Blacksite: Area 51: Weapon and Enemy Guide: Document Started: August 20, 2008 by Alan Chan (joylock @ hotmail.com) The Usual: This document is mine. Please don't rip it off or take credit for it. If you use any of the information provided in this guide in your own FAQ, walkthrough, or guide, you must acknowledge that you obtained the information from me, and give me proper credit. That being said, feel free to post it on any site you want, provided you a) don't make any changes to it, and b) don't charge money for it. You don't even have to get my permission to post it (as long as it remains unaltered), but it would be nice if you emailed me and let me know (joylock @ hotmail.com). Purpose of this Guide: After playing through Blacksite: Area 51, I found that, despite being something of a budget release, it was put together reasonably alright, and I found it to be a fun game. And, since I wrote a weapon/enemy FAQ for the previous game, Area 51, I decided to write one for this sequel. Version History: ******************************************************************************* * * *1.0: Initial Release * * * ******************************************************************************* The latest version of this FAQ can be found at www.gamefaqs.com. TABLE OF CONTENTS: - Game Mechanics - Combat Tips - Weapons - Enemies ***************** *Game Mechanics:* ******************************************************************************* - Blacksite: Area 51 has 3 difficulty settings: Casual, Hard, and Expert. "Casual" is easy, "Hard" is more like normal (and also the default difficulty), and "Expert" is more like hard. On Casual difficulty: - Enemies do roughly 60% damage - Enemies have roughly 66% health On Hard difficulty: - Enemies do 100% damage - Enemies have 100% health On Expert difficulty: - Enemies do 200% damage - Enemies have roughly 120% health Difficulty may or may not affect enemy accuracy or intelligence, although I personally haven't noticed any significant difference. - The game uses a regenerating health system. When you take damage, your vision turns red, veins appear in the corner of your vision (to simulate your eyeballs bleeding, I guess), and you start to hear your heartbeat. The more damage you take, the more pronouced these symptoms are, so that if the screen is almost solid red, you're about to die. To heal damage, you need to avoid taking damage for about 4 seconds, after which your health will regenerate back to full in less than a second. - Note that in Blacksite: Area 51, you can take a relative high amount of firearms damage before dying. On the default difficulty level, you can survive more than a few dozen assault rifle hits before dying. Even on the highest difficulty level, Expert, it takes more than a couple dozen shots to kill you. Many of the melee and spitting attacks used by Xeno aliens can kill you in just 3 to 5 hits, however. - For almost the entire game, you'll be accompanied by 1 or 2 Delta Force squadmates. The game uses an extremely simplified, single- button squad command feature. There are 3 basic combat-related commands you can give your squad: MOVE TO: To move your squad to a position, point at the area you want them to move to, then press the squad command button. Note that your squad likes to stick close to you, and will actually run BACK to you after running to the ordered position if you're too far away from them. ATTACK: To get your squad to concentrate fire on a specific enemy, point at that enemy and press the squad command button. USE TURRET: Point your crosshair at a mounted turret, then press the squad command button, and one of your squadmates will man the turret and use it to mow down attacking enemies (this is VERY useful, so be sure to use it when turrets are in the area). Even if you don't give them commands, your squad operates independently in a generally effective manner; they take cover, fire at enemies, blindfire around cover, manuever around, follow you around the battlefield, and even toss grenades at groups of enemies. - Your squadmates consist of Logan Somers, Cody Grayson, Mitchell Ambrose, and Dr. Noa Weis. Somers, Grayson, and Ambrose are armed with assault rifles (M4 Carbines), while Dr. Noa Weis carries a unique pistol which seems to be a wood-handled Beretta M9 with a recoil compensator muzzle extension attached. All four also carry frag grenades, and can also melee attack enemies that get too close. - Squadmates are unkillable. If they take too much damage, they'll be knocked out for a dozen seconds or so, but will recover and get back up again soon enough. The amount of damage squadmates can take before they are knocked out depends on squad morale. - The effectiveness of your squad is affected by the game's morale system. The morale system is based on how well you and your squad are doing in combat. Killing enemies, scoring headshots, and commanding your squad to attack specific targets raises morale. Taking damage lowers morale, and if one of your squadmates is knocked out, morale automatically drops to "low". When morale is low, your squadmates become very vulnerable, and can be knocked out after suffering relatively little damage. They also become less effective, and will fire back at the enemy much less often (only firing 2 or 3 shots every couple of seconds, for example). Conversely, when morale is high, your squadmates become tougher than usual, and can survive more damage without being knocked out. They also become more effective in combat, firing at the enemy in prolonged, accurate streams of gunfire. Morale will return to normal over time. Thus, if your squad morale is low, it will eventually go back to normal once the current firefight is over and you go for several seconds without any combat. Likewise, if morale is high, it will also go back to normal after a couple dozen seconds or so of you not killing anything. ************** *Combat Tips:* ******************************************************************************* - Taking cover behind walls and objects is a good way to reduce the damage you take from enemy gunfire. You can also duck behind low objects, then stand up briefly to return fire before ducking down again to avoid the enemy's return fire. Note that most of the objects you can take cover behind in the game are destroyable by enemy gunfire, so if the concrete barrier you're hiding behind crumbles away, you'll want to run to a new piece of cover to avoid getting shot up. - Don't be shy about using ammo or grenades. Both are plentiful throughout the game, and you'll frequently come across ammo pickups that fill your levels of ammo or grenades up to maximum. - Also, don't get too attached to your weapons, as you'll often be reset back to an assault rifle and a pistol at the beginning of each new mission, and sometimes even at each new level transition. ********** *Weapons:* ******************************************************************************* - In Blacksite: Area 51, you can only carry 2 weapons at a time. When you pick up a new weapon, you'll drop the one you're currently holding in your hands. Besides your two primary weapons, you'll also be able to carry 5 frag grenades, which can be thrown at any time. You can also perform a melee attack with whatever weapon you're holding. - Blacksite has a relatively small weapon selection, with only 6 useable firearms. Of those, only the pistol, assault rifle, scatter gun, and advanced sniper rifle see general use throughout the game. The antitank launcher mostly appears only in boss fights, and the plasma rifle is only available in the game's last few missions. - In the game's first mission ("Iraq"), you're equipped with an assault rifle and an advanced sniper rifle. All of the game's other missions start you out equipped with an assault rifle and a .45 combat pistol. - The game features four types of ammo pickups: small ammo crates, large ammo crates, grenade crates, and missile crates. Small ammo crates give you 2 magazines worth of ammo for each weapon you're carrying (1 magazine of ammo for the Scatter Gun). Large ammo crates give you the maximum amount of ammo you can carry for all weapons you're holding. Grenade crates give you 3 grenades. Finally, missile crates refill your store of antitank launcher ammo. You can also get ammo from the weapons that enemy soldiers drop. - NOTE: Area 51: Blacksite doesn't have an SDK or any other method for me to browse the game's files, so the damage values given here are estimates based on in-game observation. Melee Attack: Damage: ~100 to 200 You can perform a melee attack with the firearm currently held in your hand. This is useful for striking at enemies that manage to get right up in your face. The melee attack is actually pretty powerful; it usually kills enemy soldiers in 1 hit (although you occasionally have to hit Reborn soldiers twice to kill them). ========== .45 Combat Pistol: Real Name: H&K Mk23 Pistol Damage: 40 Rate of Fire: 450 rpm Clip Size: 15 Max Ammo: 90 The .45 combat pistol is the game's backup sidearm. You begin almost all missions in the game with an assault rifle and a pistol. The pistol does more than twice as much damage as the assault rifle, and also has a pretty quick rate of fire and a decent clip size. It also reloads relatively quickly, too. On the downside, it's semi-automatic, so you need to press the fire button each time to fire each individual bullet. The pistol also doesn't have perfect accuracy, unlike the assault rifle, so you do tend to miss some of your shots at long range. One final drawback of the pistol is that it's not loaded with tracer rounds, so you won't be able to see your bullets travel through the air, or reliable track where they strike. Overall, the pistol is a decent backup weapon, but it's not as good as any of the game's primary weapons. I recommend you trade it for a scatter gun, advanced sniper rifle, or plasma rifle if any of them become available. ========== Assault Rifle: Real Name: M4 Carbine Damage: 15 Rate of Fire: 600 rpm Clip Size: 45 Max Ammo: SP: 450 MP: 225 The assault rifle is your default weapon in Blacksite: Area 51, and will be the weapon you use most often throughout the entire game. The assault rifle is actually a really good weapon, with perfect accuracy, a high rate of fire, a large clip size (45 rounds instead of the standard 30 round mags of most FPS assault rifles), and a pretty fast reload. The assault rifle is also equipped with a reflex scope, which lets you zoom in somewhat on distant targets. Ammo for the assault rifle is also really common, as most of the enemy soldiers you encounter will drop assault rifle ammo when killed. One neat trick with the assault rifle is that it's loaded with two magazines taped together with duct tape. When the first magazine runs out of bullets, you'll immediately swap to the second magazine in a split second (without even needing to re-cock the rifle), allowing you to keep up a constant rate of fire. This "fast reload" is quicker than a manual reload (where you swap both magazines for a fresh pair, then re-cock the rifle), but only occurs when you fire all the bullets in the first magazine. Pressing the reload button performs a manual reload (which, although slower, is still reasonably fast). Overall, the assault rifle is a great weapon with no real drawbacks, and should serve you well throughout the game. I recommend you always carry it around. ========== Advanced Sniper Rifle: Real Name: XM-8 Sniper Variant Damage: ~170 Rate of Fire: 120 rpm Clip Size: 5 Max Ammo: 15 You start the game's first mission equipped with an advanced sniper rifle, and can also pick one up later in the game from enemy snipers. As you'd expect, the sniper rifle is equipped with a high magnification scope that allows you to zoom in on and pick off distant targets at long range. The sniper rifle is semi-automatic and features a relatively fast rate of fire (you can fire 2 shots per second). It's also reasonably powerful, and will kill enemy soldiers with a single shot to any part of their body. Ammo for the sniper rifle is also pretty common, since it's restored to full whenever you pick up a large ammo crate. The only real drawback to the sniper rifle is that it's not particularly effective against Xenos, such as Drudges or Flatworms. It's best to use it exclusively for picking off enemy soldiers (use the fast-firing assault rifle for mowing down Xenos). Another drawback of the sniper rifle is its longer than usual reload time. The sniper rifle hits instantly. When dealing with moving enemies (such as enemy soldiers who are strafing while firing), you should move the crosshair ahead of their path, then fire once they run right over the crosshair. Overall, the sniper rifle is a great weapon, and lets you pick off enemy soldiers at from the relative safety of long range. Don't be shy about using it, as you restock ammo for it pretty often. ========== Antitank Launcher: Real Name: FGM-148 Javelin Missile Launcher Damage: ~1500+ Damage Radius: 14 meters Rate of Fire: N/A Clip Size: 1 Max Ammo: SP: 3 MP: 2 The antitank launcher is a bulky, single-shot missile launcher. It is VERY powerful, and will kill any normal enemy (except for Large Flatworms and bosses) in a single hit. It also has a very large splash damage radius of more than 40 feet, and can kill a group of several enemies with a single missile. On the downside, the antitank launcher needs to be reloaded after each shot, and it takes about 3 to 4 seconds for each reload. The launcher is also very heavy, and slows your movement speed down to about half when you're wielding it (it's the only weapon that affects your movement speed). The launcher is equipped with a computerized targeting scope that allows you to "lock-on" to enemies with the missile's heat-seeking feature. Just activate the scope, then aim the crosshair at the enemy for a second or so to lock-on. Once locked-on, the heat-seeking missile will seek the enemy and track it even if it moves or tries to dodge. Missiles fired without using the scope are "dumb-fire", and will travel in a straight line without any heat-seeking ability. The antitank launcher and its corresponding ammo is also quite rare; you usually only get it for use in boss fights, i.e. against enemy helicopters, Spore Towers, or Fire Brutes. Unlike the game's other weapons, you won't get missile ammo from ammo crates. You can only get more rockets specifically from missile crates, or by picking up spare antitank launchers. The antitank launcher's rarity makes it mostly only useful for the boss battles in which it appears, although you can carry it around after the boss battle and use your 3 missiles to kill some regular enemies too. ========== Scatter Gun: Damage: ~30 x 12 Rate of Fire: 60 rpm Clip Size: 10 Max Ammo: 50 The scatter gun is an experimental alien weapon used by the Reborn soldiers (most Reborn soldiers are equipped with either assault rifles or scatter guns). It behaves similar to a shotgun, firing a spread of 12 orange energy pellets. The spread is pretty wide, making it mostly useful at close range, and less useful at medium or long range due to the pellets dispersing so that only a few hit after a dozen feet or so. The scatter gun is reasonably powerful, and can kill enemy soldiers in a single shot at close range. The big drawback to the scatter gun is its rate of fire is rather slow, especially compared to other FPS shotguns. You can only fire 1 shot every second. Also, there's a split second delay between when you press the fire button, and when the gun actually fires. Finally, the reload time is somewhat long when compared to the assault rifle or pistol. The scatter gun can be "charged" by holding down the fire button. A charged shot doesn't do more damage, but the pellet spread is much tighter, increasing the weapon's effective range. Pellets from a charged shot also bounce off walls and other objects. Finally, when you charge up a shot, the gun fires as soon as you release the fire button, without the split-second delay in firing that normally occurs when you just fire a regular shot. Overall, due to the low rate of fire and split-second delay when firing uncharged shots, the scatter gun isn't as useful as the assault rifle. I don't particularly recommend it. If you really want to use it, for best results you should use charged shots; charge up a shot when you're safe behind cover, then pop out and nail an enemy with it. Since charged shots have a narrower pellet spread, they can still kill enemies at medium range (although it may take 2 or 3 shots to do the job). ========== Plasma Rifle: Damage: ~400 Damage Radius: 5 meters Rate of Fire: 60 rpm Clip Size: 5 Max Ammo: 25 The plasma rifle is probably the most powerful weapon in the game (it doesn't do quite as much raw damage as the antitank launcher, but unlike the antitank launcher it's common enough to be used as a "normal" weapon and isn't only limited to special encounters). The plasma rifle basically fires a fast-moving plasma ball that passes through enemies and explodes on impact with a solid surface. It is very powerful, and will kill enemy soldiers in a single direct hit. The splash damage is also usually lethal with one hit, and has a decent radius of about a dozen feet. Additionally, the rate of fire and clip size are also pretty good considering how powerful the individual shots are. The plasma rifle is kind of a combination of a railgun and a rocket launcher. The plasma ball can pass through multiple enemies, killing them all, and also produces a small explosion on impact with a surface. The plasma rifle's only real downside is the fact its low rate of fire makes it ineffective against large swarms of small, weak enemies (i.e. packs of Explosive Skrabs). It also has a longer reload time than the assault rifle or pistol (just like the scatter gun and advanced sniper rifle.) The plasma rifle is only available in the game's last few levels (you can pick up it from fallen Reborn soldiers), but it's a great, powerful weapon, and I recommend you use it as your second weapon next to your assault rifle. ========== Frag Grenades: Real Name: M67 Frag Grenades Damage: ~1000 Max Ammo: SP: 5 MP: 3 Along with your two primary weapons, you can also carry a few frag grenades to throw at enemies. Frag grenades explode a couple seconds after being thrown, or instantly upon hitting an enemy. They have a reasonably large splash damage radius of more than 20 feet, and can kill a group of several enemy with a single blast. You can also "cook" a grenade by holding down the throw button to shorten the time it takes for the grenade to explode after landing. Be careful though; if you hold onto the grenade for 2 seconds, it will explode in your hand: this is lethal on Expert difficulty or in multiplayer, and will critically injure you on default (Hard) difficulty. Don't be shy about using frag grenades, as refills for them are fairly common (you get frag grenades from grenade crates, and enemies also drop them fairly often). ********** *Enemies:* ******************************************************************************* - NOTE: Area 51: Blacksite doesn't have an SDK or any other method for me to browse the game's files, so the health values given here are estimates based on in-game observation. =========== =Soldiers:= =============================================================================== - Enemy A.I. in Blacksite: Area 51 is surprisingly solid, but nothing revolutionary. Enemy soldiers do most everything you'd expect from a modern FPS game. They strafe while firing, often run for cover, and usually take cover behind objects while popping out to fire at you. They provide covering fire for each other and typically advance under covering fire, as well as make rudimentary attempts to flank you. Enemy A.I. in Blacksite is pretty good at advancing towards you from cover to cover. So, instead of charging you head-on, enemy soldiers tend to advance forward from one piece of cover to another. They're also reasonably reactive, and will retreat to a better position if you flank their cover area or shoot them. Still, overall enemy soldiers in Blacksite are easy enough to mow down individually with the assault rifle. They're reasonably manueverable and mobile and do spread out somewhat across the battlefield, yet they also can often be caught standing in one spot firing at you (especially indoors), making them a stationary target. Overall, it's fairly easy to take cover, then pop out and shoot them. They also general always advance towards you in a reasonably predictable manner, and don't seem to retreat and set up ambushes like, say, the Replica soldiers in F.E.A.R. Offensively, enemy soldiers can melee you with the butt of their firearm if you get up close to them. Enemy Reborn soldiers can also throw frag grenades at you to flush you out of cover or to attack you directly. - Enemy soldiers are vulnerable to headshots. However, the way this is implemented is different from most other First Person Shooter games. Enemies don't take extra damage from headshots, but after taking 2 or 3 shots to the head, an enemy soldier will die instantly. Iraqi Republican Guards require 2 headshots to kill. 1 shot will knock off their helmet or beret, while the 2nd shot kills them. Reborn Soldiers require 3 headshots to kill. 2 shots will damage their headgear, while the 3rd shot will kill them. Iraqi Republican Guard: Appearance: Middle Eastern soldier wearing tan-color shirt uniform. Health: 130 Weapons: Assault Rifle (AK-47) Sniper Rifle (Dragunov) Other Attacks: Melee Attack DESCRIPTION: Iraqi Republican Guard soldiers are your primary opponents in Mission 1: Iraq. Despite being standard human soldiers (as opposed to the augmented Reborn troops you face later in the game), IRG soldiers can actually survive quite a few bullet hits; on the default difficulty, it takes 9 assault rifle shots to kill one (which is still less than a second of constant fire). Still, IRG soldiers are somewhat weaker than Reborn troops; they have less health, and they also either have weaker weapons or lesser accuracy, because it seems to take longer for them to kill you with assault rifle fire. IRG soldiers are armed with AK-47 assault rifles, and can also melee you with the butt of their rifles if you get too close to them. Unlike Reborn troops, IRG soldiers don't seem to throw frag grenades. IRG soldiers have the same basic behavior and A.I. as the game's other soldier characters. They take cover behind objects, fire from behind cover, advance from cover to cover, strafe while firing, change cover when threatened or outflanked, etc. Overall, Iraqi Republic Guard soldiers aren't much of a challenge, even on Expert difficulty. You can survive a few dozen bullet hits before your health is significantly threatened, and it's easy enough to mow them down with assault rifle fire, or a well-aimed burst aimed at their heads. VARIANTS: There are actually 3 different types of IRG soldiers you'll encounter in the game; basic soldiers, officers, and snipers. Soldiers: Standard IRG soldiers wearing tan helmets. Officers: IRG officers wear red berets; usually 1 or 2 of them can be found leading each group of IRG soldiers. Officers don't seem to behave any differently from standard soldiers, as far as I can tell. Snipers: There are about 3 enemy snipers in the Iraq missions. They wear red berets and green shirts, and are armed with Dragunov sniper rifles. They usually snipe at you from high-up locations, such as wall ramparts or up in wood scaffolding. They're not too dangerous; on the default difficulty level, you can survive several shots from their sniper rifles before dying. ========== Reborn Soldier: Appearance: Cybernetically augmented soldier with grey, mottled skin, wearing large black armored vest, armored gloves and boots, and grey camo uniform. Health: 170 Weapons: Assault Rifle Scatter Gun Plasma Rifle Antitank Launcher Other Attacks: Melee Attack Frag Grenades DESCRIPTION: Reborn soldiers are your primary opponents in Blacksite: Area 51, and the game's plot revolves around them and their insurrection against the U.S. government spilling out into open war in and around Rachel, Nevada. The Reborn are kidnapped civilians or disappeared U.S. soldiers who have been augmented with alien gene therapy treatments and cybernetic implants. They have mottled grey skin (they look a lot like the newer version of the Borg), and wear a heavy suit of black body armor over dark grey camo uniforms. ATTRIBUTES: Reborn soldiers are tougher than the Iraqi Republican Guard soldiers from Mission 1. They have more health, better accuracy and/or more damaging asssault rifles, and also throw grenades at you to attack you or flush you out of cover. They can also melee you with their rifle butts if you get too close to them. On default difficulty, it takes 12 assault rifle shots to kill a Reborn soldier. Reborn soldiers can also be killed with 3 headshots (the first two shots damages their facial covering, the next shot will kill them). Most Reborn soldiers are equipped with assault rifles (M4 carbines) or scatter guns. About 4 Reborn soldiers in the game carry antitank launchers, which can critically injure you on Hard difficulty and outright kill you in 1 hit on Expert. Finally, a dozen or so Reborn soldiers carry plasma rifles in the game's last few levels. KILL STRATEGY: Overall, Reborn soldiers can be taken out using standard combat tactics. Take cover, pop out and mow a couple down with the assault rifle, then dodge back behind cover before you take too much damage. Aiming bursts of fire at their head can be effective, and grenades can be used to wipe out close-together groups of Reborn soldiers. VARIANTS: There are 3 different Reborn soldier character models, however the difference between them appears to be entirely cosmetic. Which model appears when a given soldier spawns is entirely random. Reborn Insurgent: Story-wise, these are the lowest-ranking Reborn, created from homeless citizens, illegal immigrants, or captured enemy combatants. They have unmodified faces, wearing only a pair of combat goggles. Reborn Soldier: Mid-rank Reborn, identified by a metal face-plate over their face. These guys have no dossier file describing them, and are only named in the game's multiplayer mode. Reborn Recon Troop: An improvement over the standard Reborn Insurgents, the Reborn Recon Troops are made from injured U.S. soldiers who were officially dubbed KIA and shipped to Area 51 for experimentation. The wear black hoods over their heads, and have a single targeting lens over one eye. Although the game's dossier describes them as better trained and more effective than Reborn Insurgents, I didn't really notice any major in-game difference. Reborn Elite: The game's dossier files describe "Reborn Elite", special Reborn soldiers injected with Xeno cells. However, they don't seem to appear in the actual game (the photo attached to the "Reborn Elite" file is just a regular Reborn Soldier shrouded in shadows). ========== Reborn Sniper: Appearance: Reborn Recon soldier wearing black mask, with a yellow monocular scope over one eye. Health: 130 Weapon: Advanced Sniper Rifle Other Attacks: Melee Attack DESCRIPTION: Reborn snipers are a special group of Reborn Recon soldiers armed with advanced sniper rifles. They actually have less health than other Reborn soldiers, but compensate with their long range sniper rifles. Reborn snipers basically just stay in one position and snipe at you from long range; they won't move around, try to dodge behind cover, or throw grenades (although they do try to melee you if you run up into their faces). Reborn snipers are actually pretty rare. You'll face a few guarding the drive-in theatre in the last level of Mission 3: Rachel (entitled "Somebody Call FEMA"). You'll also snipe several in a sniping sequence early on in Mission 4: Counter-Insurgency. A few are also guarding the outpost where Noa Weis crashlands in Mission 5: Topside. Overall, there's only about 16 or so Reborn snipers in the entire game. Reborn snipers are very accurate, seldom missing their shots. They also have a decent rate of fire, firing a shot every second or two. On the plus side, their sniper rifle shots don't do too much damage; on Hard difficulty, it takes 8 hits to kill you, and even on Expert difficulty it takes 4 hits to kill you. When fighting Reborn snipers, your best bet is to advance towards them while using objects (such as barriers or cars) as cover to hid from their shots. Once you get close enough, counter-snipe them with a few bursts of return fire from your assault rifle. ========== Reborn Scout: Appearance: 10-foot tall cyborg, consist of a woman's head, arms, and upper torso attached to an exoskeleton frame with two large mechanical legs. Health: ~370 Weapons: Dual Pulse Weapons Other Attacks: Melee Attack DESCRIPTION: Reborn Scouts are the most heavily cybernetically augmented Reborn troops, consisting of a woman's upper body surgically severed from the waist up, and attached to a mechanical exoskeleton with two large mechanical legs. They are somewhat mis-named, as their in-game role is more akin to a walking mobile weapons platform. Reborn Scouts are equipped with a pair of energy pulse weapons mounted over their shoulders, which they use to rapid-fire twin streams of energy blasts at you while they stride back and forth across the battlefield. Their weaponry is almost twice as strong as the assault rifles wielded by standard Reborn soldiers. They also have near- perfect accuracy, and won't miss you unless you hide behind cover. Reborn Scouts are mostly found in Mission 3: Rachel, although several appear in Mission 4: Counter-Insurgency, and a couple appear near the beginning of Mission 5: Topside. Many major shootouts against Reborn soldiers will also feature 2 or 3 Reborn Scouts mixed in as fire support. There are a total of about 23 Reborn Scouts throughout the entire game. ATTRIBUTES: Reborn Scouts are relatively heavily armored, and it takes a couple dozen rounds of assault rifle fire to bring one down. When "killed", the Reborn Scout's exoskeleton will collapse, and the torso will detach itself and start crawling towards you rapidly; if it gets near you, it will explode and do significant damage. Once you drop a Scout, be sure to blow up the torso with a few more assault rifle shots before it gets close to you. KILL STRATEGY: Fighting Reborn Scouts is straightforward enough; aim your assault rifle at them, hold down the fire button and don't let up until they die. They're pretty tough, so expect to use more than 2/3rds of a full clip of ammo to bring one down. Be sure to fire from near cover, and to dodge or duck behind cover once you start taking significant damage from their constant energy pulse fire. At close to medium range, you can toss a grenade at a Reborn Scout to kill it instantly, although you'll still have to deal with the kamikaze torso. ======== =Xenos:= =============================================================================== - "Xenos" is the term used for the various alien lifeforms that are appearing around Rachel, Nevada as a result of the alien device the Reborn have activated. Although the Reborn soldiers will be your primary enemies in Blacksite, encounters against Xenos are staged at regular intervals between Reborn shootouts to give the game a good level of variety. Most Xenos, such as the Skrab, Bug-Ridden, and Drudges will simply charge towards you and attack you when they get close. Flatworms are a stationary, turret-like Xeno that will spit average-speed homing balls of plasma at you. Xenos are fairly simple-minded, monster-type enemies, and generally attempt to overwhelm you by attacking in groups of several at once. Explosive Skrab: Appearance: Pig-sized, lobster-like insectile alien with glowing yellow eyes and spider-like legs. Health: 1 Attacks: Exploding DESCRIPTION: Described by one of your squadmates as "walking IEDs", Explosive Skrabs are basically small, insect-like aliens that scuttle towards you and, when they get close, will leap at you and explode themselves. They do significant damage, and on the default difficulty level can kill you with 3 direct hits. Skrabs usually attack in large groups of up to several at once, and you'll often face swarms of several groups in a single area. They are the most common Xeno enemies you face in the game. On the plus side, Skrabs' speed is pretty average (more of a scuttle than a full run), and their highly explosive nature also makes them very fragile. A single hit from any weapon will kill a Skrab, causing it to explode and blow up any other Skrabs near it. In fact, a swarm of several Skrabs can be killed by just shooting one of them; the explosion will create a chain reaction causing all the other Skrabs to pop. Since killing a single Skrab tends to blow up its entire swarm, Skrabs are actually pretty easy to fight by mowing them down with quick bursts from your assault rifle. In fact, they're a good way to rack up kills to boost your squad's morale level. ========== Bug-Ridden (Xeno-infected Human): Appearance: Muscular mutated human, with barbed tentacle growing out of its mouth, blade-like claws, and glowing yellow eyes. Health: ~170 Attacks: Melee Attack, Goo Spit DESCRIPTION: Bug-Ridden are mutated humans who have been exposed to Xeno spores. They mostly attack by running at you and swiping at you with their claws when they get close. They can also spit a large wad of brownish goo at you in an arc from a few dozen feet away. Their attacks do average damage; it takes 5 claw strikes or several goo spit hits to kill you. Bug-Ridden can survive roughly the same amount of damage as Reborn soldiers. They tend to attack in groups of several at once. Bug-Ridden actually only appear about 4 times in the entire game; Several of them attack you in a condemned building in Iraq, and a few more can be found inside the bunker at the end of the Iraq mission. A couple dozen Bug-Ridden also attack you throughout the suburbs in the "Domestic Surveillance" level about halfway through Mission 3: Rachel. Finally, a dozen or so Bug-Ridden attack you at the beginning of the game's final mission inside the ruins of Area 51, Mission 6: Wrecked. There are a total of about 52 of them throughout the entire game. ATTRIBUTES: Shooting a Bug-Ridden in the head will cause it to enter a confused state. The Bug-Ridden will stop running and instead lurch towards you in a walk, and may even attack other Bug-Ridden that get in its way. Thus, the best way to stop Bug-Ridden from swarming you is to shoot them in the head, slowing them down significantly. Note that, when lurching, Bug-Ridden can still spit goo at you from long range. Bug-Ridden have a nasty habit of getting back up again a few seconds after seemingly being "killed". On the plus side, when they do get back up, it only takes a few more bullet hits to kill them again, permenantly. KILL STRATEGY: Overall, the best way to kill Bug-Ridden is to shoot them in the head to slow them down to a slow lurch, then finish them off with gunfire from your assault rifle. Be prepared to mow them down with an assault rifle burst if they get back up again after being "killed". Slowing them down with headshots is pretty important, as several of them can swarm and overwhelm you and your squad if you let them run at you at full speed. ========== Drudge: Appearance: 8-foot tall, brown, sandcrab-like alien, with a large crested head and a single glowing yellow cyclops eye. Health: ~250 Attacks: Melee Attack DESCRIPTION: Described as "Octopus-Dogs" by your squadmates, Drudges are large, Crab Spider-like aliens based on the urban myth of the Iraqi Camel Spider. They scuttle towards you, and claw at you when they get close. Their claw attacks do decent damage, and can kill you in 4 hits. Although they move at average speed, Drudges are tougher than average, and take a decent amount of firepower to bring down (it takes almost half a clip of assault rifle fire to kill one). Drudges can sometimes slide sideways when shot to try and avoid your fire, but mostly they simply charge straight at you. There are several areas throughout the game where you'll encounter Drudges. They're rarer than Reborn soldiers, but more common than Bug-Ridden mutants. You'll face a few dozen of them throughout the game. KILL STRATEGY: Drudges are probably best mowed down with the assault rifle. Aim for the head, and particularly the glowing eye, for the most damage. It still takes almost 20 shots to kill a Drudge even when shooting it in the eye, but you'll do somewhat more damage aiming for the eye or head than for the body. Shooting them in the eye also causes them to twitch, briefly stunning them and preventing them from advancing on you. Despite their higher-than-average durability, overall Drudges aren't too much of a threat if you're reasonably skilled. Just mow them down with the assault rifle as they come. Rack up kills to boost your squad morale, and they'll help you mow down the Drudges much more quickly. ========== Dark Drudge: Appearance: 8-foot tall, black, sandcrab-like alien, with a large crested head with spiky protrusions, and a single glowing yellow cyclops eye. Health: ~450 Attacks: Melee Attack, Goo Spit DESCRIPTION: Dark Drudges are a tougher, more advanced class of Drudge that first begin to appear from Mission 4: Counter-Insurgency onwards. Dark Drudges have about twice as much health as regular Drudges, and also can spit a spray of greenish acid at you from medium range. Their acid attack does heavy damage, and can knock off almost half of your health in a single hit. Their claw attacks are also stronger than those of standard Drudges, and can often kill you in just 3 hits. On the plus side, Dark Drudges are pretty rare. They are spawned infinitely by the Spore Tower bosses, but outside of the Spore Tower battles you'll only encounter less than a dozen or so through the regular course of the game. KILL STRATEGY: Other than their increased durability and ranged acid spit attack, Dark Drudges behave similarly to regular Drudges. They scuttle towards you, and will slash at you with their claws when they get close. They can be killed in the same manner as regular Drudges, but their high health means that it takes almost a full clip of assault rifle fire to kill one. It's best to order your squadmates to concentrate fire on a Dark Drudge to help you take it down; you can also use grenades against them for easy kills. ========== Small Flatworm: Appearance: 12-foot tall snake-like brown worm, with a custacean-like split-jawed head. Health: ~1200 Attacks: Homing Plasma Spit DESCRIPTION: Flatworms are large, snake-like alien worms that erupt out of the ground and attack you at various points in the game, most often on the highway during the game's vehicle sections. Flatworms are quite tough, and it takes about 2 clips of assault rifle fire to kill one. Flatworms are stationary, and attack by spiting out homing balls of plasma every couple of seconds. Flatworm plasma balls move at an average speed, but will perfectly home in on you and explode upon contact. They do significant damage, and can kill you in 3 hits. Small Flatworms actually only appear in about 4 different areas in the game, and there are a total of about 22 Small Flatworms throughout the entire game. KILL STRATEGY: When fighting Flatworms, it's important to shoot down their homing plasma balls with your assault rifle. This is pretty easy to do, since Flatworms have a low rate of fire and their homing balls move relatively slowly. When no homing balls are in the air, concentrate your fire on the Flatworm itself. They're not too tough, as long as you make sure to destroy their projectiles before they reach you. When driving an armored Humvee, for some reason your AI- squadmates are unable to shoot down the Flatworms' homing plasma balls themselves using the Humvee's machinegun turret. They'll fire at the plasma balls, but for some reason they won't hit them. When a Flatworm appears, you'll have to get out of the vehicle, hop in the turret yourself, and shoot down the homing balls manually. When on foot, one way to quickly finish off Small Flatworms is to toss a grenade at them. This will seriously injure them, and all you to finish them off with a quick burst of assault rifle fire. ========== Large Flatworm: Appearance: 25-foot tall snake-like brown worm, with a crustacean- like split-jawed head. Health: ~4000 Attacks: Homing Plasma Spit DESCRIPTION: Large Flatworms are the larger, tougher versions of the standard Small Flatworms. These things are huge, taller than a house (one even bursts OUT of a house, smashing through the roof). They're extremely tough (it takes several clips of assault rifle fire to kill one), and the homing plasma balls they spit out do more damage (2 hits can kill you dead). You only fight 4 Large Flatworms on foot throughout the entire game, and each one serves as a sort of mini-boss fight. You'll also fight about 13 Large Flatworms split between two vehicle sections towards the end of the game. KILL STRATEGY: Fighting them involves more or less the same strategy as the Small Flatworms. Blast at them with your assault rifle, but be sure to switch targets and shoot down their homing plasma balls whenever they spit one (which is usually every couple of seconds). As long as you destroy their plasma shots, they shouldn't pose much of a threat to you, and will go down after you shoot them enough. You'll use up a lot of ammo taking one down, but the supporting fire from your squadmates helps a lot in killing them faster. During the final vehicle section in Mission 5: Topside, you'll drive a military Humvee through a canyon populated by Large Flatworms. Your squadmates seem to have trouble shooting down the Flatworms' homing projectiles, so you'll need to get out of the vehicle whenever a Flatworm appears, man the roof-mounted turret yourself, and hose the Flatworm with machinegun fire while shooting down the projectiles it fires at you. ========= =Bosses:= =============================================================================== Reborn Helicopter: Appearance: A Blackhawk military utility helicopter, painted black. Health: High Attacks: Side-door-mounted XM312 machinegun turrets, Rocket launchers DESCRIPTION: Military helicopters crewed by Reborn soldiers will strafe you at a few occasions throughout the game. These helicopters have mounted machinegun turrets on each side door, which the Reborn soldiers will use to open fire on you from the sky. Typically, you can kill the Reborn gunners with assault rifle fire, which will cause the helicopter to retreat or even crash. BOSS FIGHT: You'll also face a "boss battle" against a Reborn helicopter at the end of Mission 3: Rachel. You'll be on the roof of a drive-in theater, while the helicopter circles around while pelting you with machinegun fire from the side-mounted turrets. You can kill the Reborn gunners with sniper rifle or assault rifle fire to temporarily stop the helicopter from shooting at you, but they'll respawn after several seconds. Watch out if the helicopter flies off to long range; that's usually a sign it's going to launch a barrage of rockets at you. The rockets are very powerful; a single hit on Hard can seriously injure you, and on Expert even the splash damage from an indirect hit will kill you instantly. To avoid taking damage from the rockets, you need to use the theater walls as cover; if the helicopter flies off to long range and launches rockets, put the theater between you and the copter so that the rockets hit the walls instead of you. KILL STRATEGY: The key to killing the helicopter is to snipe the pilot with your advanced sniper rifle. You don't even have to aim through the cockpit glass; your sniper rifle is powerful enough to penetrate the helicopter's hull, so all you have to do is hit the front of the helicopter roughly on the pilot's side to score a hit. The helicopter will usually spin out of control for a couple seconds to let you know you've scored a hit (your squadmates will also usually tell you when you've hit the pilot). It takes about 7 good hits to kill the helicopter. An infinite amount of sniper rifle ammo will spawn inside the theater, so you don't have to worry about running out of ammo. ========== Jumbo Flatworm: Appearance: 200 foot tall snake-like brown worm, with mass of tentacles serving as a "foot" wrapped around a bridge. Health: Extreme Attacks: Homing Plasma Spit DESCRIPTION: You fight the Jumbo Flatworm in a rail-shooting sequence in the first level of Mission 5: Topside. You're inside a helicopter that's circling around the Jumbo Flatworm; you have no control over the movements of the helicopter itself, and all you can do is shoot at the boss with the side-mounted turret. The Jumbo Flatworm is the size of a downtown office building, and wrapped around a concrete bridge spanning a desert canyon. Your helicopter will circle around the Jumbo Flatworm and will often dive down to fly underneath the bridge, which is kind of annoying as it prevents you from getting a clear shot at the boss. BEHAVIOR: Like the regular Flatworms, the Jumbo Flatworm attacks by spitting homing plasma balls at you every couple of seconds. On the plus side, this balls are weaker than those of the standard Flatworms, and it takes 5 hits to kill you on the default difficulty. Unfortunately, the homing balls are hard to shoot down because they hit you less than a second after the Jumbo Flatworm fires them (due to the lousy piloting skills of your retarded helicopter pilot, who for some reason thinks it's a good idea to fly near the Jumbo Flatworm at point-blank range), and they are also tough to hit because of the helicopter's movements and the limited aiming cone of your machinegun turret. The Jumbo Flatworm can also occasionally swat your helicopter with its tentacles, but this doesn't do any damage and only serves to disorient your aim. KILL STRATEGY: To kill the Jumbo Flatworm, you need to detonate an oil tanker truck that's cradled at the base of its tentacles. The truck can be hard to hit because your line of sight is blocked by the boss's tentacles, so you'll just have to spray at it and hope you eventually get a clear shot. Once the oil tanker explodes, keep shooting the boss until it dies. Be sure to at least try and shoot down the boss's homing projectiles whenever it fires one (don't worry if you get hit a couple times, as your health will regenerate if you can avoid getting hit again for a few seconds by shooting down the next couple of projectiles). If you get killed in this boss fight, you'll have to start the entire level all over again, which is very frustrating. ========== Spore Tower: Appearance: 40 foot tall, dark brown, trilobite-like alien tower, with 6 glowing yellow "eyes". Health: ~1120 per pair of eyes Attacks: Drudge Spawning DESCRIPTION: Spore Towers are huge alien pillar lifeforms that ride the winds, and smash down into the ground where-ever they land. Although the Spore Towers have no attacks of their own, they spawn waves of Drudges to attack you. Each Spore Tower has 3 pairs of large yellow glowing "eyes" on one side. To kill the Spore Tower, you need to destroy all 3 pairs of eyes. Each pair of eyes counts as a single target, so you only need to destroy 3 targets to kill the Spore Tower. Each pair of eyes can be destroyed with about 75 rounds of assault rifle fire, but a much quicker way to destroy each eye pair is with a single shot from the antitank launcher. You don't even need to use the launcher's heat-seeking targeting scope. Just point the crosshair at an eye, and dumbfire a missile at it. SPORE TOWER ENCOUNTERS: You'll encounter 3 seperate Spore Towers throughout the game. 1ST SPORE TOWER: The first Spore Tower appears in the first level of Mission 3: Rachel, crashing down in the middle of a downtown strip mall. You aren't supposed to actually kill this Spore Tower; air support will appear and destroy it will a missile barrage after a few dozen seconds. Just get far away from the Spore Tower and kill the Drudges it spawns while you wait for air support to kill it for you. 2ND SPORE TOWER: The second Spore Tower appears towards the end of Mission 4: Counter-Insurgency, crashing down in the middle of a gas station lot. Each wave spawned by this Spore Tower consists of 1 Dark Drudge and 2 regular Drudges. You start the fight on the roof of the gas station, where you can use a nearby mounted machinegun turret to kill one of the Spore Tower's pairs of eyes. The Spore Tower will turn around once you destroy one pair of eyes, forcing you to drop down to the ground and circle around it to get a clear shot at the other two pairs. There's plenty of antitank launcher ammo on the ground floor for you to use against the Spore Tower, just keep an eye out for those Drudges. 3RD SPORE TOWER: The third and final Spore Tower appears in Mission 5: Topside, soon after your first battle with a Fire Brute. This Spore Tower spawns pairs of Dark Drudges against you. There's a mounted machinegun on top of a building to the right of the Spore Tower, and you can also take out the Spore Tower's eyes using the antitank launcher you got from the fight with the Fire Brute. In any case, the Spore Tower will turn around whenever a pair of eyes is destroyed, so you'll have to reposition yourself to continue attacking it. ========== Fire Brute: Appearance: 35 foot tall, turtle-like alien, with a red-hot armored shell Health: Very High Attacks: Heat beam DESCRIPTION: Fire Brutes are massive, building-sized turtle-like alien monsters. They attack with a continuous energy beam that fires from their mouths and lasts for several seconds each shot. The beam is quite powerful, and can gib you in a second or two of exposure. They are also extremely heavily armored, so much so that they're immune to conventional weapons fire. The Fire Brute's beam can't really be dodged (it can track your movements even if you try to strafe and jump around), so if you get caught out in the open while fighting a Fire Brute, you'll quickly end up dead. As a result, you need to use walls and buildings as cover to hide from the Fire Brute's attack. The only way to hurt a Fire Brute is to shoot it with the antitank launcher in a small, glowing weak spot on their backs. This is only possible if the Fire Brute has its back turned towards you, which only happens if it's attacking another target instead of chasing you around. Since you have no control over your allies in the game's two Fire Brute fights, this is pretty random and kind of frustrating. In any case, be sure to use the antitank launcher's heat-seeking targeting scope to ensure you score a direct hit on the weak spot. it takes 2 direct antitank launcher hits to the weak spot in order to kill a Fire Brute. To complicate matters, Fire Brutes are always accompanied by groups of constantly respawning Explosive Skrabs (which are apparently parasites that live in the Fire Brute's hide). Unfairly, instead of spawning the Skrab packs from fixed spawn points or even from the Fire Brute, the game arbitrarily drops them a couple dozen feet behind you every dozen seconds or so. This is extremely annoying, and there's nothing you can do about it too. You'll just have to keep alert for the noises the Skrabs make when they attack, and be prepared to spin around and blow them with with assault rifle fire before they can kamikaze you and explode in your face. FIRE BRUTE ENCOUNTERS: There are two "boss fights" against Fire Brutes in the game, both of which take place in Mission 5: Topside, in the outlying buildings of the Area 51 complex. 1ST FIRE BRUTE: The first Fire Brute fight takes place in the courtyard of several office buildings. You don't have an antitank launcher when you first encounter it, so you'll need to find one before you can fight it. Follow the soldier into the nearby building, then follow the path to the building's balcony. Instead of fighting the Fire Brute from here, turn around and jump across the large gap to the buildings on the other side of the chasm. You should be able to grab an antitank launcher and ammo inside. The Fire Brute should follow, jumping over the chasm and even blowing a hole in the wall of the building you're inside. At this point, the Fire Brute should be distracted by U.S. soldiers firing at it from the building on the opposite side of the courtyard, giving you the chance to nail it twice in the weak spot with the antitank launcher and kill it. 2ND FIRE BRUTE: The second Fire Brute fight occurs at the very end of Mission 5: Topside, in an open airfield just outside the entrance to Area 51. When the fight begins, a U.S. soldier is shoot at the Fire Brute with an antitank launcher, distracting it. Behind the large wall to the right of the soldier is an antitank launcher. Move quickly, go and grab it, then manuever behind the Fire Brute. If you're fast enough, it should still be occupied fighting the U.S. soldier, allowing you to get behind it, and score at least 1 good shot at its weak spot. If the Fire Brute kills the soldier before you can get a 2nd shot, you'll just have to hide behind the walls and buildings to avoid its attack, until it gets distracted again by your other allies, allowing you to get behind it again and shoot it in the back with the 2nd, killing shot. Try luring the Fire Brute near your allies so they start firing at it, this should hopefully distract it and give you a chance to sneak behind it. There are a couple functional Humvees lying around the airfield that you can use to drive around the battlefield, but watch out for Explosive Skrabs and the Fire Brute's beam attack. ========== Reborn Leader: Appearance: Delta Force soldier wearing Reborn uniform. Health: 4120 Weapons: Plasma Rifle, Antitank Launcher Other Attacks: Melee Attack DESCRIPTION: The final boss of the game, the Reborn Leader, is the game's main villain and the leader of the Reborn insurrection against the U.S. government. Unlike regular Reborn soldiers, the Reborn Leader seems to be equipped with an energy shield that allows him to survive significant damage. In the final shootout, it takes 275 assault rifle bullets or 103 pistol bullets to kill the guy. He's also equipped with a plasma rifle that can kill you in just 2 to 3 shots. The final level actually takes part in 2 phases. In the first phase, you'll be running around the edge of the circular alien "spaceship" destroying its "power cores" while being attacked by Reborn soldiers, with the Reborn Leader occasionally shooting at you from the central platform. Once that's finished, you go up to the central platform for the final shootout against the Reborn Leader, which takes place inside what's essentially a large metal can. PHASE I: The first phase of the game's final level is a sort of "power reactor" fight, where you need to disable the alien "power core"/"spaceship" while the Reborn Leader shoots at you from the "spaceship" central platform. To make the Reborn Leader go away, just shoot him with several assault rifle bullets, and he'll retreat out of your sight. Anyway, you need to destroy the glowing orange energy pods underneath the central platform. A few assault rifle bullets is all it takes. There are 2 energy pods underneath each of the four sides of the central platform, and you'll need to circle around the trench that runs along the edge of the "spaceship" and climb up on four side platforms to get a clear shot at each group of energy pods. Four large energy beams circles around the trench at the edge of the "spaceship", and will disintegrate you instantly if you touch it. To avoid the beams, take cover in the alcoves at the edge of the trench whenever one starts approaching you. The first side platform at the beginning of the fight is straightforward enough. Shoot the Reborn Leader to get him to stop shooting you with his plasma rifle, then shoot the 2 orange energy pods to destroy them. When you reach the second side platform, you'll be attacked by a few Reborn soldiers. The best way to deal with them is to lure them into the trench, then shoot them from the cover of one of the alcoves. The 2 energy pods here are protected by an orange energy shield, which prevents you from shooting them directly. To get around the energy shield, just stand under one of the large green energy beams leading from your platform to the energy pods, and you should have a clear shot at that pod. The third side platform is pretty tricky. Not only are there a few Reborn soldiers waiting there to attack you, but the Reborn Leader will also shoot at you from the central platform with an antitank launcher (which can knock off most of your life on Hard difficulty, and kill you in 1 shot on Expert difficulty). It's best to remain in the trench, outside of the Reborn Leader's line of sight. Don't take cover in the alcove directly below the ramp, as the Reborn Leader can still hit you. Instead, take cover in an alcove just to the side of the ramp. From there, pick off the Reborn soldiers. Once they're gone, charge up on the side platform, strafe to dodge the Reborn Leader's rocket, then blast him with your assault rifle to make him go away. The fourth platform is pretty much the same as the third. Pick off any Reborn soldiers from the trench, then charge up the ramp onto the platform and shoot the Reborn Leader before he can gib you with his antitank launcher. Once you destroy the final 2 energy pods, an energy bridge will appear that lets you reach the center platform and the final shootout against the Reborn Leader. PHASE II: DESCRIPTION: The actual final battle against the Reborn Leader takes place in the circular center platform of the alien "spaceship". The walls around the center platform will lower, essentially creating a large sealed can for you and the Reborn Leader to fight it. The final battle arena is essentially a wide open circular room, although there are four pillars in the sides of the room, as well as four small balcony-like platforms up in the walls of the area. BEHAVIOR: The Reborn Leader essentially stands in one spot and shoots at you with his plasma rifle. He'll occasionally sidestep a few feet when shot, and will melee you if you walk up to him, but otherwise he doesn't really move around or do anything other than just stand still and shoot at you. After being shot a few times, the Reborn Leader will climb one of the pillars on the sides of the room, onto one of the balcony-like platforms sticking out of the walls. The Reborn Leader will continue shooting at you with his plasma rifle from the platform. After taking more damage, or after a couple dozen seconds pass, the Reborn Leader will proceed to leap to the next balcony-like platform and fire at you from there. The Reborn Leader essentially circles the room, leaping from platform to platform as time passes or he takes damage. Once the Reborn Leader has made a full circle of the room, he'll drop back down to the floor again and resume shooting you from there. At this point, the Reborn Leader simply stands in one spot shooting at you (occasionally sidestepping when shot) until you kill him. Obviously, this battle is heavy on scripting, and the Reborn Leader has almost no actual dynamic tactical A.I. He has a pre-scripted sequence where he climbs onto the balcony-like platforms above and circles around leaping from one platform to the next, but after that he just jumps back down to floor against and essentially just stands in one spot shooting at you until one of you dies. KILL STRATEGY: Anyway, fighting the Reborn Leader is really simple. Just take cover behind one of the four pillars to protect yourself from his plasma rifle shots, then pop out and shoot him with your assault rifle between his shots (you can also just stand in the open and dodge his shots by strafing, but it's safer to fire from behind a pillar). When the Reborn Leader climbs up onto the upper platforms, just follow him around the room and shoot him from cover behind the pillar opposite his current platform. Thanks to his energy shield, the Reborn Leader can take a lot of damage (it takes more than 6 full clips of assault rifle fire to kill him), but he's extremely vulnerable to headshots. Against the Reborn Leader, a headshot seems to do about 10x as much damage as a shot to the body, and you can kill him with just a couple dozen assault rifle headshots. One way to make this fight even easier is to hide behind a pillar, and position yourself so that the pillar blocks your view of the Reborn Leader's plasma rifle, but you can still see his legs. This way, the Reborn Leader won't be able to target your body, but you'll have a clear shot at his legs. Just fire away from the safety of the pillar, and you'll be able to kill him without him even being able to get a shoot off at you. END TEXT COPYRIGHT ALAN CHAN