Contra 4
Hard Mode FAQ
This FAQ has strategies and suggestions that are
specifically intended for players interested in beating this
game in hard mode. It also gives good strategies for
players interested in beating this game without dying.
===================
Earning Extra Lives
===================
Extra Lives
First Extra Life 15,000
Second Extra Life 30,000
Third Extra Life 45,000
Fourth Life 60,000
Fifth Life 75,000
And so on…
You are awarded an extra life every time you earn 15,000
points.
====================
Weapons Damage Guide
====================
This is a basic breakdown of how much damage each weapon
does. The basic unit is a shot of damage, and that's
equivalent to one shot from the rapid gun or pea shooter.
I've also listed how many shots it takes to defeat each
enemy.
First Stage Weapons
Rapid 1s
Crush Gun 5s -> 1s for initial hit, 4s* explosion
(*Depending on the amount of time the enemy is in the
explosion)
Laser Gun 1-2s The Damage Depends on the length of the enemy
Spread Gun 1s (1s for each of the three projectiles in the
spread that hit the target)
Flamethrower 2s
Machine Gun 1s (For each of the rapidly fired shots)
Homing 1s (Each projectile)
Upgraded Weapons
Laser 1-3s The damage depends on the length of the enemy
Flamethrower 1s -> 1s (The fireball hits and then instantly
expands out in four directions. All in all, one shot will
normally deal 5s damage. Hitting diagonally can cause some
of the resulting spread of fire to miss leaving you with 3s)
Crush Gun 5s -> 2s for initial hit, The damage done by the
explosion depends on whether or not the enemy is centered in
the middle of it)
Spread Gun 1s (1s for each of the five projectiles that hit
the target)
Homing 1s (Each of the three projectiles)
Machine Gun 1s (For each of the rapidly fired shots (Yes
you have to get both streams of fire to hit your target to
do maximum damage))
Damage Guide For Base Stages
Rapid 1s
Crush Gun 5s -> 1s for initial hit, 4s for explosion (*It is
difficult for enemies to take damage from the missile, they
usually are only hit by the explosion and so 4s is typical)
Laser Gun 2s (The laser gun is locked in at 2s for base
levels)
Spread Gun 3s (1s for each of the projectiles that hits the
target)
Flamethrower 1s (It’s sad, isn’t it?)
Machine Gun 1s (For each of the rapidly fired shots that hit
the target)
Homing 1s (For each of the projectiles that hit the target)
Upgraded Weapons
Crush Gun 5s -> 1s initial impact 4s for the resulting
explosion (The upgraded gun is more likely to hit and
explode properly)
Laser Gun 2s (The gun is locked in at 2s for base levels)
Spread Gun 5s (1s for each of the five projectiles that hit
the target)
Flamethrower ? (This is still being investigated. The
flamethrower shots spread out in multiple directions,
however I am still looking for ways for the spread fire to
hit)
===
Weapons Guide
====
Coming Soon
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TRICKS
=======
Delayed Falling
You know that by pressing the X button, you will
grapple upwards. What is interesting about this is
that if you do this while your character is in the air,
you will stay in place and not fall until the motion is
complete. There are several places where this trick
can be used. If you press the X button at the height
of your jump you can use this to safely jump over
enemies like proboterrors or waves of aliens where a
single jump couldn’t keep you in the air for long
enough. Just as a trivia, you can only grapple one
time while you are in the air. You can’t grapple
twice, no matter how far you fall.
Enemy Leeching
This has been around since the original Contra. You
are awarded points for every enemy that you kill.
Several spots in the game feature an unlimited number
of enemies to kill. This means you can sit in those
spots and kill enemies until you got enough points to
earn the amount of lives that you want. Every 15,000
points you earn awards you an extra life.
Why use this instead of the 99 lives cheat? Simple,
it’s not as cheap. To save time, use the scoring guide
that I provide to determine a good spot to do this
trick. For instance, if you were to perform this trick
by killing the running soldiers in stage one, you would
have to take out 600 of them to get an extra life! If
you performed this trick in the stage six base by
killing the birdman enemies, you would only have to
take out 75 of them. Quite a difference, I’d say.
Saving Guns
Whenever you die in this game, you lose your current
weapon. You can press the A button in this game to
drop your current weapon. The weapon will stay on the
ground for a few seconds before it disappears. If you
anticipate that you're going to die, you can drop your
gun just before you do and then pick it up quickly when
you come back. If you have an upgraded weapon, you can
push the A button twice and pick both weapons up to get
your fully upgraded weapon back after you die.
CHEATS
The Konami Code
This classic code has been around Konami games, not
limited to Contra, and it’s even in a song by the band,
The Moldy Peaches. It is:
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left Right, B, A,
Start
This game has a use in Contra 4. Pause the game at any
time during arcade mode and enter it. It upgrades both
of the weapons that you are holding, one time. I say
one time, because if you attempt to perform the code
consecutively it will kill you. Obviously you’d want
to be holding two weapons when you perform this code.
If you’re holding only one special weapon then only it
will be upgraded. Now to clear up some misconceptions:
This code will ALWAYS upgrade your weapons the FIRST
TIME you use it on EACH STAGE. Clearing a stage allows
you to use the code to get an upgrade ONE TIME on the
following stage. If you use this code AGAIN before
completing a stage, or losing all your lives and
continuing, it will kill you EVERY TIME. There IS NOT
a 50/50 change that you will get an upgrade or die
while performing this code, there is a pattern to this.
If you don’t pass a level and lose all of your lives,
this code will upgrade your weapons the first time you
use it when you continue and then kill you any time
consecutive times. You CANNOT cheat this system. If
you perform the code once and then try and perform it
again after you die (you know when you’re invincible
for a few moments) the code won’t kill you while you’re
flashing. It will make a sound as if it worked but it
will not actually give you the upgrade to a weapon.
Many people will find that this code is useful after
they continue. It’s a good cheat that’s not as cheap
as the 99 lives code. Hopefully with this guide you’ll
be able to do without it. I see upgraded weapons as a
reward for those who can stay alive. Using it makes
hard mode have a little too much in common with a
certain feature that’s in Easy mode…
The 99 Lives Cheat
This is a glitch that allows you to get 99 lives.
There is a popular video on Youtube that shows you how
to perform it and it gives a very nice explanation.
Now the only problem is that a lot of people don’t know
exactly how many enemies they are supposed to kill in
order to get an extra life at the right time. Also,
counting 50 shots is a real pain. So here is what you
do. Begin at the jungle. Grab the machine gun. Work
your way to the right. Kill the first two snipers and
running soldiers that get in your path. The running
soldiers are fine to take out, but don’t take out
anything else unless I say so. Keep going to the
right. Climb up to the first bridge. Switch to your
empty slot and grab the flame gun. Perform the Konami
code once. Switch to your newly upgraded machine gun.
Run past the turret, drop down and run past the next
sniper. Keep going. Jump up to the platform and jump
over the ground turret and get onto the railing. Move
onto the bridge and don’t kill the bridge saboteur.
Jump out of the water and onto the ground and duck.
The sniper will fire a shot that will go past you.
Grapple up. Take down the camouflaged solder and move
onto the bridge. Drop straight down and move forward,
taking out the sniper on the bottom level. It will be
close, but you should be able to run past the first
sniper that you see on the right. Try not to kill the
turret on the lower level as you pass by. Keep moving
forward. You can kill any running soldiers, but try
not to kill anything else. As you get out of the
water, run straight up the hill. Run past all of the
enemies above you. As you get to the top, kill the
camouflaged soldier and the sniper. Keep going right.
Take out the sniper, keep going and take out the two
grenadiers. When you get to the rail machine, defeat
it. Now, look up at the number of extra lives that you
have. If you haven’t died, it should still say two.
Continue to your right, killing anything in your way.
When you get to the boss, take out the sniper on top
and then move to the left and face the core. Make sure
that it still says you have two lives in reserve, or
that you are not awarded an extra life. Kill yourself
two times Switch to your flame gun. It will take ten
shots of flame to destroy the core. Make sure you are
standing on the ground and shooting from a standing
position. IMMEDIATELY AFTER YOU FIRE YOUR TENTH SHOT,
PRESS START AND ENTER THE KONAMI CODE. If all goes
well, will die and have 0 lives and the flame shot will
take out the core, awarding you an extra life and
giving you 99 lives!
What happens if you got a little carried away and you
earned an extra life when you kill the rail machine?
Well you’re not sunk yet. Proceed to the boss.
Destroy the first core. When the second core appears,
quickly destroy it as it rises. Take out the snipers
up top. If you haven’t earned a second extra life,
then you can still perform the cheat. Drop down to the
bottom level. Stand as close to the core as you can
without getting killed by the bomb dropping turrets.
Fire nine flame shots. Make sure that the flames don’t
explode out. Pause on the tenth shot and perform the
code and you should be good.
How does that break down in terms of points? Well you
will probably kill nine snipers along the way which is
1,800 points. You will kill two camouflaged soldiers
which is 800 points. The two grenadiers are worth 400
points. How many of the running soldiers you destroy
is random, but they are only worth 25 points each so
they don’t make a huge impact on the score. Let’s say
you destroy twenty which is 500 points. The rail
machine is 10,000 points. This would put you at 13,500
points. The first core of the base boss is worth 5,000
points, easily putting you over 15,000. Just the rail
machine alone and a red core from the base boss is
worth 15,000 points. You just have to try and not
reach 15,000 points before you encounter the boss.
There is a pattern to how this trick works. The game
awards you an extra life for every 15,000 points you
earn. By a strange glitch, if you earn an extra life
AFTER you die on your last life, the number of lives
that you have in reserve goes to 99. This is a very
unlikely situation, but it has happened to a few
people. You, of course, want 99 lives so you’d like to
arrange this little scenario on purpose, wouldn’t you?
Now, using the scoring guide that I provide, you could,
if you wanted to, set things up and perform this trick
on any stage.
I write this guide for the specific purpose of you NOT
HAVING TO USE THIS TRICK to beat hard mode, but I
realize that as hard mode can be so brutal and
repetitive starting out, many players will turn to this
cheat to keep from losing their sanity.
=====================
CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON
You need to plan ahead and decide which weapons you’re
going to be carrying along the way. By switching
weapons skillfully before you die, you should be able
to keep at least one upgraded weapon in your arsenal at
all times. Which one will it be? As you try and
defeat hard mode you’ll frequently run into trouble
spots, places where you just keep dying even with a
little practice. Could there be a weapon that could
get you through this tough spot? Some players just
stink at base stages and so they keep the upgraded
homing gun in reserve. With that gun they can beat the
stages without any problems. Many people like the
spread gun because it clears the screen of enemies very
well and you can find a use for this on nearly every
stage. Just about everyone loves the upgraded machine
gun because it does large amounts of damage and it does
not have any major drawbacks. Whenever you get to a
spot that you can’t beat in this game, ask yourself if
there is a particular weapon that could help you beat
this spot
WALKTHROUGH
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_____________Stage 1 : Jungle___________________
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You know you’re playing on hard mode when you hear the
classic jungle music from the original contra. The
alien soldiers run across the screen and jump far on
hard mode. What makes this frustrating is that they
appear completely randomly. Sometimes one soldier will
come, sometimes three of them come at once. Always be
on your guard.
As you move to the right you’ll see an item carrier
with a machine gun. Grab it. To the right you’ll find
a hill with two ledges. On the bottom will be a
camouflaged sniper and on the top will be a sniper.
Aim diagonally and take out the sniper on top. Jump up
to the middle or top ledge and move to the right.
There will be another hill with another sniper at the
top. Take him out. Go to the top of the hill and
cross the bridge. There will be an item carrier with
the flame shot. Grab it if you want it and proceed
across the bridge. On the level below will be a turret
pointing right at you. It fires at brief intervals.
You can run past it if you’d like. To the left of it
is a panel that contains spread. If you’d like it,
destroy the turret and then drop down and claim it.
Watch out for the running soldiers as you go. As you
move to the right, you’ll come upon another hill with
another sniper on top. Take him out and then jump up
to the middle ledge. As you move to the right, you’ll
see a rail in front of a small cliff. As you approach
the cliff, a turret will pop out of the ground and
shoot forward. You’ll be safe from it as long as
you’re on the ledge above ground. Watch how the turret
pops out and shoots. You’ll be seeing it again. You
can jump from the ledge to the rail. If you fall
short, grapple up to the rail. If you don’t think you
can make the jump, take out the turret first. The
cliff connects to the second bridge. As you move
across the bridge, an item carrier will be moving along
the screen with another machine gun. This should be
your first upgrade. You’ll also encounter the bridge
saboteur. It’s a soldier that will jump up to the
bridge and then detonate a bomb that will destroy
itself and the bridge. You don’t die from this, but
when the bridge is destroyed, you’ll fall straight
down.
As you proceed to the right you'll eventually reach a
steep hill. There will be snipers up top. You can
simply run past all of them and only stop briefly if
you have running soldiers behind you. When you reach
the top of the hill you'll see a camouflaged solder.
Take him out before proceeding right and then take out
the oncoming sniper. Continue to the right. There's a
homing gun in an opening and closing box down below.
Shoot it and then grapple up above if you want it.
Continue to the right until you eventually reach a
slight decline with a rail above.
Rail Riding Machine
50s / 10,000 Pts
It's not necessary that you beat this machine, but I
think it's more dangerous if you leave it alone. The
thing moves left and right faster than you do and it
fires rapid moving shots downwards. I recommend
gradually moving down the hill and just barely to the
right. If you get your distance right you'll only have
to worry about soldiers coming from the right. This
machine is pretty wide so just try and make sure that
you're never underneath it and keep shooting up.
There's a crush gun floating high above that you can
get. If you destroy this thing early. There's a high
up grapple point that you can use to ride this machine
if you destroy it. It's quite fun.
Keep moving to the right, watch out for snipers and
you'll reach the boss.
####################################
Boss: Base Wall
This boss is not much harder in hard mode, the only
real difference is that the snipers shoot faster.
These rematch challenges start you out with a spread
gun, which is very kind of them. It makes completing
them much easier. Advance forward toward the base boss
that you undoubtedly remember from the jungle. You
know the drill, take the sniper out first on top and
then focus on the red core on the bottom. From the
left side of the screen you are safe from the two
turrets that drop bombs. The red core makes a beeping
noise and then glows when it’s about to fire. Duck
down to safely avoid the beam. It’s only a matter of
time before the core is destroyed. As the base sinks
down, move all the way to the right of the screen.
Another red core will appear on the screen and start
firing like mad as soon as you see it. By the time it
rises out of range, the top core will nearly be
destroyed. Jump up to the second ledge from the
ground. The top core will fire a beam as soon as it
reaches the top of the screen. Once that stops, use
your grapple to reach up to the helicopter and take out
all of the snipers on the top level. You’ll have to
move forward a bit to take all the snipers out. Once
they’re gone shoot the upper core. Be cautious, drop
down before the top beam fires. Return to the
helicopter and take out the upper core. With the upper
core gone, you can drop down to the top ledge. Stand
and use the R button to take out the bottom turrets
safely. This shouldn’t be too difficult.
If you have m2, c1, c2, or f2, you can actually take
this boss out in a few moments. Just stay on the left
side of the screen and fire on the red core. Jump over
any sniper fire. You should destroy the first core in
a matter of moments. Now move to the right side of the
screen and stand just below the right side of the ledge
above you. When the second core appears, shoot like
crazy. Jump up to the next ledge as the core rises and
keep shooting. Jump up to top ledge and keep shooting.
With some quick fire, the second core will be destroyed
before it rises to the top of the screen. Now move to
the left and out of the reach of the bomb
Red Core
50 Shots / 5000 points
========================================
_____________Stage 2 : Laboratory_______________
========================================
It is absolutely critical that you pay attention to
BOTH screens during this level. Although all of the
fighting during the first part of this stage will take
place on the bottom of the screen, enemies will be
coming at you from all sides of the screen and it is
easy to be caught off guard if you don’t also pay
attention to the top screen.
Laboratory Section-------
Notice that on the top screen there is a series of
ventilation ducts that wind around and have several
openings along the ceiling. Where and how many of
these mutants appear is totally random. These things
come forever. New ones will quickly replace the ones
that you destroy so you must always be on guard. As
you move to the right also notice the mutant hiding in
the grey part of the ceiling. That mutant will come
through the ceiling and charge toward you. The first
item carrier that will come will be the crush gun. I
would recommend it since it will be useful for taking
out the meat puppets that you’ll meet later on in the
stage.
Okay so from left to right, here goes. As you move to
the right you’ll see the item carrier with the crush
gun. Also a mutant will come down through the walls
after you. Stay low and take it out when it comes down
through the ceiling. Jump over the pit and grapple to
grab the ceiling. As you cross the pit you’ll see your
first meat puppet. You can take it out without getting
too close. Drop down and move forward and you’ll soon
see the second meat puppet. Watch out for the two
vents above. The crawling mutants will be falling
directly over your head. Move ahead and quickly take
out the third meat puppet. Move forward and retreat
back when you see the fourth meat puppet. You’re a lot
safer when you’re not standing under the vents. As you
continue forward you’ll see another mutant waiting
inside the ceiling. Carefully flush him out. The next
item carrier will have a laser. It’s better than your
standard gun if you’ve got nothing else. Move closer
to the small pit and take out the meat puppet you see
there. Move closer to the edge and you’ll be able to
take out two more meat puppets. Grapple to the ceiling
and move forward and you’ll be able to take out another
meat puppet. Drop down past the small pit and inch
forward carefully. Another meat puppet will come. Now
notice the mutant waiting for you in the ceiling.
Watch out for the ambush and watch out for the next
meat puppet to come by. There’s one more puppet
waiting for you as you walk forward toward the next
pit. As you move toward the next pit, you’ll see an
item carrier. It has a smart bomb. It will instantly
destroy the 2+ puppets on the screen as well as any
aliens. You can either wait for it to come to you or
catch it in midair if you’re daring. As you move
forward you’ll take out two more puppets. Another
mutant will be waiting for you in the ceiling as you
get closer. Continue forward and take out another meat
puppet. As you come to next pit, jump forward and
grapple onto the ceiling. As you move forward along
the ceiling stop halfway across the pit. Five meat
puppets await you on the next platform. You can take
them out before you drop down. Jump over the small
pit, watch out for any more crawling mutants and exit
the laboratory to your right.
You’ll soon be greeted by some nice scenery and
familiar music.
Waterfall Section-------------
Start shooting and take out the sniper waiting for you
on the first platform. Jump onto it and then to the
next platform. Take out the grenadier directly above
you. Jump onto the cliff and then climb up. Your next
opponent is that turret up above. A platform will be
moving back and forth. You can try and fire on the
turret from the moving platform, but you’ll need to
move left and right on the platform to dodge its fire.
Jump from the moving platform to the cliff on your
left. Climb up. When you get to the top of the cliff,
you’ll see two giant holes. Boulders will be coming
down on you. The boulders fall downward, but they
bounce every time they teach a platform. There is a
machine gun waiting for you in the wall panel on the
left. You might want to take out the turret before you
go after it.
Climb up the cliff on the right. The next moving
platform goes up and down. It also happens to be
directly where boulders fall out. You are safe from
the boulders on the very right side of this moving
platform. When it’s safe, jump from the moving
platform to the platform above on the center portion of
the screen. Here in the center you’ll be safe from the
boulders falling on the left and right. When it’s
safe, jump to the platform above and just to your
right. Jump straight up again and you’ll see the next
moving platform that goes from left to right. There is
a homing gun in the wall panel on the right side, if
you want it. As you ride the moving platform, watch
out for the boulders that come out of the left side of
the screen will be in your way. You cannot jump over
them. Jump to the platform on the right. Be careful
about the running soldiers as you jump up to the next
platform. There is a flame gun in the panel on the
left if you want it.
Climb up the rope up to the next platform. As you go,
watch out for running soldiers coming from the left
side. They jump as they reach the end of the stone
platform. It’s situations like these that really force
you to pay attention to the top screen. As you move up
these guys can be in your blind spot. If you don’t
know where they are shoot upwards as you near the top
of the rope and diagonally up and left as you reach the
top and jump up.
>>>>Continue Point<<<<
You will continue from here if you lose all your lives.
Jump up to the moving platform and jump up to the
next level. On the right side of the screen there is a
wall panel that has a barrier. There’s also a sniper
on the upper left portion of the screen. The panel
also happens to be on the path of an oncoming boulder.
Shoot the panel when it is safe and grab the barrier.
The boulders don’t hurt you while you’ve got the
barrier on. You’ll be invincible for 10 seconds. This
leaves you with time to climb up a pretty good
distance. Before you rush like crazy, though, don’t
forget that an item carrier will come down on the left
with a spread gun after you climb up the rope. Work
your way up to the right side of the cliff. Climb up,
jump onto the moving platform. Jump up to the left and
jump up to the right and then jump up to the next
grassy floor. Take out the sniper to your left. You
should be able to do all of this before the barrier
runs out.
Climb up the rope on the left and as you go, you’ll
notice a scuba soldier sitting in the waterfall. As
soon as you climb above him, he’ll shoot a projectile
upwards that will rain down in three directions. He
can only be hurt when he sticks out his arm to fire the
shot. If you just keep climbing, you’ll actually just
be able to scroll him off the screen. When you first
grab the rope on the left, climb up and jump to the
cliff on the left side and climb to the top. You’ll
see a sniper up high on the right. He can’t hit you
from this angle. If you jump up and shoot diagonally
at him, you can pick him off. Now jump from the
platforms to the top of the cliff on the right side.
From there you can take out the sniper directly above.
Next, jump from the platform on the left side to the
cliff above. Climb up a bit and shoot upward to take
out the grenadier. I know that took a little while,
but it’s the safest way to do this. Climb up the cliff
on the left. There is a crush gun in the wall panel to
your right. With all the snipers gone, you can safely
work your way up the cliff, just watch out for the
boulders on the right. By the way, that’s the last set
of boulders you’ll have to deal with. Up ahead is the
last wall panel and it’s got the machine gun. As you
come up, again watch out for the running solders, there
are quite a few of them.
You’ll hear a grenadier above you tossing grenades like
crazy. Climb the rope in the center and you’ll see a
stone cliff. He’s above you. You can’t shoot through
the cliff. Timing is the key here. Jump to the first
platform on the left. As soon as he throws a grenade
continue to the left, jump up to the next platform and
jump up and take him out.
Now comes the three sections of rope. Soldiers will be
coming out randomly from the sides, jumping out and
sliding down the ropes. Climb upward, watch out for
them as they drop down. Shoot up and diagonally as you
need to. Watch the top screen carefully on account of
the blind spot. A second item carrier with a spread
gun will be hovering around. As you climb up the
second rope in the center. To get it, you’ll have to
shoot the carrier, jump to the left and move right to
land back on the rope. It’s a bit tricky. Watch out
for any soldiers. As you reach the top of the last
rope, an item carrier will come down with the second
laser gun. Jump onto the steel platform and begin your
journey upward.
Your ascent to the top of the waterfall will have a few
dangers. You’ll have snipers and grenadiers waiting
for you on the platforms. The blue waterfall makes the
sniper shots and grenades hard to see. I’d recommend
you take out each enemy quickly. I’ll give you their
positions. The first sniper will be on the platform on
the upper left part of the screen as you jump onto the
steel platform. A grenadier will be in the center of
the next platform that comes into view just to the
right of the center of the screen. Above that will be
a sniper in the center of a platform at the very left
side of the screen. Another sniper will be on the
right side of a platform to the center of the screen
above that. Above that platform and just to the left
will be another platform with a grenadier standing on
the left side. Above that and on the right side of the
screen will be the last sniper on the center of that
platform. Get ready for the stage two boss.
The base doors open up and twenty running soldiers come
out. Stand at the corner of either side of the screen
and hold down the Y button. It couldn’t be easier.
====>>>NOTICE
________________________
Why do I keep dying???????
You die because this level splits your concentration.
You’re trying to take out the meat puppets before they
explode and you end up getting run down by the crawling
mutants because you are distracted. One tip that might
help is to stand away from one of the vent openings.
That way if you lose track of one of the crawling
mutants it isn’t going to fall on your head. Take it
slow on this level. The meat puppets only explode when
you get close. Keep your distance and make sure you
don’t get run down by the crawling mutants. A lot of
people die because they only look at the mutants
crawling through the vent. There are some mutants that
hide in the ceiling and will come down in your
direction when you get close.
_______________________
####################################
The Snipers
27 shots / 400 pts
This has got to be one of the hardest sections in the
game, and it’s certainly cruel to encounter something
so difficult so early on. Four snipers appear and they
take 27 shots each to take down. A fellow named
ProfChaosButters has put out a video on YouTube about
how to take them down, if you’re interested . I
believe he’s the same fellow that did the Weapons
analysis FAQ. I use a different method than he does
and his method requires heavy weapons.
How it works it this: the snipers fire at you at
slightly different intervals. What I like to do is
start on the very right side of the screen, shoot the
sniper that pops up above for about a second or so and
then run to the left, shooting diagonally as I go. The
key to not getting hit is how you change directions.
If you run all the way to the left side of the screen
and then go to the right, the sniper on the far right
will have fired a shot that will be at body level by
the time you reach the middle. Try and dodge it and
you’ll easily be closed in. If you run to the left
side of the screen and then quickly go to the right
side of the screen as soon as you run past the last
bullet in the wave of fire, you should be able to
narrowly escape the second wave of fire. Jumping at
the end of a wave helps, but just make sure that the
sniper that you are jumping below has already fired a
shot.
It’s hard to write a FAQ telling you exactly what to do
because your timing has a big effect on where their
shots will go, even to within a fraction of a second.
If you have the crush gun or at least one of the
upgraded weapons, you can take out at least one of the
snipers by the time that you pass back and forth once.
Taking out just one sniper makes things much easier.
Jumping and ducking come into play when you have one
sniper taken out.
If you’re just bad at this, you can at least try to die
as few times as possible. The one thing about this
part is that it’s easy to see when you’re going to die.
If you can switch out an upgraded gun before you die
and then switch back afterwards, it will help a lot.
You only have to take out three snipers. The boss will
brutally impale the last one. That little
demonstration alone was probably what gave the game a T
rating from the ESRB
##############################
Boss: Colossal Claw Mutant
First Part
150 Shots / 14,600 Points
Stand at the center of the screen. This boss has
several different attacks. The first is that it raises
its arm up before slamming it down and creating a
little shock wave. This boss will slam an arm down six
times, alternating from left to right. Stand in the
middle and move to the left when it brings a claw up.
You should avoid the first swipe pretty easy and since
the next swipe will be with the right arm, that will be
pretty easy to dodge too. You’ll want to move right
when a claw strike is coming from the left and left
when a strike is coming from the right. You’re going
to be in between the creature’s arms. You want to be
in between the arms because this is the only angle that
you can hit the boss from during this attack.
After six swipes, quickly move to the far right side of
the screen. The mutant will reach out with its claw at
you from the left side. After this attack the boss
unleashes what is likely to be its most difficult
attack to dodge. The boss fires a series of fireballs
downward. There is no safe place to stand; you must
run through the gauntlet. This is harder to do in hard
mode, not even the challenge “Rematch 2” captures the
difficulty. The fireballs are spaced so closely
together that you must run straight through them in
order to survive. Which fireball do you run through?
You run through the one closest to the middle that’s
going to come towards you. Just from the appearance of
the fireballs, running past them might look impossible,
but it isn’t. You just have to have perfect timing.
Now the first time this boss uses the attack, you’re
going to be running to the left through the stream of
fireballs. Once you run to the left, stay on the left
(not too far, just between the middle of the screen and
the left corner). The boss will pick up the platform
with its claws and continue spitting fireballs. If you
get close to the claw on the left, the second stream of
fireballs won’t hurt you. It is during this time that
you can do heavy damage to this boss. Crush guns can
reach the head, spread is up close and can do full
damage, and you can throw anything else you have at it.
Just be careful you don’t “kill” the boss here. What
am I talking about? When the boss is defeated, it will
instantly drop the platform (and you with it). If some
fireballs happen to be underneath you during that time,
you’re going straight down into them. How do you know
when that’s going to happen? I guess you just pick it
up by experience.
After this, the boss will set the platform down. Move
to the far left side of the screen. It will reach out
with its claw from the right side of the screen to the
left. The boss will take another six claw swipes at
you like before. This time, however, you must move to
the left side of the screen when the boss reaches at
you. Following this attack, the boss will shoot
fireballs from the left side of the screen to the
right. Get through those and then
It grabs the platform and brings it up to you and fires
at you again. You are safe when you stand on the left
side. After this, it will set your platform back down
and try and skewer you again. Stand on the left side.
Claws then left side again.
Fireballs move to right. right side claw
Move to left
Second Part “The Chase”
75 Shots / 4,000 Points
This is a short repetition of the most annoying part of
this battle: running through the stream of fireballs.
You definitely want to go between when you're around
the center. If you've got an upgraded weapon that
isn't the homing gun, you should be able to take this
boss out before you even have to run through the
center.
========================================
_____________Stage 3 : Base___________________
========================================
>>>>Continue Point<<<<
“Base” stages do not have continue points.
I’ll break this base stage down room by room.
Room One
About the Target core: Center Screen, Mid Level
Enemies: Two Red Soldiers running across the screen on
opposite sides firing as they go
Weapons: A machine gun
How to survive: This room is good practice for you.
Get used to running and jumping and ducking. Dodging
enemy fire is easy in this one. If you’re scared, you
can just duck and nothing in this room can harm you.
The target core will open up in about two seconds.
Room Two
About the Target cores: 4 Total- One Mid Level left
side, One low level left Side, One Mid Level Right
Side, One Low Level Right Side
Enemies: One Turret, Two Red Soldiers running across
the screen on opposite sides firing as they go, One
grenadier
Weapons: Laser
How to survive: By taking out the grenadier, you can
duck under all enemy fire. The turret fires four shots
and then pauses.
Room Three:
About the Target cores: 2 Total – One up high on the
left and one up high on the right. They open after six
seconds.
Enemies: Four soldiers run across the screen, one
coming from each of the four doors you see on the
sides. When they are gone or eliminated, two
grenadiers will come out. They will follow your
movements and throw grenades if you stay in one place
for too long. Beating them causes four soldiers to
come out again.
Weapons: Flame
How to survive: Stay on the move or just duck and take
out the running soldiers while you wait for the red
cores to open up. When the grenadiers come out, all
you have to do is keep moving and they will not be able
to attack you. Stay on the move and jump to take out
the cores.
Room Four:
About the Target cores: 3 Total – The targets are all
at center level, on the left, middle, and right. They
open after six seconds.
Enemies: Two turrets, one high up and on the left and
one high up on the right. They alternate, firing four
shots at you at a time. Rolling barrels will come down
the center of the screen.
How to survive:
If you can shoot fast enough to destroy a barrel, you
can simply duck and fire and be completely safe in this
room. This is easy if you have the laser or machine
gun. You’ll need to be a little quick with your
trigger finger if you don’t. Come up when it’s safe
and destroy the cores. Read on for a more manly way.
You survive this room by being able to dodge the turret
fire while avoiding the barrels. You can escape the
turret fire by running. You may have to jump over the
barrels. The barrels come out in a straight row, which
requires you to jump. The pattern alternates with them
coming out one at a time. When the barrels come out
one at a time, you can run between them. As soon as a
barrel passes you, you can jump down to escape any
turret fire. Shoot the targets as you dodge back and
forth. I recommend staying in the corner before the
turrets start firing.
Room Five:
About the Target cores: 2 Total – The targets are on
the upper left side and upper right side respectively.
They open after six seconds.
Enemies: Two turrets, one high up and on the left and
one high up on the right. They alternate, firing four
shots at you at a time. Rolling barrels will come down
the center of the screen.
How to survive:
Just like in the previous room, if you can shoot fast
enough to destroy a barrel, you can simply duck and
fire and be completely safe in this room. This is easy
if you have the laser or machine gun. You’ll need to
be a little quick with your trigger finger if you
don’t. Come up when it’s safe and destroy the cores.
Read on for a more manly way.
This room is quite a bit like the last one only a
little harder. Soldiers will be coming across the
screen and they’ll be closer to you. You’ll still be
able to run past the shots, however. You may have to
jump over the barrels. The barrels come out in a
straight row, which requires you to jump. The pattern
alternates with them coming out one at a time. When
the barrels come out one at a time, you can run between
them. As soon as a barrel passes you, you can jump
down to escape any turret fire. Shoot the targets as
you dodge back and forth. I recommend staying in the
corner before the turrets start firing.
Room Six:
Room six is much easier than room five. You have three
turrets that come up in the front. They beep when
they're about to fire. You can take them out if you're
fast, otherwise simply move and jump. A next wave of
three will follow the first. After this group of
turrets goes away, Four cores will open up. The cores
will stay open mid level so they are easy to pick off.
After this the giant core in the center will open up.
You have to jump to hit it, but it's an easy target and
the ground turrets here are not too much trouble.
______________
Why do I keep dying???????
You jump either too early or too late to get over those
barrels. You may get cornered on the side of the
screen. This is where you run out of room to run and
you need to jump in order to change directions, but if
you do you’ll get killed by a barrel. Try and stay on
the corners of the screen until each wave of soldiers
come out and so you’ll have plenty of room to run.
_______________________
----------------------------
####################################
Boss: Base Core
50 Shots / 4,000 Points
I suppose that the reason why so many people hate base
stages so much is because the first boss for these
stages is harder than the other two put together.
Heavy weapons make this fight much, much easier. If
you’ve got the upgraded homing gun, you can just duck
down and tap Y to victory. The crush gun is equally as
effective, although jumping gives you the best results.
Without upgraded weapons, however, this boss is by no
means a pushover.
There are three different attacks to worry about during
this fight:
Soldiers will come out on opposite sides of the screen.
Because they are so close to you, you cannot expect to
run past them and not get hit. You will either need to
jump or duck to avoid their shots.
What will look like balloons will come out from the
sides of this boss. I call them balloons because
you’ll know what I’m talking about. They move slowly
until they reach a corner of the screen. The balloons
then drop down quickly and quickly move to the side of
the screen. You will be surprised at how quickly they
move across. Dodging one balloon is simple enough, but
dodging two gets tricky. The way that you time your
jump depends on how far apart the two balloons are. If
one comes just a little sooner than the other, you jump
at the last moment to get over the one that comes first
and you direction your jump toward the one that comes
later. The speed of the balloons change after the boss
takes heavy damage. They move a little slower, making
them easier to dodge. Balloons can be destroyed with
just a single shot, but they move quickly and can only
be destroyed in the air.
Rolling barrels also come out from the bottom of the
screen, an attack you should be pretty familiar with by
now. Since the barrels come out so close, don’t worry
about trying to destroy them, just time your jumps
carefully.
When the attacks combine together is when this boss
gets to be really tough.
________________________
Why do I keep dying???????
Most people get taken out because they don’t time their
jumps properly on the balloons or they get shot down by
the running soldiers. Even more people get taken out
when they have to deal with the balloons and soldiers
at the same time. The best advice that I can give is
to aggressively take out the balloons and the soldiers.
Keep jumping and shooting close to the boss’s head and
you should be able to take out some of the balloons.
The soldiers stand at the side of the screen for a
brief moment before running forward and firing. That’s
enough time to take out one of them. How messy and
hard to dodge this boss’s attacks are depend on luck,
but by aggressively taking out the balloons and
knocking off the soldiers, you can make some of your
own luck.
_______________________
========================================
_____________Stage 4 : Harbor___________________
========================================
Jump down to the first platform. Jump forward to
scroll the screen forward a bit and then immediately
jump back on to the platform and duck. You’ll see your
first enemy gunner and you’ll see a shot blaze past you
at impressive speed. Duck, face forward and take him
out. Jump onto the railing and proceed forward. You’ll
see a sniper up top. Move back on the rail a bit and
take him out. As you move from the platform to the
next railing you’ll see a sniper and an item carrier.
The item carrier has the flame, but you’ll have to
shoot upward immediately to get it. Take out the
second sniper and continue forward. Now you can
grapple to the top part of the screen. If you choose
the top, you’ll have to jump forward through a large
gap in the railing and you’ll need to take out a
grenadier on the upper level. You’ll find an item
carrier with the homing weapon. You’ll see a sniper as
you move further.
The bottom level has an item carrier with a smart bomb
and you’ll encounter an enemy diver raining down
destruction. Getting past the shots is dangerous so
it’s best to get in a bit close and take him out from
an angle as he reaches out. As you move forward a bit
further you’ll meet another enemy diver.
The paths meet up at a platform. If you’re coming from
the bottom level, hurry and shoot diagonally downward
and you can tag the enemy diver before he gets a shot
off. Otherwise you’ll want to jump at the edge of the
left side of the platform and get him next time he pops
out. You’ve got two levels of rail to grapple on to.
I recommend the lower level. As you move forward
you’ll see an enemy gunner shooting forward. Take him
out from below. If you want to climb up to the upper
level, it is now safe to do so. The upper level has an
item carrier with a laser. You’ll encounter a sniper
as you move forward. The lower level has no items and
there’s a sniper waiting as you get off the rail. The
paths converge as the platform below slopes upward.
There are two grenadiers up on platforms, but you can
just run past them. As the slope ends, move forward
until you see an enemy gunner. Duck and immediately
take him out. The next item carrier has a crush gun.
I strongly recommend you get it, unless you have
another upgraded weapon already.
----------------------------
Mid Boss: Enemy Submarine
----------------
You have no excuse not to have a powerful gun here so
I’m going to write this assuming do. Drop down to the
railing on the right. Move to the right side of it.
Take out the three little cannons on the submarine
beneath you. Make sure you are on the right side of
the lower railing that’s on the right. Once the little
cannons are gone, face to your left and rapidly tap the
Y button. A turret should pop out and it will quickly
be destroyed. Once that’s gone, take out the laser
cannons below. The crush gun makes quick work of them.
Your last obstacle is the rapid fire cannon. The
cannon fires aimlessly from left to right. The
submarine will pull a little closer to you. As the
cannon turns to the left, you can move to the left side
of the railing and fire a few shots and then retreat to
the right side of the railing before you get hit. As
the cannon moves back to the left, repeat the process.
That submarine is as good as sunk.
Grapple back up to the top ledge and continue to your
right. You will have the option of taking a higher or
lower path. To reach the high path, you have to run
forward and jump at the very last moment to reach the
upper platform. The high path has item carriers with a
machine gun and laser gun. The lower path has item
carriers with a barrier and flame gun. Whichever path
you choose, the enemies will be the same. This will be
your encounter with proboterrors. These mechanical
abominations can’t be destroyed in hard mode. They
begin in the running form. Two shots collapse them.
They revive into either the galloping or crawling form.
The crawling form is slow, but it fires a three
directional shot that’s impossible to dodge at close
range. Shoot the ones that come behind you and run
away before they reassemble. The preferred way to deal
with oncoming proboterrors is to jump over them and
shoot downward as you sail over them. With a strong
enough gun, they’ll collapse and you can walk past
them. If you don’t have a strong gun, you can jump
over them, but watch out because these things do turn
backwards and fire shots at you sometimes. Be ready to
grapple in midair to suspend you in the air and avoid
their shots. You can just shoot to collapse these
things and run past them. They reassemble fast, and so
you must in be close to get past them before they
reassemble. Another challenge is that if one
reassembles into the galloping form, it moves very fast
and it can easily run you down if you’re not careful.
The barrier helps if you take the lower level.
>>>>Continue Point<<<<
You will continue from the missile launch site if you
reach it.
What’s going to happen during this next sequence is
that birdmen will be dropping in on you from the top
screen. They only take one shot to kill. They tend to
run around a bit before dropping down on you. Although
these creatures stop to shoot every once in a while,
the biggest danger is when the creatures try to come
down on you.
When the launch tower pulls up stand in the center of
the screen and start shooting up. Climb up the two
platforms and watch out for the birdman that drops down
on the right side. Continue upward by climbing the
platform on the middle of the screen. Jump up once.
An item carrier will begin to come down with the spread
gun. Shoot it when it hovers down to your level. The
spread gun can be very helpful throughout the rest of
this stage. Climb the left ladder up and continue up
to the right ladder, taking out the birdmen as you go.
Continue your ascent up, taking out the birdmen.
You’ll come upon an item carrier with the machine gun.
Keep climbing up and you’ll be able to grapple onto the
missile. Jump from the horizontal bars and climb up
the vertical bar
----------------------------
Mid Boss: Missile Hugger 3000
----------------
80 Shots / 8,000 Points
The missile hugger has two attacks. It will take a
swipe at you and it has missiles. If you don’t shoot
this boss(why would you do that?), it will move away
from you and fire missiles. If you shoot at it, the
missile hugger will be “angered”, rush over to where
you are and take a swipe at you. You probably won’t be
seeing much of the missiles. To dodge the swipe, you
must jump off of the bar and to your right. About the
jump; you jump to the right, but don’t immediately go
back on to the bar, you’ll still get hit. Wait until
after you reach the height of your jump before pressing
left to go back onto the bar. In other words, start to
fall for a bit before you get back onto the bar. You
can also dodge this attack by sliding downwards on the
rail. Make sure you don’t go down too far because
you’ll die if you touch the bottom of the screen.
You’re going to be going down a bit on the bar after
each attack no matter how you figure.
What do you do if you’re coming close to the bottom of
the screen? After you dodge a swipe this boss won’t
come after you as long as you don’t shoot at it(it will
get ready to fire missiles). You can use this time to
climb up higher along the rail. You’ll want to shoot
at the boss before it fires missiles. Speaking of the
which, if you do have to deal with missiles, our
robotic friend shoots two at a time. The missiles come
at you from a weird angle. Slide down on the bar if
you can, otherwise good timing will help you a lot
here.
---------
The dreaded missile climb
---------
I realize that a lot of people have a very hard time
with this section and I thought about a variety of ways
to do it. I thought about making a diagram, but I
think that a written description would be best. I’m
assuming you don’t have any weapons. If you do, great.
It’s that much easier.
After you beat the missile hugger, grapple to the rail
on the left. Jump and climb up the vertical rails.
Climb straight up or grapple to the last horizantal
rail and then jump up to the handles on the next
section of the missile. Jump up a handle.
Jump up to the handle just above and to the right.
The screen rotates a bit. Jump to the handle that
should now be just above you. Shoot down to take out
an oncoming missile. Shoot down rapidly to take out
two missiles heading your way. Jump up to the next
handle that will be on your right. Jump over again to
the handle on your right.
At the front, shoot diagonally downward to take out a
missile. The screen will rotate around. Start
shooting upwards and hold it. As soon as you hear the
metallic noise of the handles shifting, jump to the
left and hold left. It will be a long jump, but you
will be able to grab the distant handle. Immediately
shoot up. Jump to the next handle on your left. Jump
again to the handle on your left. Shoot upward to take
out any missiles in your way and then jump up to the
next handle. Shoot upward rapidly t take out any
missiles. Jump up to the next handle. Keep jumping
until you get to the handle in the center that overlaps
with the grey part of the thrusters. Shoot upward
rapidly to take out the two missiles there. Jump up to
the thrusters and move to the right.
There is some slight variation on when the missiles
come at you, depending on where you are standing. Make
any adjustments to my strategy that you need to.
_______________________
Why do I keep dying???
Because my guide for this section isn’t that great...No
seriously it can be a little tricky jumping from handle
to handle. Sometimes when the screen is moving, you
tend to overcompensate by pushing left or right too
much on your jump and you end up moving too far and
plummet to your doom. As long as you have some overlap
with a handle during your jump, you’ll grab it when it
opens up, even if the screen is rotating a lot. Many
players have trouble shooting down missiles with their
standard weapon. You have to anticipate where it’s
going to be when it gets close to you and shoot rapidly
so that it doesn’t hit you between shots. If a missile
is coming at you at a tough angle, you can also jump
straight up and shoot down. This works great for some
of the tougher missiles.
-------
The Thrusters
-------
Below is the pattern of where the flames come up from
the missiles thrusters. X represents where a flame
comes out and a _ represents a place where it is safe
to stand. You can tell that fire is going to come out
from a particular section when you see a small round
ball of heat coming up from it.
x _ x
_ _ X
_ X _
X _ X
_ X _
X _ _
_ X _
_ _ X
_ X X
X _ X
X X _
X _ X
Following this, stay where you are and the missile will
crash into a city street. I’m not quite sure how it
was disarmed or redirected, but this next boss fight
will take your mind off things.
####################################
Boss: Mechanized Fists of Fury
Defeating this boss is a matter of good timing, paying
attention, and having a kind of sixth sense about its
attacks.
There are only two attacks, one is the fist of fury and
the other attack is the missiles. There is no set time
for when this boss uses its fists. Sometimes it pounds
very frequently, sometimes it doesn’t. If you watch
the top screen, you can tell when it’s about to strike
with the fists. You’ll want to be moving as soon as,
if not before this boss raises its arm to strike. As
long as you are continuously moving in a particular
direction, you cannot be hit by the fists. You can get
taken out if you run into the corner and have to change
directions. This is where it is especially easy to get
trapped. Aim at the arms when they are brought down.
Once both arms are brought down, the head becomes
vulnerable. Missiles will start coming down on you
frequently, alternating from the left and right sides.
If the boss moves to the corners of the screen, you may
not be able to see oncoming missiles until it’s too
late. Always assume there is a missile coming at you
if you can’t see in that direction and shoot
accordingly. you might find it safer to stay in the
middle of the screen.
If you have unlocked the challenge, “Rematch 3” it is
excellent practice for this fight and almost identical
to the difficulty of this fight in hard mode.
========================================
_____________Stage 5 : Ocean___________________
========================================
>>>>Continue Point<<<<
This stage does not have any continue points. It’s
rather punishing that way.
I think it best to break this stage up into parts. I
should mention that this stage, more than any other
stage in the game, makes you suffer if you don’t have
any weapons. This has got to be the most difficult
stage to complete with your standard gun. The longer
that you can hold on to your weapons, the better change
you have of completing this stage. If you use the
konami code, this would be the stage to do it.
---
Part One: Filet O’ Death (The fish)
---
Fish will begin swimming forward in groups of two,
three, and four. An item carrier will come by with the
crush gun. Grab it. A second item carrier will come
along with the machine gun. Grab that also.
---
Part Two: Twin Alien Eels
---
These creatures are composed of thirteen segments and
all thirteen (the head and tail count) must be
destroyed before the creature dies out. The good news
is that if you touch the skeletal remains of a part of
the eel you’ve destroyed already, you will not be
harmed. The bad news is that you will be killed if you
touch a segment of the eel you haven’t destroyed.
A lot of people have a hard time with this section, and
with good reason. As far as I can tell, there is no
specific pattern to their attacks. How do you dodge
them then? You have to know how they move. The eels
move in a curved path and the body follows the head.
They don’t change their direction very quickly, but
they can come on the screen from very weird angles and
very suddenly to trap you. You have a small amount of
time to get in to the position that you need to be to
dodge a particular attack the moment you see one come
on the screen.
You’ll want to take out these creatures as soon as
possible. The crush gun is the best gun to take these
out, but if you just picked it up, you can only use it
when they get close. You will be pleasantly surprised
with the results. The laser is good because it can hit
both eels when they travel in tandem. The machine gun
is also good. If you’ve only got the rapid gun, my
condolences. No, seriously it is possible, it’s just
hard and dangerous. The eels will try to kill you off.
If you lose your weapons here, you’re probably going to
die during the next part, unless you know their
patterns. It’s just cruel. One more thing, shoot
FAST.
There is a pattern to their attacks. I haven’t cracked
it yet. The only problem is that even when I do, it
will be tough to describe verbally, and even tougher to
do little pictures of their movements (they each have
three or more attacks). I suppose it’s something that
can go in the next version of this FAQ.
---
Part Three: Jetpack Robot Battle
---
Jetpack soldiers come out, four at a time. They each
fire homing missiles at you. Taking out the missiles
is your first priority. The missiles are the same
color as the bodies of the jetpack soldier so keep that
in mind. The missiles can come at you from difficult
angles. You should move your character’s position if
you can’t hit a missile from a straight or diagonal
position. Depending on how many of the soldiers are on
screen at once, you may have to destroy several
missiles.
After several seconds, an item carrier with a smart
bomb will float by along the top of the screen. It’s a
little tough to hit, but if you can manage to collect
it, all jetpack soldiers will be destroyed and the
sequence will end.
---
Part Four: Robot Commander
---
If you don’t have any guns, grab the homing gun
(shudder) that comes up. This sequence ends when the
robot commander is defeated. The robot commander
itself is completely harmless. The jetpack soldiers
are your greatest threat. What you DON’T want to
happen is for multiple jetpack soldiers to come at you
firing missiles. What also makes these jetpack
soldiers dangerous is that they often fly low. They
swoop down and hover right over your character’s body
and fire missiles at point blank.
With the homing gun, shoot at the jetpack soldiers.
Shoot fast. The homing shots should take out a jetpack
soldier and any missiles that it fires as well as do
some damage to the commander. You just repeat this
process until the robot commander is destroyed. You
should target the jetpack soldiers that come out first
and then shoot the commander before new soldiers
replace them.
If you have the crush gun, you can simply concentrate
all fire on the commander. You can easily inflict 70
shots on the commander before the jetpack soldier can
hit you with anything. The same goes for the other
heavy upgraded weapons.
If you don’t have any weapons and you refuse to get the
homing gun, what you do is you move to the right.
Notice the panel on the right. Stand below it and
shoot up very rapidly when the jetpack soldier comes
out. If you can take it out as it moves up, great. If
not, move to the left and shoot up as it comes your
way. Move back to the right, shooting the commander as
you go and prepare for the next soldier to come out.
####################################
Boss: Colossal Fish Mutant
Boss 7s* 14,600 pts
Jettisoned spike 1s
*This boss takes damage only when it proceeds from one
screen to the other. It receives 1 shot of damage to
its eye, no matter which weapon it is hit with. The
boss has slits in its body to jettison spikes. After
taking damage, one slit is destroyed and it is one less
set of spikes launched after each pass. Once all the
slits are gone, the boss is destroyed
Okay so most people will pick up the heaviest weapons
that they can find and shoot downward like maniacs
during this fight. That’s fine, it usually works if
you’ve got heavy weapons. Still, a lot of people find
that stuff gets through their barrage of bullets and
they lose their precious weapon. Why? The filet o’
death (the fish) swimming along the bottom of the
screen jump up and kill most players. The spikes only
take one shot to destroy. The fish take two each and
they jump up along the middle of the screen in pairs.
________________________
Why do I keep dying???????
A lot of people die because when the fish mutant
switches sides, they get in to a panic about getting to
the other side and end up getting hit or shot at by the
fish that jump from the middle. A lot of people die
because they don’t look at the bottom screen carefully
to see which direction the spikes are coming out from,
and they shoot downward maniacally, hoping not to get
hit.
Immediately after the eye beam laser moves away, move
in the direction that the fish mutant is facing. When
you get past the center of the screen shoot down and
hit the eye. Notice where the spikes are pointing when
you shoot the eye. You may even want to pause your
game and observe. Once the eye takes a hit, these are
the directions that the spikes are going in and so
these are the areas you are to shoot. Once the spikes
are gone for a particular attack, shoot down as many of
the fish as you can. They’ll be on the middle of the
screen. The more of them you take out, the easier they
will be to dodge.
========================================
_____________Stage 6 : Robot Factory____________
========================================
>>>>Continue Point<<<<
“Base” stages have no continue points
Room One:
Target Core: One core in the center with a covering
over it that takes ten shots to destroy
Enemies: This is easy. There are two running robot
soldiers coming in from opposite sides. One soldier
will run across with his weapon raised. This is the
one to take out to get a new weapon. Additionally one
grenadier will come out.
Weapons: This room randomly drops either the crush gun
or the machine gun. I have never seen it drop both. I
do not know if there is any way to get a particular
gun.
How to survive: Shoot the target in the center. Dodge
or duck enemy fire as you need to.
Room Two: I call this the turret room. This room has
six turrets.
Target Cores: The target cores appear after two sets
of turrets are destroyed. One will be on the upper
left and the other will be on the lower right.
Enemies: The first set of turrets will be mid level
left and right. The second set will be on the upper
level.
How to survive: Remember that you can duck under all
the shots in this room. The turrets don’t fire for a
second or two in when you enter. When the first set is
destroyed one turret will fire immediately when it
appears so you might want to duck when the first set of
turrets are destroyed. Dodge or duck and jump up to
destroy the second set of turrets. The third set don’t
fire on you immediately. I recommend taking out the
turrets in this room before going after the cores. The
red core on the upper left can be a real pain to hit.
You’re much safer doing so without having to deal with
getting shot at.
Room Three:
Target Cores: Three shielded target cores. One high
up in the center, one on the lower left, one on the
lower right.
Weapons: Spread, and Flame
Enemies: Ingrid Birdmen come down. They each take two
shots to defeat. What makes it a little more difficult
is that they stay on the screen until they are
defeated. They come in succession until four are on
the screen.
How to survive: Like in the previous room, you can
duck under all enemy fire. There are two things to be
careful of. The first is that you have a safe place to
land when you jump up and take out the target core in
the center. All of the birdmen come out from the
center and do not start shooting until they land. the
center core should be your first target. If you shoot
fast enough, you can take them out before they land.
The second thing is to watch out that you don’t get hit
while you’re moving around to get the targets on the
side. Inevitably, when you move left or= right, some
birdmen will come down and start shooting at you. You
are completely safe when you duck. If you have a
stream of fire coming at you, hold down on the D-pad.
With good timing, you can jump safely in between their
shots and move to the left or right and dodge their
shots. Shoot as you go and take out any other problems
and duck down and destroy the center core.
***By the way, if you want to kill your enemies to
increase your score, and/or earn extra lives, this is
probably the best spot in the game to do it. With the
spread gun in hand, you can kneel down and wipe out
legions of birdman while being out of harm’s way.
Taking out a group of four is 800 points. You don’t
even have to do that twenty times to get an extra life!
Room Four:
Target Core: The target core is attached to a spinning
apparatus. It moves around and it can be a little
tough to hit.
Enemies: Three motion sensor detectors will come up
from the ground. Just make sure that you’ve got some
space to run and that you’re running when you hear the
beep and you won’t get hit. You can also jump over the
shots that come out. You might just try and destroy
the spinning core without worrying about the motion
sensors.
Room Five:
Target Cores: There are three target cores in this
room that are mounted on top of a spiked panel that
moves forward to try and impale you.
Room Six:
After I spent nearly twenty minutes puzzling over how
to beat this awfully difficult room, I realized
something. YOU CAN DUCK TO AVOID THE DEATH PRESS.
Enemies: Death Press, Two Grenadiers, and Two Running
Soldiers
How to survive the Death Press. The Death Press has
three positions
====>>>NOTICE
________________________
Why do I keep dying???????
####################################
Boss: Mechanized Skeleton
4,000 Points
First Part / 100 Shots
Your “old friend” is the boss from the factory stage of
Contra III. Compared to the last base stage boss, this
is a piece of cake. This thing has just one attack.
It shoots fire from left to right, right to left, and
left to right. You jump over the first two streams and
duck the third. The head is the vulnerable part.
Repeat until victory is achieved. Any questions?
Second Part / Approximately 100 Shots
In order to finish the job and sever the head of your
“old friend” (you have to finish him the same way as
last time, you must do 100 shots worth of combined
damage to both cores in about seven seconds before your
old friend pulls the walls apart and cancels your
efforts. If you fail, the boss will use the same
attacks as the first part of the fight. Now, you’re
probably saying, “But I shot as fast as I could and I
couldn’t finish this guy off.” Well I got some news
for you. The following guns CANNOT close the walls
fast enough to finish this boss.
Homing
Upgraded Homing
Flame
Upgraded Flame (Where’s your most powerful gun title
now?)
Which means if you have any of the following guns, you
should be able to man up and get the job done.
Machine gun
Rapid Gun (Pea Shooter)
Upgraded Machine Gun
Spread Gun
Upgraded Spread Gun
Laser
Upgraded Laser
Crush Gun (You don’t want to know what I went through
to pull this off)
Upgraded Crush Gun
And suppose you don’t have any weapons? Actually, you
CAN close those walls with the Rapid gun. That
peashooter you call it can close the walls just fine.
If you’re having trouble, it just means that you’re not
shooting fast enough.
========================================
_____________Stage 7 : City_____________
========================================
This is definitely one of the more difficult levels.
Head up the slope. The first item carrier you see will
have a flame gun. Move forward and duck. Take out the
machine gunner. The next item carrier, floating way up
ahead will have a machine gun. You have to act quick
to collect it. As you move forward, you’ll encounter a
man-faced mutt. It stays in the background,
invulnerable until you move past it. It then lunges
after you. I’m sure most of you readers have unlocked
challenge mode and you’ve encountered these mutts
before. Well things are a little bit different on hard
mode.
Blue and red soldiers come in along the streets. Blue
soldiers attempt to run over you. Red soldiers stay
long the side of the screen and fire at you. While
making sure not get hit by soldiers, take out the
robotic sniper up top.
Notice the unbroken windows along the buildings. There
you will find a robotic soldier who breaks out of the
glass and runs at you. Run past the window, turn back
and quickly take this bot out.
The
As you move ahead, you will have the option of
grappling onto the ceiling or taking a lower road. The
higher path is much safer in the city.
HIGH ROAD
Along the high road, you’ll encounter another robot
grenadier. As you jump to the next skyscraper you’ll
meet up with another gunner. Duck down and take him
out. Move ahead and there’s a second gunner. you know
what to do. As you move ahead further there is a
robotic sniper. This one does not shoot as fast as the
other sniper, it takes four shots to bring down. Grab
on to the rail and move along.
As you move forward, you’ll encounter a dark sniper.
He has a pretty hard time hitting you from this
distance so you should be fine. There’s an item
carrier coming up that has the homing gun, if you want
it. When you get to the end of the rail, you’ll meet a
robotic grenadier. Jump and take him out. You can
drop down to the bottom level here, but it’s a bit
risky. Stay on the top where you’ll meet a bunch of
cocoons and two more robotic grenadiers. They are not
very difficult to take out. Watch out for the meat
puppets underneath you. They’re sure to explode. Jump
down and prepare to confront the mid boss.
LOW ROAD
This is definitely the more dangerous path. The “bait”
for taking this path is a spread gun that you’ll have
the chance to get shortly. You’ll be getting soldiers
coming at you from both sides. I don’t recommend this
path if you don’t have any special weapons. Move
forward and take out the second mutt. Jump over the
pit in the floor, and start shooting immediately. Move
forward and duck to take out the second gunner. It’s
important that you take him out fast. Blue soldiers
will try and walk over you and you may have to move to
dodge them and that’s how you get taken out by the
gunner. As you move forward a bit more, you’ll need to
jump up to another platform placed above a car fire.
Jump up and take out the robotic sniper that’s above
you. Move forward, taking out the cocoons and then you
can simply duck and take out the dark sniper. As you
move forward back down to the street, there will be two
things to worry about. Your first concern will be the
series of meat puppets on the ground level where you
are at. Your next concern will be the grenade dropping
robots on top. You’ve got to take out the meat puppets
before they explode. The grenades aren’t that tough to
dodge as long as you pay attention.
The two roads will meet up. You’ll notice a dark
sniper on a rooftop high above. He’s not much of a
threat, but if you’d like to take him out, you’ll need
to move to the far left side of the screen, jump up,
and shoot at him diagonally, unless you’ve got some
other weapons. Taking him out during the mid boss
fight isn’t a good idea. By the way, just before the
mid boss, an item carrier will come by with the laser.
The laser is a great weapon for taking out the Urban
Warfare Tank, even when it isn’t upgraded. I’d
recommend it if you don’t have anything else.
----------------------------
Mid Boss: Urban Warfare Tank
----------------------------
This is definitely one of the easier mid bosses. Don’t
get careless though. You have only three attacks to
worry about. Watch the long barrel of the tank’s
artillery gun and you’ll know what attack to expect.
The tank will fire either a blast of fire or a rolling
grenade. The fire can be avoided by simply ducking
down. It is possible to jump over the fire, but this
doesn’t accomplish anything special and it’s harder to
do. The grenade drops down instantly after it’s fired
and it rolls forward quickly. For the last attack, the
tank rolls forward and attempts to ram into you with
its artillery gun.
You should move to the far left of the screen once the
fight starts. Fire away. The tank can’t be hit from a
ducking position so you’ll want to get off as many
shots as possible, but don’t get carried away. As soon
as you hear the gun fire, get ready to move. (unless
you’ve got spread or homing).
-----------
As you move ahead, you’ll need to be very careful. As
you come to the next building, running soldiers (the
kind you met at the first level) will start to come at
you. You’ve also got a bunch of meat puppets on the
roof above. It’s almost impossible to take these
things out before they explode, so it’s best to proceed
with caution. There’s a robotic soldier waiting for
you behind the glass of an unbroken window. You’ll
also notice a man-faced mutt a little further ahead.
Do not move forward until all the meat puppets have
exploded.
This next spot is one of the tougher spots in the game.
The spot where the man-faced mutt will start to lunge
at you is at about the same spot where a robotic
grenadier will be hurling bombs at you from a nearby
building. The best strategy that I can give you is to
jump over the mutt and shoot down to take him out and
then immediately grapple onto the LEFT MOST side of the
railing above you. If you can do this quickly enough,
you should avoid getting taken out by an oncoming
grenade.
By the way, as you move forward just a hair an item
carrier will come along with the crush gun. It’s
definitely one of the most precarious places to put an
item, but that’s how it goes. If you can grapple the
left side of the rail and take out the grenadier, then
you’re pretty well safe to drop down and collect it.
The last surprise for you is that there is an enemy
gunner awaiting you on the rooftop. Duck and take him
out, along with any cocoons you run into. Drop down
and fight the mid boss.
>>>>Continue Point<<<<
Defeat the mecha spider in order to continue from the
street that is just beyond the building you fought it
at.
----------------------------
Mid Boss: Mechanical Spider
-------------
The spider can be pretty annoying. This spider can
take a lot of punishment, and so you’ll need to get
pretty good at dodging its attacks, even if you are
well armed. The spider’s primary form of attack is to
fire a series of shots at you. The shots move fast,
but the spider is far enough away from you as to give
you enough time to dodge. The thing about these shots
is that they are designed to trap you. A row of shots
can be fired straight down at you that force you to get
close to the corners of the screen. On both corners of
the screen, there is a little pit. You can get so
desperate to avoid the shots that you accidentally run
into it. You can jump onto and climb both walls on the
side of the screen. Occasionally, the spider will
shoot trails of flame that go down the walls. You may
have to jump in between a trail of shots and fire.
The other attack that the spider has is its laser
beams. The laser beams sweep to one side and then go
up. To dodge it, you’re going to have to run away and
climb up to the top edge of one of the walls. Usually
there will be trails of fire going down the walls
around when you’re going to have to climb. Get to the
edge of the platform and jump only when you’re sure you
can make it over the fire and then climb up quickly.
It may look like you’re going to get taken out by the
lasers, but you won’t. Once you climb to the top of
the wall immediately drop back down. One more thing.
If you end up having to climb the left wall to avoid
the lasers, you’ll probably end up on the raised
platform when you drop down. Get off it. Being up
high gives you very little time to react to the shots.
Keep on the move and keep shooting up and eventually
this annoying thing will be brought down.
----
Climb up the wall on your right and work your way to
the right. Jump off the rooftop (it’s a rather
climactic jump, isn’t it?) and continue to the right.
You’ll see another man-faced mutt. Notice the slope in
the road. You’re going to need to time your jump very
carefully. I usually jump up and shoot down. If you
don’t have any special weapons, you may want to jump
and move to the left and just let the mutt run past
you. Around this time, blue and red robots will be
coming along. Watch out for the shots fired by the red
robots. Continue to the right and you’ll see an item
carrier with the flame gun. I recommend that you get
it if you don’t have anything else. Grapple onto the
rail you see and prepare for some rough going.
I call them alien mosquitos, they’ll start coming at
you. They will latch onto you and attempt to carry you
to the top of the screen. If you touch the top of the
top screen, you die. These things take four shots each
to kill. Be very careful about jumping from the top
railing. Your jump can be “intercepted” and you can be
taken out almost instantly.
Two very tricky parts await you. The first is that
you’re going to drop down to a railing where a dark
sniper awaits you and cocoons hang from the railing
while mosquitos try and stop you. I recommend shooting
down diagonally as you move forward toward this part to
try and take out the cocoons on the rail. Taking out
the dark sniper is probably more trouble than it’s
worth. The mosquitos can hold you and make you an easy
target for the sniper. Take them out quickly if you
get picked up and move away. I can’t say a whole lot
more about this, but I recommend that you hurry through
this section, pausing only to dodge the sniper fire.
Move after the sniper fires a shot. Success depends on
your ability to anticipate the sniper’s shots and move
fast enough to dodge the mosquitos in between. Some
luck couldn’t hurt either. As you move forward get
ready to take out another cocoon crawling on the rail
above and hurry and jump up to take out a robotic
sniper. These are the two trickiest sections in the
city.
As you move forward to the last railing, you’ll see
several cocoons. Take out a few and drop down to the
ground below. You’ll see an item carrier come from the
left. It has a smart bomb. Scroll the screen to the
right as much as you can before grabbing it. This
should take out the enemy gunner on the street above
you. You have two choices of paths here. Again, I
recommend the high path.
High Path
The high path has a barrier and also the spread gun.
You can also grab the barrier and drop down to collect
the crush gun that’s on the lower path. Anyway, as you
move forward, you’ll encounter an enemy gunner. You
know what to do. Continue along and take out a robotic
grenadier. Jump over the little break in the highway.
An item carrier will come by with a barrier. If you
want the crush gun, drop down to the lower level now.
Otherwise continue along. You’re safe with the barrier
until you have to drop down. Pick up the spread gun
along the way, if you want it. Be careful of the
robots as you drop down.
Low Path
This is a little tough. The red and blue robots return
again. The red robots are particularly nasty. You
can’t see them or their shots while they are behind the
freeway pillars. You also have an enemy gunner to deal
with. Be careful and watch the sides of the screens
very carefully. I strongly recommend that you grab the
crush gun from the item carrier. It does an excellent
job against the boss here and it wreaks on the next
level, that is, of course, if you can hang on to it.
Continue forward carefully until you get to the boss.
####################################
Boss: Crustacean Cruiser
Crustacean Cruiser Sac 32s 400 pts
Blue Robotic Gunner 12s 400 pts
Red Robotic Grenadier 13s 400 pts
Crustacean Cruiser Head 108s 10,000 pts
Taking this boss out is a lot easier than the trip
getting to him. As the boss rises from the ground,
quickly start shooting downward. You need to take out
at least one of those large blobs of flesh before you
can drop down and destroy the boss’s head. The boss
itself is almost completely harmless, your concern is
going to be the robotic riders on the bottom screen.
Their shots move very quickly in hard mode.
Surprisingly, the safest place to be is in the middle
of the screen. Because of the way the blue riders
pause in between their shots, they rarely get a shot up
the center screen. It takes twelve shots to take down
one rider. Once you’ve torn out the fleshy cocoon, you
can drop down and pirate their vehicle.
Once you ride one of the vehicles, a different group of
riders will come after you. The red riders throw
grenades. One tends to throw a grenade up high will
the other throws across. They pause for a bit after
throwing each grenade. I would take out at least one
of them. Make sure you are not directly above these
guys or you will be taken out instantly when they throw
their grenades. By the way, while you are riding, the
head of this boss does not harm you if you touch it.
That gives you a bit more room to dodge if you need it.
Keep up your fire on the head and you should soon be
victorious.
========================================
________Stage 8 : Alien Hive____________
========================================
Room One
Target Core: One mid level in the center. It opens
after six seconds.
Enemies: There are two turrets. One to the left and
one to the right of the core.
How to survive. You can simply duck under the enemy
fire and shoot the core when it is exposed.
Room Two
Target Cores: There are three target cores on the
upper level, on the left, middle, and right,
respectively.
Enemies: This is your first encounter with the yellow
eyed motion sensing turrets. They beep after a few
seconds and immediately fire on the location that your
character was in during the beep. There are four of
them.
How to survive: The yellow turrets fire a shot at
wherever you are standing when they make the beeping
noise. Until the shot passes by, consider the place
you were once standing a dead zone. You basically run
from left to right and right to left. When you get to
a corner, jump and change directions in midair. Shoot
at the targets in the air when they open up as you go.
You don’t have to be constantly running, just run when
you hear the beeps. You can jump over the shots too,
but make sure to stay on the move as jumps alone won’t
save you when there are multiple turrets. You can try
and destroy the turrets if you want. You can get about
two shots in from the time the motion turret pops up
until the time you have to move.
Room Three
Target Cores: Two targets, one on the lower left and
one on the lower right. They open after six seconds.
Enemies: Alien scythe mutants move across the
background. Their attack is that they jump forward at
you.
Weapons: Flame Gun, Spread Gun
How to survive: This is a much easier room. I also
believe that the scythe mutants can’t hit you if you
duck. Take them out as they come and duck down and
take out the cores as they open
Room Four
Target Cores: Two Cores, side by side, mid-level in the
center of the screen.
Enemies: Alien
How to survive: I used to die a lot in this room.
Watch as the aliens crawl from the background to the
ceiling and drop down. When the aliens crawl on to the
ceiling, you can see where they are about to drop down
by the movement of their tails. The aliens drop down
extremely fast and you would do well to jump the moment
that you see them come down close to you. Unless
you’ve got the homing gun or the crush gun, there is
nothing that you can do to stop the wave of aliens
crawling out in the background. When you first enter
the room, move into one of the corners. The aliens
cannot drop down from the far corners of this room.
When you first enter the room, there are too many
aliens, I think, to safely dodge in the center. Head
for the corner. As soon as you see an alien drop down
close to you, jump. Now not every alien that drops
down will be moving in your direction, but it’s safer
to assume that they will be by jumping.
What about those targets? The targets take only two
shots of damage before closing. If you shoot in their
general area, they will close automatically and will
not open until you stop shooting. Don’t fire on these
targets until you are in range to hit them and don’t
fire until they open. Unless you’ve got the spread
gun, this means that you’re going to have to move to
the middle of the screen.
Room Five
Target Cores: Three at mid level, on the left, center,
and right, respectively. Each is covered and will open
every four seconds and close every four seconds.
Enemies: Two mouth turrets, one on the upper left and
one on the upper right. After several seconds, motion
sensing turrets will also appear.
How to survive
Taking out any of the turrets in this room is pretty
risky, so you’re just going to have to run and gun.
Just run back and forth. Jump on the edges and change
direction if you get cornered. Shoot the turrets as
they open. You don’t have to run non-stop, but try and
keep on the move.
Room Six
==Target Core: One in the center, mid level. It is
covered and opens briefly after six seconds.
==Enemies: There are two turrets up top on the left and
right, respectively. Alien scorpions come out from the
background in waves of three
==How to survive: If you can shoot fast enough, simply
duck and nothing in this room can harm you.
The spiders come out in waves of three and they move
forward fast. You’ll either need to shoot them or jump
over them.
Room Seven
Target Core: One large yellow core that opens every
six seconds.
Weapons: Either the Flame or Laser will appear, but
not both
Enemies: Alien scythe mutants that come from the sides
of the screen as well two that can drop down from the
ceiling.
How to survive: I don’t think that this room is much
harder than room four. You’re biggest worry would be
the aliens that drop down from the ceiling. Be a
little aggressive in taking out the aliens on the
ground. As long as you pay careful attention to
dodging the aliens that drop down from the ceiling,
this room should not pose any serious problems. Fire
on the core as it opens up.
>>>>Continue Point<<<<
“Base” stages have no continue points
####################################
Boss: Alien Heart
300 Shots / 4000 points
This is the easiest boss in the game for me. The heart
is huge, it takes up almost all of the background, and
it’s almost impossible to miss. The motion sensing
turrets pop up at very close range and fire shots at
you. This is the only attack you have to dodge. All
that you have to do is run back and forth from left to
right and right to left. As long as you are running,
the turrets cannot hit you. Just before you reach the
left or right corner of the screen simply jump and
change directions in the air. Shoot as you go. It’s
that simple. By the way, the turrets replace
themselves as you destroy them.
You will die if you aren’t on the move or if you try to
change directions without jumping. This should be
easy.
========================================
_________Stage 9 : Harvest Yard_________
========================================
Welcome to the last level. You’re treated to a rather
macabre sea of corpses that is steadily growing by the
second. It’s time for revenge. Let’s attack
aggressively.
The item carriers that are available to you are the
homing, spread, and flame. If you’re not carrying
anything else, I would highly recommend spread. You’ll
soon see a creature in a glass tube. Prepare to fight.
####################################
Boss: Black Viper (First Encounter)
180 Shots / 1000 points
Move to the right corner and grapple the ceiling. When
Black Viper smashes out of the holding cell and drops
down, move to the left a bit. You’ll want to be just
to the left of the center of the screen. Shoot down.
If you’re using the spread gun, you can get all three
shots to hit. This does major damage to Black Viper
before the fight even begins.
People have a really hard time with this fight. To sum
up what you need to do, you need to be as far away from
your alien arch nemesis as you can be at all times. If
he’s up, you’re down. If he’s on the left side, you
must be on the right. It is dangerous to be directly
above him. It is dangerous to be on the side of him,
whether you are on the ceiling or on the ground. You
can get in a few shots on him, sure, but don’t stay
around for too long. Most players die when they try to
get too many shots in and they wait too long in one
spot.
You shoot move to where you should be and you shoot
afterwards. You also can shoot while you are dropping
down. As you spend more time dodging attacks and
understanding the way Black Viper moves, you can cut it
a little closer with your timing, but be careful.
________________________
Why do I keep dying???????
Like I said, you have to be as far away from your arch
nemesis as you can be at all times. Most players die
because they aren’t defensive enough. You die when you
allow yourself to be directly underneath or above Black
Viper. There are some attacks that kill players more
frequently. Here are a few examples. Sometimes you
will be on the ceiling and Black Viper will be on the
ground. Viper will lunge forward and go off screen.
If you stay where you are on the ceiling, Viper will
come back on screen suddenly, jump up and take you out.
When you see Viper exit the screen, it’s your cue to
move to the opposite side of the ceiling. Another
situation is where players are on the ground and Viper
is on the ceiling. Viper will try to be moving to be
directly above you and you’ll need to be moving away.
When Viper drops down, you need to continue moving away
because it extends its abdomen out very far after it
lands. If you continue running after it drops down,
you won’t get hit. The third situation is when you’re
on the ground and Black Viper is, too. If you stay and
shoot for a moment too long, you’ll find that when you
grapple, Viper will jump up and as faster than you, and
run you down
_______________________
In another gruesome scene, Black Viper will inhale
hundreds of corpses and mutate into a gigantic
monstrosity. It will rise up. Fifty shots to the
orifice above you and you can grapple up into the
insides of your arch nemesis.
In this vertical section you can climb the walls and
you can climb the “vines” that you see. As you come
up, your first obstacle will be a blue scorpion pod.
Two scorpions come out. Take them out and then go
after the pod. Keep climbing up. It’s a bit of a
tight jump between the vine and the platform. Continue
up and you’ll see another pod on the left. You can get
underneath the platform that it’s on and take it out.
Move up and take out the pod on the right. Continue
up. You can grapple up to the ceiling ahead and take
the high road or you can take the low road. Unless
you’re feeling lucky, manly, and a little crazy, TAKE
THE HIGH ROAD. Some of you have probably played
challenges such as Mutt Hunt 5, which take place in the
Harvest Yard. Those challenges are good practice for
this level, however the aliens move A LOT faster in
this level and they jump a lot farther. To get an idea
of how things move, play the challenge Bad Guy Blitz 3.
The aliens there move at the same speed. This is much
harder though because there are more sections where
these creatures jump. Be afraid of their jumps.
HIGH ROAD
I would grapple up to the ceiling soon, because scythe
aliens can run across the platform on the top screen
and tag you as you grapple up. An item carrier will
come by that has a machine gun. I would not stop
firing as I went through this section as stuff is going
to be coming at you very fast. You’ll see a mouth up
top. Destroy it. As you move ahead to your right,
you’ll see some vines. Make sure that you don’t have
anything behind you when you jump onto a vine. The
scythe mutants jump very far when they reach an edge.
Before attempting this, I would seriously recommend
practicing your vine climbing on the challenge “Mutt
Hunt 5” if you have unlocked it. Climb on to the vine.
After you move across a couple vines, you will be out
of the reach of the yellow scythe mutants. You are not
completely safe, however. There are some blue scythe
mutants that will come down as you move from vine to
vine. Also do not fall. That is almost certain death.
Also, if you fall and you don’t have any good weapons
in reserve, you’re going to get eaten alive. Anyway,
make sure you don’t fall in the gap between the fourth
and fifth vines. Move a bit lower on the vine before
jumping to the right. You can’t go too low or you
won’t have enough height and if you go to high, your
jump won’t reach its full height because of the
ceiling. When you reach the eighth vine, shoot
straight down and take out the mouth below. When you
get to the ninth vine, a blue scythe alien will be
waiting for you. As soon as you grab item slide down
and take it out. As you move to the next couple vines,
a platform will be in view. Don’t move to the next
vine or the platform until the area is clear. If
anything appears, shoot to the left as you go. Once
you reach the platform, destroy the mouth that you see
on it. As you move to the right, you’ll see an item
carrier. It has the spread gun. I would grab it if
you don’t have anything else. Before you drop down
from the platform, take out the two mouths below you.
Now jump down and try and clear a path for yourself as
you go. Once you reach the bottom run forward and only
turn back to shoot an alien mutant. Run past the mouth
and jump onto the vine. Climb up and jump to the
platform on your left. You’ll see a scary number of
pods above you. You are completely safe on the bottom
platform. You can take out most of them from here by
moving around on the bottom platform. Jump up two
platforms and go to the higher platform on the right.
You can take out the remaining pods from here and
you’ll be pretty well safe.
>>>>Continue Point<<<<
You will continue from the last spot where you hang
from the ceiling
####################################
Boss: Black Viper (Final Battle)
Black Viper Core
255 Shots / 10,000 points
Tentacle Head
I imagine that many of you have played Challenge 40 so
many times that you may not need any help with this
fight, but I can’t assume. One thing you probably
didn’t know from playing challenge mode is the purpose
of the gigantic eyeballs that you see. Those eyeballs
are worth 10,000 points each. Destroying both
guarantees you an extra life. Taking the eyes out is a
good idea because you can hit the reaching heads that
come out more easily. The attacks of the final battle
fall in to two categories: the attacks of the two
extending heads and the attacks the brain uses after it
takes damage
About the Tentacle Heads:
33 shots / 100 points (for each head)
There are four different attack patterns that the
tentacle heads use. As you get experience, you’ll be
able to recognize which pattern of attack is being used
almost instantly. Until you know, the safest plan to
stand is in the center. Here are the attacks, there’s
nothing special about the order that they are listed,
which attack pattern the tentacle heads go in is
entirely random
The “X” Attack
==How to recognize this attack:
If you were to pause the game and see both tentacle
heads move towards the middle of the top screen as they
come down, you know it’s this attack. They meet and
then spread apart, forming a sort of X shape.
==Where is it safe to stand?
You may stand in the exact center of the screen.
You’re safer if you duck. However, I say it must be
the exact center. If you’re standing up and off center
even a little bit, you’ll get hit. If you duck, you
can be a bit further off center and be okay.
The lowercase “e” attack
okay so the tentacles themselves don’t make an e, but
you can picture it)
==How to recognize this attack:
If you were to pause the game and see both tentacle
heads going down at a bit of an angle going out, AND
you were to see the one on the left going down further
ahead than the one on the right, then you know it is
this attack
This is where the tentacle head on the left side drops
down to the bottom screen and moves to the right and
the tentacle that’s on the right stays on the top
screen and moves to the left.
==Where is it safe to stand?
The only safe place to stand is on the far right corner
of the screen
The “9” attack
(okay so the tentacles themselves don’t make a 9, but
you can picture it)
==How to recognize this attack:
If you were to pause the game and see both tentacle
heads going down at a bit of an angle going out, AND
you were to see the one on the RGHT going down further
ahead than the one on the LEFT, then you know it is
this attack
This is where the tentacle head on the left side drops
down to the bottom screen and moves to the right and
the tentacle that’s on the right stays on the top
screen and moves to the left.
==Where is it safe to stand?
The only safe place to stand is on the far right corner
of the screen
The “W” attack
--How to recognize this attack:
If you were to pause the game and see the mouth CLOSE
on the head that’s under Black Viper’s brain in the
middle of the top screen, and you were to see an object
underneath the mouth, you would know that it is this
attack. Also both heads come down at equal speed.
--How do I avoid this attack?
The only thing that you can do is grapple the platform
that flashes that’s in the very center of the screen.
The tentacle heads move very fast during this attack so
it’s important to move to the center of the screen and
grapple quickly, otherwise you will get hit. Also,
make sure that you’re in the center when you grapple.
Missing the grapple point could prove deadly.
When a head is destroyed...
Once you inflict 33 shots of damage to a tentacle head,
it is destroyed and a grapple point is exposed on the
top screen in the location where the head came from.
As soon as the tentacle head is destroyed, the grapple
point is exposed for six seconds. Once you grapple to
the top, you can fire on Black Viper’s Brain. When the
brain takes any damage, no matter how large or small,
it along with every other orifice you see on the top
screen will retreat and a decoy brain comes at you.
***The decoy brain attacks***
Decoy Brain 42 shots / 100 points
I say the decoy brain attacks because the when this
brain is destroyed, the real one returns and the fight
goes on.
The blue flame attack
How to recognize this attack
The brain will come down at the center of the screen
and you’ll see blue flames coming up
How to survive:
The brain shots attack
How to recognize this attack
The brain will come down at the center of the screen
and will start shooting out fleshy shots.
How to survive:
The brain will fire shots in eight directions, four at
a time.
The shots will alternate between four shots fired at
diagonals and four shots that are fired up, down, left,
and right.
In pictures, this... then this.... and repeat
\ / |
\ / |
__ ____
/ \ |
/ \ |
The brain will slowly move from left to right and go up
and down as it moves.
If you can manage to survive this, congratulations!
Contra 4 still has tremendous replay value. You can
attempt to conquer this game without dying, beat the
game with only the rapid gun (peashooter) or try and do
a speedrun.
==================
DAMAGE CHARTS & POINT CHARTS
==================
Stage One
Running Soldier 1s / 25 pts
Dirk McShooter (Sniper) 2s / 200 pts
Ground Sniper 11s / 400 pts
Wall Turret 11s 400 pts
Camouflaged Turret 11s / 400 pts
Grenadier 2s 200 pts
Rail Rider 50s / 10000 pts
Stage One Boss
Bomb Dropping Turret 25s 400 pts
Red Core 50s 5000 pts
Brain Core 50s 50 00 pts
Second Red Core 50s 5000 pts
Stage Two
Alien Hybrid 1s 25 pts
Meat Puppet 9s 400pts
Sniper 2s 200 pts
Grenadier 2s 200 pts
Enemy Diver 1s 100 pts
Boss Two
20 running soldiers
Blue Grenadiers 27s
Black Sniper 27s
First Part 150s 14,600 pts *
Second Part 75s 4000 pts
Stage Three
Red Core 8s 0 pts
Soldier 1s 25 pts
Turret 10s 400 pts
Rolling Barrel 10s 25 pts
Large Red Core 8s 0 pts
Boss 50s (Rapid Movement Begins at 26s) 4000 pts
Stage Four
Machine Gun Soldier 11s 400 pts
Grenadier 2s 200 pts
Sniper 2s 200 pts
Enemy Diver 1s
Stage Four Mid Boss One
Laser Beam Cannon 8s 100 pts
Heavy Turret (The one on the left) 32s 100 pts
Retractable Turret (The one on the right) 8s
Small Turrets 8s (Each)
Proboterror 2s (To collapse) 2s (Four Legged Form) 3s
(Crawling Form) 100 pts (You cannot destroy the proboterror
in hard mode)
Stage Four Mid Boss Two
Missile Hugger 3000 80s 8000 pts
Air Missiles 1s 100 pts
Stage Four Boss
Arms 60s (Each) 5000 pts
Missiles 1s 100 pts
Head 75s 5000 pts
Stage Five
Filet O’ Death 2s 200 pts
First Mid Boss
42s (The creature is composed of a head and 13 tail segments
which take 3s each) 200 pts
Jetpack Soldier 4s 200 pts
Marine Gunner 2s
Second Mid Boss
Dark Commander 70s
Boss 7s* 14,600 pts
Jettisoned spike 1s
*This boss takes damage only when it proceeds from one
screen to the other. It receives 1s damage to its eye, no
matter which weapon it is hit with. The boss has slits in
its body to jettison spikes. After taking damage, one slit
is destroyed and it is one less set of spikes launched.
Once all the slits are gone, the boss is destroyed
Stage Six
Robotic Soldier 2s 200 pts
Red Core Cover 10s / 0 pts
Red Core 8s / 0 pts
Wall Mounted Turret 10s 400 pts
Birdman Sentry 2s 200 pts
Ground Turret 10s 300 pts
Rotating Target 16s 0pts
Red Core embedded in spike apparatus 10s 25 pts
Stage Six Boss 4000 pts
First Part 100s
Second Part – (Hitting either target causes the walls to
close and impale the boss. You must do approximately 100s
of damage before the boss pulls the walls completely open)
Stage Seven
Turret Gunner 11s 400 pts
Man Faced Mutt 2s 200 pts
Blue Robotic Soldier 20 pts
Red Soldier Robotic Soldier 2s 200 pts
Blue Robotic Sniper 4s 400 pts
Alien Larva 1s 100 pts
Dark Sniper 27s 400 pts
Urban Warfare Tank 100s 5000 pts
Mecha Spider 200s 5000 pts
Running Soldier 1s 25 pts
Alien Mosquito 4s 200 pts
Stage Seven Boss
Crustacean Cruiser Sac 32s 400 pts
Blue Robotic Gunner 12s 400 pts
Red Robotic Grenadier 13s 400 pts
Crustacean Cruiser Head 108s 10,000 pts
Stage Eight
Alien Mouth Wall Turret 10s 400 pts
Motion Sensing Eye Turret 10s 300 pts
Yellow Eye Core 8s 0 pts
Blue Alien Infantry 1s 25 pts
Alien Spider 5s
Main Yellow Eye Core 16s
Stage Eight Boss
Motion Sensing Eye Turret 10s
Alien Heart 300s 4000 pts
Stage 9
Black Viper 180s/1000 pts
Barrier 50s/ 0 pts
Blue Pod 11s/400 pts
Crawling Scorpion 1s/ 25 pts
Mouth 15s/ 400 pts
Red Blob 1s / 25pts
Yellow Falcon Sentry 1s/ 20 pts
Blue Falcon Sentry 2s /200 pts
Falcon Viper 1s / 25 pts
Tentacle 33s /100 pts
Red Eye 30s 100 pts
Big Eye 35s / 10,000 pts
Decoy Brain 42s (For both Attacking styles) / 100 pts (Both
Styles)
Bouncing Brain 4s 100 pts
Black Viper Brain 255s / 10,000 pts (I’m quite proud of
getting that one)
=======
Contact
=======
I can be reached at
incompetent at justice dot com
Most questions should be answered in the guide. I'll
be updating this in the not too distant future, but if
it's not there let me know.