T H E H O U S E O F T H E D E A D III WALKTHROUGH Systems: Arcade, Microsoft X-Box Written by: F. Pelayo Version 0.82 © 2003 Ferdinand Pelayo The House of the Dead 3 © 2002 Sega Corporation / WOW Entertainment Inc. ======== Contents ======== 0) Revision History 1) Introduction 2) Gameplay 3) Walkthrough: (a) Chapter 0 (b) Chapter 1 (c) Choosing Stages (d) DFI Institute / EFI Genome Ward (e) L2/L3 BIO Plant (f) Information Systems Dept. West/East Wing (g) Chapter 5 (h) Ending(s) 4) Secrets 5) Credits & Misc. ============================================================================ (0) Revision History ============================================================================ 0.82 - March 5, 2003 You folks are lucky... I passed by that arcade again with nothing better to do, so I beat it again just to get a better look at the last boss - and thus improve my strategy for it. A little more about Rank too, and a Tips subsection. 0.8 - February 28, 2003 Added some new sections, completed walkthroughs for Chapter 0 and 1, and modified some boss strategies. This will probably be the last update for a LONG while, as I've spent over $80 Cdn. in the arcade on it now and don't wanna go much further on an FAQ I didn't even plan on writing. I may add more to the last boss strategy if I find someone else playing at the end, but don't expect to see walkthroughs added for Chapters 2 to 5 unless Sega brings this game out on Playstation 2 in the far future. 0.3 - February 22, 2003 Most of the basics of gameplay and strategies for most of the bosses are up, which is pretty much all you need to know for the arcade. :) 0.0000000001 - February 18, 2003 The day I started writing this. :) ============================================================================ (1) Introduction ============================================================================ First thing I must say is that I'm NOT an expert/veteran HotD player. Heck, I'm not even an expert light-gun shooter player. I've played some HotD1 and watched others beat it, and I beat HotD2 within a week of it coming out in my area. (and wasting the usual newbie amount of 20+ credits :() As for this one, I walked into a mall arcade on a whim, expecting to just browse, and walked out wasting about $35 on this game. (damn...) Well, I decided later that night that since I spent an amount equal to getting a recent, good-shape used console game here in Canada, I might as well get the most out of my money and hae bragging rights to the first HotD3 FAQ. :) Now, since I'm poor and can't afford the $1-credits that my local machine costs every week, and I don't plan on buying an X-box --- EVER --- don't expect this walkthrough to cover every nook and cranny. This will be mainly for people playing the arcade who need tips and boss strategies. Actual descriptions for the levels will have to be based on me watching other people play, since it's kinda hard to shoot and take notes at the same time. (and from the high scores on the machine I beat, only 2 other have beaten the game before me, so it's gonna be a while...) I'll gladly stop writing if someone with more HotD experience and the X-Box version. Just post on the GameFAQs board for the arcade or X-Box. ============================================================================ (2) Gameplay ============================================================================ Player 1: Lisa Rogan Player 2: G ----- Story ----- Year: 2019 A.D. Thomas Rogan, former AMS Agent from HotD1, and his personal elite commando team are searching for something in some complex. After losing most of his team to the zombies, he and Dan Taylor (his only remaining commando) reach their objective, but are then attacked and Rogan is knocked out cold. He awakens to find someone familiar-looking in business atire standing over him... Two weeks later, Lisa Rogan gets G, the other former AMS agent from HotD1, to accompany her to the complex to find out what happened to her dad. --------- Equipment --------- Unlike the previous HotD's, you must use a pump-load shotgun instead of a pistol as your light gun in the arcade (X-box users can use controllers or whatever light pistols are available for it). Properly using it is tricky. You must be a reasonable distance away from the screen in order for it to shoot accurately. I've had trouble hitting targets when I stood with my legs right next to the coin slot; sometimes, it wouldn't even shoot at all even when loaded. One advantage of the shotgun over the pistol in the arcade is its power. When delivering the last blow to a zombie, you can also damage the zombie behind it. Its main disadvantage is its size. Even using two hands, my arms get tired faster and my trigger finger hurts a lot sooner playing this than HotD2 or Time Crisis 2. The process of reloading is has changed too - in the arcade you pump the shotgun, and the home version has an auto-reload option. For the most part it's more convenient, as you don't have to point away from the screen and shoot. The shotgun also does away with the on-screen reload trick (i.e. cover the front of the pistol with your finger and shoot). Just be sure that your pump is working, and you pull it all the way back or you may not reload even though you felt you did. ------ Health ------ Same rules as before. You start with 3-5 life points represented by torches. There are hidden Life Ups in containers (drums, boxes, etc.) that are worth one life point each. Finishing one of Chapters 1-4 with higher than a B rank earns you life bonuses too. Sometimes, saving your partner gives you a life bonus. Since there are no civilians to save in the complex, they put your partner in danger instead and you have to kill all the enemies close to him/her until he/she can escape safely. You lose the bonus if an enemy hits him/her. Funny thing is, you can shoot your partner and not suffer any penalty unlike before when you kill civilians, so don't be afraid to hit your partner when aiming for a closeby zombie. For Player 1 and 2-player games, it's usually G that's in trouble; for Player 2 it's Lisa. ----- Items ----- Life Up - self-explanatory; one to find per level Coin - gold coins, when shot out of containers, hop up then land and settle flat, like a tossed coin; they give you an instant bonus once you shoot them, then disappear - blue coins stand upright and can be shot multiple times for 100 pts/hit - all coins will stay in the same spot for about 10 seconds Animals - you may see something like a frog or dragonfly come out of a container and move all around an area of the screen (and if you don't see it, you'll certainly hear it moving); hit it for a big bonus (usually 4-digit points) ----------- Boss Fights ----------- In each boss fight you'll see a long green bar at the top of the screen, then the word Boss just below with a smaller bar to the right (usually red, sometimes blue). long life bar - the boss' overall health short life bar - can be... (a) the health of a component/piece of the boss, and/or... (b) the amount of damage you must do to stun the boss and prevent it from making its next attack In cases where you must hit the boss' main weak point in order to reduce the short bar, you'll be doing damage to both the short and long bars. Even if you fail to deplete the short bar, you'll still be hurting the boss overall. (i.e. it's not like you'll never kill it if you don't stun it at every chance) Because of this 2-bar system, having good marksmanship takes on a different role in this HotD. With some bosses before, you could just take one well-aimed shot to the weak spot to stun a boss. Here, you must pummel its weak spot in order to keep it from attacking you. In some cases it provides an extra challenge for expert players as they need to be accurate about 3-7 times instead of once, but at the same time opens things up for novice and intermediate players to go crazy with their trigger fingers as they only need around 25% of their shots to be accurate. Like with some bosses in previous HotD's, you can do tick-damage to a boss by shooting any part other than its weak spot. This is helpful when you're having trouble aiming for the weak spot and are losing life points by the bundle because you can't stun a boss. You should only do this though during times when the weak spot isn't open for hitting, and you'll need a fast trigger finger to make tick damage add up to anything significant. The only boss that doesn't seem to take any tick damage is the last one (need someone to verify this), but it wouldn't be helpful for it anyway as you need to do REAL damage to it to have a chance - unless you're rich and like wasting $100 on an arcade. Tick-damage isn't really useful or needed for most bosses in this HotD though. ----- Score ----- I don't have a breakdown of points per enemy (to be expected, since the game's new), but the usual advice probably applies for getting a high score: don't lose too many life points, aim for zombies' heads, and memorize where to find bonus items. A new feature in the game that is very likely to have a relation with scoring higher is messages that sometimes appear when you kill a enemy. Most have something to do with how fast you kill an enemy from the moment it appears. Here are all the ones I've seen so far: Excellent (in pink letters) - when you kill an enemy the moment you see it Good (in pink letters) - when a kill is made relately fast Faster (light blue letters) - usually when killing an enemy the very moment before it attacks you, or if it's been allowed to stay alive on the screen for far too long Twin Shot (light blue letters) - for killing 2 enemies with the same shot For situations with multiple enemies on the screen, the game seems to take into consideration which ones are closest to you and how many shots it takes to kill each. Thus, it's technically possible to get Good/Excellent on every enemy on the screen at one time. ---- Rank ---- Before, your Rank was only measured after you beat the game. Now, you're graded after every level completed and assessed an overall rank after the ending. The way your Rank is determined is similar to before: how many times you got hit, your total time to finish the stage, whether or not you protected your partner successfully... It seems that time weighs heaviest for this, as I once did Info Systems East with S rank even though I lost 2 life points. The rewards for each rank is pretty simple: S (usually 0 damage suffered) --- 2 bonus life points A (1 damage?) --- 1 bonus life point B to E --- 0 bonus ---- Tips ---- - When playing the arcade version, the best way to hold the shotgun is to keep both of your elbows close to your body. Trying to hold it like a hunting rifle - with one arm extended out to hold the end of the barrel and your trigger-finger arm's elbow sticking out at 90 degrees from your body - will use more of your arm strength. The game's gonna take about half an hour to beat, and you'll need to save energy or else you won't be able to aim straight in the last couple of levels. For whichever hand is holding up the front end of the gun, have at least an index finger and thumb holding the front end of the pump/slide. Gripping the sides of the pump may seem like enough at first, but when the action picks up and your hands get sweaty, you may find your hand slipping off the pump or it may not go all the way back when you try to reload. Gripping the front gives you a better feel for pulling the pump back all the way with no chance of slipping. Also, lower your head so that your eyes are just above the level of the gun's tip. (hopefully your gun has a target hole on top to make things easier) - As usual, head-shots are your friends. :) Shooting for zombies' heads is still the fastest way to take them out, and thus a key part in getting an S rank for a level. They're also the only way to avoid damage from enemies that suddenly pop up from around the corner, as well as large groups of zombies all attacking at once. - Whenever the screen turns, shoot anything that moves or looks like an enemy! There are no civilians to worry about losing life points over, so get them before they get you. - When a boss releases a lot of projectiles that slowly come toward you from all over the screen, try to get rid of all the ones in one part of the screen at a time instead of just shooting all over. (e.g. divide the screen into 4, then clear the top left, then top right, etc.) If the projectiles don't all come at the same time, shoot as many as you can from one area first, then look to see which ones are closest coming up to you and keep picking off as they approach. ============================================================================ (3) Walkthrough ============================================================================ -------------- Normal Enemies -------------- Mach Series (maakushiriizu) - standard male zombies; come in various forms Morris (moorisu) - zombies with heavy axes Kageo - skinny rotting corpse; 0 muscle left on its bones Max - the hand-axe wielders from HotD2; some have chainsaws Ebitan - humanoid covered in what looks like green slime; kinda like a Swamp Thing ripoff Jury (jurii) - zombie with white top and blue pants Vic (biiko) - knife-weilding zombie; face and forearm are usually covered with some type of bandage/cloth; can jump in your face and stab you or toss its knife from a distance Big Ebitan (koebitan) - same as Ebitan, with a more rounded head and visible teeth Hugh (hyuu) - agile midget usually holding something as a weapon Aztec (asuteku) - bald, muscular, topless zombies; some carry metal beams as weapons, while ones that don't will stretch with a shoulder circle before running into you with a clothesline Charles (chaarusu) - big bald fatsos that chug along until they ram into ya commando zombies - some look like Guile from Street Fighter 2, some like Rolento from Final Fight with a knife instead of a club Birds of Prey (mookin) - usually a group of 3 birds that'll fly straight up off the screen, then circle about far away before diving in close on you bats - these come in large groups; they usually move slow and are easy to hit cockroaches - light green bugs that'll jump in your face and damage you if don't shoot them off after 2 seconds worms/eels - maroon-reddish slimes crawling on the ground _______________________________________________ (3.A) CHAPTER 0 - Reminiscence _______________________________________________ Rogan and Taylor running through a lab, when one of their group trailing behind gets bitten in the neck and then devoured by a zombie mob. They stop, turn around, and get down to business... First, you're up against 5 normal zombies. Just because they're slow doesn't mean you can take your time shooting. Pound their heads full of lead before any one of them gets the idea of doing a shoulder tackle. After them, you'll turn around and face 4 Kageos. There's a (skippable) scene with Rogan and Taylor checking and finding that none of the other commando units are responding. You then continue forward and see a pile of zombies around the corner. Again, these guys can charge into you quick even from that distance, so waste no time. After them, you turn around to see 4 Vics. Since they're standing in a box, pick a side to shoot at and kill both of the ones on that side, then finish the other 2. Moving forward, you see 5 Ebitans (or 6 for 2 players) crawling out from the sides. They can take quite a few hits to kill, so do as much damage as you can to each before they stand up. Next up, 3 Vics pop out from the lab viles. Shoot the 2 on the left ASAP before they can move, and the other will be easy pickings. The elevator's just up ahead and 2 zombies (or 3 for 2 players) drop from above. After you get on the elevator and go up, the camera suddenly moves left to show 2 zombies hanging on the bottom. You don't have to worry about making a perfect head-shot on each; they fall after taking one hit anywhere. Just be fast about it if you're playing solo or one of them will slash your face. At the top of the elevator ride, there are 2 Ebitans (or 3 for 2 players) behind the door. The one on the right is WAY too close for comfort, so blow it away the moment the door opens. As you get near the middle of the room, more Ebitans crawl out from everywhere. After that wave of enemies, the screen turns around to show 3 running at you in a straight line (easy kills, as you won't have to move your gun/cursor to get them all). Moving on, the next door you go through has 4 zombies (or 5 for 2 players) just before the end of the level. Rogan says they've found what they're looking for, but are then attacked by Death. Rogan gets knocked out, then opens his eyes to see someone standing over him, whom we only get to see his dress shoes and dark pants... Flashback scene: Goldman swears to his son Daniel that he'll cure him, even if he has to "tread into forbidden territory." _______________________________________________ (3.B) CHAPTER 1 - Chasing Shadows _______________________________________________ Lisa and G arrive at the EFI complex 2 weeks after Rogan did to find out what happened to him... Before you enter the front gate, you get to choose which path through Chapter 1 that you wanna take - Front Entrance or Parking Lot. Doesn't really matter which you choose. The enemies in the Parking Lot come in smaller bunches, but there are more points to be had through the Front. For the first set of zombies after going through the gates, head-shot the one running up on the right, then take the others apart one-by-one. In the background are a few things you could shoot for extra points: 2 zombies, and a drum containing a blue coin. Next are 3 zombies crawling out of the security booth. The set after that you have to be a bit alert for. Shoot the Morris on the right the moment you see it, before its axe comes down, then take care of the one on the left. Next, the screen moves right and you'll have to get rid of 2 of those Charles fatsos (or 3 for 2 players). After that a couple of normal zombies pop out from behing the debris. Take some time before they pop out (and/or after you kill them) to shoot the barrel that's partially covered by a piece of wall and shoot the frog that hops out for points. Back along the path you were going up, there will be an assorment of zombies around a couple of cars. You should be fine as long as you get rid of the Morris in front ASAP. The screen then turns left and you'll have a Morris and 2 Aztecs to deal with. Next comes your first chance to gain a Life Point, as you turn around to see your partner attacked. The only zombies you should concentrate on are the 2 closest to him/her (the 2 furthest to the right). Try to head-shot them, cuz otherwise their bodies take lots of hits and you'd need a fast trigger finger to get the life bonus. After your partner returns to safety and you finish the zombies off, the screen turns left to show 3 Birds of Prey. Try to kill/damage one of them before they rise up above the top of the screen. After that it becomes an accuracy test as they will circle around several times before charging at you, giving you plenty of time to hit them). Finally you'll be back on the path leading to the front entrance. You'll see the two cars from before and the crack in the ground where the Boss will pop out. There is also a drum in the background that's partly hidden from view by the car on the left. Shoot it as the screen moves forward to get a point bonus before Death pops out. Lisa: What? Lisa: A Security Guard? You gotta be kidding! ========== BOSS NAME: Death BOSS TYPE: 0011 DESCRIPTION: A giant security guard wielding a club filled with skulls. WEAK POINT: head Strategy: Nothing complicated. Just keep shooting his head and try to empty the short Boss life bar before he swings his club. The amount of damage your shots do depends on how accurately you hit him square on the noggen. Do as much damage as you can before he gets ready to hit you. (at least half of the red Boss bar) When he rears back, his head will be about where his right shoulder was; aim at that area, just outside the outline of his body. ========== After stunning Death for the first time, you'll go along the path you chose at the start of the Chapter: -------- Entrance -------- There'll be a whole horde of zombies just before the steps up. Get rid of the 2 Morris' in front ASAP, and the rest shouldn't be a problem. The screen then turns right to show 3 or 4 more assorted zombies. Take them out but not too fast, so you have time to shoot the drum in the background which has a 2000 point bug in it. Next, Death will chase you again up to the stairs - stun him the same way as before. As you climb the stairs, you'll see 2 drums. The first one's empty, but the 2nd one has a Life Up. You have to shoot it fast while it's on the screen before your view turns left. G: Hey, we're just passing through. After you go in through the revolving doors, the screen turns left to show 3 Morris zombies dangerously close (get 'em ASAP before their axes get you). The screen then turns right to show an assortment of zombies. After them, you'll move forward a bit, then turn right to see 2 Aztecs. Once they're gone, Death will bust in through the wall and face you for the 3rd time in this level. Lisa and G retreat to a double-door only to find out it won't open. G: We can't go this way. You'll then make a dash for the elevator at the opposite side of the front hall while facing Death for the last time... for now. ------- Parking ------- The screen turns right from the direction you were running in. Some zombies hop off a truck to the right. Take care of them, then fight Death again. After you get away from him, the path turns left and you'll deal with 4 zombies. Blast the closest one on the right first, then prevent the Charles' behind from throwing their drums and clean up the area of zombies. Shoot the drums on the left for an instant coin bonus before you start climbing the steps. G: Hey, we're just passing through. Further up, 2 Aztecs drop down with metal beams. Take care of them, and the screen goes to the left down some stairs. There are 4 zombies at the bottom who can run up and ram you with their shoulders if you don't put them down fast. There are also a pair of drums, which you can see from the stairs, on the other site of the parking lot entrance. Try to not overkill the 4 zombies (don't shoot them when they've already fallen to the ground) and use the time while they're writhing on the floor to shoot the drums for a Life Up. Once you're off the stairs, 3 Charles' run out from around the corner. You then walk around the corner to see 2 beam-wielding Aztecs and a Jury to the left. They're followed by 3 axe-men that run out from the right. Death then hops down from above. Lisa: G! Above you! Lisa: Well he sure is persistent! You'll fight him for a 3rd time, then turn a corner and fight him for the last time this stage before reaching the elevator. G: You OK, Lisa? Lisa: Yeah, just a little shaken up I guess. _______________________________________________ (3.C) CHOOSING STAGES _______________________________________________ After you get to an elevator, you get to start choosing the order of the next three levels. Each end of each level is connected to each other via elevator up until Chapter 5. Here's a rough idea of how they're connected: Entrance elevator Parking elevator ----------------- ---------------- | --- EFI Genome Ward ----------------------> | | <------------------------ DFI Institute --- | | | | | | --- L3 BIO Lab ---------------------------> | | <------------------------- L2 BIO Plant --- | | | | | | - Information Systems Dept. West Wing ----> | | <---- Information Systems Dept. East Wing - | For instance, if you went in from the front entrance and picked the L3 Lab as the 2nd level, you'll end up at the elevator connected to the parking lot and your next choices would be Info Systems East and DFI. No matter what you choose as the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th stages, the chapter names and the Curien flashbacks you see stay the same: Chapter 2 - Bewilderment Flashback scene: Curien shows Daniel a vile and tells him nobody will have to fear death with it. Chapter 3 - Sensory Chaos Flashback scene: Curien asks Daniel if what he's doing is right, since all of his researchers have left him. Chapter 4 - Ultimate Challenge Flashback scene: Curien looks like he's in mad ecstasy, telling Daniel he'd found "it" and mentioning The Magician and the Wheel of Fate. _______________________________________________ (3.D) DFI Institute / EFI Genome Ward _______________________________________________ Both roads lead to the same entrance to the circular cage where The Fool waits. ------------- DFI Institute ------------- --------------- EFI Genome Ward --------------- ========== BOSS NAME: Fool BOSS TYPE: 0028 DESCRIPTION: A giant sloth. WEAK POINT: claws (hands and feet) Strategy: Fool starts by climbing horizontally to the left and offering his right hand to be targetted. This part is pretty easy to handle as it crawls relatively slow, making the target easy to hit. Don't use this as an excuse to slack off though. When you stun it, it doesn't get knocked back so it will keep inching closer and closer to slash you with its right hand until that claw is "dead"... for now. Next is the right foot. Fool climbs much faster across the cage to the right during this part. You'll have more trouble hitting the target this time, and it doesn't help that the staircase you're walking on sometimes is in the way. (though you can still see the target circle on the screen, it's still an annoying distraction) You'll know that the right foot's done when Fool rattles the cage and causes hanged corpses above to fall on you. It looks like a small close clump of bodies from far away, but there are more corpses behind the ones you see so shoot them all fast. Most of the corpses funnel into one space on the screen up close, while others that are nowhere close to the centre of the screen will miss you if you leave them alone. I essentially shoot at solo corpses above and below, then fire like crazy at the ones in the middle of the screen until I don't see any more orange shirts there. When the screen returns to Fool, it'll continue its assault climbing to the right, but now the left foot is the target. Pretty much the same speed and difficulty in hitting as the right foot. After that's done, Fool climbs arm-over-arm to the left and you get to shoot its left hand. Though it moves faster than the last time it climbed left, the left hand is much easier to hit than its feet. Once that claw is "dead," you'll face another barrage of corpses from above before targetting its right hand again. Since its other claws are all shot up, it can't climb across the cage at you - so it resorts to jumping and slashing you with its last good claw. This is essentially like fighting Hierophant from HotD2 when it jumps in the air, except that you need more hits to stun this boss and prevent it from attacking. (I think I've only succeeded stunning Fool once at this point) If you have trouble hitting this last claw, shoot its body while it's hanging from the cage. You can do this at any time during this fight, but it's best to save your trigger finger for here where you'll need it most. ========== The Fool tries to grab the cage, but slips and falls a few floors while hitting some steel bars, which are supporting the staircase, along the way. Lisa: Had enough yet? _______________________________________________ (3.E) L2 BIO Plant / L3 BIO Lab _______________________________________________ For once, they've put a boss right in the middle of a stage. You'll be playing from one level of this stage to the other. Not all the enemies you see in one direction will be the same in the other direction. ------------------ L2 Plant to L3 Lab ------------------ ------------------ L3 Lab to L2 Plant ------------------ ========== BOSS NAME: Sun BOSS TYPE: 8830 DESCRIPTION: A tree with skulls and flowers on the trunk, and tentacle-stems with 5-petal flowers on the ends WEAK POINT: skulls on the trunk Strategy: Start by emptying 2 full shotgun loads into its weak spot. By the time you're done that, it will send stuff to attack you. After you take care of those, empty 2 more sets of 6 shells into the skulls and repeat the process. For the first half of the fight it sends various tentacle attacks at you: - 3 tentacles that swirl around the screen right in front of the trunk. - 3 tentacles winding around from the left or right (and these can come slow or fast) - 2 tentacles digging their way through the ground; can be one from the left and one from the right, or both from the same direction The objective of course is to destroy the flowers on the ends before they attack you. Pretty simple when the tentacles are airborne, but you may find the ones in the ground tricky (shoot the yellow spark). Even if you can't seem to destroy them while they're in the ground, you must damage them enough so that you can finish them off in one or 2 shells when they pop out to lash at you. In the second half of the fight, Sun will rely on the flowers above the skulls to attack you. When you see one open up, empty one load of shells into it, then wait to see what attack it does. If a face pops out, simply shoot and drain the red Boss life bar before it spits spikes at you. If it spits spikes up into the air, shoot some of them as they're going up and finish the rest before they come down on your face. It's technically possible to damage the flower and prevent it from throwing the spikes, but I find this hard to do by myself. Should be easy to do with 2 players that have decent aim. ========== _______________________________________________ (3.F) Information Systems Dept. West/East Wing _______________________________________________ Lisa will step out of the elevator and take a wrong turn into security lasers. Her and G run to escape the closing security barriers. After they're "safe," a big hand suddenly grabs the last barrier before it closes and lifts it all the way up. It's Death, and you'll have to fight him all throughout this level. ========== BOSS NAME: Death BOSS TYPE: 0011 DESCRIPTION: A giant security guard wielding a club filled with skulls. WEAK POINT: head ========== Like the BIO Plant, you work from one end of the stage and end up at the other, depending on which elevator you took to get here. This will remind HotD2 players of the Strength fight, as Death pops up from almost anywhere, especially coming through walls. ------------ West to East ------------ ------------ East to West ------------ _______________________________________________ (3.G) CHAPTER 5 - Wheel of Fate _______________________________________________ At the door just before the last boss, you might find yourself in the traditional Bonus Room, filled with points and Life Ups. Similar to previous HotD's where you must save all civilians, here you must rescue your partner at EVERY opportunity to have this room appear. Daniel says he's been watching "this evil" grow for 19 years. We then finally find out its identity when Lisa asks him if he's OK fighting his father... Wheel of Fate: I am... Curien. I will destroy everything, and... resurrect everything. ========== BOSS NAME: Wheel of Fate BOSS TYPE: 0 DESCRIPTION: Silver humanoid being, always floating in the air. WEAK POINT: symbol on his chest Strategy: Curien will either start attacking you or spin his Wheel of Fate. If he attacks, his first attack pattern is to send horizontal bars of electrical energy at you. They seem to arc out from his body left and right slowly, then go wide to his sides before turning in your direction. When you see him starting to throw them, shoot all him at his sides to get rid of most of the electric bars as they come out. Once you stun him for the first time, Curien will go and "spin the wheel." Spinning the Wheel of Fate is how Curien chooses his next attack. (and during this whole process, you can't damage him) When he's stunned, or some amount of time's passed by, he flies into a virtual "slot" in the background with his wheel laying vertically flat into it. From the wheel, a circle extends out that's divided into sections, each with a symbol/picture in it. It's like looking at the Wheel of Fortune wheel, but with only 12 prizes. There are 3 different symbols, repeated in 4 sets. (1 set in each quarter) Some electric bolts then extend from Curien's wheel - a few short ones and one long one. The result looks like a sword, but the purpose it serves is like a clock hand. Curien's wheel spins for a couple of seconds, and the symbol that the large bolt lands on represents the next attack. - For the symbol with an "I" in the middle, he does the electric bars attack described above. - There's symbol that looks like a heart. In this attack, Curien goes to the middle of the screen and moves further into the background than usual, then glows. After that, he slowly move straight towards you and through you. Start shooting his chest the moment you see the red Boss bar start to fill up. It should take 2 loads of shells to stun him. This is his easiest form to deal with, as all you need is to keep your aim steady and have a fast trigger finger. - The third symbol looks like 3 stick people. Curien starts this attack by standing in the middle of the screen, then zooms in one direction and off. He returns and then go in another direction (usually opposite of the first). He comes back a 3rd time, but usually close to a corner of the screen and it's harder to hit him. On the 4th pass by, he'll go to the edge of the screen, then turn and run into you from that side. (kinda like Magician after he teleports all around) This is the hardest of his sequences, because not only are you aiming at a moving target, but you also must shoot past his rotating wheel which provides him some cover. He doesn't necessarily fly in a straight line either - sometimes he goes in a slight curve, and others he'll do an up-to-90 degree turn up/down. When he loses about half of his health, the next wheel spin seems to end up on the borderline between 2 symbols. During this next attack, his wheel rotates all around him and generates spark balls. The balls then separate from the wheel and he flies off the screen, while the balls swoop one way and then come at you 2 or 3 at a time. After he's stunned out of the spark-ball pattern, Curien will spin the wheel again, but this time the wheel doesn't stop. The outer wheel with the symbols fade away, and Curien and his wheel become gold in color. At this point, you may see the green Boss life bar fill all the way back up. Don't worry about this, as the green and red bars go down in the same proportion for this final phase of the fight. As for his last attack phase, he stays in one spot and generates electricity. It appears you can hit his entire torso to do damage during this phase, so if tick-damage were to apply anywhere in this fight it would be here. When Curien shoots his electricity out, the screen turns to the right and the electric bolts hit the wall behind you. Each bolt gathers up into a spark ball that slowly comes your way, and there'll be LOTS of them coming at you. If your trigger finger's tired by now, you probably won't manage to hit them all, but it should be manageable for 2 players. A little note: even if you finish off Curien's energy bar, if he manages to shoot his sparks beforehand you MUST deal with them before the fight can officially end. This happened to me the first time I beat it, where the Boss bars were flashing and empty but the screen still shifted to the right and I got killed by the oncoming sparks. Had to waste a credit just to be alive for when the screen shifted back to Curien, and then the ending began. ========== _______________________________________________ (3.H) ENDINGS _______________________________________________ So far I've only seen the standard ending. If there are others, I probably won't ever see them since I'm not getting the X-Box version. :P How to get them is probably similar to previous ones: # of continues used ends with a 0, get a final score above whatever, beat the game with whatever rank. ------------- Normal Ending ------------- Curien's body starts to break down. He questions if this is the world that "you humans want," then says, "Daniel, you need me." Lisa and Daniel pretty much give a "whatever" and blow him away. Credits start rolling, and we see G helping Rogan walk away from the complex. They have a talk about what the future has in store, and G ends it by saying Lisa's starting to sound a lot like Rogan. Rogan asks "What's that supposed to mean?" Daniel and Lisa also get outside the complex. Daniel then stops and turns around to give his final message to his dad. ============================================================================ (4) Secrets ============================================================================ Just about everything you needed to know about unlocking stuff on the X-Box version can be found on GameWinners' site: http://gamewinners.com/xbox/HouseOfTheDead3.htm I'll list the most important stuff here for those who're too lazy to open their browser: :P Free Play - beat the game with an A rank, or get S rank one or more times on each level you complete up to the point that you die or lose all your credits; then go to Options and keep increasing the number of credits up past 9 Unlock HotD2 - beat Survival Mode ============================================================================ (5) Credits & Misc. ============================================================================ Thanks go to: - all the HotD2 FAQ writers, whose FAQs I used to cross-reference items and enemies that return in HotD3 - the official HotD3 Japanese website which I took names for most of the enemies from - ... well, thanks - I think - to Sega and WOW for making me spend more in the arcade on this game than it would have took for me to buy it ^^;;