***************************************** Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader ***************************************** +-------------------+ | Table of Contents | +-------------------+ A) Intro B) Version History C) Story of "Rogue Leader" D) Controls E) Fighters F) Areas G) Main Guide H) Miscellaneous tips I) FAQ J) Copyright Rights, closing words, and contact info. +-------+ | Intro | +-------+ Hello! This is my guide I decided to create of this game or rather as it is called, "Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader". Personally, I felt that this game should be highly revered (along with the Battlefront series) due to its "pick up and play" action, graphical detail, the storyline (which I will get into next) and finally, the tremendous playability of this game! Oh, and a small note; I will NOT tell how to unlock the secrets in the game since they should already have a code section for this game on GameFAQs. Also, I will not list the upgrades because I have never been able to find all of them. +-----------------+ | Version History | +-----------------+ Version 0.1 ----------- As I write this guide, it is the first Monday of October 2010. So, I probably won't be finished with the guide until the end of the month because I plan on making this guide as short and clear as possible. Version 0.6 ----------- Wow, didn't think I'd get THIS far.... apparently since I covered all of the levels under "Areas" I've written about 60% of this guide! But then again, I did crank all of this out while watching videos of Megas XLR. Anyway, let's move on with the guide! Also, I probably won't include the Slave I ship in the fighters section until I actually use it in a mission. Version 1.0 ----------- Finally, I have managed to finish this guide! And I have to say, this one was LENGTHY. But I will post more FAQs when I get some in from some viewers. +-------------------------+ | Story of "Rogue Leader" | +-------------------------+ As for the story events of this game, it starts out with you fighting in the famous Battle of Yavin from Episode IV. Then a after a few missions, you fight in the infamous Battle of Hoth from Episode V. And then, the final two missions has you fighting in the epic Battle of Endor from Episode VI. Plus, if you get really good and clear lots of missions; then you can play as Vader in two bonus missions that serve as "What if?" scenarios. +----------+ | Controls | +----------+ A button: Primary weapon fire B button: (press) Secondary weapon (hold) ION Cannon (Y-Wing and B-Wing only) X: Cockpit view Y button: (hold) Targeting computer (press) Advanced targeting computer C stick: Push up or down to zoom in/out on your fighter, and hold left/right to see beside your fighter D pad: Squad commands Z button: Hold down and press left/right to roll your fighter L button: Brake R button: Speed boost (closes wings on the X and B wings) Control stick: Push up to make your fighter descend, while pushing up makes it ascend. Push right or left to move in that direction. +----------+ | Fighters | +----------+ X-Wing Secondary weapon: Proton torpedoes This fighter is the proverbial "balanced" fighter of the game, a perfect balance of attack power, defense, and speed. Only thing, when you close your wings by speeding up you can't fire any weapons. Also, it has an R2 unit so if you take some damage and then don't take any more for a while then you slowly regenerate health. When you take heavy damage then use a squad command to fully heal your fighter. This can only be done once per life, so be careful. Y-Wing Secondary weapon: Proton bombs (regenerating) Special weapon: ION cannon This fighter/bomber (at least that's what everyone calls it) is a bit slow when compared to the speedier X-Wing BUT, it has a stronger defense. As far as the weapons go, this fighter is equipped with proton bombs that are capable of inflicting lots of damage on targets. But be careful not to fly TOO low when dropping them; you'll take damage also. Last thing; this fighter has a powerful weapon known as the ION cannon. When you fire it at a target, it temporarily disables the target. You can even use this to hit other fighters! Like the X-Wing, it also has an R2 unit. A-Wing Secondary weapon: Concussion missiles This fighter is the fastest fighter available at the start of the game. But unfortunately, its defense is low so it can't survive heavy crossfire from enemies. Fortunately, this fighter is really speedy and it can easily evade enemy fire. But, this fighter has no R2 unit so you must be careful not to get into fights with big swarms of TIE fighters. B-Wing Secondary weapon: Proton torpedoes Special weapon: ION cannon Like the Y-Wing, this fighter has an ION cannon too. Also, like the X-Wing it carries Proton torpedoes but it carries even more and it can also speed up like the X-Wing. One last thing; this fighter may be a bit awkward to pilot due to its shape. Airspeeder Secondary weapon: Tow cables This fighter is really called the Snowspeeder since you first use it on Hoth but you also use it in a later mission. Anyway, this fighter is the weakest one becuase it has even poorer shielding than the A-Wing. Plus, this thing has a limited "flight ceiling" becuase it can't fly real high. But its small size is perfect for dodging blaster fire despite the fact that it lacks an R2 unit. Millennium Falcon Secondary weapon: Concussion missiles Special weapon: Rotating turret cannons The personal ship piloted by none other than Han Solo. As for the "special weapon", all it really does is that it can also fire behind you. That way, it can take out those pesky TIEs following you. Sad to say, no R2. TIE Fighter No secondary weapon This is not much of a fighter, in fact; the only use for it is evading attention on the "Imperial Academy Heist" mission. TIE Advanced Secondary weapon: Cluster missiles The best fighter in the game; BAR NONE. What I mean is that once you claim the homing clusters upgrade then this fighter can dish out some serious damage. Naboo Starfighter Secondary weapon: ION missiles This is the second best fighter in the game, mainly because of its attack power and speed rivaling that of an X-Wing. Also, don't let the name fool you; they aren't really ION missiles. They are just regular torpedoes, only recolored. This fighter also has an R2 unit. +-------+ | Areas | +-------+ (Regular missions) Tatooine Training (practice level; gives no medal) Death Star Attack Ison Corridor Ambush Battle of Hoth Prisons of the Maw Razor Rendezvous Vengeance on Kothlis Imperial Academy Heist Raid on Bespin Battle of Endor Strike at the Core (Bonus missions) Endurance Death Star Escape Asteroid Field (Vader missions) Triumph of the Empire Revenge on Yavin +------------+ | Main Guide | +------------+ Finally, the main guide! As for the strategies covered here, you don't need to follow them to the letter as for some missions there are easier ways to finish the mission. Also, some mission objectives I list may not be accurate but that is because I have a somewhat limited memory and I don't like playing the game to discover the mission parts as I write the guide because that is too time consuming for me. So rather, I will give you a basic idea of the missions because some objectives can't be completed until the end of the mission. (ex: the "Protect the Milennium Falcon" objective for "Strike at the core") Plus, I'm not going to go into the whole "results" bit for the mission results because I'm only giving basic strategies here and I am only an average player with this game. Practice Level: Tatooine Training Mission: Learn basic techniques! This one is easy since it IS the training level. Simply fly into a Rebel symbol to learn the controls of the game. You can also do the Beggar's Canyon and Tosche Station races as well as destroy womprats for target practice as well as find all bonus items on the map! A special note about this stage; it can be played during the 4 times of the day (Morning, Afternoon, Evening, and Night) reason for this is because it is required to do these times of day to unlock a certain fighter. You also must do the races, target practice as well as find the bonus items during those times to satisfy the conditions. Stage 1: Death Star Attack Mission: Destroy the Death Star! Here it is; the famous Battle of Yavin from episode IV: A New Hope. Anyway, to start the mission you must shoot down all of the deflection towers. This is easy because they are not that hard to spot. Next, you encounter a group of TIE Fighters flying around. You must shoot them all down to proceed on to the next part. To make this go faster, you can order your wingmates to attack the TIEs by pressing right on the D-pad. Then, you enter the even more famous part of the battle; the Trench Run. Anyway, speed up by pressing and clicking R and simply avoid all of the beams dotting the trench. Eventually, Wedge and Biggs will get shot down like in the movie and then you should see a fast moving orange dot behind you. Do a hard brake by holding down L to make the TIEs fly in front of you and then waste them! Eventually, Vader will fly behind you and try to shoot you. Do just like before, only Vader can't be killed. Eventually, Han will shoot down the remaining enemies and then you have to shoot a proton torpedo at the end of the trench. To make the shot easier, use the targeting computer. Stage 2: Ison Corridor Ambush Mission: Destroy all the TIEs and protect the Redemption! This is the first mission where you will be protecting a target. Not to worry; this isn't that hard. All you really need to do for this mission is go through three waves of fighters. The first wave is easy; the second one starts to go after the Redemption but also easy; the third one can be a little tricky since you're now flying in fog. So, use your targeting computer to track your targets and shoot them down. Side note: whhen the third wave starts, fly under the Redemption and in the blue symbol to change into an A-Wing. Overall, a rather short mission. Stage 3: Battle of Hoth Mission: Defend outpost beta and the transports! This mission is split into two parts. First, you have to destroy the AT-ST walkers who are attacking the ION cannon. Direct your wingmen to fire on them to finish this quicker. Also, you will see a SECOND command cross here. This one actually affects your ground units; just tell them to defend. After that, you need to topple the AT-AT walkers at the northernmost part of the field who are attacking the shield generator so use tow cables to fell them like in the movie. Interesting note here: you finish the mission as Wedge becuase Luke gets shot down in the cutscene after the AT-ST skirmish. After that, move on to where the orange wedge is on the map and fly in the blue symbol to switch to an X-Wing. The last part requires you to shoot down all of the TIE bombers to finish. So you needn't worry about the TIEs that are covering the bombers since they aren't critical targets. Stage 4: Prisons of the Maw Mission: Free the prisoners! This mission starts you out by disabling 3 shield generators using the ION shots from the Y-Wing. Be careful though, there are a LOT of turrets near the generators as well as random TIEs flying around. The next part has you escorting prisoners from Kessel in their train. You need to destroy all of the turret cannons to finish this part of the mission. Lastly, you have to defend the transport while it gets away. It seems short; but this one may take a few tries because of the decent amout of turret locations. Stage 5: Razor Rendezvous Mission: Destroy the Star Destroyer and protect the Redemption! Fair warning: This one will DEFINITELY take a few tries before you can snag a gold medal on this one due to the fact that you have all of those cannons to deal with on the destroyer which are surprisingly accurate! Anyway, this mission DOES require you to protect the Redemption but if you are fast enough then you can destroy the Destroyer before that becomes an issue. To destroy it you need to take down the shield barriers atop the Destroyer (those two balls) and then the one underneath (it looks like a half bubble) then take out the bridge (small rectangle with a yellow line). For this mission, you get first crack at using a B-Wing. Stage 6: Vengeance on Kothlis Mission: Recover the secret data from the Razor before the Star Destroyer explodes! This mission will have you playing in 3 different fighters for each of the 3 different phases. For the first phase, you must defend a Rebel Transport from TIE Fighters/Defenders until you reach the beach. Then the next phase has you flying in a Airspeeder to take down several AT-AT walkers. And then the final phase is kind of mixed. You see, you finish the mission using a Y-Wing because you need to bomb the Star Destroyer's hull until you knock a hole in it. THEN, you can fly in any fighter you wish but it is recommended that you stay in the Y-Wing because you need to take out lots of AT-PT walkers before they kill your friendlies on the ground. Unfortunately, most of them are in the water so you need to bomb them because blasters for some odd reason are unable to penetrate watery areas in the Rogue Squadron series... Stage 7: Imperial Academy Heist Mission: Steal the shuttle Tydirium and flee! This is the ONLY regular mission that takes place during two times of the day. So as such, I will split the guide for this stage here: (Day mission) This mission starts you out by using the Y-Wing. First, you start by disabling every single sensor array until you reach a split in the canyon. Then you need to follow the orange wedge until you find an Imperial base. THEN, you need to look for a blue Rebel symbol; don't fly in it yet. You need to blast the turrets guarding the shuttle becuase if you don't then you will quickly get gunned down. After that, you need to follow the wedges out of the base until the ending cutscene plays. (Night mission) This time, you fly in an Airspeeder. Unlike before, you must avoid the sensors at all costs. Also, you get a nifty assist for this part. When you reach the split in the canyon, go left this time. Then a cutscene should play, and after it finishes; try to blast the tiny black dot running to an abandoned TIE. If you manage to do it, you can then pilot the TIE. When you do so, fly to the base and this time you won't be detected. Unfortunately, you still need to destroy the turrets guarding the shuttle because they will STILL fire since you stole the transport. At any rate, when you do that you have one last thing to do since you stole a TIE. You must go back and rescue your gunner from the Airspeeder. Just follow the wedges like before, and you will be done. A little helpful tip: When being chased by the TIEs after you steal the shuttle, press the B button to fire a turret that's on the back of the shuttle to chase away the TIEs. Of course, since it's fairly inaccurate it may cut your hit percentage a bit. But at least you'll save your lives! Stage 8: Raid on Bespin Mission: Liberate Cloud City from Imperial control! This mission is another one that requires you to use the targeting computer but that won't be until a future segment of the mission. Anyway, for now you must shoot down the balloons to progress with the mission. Really, there are turrets on there but if you shoot the flame burner containers (the things with the flames on them) you can take down the balloon in one strike. As for the fighters, ignore them UNLESS they are constantly attacking the transports. Yeah, the next phases are like this but with each phase gaining an extra balloon to shoot down. But yeah, the TIEs are no threat to the transports (apparently it is still possible to move on to the next phase even IF there are fighters left because they mostly tend to miss the transports...) Then the next segment has you taking down 3 shield generators. Simple right? WRONG. Because when they made this level, they made these things hard to find within the numerous trenches of Cloud City. Anyway, use the targeting computer to find them easier but don't leave it on TOO long lest you disqualify yourself for higher scoring runs. After you take those down, you must then shoot down all TIE Bombers to finish the mission. Special note: to gain a LOT of enemy kills shoot down all of the balloons in this area; there's no time limit after all. Stage 9: Battle of Endor Mission: Destroy the Death Star II! Contrary to what I listed as the mission, you are NOT taking it down yet. Nope, you're just doing the first part of the famous battle from episode VI. Anyway, to start this mission just follow Lando around until you see a whole bunch of TIE Interceptors rush the Rebel Alliance fleet. Then, your next goal is to once again, protect the Redemption. This will be very hard since there are a TON of fighters swarming you at all times. Just do your best to shoot down any fighters near the Redemption until you see Bombers fly into the fray. Then shoot down the bombers to proceed on to the next phase. Now then, remember the action experienced on "Razor Rendezvous"? Well you are going to experience it AGAIN. Only this time; you're taking down 2 Destroyers. After you do that, the mission is done! Oh yeah, you also have to protect the Home One from fighters during that segment also. Final Stage: Strike at the Core Mission: Navigate to, and destroy the central core! Well here we are at last, the final moments of the Battle of Endor. You start out by shooting down fighters that are chasing Lando. Big note here: you MUST stay with him at all times even if you do take down the fighters because Lando will still get killed if you are too far away. Next, you navigate inside the Death Star II still shooting down stray TIEs until you reach the central core by which you must shoot the smaller shielded part; no worries- you still damage the tower. Then, you must escape the Death Star II just like in the movie. As for the bonus missions, endurance has you shooting down 100 waves of TIEs while staying alive as much as possible. And for the other two, they are just shooting down TIEs in the Falcon with the latter stage navigating asteroids. Then for the Vader missions, you just shoot down as many Rebel targets as possible in your powerful TIE Advanced. Triumph of the Empire happens during the Battle of Yavin and Revenge on Yavin is self explanatory. Let's move on, shall we? +--------------------+ | Miscellaneous Tips | +--------------------+ Tip #1: Be aware of your surroundings. Sometimes, familiarizing yourself with the level can be a huge advantage when you decide about how to avoid fighters when low on health. Tip #2: Never use the "last heal" option unless it is CRITICAL! I stress this because even if you are low on health as long as you don't lose your R2 unit then you can recover health if you go for a period of time without getting hit further. But if you do, then you won't have that "second chance" anymore. Tip #3: Always leave the targeting computer off. Trust me, you will need every single point you can get to get the higher medal scores. Tip #4: Always trip the AT-AT walkers. Believe it or not, you can still destroy them by blaster because I read another guide on here that says it is possible to kill an AT-AT using only blasters but it would take a LONG time. Just go the movie route; trip those walkers! Final tip: This is perhaps the most important one; always choose the TIE Advanced for all missions where you can use it! Because the homing clusters are super effective for nearly every single mission where you CAN use it. Ok then, here's the FAQ section! +-----+ | FAQ | +-----+ Q: How do I unlock the Naboo Starfighter? A: 2 ways- through a code, or by finishing the Tatooine Training mission in all 4 times of the day. Q: Why can't I keep my upgrades after I collect them? A: To keep an upgrade after you find one, you need to fully finish the mission. After then, you never have to re-find it again. Q: What is the infinite lives code? A: Well, I'm not going to list the code since there's a section for that BUT, I will say that initially no one had posted the code on GameFAQs because I guess that they didn't know where to find it. However, I scoured the sites looking for the code and I finally found it! So see in the codes section as to what the code is. And last but not least, *drumroll* the closing words! +----------------------------------------------------+ | Copyright rights, closing words, and contact info. | +----------------------------------------------------+ First of all, I'd like to thank Lucas Arts and Factor 5 for making such an awesome game. (You guys rule hard!) Secondly, if anyone wants to use this guide on their website they MUST ask me permission first via e-mail at [email protected], no exceptions! Well, that's it; I hope you all enjoy or get something out of this guide! Thank you, and good night! ;-)