ALIENS VS PREDATOR CLASSIC 2000 STRATEGY GUIDE 
By Jefequeso
(single player information also applies to the original release of AvP Gold)

GAME INFORMATION
Aliens vs Predator Classic 2000 is a re-release of Aliens vs Predator Gold, 
updated to run on modern systems.  The game includes all of AvP Gold’s 
content (including the ‘Millennium Expansion’ Pack), and the Steam version 
has been updated to support multiplayer.  The game currently sells on Steam 
for $4.99.  In my opinion, it’s well worth that price.

INTRODUCTION
I’ve never written any sort of strategy guide before.  Why?  Well, because 
there aren’t many games that I know well enough to feel confident about 
instructing others how to play.  With Aliens vs Predator Classic 2000 
(hereafter referred to as AvPC2K), there are still facets I’m not as familiar 
with.  However, I’ve read through a couple guides for this game (well…guides 
for AvP Gold, that is), and I’ve found that there are certain details about 
the game that most of them fail to cover.  The working of the stealth 
mechanics, for instance.  So, I’ve decided to write my own guide that tries 
to cover every facet of the game’s mechanics to the best of my knowledge.  
This is not intended as a walkthrough.  It doesn’t detail every mission or 
possible multiplayer strategy.  Rather, it’s intended as a reference for 
experienced players, and as a handy introduction for new players.  

CONTENTS:
SINGLE PLAYER
	General Tips
	Marine
	Predator
	Alien
	Skirmish Mode
MULTIPLAYER
	General Tips 
	Modes
	Maps
	Marine
	Predator
	Alien (Includes a guide to speed exploits by Aph3x-SkorpioN)
CHEATS
	Cheat Modes
	Debug Mode
ADDONS AND MODS

SINGLE PLAYER
AvPC2K’s single player is broken up into 3 bite-sized campaigns.  Each 
campaign is made up of 5 missions, with an extra boss battle against an Alien 
Queen for both the Marine and the Predator.  The game also features 5 bonus 
missions for each race, the fifth of which can only be unlocked by completing 
the game on Director’s Cut (the hardest difficulty).  Each bonus mission is 
actually a level from one of the other races’ vanilla campaigns, redone with 
appropriate enemies and reversed.  The Marine and Predator are each given 
special items to complete missions that were originally designed for the 
Alien.  The Marine gets a jetpack with infinite fuel, and the Predator gets a 
grappling hook.  Unfortunately, neither of these items can be used anywhere 
but the bonus missions, so there’s not much strategy to discuss.  You should 
be aware that each mission only gives you a limited number of saves, so don’t 
be spamming the quicksave button.  Time your saves appropriately.  Learn just 
how far apart you should space them.  Besides the three campaigns, the game 
also features a “skirmish” mode against waves of Xenomorphs, Praetorians, and 
Predaliens.  You can play this mode as either a Predator or a Marine (co-op 
mode in multiplayer is basically identical, but with other players).  The 
game also features no less than 20 cheat modes, which vary from rather 
pointless (a mode that makes everything on your screen rainbow colored, a 
mode that makes all NPCs into wire outlines, etc) to quite entertaining 
and/or gamechanging (a “mirror mode” that mirrors levels from left to right, 
a mode called ‘Pigsticking’ that makes the Predator’s Speargun fire multiple 
spears, etc).  These cheats are unlocked by completing challenges in select 
single player missions, much like the original Goldeneye.  However, unlike 
Goldeneye, AvPC2K has a lot more challenges than simply speedrunning.  You’ll 
be tasked with getting a certain number of headshots, maintaining a certain 
speed, and biting a certain number of heads, as well as completing levels in 
a certain amount of time.  Requirements for unlocking a cheat are shown in 
the endgame screen that appears when you win a level or die, under the column 
marked ‘Target.’  At the end of the level, if you’ve succeeded, the 
requirement will be highlighted in red. 

General Tips
The first thing you’ll notice upon starting a new game is that your 
character, be it Alien, Marine, or Predator, has the average land speed of 
a…erm…umm…ok, I can’t think up a good analogy.  Basically, you’re fast.  
You’re really fast.  Even compared with other 90s FPSs, you’re ridiculously 
fast.  And at first, this can be quite offputting—especially if you’re 
expecting the same slow pace of the Monolith developed sequel.  You get used 
to it fairly quickly, and will probably find that it turns out to be one of 
the more addictive elements of the game, but you need to know that for the 
first 15 minutes or so you’re going to feel like you just hacked your speed 
stat in Morrowind.

AvP’s 90s characteristics aren’t limited to the movement speed, either.  You 
also will find that there’s a fair amount of that good ol’ “hunt around the 
level until you find the button you were supposed to press to open an 
arbitrary door” routine.  This shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s used to 
playing older games, but it can be a significant barrier for new gamers.  So 
here’s a few tips:  First, pay attention to anything in the environment that 
seems to stand out, or seems to be deliberately placed where you will see it.  
As the Marine and Predator, 99.9% of the things you need to activate will be 
some sort of switch, wheel, button, etc.  So if you find that you don’t know 
where to go next, or are up against a locked door, chances are that hunting 
around and mating the ‘use’ key against anything that looks useable should 
help you progress.  The game isn’t above pulling dirty tricks, though.  There 
is at least one Marine level where an environmental feature needs to be shot 
(and two instances where a particular enemy must be eliminated to make a door 
magically open).  There’s no penalty for destroying stuff, though, so if you 
can’t find any buttons or levers, start spraying.  The Predator is sometimes 
expected to cut ropes, break open vents, or other similar tasks.  And the 
“destroy stuff to progress” maxim holds especially true for the Alien, who 
only has his claws and tail to solve problems.  You won’t ever need to “use” 
anything…just smash the proper computers or equipment.  In this case, 
however, it’s not always completely clear what can and can’t be destroyed.  
You’ll have to use some trial and error.  Pay attention to what sort of 
things are destroyed to progress.  They usually show up again in the level, 
or even in later levels.  And again… apart from the damage caused by 
exploding barrels, there’s no penalty for slashing at everything you find 
until you smash the right stuff.  

Finally, a note about stealth.  Yes, it’s possible to sneak up on humans as 
both the Alien and the Predator.  However, this isn’t Thief.  Even if you’re 
cloaked and/or hiding in the pitch dark, enemies still might see you.  It is 
entirely possible, however, to be stealthy and sneaky in the game (and it’s 
required to unlock some cheats).  But it takes skill, luck, and some 
experience with the game’s mechanics to make it work (Aph3x-SkorpioN, a guru 
of AvPC2K and AvP Gold, posted a short video demonstrating how to properly 
utilize stealth as both the Predator and Alien.  As of this writing, it can 
be found here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQTTjzWnHzg).  A few tips:  
First, darkness is your friend.  Or rather, lightsources are your enemy.  I 
did a little bit of testing, and it seems that taking out certain lights can 
mean the difference between being spotted and being completely invisible 
(even if, to the eye, the actual light level might look the same).  As the 
Predator, your three dot lazer sight can and will be seen by enemies.  Keep 
the wrist blades out if you’re trying to be sneaky.  And use the cloak, of 
course, but realize that it only makes you harder to see… it doesn’t make you 
completely invisible.  As the Alien, crawling on ceilings makes you a lot 
harder for NPCs to spot.  As either race, Keep in mind is that unalerted 
Marines are much MUCH easier to sneak past than alerted Marines.  In some 
cases, certain Marines are alerted by default, so pay attention to their 
behavior and stance.  Loud noises will put Marines on the alert, and cause 
them to move toward the source of the noise (the Predator’s roaring taunt can 
be used to “lure” them toward you as a result.  The Alien’s seems to work as 
well.).  Most importantly, never lose track of your ultimate goal.  Stealth 
is a tool to be utilized, and seldom an end unto itself.  The quicker you 
take out your prey and the less time you spend glaring at them menacingly, 
the better.

Oh yeah, and one real quick “protip.”  If you get set on fire, running around 
like a lunatic actually puts the fire out faster.  Which is kinda funny when 
you think about it.     

Marine
The Marine is my personal favorite character.  Why?  Because you get to shoot 
stuff.  You get to shoot stuff with big guns.  The Marine is all about guns, 
you see.  You start each level with just a basic Pulse Rifle, and can find 
other guns scattered around the map.  Effective utilization of these guns is 
the key to your success.  So, in other words, bigger guns for bigger foes.  
Most levels are pretty dark, so you’ll need to use either flares (which are 
unlimited, although only 4 can be thrown out at once) or night vision (which 
illuminates all dark areas but disables your motion tracker and tends to make 
light sources blindingly bright).  I personally prefer flares since the night 
vision can make it harder to distinguish foes, and also tends to get washed 
out by dim light sources that really shouldn’t blind you, but some people 
swear by it.  You’ll have to decide for yourself based on the situation.  
Also, you’ll probably want to keep an eye on your motion tracker, which shows 
movement up to 30 meters in front of you.  It’s always helpful to know where 
enemies are.  Overall, though, there’s not much to say about the Marine 
because he’s the most straight forward and easy to understand of the three 
races.  Oh, and one last note.  The game doesn’t have a reload button, so no 
changing out half-full magazines.  If you want a fresh clip, you’ll need to 
waste the remaining ammo in your current clip.
NOTE: The Marine campaign features a few secrets scattered around levels that 
usually contain a powerful weapon or extra health.    

Weapons:
Pulse Rifle: Your meat and potatoes.  The Pulse Rifle is an average gun for 
average situations.  Learn to love this one, because most of your time is 
going to be spent with it.  Secondary fire launches grenades.

Smartgun:  Kind of like a faster-firing version of the Pulse Rifle, but with 
auto tracking instead of grenades.  Secondary fire toggles auto lock on and 
off.  This gun is especially useful for taking out Alien Facehuggers, since 
its autotracking can pinpoint them far easier than you can by hand.  It can 
also make do against Praetorians in a pinch.  Don’t use it to fight anything 
bigger unless you don’t have a choice. 

Flamethrower:  The traditional weapon of choice for pyromaniacs everywhere.  
The Flamethrower is a rather unique weapon in that enemies actually seem to 
fear it—they’ll stay out of range of its flames while you’re firing it, even 
to the point of coming to a complete halt.  However, its limited range and 
danger to the player (flames can rebound off walls or foes and catch you on 
fire) combined with the fact that flaming Aliens can still kill you just as 
dead as their cooler brethren means that the flamethrower’s uses are somewhat 
limited.  It’s not an entirely pointless weapon, but there are very few 
situations where another gun wouldn’t do just as well.  This weapon has no 
secondary fire.

SADAR:  Although this gun looks like a rocket launcher and acts like a rocket 
launcher, it’s better to think of it as a big, bulky, highly explosive sniper 
rifle.  The initial rocket impact does a ton of damage.  Enough to take out 
basically any enemy in the game in a single shot.  But the splash damage from 
the explosion is far less effective, and poses more of a threat to you than 
it does to your enemies.  Don’t waste your rockets on the small guys.  This 
is the gun for taking out Xenoborgs and Predators.  PredAliens and 
Praetorians too, if you can spare the ammo.  This weapon has no secondary 
fire.

Grenade Launcher:  Easily the most complex gun in the Marine’s arsenal, the 
Grenade Launcher fires not one…not two…but THREE types of grenades, which are 
cycled through with the secondary fire.  The first type are your generic 
bouncing timed grenades, whose exuberant physics make them useless at best 
and fatally counterproductive at worst.  The second type, frag grenades, are 
basically the same except that when they explode they shoot out dozens of hot 
pieces of jagged metal.  Like the normal grenades, their usefulness is 
limited, but they sure look cool (especially since you can actually see the 
metal shards embed in walls and cool down).  The third type, proximity 
grenades, fare a little better.  These don’t bounce when they hit a surface.  
Rather, they stick to it, and detonate when anyone (including yourself) gets 
too close.  If splash damage is what you want, then I suggest going with 
proximity grenades.  Note that undetonated proximity grenades will explode 
after a certain amount of time.

Minigun:  The most useful weapon in the game?  Possibly.  Few creatures, if 
any, can withstand the might of this throwback to “Ol’ Painless” from the 
original Predator movie.  The only downside to the Minigun is that it cannot 
be fired while moving.  If you do, your character will stop and your aim will 
veer off to the high left.  Luckily, you’ll usually eliminate any potential 
threats long before they get close enough to make you want to backpedal.  
Also, a useless little fact: this is the only gun in the game that makes the 
screen shake when you fire it.  Use this against Praetorians, PredAliens, 
Xenoborgs, Predators, or even particularly large hordes of Xenomorphs.  This 
weapon has no secondary fire.    

Skeeter Launcher:  To be honest, I’m not completely sure what to make of this 
weapon.  It fires a little UFO-like thing that bounces around for a bit, then 
zeroes in on the closest enemy and explodes, killing anything nearby.  So 
it’s certainly powerful, but I don’t think I’ve ever found a use for it in 
single player.  It’s kinda fun to hear the hollow “toink tonk tink” of the 
UFO as it bounces around tunnels, though.  This weapon has no secondary fire.

Pistol:  It’s powerful—far more powerful than you’d expect for a pistol— and 
it’s accurate, but the pistol’s relatively slow firing speed means that you 
need godlike aim to effectively utilize it.  I believe that every level has 
at least one pistol lying around somewhere.  The secondary fire shoots faster 
but is less accurate.

Dual Pistols:  Same as the pistol, but times two.  Again, this weapon 
(singular??) is powerful but made nearly useless by its slow firing speed.  
It is, however, both massively entertaining and highly appropriate to use 
dual pistols along with the John Woo Mode cheat.  The secondary fire shoots 
both pistols at once, and fires faster than the primary fire.  There’s a cool 
trick you can do with Dual Pistols.  If you tap the secondary fire, then tap 
the primary fire, then secondary, then primary, etc in quick succession you 
can fire as fast as fast as the secondary fire but use 1/3 less ammo.    

Bonus Item:
During some of the bonus missions (any one which uses a level from the Alien 
campaign), the Marine is equipped with a jetpack, which functions basically 
how you’d expect a jetpack to function.  Apart from its obvious uses in 
navigating levels, the jetpack can be used to hover out of reach of Aliens.  
This is especially useful in the first bonus mission, Temple.

Enemies:
Xenomorph: Nothing too special here.  You’ll fight a lot of these guys.  They 
can leap at you, slash you with their claws, stab you with their tail, bite 
you with their extendable mouth, crawl after you if their legs get shot off, 
and bleed on you (which is significantly more effective than it sounds, since 
their blood is acidic).  Oh, and they can crawl around on walls and ceilings, 
which makes them hard to hit and lets them get just about anywhere they want.  
Most anything will kill a Xenomorph in a few shots…assuming you can hit them.

Facehugger: There aren’t too many of these crawly little guys around, but the 
few you do encounter can be quite a threat, if you aren’t paying attention.  
If the Facehugger gets close enough, it will leap onto your face and 
instantly kill you.  Be alert for their tell-tale “scratching” crawling 
noise, and watch your motion tracker once you know one is around.  The 
Flamethrower and the Smartgun are the two best weapons for killing 
Facehuggers, the former because of its wide flame jet (making them easier to 
hit), and the later because of its autotracking abilities.

Praetorian: Basically a stronger and more deadly version of the Xenomorph 
that can’t climb on walls but can prance after you even faster.  A Minigun is 
usually best for taking these ladies out, but a single SADAR shot, a few 
Pulse Rifle grenades, or even a long barrage with the Smartgun will do the 
trick just as well.

Predalien:  Take one part Predator and one part Alien, stir and cook for an 
hour, and you get one PREDALIEN!  He’s slow, but he’s also quite resilient 
and can kill you with only a few swipes.  Unlike the Praetorian, the 
PredAlien can climb on things.  Anything less powerful than a Minigun isn’t 
going to cut it with this foe, but if you keep your distance he shouldn’t 
cause too much of a problem.   

 Predator:  Most of the Marine campaign is spent fighting Aliens of various 
shapes.  However, you will come up against a few Predators, armed with either 
a short-range spear or the iconic shoulder cannon.  The biggest thing to keep 
in mind about Predators is that they can and will self destruct if you don’t 
make sure to kill them COMPLETELY.  If a Predator falls to his knees, he is 
not dead.  Just keep shooting until he falls down flat and doesn’t more.  
Otherwise you’re in for an insta-kill and eerie maniacal laughter.  Use the 
Pulse Rifle on spear Predators.  It’s extremely easy to stay out of their 
range, so there’s no use wasting powerful ammo on them.  For shoulder cannon 
wielders, however, use the most powerful weapon you have.  And USE COVER.  It 
only takes a few shots for them to kill you, so it’s important to hide behind 
something whenever they start drawing a bead (shown by red light bloom from 
their lazer sight).  

Xenoborg:  The Xenoborg is essentially every Marine’s worst nightmare.  A 
cyborg-Alien that is nearly invincible and can kill you with a single 
lightning blast from its high-tech weapondry.  You won’t fight many 
Xenoborgs, but when you do it’s important to stay out of their line of sight 
as much as possible.  They can’t really move around at all, and they take 
awhile to turn, so try to maneuver behind them and then unload your most 
powerful ammo into their backside (you can tell where they’re looking by the 
lazer beam they emit).  These are the guys you save your SADAR ammo for.

Alien Queen:  Impervious to your weapons, although she tends to shy away from 
fire.  Watch out for the various boxes and objects that she throws.  Use the 
flamethrower to keep her off your back while you try to figure out a way to 
kill her (hint: it’s nearly identical to her demise in ‘Aliens’).
    
Predator
In my opinion, the Predator is the oddest of all three races, but also 
potentially the most dynamic.  His campaign is also usually considered the 
easiest of the three, so it might serve as a good one to start with.  
Basically, your time will be split up pretty equally between hunting down 
human prey and fighting against swarms of Aliens a la the Marine campaign.  
Against humans, you are effectively a superman.  Although they’re fairly 
adept at spotting you (see “General Tips” on stealth for more information), 
and getting hit with their bullets tends to throw off your aim, the sheer 
power of your weapons combined with your massive health (and the ability to 
re-charge said health) means that the advantage is very decidedly on the 
“Predator” side of the table.  However, don’t take this to mean that you’re 
invincible.  As already mentioned, getting hit will set your view jumping 
around rather dramatically, making it nigh impossible to aim.  So you can’t 
run into the middle of the room Doom-style and annihilate entire platoons of 
enemies.  No, you’ll need to make sure to engage only a few Marines at once, 
and take them out as fast as possible.  Execute hit and run assaults, by 
going into a room, killing a few enemies, then dashing out again.  Keep 
darting to and from cover, when possible.  When fighting Aliens, however, the 
entire game dynamic changes.  You can forget about sneaking around anymore, 
because your cloak doesn’t work on the pheromone-sensing Aliens.  And Aliens 
are much faster than Marines, and somewhat more resilient, so you need to be 
very careful with your ammo (it’s hard to hit them with the speargun, and 
other weapons will quickly deplete your energy, which will slowly recharge 
over time or can be fully recharged via pickups scattered around the map).   
However, you’re still a Predator.  Not a Marine.  Their acid blood won’t hurt 
you, and getting up close and personal is unexpectedly effective (and 
satisfying).

Vision Modes:
Unlike the Alien or the Marine, the Predator has 4 separate vision modes that 
each highlight different species.  In later levels, especially certain bonus 
missions, effectively juggling these vision modes is important.  If you are 
in the appropriate vision mode, the Shoulder Cannon and Disk will 
automatically lock on to targets.

Normal (no color):  Just your average, run-of-the-mill vision mode. 
Thermal (blue):  Highlights the heat signatures given off by humans.  Also 
fairly useful for navigating in the dark.
Electric (red):  Highlights Aliens, Praetorians, the Xenoborg, autoturrets, 
and Predaliens (although they are a slightly different color, presumably 
because they’re part Predator).
‘Predator’ (green):  Mostly useful for multiplayer.  Highlights other 
Predators.  Also highlights energy recharge nodes and thrown disks, which can 
be useful.  It also makes light sources black.  Not sure why that would be 
useful, but it is kinda cool. 

Weapons:
Unlike the Marine, the Predator doesn’t have to pick up weapons as he goes.  
You start the first two missions with the Wrist Blades, Speargun, Shoulder 
Cannon, and Medicomp.  After the second mission, the Pistol and Disk are 
added to your arsenal.  As a result, most the weapons are mostly equally 
balanced. 

Wrist Blades:  Your basic melee weapon, useful in just about any situation.  
Their primary attack is unforgivably weak and good only for destroying lights 
or environmental objects.  The secondary attack, which lets you charge up 
your swipe for greater damage, is significantly better.  A half-charged 
attack can easily 1-hit kill either a Xenomorph or a Marine.  This combined 
with the fact that Alien blood doesn’t affect the Predator means that the 
Wrist Blades are probably the best choice for taking out single Xenomorphs.  
Against swarms or more powerful Aliens, however, their slow speed makes them 
less effective.  One hidden feature of the claws is that you can use them to 
take “trophies” of your kills (this is required to unlock certain cheats).  
Crouch down over the body of a dead enemy, charge up your secondary attack, 
aim at their head, and release.  If successful, you should hear the Predator 
triumphantly roar, and their head should disappear in a shower of blood.   

Speargun:  When combined with the Predator’s view magnification, this makes a 
great sniping weapon.  It’s also a one hit kill for humans and Xenomorphs.  
Its only downside is its slow firing speed, and the fact that firing it 
disengages your cloak.  Also note that unlike the Predator’s other weapons, 
it doesn’t recharge.  Like the Wrist Blades, the Speargun also has a hidden 
use.  It can be used to “rocket jump,” just like in Quake and Unreal 
Tournament.  Simply aim straight down at your feet and fire just as you jump.  
You’ll go a lot higher than usual. This doesn’t have much use in single 
player, but it can be invaluable in multiplayer.  Oh, and with the 
‘Pigsticking’ cheat turned on, the Speargun is also the ultimate stress 
relief tool.  This weapon has no secondary fire.

Shoulder Cannon:  Yes, that very same weapon that took Jesse Venttura out of 
‘Predator’ far too early.  The primary fire can be held to charge up your 
shot (much like in the Metroid games), and the secondary fire will charge up 
a “stored” shot for firing later.  Don’t get too carried away charging up 
your shots, though, because the Shoulder Cannon can use up energy very 
quickly.  A quick tap of the secondary fire usually charges the weapon enough 
to one hit kill humans or Xenomorphs.  I’ve found it to be most useful 
against Aliens.  Its autolock ability makes them easy to hit.

Medicomp:  The Medicomp isn’t really a weapon, but that doesn’t mean that it 
isn’t useful.  Basically, it fully regains your health, but takes a huge 
chunk of your energy in the process.  It goes without saying that this is 
best used right before picking up an energy recharging node.  

Pistol:  This weapon fires strange glass-like balls of energy that don’t go 
very far before dropping to the ground and causing some minor splash damage.  
It uses about as much energy as the Shoulder cnnon, and doesn’t end up being 
significantly more effective than a well-placed Shoulder Cannon bolt or 
spear.  I believe I once used it when I was being attacked by a bunch of 
Praetorians at once in one of the bonus levels, but otherwise I’ve never 
really seen a reason to pull it out.  This weapon has no secondary fire.

Disk:  In contrast, the disk is probably the single most overpowered weapon 
in the entire game.  Not only is it completely guided if used with the 
appropriate vision mode, but it will also kill anything the game can throw at 
you in one hit.  That’s right.  One hit.  Be it Alien, human, Praetorian, 
Predalien, or even Xenoborg.  The disk will also return to you like a 
boomerang, unless it hits a wall or environmental object first (which it 
usually does).  In this case, it can either be picked up or returned 
automatically to your hand with the “call disk” key, which uses a chunk of 
your energy.  The only downside to the disk is that it’s relatively slow, and 
thus not particularly useful against hordes of enemies or the speedy 
Xenomorphs.  However as a tool for cutting through powerful baddies, it’s 
unmatched.  As with the Speargun, using this weapon will disengage your 
cloak.

Bonus Item:
For navigating Alien-inspired bonus levels, the Predator gets his very own 
neon blue grappling hook.  Not much to say about it, except that it can be 
used to get a “speed boost” of sorts.  Simply fire the grappling hook down a 
long hallway or open area, and jump.  The “rubber band” physics will drag you 
majestically forward at alarming speeds.  Not sure if anyone will find a use 
for this, but it can be entertaining if you’re really bored. 

Enemies:
Marine: (NOTE: Any human with a weapon is considered a Marine for the 
purposes of this guide)  Armed with everything from pistols to Miniguns, the 
human Marine is a weak but occasionally dangerous opponent.  You’ll spend 
about half the missions hunting down these guys.  I find that the Speargun 
works best against them, since they don’t move very quickly.  Any other 
ranged weapon (apart from the Pistol) is just as effective, but relatively 
unnecessary.  I don’t believe that you ever encounter Marines carrying the 
SADAR or the Skeeter Launcher, but you will encounter ones with Miniguns, 
grenade launchers, etc.  Grenade Launcher Marines only ever use regular 
grenades, and will drop their weapon and pull out a pistol if you get too 
close.  Pulse Rifle Marines will use both the Pulse Rifle’s primary fire and 
secondary fire.  Note that Marines tend to be a little free with their 
“friendly fire.”  They’ll gun down friends that are between them and you, and 
often fire a grenade in such a way that it bounces back and blows them up 
instead of you (which NEVER stops being funny).  Originally I decried this as 
an AI failure, until I played some team-based multiplayer and discovered that 
that’s EXACTLY what happens when you and your teammates are faced with a 
Predator.  I suppose that it’s probably a lot more work to try to get your 
prey to kill eachother than it is to just shoot a couple of spears into them, 
but it’s immensely satisfying and entertaining regardless. 
Synthetics:  Yep.  Those darn white-blooded freaks as introduced in ‘Alien.’  
You get to fight them too.  Usually they’re carrying shotguns (and can do a 
fair amount of damage if you let them), and are unique in that they’re the 
only human-esque enemy that doesn’t die if their arm gets cut off.  They’ll 
simply keep firing with the remaining arm.  Also, there isn’t a vision mode 
that will highlight them, so you can’t lock onto them with the disk or 
Shoulder Cannon.  Usually, I use the Speargun to kill Synthetics, but there’s 
no reason that a manually aimed Shoulder Cannon blast wouldn’t do just as 
well.  I’m not sure if they are any more adept at spotting you than regular 
Marines.

Civilians:  The absolute lowest end of the AvP food chain.  Most civilians 
don’t have any weapons, and will simply cower or make pathetic attempts to 
run.  Some do carry Molatov Cocktails, but they usually end up killing 
themselves in the process of trying to get you.  So as a result, there’s not 
much to say about them strategy-wise, apart from  “if you see one pulling out 
a Molatov, just get out of their range.”

Autoturret:  Capable of dealing a large amount of damage quite quickly, you 
shouldn’t underestimate these cute little terrors.  Your strategy should 
almost ALWAYS be to get behind them and take them out with the Wrist Blades 
secondary fire.  Engaging them from the front is suicide, even for the 
resilient Predator.

Xenomorph:  Back by popular demand!  You’ll fight about as many Xenomorphs as 
you fight humans.  Like in the Marine campaign, they are quick and difficult 
to nail.  Your Shoulder Cannon will autotrack them (and even compensate for 
flight time and their movement speed), but it can go through ammo pretty 
quickly given the number of Aliens you’ll face at once.  And the Speargun 
doesn’t end up being very effective, since it requires a high level of 
precision to hit them, and can sometimes simply take off an arm or leg 
instead of actually killing them.  The Pistol is only about as useful as the 
Shoulder Cannon, and the Disk is far too slow.  Luckily, the Wrist Blades are 
surprisingly effective against Xenomorphs.  A quick tap of the secondary fire 
will charge up the claws just enough to break them into little crunchy bits.  
Get used to the timing of this attack and use it as often as possible against 
single Aliens, and you’ll have a much easier time than if you just rely on 
your ranged weapons.

Facehugger: Yep, you need to deal with these little buggers even as the 
Predator.  And they’re no less deadly, either.  I recommend using the 
Shoulder Cannon against Facehuggers.  Although you can’t lock onto them, the 
minimal splash damage from your shots is enough to kill them.  The Pistol 
also works pretty well.

Praetorian:  The Praetorian is a surprisingly dangerous opponent.  They 
combine a generous amount of health with high movement speed and a damaging 
array of attacks.  So the Wrist Blades, which were so effective against 
Xenomorphs, become effectively useless, as does the Shoulder Cannon, due to 
the amount of energy required to actually make the kill.  The Speargun, 
however, is somewhat more effective simply because there’s more to hit.  
Personally, I usually try to get some distance between me and the Praetorian, 
and use the Disk.  Its slow speed can make it hard to score a hit, but if you 
do, you’ve saved yourself a lot of ammo and possible lost health.

Predalien:  In the vanilla campaign, you’ll fight one Predalien at the end.  
In the bonus missions, you fight a few more.  I don’t think there’s any 
reason to use any weapon but the disk against these guys, unless you’re 
facing other enemies at the same time.  Their slow movement speed makes them 
quite easy to hit with this weapon.

Xenoborg:  And, once again…the Disk is your best friend!  Nothing else is 
going to be as effective against the Xenoborg. 

Alien Queen:  Unlike the Marine, the Predator is perfectly capable of killing 
the Alien Queen, although during your encounter with her your energy weapons 
are “disabled.”  So in other words, you’ve only got the Speargun and Wrist 
Blades to do the job.  I think it goes without saying that the Speargun works 
best, but if you what to feel awesome you can try to kill her with just the 
Wrist Blades. 
        
Alien
The Alien campaign certainly has the least amount of variety of the three 
campaigns (only 3 “weapons” and about as many enemy types) and it tends to 
accentuate the game’s highly unintuitive level designs.  However, this 
doesn’t mean that playing as the Alien isn’t fun.  On the contrary, few other 
games do as good a job making you feel like a ruthless killing machine.  The 
Alien spends most of his time fighting humans, almost all of which can be 
killed with a single swipe.  He’s also the fastest of the three races.  
However, this doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to mindlessly dash through 
missions.  Your health is fairly small, and although you can regain health by 
“eating” corpses (i.e, repeatedly attacking them with your claws), you can be 
killed quite quickly if you let your prey get the drop on you rather than 
vice versa.  Make sure to study the layout of enemies and consider travel 
time.  Levels usually give you plenty of dark places to hide to contemplate 
your attack (see the “General Tips” on stealth).  Do you eliminate the guy 
with the smartgun first, or go for the grenadier?  Can you get across the 
room and slay that Marine with the Minigun before he has time to unload on 
you?  Are there any patches of darkness or pieces of cover to hide behind?  
Should you take a rushing leap in, or drop down from the ceiling?  Speed is 
the key.  Eliminating all threats before they have time to react is 
preferable in early missions and downright required in later ones.  As for 
level progression, refer to the “General Tips” on puzzle solving.  Use your 
special vision mode for navigating dark areas.  Try to get used to viewing 
the world from all angles (since you’ll be doing a fair amount of clambering 
around on the level geometry).  Oh, and avoid moving fan blades.  

Weapons (attacks):
The Alien’s arsenal is limited strictly to what his momma gave him.  Tail, 
teeth, and claws.

Claws:  The left mouse button uses your Claws, which are pretty fast and do 
enough damage to eliminate most humans in a single swipe.  “Clawing” dead 
bodies will cause you to “eat” them, which slowly regains your health.

Tail Whip:  Holding the right mouse button will charge up your tail (much 
like the Predator’s Wrist Blades), and releasing will…well…release it.  This 
attack is quite powerful, but isn’t much more useful than the Claws since 
your primary enemies (humans) have so little health.  However, it only takes 
two fully charged Tail Whips to kill a Predator, and it’s a lot more 
effective against autoturrets than your Claws are.

Head Bite:  If you aim you’re close enough and aim your view directly at an 
opponent’s head, you’ll see teeth appear at the edges of your screen.  
Clicking the right mouse button will then initiate a Head Bite, which 
decapitates them for an instant kill and gives you a chunk of health.  The 
Head Bite can be done on dead bodies as well, although it gives less health 
in this case.

Leap:  Although not really an attack in and of itself, keep in mind that 
jumping while running forward makes you go really far, really fast.  When 
timed right with other attacks, this Leap is absolutely deadly.

Enemies:
Marine:  The Marines are significantly more threatening in the Alien campaign 
than they are in the Predator campaign, mostly due to your low health.  There 
are also a lot more of them wielding Flamethrowers, so you best acquaint 
yourself with the “running around like a maniac” strategy (see “General Tips” 
on running around like a maniac).  Pulse Rifle Marines and Pistol Marines can 
be easily dealt with, but they start to become a considerable threat once 
they’re lugging around Miniguns and Smartguns.  Just remember everything 
discussed above about planning and speed.
Civilian:  Once again, they don’t pose much of a threat apart from the single 
Molatov Cocktail that some of them carry.  As discussed in the Predator 
section, just dodge back when they start their slow throwing animation and 
chances are that they’ll kill themselves in the process.  If, however, they 
survive long enough to start cowering, they serve as something of a handy 
“health pack.”  It’s easy to get a live headbite on them, which will give you 
a healthy chunk of health.

Autoturret:  Autoturrets are annoying.  Really annoying.  Because they can 
kill you nearly instantly, and it’s sometimes hard to predict where they’ll 
be.  Generally, the game provides ways to quickly get behind them with 
minimal to no damage.  Make sure to think “out of the box.”  You are an 
Alien, which means that you can climb on things.  If the ceiling provides 
cover and the floor is an open deathtrap, you should probably use the 
ceiling.  Once you get behind the Autoturret(s), your Tail Whip will forcibly 
deactivate them quite easily.

Predator:  You meet your first Predator about 2 minutes before the vanilla 
campaign ends.  So although you’ll fight a few more in the bonus missions, 
you still won’t have to deal with these intergalactic hunters all that much.  
When you do, two fully charged hits with your tail will kill them.  And if 
you strafe around fast enough, they shouldn’t be able to hit you even if they 
have a Shoulder Cannon.  
  
Skirmish Mode
In recent years, games like Halo ODST and Gears of War have popularized 
what’s known as “Horde Mode.”  In essence, Horde Mode pits you against a 
theoretically unlimited stream of enemies, usually broken up into various 
types of waves.  Back in the early 2000s, however, AvP Gold (and thus AvPC2K) 
had a primitive version of this exact same concept, in the form of Skirmish 
Mode.  While Skirmish Mode isn’t quite as fleshed out or addictive as its 
modern day brothers, it can be quite an entertaining little diversion in its 
own right.  Essentially, you play as either a Marine (who can choose to spawn 
with pre-set weapons just like in multiplayer) or a Predator, and face off 
against unlimited hordes of Xenomorphs, Praetorians, and Predaliens.  Any of 
the included multiplayer maps can be used for Skirmish Mode, as well as any 
addon maps with a “(c)” suffix.  Some user-made maps work with this mode, and 
some don’t.  You can also specify a point limit, lives limit, and/or time 
limit at gamestart (the setup screen is exactly like the setup screen for 
creating a multiplayer server).  I find that the best way to have fun with 
Skirmish is to set challenges for yourself with these settings.  Can you 
survive 5 minutes with only one life?  How long will it take you to get to 
20000 points?  Things like that.  Without a goal (e.g, played with the 
default settings), Skirmish Mode can get rather dull.  But if you mess with 
the settings and start experimenting with different maps (especially if you 
download the map packs discussed in the ‘Addons and Mods’ section), you’ll 
find that this mode is perfect for wasting some extra time, or just getting 
your AvPC2K fix for the day.     

MULTIPLAYER
General Tips 
So.  You’ve bought AvPC2K on Steam.  You’ve taken a look at this guide, maybe 
a few others... you’re ready to jump into multiplayer and start pwning some 
noobs.  You start up the game, select “Join Existing Game…” and...“No 
Sessions Found.”  Confused, you restart steam, restart your computer, 
reinstall, maybe even do a complete hardrive format just to make sure… and 
you again select “Join Existing Game,” and again see “No Sessions Found.”  
What is going on?  Where are all the servers?  Is the multiplayer 
community…*gasp*…DEAD???

Well, yes and no.  You see, the AvPC2K community is quite small, but almost 
universally dedicated.  We all love the game.  We love playing it.  The best 
of us have been playing it since AvP Gold was released in 2000.  
Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that we manage to find each other ingame 
very often.  Oh, don’t worry.  You’ll see games pop up every once in awhile.  
But you can’t just log on and choose from an endless list of possible servers 
like you can with Counterstrike or Quake III.  So if you want to get involved 
with AvP’s multiplayer (and believe me, it’s worth it), the most important 
thing isn’t learning the classes or the maps.  The most important thing is 
learning how to find people to play with.  First of all, you need to know 
that the AvPC2K community is chronically disorganized.  We don’t have our own 
site, we don’t have regular events scheduled (although when we did about a 
year back, they were pretty well attended), and we don’t keep up a regular 
play schedule.  So the first thing to do is find some people who play the 
game and friend them.  Steam groups like “AvP Classic” 
(http://steamcommunity.com/groups/goldstandard) or the “official” Aliens vs 
Predator Classic 2000 group (http://steamcommunity.com/groups/avpc) are great 
places to find people.  Heck, most of the group comments are players asking 
“Hey, friend me if you want to play some AvP!”  So..friend them!  Plays some 
AvP!  If you’re not really that sort of person, you can use the time honored 
method of starting up a co-op game, then suggesting a switch to something 
more competitive once enough people join (and you’ll be surprised how often 
this works).  In fact, it’s probably a good idea to start loving co-op, 
because you’ll probably be playing a lot of it.  Finally, invite some friends 
to the madness!  Recommend that they buy the game.  Or, since AvPC2K is a 
measly $5, just gift it to them.

One quick note about the AvP multiplayer scoreboard.  It’s not quite as 
intuitive as most.  Basically, it not only shows a person’s overall score (on 
the far right of the board), but also their score vs other players (by 
reading across).  But this is hardly a game about score or winning…it’s about 
the experience.

Modes
The multiplayer modes in AvPC2Krange from basics like Deathmatch and Species 
Deathmatch to more entertaining modes like Alien Tag and Last Man Standing.  
Here’s a rundown of each mode.

Deathmatch:  Your basic, run-of-the mill Deathmatch.  It’s everyone vs 
everyone.  This mode is the only time that you’ll have bouts of Marine vs 
Marine, Predator vs Predator, and Alien vs Alien, all three of which can be a 
whole ton of fun in their own right.  This is probably the most frenetic and 
action-packed mode.

Species Deathmatch:  AvP’s version of the ubiquitous ‘Team Deathmatch.’  It 
pits each race against one another.  One of the more popular modes.

Last Man Standing:  Yet another mode that gained popularity from Halo, but 
which AvP actually did first.  Infecti…erm…Last Man Standing starts one 
player off as an Alien, and all the other players as Marines.  Every Marine 
killed respawns as another Alien, until only one person remains.  I love this 
mode, because it really shows off the game’s ability to successfully 
translate genuine feelings of fear into a multiplayer setting.

Alien Tag:  Like Last Man Standing, one person starts off as an Alien and the 
rest as Marines.  In this case however, whoever kills the Alien takes their 
place.  Can get pretty frenetic when you have multiple Marines each becoming 
the Alien in quick succession.

Predator Tag:  The same as Alien Tag, but with the Predator.

Cooperative:  Easily the most-played mode, simply because it provides 
something to do while you wait for other people to join your game.  
Cooperative mode is basically just multiplayer Skirmish, with the added 
“challenge” of remembering NOT to shoot Predators as the Marine, and Marines 
as the Predator.  Aliens are your common foe, here.  Unfortunately, it 
doesn’t seem that there’s a way to up the difficulty, so the more people that 
join the easier it becomes.   
   
Maps
Note:  This only details the maps included with vanilla AvPC2K.  The 
downloadable map packs have their own descriptions in their readme files.
Subway:  Probably the most popular multiplayer map, Subway encompasses a 
chunk of cityscape (with plenty of buildings for the Alien to climb around 
on) and a darkened subway station.  A great choice for any PvP modes, but 
significantly less fun in Cooperative.  Aliens should beware the electrical 
fences that keep you from going out-of-bounds.  Predators should use Speargun 
jumping to get to higher sniper points.  Marines can easily hold one of the 
subway cars and kill anything that comes through the door, if they get a good 
weapon first.  
Statue:  This one is absolute Alien heaven.  It’s a confusing multileveled 
compound built around a gigantic statue of an Alien.  There are plenty of 
dark places to hide, and plenty of different angles for ambushes.  As the 
Marine, make sure to watch your back and keep moving.  As the Predator, don’t 
get too cocky.  There are  many places where Aliens can attack from behind 
you.  As the Alien, rejoice and be happy…for this is your turf.  This map 
cannot be played in Cooperative Mode.

Office:  In contrast, Office gives Marines a distinct advantage.  Relatively 
speaking, that is.  It’s almost entirely well-lit, for one thing, so the 
Predator’s cloak is much less useful.  There are a bunch of environmental 
objects that Aliens can get caught on if they aren’t careful.  And the two 
big rooms that make up the majority of the level give a pretty clear line of 
sight from just about anywhere.  Aliens should utilize the speed tricks 
discussed below, and get used to navigating without getting stuck on things.  
Predators will have to rely on their large health and the player’s quick aim, 
because chances are that Marines will see you as soon as you see them.  You 
should be careful of the deadly and inexplicable jet of flame in the 
basement.  This level cannot be player in Cooperative Mode.

Massacre:  Dark, metallic, and full of hallways and blind corners, Massacre 
provides a highly entertaining experience in any PvP mode.  It’s just really 
hard to navigate.  Aliens should beware the fans in this level, as they have 
a tendency to make mincemeat of any critters that stray too close.  This 
level cannot be played in Cooperative Mode.

Hadley’s Hope:  A very loose recreation of the abandoned laboratory from 
‘Aliens,’ this is one of my favorite settings.  With long moody hallways, 
Facehuggers suspended in preserving liquids, and even a maze of air ducts 
underneath the floors complete with a severed doll head, this provides the 
perfect setting for Last Man Standing or Alien Tag.  Other modes play just as 
well, but seeing Predators running around the level doesn’t seem right 
somehow.  This level is rather easy to navigate, so Marines shouldn’t have 
much trouble learning where the best weapon spawns.  As in many of the 
levels, Aliens get their own little network of tunnels in the ceilings.  
There are even destructible ceiling tiles, for crashing through onto 
unsuspecting foes.  Predators should note that this level has a lot of red 
lights.  So in other words, it can be harder for enemies to see the glare of 
your red laser sight.  Use this to your advantage.

Meat Factory:  A meat processing plant for you to battle in.  This map is 
made up of a bunch of different rooms, each with varying degrees of darkness 
(as well as some cool meat-factory-appropriate decorations).  I prefer this 
level for Marine vs Marine Deathmatch, since its small size and relative ease 
of navigation makes battles fast-paced and frequent.

Stranded:  You playing co-op?  Than chances are you’re playing Stranded.  
This map is the single most popular for Cooperative Mode, almost to the point 
of exclusivity.  And it’s easy to see why.  Stranded is the only map that has 
an “objective” to it.  You start at your crash site, and must navigate 
through a treacherous canyon to a bunker filled with weapons and health.  The 
atmosphere of danger and urgency in Stranded is quite compelling, and its 
simple level design makes it readily accessible to any new players.  This 
level is only playable in Cooperative and Skirmish Mode. 

Lab 14:  Entirely set on a single floor with a single ceiling height, this 
map exudes the sort of simple charm of early FPSs like Wolfenstein 3d.  It’s 
the perfect setting for Deathmatches, with a looped level design that keeps 
you moving, and also a little hidden gem of Cooperative Mode since it’s so 
enclosed.  With so many levels that exemplify fear and paranoia, this one can 
be a welcome action-heavy break.

Elevator:  A small level with a circular hallway and little offshoot rooms, 
encompassing a central elevator shaft.  I don’t think I’ve ever done anything 
in this map except Cooperative, so it’s hard for me to say anything about it.

Nostromo:  A sequence of large, open caverns with some big machinery.  This 
is another one of those levels that seems to favor the Marine, due to its 
well-lit nature.  Another one that’s good for Deathmatches or Species 
Deathmatch.  Doesn’t seem to work as well as others for Last Man Standing or 
Tag, however.

Hive:  A few small hallways and rooms built around an Alien Hive.  Easy to </pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
navigate and learn, but still full of potential hiding spots for Aliens and 
Predators.  Marines should make use of the Grenade Launcher that spawns right 
next to a hole looking down into the hive.  A few frag grenades down this 
hole can sometimes net you unexpected kills.  In fact, it’s a good choice to 
try and hold this area rather than go running around, since it’s full of 
great weapons and is well-lit.  A nice choice for some Deathmatch or Species 
Deathmatch, but perhaps a little small for Last Man Standing or Tag.  Also 
not a great choice for Cooperative Mode.  Again, it’s too small.

Compound:  One of my favorite levels for both Cooperative Mode and Skirmish, 
Compound is a big network of Alien tunnels with a couple large rooms.  Most 
servers that are doing Compound use it for Cooperative Mode, but I see no 
reason why it couldn’t be just as much fun in Last Man Standing.

Leadworks:  A map from both AvP and AvP2.  Leadworks is set inside what seems 
to be a rusty industrial facility.  It plays out quite similar to Massacre, 
although it’s a bit less complex visually.

Sewer:  A lot like Leadworks and Massacre, but with a much stronger vertical 
element.  Sewer features lots of precarious staircases and pathways, and the 
opportune placement of the Grenade Launcher makes it a great level for 
setting traps and getting “cheap kills.”  Predators should also love this 
level.  It’s perfect for hiding and stalking prey.

Jockey:  A huge mashup of everything Alien-related.  You’ve got your steely 
hallways, your hives, your militaristic garages, and to top it all off, that 
huge room with the ‘Space Jockey’ from the original ‘Alien’ movie.  I like 
this map, but it can be a real pain to navigate and to find people on.

Trapped:  This one’s a rather odd concept.  Like Stranded, Trapped is a 
Cooperative/Skirmish-only map.  Functionally, it’s the smallest level in the 
game, being made up of a single L-shaped hallway and some overhangs that look 
out into a large (inaccessible) room.  The twist is, that room is where all 
the Aliens spawn.  So you are, appropriately enough, trapped.  It’s small and 
frenetic, and sometimes frustrating, but a neat concept.  This level is only 
playable in Cooperative and Skirmish Mode.
        
Marine
In multiplayer, the Marine is probably the weakest character.  If you’re 
looking to dominate, you should probably choose a different race.  However, 
if you’re looking for tension and scares, he’s your man.  As in single 
player, your weapons are what determine your effectiveness.  Learn the 
placement of powerful guns like the Minigun and grenade launcher in maps.  
Or, you can opt to spawn with any weapon, but this will keep you from being 
to pick up other weapons during the match.  The choice is really yours.  If 
you want to be better matched against Aliens and Predators, it might be best 
to spawn as a Minigun Marine or SADAR Marine.  But I find that it ends up 
being a lot more fun to have to find your own weapons.  Always keep in mind 
who you will be fighting.  If you’re going to be getting into firefights with 
other Marines, the basic Pulse Rifle grenades and/or a Smartgun will serve 
you perfectly well.  If you’re facing Aliens, try to secure a Minigun, and do 
your best to kill them before they get close (since their fully charged Tail 
Whip is effectively a one hit kill).  With Predators, the Minigun, SADAR, or 
Proximity Grenades will do the trick.  You should also remember that, as the 
Marine, you’re the only race who doesn’t have to worry about trying to stay 
hidden.  Aliens and Predators can easily spot you whether you’re crouching in 
the dark or not.  In fact, light should be considered your friend.  The more 
light, the easier it is to see your foes.  Besides which, flares tend to 
attract enemies, so a clever player could theoretically use them to lure 
opponents into an ambush (practically, this isn’t the best strategy…but it is 
fun :3).  So don’t be afraid to use flares, and don’t shy away from bright 
hallways.

Weapons:
Pulse Rifle:  The Pulse Rifle’s primary fire might as well be shooting glass 
beads for all the damage it does to your opponents.  The grenades, however, 
are quite effective at killing Aliens and other humans, if you have 
relatively good aim.  Against Predators, however, they’re not nearly as good.

Smartgun:  The Smartgun’s bullets fare a little better than the Pulse 
Rifle’s.  Their increased power/rate combined with the gun’s autolock makes 
this a perfect weapon against other Marines.  The only downside is that its 
targeting system will lock on to enemy flares as well as enemies, so an 
experienced Marine can easily disrupt your aim by chucking a few flares 
around.  It’s not impossible to kill an Alien with the Smartgun, but it can 
be difficult since any relatively competent Alien player is going to move 
faster than the gun can track.  Against Predators, its main advantage is that 
it will lock on to them even if they’re cloaked, so it’s more useful as a 
detection device than as a weapon.

Flamethrower:  Although technically underpowered due to the amount of time it 
takes to actually kill an opponent, the flamethrower can be a really useful 
tool.  Why?  Because nobody…NOBODY…wants to be set on fire.  The damage over 
time, the irritation of having to run around to put themselves out, the way 
it highlights them as an easy target… the psychological effect that this fire 
flinger brings with it is invaluable.  Most enemies will think twice about 
getting near you if you have a flamethrower.  Plus, there’s nothing more 
satisfying than getting post mortem kills.  This weapon works best against 
Marines and Aliens, due to their lower health. 

Grenade Launcher:  Although it’s a little useless in single player, the 
Grenade Launcher is easily one of the most useful weapons in multiplayer.  
The first two ammo types still have limited application, but can be used for 
that ever-popular “launch explosives in random directions and see if you get 
any kills” tactic.  And the proximity grenades…oh, the proximity grenades!  
Not only are they effectively a 1-hit kill against Aliens and fellow Marines, 
but they also provide giddy opportunities for setting booby traps and 
inciting rage in the otherwise nigh-invincible Predators.  Useful against 
pretty much every class.

SADAR:  Even more than in single player, it’s important to realize that the 
SADAR does most of its damage from the initial rocket impact, and that its 
splash damage is negligible.  That said, it is potentially one of the most 
powerful weapons in your arsenal.  I’m not quite sure how many rockets it 
takes to kill a Predator, but it’s not many.  Use against any race.

Minigun: Once again, this is a weapon to be feared.  It will absolutely shred 
fellow Marines, make Aliens look like origami swans, and knock down Predators 
in the time it takes to say “groovy.”  Just be aware that while you’re 
standing still and firing the Minigun, you’re essentially a sitting duck for 
other players.  

Skeeter Launcher:  I’m STILL not sure what to make of the Skeeter Launcher.  
For getting a few one-hit kills here and there, it’s pretty effective, but I 
wouldn’t recommend using it as a serious weapon.  It’s too slow, it doesn’t 
have much ammo, and it’s unpredictible.  No amount of power can make up for 
those faults, in my opinion.  Use as a tool for when heated battles are going 
on in a room and you want to steal everyone’s kills.

Pistol/Dual Pistols:  The slow rate of fire and required aiming skill limits 
these sidearms usefulness even as a last resort.  I don’t recommend using 
them unless you’re absolutely out of ammo for everything else.  Actually, I 
take that back… if you have to choose between the Pulse Rifle’s primary fire 
and dual pistols, I think dual pistols would be the best choice.  But 
otherwise, don’t bother.
 
Predator
The Predator is the undisputed god of multiplayer.  Nobody claims that AvPC2K 
multiplayer is balanced, and the Predator is basically the single reason why 
(although some people will claim that the Alien is overpowered as well.).  
You see, not only does he have a ridiculous amount of health, he also has the 
Disk.  If you’ve forgotten the many virtues of this weapon, let me reiterate.  
It is a one hit kill against practically everything, and it is also guided.  
Can you see why this might slightly unbalance things?  Anyway, the point is 
that if you’re the type of person who gets off to seeing their name at the 
top of an endgame scoreboard, then the Predator is your race.  The only 
problem you might run into is that many servers will actually disable the 
Disk.  So you DO have to be strategic after all.  Bummer.  Still, though, 
your massive health and powerful arsenal make it quite easy to dominate as 
the Predator.  Use invisibility and destroy light sources and Marine weapon 
drops to keep Marines on their toes (although you should be wary of 
Flamethrowers and their respective ammo.  They explode if destroyed).  Make 
sure to keep your laser sight out of…erm…sight.  Use your various vision 
modes…most of them will also help you see in the dark in addition to 
highlighting enemies.  Learn to utilize “Speargun jumping” to get to high 
areas (this is especially useful on the everpopular map Subway).  If you do 
all this, you’re nearly unbeatable.

NOTE:  I am MUCH less experienced playing Predator in multiplayer than I am 
playing the other races.  So I don’t have as much information about him.  If 
something I say is contradicted by someone…ahem…competent, then what they say 
takes precedence.  

Weapons
Wrist Blades:  Although massively useful in singleplayer, the fast movement 
speed of other players makes these melee weapons all but useless in 
multiplayer.  I use them primarily for taking out lights and/or Marine 
weapons.

Speargun:  Highly effective, in the right hands.  The Speargun will one hit 
kill Aliens and Marines (not sure about other Predators.  I haven’t had 
enough experience fighting Pred vs Pred), and is quite accurate.  The only 
problem is aiming accurately enough to hit anything, due to the previously 
mentioned speed of your opponents.  Like the railgun in Quake III or the 
Shock Rifle in Unreal, this is one weapon that takes a lot of hand-eye 
coordination.  And if you’re good with it…REALLY good with it…the Speargun 
has the potential to be even more deadly than the Disk.  Also, it can be used 
to do a quasi-rocket-jump, as discussed in the Predator single player 
portion.  I suppose that, in theory, this could be used to confuse opponents 
by jumping over their head.  But then, you still need to be able to hit them 
with the darned thing, and anyone who CAN hit them probably doesn’t need to 
be using confusion tactics.  

Shoulder Cannon:  Never underestimate the power of autolock.  With the 
appropriate vision mode, the Shoulder Cannon locks on to your opponents, just 
like in the movie(s).  It even compensates for travel time and their movement 
direction!  Although most Predator pros seem to prefer to use the Speargun, I 
find the Shoulder Cannon to be easier to get the hang of, and pretty 
effective in open combat.  Don’t bother with anything other than fully 
charged shots (which can be saved for later by using the secondary fire, 
remember), and try to keep your distance from Aliens, since it’s easier to 
hit them that way.  Works best against Marines, but will do well against 
Aliens too.

Medicomp:  Not really used any differently than in single player.  Exchanges 
some energy for full health.  Do be aware, though, that other players can 
hear the roar that you emit when using this device.

Pistol:  Another overpowered weapon (the Predator certainly has a lot of 
these, doesn’t he?).  Although maps such as Subway give Aliens the 
opportunity to leap at you from outside its range, it’ll usually keep them 
from being able to get close to you, much less kill you.  Against Marines 
it’s not quite as effective, since they rely entirely on ranged weapons.  
This weapon often gets turned off on pro servers.

Disk:  Well…as already mentioned, the Disk is baws.  The only problem…ONLY 
problem…is that it’s a little slow, so a clever Alien could still potentially 
avoid it, at least long enough to do some damage to you.  Oh, and it doesn’t 
work quite as well as the Speargun against multiple enemies in an open fight, 
because of how long it takes to throw and retrieve it.  Still, if you’re on a 
server that hasn’t made it unavailable, the Disk is an incredibly powerful 
weapon, and makes hit-and-run attacks a breeze.  This weapon often gets 
turned off on pro servers.   
     
Alien
Unlike the other two races, the multiplayer Alien isn’t as much about weapon 
mastery as he is about movement mastery.  Generally, you’re going to be 
making most of your kills with the Tail Whip, with the Claws reserved for 
backup in case you miss and the headbite reserved as a tool for humiliating 
players who don’t realize how vital it is to keep moving.  Personally, I 
prefer to play the Alien as stealthily as possible.  I hide in the shadows, 
take out light sources, stay behind enemies (since the Marine’s motion 
tracker won’t pick you up if you’re behind them, and the Predator won’t be 
able to lock onto you), and try to choose my battles.  However, this strategy 
isn’t completely foolproof.  Experienced Marines will know what to 
look/listen for, and if they’re using their flares and night vision properly, 
it can be difficult to remain hidden even in the dark.  And it’s virtually 
impossible to hide from the Predator, since his vision will highlight you in 
stark, compromising white.  Your best bet is to try to put cover between you 
and your prey as often as possible, but that’s not really a practical option 
in many maps.  There are certain players who have managed to do quite well as 
stealth-focused Aliens (such as Emsk).  But most pros (including Aph3x-
SkorpioN, who is co-writing this section) prefer to use the Alien’s superior 
speed to their advantage, which makes it possible to hold your own in open 
battles without the hassle of sneaking.  Leaping around, sticking to and 
jumping from walls, and generally making yourself into a nuisance will 
guarantee that Marines are going to have a hard time hitting you, and 
Predators will find it hard to lock on with the Shoulder Cannon or the Disk.  
There are also certain movement exploits that can be used to get an even 
greater speed boost.  Since I’m not too well-versed on how to do these, I’ve 
asked Aph3x-SkorpioN to assist me, and he’s contributed a rather lengthy (and 
highly useful) segment on how to properly utilize the various physics 
glitches/techniques that have helped him become an unstoppable force.

Aph3x-SkorpioN’s Guide to Dominating in Multiplayer as the Alien:
Alright.  Jefequeso was kind enough to ask me to share my experience as an 
Alien player by discussing the Alien's various jumps. Since the Alien's jumps 
are rather advanced stuff that requires decent control of the Alien's more 
basic movement features, I will explain the jumps as a subsection of a much 
bigger topic - Speed.

So let's get started.

The Alien is a melee only character that lacks any advantages in terms of 
health compared to the other two species. It does however possess the ability 
to walk on walls, cause great damage at close range and it also can outrun 
and outjump just about anything. This simple analysis alone is enough to 
determine that mobility is an Alien's greatest ally, thus the lack of 
mobility will end up getting the Alien killed.
Unlike the other two species, the Alien does not have the luxury of standing 
still or camping, as the transition from standing still to running, and from 
running to jumping takes time, and the whole essence of the Alien is getting 
near its target as fast as possible, causing maximum damage while its near 
the target, and getting out before the target can retaliate.

In order to effectively reach the opponent, regardless of the opponent's 
skill level, without getting shot in the process, an Alien player has to 
master certain abilities. I have listed those abilities below from the most 
basic to the most advanced, with explanation on how to perform each of them, 
along with a short description on the benefits gained out of using those 
abilities.

Strafe Running:  To get near an opponent, first you'll have to learn how to 
run fast on the ground. Like many other late 90's FPS games(Quake,Unreal 
Tournament and so on), this game also has certain key combinations that can 
boost up your character's movement speed. By holding either the strafe left 
or the strafe right key along with the run forward key, you will notice that 
your character will tilt a little to whichever side you're "strafe running" 
to, and also that your running speed has increased. This movement boost can 
be applied for all three species, and on top of faster running speed, your 
jumping range will increase as well.

Wall Walking/Attacking:  Too many Alien players use the Alien's wall walking 
ability strictly to surpass obstacles, while opting to go for the ground 
route when attacking enemies. This is wrong. Walls are the Alien's friend, 
and if you're not taking advantage of them, you're not playing the Alien 
correctly. Walls open a variety of new ways to attack Marine, Predator and 
even other Alien players, as they tend to stay close to the walls many times 
out of a false sense of security. Two other important features of using the 
walls is that they make you harder to spot and hit, and more importantly, 
they are the key to the Aliens various jumps. Mastering wall walking is very 
important, because it will keep you from getting disoriented when performing 
the Alien's jumps.
Now that we've covered some basic aspects of the Alien's movement, let's 
discuss jumps.

Basic Ground Jump:  Not much to say about that - just a simple jump forward 
while you're on the ground. Can be done either while standing on two feet or 
while crouching. Each jump has pros and cons. When preformed while standing 
on both feet, one claw attack can kill a Marine, however, you are a much 
larger target to hit for all 3 species. If preformed while crouching, you get 
a slight distance boost and you're much harder to hit for all 3 species, 
however your claws won't do as much damage(though they still get a slight 
damage boost as well). Since all experienced players will agree that tail is 
a more efficient method of attack than claws, jumping out of the crouched 
position is also more common with experienced players.

The High Jump:  A key feature for most of the advanced jumps to come. When 
the Alien is in crouched position, look up and hit the jump key. This will 
result in the Alien performing a jump that allows it to reach great heights. 
This move can be preformed while moving as well.

Advanced jump type 1 - The Wall Bounce:  The simplest of the advanced jumps, 
and some will argue that it's the most important one as well. It relies 
greatly on The High Jump, and Strafe Running. What you do is basically 
perform the high jump towards a wall. While you're in mid-air, continue 
holding down the jump key and "turn your head" towards the next place you 
wanna jump to. This will result in the Alien "bouncing off" the first wall to 
the next. Doing this move while moving and by adding the forward and strafe 
left/right keys will result in much faster jumps that can cover greater 
distances. Pulling 5-6 wall bouncing combos will disorient and might even 
frustrate your opponent, increasing his chances of making mistakes and also 
decreasing his ability to defend against your upcoming attack.

Advanced jump type 2 - The Wall Jump:  This is sort of an offensive use of 
The High Jump. It combines features from The High Jump, Wall Walking and 
Strafe Running. In order to pull this one off, you need to climb a wall, 
center your view at your objective, strafe run down from the wall, and just 
as you're about to reach the ground, hit the jump key and keep the forward, 
strafe left/right, the crouch and jump keys held. This will result in a very 
long range jump at an extremely high speed. So high, in fact, that your 
opponent will have a very low chance of hitting you while this is preformed. 
This move is usually one of the signature moves of high level Alien players, 
due to the difficulty of performing attacks while moving at such a high 
speed.

Advanced jump 3 - The Wall Glide:  A relatively new move, and probably the 
least important one of the ones described so far. Nevertheless, it can be 
effective under certain conditions. To perform it, you must stand next to a 
wall in a way that forms a 45 degree angle between you and the wall(you will 
be facing away from the wall). Once you do that, press and hold the move 
backwards and strafe-to-whichever-side-the-wall-is-at keys. The idea if for 
the Alien to sort of try to run "into" the wall, while the wall blocking it, 
resulting in the Alien staying perfectly still. Once you've achieved that, 
you add and hold the crouch and jump keys to the ones you're already holding. 
That will result in the Alien sort of "gliding" along the wall. The beauty of 
this move is that unlike the other moves mentioned so far, this one allows 
you to accelerate; the longer you will keep the move 
backwards/strafe/crouch/jump combination held, the faster the Alien will go. 
This move has the potential of reaching even greater speeds than the Wall 
Jump, however it is only limited to situations when your enemy is standing 
next to a wall himself, or as a quick method of getting out of dangerous 
situations.

CHEATS
Cheat Modes:
As mentioned in the introduction, AvPC2K has 20 cheats that are unlocked by 
completing challenges in different missions.  Personally, I find that part of 
the fun of unlocking all of these is not knowing what you’re going to get 
when you complete a challenge.  However, some people don’t feel that way.  So 
here’s a quick run-down of all the cheat modes and the requirements for 
unlocking them.

Marine Mission I (‘John Woo Mode’):  Unlocked by completing the level with 
80% or more headshots.  This mode will dynamically slow the game down when 
you’re near enemies.  Loads of fun!

Marine Mission II (‘Grenade’):  Unlocked by completing the level with 40% or 
more.  This mode spawns you with a Pulse Rifle with 99 grenades and no other 
ammo.  You also can’t pick up any new weapons.  Odd, but can be kinda 
entertaining in a weird way.

Marine Mission III (‘WarpSpeed’):  Unlocked by completing the level in under 
4 minutes.  This mode makes the game go hyper fast.  Not easy to unlock, and 
easily duplicated with debug mode.

Marine Mission IV (‘LandoftheGiants’):  Unlocked by completing the level with 
less than 20 shots.  The SADAR is especially useful here.  This mode makes 
you reeeealy tiny.  Fun for a little while.

Marine Mission V (‘SlugTrail’):  Unlocked by completing the level with 32 or 
more Aliens killed.  This mode spawns all Aliens with one leg missing, so 
that they leave a trail of blood and go significantly slower.  Strangely fun.

Marine Bonus Mission I (‘FreeFall’):  Unlocked by completing the level with 
only 100% or less health damage taken (the game keeps track of how much 
health you’ve lost, even if you get medkits).  This mode makes the level 
slowly spin, much like that one scene from Inception.  It can only be played 
on one Marine level, and one Predator level.  However, it’s playable on all 
Alien levels.

Marine Bonus Mission II (‘UnderWater’):  Unlocked by completing the level 
with only 60% or less health damage.  This mode makes everything blue and 
wavy, and makes you fall slower…just like you’re underwater!

Alien Mission I (‘SniperMunch’):  Unlocked by getting 10 or more live 
Civilian headbites.  This mode gives the Alien a long-range bite attack.  An 
awesome power trip after playing particularly punishing Alien levels.

Alien Mission II(‘Nausea’):  Unlocked by completing the level in under 2 
minutes.  This mode makes everything wave around.  Very disorienting, and not 
much fun.

Alien Mission III (‘Pipecleaner’):  Unlocked by getting 15 or more dead 
civilian headbites.  This mode makes all enemies white, stick-figured, and 
glowy.  Strange but cool.

Alien Mission IV (‘MotionBlur’):  Unlocked by completing the level in under 4 
minutes with an average speed of 9 m/s or more.  This mode blurs everything 
that moves.

Alien Mission V (‘MirrorMode’):  Unlocked by getting at least 1 live Predator 
headbite (which is incredibly easy to do.  Just stun him with your tail and 
bite off his head).  This mode mirrors levels from left to right, which 
changes their entire feel.  Great for replaying!

Alien Bonus Mission II (‘ImpossibleMission’):  Get 20 live Marine headbites.  
This mode makes the game much harder.  If you’ve learned to laugh at 
‘Director’s Cut’ difficulty, unlock this one.

Predator Mission I (‘Pigsticking’):  Unlocked by getting 80% or more 
accuracy.  This mode gives the Speargun unlimited ammo and makes it fire many 
spears in a shotgun-like pattern (read: it will absolutely shred enemies).  
It’s easy to get, and it’s possibly the best stress relief out there.

Predator Mission II (‘SuperGore’):  Unlocked by getting 25 Marine ‘trophies.’  
See the entry about the Predator’s Wrist Blades for information on how to get 
trophies.  This mode makes all enemies sput more blood than usual.  Fun for a 
little bit.

Predator Mission III (‘DiscoInferno’):  Unlocked by completing the level with 
under 100% damage.  This mode not only turns your character into a continuous 
light source, but also makes all light sources (including explosions and 
flares) flash colorful discoball patterns.  Looks very cool, and shows off 
the game’s surprisingly good lighting effects.

Predator Mission IV (‘BallsofFire’):  Unlocked by getting 40 Alien kills.  
This mode makes all enemies continuously burn.  Makes it pretty easy to see 
them in the dark.

Predator Mission V (‘RainbowBlood’):  Unlocked by completing the level 
without being spotted more than 15 times.  Makes blood, lights, and bullet 
impact effects flash colorful rainbow patterns.  Absolutely useless, and 
kinda ugly looking.  

Predator Bonus Mission I (‘TickerTape’):  Unlocked by completing the level 
with 15 or more Alien trophies.  This mode makes Alien enemies have a trail 
much like the Predator’s Disk.  Not quite sure what the point is, but ok…

Predator Bonus Mission II (‘TripTastic’):  Unlocked by completing the level 
with 10 or more Civilian trophies.  This mode makes everything wavy, 
transparent, rainbow colored…basically it’s an LSD trip.  
     
When unlocking stuff as the Marine, keep in mind that the particular weapons 
in a level usually help with level’s cheat.  For instance, when accuracy is 
needed you can find a pair of pistols.  When you need to be fast, a 
flamethrower is usually lying around.  When you need to use less ammo, you 
can find a SADAR. 

Debug Mode:
AvPC2K features a handful of “traditional” cheats that can be used while in 
debug mode.  Unfortunetly, activating debug mode isn’t quite as easy as it 
was in the original release of AvP Gold (which was was simple as adding –
debug to the file path).  The basic steps to entering debug cheats are as 
follows:

- In the “properties” for AvPC2K in Steam, select “Set Launch Options.”
- In the text box that appears, type the following without quotes: ‘-debug –
lampcxtr’
- Ingame, open the console window by pressing either the chat or teamchat key 
(default ‘T’ and ‘Y’).  DELETE THAT TEXT THAT SAYS EITHER ‘SAY’ or ‘TEAMSAY.’  
- Enter the desired command in ALL CAPS.  Press enter.
- To exit the console, re-type ‘SAY’ in all caps and press enter.
Here are the commands:
GOD : Makes you effectively immortal.  Although you will still take damage, 
you won’t die when your health reaches zero.
GIVEALLWEAPONS:  Gives the player all weapons.  Of course.
GIMME_CHARGE: Re-charges your energy as the Predator
SHOWFPS:  Displays an FPS counter
MOTIONTRACKERSPEED #:  Lets you speed up or slow down the Marine’s motion 
tracker.  # is any number from 1 to 16.  The default value is 1.
LIGHT:  Brightens a light source around you.
ALIENBOT: Spawns an Alien in front of the player.
MARINEBOT #: Spawns a Marine/Civilian in front of the player.  # is a number 
from 1 to 15 (as detailed below).
PREDOBOT #: Spawns a Predator in front of the player.  # determines what 
weapon he is using.  1 for the Shoulder Cannon, and 2 for Wrist Blades.
PREDALIENBOT:  Spawns a Predalien in front of the player.
PRAETORIANBOT:  Spawns a Praetorian in front of the player.
XENOBORG:  Spawns a Xenoborg in front of the player.
TIMESCALE #:  Changes how fast the game goes.  1 is the default speed.
WIREFRAMEMODE #:  If # is 2, the environment and characters will be shown as 
wireframes.  Other numbers don’t seem to do anything.
DOPPLERSHIFT #:  Enables or disables the Doppler sound effect as the Alien.
SKY_RED #:  Change the red value of the sky.
SKY_GREEN #:  Change the green value of the sky.
SKY_BLUE #: Change the blue value of the sky.
LEANSCALE #:  Changes the amount that the screen tilts when strafing.
SHOWPOLYCOUNT:  Shows how many polygons are being rendered.
The Marine bot types are as follows:  
0:  Random type
1: Marine with pulse rifle
2: Marine with flamethrower
3: Marine with smartgun
4: Marine with SADAR
5: Marine with grenade launcher
6: Marine with minigun
7: Civilian with shotgun
8: Civilian with pistol
9: Civilian with flamethrower
10: Civilian (unarmed)
11: Civilian with molotov
12: Marine with pistol
13: Synthetic with shotgun
14: Synthetic with one-handed shotgun
15: Synthetic with pistol

Note that AvP’s bot spawning is a little…picky.  There are a lot of factors 
that seem to effect it.  Most importantly, remember that you can’t spawn a 
bot that is the same species as you.  Also, you cannot spawn a bot type that 
doesn’t already exist in the level.

ADDONS AND MODS
NOTE:  During the writing of this guide, Megaupload was shut down.  So 
naturally, the listed megaupload links no longer work.  The best way to get 
the files now is probably to contact K4M4CURU5 directly (his Steam profile 
can be found at http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198044223878).

AvP has a relatively small modding community, even considering how small its 
overall community is, so your only real options for mods will probably come 
from Mad Max RW, the guru of AvP tweaking.  He currently has a ModDB page at 
http://www.moddb.com/mods/aliens-versus-predator-classic-redux, which serves 
as a nexus for his Aliens vs Predator Classic Redux mod.  This AvPC2K-
exclusive conversion (no, it won’t work with AvP Gold) improves the visuals, 
adding features such as light bloom and high resolution textures, and also 
changes some gameplay elements and level designs.  It’s also completely 
compatible with multiplayer, to my knowledge.  I highly recommend it to 
anyone who wants to get some more mileage out of this highly undervalued 
game.  His page also has some other downloads, like the original in-game FMV 
movies (which were changed to inferior ones in AvP Gold, and thus AvPC2K) and 
a 100% completed profile in case you want to explore all the cheat 
options/levels without going through the necessary steps yourself.  I would 
also suggest getting hold of the official map packs and/or the most popular 
user-made maps.  Most dedicated online players have these, and matches are 
often held on maps that don’t necessarily come with the game.  And even if 
you aren’t planning on playing multiplayer, they provide great locations for 
skirmish mode.  This thread 
(http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-1111330.html) has 
download locations for all the important maps.  And a huge collection of maps 
both official and unofficial is currently hosted on megaupload 
(http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OETFJHBW), which includes all official map 
packs as well as a huge collection of user-made maps.  Finally, if you’re 
interested in learning to mod the game yourself, I strongly suggest getting 
in contact with Mad Max RW via the steam AvPC2K forums.  Not only does he 
know the game inside and out, but he’s also willing to teach anyone who wants 
to learn.