------------------------------- Aliens by Konami FAQ ------------------------------- VERSION 1.1 A few quick notes before we begin... my name is, for these purposes, Cypher. E-mail me at das189@mizzou.edu. ALIENS and all related characters and properties are owned by 20th Century Fox. ALIENS the arcade game is copyright 1990 by Konami. This FAQ is copyright 2001 by me. If you wish to use it on a website or publish it in any other way, you must e-mail me to request permission. Don't sweat it -- I'll probably tell you yes. But I'll still seek action against you if you don't ask first. "It's started." - Dillon, ALIEN 3 ------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS I. Introduction II. Controls III. Weapons A. Side-Scrolling Weapons B. Driving Weapons C. Power Loader Attacks IV. Your Basic Aliens and How to Kill Them A. Adult Aliens B. Face-Huggers C. Chest-Bursters D. Eggs E. Worm-Bugs F. Bat-Bugs G. Others V. Walkthrough A. Stage 1 - Welcome to LV-426 B. Stage 2 - To the rescue C. Stage 3 - Into the nest D. Stage 4 - Return to the APC E. Stage 5 - Through the Atmosphere Processor F. Stage 6 - The queen G. Stage 7 - The escape H. Final Boss - The queen, round two I. The Ending VI. What's Up with the Japanese Version? A. Deletions B. Additions C. Other Changes VII. In Closing VIII. Update History IX. Other FAQs by Cypher ------------------------------------------------------------- I. Introduction ALIENS is the quintessential James Cameron action film. In 1990, it also became an arcade shoot-'em-up side-scroller from Konami. It's worth your quarters, to be sure, but you could use some guidance before you jump into the fray. Let this FAQ be your guide. ------------------------------------------------------------- II. Controls Obviously, moving the control stick moves your character (Lt. Ellen Ripley for Player 1, Corporal Dwayne Hicks for Player 2) around in whatever direction you push. Up, down, left, right, diagonal. During sequences where you're travelling through the vent system, you can only move left and right. If you hit a fork in the path, you can climb up by pushing up, or continue going straight along the ground route. Up and down also work to move your character up and down the ladders. Wow. SHOOT 1 fires your weapon straight ahead, in line with whatever it's currently pointing at from your regular stance. While in the power loader, it provides a quick punch with the mechanical arm. At the end of the game, hitting this button rapidly keeps a grip on the queen. SHOOT 2 puts your character into a squat and fires along the ground for some low-down fighting. If you're carrying bombs or super bombs, it also launches those out. During driving sequences, it fires off one of your three missile rounds. While in the power loader, it causes you to slowly (but powerfully) swipe downwards with the mechanical arm. At the end of the game, hitting this button while holding the queen by hitting SHOOT 1 rapidly will turn on the power loader's blow-torch, which serves to freak the queen out and make her scream, but has little other effect. ------------------------------------------------------------- III. Weapons A. Side-Scrolling Weapons SMART GUN - Your usual weapon. Fires endless rounds for as long as you hold down the button. Works in both side-scrolling and driving stages. All other weapons must be found and only last until you lose a life. Plus, all others must be tapped repeatedly for rapid fire. But this one is your default, and functions as an automatic. MISSILE - Stronger fire, with the ability to home in on the nearest hostile. 3-BULLET - Fires three very strong bullets in a wide range, straight out. 3-WAY - Fires a beam straight out, plus one diagonally up and one diagonally down. Great for taking out face-hugger dispenser boxes along those upper walls. FLAMETHROWER - Ripley's old standby. Shoots out a wide blast that fries any bug it touches, save for the stronger eggs and bosses. BOMBS - Two per pack. After collected, launched by hitting SHOOT 2. Destroys anything it hits, or else does heavy damage. SUPER BOMBS - Only one pack exists in the game. Two per pack. After collected, launched by hitting SHOOT 2. Destroy everything on-screen. B. Driving Weapons SMART GUN - Your usual weapon. Fires endless rounds for as long as you hold down the button. Works in both side-scrolling and driving stages. MISSILE ROUNDS - Fired by hitting SHOOT 2. You get three for each driving sequence. Each shoots straight out from you and mows down all in its path. C. Power Loader Attacks PUNCH - Hit SHOOT 1, and your mechanical arm will perform a quick punch, killing any alien (save for the queen) that it hits. At the end of the game, hitting this button rapidly will grab the queen with the loader's hand and hold her tight. DOWNWARD SWIPE - Hit SHOOT 2, and you will swipe one arm down. It's stronger than the punch, but slower. Ultimately, it's best to stick to the Punch. The Swipe is too slow, and leaves you wide open for a counterattack by the bugs. At the end of the game, while holding the queen by hitting SHOOT 1 rapidly, this button will turn on the loader's blow torch, which is effective for making her squirm a little more. ------------------------------------------------------------- IV. Your Basic Aliens and How to Kill Them A. Adult Aliens They walk or crawl across and around the screen. You have more than enough to time to shoot these weak, basic enemies in any way you like. They'll sometimes fall to the screen in cocoons and burst out of them. You can't hurt them until they emerge, but then, they're just fodder. B. Face-Huggers Green and low to the ground. Hit SHOOT 2 to squat and splat 'em. C. Chestbursters These buggers may bound down to you or bounce on-screen, but then they're on the ground and ready for a SHOOT 2 squat-fire. D. Eggs These pods can take a beating, and spit face-huggers like there's no tomorrow. Fire low with SHOOT 2 so that if any face-huggers get out, you'll hit them, and the rest of the time you'll still hit the egg. Flame-throwers seem to work wonders, and 3-bullet isn't so shabby either. E. Worm-Bugs They're like chest-bursters, but bigger. These slimy bastards only appear in the vents. They come from the left, they come from the right. You should have no trouble shooting them however you like. F. Bat-Bugs They first appear in the vents, but eventually they move on outside. They fly up and down, back and forth. Line up with the area they're buzzing around in and just keep firing. They'll fly right into your line of fire regardless of where it is. G. Others All other varieties of enemies appear rarely, enough that their strategies appear only in the level walkthroughs. This also goes for mid-bosses and bosses. ------------------------------------------------------------- V. Walkthrough A. STAGE 1 - Welcome to LV-426 This stage is simple, short, and sweet. Just head right. Nothing you encounter should be worth mention. Just adult aliens and face-huggers. Watch out for the face-huggers in tubes along the back wall - some will break out and jump before you. Just squat and shoot. At a couple of points in the level, you'll see Newt go racing by with her doll (or doll's head) Casey. Don't worry, you can't hurt her, and neither can they. ------------- BOSS - Stretchy-Necked Crawling Alien Hey, I don't know what Konami calls them, you know? All right, here's your first encounter with a bug that Konami clearly just made-the-hell-up. First you get two waves of face-huggers. Shoot out the middle pair and step through to avoid the others, who will stop and come rushing at the center once they align with you. Now here comes the real boss. It crawls back and forth, then will suddenly crawl forward, towards you, to try and give you a whacking. Avoid it when it comes forth and just keep firing. It's that simple... until it loses its head. Then, energy balls start to shoot from its neck. They fire in a 3, 3, 2, 3 pattern. Whenever it fires three, stand at the bottom of the screen just to the right or left of the center and you'll be safe. When 2 come at you, stand in the center at the bottom. Of course, continue firing the whole time. He'll be toast in short order. ------------- B. STAGE 2 - To the rescue Welcome to your first driving stage. Or, actually, more like "riding" stage, since you ride atop the APC and don't control it. It plows forward, and you use your character to shoot the aliens out of the way. The meter at the top shows you how close you are to Newt, and thusly, the end of the stage. Remember - you don't have to kill them all. If you see one coming at you that you can't shoot in time, just get out of its way. It'll harmlessly leap over the APC and miss you as long as you're not in line with it. The blue aliens are the ones to watch out for. They walk back and forth across various lines of fire, and you need to take them out so that they don't end up hitting YOU when they reach the APC. It might be a good idea to save your missile rounds for these freaks. At the end of this less-than-a-minute-long stage, you drive up to Newt... and she's swept up by a flying alien. A flying alien? Looks like Konami's taking creative license again. C. STAGE 3 - Into the nest Get ready for the first LONG stage. You start off heading into the vents. Remember, face-huggers still take a SHOOT 2 to kill in here. Fight off the huggers, worm-bugs, and adults while proceeding right. Stick to SHOOT 1 if you see an adult coming that's on the ceiling. You can use the motion tracker that appears at top center to tell when you're about to be attacked, but it's easier to just fire when something comes on-screen. Time your movements past the steam jets. Towards the end, you'll see some blue people, zombies, behind the grates on the back wall. We'll talk about them more in a bit, but for now just blast them from a safe distance. If you get too close, they're liable to lob a grenade your way. When you're out of the vents, forge ahead to the elevator and climb on for the ride down to Sub-Level 3. This is an intense section. You'll be assaulted by adults and face-huggers. When the huggers fall down your level, you can of course blast them with a squatting shot. But the adults are another matter. You see, your elevator is being held up by three cables. Every time an adult jumps onto your car, whether on the entire where you are or onto the roof, it damages the cables. Bugs on the roof do the most damage, because every moment they're there hurts the cables, whereas bugs on your level only damage them when they land their jump on-board. If all three cables snap, you fall and die. It's the fastest way to the bottom, sure, but it'll cost you a quarter. When you see an adult alien coming up alongside the elevator car, squat-shoot it in order to get your hits in early, so that it'll be dead in time for you to turn and shoot the other bug on the opposite side before it jumps on to join you. As soon as ANY adult lands on the roof, immediately shoot up and start killing. If your reaction time is fast enough, you should survive the ride with at least one cable left. Personally, despite all my experience with the game, I've never made it to the bottom with more than one cable still functioning. And sometimes, I still fall and die. Moving on, once you've reached the bottom you'll head right and encounter your first out-in-the-open zombies. Zombies are humans, or were. But now they're blue-toned and they've been infected with a chestburster or three. Yes, Konami has changed the details of the Alien lifecycle to allow these poor saps to be not only infected with multiple aliens, but also driven to evil by their current state. Plus, they even can attack you if they should be logically dead. Quite beyond what we know. The first ones you see will be walking, and you can take them out easy. Step too close, though, and they'll launch a trio of chestbursters out from their torso at you. You might be able to peg the bursters in midair with SHOOT 1, but once they hit the ground, it's SHOOT 2 country, natch. These walking blue boys will be right underneath another one who's wielding a machine gun on a raised platform. Climb the ladder up to him, and he'll keep on firing downwards, giving you free reign to shoot him up. Shortly thereafter, a ball-of-alien will roll out of a door below and eventually roll right. You can then drop back down to the floor and proceed. Watch out for the globs of alien resin dripping from the holes in the wall. Time your steps past them. ------------- MID-BOSS - Rolling Spore Alien Welcome to your first mid-boss. It shouldn't be any trouble. When it first rolls on-screen, step right up and, aligned with it, fire right into its gut with SHOOT 1. This will destroy any spores it tries to send out and give it plenty of damage. Next it'll start rolling. Get along either the top or bottom wall. If you see it coming at you, move left or right to dodge, then wait until it comes back to dodge again. It'll eventually uncurl again. Get aligned with it as quickly as possible and again, shoot with SHOOT 1. That should destroy the spore headed straight for you, give the alien heavy fire to take in, and let the other spores go by pretty harmlessly. It'll start rolling again. Continue the cycle. Three or four rounds of fire should do the trick. ------------- Moving right, there's more zombies to face. Shoot them up, then climb up the ladder and take out the gunner just as before. Moving to the right on the upper path, you'll start to notice some blue, ripped-off human torsos lying on the ground on the far right. Drop down to the ground and edge right until they pop to life - and start firing handguns! Weave up and down to dodge the bullets and keep firing. You'll probably take a few hits before you get them all killed. Going right again, keep your self along the top wall as much as you can. The floor will eventually cave in. If you were along the top wall when it happened, you'll land on the ledge above the water instead of IN the water. Now move right, staying on the ledge. Up here, you'll encounter spiders. They're like face-huggers, but bigger and faster. They'll come from both sides, so inch your way to the right while holding SHOOT 2, and be ready to spin and continue shooting back to the left if need be. Down below, you'll see blue corpses floating in the water - a bad sign. If you've fallen down here, shoot them immediately as they float on-screen from the right -- if you wait too long, chestbursters will emerge from the bodies and lunge out at you, and you'll have to contend with those faster and smaller beasts instead. Plus, if you're down here, you're already getting the spiders from above falling down on you, which you'll have to dodge as best you can. The primary concern, though, is the bodies. You'll see a ladder partway down the path - don't go up. You'll just get spiders raining down on you that'll knock you from the ladder, and even if you make it, you'll miss out on the experience of SUPER BOMBS. Regardless of the path you're on, you'll see those Super Bombs down in the water after going right for a while. They're the only Super Bombs in the game. If you're down below, they could easily save your life. If you're up above, you have a choice. Either continue to the right for the last two screens worth of this section, fighting off the spiders, or drop below and use those Super Bombs to make short work of the rest of the water segment. When you've emerged from the water, head right a bit and you'll soon see a beautiful sight - a POWER LOADER! Jump in and start stomping your way right once more. If any aliens appear on the left or right of you, just give them a quick punch with SHOOT 1 and they'll be dead fast. SHOOT 2 has a downward swipe that's a bit stronger, but too slow to be useful. Stick with 1. You'll soon see an orange alien spitting what appears to be balls of fire towards you. Weave up and down to dodge the fire as you move in, then give it a punch to kill it. As you continue to encounter these, the same rules apply. You'll also run into a few walls that will slam down in front of you. Move to the very bottom of the screen and start punching the wall. It'll eventually be out of your way. As you do that, though, don't forget to turn and punch any aliens that may come racing at you from the left. After the last wall, you'll soon be kicked from your power loader and it'll explode behind you. Time to continue on foot, into the nest itself. As you step into these resin-covered walls, you'll see a group of blue torsos lying on the ground to the right. Yup, they've got guns. Same strategy applies here. Charging ahead, you'll start to notice people, flesh-toned people, quivering on the wall in the background. You can't help them, they're too far gone. In fact, as you step in front of them, chestbursters will emerge, killing them and heading for you. Step back left, then turn right and SHOOT 2 at them. At this point, you should also come across some eggs. SHOOT 2 is your best strategy, to hit both the eggs and the facehuggers that will emerge from them. If any come at you from different angles, step back, turn, line up, and SHOOT 2 once more. Continuing, you'll head into a darkened area. ------------- BOSS - Resin-Encased Tentacled Alien As the light comes back on, you'll see a wall of adult aliens. Fire up at them, weaving back to forth to hit as many as you can. They'll start falling down on you. Dodge left and right, away from their pounces, and keep firing. Once they've all fallen off-screen, you'll see the real boss in its full glory. Stand in the center and fire straight up at its head. It'll start to wiggle around either its left or right tentacle. The tentacle will fly in your line of fire and take a few shots from your gun before retracting. When that happens, step AWAY from the tentacle - if it's the right one, move left, and if it's the left one, move right. You should dodge out of the way of its massive swipe just in time. If you keep firing as you do this, you can also score some hits on the unmoving arm you pass beneath. Now you can resume firing straight up at the head from the center. Eventually, both arms will blow off, and the head will start launching cocoons down at you. The cocoons won't hatch, they'll just bounce off-screen. However, there's no pattern here. They fall erratically, and the best you can do is weave back and forth, dodging the falling objects. Don't go too far left or right as you weave. You're most likely going to take a few hits regardless. Keep firing at the head until it dies. ------------- D. STAGE 4 - Return to the APC Another driving stage should be an absolute relief after that lengthy experience. The same rules apply. Fire the missile rounds at the blue aliens and shoot the regular aliens with traditional smart gun fire. You'll see some flying aliens in here too, but they go down just as easy as the regular adults. You'll also encounter black boxes coming towards you. The same rules apply to these as they do to the aliens, except the boxes take more hits, and are slightly tougher to dodge when they hit the APC. Blow them up or get out of the way, and you'll be fine. At the end of the stage, you find Newt again, and this time, she's safe and sound. You may have rescued Ms. Jordan, but you've still got to go through the atmosphere processor and take on the queen. Let's get to it! E. STAGE 5 - Through the Atmosphere Processor Think Stage 3 was long? You ain't seen nothin' yet. Stage 5 will make you weep at its excessive length and multiple big bads. Thankfully, it's all downhill from here. This is the last of the giant stages. So, on your mark... One screen to the right, you'll encounter shadows on the floor. Aliens on the ceiling? Nope. Aliens under the floor. Steer clear of the shadows until they emerge from the ground, then shoot them up as you would any other adults. A second wave of these follows. Moving on, you'll see globs of the aliens' acid blood dripping from the ceiling and burning through the floor. They'll only drip from the spots you see now, so just avoid those areas. If you MUST pass, time your steps. You CAN step on the burned areas of the ground and not take damage. ------------- MID-BOSS - Pod-Bearing Beetle Alien Oh boy. This one's a real killer. You can't destroy those pods that circle it like a shield, so don't try. Aim as best you can for the higher spot, i.e. the beetle's back, without getting out of line with its body. SHOOT 1 is the way to go. When the pods move in close to the bug, get to whichever side of it has the most free space before they circle wide again. If you're on the left side of the screen, you can pass either behind or beneath the bug to get to the right side, but if you're on the right side, DON'T try to pass beneath it - there's less ground space on the bottom right side of the screen, so passing beneath would mean contact with the beetle and injury. Stick to the high road when travelling right to left. Keep firing until it's so much toast. Flamethrower is a real lifesaver here. ------------- After the first mid-boss (yes, I said FIRST) go down the ladder next to it and continue on your way. Watch those windows in the background - adults will leap out from them. You'll see their shadows through the window before they jump through, so you'll know where NOT to be when they jump out. Continue killing the bugs until you encounter a new breed - floor-popping aliens. These bugs reside in the ground and rise out of the floor to nip at you on occassion, but you can always see them. Shoot 'em up with SHOOT 2 before you pass. Now it's back into the vents. The same rules apply to the bats, worms, adults and huggers in here. But there's new threats to worry about too. See those holes in the ceiling? Face-huggers can drop out of them. Watch your motion tracker and you'll see them passing back and forth above you. When they stop, they're about to drop down. Start firing a step back from the hole that it's going to come through. You'll also encounter some grates along the ground. These are home to more floor-poppers. They may be in the vents and under grates now, but the same rules apply. Once you're out of the vents, you'll continue you on, blasting more generic bugs and face-huggers, and you'll start to notice bolts of electricity shooting between the background and foreground walls. Time your passage through these. Almost invariably, on the other side you'll find face-hugger dispenser boxes. These strange anamolies are along the back walls and look like metal squares of circuitry, but keep spitting out huggers. A 3-Way gun is perfect here, allowing you to fire up towards the box while never leaving the center of the screen so that you can peg those huggers as they exit. Without it, though, simply line up along the background wall (preferrably the right side of the box) and SHOOT 2 at the dispenser. Do this from a few steps back, so that any approaching face-huggers are likely to step right into the line of fire as they head for you. Continue to do this on any future boxes. As you move past this section, the floor's about to cave in, so get ready to making sure you're on the very TOP of the screen! Once it caves in, if you were on top, you'll land safely on a balcony above a pit of death. By "pit of death" I mean the other place you could've landed, which is a surface teeming with walking zombies launching chestbursters, adult aliens, facehuggers spewing from rows of eggs, and acid dripping from the ceiling. It's quite literally wall to wall down there, and to anyone that falls in that pit, there's no real strategy. Just keep firing in every direction and try to keep the monsters at bay. You're probably going to die, but, well, good luck. That's what quarters are for. If you landed up top however, you're in heaven. There's not a single enemy up here. Head to the right, shaking your head as you think of all the poor saps who must've met their maker in that pit of beasties below you. Both sections will end, and that's when you'll step off the upper level and touch terra firma once more, with only a few bugs to splat as you hit the ground. Go on down that next ladder, and it's time for the next mid-boss. ------------- MID-BOSS - Shrinky-Dink Alien Quartet Here's a interesting gang. These four buggers are small when they first appear, but every time you hit them, they momentarily enlarge, then go right back to being tiny. Edge along the top and bottom walls to get to the left and right sides of the screen, and use whichever is open to fire with SHOOT 2 at the little guys. Eventually they'll stay large permanently, and start to bounce around the screen slowly. This part of the fight is actually even easier. You can walk around the screen, easily dodging the light hops of the slow beasts, and keep firing, now using SHOOT 1, as you weave between them until they're all dead. ------------- Head off once more, and you'll be going on a grated floor over water below. As you contend with facehuggers, adults will spring from the foreground water onto the grate and attack. Splat 'em. The walkway will reach a narrow part, right before a final wide section. On that last narrow section, adults will leap up from the water and spit acid at you, but won't join you on the grate. Time your steps past the spitters and continue into a whole new threat. Here, under the grated floor you'll see golden-brown aliens clutching to the grate from beneath. If you step over them, they'll swipe up and hurt you. You can try to step around them, though they'll attempt to follow you. There's a better way to handle them, however. You should've just picked up a pack of two bombs. With SHOOT 2, drop them right onto the grate-grabbers, killing two of them. You should have no problem avoiding the remains as you head over to the ladder and climb up. Welcome to the exterior of the atmosphere processor! Feel that wind and breathe that processed oxygen! Out here, you'll encounter more ground-poppers, which you know how to handle by now. You'll also have to deal with the purple-blue electrical bolts coming from the overloading processor, but you can always tell where they're going to strike when that area of ground glows purple-blue, so just don't step there. You'll also get your first encounter with the flying aliens, like the one that took Newt back at the end of Stage 2. That one was green, these are reddish-brown. Whatever, just line up and shoot them with SHOOT 1. It would serve you well to line up while they're on either far side of the screen, because they'll take a few more hits than a regular adult will, and you'll want to see these flying bugs dead before they can fly into you and injure you. ------------- BOSS - Static Electricity Alien Duo These aliens were apparently birthed from something with fur or hair. They look like normal adults, except for those wooly tops on their heads that conduct electricity, along with the fact that they're blue. To begin with, make sure you're on the bottom or top of the screen when they first come in. They'll both charge in from the sides right towards the center, and then stop a few feet apart, taking bolts of electricity in through their wooly domes and shooting it between them. They'll run off the screen next, and now it's time to rumble. They'll each appear at the edges of the screen, one on the left and one on the right. They'll face each other directly. And you need to get between them and start firing away at one. It doesn't matter if it's the left or right one, but whichever one you choose, make a decision to stick with that one for the duration of the battle. After all, since the pair constantly switches sides, you'll inflict equal damage on them both this way. If you have a second player with you, you can get that person to shoot in the opposite direction. Then they'll charge towards each other and switch sides. As soon as you see them starting to run, step up or down to get out of the way of their charge. They'll then appear on the two sides of the screen again, probably on a different plane of depth. Line up and fire away again, and repeat this pattern. Stay out of the center during this fight. Don't step into the center after any their charge, because occassionally during the battle they'll rush to the center of the screen and do a different kind of "charge," as they shoot bolts between them just as they did at the start of the fight. You'll want to avoid this, as usual. After a while of this, you'll kill one, and the other will turn orange. It'll rush in to the center of the screen. Get on one side of it and start firing. Now it'll launch three electrical orbs out in different directions. In mid-flight, these orbs will pause. Move! One or two will home in on you, and if you get out of the way, they'll miss. Even if you don't dodge those, you'll want to get out of the way now, because the alien is going to run off-screen again and then rush back to the center from the side of the screen that ie just raced off of. Be ready on the OTHER side, the side it DIDN'T run off of, and fire. Repeat the dodging and firing until it's dead, and the stage is completed. ------------- F. STAGE 6 - The queen Time to face the big momma herself. Head right, frying eggs, adults, and face-huggers for a few screens until you reach darkness. The lights will come up, and the battle is on! ------------- BOSS - Queen Alien With the lights back on, you'll notice that the room is a bit crowded. Eggs line the floor and face-huggers spew forth from them. Adults occassionally roam in. And then of course there's the queen, and her giant egg sac. First things first, destroy the two eggs on the left side of the queen. With those out of the way, don't worry about the rest. If you try to destroy any of the numerous eggs on the right, an adult alien will just run on-screen with a new egg and drop it in place. Get yourself into position at the far top left corner of the screen, face right, and start blasting at the queen's egg sac using SHOOT 1. Watch the very top of the screen, and I mean the VERY top, on the ceiling. There, you'll occassionally see adult aliens crawl in and hang over you. If you see one over you, step out of the way, kill it, then get back into position and continue shooting the queen alien. In addition, if a face-hugger climbs up and aligns with you, splat it quickly with SHOOT 2 before you return to using SHOOT 1 on the queen. This shouldn't be much of a concern though, as it's a rare occurrence in most games. So, what's the queen's defense other than all of these minions, you ask? Simple. Her egg sac is divided into sections. You have to destroy that egg sac section by section. As each section is destroyed, the remains will splatter out towards you. You must step downwards as soon as this happens, to avoid the flying gore, and then after it's landed, get back to the top left corner and continue firing with SHOOT 1. This is your attack plan. Continue with it until the queen's egg sac is demolished, and she falls to the ground, destroying all the cronies that were beneath her and ending the level. ------------- G. STAGE 7 - The escape In a few minutes, this entire area is going to be a cloud of vapor the size of Nebraska. In other words, it's time to get out. Don't worry, the level's not timed, and it's relatively short. Nonetheless, move. As you start to head for the dropship, you'll encounter the usual adult aliens and occassional face-huggers. But you'll start to notice alien-colored splotches moving on the ground as well. Liquid aliens! These T-1000 esque beasts will ooze over to you and then take shape in front of you, spitting some acid before they retreat back into liquidy form and repeat the process. If you see them coming at you, start firing with SHOOT 2 and you'll get them. But if you have other kinds of bugs also coming at you, make THOSE bugs the priority, and not the liquid aliens, who can less damage to you, and can do it less often. If push comes to shove, you can just try to step past the liquid bugs. There's also another flying alien out here, right before the second large platform. Kill it with the same strategy you used on it in Stage 5. ------------- BOSS - Pod-Bearing Beetle Alien, Part Deux You'll see the queen pass by in the background and toss out these pods again. The beetle then comes out and takes those pods up as a shield, and it's time to fight this bug one more time! This time will be easier. That's because now, the pods can be destroyed by your weapons fire. They'll replenish, but it provides you with an opening during which you can hit the beetle with everything you've got. Also, this time you CAN manuver around the beetle alien on the bottom if you're moving from right to left around it. Plus the pods move much slower and don't extend as far. Otherwise, keep up the same attack plan, only with less dodging needed now that you can destroy those pods, and you'll kill this sorry freak. Then it's onto the dropship and off of this rock. ------------- H. FINAL BATTLE - The queen, round two ------------- BOSS - QUEEN ALIEN, ROUND TWO Welcome to the final confrontation. You're in the cargo bay of the Sulaco, but the queen's followed you here by riding the landing gear of your dropship, and she's not looking happy. Once you move right, you'll see her before two long, primed for battle. You could take her on with your gun, but she's liable to charge at you when you're so small and open for attack. Instead, notice that you can gear up too, just by climbing into that lucious-looking power loader on the far right. Now the odds are just about even. The basic plan of attack here is relatively simple - step in close, punch her with SHOOT 1, then step back (at an diagonal angle, to avoid her tail swipe) and move elsewhere. Wait for her to come towards you, then step forward, in close, punch with SHOOT 1, back off diagonally, and repeat. It's not quite that simple though. Occassionally, the queen will flash white. When that happens, step up or down, out of her path, because she's about to launch something out of her mouth (she appears to be breathing a stream of fire). When she's done with that, continue the battle. Also, if you're in close delivering a punch and the queen pulls back her tail to take a swipe at you, and you don't have enough time to step back out of the line of fire, walk down instead. That'll get you out of the way when moving away from her or up wouldn't do the trick. If you've got a second player, this is complicated. You can't just have the second player backing you up easily as in the first power loader sequence, and you can't have him/her taking on the queen that much, either. Try to keep the player that isn't in the power loader behind the loader, firing at the queen with SHOOT 1. If the queen attempts to charge the person not in the loader, it's up the player that's in the loader to step in and cut her off with a quick punch. Once you've gotten enough damage on her, the airlock hatch will open on the right. Now you've got to move in close and rapidly tape SHOOT 1 to pick up the queen by the neck in one of the loader's hands. As long as you're holding her, you can also use SHOOT 2 to turn on the loader's blow torch, just like in the movie. But this has no effect other than making the queen scream a little bit more (which is always good). With a firm grip on her, keep tapping SHOOT 1 rapidly as you walk over to the right, and hold her out over the open airlock. Now you can stop tapping SHOOT 1 and let her drop in. Congratulations. You've just won the game. ALTERNATE METHOD: It IS possible to destroy the Queen solely with gunfire, but it takes a long time. A few minutes of continuous fire at least. With two players, this might go a bit faster, but as long as you're standing outside of the power loader, you're extremely vulnerable. If you destroy the queen this way, she explodes into pieces, and you see the pieces blow out into space instead of the complete queen when you watch the ending. ------------- I. THE ENDING You get a three-part cinema scene now. First, you see the queen, looking great, hanging on for dear life in the open airlock. ALTERNATE METHOD: If you defeated the queen with gunfire instead of using the loader, you see the pieces of the queen tumble into space here instead. Then you see a wide shot of the exterior of the ship, as a tiny black figure, the queen, is sucked out into space. Then you get a close-up of the queen's head, again looking quite nice, as she screams, flashes white... and vanishes. Rather odd, that. Then, the following text appears on the screen. This is directly transcribed, so any errors within DO appear in the game: "Mission completed. The ALIENS breeding ground has been destroyed and the last of their flung into timeless space. You have also survived... Congratulations!" Japanglish? Hard to say, since that same text appears in the Japanese version. Now the credits roll, the Konami logo and the copyright year (1990) appears, and the game restarts from Stage 1. ------------------------------------------------------------- VI. What's Up with the Japanese Version? The Japanese Version of the ALIENS arcade game is unlike any other edition available in any other country in the world. Most of these changes are minor, but some are truly noteworthy. On the whole, they make the game easier. They are documented herein. A. Deletions 1. Most obviously, both APC driving levels have been entirely deleted. 2. As such, the subplot of rescuing Newt is gone. Therefore, Newt never appears in Stage 1. 3. When you take on the "Shrinky-Dink Alien Quartet" as documented in the Stage 5 section of this FAQ, the first one to fully enlarge hops off-screen, leaving you to only battle the other three. 4. Many of the aliens, zombies, and mid-bosses can be killed with fewer shots. B. Additions 1. Two new kinds of minor enemy appear in the game. a. An adult alien bursts out of the background wall during the vent portion of what we consider Stage 5. It functions much like the Ground-Poppers and is destroyed just as easily, but with new animations and from a different angle. It is the only one of its type in the game. b. The small form of the Shrinky-Dink Alien, as seen in the form of the second mid-boss in Stage 5, reappears in Stage 7. It stands alone on the catwalks with a ring of orange energy circling it and the catwalk in a kind of "shield." A few shots destroy it. 2. Titles have been given to each level. They are as follows, transcribed as they appear in the game. a. Level 1 Living Quarters b. Level 2 Factory c. Level 3 Factory2 d. Level 4 Queen Alien's DEN e. Level 5 Escape Route f. Level 6 Battle Ship SULACO 3. Special weapons and bombs appear much more frequently in the game, dropping from the sky for the players to use at regular intervals. 4. It is now possible to attain 1-ups in the game. If a player is still carrying a weapon from the last special weapon power-up, the next one to fall on-screen will contain a 1-up. It comes in the form of a red ribbon with a bow wrapped around the word "1up". 5. In addition to the other enemies in this section, ground-popping aliens now appear earlier, during the nest portion of what we know as Stage 3. 6. In addition to the other enemies, flying aliens now appear during the first power loader segment, in Stage 3. 7. Flying aliens are much more frequent throughout the outdoor portion of Stage 5 and Stage 7. 8. Extra exploding barrels appear throughout the game. C. Other Changes 1. Numerous aliens have changed color. Adult aliens are now purple instead of maroon, face-huggers are now flesh-toned instead of green, etc. 2. Many of the adult aliens in the elevator sequence of Stage 3 have been removed. They have been replaced with flying aliens that do NOT damage the cables. This makes this sequence much easier. 3. The beams from the 3-Way gun have changed color from purple to orange. 4. During the final battle, the queen does NOT breathe fire/acid at you. Instead, after flashing white, she sends out multiple images of herself as a projectile! These are wider and therefore are easier to be hit by. 5. The queen charges at you constantly even if you are in the power loader. This makes the final battle much more difficult. ------------------------------------------------------------- VI. In Closing And so the day is saved. Ripley has once again fought off the aliens, and can have peace. Until you step across your local arcade floor and belly up to the cabinet of Sega's ALIEN 3: THE GUN or Capcom's ALIEN VS. PREDATOR, that is. ------------------------------------------------------------- VIII. Update History Version 1.0 -- The FAQ is released. Version 1.1 -- The section on the Alien Queen battle has been updated with an ALTERNATE METHOD of killing her, and the section on the ending has also been updated with info on the slightly different ending if you defeat the Queen this way. ------------------------------------------------------------- IX. Other FAQs by Cypher Autolycus character FAQ for XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS - TALISMAN OF FATE on Nintendo 64. TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE FAQ for Atari 2600. ------------------------------------------------------------- This FAQ is Copyright 2000 by Cypher.