Red Faction Weapons, Enemies, and Bosses Guide:

September 29, 2005
by Alan Chan ([email protected])

The Usual:
This document is mine. Please don't rip it off or take credit for it. That
being said, feel free to post it on any site you want, provided you a) don't
make any changes to it, and b) don't charge money for it. You don't even have to
get my permission to post it (as long as it remains unaltered), but it would 
be nice if you emailed me and let me know ([email protected]).

Why?:
I know a weapons and enemy guide for Red Faction is a bit unnecessary, since
for most of the game there's only two basic enemy types. Still, I wrote one
anyway since I had the time.

Note:
This FAQ is based on the normal difficulty setting. The amount of damage
enemies can take and the amount of damage they do to you varies based on the
difficulty you play under.

****************************************************************************
*Version History:                                                          *
*(Latest version of this FAQ can always be found at www.gamefaqs.com):     *
*                                                                          *
*Update #1: - Made changes in enemy names and descriptions based on        *
*             information from the RED editor.                             *
*	    - Made major changes in weapon damage values and enemy         *
*             health based on RED editor info.                             *
*           - Rewrote information on several weapons based on replaying the*
*             game.                                                        *
*                                                                          *
*Update #2: - Corrected several typos, fixed errors in weapon information  *
*                                                                          *
*Update #3: - General corrections and additions                            *
*             Reformatted guide for better readability                     *
*             Added info about Hard and Impossible difficulty              *
****************************************************************************

**********
*Weapons:*
*******************************************************************************

===============
=Close Combat:=
===============================================================================



Control Baton:
Ammo Type: Battery Cell
Clip Size: 6 zaps per battery
Maximum Ammo: 10 + 1 Batteries
Damage: 60 (swing) / 60 (zap)

An electrified baton for riot control, the control baton is the first weapon
you receive in the game, and really isn't all that useful since it can only be
used up close, making you vulnerable to the various projectile weapons your
enemies carry. To be fair, the control baton has a quick rate of fire and
decent stopping power, one or two whacks to the head are all it takes to take
down an Ultor security guard. Unfortunately, as a melee weapon in a firearms
game you won't find much use for it.

The secondary fire electrifies the baton, which does electrical damage to any
enemies you poke with it. This actually doesn't do much damage at all, you can
actually kill guards much more quickly by striking them with the primary fire
instead of trying to zap them with the secondary fire. The secondary fire also
drains the baton's battery pretty quickly, and control baton battery ammo is
pretty rare when compared to bullets. 

On the whole, the baton should only to be used if you run out of ammo for all
your guns, which really shouldn't happen if you're even halfway competant.



Riot Shield:
Ammo Type: None
Clip Size: None
Maximum Ammo: 1
Damage: 10
Health: approx. 475 health 

A transparent arm-mounted plexiglas shield, the riot shield can be used to
protect you from bullets as long as you're facing in the direction of the 
people shooting at you. Bullet fractures appear on the shield as it takes
more and more damage, and it will finally shatter after absorbing many bullets.
The shield can take lots of punishment, and will protect you from 10 sniper
rifle shots, 20 precision rifle shots, and close to three dozen normal bullets.

Unfortunately, you cannot use a weapon while holding the riot shield, severely
limiting its usefulness. Pressing the fire button while holding the shield will
swing it like a weapon, but it's a fairly poor weapon working only at close
range and doing a miniscule amount of damage (it takes several whacks to kill
a single Ultor security guard). The shield also doesn't protect you while
you're swinging it around.

The shield also only protects about 75% of your body, and enemies can still
harm you if they hit you in the head or legs. Once the shield is destroyed,
you'll have to pick up a new one. Since they're fairly uncommon after the
game's first few levels, you won't be able to use them much anyway.

On Impossible difficulty, the riot shield has marginal usefulness in the 
game's early levels. If a couple guards have you pinned down at long range
in a narrow corridor, and you don't have any long range weapons (such as the
assault rifle or the rocket launcher's secondary fire), you'd normally be
in trouble since your pistol lacks the range to hit them accurately, and if
you try to run closer to them they're likely to cut you down before you can
get within pistol range. By equipping your riot shield, you can absorb their
shots while you run closer to them. Once your close enough, find some cover,
switch to your pistol, and take out your enemies.


Flamethrower:
Ammo Type: Fuel Cannister
Clip Size: 20 Flames per Cannister
Maximum Ammo: 10 + 1 Cannisters
Damage: approx. 98 health or 25 armor per flame

The flamethrower fires a stream of flames which sets organic enemies on
fire upon contact. Enemies wearing armor will have their armor rapidly drained
away by the flames, and once the armor runs out the enemy will burst into
flames. Upon being set alight, most enemies will cease fighting and instead
run around screaming until they finally collapse. As a bonus, flaming enemies
will set any other enemies they run into on fire as well. The downside is that
they'll also damage you if they run into you, so you should try to keep your
distance as soon as they begin burning.

A single flame is all it takes to set fire to mutants, two or three flames will
incinerate regular guards,while Elite Guards can resist a couple seconds of
flame before being set alight. Mercs can withstand several seconds of flame and
will continue fighting even as they burn to death. 

The flamethrower's short range makes it less useful than the submachine gun or
assault rifle when fighting guards, but it's wide arc of fire makes it the
ideal weapon against Capek's fast moving mutants. The only disadvantage is that
flamethrower ammo is relatively scarce, especially in the levels you need it
the most such as Capek's zoo. The flamethrower uses up ammo incredibly quickly,
but you can conserve fuel by tapping the fire button and roasting your enemies
with single flames, rather than focusing a continous stream on them for several
seconds. 

The secondary fire unscrews the entire fuel cannister and hurls it like a
grenade, which causes it to explode on impact, briefly creating a wall of
flames that sets anything it touches on fire. The secondary fire isn't very
useful as it takes a few seconds to wind up and is pretty much a waste of fuel,
but you can feel free to use it when the fuel cannister's almost empty anyway.

Flamethrowers and the fuel cannisters for them are fairly rare, so you won't
use them all that often. They can be very useful in particular situations,
such as when battling mutants in Capek's Zoo.



=================
=Semi-Automatic:=
===============================================================================



12mm Pistol:
Ammo Type: 12mm bullets
Clip Size: 16
Maximum Ammo: 125 + 16
Damage: 40
Accuracy: 4/5 (slow fire), 2/5 (rapid fire)

You'll pick up a pistol from a fallen Ultor guard almost as soon as the game
starts, and it will serve you well for a large portion of the game. The pistol
is an excellent weapon... although it's semi-automatic, it has a very high rate
of fire as long as you tap the fire button quickly enough. Additionally, the
pistol is reasonably accurate at medium range, and the bullets are powerful
enough to kill most Ultor guards with 4 to 5 chestshots or a single headshot.
Even when you pick up more powerful weapons such as the shotgun, the
submachinegun, or the assault rifle, you'll still sometimes find yourself
using the pistol to save ammo.

The only drawback of the pistol is that the accuracy decreases drastically
when you fire rapidly with it. In order to hit targets consistently at long
range, you need to fire very slowly and pause between each shot. Rapid-firing
the pistol is still effective when fighting at close range, where speed is
more important than accuracy.

The pistol also has an optional silencer attachment that you can attach or
remove with the secondary fire. The silencer reduces the pistol's noise level
so that nearby guards won't be alerted to your presence when you fire a shot.
Although the pistol's an excellent all-purpose weapon, it is somewhat
under-powered when facing multiple enemies or tougher opponents such as
Elite Guards, Mercs, or enemy vehicles, in which case you should break out
the bigger guns.

On Hard and Impossible difficulty, the pistol becomes somewhat less useful,
because enemies do much more damage to you and thus you can no longer afford
to stand in the enemy's line of fire. On Impossible difficulty, the only
way to fight enemies without dying rapidly is to shoot them at long range,
outside the accurate range of their weapons. To do this with the pistol,
you need to use very slow shots to ensure maximum accuracy.


Automatic Shotgun:
Ammo Type: 12-gauge shotgun shells
Clip Size: 8
Maximum Ammo: 48 + 8
Damage: 160 per shell
Accuracy: 2/5 (primary fire), 1/5 (secondary fire)

You'll get this weapon from the riot guards inside the miners' barracks. It's
your standard FPS shotgun, firing a tight burst of pellets (12 per shell) that
do damage based on how many hit your foe. 

The primary fire is a pump-action shotgun that fires two shells worth of
pellets at once but needs to be pumped after each shot, causing it to have a
relatively slow rate of fire. The secondary fire is fully automatic, each shot
only fires a single shell's worth of pellets, but the shotgun can fire
consecutive rapid bursts for as long as you hold down the secondary fire
button, until the clip is completely empty. 

The primary fire is excellent. The spread is reasonably tight, so that you'll
get decent damage against enemies even if they're a couple dozen feet away
from you. A single shot will usually kill a normal Ultor guard even at medium
range. Unfortunately, since the primary fire uses up 2 shells at once, you'll
only have 4 shots before needing to reload.

The secondary fire can be devastating up close, but the pellet spread is much
wider and thus is much less effective than the primary fire at anything past 
close range. The secondary fire also eats up ammo like crazy, and since you
can only carry a small number of shotgun shells at one time, you'll tend to 
run out of ammo if you use it too much. 

Because of the low ammo capacity, low rate of fire, and limited range, the
shotgun is more of an alternative weapon to use when you want to conserve
submachine gun or assault rifle ammo, rather than a preferred default weapon
in its own right. Still, it's a decent weapon for the game's early levels,
and a good one-hit-kill weapon against the Ultor guards.

On Hard or Impossible difficulty, the shotgun becomes somewhat more useful,
because of the greater need to deliver a large amount of damage in a short
amount of time. On the higher difficulty settings you can no longer go
toe-to-toe with Ultor guards and exchange fire with them. instead, you'll
need to take cover, strafe out just long enough to fire off a shot, then
strafe back behind cover before the enemy can retaliate. The shotgun's
primary fire is pretty good for this as each single shot does lots of damage.



Sniper Rifle:
Ammo Type: .50 caliber rounds
Clip Size: 6
Maximum Ammo: 36 + 6
Damage: 375
Accuracy: 5/5 (zoomed), 3/5 (unzoomed)

A rifle. For sniping. The sniper rifle's very powerful against human enemies,
capable of killing Ultor guards with a single bullet and Elite Guards or
Mercs with a headshot. It's zoom feature also lets you pick off enemies from
a distance, outside the range of their weapons. The sniper rifle scope has a
VERY long zoom (at least when compared to most other FPS sniper rifles), but
the usefulness is somewhat limited by the fact that most of the game takes
place indoors at close to medium range.

The sniper rifle's a great weapon in the game's few large outdoor areas, but
much of the game takes place inside tight, narrow corridors that neutralize
the advantage of the sniper scope. However even unzoomed the sniper rifle is
still fairly accurate and can kill the weaker Ultor guards with a single shot,
allowing you to run around and use it as a one-shot-kill gun (just be sure
to zoom for medium or long range kills, as the rifle is still somewhat
inaccurate when unzoomed).

Unfortunately, ammo for the sniper rifle is relatively scarce, which means
you'll have to conserve your shots and rein in the desire to kill every bad
guy from 100 feet away. The sniper rifle also has a relatively low rate of
fire, and it doesn't do quite enough damage to be effective against the
tougher opponents like Elite Guards or Mercs that you encounter in the
game's later levels. Still, its quite a nice weapon in the game's first
half, although you'll eventually replace it with the precision rifle when
the Mercs show up.



Precision Rifle:
Ammo Type: 5.65mm explosive-tipped rounds
Clip Size: 20
Maximum Ammo: 80 + 20 
Damage: 190
Accuracy: 5/5

An excellent weapon that's dropped by most Mercs in the second half of the
game, the precision rifle combines the power, range, and accuracy of the sniper
rifle with a large clip size and a quick semi-automatic rate of fire. You'll
depend primarily on this weapon while battling the Mercs, not only because it
does great damage against them but also because ammo for it is quite plentiful
since the majority of Mercs carry it.

Like the pistol, you can tap the fire button rapidly rather than simply holding
it down to fire the precision rifle quickly. three or four shots, quickly
delivered in the space of a second, can easily drop a Merc before he has a
chance to retaliate with his own weapon.

The precision rifle is excellent against Mercs, but since it only carries 20
shots per clip, there's a chance you can run out and need to reload in the
middle of a firefight if you encounter a group of several Mercs. Against large
Merc groups, the heavy machinegun may be preferable since it has a higher
clip size and thus won't need to be reloaded as frequently. Precision rifle
ammo is much more common than heavy machinegun ammo, though, so the precision
rifle is probably best against small groups of 2 or 3 Mercs. 

The secondary fire is a sniper zoom similar to the sniper rifle's, allowing
you to pick off enemies from a distance. Take out Mercs at long range whenever
possible, as it reduces the chances of them hitting you with their own rifles.
Just be sure to try and fire from behind cover whenever possible, because
mercs CAN still hit you at long range.

The precision rifle is a great weapon with only one very minor drawback: you 
can only carry a total of 100 bullets for it, which you can quickly burn
through when firing rapidly.



========
=Heavy:=
===============================================================================



Assault Rifle:
Ammo Type: 5.56mm rounds
Clip Size: 42
Maximum Ammo: 200 + 42
Damage: 90
Accuracy: 4/5 (primary fire), 2/5 (secondary fire)

The strongest rifle used by the standard Ultor guards, the Assault Rifle is
generally wielded by the high-ranking guard captains. The primary fire shoots
a quick 3-shot burst that's highly accurate, but requires a split second pause
between each burst. The secondary fire is full-out automatic fire, spraying
bullets as quickly as the submachine gun, but with an even greater amount of
inaccuracy. To conserve bullets it's generally best to stick to the primary
fire, since a single 3-shot burst is generally enough to kill an Ultor guard. 

The 3-shot burst primary fire is extremely accurate, and is great at picking
off enemies from a distance. It will be your weapon of choice on Hard or 
Impossible difficulty, as it allows you to pick off Ultor guards outside the
range of their highly damaging firearms. The fully automatic secondary fire
is less useful, since it's one of the most inaccurate firearm modes in the
game, but it can be useful at close range to kill enemy guards that get
too close for comfort to you.

The assault rifle is a great weapon that you'll find after an hour or so of
gameplay, useful at both medium and long range and against a wide variety of
enemies. It's your weapon of choice against Ultor guards, and can even be used
against the Mercs in a pinch (although the precision rifle is definately
preferrable). Just try not to waste the bullets for it. Oh, and the digital
ammo read-out on the side of the weapon is pretty cool, if not particularly
useful.



Submachine gun:
Ammo Type: 12mm bullets/ 5.56mm rounds
Clip Size: 30(12mm)/20(5.56mm)
Maximum Ammo: 200 + 30(12mm)/200 + 20(5.56mm)
Damage: 40(12mm)/45(5.56mm)
Accuracy: 3/5

An MP5-style submachine gun, this weapon isn't as accurate as the pistol
and doesn't do a large amount of damage, but it has a high rate of fire and
is fully automatic, spraying bullets into your enemies. The 12mm pistol can
fire almost as quickly as long as you can tap the fire button quickly enough,
but the submachine gun can be useful when facing many enemies, or a few
particularly tough enemies such as Elite Guards. It's also an excellent
weapon for close range combat and room clearing, and is accurate enough to
do the job at medium range. Just don't try sniping with it. 

A few Ultor guards carry submachine guns in the game's middle levels, and
they're standard equipment for the Ultor Elite Guards. The submachine gun's
secondary fire switches the gun's ammo type, it can use either pistol ammo
or assault rifle ammo. Assault rifle ammo is a tiny bit more powerful and
pierces armor better, but the difference isn't really significant so you're
best off sticking to pistol ammo. Conserve assault rifle ammo for use with
the assault rifle, as that weapon does much more damage with it than the
submachine gun does.

The submachine gun is a good all-purpose weapon for close-to-medium range
combat. Against single enemies, the pistol is normally preferable since
the SMG uses up ammo more quickly, but the SMG is great for clearing rooms
of multiple enemies. 



Heavy Machinegun:
Ammo Type: 7.62mm rounds
Clip Size: 99
Maximum Ammo: 240 + 99
Damage: 115
Accuracy: 3/5 (primary fire), 4/5 (secondary fire)

While the majority of Masako's Mercs carry precision rifles, it's quite common
for several of the heavy Mercs to carry heavy machineguns, and you can swipe
one from them after you kill them. 

Besides having a high rate of fire and doing more damage than the smaller
assault rifle or submachinegun, the heavy machinegun also has a huge ammo clip
and can fire 99 bullets before needing to reload. On the down side, the primary
fire is somewhat inaccurate, although it's not nearly as bad as the assault
rifle's secondary fire (in fact, the primary fire of the heavy machinegun 
is actually of average accuracy, comparable to that of the submachine
gun). 

The heavy machinegun's secondary fire has a somewhat reduced rate of fire, but
it's much more accurate. It's no precision rifle, but most of your bullets will
hit where-ever you point the targeting cursor, even at long range. 

The primary fire is excellent against Mercs at close or medium range, just
unload a hail of bullets at them while strafing left and right like crazy.
The primary fire's wide spread actually works in your favor as your aim
doesn't need to be dead-on to hit the Mercs, allowing you to dodge around more
to avoid Merc bullets. Not only will you damage them quickly, but the
suppression fire will causes the Mercs to flee and take cover rather than fire
back at you.

The heavy machinegun is great for mowing down groups of Mercs and makes the
later levels much easier, but the only caveat is you can burn through your
ammo fairly quickly (although this isn't a huge problem since a reasonable
number of Mercs carry heavy machinegun ammo).



Rail Driver:
Ammo Type: Rail slugs
Clip Size: 1
Maximum Ammo: 10 + 1
Damage: 3800
Accuracy: 5/5

Red Faction's ultimate weapon, which you'll receive a couple levels after
the initial appearance of Masako's Mercs. Firing an aluminum spike several
inches long at close to the speed of light, the Rail Driver hits instantly
where-ever you aim at, and can drill through walls, doors, and several warm
bodies and kills most enemies in a single shot. The chamber only holds one
spike, however, and it takes a few seconds to reload after each shot, so
you'll have to make each shot count. To top it off you can only hold a total
of 11 spikes at one time, so you'll have to use it wisely. Fortunately,
Mercs drop ammo for the rail driver on a reasonably consistent basis.

You also have to be extremely accurate with this weapon, since the projectile
must hit your target directly to cause damage, making it difficult to use
against enemies that strafe around a lot, like the Mercs. 

The secondary fire is the real crown jewel of this weapon, as it activates a
heat-seeing scope that allows you to see enemies' heat-signatures through
walls. Not only does this help you spot potential ambushes, but you can also
use it to shoot enemies through walls with the Rail Driver before they even
spot you. Picking off Mercs through the wall before they spot you makes the
last few levels of the game much, much easier. Don't worry to much about
conserving rail driver ammo, Merc commanders drop these on a reasonably
regular basis, and each Merc Commander normally drops about 4 rail driver
rounds each.



============
=Explosive:=
===============================================================================



Remote Charge:
Ammo Type: Remote Charge Packs
Clip Size: 1
Maximum Ammo: 20
Damage: 240

Remote detonated explosive packs used for mining, you can find stacks of
these laying around Ultor's underground mines. Remote charges are designed
for clearing away rubble and debris, and you can use them to blow holes in
mine tunnels and geo-mod through the landscape.

Because they're high explosives, you can also use them to kill bad guys.
Pressing the fire button will throw the remote charge several feet in front
of you, pressing the fire button again will activate the charge's remote
detonator and blow it up. You can place remote charges on the ground and
lure enemies toward them, or you can actually toss the charges onto most
human enemies. The explosives will adhere to their bodies, and they'll run
around screaming in terror and flailing their arms in the air as they wait
for you to blow them up (Mercs, Capek, and Masako can quickly throw off
explosives, unfortunately). 

You can throw charges on the ground and use them as traps by detonating them
when an enemy runs past, but this tactic has limited usefulness. It's only
effective in narrow corridors, otherwise there's no guarantee enemies will
be near enough to the charge when it explodes. Enemies are also smart enough
to try and shoot any explosive charges they see lying around, so there's a
good chance they'll blow up your trap from a distance rather than stepping
near it. Still, you can occasionally nail enemies with this trick, although
it's normally simpler just to walk up to them and fill them full of lead.

Remote charges have a limited throwing range and become less and less common
in the game's later levels, so you probably won't use them very much
throughout the game. They can be useful in certain specific situations,
however.



Rocket Launcher:
Ammo Type: Rockets
Clip Size: 6
Maximum Ammo: 18 + 6
Damage: 400

You'll pick up the rocket launcher surprisingly early on the game, during
the first few levels. The rockets it fires do a relatively decent amount of
explosive damage, but the weapon is hampered by its relatively slow-moving 
projectiles, its somewhat slow rate of fire, small splash damage radius,
and the relative rarity of the ammo it uses. The splash damage usually isn't
big enough to kill multiple enemies, and you need to fire multiple rockets
to kill the stronger opponents like Elite Guards or Mercs. While a single
rocket is powerful enough to kill the regular Ultor guards, bullets are
generally more effective. 

Still, the rocket launcher is useful against big, armored opponents such as
enemy vehicles or robots, and thanks to Geo-Mod you can use it to tunnel
through the landscape. The rocket launcher's secondary fire allows you to lock
onto enemies, causing the rocket to home in on them. To use the secondary fire,
point the rocket launcher's aiming reticule at an enemy, then hold down the
secondary fire button. The rocket launcher will emit an increasingly rapid
beeping sound, and when the beeping sound becomes a steady hum the rocket will
have locked onto your enemy, and you can release the secondary fire button to
fire a homing rocket. Releasing the secondary fire button before a lock has
been established will fire a regular old non-homing rocket. 

Finally, a computer screen scope attached to the side of the rocket launcher
serves as a thermal imaging sensor, showing the thermal outline of any enemies
in front of the rocket launcher. This is a cool feature that allows you to see
bad guys even through walls, but since you can't use it to aim and since the
rocket launcher can't fire through walls, it's not nearly as useful as the
thermal imaging scope on the rail driver.

Because the rockets fired from the launcher travel somewhat slowly, it's 
actually rather easy for enemy guards to strafe out of their way. You can
get somewhat better results by aiming at their feet, but they sometimes strafe
outside the blast radius before the rocket hits. The homing function of the
secondary fire is extremely accurate, but takes a few seconds to lock onto 
an enemy. The secondary fire is mostly useless up close since enemies can
shoot you up while you're waiting for the rocket to lock on. It can be very
useful at long range, however, especially for striking fast-moving enemies
that would otherwise be difficult to hit.

One final quirk of the rocket launcher is that the rockets are NOT fired at
the center of the crosshair. Instead, they'll hit slightly down and to the
right of where the crosshair is. Keep this in mind and compensate for it
whenever you fire off a rocket manually.



Grenade:
Ammo Type: Grenades
Clip Size: 1
Maximum Ammo: 8
Damage: 215

Futuristic, computerized weapons shaped like old WWI German potato mashers,
despite their high-tech appearance these items behave pretty much like their
20th century counterparts... throw them at a bad guy and watch them go boom.

Throwing with the primary fire tosses a timed grenade that bounces off objects
and explodes after a set amount of time. The fuse on the grenades is VERY
long, and it takes several seconds for the grenade to explode. 

Throwing with the secondary fire tosses an impact grenade that explodes as soon
as it hits something. Grenades are uncommon, but that's OK because they're
actually not that useful either. Their range is limited, their splash damage
radius is actually pretty small, and it takes a couple seconds to activate,
wind back, and toss them... time which could have been better used shooting
half a dozen bullets at your enemies with a gun. 

I never ended up using grenades during the game, mostly because of the
annoying two second delay it takes to throw one. Theoretically you could try
hiding behind a low barrier and chucking grenades over it at your enemies,
but I never encountered such a situation while playing the game.

On the higher difficulties, grenades have some slight usefulness, in that
you can toss them around corners to kill enemies, to avoid exposing
yourself directly to their line of fire.



Fusion Rocket Launcher:
Ammo Type: Fusion Rockets
Clip Size: 1
Maximum Ammo: 5 + 1
Damage: 1600

The Fusion Rocket Launcher is the last and biggest weapon you'll obtain. It
fires a single energy rocket which travels very slowly, but which makes an
enormous nuclear explosion upon impact, killing almost everything within its
blast radius (try not to look directly at the blast). 

Like the Rail Driver, the Fusion Rocket Launcher can only carry one projectile
at a time, and must be reloaded after each shot. It's excellent for clearing
out large groups of bad guys, but you won't pick it up until the very end of
the game, and ammo is incredibly scarce for it. Of course, with such a
powerful weapon you don't really need a fast rate of fire. 

Unfortunately, this weapon takes up almost 1/3 of the screen, seriously
blocking your view. The Fusion Rocket Launcher doesn't have a secondary fire,
but then again it doesn't need one. Heavy Mercs will bring out Fusion Rocket
Launchers to destroy you in the game's last few levels after you destroy
Ultor's space station, and you should be able to pick one up from them then.



**********
*Enemies:*
*******************************************************************************

NOTES:

On the higher difficulty settings, enemies do more damage with their
weapons and strafe and evade more often instead of standing still. Enemies
also appear to be slightly more accurate on the higher difficulties, but the
difference isn't too dramatic (unlike, say, Halo's Legendary mode). Enemy
health and durability is the same regardless of difficulty level.

Damage values for enemy weapons are for Normal difficulty. On Easy
difficulty, enemies do less than half as much damage (150% less damage).
On Hard difficulty, enemies do approximately 60% more damage. On Impossible
difficulty, enemies do more than twice as much damage (approximately 125%
more). 

Impossible difficulty is extremely difficult. At full health and armor, Ultor
guards can kill you in approximately 9 shots, while Mercs can kill you in 4
shots. Thus, on Impossible difficulty you and your enemies are nearly
physically equal in terms of how much punishment you can take.

Damage values indicate how much total damage a weapon does. If the player
is wearing armor, half of the total damage is taken from health and the
other half from armor. (At full health and armor, you essentially can survive
200 damage). 

Enemies also take 50% damage to their health if they have armor left.(So a
Merc with 200 health and 250 armor would be able to survive 400 damage).

Shots to the head do about 5.125 times the damage a shot to the
chest would (thus, a headshot from the pistol would do 205 damage instead
of the usual 40 damage). You cannot headshot robots or non-human mutants.
Likewise, shots to the arms or legs do somewhat less damage than a normal
shot to the chest would.

Enemies use the same weapons as you, but the amount of damage they do
with them is seriously reduced.

For some reason, large enemies such as the Rock Worm and the Combot have
significantly reduced health if you fight them after loading from a
savegame on the same level as they are.



============================
=Allies and Non-combatants:=
===============================================================================

Not everyone on Mars is trying to kill you. Fellow miners and Red Faction
fighters are your allies, and will even fight on your side (albeit very poorly)
in a few minor encounters. You'll also encounter many civilian employees of
Ultor throughout the game, and although these people will fear and dispise you,
they aren't actually armed with weapons and thus are technically non-hostiles.



Red Faction Miner Rebel:
Appearance: Miner in red envirosuit (outdoors) or red prisoner-like
coveralls (indoors)
Weaponry: Varies
Health: 100
Armor: 100
Difficulty: None

Members of the Red Faction rebellion against Ultor, miners (the guys in the red
envirosuits) will fight on your side against any enemies you encounter.
Unfortunately, miners are lousy fighters. In any given situation where you
find miners battling security guards or Mercs, the miners will always lose 
unless you step in and interfere. In some cases the miners are simply
outmatched (such as when battling Mercs), but often they're scripted to die
the moment you step into a room.

Throughout the game you'll find miners wielding a variety of weapons, from
pistols to sniper rifles to rocket launchers. You actually won't find very
many miners helping you, usually you'll only come across a couple of them
during a few scripted sequences in the game.



Ultor Medic:
Appearance: Male medic in white uniform with red cross, Female medic in
nurse's uniform
Weaponry: Healing Hypo
Health: 25
Difficulty: None

Ultor medics are sworn to heal anyone that needs their help, even Red Faction
rebels such as yourself. Talk to them and they can heal you to 100 health an
infinite number of times. Only medics equipped with a hypo will be able to
heal you, the others will simply tell you that they're out of supplies.
Medics come in both male and female varieties, but the males generally have
hypos and the females generally don't (although this isn't always the case).

Like civilians, medics will cower in terror if you approach them with your
weapon drawn. Since they're no help to you in such a condition, you'll have
to exit the room, holster your weapon, and wait a few minutes for the medic
to calm down. Since medics can restore your health to full an infinite number
of times, it's a good idea to keep them alive and revisit them whenever you
need a pick-me-up. They're especially important on Impossible difficulty,
where you'll burn through health very quickly and will definately need a
infinite renewable source of it.



Ultor Employee:
Appearance: Technicians in uniforms, men in bio-hazard suits, executives in
business suits, scientists in lab coats, etc.
Weaponry: None:
Health: 25/75
Difficulty: None

Workers, scientists, and executives employed by the Ultor corporation,
civilians will neither support nor hinder you throughout the game. If you try
to talk to them they'll simply refuse to help you, and if you approach them
with your weapon drawn they'll either cower in terror or run away calling
for the guards. 

In the spirit of the game (RED Faction... not particularly subtle) you can
kill the capitalist scum if you're feeling particularly Marxist, but usually
there's no point in wasting your ammo (unless of course you're in a stealth
mission where keeping the guards unalert to your presence is important). Ultor
Employees rarely if ever drop items or ammo, so even if you don't give a damn
about commiting war crimes, killing them is still pretty much just a waste of
bullets.



==============
=Ultor Guards=
===============================================================================

The boys in blue, easily distinguished from miners by their blue envirosuits
and uniforms. These folks will be your primary adversaries throughout the game,
and you'll fight them in practically every level until about 3/4ths into the
game when the Mercs show up. They're smart enough to occasionally strafe away
from your shots, take cover behind obstacles, and temporarily flee when
injured, but their low durability, rather bad aim, poor selection of weaponry,
and tendency to stand in the same spot for long periods of time while firing
make them more of a nuisance than a challenge. Still, they can wear away at
your health and armor as you face wave after wave of them, especially in some
of the later levels where health and armor refills are scarce.



Ultor Envirosuit Guard:
Appearance: Man in blue, lightly armored envirosuit
Weaponry: Control Baton (2 damage)
          12mm Pistol (10 damage)
          Shotgun (40 damage)
          Submachine gun (7 damage)
          Assault Rifle (10 damage)
          Sniper Rifle (47 damage)
          Rocket Launcher (20 damage)
          Grenades (72 damage)
Health: 100
Armor: 100
Difficulty:**

When operating in the cold, airless enviroments exposed to the Martian
atmosphere, Ultor guards wear their armored envirosuits into combat. Their
envirosuits provide just a wee bit more protection than the bulletproof vests
they wear indoors, but it really doesn't make that much of a difference, the
small amount of extra armor merely means they can survive an additional bullet
before dying. They're still easily dispatched with a few pistol shots, a
single shotgun blast, or a single headshot from any weapon.

Both regular security guards and guard captains can be found wearing
envirosuits, and thus some envirosuit guards can be found using regular
security guard weapons, while others pack guard captain weapons such as
assault rifles and even sniper rifles. 

During the first few levels, a few envirosuit guards will try to rush up
and whack you with control batons, these guards are particularly pathetic
due to their limited range and measily damage (although they do run at you
surprisingly fast). 

A few envirosuit-wearing guards also use rocket launchers or grenades against
you, but the damage done is surprisingly light, it's not too tough to dodge
the incoming rockets at medium or long range.



Ultor Security Guard:
Appearance: Man in blue uniform with helmet and bulletproof vest
Weaponry: 12mm Pistol (10 damage)
          Shotgun (40 damage)
          Submachine gun (7 damage)
Health: 100
Armor: 50
Difficulty: **

The most common, lowest ranking member of Ultor's security forces, these
regular security guards are equipped with the poorest weapons and are the
easiest to terminate. Their bulletproof vests barely provide any protection
against your weapons, and it only takes a few bullets or a single headshot to
bring them down. 

Guards equipped with pistols or submachine guns have atrocious aim, and at
medium range will only hit you with one or two bullets from an entire clip.
Coupled with the low damage done by their attacks, and these guards are
barely a threat as long as you're even halfway competant. 

Guards armed with shotguns can be somewhat tougher, but as long as you
keep your distance the damage from their attacks will be significantly
reduced. 

At first security guards are mostly armed with 12mm pistols, but in the later
levels they'll be more likely to use shotguns and submachine guns against you.



Ultor Riot Guard:
Appearance: Man in padded blue riot armor with yellow chest protector
and boxy helmetwith opaque faceplate
Weaponry: Control Baton (2 damage)
          Shotgun (40 damage)
          Rocket Launcher (20 damage)
Health: 150
Armor: 200
Difficulty: **

Ultor sends in riot guards after the first few levels to suppress the
spreading rebellion in mine M-4 and the nearby miner's barracks. Some riot
guards are equipped only with control batons, and thus shouldn't pose much
of a challenge. However, many of them carry automatic shotguns, especially
inside the miner's barracks, which makes them the deadliest guards you'll
face in the game's first few levels. Fortunately, they only use the shotgun's
primary fire, so their actual rate of fire is fairly low. Also, due to the
shotgun's spread, they don't do much damage at long range, allowing you to
pick them off from a distance with your pistol. They can still do serious harm
to you in narrow spaces and close quarters, though. 

Many riot guards can withstand somewhat more damage than the regular guards,
but for the most part their fancy armor doesn't actually make them any tougher
than the normal guards. You'll mainly encounter riot guards inside the miner's
barracks near the beginning of the game, and won't be seeing them afterwards.



Ultor Guard Captain:
Appearance: Ultor guard in dark blue uniform with yellow-trim shoulder pads
and red helmet visor
Weaponry: Assault Rifle (10 damage)
          Sniper Rifle (47 damage)
Health: 100
Armor: 75
Difficulty: **

These higher-level Ultor guards are equipped with assault rifles, and can be
distinguished by their red helmet visors and gold-trimmed shoulder pads, as
well as the yellow stripe that runs down the middle of their helmet. They
like to spray bullet rapidly with their assault rifle's secondary fire, and
are a little tougher and more agile than the regular Ultor guards. They're
still not anything to write home about, especially since their aim is only
somewhat less bad than that of the regular Ultor guards.

Just be sure to take cover when you see them and kill them quickly with your
own assault rifle, because the damage from their attacks can quickly add up,
especially when you confront them in groups or alongside other Ultor guards.

A couple guard captains are specialized snipers, and they can do serious damage
to you if you get into their line of fire without realizing they're there.
Fortunately guard captains armed with sniper rifles are extremely rare, almost
all of them are equipped with assault rifles.



Ultor Elite Guard:
Appearance: Futuristic Secret Service Guy with dark sunglasses, comm headset,
crew-cut, beige uniform, and bulletproof vest.
Weaponry: Submachine gun (7 damage)
Health: 500
Armor: 250
Difficulty:***

The personal bodyguards of Ultor's corporate executives, Elite Guards are
incredibly tough, and if you think they're go down as easily as the regular
guards you fought before, you'll be in for an unpleasant surprise. Though
they're 'only' armed with submachine guns, Elite Guards have excellent aim
and can really reduce your health quickly if you don't try to get out of
their line of fire. They're also more agile and intelligent than regular
guards, and they can rapidly run out of your line of fire to avoid your
shots, and can even drop and roll to evade you. 

Additionally, Elite Guards tend to have better armor and are often much
more durable than the regular Ultor guards. The Elite Guards in the Admin
Area near Gryphon's office can survive twice as much damage as a regular
Ultor guard, while Capek's personal bodyguards are incredibly tough and can
survive 4 to 6 times as much damage. 

Elite Guards can also resist a few seconds worth of fire damage, although
when set on fire they still run around screaming just like regular guards.
This makes the flamethrower an excellent weapon against them, but since ammo
is so scarce for it you probably won't be able to use it very much. Ideally
you should either snipe them with the sniper rifle at a distance outside
their range of fire, or in close quarters engage them with the submachine gun
or the assault rifle's secondary fire, as the repeated bullet hits will stun
them and prevent them from attacking as often.



===================
=Ultor Mercenaries=
===============================================================================

Masako's Mercenaries show up in the later half of the game, after you kill
Capek, and they quickly replace the Ultor guards as your primary enemies.
Unlike the guards, Mercs are skilled and dangerous enemies that can kill you
real quick if you're not prepared. Like the Elite Guards, they're much more
agile and difficult to hit than the regular guards, constantly stepping out
of the way when you try to point your gun at them. 

Remote charges don't adhere well to the Mercs' armored envirosuits, and will
slip off and fall to the ground after a couple of seconds. Their heavy armor
makes them resistant to flames, and it takes several seconds of being soaked
in napalm before they catch fire. Mercs also continue to fight to the death
when on fire, instead of running around and screaming in pain like guards do.

They also aren't stunned by being shot. With extremely damaging weapons and
high durability, the Mercs increase the difficulty of the game by several
orders of magnitude when they begin to appear.



Ultor Grunt Mercenary:
Appearance: Man in thin armored combat envirosuit with reflective faceplate
(looks somewhat like Cobra Commander).
Weaponry: Precision Rifle (25 damage)
          Grenades (72 damage)
          Flamethrower (1 damage)
Health: 200
Armor: 250
Difficulty:***

The most common Mercs, Merc grunts are armed with precision rifles, which
have a decent rate of fire, high accuracy, and do a significant amount of
damage. Don't even think about trying to take these guys on with the weapons
you got from the Ultor guards. Mercs can survive more than twice as much
damage as the regular Ultor guards. It takes several submachine gun or assault
rifle bullets or 2 or 3 headshots to bring down a Merc, during which they'll
be seriously hurting you with their much more damaging precision rifles.

Instead, fight them with their own weapons. A few chest shots or a single
headshot from the precision rifle will easily kill a Merc, and by tapping the
fire button rapidly instead of holding it down you can fire the rifle several
times in a split second. Occasionally it's possible to shoot them from long
range with the assault rifle's primary fire, but for close encounters you
really need to use the precision rifle. 

Inside the Merc Barracks in the game's last few levels, a few Merc grunts
carry grenades instead of a rifle, but as long as you keep your distance from
them they shouldn't pose too much of a threat, and sometimes even help you out
by accidentally killing a few of their fellows with their careless grenade
throwing. 

Also inside the Merc Barracks are several grunts carrying flamethrowers, and
they can be murderous in close quarters as their flamethrowers will rapidly
eat away at your armor and then your health as long as you're being set on
fire. Be sure to quickly back away from any grunts you see with a
flamethrower, and gun them down from a distance.



Ultor Heavy Mercenary:
Appearance: Man in extremely bulky combat armor with metal chestplates,
wearing a boxy helmet with reflective faceplate.
Weaponry: Precision Rifle (25 damage)
          Heavy Machinegun (21 damage)
          Fusion Rocket Launcher (79 damage)
Health: 400
Armor: 750
Difficulty:***

Recognizable by their larger frame and bulkier armor, heavy Mercs are real
powerhouses and can withstand a large amount of damage before going down.
They're also equipped with some seriously big guns. Although heavy Mercs
sometimes use precision rifles, more often than not they'll attack you with
heavy machineguns. Some Heavy Mercs will even attack with fusion rocket
launchers in the game's last few levels. 

Heavy Mercs can be murderous in close quarters due to their heavy machinegun's
extremely high rate of fire, but their accuracy suffers greatly at long range
and thus they're somewhat less dangerous than Mercs with precision rifles
when engaged at a distance. Heavy Mercs can also survive almost twice as much
damage as the regular Merc grunts, so be prepared to really lay into them when
you fight them. Both the precision rifle and the heavy machinegun work
relatively well against heavy Mercs, with the heavy machinegun being slightly
better since it's high rate of fire and large spread make it easier to hit
Mercs even when they strafe around, and the supression fire effect will
often cause Mercs to retreat instead of firing back at you.

Towards the end of the game heavy Mercs armed with fusion rocket launchers
start to show up, but although they can knock out a large chunk of your health
and armor, they can't kill you instantly like Merc commanders carrying rail
drivers. The fusion rocket launcher makes a very big boom and the flash will
blind you for a brief second, but the fusion projectile moves relatively
slowly and you can actually survive a couple of direct hits. The big difficulty
that comes up when facing fusion rocket launcher-armed Mercs is that the
explosion radius is so large it's almost impossible to completely avoid the
blast, so no matter how quickly you try to dodge you'll still take some splash
damage. Mercs armed with fusion rocket launchers also carry precision rifles,
which they will pull out if you get too close for them to safely fire their
launchers.



Ultor Commander Mercenary:
Appearance: Man in slightly bulky combat armor with shoulder pads
and plastic breastplate, wearing a boxy helmet with reflective faceplate.
Weaponry: Precision Rifle (25 damage)
          Rail Driver (690 damage)
Health: 250
Armor: 400
Difficulty:****

The leaders of Ultor's Merc forces are potentially the deadliest opponents
you'll face in the game. Although they sometimes fight with only precision
rifles and can survive only slightly more damage than the regular Merc grunts,
Merc Commanders are often armed with deadly rail drivers that are highly
accurate and can kill you with a single shot.

When dealing with Merc Commanders armed with rail drivers, your only hope is
to strafe left and right like crazy and hope that they miss. This is no
guarantee, however, as the Merc Commanders are extremely accurate and can even
hit you when you're moving around. If you do manage to avoid their first shot,
you should kill them immedietely while they're reloading before they can get
in a second shot. 

Like all Mercs, they're best killed with either the precision rifle or the
heavy machinegun. The precision rifle kills them more quickly, but the heavy
machinegun allows you to concentrate on strafing and doesn't force you to
waste time aiming precisely at them. You need to be extra vigilant when
fighting Merc Commanders, as a single mis-step will result in an instant
game over.

Since Merc Commanders are so deadly, you don't want to face them head-on if
you don't have to. If you know a Merc Commander is waiting for you on the other
side of a door or wall, instead of running into their line of sight to fight
them, it's actually a better idea to use the heat-scanning mode of your own
rail driver to shoot them through the wall. Alternatively, if the Merc
Commander has been alerted to your presence, you can camp the door and
wait for them to open it, at which point you should kill them quickly before
they can react.


================
=Robot Enemies:=
===============================================================================

Besides facing a small army of security guards and mercenaries, you'll also
have to deal with a few scattered security robots and automated turrets.
Robotic enemies are fairly rare and only show up in a few select levels.
There's a small variety of them, and while some of them are mere nuisances,
others can be quite deadly. Although they're not actually wearing armor, their
metal bodies serve as permanent armor giving them increased resistance against
bullets. In fact, robots only take 83% damage from pistol bullets and 55%
damage from assault rifle rounds. They have no resistance against explosives,
however, and in fact explosives do slightly extra damage against robots
(approximately 35% more).



Sentry Turret:
Appearance: Automated machine gun mounted on a tripod
Weaponry: Machine gun (6 damage)
Health: 400
Difficulty:***

Automated sentry guns positioned at various points in Ultor's installations,
these sentry turrets lock onto you as soon as you step into their view, and
begin blasting at you with a rapid flurry of machine gun fire. Turrets are
more accurate and have a much higher rate of fire than security guards, and
you can quickly lose quite a bite of health if you stand in their line of
fire for more than a couple of seconds. Instead of facing them head-on, your
best bet is to duck in and out of cover and blast them with either a rocket
or a explosive.



Ceiling Turret:
Appearance: Gun sticking out of a small metal pod on the ceiling
Weaponry: Machine gun (6 damage)
Health: 60
Difficulty:*

Small ceiling turrets are much less durable than the tripod-mounted variety,
but they can be very annoying since you'll often not spot them when you run
into a room until they already started to shoot bullets into you. They're
difficult to spot since they're small and the same color as the rest of the
ceiling, and you'll usually be too busy looking ahead for Ultor guards or
Mercs to look up at the ceiling. Blow them away as quickly as possible with
whatever weapon you happen to be carrying when you encounter them. Their
range is limited, so if you know where they are you can snipe at them from
a distance without being shot at.



Capek Mecha Turret:
Appearance: Yellow TIE-fighter shaped probe
Weaponry: Machine gun (6 damage)
Health: 30
Difficulty:*

These crate-sized robot turrets slowly hover through the air towards you.
You'll encounter a couple of of them guarding the entrance to Capek's Zoo.
They attack you with weak machinegun fire, and they're also quite delicate...
a couple bullets is all it takes to blow them up. Their small size makes
them a bit difficult to hit, but you should manage well with the assault
rifle's accurate primary fire.



Spike Robot:
Appearance: Floating grey cylinder with a glowing red monoeye on top
Weaponry: TriLaser (50 damage, ignores armor)
Health: 150
Difficulty:*

Slightly tougher than the mecha turrets, spike robots also float through the
air, but they attack with a powerful green energy ball. It takes them a couple
of seconds to charge the energy shot, but it travels quickly and bypasses your
armor entirely to do a whopping 50 damage directly to your health. The energy
balls are fast but can still be dodged by strafing, but it's game over if you
get hit by them more than once. The spike robots can also withstand a decent
amount of damage as well. You should fight them from a distance, as the further
away from them you are the more time you have to sidestep their shots. A couple
bursts of the assault rifle should blow them up just fine.



Mercenary Mecha Turret:
Appearance: Yellow TIE-fighter shaped probe
Weaponry: Laser (19 damage)
Health: 30
Difficulty:**

Merc mecha turrets are essentially the same as those used by Capek, except
they're been upgraded to attacking with rapid-fire laser bolts. The laser
bolts are almost as damaging as precision rifle bullets, but fortunately these
mecha turrets are just as delicate as the Capek version. A single shot from
your own precision rifle should be enough to kill them. You'll encounter them
onboard the Ultor Orbital Space-station, where they can ambush you from way
above or below if you're not careful. As long as you proceed carefully and
destroy them before they can lock onto and start shooting at you, you should
do fine against them. Just be careful, because they have a fondness for
lurking just behind closed doors waiting to ambush you.



Ultor Combat Drone:
Appearance: 10-foot tall robot with a humanoid upper torso (with a pair of
cannons for arms) and a spherical lower torso equipped with floating jets.
Weaponry: Machine gun (6 damage)
          Rocket launcher (20 damage)
          Punch (fatality)
Health: 2100
Difficulty:***

The Ultor Combat Drone awaits you in a large airlock located early in the game,
shortly after you witness the destruction of the evacuation shuttle by Ultor's
ground defenses. The Drone's right arm-cannon contains a machine gun, while its
left arm-cannon contains a rocket launcher. Although neither weapon does a
large amount of damage, the Drone's fast rate of fire can cause you to lose
quite a bit of health if you don't take cover from its shots.

The best place to take cover from the Drone's attacks is the pillar in the
center of the room. Dodge out from behind it, fire a quick three bullet burst
from your assault rifle, then dodge back behind the pillar before the Drone
can retaliate. It's missiles will chip away at the pillar, but if you act
quickly enough you should be able to destroy the Drone before it completely
blows away your cover. Alternatively, you can try rapidly strafing left and
right, as this allows you to dodge the majority of the Drone's machinegun
fire as well as the rockets it launches. By the way, if you're stupid enough
to walk up to the Drone it will punch you with one of it's cannon-arms,
resulting in an instant death for you. So don't. 

The Ultor Combat Drone is a unique enemy, and you'll only face one of them
throughout the entire game. Think of it as a mini-boss.



=================
=Mutant Enemies:=
===============================================================================

The results of nanotechnology experimentation by the mad scientist Capek,
mutants are mainly encountered inside Capek's zoo, although you may run into
a couple loose sea creatures wandering the Martian oceans or a few mutated
miners being studied in various Ultor labratories. The smaller mutants are
fast but weak, while a few of the larger ones are bigger than anything else
you've previously faced. Because mutants are unarmored, they are extremely
vulnerable to the flamethrower as a single flame is enough to ignite their
exposed flesh.



Baby Reaper:
Appearance: Dog-sized mutant animal with the head of a wombat,
the arms of a monkey, and the body of a rodent.
Weaponry: Claw swipe (5 damage)
Health: 75
Difficulty:*

Capek's hungry little nanotech-created pets, baby reapers will swarm you
while you explore the Martian tunnels near Capek's lab. Although they're
individually weak, baby reapers like to gang up on you in groups, and their
high speed and small size makes them somewhat difficult to hit with firearms.

Since mutants need to stand still for a split second before they can claw
at you, as long as you keep moving they shouldn't be able to hit you.
Unfortunately, the Martian tunnels you encounter them in are narrow and
twisted, and it's quite easy for them to back you up against a wall and
whack you from several directions. Baby reapers run faster than you do,
so you won't be able to outrun them either. 

Although it only takes a couple of bullets to kill them, due to their high
speed and small size baby reapers can be somewhat difficult to hit with
firearms, especially if you're also occupied dodging their attacks. The
submachine gun works reasonably well against them, but if you're low on ammo
the pistol also works if your aim is good enough. The secondary fire of the
shotgun also works reasonably well, a single close-range blast should put
a baby reaper down. If you're having trouble hitting the reapers, try
crouching down so that your view is closer to ground level.

A great weapon to use against reapers is the flamethrower, since it's wide arc
makes it easy to hit reapers no matter how tiny and fast they are. A single
burst of flame is all it takes to set them on fire, and they will often set
additional reapers alight by running into them while burning. Since
flamethrower ammo is so scarce in the Martian tunnels, you'll need to use very
short bursts (just tap the fire button, never hold it down) and conserve as
much fuel as possible.



Reaper:
Appearance: Adult version of the reaper, about the size of a large cow.
Weaponry: Claw swipe (10 damage)
Health: 300
Difficulty:**

The adult version of the reaper is larger and meaner, yet just as fast as the
smaller variety. It also does twice as much damage and can attack and move at
the same time. They're also quite a bit tougher than the baby reapers, and can
survive slightly more damage than human opponents. Although their larger size
makes them a bigger target when compared to the baby versions, they can still
be difficult to hit with firearms due to the speed at which they move. 

Due to their high durability the pistol may be a little inadequent against
them, especially in close quarters, so it might be a good idea to switch to
the assault rifle or shotgun when you see one of them come into view. As with
the baby reapers, the flamethrower is the best weapon against them, but due to
the rarity of ammo for it inside Capek's zoo you'll have to use it sparingly.



Sea Creature:
Appearance: Wrinkled, blue, dolphin-shaped monster-fish
Weaponry: Sonic blast (20 damage, ignores armor)
Health: 200
Difficulty:***

Nanotech-mutated dolphins swim in the icy Martian waters, attacking all
trespassers with a fast-moving, long-range sonic pulse that bypasses armor to
directly damage health. Their attack is very difficult to dodge since your
movements are slowed while swimming underwater, so you should kill them as
quickly as possible with a rapid flurry of pistol shots (the only weapon that
works underwater). 

Their bluish coloration often allows them to blend in with the background,
especially when they're far away, and it can be annoying when you start
getting attacked underwater without being able to spot the source of the
attacks. Because their attacks bypass your armor, they can kill you very
quickly. Strafing a lot won't allow you to dodge all their shots, but at
least you'll get hit less than if you just stood still.



Mutant Human:
Appearance: Hairless, naked, incredibly bloated/wrinkled/melted-looking
ex-human with either a "regular" or cone-shaped head.
Weaponry: Punch (10 damage)
Health: 75
Difficulty:*

Captured miners who have been subjected to nanotech injections by Capek.
Although theoretically nanotech augmentation is the key to creating enhanced
supersoldiers, so far all Capek's experiments have been able to produce are
these poor misshapened mounds of putrid, wrinkled flesh. 

They behave pretty much like reapers, charging at you and attacking with their
fists. Like reapers they're incredibly fast and tenacious, constantly running
in your face while whacking you with double punches. Fortunately they're much
less annoying than the baby reapers as their larger body mass makes it much
easier to pump them full of lead. Put them out of their misery with a single
shot to the head or a couple shots to the chest. Your best bet is to fire a
burst at them with the submachine gun while backing away to keep clear of
their fists. Much rarer than the reapers, you'll only encounter a handful of
these creatures throughout the game.



Rock Worm:
Appearance: Huge, upright, 30-foot tall. subway-car sized worm with
tentacle-filled maw
Weaponry: Toxic spray (46 damage)
          Body flop (fatality)
Health: 5000
Difficulty:***

This huge mutant worm is immobile, but spits a spray of greenish toxins at you
with it's enormous mouth. The worm's toxic spray does a considerable amount of
damage, but it'is actually quite easy to dodge by strafing, and it's possible
to defeat the worm without taking a single hit. 

Although your initial instinct may be to battle this behemoth with the rocket
launcher, in fact the assault rifle is much more effective against it. Use the
accurate 3-burst primary fire mode, aiming at the creature's mouth, and you
should be able to kill it surprisingly quickly. Keep as far away from the worm
as possible, keep strafing left and right to avoid it's spit attack, and keep
firing your assault rifle into it, and the worm should die after a clip or two.
Just be careful the creature's corpse doesn't fall on you when it dies, or else
you'll be crushed to death. Also, do not approach the creature while it's still
alive, or else it will body flop onto you, crushing you into a gory pulp.

There's only one of these in the game, at the end of Capek's Zoo guarding the
entrance to his underground lab.



Baby Rock Worm:
Appearance: Pint-sized version of the Rock Worm, still almost as 
big as a schoolbus.
Weaponry Toxic spray(30 damage)
         Body flop (fatality)
Health: 2000
Difficulty:***

A Jr. version of the Rock Worm, this creature is still larger than almost
anything else you've previously seen. The Baby Rock Worm behaves pretty much
the same as the regular Rock Worm, except it's toxic spray does slightly less
damage, and it can only survive less than half the amount of damage its big
daddy can. You'll find it in a large chamber just below the original Rock Worm,
and shouldn't be much of a challenge after you've already killed the larger
version. Just strafe left and right while unloading into it with the assault
rifle's primary fire until it collapses.



=================
=Enemy Vehicles:=
===============================================================================

Enemy vehicles are quite tough, but fortunately you'll usually only encounter
them in action sequences where you have access to a vehicle of your own. Enemy
vehicles are extremely well armored. They are completely bulletproof against 
small-arms fire, and the pistol, SMG, shotgun, sniper rifle (and obviously
the flamethrower, baton, or riot shield) do absolutely no damage against them.
Enemy vehicles also only take 20% damage from your heavier firearms, such
as the assault rifle, precision rifle, heavy machinegun, and even the railgun.
Enemy vehicles are only mildly resistant against explosives, however, and take
between 65% to 90% damage from explosives. Despite this, they're usually easy
enough to destroy with the on-board weapons of whatever vehicle you're
currently driving. 

APC:
Appearance: Blue armored transport with tank treads
Weaponry: Minigun (18 damage)
          Ramming (fatality)
Health: 900
Difficulty:**

There's only one enemy APC in the entire game, and you'll encounter it near
the very beginning of the game shortly before your escape from the mines.
Emerging on a catwalk high above, you'll witness the APC being escorted by a
guard patrol across a thin natural rock bridge. There's no reason for you to
confront the APC,  in fact you can just ignore it and proceed across the
catwalk to the elevator which exits the level. 

If you want to have fun with Red Faction's geo-mod system, you can shoot out
the rock bridge with your rocket launcher and watch the APC tumble down the
long chasm. Alternatively, 2 shots from the rocket launcher should cause the
APC to explode. However, this is really a waste of health and ammo as the
APC isn't blocking your path and shooting out the bridge will cause both the
APC and its guards to start shooting at you.

The APC's minigun is relatively accurate and does a decent amount of damage,
so you really don't want to face it if you don't have to. If you take a tunnel
down to the rock bridge to confront the APC on its own level, it will quickly
drive at you in an attempt to run you over for an instant death.



Ultor Submarine:
Appearance: Bubble-shaped, one-man submersible with four bright headlights
and a large plexiglass viewport at the front
Weaponry: Torpedo Launcher (33 damage)
Health: 700
Difficulty:**

Ultor one-man submarines patrol the Martian waterways, ready to attack any
rebel miners with  their batteries of heat-seeking torpedos. Their firing rate
is quite slow, as it takes them a few seconds to load and launch each torpedo,
but since the torpedos home almost flawlessly on you it's impossible to dodge
their attacks. 

If you're piloting a submarine of your own, fighting enemy subs is essentially
a slug-fest, with the two of you firing away and seeing who'll blow up first.
Fortunately for you, your own sub can survive almost a dozen torpedo hits,
while enemy subs should blow up after only three hits. It's also possible to
avoid enemy torpedos by keeping a cavern wall or stalagmite between you and
the enemy sub, which the enemy torpedos will run into as they travel towards
you. 

If you encounter an Ultor submarine without a submarine of your own, you're
essentially a dead man, since none of your heavy weapons work underwater and
your dinky little pistol won't even be able to pierce the enemy sub's hull.



Aesir Fighter:
Appearance: Sporty, roundish one-man fighter with an underside-mounted
gattling gun
Weaponry: Minigun (8 damage)
          Rocket Launcher (21 damage)
Health: 900
Difficulty:***

These airborne enemies hover through the air, raining down machine gun fire
upon you as well as the occasional heat-seeking missile. Their rapid rate of
fire and the homing abilities of their missiles make them highly dangerous
if you face them on foot. Their hulls are too thick to penetrate with small
arms fire, but they can be destroyed with two rail driver shots, three to five
rockets, or 30 vehicle-mounted machinegun rounds. A few dozen shots from your
heavier firearms such as the assault rifle, precision rifle, or heavy
machinegun also work in a pinch.

Aesir fighters are not terribly manueverable and thus it's fairly easy to hit
them, but in the process it's almost inevitable that you'll take some damage
from their attacks (especially the heat-seeking rockets). Fortunately, you'l
usually encounter Aesir Fighters while inside a vehicle of your own, in which
case their attacks aren't too threatening and they're fairly easy to destroy
with vehicle-mounted weapons.



=========
=Bosses:=
===============================================================================



Ultor Personnel Suppression Combot:
Appearance: Huge floating robot with two clawed arms, two cannon arms, and a
shoulder-mounted rocket launcher.
Weaponry: Dual Chainguns (5 damage)
          Rocket Launcher (21 damage)
          Claw punch (fatality)
Health: 5000 (to provoke)
Difficulty: ****

This 20-foot behemoth is the ultimate in anti-personnel robots, and is
significantly more vicious than the smaller combat drone you fought earlier.
The Ultor Personnel Suppression Combot is equipped with a twin pair of
chainguns which it fires simultaneously, as well as a shoulder-mounted
rocket launcher. Although neither weapon does a large amount of damage,
the Combot's rapid rate of fire allows it to quickly chip away at your health
and armor if you stay in it's line of fire. 

You need to keep your distance from the Combot at all times, and when you do
end up in it's sights you should strafe left and right like crazy in an attempt
to avoid as many bullets as possible. Oh, and don't get too close to the Combot
either, or else it'll punch you to death in one hit.

The Combot actually isn't too difficult to fight. As long as you keep moving,
you should avoid the majority of its shots. Just don't get too close to it
or caught out in the open. The Combot is also very large and rather slow, so
you should have no difficulty whatsoever hitting it with your weapons, even
at long range.

Although you can fight the Combot in the large open arena, the arena actually
isn't the best place to do so. The Combot can sometimes duck into one of
the side-chambers, causing you to lose track of it. Smaller robots inside
the side-chambers can also drift into the main arena to see what all the 
commotion is all about, and can do serious damage to you while you're occupied
with fighting the Combot. Instead, trying luring the Combot into the corridors
just outside the incineration chamber. You'll be able to keep track of the
Combot more easily, smaller enemies won't bother you during the fight, and
you can use the corners as cover while you whittle away at the Combot with
your assault rifle.

The Combot is too powerful to be destroyed with conventional weapons (except
for the rail driver, which you do not have yet), but there's a handy garbage
incinerator pit nearby that looks about the right size for it. You need to
lure the Combot into the pit room, but it won't follow you inside until you've
managed to provoke it by doing a certain amount of damage to it. Strafe like
crazy and dodge it and out of cover while shooting the Combot with your assault
rifle until Hendrix tells you to try luring it to the incinerator shaft. At
this point the Combot is provoked enough to follow you into the incinerator
chamber, so lead it there. It should take 100 assault rifle rounds, 150 SMG
or pistol rounds, or 10 rockets to provoke the Combot into following you.

Once the Combot is in the chamber, the conveyor belt should bring it directly
over the incinerator door. Climb up the ladder into the control room, and hit
both the incinerator door opening switch and the fan activation switch. The
fan should shove the Combot into the opened incinerator shaft, causing it to
explode. The Combot will continue firing at you even as it descends into the
shaft, so be sure to keep out of its line of sight until you hear it blow up.

If you're low on armor or health going into the battle, the ladders in the
large open arena you initially find the Combot lead to an attic area with
many yellow chests. Running up to the yellow chests will cause you to pick up
ammo, health, and armor.



Capek:
Appearance: Shrunken, bald, prune-face dwarf wearing a red robe over black
and yellow body armor. The left side of his body and face consists of
cybernetic implants.
Weaponry: Energy Pulse Cane (56 damage, ignores armor)
Health: 3000 (Nanotech Shield) + 300 (Normal)
Difficulty:*****

Capek will float down from the ceiling within the purple bubble of his
nanotech shield after you've killed all his Elite Guards. Throughout the
battle he'll stay above his little platform, his only movement consisting
of floating up and down. His sole attack consists of firing a single purple
energy ball from his cane, but that energy ball is VERY powerful, bypassing
your armor entirely to directly damage your health, which can easily kill
you in two hits (a single hit from Capek will kill you on Impossible 
difficulty). Additionally the energy balls are semi-homing, and even if
they miss you the first time they'll orbit around you for a couple of
seconds. Because of this you can't simply circle-strafe Capek's shots. They
can also travel through solid matter, so you won't be able to take cover
behind objects. 

You'll be assisted in this battle by Eos, who's armed with a submachine gun.
Whatever you do, don't stand near Eos or else Capek's shots will end up
hitting her too. Eos can withstand a couple more hits than you can, but if
she dies you automatically lose the game.

The rocket launcher's not much good against Capek since his shield is
resistant to explosive splash damage. If a rocket hits the shield itself it
will still take damage, but Capek moves up and down too quickly for you to
successfully hit with a rocket. Your best bet against the shield is bullets.
The nanotech shield provides slight resistance against bullets, but still
takes more than 90% damage from such attacks. A couple of clips from either
the assault rifle or even the submachine gun should be sufficent to pop
Capek's shield. The trick is to avoid his shots long enough to kill him. 
There are two reliable ways to do this.

One way is to fire at Capek from the ledge immedietely behind his platform
and just below the ramp where Eos emerges from. This vantage point is close
to Capek and thus allows you to pump a large amount of bullets into him
fairly accurately and quickly with the submachine gun, but it's much easier
for him to hit you with his attack if you slip up. Instead of circle
strafing him, you need to sidestep each initial shot and then stand still
while it orbits you so you don't end up running into it. You should be able
to see Capek charging up each energy ball before he fires it at you, so you
should begin side-stepping a second before he's about to fire (when his entire
cane is glowing purple), and stop moving once the energy ball misses you. It's
tricky to get the timing right, but once you do you should be able to more or
less reliably avoid his shots.

Alternatively, you can attack Capek from just behind the pillar at the back
of the room (the large pillar to your right when you first enter the lair from
the stairwell). Standing to one side of this pillar, you should immedietely
strafe over to the other side as soon as Capek fires his energy ball, then 
stand still once you get there and wait for it to orbit around you (only start
dodging AFTER he fires, don't start moving when his cane starts glowing, or
else he'll still hit you). In between strafing each of his shots, you should
have a couple  seconds to fire at him. Since Capek's pretty far away if you
attack him from the pillar, you'll need to use an accurate weapon such as the
sniper rifle or the assault rifle's primary fire. This method takes longer
since it's much harder to hit him from a distance, but the upside is it's much
easier to avoid his attacks if you dodge them correctly. Unfortunately, your
view of Capek will be partially blocked by the girders on the ceiling if you
fire at him from this angle, making it more difficult to hit him.
Additionally, you run the risk of Capek getting bored with you and starting
to attack Eos instead (although you can usually manage to get his attention
again by shooting him).

Once you get the timing right, you should be able to destroy his shield
without too much frustration. When Capek's shield finally pops, he'll fall
down to the platform but will continue attacking. Finish him off with a few
more bullets before he manages to get off another shot.



Masako:
Appearance: Female Mercenary in black and yellow envirosuit, wearing
a black helmet with a white screaming skull emblem on the top
Weaponry: Precision Rifle (71 damage)
Health: 1200 (Aesir Fighter) + 4000 (Nanotech Shield) + 2000 (Normal)
Difficulty: *****

After destroying her two Aesir fighter guards, Colonel Masako will emerge
behind the controls of her own Aesir fighter. Masako's Aesir fighter can
survive slightly more damage than the regular variety, but otherwise behaves
the same as the normal Aesir fighters and can be destroyed with the same
methods. If you're on foot, you'll have to take her down with a couple of
rail driver shots while strafing or taking cover behind the crates to avoid
her machine gun and rockets. However if you still have your own fighter,
then by all means simply destroy her fighter with a sustained burst of
machine gun fire. Just remember to stay low to the ground because your
fighter will be destroyed the moment hers is, and you don't want to take
any fall damage.

In the second phase of the battle, Masako will be floating towards you
inside a nanotech shield. Like Capek's shield, explosives and rail driver
shots are useless, so you'll need to wear it down with bullets. Additionally
Masako's shield is more powerful than Capek's, and can take much more damage.
She's also armed with a modified precision rifle that does almost three times
as much damage as the ones used by the Mercs you previously fought (as much
damage as a fusion rocket blast), which means that even with full health and
armor she can still kill you in 3 shots (2 on Hard or Impossible difficulty).
With her quick rate of fire she will easily perforate you in seconds if you
allow her to get within firing range. 

Fortunately, the cargo bay which serves as the final arena is so large it
shouldn't be too difficult to stay out of her attack range. Backpedal away
from her while returning fire with either your own precision rifle (remember
to rapid fire by rapidly tapping the attack button rather than just holding
it down) or the fairly accurate secondary fire of the heavy machinegun. In
fact, Masako's shield is such a large target you can even hit it consistently
with the machinegun's primary fire, and with the high rate of fire you can
actually destroy her shield in just a couple dozen seconds. Whatever firearm
you use, Masako's shield should pop after you've fired off a few dozen bullets,
causing her to drop to the ground.

Unlike Capek, Masako still has a lot of health even without her shield. She's
no Cyberdemon or ridiculous bullet sponge and can only survive a few more shots
than you yourself can on Medium difficulty, but she's still tougher than anyone
else in the game. It takes almost a dozen precision rifle shots to beat her. A
single shot from the rail driver will kill her instantly, but Masako is 
extrordinarily fast and will be moving and strafing constantly throughout
the battle, making it quite difficult to hit her with the exact accuracy
required by the rail driver. A far more effective strategy is to try
blasting her with the enormous splash damage of the fusion rocket launcher,
which can kill her in one or two shots. If you're having trouble hitting her
with the fusion rocket launcher, you can always try the heat-seeking
secondary-fire of the regular rocket launcher (you'll need between six to
ten rockets to finish her). 

For a challenge, you can try taking her out with either the precision rifle or
heavy machinegun, but her fast speed and constant strafing make it hard to hit
her while staying out of her range of fire at the same time. Whatever weapon
you use, be sure to keep backing away from her since her precision rifle is
still as deadly as ever. Masako runs faster than you do, so if she starts to
catch up try hiding behind the crates. If Masako starts shooting you, strafe
and jump around like crazy and hope she doesn't hit you while you continue
to retreat away from her. Like her mercenaries, Masako can throw off explosive
packs and is resistant to flames (napalm does miniscule damage to her, and she
cannot be set on fire).


FUN FACT: If you take Masako's shield and health combined, she can survive
approximately as much assault rifle damage as Half Life 2's Gordon Freeman.
Which just goes to show how tough Freeman is. OK, I'm done now.

Copyright 2003 Alan Chan