Resident Evil 4
Minimum Shots Fired Challenge
(or, The Ultimate Knife/Grenade Run)
by Matt Ehinger
aka admiralhowdy at GameFAQs.com
[email protected]
Version 1.41
May 29, 2006
Copyright 2006 Matt Ehinger
RE4 Platform: Nintendo Gamecube
Game Version: US NTSC
Title Menu Selection: Start
Mode: Professional
Costume: Normal (though shouldn't matter)
Table of Contents
-----------------
I. Introduction
II. Essential basic strategies
1. The knife
2. Random-item exploitation
3. Milking enemies
4. Item management
5. Saving
III. The run through
Chapter 1-1
Chapter 1-2
Chapter 1-3
Chapter 2-1
Chapter 2-2
Chapter 2-3
Chapter 3-1
Chapter 3-2
Chapter 3-3
Chapter 3-4
Chapter 4-1
Chapter 4-2
Chapter 4-3
Chapter 4-4
Chapter 5-1
Chapter 5-2
Chapter 5-3
Chapter 5-4
Final Chapter
Appendix: Un-knife-able stuff. The short list.
FAQ Version Changes
1.00 April 23, 2006
1.25 May 5, 2006
1.26 May 10, 2006
1.30 May 15, 2006
1.31 May 25, 2006
1.41 May 29, 2006
Note: I am currently adding in conditional kill tallies per chapter, as well
as detailed lists of permanent and random grenade locations (the few Disc 2
locations are already listed here, but the Disc 1 locations are myriad).
I. Introduction
For many of us, RE4 is without question the most replay-rich game we have ever
had the pleasure of experiencing. While all the Resident Evils are highly re-
playable, what RE4 offers is unprecedented, with a wide variety of player-
defined "special" runs possible in the main game, depending entirely upon the
player's own taste for fun and/or challenge. For myself, after playing the
main game through a number of different handicaps starting with a merchantless
run in February '05, it wasn't until a year later that I finally hit upon the
notion of trying to see just how far one could get without using any sort of
firearm whatsoever. In the end, while it was found that it is possible to get
farther than anyone had previously assumed (many RE4 guides routinely say "you
need to shoot this," or "you need this gun for that"), there are in fact only
and precisely 2 places where a firearm is required, and only because grenades
won't work in those 2 spots (or at least the right grenade trick has not yet
been discovered). In a no-merchant run, the minimum shots necessary to be
fired for completion of the fourthly-numbered Resident Evil currently stands
at 4. Coincidence? Hmm...
This run as herein described is essentially a knife and grenade run (excepting
of course those 4 necessary firearm shots), relying heavily upon grenades to
kill bosses upon whom using only a knife may be possible, but it may just not
be particularly practical or fun. If you want to get completely technical,
this is a knife/grenade/harpoon/BB/RL run, but minimum shots is what it is
nonetheless. If use of firearms is limited to 4 shots, even many non-boss
enemies can't be killed unless resorting to grenades, so if you are like me
and like to KILL ALL THE BADDIES, then you may as well grenade the bosses too.
In every situation presently described, there will be none of that "run past
enemy x," unless it is only a temporary avoidance. All enemies available to
be killed will be killed (except for 3 who are out of knife / grenade range).
This probably goes against all sensibility, and is not what you may see in a
typical RE4 walkthrough, but it's what I like to do. Anyone not similarly
motivated may achieve much shorter game times with a basic 4-shot or a no-
reloading run, probably by as much as 90%.
There will be no use of merchants here, and speed is of no interest. This no-
frills guide assumes a familiarity with the game on the part of the player,
and as such many details have been skimmed over or omitted; while written with
the veteran player in mind, it should however be easy enough to follow by
those who have only completed the game once.
An initial thanks goes to Vincent Merken (see his excellent FAQs here, which I
strongly recommend for the RE4 fan). VMerken was following my thread on the
GameFAQs.com Gamecube RE4 message board during my initial attempt at a no-
firearms run (mid February-early March 2006), and he took it upon himself to
scout out the territory ahead of me on PS2 to see just what could be done with
grenades instead of firearms, posting links to many cool movies in the
process. When you see (VM), this is further credit for specific things he
posted in that thread. And a special thanks to Acidmetal, who showed us the
light when it came to grenading the drawbridge chains, after I had already
given up. Some of the tactics mentioned herein may be mentioned elsewhere,
but I haven't used other FAQs as a resource. The following is merely what I
have learned from my own experience and experimentation. Experimentation on
the part of the player is always encouraged, for rooting out alternative
methods.
II. Essential basic strategies
1. Master the knife. Lure single enemies when possible, and deflect thrown
blades when applicable. Advance to entice an enemy's melee attack, back away
from melee attack, close in for the riposte. Target heads or legs for Kick or
Suplex prompts, and slash 'em when they're down. This basic technique works
for all reasonably humanoid enemies, with the exception of the fleet-footed
and long-reaching hammer-wielder, who cannot be safely enticed. Using the
knife is the fun "meat" of this run. Use the environmental gimmes (ladders,
doors, windows, fences, tripwires, chasms, etc.) for an assist.
2. Random-item exploitation is a good way to obtain ammo on any type of run.
For this run, exploit the random-item locations by basically only picking up
grenades from them. The random spots can be identified quickly if upon a few
checks the pick-up changes to or from bullets, money (value changes), or
nothing. You can rest assured that grenades will appear there too, though
more rarely. Be sure to carry at least 1 green herb or a health spray (eggs
don't count) or you will also get green herbs showing up in your random spot.*
From each possible random location, you should get not only some kind of
grenade, but the right kind of grenade, which in most cases on Disc 1 will be
the green hand grenade. Enough flashes and incendiaries appear in permanent
locations so that using a random spot for one of these is not really necessary
until you get to Disc 2. Until that time, grenades are valuable in the order:
hand > incendiary > flash. You should use all 3 types, but use the minimum
valued--yet most effective--grenade in each necessary situation. Hand
grenades I put at the top because of their dual utility as both offensive
weapons and as tools, and their general efficacy against most bosses. On Disc
2 incendiaries become more valuable due to the new enemies who are hand
grenade resistant. If you have not mastered the grenade toss, you will during
this run.
*Note: The item contained in the box/barrel is determined at the moment of
breakage, and is influenced by your current attache inventory (as an example,
throw away your health spray at game start to see a green herb appear in the
1st box; the herb would not appear there otherwise). Most importantly,
random-item locations may become permanently deactivated, and this
deactivation appears to be directly related to the number of exposed random
items, i.e., boxes broken with item not collected. If what the spot initially
offers is "nothing," then moving on while that box/barrel remains broken still
means that that particular spot is exposed and uncollected, and that would be
a very bad thing to do. In a regular game, this happens so often that you may
not realize it, and could result in scores of permanently empty boxes and
barrels by the end of the game. To lessen the chance of deactivation of a
particular box, only have a limited number of boxes and barrels broken and
uncollected at any given time. Haphazardly breaking boxes will limit grenade
availability in that you will NOT be able to get a grenade from every
catalogued random spot, due to many spots becoming permanently deactivated.
Even if you break and collect each spot 1 at a time, often the last 1 or 2
spots in an area still become inactive, possibly due to programming which
makes the spot get stuck on "nothing" as a means of enforcing balance. The
exact mechanism of deactivation remains a mystery, but you can greatly limit
its occurrence by breaking/collecting each spot 1 at a time.
3. "Milking" enemies for grenades is also possible when the environmental
wells run dry, or for scoring insurance grenades. There are some situations
that are ideal for milking: when enemies can be lured individually, and where
there is a convenient quick-save point (door to other area) for immediate
retries. If you are not ultra-conservative with your grenades, you may find
that you have no recourse but to load an older save, and try to get more
grenades by milking enemies. When not milking enemies, go ahead and pick up
the drop, whatever it is, just to clear the field (discarding any bullets).
When not purposefully milking enemies, but when forced to use grenades against
enemies in groups, and if it is also convenient to do a retry, then retry
until you get at least one grenade back in exchange. Always be grenade-
conservative. In general, save any enemies that can be killed later for
later, and milk them if you need to before crossing the inevitable point-of-
no-return. If you only want to complete a 4-shot game, and are not
necessarily setting out to kill all the enemies, milking is seldom if ever
necessary.
4. Item management: Generally, do not pick up items (aside from enemy drops,
which disappear) until you are about to cross one of the many points-of-no-
return, or are harvesting grenades right before a specific purpose. Due to
the mysterious mechanism of random-spot deactivation, breaking any box/barrel
is discouraged until you are focused on getting your grenade from that one
box/barrel. You will need extensively more grenades than health items
throughout the course of this run, so picking up grenades takes precedence
over picking up health items; if it comes to that point, discard a health item
in order to pick up a grenade (a good offense is the best defense anyway).
When sweeping an area for items before crossing points-of-no-return, pick up
the health items ONLY after all grenade availability is exhausted. More on
random items, enemy milking, and item management will be discussed ahead, upon
arrival at the 1st point-of-no-return.
5. Save often. Utilize the game's quick-save feature (by exiting/re-entering
the area), and don't feel that it is a cop-out to retry and retry from
continue point until you get what you want, be it an elusive random hand
grenade, a no-damage encounter, a one-throw grenade hit, an exclusion of a
random Plaga, a golden egg from a snake, etc. When you get what you want,
save it by either method (typewriter or quick). Retries are your prime
advantage over the murderous opposition. Those who really like to live on the
brink may simply choose not to retry at all, and just take what comes. You
won't be able to kill all the enemies, but you most certainly will once again
enter the world of survival horror. Good Luck! ;)
Very well then, on to it.
III. The run through
==============================================================================
Chapter 1-1
==============================================================================
Upon game start, keep the FAS but discard your handgun and bullets. (Note: if
you want only to ring the church bell for additional kills, by all means, hang
onto the gun for now. Change your personal goal from 4-shot completion to No
Reloading Allowed.) Kill the not-so-honest woodcutter, and afterwards jump
out the lower window. Confirm that all three Ganados are heading your way,
then either jump back inside and slash them at the sill as they climb over, or
exit the door of the cabin and run quickly to the typewriter shack for a save
and some immediate grenade harvesting. Me, I want to kill the Pueblo's
resident Drs., so I need to harvest from boxes AND milk some; Sal #1 dies most
quickly with 4 hand grenades, and Sal #2 takes 6 for the quickest dispatch
(total = 10), but there are only two permanent hand grenades in this area and
in the Pueblo. So already I need to squeeze 8 hand grenades out of the 5
random locations and the 7 Ganados between here and there, and from the 3
accessible random spots inside the Pueblo.
In the introductory area (woodcutter house to Pueblo door), it is possible
that some random spots will become inactive before getting that number (8),
but exhaust the boxes first before you start killing Ganados. Just avoid or
put the Ganados down briefly while you check each box. In the text of this
guide, random grenades will be numbered up until the point-of-no-return;
permanent ones will be denoted by "P" and a number):
1) 1st box on shelf in typewriter shack
2) box on cart behind woodcutter house
3) box beside herb in pitchforked-woman shack
4,5) 2 boxes on shelf in last shack before Pueblo
P1) hand grenade in signpost bird
If you happen to encounter box deactivation (you'll know, if you check the box
ten or so times and it stays empty), start working on the introductory
Ganados. After saving/retrying from the typewriter continue point, ease
forwards towards the woodcutter house until only one Ganado shouts an alarm.
Notice how the others will pay no attention. Retreat to kill the 1st shouter
and each successive one individually at the shack. Enter the Pueblo and come
back from that direction to check the boxes and to kill Ganados closer to that
end of the map. During this harvesting process, don't accept anything less
than a hand grenade from a box, or any more than 1 incendiary and 1 flash from
a Ganado. (Grenades seem to come quicker if you already have some type of
grenade equipped, but this notion might be illusory.)
Save the dog, just because you're a good person, and don't bother trying to
use a grenade to kill the group of Ganados on the hillside, as they will not
react to a grenade blast. When you are done in this area (or just tired of
it), sneak into the Pueblo.
Accessible Pueblo spots:
6,7) left box and only barrel inside house on left side
8) small box in shack up the right path
P2) also flash here
(Also yellow herb box behind the cow is accessible)
P3) hand grenade in shotgun house accessible mid-battle
Jump through the rear window of the house near the hard-of-hearing hay lady
and check the random box (beside incendiary) and barrel in there, and also
sneak up the right path on the opposite side of town to check the random box
beside the permanent flash there (keep an eye on wheelbarrow man and water-
bucket lady to keep them from spotting you). When you finally get 8 hand
grenades, pick up the permanent flash, then go back to the woodcutter area and
use the flash on the birds that are near where the dog was. The one on the
signpost carries your 9th hand grenade.
Now you're ready for both Salvadors, and they won't have time to slip away for
bingo before you're done pummeling them with grenades. In order to get both,
you have to kill the one up the pathway to the egg farm 1st (Ruby Sal); if you
go into the shotgun house before Ruby Sal is dead, all you will get is Goldbar
Sal, because Ruby Sal will sneak away to go set up the bingo tables.
Enter the Pueblo, going left to run past hay lady, towards the path to the egg
farm. When Sal is in your sights, lob a grenade to kill his friends and put
him down. You don't have to wait for him to get up, you can put 3 more on him
quickly to kill him immediately, before reinforcements arrive. Be sure it's a
direct hit or it could take more than the allotted number of grenades, for
both of these Sals. (You could actually use as little as one grenade for Ruby
Sal here and finish him with the knife before he even cranks his saw, but you
will soon have Ganados on top of you and you will get hurt). Once Ruby's
dead, fake your way past any oncoming Ganados and go into the shotgun house.
Run upstairs to grab your 10th grenade, then go back down and stand at the
ready for Goldbar Sal to saw down the door, or just push the dresser aside and
let him in (letting him in assures you won't kill too many other Ganados).
When he enters, take him down. Don't take out too many Ganados with each
blast, as if you kill too many the scene will end before Goldbar Sal is dead.
Throw the first few quickly, then take out a bunch of Ganados while killing
Goldbar with his 6th grenade. Finally knife the remaining few (if any)
Ganados, using the fences and windows about town, or if you have an extra
grenade, draw a bunch into a group for a big finish.
Okie dokie then, on to the egg farm. Health items are infinite in the game
until heading out on the lake, so reap to your heart's content. Kill
individuals in this area; there are fences you can use but it should not be
necessary when dealing with individuals. Save before going on to the boulder
sprint, if you are trying to do this run with zero times killed. Dying
doesn't change the difficulty level on Professional (VM), but you may still
just want to keep any deaths "off the record."
With a hand grenade, go back to the top of the boulder hill and stand beside
the signpost, so that you can see the two hatchet throwers on the bridge
through the trees. Aim high and a hair to the right of them. If aimed
correctly, you should knock them off the bridge so that their drops will be
available. Retry this until you get a grenade drop in return, thus
essentially getting them to die with no expenditure. If you are out of hand
grenades from the Salvador sequence (Ganados haven't dropped any), there's one
up ahead in the dynamite thrower's house.
My preferred method of killing dynamite Ganados is to let them light up, and
run forwards as you see them getting ready to throw. Their throw will fall
short and so they will kill themselves as you run on by. Lure the ones out of
the house through the back window to do just this. There's a sneaky hatchet-
wielder guarding the grenade inside so don't let him surprise you.
Inside the destination house, be at full health (eggs anyone?) and run through
each trip wire. Don't be wasting grenades here to blow them up, health is
free and infinite; just be at close to full health when breaking each wire.
Go meet Luis.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Chapter 1-1 Enemies Killed: 43 Total: 43
(May vary with how many Pueblo Ganados you can mass-kill in a final grenade
blast before bingo time)
==============================================================================
Chapter 1-2
==============================================================================
At the prison valley area, go out back and trigger the merchant movie, and the
small panoramic movie, so that they won't bother you again, then save at the
typewriter. Now retry. This is to reset the Ganado positions outside, so
that you can run by all of them with no risk of interference. From the
continue, run out and down the steps, then up the steps (past the white-haired
one), leftwards across the bridge (past the skinny one), to the ladder and up
onto the building by the exit, past the dynamiter on top who probably hasn't
even lit up yet, and up the 2nd ladder to the highest ground in the area aside
from the cliff. At the top is the one Ganado in this area who might hurt you
a little. Slice him in the face, kick him off the platform, and now you are
king of the hill. Back away from the edge when appropriate, so as not to
present a target for hatchet-throwers coming off the 1st ladder. When the
wave of Ganados is done, go entice a new wave to your high ground. (Note: If
the AI glitches and they won't climb the 2nd ladder, throw down an incendiary
and clean up with the knife; do not climb the 2nd ladder again. This happened
to me once after head-smashing the topmost Ganado. Maybe he needs to lead the
advance up the ladder, or maybe the ones below saw his fate and were just
afraid to climb). Be wary of those that try to sneak up on you from behind
the building, when you venture to the ground. Eventually the entice-able
waves will be done, and you will have to go to the 1st house to get the
Ganados inside (lure those inside to the back window for sill-kills); one
hatchet thrower may still be in front of the house and can be killed at the
door, and there are the two hatchet-throwers who guard the emblem pieces who
you will have to go after. The one on the cliff is easy since he will try to
climb the sandbags after flinging a few deflectable hatchets; the one on top
of the house is trickier, but if you time it right, you can climb the ladder
immediately after he throws a hatchet, so that you can knife him in the face
and kick him before he gets ready with another hatchet. Alternatively you
could come up the ladder from inside the house, deflect a hatchet, then close
in.
Collect the emblem-key pieces and away. Inside the next building, use the 1st
door to knife each lured Ganado with some privacy, then head to the windows.
Jump through and stand behind the metal barrier, far back so that Leon isn't
in any real danger, and let the dynamiters kill everyone who might approach.
When no one is left but the dynamiters, rush them, carefully avoiding the
traps on the floor. They should throw short as always, thus killing
themselves as you run past in the direction of the barrels at the back of the
room. If you waited long enough and the dynamiters killed everyone possible
for you, there will only be one more pitchfork Ganado back by the pool. Pick
up some fish if you need some.
Go up to Mendez's house. Knife the bear traps so they won't annoy you later,
avoid the trip wire and go through the house. DON'T pick up the insignia key
yet. Go on through (no enemies will appear) and unbar the gate to the Pueblo.
This time go freestyle. It's hard to ever do the same thing twice here, but I
would start by trying to kick the hatchet throwers off the roof so they can
chase you around town like everyone else, if they survive the fall. Keep
moving, and knife heads for group kicks. When the Pueblo is cleared again,
you are free to do some more egg farming if you want/need, then go on back to
Mendez' pad for a grenade-free Salvador battle.
Go up to the bedroom and get the insignia key, then leave by the metal door.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Chapter 1-2 Enemies Killed: 62 Total: 105
(Includes kills from revisiting Pueblo, which could have been postponed to
Chapter 1-3)
==============================================================================
Chapter 1-3
==============================================================================
Upon leaving the bedroom, turn back around and go right back in (Hi, Ada!).
Now go downstairs and save, because you don't want to have to keep skipping
that movie in case you mess up with Salvador. Go out the front door, far
enough for Sal to see you and crank his chainsaw. Turn around and retreat
back up to the bedroom. A Ganado will shout and follow with Sal if you kick
the door in a rush, but he won't follow very far. Run on down to the
tripwire. If you are too fast, Sal might lose sight of you and start running
in circles on the stairs; if so go back and fetch him. Lure him into the
wire, knife him a few times on the ground, then play bullfighter. If you have
some room you can run leftwards past him (him being on your right). Do a 180
after his shriek, close in and knife him in the back of the head one or two
times until you get a Kick prompt, then by all means do so. Knife him on the
ground a few times, retreat as he arises, repeat. Don't get overzealous; one
or two slashes to the head tops; if you don't get the Kick prompt, retreat to
play bullfighter again, or to bait with a quick run-forward/back-up motion at
a safe distance, then close for a head slash or two after his pathetically
miscalculated swing. Try to get in extra slashes when he isn't reacting and
you could lose your head. Surprisingly soon he will be dead.
Go back up the path to kill the Ganado who followed Sal, then go kill bathroom
man. Out front, lure each Ganado for individual kills. Clear sailing now to
the insignia key door, through to the cemetery, where there are a few knife-
able Ganados and a couple of dynamite folk (If you still have your handgun,
ring the bell to bring your fodder, you bloodthirsty zealot. NOW discard it).
Across the bridges to the Quarry (first El Gigante area). Rush and knife the
flock of birds to find the one with the flash. Go down and save in the
merchant area before attempting boulder sprint #2. On to the swamp.
I've never been able to use the tripwires for killing more than one Ganado at
a time (and maybe a snake), but try your luck. Run around and knife heads for
kicks, and eliminate who you can with the available tripwires. It can be very
tempting to use a grenade or two when you seem overwhelmed, but just remember:
health items are still infinitely available, so suck it up and take it on the
chin until you've killed them all. Save what grenades you have for when you
really need them later, and only use a grenade as a last resort. Kill
swimming snakes for eggs to eat during the process if you need to. After
you've killed all the swamp Ganados, it's... Grenade Harvesting Time! There
are no more enemies and a slew of boxes and barrels everywhere, in a huge,
huge area.
After the first harvest for the two Pueblo Salvadors, you probably haven't
picked up any environmental grenades, but your case may already be filling up
with Ganado grenade drops. Since your case can only hold 30, there is no way
you need a grenade from every existing random spot, but here are all the
random and permanent grenades not already listed in Chapter 1-1, numbered from
where those left off:
Pueblo:
9,10) 2 barrels in metal door house
11) box in shack between haystack and farm path
12) right barrel under stairs in shotgun house
P4) incendiary in right box in left house
Farm:
13) barrel beside typewriter
14) barrel in cow barn
15,16) 2 barrels in the house (front one of the double barrels)
17) box by piggyback door
18) barrel in shack by piggyback door
P5) permanent incendiary behind manure shack
First Boulder Trail:
19) right box in tripwire shack
20) 1st barrel in dynamiter house
P6) hand grenade in dynamiter house
Prison Valley:
21) right barrel past merchant
22,23) 2 barrels around emblem piece building
24) barrel on top of emblem piece building
25) barrel beside cliff emblem piece
26) left barrel by last building
P7) flash in locker, emblem piece building
Return Route to Pueblo:
27,28) 2 barrels to left and right of path, before building
29) barrel in 1st room of building
30) barrel by windows
31,32) 2 barrels behind dynamiters
33) barrel in room past dynamiters
P8) permanent flash in fish pool
Mendez House:
34) barrel in shack by underground
P9) incendiary in china cabinet
Insignia Door:
35) box immediately inside
36) box in cave wall
Cemetery:
37) box on table in Mama Rosa shack
38) box on shelf in bridge shack
Quarry (El Gigante area) and Underground River:
39-41) all 3 barrels in quarry
42) barrel by typewriter
P10) flash in bird
Swamp:
43) barrel in 1st shack
P11) hand grenade on bank
P12) incendiary on bench
Lakefront:
44) barrel in typewriter shack
So many locations! Although hand grenades WILL appear in each spot
eventually, it may take a very, very long time, possibly due to programming
which is trying to compensate for the early Salvador harvest. Something you
may want to try is to pick up the item, regardless of what it is (retry if it
is nothing, so that the spot is not left uncollected to cause deactivation of
other spots further down the road). Break each random box/barrel
individually, and collect the first item presented from each of these spots,
moving on after each. If you start picking up more money and bullets, the
scales may be "tipped" so that more grenades start to appear again. There are
certainly enough locations to give this a try. After spending a great deal of
time getting two hand grenades from 9) and 10) in the Pueblo, deactivating 11)
in the process, I tried this and was able to collect a total of 4 more hand
grenades and 3 incendiaries (oddly, no flash) from the above random spots,
without any more retries other than retries to merely confirm the randomness
of the spot, or just to replace the "nothing." As my case was already about
half full before this harvest just from natural Ganado grenade drops (5 hand,
5 incendiary, 3 flash), these were quite enough, along with the 9 permanent
ones yet collected, to fill me up (13 + 9 + 9 = 31)
Doing the math, and taking into account everything up to the 1st point-of-no-
return (upcoming boat venture), it turns out that roughly a third of the
random spots produced a grenade (15 grenades / 44 random spots). (Of the
previously listed 8 random spots, a hand grenade had been forced from 6 of
them; 2 became inactive.) Also, Ganado drops turned up grenades better than
11% of the time (16 grenades / 144 killed Ganados ; 16 being the pre-harvest
inventory of 13, plus 2 milked and used on Salvadors and one that had already
been used on the boulder bridge Ganados. The 144 comes from the Chapter End
game total, minus the 2 Sals and Del Lago).
This leads to an important idea, the usefulness of which is yet to be
confirmed: if your case is almost full and you are getting ready to cross a
point-of-no-return, keep some room for bullets, then try to "harvest" for
bullets and money from any left-over random spots (or permanent spots, for
that matter). This may keep those scales tipped so that random grenades will
be more "available" in the next area coming up. Finally discard the bullets
and fill up the hole with healing items or with permanent grenades before
moving on. This "balance" of items collected may be why it is never very hard
to milk enemies, if you keep the battlefield cleared (by picking up bullets
and money) at all other times. If bullets were not discarded immediately upon
collection, perhaps Ganado grenade returns would be much better than the
observed 11% (bullets from boxes/barrels in the above-described harvest were
only discarded to make room for the grenades when they appeared; Ganado
bullets I had discarded immediately).
Currently these are just theories. (*To be discussed further at the 2nd point-
of-no-return, after gathering some evidence along the way*) All thinking
aside, just have a full case (with your judgment of healing items) when you
finally decide to go out onto the lake to cross the very 1st point-of-no
return.
Steer away from the floating stumps, steer away from Del Lago's surfacing maw,
and aim well.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Chapter 1-3 Enemies Killed: 42 Total: 147
(Does not include any bell-brought cemetery Ganados.)
==============================================================================
Chapter 2-1
==============================================================================
After Del Lago, you will need 3 hand grenades and a flash (one flash is in the
dock house and a hand grenade is in a barrel, but don't pick them up if you
already have some; you may have some space from used-up health items from the
Del Lago fight, but you want to keep those empty for any enemy drops coming
up). Flash your first Plaga, kick/knife the blinded Ganado, and then return
towards the dock house for a save. Now go onwards to the top of that rope,
and aim a hand grenade towards the high rotating box down below; aim roughly
at the tops of the trees in that direction. Keep trying with however many
grenades you might have, until you get the feel for it, then retry from the
continue point so you can hit it in one throw. Once you hit it in one throw,
do a quick-save and then go down the rope to knife the one hatchet-thrower and
grenade the other two boxes. Play with it and figure out how to hit them, its
not too hard, much easier than the first box; quick-save after each successful
one-throw hit. Activate the lever, come back across the boxes to bring the
Ganados, then retreat back to the lever. The Ganados tend to get in each
other's way at the bottom of this ladder, so that they climb at a painfully
slow rate. From the first few kills, you may have to say goodbye to some
juicy red enemy drops as the enticing morsels fade away to oblivion, behind a
bumbling gaggle of Ganados at the bottom of your ladder.
Go get the church key, but don't get on the new boat, we're going Colmillo
hunting. Retrace your path across the lake, get off your original boat and
run towards the swamp entrance so that all 4 Colmillos get your scent. You
should be able to run back to your boat with all 4 in pursuit. They will
actually pass you on the way back to the boat, because they seem to like to
threaten you before they jump. Once at the boat, spear away.
Knife everyone in the nighttime swamp. You can quick-save after each kill,
which makes it easier to avoid random Plagas (so you don't have to re-kill
everyone with each try, if you want to retry in the hopes a Plaga won't appear
again), or you can always try to kill with a finishing melon-smash. Don't
knife the fallen Ganado on the ground too much, mainly knife to the head for a
roundhouse (or later, to the legs for a suplex). Head smashes seem to limit
the appearance of Plagas greatly, probably by 100%. I think the only time a
Plaga sprouts from a head smash is when it wasn't really a head smash, it was
just a hit-point threshold crossed that made the Plaga sprout.
Have 6 hand grenades before stepping into the El Gigante area; 2 give you 1
climb, 3 climbs give you one dead El Gigante. Thanks, dog, appreciate the
help, but we're fine. (Note: I have since learned from The n00b Avenger that
3 flashes can replace the 2nd, 4th, and 6th hand grenades, if thrown while the
giant is staggering from a hand grenade blast.)
You should have 1 incendiary for the Colmillos in front of the church. Get in
range so you see the silhouette awaiting you ahead, toss it well, and the
other two hidden doggies will gleefully run into the flames and kill
themselves. You can use the church key to unlock it now, but don't get Ashley
quite yet; it may be better to cleanse the upcoming areas of Ganados before
getting her. Go to the Pueblo.
Once in the Pueblo, rush and knife the shouter to the left. Kick-smash his
head to forego the appearance of a Plaga. Go around the back of the Pueblo
clockwise, to come up behind each Ganado as they look out onto the street.
Some fire breathers and others are up the bear-trap path to the farm and can
be lured individually. Rush the fire-breathers as they inhale; only slash at
the inhale (total 2 slashes for 2 inhales) to negate Plagas. Knife the traps
for Ashley's safety. Kill all possible at the nighttime farm at the farmhouse
window, in the bright electric light (Plaga elimination? Unconfirmed). Clear
the way on to the piggy-back door, luring the 2nd floor blade throwers into the
window toward the indoor light. Knife all bear-traps. When the farm area is
cleared, you are ready to go get Ashley. Once you open her cell door though,
you have crossed point-of-no-return #2, so before you do this, be sure you
have collected all possible grenades then health items from the quarry / swamp
/ lake / falls areas first (but not the other areas yet). You cannot go back
towards the lake after getting Ashley.
If at the beginning of 2-1 you woke up in the dock house with a full case, you
will only need to check half of these random spots for grenades:
Far Dock House and Falls:
1,2) 2 barrels by underground river
3) barrel under falls lever
4) barrel on hatchet-thrower platform
P1) hand grenade in barrel on cliff top
P2) flash in dock house
5) box in dock house
Lake Merchant:
6-10) all 5 barrels on bottom except 1st one to the right
11) 1st barrel up top
Nighttime Lakefront:
12) barrel in typewriter shack
13) box in the other shack
Nighttime Swamp:
14,15) box and barrel in shacks on either end
16) barrel in middle shack
Nighttime Quarry:
17,18) 2 barrels by quarry entrance and exit
19,20) both boxes in bridge shack
After freeing up 4 attache slots at the falls (the Plaga and the 3 crates), I
had some room to collect up to 200 Ganado bullets without discarding them,
just to see what would happen in regards to the previously suggested "balance"
issue. Hanging onto all Ganado bullets this stretch of the run didn't help
any AT ALL with grenade drops, and when it came to harvesting the random
spots, having a large supply of bullets made harvesting grenades from them
well-nigh impossible. Countless attempts at 1) and 2) above returned either
money or nothing, with no ammo item at all, ever. I went out, dumped the
bullets, came back in, and voila, bullets. Then grenades, despite my copious
supply. So apparently the ammo randomness is driven not necessarily by what
you have picked up, but by what you now have, solely in terms of bullets (just
like the herb randomness with FAS/herbs). If you have plenty of bullets, you
will get only money or zip from the random spots. If you have zero bullets up
to a certain threshold number (not ascertained, but under 4 slots worth), you
will get ammo in the form of bullets AND grenades, and sometimes even money
too. So there you have it. Dump your bullets immediately, it doesn't hurt.
This is probably the reason most folks tend to think that grenades are a rare
occurrence, because they are undoubtedly carrying too many bullets for
grenades to ever appear very often.
I'm still wondering though, why after the Chapter 1-1 Salvador harvest,
grenades were so hard to come by at the beginning of the 2nd harvest (bullets
had appeared fairly regularly with money and nothing, but precious few
grenades). There might actually be a certain *number* of bullets that could
be carried, that would lessen the chance of getting additional bullets while
increasing the chances for grenades... (*To be discussed further at the 3rd
point-of-no-return, after gathering some more evidence along the way*)
Don't worry Ashley, I'm comin' for ya...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Chapter 2-1 Enemies Killed: 45 Total: 192
(Includes Ganados that could have been postponed to Chapter 2-2)
==============================================================================
Chapter 2-2
==============================================================================
Once you both jump out the church window, go back inside the church to kill
the two crossbowmen. Run immediately to the left behind the wall and tell
Ashley to wait. The 1st archer will approach and when he finally sees you he
will fire his two arrows into the edge of the wall (all archers will plant
their two arrows in the wall when trying to shoot around a corner at their
right). Kill him. The 2nd one keeps firing even though he can't see you (all
archers also have annoying x-ray vision and do not use it to their advantage).
Listen for his 2nd successive shot, then rush him.
Outside, take Ashley all the way back as far as you can towards the bridges
and leave her there, in no danger. Come back to the explosive cart; no need
to waste an incendiary grenade to ignite it, most of the Ganados in this area
can be lured individually. Some may get stuck behind the cart, though, and
slip by all at once, which could be tricky because of the multiple fire-
breathers. Just remember that healing items are not as precious as your
grenades. If you are not worried about grenade supply, light the cart with an
incendiary and retry if you need to, to take out everyone all at once (and a
blue medallion! Yeah!). Once this area is cleared, it's on to the piggy-back
door and the cabin fight.
Be aggressive for maximum kills here. These poor sods don't know what they're
in for. Slash open all the windows to get the party started. With good
groupings you can have your 50+ Ganados killed within 3 minutes. Stall
oncoming individuals with head-slash kicks, to group them up. Flash any
Plagas, but use incendiaries until you're out, then hand grenades. Don't
worry about being conservative (unless, of course, you aren't trying to
maximize kills; in that case, just hold out the standard 5 minutes).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Chapter 2-2 Enemies Killed: 54 Total: 246
(As in the Pueblo, kill count will depend on how many additional Ganados you
can blast simultaneously with the last necessary one.)
==============================================================================
Chapter 2-3
==============================================================================
Take the left path for now, but we will be going into the right as well. Hide
Ashley immediately. Every Ganado on the left path can be knifed individually
until you use the Camp Key. I would recommend quick-saving after each kill,
to avoid any annoying random Plagas. Upon activating the sisters, run away
and leave the area by way of the ladder which leads directly to the entry
point. Call Ashley out for the quick-save BEFORE you pass the dumpster. Go
back in and hide her again, and position yourself so that the sisters and
whoever else jumps down and gets stuck behind the cart. No, don't blow them
up with the cart; the cart is utilized better later. The sisters can be
killed easily enough at the ladder without using the cart. Just leave them
stuck there for now, and go up top to kill the individuals who are up there.
Once there's no one left above, let a sister escape. If everyone escapes at
the same time, that's still no problem. The sisters have an incredibly slow
reaction time when ascending the ladder, so that if they shrug off all your
slashes and make it to the top, there is still time to jump down (even with an
accidental ladder push, with resulting needed raise up) to avoid both of them.
Go up the ladder and slash the ascenders, jumping down and re-climbing as
needed. Soon everyone who was stuck behind the cart will be dead and you can
unlock the next door with the Camp Key. Run on down to announce your presence
to everyone else, then run back to the cart-trapping position. Stand far
enough away from the cart so as not to entice any blade-throwing, just beyond
the missing bottom plank to your right. Count the Ganados that jump down
behind the cart. You should be able to get eleven Ganados there; throw an
incendiary for the big bada-boom, and for at least 2 grenade drops (try for 3
of some sort) for a massive negative-expenditure kill. If you have to retry,
the continue point will be the newly unlocked door, with Ashley by your side,
so you will have to hide her in the last dumpster when you again announce your
presence to everyone. After using the explosive cart, there may be a very few
individuals to knife above or near the exit.
Now on to the Gondola Ride. VMerken posted a link to a spectacular yet
baffling video of grenading everyone here, baffling in that he kills them
without ever looking at them for the most part, aiming only at the sky and
probably counting ticks on a stopwatch or something in order to do so (?).
Inspired by his video, I attempted myself and found that it wasn't as
intimidating as all that. You can also look at the targets before throwing.
Ideally, you should toss a grenade so that it explodes just as the gondola
ahead enters blade-throwing range. After a little practice, if you look at
the target and get a real feel for the throwing, you will likely be able to
get direct hits on every one for some gratifying SPLATS. You'll need 6 hand
grenades for this.
Run to the front left corner of the gondola, and get ready. Grenade the first
3 gondolas before knifing the 1st cable chopper. If you miss a gondola, you
more than likely threw that grenade too early; if hatchets are flying by, you
threw too late. Once the cable-chopper arrives, slash his legs to be rid of
him. After the 1st cable chopper is gone, quickly re-assume the ready
position; there's not much time in which to get the next oncoming gondola.
Two more after that, with the very last gondola (single hatchet thrower) being
the absolute hardest to hit. You have to ignore the 2nd cable chopper as he
jumps on and starts hacking, and concentrate only on the last approaching
gondola; aim slightly more to the right due to the final support column being
in the way, and hopefully the approaching gondola will come close enough to
the blast to knock the Ganado off. THEN knife the legs of your hitch-hiker.
Keep on retrying in order to get it down to 6 grenades (retry before your
gondola reaches the bottom, or you will have to load a typewriter-save game to
retry, as the bottom is your new continue point). You'll have to get it down
to one-throw hits for each gondola if you want to kill everyone, because if
you miss one, there is no time for a second throw, and then the Ganados on
that gondola are gone forever, unkilled. (If you are not looking for highest
kills, you could just bat away most of the flying blades with your knife, and
heal yourself a few times.)
Kill the 3 Ganados in the side alcove now or later, and go meet Mendez. You
will need 4 incendiaries and 3 hand grenades for a quick and painless kill
here. Go back for a small harvest if you need to. At game time in the Mendez
barn, do a 180, grab the herb in the left corner if you need it and ascend the
ladder; go left and assume the position behind the plating (grab the grenade
if you need it), and wait for Mendez to show himself through the peek-a-boo
hole. Throw the incendiary through the hole, wait for him to recover before
you throw the next so that all 4 count. (What happened?! I'm on the 1st floor
now!) Throw a hand grenade under him immediately as he hangs before you.
Place two more under him as he hangs low like that, and its over.
Additionally lighting the exploding barrel with an incendiary doesn't seem to
make it any quicker. You can be gone in 60 seconds with no damage. Grab his
eye and anything of possible use in the barn (all herbs and the two grenades);
because once you jump out, you can't come back in. Don't go into the eye door
yet, as that's point-of-no-return #3. Go harvesting, and don't forget El
Gigante on the right path. 6 grenades again for him; he guards one random-
item box for a grenade pick-up, and a permanent incendiary as long as you
don't let him demolish the shacks.
Grenade locations before crossing the 3rd point-of-no-return:
Church:
1) barrel on right in outer room
P1) flash in barrel on 1st floor
P2) incendiary in left barrel, 2nd floor
2) barrel to right of incendiary
3-5) 3 of the barrels in Ashley's cell
Cemetery:
6) box on shelf in shack
Insignia door:
7,8) box and barrel close to typewriter
Nighttime Pueblo:
9,10) metal door house, outer room barrel, inner room box
11) former yellow herb box
12) right box in shack near blocked Mendez house road
13,14) left box and only barrel in the other single-story house
15) box near back haystack
16) box in back shack towards farm road
17) left barrel under stairs in former shotgun house
Nighttime Farm:
18) barrel in cow barn
19-21) box and 2 barrels (nearer of the pair) in house
22) box near piggyback door
23) barrel in shack near piggyback door
Cabin:
P3-P5) flash, incendiary, and hand grenade inside
Bella sister path:
24) barrel in central pit
25) near barrel in railroad track pit
26) barrel in room past Camp Key door
P6) flash in barrel down boarded-up window path
P7) hand grenade in cellar
27,28) left and far right barrel coming from gondolas
El Gigante path:
29) box on ground
P8) incendiary in 1st shack
Gondola areas:
P9) flash in locker at bottom
29) barrel in dynamiter alcove
Mendez Barn (too late for these if you didn't grab them before):
P10,P11) incendiary and hand grenade
Total of 40. Again, there should be enough to pack a case, even if your
previously full case was half emptied in the cabin fight. Church cart-1,
Cabin-(15), Bella path-1, gondolas-6, Mendez-7, that's 30. Small harvest for
Gigante-6 leaves 34 of the above 40. And that's assuming there were an
unlikely zero Ganado grenade drops.
At the start of this harvest, grenades started out scarce for me again, so I
started picking up bullets in the hopes of getting to the bottom of that
"bullet number theory" of grenade likelihood previously proposed. At 50
bullets, grenades still seemed pretty scarce. At 60, they suddenly seemed to
appear quite frequently, often being the first item presented by a box/barrel.
At 70 they didn't seem to appear much anymore, though that admittedly could
have been because of the ones that had recently been collected. Call me
superstitious, but I started carrying 60 bullets as a good luck charm, and the
harvest went pretty swiftly. Take that for what it's worth.
On the other side of the eye-door, tell Ashley to wait. Run forwards, chuck a
flash at the oncoming truck and retreat. After the crash, collect Ashley and
the pickups, run on to the bridge, but not too far, and tell Ashley to wait.
Go back to meet the oncoming Ganados with incendiaries, or knife them all if
you are feeling frisky. When everyone's dead, check the barrels there and
head to the castle.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Chapter 2-3 Enemies Killed: 61 Total: 307
==============================================================================
Chapter 3-1
==============================================================================
Inside the 2nd castle area, go up the stairs and around until the catapult
movie, and leave Ashley right there as you go knife the 2 pacing monks.
Entice the catapults to launch, then call her to you during the safety window.
Go up the next stairs and leave her on the upper set, then go back to either
knife the two sneaky-petes or entice the catapults to kill them. Go up and
kill the scythe-wielder at the window. Then put an incendiary on each drum
that you can see near each catapult. The catapult right above the stairs
seems to have an invulnerable monk, so forget about him. There is one
catapult at which you can't safely see a drum, so a hand grenade works there.
Raise the cannon and blow the door.
In the sword room, take Ashley to a far corner and leave her, then go to the
stairs to knife/suplex all monks who come, on the stairs. Call Ashley up top,
back to the item shelf, then position yourself behind the rail above the
stairs. Enemies will come in twos, and pause at the top of the stairs. Use
incendiaries. Throw one, wait until the last second as the 1st two enemies
arise, then hit them again in conjunction with two new enemies. Repeat until
there are only two softened enemies to finish with the knife (retry as many
times as you like for a better score of replacement grenades). Go back down,
carefully run past the red baldy to entice a swing, then knife him. Do the
sword switcheroo, go on to trigger the Luis movie, then save.
Leave Ash by the entry point in the Luis-movie area, then use the 1st
available door to your advantage to dispose of all the monks/zealots here.
Once the room beyond the door is clear, go in and incendiary the archer, then
go down the steps to meet the shield-bearers. Two side-by-side are no harder
than one, so entice a simultaneous attack, close in to slash downwards for a
Kick prompt, and voila, no more shields. Use the doors again if you want.
Keep Ashley where she is, by the entry point, in no danger. Go down and get
the key. Don't be tempted by the explosive barrel, you won't need to expend a
grenade or health item in order to use it; once you get the key, run down the
nearest stairs, entice the two flail-wielders into a simultaneous attack, run
past and use all three doors until everyone's gone. Special note: do not exit
the area during the after-key encounter; if you leave the area, these guys are
gone for good, unkilled. If a Plaga pops out here, use a flash to destroy it.
Go on and meet short-stuff. Save at the new typewriter, then go back to kill
the new monks, so that you won't forget about them later and miss out. These
5 are ripe for milking. Ideally you haven't picked up any items in the
castle, and your case should have plenty of space now after having thrown ~8
grenades since getting here. Everyone can be lured individually, and there is
an on-site quick-save. Tell Ashley to wait, and the 1st enemy will hear and
come to you; leave her there again and go get the 2nd one; for the next 3,
watch through the crack to the right of the door into the table-room area, and
wait until they all 3 go in the table room, then show yourself at the window
there to lure them, or just use the two doors here if more than 1 see you.
There is no reason not to get 5 insurance grenades here, with the water room
coming up soon.
Now you're ready to go back past the new typewriter and knife the first
Garrador. Unfortunately grenades have no effect on Garradors other than to
briefly stun, which would just be a waste. Leave Ashley upstairs before you
go down, and after awakening the Garrador, be sure to try and leave so that
the door closes. Now you can use your voice to talk to Ashley (and she can't
come down), thus enticing your adversary. This makes it much easier to lure
him into the wall-stabs (telegraphed by the urh! grunt with the punch stance,
not the oorarh! with sudden run). Slash his back parasite when he's stuck in
the wall, and as with Dr. Salvador, make your life easy and don't get
overzealous. Eventually (30ish back-slashes?) he will go down. Run to the
typewriter to save afterwards. Retry from continue and leave Ashley by the
typewriter, and go in to deal with the advancing monks. Position yourself and
time it so that you can slash the red hanging lamp to soften the flail-
wielder, and finish him before the unarmed one arrives, who you can kill with
the elbow back-smash. (You can knife his Plaga between the telegraphed
attacks, or retry to avoid it). Save yet again and retry, so that you can get
the next 4 caught in a dynamite blast. Open the door and just stand there,
until the first one comes running to you instead of away, then race him into
the next room for the blast. This multiple kill is a good place to retry for
a grenade drop.
And now, the infamous water room. We are going to clear this room little by
little, saving often until it's empty. Equip a hand grenade before entering;
once in, aim high and up the center. Your goal is to NOT kill everyone with
it so that the reinforcements do NOT arrive immediately. As always, multiple
kills are always good places to retry for grenade drops. Take Ashley with you
to run and collect the drops, then out. Now, your primary goal should be to
go in with the crowd thinned to take out those accursed archers. Incendiary
them one by one, then the reinforcements will probably arrive. When retuning
from the save, step towards the chair to your right, arm a hand grenade and
spin so that Ashley stays behind you, aiming at the middle carpet where the
left and middle paths meet. If you are standing correctly (not quite directly
in front of the chair), no one will come up behind you, and you can blast all
advancing up the middle and from the left, provided they cooperate and form a
good grouping. Then after dealing with the red flailer, all the unarmed
enemies left in here can be killed quickly with the elbow. Knife any single
shield-bearers. Stand on the plates to raise the first crank, but make Leon
back up onto his plate, facing the door so that all you have to do is run.
Take the near right stairs then straight up the middle and out, with no
interference. Come back in and clear the room same as before. Have Ashley
work the crank, waiting behind her at the ready with a hand grenade. When the
stairs drop, throw it (be hammering A during the movie) and immediately ready
the knife for deflection even before it blows. Collect any drops and bug out;
knife the rest of the scythes when you come back. Now comes the... er, fun.
For the love of all that's holy, do a typewriter save if you haven't been
doing so.
It doesn't matter which side you choose, Ashley's monks will be mirror-imaged.
Once she's up, back up and incendiary (VM) or hand grenade the one closest to
her, then go and throw a hand grenade at the monks coming out of the door on
the opposite side. Knife/kick your first opponent to stall him momentarily
for others to arrive for a bigger grouping; grenade and knife them as you best
see fit. Use hand grenades if possible; keep a good supply of incendiaries
for the upcoming maze Colmillos, which are easy to milk for replacement hand
grenades. Throw flashes up to Ashley whenever she screams. If flashes run
out you can use well-placed hand grenades to dust even an abductor without
hurting her. Grenade any below who might interfere with the Catch, then
retreat to the exit to leave Ashley in safety, and come back to finish the
pursuers. If you leave the room before all pursuers are dead, they will
disappear forever, unkilled.
If Ashley is hurt, don't bother wasting something to heal her, she will
recover. Finally, go up the hallway beyond the water room. Bye-bye, Ashley.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Chapter 3-1 Enemies Killed: 97 Total: 404
==============================================================================
Chapter 3-2
==============================================================================
Now that that's over, next fun thing on the agenda is killing a bunch of
Novistadors, with your foot. (Pick up the flash at the sewer entrance if you
don't have one). Two hand grenades in quickest succession kill the bugs
instantly, for however many you can get in a group, but it is much more fun to
try to best them mano y mano. 12 kicks do them in, less if you get to use the
knife some.
The first bug is the easiest to get this to work on, because thanks to the
long hallway, you can keep an eye on him; just approach, back away, use the
Kick prompt. Back away from all attacks; if he jumps to the wall or ceiling,
run away. If he has you close to one end of the hallway, run past him after a
kick or one of his attacks, to get more space. Sometimes he seems to forget
what he is doing and will just crouch there, invisible. These times you can
knife him four times and he'll scurry away. All the next ones can be killed
this same way, but quick-save after each so that it will be easier to hang
onto your healing items.
The 2 in the pool can be separated; approach the ladder to lure the 1st one to
the near corner by the rail up top. Whenever a bug attacks too far out of its
prescribed "territory," this is when it becomes absent-minded and just sits
there. Slash 4 times to get it to retreat, then lure again. The second one
in the pool does not come out of the pool. After killing the 1st one, you will
have to jump down on top of the second one at the bottom of the ladder. He
swings and misses due to the close proximity. Run deep into the pool, 180,
wait for the Kick, retreat to the starting position, repeat. If at any time
he jumps to a wall, exit the pool quickly and run way beyond the starting
position; if he's on the wall, he can come out of the pool briefly and chase
you a bit.
For the ones in the central cell area, it is best for now to lure them to the
pool and do the same thing. Once you announce your presence, they will come
to the pool the moment you get too close to the ladder leading out of the
pool. Hug the right wall (facing the cell areas) in order to decrease the
chances of them jumping to the left wall.
After these, enter the last cell on the far side (where incendiary is) to lure
the one out of the back hallway. Try for a Kick as he comes out of the
connecting hall; if you can get him to attack (spit or uppercut) near the
cells most distant to him, you can knife him a few times. Sometimes this bug
may get stuck at his starting position, behind the bars back there. If so,
you will have to go Kick him where he is stuck.
The two that appear individually from the ceiling outside the valve room can
also be kicked/knifed to death, as long as there isn't anyone else around to
interfere. After working the valve, run out past the 1st bug, through all the
broken cells to just outside them, but no further. Come back in and lure it
for a Kick, then back away and out, avoiding it's next attack (don't get hung
up on the bars; back up to the right through the opening before the bars). If
you dodge this second attack you can knife the critter. Repeat this for the
2nd bug here.
The next one busts out of a cell as you go into the central area. You can
either lead him back to the 1st pool, or, now that the other enemies in this
cell area are gone, you can open up the battlefield. If you choose not to
lead him to the 1st pool, whenever he jumps to the ceiling you can run into the
hallway leading to the valve room. He will jump back to the floor and you can
Kick him here. Run past him and repeat. This bug has the biggest "territory"
of all and can chase you all the way to the valve room, and even out of the
pool on the opposite side (he can also get stuck where the earlier bug can get
stuck). There will be very little knifing of him. After him, another appears
from the ceiling in the central area; deal with him the same way.
Another bug appeared near the sewer entrance when you lowered the water. He
can be lured out of the crate passage for easy Kick prompts, and for knifing
too. That's all of them.
Go on through the pendulum blades, and use a flash grenade to stun the
ceremony below. Rush to the door to trap them, then kill all but 2 of them at
the ladder. Beware the stubborn black-robe, who, besides being a total ass,
is one of those who does not take kindly to the elbow trick. Now you'll come
to the gun turret room, where you might think you can milk the 2 easy
regenerating flail-wielders for grenades, but unless you are in dire need, I
wouldn't recommend it because it is hard work with little payoff and just not
an ideal milking situation. Simply blow on through with a minimum of
resources; use the doors, and if you can spare an incendiary, use it on the
exploding barrel above to take out the archers and to soften one of the
helmeted flail-wielders. Go up and around, jump down and run in a large
clockwise circle to avoid the healthy flail-wielder, rush the softened one to
kill in one slash, then deal with the healthy one. Chase the key-bearer but
don't follow into the upper room, just push the door there open so the new
shield-bearer sees you, then step back and pound him with the door until he is
dead. Jump down and enter the first-floor barrel room, and chase Red up the
stairs to give him what for with the knife. Take the gallery key.
Be sure you take 3 hand grenades into the gallery. Hang an immediate right
for the safety of the door there, and wait by the door until it opens, then
throw down the 1st hand grenade to immediately kill the 4 scythes and possibly
the bald unarmed monk (throw behind them so it blows them in and you can pick
up the drops; picking up their drops too far outside the door will trigger the
first RL monks to fire, at which point they are gone for good). If you didn't
get the bald monk in your first grenade blast, wait for him at the door so you
can knife him. Go up the stairs, grab the yellow herb, and run straight to
the painting. Skip the movie, take a step or two back, and lob a grenade
high. If you try to "shoot for 2", it will likely bounce back off of an
invisible wall where the painting was; however, you can always reach the monks
with an actual blast, be it a blast from their rockets, your grenade, or their
rockets colliding with your grenade. Cringing from your own close-proximity
grenade blast saves you from any damage in the event the rockets launch. You
should hear them groan, and when the smoke clears you should see empty
blackness behind the painting; if you see a monk standing there before the
painting goes back down, too bad; try again. It is also possible to get these
2 RL monks to kill themselves by running forwards to meet the rockets head-on,
but results vary.
Chase down the slippery archers and knife them, flashing any Plagas that
appear. Be wary that there is one more unarmed monk in here. Once everyone
is dead, activate the button by the white door, and back away from the
painting. This time when it opens, you can shoot for 2 and kill them before
they fire; however I have also had a grenade bounce back inexplicably as well;
could be that the invisible wall occupies only the top half of the painting
space. Same deal as before, though; if they are still standing, too bad, try
again.
Break the vase to hit the switch, then wait until you see a scythe poking
through the door before you approach it. Quickly push it open so the other RL
monks see you and fire, hopefully taking out the scythes. Clean up with the
knife.
Next part is the hedge maze. You should have ~8 incendiaries. Fire up the
first single Colmillo, but the rest can be hit in groups of 2 to 4 if you do
some running to lure individuals together. One lone one in a cage can be
knifed to death. Get a replacement grenade (whichever kind you need) from
each group killed. Be sure to pick up the shotgun shells in order to kill an
additional 2 Colmillos. Run all around until you are sure you got them all.
Go inside.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Chapter 3-2 Enemies Killed: 67 Total: 471
==============================================================================
Chapter 3-3
==============================================================================
Break the lock in the item room to open that route, then typewriter-save
before trying a hand grenade on the wine bottle painting. When you hit it,
that will be a new continue point, so be sure you typewriter-save immediately
before you try; you want to do it in one throw. Have another hand grenade
before you go into the cage-room. When the cage drops on you, throw the hand
grenade down at the facing door to simultaneously break the lock, kill several
enemies, and stun the Garrador for you to kick your way out unscathed. Gather
the drops and leave towards the dining hall for safety, then go back into the
cage room as needed to kill them one by one. Wait for them to stop dropping
from the ceiling before tackling the Garrador. This room was custom made for
knifing him; lure him into wall stabs in any corner around the cage.
In the free rocket launcher room, use the ladder for the initial kills, then
work the lever to raise the floor; use the ladder again on the two sneaky-
petes (do not step onto the raised walkway as the shields will come). Leave
for a quick save. Back inside, race down the raised strip of floor past the
oncoming shields (they advance at a random rate so you may have to entice the
first one in order to run by to the left); entice the original flailer to run
by him down the stairs. Kill the original flalier on the stairs there (the
shield bearers apparently have important business and keep on truckin'), then
go back for the shields. Use the hanging lamp on one of them, and the door if
needed for the rest. Go into the RL room to kill individuals.
Now it's harvesting time, because you will be using several grenades to free
and save Ashley. Do your harvesting first and foremost from all the areas
between the water room and the gallery, as these areas will be inaccessible
after freeing her. Also be sure to kill any enemies you may have held off on
(maze Colmillos, Garrador, sewer bugs) because these will all be gone or
unavailable when you get Ashley back. If you have already picked up grenades
from these areas listed here and think you need more, go ahead and get the
grenades from the cage room and nearby item room (next list following), before
new enemies appear in them.
Grenade locations from areas soon to be barred (point-of-no-return #4, minor):
Water room:
1) far left vase, mid-room
P1) incendiary in far right vase, mid-room
2) left vase coming from floor switch room
P2) hand grenade in right vase coming from floor switch room
3) vase in left archer perch (opposite FAS)
Merchant/ceremony room:
P3) hand grenade in chest
4) left barrel, 2nd floor
Sewer/dungeon:
P4) flash in right barrel at entrance
5) box in side passage
P5) incendiary in cell
6) right barrel towards pendulums
7) left barrel, 2nd floor towards merchant
Gallery areas:
8) large vase, right side gun turret
9) right barrel in stair room
10) vase at stair near white door (by RL monk painting)
11) vase on low wall, same room, bottom floor
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Chapter 3-3 Enemies Killed: 23 Total: 494
==============================================================================
Chapter 3-4
==============================================================================
There are any number of ways to throw a hand grenade to release her, but this
one is probably easiest as it involves no aiming up or down, or even sideways.
Go down the short stairs towards that center platform, then go back up so that
you are just on the steps, with your heels touching a thin dark line just
forwards of the ledge behind you (use the C stick to observe; going down the
stairs resituates the camera so you can see Leon's feet). Once you are
standing correctly, you can then release the C stick and just chuck a grenade
directly forwards, without aiming up or down, to release her. You may have to
try a few times to get the stance down, taking note of the position of Leon's
heels. Finally try for a one-throw release. Afterwards throw flashes,
incendiaries, and hand grenades as you see fit until the excitement is over.
7 hand grenades are plenty for the whole deal; remember that you can dust
abductors without hurting her; you can't do that with incendiaries.
As Ashley, rack up a whopping 2 kills by throwing lamps. Sometimes Ashley
loses her mind and throws where you don't intend, and the 1st monk can run too
much to hit easily. Bait him to slow him down for a close proximity hit. If
you don't pair up the monks, all 6 lamps are needed, so if you miss you may
have to end up using the swinging door to the dais room to try a Suplex on the
first monk, or just keep retrying the lamps; more lamps will appear if you
leave and come back.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Chapter 3-4 Enemies Killed: 13 Total: 507
(Sometimes fewer monks come during the Ashley rescue sequence)
==============================================================================
Chapter 4-1
==============================================================================
With Ashley back by your side, retrace your steps back through the cage-room,
avoiding the new scythes; bear left to the item room (entice the scythe guard
down that way to pass him). You can rush through the item room past the 2
bugs to the typewriter however often you want. Go use Ashley to unlock the
free Broken Butterfly, but don't pick it up yet, then come back through past
the bugs again. Kill the scythe-wielder by the bug room, to create a safe
passage. Save the rest for potential milking; right now we will ditch Ashley
again.
Go back by Luis' dead body again, then go to the lava room with the dragon
riders. You will need 3 flashes, and there are several permanent ones around
(one in cage room, one by free RL, one across from Luis' corpse). Put a flash
on top of each dragon to drop it in the lava. You could hold off killing the
2nd one, as he can help you soften some enemies with his flames. Definitely
hold off killing the 3rd one, but activate it so that enemies start coming.
Once the 3rd dragon is dropped, the enemies won't come, so wait until you
killed all who come before dropping the 3rd (and maybe 2nd) dragon. Use the
rotating circular fence to your advantage in here. Knife/suplex/kick them
all. Get the puzzle piece and ride the rail car to go put the puzzle
together.
Ride the next rail car to the grail area. The descending ceiling towards the
Queen's grail can be knifed (VM), or a single grenade can work but you should
be holding onto those for now. Use a well-thrown flash (VM) on the drill-
machine monks and get the Queen's grail, and for the King's grail, leave
Ashley behind momentarily and use 3 hand grenades and 1 flash on each set of
Armaduras (do a small harvest from the nearest areas to get grenades if you
need them). With both grails in hand, lure each individual away from the
grail door for knife kills. Now you can ditch Ashley again. You will now
need 4 hand grenades to keep moving, but 3 more to take out the hive and
clinging bugs. This may sound like a lot of hand grenades to keep using, but
it is not difficult to dredge up this many. You can get a replacement grenade
from a bug off the hive, when you decide to bring it down.
As soon as Ashley is gone, do a 180 to leave through the main doors, then hop
out the windows into safety and kick and knife all the bugs over the sill;
don't get too close and they won't touch you (those on the ground can connect
with an uppercut). Kill the hive and clinging bugs by throwing 3 hand
grenades at it through the high window (VM). After pulling the lever, 1 hand
grenade is needed to break the drawbridge chains (thanks again to Acidmetal).
There is apparently only 1 spot to stand in order to make this throw
successful. Face the pillar next to the lever (towards the bridge) and walk
into the pillar, facing at a slight angle towards the lever until you hit an
invisible wall. Stop and pull out a hand grenade and aim high, then spin to
direct it towards the top of the next pillar down. With your grenade, try to
skim the flat part at the very top of the next column down, right along where
a thick dark curve is that traces the circumference of the room (this is the
shadow underneath a ledge). When the grenade touches this shadow, that is
when the chains will break. This trajectory (hitting the ledge shadow) was
also found and videoed by VMerken after Acidmetal posted that the chains could
be hit by standing close to the lever. It is unusually difficult to
intentionally aim the throw right, since being in such close proximity to the
wall makes the camera perch right on Leon's shoulder, so that you can't use
Leon himself as any sort of reference. Here you will have to use external
visual clues. So when you try this, be aware of visual clues visible on the
screen, right before each throw. When the grenade touches the curving shadow,
memorize the appearance of your visual clue, whatever it is, so that you can
easily replicate the throw. I look for a gray, roughly V-shaped feature in
the upper left hand corner of my screen, and I use its shape/position as a
reference to how accurate my throw will be. As always, retry for a one-throw
hit.
The 3 catapult attendants defending the clock tower bridge are the only
"available to be killed" enemies consciously skipped in this guide. As I am
going for lowest shots fired with this run (4) I will not tell you to attempt
to hit each with a single magnum round. I do know that in a handgun-only
game, the first two can be hit by peppering the area with 9mm bullets. Though
you cannot see your laser sight that far away, you can see the dust from where
your bullets hit the castle wall. However, the farthest attendant cannot be
hit with a handgun bullet as the bullets seem to disappear before they hit
him; if you back up far enough, you can see how the bullets vanish at a
certain distance, because the dust stops being made against the castle wall.
At the clock tower, knife everyone on the way to the lever on the top floor,
and use 3 hand grenades inside to destroy the blocks jamming the gears. For
the block that seems too close to get a hit, try throwing the grenade in the
opposite direction, bouncing it off the wall directly in front of you.
Now before you pull the lever you need to gather the free RL, any grenades you
can carry, and the free Broken Butterfly. Get the BB at the last possible
opportunity, as when it is in your possession, magnum rounds will begin
appearing in the random spots and as enemy drops, thus cutting your chances
for grenades (possibly). Throw away all but a minimum of health items if you
need to, for more grenades. Harvest all areas, and if needed, milk the
scythes in the cage room. The 2 bugs remaining near that area are not worth
milking, but both can be kicked to death. The one nearest the typewriter door
can be lured to the door and kicked (back well away from anything other than
an immediate kick prompt when it busts the door open), and the one further
inside can be kicked/knifed after the other one is gone (hint: walk towards
it, don't run, to prevent it from hopping repeatedly to the ceiling).
After all enemies are killed, all random spots harvested (all except the ones
in and immediately outside the clock tower; you can get those later), and all
possible permanent grenades and health items are picked up, you will likely
have to choose and discard some things to get the RL and BB to fit, even after
disposing of all enemies including the hive.
Grenade locations before crossing point-of-no-return #5:
Castle entrance:
1) barrel beside stairs
1st catapult area:
2) right barrel, bottom of cannon tower
P1) incendiary in left barrel, bottom of cannon tower
Sword room:
3) shelf on 2nd floor
1st Garrador area:
4) left vase near typewriter
P2) incendiary in left barrel outside Garrador room
5) vase at window into Garrador room
P3) hand grenade in vase upstairs (near tracks to grail area)
Outer fountain area:
6) 2nd barrel past fountain
P4) incendiary in 4th barrel past fountain
Item (bug) room:
7) box on shelf near snake vase
8) vase at far end of room
Moonstone (Ada movie) room:
P5) incendiary, vase immediately inside
9) vase behind merchant
Dining hall:
P6) flash in cage room
10) vase on table next to item (bug) room
RL room:
11) vase under bridge
P7,P8) incendiary and flash with RL
Ashley rescue room:
12) vase left of Saddler painting
P9) flash, left one of the double vases
13) left vase towards dragon room
Grail areas:
14) vase near merchant
P10) flash in hall chair
15) overturned barrel in Queen's Grail room
16) far left vase, hallway before hive
Pull the lever to move the bridge. Rush each archer and leave quickly by the
upper door each time for a quick-save. Jump down the last ladder to activate
the new group, wait until the last second so the enemy above jumps down, then
re-climb and let dynamite man do the dirty work. Kill him when you don't need
him anymore, then rush the last archer near the exit. Outside, the 3 oncoming
shields are best addressed with a softening incendiary with knife finish. Get
a replacement grenade from them, then go forwards to call out a small army of
enemies. 180 and fake past the ones behind you so that you are not
surrounded, and use incendiaries and possibly a hand grenade at your
discretion, on large groupings until all that remains is RL man, who stolidly
awaits his sound suplexing. If everyone here is not killed in one go, some
may disappear, so don't retreat.
In the double Garrador room, there is a certain small area you can walk in
without getting trapped; use this small space to walk back and forth to bait
the two monks individually. Quick-save after killing each. Now you are ready
to deal with the Garradors. These can be lured individually as well, but you
of course lose your quick-save when the bars go down. Walk up on one side of
the steps, easing forwards, until only one reacts, and back away downstairs
again. Lure him into wall stabs as far as possible from the steps, so as not
to alert the other, and keep any running to a minimum. When the first one's
gone, lure the other, keeping him downstairs. Finally you will get your
quick-save back. You can then use the knife more easily to deal with the 3
sneaky-petes who arrive when you top the first steps, as well as the flailer
further in.
Before going into the next room, gather all possible hand grenades and the
herb from the tower, and milk those last 3 enemies that appeared outside the
clock tower if you need to. You should have an easy case load full of hand
grenades by the time you get to Salazar's Right Hand, who you can kill with
10.
Grenade locations before crossing point-of-no-return #6 (minor):
Clock Tower:
1) right barrel outside
2) box on 3rd floor
3) box near 1st floor door
P1) hand grenade in left box, bottom of stairs
Double Garrador room:
4) left vase
P2) incendiary in right vase
Spike Pit:
P3) incendiary by typewriter
After falling down the pit, gather the yellow herb and incendiary if you can
hold them, then go up the ladder towards yet another point-of-no-return. When
Verdugo shows himself in the switch room, run past him and use the liquid
nitrogen tank immediately, then kick him and quickly get some distance to lob
2-3 hand grenades on him BEFORE he busts out of the ice. Run around the
square track in here (counter-clockwise is best so you won't accidentally get
stuck in the dead-end where the switch is) and dodge repeatedly until the door
opens. Run/dodge your way to the next tank, tip it, kick, 2-3 grenades, run
and dodge you way to the next tank in the room to the right up ahead. Wait
for him, tip it, kick, 2-3 grenades, run/dodge your way to the next tank in
the elevator room, wait for him, tip it, now just 1-3 grenades depending on
what number you already effectively threw, and he's dead with a total of 10
hand grenades. Incendiaries hurt him too (minor damage) if you don't happen
to have that many hand grenades, but use these only when he's not frozen; if
he's frozen they'll just thaw him out quicker. Use incendiaries only after
hand grenades are exhausted.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Chapter 4-1 Enemies Killed: 88 Total: 595 (includes one face-hugger
spawned during bridge battle)
==============================================================================
Chapter 4-2
==============================================================================
The next part is the mining area, which can be aggravating because of the
hatchet throwers. They won't be having none of that-there ladder domination
'round these parts. These goons you'll have to lure individually or in twos
back up the entry passageway out of hatchet range; deflect hatchets here and
close in. Soon the only Ganado left will be the one standing on the platform,
who you can rush to keep slashing his legs. Further in, more will appear but
they can be dealt with one-on-one. When you flip the switches to bring Dr.
Salvador and more Ganados, go back up the steps and wait for them to come,
standing back from the ledge out of hatchet range, then jump off the ledge and
run over to the ladder. Watch out for hatchets, and do the ladder domination
thing (approach ladder only as you see the first head). Whenever Sal makes it
all the way to the top, jump down and lead them all in a big circle if
necessary and do the same thing, until you are free to blow the boulder and
use the ladder on the remaining two.
In the double El Gigante room, go for the ladder. When someone shakes the
platform, slide down the wire and use the lever to dump the first giant into
the lava. Run back to the ladder, keeping your distance from the open pool,
and go up again. When you top the ladder, do a 180 and wait for him to begin
the shake (you'll here a deep "moo," and then his shoulders move). As soon as
his shoulders move, jump down and slash with the knife 5-6 times as you turn
back towards the ladder, then climb. Repeat until he staggers so that you can
climb his back. Repeat all this until he's dead.
After Verdugo your case has been almost empty, so do a harvest before going
through the Novistador cavern. You'll likely need a health item or two to get
through this, but try to hang onto any grenades you have. Run in and straight
to the top cave where the 2nd light switch is, by way of the road that doubles
back along the wall to the right. Be ready for the Kick prompt. Try to hug a
wall entering the cave and henceforth to avoid the bugs; hit the switch and
grab the herb, and go back out to quick-save if you are lucky enough to get
snagged only once or less. When you come back in you only have one switch to
hit, and it's a shorter route to the exit. Do the same thing and run to the
exit, but don't go further than a few feet in. All the enemies will convene
outside the opened gate, where you can kick the jumpers and knife the flyers.
Be careful of the ones that fly because they can still jump your face
sometimes, and sometimes jumpers may jump past you and wind up behind you (not
good). Due to so many enemies being there at one time, it is just dangerous
probably due to forced clipping issues. If you get hurt too much, retry from
continue point, which is right there and is very convenient because it resets
enemy positions so that you can lure smaller groups to this magic spot. (Note:
if you leave for a save before all enemies are killed, some may disappear).
Eventually you will have to lure some onto the center bridge and kick them as
you back away, because these won't go all the way to the gate. When all the
bugs are killed, do a harvest and go on past another point-of-no-return.
point of no return #7 (major)
(Grenade locations to come)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Chapter 4-2 Enemies Killed: Total:
==============================================================================
Chapter 4-3
==============================================================================
If your case is full, run past all the Ganados in the ruins and quickly work
the crank to go down the hole. You don't want to kill them now if you can't
pick up their drops. However, you do have to kill the ones below for your own
safety. Kill all individually and knife all the traps. Then go up the
ladder; immediately do a 180 and jump out (you are forced to push the ladder
down first). Going in the building made new Ganados appear, so run away from
them and out for a quick save. Alternatively you can go a certain distance in
by the lower door to make them appear, but they are still easier avoided by
jumping out the window over the top of them. When you come back in from the
save, only two will be in pursuit, a hatchet thrower and a fire breather.
After dealing with this aggravating pair, lure and knife the rest
individually. Then raise the ladder, go up again, and this time lure the upper
Sal downstairs past the lower one. Bring them both outside to follow you up
the ladder again. Slice them a couple of times before they reach the top, then
push the ladder down when they come too close. If one makes it up top, lead
them both around again. Repeat until both are dead. Grab the key to bring
even more Ganados, and kill all these from the top of the ladder.
Use the key, but before moving on, try to get a full case if you don't have
one, because in the mine carts ahead you will be using an assortment of
grenades. You will need 2 hand grenades as switch-trips, but for
offense/defense I advise equal parts incendiaries and hand grenades, with at
least 2 flashes for the Plagas that may occur; also carry at least 4 full
heals. After stocking up, go on to the 2nd descending ceiling in the game,
which this time cannot be completely knifed. Here is the only reason you
picked up the Broken Butterfly earlier. Shoot out 2 of the lights and then
knife the 1st 2 Plagas, then shoot out a third light, and flash the next 2
Plagas when they appear (there is no time to knife them, and they can
interfere with knifing the 4th light). Gather grenade drops (discard BB if
necessary) and stand underneath the 4th light, aim up and keep swinging the
knife. If you are standing correctly you will take it out right as the
ceiling drops for a hair-breadth escape.
Between this room and the mine carts there are 2 grenades possible and an
herb. Discard the Broken Butterfly and get them; this is the only opportunity.
Trip the first switch with a hand grenade, then move up to the front cart and
face backwards. Knife/kick anyone who drops/comes close, until you become
overwhelmed; then use an incendiary to burn everyone in all 3 carts while in
movement. Throw it directly at your feet; the wind is your friend. Be quick
with the R+L prompts, and when the carts slow down, head towards the back cart
(Sal will be jumping in the front). You COULD throw a hand grenade at the
switch now (aiming relatively high from the back cart) to get the carts moving
quickly again, but don't. There are some stragglers that won't show up for a
minute or two, so just stay put and draw from your full stock to thin down the
opposition (hand grenades recommended, aimed at Sal whenever he stands up, but
save one hand grenade for the switch). Use the knife again when the crowd is
thin enough. After they're all killed here, all you have to do now is trip
the switch and stay alive, because anyone left in the cart when it falls into
the chasm counts as a kill. Make the rest of your supplies count, and watch
out for that last R+L prompt... it can be a killer if you aren't facing
forwards to see it coming.
After that adventure, odds are your case is empty or close to it, save for the
RL. Restock your grenades by milking. Use the emblem key to the Mecha-
Salazar statue building. Skip the Ganados in the ruins again; you can still
come back to them even later.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Chapter 4-3 Enemies Killed: Total: (Version 1.00 = ~680)
==============================================================================
Chapter 4-4
==============================================================================
Up in the building, use the ladders and moving hands to try and milk every
palooka in here you can. It is not necessary to milk everyone here because you
couldn't hold that many grenades anyway. Just run back to the typewriter and
save after every enemy killed/grenade gained, and retry from continue with
every non-grenade drop, until you have a comfortable supply. Assuming you
have harvested no boxes/barrels in the accessible areas, there are ~10
environmental possibilities as well, plus whatever you can get from the
Ganados in the ruins.
If you happen to jump from the Salazar machination's right hand before raising
the bars over the lower doorway, go back down the entry elevator and up again
(or typewriter save and retry) so that the hands reset themselves and you
won't have to use a grenade to flip the switch back to the original position
in order to move on. You may find yourself wanting to incendiary a couple of
the archers in here, but if you keep trying you can get these guys knifed too
with no damage, especially with constant saving. When the entire walkway is
raised out of the water again, be sure everyone in here is killed, then go
back for the Ganados in the ruins; these can all be lured individually and
milked if necessary. Harvest all accessible areas to get a full case.
point of no return #8 (major)
(Grenade locations to come)
Save inside the statue building, and move on past the point-of-no-return.
During the statue chase, use the knife on the padlock.
In the next building, run up the spiral walkway. Skip the barrel movie and
run on up and go left onto the wooden walkway. Knife the two scythes as soon
as possible, going for head slash/kick combos. Ascend the ladder, shake off
the monk at the top, and work the switch to keep the barrels rolling in
between knifing him (if you can kick him under the barrel-drop, drop a barrel
on him for a quick kill). Keep working the lever until all possible are dead;
go down for drops and to knife/suplex the lazy priest. Go back up and stand
close to the elevator under the dynamite man, and aim high to kill him with a
hand grenade. Gather any possible items (you can't come back down).
point of no return #9 (tiny)
(Grenade locations to come)
Push the crates off the elevator and hit the button. There will be two
archers, one on either side at differing heights as you go up. Incendiary or
hand grenade these. (Try to hang on to incendiaries if you can, for upcoming
Regenerators.) Anyone you kick off the elevator dies instantly, but it is far
easier to just throw a hand grenade down with each group of 4. Grenade supply
shouldn't be an issue, so lob away here.
Save at the typewriter, equip the rocket launcher.
point of no return #10 (tiny)
(Grenade locations to come)
Go on in. The infinite ground Plagas are not worth messing with. They drop
bullets most of the time, and can jump on your face and eat into your healing
items, so just racking up kills here is not interesting. Just back up as far
as possible against the bars behind you, draw a bead on Salazar's pod with the
RL scope, and wait. Respond to any button prompts that might come, and when
the pod opens in a few seconds, fire. If you miss, retry. Gather items and
move on. Get the golden egg from the snake, and 3 more grenades (incendiaries
recommended again for upcoming Regenerators). Note: if you encounter the
random-item glitch that puts a single non-changing item in the random spot,
but changes the way it looks (i.e. money or bullets disguised with grenade
"glamour"), then retry, typewriter save, and load the save game to get rid of
the glitch.
point of no return #11 (tiny)
(Grenade locations to come)
When you are ready to move on, go hop into Ada's boat for a ride to Disc 2.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Chapter 4-4 Enemies Killed: Total:
==============================================================================
Chapter 5-1
==============================================================================
In the 1st sequence on the island, how you kill folks is up to your inventory.
Enemies are most easily killed by batting them into the water as they jump
over it, in the two places possible. Everyone can be killed this way except
for JJ and the archer, who would just shoot you from the other side. While
this is the easiest and quickest way to eliminate most of the enemies here, it
has its drawback in that you cannot collect any drops if the enemies fall into
the water. So you may want to use the 1st ladder in order to collect
potential grenade drops. After killing the first 4 soldiers, draw out JJ, who
can be knifed in 2 ways. One is at the window; stand aside so he doesn't
fire, and as he climbs through, knife him, jump through the window, knife him
on the ground 3 times, 180, jump back through the window, stand aside, repeat.
This takes a while. The 2nd and quicker way is to climb the ladder, run
forwards a step or two, 180, and wait for one of his pre-jump vocalizations.
Bat him back before his feet touch the roof. Repeat. This is much quicker
due to the damage inflicted with each fall. The only trouble here is that
the Jump Down prompt can sometimes be a pain at this particular ladder, and
you will need to jump down if his feet touch the roof. Also you have to "aim"
JJ right or he ends up on the roof on his back, requiring you to jump down.
After jumping down, wait again for one of his pre-jump vocalizations, then
climb and repeat. Even with occasional mishaps, this is still much quicker
and overall less work than using the window. After JJ, lure individuals for
knife kills however you want, but keep an eye out for the appearance of the
archer. When he comes out of that upper door, run underneath him out of range
so that he will jump down and you can either suplex him quickly or lead him up
the ladder like the rest. A helmeted shock-sticker will run to the archer's
defense.
Once past the reflected-laser door (new continue point), avoid the falling
rock and run straight for the ladder beyond, keeping right so the unarmed
soldier doesn't grab you. If you are quick enough the archer here won't tag
you in the back. You can come back down later to kill these two guys
individually, as they will both be further away from the ladder upon your
return.
Topside, there are sandbags, a window, and a chasm to exploit near the shock-
stick soldier building. It is advisable to skip all enemies here until later.
In all likelihood your case is full, so there is no point in killing anyone
here if you can't pick up potential grenade drops.
Continue on and avoid the rocket launcher blast by running behind the wall of
boxes that defends the entrance to the upward tunnel. After the blast,
quickly run back around the boxes and plunge forwards to the next continue
point, between all the archers and dynamiters before they have much chance to
react (some enemies may get killed unnoticed here, from dynamite and/or the
rocket blast). Push the button to enter the doors ahead, then save at the
typewriter and retry, to reset enemy positions so no one gives chase. Now
equip a hand grenade, run onwards down the road to just in front of the box
that sits midway to the new building, and lob 2 grenades at the archer before
he has a chance to shoot; go back, save, and retry again so you can run into
the next building with no interference.
Inside, run past the gasmask man and oven man; stop briefly to see what oven
man drops. In the next area, run past the first hammer man and enter the door
to the right of him, continuing onward. In the room with the trick garage
door, make the dynamite soldiers kill themselves; run in and to the right, and
stand next to the drums in the archway where the shotgun shells are. From
this position, run forwards and back up (repeatedly) until the door rises,
then run for the door. Eventually you can get them to throw their dynamite
and make the door close to bounce it back at them. After the dynamiters are
gone there are archers (and a flailer if dynamite didn't get him). Stand in
that same position and throw hand grenades when the door opens again; it takes
at least 2. Try to get at least 1 kind of grenade out of all this (I'll say
again: incendiary, incendiary, incendiary). Two gas-masked shock-stickers
appear here upon leaving, so don't let them surprise you later.
Save at the new typewriter, then go get the freezer key and run past the first
Regenerator. Run out and fake past the 2nd Regenerator, go into the freezer
and reprogram the key (don't pick up the infrared scope yet to make the 3rd
Regenerator appear). Go out, fake past the 4th Regenerator to get into the
flammables door.
Do NOT use the grappling crane to pick up the soldiers and dump them in the
trash; you can't get drops that way, and even if your case is full, you will
want to discard a flash or even a hand grenade if an incendiary presents
itself. Jump down the ladder to get their attention, then climb back up and
go back into the control room. If the archer tries to shoot you through the
windows, try to work the crane (you get a "too late for that" message) and
then they will try to follow up the ladder. Run back and defend the ladder.
You will have to go down for the last flailer. Go on through the security
room and into the hall where Ashley is. Now or later, kill both hammer men.
This is most easily accomplished with 3 incendiaries. While 1 incendiary is
needed for a single hammer man (with additional knifing and kicking), it is
unlikely that you can get the two guards synchronized enough to do any
significant knife work. For incendiaries on hammer men, wait until they are
in the process of standing up before throwing the next grenade, or it doesn't
hurt them. If you are able to simultaneously slice both hammer guards 4 times
while they are on the ground after each incendiary, you can get by with using
only two incendiaries. Try to get a grenade in exchange for the twins here.
In the next area (a split-level office where X-rays are displayed), lure each
enemy individually, in a direction back up the entrance hallway, a good
distance from the swinging door; if you fight too close to the door, you will
alert others. Quick-save in the Ashley hall after each kill.
In the laboratory beyond is your primary target: the Iron Maiden who carries
the Storage Room Key. He can be killed with 6 incendiaries, but these are
gold right now; you need 1 incendiary for each lone hammer man, and 4 and 1/2
incendiaries for each Regenerator (and we already have to go back for 2 more
hammer men and 4 Regenerators). However, for Iron Maidens and Regenerators, 2
hand grenades equal 1 incendiary, and 1 explosive tank equals 1 hand grenade.
So if you have this option with the Iron Maiden, put a hand grenade on the
explosive tank (simultaneous damage from both equaling 1 incendiary), then
throw 5 incendiaries, substituting in 2 more hand grenades for any 1
incendiary, if you have a surplus of the green ones in pairs (any odd hand
grenade will be a waste on an Iron Maiden). Space your incendiary throws so
they count: the enemy must show a reaction or he isn't getting hurt. Get the
Storage Room key, then go get the incendiary out of the barrel at the
communications tower.
After getting the Storage Room Key, more enemies have appeared in the X-ray
office. Use a flash to run by them. Go on to the Storage Room hall, and come
back to lure them individually in the same manner as before, but do this
later; keep them for now, for potential milking. When the time comes, you can
lure everyone out except the last two archers, who you will have to fight
together. Use a flash and try to get one kicked, knifed, and suplex-killed
before the other recovers (kick onto the stairs and suplex onto lower stairs).
The single one won't be such a threat by himself.
Don't go into the storage room to meet Ashley until everyone on the island so
far is dead, as meeting Ashley will trigger a point-of-no-return. Go for the
4 Regenerators next, and start pillaging the environment for incendiaries and
hand grenades when you need them. There are precious few environmental
options on the island so far:
1) incendiary (random box) on cliff face near beginning
2) incendiary in trash bin near oven man
3) hand grenade in kitchen sink near oven man
4) incendiary (random barrel) in basement alcove
5) incendiary in red wall box near freezer room
6) hand grenade on floor near grappling crane
7) flash in locker in security room
8) flash in X-ray office
9) incendiary in barrel near communications tower merchant
That's it, so a great deal of your grenades will have to come from milking all
the enemies you have bypassed. Whenever you get the goods to dispatch an
enemy, go take care of it. Then go milk some more.
For the two lone Regenerators in the original freezer key room and in the
freezer (pick up the infrared scope) you have no choice but to use 4
incendiaries and 1 hand grenade on each one (total 10 grenades). For the two
Regenerators in the same hall though, lure them towards each other, then when
they are paired up, fake past them and use only 4 incendiaries on the both of
them, near the explosive tank. After the Regenerators are gone, work on the
two hammer men.
For the lone hammer man above the basement (area between the kitchen and the
garage-door area), put him down with a softening incendiary, then knife/kick
him. The ideal situation is for him to be face down, head directly towards
you. Knife the back of his bald head (find the distance that doesn't clang a
shoulder guard), and keep aiming your knife at his head as he stands up, for
an easy Kick prompt. The same can be done from other positions, but it is
harder to judge distance when he stands, and you might end up clanging his
armor and unable to connect with his head. If you have to be at his feet as
he stands up and cannot connect with his head, knife his midriff and legs
repeatedly, whatever position and angle that doesn't return a clang; this
works best if he's facing away, so that it takes a long while for him to turn
around. Move with him if he starts to inch out of reach, and quickly use a
flash if necessary to kick him down a second time for more knifing.
After killing lone hammer man #1, lure the archer out of the basement. Get
him to come up the stairs (dance around the bars close to the original
entrance, to get his attention), and stand behind the corner at the top of the
stairs; his arrows won't connect, and you can then rush past him to do the
knife/suplex on the stairs. Once the lower hammer man is by himself, run in
and past him, counter-clockwise along the wall, until you are past the table
where he doesn't chase. Reverse course and run past him again, faking past
the flailer and the shield bearer who come down the stairs after you out of
nowhere. You can hide again where you stood to dispatch the archer, knifing
their legs for suplexes as they top the stairs, or leave the area in the
direction of the nearest merchant. When you come back, the two new enemies
will be in the monitor room, where you can come up behind them and try to lure
them individually. Once they are taken care of, go for the lower hammer man,
same way as the upper one.
Once the hammer men and Regenerators are gone, you are still not done milking.
Take a moment and think of what's coming up in the game. After retrieving
Ashley from the storage room (with resulting appearance of multiple enemies in
the hallway and in the security room) there is the no-return jump into the
trash, for a pair of Iron Maidens that you must confront immediately due to
the no-return drop-off into the wrecking ball room. The wrecking ball crowd
can only be bypassed momentarily, and immediately afterwards is another pair
of Regenerators, then the no-return of the bulldozer ride, and coming not long
afterwards is U3/It. All of this occurs with little to no environmental
grenades available; some serious milking is necessary if you plan on
decimating the opposition instead of merely running by them all. Now more
than ever, you need to get as close to a full case as possible before crossing
the multiple back-to-back points of no return.
Note: if you seem to hit a dry spell with grenade drops, just be persistent
and they will come. Sometimes the game may become something different, more
akin to a leisurely fishing or casino game but with violence. A hidden bonus,
though, of any such tedious repetition will be the cultivation of consummate
hand to hand skills. Wax on, wax off. Whacha! As always, if you only want
to complete the game with the 4 shots, and do not necessarily want to kill
every enemy possible, by all means sally forth. If this is the case, now you
only need concentrate on getting/keeping enough grenades to aid you during the
bulldozer ride, the U3 encounter, and the Saddler end game.
On your milking quest, use this trick in the outer area with the archers and
dynamiters: after saving at the typewriter (the 1st one on the island), run
straight for the steps leading up to the dynamiter in the tunnel. You can get
him to throw his dynamite so that it lands on the wooden walkway, killing him
and igniting the explosive drum to soften the two archers there to one knife-
swipe away from death. Settle for one grenade out of the trio. Everyone else
outside can be lured individually. Stand underneath the other archer to get
him (and another dynamiter) to come down for individual kills. Save the
running soldier for last, as his running seems to be the only thing that gets
that 3rd archer's attention, so that he may not jump down if the runner is no
longer there.
OK, so the only thing left on the island are chirruping crickets, and Ashley
in lock-up. You have collected all possible items from the beginning of the
island all the way to the trash-jumping point; for the purposes of this guide
we will assume we have equal parts hand grenade, incendiary, flash, and
healing items. Go into the storage room for Ashley.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Chapter 5-1 Enemies Killed: (Version 1.00 = 73) Total: (Version
1.00 = ~816)
==============================================================================
Chapter 5-2
==============================================================================
Leave Ashley in the far recesses of the storage room, and go out to lure the
archer in. His x-ray vision can be overcome by retreating to behind the
storage room door, then going to stand in the bend inside as he rounds the
corner towards the storage room. Attack him as you stand on the other side of
the bend. As soon as you attack him the others will start strolling in, so
you are standing here to create as large a walking distance between him and
the others as possible. After killing him there will be a shock-stick, a
flail and shield, and a hatchet, who can all be put down at once with a single
hand grenade. One knife swipe could finish each, but chances are 2 will
sprout Type III Plagas. If so, flash them and try to get the hoppers knifed
before hammer man shows up. He will be the last to arrive, so kill him in the
same manner as the lone ones before, or use an extra incendiary if the hoppers
are thwarting you.
If you are pleased with the battle outcome, save at the typewriter back past
the x-ray office. Fill up holes in your case by collecting anything you
haven't yet towards the communications tower.
In the security room, throw a hand grenade towards the center of the room to
put down everyone but the switch-tripper. Finish each with one knife swipe,
and flash any Plagas. Knife the unarmed switch-tripping soldier, then go back
for another save if you are again pleased. When you come back, push the
button to open the door, letting 3 more enemies in. Skip the movie,
immediately 180 and exit directly past the entering enemies, towards the trash
area. Go out the swinging door but not too far; leave Ashley, then wait by
the door and use it for an assist on the two who come after you. One will try
to abduct Ashley and carry her back the other way, giving you some additional
time to dispatch the other. Leave for quick-saves after killing each, until
you are ready to typewriter save before jumping in the trash.
Down below, close the 1st gate on the 1st Iron Maiden, leave the 2nd gate open
and run to Push the makeshift bridge, then hide Ashley in the next dumpster.
When the 1st Maiden gets close enough, show yourself to the 2nd one so that it
starts walking, and lure them together. The two explosive drums are too far
apart to use both (they will have regained all those hit points by the time
they walk from one end of the room to the other), so just choose one barrel to
lead them to. Same as before, 1 hand grenade on the barrel, then 5
incendiaries, or 4 incendiaries with 2 more hand grenades. Get the herb and
move on.
In the next hallway run past the hammer man and 2 others. Take a shock-stick
to the chest, recover, and keep running, grabbing the herb on the way (there's
nothing of use in the barrels). There's no sense trying to kill these guys
here when they will be right behind you in the wrecking ball room, where
hammer man can be kicked into the lava and the two easy ones can be milked
later.
Run to the control room immediately; you can be halfway there before Ashley
says her line and the enemies appear. Once I even made it all the way to the
lever and pulled it once before she jumped down and the enemies appeared.
When the enemies appear, throw a flash, watch them, and wait. Have Ashley
work the lever, and stay ready with flashes. Kick all the blinded hammer men
possible into the lava, trying not to touch anyone else. Everyone except the
hammer men should be saved for milking. This will take a maximum of 3
flashes. Exit immediately when the new door appears.
In the next area, lead the 1st Regenerator into the 1st room (get the
incendiary), so you can put him well behind you. Close the shutter behind you
and run to the 2nd room, hit the switch, grab the herb, then wait for 2nd
Regenerator to come in. Lead him deep into the room so you will have some
additional seconds, then rush to the door where Ashley has to crawl under.
Run on ahead and pick up the yellow herb, then kiss the typewriter before you
attempt to do anything else.
If you have enough grenades to kill the 2 Regenerators (pair them up) and have
at least 1 of each kind left over, go ahead and kill them. If you are tapped
out, you will have to fake past them to the milking area, killing them when
you get the materials. Back in the wrecking ball room, some saved enemies
will come from a door to your right. A group will run in when you enter,
hopefully devoid of hammer men. Put them down with 1 hand grenade, and finish
each with one knife swipe. Type I Plagas will likely sprout, so flash them.
Simultaneously in the opposite corner of the room, enemies will be jumping
down from above. If there is a hammer man among them, kick him into the lava
after the Plaga flash. Retry until you get something for your troubles. Once
these enemies are gone (any hammer men, and anyone from the right) the real
milking can begin.
Leave Ashley at the entrance, and run to where the enemies jump down. Knife
legs as they land, the goal being an instant suplex kill for a grenade. Run
away and save, repeat. Retry if you can't get a quick enough kill, or no
grenade from a kill. It becomes exponentially easier with each killed enemy.
Finally after the last initial enemy is killed, a lone hatchet thrower will
appear and jump down. But you have to stay in the room to kill him after the
last initial enemy; if you go out for a save, he won't appear again. After
all those from that corner are gone, whoever you didn't kill from the hallway
earlier are still back there (with a couple more). Call them with the
wait/follow. If hammer man is still among them (you should be able to see him
through the fence/wall) you will want to flash him and kick him into the lava
with his kin. Leave and come back, call the others again (talking can lead
them slowly and individually; entering the control room brings them all
running at once), and do the same thing with these, knifing their legs as they
jump down from the hallway. Same deal applies for this group; you will have
to kill the last 2 without quick-saves in between. When you think you've
killed them all but one--because only one comes running when you enter the
control room--you can still call 1 more, but not if you leave after killing
one of them. Finally the wrecking ball room will be empty and you will have a
nice stock of grenades for the bulldozer ride. You should have 2 hangrenades
and a few incendiaries (6 should be good).
Get the FAS from the box before hopping onto the bulldozer; there's nothing
else of use here. On the dozer, do a 180 and stall the oncoming jumpers with
the knife, possibly killing one with a suplex. Back away into a front corner,
and throw down an incendiary on the largest grouping possible, to instantly
kill everyone when someone gets too close. Complete this cycle one more time,
and suplex or kick any lone individuals. Be sure to heal yourself the moment
you take a hit. Equip a hand grenade, and lob it at the oncoming truck.
Continue defending the dozer in the same way (remember to re-equip
incendiary). When the truck comes again, back away to a front corner and let
the truck get stopped at the overhanging girder. At the midway point dispatch
any enemies remaining on the dozer, hop off and climb the ladder to your
right. At the top, immediately do a 180 and jump back down and onto the dozer
again. Defend it again in the same manner. When nobody else shows up, get
back down and go up the ladder to your left. 2 enemies will see you and come
running; use the ladder for an assist, they won't try to get Ashley. Go back
up the same ladder to rush the archer, then go after the flailer on the other
side. The only thing of use in here is an herb. Flip the switch and climb
aboard again.
Same drill as before, but this time start out standing in a front corner.
When "its coming right for you," wait for a visual. All enemies should be
dead from the last incendiary. Throw your second hand grenade at the oncoming
truck and its over.
Now, you can either make out on grenade drops on this bulldozer ride, or you
can get seriously ripped off. If you think you got gypped, don't overwrite
your previous save, so that you can try again. If you made it through, you
may just want to move on with a different save file.
Get the hand grenade out of the cabinet, and go into the next room to say bye-
bye to Ashley again.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Chapter 5-2 Enemies Killed: (Version 1.00 = 80) Total: (Version
1.00 = ~896)
(Number of kills on the dozer ride will vary based on what number of chasing
soldiers never catch up to you; some start running in the opposite direction
if they get too far behind, and kicking anyone off adds to that problem.)
==============================================================================
Chapter 5-3
==============================================================================
Your next use of grenades will be for the It/U3 sequence. You'll need a
minimum of 3 hand grenades to hit buttons, and the monster itself will die
with the equivalent of 11 incendiaries (grenade relationship is the same as
for Regenerators). Milk accordingly on the way there. There are 10 possible
enemies to milk in the boiler room, but take a moment to calculate exactly
what you need for It, based on what you currently have, and the knowledge that
you will also have:
1) random grenade off the shelf by the typewriter
2) random grenade from locker in tiny office in boiler room
3) permanent flash in boiler room closet (good for scaring It away in the
switch maze)
4) permanent incendiary in the It suspended switch maze
5) permanent hand grenade in the It suspended switch maze
6) 2 explosive drums, each equaling 1/2 an incendiary.
In the boiler room, lure everyone for individual kills. Use the doors for
assists. Kill the 1st 7 enemies before moving on; if you are looking for a
closer quick-save point and cross to the next area prematurely, the 1st 7
enemies will disappear to be replaced by the new set of 3. You have to keep
running back the 50-60 steps to the first quick-save; so only milk for what
you absolutely need for It.
Get Krauser's cool knife, jump through some lasers, and save at the next
typewriter. Pick up whatever herbs you pass.
In the suspended maze, utilize your map so you know where you're going before
you try to go there. Aside from grenading or knifing the necessary buttons,
executing the maze is the same as in any other type of run. Knife the two
buttons in the 1st section. Grab the herb when you pass it. In the second
section, there are two buttons you need to grenade: if you only counted on
getting the minimum of three hand grenades for buttons, you'll have to get
each in one throw. No problem. Upon arriving in the 2nd section, DO NOT MOVE
AN INCH. Stand right where you are, and look for the pulsating green light
way back towards the right (ignore the pulsating light directly ahead). Aim
as high as possible, straight at where the brightest green is reflected on a
ceiling beam, and throw your grenade. Whether you happen to hit an overhead
beam or not, whether the grenade bounces or not, the light should shatter and
the door should rise. Now move to the right inside the entry doorway, and
scrunch into the corner there as far back as you can get; looking to the left
you can actually see the top part (yellow and square) of the other button.
Again aim as high as possible and straight at it. Your grenade can hit an
overhead beam--or not--and still shatter the button. If you don't hear the
shatter and see the door go up, for either light, practice with whatever more
hand grenades you have, then retry from the (ouch) very beginning. When
successful, grab the incendiary to the right of the doorway in the 2nd
section, and the hand grenade when you pass it. In the 3rd section the button
is impossible to miss.
When fighting It after the maze, use your previously calculated equivalent of
11 incendiaries (hand grenade or explosive drum each equaling 1/2 an
incendiary). 7 will initiate the burrowing. During the burrowing, stand near
the cliff and face the tunnel, as it seems there are far less dodge prompts
here. After It's dead, ride back to the last typewriter for a save.
Go up the new ladder and get the hand grenade out of the cabinet. If this is
your only hand grenade, you will have to get an additional 1 more out of the
next soldiers. Outside, jump down the ladder to lure 2 individuals up. The
unarmed one will stand at the top of the ladder, but he will jump back down if
you get too far away. Kill the shield bearer without going into the building,
so that you can get the unarmed one right afterwards. If you let the unarmed
one go back down, he will become a pain. After them, lure who you can up the
ladder and to the door and shorter ladder inside, for milking your 1 grenade.
There's one random grenade in this area, on the surface above the next
typewriter; make it a hand grenade. You are looking to collect a total of 4
hand grenades for the flying gun-bots in the upcoming Krauser area.
In the Krauser area, jump down and run into the 1st building. Slice at the
closed door when you hear Krauser grunt outside, and hope to make him leave
without taking damage. Go up and get the flash, then proceed to the next
continue point. Run forwards to take cover behind the wall to the left, and
again keep swinging the knife for him to run into it. Now run straight to the
next building, underneath his fire (hug to the right if machinegun), and watch
him jump down so you can meet him with more slashes. Get the FAS out of the
barrel inside, go to the ladder and wait. When the bots arrive, throw a
grenade at one through the window, then climb the ladder immediately. Look
down the hole and throw another grenade when you see the other bot coming up
after you. Collect your 4th hand grenade from the roof.
Go up the stairs and hide underneath the ledge as Krauser chucks grenades or
fires, then rush to slash him when he jumps down. Push the statue to leave,
then prepare to meet him downstairs again as you pass the previous FAS/grenade
building. Slash him as he tries to surprise you at the corner. Open the gate
and jump down. Lure the two sand-crawler bots to the ladder, where you can
climb in safety as they blow up. Use your 3rd hand grenade to take out a
flying gun-bot along with 2 more crawlers, then lure the next 2 crawlers to
the ladder again. Back up towards them, and then run away when you hear the
beeping (1-2-3-boom). Pause to let it catch up, run again, and try to get it
all the way back to the ladder.
After talking to Krauser, quickly 180 and run away when the last crawler and
gun-bot appear. Go get the gun bot from around the other way (it will come up
behind you or lie in wait in an archway), then lure the crawler for an
explosion. Heal yourself if you don't make it, and move on to the tower.
Pick up the last puzzle piece for the big showdown; stay close to him and keep
swinging the knife downwards for a quick end (downwards interrupts both his
high and low kicks). Just retry at any point during this whole encounter, if
he keeps getting lucky, or if you are off your game.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Chapter 5-3 Enemies Killed: (Version 1.00 = 31) Total: (Version
1.00 = ~927)
==============================================================================
Chapter 5-4
==============================================================================
In the next area, run ahead until the gunner starts shooting, and take cover.
Sit tight and wait for Mike to do his stuff. When Mike's done his first good
deed for the day, do not take the left path. Go either into that little
roofless bunker where the archer was, or inch down the steps just enough to
trigger the movie of oncoming shield enemies. Immediately 180 and run
directly out for a quick-save (or typewriter save and retry). This simple
action brings you infinite enemies. When you reload the area, you will have
individual shock-stick soldiers, who come from the left, until you kill 4.
After the 4th one they stop coming, but you can quick-save again (or save and
retry), to bring 4 more, ad infinitum. Do not run to meet them, just kill
them at the crossroads; going very far down that way will trigger more
enemies. You may fill your case with grenades and rack up your kill count as
high as you want. The moment you go too far down the steps, or down towards
their origin, this bounty is over. However it is possible to trigger another
set of infinite ones.
When you get tired of the shock-stickers, kill a complete set of 4, then run
up the path where they came from, to trigger a hoard of enemies up that way.
Run straight to the ladder, wait for the rocket launcher man to aim at you,
then climb the ladder. If you waited long enough he will fire before you
complete the climb, during your invulnerability. He'll take out a large chunk
of the opposition for you. Now stay up there and let dropping dynamiters
light up, and elbow them to keep taking out more. Lob hand grenades at the
far tower where an archer is shooting at you, and heal yourself as needed. Do
NOT jump down onto the metal bridge, or you won't be able to get the next set
of infinite enemies. Finally this corner will be clear and you can claim it
as your own. This will trigger the new infinite batch. Now every time you go
down those steps, a face-painted shock-sticker will come up behind you out of
nowhere, and a hatchet thrower will come out of the original archer's bunker.
Fake past the new shock-sticker to kill them both at the ladder you just
claimed. When you go down the steps again, a second face-painted shock-
sticker will appear, but not a second hatchet-thrower. These 3 seem to be
infinite, just like the earlier 4 shock-stickers, as long as you don't go past
the padlocked fence (or jump onto the metal bridge) to trigger the new gunner.
Skipping ahead, think about what grenades you need in order to slaughter the
remaining opposition throughout the rest of the game:
1) 6 incendiaries for a very strong Regenerator
2) 1 flash and 3 incendiaries for a pair of hammer men
3) 16 hand grenades for Saddler
Saddler goes down with 22 climbing eye-stabs (Ada throws down the RL after
11). Hand grenades are what you need for him; incendiaries are only good for
igniting the 2 explosive drums, and there are 2 permanent ones near the very
end. Using those 2 incendiaries on the barrels at endgame, along with the two
payload levers, give you 4 stabs. A knee-eye slash to the facing left knee at
first contact is also a gimme, for 5, and a hand grenade is on-site for 6. So
along with your 2 lastly-appearing incendiaries, you will need to carry in 16
hand grenades. 5 random ones and 2 permanent ones occur between the war zone
and the end, so if you enter the war zone (start of 5-4) with zero, you will
need to collect 9 from enemies (9 + 7 = 16), as well as the 9 incendiaries
listed in 1) and 2) above. A very simple task, provided that you set out to
do so. (Note: add in a few more hand grenades, for use on any of those pesky
archers within the war zone.)
Now back to the war zone. When you're finally tired of infinite enemies, and
you are prepared for what's to come, go on and trigger the 2nd gunner and head
for the ladder back behind his tower (fake past the 2 shields who lie in
wait). Defend the top of the ladder until no one else comes, then go up top to
knife the gunner, free from any incoming arrows. Go back down and open the
door to trigger JJ and the new enemies. Let the new enemies come for you,
then lead them away from JJ's fire and kill them. The ladder you claimed near
the beginning is a good place, as they don't go in the other direction. You
may have to look around for an archer and lob a grenade at the pest.
Once these are dealt with, go back for JJ, leading him down into the pit with
the tents. You may have to kill an archer down here if he didn't get killed
earlier. Once JJ is in the pit, knife him as he tries to come off the top of
the ladder. Press the button to open the door, then wait for a shield-bearer
from the new area, to also kill in the pit.
Enter the new area and go left. Defend the ladder inside, baiting who you
can. When no one else comes, wait for a gap in the shooting to run around to
the first topside gunner. Duck into the shack, and intermittently knife him
during gaps in the shooting, ducking back into safety during the shooting.
Once this one's dead, go back down and run across to the ladder towards the
2nd topside gun. Go up and kill the flalier hiding behind the shack, then go
inside the shack and let the gunners kill an enemy or two. Knife anyone who
comes inside the shack, then kill this gunner same as before. Finally go
after the gunner on the ground. When the gunners are dead, kill anyone else
here, then hit the buttons to open the shutters. Don't move on though. Go
back out to the original area to trigger some new enemies from the gunner
area. Finally when no one else comes, move on. You can come back to these
areas later (until you meet Ashley again), so you may want to wait to harvest
anything. Get a random grenade at the bottom of the 1st ladder in the triple-
gunner area, and a random grenade immediately outside the entrance. The
permanent hand grenades are in the original archer's bunker, and up where JJ
started out. The one flash you will need for the upcoming hammer men can be
gotten near the end.
If you have space, retry Mike's mass kill for a grenade drop or two. Go on to
the next typewriter.
The Regenerator in here has the stamina of an Iron Maiden, so it takes the
equivalent of 6 incendiaries. In this version of the game, it physically
cannot be knifed to death. In the next area, lure individuals up the entryway
for single kills, saving after each (run deeper past the 1st archer each time
to lure the next enemy). When JJ comes out, that means it's safe to tackle
the archers. Leave, go back in, and take them one by one (the 2nd one
overshoots you as you knife the legs of the 1st one for a suplex). After
they're gone, go right to the extremely tall ladder. This ladder is your
bestest friend from now on in this area; always enter by it. JJ and a hatchet
thrower will jump down; when they jump, go up and wait. Kill this last JJ the
same way as the very 1st one, knocking him out of the park with each jump up.
JJ will probably kill the hatchet-thrower for you, if for some reason he
starts shooting.
After these, go in and lure everyone individually, the tall ladder always
being your entry point. Do not investigate any buttons until everyone is
dead. Finally, bring the new enemies and lead them to the tall ladder for
your kills. Kill all, get the key and use it. Push the buttons to open the
new door, then go in and lead 2 shield bearers to the tall ladder. Harvest 3
random grenades in this area, and everything possible in a backwards
direction, before you see Ashley.
In the next hallway, ease forwards to show yourself to a hammer man, then
retreat, and after he rounds the bend, flash him, and only him. When the
others come close, throw your 3 incendiaries for the double hammer men,
probably taking out the others as well. Go remove your Plaga eggs.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Chapter 5-4 Enemies Killed: (Version 1.00 = 100+) Total: (Version
1.00 = 1000+)
(Due to the infinite enemies in the war zone, your kill counts for this
chapter will be well over 100, and for the game, well over 1000.)
==============================================================================
Final Chapter
==============================================================================
Now all's that's left is Saddler. Get whatever else you could possibly want
before going down from the last typewriter. Be sure you have 2 incendiaries
and 16 hand grenades before going to meet him.
Deliver 22 climbing eye-stabs:
1) Slash his facing left leg-eye at 1st contact
2) Incendiary the 1st drum
3) Payload lever #1
4) Incendiary the drum on the other side
5) Payload lever on the other side (pick up you 17th hand grenade on
your way to it)
6-11) Your 1st 6 hand grenades
Ada will now throw down the special rocket launcher. Thanks Ada,
appreciate the help, but we're fine.
12-22) Your remaining 11 hand grenades
Ride your jet-ski to the end. Yahoo!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now try the Be Kind to Ganados game variant. Use the same item management
techniques as described above, for procurement of flash grenades mainly, with
other grenades only for the enemies that must be killed in order to progress.
Kill the absolute least number of enemies possible. Have fun!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
==============================================================================
Appendix: Un-knife-able stuff. The short list.
==============================================================================
These are all the out-of-reach things that must be hit in any "knife" run,
listed in order of appearance. Some things are not listed here because it
should be possible to get past the area by healing repeatedly (sometimes
ridiculously repeatedly) and not necessarily hitting anything from a distance.
Super-hardcore knife enthusiasts who are not interested in maximizing kills
would be using the un-upgraded handgun to hit only these things (all are
grenade-able except for the two indicated):
1) Chapter 2-1: 3 boxes at falls
2) Chapter 2-3: truck driver before castle
3) Chapter 3-1: Any monk abducting Ashley in the piggyback crank
sequence (but no other monks, only the ones that pick
her up, and only to make them drop her!)
4) Chapter 3-3: Wine bottle painting
5) Chapter 3-4: 3 restraints holding Ashley, and all enemies below until
all are dead
6) Chapter 4-1: 3rd flame-dragon rider
7) Chapter 4-1: Queen's Grail drill machine monks
8) Chapter 4-1: Drawbridge chains
9) Chapter 4-1: 3 blocks jamming clock tower gears
10) Chapter 4-3: Descending ceiling at mine carts (3 lights only). Not
grenade-able.
11) Chapter 4-3: 2 switches at mine carts
12) Chapter 4-4: Salazar. Not grenade-able.
13) Chapter 5-1: Storage Room Key Iron Maiden (not out-of-reach but not
knife-able in GCN NTSC version)
14) Chapter 5-2: 2 trucks on bulldozer ride
15) Chapter 5-3: 3 switches in the "It" suspended maze
Note that while all these things are easy to hit with a bullet, using only the
knife and healing items to get past everything else in the game can be
excruciatingly difficult (gondolas, raising the cannon, the other enemies in
the crank sequence, Armaduras, mine carts, soldiers in bulldozer ride, all
bosses, etc.). Completely opposite to the run described in this guide,
stockpiling of health items is pretty much required. Personally I wouldn't go
out onto the lake until I procured over 50 golden eggs, keeping a very few
slots open for yellow herb use and for later bullet collection for number 5)
above; I'd worry about bullet collection for Salazar only after securing the
King's grail. When full of eggs (no health sprays or green herbs; red herbs
are OK to collect for later use), random green herbs will appear insanely
often so that you never have to dip into your egg stockpile except when
trapped in the problem areas. Some areas even become less of a problem if
herb-less, due to the herbs dropped (cabin fight, bulldozer ride). After the
first El Gigante, replenish golden eggs with swamp snakes (don't kill any
beforehand). After Mendez, horde every little herb possible, and always use
up herbs before using an egg.
That's all, folks!
FAQ Version Changes
-------------------
1.00 April 23, 2006
-----------------------
Original and complete run through
1.25 May 5, 2006
-----------------------
Minor grammatical and text changes; added in the death of Pueblo Salazars for
a much easier Pueblo sequence. In version 1.00 I had said all available
enemies would be killed, yet (Doh!) I didn't draw out the Doctors. Oversight
on my part due to changing goals after run already started. Version 1.00 used
no grenades in Pueblo, knifing all Ganados and killing no Salazars (no early
grenade harvest).
1.26 May 10, 2006
-----------------------
Minor text changes and a couple of minor content corrections. Honed in closer
to the mechanism behind random-spot deactivation; expanded discussion of item
management immediately prior to first point-of-no-return. Abandoned former
Chapter 1-2 (1-3) Pueblo strategy as not reproducible. Added in Chapter
breaks, kill tallies, and grenade locations through end of Chapter One;
Chapter breaks through end of Chapter Two.
1.30 May 15, 2006
-----------------------
Minor text changes through end of Chapter Two. Honed in closer to the
mechanism behind randomness of random pick-ups; expanded discussion of item
management immediately prior to second and third points-of-no-return. Added
the electric light idea for nighttime farm Ganados (unconfirmed). Maximized
cabin fight kills. Figured out the trick to consistently grenading the last
gondola Ganado. Added in grenade locations and kill tallies through end of
Chapter Two. Added an idea for a game variant at the end, for even more fun
and a whole new challenge.
1.31 May 25, 2006
-----------------------
Minor text changes throughout, corrected some previously overlooked typos.
Added in Chapter breaks through to the very end. Added kill tallies and
grenade locations through end of Chapter 3-1 (version changes now reflect at
what point I am in revisiting the game). Added strategies for kicking/knifing
all 3-2 sewer Novistadors. Added deaths of the 1st two rocket launcher monks
in 3-2 gallery (previously assumed it was the same pair firing each time from
behind the painting). Added appendix outlining all the out-of-reach things
that must be hit in any "knife" run, including tips for the more typically
attempted sort of run. Added Table of Contents.
1.41 May 29, 2006
-----------------------
Minor text changes through end of Chapter 4-1. Added kill tallies and grenade
locations through end of Chapter 4-1. Added alternative El Gigante strategy
from The n00b Avenger.
Upcoming
--------
More typical kill tallies, more grenade locations, etc.
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