CAREFUL! At first, you see a Grenade Suit below, but he can't reach you yet. Use the zip roller to go past the two cannons and go down to kill the Grenade Suit. Then take out the cannons from below if you want. There is a box above, but don't get it yet. There is a big truck to the right that you can't get past unless you go into the small room below and then back out when the truck goes over you. In the room past it, there is a plasma dropper, a Kind-of-Havoc, and two gun turrets that spew seeker shots! Take out the plasma dropper first since it is the most dangerous, then the Kind-of-Havoc. Now just blast at the two turrets when they are open until they are dead. Flip the switch at the lower right and go back to see if you get lucky and find health in that first box. Above you is a large lock chamber, but this one is pretty dangerous because there are lots of tight spots where you could get smashed. So don't just start running through; carefully observe where safe spots are before going further. There are only a few enemies in here, but plenty of boxes, so you should find a health and probably a missile somewhere. Go all the way to the top and get out. You will have to fight a Grenade Suit to your right, then a Sentry Gun and plasma dropper on the ceiling as you go through the locks to the left. Once you go down the shaft at left, you can't get back, so you might want to leave those boxes until you have cleared the whole area and THEN go look for health. Go down the vertical shaft and open the door. There is a sentry gun and plasma dropper, but both are easy to kill because of the low floor. Again, leave the box until you need health and pray that's what it is. To the left, there is a long upward climb. It is littered with Shooters and Havocs as well as a few booby traps and plasma dropper. The good news is that there is a health box at the top on the left, so you should be healthy when you get to the top. This large area has three cannons and a Havoc, most of which you can take out from safe positions. But don't be too cautious because there will be some health right before the final boss. Now you should be at a large tunnel going right with some big treads in it. Two Havocs are waiting, so kill them and then keep going. You will find some wussy enemies and eventually find yourself near breakable floors. Go to the second one and start shooting down (if you go farther, there is a cannon). You need to fight a few Kind-of-Havocs down here, so kill them ALL before you go into the lower right area. You will find a Prom (skip it) and two boxes. One is a health box and one is random, but usually it is a gravity switcher which you can use to get the upgrade box at the top of the final shaft (which is itself usually a speed booster). There is also a level 3 gun in a hidden box behind the cannon's platform, which I usually get because it shortens the first third of the final battle. When you are ready, jump down the final shaft and enter the boss room. Final Boss: Super Weapon ------------------------ So it turns out the Super Weapon is, surprise surprise, a ridiculously armed battle suit. If you could fly one of these, then the United Earth Government would have beat back Axis forces long ago. The SW will go through various stages of attack as you do more and more damage to it. Each change is marked by a pause with lots of exploding. The middle stages are the worst, so if you get through them you should be able to finish up with little trouble. The real danger is that each time SW changes, he spawns a bunch of flying shooters. If you don't take care of them fast, they will distract you while SW uses other weapons to beat you down. So when SW explodes, get almost under and fire up at an angle. You should be able to destroy several of the shooters as they spawn and then the rest will be easier to kill before you go back to the SW. The first attack mode is a big ball and chain. Fire up at an angle until he explodes, then avoid the ball as it rolls around (should blow up after one roll across the room). SW will now do basically the same thing for a long while: he will fly low, advance slowly while firing his gun, and then back up fast. Use your zip roller to stay very close to him and just shoot up into his butt. He won't hurt you if you touch him. If he flies high, it might mean he is about to drop some of those big tubes on his butt which turns out to be VERY powerful bombs. You need to be very careful because these will do a lot of damage and you probably won't survive the whole battle if you run into these. Anyhow, keep an eye on SW as he explodes so that you can be ready for spawning shooters, and eventually he will pretty beat up. When he has NO tubes left on his butt, he will start to smash the ground and this is a gauranteed deathblow if he lands on you. So use your zip roller to stay away from him until he starts smashing and then you can fire at him safely (he doesn't move much when smashing). After another explosion, SW loses his gun, but still spawns shooters. Once you kill these shooters you are basically home free. He will only be able to smash the ground, but this is easy to avoid now that there are no other dangers. When you finally destroy SW, a guy jumps out (presumably Venkar Amon) and says that he will blow up the base so you will die, haha! Get out of your suit and follow, but not too close because he lobs grenades occasionally. What you want to do is wait until you have a chance to get past him by taking alternate routes through this area. Once you get ahead of him, make a break for the top and grab the Nitro there and start flying up. Venkar Amon will follow you but then he starts to fly wildly and I guess he dies so once you fly out you win! Enjoy the short ending animation. Also, once you finish the game, you have the option to play "??????" which is called "basketball mode" by some. It is basically just a goofy bonus level where things look different and the Ballistic looks like a basketball. VI. 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