Metroid Prime: Hunters Noxus guide v. 0.10 May 25, 2006 Written by Coco monkay ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This guide is copyright 2006 Coco monkay. It was written exclusively for GameFAQs (http://www.gamefaqs.com). No other non-private use is permitted. The contents of this guide have been registered with the United States Copyright Office. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- === Table Of Contents: [Use Ctrl+F to find a topic quickly] === Part 1: General information [1.00] •1- Introduction [1.10] •2- Noxus Info [1.20] - Noxus [1.21] - Vhoscythe [1.22] - Judicator [1.23] •3- Damage chart [1.30] - Power beam [1.31] - Noxus and affinity [1.32] - Samus and affinity [1.33] - Sylux and affinity [1.34] - Spire and affinity [1.35] - Trace and affinity [1.36] - Weavel and affinity [1.37] - Kanden and affinity [1.38] Part 2: Strategies [2.00] •1- Basic strategies [2.10] - Defensive [2.11] - Offensive [2.12] •2- Hunter strategies [2.20] - Samus [2.21] - Kanden [2.22] - Spire [2.23] - Trace [2.24] - Sylux [2.25] - Weavel [2.26] - Noxus [2.27] - Lag [2.28] •3- Team strategies [2.30] - Battle [2.31] - Survival [2.32] - Bounty [2.33] - Defender [2.34] - Capture [2.35] - Nodes [2.36] •4- Level strategies [2.40] - Small [2.41] - Medium [2.42] - Large [2.43] Part 3: Assistance, credits, etc. [3.00] •1- Frequently Asked Questions [3.10] •2- Contact me [3.20] •3- Legal information [3.30] •4- Version history [3.40] •5- Credits [3.50] === Part 1: General information [1.00] === [1.10] Introduction Noxus really isn't that hard to understand, so I'll be brief on the basic strategies. It's when you start facing people who know how to aim and can give you a challenge regardless of character that advanced noxus strategies will make the difference. This guide will talk mainly about advanced strategies, so I'll assume you know the game mechanics by now. You should also have tried out every other character to see their strengths and weaknesses first hand and work out how you might fight someone who uses that character better than you did. Noxus is a vhozon from the planet vho who is searching out the ultimate power to prevent it from falling into the hands of lawbreakers or the unworthy. The vhozon race's fanatical view of morality exceeds that of virtually all other civilized societies, and to enforce their sense of justice they have sent noxus. ___ [1.20] Noxus info Here's information about noxus, via samus's scans. [1.21] Noxus Analysis indicates that the skin of this hunter has extraordinary insulating properties. Noxus's weapon is the judicator, capable of a charged shot that can freeze an opponent in its tracks. --- [1.22] Vhoscythe The vhoscythe is the alternative form of the hunter noxus. An evolutionary defense mechanism of the vhozon species, it serves both offensive and defensive purposes. --- [1.23] Judicator The judicator is powered by cold-fusion synthesis. It fires supercooled plasma at temperatures approaching absolute zero. ___ [1.30] Damage chart [1.31] Power beam Damage - 6 Headshot - 8 Charged - 36 Charged headshot - 46 --- [1.32] Noxus Vhoscythe: Spin attack 42dmg per slice; 1.5 seconds full warm up per slice, .5 seconds immediate deployment Judicator Max ammo - 119 In relation to freeze shot - 1:5 Damage - 24 Headshot - 32 Charge - 42 Charge headshot - 96 Affinity charge - 12 --- [1.33] Samus Morph ball: Morph ball bombs and morph boost 16dmg per bomb, 20dmg per boost; 2.5 seconds between boost for maximum efficiency Missiles Max ammo - 59 In relation to judicator - N/A Damage - 32 Charged - 48 Splash - 24 Charged splash - 32 --- [1.34] Sylux Lockjaw: Electric bombs 1-bomb: 10dmg 2-bomb tripwire: 40dmg 3-bomb trapwire: 180dmg and up (Less distance between wires: More damage) Shock coil Max ammo - 59 In relation to judicator - 1:2 Damage - 1 sec: ~10 (Increases with time elapsed) --- [1.35] Spire Dialanche: Fire blade Min: 8dmg, Max: 64dmg; Blade lasts for 1 second each deployment Magmaul Max ammo - 59 In relation to judicator - 1:2 Charged in relation to judicator - 1:4 Damage - 32 Charged - 56 Splash - 16 Charged splash - 28 Burn - 19 --- [1.36] Trace Triskelion: Jump strike 50 per strike; 4 foot lunge distance, .5 second warm-up Imperialist Max ammo - 29 In relation to judicator - 1:4 Damage - 36 Headshot - 100 Zoomed - 72 Zoomed headshot - 200 (Instant kill) --- [1.37] Weavel Halfturrent: Halfturrent and halfturrent slice 12 per shot, 36 per slice; 1 second warm-up for slice, .5 second fire rate for halfturrent (Increased rate when under constant fire; returns to normal when abandoned by attacker) Battle hammer Max ammo - 149 In relation to judicator - 2:1 Damage - 12 Splash - 8 Affinity damage - 30 Affinity splash - 18 --- [1.38] Kanden Sting larva: Larva bomb 20dmg per segment; 1 second delay between segment regen. Volt driver Max ammo - 119 In relation to judicator - 1:1 Damage - 14 Headshot - 21 Charge - 56 Charge splash - Min: 1dmg Max: 56dmg ___ === Part 2: strategies [2.00] === Basic strategies [2.10] No matter what character you play, there will always be two directions you could lead them in. These directions are defensive or offensive. As you get progressively better and better, it will be harder to tell what side you're on, but you'll probably always have traits from whichever side you started on. It should go without saying that the defensive will probably tilt toward survival, and the offensive will probably tilt toward battle. Bounty - Defensive Defender - Defensive Prime hunter - Offensive Capture - Offensive Nodes - Neutral Below, I put the order in which you should seek out upgrades. If a weapon is in parenthesis, that means they're optional, but still in order. After that, strategies you should follow based on your tactical style. You should follow both sides, but put precedence on the ones that suit you. Oh yeah, almost forgot. There's another technique noxus can do that I won't be discussing, as it stands the chance of being abused like the spire glitch. It was discovered by GF_Arctic at about april 25, so when it inevitably is leaked, yes, it was known for a while. If the needs are met, which I won't be discussing, it could make the battle unbelievably hard. I'm sure he won't mind it I just give it a name, though. I name it: Shadow freeze [2.11] Defensive strategies Health, Weapons - Jud., Mag. (Btl., Shk., Vlt., Imp.) Reverse DF technique More luck than anything, but if you pull it off, it's one of the most satisfying headshots ever. If you're about to be frozen by noxus, have an imp, and don't think he can do the DF, position your reticule for his head (don't bother changing weapons just yet), change to the imp while in the ice, and give him a headshot right when you thaw. Bait Positive there's someone in the bushes waiting for you to pull off that freeze? Give them what they want, but don't try to save your kill, go after the one taking your prey. For everyone not using an imp, they shouldn't be too far for you not to get an imp head shot on. For those that are sniping, just hope they're nervous enough not to concentrate and not get the kill, then hunt them down and don't get killed yourself. Disruption See that noxus coming at you? Or better yet, that aggressive trace who'll finish you the second you mess up? Shock coil. Then what do they do? Alt form. And that's when you switch to missiles and change the tide of battle. Or, if for some reason they want to keep battling you, this'll give you time and opportunity to switch to magmaul or battlehammer. Magmaul for smaller areas, battlehammer for larger. --- [2.12] Offensive strategies Weapons - Jud., Imp. (Shk., Vlt., Mag., Btl.), Health Death freeze technique Freeze with the judicator, then headshot with the imperialist. It's simple on paper, but it'll take about a week before you can rely on it, assuming you train regularly. If you master pulling this off without getting killed yourself, you should be at your peak as a noxus. Of course, it goes without saying that if you don't learn this, you won't be at your peak. Ambush Noxus is megaman. Just think about it. When you get close to an enemy, what do you do? Jump. What did you do in the classic megaman games when you were fighting an enemy who shot back? Jumped. That said, the skies are your greatest ally against your foes. The best noxi are often heard but not seen. Sure, the charge is loud, but where is it coming from? Around the corner? Behind you? Above you? Below you? Know the level by heart, including health respawns, imp or affinity spawns, powerup spawns, etc., and all the entry and exit points to an ambush area. Flush See an enemy hiding in or behind something? Give up trying to get to them before getting killed yourself. Rather, just fire judicator shots into the hiding spot until they die or move, then follow with volt if they try to run away, shock if they try to move toward, battlehammer if they try to move away in alt, and magmaul if they try to move toward in alt. ___ [2.20] Hunter strategies [2.21] Samus - Samus is feared by all hunters, and for good reason. A samus is primarily going to charge her missiles to get the full effect from them. Charged missiles do almost 50dmg. This means, of course, that about 5 good hits from her is the end of you. 5 missiles don't charge in an instant though, so you should have time to escape before dying. Missiles need different ammo than the other sub weapons, and it can sometimes be very hard to conserve ammo. In some stages, she'll literally have to survive kill to kill on missile rations. Bad ammo conservation isn't a strategy, though. The only way she'll hit you on a constant basis (Assuming she doesn't have the high ground) is if she somehow predicts your moves, which means you're moving too predictably and need to change your pattern. For the most part, you should be able to jump her missiles. Be careful as you make the approach, though, they get progressively harder to dodge after a while. If she doesn't go alt and run away, proceed with the death freeze technique. If she does, try to get in a few hits with some jud. shots, then repeat the process over again. Headshot - Aim about where her chin would be. Alt - Jud., Btl. --- [2.22] Kanden - Like samus, ammo can disappear fast with him. You can only hold 119 shots at max, and as this has the accuracy and fire rate of the power beam, he'll be out of shots fast if he doesn't make good use of them. Give up trying to freeze him, the volt driver guarantees that you won't get that close. If you have good aim, try to hit him with jud. shots, if not, use the volt and hit him as much as possible. If he charges his shots instead of using the regular shots, jump strafe to advance on him and freeze him. Headshot - For him, his head is pretty much where you need to hit for a headshot, so a good shot below it should do. Alt - Mag., Jud. --- [2.23] Spire - For what spire doesn't have in rapid fire, he gains in generous ammo consumption. His gun doesn't exactly shoot slowly, either, maybe at a rate of one shot every half-second or so. Even with all of this, he never really runs into ammo issues unless he didn't stock up beforehand. Okay, this is the first medium range fighter here. Spire users may say otherwise, but if you're lobbing shots at a distance, you'll have major accuracy problems, and it'll show. The shots do roll on the floor, though, so watch out in case they're trying to get you into a trap where you can't avoid damage. To fight him, I'd say just stick to judi shots until he goes alt, then freeze him. I would say to just get up close and freeze him, but at that point you're totally relying on the fact that he can't aim, not to mention the lava on the ground you'll have to avoid. Just hit him with jud. shots unless you're sure you can handle him up close. Headshot - If you see his eyes, slightly below it, which would be around the chest of his body. Alt - Mag., Jud. --- [2.24] Trace - Don't underestimate trace users. Yes, anyone can use the imp, and yes, his affinity is all but useless in 1vs1, but only he gets the imp straight from affinity spawns. That's why higher-level users continue to use him even though they don't use his affinity's power. That, and his alt can create enough distance for an immediate headshot by experienced snipers. Anyway, onto the strategy. He's a sniper just like any other, but just a bit more dangerous due to the speed in which he can get his affinity. Stay in alt until you find where he is. Now, if you're within freeze distance of him, you could either hammer him with judi shots, or try to get in close with a freeze. Then again, if he's still trying to headshot you when you're that close to him, he shouldn't be underestimated. Headshot - Chest shot is more like it. See that floating thing they call his head? Don't aim for that. Aim below that, at the top of his center body. Alt - Mag., Btl. --- [2.25] Sylux - In my opinion, they're too gracious with his ammo. Yes, it takes forever to kill someone, but the ammo drains so slowly, not to mention the damage rate multiplies by about ten after a few seconds. His health restores even faster than that, taking all but 5 seconds to heal fully even when it's in the red. So, since he is best close range like you, that's one thing you'll want to avoid. Hit him with jud. shots until he tries to hit you with shock coil. Like he'd expect, you should go to alt mode. One thing you should've done before going alt, though, was to check the surroundings. Tripwires are ineffective over long distances, so while you were fighting him in biped, you should have checked to see if he had any traps waiting for you in advance. If you think he does make him bring the battle to you. He has the fastest alt, he has the strongest alt, so him being offensive and coming after you shouldn't be too foreign to him. If the sylux you're fighting doesn't think you're gonna fall for the oldest trick in the book, you're gonna need some more biped strategies against him. The absolute most effective stopper of his coil is a wall. Charge, go behind a wall, and when he comes to get around the wall, go toward him and freeze. Heights are also pretty effective in that it'll be hard to aim if you're coming in from the Y-axis. Headshot - Same as samus, bottom of helmet. Alt - Jud., Btl. --- [2.26] Weavel - Even though it's rapid fire, it has more ammo than the volt, comes out slower, and consumes less ammo than it. Thus, he shouldn't ever have a problem with ammo. Others may disagree, but I think he starts out with his affinity just like samus. When he goes alt, he automatically gets a battlehammer, he just can't control it. Seeing as it's stationary until you remove it and place it down again, it's pretty good for defense, like leaving it as a trap when someone goes to get the health under it. This can be a crucial strategy early in the match, when you're both at standard health. He'll still be getting weapons, and you'll be defending yourself. Okay, now for the strategy. He has this anti freeze technique where you drop the turret right when you go to freeze, then just retracts it once it's frozen. Of course, when you go alt, you have to stay that way for a few seconds until you're given the ability to go back to biped. In this time, shoot at the weavel, not the turret. Don't even waste your time taking out the shock coil, most weavels worth anything will do the rapid drop strategy, where you drop your turret and retract it so the coil can't track and they get away. The damage isn't the problem at all, it's that they'll be going too fast for you to keep up. Thus, since your jud. shots make mid-long range, just keep hitting him with that. Headshot - Like kanden, his head is pretty evident. Aim slightly below it. Alt - Mag., Jud. (Shk. for turret) --- [2.27] Noxus - One of the best ammo conserving weapons, in my opinion. Honest, if I get head shot while I'm samus, the only weapon I use is the judicator. That's assuming, of course, they're good enough not to give me free imp shots. With that said, noxus won't run into ammo problems unless he just picked up the judicator and has the preliminary 20 ammo. A noxi battle, for the most part, amounts to nothing more than a giant game of chicken. If you can freeze him, he can freeze you. A large portion of the time, you'll both end up getting frozen. Unless one of you messes up with your reaction timing, it'll stay this way until one of you changes your strategy. This includes ditching freezing all together, in lieu of using another weapon. A good choice is the shock coil, or imp, but seriously, he'll have to suck if you think you can get a headshot that close. Another good one is the volt, less average damage than the shock coil at average, but more when he starts to run. My favorite, though, is the judicator, as it does good damage all around, and when he starts to retreat, it'll be much easier to hit his alt with good damage than had you been using the volt. The main, and best strategy, though, is the natural one. If it wasn't clear, I mean sticking to the judicator and freezing him. To do this without getting frozen yourself, you're gonna have to take risks getting near him. When someone takes a risk to freeze, that's when, for the most part, only one of you gets frozen. Risks include hiding behind a door, behind a corner, or above him but so close he still thinks you're on the ground somewhere. If you're successful in not being seen, his defense will be down for a crucial few seconds until he realizes you're going to ambush him. If you don't take advantage of those few seconds, he'll know what you're up to and be on heightened guard. Be stealthy, and be swift, those few seconds could decide the rest of the match. Headshot - Like trace, his model lies about where his head is. Shoot his chest. Alt - Mag., Jud. --- [2.28] Lag - Don't waste your time trying to freeze them. If they're only impervious to freezing, try out the shk. if you don't want to use the jud., but if they're warping and stuff, I suggest the volt driver. Basically, though, just anything that causes immediate damage, not anything that's reliant on an effect happening to him ex: Freezing, burning, homing, etc. If they're a friend, I'm sure I don't have to say this, but be sure to tell them they're lagging so bad they made themselves immune to your affinity. Headshot - If, for some reason, you did try to freeze them and it worked (Seeing as a normal headshot would leave them unaffected), follow the same head shot strategy for whatever character it is. Alt - Follow the same strategy as for whatever character you're fighting, but if there's a choice between the magmaul and battlehammer, I would sway toward the battlehammer. I've actually noticed, though, that alts don't seem to lag around like bipeds do, or at least, they don't show it. ___ [2.30] Team strategies Now I know what you may be thinking. Why no spire, at all? Spire's mode is prime hunter, and as we all know, there aren't teams for that mode. But if prime hunter is about killing, why isn't he put as a team member for battle? Yes, all bipeds have the same speed. This probably confused you when people say prime hunter fixes his speed problem. You see, they don't mean that he's slow, but that his weapon charge time gives people plenty of time to get a safe distance away. With his increase in speed, he can chase people down with his weapon, and he can charge far away and still expect to hit someone with it, instead of having to go to alt form to close the distance between him and his prey. Unfourtunately, his mode is free for all only, so for the modes with teams, I don't use him when I can use someone else. [2.31] Battle Samus - "Quick killer" If you two are close together, you're reducing your efficiency. Samus should be in the distance, waiting for you to make the advance for a freeze, then, she should hit them with missiles. That should be just the distraction enough for you to close the distance and get a headshot. Then, as samus is already far, she can go immediately onto the next opponent while you search for the first. When she's missiling her target, try to hit the opponent with an imp shot. One should be enough if it hits to give her the advantage. The key to getting the most kills is to be separated, but united. --- [2.32] Survival Kanden - "Hard to kill" A good kanden should be very hard to kill. If he ever needs to go for health, he will get fired at, but he won't get followed. Thus, when he does get health, he can fully charge his volt driver and kill whoever was after him. What should you do, though? Do all you can to prevent him from being shot at. When he gets health and comes back, he should more than repay that favor. Yourself, with your judicator, shouldn't be getting killed either. Noxus is pretty much the most defensive character. Just look at his alt, the limited versatility says it really isn't built for alt spamming, but when any other alt tries to kill it, it shows that it really is an "anti-alt". And your judicator, if you're being double teamed, it possesses the ability to freeze two people at once. The volt can do the same thing with it's vision blurring. So even if you're double teamed, if you're lucky enough to get them side to side, you can kill one right there with the DF technique. --- [2.33] Bounty Noxus - "Freezing" Bounty is like a biped sprint. Get to point A from point B with as much health as possible. It should be obvious why rendering your opponents unable to attack as well as follow is such an asset. With another noxus on the team, it becomes all too easy. Arm yourself with the imperialist, make sure your partner is at a designated spot, then when you pass it, watch your opponent get frozen. Turn around, headshot, and change rolls for maximum efficiency. They won't stand a chance if you do this. --- [2.34] Defender Trace - "Headshot" As noxus, you should go to the defender circle and rack up the seconds. Trace should wait in the backround, cloaked and waiting. Charge your judicator and jump erradically, you'll have to act as bait for the time being. When someone comes and tries to take the circle, you freeze them, and let trace take the kill (Heh, I didn't think I would've ever condoned that). If they actually use strategy, though, they'll try to headshot you. If you're jumping good enough, you should be fine. Trace will track the location of the sniper by looking at the shot, and counter snipe accordingly. Oh, and if, for some reason, you have to leave the ring, trace can occupy it in alt mode and push whoever wants to get in out of it with his alt attack. --- [2.35] Capture Sylux - "Chase" Like bounty, but this time it's a relay. You take the octolith and make sure to survive, sylux will be doing the killing. Keep your judicator charged, if you freeze him while sylux is hitting him with neutrinos, he should die in seconds. You'll have to defend yourself from the other character, just follow the character strategy for whoever it is, and you should be fine. If you think he's going to shock you, don't forget to use walls to your advantage. --- [2.36] Nodes Weavel - "Multitask" Weavel will capture the nodes, you will defend them, primarily. Without a battlehammer, he won't be very equiped to fight anyone who can concentrate on him. Adding to that, any shock coil in the level, and his turret won't be trouble at all. That's why he'll be capturing, he'll leave his turret down on whatever node he got last, using his alt for transportation. Like trace, if you hit with your alt attack, it'll push whoever's in the node out of it. This'll keep the node safe if it's near being stolen. If it isn't, just freeze whoever's in it and kill them. You shouldn't have many problems if you use this strategy. ___ [2.4] Level strategies Contrary to popular opinion on wifi, there are more than just five levels (Combat hall, Alinos gateway, Ice hive, Headshot, and alinos gateway) in multiplayer. Hopefully these strategies prepare you for all of them, including the overused ones. [2.41] 1/26=Combat hall (DF no) -Msl., Aff., Mag. Favored toward: Samus, trace --- [2.42] 2/26=Data shrine (DF yes) -Msl., Shk., Mag., Jud., Imp., Btl., Vlt. Favored toward: Kanden, Noxus --- [2.41] 3/26=Processor core (DF no) -Aff., Mag., Jud. Favored toward: Sylux, Weavel --- [2.42] 4/26=High ground (DF yes) -Msl., Aff., Mag., Jud., Imp. Favored toward: Spire --- [2.42] 5/26=Ice hive (DF yes) -Msl., Aff., Jud., Imp., Vlt. Favored toward: Samus, Sylux --- [2.43] 6/26=Alinos perch (DF yes) -Msl., Aff., Shk., Mag., Imp. Favored toward: Samus, Trace --- [2.42] 7/26=Sic transit (DF yes) -Msl., Aff., Shk., Imp., Btl. Favored toward: Trace, Noxus --- [2.42] 8/26=Transfer lock (DF yes) -Msl., Aff., Imp., Btl., Vlt. Favored toward: Kanden --- [2.41] 9/26=Sanctorus (DF no) -Msl., Aff., Vlt. Favored toward: Samus, Trace --- [2.41] 10/26=Compression chamber (DF no) -Msl., Aff., Jud. Favored toward: Trace --- [2.41] 11/26=Incubation vault (DF no) -Msl., Aff., Shk., Btl. Favored toward: No one --- [2.42] 12/26=Subterranean (DF yes) -Msl., Aff., Shk., Mag., Imp., Btl., Vlt. Favored toward: No one --- [2.42] 13/26=Outer reach (DF yes) -Msl., Aff., Shk., Jud., Imp. Favored toward: No one --- [2.43] 14/26=Harvester (DF yes) -Msl., Shk., Mag., Jud., Imp., Btl., Vlt. Favored toward: No one --- [2.43] 15/26=Weapons complex (DF yes) -Msl., Shk., Mag., Jud., Imp., Btl., Vlt. Favored toward: Sylux --- [2.43] 16/26=Council chamber (DF yes) -Msl., Shk., Mag., Jud., Imp., Btl., Vlt. Favored toward: No one --- [2.43] 17/26=Elder passage (DF yes) -Msl., Aff., Shk., Mag., Jud., Imp. Favored toward: Spire --- [2.43] 18/26=Fuel stack (DF yes) -Msl., Aff., Shk., Jud., Imp., Btl., Vlt. Favored toward: Noxus --- [2.43] 19/26=Fault line (DF yes) -Msl., Aff., Shk., Mag., Jud., Imp., Btl., Vlt. Favored toward: No one --- [2.42] 20/26=Stasis bunker (DF yes) -Msl., Aff., Imp., Btl., Vlt. Favored toward: No one --- [2.43] 21/26=Head shot (DF yes) -Shk., Mag., Jud., Imp., Btl., Vlt. Favored toward: Sylux --- [2.42] 22/26=Celestial gateway (DF no) -Msl., Aff., Mag., Jud., Btl. Favored toward: No one --- [2.43] 23/26=Alinos gateway (DF yes) -Msl., Aff., Mag., Imp., Btl. Favored toward: Spire --- [2.43] 24/26=Vdo gateway (DF yes) -Msl., Aff., Mag., Imp. Favored toward: Sylux --- [2.43] 25/26=Arcterra gateway (DF no) -Msl., Aff. Favored toward: Trace --- [2.43] 26/26=Oubliette (DF no) (EX no)- Msl. Favored toward: Samus, Sylux --- DF stages: 18/26 Small: 0/5 Medium: 8/9 Large: 10/12 As you can see, most stages allow for the DF technique. For most of the ones that don't, you wouldn't want to pick them anyway. So, of course, learn the technique, and practice it as much as possible. ___ === Part 3: Assistance, credits, etc. [3.0] === [3.10] Frequently asked questions To ask me a question, you could either check out any topics I have up and ask me there, or make a topic yourself and ask me. If this is so far in the future that I'm not even on the board anymore, and no one there can help you, you could ask your question on the board. Q: NOxUs SuXz111!!1!11! A: NO U! Q: When you use the charged Ice attack does it damage the player if they get frozen, or do they have to be directly in front of your gun and get hit like normal to take damage? A: Well, if they get frozen, chances are they're in front of your gun anyway, but if they're not, if they get frozen at all, they suffer 12 damage. Q: Is it possible to jump down from above, aim down and freeze someone? It seems to me that it seems to project foward from the body whenever I do it so it never freezes anyone. A: It's the same as freezing too early and having the freeze fall short of your opponent. The only difference when doing it in the air is that the timing will be different, and you'll have to be more precise with it. It can be hard at first, but it's nothing a little training can't fix. Okay, from here on, I'm going to let my good friend, a five star noxus, answer the questions. Ladies and gentlemen, GF_Arctic! Q: What levels does Noxus have an advantage? A: Fuel Stack, first of all, hands down. Basically, the narrow corridors are perfect for bouncing Judicator shots, it has a natural Judicator spawn, and it has a natural Imp spawn that many players either don't know about, won't bother with, or may die trying to get. FS also has enough corners and surprise drops that freezing is cake. Seriously learn this level's layout, and practice getting the Imperialist and double damage here quickly and in one run, but more importantly, without dying. Haha, almost forgot one more thing! It's hard to do blindly, but if they've jumped down after the double damage, they're only got one path to take upwards, and if you're standing right there, you can freeze them when they travel up the antigravity pull for a free death. I've beaten a 5 star trace that way before. ^_^ Next, IMO is Incubation vault. There're no decent weapons for your opponents besides their affinities (so Sylux is screwed because his affinity sucks against experienced players) here. They've only got rockets, their affinity, and the Battlehammer. They can't even alt spam to run away stay alive here since it's so small. 1v1, there're only two health spawns. Learn to control them. After freezing enemies, you'll do a little over 100 damage to them (if frozen in alt, much more in Biped), and if you control both health spawns, another freeze (or a hit and run Vhoscythe) will either kill them of bring them dangerously low. The key to this level against any character is strangulation. Control the health, and they'll slowly die. This is easy to do, since Noxy's alt can reach both spawns, and they're both close together. It's also perfect for grabbing the elevated spawn since the blade's deployment causes faster falling. Anyone that ventures too close gets a blade in their face, and suffers an awful lot of damage for not being able to heal. When you know they're low, and desperate, you can make a risky move and let them have a health, but make it look like you're racing to stop them from reaching it, so they'll rush in to feel the cool delight of a measly 60 energy, and get frozen, never to thaw alive. Even in 4 player mode, the spawns are perfectly timed for orb whoring; just make a loop picking up all 4 spawns, and you'll only have to stop for about a second on one spawn to make the whole loop perfectly timed. Other than that, Noxus does well on just about any level with the Imperialist, since then the long ranged characters have no real advantage, and on the levels without it, health spawn control will win you the match anywhere else. Q: I hit enemies with the Vhoscythe a lot, and they should be dead. Does this mean that the damage doesn't always deal 42? Does the damage only reach 42 once the blade is in full swing? A: It's 42 dmg, regardless of distance or time deployed. I think the real issue online is that you register the hit on your DS, causing you to hear the "chink" and have the blade retract. In fact, the opponent wasn't right there, and the dmg didn't register on their DS, which is necessary for damage to actually occur. Damage has to register on the victim's DS to actually occur, and the Vhoscythe is just a particularly bad example of it. Erk210 had something he wanted to add to this answer: About that Vhoscythe not doing damage, but making the 'clink' sound. I Figured that it is lag, obviously.. But that is not the entire story. You're DS will register the 'hit' and you will see that you hit, although, on the opponents DS, they see you coming at them with it. Now, Your DS may be a little behind the others (due to a laggy host/your bad connection.) So, what this means is that your DS will think that your scythe hit, and retract the scythe, But really, you didn't hit them and your scythe was forced to retract before you even really hit them. Sucks, yes, the only one counter to this that I can think of is holding down the 'fire' button a little while after you see it hit. I doubt that that will change anything, but it may work. This has not been tested, but it is the best explanation I have, and is better than anyone else's I have heard/seen. Q: I hear about people using the Imperialist after freezing an opponent whom has begun the tranformation to alt form. How do I go about killing them? A: I've already made a huge explanation to this on some other forums, so I'll just copy it here... Half of all Noxi on message boards claim to kill with the Imp after freezing, yet I've not played one yet who has ever killed me with it. I've seen a total of two try to use it on me, but the switch was slow, and I was unfrozen before they fired. This needs to change, guys. Every single Noxus user with an Imperialist in his inventory should be able to freeze and have a kill within two seconds, guaranteed. Seriously, don't underplay it, it's not that hard to learn; it may take a day of practice, and another week of fine-tuning, but the results of freeze=death are too beneficial to pass up. If anyone isn't trying to learn it; saying "it's too hard," or that "it's not worth it," is only too lazy to learn it, and will wallow in mediocrity (someplace Noxus doesn't belong). Once you get the switching mechanism down, you need to learn how to never miss a shot. This includes aiming quickly, and knowing a thing or two about "head boxes." Also, when you do miss a shot, you need to learn how to switch to Alt to quickly unscope and avoid danger, and switch back to the Judicator. Aiming for the head is one thing, hitting is another. Different characters are more or less difficult to hit. The two I have the most trouble with are Trace and Noxus. Trace's head is just naturally small, and with his gangly frame, his "head" isn't always in his "headbox." Noxus is confusing because his "head" is actually a forward hanging appendage that can't be harmed. The "headbox" is actually behind it, in the lump his back has. The rest of the characters are relatively easy to hit. Weavel and Sylux being easiest, Samus, Kanden and Spire being next. There's one final thing to know. When on your freezing approach, (smart) enemies know they can't escape you in an open room with corners. If they're back into a corner and turn towards another corner, you can take the inner circle and cut them off; if they back into the corner, well, we all know what happens there. Instead, once they've gotten near that corner, they'll usually go alt, while turning towards another corner. You can still take the inner route and cut them off in these cases. So, you've frozen a half transformed, hovering mass of flesh, you whip out the Imperialist, zoom in and ask, "well crap, where's his head? Oh, it's down there." *miss* What happened? This brings us to the most important tactic of the Noxus freeze assassin, freezing in the middle of transforming. The key here is that no matter what phase of the transformation you've frozen an opponent in, they have a head. As long as they're not 100% into their alt, and the popsicle isn't shaped like a round ball, they have a head. This head is always right where it normally is. So, if you freeze someone halfway (or even most of the way into alt, it registers a hit! I've frozen Sylux in his transformation and he looks like he's lying face-first on the ground (and been called "haxxor" for it). You need to aim approximately in the middle of the sprite, and in the general vicinity of where the head would be if they were standing straight up. This will often look like empty air (like during Trace and Sylux's transformations), but it's where you must shoot. Experienced players know when they're about to be frozen, and they'll switch to alt. This means that 90% of your freezes on advanced players will be in the middle of their alt transformations, where they think "HA! Headshot me now! I'm in my alt!" Nothing bursts their bubble like when you freeze them in the middle of it and snipe their invisible head for a kill. Q: Imperialists pwn me! How do I prevent myself from getting shot? A: Aside from being in alt if you're not feeling safe, here's another of my lectures from those forums... "QUOTE (Spark-sys @ Apr 30 2006, 11:57 PM) I Don't really know, because I just counter Imp. with Imp. (It's my favorite weapon, along with judicator of course)ENDQUOTE" It really is about all you can do, unless you're positive you'll be evasive enough and be able to approach and freeze them. On your approach, I recommend small zig-zags (just large enough to fully displace your "head" hitbox to one side and the other) while jumping constantly (as in, as soon as you touch the ground, you should be jumping again). I guarantee you that the only place you'll get killed is when you're touching the ground, since snipers will level their crosshairs at "head" level and aim, since that way they only have to mess with one axis. This means that if you're jumping, they only have very small windows of opportunity to actually land a hit. However, assuming they didn't fall off the apple truck yesterday, they'll be mentally plotting your trajectory and predicting where you'll land after your jump, and fire there. This is where the zig-zagging in the air comes in; you never want to land in a simple parabolic trajectory from where you begin your decent (like, if you throw a ball off a building, think about the predictable, round path it would take; that's the shape I'm talking about that you want to avoid). Rather, always try to make your landing pattern erratic by changing direction on your decent and landing in a more _ / \ / /\ . . X shape, since the crosshairs will be at the X, waiting for you to land. As they change their aiming, you're back up in the air, jumping in perhaps a different direction this time. Doing this, I have never been killed by a sniper on my freezing approach. If I'm killed, it'll be because I'll loosen up and actually land on the normal trajectory, or panic and switch to alt or something. You really only want to use this at semi-close range; about the range of a Shock Coil. Any farther than that, use your alt to get closer; but not too close, otherwise you'll scare them into alt as well. Anyway, hope that helps; I do strongly recommend you get good with the Imp though, after all, if you've got one too, Trace has no advantage at Imp vs. Imp battles except perhaps experience with the weapon. -GF_Ar[t!c Ok, I think I'm done now. ^_^; --- [3.20] Contact me If you have any corrections to what has already been covered in this guide so far, or questions that have not already been covered, please contact me at Bombite@gmail.com. I insist you use the boards if you can, though, I rarely check my mail. --- [3.30] Legal information This document is Copyright 2006 Coco monkay. It may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site outside of GameFAQs. It may not be distributed electronically outside of the GameFAQs web site, and it may not be distributed otherwise at all. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public format is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. --- [3.40] Version history V.10 Posted main guide, level strategy still not added, but the rest is fine. [3.50] Credits Teh fusion dragon for the damage chart. Knowing all this stuff helped me greatly, thanks for making it.- http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/mrkarmalicious/06metroidcharts.png GF_Arctic for the frequently asked questions, and the shadow freeze technique. He gave me all the ones starting at the one asking what level noxus has an advantage on. Slightly edited a bit for minor grammatical errors and so they're less redundant to the things I've already added in my guide. Heh, thanks, you definitely helped. I know I would've struggled shooting semi-alt's fake heads for months without you, and it would've probably taken me another week to figure out the imp technique if you hadn't told me ages ago. Meeh for making the league of extraordinary noxus users. Without this, I wouldn't know anyone but me who used noxus. Thus, I would've thought there was some reason for his lack of use, like a fatal defense flaw that made him very easy to beat. Thankfully, though, this league made me realize there were a hidden noxus community, and that he was completely equal to the other hunters without being at any critical disadvantages. Erk210 for showing me how much in demand this noxus F.A.Q. was. I didn't know how many people wanted it until you wanted to make one. Heh, and now there are, like, 3 others who want to make one as well! Lost cause for giving me my first real challenge on wifi, and through constant sparring, learning to make the most of my environment when supplies are scarce (Combat hall). Thanks to everyone that helped, including people I didn't mention. Fin. ___