CCCCC OOOOO N N TTTTT RRRRR AAAAA 33333 C O O NN N T R R A A 3 C O O N N N T RRRRR AAAAA 333 C O O N NN T R R A A 3 CCCCC OOOOO N N T R R A A 33333 THE ALIEN WARS FAQ version 1.00 by Winston J. Rowntree May 30th, 2003 [CONTENTS] 1-Initial Assorted Pointlessness 2-Weapons guide 3-Enemies guide 4-Boss guide 5-Well, that's it 6-Credits 7-Legalese *NOTE* This FAQ functions basically as a walkthrough, as it deals with the boss battles that make up the most challenging parts of the game. Also, this strategy refers mainly to the Hard difficulty (with 7 lives, I assume!), sinc you don't really need my help to beat the game on the lower difficulties. That is all. 1 [INITIAL ASSORTED POINTLESSNESS] -The science fiction fan should see some familiar faces in this game--most notably the eggs and facehuggers from the Alien film series which are present on level six. Also, the game's intro was referenced (unintentionally, that is) in the film Independence Day. It's really similar, anyway. Finally--and maybe it's a stretch--but the cyclops brain that is the final boss looks a lot like the head of a similar brain creature in an old episode of Dr. Who (Tom Baker, of course). I am reasonably sure that the episode was called "Paris," if you're curious. -The car you blow up at the start of the game is cool. So cool that there's a billboard advertising it later in the level. It reminds me of the 6000 SUX in the first Robocop movie. -That plane-looking thing that strafes you on level one SOUNDS like it's a helicopter. Is it a plane or a helicopter or what? I realize that nobody cares, but oh well. -The REAL goal of the game is to get on that pillar in the lava on level one, wait until the lava snake forms an arch over you, hold L and R so that you make that cool pose, and then pause the game to take in the nice screenshot! Just like in the print ad (BOOM.)! -Tactic: Don't forget that on level five you can hold the L or R button to reduce the effect of the spinning floors, or cancel it out completely on Easy and Normal. This is true for level five's boss room as well. -Also don't forget that killing guys gets you points which in turn get you the occasional free life. I don't know how many points/life, but the point is that you should never avoid enemies that you can safely destroy, such as the lava rocks on the lower difficulties. -Deception: For no apparent reason, the end of level status screen has a different method of displaying how many lives you have than the regular counter on the in-game status bar. This means that having 04 lives in the in-game display will register as 05 lives at the level's end. Your "zero life" now registers as a 1. So....don't get fooled into thinking that you have more lives than you actually do. 2 [WEAPONS] MACHINE GUN: Default weapon, preferrable only to the Spread in that you can actually target things deliberately with it. Weak, but fast and impressive-looking. SPREAD (S): Awful, just awful. It was great in Contra 1 where every enemy died in one hit, but it's useless here because it's just too weak to be any good. Plus, it doesn't shoot straight in front of you, which is where 90% of attacks will come from. Never, EVER use it on bosses, if you insist on using it otherwise. FLAME (F): Wonderful in most situations, especially on the top-view levels where it can shoot through walls, and on the level 3 miniboss where it can fire through its defences. Always worth having, but don't kill yourself trying to get it on level 4 if you don't have it. Even if you hate it, learn to like it on level 3. HEATSEEKER (H): The 'H' should stand for 'horrible.' Yeah, it homes in, but it's desperately weak--maybe more so than the machine gun! It also has a habit of targeting the least dangerous thing in a room full of enemies--especially at the giant heart boss. It's good on level 1, but then everything is good on level 1. LASER (L): Great in every way: accurate, very powerful, and it's a death ray on the top- view levels! Never pass up the laser unless it's for... CRASH (C): The greatest. So very powerful, it will kill bosses quicker than anything. Since speed is essential in killing the bosses on Hard, make damn sure you get every Crash in sight!! Nothing will make your life easier than Crash does. However, you should probably restrict its use to minibosses and bosses, since its slow rate of fire makes it prohibitive for use on the rest of the level. If you're about to die, switch off the Crash so you don't lose it! Promise you will..! BARRIER (B): Positive in every way. Makes you nice and invincible, thought pits and the tank can still kill you. Never pass it up, especially before the missile salvo on level 3. SMARTBOMB: You start with one, and should only stockpile them for boss fights--where you should fire them off quickly before you die. On bosses, immediately use the free one you get when you return to life. Great for level 6--ALL areas! 3 [ENEMIES] BLUE and RED SOLDIERS The blue ones are a joke. Always kill anything red first, because red guys shoot! Make sure you know this. SNIPERS Also red, these guys are a pain. They spew shots like there's no tomorrow, and they take a couple hits to die. Kill them before anything else on the screen! LAVA ROCKS On level one, they rise from...surprise, the lava, in a somewhat threatening manner. They're worth solid points, so kill them all....except on Hard, when they're irritatingly invincible. DOGS Scenery on Easy, no better than a Blue Soldier on higher difficulties. Jump! ROLY THINGS Them balls on level three that extend a cannon once they've rolled to a halt. If you're smart, you've got a Flamethrower to torch them with before they open fire. If you're not smart, kill them with something else--before they open fire!! FLYING ALIENS Also on level 3. They attempt to grab you and do unsavory things to you. Again, if you're smart you've got a Flamethrower to keep them off you with ease--move quickly though! If you're not smart, you're gonna find out what happens when they grab you. WORMS On level two, the segmented green thing that shoots at you. This thing is the reason you brought a Laser, or at least a Flamethrower. Meet them head on with either of these weapons, so that you hit every segment at once. If you don't have them--run! If you can't run, use your imagination. BIRD MEN On level 3, the green guys who menacingly walk towards you. If you can't kill these, you can't kill nothin'! TURRETS Same strategy as with the Roly Things--make damn sure you kill them just as they open and before they open fire. Crash is great to use, since they're stationary and you need to kill them quickly. FLYING BIKERS Parading above you at the beginning of level 4, their grenades are a pain. Shoot up and jump a lot to avoid those grenades. Don't worry about killing them on Hard, since they take more hits. You could Crash a few if you're careful. JETPACK SOLDIERS Also on level 3, they are nothing special. No, ma'am. LEAPING SOLDIERS That stupid family of traveling acrobats on the monkeybars on level three. Stay in the bottom left and shoot up, and diagonally at the black one. Black is the leader, and they all fall once he's gone. LEVEL 3 OBSTACLES The various deathtraps lining the underside of the green ship on...level 3. Just kill them all on Easy or Normal. On hard, you must dodge and weave to avoid them, though you can and should kill the green turrets. No advice of mine can help you avoid the giant arm though... Kill the giant cannon at the end on ALL difficulties! DO NOT let it fire! SPIDERS Inhabit level 5 only. Green and red, the red ones shoot and must be killed! You can duck their fire by lying prone, so make sure that you do. CRAZY THING Also on level 5, this big orange thing falls into pieces which proceed to fire rings of death at you. Duck them as above, or just run from the damn thing-- usually the best idea. ALIENS The...er, Aliens on the final level. Like the Blue Soldier, except faster and leapier. They come from both directions and must be killed as they are much faster than you. The Smartbomb is best used, since they'll most likely kill you otherwise on the stretch following the giant Larva boss. MOUTHS Spew red things at you during said stretch. You'll have to gradually kill them all if you intend to live. Annoyingly durable. 4 [BOSS STRATEGIES] {LEVEL ONE} WALLS The first bosses are the dual Walls--last seen in the first Contra game. For the first one, get high up and kill that sniper before you do anything. After that, it's a simple matter of lying prone on the lower platform so you can shoot the cannons unopposed. Hammer the big red spot last. All the while you must defend yourself from the periodic arrivals of Red Soldiers from the bottom left of the screen. Anticipate them! For the second wall you'll have the tank, which takes the whole thing down in one blast. What a relief. LOSER Called "Loser" because he is just that, this green tank-like guy blasts out of the building in the background and spews various projectiles to the left. The thing is, you can just stand at the right of the screen and shoot him in the back without taking a hit. Make sure you're at the right of the screen as soon as it stops scrolling though! KING OF THE TORTOISES Whatever it is, it caps off level one by blasting through the perimeter wall at the end. You'll have at least 3 Smartbombs at this point, so save them for when he spews out either persuasion of minion. Do not, not, NOT stand on the middle platform, as this is exactly where he targets his gigantic death beam. Ideally, you should shoot him in his giant glowing heart with the Laser. There are lots of little shots to avoid on Hard. Don't ever duck, as this leaves you too vulnerable to them! {LEVEL TWO} PILLBOXES The 4 or 5 Red Soldiers in hardened positions on level two. Most of them are pretty straightforward--just lie prone and shoot when you can safely do so (there will be other enemies about who won't hesitate to stomp all over you). However, one or two of them--usually the two in the southwest corner-- may present more of a challenge. If they just won't open up for you to blast them, you either need to cease fire for a moment, which will entice them to open up, or you need to show your back to them for a second--the most annoying thing if you've got no smartbombs, since you'll have to rapidly spin around and blast them before they close again and force you to repeat the whole process. It's best to start this level in the northwest corner, working your way counterclockwise around the level to finish in the top right. SPINNING THING The boss of level two is really challenging only on Hard. You need to know that destroying its laser cannon is what causes it to leap into the air and try to land on you, so LEAVE THE CANNON FOR LAST! Concentrate on killing as many of the balls as you can before the cannon inevitably goes down to collateral damage. As you do this, keep as little of the boss on screen as possible so that you can avoid the cannon's beam. To do this you'll need a long range weapon--Crash, ideally, or just the Machine Gun. Forget about collecting the items that the balls yield when destroyed. When he starts leaping, run in a northeasterly direction until he lands, and then spin and get in what shots you can at the red area before he jumps again. If all the balls are destroyed, he'll never kill you by jumping. {LEVEL THREE} FLYING, SPINING DRILL THING The robotic thing you must deal with after the section with the flying aliens. I'm not even gonna help you if you don't have the Flamethrower at this point. Using the mighty Flamethrower, fire diagonally down towards his red eye, jumping to AVOID (!) his spinning appengage which you will instantly attatch yourself to if you touch it. Make sure you end up on the far right of the screen once he dies. THE MASHER The thing that harasses you as you climb the tower, immediately after the battle with the Flying, Spinning Drill Thing--of which The Masher may be a relative, or perhaps the next incarnation of the FSDT. Anyway, keep your Flamer trained on him as you are forced up the building, waving it about to destroy the missiles when he fires. When he opens things up for the next stage of the battle, things get rather tricky-- especially on Hard. To get him to reveal his red eye, you need to bring him closer to you, and to do THAT you need to maneuver so that he's directly across from you. The Crash gets a special mention here, as it will kill him twice as fast as anything else. Anyway, what you need to do is to climb as high as possible, wait till he advances on you, and then move down and fire at him as he receeds. The trick is to head down before he gets TOO close and butchers you with his unavoidable drills. Move away sooner rather than later, and repeat the process until he explodes. You need to move quickly, so get the timing down FAST or he'll take all your lives in 15 seconds. NOTE: If you survive without dying once, and have both the Flamer and the Crash, you'll need to use a Smartbomb to clear the snipers otherwise out of reach on the left as you head to the roof of the building. Do it FAST--as soon as the first Sniper is in sight! THE BIRDMAN SENTRY UNIT Big flying thing with the cool light that comes as soon as you hit the roof. You will not even come close to dying if you remain rooted to the spot at the far left of the screen and fire diagonally up at his eye when its in range and when you're not shooting at the Birdmen he spews. This means the fight will take longer than it could if you gung-ho'd it, but you'll be safe guaranteed. THE MANY ROBOTS This battle is a nightmare without Crash, ESPECIALLY on hard when you can't avoid dying at least twice, so you'd damn well better bring some Crash! Using Crash, take to the ceiling and hammer the two robots as fast as possible--the red one first! They'll die REALLY fast with the Crash, and their reduced forms can't reach you up on the ceiling. The hard part of this fight is the next bit--when the massive blue guy tears through the wall and attacks with various things. Hang from the ceiling, off-center, as he makes his entrance--this will have you as close to his head as possible so that you can shoot it as fast as possible. Shoot until the moment his eyes light up, which is when you need to drop to the ground, switch off your Crash, and try to avoid the eye beams. If they kill you, use your smartbomb immediately and then start Crashing him again. In any case, you're about to die anyway (only on Hard though) from the unavoidable fire breath, so make sure you turn of that Crash before you do. When he ducks away and tries to kill you with the time bombs, move to the opposite side of the room from them (duh). With luck--and Crash--you'll defeat him before he can kill you a second or third time. {LEVEL FOUR} ROAD HOG The green tank with a gun in back that is set upon you immediately following the attack of the Flying Bikers. Killing it is best done with the Machine Gun so that you can easily and evenly distribute your fire between it and the Jetpack Soldiers soaring overhead. Take your time! You don't need me to tell you to jump over its shots. PITIFUL WALKER Ridiculous boss with giant legs that shows up just before you take to the sky. Just stay in the corners and shoot it diagonally, or straight up when appropriate. Easy. BIONIC SKY COMMANDO The ninja-ish guy who fights you as you cling to the missile. All you need to do is to jump about when he's swinging around, stay still when he comes up to meet you, jump his attack when it comes, and shoot him when you can. Take your time! Hopefully you have Crash (sometimes available right before this fight) so he'll die in seconds. LUDICROUS SKY BOSS This insane fight is largely immune to tactical approaches--just make sure jumping to the next missile takes priority over getting in a bunch of shots. Kill the top gun first, then the bottom one. Don't forget you can shoot the guns' shots before they hit you. DEFINITELY don't forget to use all you Smartbombs! If you only listen to this advice once, let this battle be the instance: TAKE YOUR TIME!! {LEVEL FIVE} THE WHIRLING INSANITY This strategy is for Hard only, since you can deal with the spinning terrain on the easier difficulties. Anyway, this boss is an ordeal so don't feel bad if you use up a continue on him. It goes without saying that his open eye is your target. He'll be immobile as the fight begins, so lay into him with your best gun--hopefully a laser. Make damn sure that you use ALL your Smartbombs. While he is still immobile, AVOID the appendages rather than killing them, as destroying them will trigger the spinning madness earlier than it has to be. Once the room is going like a top, the best you can do is to hold either L or R to minimize the whirling, hold down your weapon button, use your smartbombs as soon as you return, somehow avoid the arms, and hope for the best. If you want, you can stand on his head in the few invincible seconds after you return to life so that you can get in some solid hits. You'll die again quickly, but the shots you get in plus the free Smartbombs make this perhaps the best strategy. YOU ARE GOING TO NEED A GOOD WEAPON, A FLAMETHROWER AT THE VERY LEAST! Killing the appendages, if you can manage it, will get you an item. Don't worry about dying a bunch of times--just do what it takes to kill him!! {LEVEL SIX} GIANT LARVA BOSS This boss is dead easy with a good weapon, but annoying with the Machine Gun. Sadly, this is the only place in the game where the Spread is beneficial--so if you have it just stand there and fire until he dies. If you have Crash, do the same. Don't even move. If you have another weapon, you'll have to deal with the swirling things as they move underneath to come up and kill you. Focus on killing them, only shooting the boss when the screen is briefly cleared of swirling things. Again, the swirlers should be your PRIORITY, for if you let them accumulate they will gang up on you so fast you'll have died three times before you can blink. Once again, if you have a weapon unsuited to this fight, take your time. GIANT HEART This is an irritating fight. The boss you should ignore until you've killed the eggs that surround it--otherwise you'll be overwhelmed by the facehuggers. Immediately duck and concentrate fire on the bottom two eggs. The top left one comes next, with the top right egg last. If you're saddled with Spread, save it for use on the LAST EGG ONLY! Use the Spread to kill the last egg by positioning yourself so that the lowest chain of fire just grazes the egg. This will take a while, but you'll kill the facehuggers before they can do a thing. Once the eggs are all dead, revel in the chance to blast something huge and defenceless! How often do you get that chance in this game? Smartbombs are your special friend in this battle--don't forget that. HIDEOUS AMALGAMATION The next boss appears immediately, and is, well, a hideous amalgamation of man, machine, and...er, frog? Anyway, you're given a laser with which to do battle with him, which is a tremendous help--just make sure you SWITCH IT OFF when his face is covered--especially when the hard-to-avoid yellow things are raining down all around you. He dies in a merciful few laser hits, so make sure you stay at the left of the screen, jump on him briefly when he charges you, jump his cheap-shot death ray, and STAY OFF THE CEILING! At the very worst you should only die once. After he returns to the earth, make damned sure that you get the Crash in the next item pod. It predictably makes much easier the battle with... SILVER DRAGON ...who flies and adopts a pattern much similar to The Masher of level three. Meaning that you should be again prepared to move up and down and fire at his weak spot (his head ONLY) as he backs away. The trick is not to move as far from his strike as possible, but to remain as close to it as you can without getting impaled. This leaves you in a better position to avoid his next strike, trust me. A few hits from the Crash causes him to pull out his next trick, which is to follow basically the same attack pattern except he teleports instead of flying about. This bit is easier, but don't stop dodging and DON'T LOSE THAT CRASH--Silver Dragon is much trickier without the Crash's splash damage! RED FALCON Red Falcon is a rather abstract kind of falcon, but is far deadlier than his more traditional Silver minion could ever be. Anyway, you're going to die once here in the best case scenario, and probably at least three times in a more realistic scenarion. There's little you can do to avoid the two arms, so make damn sure that these are the first thing you kill--starting with the one on the left that you start directly under. Hopefully you can kill it before it hits you. You won't be so lucky with the second, and you can expect to be killed by it at least once. It's easy to forget about your Smartbombs at this point, but make sure that you don't. Use them. NOW! Once the horror of the arms has ended, all you can do is stand in the center of the screen and shoot straight up at the boss' two eyes and then his exposed brain--all the while making sure that you fight off the aliens that leap from the now-empty arm holes. You're probably not better off using the Crash or the Laser, since they won't be fast enough to effectively kill those aliens. Looks like the Machine Gun is your friend after all. CYCLOPS BRAIN - FINAL BOSS!! This battle is really a nightmare, and you'll need barrels of luck to get out alive. You even get to choose the means of your own destruction by way of a bizarre game of roulette that the brain springs on you time and time again. The various attacks designated by the roulette spheres range from bad to worse--the most diabolical being the blackish one that summons an unavoidable and lightning-quick serpent that will kill and kill and kill you. If you want a sure method of beating this boss, try like mad to shoot the BLUE sphere! This gives the brain a pair of silly legs which he uses to tramp about the screen--except for at the very edges where you can jump on the spot and get in a few hits in perfect safety. This takes a while, but you'll not die once. Otherwise, it's all a gamble and you'll need a gambler's luck to finish him off. There is one sphere that causes him to fire out some items (among a bunch of spiked balls), so grab those Smartbombs if you can. This boss is the hardest thing in the game to overcome, and I've not killed him myself on Hard. Thus, I can't comment on his final form, which pursues you as you flee on helicopter. I'm told it's not that hard though, and should be a relative breeze after the torment of the giant roulette brain (check out the boss FAQ by insannescorp55 for detailed info on this). You're rewarded with what I understand is a pretty good ending--especially compared to that teaser garbage you get on the lower difficulties. 5 [WELL, THAT'S IT] Well, that's it. Hope you found the strategy you were looking for on your way to beating Contra 3 on the Hard setting--everyone's goal in life, I'd imagine. Send your comments and empty threats to CHRIS_R41@HOTMAIL.COM This was my first FAQ, after 11 years of playing SNES, and I'd like to write a few more in the months ahead. If you found my advice helpful, let me know if there's an FAQ you'd like to see me write. Have a nice day! How, you ask? Well, I...oops, out of space! 6 [CREDITS] -Me, for writing this FAQ -insannescorp55 for his info on the final boss' final form, available in his boss FAQ on gameFAQs 7 [LEGALESE] This FAQ may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. (C) Winston J. Rowntree 2003