~B
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
For the Playstation 2 console
In Depth FAQ for EXTREME Mode Boss Fights
v. Final
By: Morph at fudgeit2k@hotmail.com for http://www.GameFAQ.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Revisions
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
vFinal - It has been 2 months since I updated the FAQ -- and I must say that
during these time, nothing "new" have been emailed to me. So I will put a FINAL
on this FAQ =) Not going to add anything more to this FAQ. Not even for MGS2
shattering secret stuff like how to take out all the Rays in 2 minutes!
v3.0 - Added all the stuff that people have emailed me with =) Huge update
really! You could call the bosses cakewalks now with all these tips! Except
for Fatman on extreme w/o radar/unlimited ammo -- he is still a pain in the
neck! If anyone got a method to kill him that doesn't involve chasing him
down and shooting him with SOCOM as you run, I'd love to hear it!
v2.5 - Added a few credits.
v2.0 - Got numerous emails about Vamp as well as errors concerning various
different things, will make additional notes to each section rather then
changing the content, so you will see what I added instantly. I welcome all
tips and tricks for any of the bosses. Whatever makes life easier = good!
v1.0 - Created the FAQ on 11/24 in the dark of the night before sleep! All from
my memory, so lotsa errors.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
I. Introduction
II. Olga
III. Fortune
IV. Fatman
V. Harrier
VI. Vamp & Vamp Part 2
VII. Metal Gear Rays
VIII.Solidus Snake
IX. Misc Stuff
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I. Introduction
You've just beat the game in under 10 hours. It wasn't very challenging, was
it? Well, most likely, you are here because you decided you wanted more from
one of the most anticipated game for Playstation 2. Extreme mode, built for
HardCore gamers that want to be challenged. Who finds thrill in knowing
something could be done, but takes great skill, much patience, and total
knowledge of the game. But, everyone needs a little help along the way ^_~
The following FAQ is what I've done to beat each boss in EXTREME mode. I hope
it helps.
A note first, if you are playing EXTREME mode without any hidden items from
collecting dogtags... you might want to get the dogtags first and get the
STEALTH and UNLIMTED AMMON modules. It makes life easier. And if you are
collecting tags along the way, MAKE sure you get all of em the first time =)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
II. Olga
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Location: Tanker, uppermost area near bridge.
Time: When you get to the top
Item to use: Stealth Module, Tranq Gun
Her attacks:
1) Sprays bullets at you with deadly accuracy, no misses, no stray shots.
2) Grenades
Patterns:
First, she has 3 locations where she'd shoot at you from. 1) In the further
area, where she would peek to her left, and fire her guns. 2) Behind the crates
to your right. 3) Behind the tall box to you left.
- She would initally fire shots at you from all three locations, running to
and fro from one place to the other. Sometimes, doing flips and firing, or
running and firing. Usually, she would find a comfy spot, duck behind the
spot, and fire multiple shots at you. And would change locationsonce she spot
you at different areas or take shots at you.
- Once she gets down to about half hitpoint, she would shoot at the tarp from
the back, and fire at you from behind the stacked boxes and the flying tarp.
- Once she gets at about 1/4 hitpoint (or just another shot from you), she
would shoot at the front of the tarp and let the tarp fly off. Then she
would adjust the light beams directing at wherever you are while firing shots
and grenades at you.
To beat her:
First wait till she is at the closer areas. Behind either the crates to the
right or the box to the left. I prefer the crates to the right since the box
to the left is smaller in area. Now, from the crates, wait till she is firing
at you, either to the rightside of the crate or the leftside. Whichever side
she is firing on, she'd be intent on the target. What you need to do is go out
into the open on the other side of her firing. (This is with stealth module,
it should still work without). And as she is firing, shoot her on the
head/neck.
- For example, you are hiding behind your sets of boxes on the right side of
the ship, and she is firing at you to your right, wait till she is in middle of
firing rounds, then goto the left around the middle of the ship where you'd
have a clear view of her backside, and fire off a round.
When she is pissed off and got the tarps flying. She'd be firing rounds, then
throw a grenade at you. This patterns repeats.
- What you will need to do is, wait till she fires off a volley, then as she
gets ready to throw grenade, immediate pop out, and just shoot her on whatever
part of her that you can see. Head/Neck preferred. If you miss the shot, MOVE.
Do not wait for your tranq gun to reload, for you will blow up and die.
Now she is really pissed and got the light shining in your face. She will
still have the pattern going of firing volley of shots, then grenade. The same
almost applies here. Note that she adjust the lightbeam each time you move
to a clearing. But even when the light isn't directed on you, you are still
partially blinded.
- What you will need to do is, wait till she fires off a round, then throws a
grenade. Move from where the grenade is to a clearing, and take a shot at her
IMMEDIATELY. If you can't see her, fire off a round anyway. Just shoot at her
general direction or wherever you think she should be. You should be able to
see a part of her since the light is not on you completely.
-- If you execute all this perfectly, she should be sleeping soundly.
-- Extra notes:
1) If you could find a stun grenade off of soldiers, you could use it against
her.
-- Rumors:
1) You can't take the light out by shooting at it. I've tried, doesn't work.
2) You can't find stun grenade except from soldiers.
** Addendum 11/27/2001
- I really don't think you can take out the light, I've emptied at least 20
bullets at the light. However, wrote me an email claiming that it is
possible... (must be a very precise shot). Maybe my hand is shaky...
- Stealth does not help against avoiding Olga at all. So my method does work
with or without it. When you start, just get up close to the crates infront of
you. When she shoots towards your right, goto the left and fire on her neck.
It is working for me right now (I'm playing the game as I am typing this).
- Now, this works great =)
"...by laying on my stomach I could easily see Olga between the boxes (just a
little bit to the left of where you start the fight, between the 2 larger
boxes). From this vantage point she never shot at me with her USP, she only a
ttempted to toss grenades. Everytime i saw her going for one i simply shot
her with the M9 until she was dead. She stayed right up front and the only
variation she made in her running pattern was to go left or right to try and
toss a grenade, each way i could see her by leaning left or right. This made
the battle very easy on me in Extreme difficulty" - Submitted by MJ12
- Another tactic submitted
"...then another tip that you should hold L1 and move away right after you
shoot since snake reloads and might get shot by olga. and another thing.. when
she messes with the tarps you have to go in to hanging mode on the left side
of the place. just hang and jump right back up and when she's moving away just
go in to first person mode and shoot her. if you done it right you'll shoot
her leg and she'll fall.. oh.. and.. one more thing when she starts messing
with the light just go behind one of those boxes on the right and go in to
first person mode and point the gun out. and then when she stops shooting
immediately press L2 to strife to the left and then when you see her shoot !
i beat her very quickly using this tactics." - Submitted by Oki T.
** Addendum 11/29/2001
- As I'm messing around trying to shoot at the lightbulb after countless
emails telling me that it is possible, I discovered an even better way to get
at Olga when she got the spotlight going. The pillar of box that she hide
behind in the beginning to the left, that thing could be used to hide behind.
When she is shooting at the light, she only goes to two different spots. If
you just stand behind the box, she'd shoot at it until she runs out of
bullets or throws a grenade. You'd know when this happens... something clicks.
When that happens, in First Person View, just shift to the left or right, and
you will see her body rather clearly. I go fer the leg =)
** Addendum 12/15/2001
- I will no longer try to get at the light. It isn't possible in my opinion,
and if you say otherwise, I'd say, good for you!
** Addendum 2/14/2002
- I have to add this, since people have emailed me quite alot about this. I
know that you CAN shoot out the spotlight in all the other difficulties. But!
This is an EXTREME faq, I thought it was clear that everything in this FAQ
dealt with only EXTREME mode. But, I guess people didn't read everything.
- Confrmation of MJ12's method, and verification.
"Just quickly wanted to add that it looks like the way you're supposed to
take her out really *is* by staring through that crack in the boxes. If you
call Otacon repeatedly, he says just this. Also, you have to hit it just
right, or she sees you. Anyway, the KEY to it, is that if you do it right
-- lie down in front of the boxes right away -- you will KNOW you've done
it right, because the cutscene will be different..." - Submitted by Kip
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
III. Fortune
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Location: Strut A Bottom
Time: After you defused the sound only bomb
Item to use: Raiden's Flip
Her attacks:
1) Rail gun, high accuracy when she is pointing at you
Patterns:
First, she will try to kill you directly. Her rail gun is ALOT more powerful
now. A couple shots and a crate would be gone.
Then, she'd try to hurt you by hitting objects with rail guns. She doesn't
exactly shoot the oil barrels but they blow up if you dodge behind them. The
objects she usually would hit are the ceiling blades that falls on you.
Then, she would fire randomly, sometimes aiming at you, sometimes not.
To beat her:
You could hide behind the crates for as long as they are still there. But
do not hide behind any that has smoke coming out of it on the box immediately
next to you when it takes a hit from a railgun. That box would provide no
protection against her next shot. Do not hide behind oil barrels. Do not
fire at her.
- What you need to do is very simple really. When you see laser pointer at
you, and hear the hum of her railgun charging up. You know she is going to
fire. Just do a raiden flip across the railgun. Timing is important, and
when you get it down, you could pass it no problem. When she firing at the
random targets, becareful and see what might drop on you and what might fly
towards you. Dodge those, and you'd be fine.
** Addendum 11/27/2001
- This was submitted, but as I'm sitting here with Fortune, I'm seeing that
she MUCH prefers to get at my butt then at the barrel. There is a couple
of times that she fired at the barrel instead of me..
"... she will directly attack the barrels if your nearby them (not just hiding
behind them)... an explosion from that will kill you instantly" - Submitted by
Wikidclowne2K1
- I never thought that having a box over your head would help, but it did!
Try it out =) You could just run left and right with the box and not have to
worry about flips. You STILL can get hit tho, but if you run in one direction,
it works nicely =)
"...For the entire Fortune fight and the Harrier machine gun of death part, I
used a box, since it lets you run while ducking" - Submitted by Xylor13
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IV. Fatman
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Location: Strut E Heliport
When: After you beat Fortune and defuse his bomb on the ceiling.
- Note, both hurt very little. Taking hits are fine, but don't use rations,
save them for other bosses. He should be easy.
Item to use: Unlimited Ammo Wig, SOCOM, Coolant
His attacks:
1) Running over you
2) Shooting at you with his gun
Patterns:
Sets bomb, run around taunting you as you defuse them. Shoots at you when he
feels like it. Guards the last bomb that you must defuse.
To beat him:
There are two bombs that you must defuse first. The first is on small boxes on
the right, the second is behind a freight crate on the back part. If you don't
know where they are, familiarize yourself with their locations first.
- First disarm the bomb on the freight crate on the back part. Then wait till
Fatman is in the clearing area near the other bomb. Before you disarm the
second bomb, shoot at him till he goes down near the second bomb but don't
shoot his head yet. Now defuse the bomb as fast as you can, and then shoot
his head. Then get ready to run after him as you fire your SOCOM. Unlimited
ammo is important, but it could be done without.
- To fire SOCOM as you run, hold down L1 and move your left analog stick, then
push the square button repeatedly. If you've never done this, practice a bit
first on guards by getting their dogtags using this method. L1 should aim for
you automatically. Do no go into First Person Perspective until he falls over
and gets dizzy since it stops you from running. When he is down, hit his bald
head.
- If as you run after him, he sets a bomb, you would hear a metallic noise.
Remember that spot and keep chasing after him to kill. Unless he starts timer,
the bomb won't go off just yet. If its just one bomb, he would go back to the
bomb and guard it. If he is guarding, take him down, neutralize bomb, then hit
his forehead. Should be an easy fight.
-- Extra Note: You could use claymores to stop him dead in his track, a good
method is to set the claymore of where he might go after you shoot his forehead,
then get his forehead. He'd go flying again after trying to run. Or could use
C4. His butt will go flying either way. But chasing after him with SOCOM is
easiest for me.
** Addendum 2/14/2002
"a couple of small tips for fatman is that when you knock him down you can
sometimes score two hits. If you shoot him in the head right when he hits the
ground he doesn't bounce up enabling you to take another shot... though this
takes impecible timing and accuracy. Another thing is that when he is guarding
bombs, stand from a distance and try shooting him in the head, the shot should
take him down. This is a GREAT ammo saver and it also does the full damage of
any other shot to the head." - Submitted by Heith A.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
V. Harrier
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Location: Shell-2 connecting bridge.
When: After talking to Ames.
Item to use: Unlimited Ammo (for sake of ease), Stinger Missiles, Raiden Flip
Its Attacks:
1) Fly by missile barrage from afar
2) Double locked on missile from afar
3) Engine heat from close up
4) Machine gun barrage from close up
5) Missile barrage from close up
6) Bomb from ? to take out the bridge
Patterns:
1) He will do fly by missile barrages
2) Then he will do engine heat from above (if not enough damage already)
3) Then he will take out the bridge
4) Then he will fire double locked on missiles
5) Then he will do Missile barrage from close up
6) Then he will do missile barrage from afar
7) Then he will do machine gun barrage
8) Repeat from 4 till you die.
Simple Map: Your end = Where you are shooting the devices that control the
bombs from
Far End (North)
| |
(West) | | (East)
| |
Your end (South)
To beat him:
Don't expect any ration hand outs from Snake. In fact, all the chopper will
do for you here is to give you more ammo if you run out. Don't expect to be
able to take hits like in other settings, most attacks will drain your life
completely. Don't try to be brave and lose your patience. Remember to keep
his in sight with the Stinger locking viewfinder. If you don't know where he
is and can't find him, you might be toasty.
1) Grab the Stinger Launcher fast as you can, and equip your wig for unlimited
ammo
2) Immediately aim to the North and fire off rounds at him as quick as you can.
1->3 hits are possible.
- After that, he will fly off to the far east.
3) As he is coming back toward you from the east, aim at him and fire at him
when lock, then prepare to do Raiden flip. You should hear the distinct sound
of sho-sho-sho, and now you must time correctly and do a raiden flip to the
North before the missiles hit the bridge.
- You should hit him. After this hit, he will not fly far off but fly to
near the bottom of SouthWest.
4) When you recover from flip, go back to middle of bridge in the east side
(short step to the south if you flip to the north), and aim toward southwest.
You should see him. Target and fire off a round.
- You should also hit him, after this hit, he will fly across the south end
where the buildings protect him.
5) As you get cleared of buildings, fire off rounds whenever "lock" appears.
You should hit him 4 times as he makes round to east, then north.
- After you hit him quite a few time (his health should be down by a quarter
at least), he will fly off again.
6) Be prepared for another missile barrage from afar. Remember to do the
Raiden Flip at the proper time.
7) Now, this depends on how well you hit him from before. If you didn't damage
him as much as 50%, he will do the close-up engine attack. You will know when
this happens when it plays a FMV and he gets close without firing anything.
Immediately aim all the way up toward the sky, and fire off rounds on his
bottom as many as you can. Each hit will make him go higher and not hurt you.
If you fail here, you'd probably die.
8) After the attack, he will go flying off, and prepare his bombing run. If
he didn't do the engine attack, he'd come to to this part. You will know when
he is doing the bombing run when another FMV plays where he fires off
something, or when you are aiming at him and 2 lockable targets come flying out
of his butt.
- Immediate go against the railing and push triangle to hang from the side.
If you don't make it, you most likely will die.
9) If you survive, get up and goto the west side of the bridge where there is a
stairway leading down. Go right up against the edge and aim to the west (very
rare will he come from the east). He will now fire locking double missiles
(that will kill you if it hits). As he come into locking range, fire off a
Stinger when he is locked Then do a Raiden Flip down the stairway, and then go
to the east side of the low grey box, ducking/hiding behind it. The missiles
should be blocked by the stairway.
10) If you survive, get up and go back up on the stairway. He will come for
his closeup missile barrage now from the east side. As he is coming up, hold
down R1 and fire off a stinger to where he is going to be, then go down the
stairway half way. Now, this is not a part to stand still. You must watch
the stingers and see where they are going to go. If they are mostly aimed at
the top level, go down lower on the stairway, if at the lower level, go up
a bit more.
- Soon, the barrage will end and the chance for payback comes. He'd hang
around for a while as you pummel him up to 4 times with your stinger missile.
Hit him as best as you can.
11) If you survive the missile barrage, he will execute either a) locking
missiles from afar b) barrage of missles from afar, or c) barrage of gunfire
from close up (rare)
- Know what type by the sound that you hear. If its locking, you'd hear beeps.
If its barrage, then you'd hear shoo-shoo-shoo. Either way, avoid locking by
going down near the small small grey box (I wish it was 10x bigger to hide
behind). Or avoid barrage by doing a flip. If its barrage of gunfires, you
will know it will happen if he is coming up close on the east/west side
vertically.
12) You SHOULD survive a) or b). Now comes the fun part, machine gun of death.
You will know he is coming by his slow approach vertically, and him taunting
you. You need to be in the lower level where your tiny grey box is. I choose
the grey box to the south end. I like the closeness of the ladder. When he
comes from the east, you need to be DUCKING and in the MIDDLE of the grey box
on the WEST side and PRAY. This spot, you "should be safe" 90% of the time.
Now, this doesn't mean you'd be safe, far from it. Soon, he'd switch on you
and goto the west side. When he is going, you'd notice the radar that he is.
He usually changes side by going southward (clockwise), so go north and change
side to the east. Stay down, and don't even think about attacking him. Just
stay away and wait for your chance. He should be nearly dead, but don't take
chances.
- Note, if you are on the topside when you notice the machine gun is coming,
jump down by running to the north end. The hole made by the bomb make the
lower level accessible.
13) If you survived that attack, you are now invincible =) His patterns
repeat, so just kill him slowly. Take your time.
-- Extra Note: Take your time.
** Addendum 12/15/2001
-- For locations of the SEMTEX bomb controllers, refer to my other EXTREME
FAQ.
-- More places for yall to hide in from Solidus' attack! I've not tried them
out, and there is another submission that works even better in conjuction to
what I've written above.
"1)When Solidius locks onto you (the one with the beeps). There are
'sweetspots' to hide in. If he's coming from the West, run down the stairs
and duck at the bottom. There's a small metal part blocking his way and
you'll be safe. When he's coming from the east, stand in the middle of the
stairway near the post. It will probably hit the bridge. The only reasons
this wouldn't work is if he's coming from a VERY weird angle. IE you hide
at the bottom of the stairway and he's coming from NNE (and even then he would
have to be VERY North).
2)Regarding the Unlocked missle barrage. The sweetspot for when he's coming
from the east still works, however, the one at the bottom of the stairs isn't
so good. I just waited at the top of the stairs, and when the slowdown
started to happen, I would flip down (there's an invisible wall that keeps
Raiden from falling into the watter -unless you tilt it towards the right where
there's a hole in the ground).
3)About the Closeup Missile Barrage. The sweetspot works the first time
(first few times if you don't deal enough damage). You don't have to move.
However, later on, the missile explosions are bigger and will kill you unless
you use the strategy mentioned of watching the missiles."
- Submitted by SeTSwiPe on 12/01/2001
-- Here is a complete method to killing the Harrier, I've tried it and it
works! However, I still prefer to use my method in the beginning to take down
his life until he does the cluster bomb. But his method of avoiding the close
range missile barrage works nearly 100% of time if you are careful. It is
better then standing in the stairway with little room to manuver. Also
check out the EXTREME walkthrough for his tip on how to get the president's
attention when manuvering the Nikita.
"On other note your strategy for the Harrier is really bad. TO take him out
first nail him as soon the battle starts. Immediately run down stairs. You can
finish the entire fight from down here just use these methods to avoid his
attacks.
Machine gun-He fires initially from the east so just lean against the west
side of the box. As he is circling around to the west crawl over to that
little piece of wall at the base of the stairs lean against it while crouching
and your homefree.
Homing missiles-Try to target him as early as possible. Launch a missile then
immediately press R2 and run and on the opposite side of the box from where
he is approaching. Duck and you avoid the missiles while he takes one in the
cockpit.
"Try dodging this"-Just stand up from behind the box and run all the way back
and forth across the bottom level, throwing in a flip here or there.
Engine heat-He won't do this except for myabe once since you're on the bottom
level. If you try to run up shoot him he flies away.
Other than that shoot him when he is flying around or after the bombing run.
Your method requires luck, especially the hanging over the railing part, this
one is never fail. Just try it!" - Submitted by Brian M on 12/7/2001
-- Another method of avoiding close range missile barrage, which requires a
bit of luck as Brian puts it... I tried it, but decided that if I just duck
down behind the box and just shuffle left and right depending on where the
harrier is, it works pretty good too.
"if you go downstairs and stand up (press against) the first big grey box and
then duck at the last moment before the missiles hit, (I did this twice in 1
fight) they miss you. But if you duck and wait, they almost always kill you,
especially on the second go-around." - Submitted by Takashi H. on 12/13/2001
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VI. Vamp
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Location: Shell 2 Level B1
When: After you talk with presiden and is going to rescue Emma from a watery
grave.
Items to use: Unlimited Ammo, SOCOM, Grenade Launcher, AK, Claymore, C4,
Stinger, Raiden Flip
His attacks:
1) Throwing knives
2) Throwing more knives
3) Slashing you with knives after jumping at you
4) More knives
Patterns:
- He goes down water, then jump up to the top railings, walk along railing, and
throws a knive at you
- Jumps to another railing, throws a knive at you
- Jumps to another railing, and twist and twirl and fires lotsa knives at you
- Goes back into water
- Jumps up onto your small platform, and chase you with knives
- Jumps back into the water, and back up onto railing
- Throws 2 knives at you
- More knives
- "Might" do the twirly thing
- Back into water, then back onto platform and chase you with knives
- Jumps back into water, back up onto railing
- Throws 3 knives at you
- Even more knives
- Back into water, then 1) back onto railing and more knives or 2) Onto
platform and chases you down with knives
- Back into water, then fires off red dart at you, freezing you in place, and
... throws buncha knives at you
- Up on railing, down on railing, chasing you all over. Freezing you, kniving
you, you not gonna survive much longer unless you kill him.. FAST.
To beat him:
1) Easy Way - Get up close to the edge, as he bow, aim for his midsection and
start firing stingers at him while pushing down R1. This is called the "Super
Stinger cheating Vamp method" by someone from the forum at www.GameFAQs.com
Since this is a popularized version on how to beat him, I don't know who
invented this method, so I don't know who to give the credit to. But, fire
off stingers fast as you can, and sometimes, he would float to your right, so
aim to the right a bit more every time if you find that he is going down to the
water too fast. You should be able to kill him. I was able to get him down
to 3% health left.
* Addendum 12/01/2001
The easy method is first submitted to GameFaq forum by Tim K.
2) The Hard Way - (Near impossible)
- Fire off a round of anything at his head as he is bowing
- Set two Claymore mines on the two sides (east/west) of the catwalk.
- Go back to the edge and take aim with either AK, or SOCOM, or Grenade
Launcher as he is swimming in water.
- When he jumps up on railing, wait till he fires off a knive, avoid with
Raiden Flip and when given a chance, fire off grenade or stinger at him.
Chance usually arrives after he does twirly spin attack.
- When he jumps back into water, and comes back up to chase you, The claymore
should take care of this.
- Replace claymore.
- Avoid knife as best as you can, and fire off grenade/stinger when given a
chance until he is going crazy.
- Shoot out the 4 lights to stop the red thing from freezing you (taken from
someone from the forum again, but I don't remember who and topic moves too fast
for me to find the original poster of the idea)
- He is going to start firing off multiple knives at you now from above and
from your platform.
- To avoid the knives, use Raiden Flip, or you could hide at the entrance way
and shoot out the knives as they come with AK (near impossible).
- Employ claymore AND C4 now. Have Claymore where you usually have em, and
place C4s on the corners. You won't get alot of time to do this, since things
are pretty crazy now. But you need to since everything else doesn't work very
well at this point. When he is near C4, set them off.
- Good luck on killing him. I prefer the easy way. Vamp is truly difficult.
I don't know if anyone did it without using Stingers cheat, would love to get
emails about ways to beat him without cheating.
-- Extra note: I tried the hard way, over and over, when I kept failing when
he is almost dead, I went with the Stinger Cheat. Sometimes, you know when
you are able to do something, sometimes, you just know its too hard.
** Addendum 11/27/2001
- I got lots of input about Vamp, very good ways to beat him at his games.
The one that works the best, is this following email.
- The information below is verfied. He does always aim his knife at your
head, and it could be ducked as simply as Jerry said. I find myself in awe!
- And you could duck his knife slashing by crawling, silly, no? =)
"... Two things I thought you might find helpful, though. First of all, when
Vamp is on the ground level and he runs towards Raiden, you can avoid
damage EVERY time by crawling. when Vamp starts to run towards you, crouch,
and then lie down completely before he slashes with his knife. I believe
he'll cut you if you lie down too early, so try to leave it as close to the
moment he's near you as possible. This strategy does NOT work when you're
frozen, obviously. It pretty much only works for the first 3/4 of the fight.
Secondly, the knives are quite simple to dodge. As I said, I beat him with
the M9.The first half of the fight, Vamp will throw a single knive. I would
basically line myself up with vamp so he's in the center of my vision with
first person view. Then, when he threw the knife, duck (still in first
person mode). Zoom ,knife goes right over your head, and he'll be
momentarily paused for you to line up a good shot to the head.
When he twirls and throws a series of knives, try to be on the opposite
side of the room. So if he's on the north railing, be on the south side of
the room. When you're on that side, he'll twirl from the left side of the
railing to the right. Well, he doesn't aim at you, so get yourself all the
way to the right end of your side. Stay in first person mode, so that when
he's done twirling and he does his little pose, you're ready to get a shot
in to the head.
After that simple strategy, he'll throw two knives, move, and then throw
one. These can also be ducked. Just make sure to stand up after the first
two, or that third one will hit you. The only problem with ducking these is
if Vamp is to your immediate left or right. Those first two knives come at
you very quickly. You REALLY need to listen at this part. As soon as you
hear that first knife get thrown, duck. Two should fly over your head.
Stand up, duck the third knive, and quickly get in a head shot. Remember to
stay in first person mode for this. You only need to duck, and it's hard to
line up if you switch views during this.
Finally, Vamp will jump about the room, and on ocassion, throw a series of
knives at you. I didn't know taking the lights out prevented him from
freezing you, so I had to deal with that. But to tell you the truth, I
stayed in front of the entrance for the entire battle anyway. When he
freezes you, you can still duck, and as long as you have your gun readied
before he freezes you, you can shoot. All you need to do is to stay in
first person view, watch him fly about the room, and when you either see or
hear him throw knives (preferably hear), duck, line up a head shot, and shoot.
It sounds tough, but after I learned his pattern, it was quite easy. Like I
said, I didn't move from my original position in front of the door,
standing right in front of the opening in the railing in the front of the
water... Gives you a nice view into the water, but I found it to be a waste
of time to shoot him in the water. It does too little damage, and it's
smarter to be prepared for his attacks when he jumps out of the water."
- Submitted by the Master -- Jerry W.
* Xylor13 also submitted something similiar to what Jerry said.
"...For beating Vamp the hard way, in the end where he is jumping to lots of
places and then throwing three knives at you, he is throwing them at your
head, so I just aimed at him in first-person viewmode with my M4 and when he
threw the knives, I ducked and then shot him. That gave me a clean shot and
the knives always missed." -- Xylor13
* Another email deals with the dreaded knife attack at the end, where multiple
knives comes flying at you from ever which way.
"...When he switches to that multi-knife throw, and as you dodge those attacks,
make an educated guess as to where the knifes came from. It should be easy
especially with the top-camera view.
-Then, with a (fully loaded + brown wig) AKS in hand, switch to first person
and look in the direction where you think the knifes came from.
-Now don't fire just yet, as he'll already be on the move. Though he's already
changing location, you should be able to follow him (still in-first person);
either he didn't go that far from your view, or your can follow him by looking
at the flame residue that he leaves behind.
-Finally, throw caution to the wind and fire once you have him in your sights.
Note that when he switches to this particular attack, he should be only three
hits away from dying, and provided that you're health is still full, you too
are three hits away from dying, so it simply becomes a quick race to the
finish. You should be able to hit him at some point, whether it be before or
after he throws the knifes. don't worry if he hits you cause you'll have a
quick opening to fire back. But note, regardless of whether you hit him or
not, once he moves again, get out of first person mode and start from the top
of these directions."
* This emails deal with the whole battle once again, and instead of not getting
hit every time by crawling, you get a chance to hit him this time around.
- Verfied that you CAN hit him as he is ducked infront of you.
"...Rush to the exit (not the door you just came through) and whip out a assult
rifle and the wig.
Stand still and use first person view to nail Vamp whenever he is vulnerable.
Pop him and his single knife when he is up top. When he spins and throws
knives, he does not aim for you so just load him up with stingers.
(Here is the real trick) when he rushes towards you, he always stops at the
same place in front of you if you are by the exit. Just aim low and fire as
soon as he jumps. Garanteed hit.
When he starts chucking 3 knives from above, move to one side, see the knife
and move, wait a second, then move back. Should almost always easily dodge his
shots
When his health drops to below the "P" in Vamp, he goes nuts. Stand still,
unload a clip in his direction (FPV) when he stops to throw knives. Switch to
other assult rifle. Repeat and pray. You should be able to finish him before
he gets 3 hits on you. GOOD LUCK." - Submitted by INQBUS
* This email deals with one of the difficult aspect of how to get at him as
he come for you. You must push R2+L2 at the right moment tho...
-- Also, shooting him on the bullet hole he came prepackaged with more
gives him alot more damage
"I managed to beat vamps the hard way. Its not all that hard acually. When he
jumps out of the water to slash you go to first person view and hit both L2 R2
and your invincible to his slash. When you get the chance to shoot him. Aim for
the bullet holes he came pre packaged with." - Submitted by Enlisted
** Addendum 12/15/2001
-- This email is invaluable if you want to kill Vamp EASILY! Extension of
this method could be done... But hanging from the railing is first thought up
by Orca, the maker of the 1st MGS2 FAQ =)
"I used claymores when he runs at me, and when hes in the water I shoot him as
much as possible with the AK. Anyway, when he goes for the high rails, I
immedietely chicken out and hang over the bottom side, the side nearest to the
door you enter. I have never gotten hit by his throwing knives while here.
Eventually he gets mad and walks all slow, with a blood shield around him.
When he is really near, he cuts you, but don't wait that long. Get up when he
starts walking, and he then chickens out and dives. Then shoot him more and
replace mines. When he is near dead, he goes crazy and instead of chickening
out, just goes to the high rails again." - Submitted by Orca on 11/28/2001
-- This is a follow up to Orca's email, which details how to kill him in a
more precise way with C4.
"Plant C4s next to a ledge that you can hang from (like next to entrance),
hang from there when he starts to jump from level to level throwing lotsa
knives at once, when he sees he is not hitting you, he will walk toward you
and try and slash you hands. By this point he should be standing on the C4s
you planted, thats when you blast him. Do it until he is dead."
- Submitted by Lawrence S. on 12/04/2001
-- Another follow up method to doing Vamp in using Orca's original method is
using punch/kick combos.
"Quickly tap triangle to get back up right before he slashes and you'll be
invincible just like the fight with Solidus. Once you're up, do a punch-kick
combo on him and he'll jump back into the water."
- Submitted by Robert R. on 12/8/2001
-- Just a small thing to take down his health... not really useful, but! What
ever helps =) A side note, use Stingers if you have unlimited ammo to take
out the oxygen in the pool. It's faster and guarenteed to take down a bit of
his purple bar, good if you are going for 0 kills.
- Submitted by Mehrzad S on 12/2/2001
"Simply use the Grenade Launcher.
Shoot it into the water while he is under water. This will serve as a water
mine. When he comes into contact with it, you'll hear him yelp and his oxygen
will deplete almost completely." - Submitted by Brent D on 11/28/2001
-- This strategy revolves around hitting the knives he throw at you via M4...
It is difficult I think, I didn't try it out, but he makes it sound pretty
good =)
" i started out by shooting him first person style while he was floating there.
i then went to the upper-right corner (the good thing about this spot as well
is that you dont need to worry about when he spins and fires off 20 knives at
you) in first person and never left the corner or that view even once! first
he would go on the railings. i shot him, then i deflected his knife with my
m4 (its easier than you think!) he did that a couple more times, then back to
the water. when he came out and charged at me, i shot him, then he moved,
shot him again, then he was right next to me and shot him once more! back to
the water. that repeated until he was nearly dead. (every few times though he
would repeat the charge at you after the water or he just wouldnt go back to
the water!) when he was almost dead though he was on the rails firing 5
knives at a time! i deflected all 5 of them then shot him with the rifle. he
would move VERY QUICKLY and fire off the knives. deflected em and shot him
dead!!! it may seem like it took a long time but really only about 4 minutes!"
- Submitted by Brian S on 11/29/2001
-- This deals with when he is rushing towards you -- of course, you could
just use Claymore or C4... but, for those of you that want more ideas =)
"While hiding near the north exit and as vamp just jumps out of the water to
chase you, he ALWAYS runs to your right. Take out a nikita and fire it
around to your right to stop him dead in his tracks nice and early - forcing
him to jump back in the water." - Submitted by MusicUWS on 12/7/2001
** Addendum 2/14/2002
-- This is an extension to the Stinger Cheat, it helps on the targetting...
"the KEY POINT is: when you hit him with that first missile, make sure that
you are at the lower end of the red "target window" (stinger). this is very
vital because as your hitting him he will move down, and you'll have to adjust
the left analog stick according to it. now, when i was doing this, the game
slowed down tremendously, but it worked excellently." - Submitted by Vik S.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vamp Part 2
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you can't beat him... I'm not sure how you got this far. But, shoot him in
the head.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VII. Metal Gear Rays
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Location: Arsenal Gear
When: After the circular fight with buncha guys
Items to use: Unlimited Ammo (for ease), Stingers, Raiden Flip
Their Attacks:
1) 3 Locking missles from their back when far away
2) Machine gun from far away or up close
3) Cannon Laser thingie from up close
4) Dual close range highly manuvering missles from legs
5) Ray leg stomps
Patterns:
1) They growl, opening up their mouth
2) They fire off machine gun or 3 locking missles
3) Then when you get one down to 25% health, one comes up on platform and
start close range battle
4) Ray will fire off dual locking missles
5) Ray will fire off machine guns
6) Ray will growl
4) Beat one down, and another takes its place.
- Repeat 19 more times, and you win, simple eh?
To beat them:
It really isn't hard. Just need alot of patience and endurance. Don't falter,
don't give in, and DO NOT test your limit. ALWAYS play it safe. ALWAYS!
Don't take chances just for an extra hit. It is STUPID to take chances for an
extra hit that doesn't matter in the long run.
1) Equip Stinger, and wig. Immediately target center Ray's leg (left or right)
and fire. When hit, target center Ray's head, and fire. Move to target
rightmost Ray's leg, when the Stinger hit center Ray's head, fire off missile
to hit the rightmost Ray's leg. When Stinger hit, fire off another to
rightmost Ray's head. Immediately target leftmost Ray's head, and fire off a
missle on his head.
- What will happen is, the first two rays will get hit big time, and the third
will prepare to do his machine gun blast across the platform. Avoid it by
doing Raiden Flip and as you flip, the Stinger will arrive just as his head
comes into view for a small hit. (Everything counts here)
2) As soon as you avoided the machine gun blast, target center Ray's
left/right leg, fire off Stinger. He should be firing off 3-lock missiles now.
Wait for YOUR stingers to hit, and immediately target center Ray's
head, and fire off Stinger. Soon as you fire it off, run from where you
are and do Raiden Flips for kicks.
- The Stinger should hit for another big damage, now all the Ray's will
fire off 3-lock missiles.
3) When Rightmost ray's missiles are beeping for you, run away from it
until you hear near hit beeps. You should be far away enough from that
it is safe for you to target center ray's head and fire off a round. But do
it FAST, cause leftmost Ray's missiles should be coming at you as you
are firing off the stinger.
- As soon as you fire, start running and Raiden leaping from your
location, and the center Ray should leap onto your platform.
4) Wait till the 3-lock missiles are all hit on the platform before you do
anything to the platformed Ray. He should be firing off either 1)
Machine Gun or 2) 2-lock missiles at you. Avoid those by doing
Raiden Flips. You should know how.
5) When you get a chance, hit Ray on its leg, and then on its face.
Soon as you fire off a round, you can target another Ray on the edge
and spank it in the face, or on the leg then on the face.
6) Repeat from step 4 till you defeat all the rays.
-- Extra Note: Patience and Safety first. Remeber that when you
hit a ray with Stinger on its face, its not targetable for a while. During
this time, you can hit other Rays on face ONLY IF CONVIENENT.
Remember to avoid all missiles locks first. Do not assume you
are far enough away from the targetted site. Always run in one
direction and not backtrack.
** Addendum 11/27/2001
-- Chaff grenade helps by making the missiles a bit more inaccurate
"...Also, in the RAY fight, I also used Chaff Grenades, since the RAYs seem to
be less accurate then." - Xylor13
-- The following ... seems to work. But I'm having a hard time to retaliate
with my Stingers after avoiding the laser beam. Maybe if I practice a bit more
on the tactic...
"When you are up against the initial three, immediately run up to them! The
trick is to limit their attack patterns until they only use their Laser Beam
Attack. Try to stay right infront of the Centre Ray until he does his Laser
Beam Attack. The beam only travels in a straight line from whatever position
you are standing in. The point of this: MOVE! Move right after you see him set
up the laser attack (A Raiden Flip works perfectly). It will go right by you,
leaving him open for a quick stinger missile blast in the face! :-)
After The centre Ray is hit, switch your attention to either the left or the
right and try to draw out his Laser Beam Attack. Again, move when you see the
face open up and nail 'em with the stinger.
The Technique here is to lower ALL 3 Rays down to as low as possible before
you start to Have one jump up on the platform. This makes life MUCH easier!!
** Also, you can take down the Centre Rays life slightly more than the others
by firing a Grenade from the grenade launcher instead of a stinger missile.
To my knowledge, this only works on the centre Ray, and is slightly harder to
target than with the Stinger." - Submitted by MajinmoH
** Addendum 12/15/2001
-- I've tried this strategy but it doesn't really work as well as mine I
thought. I always get caught by the HydroCutter...
"after the first one comes up to the platform, just stay close to it, circling
around him, he will always attack with the beam, and will never hit you if
you're moving, unless you do something stupid like stop or turn around right
before he attacks, so just run in circles, when he fires the beam, shoot him
in the face. Just repeat until they all die. Oh yeah and dodge missiles shot
off by the other rays, which shouldn't pose that much of a problem since
you're always moving anyway." - Submitted by Wisgary T on 12/01/2001
** Addendum 2/14/2002
-- THERE is no ROSE Ray that you need to kill. ROSE is ACTUALLY A-05E, just
that the way letters look in MGS2, it appears to be ROSE. It only appears
that way because in normal? mode, after you kill the 5th ray, you are done.
And A-05E is the 5th ray in the A set Ray formation
-- I've not tried this method, but it seems very sound and safe =)
Step 1: I'm fine with just giving each ray a knee/head shot with the stinger
then focusing on one ray until he comes into the center. trying to get
everyone of them down isn't worth it in the long run.
Step 2: when the first ray comes onto the platform try to run around to his
backside before he is active. now keep on firing at his knee from the side
while he is turning around until you can follow it up with a head shot(meaning
the other rays aren't launching their missiles)it can take alot of tries but
the game gives you infinite stinger missiles so who cares. If you keep on
circling the center ray and hit him in the knee before he can face you he will
never attack.
Step 3: after you killed him nail the ray that is farthest away from you with
a knee/head combo. the next ray will jump in and you can do the same thing to
him before the one you just nailed retaliates(just keep to the outer edge so
your not stepped on). Also, the replacement ray won't attack for a while so
you have a better chance of getting in knee/head combos quicker. now just keep
on repeating two to three.
Notes: use body armor. the game supplies you with infinite stingers so the wig
is a waste.
After you have just eliminated a ray the next one to jump on will be the one
with the lowest life or, if they both have full health, the closest one. use
this to judge who to shoot first.
If the center ray does start attacking you didn't start circling him early
enough. this has to be done a soon as he touches the platform or as soon as
your stinger's flying at his head.(use the R2 exiting method as soon as you
fire).
Again, this takes a very long time but it's better than getting dead on the
20th ray. I've gotten through more than once with this method and i didn't
get hit once so if your low on rations you should stick with it.
- Submitted by Brian M.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VIII. Solidus Snake
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Location: On top of a building
When: After you beat them Rays
Items to use: Raiden Flip, Orange Wig (if you got it), your sword
His Attacks:
1) Downward Double Slash - Unblockable
2) Various Combo slashes - Blockable
3) Headbutt - Blockable
4) Roundhouse kick - Blockable
5) Left tentacle extend - Blockable
6) Tentacle sweeps - (Never blocked it, always fell to it)
7) Tentacle leap to ceiling, then stomp - Unblockable
8) Fire trail
9) 4 Tentacle missiles - Unblockable
10) Speedy slashes - Blockable
11) Speedy elbow - Unblockable
Patterns:
1) Comes toward you, slashes you
2) Kicks you
3) Tentacles you
4) Fire trails
5) Fires missiles
6) Leaps onto roof and stomp (could happen anytime)
7) Double slashes, firetrails... bumrushes
To beat him:
- Be patient, and wait for your chance to attack
- Block!! You must block with L1.
- Know whats coming for you.
1) Block his close range attacks, retailiate when he is done. Becareful when
he does single slashes attack. Usually, he has more if you stop blocking.
2) You could hit him once to get him block then to kick you or attack. Block
when he is retaliating with kicks/slashes.
3) When he is down after your combo, stay away so you can avoid the fire.
4) When he is firing missiles at you, run toward the missiles at an angle so
they start to turn, when all four missiles are fired, do a flip toward the
last missiles, and they should all miss you. If not, it will nearly kill you.
5) When he goes up to the ceiling, just run in one direction, whene he lands,
run back and slash him.
6) Repeat blocking and slashing.
7) When he takes off tentacle, avoid fire trails by running, and when he
yells something like "take this," do a Raiden Flip at an angle away from him
Go back up close to him afterward and block his close range attacks and
slash him back.
8) Becareful when close to him, he will do the double slash down ALOT near
the end of his life. Run perpendicular to him, not away.
9) It isn't too difficult, just block with patience.
-- Extra Note: You can cheat by jumping off the rooftop and hanging to avoid
his missiles attack. Or just jump off every chance you get and when he comes
close to slash you, push triangle to get up (invincible when getting up) and
slash him. You "can" do this even after he gets rid of tentacles, just have
to time the times that he is rushing toward you to get up. If you get up
early, you get hit. Sion Barzhad2001 posted this on the forum.
Anyway -- Remember to block always! And enjoy the ending.
** Addendum 12/15/2001
-- Alot of people wrote me asking how to get thru the part where he is
choking you. This method works best when you are at the height of your teen
and doesn't have a girl/boyfriend. What you do is, push your index finger
and your thumb together tightly and form a sharp surface with your finger
nails. Now, put the fingernail against the triangle button, and start to
scrape the triangle button with the fingernails. Scrape it faster and
faster. It should work pretty good =) I could stay at full O2 with the
method. That's probably cause I'm 22 and without a girlfriend still...
-- Another method to avoiding the missiles and how to finish him off at the
end. The sword combo is blockable =) Correction from above...
"...Right after he dashes, avoid the fire and run directly toward him. When he
starts to fire missiles, time a Raiden Flip just right to get between the
first two. If you get close enough, Solidus won't fire the last two, and will
be left wide open. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Anywho, just something I'd thought I'd share about Solidus and that dash elbow.
It -is- blockable. As a matter of fact, Solidus sans tenticles is a lot easier
than his first form. You just have to get a fixed position.
After he fire-dashes a few times and charges you, find a way to avoid the
attack, Raiden Flips working best. If he's left open, do a sword combo ending
with a thrust, -only- because this puts considerable distance between the
two of you. Make sure you're blocking -and- facing him. Nine times out of ten,
Solidus will just charge directly at you. Block, slash-slash-thrust. Make
minor adjustments to your position as needed. Just always remember to face him
directly while blocking." - Submitted by Tony G on 11/27/2001
-- Correction on my statement saying the 4 missiles are unblockable. This is
verified and doable. But very dangerous. It depends on if you are standing
correctly and facing him. The best and probably the only way is to do a
circular cut. If you do it early, the last missile will hit you, if you do it
too late, the first missile will hit you. But if you want to show off to your
friends some true skillz, this is the way to go.
"... you can cut them in two with your sword"
- Submitted by Vegetaholic
-- A verified method to beateing Solidus after he took off the tentacles, very
useful extension to the idea that you CAN block his dashing attacks.
"walk a few steps away from him, face him and crouch down. Once he gets up
he will charge you directly(he won't jump around the screen like a maniac).
Once he starts his charge, get up and block his attack, then counter with a 3
hit combo that will knock him on his butt again. Repeat this until he's dead."
- Submitted by Mike L on 12/05/2001
** Addendum 2/14/2002
"If you put your shirt around your thumb it becomes very slick and you can
move it side to side very quickly." - Submitted by Dplaya42k
-- Against Solidus' First form, here is another tactic. (I prefer leaping
over the roof still though...)
"First, unequip your blade and use your hands against him. Circle around him
clockwise with a distance far enough not to get hit by his blade, but still
close enough to get hit by his tentacles. When you do this, his attacks will
always miss you (if your careful enough with your distance) and the only attack
that will hit you is his double tentacle swipe. When he does this just flip.
After his attack, blow 3 punches at him before he recovers. Just repeat this
process(running around him and punching him) 15 or 16 times and he'll take off
those stupid tentacles." - Submitted by Falcon271
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IX. Misc Stuff
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can contact me at fudgeit2k@hotmail.com
- If there are serious errors, like... nothing works and you keep dying... I
don't know what to say. Keep trying =) Goodluck
- I welcome all emails. Whatever tips you have up your sleeves and would like
to share em, feel free =)
- If you find that I'm sharing something you don't want me to, send me an
email about it and I'd correct it immediately and resubmit as soon as I can.
- If you don't want me to share what you wrote, make a note of it on the email
please!
- Hope you find this FAQ helpful!