SDA Knowledge Base - User contributions [en]

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

2012-12-23T06:19:41Z

B'man: /* Big Boss */

[[Category:PlayStation 2]]
[[Category:Games]]

{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/MetalGearSolid2.html}}
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=== Versions ===

MGS2 has gameplay differences between every version of the game. The main revisions (in order of release):

* Sons of Liberty (US)
* Sons of Liberty (Jp): Dog Tag changes, most notably some Marines in Tanker Holds. Boss Survival/Casting Theatre modes. Various bug fixes and presentation changes. This version only: V.Easy, Easy, Normal and Hard are named Easy, Normal, Hard and V.Hard respectively.
* Sons of Liberty (Eu): European Extreme difficulty. C4 locations changed in Strut D and Strut A Deep Sea Dock.
* Substance (World): Exploits and glitches fixed, most notably the Tengus Coolant glitches (made significantly more difficult to execute) and Elevator floor clip. Extended Boss Survival mode. Snake Tales, Missions, and (PS2-only) Skateboarding modes. Various bug fixes.

While PAL (Eu) and NTSC (US, Jp) ostensibly run at the same speed (adjusted to compensate for PAL's lower frame rate), there are various subtle differences in PAL versions either caused by it, or specifically added for other reasons:

* Many guard and mech routes are slower, which can make things easier or harder depending on the situation. This (and other timing effects) are caused by routes using a frame timer (instead of a real-time timer) which has not been compensated for.
* Elevators (including the one in Strut A Deep Sea Dock) take longer to appear.
* Button actions take longer to take effect, including firing (which makes it difficult to fire a pistol rapidly), opening equip menus (which also gives Quick Equip a bigger window) and equip scrolling.
* First-person aiming is slower, as the distance covered when adjusting it is measured by the frame.
* Codec conversations, when skipped with Square, take longer to do so (one screen per frame).
* There is less slowdown in graphically-complex areas such as outside on the Tanker, the Holds, Fortune and Rays. Game time is measured in frames, so slowdown (or the lack of it) does not give one version an advantage in game time. However...
* Fortune's attack patterns are changed to compensate (or rather, over-compensate) for the huge slowdown in the NTSC version. PAL Fortune attacks 16 more times on Extreme.
* Fatman's loop strategy only works on PAL versions. When attempting it on NTSC versions, after you trip him twice, he gets up and runs away, no matter your location.

There is also a difference caused by translation that affects all languages. Some guard actions (such as initiating Alert/Caution) are timed to take effect once they finish using the radio. Depending on the dub, some languages will take longer than others, and so some marginal hit and run strategies may not work.

=== Weapons ===

* Quick reload

Double-click R2 to refill your clip quickly. You can also use this to skip the end of a long firing animation (e.g. the M9, which needs a round loaded for every shot), which enables you to shoot at a faster rate. For example, if done fast enough, you can run at a guard and send them to sleep in three shots (Ex/EuEx) before they can turn around.

You receive a magazine when you run out of bullets in a clip - using quick reload stops this from happening.

* Lock-on headshots

Pressing L1 while aiming with a basic gun (M9, USP/SOCOM, M4/AK) while near an enemy (not bosses in Ex/EuEx) switches your aim to their chest. You can use this to run and shoot by holding L1, but it also simplifies aiming for headshots.

Hold Sq and R1 to aim in first person, then tap L1 to aim at the chest. Then move the aim up to the head and fire. With practice this becomes easy and quick.

* Quick equip modes

There are two quick equip modes in the Options menu - they affect what happens when you tap L2 or R2 instead of holding it. Unequip mode unequips the current item if it is equipped, and equips the last-equipped item if there is nothing equipped. This is the same behaviour as L1 and R1 in MGS1. Previous mode acts like Unequip mode if you have only equipped one item since you last had nothing equipped. Otherwise, it will switch to the last item you had equipped, meaning it will switch back-and-forth between two items repeatedly.

Unequip is the default mode. It is most useful when you expect to use a variety of items or to grab enemies without a weapon. It's also the easiest mode to use, and in general it won't do anything you don't expect it to.

Previous mode is significantly quicker, and more intuitive, than Unequip when you expect to use two items only, or when you will repeatedly switch between two. In the Tanker, where the only weapons you're likely to use are the M9 and USP, Previous is king - once you've equipped the USP, you probably won't need to enter the weapon menu again. However, in the Plant, if your second weapon is first-person - Stinger, PSG-1(T) or Coolant - techniques like quick reload will make you stop running for a short time. You can deal with this by quick-reloading during a cartwheel.

=== Enemies ===

* Knock-down tranquilize

If you shoot an enemy with a tranq dart (M9, PSG1-T) anywhere, they will fall asleep as soon as they are knocked down. Any technique will do; combo, roll, throw or grab/strangle.

* Tranq an enemy looking in your direction without stopping

When running at an enemy that is looking in your direction, wait for them to see you, then shoot them once with a USP/SOCOM/M4/AK round shortly before they fire. This normally gives you enough time to approach them, shoot them with the M9, and knock them over. If not, you can shoot them again before they finish recovering.

This only works if you selected Not Game Over If Discovered, and depending on the situation it may alert other guards.

* Daze

Shoot an enemy's blue "!"-sign and they will stand in a daze for 10 seconds (or until you attack them). The easiest way to do this is to stand a certain distance away in front of them and wait for them to walk towards you and notice you.

It is possible (though difficult) to shoot them once in a nonlethal location (lethal: head, crotch, heart), then shoot the "!" that appears quickly.

* Hold up with any weapon

Any weapon can be used to hold up an enemy. Hold Sq lightly with the M4, AK, Nikita and RGB6. Simply equip the Stinger, PSG1 and PSG1-T while looking at the enemy to hold them up.

* Scare without firing

Normally you would scare a held-up enemy by shooting them with a lethal weapon in a nonlethal area (or by shooting near them, which is faster). You can also scare them by equipping the Stinger and looking at them, or by aiming the RGB6 or Nikita at them. This can be useful if you don't have a suppressed pistol or rifle but do have one of the above weapons.

* Coolant attack

The coolant, while it has a short range, also affects a large area in front of you. It stuns an enemy for about three seconds, and can be used in stealth (the enemy acts as though they have been shot by an unseen enemy) or in battle (it affects all enemies in front of you so it is an effective close-range crowd control weapon).

=== Movement ===

* Coolant rise

While crawling, with the coolant equipped, press X to rise and immediately press R2 to unequip the coolant. You will immediately be in a standing position. The timing is quite lenient; you can press both buttons at the same time.

The trick can be used in general play (e.g. Strut A during the bomb run) when you have no weapon equipped and the coolant is your last-equipped weapon (Unequip mode), or when it is your previous weapon (Previous mode). Crawl as normal, then, when you are able to rise, tap R2 and immediately tap R2 and X together. Depending on your speed, this can be up to a second quicker than rising normally.

* Travelling with a box

Walking with a box equipped has three uses that I know of:

# You have a smaller turning circle, so you can turn 180 degrees in place while running. This makes Fortune significantly easier on Ex/EuEx.
# Your height is halved, making it useful in areas with low cover such as Strut E. It also travels underneath the projectors in Hold 1 and Hold 2.
# It slightly increases the size of your hitbox for setting off claymore mines, but your hitbox for being hurt by them remains the same. This means that it's possible to set off a mine but not actually be hit by them (e.g. Strut A roof after Fortune - dodging the claymore is possible without the box, but is easier with it).

* Roll/cartwheel tricks

# You can roll up or down about 4 steps of stairs with Snake.
# You can cartwheel down stairs with Raiden significantly faster than running.
# Raiden can cross gaps (e.g. Shell 1-2 Connecting Bridge after Harrier) with his cartwheel.
# Roll/cartwheel is about the same speed as running, but it is faster at first and slower at the end. In some situations you can cartwheel into an enemy's line of sight so they see you earlier, and (e.g. Raiden Sneaking 2) notice you rather than alert. In others you can use it to reach the side of an enemy as they turn towards you (e.g. Raiden Sneaking 5).
# Use roll/cartwheel to travel forward in situations where the game would normally force you to stop (e.g. Strut D-E Connecting Bridge when called by Deepthroat). You can also use it as a buffer to equip a new item/weapon without stopping.

=== Misc ===

* Quick bomb freeze

If you are at an angle (e.g. facing near the side of the bomb), the coolant will sometimes affect more than one point on it, and freeze it in half the time.

* Quick elevator summon

The elevator trick from MGS1 is also in MGS2, but isn't quite as quick. Press the button to summon the elevator twice, and the doors will open about two seconds later.

If you're unlucky, this can be slower than normal play - occasionally the doors will open immediately the first time you press the button.

* Answer codec calls manually

Some mandatory (the icon appears red rather than blue) codec calls force you to stop. You can answer the call immediately with Select and save about a second.

This can also give you a head start in some areas (e.g. in Arsenal Gear as X-Raiden, if you answer Campbell at the start immediately, you can run along the south wall and change the first Tengu from what would normally be an Alert, to a notice).

* Skip some codec calls and cutscenes

You can avoid Rose's codec calls that usually appear on the first time through Strut F-E Connecting Bridge and Shell 1 Core 1F by being in Caution status when you enter these areas. This also works in the Engine Room to stop the door repair guard appearing.

== Big Boss ==

Big Boss is the top rank on Extreme and European Extreme. The requirements are believed to be:

* Tanker-Plant
* Time under 3 hours
* 8 or less saves (PRUD ENCE)
* 3 Alerts (ALRTNUM)
* No kills (NUET)
* No Rations used
* No continues
* Damage taken under 10.5 life bars (DMGA MMOUNT)
* Shots fired under 700 (AMMOUS ED)

Notes:

* The names in parentheses above refer to the stats shown on Plant's Mission Failed screen. You can die after saving to examine your current stats in a segmented run.
* Mission Failed (or rather, Fission Mailed) also appears twice during Tengus 2. The stats shown here are accurate - if ALRTNUM is 3 at this point, your Alerts stat is good.
* The "damage taken" requirement is not known exactly - one life bar is 200 hit points, so expect the cutoff to be around 2100 damage. Regardless, you're unlikely to get close to failing this requirement.
* Similarly, 700 shots is plenty. You're only likely to fail this if you waste ammo in an area with ammo spawns (most likely the oil fence sniping area).
* The three mandatory Alerts occur at the start of the oil fence sniping area, the start of Tengus 1, and the start of Tengus 2. You're not allowed any unnecessary Alerts.

Strategy:

* If you do something to fail a requirement - for example, killing someone, or getting an Alert - save your game before leaving the current area. When you reload this save, your stats will be the same as they were when you entered the area. Of course, you can only do this a maximum of eight times.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Bosses

2012-12-23T05:34:32Z

B'man: Undo revision 15630 by 91.121.27.33 (talk)

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These strategies assume Extreme/EuExtreme difficulty. They may not work in other difficulties. In general if there's a "loop" available for a particular boss, it will be faster than other methods.

== Tanker ==

=== Olga ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx)
Olga has a loop that allows you to shoot her repeatedly shortly before her first mini-cutscene. It works by making her empty her clip, and then interrupting her reload at the front, forcing her to reload at the back later. As she shoots more rapidly in Ex/EuEx, this only works in those difficulties. In the US version of SoL, Olga often runs out to the right, making this strategy fail. All other versions have her run to the left the first time.

An Any% method is to push against the hatch, hold R1, then quickly hold R2 as well when Olga runs out, to dodge her shots. As long as she sees you, she should run back to the left firing, then move to the back.

In 100%, you will probably need both M9 bullet caches, which gives you no time to use the above strategy. You can collect the east, then middle caches, then go close to the barrier in the middle, a little to the left of the eastern set of crates. Duck here and stay still, and Olga should miss you when she runs out (some positions do leave you open, so experiment). You then want to run to the right, such that when she notices you she's already started reloading. The timing is quite hard to get right.

A riskier and less consistent method: after collecting the cache in the middle, stand behind the left side of the eastern set of crates. As Olga runs out, run out a little so that she sees you, then duck back in.

Once you've enabled the loop, move to the east fence (pick up the M9 cache at the southeast if you need them) and aim towards the back. You want the laser to be aimed a little to the right of the small gap between a horizontal and vertical set of poles in the frame Olga is hiding behind. When she is reloading, her head is here. Fire as soon as she starts reloading, then wait for her to recover and try to reload again. If your aim is a little too far to the left, you may miss if you shoot a little early. Four headshots wins.

* Free first shot
At the start of the battle, crawl and look through the gap in the crates in the middle. When Olga runs out she'll stop and look puzzled, allowing you to shoot her easily. This is fairly slow, and only works once.

* East-side firefight
The east side of the area is the best to battle Olga as she's fairly predictable, easy to get headshots, and quick to beat. The easiest way to deal with a firefight is to stand at the far east in plain sight, enter first-person, and use the L2 button to dodge her shots.

After her first mini-cutscene, she will always run to the front, giving you a chance of headshot. At the front, she will always pop her head out at the same place, but she shoots quickly, so you have to shoot her first and dodge her own shot.

At the back, she will attack from either a standing or crouched position, but you get slightly longer to dodge. In addition, if she is standing, she waits a second or so before hiding, giving you time to hit her. If you miss first time, aim at the correct spot for the next attempt, as she uses the same position a few times.

* Tarpaulin phase
In general, if a battle reaches this phase, you aren't doing it quick enough, but sometimes Olga will tire of an east-side battle early. In Ex/EuEx the tarp can't be shot off, so it's easiest to wait for a silence indicative of her getting out a grenade, and shoot blindly at her.

After hitting her once, Olga will run forward via the east side to shoot the tarp herself. This gives you ample time to hit her in the head before she does so.

=== Soldiers ===
* General strategy
The safe place in this battle is crouching behind the crate nearest to the action. There are two main methods from this point:

You can back up against the crate, and use the pop-out technique (hold Sq at the left side of the crate) in conjunction with first-person mode. This has a lot of overhead time from the pop-out/in animations, and you should make sure you let go of R1 before popping back in.

Alternatively, stay facing forward, hold R1 to go into first-person and also R2 (which has no effect at first). When you hold L2 as well, you will lean over the crate, allowing you to aim and fire. Let go of L2 to duck back into cover.

A similar method is to crouch in the same position, but use X to stand up and crouch.

There are three types of soldier. One crosses to the west, and then fires or jumps out from that position. One stays in the east and does the same (this is the most dangerous as you can't see what they're up to). The other moves to the crate at the back (essentially the same position as you are) and fires or later throws grenades.

Take advantage of the fact that moving soldiers can't hit you. While the west/back soldiers move into position, headshot them before they get there. You have to take the east soldier out the hard way, and you should be wary of him attacking while you try to take out the other two.

Each soldier is replaced after a certain amount of time, by a soldier of the same type. If you take out the soldiers in a particular order, you can predict the order of the next wave.

Once at least three (or two in the easier difficulties) of each type of soldier have been eliminated, and no more soldiers are on the screen, three last guards will rush you. You can stay in the same position, or retreat to distance if you see it coming. Headshots will deal with these without trouble, but if you shoot the first soldier too quickly, the last one will lose his nerve and hide for a few seconds. It's quicker to wait a little.

* Instant kill (Ez/VE)
Your enemies are soldiers with the same attributes as regular soldiers. On Easy and Very Easy, just plug them with a single M9 bullet.

* Headshot on moving targets
When using Previous equip mode (this can be done with Unequip, but it is slower), lock-on and shoot a moving soldier with the USP, then use their recoil time to switch to the M9 and hit them with a headshot.

* Clear a phase quickly
If you're not aiming for no kills, you can trigger the last phase or finish the battle more quickly by killing the last soldier(s) rather than tranqing them. When tranqing, the elimination is registered when they start snoring - with a lethal weapon it's registered as soon as the killing shot hits.

== Plant ==
=== Fortune ===
* General strategy
Make sure you've got a cardboard box. With the smaller turning circle, you can run back and forth without running the risk of Raiden messing up a 180-degree turn. Stay at the far south and get into a rhythm of running to the east so Fortune shoots straight down, then turning to the west and doing the same.

* Simple dodging (Ez/VE/Nm/Hd)
On the easier difficulies Fortune only fires one shot at a time. Stand in the middle at the back, and crouch just as she fires, then stand back up once the shot has passed.

* NTSC vs PAL
In order to make up for the horrific amounts of slowdown in the NTSC (US/Jp) versions of this battle, Fortune has a different attack pattern between NTSC and PAL (Eu). Particularly, the PAL version lasts significantly longer in game time (enough that it's longer in real time despite the NTSC slowdown) as Fortune shoots about 20 more bolts at you.

=== Fatman ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx) (SoL)
* Repeated headshots
When you knock Fatman down by shooting him with the SOCOM, you can headshot him repeatedly with the M9 by abusing quick reload and auto-aim in first-person (hold R1 and L1). You can start firing shortly before he stops sliding back. You can sometimes get better accuracy by crouching and maintaining distance. You can get three headshots on harder difficulties - it is possible to win with a single knockdown on Very Easy.

=== Harrier ===
=== Vamp ===
* Loop
Vamp's loop can be triggered any time (preferably the first time...) he jumps out of the water.

First, to get to that point, hit him with an M9 headshot as fast as you can, then wait at the south near the edge of the water for him to surface. You can do a little more damage with stun grenades in the water if you like, but it's negligible.

When Vamp jumps out, edge north off the ledge so you drop into the water and grab it. This changes Vamp's behaviour so he drops and walks slowly around to investigate. Preferably you want him to go around the east, as he gets stuck a little at the west. When he gets close enough he'll take a knife and slash at your hands. As soon as the animation begins, climb back out - you can start climbing out before the animation to save time, but ensure it's late enough that you're still climbing when the slash hits. You'll end up very close to him, and can punch him freely while he recovers from his slash animation.

In this position, you can start the loop. You want to hit Vamp with two punches, delay a little, then repeat. The key is to avoid doing a three-hit combo while still being quick. If you're still up close when the attack is over, he'll try to slash you again - this is your cue to run out of range, then back in and start hitting him again.

You should aim for at least six hits per loop (perhaps less on the first loop), but it's possible to get eight. Always ensure you continue the loop though - if he hits you, most of the time he'll dive, and if you run away from him too early he'll do so as well.

* Critical hit
There's one point on Vamp's body that is a critical hit box - the gunshot wound in the middle of his forehead. You only get one real opportunity to hit it, and that's at the very start of the battle, if you wait for him to bow in your direction. If you use the loop above, this takes too long for the increased damage to be worth it.

* Claymores
If all else fails, you can lay Claymores on the and east and west paths, and Vamp will walk right into them while on the ground. This takes a very long time and doesn't help you with no kills.

=== Vamp 2 ===

=== Tengus ===
* Exit trigger
As soon as you reach the final phase, make sure you can go about 5 seconds without being attacked (stun grenade, for example). Press yourself against the door and then let go and go into first person. Then do a three-hit combo, and as the kick animation starts let go of R1. Differences between your position in and out of first person will push you into the exit trigger on the inside of the door, completing this battle.

* Coolant trick
This glitch works in both Sons of Liberty and Substance, but the requirements for making it work in Substance are so strict that it's not feasible for a speedrun. You should consider this an SoL-only trick.

The trick is performed in the last phase. You start by hiding behind one of the boxes at the south of this phase to lure Tengus into that area. When a Tengu approaches, spray them with coolant, and repeat this until all available Tengus are being sprayed. You now need to continue spraying the Tengus to gradually push them back, and eventually behind the box you're hiding. You may need to adjust your position (usually to move forward) at times, and you may need to quickly tranq one of the Tengus in the top level that shoots at you.

Once all Tengus are behind the box, the game should consider you out of their line of sight, and this will trigger the end of the alert phase. However, you should leg it out quick before they realise what's up, and watch out for any others on the top level.

* Phase skipping
This battle consists of a number of phases triggered as you advance further north. Most of these phases are triggered when you pass a horizontal line on the ground. When you trigger a new phase, the game assumes you've eliminated all the Tengus in the previous phase, and they become inactive. This means that theoretically you could reach the last phase without eliminating a single enemy.

=== Tengus 2 ===
=== Rays ===
* Open mouth attack
The basic way to deal damage against Ray is to attack a leg, causing it to open its mouth so a head attack will deal heavy damage.

At times (particularly shortly after a new Ray appears), Ray will do a battle cry. If you can anticipate this (there's very little time, if any, to react), you can hit them for open mouth damage with a single shot.

The simplest time to do this is at the very start of the battle. The middle, then right, then left Ray will do a battle cry, and with perfect shooting you can hit all of them. Hold R2 before the battle begins to immediately equip the Stinger, then instantly fire and then lock on to the head and move on to the one on the right to do the same (mash Square to get an instant shot). If you find it too hard to hit three, then go for the middle and left Rays.

When a Ray is on the platform with you, when close up and directly in front of them they will do a water cannon attack. You can bait this by getting close and running horizontally past their field of vision. Continue running past to dodge the attack, and you can get a free open mouth shot. Don't be too close though, as you may not be able to aim the Stinger high enough. You can also bait the water cannon after hitting a Ray, by simply standing in front of them.

=== Solidus ===
* Loop
Solidus' loop is probably the easiest in the game, it works in both phases, and can be triggered right at the beginning. However, it is (marginally) more difficult to maintain in the easier difficulties as he's a weakling and falls over easily in the others.

In the first phase, slash at Solidus with the sword and stay very close right in front of him, to tempt him to attack you back. Hold L1 to block and he will kick at you, leaving him open.

In the last phase, make sure you're facing Solidus as he dashes at you, and block his attack. If he shoulder-barges, he's open immediately. If he slashes, however, block all three strikes, slash him to knock him off balance, and run close to him to attack.

The attack you want to use is two slashes (vertical or horizontal, doesn't matter). You then want to wait a bit, and move to his right side (the side without the eye patch - he has better eyesight on this side and is able to block more easily), then slash him again. He'll block, then try another kick, which will leave him open to another two slashes.

On harder difficulties you can stay in front of him and slash as he crosses the blades together in order to make him block, but this has a short window and isn't recommended unless you can't reach his right side. If you knock Solidus down with this third slash, it's too early. If he attacks through it, it's too late.

After forcing him to block, you can reposition yourself before he kicks if you're in a bad position - for example if you're near an edge.

== Substance ==
=== Gurlugon (Raiden) ===
Run up to the large collection of crates in the centre of the area, and press yourself against the south edge of the southmost crate. As soon as Gurlugon roars, edge south to dodge the blast, then pick up the book that appears. Place it on the ground in front of you, and stand there like a vending machine.

The cutscene is horrifically long, but it's still a hell of a lot faster than any other strategy.

=== Mech Genola (Snake) ===
Start by tricking Mech Genola into blowing up the left side box on the second row from the front. This is done by nearing the box, running into the searchlight and immediately taking cover behind the box. You may have to dodge when he actually fires at you. Immediately fire a Stinger at his head and collect the Chaff Grenades, then climb onto the left side box at the front. Finally, throw a Chaff Grenade into the hole where his head was.

=== Genola (MGS1 Snake) ===
Collect the Stinger and run as far left as possible. If you look to the left (don't do it in an actual attempt >_>) you can see where the wall ends (both at the end and the bottom); make a note of a point just below the bottom of the wall, and just to the right of the end of it. Look north and equip the Stinger, and lock on the target (it's behind the back wall), then quickly move your aim to the point explained above and fire. If you're still locked on and your aim is true, the missile will go through the hole in the back wall, hit the target and summon Gurlugon.

Alternatively, hit the target revolving around far above you to summon Mech Genola. This is harder to find and also difficult to hit due to the distance.

There's also the option of shooting out three of the scaffolds holding a pan above Genola's head with an assault rifle, but that takes a loooong time.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

2012-12-23T02:16:58Z

B'man:

[[Category:PlayStation 2]]
[[Category:Games]]

{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/MetalGearSolid2.html}}
{{contents}}
=== Versions ===

MGS2 has gameplay differences between every version of the game. The main revisions (in order of release):

* Sons of Liberty (US)
* Sons of Liberty (Jp): Dog Tag changes, most notably some Marines in Tanker Holds. Boss Survival/Casting Theatre modes. Various bug fixes and presentation changes. This version only: V.Easy, Easy, Normal and Hard are named Easy, Normal, Hard and V.Hard respectively.
* Sons of Liberty (Eu): European Extreme difficulty. C4 locations changed in Strut D and Strut A Deep Sea Dock.
* Substance (World): Exploits and glitches fixed, most notably the Tengus Coolant glitches (made significantly more difficult to execute) and Elevator floor clip. Extended Boss Survival mode. Snake Tales, Missions, and (PS2-only) Skateboarding modes. Various bug fixes.

While PAL (Eu) and NTSC (US, Jp) ostensibly run at the same speed (adjusted to compensate for PAL's lower frame rate), there are various subtle differences in PAL versions either caused by it, or specifically added for other reasons:

* Many guard and mech routes are slower, which can make things easier or harder depending on the situation. This (and other timing effects) are caused by routes using a frame timer (instead of a real-time timer) which has not been compensated for.
* Elevators (including the one in Strut A Deep Sea Dock) take longer to appear.
* Button actions take longer to take effect, including firing (which makes it difficult to fire a pistol rapidly), opening equip menus (which also gives Quick Equip a bigger window) and equip scrolling.
* First-person aiming is slower, as the distance covered when adjusting it is measured by the frame.
* Codec conversations, when skipped with Square, take longer to do so (one screen per frame).
* There is less slowdown in graphically-complex areas such as outside on the Tanker, the Holds, Fortune and Rays. Game time is measured in frames, so slowdown (or the lack of it) does not give one version an advantage in game time. However...
* Fortune's attack patterns are changed to compensate (or rather, over-compensate) for the huge slowdown in the NTSC version. PAL Fortune attacks 16 more times on Extreme.
* Fatman's loop strategy only works on PAL versions. When attempting it on NTSC versions, after you trip him twice, he gets up and runs away, no matter your location.

There is also a difference caused by translation that affects all languages. Some guard actions (such as initiating Alert/Caution) are timed to take effect once they finish using the radio. Depending on the dub, some languages will take longer than others, and so some marginal hit and run strategies may not work.

=== Weapons ===

* Quick reload

Double-click R2 to refill your clip quickly. You can also use this to skip the end of a long firing animation (e.g. the M9, which needs a round loaded for every shot), which enables you to shoot at a faster rate. For example, if done fast enough, you can run at a guard and send them to sleep in three shots (Ex/EuEx) before they can turn around.

You receive a magazine when you run out of bullets in a clip - using quick reload stops this from happening.

* Lock-on headshots

Pressing L1 while aiming with a basic gun (M9, USP/SOCOM, M4/AK) while near an enemy (not bosses in Ex/EuEx) switches your aim to their chest. You can use this to run and shoot by holding L1, but it also simplifies aiming for headshots.

Hold Sq and R1 to aim in first person, then tap L1 to aim at the chest. Then move the aim up to the head and fire. With practice this becomes easy and quick.

* Quick equip modes

There are two quick equip modes in the Options menu - they affect what happens when you tap L2 or R2 instead of holding it. Unequip mode unequips the current item if it is equipped, and equips the last-equipped item if there is nothing equipped. This is the same behaviour as L1 and R1 in MGS1. Previous mode acts like Unequip mode if you have only equipped one item since you last had nothing equipped. Otherwise, it will switch to the last item you had equipped, meaning it will switch back-and-forth between two items repeatedly.

Unequip is the default mode. It is most useful when you expect to use a variety of items or to grab enemies without a weapon. It's also the easiest mode to use, and in general it won't do anything you don't expect it to.

Previous mode is significantly quicker, and more intuitive, than Unequip when you expect to use two items only, or when you will repeatedly switch between two. In the Tanker, where the only weapons you're likely to use are the M9 and USP, Previous is king - once you've equipped the USP, you probably won't need to enter the weapon menu again. However, in the Plant, if your second weapon is first-person - Stinger, PSG-1(T) or Coolant - techniques like quick reload will make you stop running for a short time. You can deal with this by quick-reloading during a cartwheel.

=== Enemies ===

* Knock-down tranquilize

If you shoot an enemy with a tranq dart (M9, PSG1-T) anywhere, they will fall asleep as soon as they are knocked down. Any technique will do; combo, roll, throw or grab/strangle.

* Tranq an enemy looking in your direction without stopping

When running at an enemy that is looking in your direction, wait for them to see you, then shoot them once with a USP/SOCOM/M4/AK round shortly before they fire. This normally gives you enough time to approach them, shoot them with the M9, and knock them over. If not, you can shoot them again before they finish recovering.

This only works if you selected Not Game Over If Discovered, and depending on the situation it may alert other guards.

* Daze

Shoot an enemy's blue "!"-sign and they will stand in a daze for 10 seconds (or until you attack them). The easiest way to do this is to stand a certain distance away in front of them and wait for them to walk towards you and notice you.

It is possible (though difficult) to shoot them once in a nonlethal location (lethal: head, crotch, heart), then shoot the "!" that appears quickly.

* Hold up with any weapon

Any weapon can be used to hold up an enemy. Hold Sq lightly with the M4, AK, Nikita and RGB6. Simply equip the Stinger, PSG1 and PSG1-T while looking at the enemy to hold them up.

* Scare without firing

Normally you would scare a held-up enemy by shooting them with a lethal weapon in a nonlethal area (or by shooting near them, which is faster). You can also scare them by equipping the Stinger and looking at them, or by aiming the RGB6 or Nikita at them. This can be useful if you don't have a suppressed pistol or rifle but do have one of the above weapons.

* Coolant attack

The coolant, while it has a short range, also affects a large area in front of you. It stuns an enemy for about three seconds, and can be used in stealth (the enemy acts as though they have been shot by an unseen enemy) or in battle (it affects all enemies in front of you so it is an effective close-range crowd control weapon).

=== Movement ===

* Coolant rise

While crawling, with the coolant equipped, press X to rise and immediately press R2 to unequip the coolant. You will immediately be in a standing position. The timing is quite lenient; you can press both buttons at the same time.

The trick can be used in general play (e.g. Strut A during the bomb run) when you have no weapon equipped and the coolant is your last-equipped weapon (Unequip mode), or when it is your previous weapon (Previous mode). Crawl as normal, then, when you are able to rise, tap R2 and immediately tap R2 and X together. Depending on your speed, this can be up to a second quicker than rising normally.

* Travelling with a box

Walking with a box equipped has three uses that I know of:

# You have a smaller turning circle, so you can turn 180 degrees in place while running. This makes Fortune significantly easier on Ex/EuEx.
# Your height is halved, making it useful in areas with low cover such as Strut E. It also travels underneath the projectors in Hold 1 and Hold 2.
# It slightly increases the size of your hitbox for setting off claymore mines, but your hitbox for being hurt by them remains the same. This means that it's possible to set off a mine but not actually be hit by them (e.g. Strut A roof after Fortune - dodging the claymore is possible without the box, but is easier with it).

* Roll/cartwheel tricks

# You can roll up or down about 4 steps of stairs with Snake.
# You can cartwheel down stairs with Raiden significantly faster than running.
# Raiden can cross gaps (e.g. Shell 1-2 Connecting Bridge after Harrier) with his cartwheel.
# Roll/cartwheel is about the same speed as running, but it is faster at first and slower at the end. In some situations you can cartwheel into an enemy's line of sight so they see you earlier, and (e.g. Raiden Sneaking 2) notice you rather than alert. In others you can use it to reach the side of an enemy as they turn towards you (e.g. Raiden Sneaking 5).
# Use roll/cartwheel to travel forward in situations where the game would normally force you to stop (e.g. Strut D-E Connecting Bridge when called by Deepthroat). You can also use it as a buffer to equip a new item/weapon without stopping.

=== Misc ===

* Quick bomb freeze

If you are at an angle (e.g. facing near the side of the bomb), the coolant will sometimes affect more than one point on it, and freeze it in half the time.

* Quick elevator summon

The elevator trick from MGS1 is also in MGS2, but isn't quite as quick. Press the button to summon the elevator twice, and the doors will open about two seconds later.

If you're unlucky, this can be slower than normal play - occasionally the doors will open immediately the first time you press the button.

* Answer codec calls manually

Some mandatory (the icon appears red rather than blue) codec calls force you to stop. You can answer the call immediately with Select and save about a second.

This can also give you a head start in some areas (e.g. in Arsenal Gear as X-Raiden, if you answer Campbell at the start immediately, you can run along the south wall and change the first Tengu from what would normally be an Alert, to a notice).

* Skip some codec calls and cutscenes

You can avoid Rose's codec calls that usually appear on the first time through Strut F-E Connecting Bridge and Shell 1 Core 1F by being in Caution status when you enter these areas. This also works in the Engine Room to stop the door repair guard appearing.

== Big Boss ==

Big Boss is the top rank on Extreme and European Extreme. The requirements are believed to be:

* Tanker-Plant
* Time under 3 hours
* 8 or less saves (PRUD ENCE)
* 3 Alerts (ALRTNUM)
* No kills (NUET)
* No Rations used
* No continues
* Damage taken under 10.5 life bars (DMGA MMOUNT)
* Shots fired under 700 (AMMOUS ED)

Notes:

* The names in parentheses above refer to the stats shown on Plant's Mission Failed screen. You can die after saving to examine your current stats in a segmented run.
* The "damage taken" requirement is not known exactly - one life bar is 200 hit points, so expect the cutoff to be around 2100 damage. Regardless, you're unlikely to get close to failing this requirement.
* Similarly, 700 shots is plenty. You're only likely to fail this if you waste ammo in an area with ammo spawns (most likely the oil fence sniping area).
* The three mandatory Alerts occur at the start of the oil fence sniping area, the start of Tengus 1, and the start of Tengus 2. You're not allowed any unnecessary Alerts.

Strategy:

* If you do something to fail a requirement - for example, killing someone, or getting an Alert - save your game before leaving the current area. When you reload this save, your stats will be the same as they were when you entered the area. Of course, you can only do this a maximum of eight times.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Bosses

2012-06-11T01:07:03Z

B'man: /* Soldiers */

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Bosses

2012-06-11T01:00:13Z

B'man: /* Solidus */

{{contents}}
These strategies assume Extreme/EuExtreme difficulty. They may not work in other difficulties. In general if there's a "loop" available for a particular boss, it will be faster than other methods.

== Tanker ==

=== Olga ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx)
Olga has a loop that allows you to shoot her repeatedly shortly before her first mini-cutscene. It works by making her empty her clip, and then interrupting her reload at the front, forcing her to reload at the back later. As she shoots more rapidly in Ex/EuEx, this only works in those difficulties. In the US version of SoL, Olga often runs out to the right, making this strategy fail. All other versions have her run to the left the first time.

An Any% method is to push against the hatch, hold R1, then quickly hold R2 as well when Olga runs out, to dodge her shots. As long as she sees you, she should run back to the left firing, then move to the back.

In 100%, you will probably need both M9 bullet caches, which gives you no time to use the above strategy. You can collect the east, then middle caches, then go close to the barrier in the middle, a little to the left of the eastern set of crates. Duck here and stay still, and Olga should miss you when she runs out (some positions do leave you open, so experiment). You then want to run to the right, such that when she notices you she's already started reloading. The timing is quite hard to get right.

A riskier and less consistent method: after collecting the cache in the middle, stand behind the left side of the eastern set of crates. As Olga runs out, run out a little so that she sees you, then duck back in.

Once you've enabled the loop, move to the east fence (pick up the M9 cache at the southeast if you need them) and aim towards the back. You want the laser to be aimed a little to the right of the small gap between a horizontal and vertical set of poles in the frame Olga is hiding behind. When she is reloading, her head is here. Fire as soon as she starts reloading, then wait for her to recover and try to reload again. If your aim is a little too far to the left, you may miss if you shoot a little early. Four headshots wins.

* Free first shot
At the start of the battle, crawl and look through the gap in the crates in the middle. When Olga runs out she'll stop and look puzzled, allowing you to shoot her easily. This is fairly slow, and only works once.

* East-side firefight
The east side of the area is the best to battle Olga as she's fairly predictable, easy to get headshots, and quick to beat. The easiest way to deal with a firefight is to stand at the far east in plain sight, enter first-person, and use the L2 button to dodge her shots.

After her first mini-cutscene, she will always run to the front, giving you a chance of headshot. At the front, she will always pop her head out at the same place, but she shoots quickly, so you have to shoot her first and dodge her own shot.

At the back, she will attack from either a standing or crouched position, but you get slightly longer to dodge. In addition, if she is standing, she waits a second or so before hiding, giving you time to hit her. If you miss first time, aim at the correct spot for the next attempt, as she uses the same position a few times.

* Tarpaulin phase
In general, if a battle reaches this phase, you aren't doing it quick enough, but sometimes Olga will tire of an east-side battle early. In Ex/EuEx the tarp can't be shot off, so it's easiest to wait for a silence indicative of her getting out a grenade, and shoot blindly at her.

After hitting her once, Olga will run forward via the east side to shoot the tarp herself. This gives you ample time to hit her in the head before she does so.

=== Soldiers ===
* General strategy
The safe place in this battle is crouching behind the crate nearest to the action. There are two main methods from this point:

You can back up against the crate, and use the pop-out technique (hold Sq at the left side of the crate) in conjunction with first-person mode. This has a lot of overhead time from the pop-out/in animations, and you should make sure you let go of R1 before popping back in.

Alternatively, stay facing forward, hold R1 to go into first-person and also R2 (which has no effect at first). When you hold L1 as well, you will lean over the crate, allowing you to aim and fire. Let go of L1 to duck back into cover.

There are three types of soldier. One crosses to the west, and then fires or jumps out from that position. One stays in the east and does the same (this is the most dangerous as you can't see what they're up to). The other moves to the crate at the back (essentially the same position as you are) and fires or later throws grenades.

Take advantage of the fact that moving soldiers can't hit you. While the west/back soldiers move into position, headshot them before they get there. You have to take the east soldier out the hard way, and you should be wary of him attacking while you try to take out the other two.

Each soldier is replaced after a certain amount of time, by a soldier of the same type. If you take out the soldiers in a particular order, you can predict the order of the next wave.

Once at least three (or two in the easier difficulties) of each type of soldier have been eliminated, and no more soldiers are on the screen, three last guards will rush you. You can stay in the same position, or retreat to distance if you see it coming. Headshots will deal with these without trouble, but if you shoot the first soldier too quickly, the last one will lose his nerve and hide for a few seconds. It's quicker to wait a little.

* Instant kill (Ez/VE)
Your enemies are soldiers with the same attributes as regular soldiers. On Easy and Very Easy, just plug them with a single M9 bullet.

* Headshot on moving targets
When using Previous equip mode (this can be done with Unequip, but it is slower), lock-on and shoot a moving soldier with the USP, then use their recoil time to switch to the M9 and hit them with a headshot.

* Clear a phase quickly
If you're not aiming for no kills, you can trigger the last phase or finish the battle more quickly by killing the last soldier(s) rather than tranqing them. When tranqing, the elimination is registered when they start snoring - with a lethal weapon it's registered as soon as the killing shot hits.

== Plant ==
=== Fortune ===
* General strategy
Make sure you've got a cardboard box. With the smaller turning circle, you can run back and forth without running the risk of Raiden messing up a 180-degree turn. Stay at the far south and get into a rhythm of running to the east so Fortune shoots straight down, then turning to the west and doing the same.

* Simple dodging (Ez/VE/Nm/Hd)
On the easier difficulies Fortune only fires one shot at a time. Stand in the middle at the back, and crouch just as she fires, then stand back up once the shot has passed.

* NTSC vs PAL
In order to make up for the horrific amounts of slowdown in the NTSC (US/Jp) versions of this battle, Fortune has a different attack pattern between NTSC and PAL (Eu). Particularly, the PAL version lasts significantly longer in game time (enough that it's longer in real time despite the NTSC slowdown) as Fortune shoots about 20 more bolts at you.

=== Fatman ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx) (SoL)
* Repeated headshots
When you knock Fatman down by shooting him with the SOCOM, you can headshot him repeatedly with the M9 by abusing quick reload and auto-aim in first-person (hold R1 and L1). You can start firing shortly before he stops sliding back. You can sometimes get better accuracy by crouching and maintaining distance. You can get three headshots on harder difficulties - it is possible to win with a single knockdown on Very Easy.

=== Harrier ===
=== Vamp ===
* Loop
Vamp's loop can be triggered any time (preferably the first time...) he jumps out of the water.

First, to get to that point, hit him with an M9 headshot as fast as you can, then wait at the south near the edge of the water for him to surface. You can do a little more damage with stun grenades in the water if you like, but it's negligible.

When Vamp jumps out, edge north off the ledge so you drop into the water and grab it. This changes Vamp's behaviour so he drops and walks slowly around to investigate. Preferably you want him to go around the east, as he gets stuck a little at the west. When he gets close enough he'll take a knife and slash at your hands. As soon as the animation begins, climb back out - you can start climbing out before the animation to save time, but ensure it's late enough that you're still climbing when the slash hits. You'll end up very close to him, and can punch him freely while he recovers from his slash animation.

In this position, you can start the loop. You want to hit Vamp with two punches, delay a little, then repeat. The key is to avoid doing a three-hit combo while still being quick. If you're still up close when the attack is over, he'll try to slash you again - this is your cue to run out of range, then back in and start hitting him again.

You should aim for at least six hits per loop (perhaps less on the first loop), but it's possible to get eight. Always ensure you continue the loop though - if he hits you, most of the time he'll dive, and if you run away from him too early he'll do so as well.

* Critical hit
There's one point on Vamp's body that is a critical hit box - the gunshot wound in the middle of his forehead. You only get one real opportunity to hit it, and that's at the very start of the battle, if you wait for him to bow in your direction. If you use the loop above, this takes too long for the increased damage to be worth it.

* Claymores
If all else fails, you can lay Claymores on the and east and west paths, and Vamp will walk right into them while on the ground. This takes a very long time and doesn't help you with no kills.

=== Vamp 2 ===

=== Tengus ===
* Exit trigger
As soon as you reach the final phase, make sure you can go about 5 seconds without being attacked (stun grenade, for example). Press yourself against the door and then let go and go into first person. Then do a three-hit combo, and as the kick animation starts let go of R1. Differences between your position in and out of first person will push you into the exit trigger on the inside of the door, completing this battle.

* Coolant trick
This glitch works in both Sons of Liberty and Substance, but the requirements for making it work in Substance are so strict that it's not feasible for a speedrun. You should consider this an SoL-only trick.

The trick is performed in the last phase. You start by hiding behind one of the boxes at the south of this phase to lure Tengus into that area. When a Tengu approaches, spray them with coolant, and repeat this until all available Tengus are being sprayed. You now need to continue spraying the Tengus to gradually push them back, and eventually behind the box you're hiding. You may need to adjust your position (usually to move forward) at times, and you may need to quickly tranq one of the Tengus in the top level that shoots at you.

Once all Tengus are behind the box, the game should consider you out of their line of sight, and this will trigger the end of the alert phase. However, you should leg it out quick before they realise what's up, and watch out for any others on the top level.

* Phase skipping
This battle consists of a number of phases triggered as you advance further north. Most of these phases are triggered when you pass a horizontal line on the ground. When you trigger a new phase, the game assumes you've eliminated all the Tengus in the previous phase, and they become inactive. This means that theoretically you could reach the last phase without eliminating a single enemy.

=== Tengus 2 ===
=== Rays ===
* Open mouth attack
The basic way to deal damage against Ray is to attack a leg, causing it to open its mouth so a head attack will deal heavy damage.

At times (particularly shortly after a new Ray appears), Ray will do a battle cry. If you can anticipate this (there's very little time, if any, to react), you can hit them for open mouth damage with a single shot.

The simplest time to do this is at the very start of the battle. The middle, then right, then left Ray will do a battle cry, and with perfect shooting you can hit all of them. Hold R2 before the battle begins to immediately equip the Stinger, then instantly fire and then lock on to the head and move on to the one on the right to do the same (mash Square to get an instant shot). If you find it too hard to hit three, then go for the middle and left Rays.

When a Ray is on the platform with you, when close up and directly in front of them they will do a water cannon attack. You can bait this by getting close and running horizontally past their field of vision. Continue running past to dodge the attack, and you can get a free open mouth shot. Don't be too close though, as you may not be able to aim the Stinger high enough. You can also bait the water cannon after hitting a Ray, by simply standing in front of them.

=== Solidus ===
* Loop
Solidus' loop is probably the easiest in the game, it works in both phases, and can be triggered right at the beginning. However, it is (marginally) more difficult to maintain in the easier difficulties as he's a weakling and falls over easily in the others.

In the first phase, slash at Solidus with the sword and stay very close right in front of him, to tempt him to attack you back. Hold L1 to block and he will kick at you, leaving him open.

In the last phase, make sure you're facing Solidus as he dashes at you, and block his attack. If he shoulder-barges, he's open immediately. If he slashes, however, block all three strikes, slash him to knock him off balance, and run close to him to attack.

The attack you want to use is two slashes (vertical or horizontal, doesn't matter). You then want to wait a bit, and move to his right side (the side without the eye patch - he has better eyesight on this side and is able to block more easily), then slash him again. He'll block, then try another kick, which will leave him open to another two slashes.

On harder difficulties you can stay in front of him and slash as he crosses the blades together in order to make him block, but this has a short window and isn't recommended unless you can't reach his right side. If you knock Solidus down with this third slash, it's too early. If he attacks through it, it's too late.

After forcing him to block, you can reposition yourself before he kicks if you're in a bad position - for example if you're near an edge.

== Substance ==
=== Gurlugon (Raiden) ===
Run up to the large collection of crates in the centre of the area, and press yourself against the south edge of the southmost crate. As soon as Gurlugon roars, edge south to dodge the blast, then pick up the book that appears. Place it on the ground in front of you, and stand there like a vending machine.

The cutscene is horrifically long, but it's still a hell of a lot faster than any other strategy.

=== Mech Genola (Snake) ===
Start by tricking Mech Genola into blowing up the left side box on the second row from the front. This is done by nearing the box, running into the searchlight and immediately taking cover behind the box. You may have to dodge when he actually fires at you. Immediately fire a Stinger at his head and collect the Chaff Grenades, then climb onto the left side box at the front. Finally, throw a Chaff Grenade into the hole where his head was.

=== Genola (MGS1 Snake) ===
Collect the Stinger and run as far left as possible. If you look to the left (don't do it in an actual attempt >_>) you can see where the wall ends (both at the end and the bottom); make a note of a point just below the bottom of the wall, and just to the right of the end of it. Look north and equip the Stinger, and lock on the target (it's behind the back wall), then quickly move your aim to the point explained above and fire. If you're still locked on and your aim is true, the missile will go through the hole in the back wall, hit the target and summon Gurlugon.

Alternatively, hit the target revolving around far above you to summon Mech Genola. This is harder to find and also difficult to hit due to the distance.

There's also the option of shooting out three of the scaffolds holding a pan above Genola's head with an assault rifle, but that takes a loooong time.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Bosses

2012-06-11T00:57:26Z

B'man: /* Solidus */

{{contents}}
These strategies assume Extreme/EuExtreme difficulty. They may not work in other difficulties. In general if there's a "loop" available for a particular boss, it will be faster than other methods.

== Tanker ==

=== Olga ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx)
Olga has a loop that allows you to shoot her repeatedly shortly before her first mini-cutscene. It works by making her empty her clip, and then interrupting her reload at the front, forcing her to reload at the back later. As she shoots more rapidly in Ex/EuEx, this only works in those difficulties. In the US version of SoL, Olga often runs out to the right, making this strategy fail. All other versions have her run to the left the first time.

An Any% method is to push against the hatch, hold R1, then quickly hold R2 as well when Olga runs out, to dodge her shots. As long as she sees you, she should run back to the left firing, then move to the back.

In 100%, you will probably need both M9 bullet caches, which gives you no time to use the above strategy. You can collect the east, then middle caches, then go close to the barrier in the middle, a little to the left of the eastern set of crates. Duck here and stay still, and Olga should miss you when she runs out (some positions do leave you open, so experiment). You then want to run to the right, such that when she notices you she's already started reloading. The timing is quite hard to get right.

A riskier and less consistent method: after collecting the cache in the middle, stand behind the left side of the eastern set of crates. As Olga runs out, run out a little so that she sees you, then duck back in.

Once you've enabled the loop, move to the east fence (pick up the M9 cache at the southeast if you need them) and aim towards the back. You want the laser to be aimed a little to the right of the small gap between a horizontal and vertical set of poles in the frame Olga is hiding behind. When she is reloading, her head is here. Fire as soon as she starts reloading, then wait for her to recover and try to reload again. If your aim is a little too far to the left, you may miss if you shoot a little early. Four headshots wins.

* Free first shot
At the start of the battle, crawl and look through the gap in the crates in the middle. When Olga runs out she'll stop and look puzzled, allowing you to shoot her easily. This is fairly slow, and only works once.

* East-side firefight
The east side of the area is the best to battle Olga as she's fairly predictable, easy to get headshots, and quick to beat. The easiest way to deal with a firefight is to stand at the far east in plain sight, enter first-person, and use the L2 button to dodge her shots.

After her first mini-cutscene, she will always run to the front, giving you a chance of headshot. At the front, she will always pop her head out at the same place, but she shoots quickly, so you have to shoot her first and dodge her own shot.

At the back, she will attack from either a standing or crouched position, but you get slightly longer to dodge. In addition, if she is standing, she waits a second or so before hiding, giving you time to hit her. If you miss first time, aim at the correct spot for the next attempt, as she uses the same position a few times.

* Tarpaulin phase
In general, if a battle reaches this phase, you aren't doing it quick enough, but sometimes Olga will tire of an east-side battle early. In Ex/EuEx the tarp can't be shot off, so it's easiest to wait for a silence indicative of her getting out a grenade, and shoot blindly at her.

After hitting her once, Olga will run forward via the east side to shoot the tarp herself. This gives you ample time to hit her in the head before she does so.

=== Soldiers ===
* General strategy
The safe place in this battle is crouching behind the crate nearest to the action. There are two main methods from this point:

You can back up against the crate, and use the pop-out technique (hold Sq at the left side of the crate) in conjunction with first-person mode. This has a lot of overhead time from the pop-out/in animations, and you should make sure you let go of R1 before popping back in.

Alternatively, stay facing forward, hold R1 to go into first-person and also R2 (which has no effect at first). When you hold L1 as well, you will lean over the crate, allowing you to aim and fire. Let go of L1 to duck back into cover.

There are three types of soldier. One crosses to the west, and then fires or jumps out from that position. One stays in the east and does the same (this is the most dangerous as you can't see what they're up to). The other moves to the crate at the back (essentially the same position as you are) and fires or later throws grenades.

Take advantage of the fact that moving soldiers can't hit you. While the west/back soldiers move into position, headshot them before they get there. You have to take the east soldier out the hard way, and you should be wary of him attacking while you try to take out the other two.

Each soldier is replaced after a certain amount of time, by a soldier of the same type. If you take out the soldiers in a particular order, you can predict the order of the next wave.

Once at least three (or two in the easier difficulties) of each type of soldier have been eliminated, and no more soldiers are on the screen, three last guards will rush you. You can stay in the same position, or retreat to distance if you see it coming. Headshots will deal with these without trouble, but if you shoot the first soldier too quickly, the last one will lose his nerve and hide for a few seconds. It's quicker to wait a little.

* Instant kill (Ez/VE)
Your enemies are soldiers with the same attributes as regular soldiers. On Easy and Very Easy, just plug them with a single M9 bullet.

* Headshot on moving targets
When using Previous equip mode (this can be done with Unequip, but it is slower), lock-on and shoot a moving soldier with the USP, then use their recoil time to switch to the M9 and hit them with a headshot.

* Clear a phase quickly
If you're not aiming for no kills, you can trigger the last phase or finish the battle more quickly by killing the last soldier(s) rather than tranqing them. When tranqing, the elimination is registered when they start snoring - with a lethal weapon it's registered as soon as the killing shot hits.

== Plant ==
=== Fortune ===
* General strategy
Make sure you've got a cardboard box. With the smaller turning circle, you can run back and forth without running the risk of Raiden messing up a 180-degree turn. Stay at the far south and get into a rhythm of running to the east so Fortune shoots straight down, then turning to the west and doing the same.

* Simple dodging (Ez/VE/Nm/Hd)
On the easier difficulies Fortune only fires one shot at a time. Stand in the middle at the back, and crouch just as she fires, then stand back up once the shot has passed.

* NTSC vs PAL
In order to make up for the horrific amounts of slowdown in the NTSC (US/Jp) versions of this battle, Fortune has a different attack pattern between NTSC and PAL (Eu). Particularly, the PAL version lasts significantly longer in game time (enough that it's longer in real time despite the NTSC slowdown) as Fortune shoots about 20 more bolts at you.

=== Fatman ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx) (SoL)
* Repeated headshots
When you knock Fatman down by shooting him with the SOCOM, you can headshot him repeatedly with the M9 by abusing quick reload and auto-aim in first-person (hold R1 and L1). You can start firing shortly before he stops sliding back. You can sometimes get better accuracy by crouching and maintaining distance. You can get three headshots on harder difficulties - it is possible to win with a single knockdown on Very Easy.

=== Harrier ===
=== Vamp ===
* Loop
Vamp's loop can be triggered any time (preferably the first time...) he jumps out of the water.

First, to get to that point, hit him with an M9 headshot as fast as you can, then wait at the south near the edge of the water for him to surface. You can do a little more damage with stun grenades in the water if you like, but it's negligible.

When Vamp jumps out, edge north off the ledge so you drop into the water and grab it. This changes Vamp's behaviour so he drops and walks slowly around to investigate. Preferably you want him to go around the east, as he gets stuck a little at the west. When he gets close enough he'll take a knife and slash at your hands. As soon as the animation begins, climb back out - you can start climbing out before the animation to save time, but ensure it's late enough that you're still climbing when the slash hits. You'll end up very close to him, and can punch him freely while he recovers from his slash animation.

In this position, you can start the loop. You want to hit Vamp with two punches, delay a little, then repeat. The key is to avoid doing a three-hit combo while still being quick. If you're still up close when the attack is over, he'll try to slash you again - this is your cue to run out of range, then back in and start hitting him again.

You should aim for at least six hits per loop (perhaps less on the first loop), but it's possible to get eight. Always ensure you continue the loop though - if he hits you, most of the time he'll dive, and if you run away from him too early he'll do so as well.

* Critical hit
There's one point on Vamp's body that is a critical hit box - the gunshot wound in the middle of his forehead. You only get one real opportunity to hit it, and that's at the very start of the battle, if you wait for him to bow in your direction. If you use the loop above, this takes too long for the increased damage to be worth it.

* Claymores
If all else fails, you can lay Claymores on the and east and west paths, and Vamp will walk right into them while on the ground. This takes a very long time and doesn't help you with no kills.

=== Vamp 2 ===

=== Tengus ===
* Exit trigger
As soon as you reach the final phase, make sure you can go about 5 seconds without being attacked (stun grenade, for example). Press yourself against the door and then let go and go into first person. Then do a three-hit combo, and as the kick animation starts let go of R1. Differences between your position in and out of first person will push you into the exit trigger on the inside of the door, completing this battle.

* Coolant trick
This glitch works in both Sons of Liberty and Substance, but the requirements for making it work in Substance are so strict that it's not feasible for a speedrun. You should consider this an SoL-only trick.

The trick is performed in the last phase. You start by hiding behind one of the boxes at the south of this phase to lure Tengus into that area. When a Tengu approaches, spray them with coolant, and repeat this until all available Tengus are being sprayed. You now need to continue spraying the Tengus to gradually push them back, and eventually behind the box you're hiding. You may need to adjust your position (usually to move forward) at times, and you may need to quickly tranq one of the Tengus in the top level that shoots at you.

Once all Tengus are behind the box, the game should consider you out of their line of sight, and this will trigger the end of the alert phase. However, you should leg it out quick before they realise what's up, and watch out for any others on the top level.

* Phase skipping
This battle consists of a number of phases triggered as you advance further north. Most of these phases are triggered when you pass a horizontal line on the ground. When you trigger a new phase, the game assumes you've eliminated all the Tengus in the previous phase, and they become inactive. This means that theoretically you could reach the last phase without eliminating a single enemy.

=== Tengus 2 ===
=== Rays ===
* Open mouth attack
The basic way to deal damage against Ray is to attack a leg, causing it to open its mouth so a head attack will deal heavy damage.

At times (particularly shortly after a new Ray appears), Ray will do a battle cry. If you can anticipate this (there's very little time, if any, to react), you can hit them for open mouth damage with a single shot.

The simplest time to do this is at the very start of the battle. The middle, then right, then left Ray will do a battle cry, and with perfect shooting you can hit all of them. Hold R2 before the battle begins to immediately equip the Stinger, then instantly fire and then lock on to the head and move on to the one on the right to do the same (mash Square to get an instant shot). If you find it too hard to hit three, then go for the middle and left Rays.

When a Ray is on the platform with you, when close up and directly in front of them they will do a water cannon attack. You can bait this by getting close and running horizontally past their field of vision. Continue running past to dodge the attack, and you can get a free open mouth shot. Don't be too close though, as you may not be able to aim the Stinger high enough. You can also bait the water cannon after hitting a Ray, by simply standing in front of them.

=== Solidus ===
* Loop
Solidus' loop is probably the easiest in the game, it works in both phases, and can be triggered right at the beginning. However, it is (marginally) more difficult to maintain in the easier difficulties as he's a weakling and falls over easily in the others.

In the first phase, slash at Solidus with the sword and stay very close right in front of him, to tempt him to attack you back. Hold L1 to block and he will kick at you, leaving him open.

In the last phase, make sure you're facing Solidus as he dashes at you, and block his attack. If he shoulder-barges, he's open immediately. If he slashes, however, block all three strikes, slash him to knock him off balance, and run close to him to attack.

The attack you want to use is two slashes (vertical or horizontal, doesn't matter). You then want to wait a bit, and move to his right side (the side without the eye patch - he has better eyesight on this side and is able to block more easily), then slash him again. He'll block, then try another kick, which will leave him open to another two slashes.

On harder difficulties you can stay in front of him and slash as he crosses the blades together in order to make him block, but this has a short window and isn't recommended unless you can't reach his right side. If you knock Solidus down with this third slash, it's too early. If he attacks through it, it's too late. If he blocks, it's just right.

After forcing him to block, you can reposition yourself before he kicks if you're in a bad position - for example if you're near an edge.

== Substance ==
=== Gurlugon (Raiden) ===
Run up to the large collection of crates in the centre of the area, and press yourself against the south edge of the southmost crate. As soon as Gurlugon roars, edge south to dodge the blast, then pick up the book that appears. Place it on the ground in front of you, and stand there like a vending machine.

The cutscene is horrifically long, but it's still a hell of a lot faster than any other strategy.

=== Mech Genola (Snake) ===
Start by tricking Mech Genola into blowing up the left side box on the second row from the front. This is done by nearing the box, running into the searchlight and immediately taking cover behind the box. You may have to dodge when he actually fires at you. Immediately fire a Stinger at his head and collect the Chaff Grenades, then climb onto the left side box at the front. Finally, throw a Chaff Grenade into the hole where his head was.

=== Genola (MGS1 Snake) ===
Collect the Stinger and run as far left as possible. If you look to the left (don't do it in an actual attempt >_>) you can see where the wall ends (both at the end and the bottom); make a note of a point just below the bottom of the wall, and just to the right of the end of it. Look north and equip the Stinger, and lock on the target (it's behind the back wall), then quickly move your aim to the point explained above and fire. If you're still locked on and your aim is true, the missile will go through the hole in the back wall, hit the target and summon Gurlugon.

Alternatively, hit the target revolving around far above you to summon Mech Genola. This is harder to find and also difficult to hit due to the distance.

There's also the option of shooting out three of the scaffolds holding a pan above Genola's head with an assault rifle, but that takes a loooong time.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Bosses

2012-06-11T00:55:40Z

B'man: /* Solidus */

{{contents}}
These strategies assume Extreme/EuExtreme difficulty. They may not work in other difficulties. In general if there's a "loop" available for a particular boss, it will be faster than other methods.

== Tanker ==

=== Olga ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx)
Olga has a loop that allows you to shoot her repeatedly shortly before her first mini-cutscene. It works by making her empty her clip, and then interrupting her reload at the front, forcing her to reload at the back later. As she shoots more rapidly in Ex/EuEx, this only works in those difficulties. In the US version of SoL, Olga often runs out to the right, making this strategy fail. All other versions have her run to the left the first time.

An Any% method is to push against the hatch, hold R1, then quickly hold R2 as well when Olga runs out, to dodge her shots. As long as she sees you, she should run back to the left firing, then move to the back.

In 100%, you will probably need both M9 bullet caches, which gives you no time to use the above strategy. You can collect the east, then middle caches, then go close to the barrier in the middle, a little to the left of the eastern set of crates. Duck here and stay still, and Olga should miss you when she runs out (some positions do leave you open, so experiment). You then want to run to the right, such that when she notices you she's already started reloading. The timing is quite hard to get right.

A riskier and less consistent method: after collecting the cache in the middle, stand behind the left side of the eastern set of crates. As Olga runs out, run out a little so that she sees you, then duck back in.

Once you've enabled the loop, move to the east fence (pick up the M9 cache at the southeast if you need them) and aim towards the back. You want the laser to be aimed a little to the right of the small gap between a horizontal and vertical set of poles in the frame Olga is hiding behind. When she is reloading, her head is here. Fire as soon as she starts reloading, then wait for her to recover and try to reload again. If your aim is a little too far to the left, you may miss if you shoot a little early. Four headshots wins.

* Free first shot
At the start of the battle, crawl and look through the gap in the crates in the middle. When Olga runs out she'll stop and look puzzled, allowing you to shoot her easily. This is fairly slow, and only works once.

* East-side firefight
The east side of the area is the best to battle Olga as she's fairly predictable, easy to get headshots, and quick to beat. The easiest way to deal with a firefight is to stand at the far east in plain sight, enter first-person, and use the L2 button to dodge her shots.

After her first mini-cutscene, she will always run to the front, giving you a chance of headshot. At the front, she will always pop her head out at the same place, but she shoots quickly, so you have to shoot her first and dodge her own shot.

At the back, she will attack from either a standing or crouched position, but you get slightly longer to dodge. In addition, if she is standing, she waits a second or so before hiding, giving you time to hit her. If you miss first time, aim at the correct spot for the next attempt, as she uses the same position a few times.

* Tarpaulin phase
In general, if a battle reaches this phase, you aren't doing it quick enough, but sometimes Olga will tire of an east-side battle early. In Ex/EuEx the tarp can't be shot off, so it's easiest to wait for a silence indicative of her getting out a grenade, and shoot blindly at her.

After hitting her once, Olga will run forward via the east side to shoot the tarp herself. This gives you ample time to hit her in the head before she does so.

=== Soldiers ===
* General strategy
The safe place in this battle is crouching behind the crate nearest to the action. There are two main methods from this point:

You can back up against the crate, and use the pop-out technique (hold Sq at the left side of the crate) in conjunction with first-person mode. This has a lot of overhead time from the pop-out/in animations, and you should make sure you let go of R1 before popping back in.

Alternatively, stay facing forward, hold R1 to go into first-person and also R2 (which has no effect at first). When you hold L1 as well, you will lean over the crate, allowing you to aim and fire. Let go of L1 to duck back into cover.

There are three types of soldier. One crosses to the west, and then fires or jumps out from that position. One stays in the east and does the same (this is the most dangerous as you can't see what they're up to). The other moves to the crate at the back (essentially the same position as you are) and fires or later throws grenades.

Take advantage of the fact that moving soldiers can't hit you. While the west/back soldiers move into position, headshot them before they get there. You have to take the east soldier out the hard way, and you should be wary of him attacking while you try to take out the other two.

Each soldier is replaced after a certain amount of time, by a soldier of the same type. If you take out the soldiers in a particular order, you can predict the order of the next wave.

Once at least three (or two in the easier difficulties) of each type of soldier have been eliminated, and no more soldiers are on the screen, three last guards will rush you. You can stay in the same position, or retreat to distance if you see it coming. Headshots will deal with these without trouble, but if you shoot the first soldier too quickly, the last one will lose his nerve and hide for a few seconds. It's quicker to wait a little.

* Instant kill (Ez/VE)
Your enemies are soldiers with the same attributes as regular soldiers. On Easy and Very Easy, just plug them with a single M9 bullet.

* Headshot on moving targets
When using Previous equip mode (this can be done with Unequip, but it is slower), lock-on and shoot a moving soldier with the USP, then use their recoil time to switch to the M9 and hit them with a headshot.

* Clear a phase quickly
If you're not aiming for no kills, you can trigger the last phase or finish the battle more quickly by killing the last soldier(s) rather than tranqing them. When tranqing, the elimination is registered when they start snoring - with a lethal weapon it's registered as soon as the killing shot hits.

== Plant ==
=== Fortune ===
* General strategy
Make sure you've got a cardboard box. With the smaller turning circle, you can run back and forth without running the risk of Raiden messing up a 180-degree turn. Stay at the far south and get into a rhythm of running to the east so Fortune shoots straight down, then turning to the west and doing the same.

* Simple dodging (Ez/VE/Nm/Hd)
On the easier difficulies Fortune only fires one shot at a time. Stand in the middle at the back, and crouch just as she fires, then stand back up once the shot has passed.

* NTSC vs PAL
In order to make up for the horrific amounts of slowdown in the NTSC (US/Jp) versions of this battle, Fortune has a different attack pattern between NTSC and PAL (Eu). Particularly, the PAL version lasts significantly longer in game time (enough that it's longer in real time despite the NTSC slowdown) as Fortune shoots about 20 more bolts at you.

=== Fatman ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx) (SoL)
* Repeated headshots
When you knock Fatman down by shooting him with the SOCOM, you can headshot him repeatedly with the M9 by abusing quick reload and auto-aim in first-person (hold R1 and L1). You can start firing shortly before he stops sliding back. You can sometimes get better accuracy by crouching and maintaining distance. You can get three headshots on harder difficulties - it is possible to win with a single knockdown on Very Easy.

=== Harrier ===
=== Vamp ===
* Loop
Vamp's loop can be triggered any time (preferably the first time...) he jumps out of the water.

First, to get to that point, hit him with an M9 headshot as fast as you can, then wait at the south near the edge of the water for him to surface. You can do a little more damage with stun grenades in the water if you like, but it's negligible.

When Vamp jumps out, edge north off the ledge so you drop into the water and grab it. This changes Vamp's behaviour so he drops and walks slowly around to investigate. Preferably you want him to go around the east, as he gets stuck a little at the west. When he gets close enough he'll take a knife and slash at your hands. As soon as the animation begins, climb back out - you can start climbing out before the animation to save time, but ensure it's late enough that you're still climbing when the slash hits. You'll end up very close to him, and can punch him freely while he recovers from his slash animation.

In this position, you can start the loop. You want to hit Vamp with two punches, delay a little, then repeat. The key is to avoid doing a three-hit combo while still being quick. If you're still up close when the attack is over, he'll try to slash you again - this is your cue to run out of range, then back in and start hitting him again.

You should aim for at least six hits per loop (perhaps less on the first loop), but it's possible to get eight. Always ensure you continue the loop though - if he hits you, most of the time he'll dive, and if you run away from him too early he'll do so as well.

* Critical hit
There's one point on Vamp's body that is a critical hit box - the gunshot wound in the middle of his forehead. You only get one real opportunity to hit it, and that's at the very start of the battle, if you wait for him to bow in your direction. If you use the loop above, this takes too long for the increased damage to be worth it.

* Claymores
If all else fails, you can lay Claymores on the and east and west paths, and Vamp will walk right into them while on the ground. This takes a very long time and doesn't help you with no kills.

=== Vamp 2 ===

=== Tengus ===
* Exit trigger
As soon as you reach the final phase, make sure you can go about 5 seconds without being attacked (stun grenade, for example). Press yourself against the door and then let go and go into first person. Then do a three-hit combo, and as the kick animation starts let go of R1. Differences between your position in and out of first person will push you into the exit trigger on the inside of the door, completing this battle.

* Coolant trick
This glitch works in both Sons of Liberty and Substance, but the requirements for making it work in Substance are so strict that it's not feasible for a speedrun. You should consider this an SoL-only trick.

The trick is performed in the last phase. You start by hiding behind one of the boxes at the south of this phase to lure Tengus into that area. When a Tengu approaches, spray them with coolant, and repeat this until all available Tengus are being sprayed. You now need to continue spraying the Tengus to gradually push them back, and eventually behind the box you're hiding. You may need to adjust your position (usually to move forward) at times, and you may need to quickly tranq one of the Tengus in the top level that shoots at you.

Once all Tengus are behind the box, the game should consider you out of their line of sight, and this will trigger the end of the alert phase. However, you should leg it out quick before they realise what's up, and watch out for any others on the top level.

* Phase skipping
This battle consists of a number of phases triggered as you advance further north. Most of these phases are triggered when you pass a horizontal line on the ground. When you trigger a new phase, the game assumes you've eliminated all the Tengus in the previous phase, and they become inactive. This means that theoretically you could reach the last phase without eliminating a single enemy.

=== Tengus 2 ===
=== Rays ===
* Open mouth attack
The basic way to deal damage against Ray is to attack a leg, causing it to open its mouth so a head attack will deal heavy damage.

At times (particularly shortly after a new Ray appears), Ray will do a battle cry. If you can anticipate this (there's very little time, if any, to react), you can hit them for open mouth damage with a single shot.

The simplest time to do this is at the very start of the battle. The middle, then right, then left Ray will do a battle cry, and with perfect shooting you can hit all of them. Hold R2 before the battle begins to immediately equip the Stinger, then instantly fire and then lock on to the head and move on to the one on the right to do the same (mash Square to get an instant shot). If you find it too hard to hit three, then go for the middle and left Rays.

When a Ray is on the platform with you, when close up and directly in front of them they will do a water cannon attack. You can bait this by getting close and running horizontally past their field of vision. Continue running past to dodge the attack, and you can get a free open mouth shot. Don't be too close though, as you may not be able to aim the Stinger high enough. You can also bait the water cannon after hitting a Ray, by simply standing in front of them.

=== Solidus ===
* Loop
Solidus' loop is probably the easiest in the game, it works in both phases, and can be triggered right at the beginning. However, it is (marginally) more difficult to maintain in the easier difficulties as he's a weakling and falls over easily in the others.

In the first phase, slash at Solidus with the sword and stay very close right in front of him, to tempt him to attack you back. Hold L1 to block and he will kick at you, leaving him open.

In the last phase, make sure you're facing Solidus as he dashes at you, and block his attack. If he shoulder-barges, he's open immediately. If he slashes, however, block all three strikes, slash him to knock him off balance, and run close to him to attack.

The attack you want to use is two slashes (vertical or horizontal, doesn't matter). You then want to wait a bit, and move to his right side (the side without the eye patch - he has better eyesight on this side and is able to block more easily), then slash him again. If you knock Solidus down with this third slash, it's too early. If he attacks through it, it's too late. If he blocks, it's just right. He'll then try another kick, which will leave him open to another two slashes.

On harder difficulties you can stay in front of him and slash as he crosses the blades together in order to make him block, but this has a short window and isn't recommended unless you can't reach his right side.

After forcing him to block, you can reposition yourself before he kicks if you're in a bad position - for example if you're near an edge.

== Substance ==
=== Gurlugon (Raiden) ===
Run up to the large collection of crates in the centre of the area, and press yourself against the south edge of the southmost crate. As soon as Gurlugon roars, edge south to dodge the blast, then pick up the book that appears. Place it on the ground in front of you, and stand there like a vending machine.

The cutscene is horrifically long, but it's still a hell of a lot faster than any other strategy.

=== Mech Genola (Snake) ===
Start by tricking Mech Genola into blowing up the left side box on the second row from the front. This is done by nearing the box, running into the searchlight and immediately taking cover behind the box. You may have to dodge when he actually fires at you. Immediately fire a Stinger at his head and collect the Chaff Grenades, then climb onto the left side box at the front. Finally, throw a Chaff Grenade into the hole where his head was.

=== Genola (MGS1 Snake) ===
Collect the Stinger and run as far left as possible. If you look to the left (don't do it in an actual attempt >_>) you can see where the wall ends (both at the end and the bottom); make a note of a point just below the bottom of the wall, and just to the right of the end of it. Look north and equip the Stinger, and lock on the target (it's behind the back wall), then quickly move your aim to the point explained above and fire. If you're still locked on and your aim is true, the missile will go through the hole in the back wall, hit the target and summon Gurlugon.

Alternatively, hit the target revolving around far above you to summon Mech Genola. This is harder to find and also difficult to hit due to the distance.

There's also the option of shooting out three of the scaffolds holding a pan above Genola's head with an assault rifle, but that takes a loooong time.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Bosses

2012-06-11T00:55:18Z

B'man: /* Solidus */

{{contents}}
These strategies assume Extreme/EuExtreme difficulty. They may not work in other difficulties. In general if there's a "loop" available for a particular boss, it will be faster than other methods.

== Tanker ==

=== Olga ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx)
Olga has a loop that allows you to shoot her repeatedly shortly before her first mini-cutscene. It works by making her empty her clip, and then interrupting her reload at the front, forcing her to reload at the back later. As she shoots more rapidly in Ex/EuEx, this only works in those difficulties. In the US version of SoL, Olga often runs out to the right, making this strategy fail. All other versions have her run to the left the first time.

An Any% method is to push against the hatch, hold R1, then quickly hold R2 as well when Olga runs out, to dodge her shots. As long as she sees you, she should run back to the left firing, then move to the back.

In 100%, you will probably need both M9 bullet caches, which gives you no time to use the above strategy. You can collect the east, then middle caches, then go close to the barrier in the middle, a little to the left of the eastern set of crates. Duck here and stay still, and Olga should miss you when she runs out (some positions do leave you open, so experiment). You then want to run to the right, such that when she notices you she's already started reloading. The timing is quite hard to get right.

A riskier and less consistent method: after collecting the cache in the middle, stand behind the left side of the eastern set of crates. As Olga runs out, run out a little so that she sees you, then duck back in.

Once you've enabled the loop, move to the east fence (pick up the M9 cache at the southeast if you need them) and aim towards the back. You want the laser to be aimed a little to the right of the small gap between a horizontal and vertical set of poles in the frame Olga is hiding behind. When she is reloading, her head is here. Fire as soon as she starts reloading, then wait for her to recover and try to reload again. If your aim is a little too far to the left, you may miss if you shoot a little early. Four headshots wins.

* Free first shot
At the start of the battle, crawl and look through the gap in the crates in the middle. When Olga runs out she'll stop and look puzzled, allowing you to shoot her easily. This is fairly slow, and only works once.

* East-side firefight
The east side of the area is the best to battle Olga as she's fairly predictable, easy to get headshots, and quick to beat. The easiest way to deal with a firefight is to stand at the far east in plain sight, enter first-person, and use the L2 button to dodge her shots.

After her first mini-cutscene, she will always run to the front, giving you a chance of headshot. At the front, she will always pop her head out at the same place, but she shoots quickly, so you have to shoot her first and dodge her own shot.

At the back, she will attack from either a standing or crouched position, but you get slightly longer to dodge. In addition, if she is standing, she waits a second or so before hiding, giving you time to hit her. If you miss first time, aim at the correct spot for the next attempt, as she uses the same position a few times.

* Tarpaulin phase
In general, if a battle reaches this phase, you aren't doing it quick enough, but sometimes Olga will tire of an east-side battle early. In Ex/EuEx the tarp can't be shot off, so it's easiest to wait for a silence indicative of her getting out a grenade, and shoot blindly at her.

After hitting her once, Olga will run forward via the east side to shoot the tarp herself. This gives you ample time to hit her in the head before she does so.

=== Soldiers ===
* General strategy
The safe place in this battle is crouching behind the crate nearest to the action. There are two main methods from this point:

You can back up against the crate, and use the pop-out technique (hold Sq at the left side of the crate) in conjunction with first-person mode. This has a lot of overhead time from the pop-out/in animations, and you should make sure you let go of R1 before popping back in.

Alternatively, stay facing forward, hold R1 to go into first-person and also R2 (which has no effect at first). When you hold L1 as well, you will lean over the crate, allowing you to aim and fire. Let go of L1 to duck back into cover.

There are three types of soldier. One crosses to the west, and then fires or jumps out from that position. One stays in the east and does the same (this is the most dangerous as you can't see what they're up to). The other moves to the crate at the back (essentially the same position as you are) and fires or later throws grenades.

Take advantage of the fact that moving soldiers can't hit you. While the west/back soldiers move into position, headshot them before they get there. You have to take the east soldier out the hard way, and you should be wary of him attacking while you try to take out the other two.

Each soldier is replaced after a certain amount of time, by a soldier of the same type. If you take out the soldiers in a particular order, you can predict the order of the next wave.

Once at least three (or two in the easier difficulties) of each type of soldier have been eliminated, and no more soldiers are on the screen, three last guards will rush you. You can stay in the same position, or retreat to distance if you see it coming. Headshots will deal with these without trouble, but if you shoot the first soldier too quickly, the last one will lose his nerve and hide for a few seconds. It's quicker to wait a little.

* Instant kill (Ez/VE)
Your enemies are soldiers with the same attributes as regular soldiers. On Easy and Very Easy, just plug them with a single M9 bullet.

* Headshot on moving targets
When using Previous equip mode (this can be done with Unequip, but it is slower), lock-on and shoot a moving soldier with the USP, then use their recoil time to switch to the M9 and hit them with a headshot.

* Clear a phase quickly
If you're not aiming for no kills, you can trigger the last phase or finish the battle more quickly by killing the last soldier(s) rather than tranqing them. When tranqing, the elimination is registered when they start snoring - with a lethal weapon it's registered as soon as the killing shot hits.

== Plant ==
=== Fortune ===
* General strategy
Make sure you've got a cardboard box. With the smaller turning circle, you can run back and forth without running the risk of Raiden messing up a 180-degree turn. Stay at the far south and get into a rhythm of running to the east so Fortune shoots straight down, then turning to the west and doing the same.

* Simple dodging (Ez/VE/Nm/Hd)
On the easier difficulies Fortune only fires one shot at a time. Stand in the middle at the back, and crouch just as she fires, then stand back up once the shot has passed.

* NTSC vs PAL
In order to make up for the horrific amounts of slowdown in the NTSC (US/Jp) versions of this battle, Fortune has a different attack pattern between NTSC and PAL (Eu). Particularly, the PAL version lasts significantly longer in game time (enough that it's longer in real time despite the NTSC slowdown) as Fortune shoots about 20 more bolts at you.

=== Fatman ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx) (SoL)
* Repeated headshots
When you knock Fatman down by shooting him with the SOCOM, you can headshot him repeatedly with the M9 by abusing quick reload and auto-aim in first-person (hold R1 and L1). You can start firing shortly before he stops sliding back. You can sometimes get better accuracy by crouching and maintaining distance. You can get three headshots on harder difficulties - it is possible to win with a single knockdown on Very Easy.

=== Harrier ===
=== Vamp ===
* Loop
Vamp's loop can be triggered any time (preferably the first time...) he jumps out of the water.

First, to get to that point, hit him with an M9 headshot as fast as you can, then wait at the south near the edge of the water for him to surface. You can do a little more damage with stun grenades in the water if you like, but it's negligible.

When Vamp jumps out, edge north off the ledge so you drop into the water and grab it. This changes Vamp's behaviour so he drops and walks slowly around to investigate. Preferably you want him to go around the east, as he gets stuck a little at the west. When he gets close enough he'll take a knife and slash at your hands. As soon as the animation begins, climb back out - you can start climbing out before the animation to save time, but ensure it's late enough that you're still climbing when the slash hits. You'll end up very close to him, and can punch him freely while he recovers from his slash animation.

In this position, you can start the loop. You want to hit Vamp with two punches, delay a little, then repeat. The key is to avoid doing a three-hit combo while still being quick. If you're still up close when the attack is over, he'll try to slash you again - this is your cue to run out of range, then back in and start hitting him again.

You should aim for at least six hits per loop (perhaps less on the first loop), but it's possible to get eight. Always ensure you continue the loop though - if he hits you, most of the time he'll dive, and if you run away from him too early he'll do so as well.

* Critical hit
There's one point on Vamp's body that is a critical hit box - the gunshot wound in the middle of his forehead. You only get one real opportunity to hit it, and that's at the very start of the battle, if you wait for him to bow in your direction. If you use the loop above, this takes too long for the increased damage to be worth it.

* Claymores
If all else fails, you can lay Claymores on the and east and west paths, and Vamp will walk right into them while on the ground. This takes a very long time and doesn't help you with no kills.

=== Vamp 2 ===

=== Tengus ===
* Exit trigger
As soon as you reach the final phase, make sure you can go about 5 seconds without being attacked (stun grenade, for example). Press yourself against the door and then let go and go into first person. Then do a three-hit combo, and as the kick animation starts let go of R1. Differences between your position in and out of first person will push you into the exit trigger on the inside of the door, completing this battle.

* Coolant trick
This glitch works in both Sons of Liberty and Substance, but the requirements for making it work in Substance are so strict that it's not feasible for a speedrun. You should consider this an SoL-only trick.

The trick is performed in the last phase. You start by hiding behind one of the boxes at the south of this phase to lure Tengus into that area. When a Tengu approaches, spray them with coolant, and repeat this until all available Tengus are being sprayed. You now need to continue spraying the Tengus to gradually push them back, and eventually behind the box you're hiding. You may need to adjust your position (usually to move forward) at times, and you may need to quickly tranq one of the Tengus in the top level that shoots at you.

Once all Tengus are behind the box, the game should consider you out of their line of sight, and this will trigger the end of the alert phase. However, you should leg it out quick before they realise what's up, and watch out for any others on the top level.

* Phase skipping
This battle consists of a number of phases triggered as you advance further north. Most of these phases are triggered when you pass a horizontal line on the ground. When you trigger a new phase, the game assumes you've eliminated all the Tengus in the previous phase, and they become inactive. This means that theoretically you could reach the last phase without eliminating a single enemy.

=== Tengus 2 ===
=== Rays ===
* Open mouth attack
The basic way to deal damage against Ray is to attack a leg, causing it to open its mouth so a head attack will deal heavy damage.

At times (particularly shortly after a new Ray appears), Ray will do a battle cry. If you can anticipate this (there's very little time, if any, to react), you can hit them for open mouth damage with a single shot.

The simplest time to do this is at the very start of the battle. The middle, then right, then left Ray will do a battle cry, and with perfect shooting you can hit all of them. Hold R2 before the battle begins to immediately equip the Stinger, then instantly fire and then lock on to the head and move on to the one on the right to do the same (mash Square to get an instant shot). If you find it too hard to hit three, then go for the middle and left Rays.

When a Ray is on the platform with you, when close up and directly in front of them they will do a water cannon attack. You can bait this by getting close and running horizontally past their field of vision. Continue running past to dodge the attack, and you can get a free open mouth shot. Don't be too close though, as you may not be able to aim the Stinger high enough. You can also bait the water cannon after hitting a Ray, by simply standing in front of them.

=== Solidus ===
* Loop
Solidus' loop is probably the easiest in the game, it works in both phases, and can be triggered right at the beginning. However, it is (marginally) more difficult to maintain in the harder difficulties as he's a weakling and falls over easily in the others.

In the first phase, slash at Solidus with the sword and stay very close right in front of him, to tempt him to attack you back. Hold L1 to block and he will kick at you, leaving him open.

In the last phase, make sure you're facing Solidus as he dashes at you, and block his attack. If he shoulder-barges, he's open immediately. If he slashes, however, block all three strikes, slash him to knock him off balance, and run close to him to attack.

The attack you want to use is two slashes (vertical or horizontal, doesn't matter). You then want to wait a bit, and move to his right side (the side without the eye patch - he has better eyesight on this side and is able to block more easily), then slash him again. If you knock Solidus down with this third slash, it's too early. If he attacks through it, it's too late. If he blocks, it's just right. He'll then try another kick, which will leave him open to another two slashes.

On harder difficulties you can stay in front of him and slash as he crosses the blades together in order to make him block, but this has a short window and isn't recommended unless you can't reach his right side.

After forcing him to block, you can reposition yourself before he kicks if you're in a bad position - for example if you're near an edge.

== Substance ==
=== Gurlugon (Raiden) ===
Run up to the large collection of crates in the centre of the area, and press yourself against the south edge of the southmost crate. As soon as Gurlugon roars, edge south to dodge the blast, then pick up the book that appears. Place it on the ground in front of you, and stand there like a vending machine.

The cutscene is horrifically long, but it's still a hell of a lot faster than any other strategy.

=== Mech Genola (Snake) ===
Start by tricking Mech Genola into blowing up the left side box on the second row from the front. This is done by nearing the box, running into the searchlight and immediately taking cover behind the box. You may have to dodge when he actually fires at you. Immediately fire a Stinger at his head and collect the Chaff Grenades, then climb onto the left side box at the front. Finally, throw a Chaff Grenade into the hole where his head was.

=== Genola (MGS1 Snake) ===
Collect the Stinger and run as far left as possible. If you look to the left (don't do it in an actual attempt >_>) you can see where the wall ends (both at the end and the bottom); make a note of a point just below the bottom of the wall, and just to the right of the end of it. Look north and equip the Stinger, and lock on the target (it's behind the back wall), then quickly move your aim to the point explained above and fire. If you're still locked on and your aim is true, the missile will go through the hole in the back wall, hit the target and summon Gurlugon.

Alternatively, hit the target revolving around far above you to summon Mech Genola. This is harder to find and also difficult to hit due to the distance.

There's also the option of shooting out three of the scaffolds holding a pan above Genola's head with an assault rifle, but that takes a loooong time.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Bosses

2012-05-21T15:54:40Z

B'man: /* Solidus */

{{contents}}
These strategies assume Extreme/EuExtreme difficulty. They may not work in other difficulties. In general if there's a "loop" available for a particular boss, it will be faster than other methods.

== Tanker ==

=== Olga ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx)
Olga has a loop that allows you to shoot her repeatedly shortly before her first mini-cutscene. It works by making her empty her clip, and then interrupting her reload at the front, forcing her to reload at the back later. As she shoots more rapidly in Ex/EuEx, this only works in those difficulties. In the US version of SoL, Olga often runs out to the right, making this strategy fail. All other versions have her run to the left the first time.

An Any% method is to push against the hatch, hold R1, then quickly hold R2 as well when Olga runs out, to dodge her shots. As long as she sees you, she should run back to the left firing, then move to the back.

In 100%, you will probably need both M9 bullet caches, which gives you no time to use the above strategy. You can collect the east, then middle caches, then go close to the barrier in the middle, a little to the left of the eastern set of crates. Duck here and stay still, and Olga should miss you when she runs out (some positions do leave you open, so experiment). You then want to run to the right, such that when she notices you she's already started reloading. The timing is quite hard to get right.

A riskier and less consistent method: after collecting the cache in the middle, stand behind the left side of the eastern set of crates. As Olga runs out, run out a little so that she sees you, then duck back in.

Once you've enabled the loop, move to the east fence (pick up the M9 cache at the southeast if you need them) and aim towards the back. You want the laser to be aimed a little to the right of the small gap between a horizontal and vertical set of poles in the frame Olga is hiding behind. When she is reloading, her head is here. Fire as soon as she starts reloading, then wait for her to recover and try to reload again. If your aim is a little too far to the left, you may miss if you shoot a little early. Four headshots wins.

* Free first shot
At the start of the battle, crawl and look through the gap in the crates in the middle. When Olga runs out she'll stop and look puzzled, allowing you to shoot her easily. This is fairly slow, and only works once.

* East-side firefight
The east side of the area is the best to battle Olga as she's fairly predictable, easy to get headshots, and quick to beat. The easiest way to deal with a firefight is to stand at the far east in plain sight, enter first-person, and use the L2 button to dodge her shots.

After her first mini-cutscene, she will always run to the front, giving you a chance of headshot. At the front, she will always pop her head out at the same place, but she shoots quickly, so you have to shoot her first and dodge her own shot.

At the back, she will attack from either a standing or crouched position, but you get slightly longer to dodge. In addition, if she is standing, she waits a second or so before hiding, giving you time to hit her. If you miss first time, aim at the correct spot for the next attempt, as she uses the same position a few times.

* Tarpaulin phase
In general, if a battle reaches this phase, you aren't doing it quick enough, but sometimes Olga will tire of an east-side battle early. In Ex/EuEx the tarp can't be shot off, so it's easiest to wait for a silence indicative of her getting out a grenade, and shoot blindly at her.

After hitting her once, Olga will run forward via the east side to shoot the tarp herself. This gives you ample time to hit her in the head before she does so.

=== Soldiers ===
* General strategy
The safe place in this battle is crouching behind the crate nearest to the action. There are two main methods from this point:

You can back up against the crate, and use the pop-out technique (hold Sq at the left side of the crate) in conjunction with first-person mode. This has a lot of overhead time from the pop-out/in animations, and you should make sure you let go of R1 before popping back in.

Alternatively, stay facing forward, hold R1 to go into first-person and also R2 (which has no effect at first). When you hold L1 as well, you will lean over the crate, allowing you to aim and fire. Let go of L1 to duck back into cover.

There are three types of soldier. One crosses to the west, and then fires or jumps out from that position. One stays in the east and does the same (this is the most dangerous as you can't see what they're up to). The other moves to the crate at the back (essentially the same position as you are) and fires or later throws grenades.

Take advantage of the fact that moving soldiers can't hit you. While the west/back soldiers move into position, headshot them before they get there. You have to take the east soldier out the hard way, and you should be wary of him attacking while you try to take out the other two.

Each soldier is replaced after a certain amount of time, by a soldier of the same type. If you take out the soldiers in a particular order, you can predict the order of the next wave.

Once at least three (or two in the easier difficulties) of each type of soldier have been eliminated, and no more soldiers are on the screen, three last guards will rush you. You can stay in the same position, or retreat to distance if you see it coming. Headshots will deal with these without trouble, but if you shoot the first soldier too quickly, the last one will lose his nerve and hide for a few seconds. It's quicker to wait a little.

* Instant kill (Ez/VE)
Your enemies are soldiers with the same attributes as regular soldiers. On Easy and Very Easy, just plug them with a single M9 bullet.

* Headshot on moving targets
When using Previous equip mode (this can be done with Unequip, but it is slower), lock-on and shoot a moving soldier with the USP, then use their recoil time to switch to the M9 and hit them with a headshot.

* Clear a phase quickly
If you're not aiming for no kills, you can trigger the last phase or finish the battle more quickly by killing the last soldier(s) rather than tranqing them. When tranqing, the elimination is registered when they start snoring - with a lethal weapon it's registered as soon as the killing shot hits.

== Plant ==
=== Fortune ===
* General strategy
Make sure you've got a cardboard box. With the smaller turning circle, you can run back and forth without running the risk of Raiden messing up a 180-degree turn. Stay at the far south and get into a rhythm of running to the east so Fortune shoots straight down, then turning to the west and doing the same.

* Simple dodging (Ez/VE/Nm/Hd)
On the easier difficulies Fortune only fires one shot at a time. Stand in the middle at the back, and crouch just as she fires, then stand back up once the shot has passed.

* NTSC vs PAL
In order to make up for the horrific amounts of slowdown in the NTSC (US/Jp) versions of this battle, Fortune has a different attack pattern between NTSC and PAL (Eu). Particularly, the PAL version lasts significantly longer in game time (enough that it's longer in real time despite the NTSC slowdown) as Fortune shoots about 20 more bolts at you.

=== Fatman ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx) (SoL)
* Repeated headshots
When you knock Fatman down by shooting him with the SOCOM, you can headshot him repeatedly with the M9 by abusing quick reload and auto-aim in first-person (hold R1 and L1). You can start firing shortly before he stops sliding back. You can sometimes get better accuracy by crouching and maintaining distance. You can get three headshots on harder difficulties - it is possible to win with a single knockdown on Very Easy.

=== Harrier ===
=== Vamp ===
* Loop
Vamp's loop can be triggered any time (preferably the first time...) he jumps out of the water.

First, to get to that point, hit him with an M9 headshot as fast as you can, then wait at the south near the edge of the water for him to surface. You can do a little more damage with stun grenades in the water if you like, but it's negligible.

When Vamp jumps out, edge north off the ledge so you drop into the water and grab it. This changes Vamp's behaviour so he drops and walks slowly around to investigate. Preferably you want him to go around the east, as he gets stuck a little at the west. When he gets close enough he'll take a knife and slash at your hands. As soon as the animation begins, climb back out - you can start climbing out before the animation to save time, but ensure it's late enough that you're still climbing when the slash hits. You'll end up very close to him, and can punch him freely while he recovers from his slash animation.

In this position, you can start the loop. You want to hit Vamp with two punches, delay a little, then repeat. The key is to avoid doing a three-hit combo while still being quick. If you're still up close when the attack is over, he'll try to slash you again - this is your cue to run out of range, then back in and start hitting him again.

You should aim for at least six hits per loop (perhaps less on the first loop), but it's possible to get eight. Always ensure you continue the loop though - if he hits you, most of the time he'll dive, and if you run away from him too early he'll do so as well.

* Critical hit
There's one point on Vamp's body that is a critical hit box - the gunshot wound in the middle of his forehead. You only get one real opportunity to hit it, and that's at the very start of the battle, if you wait for him to bow in your direction. If you use the loop above, this takes too long for the increased damage to be worth it.

* Claymores
If all else fails, you can lay Claymores on the and east and west paths, and Vamp will walk right into them while on the ground. This takes a very long time and doesn't help you with no kills.

=== Vamp 2 ===

=== Tengus ===
* Exit trigger
As soon as you reach the final phase, make sure you can go about 5 seconds without being attacked (stun grenade, for example). Press yourself against the door and then let go and go into first person. Then do a three-hit combo, and as the kick animation starts let go of R1. Differences between your position in and out of first person will push you into the exit trigger on the inside of the door, completing this battle.

* Coolant trick
This glitch works in both Sons of Liberty and Substance, but the requirements for making it work in Substance are so strict that it's not feasible for a speedrun. You should consider this an SoL-only trick.

The trick is performed in the last phase. You start by hiding behind one of the boxes at the south of this phase to lure Tengus into that area. When a Tengu approaches, spray them with coolant, and repeat this until all available Tengus are being sprayed. You now need to continue spraying the Tengus to gradually push them back, and eventually behind the box you're hiding. You may need to adjust your position (usually to move forward) at times, and you may need to quickly tranq one of the Tengus in the top level that shoots at you.

Once all Tengus are behind the box, the game should consider you out of their line of sight, and this will trigger the end of the alert phase. However, you should leg it out quick before they realise what's up, and watch out for any others on the top level.

* Phase skipping
This battle consists of a number of phases triggered as you advance further north. Most of these phases are triggered when you pass a horizontal line on the ground. When you trigger a new phase, the game assumes you've eliminated all the Tengus in the previous phase, and they become inactive. This means that theoretically you could reach the last phase without eliminating a single enemy.

=== Tengus 2 ===
=== Rays ===
* Open mouth attack
The basic way to deal damage against Ray is to attack a leg, causing it to open its mouth so a head attack will deal heavy damage.

At times (particularly shortly after a new Ray appears), Ray will do a battle cry. If you can anticipate this (there's very little time, if any, to react), you can hit them for open mouth damage with a single shot.

The simplest time to do this is at the very start of the battle. The middle, then right, then left Ray will do a battle cry, and with perfect shooting you can hit all of them. Hold R2 before the battle begins to immediately equip the Stinger, then instantly fire and then lock on to the head and move on to the one on the right to do the same (mash Square to get an instant shot). If you find it too hard to hit three, then go for the middle and left Rays.

When a Ray is on the platform with you, when close up and directly in front of them they will do a water cannon attack. You can bait this by getting close and running horizontally past their field of vision. Continue running past to dodge the attack, and you can get a free open mouth shot. Don't be too close though, as you may not be able to aim the Stinger high enough. You can also bait the water cannon after hitting a Ray, by simply standing in front of them.

=== Solidus ===
* Loop (Nm?/Hd?/Ex/EuEx)
Solidus' loop is probably the easiest in the game, it works in both phases, and can be triggered right at the beginning. However, it only works in the harder difficulties as he's a weakling and falls over easily in the others.

In the first phase, slash at Solidus with the sword and stay very close right in front of him, to tempt him to attack you back. Hold L1 to block and he will kick at you, leaving him open.

In the last phase, make sure you're facing Solidus as he dashes at you, and block his attack. If he shoulder-barges, he's open immediately. If he slashes, however, block all three strikes, slash him to knock him off balance, and run close to him to attack.

The attack you want to use is two slashes (vertical or horizontal, doesn't matter). You then want to wait a bit, and move to his right side (the side without the eye patch - he has better eyesight on this side and is able to block more quickly). Then slash him again as he crosses his blades together. If you knock Solidus down with this third slash, it's too early. If he attacks through it, it's too late. If he blocks, it's just right. He'll then try another kick, which will leave him open to another two slashes.

After forcing him to block, you can reposition yourself before he kicks if you're in a bad position - for example if you're near an edge.

== Substance ==
=== Gurlugon (Raiden) ===
Run up to the large collection of crates in the centre of the area, and press yourself against the south edge of the southmost crate. As soon as Gurlugon roars, edge south to dodge the blast, then pick up the book that appears. Place it on the ground in front of you, and stand there like a vending machine.

The cutscene is horrifically long, but it's still a hell of a lot faster than any other strategy.

=== Mech Genola (Snake) ===
Start by tricking Mech Genola into blowing up the left side box on the second row from the front. This is done by nearing the box, running into the searchlight and immediately taking cover behind the box. You may have to dodge when he actually fires at you. Immediately fire a Stinger at his head and collect the Chaff Grenades, then climb onto the left side box at the front. Finally, throw a Chaff Grenade into the hole where his head was.

=== Genola (MGS1 Snake) ===
Collect the Stinger and run as far left as possible. If you look to the left (don't do it in an actual attempt >_>) you can see where the wall ends (both at the end and the bottom); make a note of a point just below the bottom of the wall, and just to the right of the end of it. Look north and equip the Stinger, and lock on the target (it's behind the back wall), then quickly move your aim to the point explained above and fire. If you're still locked on and your aim is true, the missile will go through the hole in the back wall, hit the target and summon Gurlugon.

Alternatively, hit the target revolving around far above you to summon Mech Genola. This is harder to find and also difficult to hit due to the distance.

There's also the option of shooting out three of the scaffolds holding a pan above Genola's head with an assault rifle, but that takes a loooong time.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Bosses

2012-05-21T15:46:32Z

B'man: /* Vamp */

{{contents}}
These strategies assume Extreme/EuExtreme difficulty. They may not work in other difficulties. In general if there's a "loop" available for a particular boss, it will be faster than other methods.

== Tanker ==

=== Olga ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx)
Olga has a loop that allows you to shoot her repeatedly shortly before her first mini-cutscene. It works by making her empty her clip, and then interrupting her reload at the front, forcing her to reload at the back later. As she shoots more rapidly in Ex/EuEx, this only works in those difficulties. In the US version of SoL, Olga often runs out to the right, making this strategy fail. All other versions have her run to the left the first time.

An Any% method is to push against the hatch, hold R1, then quickly hold R2 as well when Olga runs out, to dodge her shots. As long as she sees you, she should run back to the left firing, then move to the back.

In 100%, you will probably need both M9 bullet caches, which gives you no time to use the above strategy. You can collect the east, then middle caches, then go close to the barrier in the middle, a little to the left of the eastern set of crates. Duck here and stay still, and Olga should miss you when she runs out (some positions do leave you open, so experiment). You then want to run to the right, such that when she notices you she's already started reloading. The timing is quite hard to get right.

A riskier and less consistent method: after collecting the cache in the middle, stand behind the left side of the eastern set of crates. As Olga runs out, run out a little so that she sees you, then duck back in.

Once you've enabled the loop, move to the east fence (pick up the M9 cache at the southeast if you need them) and aim towards the back. You want the laser to be aimed a little to the right of the small gap between a horizontal and vertical set of poles in the frame Olga is hiding behind. When she is reloading, her head is here. Fire as soon as she starts reloading, then wait for her to recover and try to reload again. If your aim is a little too far to the left, you may miss if you shoot a little early. Four headshots wins.

* Free first shot
At the start of the battle, crawl and look through the gap in the crates in the middle. When Olga runs out she'll stop and look puzzled, allowing you to shoot her easily. This is fairly slow, and only works once.

* East-side firefight
The east side of the area is the best to battle Olga as she's fairly predictable, easy to get headshots, and quick to beat. The easiest way to deal with a firefight is to stand at the far east in plain sight, enter first-person, and use the L2 button to dodge her shots.

After her first mini-cutscene, she will always run to the front, giving you a chance of headshot. At the front, she will always pop her head out at the same place, but she shoots quickly, so you have to shoot her first and dodge her own shot.

At the back, she will attack from either a standing or crouched position, but you get slightly longer to dodge. In addition, if she is standing, she waits a second or so before hiding, giving you time to hit her. If you miss first time, aim at the correct spot for the next attempt, as she uses the same position a few times.

* Tarpaulin phase
In general, if a battle reaches this phase, you aren't doing it quick enough, but sometimes Olga will tire of an east-side battle early. In Ex/EuEx the tarp can't be shot off, so it's easiest to wait for a silence indicative of her getting out a grenade, and shoot blindly at her.

After hitting her once, Olga will run forward via the east side to shoot the tarp herself. This gives you ample time to hit her in the head before she does so.

=== Soldiers ===
* General strategy
The safe place in this battle is crouching behind the crate nearest to the action. There are two main methods from this point:

You can back up against the crate, and use the pop-out technique (hold Sq at the left side of the crate) in conjunction with first-person mode. This has a lot of overhead time from the pop-out/in animations, and you should make sure you let go of R1 before popping back in.

Alternatively, stay facing forward, hold R1 to go into first-person and also R2 (which has no effect at first). When you hold L1 as well, you will lean over the crate, allowing you to aim and fire. Let go of L1 to duck back into cover.

There are three types of soldier. One crosses to the west, and then fires or jumps out from that position. One stays in the east and does the same (this is the most dangerous as you can't see what they're up to). The other moves to the crate at the back (essentially the same position as you are) and fires or later throws grenades.

Take advantage of the fact that moving soldiers can't hit you. While the west/back soldiers move into position, headshot them before they get there. You have to take the east soldier out the hard way, and you should be wary of him attacking while you try to take out the other two.

Each soldier is replaced after a certain amount of time, by a soldier of the same type. If you take out the soldiers in a particular order, you can predict the order of the next wave.

Once at least three (or two in the easier difficulties) of each type of soldier have been eliminated, and no more soldiers are on the screen, three last guards will rush you. You can stay in the same position, or retreat to distance if you see it coming. Headshots will deal with these without trouble, but if you shoot the first soldier too quickly, the last one will lose his nerve and hide for a few seconds. It's quicker to wait a little.

* Instant kill (Ez/VE)
Your enemies are soldiers with the same attributes as regular soldiers. On Easy and Very Easy, just plug them with a single M9 bullet.

* Headshot on moving targets
When using Previous equip mode (this can be done with Unequip, but it is slower), lock-on and shoot a moving soldier with the USP, then use their recoil time to switch to the M9 and hit them with a headshot.

* Clear a phase quickly
If you're not aiming for no kills, you can trigger the last phase or finish the battle more quickly by killing the last soldier(s) rather than tranqing them. When tranqing, the elimination is registered when they start snoring - with a lethal weapon it's registered as soon as the killing shot hits.

== Plant ==
=== Fortune ===
* General strategy
Make sure you've got a cardboard box. With the smaller turning circle, you can run back and forth without running the risk of Raiden messing up a 180-degree turn. Stay at the far south and get into a rhythm of running to the east so Fortune shoots straight down, then turning to the west and doing the same.

* Simple dodging (Ez/VE/Nm/Hd)
On the easier difficulies Fortune only fires one shot at a time. Stand in the middle at the back, and crouch just as she fires, then stand back up once the shot has passed.

* NTSC vs PAL
In order to make up for the horrific amounts of slowdown in the NTSC (US/Jp) versions of this battle, Fortune has a different attack pattern between NTSC and PAL (Eu). Particularly, the PAL version lasts significantly longer in game time (enough that it's longer in real time despite the NTSC slowdown) as Fortune shoots about 20 more bolts at you.

=== Fatman ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx) (SoL)
* Repeated headshots
When you knock Fatman down by shooting him with the SOCOM, you can headshot him repeatedly with the M9 by abusing quick reload and auto-aim in first-person (hold R1 and L1). You can start firing shortly before he stops sliding back. You can sometimes get better accuracy by crouching and maintaining distance. You can get three headshots on harder difficulties - it is possible to win with a single knockdown on Very Easy.

=== Harrier ===
=== Vamp ===
* Loop
Vamp's loop can be triggered any time (preferably the first time...) he jumps out of the water.

First, to get to that point, hit him with an M9 headshot as fast as you can, then wait at the south near the edge of the water for him to surface. You can do a little more damage with stun grenades in the water if you like, but it's negligible.

When Vamp jumps out, edge north off the ledge so you drop into the water and grab it. This changes Vamp's behaviour so he drops and walks slowly around to investigate. Preferably you want him to go around the east, as he gets stuck a little at the west. When he gets close enough he'll take a knife and slash at your hands. As soon as the animation begins, climb back out - you can start climbing out before the animation to save time, but ensure it's late enough that you're still climbing when the slash hits. You'll end up very close to him, and can punch him freely while he recovers from his slash animation.

In this position, you can start the loop. You want to hit Vamp with two punches, delay a little, then repeat. The key is to avoid doing a three-hit combo while still being quick. If you're still up close when the attack is over, he'll try to slash you again - this is your cue to run out of range, then back in and start hitting him again.

You should aim for at least six hits per loop (perhaps less on the first loop), but it's possible to get eight. Always ensure you continue the loop though - if he hits you, most of the time he'll dive, and if you run away from him too early he'll do so as well.

* Critical hit
There's one point on Vamp's body that is a critical hit box - the gunshot wound in the middle of his forehead. You only get one real opportunity to hit it, and that's at the very start of the battle, if you wait for him to bow in your direction. If you use the loop above, this takes too long for the increased damage to be worth it.

* Claymores
If all else fails, you can lay Claymores on the and east and west paths, and Vamp will walk right into them while on the ground. This takes a very long time and doesn't help you with no kills.

=== Vamp 2 ===

=== Tengus ===
* Exit trigger
As soon as you reach the final phase, make sure you can go about 5 seconds without being attacked (stun grenade, for example). Press yourself against the door and then let go and go into first person. Then do a three-hit combo, and as the kick animation starts let go of R1. Differences between your position in and out of first person will push you into the exit trigger on the inside of the door, completing this battle.

* Coolant trick
This glitch works in both Sons of Liberty and Substance, but the requirements for making it work in Substance are so strict that it's not feasible for a speedrun. You should consider this an SoL-only trick.

The trick is performed in the last phase. You start by hiding behind one of the boxes at the south of this phase to lure Tengus into that area. When a Tengu approaches, spray them with coolant, and repeat this until all available Tengus are being sprayed. You now need to continue spraying the Tengus to gradually push them back, and eventually behind the box you're hiding. You may need to adjust your position (usually to move forward) at times, and you may need to quickly tranq one of the Tengus in the top level that shoots at you.

Once all Tengus are behind the box, the game should consider you out of their line of sight, and this will trigger the end of the alert phase. However, you should leg it out quick before they realise what's up, and watch out for any others on the top level.

* Phase skipping
This battle consists of a number of phases triggered as you advance further north. Most of these phases are triggered when you pass a horizontal line on the ground. When you trigger a new phase, the game assumes you've eliminated all the Tengus in the previous phase, and they become inactive. This means that theoretically you could reach the last phase without eliminating a single enemy.

=== Tengus 2 ===
=== Rays ===
* Open mouth attack
The basic way to deal damage against Ray is to attack a leg, causing it to open its mouth so a head attack will deal heavy damage.

At times (particularly shortly after a new Ray appears), Ray will do a battle cry. If you can anticipate this (there's very little time, if any, to react), you can hit them for open mouth damage with a single shot.

The simplest time to do this is at the very start of the battle. The middle, then right, then left Ray will do a battle cry, and with perfect shooting you can hit all of them. Hold R2 before the battle begins to immediately equip the Stinger, then instantly fire and then lock on to the head and move on to the one on the right to do the same (mash Square to get an instant shot). If you find it too hard to hit three, then go for the middle and left Rays.

When a Ray is on the platform with you, when close up and directly in front of them they will do a water cannon attack. You can bait this by getting close and running horizontally past their field of vision. Continue running past to dodge the attack, and you can get a free open mouth shot. Don't be too close though, as you may not be able to aim the Stinger high enough. You can also bait the water cannon after hitting a Ray, by simply standing in front of them.

=== Solidus ===
* Loop (Nm?/Hd?/Ex/EuEx)
Solidus' loop is probably the easiest in the game, it works in both phases, and can be triggered right at the beginning. However, it only works in the harder difficulties as he's a weakling and falls over easily in the others.

In the first phase, slash at Solidus with the sword and stay very close right in front of him, to tempt him to attack you back. Hold L1 to block and he will kick at you, leaving him open.

In the last phase, make sure you're facing Solidus as he dashes at you, and block his attack. If he shoulder-barges, he's open immediately. If he slashes, however, block all three strikes, slash him to knock him off balance, and run close to him to attack.

The attack you want to use is two slashes (vertical or horizontal, doesn't matter). You then want to wait a bit, and slash him again when he crosses his blades together. The timing is fairly strict, but not too difficult with practice. If you knock Solidus down with this third slash, it's too early. If he attacks through it, it's too late. If he blocks, it's just right. He'll then try another kick, which will leave him open to another two slashes.

Repeat ad infinitum.

== Substance ==
=== Gurlugon (Raiden) ===
Run up to the large collection of crates in the centre of the area, and press yourself against the south edge of the southmost crate. As soon as Gurlugon roars, edge south to dodge the blast, then pick up the book that appears. Place it on the ground in front of you, and stand there like a vending machine.

The cutscene is horrifically long, but it's still a hell of a lot faster than any other strategy.

=== Mech Genola (Snake) ===
Start by tricking Mech Genola into blowing up the left side box on the second row from the front. This is done by nearing the box, running into the searchlight and immediately taking cover behind the box. You may have to dodge when he actually fires at you. Immediately fire a Stinger at his head and collect the Chaff Grenades, then climb onto the left side box at the front. Finally, throw a Chaff Grenade into the hole where his head was.

=== Genola (MGS1 Snake) ===
Collect the Stinger and run as far left as possible. If you look to the left (don't do it in an actual attempt >_>) you can see where the wall ends (both at the end and the bottom); make a note of a point just below the bottom of the wall, and just to the right of the end of it. Look north and equip the Stinger, and lock on the target (it's behind the back wall), then quickly move your aim to the point explained above and fire. If you're still locked on and your aim is true, the missile will go through the hole in the back wall, hit the target and summon Gurlugon.

Alternatively, hit the target revolving around far above you to summon Mech Genola. This is harder to find and also difficult to hit due to the distance.

There's also the option of shooting out three of the scaffolds holding a pan above Genola's head with an assault rifle, but that takes a loooong time.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

2012-05-21T15:03:28Z

B'man: /* Versions */

[[Category:PlayStation 2]]
[[Category:Games]]

{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/MetalGearSolid2.html}}
{{contents}}
=== Versions ===

MGS2 is interesting in that there are gameplay differences between every version of the game. The main revisions (in order of release):

* Sons of Liberty (US)
* Sons of Liberty (Jp): Dog Tag changes, most notably some Marines in Tanker Holds. Boss Survival/Casting Theatre modes. Various bug fixes and presentation changes. This version only: V.Easy, Easy, Normal and Hard are named Easy, Normal, Hard and V.Hard respectively.
* Sons of Liberty (Eu): European Extreme difficulty. C4 locations changed in Strut D and Strut A Deep Sea Dock.
* Substance (World): Exploits and glitches fixed, most notably the Tengus Coolant glitches (made significantly more difficult to execute) and Elevator floor clip. Extended Boss Survival mode. Snake Tales, Missions, and (PS2-only) Skateboarding modes. Various bug fixes.

While PAL (Eu) and NTSC (US, Jp) ostensibly run at the same speed (adjusted to compensate for PAL's lower frame rate), there are various subtle differences in PAL versions either caused by it, or specifically added for other reasons:

* Many guard and mech routes are slower, which can make things easier or harder depending on the situation. This (and other timing effects) are caused by routes using a frame timer (instead of a real-time timer) which has not been compensated for.
* Elevators (including the one in Strut A Deep Sea Dock) take longer to appear.
* Button actions take longer to take effect, including firing (which makes it difficult to fire a pistol rapidly), opening equip menus (which also gives Quick Equip a bigger window) and equip scrolling.
* First-person aiming is slower, as the distance covered when adjusting it is measured by the frame.
* Codec conversations, when skipped with Square, take longer to do so (one screen per frame).
* There is less slowdown in graphically-complex areas such as outside on the Tanker, the Holds, Fortune and Rays. Game time is measured in frames, so slowdown (or the lack of it) does not give one version an advantage in game time. However...
* Fortune's attack patterns are changed to compensate (or rather, over-compensate) for the huge slowdown in the NTSC version. PAL Fortune attacks 16 more times on Extreme.
* Fatman's loop strategy only works on PAL versions. When attempting it on NTSC versions, after you trip him twice, he gets up and runs away, no matter your location.

There is also a difference caused by translation that affects all languages. Some guard actions (such as initiating Alert/Caution) are timed to take effect once they finish using the radio. Depending on the dub, some languages will take longer than others, and so some marginal hit and run strategies may not work.

=== Weapons ===

* Quick reload

Double-click R2 to refill your clip quickly. You can also use this to skip the end of a long firing animation (e.g. the M9, which needs a round loaded for every shot), which enables you to shoot at a faster rate. For example, if done fast enough, you can run at a guard and send them to sleep in three shots (Ex/EuEx) before they can turn around.

You receive a magazine when you run out of bullets in a clip - using quick reload stops this from happening.

* Lock-on headshots

Pressing L1 while aiming with a basic gun (M9, USP/SOCOM, M4/AK) while near an enemy (not bosses in Ex/EuEx) switches your aim to their chest. You can use this to run and shoot by holding L1, but it also simplifies aiming for headshots.

Hold Sq and R1 to aim in first person, then tap L1 to aim at the chest. Then move the aim up to the head and fire. With practice this becomes easy and quick.

* Quick equip modes

There are two quick equip modes in the Options menu - they affect what happens when you tap L2 or R2 instead of holding it. Unequip mode unequips the current item if it is equipped, and equips the last-equipped item if there is nothing equipped. This is the same behaviour as L1 and R1 in MGS1. Previous mode acts like Unequip mode if you have only equipped one item since you last had nothing equipped. Otherwise, it will switch to the last item you had equipped, meaning it will switch back-and-forth between two items repeatedly.

Unequip is the default mode. It is most useful when you expect to use a variety of items or to grab enemies without a weapon. It's also the easiest mode to use, and in general it won't do anything you don't expect it to.

Previous mode is significantly quicker, and more intuitive, than Unequip when you expect to use two items only, or when you will repeatedly switch between two. In the Tanker, where the only weapons you're likely to use are the M9 and USP, Previous is king - once you've equipped the USP, you probably won't need to enter the weapon menu again. However, in the Plant, if your second weapon is first-person - Stinger, PSG-1(T) or Coolant - techniques like quick reload will make you stop running for a short time. You can deal with this by quick-reloading during a cartwheel.

=== Enemies ===

* Knock-down tranquilize

If you shoot an enemy with a tranq dart (M9, PSG1-T) anywhere, they will fall asleep as soon as they are knocked down. Any technique will do; combo, roll, throw or grab/strangle.

* Tranq an enemy looking in your direction without stopping

When running at an enemy that is looking in your direction, wait for them to see you, then shoot them once with a USP/SOCOM/M4/AK round shortly before they fire. This normally gives you enough time to approach them, shoot them with the M9, and knock them over. If not, you can shoot them again before they finish recovering.

This only works if you selected Not Game Over If Discovered, and depending on the situation it may alert other guards.

* Daze

Shoot an enemy's blue "!"-sign and they will stand in a daze for 10 seconds (or until you attack them). The easiest way to do this is to stand a certain distance away in front of them and wait for them to walk towards you and notice you.

It is possible (though difficult) to shoot them once in a nonlethal location (lethal: head, crotch, heart), then shoot the "!" that appears quickly.

* Hold up with any weapon

Any weapon can be used to hold up an enemy. Hold Sq lightly with the M4, AK, Nikita and RGB6. Simply equip the Stinger, PSG1 and PSG1-T while looking at the enemy to hold them up.

* Scare without firing

Normally you would scare a held-up enemy by shooting them with a lethal weapon in a nonlethal area (or by shooting near them, which is faster). You can also scare them by equipping the Stinger and looking at them, or by aiming the RGB6 or Nikita at them. This can be useful if you don't have a suppressed pistol or rifle but do have one of the above weapons.

* Coolant attack

The coolant, while it has a short range, also affects a large area in front of you. It stuns an enemy for about three seconds, and can be used in stealth (the enemy acts as though they have been shot by an unseen enemy) or in battle (it affects all enemies in front of you so it is an effective close-range crowd control weapon).

=== Movement ===

* Coolant rise

While crawling, with the coolant equipped, press X to rise and immediately press R2 to unequip the coolant. You will immediately be in a standing position. The timing is quite lenient; you can press both buttons at the same time.

The trick can be used in general play (e.g. Strut A during the bomb run) when you have no weapon equipped and the coolant is your last-equipped weapon (Unequip mode), or when it is your previous weapon (Previous mode). Crawl as normal, then, when you are able to rise, tap R2 and immediately tap R2 and X together. Depending on your speed, this can be up to a second quicker than rising normally.

* Travelling with a box

Walking with a box equipped has three uses that I know of:

# You have a smaller turning circle, so you can turn 180 degrees in place while running. This makes Fortune significantly easier on Ex/EuEx.
# Your height is halved, making it useful in areas with low cover such as Strut E. It also travels underneath the projectors in Hold 1 and Hold 2.
# It slightly increases the size of your hitbox for setting off claymore mines, but your hitbox for being hurt by them remains the same. This means that it's possible to set off a mine but not actually be hit by them (e.g. Strut A roof after Fortune - dodging the claymore is possible without the box, but is easier with it).

* Roll/cartwheel tricks

# You can roll up or down about 4 steps of stairs with Snake.
# You can cartwheel down stairs with Raiden significantly faster than running.
# Raiden can cross gaps (e.g. Shell 1-2 Connecting Bridge after Harrier) with his cartwheel.
# Roll/cartwheel is about the same speed as running, but it is faster at first and slower at the end. In some situations you can cartwheel into an enemy's line of sight so they see you earlier, and (e.g. Raiden Sneaking 2) notice you rather than alert. In others you can use it to reach the side of an enemy as they turn towards you (e.g. Raiden Sneaking 5).
# Use roll/cartwheel to travel forward in situations where the game would normally force you to stop (e.g. Strut D-E Connecting Bridge when called by Deepthroat). You can also use it as a buffer to equip a new item/weapon without stopping.

=== Misc ===

* Quick bomb freeze

If you are at an angle (e.g. facing near the side of the bomb), the coolant will sometimes affect more than one point on it, and freeze it in half the time.

* Quick elevator summon

The elevator trick from MGS1 is also in MGS2, but isn't quite as quick. Press the button to summon the elevator twice, and the doors will open about two seconds later.

If you're unlucky, this can be slower than normal play - occasionally the doors will open immediately the first time you press the button.

* Answer codec calls manually

Some mandatory (the icon appears red rather than blue) codec calls force you to stop. You can answer the call immediately with Select and save about a second.

This can also give you a head start in some areas (e.g. in Arsenal Gear as X-Raiden, if you answer Campbell at the start immediately, you can run along the south wall and change the first Tengu from what would normally be an Alert, to a notice).

* Skip some codec calls and cutscenes

You can avoid Rose's codec calls that usually appear on the first time through Strut F-E Connecting Bridge and Shell 1 Core 1F by being in Caution status when you enter these areas. This also works in the Engine Room to stop the door repair guard appearing.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

2012-05-21T14:58:25Z

B'man: /* Versions */

[[Category:PlayStation 2]]
[[Category:Games]]

{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/MetalGearSolid2.html}}
{{contents}}
=== Versions ===

MGS2 is interesting in that there are gameplay differences between every version of the game. The main revisions (in order of release):

* Sons of Liberty (US)
* Sons of Liberty (Jp): Dog Tag changes, most notably some Marines in Tanker Holds. Boss Survival/Casting Theatre modes. Various bug fixes and presentation changes. This version only: V.Easy, Easy, Normal and Hard are named Easy, Normal, Hard and V.Hard respectively.
* Sons of Liberty (Eu): European Extreme difficulty. C4 locations changed in Strut D and Strut A Deep Sea Dock.
* Substance (World): Many exploits and glitches fixed, including: Tengus Coolant glitches; Tengus 1 exit trigger glitch; Elevator floor clip; Extended Boss Survival mode. Snake Tales, Missions, and (PS2-only) Skateboarding modes. Various bug fixes.

While PAL (Eu) and NTSC (US, Jp) ostensibly run at the same speed (adjusted to compensate for PAL's lower frame rate), there are various subtle differences in PAL versions either caused by it, or specifically added for other reasons:

* Many guard and mech routes are slower, which can make things easier or harder depending on the situation. This (and other timing effects) are caused by routes using a frame timer (instead of a real-time timer) which has not been compensated for.
* Elevators (including the one in Strut A Deep Sea Dock) take longer to appear.
* Button actions take longer to take effect, including firing (which makes it difficult to fire a pistol rapidly), opening equip menus and equip scrolling.
* First-person aiming is slower, as the distance covered when adjusting it is measured by the frame.
* Codec conversations, when skipped with Square, take longer to do so (one screen per frame).
* There is less slowdown in graphically-complex areas such as outside on the Tanker, the Holds, Fortune and Rays. Game time is measured in frames, so slowdown (or the lack of it) does not give one version an advantage in game time. However...
* Fortune's attack patterns are changed to compensate (or rather, over-compensate) for the huge slowdown in the NTSC version. PAL Fortune attacks 16 more times on Extreme.
* Fatman's loop strategy doesn't work. When attempting it, after you trip him twice, he gets up and runs away, no matter your location.

There is also a difference caused by translation that affects all languages. Some guard actions (such as initiating Alert/Caution) are timed to take effect once they finish using the radio. Depending on the dub, some languages will take longer than others, and so some marginal hit and run strategies may not work.

=== Weapons ===

* Quick reload

Double-click R2 to refill your clip quickly. You can also use this to skip the end of a long firing animation (e.g. the M9, which needs a round loaded for every shot), which enables you to shoot at a faster rate. For example, if done fast enough, you can run at a guard and send them to sleep in three shots (Ex/EuEx) before they can turn around.

You receive a magazine when you run out of bullets in a clip - using quick reload stops this from happening.

* Lock-on headshots

Pressing L1 while aiming with a basic gun (M9, USP/SOCOM, M4/AK) while near an enemy (not bosses in Ex/EuEx) switches your aim to their chest. You can use this to run and shoot by holding L1, but it also simplifies aiming for headshots.

Hold Sq and R1 to aim in first person, then tap L1 to aim at the chest. Then move the aim up to the head and fire. With practice this becomes easy and quick.

* Quick equip modes

There are two quick equip modes in the Options menu - they affect what happens when you tap L2 or R2 instead of holding it. Unequip mode unequips the current item if it is equipped, and equips the last-equipped item if there is nothing equipped. This is the same behaviour as L1 and R1 in MGS1. Previous mode acts like Unequip mode if you have only equipped one item since you last had nothing equipped. Otherwise, it will switch to the last item you had equipped, meaning it will switch back-and-forth between two items repeatedly.

Unequip is the default mode. It is most useful when you expect to use a variety of items or to grab enemies without a weapon. It's also the easiest mode to use, and in general it won't do anything you don't expect it to.

Previous mode is significantly quicker, and more intuitive, than Unequip when you expect to use two items only, or when you will repeatedly switch between two. In the Tanker, where the only weapons you're likely to use are the M9 and USP, Previous is king - once you've equipped the USP, you probably won't need to enter the weapon menu again. However, in the Plant, if your second weapon is first-person - Stinger, PSG-1(T) or Coolant - techniques like quick reload will make you stop running for a short time. You can deal with this by quick-reloading during a cartwheel.

=== Enemies ===

* Knock-down tranquilize

If you shoot an enemy with a tranq dart (M9, PSG1-T) anywhere, they will fall asleep as soon as they are knocked down. Any technique will do; combo, roll, throw or grab/strangle.

* Tranq an enemy looking in your direction without stopping

When running at an enemy that is looking in your direction, wait for them to see you, then shoot them once with a USP/SOCOM/M4/AK round shortly before they fire. This normally gives you enough time to approach them, shoot them with the M9, and knock them over. If not, you can shoot them again before they finish recovering.

This only works if you selected Not Game Over If Discovered, and depending on the situation it may alert other guards.

* Daze

Shoot an enemy's blue "!"-sign and they will stand in a daze for 10 seconds (or until you attack them). The easiest way to do this is to stand a certain distance away in front of them and wait for them to walk towards you and notice you.

It is possible (though difficult) to shoot them once in a nonlethal location (lethal: head, crotch, heart), then shoot the "!" that appears quickly.

* Hold up with any weapon

Any weapon can be used to hold up an enemy. Hold Sq lightly with the M4, AK, Nikita and RGB6. Simply equip the Stinger, PSG1 and PSG1-T while looking at the enemy to hold them up.

* Scare without firing

Normally you would scare a held-up enemy by shooting them with a lethal weapon in a nonlethal area (or by shooting near them, which is faster). You can also scare them by equipping the Stinger and looking at them, or by aiming the RGB6 or Nikita at them. This can be useful if you don't have a suppressed pistol or rifle but do have one of the above weapons.

* Coolant attack

The coolant, while it has a short range, also affects a large area in front of you. It stuns an enemy for about three seconds, and can be used in stealth (the enemy acts as though they have been shot by an unseen enemy) or in battle (it affects all enemies in front of you so it is an effective close-range crowd control weapon).

=== Movement ===

* Coolant rise

While crawling, with the coolant equipped, press X to rise and immediately press R2 to unequip the coolant. You will immediately be in a standing position. The timing is quite lenient; you can press both buttons at the same time.

The trick can be used in general play (e.g. Strut A during the bomb run) when you have no weapon equipped and the coolant is your last-equipped weapon (Unequip mode), or when it is your previous weapon (Previous mode). Crawl as normal, then, when you are able to rise, tap R2 and immediately tap R2 and X together. Depending on your speed, this can be up to a second quicker than rising normally.

* Travelling with a box

Walking with a box equipped has three uses that I know of:

# You have a smaller turning circle, so you can turn 180 degrees in place while running. This makes Fortune significantly easier on Ex/EuEx.
# Your height is halved, making it useful in areas with low cover such as Strut E. It also travels underneath the projectors in Hold 1 and Hold 2.
# It slightly increases the size of your hitbox for setting off claymore mines, but your hitbox for being hurt by them remains the same. This means that it's possible to set off a mine but not actually be hit by them (e.g. Strut A roof after Fortune - dodging the claymore is possible without the box, but is easier with it).

* Roll/cartwheel tricks

# You can roll up or down about 4 steps of stairs with Snake.
# You can cartwheel down stairs with Raiden significantly faster than running.
# Raiden can cross gaps (e.g. Shell 1-2 Connecting Bridge after Harrier) with his cartwheel.
# Roll/cartwheel is about the same speed as running, but it is faster at first and slower at the end. In some situations you can cartwheel into an enemy's line of sight so they see you earlier, and (e.g. Raiden Sneaking 2) notice you rather than alert. In others you can use it to reach the side of an enemy as they turn towards you (e.g. Raiden Sneaking 5).
# Use roll/cartwheel to travel forward in situations where the game would normally force you to stop (e.g. Strut D-E Connecting Bridge when called by Deepthroat). You can also use it as a buffer to equip a new item/weapon without stopping.

=== Misc ===

* Quick bomb freeze

If you are at an angle (e.g. facing near the side of the bomb), the coolant will sometimes affect more than one point on it, and freeze it in half the time.

* Quick elevator summon

The elevator trick from MGS1 is also in MGS2, but isn't quite as quick. Press the button to summon the elevator twice, and the doors will open about two seconds later.

If you're unlucky, this can be slower than normal play - occasionally the doors will open immediately the first time you press the button.

* Answer codec calls manually

Some mandatory (the icon appears red rather than blue) codec calls force you to stop. You can answer the call immediately with Select and save about a second.

This can also give you a head start in some areas (e.g. in Arsenal Gear as X-Raiden, if you answer Campbell at the start immediately, you can run along the south wall and change the first Tengu from what would normally be an Alert, to a notice).

* Skip some codec calls and cutscenes

You can avoid Rose's codec calls that usually appear on the first time through Strut F-E Connecting Bridge and Shell 1 Core 1F by being in Caution status when you enter these areas. This also works in the Engine Room to stop the door repair guard appearing.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

2011-10-13T03:52:33Z

B'man:

[[Category:PlayStation 2]]
[[Category:Games]]

{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/MetalGearSolid2.html}}
{{contents}}
=== Versions ===

MGS2 is interesting in that there are gameplay differences between every version of the game. The main revisions (in order of release):

* Sons of Liberty (US)
* Sons of Liberty (Jp): Dog Tag changes, most notably some Marines in Tanker Holds. Boss Survival/Casting Theatre modes. Various bug fixes and presentation changes. This version only: V.Easy, Easy, Normal and Hard are named Easy, Normal, Hard and V.Hard respectively.
* Sons of Liberty (Eu): European Extreme difficulty. C4 locations changed in Strut D and Strut A Deep Sea Dock.
* Substance (World): Many exploits and glitches fixed, including: Tengus Coolant glitches; Tengus 1 exit trigger glitch; Elevator floor clip; Fatman loop. Extended Boss Survival mode. Snake Tales, Missions, and (PS2-only) Skateboarding modes. Various bug fixes.

While PAL (Eu) and NTSC (US, Jp) ostensibly run at the same speed (adjusted to compensate for PAL's lower frame rate), there are various subtle differences in PAL versions either caused by it, or specifically added for other reasons:

* Many guard and mech routes are slower, which can make things easier or harder depending on the situation. This (and other timing effects) are caused by routes using a frame timer (instead of a real-time timer) which has not been compensated for.
* Elevators (including the one in Strut A Deep Sea Dock) take longer to appear.
* Button actions take longer to take effect, including firing (which makes it difficult to fire a pistol rapidly), opening equip menus and equip scrolling.
* First-person aiming is slower, as the distance covered when adjusting it is measured by the frame.
* Codec conversations, when skipped with Square, take longer to do so (one screen per frame).
* There is less slowdown in graphically-complex areas such as outside on the Tanker, the Holds, Fortune and Rays. Game time is measured in frames, so slowdown (or the lack of it) does not give one version an advantage in game time. However...
* Fortune's attack patterns are changed to compensate (or rather, over-compensate) for the huge slowdown in the NTSC version. PAL Fortune attacks 16 more times on Extreme.

There is also a difference caused by translation that affects all languages. Some guard actions (such as initiating Alert/Caution) are timed to take effect once they finish using the radio. Depending on the dub, some languages will take longer than others, and so some marginal hit and run strategies may not work.

=== Weapons ===

* Quick reload

Double-click R2 to refill your clip quickly. You can also use this to skip the end of a long firing animation (e.g. the M9, which needs a round loaded for every shot), which enables you to shoot at a faster rate. For example, if done fast enough, you can run at a guard and send them to sleep in three shots (Ex/EuEx) before they can turn around.

You receive a magazine when you run out of bullets in a clip - using quick reload stops this from happening.

* Lock-on headshots

Pressing L1 while aiming with a basic gun (M9, USP/SOCOM, M4/AK) while near an enemy (not bosses in Ex/EuEx) switches your aim to their chest. You can use this to run and shoot by holding L1, but it also simplifies aiming for headshots.

Hold Sq and R1 to aim in first person, then tap L1 to aim at the chest. Then move the aim up to the head and fire. With practice this becomes easy and quick.

* Quick equip modes

There are two quick equip modes in the Options menu - they affect what happens when you tap L2 or R2 instead of holding it. Unequip mode unequips the current item if it is equipped, and equips the last-equipped item if there is nothing equipped. This is the same behaviour as L1 and R1 in MGS1. Previous mode acts like Unequip mode if you have only equipped one item since you last had nothing equipped. Otherwise, it will switch to the last item you had equipped, meaning it will switch back-and-forth between two items repeatedly.

Unequip is the default mode. It is most useful when you expect to use a variety of items or to grab enemies without a weapon. It's also the easiest mode to use, and in general it won't do anything you don't expect it to.

Previous mode is significantly quicker, and more intuitive, than Unequip when you expect to use two items only, or when you will repeatedly switch between two. In the Tanker, where the only weapons you're likely to use are the M9 and USP, Previous is king - once you've equipped the USP, you probably won't need to enter the weapon menu again. However, in the Plant, if your second weapon is first-person - Stinger, PSG-1(T) or Coolant - techniques like quick reload will make you stop running for a short time. You can deal with this by quick-reloading during a cartwheel.

=== Enemies ===

* Knock-down tranquilize

If you shoot an enemy with a tranq dart (M9, PSG1-T) anywhere, they will fall asleep as soon as they are knocked down. Any technique will do; combo, roll, throw or grab/strangle.

* Tranq an enemy looking in your direction without stopping

When running at an enemy that is looking in your direction, wait for them to see you, then shoot them once with a USP/SOCOM/M4/AK round shortly before they fire. This normally gives you enough time to approach them, shoot them with the M9, and knock them over. If not, you can shoot them again before they finish recovering.

This only works if you selected Not Game Over If Discovered, and depending on the situation it may alert other guards.

* Daze

Shoot an enemy's blue "!"-sign and they will stand in a daze for 10 seconds (or until you attack them). The easiest way to do this is to stand a certain distance away in front of them and wait for them to walk towards you and notice you.

It is possible (though difficult) to shoot them once in a nonlethal location (lethal: head, crotch, heart), then shoot the "!" that appears quickly.

* Hold up with any weapon

Any weapon can be used to hold up an enemy. Hold Sq lightly with the M4, AK, Nikita and RGB6. Simply equip the Stinger, PSG1 and PSG1-T while looking at the enemy to hold them up.

* Scare without firing

Normally you would scare a held-up enemy by shooting them with a lethal weapon in a nonlethal area (or by shooting near them, which is faster). You can also scare them by equipping the Stinger and looking at them, or by aiming the RGB6 or Nikita at them. This can be useful if you don't have a suppressed pistol or rifle but do have one of the above weapons.

* Coolant attack

The coolant, while it has a short range, also affects a large area in front of you. It stuns an enemy for about three seconds, and can be used in stealth (the enemy acts as though they have been shot by an unseen enemy) or in battle (it affects all enemies in front of you so it is an effective close-range crowd control weapon).

=== Movement ===

* Coolant rise

While crawling, with the coolant equipped, press X to rise and immediately press R2 to unequip the coolant. You will immediately be in a standing position. The timing is quite lenient; you can press both buttons at the same time.

The trick can be used in general play (e.g. Strut A during the bomb run) when you have no weapon equipped and the coolant is your last-equipped weapon (Unequip mode), or when it is your previous weapon (Previous mode). Crawl as normal, then, when you are able to rise, tap R2 and immediately tap R2 and X together. Depending on your speed, this can be up to a second quicker than rising normally.

* Travelling with a box

Walking with a box equipped has three uses that I know of:

# You have a smaller turning circle, so you can turn 180 degrees in place while running. This makes Fortune significantly easier on Ex/EuEx.
# Your height is halved, making it useful in areas with low cover such as Strut E. It also travels underneath the projectors in Hold 1 and Hold 2.
# It slightly increases the size of your hitbox for setting off claymore mines, but your hitbox for being hurt by them remains the same. This means that it's possible to set off a mine but not actually be hit by them (e.g. Strut A roof after Fortune - dodging the claymore is possible without the box, but is easier with it).

* Roll/cartwheel tricks

# You can roll up or down about 4 steps of stairs with Snake.
# You can cartwheel down stairs with Raiden significantly faster than running.
# Raiden can cross gaps (e.g. Shell 1-2 Connecting Bridge after Harrier) with his cartwheel.
# Roll/cartwheel is about the same speed as running, but it is faster at first and slower at the end. In some situations you can cartwheel into an enemy's line of sight so they see you earlier, and (e.g. Raiden Sneaking 2) notice you rather than alert. In others you can use it to reach the side of an enemy as they turn towards you (e.g. Raiden Sneaking 5).
# Use roll/cartwheel to travel forward in situations where the game would normally force you to stop (e.g. Strut D-E Connecting Bridge when called by Deepthroat). You can also use it as a buffer to equip a new item/weapon without stopping.

=== Misc ===

* Quick bomb freeze

If you are at an angle (e.g. facing near the side of the bomb), the coolant will sometimes affect more than one point on it, and freeze it in half the time.

* Quick elevator summon

The elevator trick from MGS1 is also in MGS2, but isn't quite as quick. Press the button to summon the elevator twice, and the doors will open about two seconds later.

If you're unlucky, this can be slower than normal play - occasionally the doors will open immediately the first time you press the button.

* Answer codec calls manually

Some mandatory (the icon appears red rather than blue) codec calls force you to stop. You can answer the call immediately with Select and save about a second.

This can also give you a head start in some areas (e.g. in Arsenal Gear as X-Raiden, if you answer Campbell at the start immediately, you can run along the south wall and change the first Tengu from what would normally be an Alert, to a notice).

* Skip some codec calls and cutscenes

You can avoid Rose's codec calls that usually appear on the first time through Strut F-E Connecting Bridge and Shell 1 Core 1F by being in Caution status when you enter these areas. This also works in the Engine Room to stop the door repair guard appearing.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

2011-10-13T03:51:58Z

B'man:

[[Category:PlayStation 2]]
[[Category:Games]]

{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/MetalGearSolid2.html}}
{{contents}}
=== Versions ===

MGS2 is interesting in that there are gameplay differences between every version of the game. The main revisions (in order of release):

* Sons of Liberty (US)
* Sons of Liberty (Jp): Dog Tag changes, most notably some Marines in Tanker Holds. C4 locations changed in Strut D and Strut A Deep Sea Dock. Boss Survival/Casting Theatre modes. Various bug fixes and presentation changes. This version only: V.Easy, Easy, Normal and Hard are named Easy, Normal, Hard and V.Hard respectively.
* Sons of Liberty (Eu): European Extreme difficulty.
* Substance (World): Many exploits and glitches fixed, including: Tengus Coolant glitches; Tengus 1 exit trigger glitch; Elevator floor clip; Fatman loop. Extended Boss Survival mode. Snake Tales, Missions, and (PS2-only) Skateboarding modes. Various bug fixes.

While PAL (Eu) and NTSC (US, Jp) ostensibly run at the same speed (adjusted to compensate for PAL's lower frame rate), there are various subtle differences in PAL versions either caused by it, or specifically added for other reasons:

* Many guard and mech routes are slower, which can make things easier or harder depending on the situation. This (and other timing effects) are caused by routes using a frame timer (instead of a real-time timer) which has not been compensated for.
* Elevators (including the one in Strut A Deep Sea Dock) take longer to appear.
* Button actions take longer to take effect, including firing (which makes it difficult to fire a pistol rapidly), opening equip menus and equip scrolling.
* First-person aiming is slower, as the distance covered when adjusting it is measured by the frame.
* Codec conversations, when skipped with Square, take longer to do so (one screen per frame).
* There is less slowdown in graphically-complex areas such as outside on the Tanker, the Holds, Fortune and Rays. Game time is measured in frames, so slowdown (or the lack of it) does not give one version an advantage in game time. However...
* Fortune's attack patterns are changed to compensate (or rather, over-compensate) for the huge slowdown in the NTSC version. PAL Fortune attacks 16 more times on Extreme.

There is also a difference caused by translation that affects all languages. Some guard actions (such as initiating Alert/Caution) are timed to take effect once they finish using the radio. Depending on the dub, some languages will take longer than others, and so some marginal hit and run strategies may not work.

=== Weapons ===

* Quick reload

Double-click R2 to refill your clip quickly. You can also use this to skip the end of a long firing animation (e.g. the M9, which needs a round loaded for every shot), which enables you to shoot at a faster rate. For example, if done fast enough, you can run at a guard and send them to sleep in three shots (Ex/EuEx) before they can turn around.

You receive a magazine when you run out of bullets in a clip - using quick reload stops this from happening.

* Lock-on headshots

Pressing L1 while aiming with a basic gun (M9, USP/SOCOM, M4/AK) while near an enemy (not bosses in Ex/EuEx) switches your aim to their chest. You can use this to run and shoot by holding L1, but it also simplifies aiming for headshots.

Hold Sq and R1 to aim in first person, then tap L1 to aim at the chest. Then move the aim up to the head and fire. With practice this becomes easy and quick.

* Quick equip modes

There are two quick equip modes in the Options menu - they affect what happens when you tap L2 or R2 instead of holding it. Unequip mode unequips the current item if it is equipped, and equips the last-equipped item if there is nothing equipped. This is the same behaviour as L1 and R1 in MGS1. Previous mode acts like Unequip mode if you have only equipped one item since you last had nothing equipped. Otherwise, it will switch to the last item you had equipped, meaning it will switch back-and-forth between two items repeatedly.

Unequip is the default mode. It is most useful when you expect to use a variety of items or to grab enemies without a weapon. It's also the easiest mode to use, and in general it won't do anything you don't expect it to.

Previous mode is significantly quicker, and more intuitive, than Unequip when you expect to use two items only, or when you will repeatedly switch between two. In the Tanker, where the only weapons you're likely to use are the M9 and USP, Previous is king - once you've equipped the USP, you probably won't need to enter the weapon menu again. However, in the Plant, if your second weapon is first-person - Stinger, PSG-1(T) or Coolant - techniques like quick reload will make you stop running for a short time. You can deal with this by quick-reloading during a cartwheel.

=== Enemies ===

* Knock-down tranquilize

If you shoot an enemy with a tranq dart (M9, PSG1-T) anywhere, they will fall asleep as soon as they are knocked down. Any technique will do; combo, roll, throw or grab/strangle.

* Tranq an enemy looking in your direction without stopping

When running at an enemy that is looking in your direction, wait for them to see you, then shoot them once with a USP/SOCOM/M4/AK round shortly before they fire. This normally gives you enough time to approach them, shoot them with the M9, and knock them over. If not, you can shoot them again before they finish recovering.

This only works if you selected Not Game Over If Discovered, and depending on the situation it may alert other guards.

* Daze

Shoot an enemy's blue "!"-sign and they will stand in a daze for 10 seconds (or until you attack them). The easiest way to do this is to stand a certain distance away in front of them and wait for them to walk towards you and notice you.

It is possible (though difficult) to shoot them once in a nonlethal location (lethal: head, crotch, heart), then shoot the "!" that appears quickly.

* Hold up with any weapon

Any weapon can be used to hold up an enemy. Hold Sq lightly with the M4, AK, Nikita and RGB6. Simply equip the Stinger, PSG1 and PSG1-T while looking at the enemy to hold them up.

* Scare without firing

Normally you would scare a held-up enemy by shooting them with a lethal weapon in a nonlethal area (or by shooting near them, which is faster). You can also scare them by equipping the Stinger and looking at them, or by aiming the RGB6 or Nikita at them. This can be useful if you don't have a suppressed pistol or rifle but do have one of the above weapons.

* Coolant attack

The coolant, while it has a short range, also affects a large area in front of you. It stuns an enemy for about three seconds, and can be used in stealth (the enemy acts as though they have been shot by an unseen enemy) or in battle (it affects all enemies in front of you so it is an effective close-range crowd control weapon).

=== Movement ===

* Coolant rise

While crawling, with the coolant equipped, press X to rise and immediately press R2 to unequip the coolant. You will immediately be in a standing position. The timing is quite lenient; you can press both buttons at the same time.

The trick can be used in general play (e.g. Strut A during the bomb run) when you have no weapon equipped and the coolant is your last-equipped weapon (Unequip mode), or when it is your previous weapon (Previous mode). Crawl as normal, then, when you are able to rise, tap R2 and immediately tap R2 and X together. Depending on your speed, this can be up to a second quicker than rising normally.

* Travelling with a box

Walking with a box equipped has three uses that I know of:

# You have a smaller turning circle, so you can turn 180 degrees in place while running. This makes Fortune significantly easier on Ex/EuEx.
# Your height is halved, making it useful in areas with low cover such as Strut E. It also travels underneath the projectors in Hold 1 and Hold 2.
# It slightly increases the size of your hitbox for setting off claymore mines, but your hitbox for being hurt by them remains the same. This means that it's possible to set off a mine but not actually be hit by them (e.g. Strut A roof after Fortune - dodging the claymore is possible without the box, but is easier with it).

* Roll/cartwheel tricks

# You can roll up or down about 4 steps of stairs with Snake.
# You can cartwheel down stairs with Raiden significantly faster than running.
# Raiden can cross gaps (e.g. Shell 1-2 Connecting Bridge after Harrier) with his cartwheel.
# Roll/cartwheel is about the same speed as running, but it is faster at first and slower at the end. In some situations you can cartwheel into an enemy's line of sight so they see you earlier, and (e.g. Raiden Sneaking 2) notice you rather than alert. In others you can use it to reach the side of an enemy as they turn towards you (e.g. Raiden Sneaking 5).
# Use roll/cartwheel to travel forward in situations where the game would normally force you to stop (e.g. Strut D-E Connecting Bridge when called by Deepthroat). You can also use it as a buffer to equip a new item/weapon without stopping.

=== Misc ===

* Quick bomb freeze

If you are at an angle (e.g. facing near the side of the bomb), the coolant will sometimes affect more than one point on it, and freeze it in half the time.

* Quick elevator summon

The elevator trick from MGS1 is also in MGS2, but isn't quite as quick. Press the button to summon the elevator twice, and the doors will open about two seconds later.

If you're unlucky, this can be slower than normal play - occasionally the doors will open immediately the first time you press the button.

* Answer codec calls manually

Some mandatory (the icon appears red rather than blue) codec calls force you to stop. You can answer the call immediately with Select and save about a second.

This can also give you a head start in some areas (e.g. in Arsenal Gear as X-Raiden, if you answer Campbell at the start immediately, you can run along the south wall and change the first Tengu from what would normally be an Alert, to a notice).

* Skip some codec calls and cutscenes

You can avoid Rose's codec calls that usually appear on the first time through Strut F-E Connecting Bridge and Shell 1 Core 1F by being in Caution status when you enter these areas. This also works in the Engine Room to stop the door repair guard appearing.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

2011-10-07T14:22:02Z

B'man:

[[Category:PlayStation 2]]
[[Category:Games]]

{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/MetalGearSolid2.html}}
{{contents}}
=== Versions ===

MGS2 is interesting in that there are gameplay differences between every version of the game. The main revisions (in order of release):

* Sons of Liberty (US)
* Sons of Liberty (Jp): Dog Tag changes, most notably some Marines in Tanker Holds. C4 locations changed in Strut D and Strut A Deep Sea Dock. Boss Survival/Casting Theatre modes. Various bug fixes and presentation changes.
* Sons of Liberty (Eu): European Extreme difficulty.
* Substance (World): Many exploits and glitches fixed, including: Tengus Coolant glitches; Tengus 1 exit trigger glitch; Elevator floor clip; Fatman loop. Extended Boss Survival mode. Snake Tales, Missions, and (PS2-only) Skateboarding modes. Various bug fixes.

While PAL (Eu) and NTSC (US, Jp) ostensibly run at the same speed (adjusted to compensate for PAL's lower frame rate), there are various subtle differences in PAL versions either caused by it, or specifically added for other reasons:

* Many guard and mech routes are slower, which can make things easier or harder depending on the situation. This (and other timing effects) are caused by routes using a frame timer (instead of a real-time timer) which has not been compensated for.
* Elevators (including the one in Strut A Deep Sea Dock) take longer to appear.
* Button actions take longer to take effect, including firing (which makes it difficult to fire a pistol rapidly), opening equip menus and equip scrolling.
* First-person aiming is slower, as the distance covered when adjusting it is measured by the frame.
* Codec conversations, when skipped with Square, take longer to do so (one screen per frame).
* There is less slowdown in graphically-complex areas such as outside on the Tanker, the Holds, Fortune and Rays. Game time is measured in frames, so slowdown (or the lack of it) does not give one version an advantage in game time. However...
* Fortune's attack patterns are changed to compensate (or rather, over-compensate) for the huge slowdown in the NTSC version. PAL Fortune attacks 16 more times on Extreme.

There is also a difference caused by translation that affects all languages. Some guard actions (such as initiating Alert/Caution) are timed to take effect once they finish using the radio. Depending on the dub, some languages will take longer than others, and so some marginal hit and run strategies may not work.

=== Weapons ===

* Quick reload

Double-click R2 to refill your clip quickly. You can also use this to skip the end of a long firing animation (e.g. the M9, which needs a round loaded for every shot), which enables you to shoot at a faster rate. For example, if done fast enough, you can run at a guard and send them to sleep in three shots (Ex/EuEx) before they can turn around.

You receive a magazine when you run out of bullets in a clip - using quick reload stops this from happening.

* Lock-on headshots

Pressing L1 while aiming with a basic gun (M9, USP/SOCOM, M4/AK) while near an enemy (not bosses in Ex/EuEx) switches your aim to their chest. You can use this to run and shoot by holding L1, but it also simplifies aiming for headshots.

Hold Sq and R1 to aim in first person, then tap L1 to aim at the chest. Then move the aim up to the head and fire. With practice this becomes easy and quick.

* Quick equip modes

There are two quick equip modes in the Options menu - they affect what happens when you tap L2 or R2 instead of holding it. Unequip mode unequips the current item if it is equipped, and equips the last-equipped item if there is nothing equipped. This is the same behaviour as L1 and R1 in MGS1. Previous mode acts like Unequip mode if you have only equipped one item since you last had nothing equipped. Otherwise, it will switch to the last item you had equipped, meaning it will switch back-and-forth between two items repeatedly.

Unequip is the default mode. It is most useful when you expect to use a variety of items or to grab enemies without a weapon. It's also the easiest mode to use, and in general it won't do anything you don't expect it to.

Previous mode is significantly quicker, and more intuitive, than Unequip when you expect to use two items only, or when you will repeatedly switch between two. In the Tanker, where the only weapons you're likely to use are the M9 and USP, Previous is king - once you've equipped the USP, you probably won't need to enter the weapon menu again. However, in the Plant, if your second weapon is first-person - Stinger, PSG-1(T) or Coolant - techniques like quick reload will make you stop running for a short time. You can deal with this by quick-reloading during a cartwheel.

=== Enemies ===

* Knock-down tranquilize

If you shoot an enemy with a tranq dart (M9, PSG1-T) anywhere, they will fall asleep as soon as they are knocked down. Any technique will do; combo, roll, throw or grab/strangle.

* Tranq an enemy looking in your direction without stopping

When running at an enemy that is looking in your direction, wait for them to see you, then shoot them once with a USP/SOCOM/M4/AK round shortly before they fire. This normally gives you enough time to approach them, shoot them with the M9, and knock them over. If not, you can shoot them again before they finish recovering.

This only works if you selected Not Game Over If Discovered, and depending on the situation it may alert other guards.

* Daze

Shoot an enemy's blue "!"-sign and they will stand in a daze for 10 seconds (or until you attack them). The easiest way to do this is to stand a certain distance away in front of them and wait for them to walk towards you and notice you.

It is possible (though difficult) to shoot them once in a nonlethal location (lethal: head, crotch, heart), then shoot the "!" that appears quickly.

* Hold up with any weapon

Any weapon can be used to hold up an enemy. Hold Sq lightly with the M4, AK, Nikita and RGB6. Simply equip the Stinger, PSG1 and PSG1-T while looking at the enemy to hold them up.

* Scare without firing

Normally you would scare a held-up enemy by shooting them with a lethal weapon in a nonlethal area (or by shooting near them, which is faster). You can also scare them by equipping the Stinger and looking at them, or by aiming the RGB6 or Nikita at them. This can be useful if you don't have a suppressed pistol or rifle but do have one of the above weapons.

* Coolant attack

The coolant, while it has a short range, also affects a large area in front of you. It stuns an enemy for about three seconds, and can be used in stealth (the enemy acts as though they have been shot by an unseen enemy) or in battle (it affects all enemies in front of you so it is an effective close-range crowd control weapon).

=== Movement ===

* Coolant rise

While crawling, with the coolant equipped, press X to rise and immediately press R2 to unequip the coolant. You will immediately be in a standing position. The timing is quite lenient; you can press both buttons at the same time.

The trick can be used in general play (e.g. Strut A during the bomb run) when you have no weapon equipped and the coolant is your last-equipped weapon (Unequip mode), or when it is your previous weapon (Previous mode). Crawl as normal, then, when you are able to rise, tap R2 and immediately tap R2 and X together. Depending on your speed, this can be up to a second quicker than rising normally.

* Travelling with a box

Walking with a box equipped has three uses that I know of:

# You have a smaller turning circle, so you can turn 180 degrees in place while running. This makes Fortune significantly easier on Ex/EuEx.
# Your height is halved, making it useful in areas with low cover such as Strut E. It also travels underneath the projectors in Hold 1 and Hold 2.
# It slightly increases the size of your hitbox for setting off claymore mines, but your hitbox for being hurt by them remains the same. This means that it's possible to set off a mine but not actually be hit by them (e.g. Strut A roof after Fortune - dodging the claymore is possible without the box, but is easier with it).

* Roll/cartwheel tricks

# You can roll up or down about 4 steps of stairs with Snake.
# You can cartwheel down stairs with Raiden significantly faster than running.
# Raiden can cross gaps (e.g. Shell 1-2 Connecting Bridge after Harrier) with his cartwheel.
# Roll/cartwheel is about the same speed as running, but it is faster at first and slower at the end. In some situations you can cartwheel into an enemy's line of sight so they see you earlier, and (e.g. Raiden Sneaking 2) notice you rather than alert. In others you can use it to reach the side of an enemy as they turn towards you (e.g. Raiden Sneaking 5).
# Use roll/cartwheel to travel forward in situations where the game would normally force you to stop (e.g. Strut D-E Connecting Bridge when called by Deepthroat). You can also use it as a buffer to equip a new item/weapon without stopping.

=== Misc ===

* Quick bomb freeze

If you are at an angle (e.g. facing near the side of the bomb), the coolant will sometimes affect more than one point on it, and freeze it in half the time.

* Quick elevator summon

The elevator trick from MGS1 is also in MGS2, but isn't quite as quick. Press the button to summon the elevator twice, and the doors will open about two seconds later.

If you're unlucky, this can be slower than normal play - occasionally the doors will open immediately the first time you press the button.

* Answer codec calls manually

Some mandatory (the icon appears red rather than blue) codec calls force you to stop. You can answer the call immediately with Select and save about a second.

This can also give you a head start in some areas (e.g. in Arsenal Gear as X-Raiden, if you answer Campbell at the start immediately, you can run along the south wall and change the first Tengu from what would normally be an Alert, to a notice).

* Skip some codec calls and cutscenes

You can avoid Rose's codec calls that usually appear on the first time through Strut F-E Connecting Bridge and Shell 1 Core 1F by being in Caution status when you enter these areas. This also works in the Engine Room to stop the door repair guard appearing.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Plant

2011-10-07T01:07:39Z

B'man: Created page with '{{contents}} == Tricks == * Elevator clip in Shell 2 Core B2 (SoL) S2CB2 is the underwater section of Plant. This SoL-only glitch lets you avoid swimming on your second visit t…'

{{contents}}

== Tricks ==

* Elevator clip in Shell 2 Core B2 (SoL)
S2CB2 is the underwater section of Plant. This SoL-only glitch lets you avoid swimming on your second visit to this area (leading to Vamp 1) and skips the first hatch opening sequence (including the Stillman cutscene).

Face the elevator call button (the easiest method, though slow, is to actually press the button), crouch and press Up to go prone, then press Triangle to press the button. You can press it a little before you go fully prone if you like. The button pressing animation causes Raiden to clip through the floor and fall onto the ceiling above the underwater section.

The first block of corridors can be walked on freely, though make sure you don't run through the walls on the left or right as that will most likely result in you getting stuck in an abyss. You can take the long corridor to get to the second block, but the quickest route is to run through the south wall and drop into the underwater section. When this happens, the controls will still be the same, but you will have limited air. Run to the south of the stairs at the west of the second block, and run north to get up them.

When you run up a flight of stairs, the game will mistakenly think you're going in the water, and will have you run down into it automatically. You'll just have to take the time hit and swim back out.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Bosses

2011-10-07T00:52:35Z

B'man: /* Rays */

{{contents}}
These strategies assume Extreme/EuExtreme difficulty. They may not work in other difficulties. In general if there's a "loop" available for a particular boss, it will be faster than other methods.

== Tanker ==

=== Olga ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx)
Olga has a loop that allows you to shoot her repeatedly shortly before her first mini-cutscene. It works by making her empty her clip, and then interrupting her reload at the front, forcing her to reload at the back later. As she shoots more rapidly in Ex/EuEx, this only works in those difficulties. In the US version of SoL, Olga often runs out to the right, making this strategy fail. All other versions have her run to the left the first time.

An Any% method is to push against the hatch, hold R1, then quickly hold R2 as well when Olga runs out, to dodge her shots. As long as she sees you, she should run back to the left firing, then move to the back.

In 100%, you will probably need both M9 bullet caches, which gives you no time to use the above strategy. You can collect the east, then middle caches, then go close to the barrier in the middle, a little to the left of the eastern set of crates. Duck here and stay still, and Olga should miss you when she runs out (some positions do leave you open, so experiment). You then want to run to the right, such that when she notices you she's already started reloading. The timing is quite hard to get right.

A riskier and less consistent method: after collecting the cache in the middle, stand behind the left side of the eastern set of crates. As Olga runs out, run out a little so that she sees you, then duck back in.

Once you've enabled the loop, move to the east fence (pick up the M9 cache at the southeast if you need them) and aim towards the back. You want the laser to be aimed a little to the right of the small gap between a horizontal and vertical set of poles in the frame Olga is hiding behind. When she is reloading, her head is here. Fire as soon as she starts reloading, then wait for her to recover and try to reload again. If your aim is a little too far to the left, you may miss if you shoot a little early. Four headshots wins.

* Free first shot
At the start of the battle, crawl and look through the gap in the crates in the middle. When Olga runs out she'll stop and look puzzled, allowing you to shoot her easily. This is fairly slow, and only works once.

* East-side firefight
The east side of the area is the best to battle Olga as she's fairly predictable, easy to get headshots, and quick to beat. The easiest way to deal with a firefight is to stand at the far east in plain sight, enter first-person, and use the L2 button to dodge her shots.

After her first mini-cutscene, she will always run to the front, giving you a chance of headshot. At the front, she will always pop her head out at the same place, but she shoots quickly, so you have to shoot her first and dodge her own shot.

At the back, she will attack from either a standing or crouched position, but you get slightly longer to dodge. In addition, if she is standing, she waits a second or so before hiding, giving you time to hit her. If you miss first time, aim at the correct spot for the next attempt, as she uses the same position a few times.

* Tarpaulin phase
In general, if a battle reaches this phase, you aren't doing it quick enough, but sometimes Olga will tire of an east-side battle early. In Ex/EuEx the tarp can't be shot off, so it's easiest to wait for a silence indicative of her getting out a grenade, and shoot blindly at her.

After hitting her once, Olga will run forward via the east side to shoot the tarp herself. This gives you ample time to hit her in the head before she does so.

=== Soldiers ===
* General strategy
The safe place in this battle is crouching behind the crate nearest to the action. There are two main methods from this point:

You can back up against the crate, and use the pop-out technique (hold Sq at the left side of the crate) in conjunction with first-person mode. This has a lot of overhead time from the pop-out/in animations, and you should make sure you let go of R1 before popping back in.

Alternatively, stay facing forward, hold R1 to go into first-person and also R2 (which has no effect at first). When you hold L1 as well, you will lean over the crate, allowing you to aim and fire. Let go of L1 to duck back into cover.

There are three types of soldier. One crosses to the west, and then fires or jumps out from that position. One stays in the east and does the same (this is the most dangerous as you can't see what they're up to). The other moves to the crate at the back (essentially the same position as you are) and fires or later throws grenades.

Take advantage of the fact that moving soldiers can't hit you. While the west/back soldiers move into position, headshot them before they get there. You have to take the east soldier out the hard way, and you should be wary of him attacking while you try to take out the other two.

Each soldier is replaced after a certain amount of time, by a soldier of the same type. If you take out the soldiers in a particular order, you can predict the order of the next wave.

Once at least three (or two in the easier difficulties) of each type of soldier have been eliminated, and no more soldiers are on the screen, three last guards will rush you. You can stay in the same position, or retreat to distance if you see it coming. Headshots will deal with these without trouble, but if you shoot the first soldier too quickly, the last one will lose his nerve and hide for a few seconds. It's quicker to wait a little.

* Instant kill (Ez/VE)
Your enemies are soldiers with the same attributes as regular soldiers. On Easy and Very Easy, just plug them with a single M9 bullet.

* Headshot on moving targets
When using Previous equip mode (this can be done with Unequip, but it is slower), lock-on and shoot a moving soldier with the USP, then use their recoil time to switch to the M9 and hit them with a headshot.

* Clear a phase quickly
If you're not aiming for no kills, you can trigger the last phase or finish the battle more quickly by killing the last soldier(s) rather than tranqing them. When tranqing, the elimination is registered when they start snoring - with a lethal weapon it's registered as soon as the killing shot hits.

== Plant ==
=== Fortune ===
* General strategy
Make sure you've got a cardboard box. With the smaller turning circle, you can run back and forth without running the risk of Raiden messing up a 180-degree turn. Stay at the far south and get into a rhythm of running to the east so Fortune shoots straight down, then turning to the west and doing the same.

* Simple dodging (Ez/VE/Nm/Hd)
On the easier difficulies Fortune only fires one shot at a time. Stand in the middle at the back, and crouch just as she fires, then stand back up once the shot has passed.

* NTSC vs PAL
In order to make up for the horrific amounts of slowdown in the NTSC (US/Jp) versions of this battle, Fortune has a different attack pattern between NTSC and PAL (Eu). Particularly, the PAL version lasts significantly longer in game time (enough that it's longer in real time despite the NTSC slowdown) as Fortune shoots about 20 more bolts at you.

=== Fatman ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx) (SoL)
* Repeated headshots
When you knock Fatman down by shooting him with the SOCOM, you can headshot him repeatedly with the M9 by abusing quick reload and auto-aim in first-person (hold R1 and L1). You can start firing shortly before he stops sliding back. You can sometimes get better accuracy by crouching and maintaining distance. You can get three headshots on harder difficulties - it is possible to win with a single knockdown on Very Easy.

=== Harrier ===
=== Vamp ===
* Loop
Vamp's loop can be triggered any time (preferably the first time...) he jumps out of the water.

First, to get to that point, hit him with an M9 headshot as fast as you can, then wait at the south near the edge of the water for him to surface. You can do a little more damage with stun grenades in the water if you like, but it's negligible.

When Vamp jumps out, edge north off the ledge so you drop into the water and grab it. This changes Vamp's behaviour so he drops and walks slowly around to investigate. Preferably you want him to go around the east, as he gets stuck a little at the west. When he gets close enough he'll take a knife and slash at your hands. Before he does this - if you're good enough, do it before he even starts - climb back out and run behind him to dodge the slash.

In this position, you can start the loop. You want to hit Vamp with two punches, delay a little, then repeat. The key is to avoid doing a three-hit combo while still being quick. If you're still up close when the attack is over, he'll try to slash you again - this is your cue to run out of range, then back in and start hitting him again.

You should aim for at least six hits per loop (perhaps less on the first loop), but it's possible to get eight.

* Critical hit
There's one point on Vamp's body that is a critical hit box - the gunshot wound in the middle of his forehead. You only get one real opportunity to hit it, and that's at the very start of the battle, if you wait for him to bow in your direction. If you use the loop above, this takes too long for the increased damage to be worth it.

* Claymores
If all else fails, you can lay Claymores on the and east and west paths, and Vamp will walk right into them while on the ground. This takes a very long time and doesn't help you with no kills.

=== Vamp 2 ===

=== Tengus ===
* Exit trigger
As soon as you reach the final phase, make sure you can go about 5 seconds without being attacked (stun grenade, for example). Press yourself against the door and then let go and go into first person. Then do a three-hit combo, and as the kick animation starts let go of R1. Differences between your position in and out of first person will push you into the exit trigger on the inside of the door, completing this battle.

* Coolant trick
This glitch works in both Sons of Liberty and Substance, but the requirements for making it work in Substance are so strict that it's not feasible for a speedrun. You should consider this an SoL-only trick.

The trick is performed in the last phase. You start by hiding behind one of the boxes at the south of this phase to lure Tengus into that area. When a Tengu approaches, spray them with coolant, and repeat this until all available Tengus are being sprayed. You now need to continue spraying the Tengus to gradually push them back, and eventually behind the box you're hiding. You may need to adjust your position (usually to move forward) at times, and you may need to quickly tranq one of the Tengus in the top level that shoots at you.

Once all Tengus are behind the box, the game should consider you out of their line of sight, and this will trigger the end of the alert phase. However, you should leg it out quick before they realise what's up, and watch out for any others on the top level.

* Phase skipping
This battle consists of a number of phases triggered as you advance further north. Most of these phases are triggered when you pass a horizontal line on the ground. When you trigger a new phase, the game assumes you've eliminated all the Tengus in the previous phase, and they become inactive. This means that theoretically you could reach the last phase without eliminating a single enemy.

=== Tengus 2 ===
=== Rays ===
* Open mouth attack
The basic way to deal damage against Ray is to attack a leg, causing it to open its mouth so a head attack will deal heavy damage.

At times (particularly shortly after a new Ray appears), Ray will do a battle cry. If you can anticipate this (there's very little time, if any, to react), you can hit them for open mouth damage with a single shot.

The simplest time to do this is at the very start of the battle. The middle, then right, then left Ray will do a battle cry, and with perfect shooting you can hit all of them. Hold R2 before the battle begins to immediately equip the Stinger, then instantly fire and then lock on to the head and move on to the one on the right to do the same (mash Square to get an instant shot). If you find it too hard to hit three, then go for the middle and left Rays.

When a Ray is on the platform with you, when close up and directly in front of them they will do a water cannon attack. You can bait this by getting close and running horizontally past their field of vision. Continue running past to dodge the attack, and you can get a free open mouth shot. Don't be too close though, as you may not be able to aim the Stinger high enough. You can also bait the water cannon after hitting a Ray, by simply standing in front of them.

=== Solidus ===
* Loop (Nm?/Hd?/Ex/EuEx)
Solidus' loop is probably the easiest in the game, it works in both phases, and can be triggered right at the beginning. However, it only works in the harder difficulties as he's a weakling and falls over easily in the others.

In the first phase, slash at Solidus with the sword and stay very close right in front of him, to tempt him to attack you back. Hold L1 to block and he will kick at you, leaving him open.

In the last phase, make sure you're facing Solidus as he dashes at you, and block his attack. If he shoulder-barges, he's open immediately. If he slashes, however, block all three strikes, slash him to knock him off balance, and run close to him to attack.

The attack you want to use is two slashes (vertical or horizontal, doesn't matter). You then want to wait a bit, and slash him again when he crosses his blades together. The timing is fairly strict, but not too difficult with practice. If you knock Solidus down with this third slash, it's too early. If he attacks through it, it's too late. If he blocks, it's just right. He'll then try another kick, which will leave him open to another two slashes.

Repeat ad infinitum.

== Substance ==
=== Gurlugon (Raiden) ===
Run up to the large collection of crates in the centre of the area, and press yourself against the south edge of the southmost crate. As soon as Gurlugon roars, edge south to dodge the blast, then pick up the book that appears. Place it on the ground in front of you, and stand there like a vending machine.

The cutscene is horrifically long, but it's still a hell of a lot faster than any other strategy.

=== Mech Genola (Snake) ===
Start by tricking Mech Genola into blowing up the left side box on the second row from the front. This is done by nearing the box, running into the searchlight and immediately taking cover behind the box. You may have to dodge when he actually fires at you. Immediately fire a Stinger at his head and collect the Chaff Grenades, then climb onto the left side box at the front. Finally, throw a Chaff Grenade into the hole where his head was.

=== Genola (MGS1 Snake) ===
Collect the Stinger and run as far left as possible. If you look to the left (don't do it in an actual attempt >_>) you can see where the wall ends (both at the end and the bottom); make a note of a point just below the bottom of the wall, and just to the right of the end of it. Look north and equip the Stinger, and lock on the target (it's behind the back wall), then quickly move your aim to the point explained above and fire. If you're still locked on and your aim is true, the missile will go through the hole in the back wall, hit the target and summon Gurlugon.

Alternatively, hit the target revolving around far above you to summon Mech Genola. This is harder to find and also difficult to hit due to the distance.

There's also the option of shooting out three of the scaffolds holding a pan above Genola's head with an assault rifle, but that takes a loooong time.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Bosses

2011-10-07T00:41:12Z

B'man: /* Tengus */

{{contents}}
These strategies assume Extreme/EuExtreme difficulty. They may not work in other difficulties. In general if there's a "loop" available for a particular boss, it will be faster than other methods.

== Tanker ==

=== Olga ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx)
Olga has a loop that allows you to shoot her repeatedly shortly before her first mini-cutscene. It works by making her empty her clip, and then interrupting her reload at the front, forcing her to reload at the back later. As she shoots more rapidly in Ex/EuEx, this only works in those difficulties. In the US version of SoL, Olga often runs out to the right, making this strategy fail. All other versions have her run to the left the first time.

An Any% method is to push against the hatch, hold R1, then quickly hold R2 as well when Olga runs out, to dodge her shots. As long as she sees you, she should run back to the left firing, then move to the back.

In 100%, you will probably need both M9 bullet caches, which gives you no time to use the above strategy. You can collect the east, then middle caches, then go close to the barrier in the middle, a little to the left of the eastern set of crates. Duck here and stay still, and Olga should miss you when she runs out (some positions do leave you open, so experiment). You then want to run to the right, such that when she notices you she's already started reloading. The timing is quite hard to get right.

A riskier and less consistent method: after collecting the cache in the middle, stand behind the left side of the eastern set of crates. As Olga runs out, run out a little so that she sees you, then duck back in.

Once you've enabled the loop, move to the east fence (pick up the M9 cache at the southeast if you need them) and aim towards the back. You want the laser to be aimed a little to the right of the small gap between a horizontal and vertical set of poles in the frame Olga is hiding behind. When she is reloading, her head is here. Fire as soon as she starts reloading, then wait for her to recover and try to reload again. If your aim is a little too far to the left, you may miss if you shoot a little early. Four headshots wins.

* Free first shot
At the start of the battle, crawl and look through the gap in the crates in the middle. When Olga runs out she'll stop and look puzzled, allowing you to shoot her easily. This is fairly slow, and only works once.

* East-side firefight
The east side of the area is the best to battle Olga as she's fairly predictable, easy to get headshots, and quick to beat. The easiest way to deal with a firefight is to stand at the far east in plain sight, enter first-person, and use the L2 button to dodge her shots.

After her first mini-cutscene, she will always run to the front, giving you a chance of headshot. At the front, she will always pop her head out at the same place, but she shoots quickly, so you have to shoot her first and dodge her own shot.

At the back, she will attack from either a standing or crouched position, but you get slightly longer to dodge. In addition, if she is standing, she waits a second or so before hiding, giving you time to hit her. If you miss first time, aim at the correct spot for the next attempt, as she uses the same position a few times.

* Tarpaulin phase
In general, if a battle reaches this phase, you aren't doing it quick enough, but sometimes Olga will tire of an east-side battle early. In Ex/EuEx the tarp can't be shot off, so it's easiest to wait for a silence indicative of her getting out a grenade, and shoot blindly at her.

After hitting her once, Olga will run forward via the east side to shoot the tarp herself. This gives you ample time to hit her in the head before she does so.

=== Soldiers ===
* General strategy
The safe place in this battle is crouching behind the crate nearest to the action. There are two main methods from this point:

You can back up against the crate, and use the pop-out technique (hold Sq at the left side of the crate) in conjunction with first-person mode. This has a lot of overhead time from the pop-out/in animations, and you should make sure you let go of R1 before popping back in.

Alternatively, stay facing forward, hold R1 to go into first-person and also R2 (which has no effect at first). When you hold L1 as well, you will lean over the crate, allowing you to aim and fire. Let go of L1 to duck back into cover.

There are three types of soldier. One crosses to the west, and then fires or jumps out from that position. One stays in the east and does the same (this is the most dangerous as you can't see what they're up to). The other moves to the crate at the back (essentially the same position as you are) and fires or later throws grenades.

Take advantage of the fact that moving soldiers can't hit you. While the west/back soldiers move into position, headshot them before they get there. You have to take the east soldier out the hard way, and you should be wary of him attacking while you try to take out the other two.

Each soldier is replaced after a certain amount of time, by a soldier of the same type. If you take out the soldiers in a particular order, you can predict the order of the next wave.

Once at least three (or two in the easier difficulties) of each type of soldier have been eliminated, and no more soldiers are on the screen, three last guards will rush you. You can stay in the same position, or retreat to distance if you see it coming. Headshots will deal with these without trouble, but if you shoot the first soldier too quickly, the last one will lose his nerve and hide for a few seconds. It's quicker to wait a little.

* Instant kill (Ez/VE)
Your enemies are soldiers with the same attributes as regular soldiers. On Easy and Very Easy, just plug them with a single M9 bullet.

* Headshot on moving targets
When using Previous equip mode (this can be done with Unequip, but it is slower), lock-on and shoot a moving soldier with the USP, then use their recoil time to switch to the M9 and hit them with a headshot.

* Clear a phase quickly
If you're not aiming for no kills, you can trigger the last phase or finish the battle more quickly by killing the last soldier(s) rather than tranqing them. When tranqing, the elimination is registered when they start snoring - with a lethal weapon it's registered as soon as the killing shot hits.

== Plant ==
=== Fortune ===
* General strategy
Make sure you've got a cardboard box. With the smaller turning circle, you can run back and forth without running the risk of Raiden messing up a 180-degree turn. Stay at the far south and get into a rhythm of running to the east so Fortune shoots straight down, then turning to the west and doing the same.

* Simple dodging (Ez/VE/Nm/Hd)
On the easier difficulies Fortune only fires one shot at a time. Stand in the middle at the back, and crouch just as she fires, then stand back up once the shot has passed.

* NTSC vs PAL
In order to make up for the horrific amounts of slowdown in the NTSC (US/Jp) versions of this battle, Fortune has a different attack pattern between NTSC and PAL (Eu). Particularly, the PAL version lasts significantly longer in game time (enough that it's longer in real time despite the NTSC slowdown) as Fortune shoots about 20 more bolts at you.

=== Fatman ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx) (SoL)
* Repeated headshots
When you knock Fatman down by shooting him with the SOCOM, you can headshot him repeatedly with the M9 by abusing quick reload and auto-aim in first-person (hold R1 and L1). You can start firing shortly before he stops sliding back. You can sometimes get better accuracy by crouching and maintaining distance. You can get three headshots on harder difficulties - it is possible to win with a single knockdown on Very Easy.

=== Harrier ===
=== Vamp ===
* Loop
Vamp's loop can be triggered any time (preferably the first time...) he jumps out of the water.

First, to get to that point, hit him with an M9 headshot as fast as you can, then wait at the south near the edge of the water for him to surface. You can do a little more damage with stun grenades in the water if you like, but it's negligible.

When Vamp jumps out, edge north off the ledge so you drop into the water and grab it. This changes Vamp's behaviour so he drops and walks slowly around to investigate. Preferably you want him to go around the east, as he gets stuck a little at the west. When he gets close enough he'll take a knife and slash at your hands. Before he does this - if you're good enough, do it before he even starts - climb back out and run behind him to dodge the slash.

In this position, you can start the loop. You want to hit Vamp with two punches, delay a little, then repeat. The key is to avoid doing a three-hit combo while still being quick. If you're still up close when the attack is over, he'll try to slash you again - this is your cue to run out of range, then back in and start hitting him again.

You should aim for at least six hits per loop (perhaps less on the first loop), but it's possible to get eight.

* Critical hit
There's one point on Vamp's body that is a critical hit box - the gunshot wound in the middle of his forehead. You only get one real opportunity to hit it, and that's at the very start of the battle, if you wait for him to bow in your direction. If you use the loop above, this takes too long for the increased damage to be worth it.

* Claymores
If all else fails, you can lay Claymores on the and east and west paths, and Vamp will walk right into them while on the ground. This takes a very long time and doesn't help you with no kills.

=== Vamp 2 ===

=== Tengus ===
* Exit trigger
As soon as you reach the final phase, make sure you can go about 5 seconds without being attacked (stun grenade, for example). Press yourself against the door and then let go and go into first person. Then do a three-hit combo, and as the kick animation starts let go of R1. Differences between your position in and out of first person will push you into the exit trigger on the inside of the door, completing this battle.

* Coolant trick
This glitch works in both Sons of Liberty and Substance, but the requirements for making it work in Substance are so strict that it's not feasible for a speedrun. You should consider this an SoL-only trick.

The trick is performed in the last phase. You start by hiding behind one of the boxes at the south of this phase to lure Tengus into that area. When a Tengu approaches, spray them with coolant, and repeat this until all available Tengus are being sprayed. You now need to continue spraying the Tengus to gradually push them back, and eventually behind the box you're hiding. You may need to adjust your position (usually to move forward) at times, and you may need to quickly tranq one of the Tengus in the top level that shoots at you.

Once all Tengus are behind the box, the game should consider you out of their line of sight, and this will trigger the end of the alert phase. However, you should leg it out quick before they realise what's up, and watch out for any others on the top level.

* Phase skipping
This battle consists of a number of phases triggered as you advance further north. Most of these phases are triggered when you pass a horizontal line on the ground. When you trigger a new phase, the game assumes you've eliminated all the Tengus in the previous phase, and they become inactive. This means that theoretically you could reach the last phase without eliminating a single enemy.

=== Tengus 2 ===
=== Rays ===
=== Solidus ===
* Loop (Nm?/Hd?/Ex/EuEx)
Solidus' loop is probably the easiest in the game, it works in both phases, and can be triggered right at the beginning. However, it only works in the harder difficulties as he's a weakling and falls over easily in the others.

In the first phase, slash at Solidus with the sword and stay very close right in front of him, to tempt him to attack you back. Hold L1 to block and he will kick at you, leaving him open.

In the last phase, make sure you're facing Solidus as he dashes at you, and block his attack. If he shoulder-barges, he's open immediately. If he slashes, however, block all three strikes, slash him to knock him off balance, and run close to him to attack.

The attack you want to use is two slashes (vertical or horizontal, doesn't matter). You then want to wait a bit, and slash him again when he crosses his blades together. The timing is fairly strict, but not too difficult with practice. If you knock Solidus down with this third slash, it's too early. If he attacks through it, it's too late. If he blocks, it's just right. He'll then try another kick, which will leave him open to another two slashes.

Repeat ad infinitum.

== Substance ==
=== Gurlugon (Raiden) ===
Run up to the large collection of crates in the centre of the area, and press yourself against the south edge of the southmost crate. As soon as Gurlugon roars, edge south to dodge the blast, then pick up the book that appears. Place it on the ground in front of you, and stand there like a vending machine.

The cutscene is horrifically long, but it's still a hell of a lot faster than any other strategy.

=== Mech Genola (Snake) ===
Start by tricking Mech Genola into blowing up the left side box on the second row from the front. This is done by nearing the box, running into the searchlight and immediately taking cover behind the box. You may have to dodge when he actually fires at you. Immediately fire a Stinger at his head and collect the Chaff Grenades, then climb onto the left side box at the front. Finally, throw a Chaff Grenade into the hole where his head was.

=== Genola (MGS1 Snake) ===
Collect the Stinger and run as far left as possible. If you look to the left (don't do it in an actual attempt >_>) you can see where the wall ends (both at the end and the bottom); make a note of a point just below the bottom of the wall, and just to the right of the end of it. Look north and equip the Stinger, and lock on the target (it's behind the back wall), then quickly move your aim to the point explained above and fire. If you're still locked on and your aim is true, the missile will go through the hole in the back wall, hit the target and summon Gurlugon.

Alternatively, hit the target revolving around far above you to summon Mech Genola. This is harder to find and also difficult to hit due to the distance.

There's also the option of shooting out three of the scaffolds holding a pan above Genola's head with an assault rifle, but that takes a loooong time.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Bosses

2011-10-07T00:35:19Z

B'man: /* Vamp 2 */ Bad info

{{contents}}
These strategies assume Extreme/EuExtreme difficulty. They may not work in other difficulties. In general if there's a "loop" available for a particular boss, it will be faster than other methods.

== Tanker ==

=== Olga ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx)
Olga has a loop that allows you to shoot her repeatedly shortly before her first mini-cutscene. It works by making her empty her clip, and then interrupting her reload at the front, forcing her to reload at the back later. As she shoots more rapidly in Ex/EuEx, this only works in those difficulties. In the US version of SoL, Olga often runs out to the right, making this strategy fail. All other versions have her run to the left the first time.

An Any% method is to push against the hatch, hold R1, then quickly hold R2 as well when Olga runs out, to dodge her shots. As long as she sees you, she should run back to the left firing, then move to the back.

In 100%, you will probably need both M9 bullet caches, which gives you no time to use the above strategy. You can collect the east, then middle caches, then go close to the barrier in the middle, a little to the left of the eastern set of crates. Duck here and stay still, and Olga should miss you when she runs out (some positions do leave you open, so experiment). You then want to run to the right, such that when she notices you she's already started reloading. The timing is quite hard to get right.

A riskier and less consistent method: after collecting the cache in the middle, stand behind the left side of the eastern set of crates. As Olga runs out, run out a little so that she sees you, then duck back in.

Once you've enabled the loop, move to the east fence (pick up the M9 cache at the southeast if you need them) and aim towards the back. You want the laser to be aimed a little to the right of the small gap between a horizontal and vertical set of poles in the frame Olga is hiding behind. When she is reloading, her head is here. Fire as soon as she starts reloading, then wait for her to recover and try to reload again. If your aim is a little too far to the left, you may miss if you shoot a little early. Four headshots wins.

* Free first shot
At the start of the battle, crawl and look through the gap in the crates in the middle. When Olga runs out she'll stop and look puzzled, allowing you to shoot her easily. This is fairly slow, and only works once.

* East-side firefight
The east side of the area is the best to battle Olga as she's fairly predictable, easy to get headshots, and quick to beat. The easiest way to deal with a firefight is to stand at the far east in plain sight, enter first-person, and use the L2 button to dodge her shots.

After her first mini-cutscene, she will always run to the front, giving you a chance of headshot. At the front, she will always pop her head out at the same place, but she shoots quickly, so you have to shoot her first and dodge her own shot.

At the back, she will attack from either a standing or crouched position, but you get slightly longer to dodge. In addition, if she is standing, she waits a second or so before hiding, giving you time to hit her. If you miss first time, aim at the correct spot for the next attempt, as she uses the same position a few times.

* Tarpaulin phase
In general, if a battle reaches this phase, you aren't doing it quick enough, but sometimes Olga will tire of an east-side battle early. In Ex/EuEx the tarp can't be shot off, so it's easiest to wait for a silence indicative of her getting out a grenade, and shoot blindly at her.

After hitting her once, Olga will run forward via the east side to shoot the tarp herself. This gives you ample time to hit her in the head before she does so.

=== Soldiers ===
* General strategy
The safe place in this battle is crouching behind the crate nearest to the action. There are two main methods from this point:

You can back up against the crate, and use the pop-out technique (hold Sq at the left side of the crate) in conjunction with first-person mode. This has a lot of overhead time from the pop-out/in animations, and you should make sure you let go of R1 before popping back in.

Alternatively, stay facing forward, hold R1 to go into first-person and also R2 (which has no effect at first). When you hold L1 as well, you will lean over the crate, allowing you to aim and fire. Let go of L1 to duck back into cover.

There are three types of soldier. One crosses to the west, and then fires or jumps out from that position. One stays in the east and does the same (this is the most dangerous as you can't see what they're up to). The other moves to the crate at the back (essentially the same position as you are) and fires or later throws grenades.

Take advantage of the fact that moving soldiers can't hit you. While the west/back soldiers move into position, headshot them before they get there. You have to take the east soldier out the hard way, and you should be wary of him attacking while you try to take out the other two.

Each soldier is replaced after a certain amount of time, by a soldier of the same type. If you take out the soldiers in a particular order, you can predict the order of the next wave.

Once at least three (or two in the easier difficulties) of each type of soldier have been eliminated, and no more soldiers are on the screen, three last guards will rush you. You can stay in the same position, or retreat to distance if you see it coming. Headshots will deal with these without trouble, but if you shoot the first soldier too quickly, the last one will lose his nerve and hide for a few seconds. It's quicker to wait a little.

* Instant kill (Ez/VE)
Your enemies are soldiers with the same attributes as regular soldiers. On Easy and Very Easy, just plug them with a single M9 bullet.

* Headshot on moving targets
When using Previous equip mode (this can be done with Unequip, but it is slower), lock-on and shoot a moving soldier with the USP, then use their recoil time to switch to the M9 and hit them with a headshot.

* Clear a phase quickly
If you're not aiming for no kills, you can trigger the last phase or finish the battle more quickly by killing the last soldier(s) rather than tranqing them. When tranqing, the elimination is registered when they start snoring - with a lethal weapon it's registered as soon as the killing shot hits.

== Plant ==
=== Fortune ===
* General strategy
Make sure you've got a cardboard box. With the smaller turning circle, you can run back and forth without running the risk of Raiden messing up a 180-degree turn. Stay at the far south and get into a rhythm of running to the east so Fortune shoots straight down, then turning to the west and doing the same.

* Simple dodging (Ez/VE/Nm/Hd)
On the easier difficulies Fortune only fires one shot at a time. Stand in the middle at the back, and crouch just as she fires, then stand back up once the shot has passed.

* NTSC vs PAL
In order to make up for the horrific amounts of slowdown in the NTSC (US/Jp) versions of this battle, Fortune has a different attack pattern between NTSC and PAL (Eu). Particularly, the PAL version lasts significantly longer in game time (enough that it's longer in real time despite the NTSC slowdown) as Fortune shoots about 20 more bolts at you.

=== Fatman ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx) (SoL)
* Repeated headshots
When you knock Fatman down by shooting him with the SOCOM, you can headshot him repeatedly with the M9 by abusing quick reload and auto-aim in first-person (hold R1 and L1). You can start firing shortly before he stops sliding back. You can sometimes get better accuracy by crouching and maintaining distance. You can get three headshots on harder difficulties - it is possible to win with a single knockdown on Very Easy.

=== Harrier ===
=== Vamp ===
* Loop
Vamp's loop can be triggered any time (preferably the first time...) he jumps out of the water.

First, to get to that point, hit him with an M9 headshot as fast as you can, then wait at the south near the edge of the water for him to surface. You can do a little more damage with stun grenades in the water if you like, but it's negligible.

When Vamp jumps out, edge north off the ledge so you drop into the water and grab it. This changes Vamp's behaviour so he drops and walks slowly around to investigate. Preferably you want him to go around the east, as he gets stuck a little at the west. When he gets close enough he'll take a knife and slash at your hands. Before he does this - if you're good enough, do it before he even starts - climb back out and run behind him to dodge the slash.

In this position, you can start the loop. You want to hit Vamp with two punches, delay a little, then repeat. The key is to avoid doing a three-hit combo while still being quick. If you're still up close when the attack is over, he'll try to slash you again - this is your cue to run out of range, then back in and start hitting him again.

You should aim for at least six hits per loop (perhaps less on the first loop), but it's possible to get eight.

* Critical hit
There's one point on Vamp's body that is a critical hit box - the gunshot wound in the middle of his forehead. You only get one real opportunity to hit it, and that's at the very start of the battle, if you wait for him to bow in your direction. If you use the loop above, this takes too long for the increased damage to be worth it.

* Claymores
If all else fails, you can lay Claymores on the and east and west paths, and Vamp will walk right into them while on the ground. This takes a very long time and doesn't help you with no kills.

=== Vamp 2 ===

=== Tengus ===
* Coolant trick
This glitch works in both Sons of Liberty and Substance, but the requirements for making it work in Substance are so strict that it's not feasible for a speedrun. You should consider this an SoL-only trick.

The trick is performed in the last phase. You start by hiding behind one of the boxes at the south of this phase to lure Tengus into that area. When a Tengu approaches, spray them with coolant, and repeat this until all available Tengus are being sprayed. You now need to continue spraying the Tengus to gradually push them back, and eventually behind the box you're hiding. You may need to adjust your position (usually to move forward) at times, and you may need to quickly tranq one of the Tengus in the top level that shoots at you.

Once all Tengus are behind the box, the game should consider you out of their line of sight, and this will trigger the end of the alert phase. However, you should leg it out quick before they realise what's up, and watch out for any others on the top level.

* Phase skipping
This battle consists of a number of phases triggered as you advance further north. Most of these phases are triggered when you pass a horizontal line on the ground. When you trigger a new phase, the game assumes you've eliminated all the Tengus in the previous phase, and they become inactive. This means that theoretically you could reach the last phase without eliminating a single enemy.

=== Tengus 2 ===
=== Rays ===
=== Solidus ===
* Loop (Nm?/Hd?/Ex/EuEx)
Solidus' loop is probably the easiest in the game, it works in both phases, and can be triggered right at the beginning. However, it only works in the harder difficulties as he's a weakling and falls over easily in the others.

In the first phase, slash at Solidus with the sword and stay very close right in front of him, to tempt him to attack you back. Hold L1 to block and he will kick at you, leaving him open.

In the last phase, make sure you're facing Solidus as he dashes at you, and block his attack. If he shoulder-barges, he's open immediately. If he slashes, however, block all three strikes, slash him to knock him off balance, and run close to him to attack.

The attack you want to use is two slashes (vertical or horizontal, doesn't matter). You then want to wait a bit, and slash him again when he crosses his blades together. The timing is fairly strict, but not too difficult with practice. If you knock Solidus down with this third slash, it's too early. If he attacks through it, it's too late. If he blocks, it's just right. He'll then try another kick, which will leave him open to another two slashes.

Repeat ad infinitum.

== Substance ==
=== Gurlugon (Raiden) ===
Run up to the large collection of crates in the centre of the area, and press yourself against the south edge of the southmost crate. As soon as Gurlugon roars, edge south to dodge the blast, then pick up the book that appears. Place it on the ground in front of you, and stand there like a vending machine.

The cutscene is horrifically long, but it's still a hell of a lot faster than any other strategy.

=== Mech Genola (Snake) ===
Start by tricking Mech Genola into blowing up the left side box on the second row from the front. This is done by nearing the box, running into the searchlight and immediately taking cover behind the box. You may have to dodge when he actually fires at you. Immediately fire a Stinger at his head and collect the Chaff Grenades, then climb onto the left side box at the front. Finally, throw a Chaff Grenade into the hole where his head was.

=== Genola (MGS1 Snake) ===
Collect the Stinger and run as far left as possible. If you look to the left (don't do it in an actual attempt >_>) you can see where the wall ends (both at the end and the bottom); make a note of a point just below the bottom of the wall, and just to the right of the end of it. Look north and equip the Stinger, and lock on the target (it's behind the back wall), then quickly move your aim to the point explained above and fire. If you're still locked on and your aim is true, the missile will go through the hole in the back wall, hit the target and summon Gurlugon.

Alternatively, hit the target revolving around far above you to summon Mech Genola. This is harder to find and also difficult to hit due to the distance.

There's also the option of shooting out three of the scaffolds holding a pan above Genola's head with an assault rifle, but that takes a loooong time.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Bosses

2011-10-07T00:34:28Z

B'man: /* Fatman */

{{contents}}
These strategies assume Extreme/EuExtreme difficulty. They may not work in other difficulties. In general if there's a "loop" available for a particular boss, it will be faster than other methods.

== Tanker ==

=== Olga ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx)
Olga has a loop that allows you to shoot her repeatedly shortly before her first mini-cutscene. It works by making her empty her clip, and then interrupting her reload at the front, forcing her to reload at the back later. As she shoots more rapidly in Ex/EuEx, this only works in those difficulties. In the US version of SoL, Olga often runs out to the right, making this strategy fail. All other versions have her run to the left the first time.

An Any% method is to push against the hatch, hold R1, then quickly hold R2 as well when Olga runs out, to dodge her shots. As long as she sees you, she should run back to the left firing, then move to the back.

In 100%, you will probably need both M9 bullet caches, which gives you no time to use the above strategy. You can collect the east, then middle caches, then go close to the barrier in the middle, a little to the left of the eastern set of crates. Duck here and stay still, and Olga should miss you when she runs out (some positions do leave you open, so experiment). You then want to run to the right, such that when she notices you she's already started reloading. The timing is quite hard to get right.

A riskier and less consistent method: after collecting the cache in the middle, stand behind the left side of the eastern set of crates. As Olga runs out, run out a little so that she sees you, then duck back in.

Once you've enabled the loop, move to the east fence (pick up the M9 cache at the southeast if you need them) and aim towards the back. You want the laser to be aimed a little to the right of the small gap between a horizontal and vertical set of poles in the frame Olga is hiding behind. When she is reloading, her head is here. Fire as soon as she starts reloading, then wait for her to recover and try to reload again. If your aim is a little too far to the left, you may miss if you shoot a little early. Four headshots wins.

* Free first shot
At the start of the battle, crawl and look through the gap in the crates in the middle. When Olga runs out she'll stop and look puzzled, allowing you to shoot her easily. This is fairly slow, and only works once.

* East-side firefight
The east side of the area is the best to battle Olga as she's fairly predictable, easy to get headshots, and quick to beat. The easiest way to deal with a firefight is to stand at the far east in plain sight, enter first-person, and use the L2 button to dodge her shots.

After her first mini-cutscene, she will always run to the front, giving you a chance of headshot. At the front, she will always pop her head out at the same place, but she shoots quickly, so you have to shoot her first and dodge her own shot.

At the back, she will attack from either a standing or crouched position, but you get slightly longer to dodge. In addition, if she is standing, she waits a second or so before hiding, giving you time to hit her. If you miss first time, aim at the correct spot for the next attempt, as she uses the same position a few times.

* Tarpaulin phase
In general, if a battle reaches this phase, you aren't doing it quick enough, but sometimes Olga will tire of an east-side battle early. In Ex/EuEx the tarp can't be shot off, so it's easiest to wait for a silence indicative of her getting out a grenade, and shoot blindly at her.

After hitting her once, Olga will run forward via the east side to shoot the tarp herself. This gives you ample time to hit her in the head before she does so.

=== Soldiers ===
* General strategy
The safe place in this battle is crouching behind the crate nearest to the action. There are two main methods from this point:

You can back up against the crate, and use the pop-out technique (hold Sq at the left side of the crate) in conjunction with first-person mode. This has a lot of overhead time from the pop-out/in animations, and you should make sure you let go of R1 before popping back in.

Alternatively, stay facing forward, hold R1 to go into first-person and also R2 (which has no effect at first). When you hold L1 as well, you will lean over the crate, allowing you to aim and fire. Let go of L1 to duck back into cover.

There are three types of soldier. One crosses to the west, and then fires or jumps out from that position. One stays in the east and does the same (this is the most dangerous as you can't see what they're up to). The other moves to the crate at the back (essentially the same position as you are) and fires or later throws grenades.

Take advantage of the fact that moving soldiers can't hit you. While the west/back soldiers move into position, headshot them before they get there. You have to take the east soldier out the hard way, and you should be wary of him attacking while you try to take out the other two.

Each soldier is replaced after a certain amount of time, by a soldier of the same type. If you take out the soldiers in a particular order, you can predict the order of the next wave.

Once at least three (or two in the easier difficulties) of each type of soldier have been eliminated, and no more soldiers are on the screen, three last guards will rush you. You can stay in the same position, or retreat to distance if you see it coming. Headshots will deal with these without trouble, but if you shoot the first soldier too quickly, the last one will lose his nerve and hide for a few seconds. It's quicker to wait a little.

* Instant kill (Ez/VE)
Your enemies are soldiers with the same attributes as regular soldiers. On Easy and Very Easy, just plug them with a single M9 bullet.

* Headshot on moving targets
When using Previous equip mode (this can be done with Unequip, but it is slower), lock-on and shoot a moving soldier with the USP, then use their recoil time to switch to the M9 and hit them with a headshot.

* Clear a phase quickly
If you're not aiming for no kills, you can trigger the last phase or finish the battle more quickly by killing the last soldier(s) rather than tranqing them. When tranqing, the elimination is registered when they start snoring - with a lethal weapon it's registered as soon as the killing shot hits.

== Plant ==
=== Fortune ===
* General strategy
Make sure you've got a cardboard box. With the smaller turning circle, you can run back and forth without running the risk of Raiden messing up a 180-degree turn. Stay at the far south and get into a rhythm of running to the east so Fortune shoots straight down, then turning to the west and doing the same.

* Simple dodging (Ez/VE/Nm/Hd)
On the easier difficulies Fortune only fires one shot at a time. Stand in the middle at the back, and crouch just as she fires, then stand back up once the shot has passed.

* NTSC vs PAL
In order to make up for the horrific amounts of slowdown in the NTSC (US/Jp) versions of this battle, Fortune has a different attack pattern between NTSC and PAL (Eu). Particularly, the PAL version lasts significantly longer in game time (enough that it's longer in real time despite the NTSC slowdown) as Fortune shoots about 20 more bolts at you.

=== Fatman ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx) (SoL)
* Repeated headshots
When you knock Fatman down by shooting him with the SOCOM, you can headshot him repeatedly with the M9 by abusing quick reload and auto-aim in first-person (hold R1 and L1). You can start firing shortly before he stops sliding back. You can sometimes get better accuracy by crouching and maintaining distance. You can get three headshots on harder difficulties - it is possible to win with a single knockdown on Very Easy.

=== Harrier ===
=== Vamp ===
* Loop
Vamp's loop can be triggered any time (preferably the first time...) he jumps out of the water.

First, to get to that point, hit him with an M9 headshot as fast as you can, then wait at the south near the edge of the water for him to surface. You can do a little more damage with stun grenades in the water if you like, but it's negligible.

When Vamp jumps out, edge north off the ledge so you drop into the water and grab it. This changes Vamp's behaviour so he drops and walks slowly around to investigate. Preferably you want him to go around the east, as he gets stuck a little at the west. When he gets close enough he'll take a knife and slash at your hands. Before he does this - if you're good enough, do it before he even starts - climb back out and run behind him to dodge the slash.

In this position, you can start the loop. You want to hit Vamp with two punches, delay a little, then repeat. The key is to avoid doing a three-hit combo while still being quick. If you're still up close when the attack is over, he'll try to slash you again - this is your cue to run out of range, then back in and start hitting him again.

You should aim for at least six hits per loop (perhaps less on the first loop), but it's possible to get eight.

* Critical hit
There's one point on Vamp's body that is a critical hit box - the gunshot wound in the middle of his forehead. You only get one real opportunity to hit it, and that's at the very start of the battle, if you wait for him to bow in your direction. If you use the loop above, this takes too long for the increased damage to be worth it.

* Claymores
If all else fails, you can lay Claymores on the and east and west paths, and Vamp will walk right into them while on the ground. This takes a very long time and doesn't help you with no kills.

=== Vamp 2 ===
Vamp does not have recoil invulnerability, and the PSG1/PSG1-T have the quickest shot speed of any weapon in the game. You know what that means.

Pick your spot (a pixel or two above Vamp's head will still hit him) and blast as fast as you can. If you're tranqing, you may need to adjust your aim after reloading in Ex/EuEx.

=== Tengus ===
* Coolant trick
This glitch works in both Sons of Liberty and Substance, but the requirements for making it work in Substance are so strict that it's not feasible for a speedrun. You should consider this an SoL-only trick.

The trick is performed in the last phase. You start by hiding behind one of the boxes at the south of this phase to lure Tengus into that area. When a Tengu approaches, spray them with coolant, and repeat this until all available Tengus are being sprayed. You now need to continue spraying the Tengus to gradually push them back, and eventually behind the box you're hiding. You may need to adjust your position (usually to move forward) at times, and you may need to quickly tranq one of the Tengus in the top level that shoots at you.

Once all Tengus are behind the box, the game should consider you out of their line of sight, and this will trigger the end of the alert phase. However, you should leg it out quick before they realise what's up, and watch out for any others on the top level.

* Phase skipping
This battle consists of a number of phases triggered as you advance further north. Most of these phases are triggered when you pass a horizontal line on the ground. When you trigger a new phase, the game assumes you've eliminated all the Tengus in the previous phase, and they become inactive. This means that theoretically you could reach the last phase without eliminating a single enemy.

=== Tengus 2 ===
=== Rays ===
=== Solidus ===
* Loop (Nm?/Hd?/Ex/EuEx)
Solidus' loop is probably the easiest in the game, it works in both phases, and can be triggered right at the beginning. However, it only works in the harder difficulties as he's a weakling and falls over easily in the others.

In the first phase, slash at Solidus with the sword and stay very close right in front of him, to tempt him to attack you back. Hold L1 to block and he will kick at you, leaving him open.

In the last phase, make sure you're facing Solidus as he dashes at you, and block his attack. If he shoulder-barges, he's open immediately. If he slashes, however, block all three strikes, slash him to knock him off balance, and run close to him to attack.

The attack you want to use is two slashes (vertical or horizontal, doesn't matter). You then want to wait a bit, and slash him again when he crosses his blades together. The timing is fairly strict, but not too difficult with practice. If you knock Solidus down with this third slash, it's too early. If he attacks through it, it's too late. If he blocks, it's just right. He'll then try another kick, which will leave him open to another two slashes.

Repeat ad infinitum.

== Substance ==
=== Gurlugon (Raiden) ===
Run up to the large collection of crates in the centre of the area, and press yourself against the south edge of the southmost crate. As soon as Gurlugon roars, edge south to dodge the blast, then pick up the book that appears. Place it on the ground in front of you, and stand there like a vending machine.

The cutscene is horrifically long, but it's still a hell of a lot faster than any other strategy.

=== Mech Genola (Snake) ===
Start by tricking Mech Genola into blowing up the left side box on the second row from the front. This is done by nearing the box, running into the searchlight and immediately taking cover behind the box. You may have to dodge when he actually fires at you. Immediately fire a Stinger at his head and collect the Chaff Grenades, then climb onto the left side box at the front. Finally, throw a Chaff Grenade into the hole where his head was.

=== Genola (MGS1 Snake) ===
Collect the Stinger and run as far left as possible. If you look to the left (don't do it in an actual attempt >_>) you can see where the wall ends (both at the end and the bottom); make a note of a point just below the bottom of the wall, and just to the right of the end of it. Look north and equip the Stinger, and lock on the target (it's behind the back wall), then quickly move your aim to the point explained above and fire. If you're still locked on and your aim is true, the missile will go through the hole in the back wall, hit the target and summon Gurlugon.

Alternatively, hit the target revolving around far above you to summon Mech Genola. This is harder to find and also difficult to hit due to the distance.

There's also the option of shooting out three of the scaffolds holding a pan above Genola's head with an assault rifle, but that takes a loooong time.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Bosses

2011-10-07T00:32:09Z

B'man: /* Olga */

{{contents}}
These strategies assume Extreme/EuExtreme difficulty. They may not work in other difficulties. In general if there's a "loop" available for a particular boss, it will be faster than other methods.

== Tanker ==

=== Olga ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx)
Olga has a loop that allows you to shoot her repeatedly shortly before her first mini-cutscene. It works by making her empty her clip, and then interrupting her reload at the front, forcing her to reload at the back later. As she shoots more rapidly in Ex/EuEx, this only works in those difficulties. In the US version of SoL, Olga often runs out to the right, making this strategy fail. All other versions have her run to the left the first time.

An Any% method is to push against the hatch, hold R1, then quickly hold R2 as well when Olga runs out, to dodge her shots. As long as she sees you, she should run back to the left firing, then move to the back.

In 100%, you will probably need both M9 bullet caches, which gives you no time to use the above strategy. You can collect the east, then middle caches, then go close to the barrier in the middle, a little to the left of the eastern set of crates. Duck here and stay still, and Olga should miss you when she runs out (some positions do leave you open, so experiment). You then want to run to the right, such that when she notices you she's already started reloading. The timing is quite hard to get right.

A riskier and less consistent method: after collecting the cache in the middle, stand behind the left side of the eastern set of crates. As Olga runs out, run out a little so that she sees you, then duck back in.

Once you've enabled the loop, move to the east fence (pick up the M9 cache at the southeast if you need them) and aim towards the back. You want the laser to be aimed a little to the right of the small gap between a horizontal and vertical set of poles in the frame Olga is hiding behind. When she is reloading, her head is here. Fire as soon as she starts reloading, then wait for her to recover and try to reload again. If your aim is a little too far to the left, you may miss if you shoot a little early. Four headshots wins.

* Free first shot
At the start of the battle, crawl and look through the gap in the crates in the middle. When Olga runs out she'll stop and look puzzled, allowing you to shoot her easily. This is fairly slow, and only works once.

* East-side firefight
The east side of the area is the best to battle Olga as she's fairly predictable, easy to get headshots, and quick to beat. The easiest way to deal with a firefight is to stand at the far east in plain sight, enter first-person, and use the L2 button to dodge her shots.

After her first mini-cutscene, she will always run to the front, giving you a chance of headshot. At the front, she will always pop her head out at the same place, but she shoots quickly, so you have to shoot her first and dodge her own shot.

At the back, she will attack from either a standing or crouched position, but you get slightly longer to dodge. In addition, if she is standing, she waits a second or so before hiding, giving you time to hit her. If you miss first time, aim at the correct spot for the next attempt, as she uses the same position a few times.

* Tarpaulin phase
In general, if a battle reaches this phase, you aren't doing it quick enough, but sometimes Olga will tire of an east-side battle early. In Ex/EuEx the tarp can't be shot off, so it's easiest to wait for a silence indicative of her getting out a grenade, and shoot blindly at her.

After hitting her once, Olga will run forward via the east side to shoot the tarp herself. This gives you ample time to hit her in the head before she does so.

=== Soldiers ===
* General strategy
The safe place in this battle is crouching behind the crate nearest to the action. There are two main methods from this point:

You can back up against the crate, and use the pop-out technique (hold Sq at the left side of the crate) in conjunction with first-person mode. This has a lot of overhead time from the pop-out/in animations, and you should make sure you let go of R1 before popping back in.

Alternatively, stay facing forward, hold R1 to go into first-person and also R2 (which has no effect at first). When you hold L1 as well, you will lean over the crate, allowing you to aim and fire. Let go of L1 to duck back into cover.

There are three types of soldier. One crosses to the west, and then fires or jumps out from that position. One stays in the east and does the same (this is the most dangerous as you can't see what they're up to). The other moves to the crate at the back (essentially the same position as you are) and fires or later throws grenades.

Take advantage of the fact that moving soldiers can't hit you. While the west/back soldiers move into position, headshot them before they get there. You have to take the east soldier out the hard way, and you should be wary of him attacking while you try to take out the other two.

Each soldier is replaced after a certain amount of time, by a soldier of the same type. If you take out the soldiers in a particular order, you can predict the order of the next wave.

Once at least three (or two in the easier difficulties) of each type of soldier have been eliminated, and no more soldiers are on the screen, three last guards will rush you. You can stay in the same position, or retreat to distance if you see it coming. Headshots will deal with these without trouble, but if you shoot the first soldier too quickly, the last one will lose his nerve and hide for a few seconds. It's quicker to wait a little.

* Instant kill (Ez/VE)
Your enemies are soldiers with the same attributes as regular soldiers. On Easy and Very Easy, just plug them with a single M9 bullet.

* Headshot on moving targets
When using Previous equip mode (this can be done with Unequip, but it is slower), lock-on and shoot a moving soldier with the USP, then use their recoil time to switch to the M9 and hit them with a headshot.

* Clear a phase quickly
If you're not aiming for no kills, you can trigger the last phase or finish the battle more quickly by killing the last soldier(s) rather than tranqing them. When tranqing, the elimination is registered when they start snoring - with a lethal weapon it's registered as soon as the killing shot hits.

== Plant ==
=== Fortune ===
* General strategy
Make sure you've got a cardboard box. With the smaller turning circle, you can run back and forth without running the risk of Raiden messing up a 180-degree turn. Stay at the far south and get into a rhythm of running to the east so Fortune shoots straight down, then turning to the west and doing the same.

* Simple dodging (Ez/VE/Nm/Hd)
On the easier difficulies Fortune only fires one shot at a time. Stand in the middle at the back, and crouch just as she fires, then stand back up once the shot has passed.

* NTSC vs PAL
In order to make up for the horrific amounts of slowdown in the NTSC (US/Jp) versions of this battle, Fortune has a different attack pattern between NTSC and PAL (Eu). Particularly, the PAL version lasts significantly longer in game time (enough that it's longer in real time despite the NTSC slowdown) as Fortune shoots about 20 more bolts at you.

=== Fatman ===
* Loop
* Repeated headshots
When you knock Fatman down by shooting him with the SOCOM, you can headshot him repeatedly with the M9 by abusing quick reload and auto-aim in first-person (hold R1 and L1). You can start firing shortly before he stops sliding back. You can sometimes get better accuracy by crouching and maintaining distance. You can get three headshots on harder difficulties - it is possible to win with a single knockdown on Very Easy.

=== Harrier ===
=== Vamp ===
* Loop
Vamp's loop can be triggered any time (preferably the first time...) he jumps out of the water.

First, to get to that point, hit him with an M9 headshot as fast as you can, then wait at the south near the edge of the water for him to surface. You can do a little more damage with stun grenades in the water if you like, but it's negligible.

When Vamp jumps out, edge north off the ledge so you drop into the water and grab it. This changes Vamp's behaviour so he drops and walks slowly around to investigate. Preferably you want him to go around the east, as he gets stuck a little at the west. When he gets close enough he'll take a knife and slash at your hands. Before he does this - if you're good enough, do it before he even starts - climb back out and run behind him to dodge the slash.

In this position, you can start the loop. You want to hit Vamp with two punches, delay a little, then repeat. The key is to avoid doing a three-hit combo while still being quick. If you're still up close when the attack is over, he'll try to slash you again - this is your cue to run out of range, then back in and start hitting him again.

You should aim for at least six hits per loop (perhaps less on the first loop), but it's possible to get eight.

* Critical hit
There's one point on Vamp's body that is a critical hit box - the gunshot wound in the middle of his forehead. You only get one real opportunity to hit it, and that's at the very start of the battle, if you wait for him to bow in your direction. If you use the loop above, this takes too long for the increased damage to be worth it.

* Claymores
If all else fails, you can lay Claymores on the and east and west paths, and Vamp will walk right into them while on the ground. This takes a very long time and doesn't help you with no kills.

=== Vamp 2 ===
Vamp does not have recoil invulnerability, and the PSG1/PSG1-T have the quickest shot speed of any weapon in the game. You know what that means.

Pick your spot (a pixel or two above Vamp's head will still hit him) and blast as fast as you can. If you're tranqing, you may need to adjust your aim after reloading in Ex/EuEx.

=== Tengus ===
* Coolant trick
This glitch works in both Sons of Liberty and Substance, but the requirements for making it work in Substance are so strict that it's not feasible for a speedrun. You should consider this an SoL-only trick.

The trick is performed in the last phase. You start by hiding behind one of the boxes at the south of this phase to lure Tengus into that area. When a Tengu approaches, spray them with coolant, and repeat this until all available Tengus are being sprayed. You now need to continue spraying the Tengus to gradually push them back, and eventually behind the box you're hiding. You may need to adjust your position (usually to move forward) at times, and you may need to quickly tranq one of the Tengus in the top level that shoots at you.

Once all Tengus are behind the box, the game should consider you out of their line of sight, and this will trigger the end of the alert phase. However, you should leg it out quick before they realise what's up, and watch out for any others on the top level.

* Phase skipping
This battle consists of a number of phases triggered as you advance further north. Most of these phases are triggered when you pass a horizontal line on the ground. When you trigger a new phase, the game assumes you've eliminated all the Tengus in the previous phase, and they become inactive. This means that theoretically you could reach the last phase without eliminating a single enemy.

=== Tengus 2 ===
=== Rays ===
=== Solidus ===
* Loop (Nm?/Hd?/Ex/EuEx)
Solidus' loop is probably the easiest in the game, it works in both phases, and can be triggered right at the beginning. However, it only works in the harder difficulties as he's a weakling and falls over easily in the others.

In the first phase, slash at Solidus with the sword and stay very close right in front of him, to tempt him to attack you back. Hold L1 to block and he will kick at you, leaving him open.

In the last phase, make sure you're facing Solidus as he dashes at you, and block his attack. If he shoulder-barges, he's open immediately. If he slashes, however, block all three strikes, slash him to knock him off balance, and run close to him to attack.

The attack you want to use is two slashes (vertical or horizontal, doesn't matter). You then want to wait a bit, and slash him again when he crosses his blades together. The timing is fairly strict, but not too difficult with practice. If you knock Solidus down with this third slash, it's too early. If he attacks through it, it's too late. If he blocks, it's just right. He'll then try another kick, which will leave him open to another two slashes.

Repeat ad infinitum.

== Substance ==
=== Gurlugon (Raiden) ===
Run up to the large collection of crates in the centre of the area, and press yourself against the south edge of the southmost crate. As soon as Gurlugon roars, edge south to dodge the blast, then pick up the book that appears. Place it on the ground in front of you, and stand there like a vending machine.

The cutscene is horrifically long, but it's still a hell of a lot faster than any other strategy.

=== Mech Genola (Snake) ===
Start by tricking Mech Genola into blowing up the left side box on the second row from the front. This is done by nearing the box, running into the searchlight and immediately taking cover behind the box. You may have to dodge when he actually fires at you. Immediately fire a Stinger at his head and collect the Chaff Grenades, then climb onto the left side box at the front. Finally, throw a Chaff Grenade into the hole where his head was.

=== Genola (MGS1 Snake) ===
Collect the Stinger and run as far left as possible. If you look to the left (don't do it in an actual attempt >_>) you can see where the wall ends (both at the end and the bottom); make a note of a point just below the bottom of the wall, and just to the right of the end of it. Look north and equip the Stinger, and lock on the target (it's behind the back wall), then quickly move your aim to the point explained above and fire. If you're still locked on and your aim is true, the missile will go through the hole in the back wall, hit the target and summon Gurlugon.

Alternatively, hit the target revolving around far above you to summon Mech Genola. This is harder to find and also difficult to hit due to the distance.

There's also the option of shooting out three of the scaffolds holding a pan above Genola's head with an assault rifle, but that takes a loooong time.

Trauma Team/Orthopedics/Episode 2

2011-08-20T08:27:15Z

B'man:

'''The Big Guy''' is Hank's first operation, and primarily an introduction to use of the scalpel (and by extension the laser).

== XS Rank Data ==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Required Score
| 9600
|-
! "All Cools" Time Limit
| 2:20.00
|}
{| class="wikitable"
! Special Bonuses
| style="background: orange" | Miss ≤ 1 times
| style="background: lightgreen" | Chain ≥ 2200
| style="background: lightgreen" | Operation completed in 150 sec
| style="background: lightgreen" | Treatment halted ≤ 2 times
|}

== Phases ==
{| class="wikitable"
! Initial state || Notes || Other screenshots
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-1.PNG|200px]] || '''1:''' No guide.
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-2.PNG|200px]] || '''2:''' Static camera, moving guide, no speed limit.
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-3.PNG|200px]] || '''3:''' Same as Phase 2.
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-4.PNG|200px]] || '''4:''' Moving camera and guide, speed limited.
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-5.PNG|200px]] || '''5:''' Same as Phase 4.
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-6.PNG|200px]] || '''6:''' Same as Phases 4 and 5. Two sections (shown right) have narrow guidelines. || [[File:Hank-2-6-2.PNG|200px]] [[File:Hank-2-6-3.PNG|200px]]
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-7.PNG|200px]] || '''7:''' 5 staples.
|}

Trauma Team

2011-08-20T07:44:47Z

B'man:

[[Category:Wii]]
[[Category:Games]]

==[[Trauma Team/Surgery|Surgery (CR-S01)]]==
* [[Trauma Team/Surgery/Episode 2|Ep.2: Frozen in Time]]
* [[Trauma Team/Surgery/Episode 3|Ep.3: Uninvited Guest]]
* [[Trauma Team/Surgery/Episode 4|Ep.4: History of Fear]]
* [[Trauma Team/Surgery/Episode 5|Ep.5: Waking From Terror]]
* [[Trauma Team/Surgery/Episode 6|Ep.6: Blade of Resolve]]
* [[Trauma Team/Surgery/Episode 7|Ep.7: Waking Heart]]
* [[Trauma Team/Finale/Episode 4|Ep.0-4: Stolen Memories]]
* [[Trauma Team/Finale/Episode 13|Ep.0-13: Twisted Rosalia]]

==[[Trauma Team/First Response|First Response (Maria Torres)]]==
* [[Trauma Team/First Response/Episode 2|Ep.2: Foul Mood]]
* [[Trauma Team/First Response/Episode 3|Ep.3: Maximum Annoyance]]
* [[Trauma Team/First Response/Episode 4|Ep.4: Mournful Hero]]
* [[Trauma Team/First Response/Episode 5|Ep.5: Hesitant Spirit]]
* [[Trauma Team/First Response/Episode 6|Ep.6: Desperate Rescue]]
* [[Trauma Team/Finale/Episode 2|Ep.0-2: So Begins Death]]
* [[Trauma Team/Finale/Episode 9|Ep.0-9: Friends]]

==[[Trauma Team/Orthopedics|Orthopedics (Hank Freebird)]]==
* [[Trauma Team/Orthopedics/Episode 2|Ep.2: The Big Guy]]
* [[Trauma Team/Orthopedics/Episode 3|Ep.3: Time For Trouble]]
* [[Trauma Team/Orthopedics/Episode 4|Ep.4: Love in the Ground]]
* [[Trauma Team/Orthopedics/Episode 5|Ep.5: Broken Heart]]
* [[Trauma Team/Orthopedics/Episode 6|Ep.6: I Want To Believe]]
* [[Trauma Team/Finale/Episode 5|Ep.0-5: Spreading Infection]]
* [[Trauma Team/Finale/Episode 8|Ep.0-8: Missing Girl]]

==[[Trauma Team/Endoscopy|Endoscopy (Tomoe Tachibana)]]==
* [[Trauma Team/Endoscopy/Episode 2|Ep.2: Insecure Smiles]]
* [[Trauma Team/Endoscopy/Episode 3|Ep.3: Moment of Zen]]
* [[Trauma Team/Endoscopy/Episode 4|Ep.4: Marionette's Lament]]
* [[Trauma Team/Endoscopy/Episode 5|Ep.5: The Healing Warrior]]
* [[Trauma Team/Endoscopy/Episode 6|Ep.6: Resolution]]
* [[Trauma Team/Finale/Episode 6|Ep.0-6: Chloe's Change]]
* [[Trauma Team/Finale/Episode 11|Ep.0-11: Despair]]
* [[Trauma Team/Finale/Episode 12|Ep.0-12: Time For Rejoicing]]

Trauma Team

2011-08-20T07:29:34Z

B'man:

==[[Trauma Team/Surgery|Surgery (CR-S01)]]==
* [[Trauma Team/Surgery/Episode 2|Ep.2: Frozen in Time]]
* [[Trauma Team/Surgery/Episode 3|Ep.3: Uninvited Guest]]
* [[Trauma Team/Surgery/Episode 4|Ep.4: History of Fear]]
* [[Trauma Team/Surgery/Episode 5|Ep.5: Waking From Terror]]
* [[Trauma Team/Surgery/Episode 6|Ep.6: Blade of Resolve]]
* [[Trauma Team/Surgery/Episode 7|Ep.7: Waking Heart]]
* [[Trauma Team/Finale/Episode 4|Ep.0-4: Stolen Memories]]
* [[Trauma Team/Finale/Episode 13|Ep.0-13: Twisted Rosalia]]

==[[Trauma Team/First Response|First Response (Maria Torres)]]==
* [[Trauma Team/First Response/Episode 2|Ep.2: Foul Mood]]
* [[Trauma Team/First Response/Episode 3|Ep.3: Maximum Annoyance]]
* [[Trauma Team/First Response/Episode 4|Ep.4: Mournful Hero]]
* [[Trauma Team/First Response/Episode 5|Ep.5: Hesitant Spirit]]
* [[Trauma Team/First Response/Episode 6|Ep.6: Desperate Rescue]]
* [[Trauma Team/Finale/Episode 2|Ep.0-2: So Begins Death]]
* [[Trauma Team/Finale/Episode 9|Ep.0-9: Friends]]

==[[Trauma Team/Orthopedics|Orthopedics (Hank Freebird)]]==
* [[Trauma Team/Orthopedics/Episode 2|Ep.2: The Big Guy]]
* [[Trauma Team/Orthopedics/Episode 3|Ep.3: Time For Trouble]]
* [[Trauma Team/Orthopedics/Episode 4|Ep.4: Love in the Ground]]
* [[Trauma Team/Orthopedics/Episode 5|Ep.5: Broken Heart]]
* [[Trauma Team/Orthopedics/Episode 6|Ep.6: I Want To Believe]]
* [[Trauma Team/Finale/Episode 5|Ep.0-5: Spreading Infection]]
* [[Trauma Team/Finale/Episode 8|Ep.0-8: Missing Girl]]

==[[Trauma Team/Endoscopy|Endoscopy (Tomoe Tachibana)]]==
* [[Trauma Team/Endoscopy/Episode 2|Ep.2: Insecure Smiles]]
* [[Trauma Team/Endoscopy/Episode 3|Ep.3: Moment of Zen]]
* [[Trauma Team/Endoscopy/Episode 4|Ep.4: Marionette's Lament]]
* [[Trauma Team/Endoscopy/Episode 5|Ep.5: The Healing Warrior]]
* [[Trauma Team/Endoscopy/Episode 6|Ep.6: Resolution]]
* [[Trauma Team/Finale/Episode 6|Ep.0-6: Chloe's Change]]
* [[Trauma Team/Finale/Episode 11|Ep.0-11: Despair]]
* [[Trauma Team/Finale/Episode 12|Ep.0-12: Time For Rejoicing]]

Trauma Team/Orthopedics/Episode 2

2011-08-20T07:22:19Z

B'man:

'''The Big Guy''' is Hank's first operation, and primarily an introduction to use of the scalpel (and by extension the laser).

== XS Rank Data ==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Required Score
| 9600
|-
! "All Cools" Time Limit
| 2:20.00
|}
{| class="wikitable"
! Special Bonuses
| style="background: orange" | Miss ≤ 1 times
| style="background: lightgreen" | Chain ≥ 2200
| style="background: lightgreen" | Operation completed in 150 sec
| style="background: lightgreen" | Treatment halted ≤ 2 times
|}

== Phases ==
{| class="wikitable"
! Initial state || Notes || Other screenshots
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-1.PNG|200px]] || '''1:''' No guide.
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-2.PNG|200px]] || '''2:''' Static camera, moving guide, no speed limit.
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-3.PNG|200px]] || '''3:''' Same as Phase 2.
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-4.PNG|200px]] || '''4:''' Moving camera and guide, speed limited.
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-5.PNG|200px]] || '''5:''' Same as Phase 4.
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-6.PNG|200px]] || '''6:''' Same as Phases 4 and 5. Two sections (shown right) have narrow guidelines. || [[File:Hank-2-6-2.PNG|200px]] [[File:Hank-2-3.PNG|200px]]
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-7.PNG|200px]] || '''7:''' 5 staples.
|}

Trauma Team/Orthopedics/Episode 2

2011-08-20T07:11:02Z

B'man: Created page with ''''The Big Guy''' is Hank's first operation, and primarily an introduction to use of the scalpel (and by extension the laser). == XS Rank Data == {| class="wikitable" |- ! Requi…'

'''The Big Guy''' is Hank's first operation, and primarily an introduction to use of the scalpel (and by extension the laser).

== XS Rank Data ==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Required Score
| 9600
|-
! "All Cools" Time Limit
| 2:20.00
|}
{| class="wikitable"
! Special Bonuses
| Miss ≤ 1 times || Chain ≥ 2200 || Operation completed in 150 sec || Treatment halted ≤ 2 times
|}

== Phases ==
{| class="wikitable"
! Initial state || Notes || Other screenshots
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-1.PNG|200px]] || '''1:''' No guide.
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-2.PNG|200px]] || '''2:''' Static camera, moving guide, no speed limit.
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-3.PNG|200px]] || '''3:''' Same as Phase 2.
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-4.PNG|200px]] || '''4:''' Moving camera and guide, speed limited.
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-5.PNG|200px]] || '''5:''' Same as Phase 4.
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-6.PNG|200px]] || '''6:''' Same as Phases 4 and 5. Two sections (shown right) have narrow guidelines. || [[File:Hank-2-6-2.PNG|200px]] [[File:Hank-2-3.PNG|200px]]
|-
| [[File:Hank-2-7.PNG|200px]] || '''7:''' 5 staples.
|}

File:Hank-2-7.PNG

2011-08-20T06:53:11Z

B'man:

File:Hank-2-6-3.PNG

2011-08-20T06:51:14Z

B'man:

File:Hank-2-6-2.PNG

2011-08-20T06:50:44Z

B'man:

File:Hank-2-1.PNG

2011-08-20T06:46:46Z

B'man:

File:Hank-2-6.PNG

2011-08-20T06:13:37Z

B'man:

File:Hank-2-5.PNG

2011-08-20T06:13:15Z

B'man:

File:Hank-2-4.PNG

2011-08-20T06:12:50Z

B'man:

File:Hank-2-3.PNG

2011-08-20T06:12:26Z

B'man:

File:Hank-2-2.PNG

2011-08-20T06:11:55Z

B'man:

Trauma Team

2011-08-20T06:09:13Z

B'man: Created page with '==Surgery (CR-S01)== * Ep.2: Frozen in Time * Ep.3: Uninvited Guest * [[Trauma Team/Su…'

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Bosses

2010-10-07T15:45:36Z

B'man:

{{contents}}
These strategies assume Extreme/EuExtreme difficulty. They may not work in other difficulties. In general if there's a "loop" available for a particular boss, it will be faster than other methods.

== Tanker ==

=== Olga ===
* Loop (Ex/EuEx)
Olga has a loop that allows you to shoot her repeatedly shortly before her first mini-cutscene. It works by making her empty her clip, forcing her to stop and reload at that point. As she shoots more rapidly in Ex/EuEx, this only works in those difficulties. In the US version of SoL, Olga often runs out to the right, making this strategy fail. All other versions have her run to the left the first time. This loop is difficult to get right.

The simplest method is to push against the hatch, hold R1, then quickly hold R2 as well when Olga runs out, to dodge her shots. As long as she sees you, she should run back to the left firing, then move to the back.

In 100%, you will probably need both M9 bullet caches, which gives you no time to use the above strategy. After collecting the cache in the middle, stand behind the left side of the eastern set of crates. As Olga runs out, run out a little so that she sees you, then duck back in. This is both riskier and less consistent.

Once you've enabled the loop, move to the east fence (pick up the M9 cache at the southeast if you need them) and aim towards the back. You want the laser to be aimed at the small gap between a horizontal and vertical set of poles in the frame Olga is hiding behind. When she is reloading, her head is here. Fire as soon as she starts reloading, then wait for her to recover and try to reload again. If your aim is a little too far to the left, you may miss if you shoot a little early. Four headshots wins.

* Free first shot
At the start of the battle, crawl and look through the gap in the crates in the middle. When Olga runs out she'll stop and look puzzled, allowing you to shoot her easily. This is fairly slow, and only works once.

* East-side firefight
The east side of the area is the best to battle Olga as she's fairly predictable, easy to get headshots, and quick to beat. The easiest way to deal with a firefight is to stand at the far east in plain sight, enter first-person, and use the L2 button to dodge her shots.

After her first mini-cutscene, she will always run to the front, giving you a chance of headshot. At the front, she will always pop her head out at the same place, but she shoots quickly, so you have to shoot her first and dodge her own shot.

At the back, she will attack from either a standing or crouched position, but you get slightly longer to dodge. In addition, if she is standing, she waits a second or so before hiding, giving you time to hit her. If you miss first time, aim at the correct spot for the next attempt, as she uses the same position a few times.

* Tarpaulin phase
In general, if a battle reaches this phase, you aren't doing it quick enough, but sometimes Olga will tire of an east-side battle early. In Ex/EuEx the tarp can't be shot off, so it's easiest to wait for a silence indicative of her getting out a grenade, and shoot blindly at her.

After hitting her once, Olga will run forward via the east side to shoot the tarp herself. This gives you ample time to hit her in the head before she does so.

=== Soldiers ===
* General strategy
The safe place in this battle is crouching behind the crate nearest to the action. There are two main methods from this point:

You can back up against the crate, and use the pop-out technique (hold Sq at the left side of the crate) in conjunction with first-person mode. This has a lot of overhead time from the pop-out/in animations, and you should make sure you let go of R1 before popping back in.

Alternatively, stay facing forward, hold R1 to go into first-person and also R2 (which has no effect at first). When you hold L1 as well, you will lean over the crate, allowing you to aim and fire. Let go of L1 to duck back into cover.

There are three types of soldier. One crosses to the west, and then fires or jumps out from that position. One stays in the east and does the same (this is the most dangerous as you can't see what they're up to). The other moves to the crate at the back (essentially the same position as you are) and fires or later throws grenades.

Take advantage of the fact that moving soldiers can't hit you. While the west/back soldiers move into position, headshot them before they get there. You have to take the east soldier out the hard way, and you should be wary of him attacking while you try to take out the other two.

Each soldier is replaced after a certain amount of time, by a soldier of the same type. If you take out the soldiers in a particular order, you can predict the order of the next wave.

Once at least three (or two in the easier difficulties) of each type of soldier have been eliminated, and no more soldiers are on the screen, three last guards will rush you. You can stay in the same position, or retreat to distance if you see it coming. Headshots will deal with these without trouble, but if you shoot the first soldier too quickly, the last one will lose his nerve and hide for a few seconds. It's quicker to wait a little.

* Instant kill (Ez/VE)
Your enemies are soldiers with the same attributes as regular soldiers. On Easy and Very Easy, just plug them with a single M9 bullet.

* Headshot on moving targets
When using Previous equip mode (this can be done with Unequip, but it is slower), lock-on and shoot a moving soldier with the USP, then use their recoil time to switch to the M9 and hit them with a headshot.

* Clear a phase quickly
If you're not aiming for no kills, you can trigger the last phase or finish the battle more quickly by killing the last soldier(s) rather than tranqing them. When tranqing, the elimination is registered when they start snoring - with a lethal weapon it's registered as soon as the killing shot hits.

== Plant ==
=== Fortune ===
* General strategy
Make sure you've got a cardboard box. With the smaller turning circle, you can run back and forth without running the risk of Raiden messing up a 180-degree turn. Stay at the far south and get into a rhythm of running to the east so Fortune shoots straight down, then turning to the west and doing the same.

* Simple dodging (Ez/VE/Nm/Hd)
On the easier difficulies Fortune only fires one shot at a time. Stand in the middle at the back, and crouch just as she fires, then stand back up once the shot has passed.

* NTSC vs PAL
In order to make up for the horrific amounts of slowdown in the NTSC (US/Jp) versions of this battle, Fortune has a different attack pattern between NTSC and PAL (Eu). Particularly, the PAL version lasts significantly longer in game time (enough that it's longer in real time despite the NTSC slowdown) as Fortune shoots about 20 more bolts at you.

=== Fatman ===
* Loop
* Repeated headshots
When you knock Fatman down by shooting him with the SOCOM, you can headshot him repeatedly with the M9 by abusing quick reload and auto-aim in first-person (hold R1 and L1). You can start firing shortly before he stops sliding back. You can sometimes get better accuracy by crouching and maintaining distance. You can get three headshots on harder difficulties - it is possible to win with a single knockdown on Very Easy.

=== Harrier ===
=== Vamp ===
* Loop
Vamp's loop can be triggered any time (preferably the first time...) he jumps out of the water.

First, to get to that point, hit him with an M9 headshot as fast as you can, then wait at the south near the edge of the water for him to surface. You can do a little more damage with stun grenades in the water if you like, but it's negligible.

When Vamp jumps out, edge north off the ledge so you drop into the water and grab it. This changes Vamp's behaviour so he drops and walks slowly around to investigate. Preferably you want him to go around the east, as he gets stuck a little at the west. When he gets close enough he'll take a knife and slash at your hands. Before he does this - if you're good enough, do it before he even starts - climb back out and run behind him to dodge the slash.

In this position, you can start the loop. You want to hit Vamp with two punches, delay a little, then repeat. The key is to avoid doing a three-hit combo while still being quick. If you're still up close when the attack is over, he'll try to slash you again - this is your cue to run out of range, then back in and start hitting him again.

You should aim for at least six hits per loop (perhaps less on the first loop), but it's possible to get eight.

* Critical hit
There's one point on Vamp's body that is a critical hit box - the gunshot wound in the middle of his forehead. You only get one real opportunity to hit it, and that's at the very start of the battle, if you wait for him to bow in your direction. If you use the loop above, this takes too long for the increased damage to be worth it.

* Claymores
If all else fails, you can lay Claymores on the and east and west paths, and Vamp will walk right into them while on the ground. This takes a very long time and doesn't help you with no kills.

=== Vamp 2 ===
Vamp does not have recoil invulnerability, and the PSG1/PSG1-T have the quickest shot speed of any weapon in the game. You know what that means.

Pick your spot (a pixel or two above Vamp's head will still hit him) and blast as fast as you can. If you're tranqing, you may need to adjust your aim after reloading in Ex/EuEx.

=== Tengus ===
* Coolant trick
This glitch works in both Sons of Liberty and Substance, but the requirements for making it work in Substance are so strict that it's not feasible for a speedrun. You should consider this an SoL-only trick.

The trick is performed in the last phase. You start by hiding behind one of the boxes at the south of this phase to lure Tengus into that area. When a Tengu approaches, spray them with coolant, and repeat this until all available Tengus are being sprayed. You now need to continue spraying the Tengus to gradually push them back, and eventually behind the box you're hiding. You may need to adjust your position (usually to move forward) at times, and you may need to quickly tranq one of the Tengus in the top level that shoots at you.

Once all Tengus are behind the box, the game should consider you out of their line of sight, and this will trigger the end of the alert phase. However, you should leg it out quick before they realise what's up, and watch out for any others on the top level.

* Phase skipping
This battle consists of a number of phases triggered as you advance further north. Most of these phases are triggered when you pass a horizontal line on the ground. When you trigger a new phase, the game assumes you've eliminated all the Tengus in the previous phase, and they become inactive. This means that theoretically you could reach the last phase without eliminating a single enemy.

=== Tengus 2 ===
=== Rays ===
=== Solidus ===
* Loop (Nm?/Hd?/Ex/EuEx)
Solidus' loop is probably the easiest in the game, it works in both phases, and can be triggered right at the beginning. However, it only works in the harder difficulties as he's a weakling and falls over easily in the others.

In the first phase, slash at Solidus with the sword and stay very close right in front of him, to tempt him to attack you back. Hold L1 to block and he will kick at you, leaving him open.

In the last phase, make sure you're facing Solidus as he dashes at you, and block his attack. If he shoulder-barges, he's open immediately. If he slashes, however, block all three strikes, slash him to knock him off balance, and run close to him to attack.

The attack you want to use is two slashes (vertical or horizontal, doesn't matter). You then want to wait a bit, and slash him again when he crosses his blades together. The timing is fairly strict, but not too difficult with practice. If you knock Solidus down with this third slash, it's too early. If he attacks through it, it's too late. If he blocks, it's just right. He'll then try another kick, which will leave him open to another two slashes.

Repeat ad infinitum.

== Substance ==
=== Gurlugon (Raiden) ===
Run up to the large collection of crates in the centre of the area, and press yourself against the south edge of the southmost crate. As soon as Gurlugon roars, edge south to dodge the blast, then pick up the book that appears. Place it on the ground in front of you, and stand there like a vending machine.

The cutscene is horrifically long, but it's still a hell of a lot faster than any other strategy.

=== Mech Genola (Snake) ===
Start by tricking Mech Genola into blowing up the left side box on the second row from the front. This is done by nearing the box, running into the searchlight and immediately taking cover behind the box. You may have to dodge when he actually fires at you. Immediately fire a Stinger at his head and collect the Chaff Grenades, then climb onto the left side box at the front. Finally, throw a Chaff Grenade into the hole where his head was.

=== Genola (MGS1 Snake) ===
Collect the Stinger and run as far left as possible. If you look to the left (don't do it in an actual attempt >_>) you can see where the wall ends (both at the end and the bottom); make a note of a point just below the bottom of the wall, and just to the right of the end of it. Look north and equip the Stinger, and lock on the target (it's behind the back wall), then quickly move your aim to the point explained above and fire. If you're still locked on and your aim is true, the missile will go through the hole in the back wall, hit the target and summon Gurlugon.

Alternatively, hit the target revolving around far above you to summon Mech Genola. This is harder to find and also difficult to hit due to the distance.

There's also the option of shooting out three of the scaffolds holding a pan above Genola's head with an assault rifle, but that takes a loooong time.

Video hosting services

2010-03-28T15:24:00Z

B'man:

'''Updated on March 28th, 2010'''

{| class="wikitable sortable" border="1"
|-
! URL !! Max Filesize/Time Limit !! Removal After !! Requires Registration !! Streaming !! Comments
|-
| http://www.veoh.com || N/A || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.archive.org || N/A || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.ourmedia.org || N/A || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.filedropper.com || 5GB || (?) || No || No ||
|-
| http://beta.vreel.net || 2GB || N/A || Yes || Yes || Very annoying ads
|-
| http://www.youtube.com || 2GB, 10:59 || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://docs.google.com || 1GB per account || N/A || Yes || No ||
|-
| http://www.megaupload.com || 1GB || N/A (when registered) || Optional || No ||
|-
| http://www.mybloop.com || 1GB || N/A || Yes || No || Files can be browsed by others (not useful for verification)
|-
| http://www.wuala.com || 1GB || N/A || Yes || No ||
|-
| http://filefront.com || 1GB || N/A || Yes || Optional ||
|-
| http://www.wegame.com || 1GB, 20 min || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://blip.tv || 1GB || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.vimeo.com || 0.5GB per week || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.spread-it.com || 0.5GB || 14 days || No || No ||
|-
| http://webfilehost.com || 0.5GB || 30 days || No || No ||
|-
| http://www.zshare.net || 0.5GB || 60 days of inactivity || Yes || No || Register for 1GB, pay for 2GB
|-
| http://rapidshare.de || 0.3GB || 30 days of inactivity || No || No ||
|-
| http://sendspace.com || 0.3GB || N/A || Optional || No ||
|-
| http://rapidshare.com || 0.2GB || 90 days of inactivity || No || No || Files are limited to 10 downloads
|-
| http://en.sevenload.com || 0.2GB || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://video.yahoo.com || 0.15GB || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.webuploads.com || 0.15GB || N/A || Optional || No ||
|-
| http://www.dailymotion.com || 0.15GB || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|}

'''URL''' is the webpage URL of the file host.

'''Maximum Filesize/Time Limit''' is the maximum size and length of the file allowed to be uploaded.

'''Removal After''' is the length of time the hosting service will keep your video on their site. Some sites have no time limit, some delete your file after a certain amount of time, and some only delete it if it hasn't been viewed in a certain amount of time.

'''Requires Registration''' indicates whether you need to register for a free account on their site before you are allowed to upload videos.

'''Streaming''' indicates whether videos are provided in a streaming format (e.g. web player) or not. If this is Yes, the video is automatically re-encoded by the site - these sites are not suitable for quality tests or run submissions. If No, the video is only available through a direct download. If listed as Optional, both options are available.

Video hosting services

2010-03-28T15:19:23Z

B'man:

'''Updated on March 28th, 2010'''

{| class="wikitable sortable" border="1"
|-
! URL !! Max Filesize/Time Limit !! Removal After !! Requires Registration !! Streaming !! Comments
|-
| http://www.veoh.com || N/A || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.archive.org || N/A || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.ourmedia.org || N/A || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.filedropper.com || 5GB || (?) || No || No ||
|-
| http://beta.vreel.net || 2GB || N/A || Yes || Yes || Very annoying ads
|-
| http://www.youtube.com || 2GB, 10:59 || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://docs.google.com || 1GB per account || N/A || Yes || No ||
|-
| http://www.megaupload.com || 1GB || N/A (when registered) || Optional || No ||
|-
| http://www.mybloop.com || 1GB || N/A || Yes || No || Files can be browsed by others (not useful for verification)
|-
| http://www.wuala.com || 1GB || N/A || Yes || No ||
|-
| http://filefront.com || 1GB || N/A || Yes || Optional ||
|-
| http://www.wegame.com || 1GB, 20 min || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://blip.tv || 1GB || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.vimeo.com || 0.5GB per week || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.spread-it.com || 0.5GB || 14 days || No || No ||
|-
| http://webfilehost.com || 0.5GB || 30 days || No || No ||
|-
| http://www.zshare.net || 0.5GB || 60 days of inactivity || Yes || No || Register for 1GB, pay for 2GB
|-
| http://rapidshare.de || 0.3GB || 30 days of inactivity || No || No ||
|-
| http://sendspace.com || 0.3GB || N/A || Optional || No ||
|-
| http://rapidshare.com || 0.2GB || 90 days of inactivity || No || No || Files are limited to 10 downloads
|-
| http://en.sevenload.com || 0.2GB || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://video.yahoo.com || 0.15GB || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.webuploads.com || 0.15GB || N/A || Optional || No ||
|-
| http://www.dailymotion.com || 0.15GB || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|}

'''URL''' is the webpage URL of the file host.

'''Maximum Filesize/Time Limit''' is the maximum size and length of the file allowed to be uploaded.

'''Removal After''' is the length of time the hosting service will keep your video on their site. Some sites have no time limit, some delete your file after a certain amount of time, and some only delete it if it hasn't been viewed in a certain amount of time.

'''Requires Registration''' indicates whether you need to register for a free account on their site before you are allowed to upload videos.

'''Streaming''' indicates whether videos are provided in a streaming format (e.g. web player) or not. If the videos are not streamed, it means that they can only be accessed with a direct link, which is handy for verification purposes. An exception to this is FileFront, where you can choose whether or not your video should be streamed.

Video hosting services

2010-03-28T15:09:12Z

B'man:

'''Updated on March 28th, 2010'''

Listed in descending order of maximum filesize.

{| class="wikitable sortable" border="1"
|-
! URL !! Max Filesize/Time Limit !! Removal After !! Requires Registration !! Streaming !! Comments
|-
| http://www.veoh.com || N/A || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.archive.org || N/A || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.ourmedia.org || N/A || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.filedropper.com || 5000MB || (?) || No || No ||
|-
| http://beta.vreel.net || 2000MB || N/A || Yes || Yes || Very annoying ads
|-
| http://docs.google.com || 1000MB per account || N/A || Yes || No ||
|-
| http://www.megaupload.com || 1000MB || N/A (when registered) || Optional || No ||
|-
| http://www.mybloop.com || 1000MB || N/A || Yes || No || Files can be browsed by others (not useful for verification)
|-
| http://www.wuala.com || 1000MB || N/A || Yes || No ||
|-
| http://filefront.com || 1000MB || N/A || Yes || Optional ||
|-
| http://www.wegame.com || 1000MB, 20 min || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.youtube.com || 2000MB, 11 min || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://blip.tv || 1000MB || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.vimeo.com || 500MB per week || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.spread-it.com || 500MB || 14 days || No || No ||
|-
| http://webfilehost.com || 500MB || 30 days || No || No ||
|-
| http://www.zshare.net || 500MB || 60 days of inactivity || Yes || No || Register for 1GB, pay for 2GB
|-
| http://rapidshare.de || 300MB || 30 days of inactivity || No || No ||
|-
| http://sendspace.com || 300MB || N/A || Optional || No ||
|-
| http://rapidshare.com || 200MB || 90 days of inactivity || No || No || Files are limited to 10 downloads
|-
| http://en.sevenload.com || 200MB || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://video.yahoo.com || 150MB || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.webuploads.com || 150MB || N/A || Optional || No ||
|-
| http://www.dailymotion.com || 150MB || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|}

'''URL''' is the webpage URL of the file host.

'''Maximum Filesize/Time Limit''' is the maximum size and length of the file allowed to be uploaded.

'''Removal After''' is the length of time the hosting service will keep your video on their site. Some sites have no time limit, some delete your file after a certain amount of time, and some only delete it if it hasn't been viewed in a certain amount of time.

'''Requires Registration''' indicates whether you need to register for a free account on their site before you are allowed to upload videos.

'''Streaming''' indicates whether videos are provided in a streaming format (e.g. web player) or not. If the videos are not streamed, it means that they can only be accessed with a direct link, which is handy for verification purposes. An exception to this is FileFront, where you can choose whether or not your video should be streamed.

Video hosting services

2010-03-28T15:08:07Z

B'man:

'''Updated on March 28th, 2010'''

Listed in descending order of maximum filesize.

{| class="wikitable sortable" border="1"
|-
! URL !! Max Filesize/Time Limit !! Removal After !! Requires Registration !! Streaming !! Comments
|-
| http://www.veoh.com || N/A | N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.archive.org || N/A || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.ourmedia.org || N/A || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.filedropper.com || 5000MB || (?) || No || No ||
|-
| http://beta.vreel.net || 2000MB || N/A || Yes || Yes || Very annoying ads
|-
| http://docs.google.com || 1000MB per account || N/A || Yes || No ||
|-
| http://www.megaupload.com || 1000MB || N/A (when registered) || Optional || No ||
|-
| http://www.mybloop.com || 1000MB || N/A || Yes || No || Files can be browsed by others (not useful for verification)
|-
| http://www.wuala.com || 1000MB || N/A || Yes || No ||
|-
| http://filefront.com || 1000MB || N/A || Yes || Optional ||
|-
| http://www.wegame.com || 1000MB, 20 min || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.youtube.com || 2000MB, 11 min || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://blip.tv || 1000MB || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.vimeo.com || 500MB per week || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.spread-it.com || 500MB || 14 days || No || No ||
|-
| http://webfilehost.com || 500MB || 30 days || No || No ||
|-
| http://www.zshare.net || 500MB || 60 days of inactivity || Yes || No || Register for 1GB, pay for 2GB
|-
| http://rapidshare.de || 300MB || 30 days of inactivity || No || No ||
|-
| http://sendspace.com || 300MB || N/A || Optional || No ||
|-
| http://rapidshare.com || 200MB || 90 days of inactivity || No || No || Files are limited to 10 downloads
|-
| http://en.sevenload.com || 200MB || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://video.yahoo.com || 150MB || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|-
| http://www.webuploads.com || 150MB || N/A || Optional || No ||
|-
| http://www.dailymotion.com || 150MB || N/A || Yes || Yes ||
|}

'''URL''' is the webpage URL of the file host.

'''Maximum Filesize/Time Limit''' is the maximum size and length of the file allowed to be uploaded.

'''Removal After''' is the length of time the hosting service will keep your video on their site. Some sites have no time limit, some delete your file after a certain amount of time, and some only delete it if it hasn't been viewed in a certain amount of time.

'''Requires Registration''' indicates whether you need to register for a free account on their site before you are allowed to upload videos.

'''Streaming''' indicates whether videos are provided in a streaming format (e.g. web player) or not. If the videos are not streamed, it means that they can only be accessed with a direct link, which is handy for verification purposes. An exception to this is FileFront, where you can choose whether or not your video should be streamed.

Video hosting services

2010-03-28T14:50:00Z

B'man:

'''Updated on April 8th, 2009'''

Listed in descending order of maximum filesize.

<table>

<tr>
<td><center>::URL::</center></td>
<td><center>::Max Filesize/
Time Limit::</center></td>
<td><center>::Removal After::</center></td>
<td><center>::Requires Registration::</center></td>
<td><center>::Streaming::</center></td>
<td><center>::Comments::</center></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://www.veoh.com</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://www.archive.org</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://www.ourmedia.org</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://www.vimeo.com</td>
<td>500MB per week</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://www.filedropper.com</td>
<td>5GB</td>
<td>(?)</td>
<td>No</td>
<td>No</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://beta.vreel.net</td>
<td>2GB</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Very annoying ads</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://docs.google.com</td>
<td>1GB per account</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>No</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://www.megaupload.com</td>
<td>1GB</td>
<td>N/A (when registered)</td>
<td>Optional</td>
<td>No</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://www.mybloop.com</td>
<td>1GB</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>No</td>
<td>Files can be browsed by others (not useful for verification)</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://www.wuala.com</td>
<td>1GB</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>No</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://filefront.com</td>
<td>1GB</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Optional</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://www.wegame.com</td>
<td>1GB, 20 min</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://www.youtube.com</td>
<td>2GB, 11 min</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://blip.tv</td>
<td>1GB</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://www.spread-it.com</td>
<td>500MB</td>
<td>14 days</td>
<td>No</td>
<td>No</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://webfilehost.com</td>
<td>500MB</td>
<td>30 days</td>
<td>No</td>
<td>No</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://www.zshare.net</td>
<td>500MB</td>
<td>60 days of inactivity</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>No</td>
<td>Register for 1GB, pay for 2GB</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://rapidshare.de</td>
<td>300MB</td>
<td>30 days of inactivity</td>
<td>No</td>
<td>No</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://sendspace.com</td>
<td>300MB</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Optional</td>
<td>No</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://rapidshare.com</td>
<td>200MB</td>
<td>90 days of inactivity</td>
<td>No</td>
<td>No</td>
<td>Files are limited to 10 downloads</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://en.sevenload.com</td>
<td>200MB</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://video.yahoo.com</td>
<td>150MB</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://www.webuploads.com</td>
<td>150MB</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Optional</td>
<td>No</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>http://www.dailymotion.com</td>
<td>150MB</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td></td>
</tr>

</table>

URL is the webpage URL of the file host.

Maximum Filesize/Time Limit is the maximum size and length of the file allowed to be uploaded.

Removal After is the length of time the hosting service will keep your video on their site. Some sites have no time limit, some delete your file after a certain amount of time, and some only delete it if it hasn't been viewed in a certain amount of time.

Requires Registration indicates whether you need to register for a free account on their site before you are allowed to upload videos.

Streaming indicates whether videos are provided in a streaming format (e.g. web player) or not. If the videos are not streamed, it means that they can only be accessed with a direct link, which is handy for verification purposes. An exception to this is FileFront, where you can choose whether or not your video should be streamed.

Glossary of terms

2010-02-13T11:44:08Z

B'man:

These are some terms that you'll see in the Knowledge Base:

* '''2D, 3D''': For our purposes, a heuristic for the presence of blinking. It is much more likely for a 2D game than a 3D game to have F1 blinking effects. Low quality versions of such games are encoded at F3 instead of F2 so that the blinking is still apparent.
* '''AAC''', '''AVC''': Advanced Audio Codec and Advanced Video Codec. Used in MP4 movies on SDA.
* '''[[Anri-chan]]''': SDA's video encoding software.
* '''AVI''': A movie container format used in the past by SDA. Contains DivX or XviD video and MP3 audio.
* '''AviSynth''': A scripting tool for editing video. Anri-chan uses it for movie production.
* '''Blinking''': Before the 32-bit era, consoles had no ability to make sprites translucent (partially transparent). Games would try to replicate the effect by flashing the sprite visible and invisible on alternating frames, or by doing similar things to produce other effects. Blinking is an issue when the frame rate is halved to F2 as the sprite will then be constantly visible or invisible. See FDP, 2D, 3D.
* '''Capture''': To record with a capture card.
* '''Codec''': A way to compress video or audio. If video was uncompressed, it would be far too massive to transmit over the Internet; thus, it is compressed with a codec. To be played back, it must be decoded with the same codec.
* '''D1, D4, etc''': Video dimensions. D1 (high resolution) in NTSC is 720x480 (DVD) or 640x480 (video file); PAL D1 is 720x576 (DVD) or 704x576 (video file). D4 (low resolution) in NTSC is 320x240; PAL is 352x288. D2 and D3 are only relevant to DVD output and are not discussed on this site.
* '''Deinterlace''': Movies on SDA use progressive scan, but most video captured from TV equipment is interlaced. Deinterlacing is the process to turn interlaced video into progressive video. If the whole video can be made by only discarding parts of the video (LQ/MQ), the process is quick. Otherwise (HQ/IQ) the video must be analysed to recreate the missing parts of the picture, which is very slow.
* '''DivX''': An older video codec. Used in AVI movies. Also see "XviD".
* '''Encode''': To compress with a codec.
* '''F1, F2, F3''': Video framerates. The number is the denominator of a fraction whose numerator is always 1. Thus, F1 is full framerate, F2 is half framerate, and F3 is third framerate. F1, F2 and F3 in NTSC are 59.94, 29.97 and 19.98 FPS, respectively, while in PAL they are 50, 25 and 50/3 (~16.666667) FPS, respectively.
* '''FDP''': Framerate Decimation Paradigm. See 2D, 3D.
* '''Field''': An interlaced frame contains half the picture for each of two consecutive frames of video. Each normal frame's share of the interlaced frame is called a field. If the frame has 480 rows of pixels, the first field will be rows 1,3,5,...,479 and the second field will be rows 2,4,6,...,480. To separate fields means to take each set of fields and put them in their own individual frames.
* '''Finalize''': A process done on DVD recorders that allows discs to be used on other equipment. Once you have finalized a disc, you cannot put anything else on it. The exception in DVD-RW, which you must format in order to write to once it has been finalized. Finalization must be done on the DVD recorder that recorded the disc.
* '''Frame''': Rather than using true motion, videos use frames, where slightly different images are shown rapidly to create the illusion of motion. Each image is called a frame.
* '''Framerate''': The rate at which frames are displayed. This is written as "x FPS," where x is the number of frames displayed each second.
* '''H.264''': An advanced video codec (AVC). Used in MP4 movies on SDA.
* '''HQ''': High quality. 2Mb/s video, 128Kb/s audio, D1, F1
* '''IQ''': Insane quality. 5Mb/s video, up to 320Kb/s audio, up to 1368x768, F1
* '''Interlaced''': When a video signal comes one field at a time - to produce two frames "laced" together into one - it is said to be interlaced. Interlacing is used in TV video to halve the amount of bandwidth used in the video signal, while only slightly harming the viewing experience. Also see "Field".
* '''LQ''': Low quality. 128Kb/s video, 64Kb/s audio, D4, F2/3
* '''MeGUI''': A tool used to encode video and audio.
* '''MQ''': Medium quality (same as normal quality). 512Kb/s video, 64Kb/s audio, D1/4, F1/2/3
* '''MP3''': An audio codec. Used in AVI movies on SDA in the past.
* '''MP4''': SDA's preferred movie container format. Contains x264 video and Nero Digital audio.
* '''MP4Box''': A command-line application for working with MP4 files. Anri-chan uses it to mux together the video and audio, but it has a lot of uses (e.g. splitting movies into 10-minute chunks for YouTube). There is a Windows GUI for it called YAMB.
* '''mvbob''': An advanced deinterlacing filter used by Anri-chan for HQ and higher movies. "Bob" filters (including LeakKernelBob, which is a quicker filter for casual use) are required to do the video rebuilding work needed to maintain the resolution and/or the frame rate of interlaced video. Because of the complexity of the work, mvbob is by far the slowest part of the video processing.
* '''Nate''': The person who handles capturing and encoding runs for SDA, as well as many other very important tasks.
* '''ND''', '''NDA''': Nero Digital Audio, the implementation of AAC used by SDA.
* '''NMF''': New Master File. Refers to an intermediate source video file in the encoding process, usually one saved after deinterlacing (to avoid slow deinterlacing during each pass for each quality of output, and to allow it to use multiple CPU cores). To maintain the video quality of the source video, the compression (if any) is lossless, meaning the NMF has a very, very high bitrate.
* '''NQ''': Normal quality (same as medium quality).
* '''Progressive Scan''': When a video signal comes whole frames at once, it is said to be progressive scan.
* '''StatID''': Station ID. A title card appearing before and after a video posted on SDA that contains the SDA logo, the runner's name, the game, type of run and official time. It is exactly 5 seconds long.
* '''Transcode''': To convert from one file format to another. Similar to "Encode", except the source is usually already encoded.
* '''VirtualDub''': A Windows tool used to encode video and audio.
* '''VirtualDub Mod''': A modification to VirtualDub that is superior in some aspects but inferior in others.
* '''x264''': The implementation of H.264 used by SDA.
* '''XQ''': X-TREME quality. 10Mb/s video, up to 320Kb/s audio, any resolution, F1.
* '''Xvid''': DivX spelled backwards. Xvid is open source and generally produces better quality video than DivX while remaining fully compatible. Used in AVI movies on SDA in the past.

Glossary of terms

2010-02-13T11:31:21Z

B'man:

These are some terms that you'll see in the Knowledge Base:

* '''2D, 3D''': For our purposes, a heuristic for the presence of blinking. It is much more likely for a 2D game than a 3D game to have F1 blinking effects. Low quality versions of such games are encoded at F3 instead of F2 so that the blinking is still apparent.
* '''AAC''', '''AVC''': Advanced Audio Codec and Advanced Video Codec. Used in MP4 movies on SDA.
* '''[[Anri-chan]]''': SDA's video encoding software.
* '''AVI''': A movie container format used by SDA. Currently used for compatibility purposes only. Contains DivX or XviD video and MP3 audio.
* '''AviSynth''': A scripting tool for editing video. Anri-chan uses it for movie production.
* '''Blinking''': Before the 32-bit era, consoles had no ability to make sprites translucent (partially transparent). Games would try to replicate the effect by flashing the sprite visible and invisible on alternating frames, or by doing similar things to produce other effects. Blinking is an issue when the frame rate is halved to F2 as the sprite will then be constantly visible or invisible.
* '''Capture''': To record with a capture card.
* '''Codec''': A way to compress video or audio. If video was uncompressed, it would be far too massive to transmit over the Internet; thus, it is compressed with a codec. To be played back, it must be decoded with the same codec.
* '''D1, D4, etc''': Video dimensions. D1 (high resolution) in NTSC is 720x480 (DVD) or 640x480 (video file); PAL D1 is 720x576 (DVD) or 704x576 (video file). D4 (low resolution) in NTSC is 320x240; PAL is 352x288. D2 and D3 are only relevant to DVD output and are not discussed on this site.
* '''Deinterlace''': Movies on SDA use progressive scan, but most video captured from TV equipment is interlaced. Deinterlacing is the process to turn interlaced video into progressive video. If the whole video can be made by only discarding parts of the video (LQ/MQ), the process is quick. Otherwise (HQ/IQ) the video must be analysed to recreate the missing parts of the picture, which is very slow.
* '''DivX''': An older video codec. Used in AVI movies. Also see "XviD".
* '''Encode''': To compress with a codec.
* '''FAAC''': Free Advanced Audio Codec, the implementation of AAC used by SDA away from Windows.
* '''F1, F2, F3''': Video framerates. The number is the denominator of a fraction whose numerator is always 1. Thus, F1 is full framerate, F2 is half framerate, and F3 is third framerate. F1, F2 and F3 in NTSC are 59.94, 29.97 and 19.98 FPS, respectively, while in PAL they are 50, 25 and 50/3 (~16.666667) FPS, respectively.
* '''FDP''': Framerate Decimation Paradigm. See 2D, 3D.
* '''Field''': An interlaced frame contains half the picture for each of two consecutive frames of video. Each normal frame's share of the interlaced frame is called a field. If the frame has 480 rows of pixels, the first field will be rows 1,3,5,...,479 and the second field will be rows 2,4,6,...,480. To separate fields means to take each set of fields and put them in their own individual frames.
* '''Finalize''': A process done on DVD recorders that allows discs to be used on other equipment. Once you have finalized a disc, you cannot put anything else on it. The exception in DVD-RW, which you must format in order to write to once it has been finalized. Finalization must be done on the DVD recorder that recorded the disc.
* '''Frame''': Rather than using true motion, videos use frames, where slightly different images are shown rapidly to create the illusion of motion. Each image is called a frame.
* '''Framerate''': The rate at which frames are displayed. This is written as "x FPS," where x is the number of frames displayed each second.
* '''H.264''': An advanced video codec (AVC). Used in MP4 movies on SDA.
* '''HQ''': High quality. 2Mb/s video, 128Kb/s audio.
* '''IQ''': Insane quality. 5Mb/s video, up to 320Kb/s audio.
* '''Interlaced''': When a video signal comes one field at a time, it is said to be interlaced. Interlacing is used in TV video to halve the amount of bandwidth used in the video signal, while only slightly harming the viewing experience. Also see "Field".
* '''LQ''': Low quality. 128Kb/s video, 64Kb/s audio.
* '''MeGUI''': A tool used to encode video and audio.
* '''MQ''': Medium quality (same as normal quality). 512Kb/s video, 64Kb/s audio.
* '''MP3''': An audio codec. Used in AVI movies on SDA.
* '''MP4''': SDA's preferred movie container format. Contains x264 video and Nero Digital or FAAC audio.
* '''MP4Box''': A command-line application for working with MP4 files. Anri-chan uses it to mux together the video and audio, but it has a lot of uses (e.g. splitting movies into 10-minute chunks for YouTube). There is a Windows GUI for it called YAMB.
* '''mvbob''': An advanced deinterlacing filter used by Anri-chan for HQ and higher movies. "Bob" filters (including LeakKernelBob, which is a quicker filter for casual use) are required to do the video rebuilding work needed to maintain the resolution and/or the frame rate of interlaced video. Because of the complexity of the work, mvbob is by far the slowest part of the video processing.
* '''Nate''': The person who handles capturing and encoding runs for SDA, as well as many other very important tasks.
* '''ND''', '''NDA''': Nero Digital Audio, the implementation of AAC used by SDA on Windows.
* '''NMF''': New Master File. Refers to an intermediate source video file in the encoding process, usually one saved after deinterlacing (to avoid slow deinterlacing during each pass for each quality of output). To maintain the video quality of the source video, the compression (if any) is lossless, meaning the NMF has a very, very high bitrate.
* '''NQ''': Normal quality (same as medium quality).
* '''Progressive Scan''': When a video signal comes whole frames at once, it is said to be progressive scan.
* '''StatID''': Station ID. A title card appearing before a run posted on SDA that contains the SDA logo, the runner's name, the game, type of run and official time. It is exactly 5 seconds long.
* '''Transcode''': To convert from one file format to another. Similar to "Encode", except the source is usually already encoded.
* '''VirtualDub''': A Windows tool used to encode video and audio.
* '''VirtualDub Mod''': A modification to VirtualDub that is superior in some aspects but inferior in others.
* '''x264''': The implementation of H.264 used by SDA.
* '''XQ''': X-TREME quality. 10Mb/s video, up to 320Kb/s audio.
* '''Xvid''': DivX spelled backwards. Xvid is open source and generally produces better quality video than DivX while remaining 100% compatible. Used in AVI movies on SDA.

DF

2010-02-13T11:20:02Z

B'man:

Note: All games played on the Game Boy Player are D4 F1 2D

If you're interested in what these D and F values actually mean, you can check out the [[Glossary of Terms]].

<table>
<tr><th align="left">Game</th><th align="left">D</th><th align="left">F</th><th align="left">nD</th></tr>
<tr><td>ActRaiser for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Adventures of Batman & Robin for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Adventures of Bayou Billy, The for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Adventures of Lolo II for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Adventures of Lolo III for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Agent Under Fire, James Bond 007 in for GCN/PS2/Xbox</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Alex Kidd in Miracle World for Sega Master System</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Alien Front Online for Dreamcast</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Alien Soldier for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Alien vs. Predator for Jaguar</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Aladdin for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Arc The Lad for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Area 51 for Xbox</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Banjo-Kazooie for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Banjo-Tooie for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Baten Kaitos Origins for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Batman for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Battletoads for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Beavis and Butthead for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Beyond Good & Evil for GCN/PS2/Xbox</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Bionic Commando for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>BioShock for Xbox 360</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Blast Corps for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Blaster Master for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Bloody Roar: Primal Fury for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Body Harvest for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Bomberman 64 for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Bomberman Hero for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Bouncer, The for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Brave Fencer Musashi for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Castle Crashers for Xbox 360</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Castlequest for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Castlevania for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Castlevania for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Castlevania: Curse of Darkness for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Castlevania: Lament of Innocence for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Castlevania II: Simon's Quest for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Chameleon Twist for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Chrono Cross for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Chrono Trigger for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Chuck Rock for Genesis/SNES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Clock Tower 3 for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Comix Zone for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Condemned: Criminal Origins for Xbox 360</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Conker's Bad Fur Day for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Contra for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Contra III: The Alien Wars for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Contra: Hard Corps for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Contra: Shattered Soldier for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Crash Bandicoot 2 for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Crazy Taxi for DC/PS2/Xbox/GCN/PC</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Crystalis for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Cybernoid: The Fighting Machine for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Dark Castle for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Dawn of Mana for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Deadly Towers for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Dead Rising for Xbox 360</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>de Blob for Wii</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Devil May Cry for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Devil May Cry 3 for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Diddy Kong Racing for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Disney's Aladdin for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Donkey Kong for Game Boy</td><td>N/A</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Donkey Kong Country for SNES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest for SNES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Donkey Kong 64 for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Donkey Konga for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>.hack//Infection Part 1 for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Dr. Mario 64 for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Dragon Quest VIII for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Duck Tales for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Duck Tales 2 for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Dynamite Headdy for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Ecco the Dolphin for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Enter The Matrix for PS2/Xbox/GCN/PC</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Faxanadu for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Felix the Cat for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Ferrari F355 Challenge for DC/PS2</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Final Fantasy II Origins for Playstation</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Final Fantasy II for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Final Fantasy III for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Final Fantasy IV: The After Years for Wii</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Final Fantasy V for SNES/PSX</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Final Fantasy VIII for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Final Fantasy IX for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Final Fantasy X-2 for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon for WII</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Final Fantasy Mystic Quest for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Final Fantasy Tactics for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn for Wii</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>F-Zero X for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>F-Zero GX for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gauntlet for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Ghosts 'n Goblins for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>God of War for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>GoldenEye 007 for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Grand Theft Auto III for PS2/PC</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Grand Theft Auto IV for PS3/360</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Goof Troop for SNES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Guardian Heroes for Saturn</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Guardian Legend, The for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gun for GCN/PS2/Xbox/PC</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gunstar Heroes for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Halo: Combat Evolved for Xbox</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>HyperZone for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Ico for PlayStation 2</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors 2 for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Jade Empire for Xbox</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Jak II for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Jaws for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Jet Force Gemini for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Jet Set Radio Future for Xbox</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Jurassic Park for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Katamari Damacy for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Kid Icarus for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Killer7 for PS2/GCN</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Kingdom Hearts for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Kingdom Hearts II for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Kirby's Adventure for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Kirby Super Star for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Legend of Mana for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga for PS3/360/Wii</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Little Nemo: The Dream Master for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Lone Ranger, The for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King, The for PS2/Xbox/GCN/PC</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Lost Planet 2 for PS3/360</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Lufia & the Fortress of Doom for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Luigi's Mansion for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Lunar: The Silver Star for Sega CD</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Magic of Scheherazade, The for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Manhunt 2 for Wii</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Marble Madness for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mario Kart 64 for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mario Kart: Double Dash!! for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mario Kart Wii for Wii</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mario Party 2 for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mario Party 4 for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mario Strikers Charged for Wii</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mass Effect 2 for Xbox 360</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge for Game Boy</td><td>N/A</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man 2 for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man 3 for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man 4 for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man 5 for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man 7 for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man 8 for PSX/Sat</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man II for Game Boy</td><td>N/A</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man Legends for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man Maverick Hunter X for PlayStation Portable</td><td>N/A</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man Powered Up for PlayStation Portable</td><td>N/A</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man: The Power Battle for GCN/PS2/Xbox</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters for GCN/PS2/Xbox</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man X for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man X2 for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man X3 for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man X4 for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man X5 for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man X6 for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man X7 for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man X8 for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mega Man X: Command Mission for PS2/GCN</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Metal Gear Solid for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Metal Slug for PSX/Wii</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Metal Slug 3 for PS2/Xbox/Wii</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Metal Slug 4 for PS2/Xbox/Wii</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Metal Slug 5 for PS2/Xbox/Wii</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Metal Slug X for PSX/Wii</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Metroid for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Metroid II: Return of Samus for Game Boy</td><td>N/A</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Metroid Prime for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Metroid Prime 2: Echoes for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for Wii</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mickey Mouse: Land of Illusion for Sega Master System</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mischief Makers for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mission: Impossible for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mission Impossible for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero for PSX/NM64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks for PS2/Xbox</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Ninja Gaiden for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Ninja Gaiden Black for Xbox</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Out of this World for SNES/Genesis/PC</td><td>D4</td><td>F3</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Paper Mario for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Parasite Eve 2 for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Perfect Dark for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F3</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Phantasy Star Online for Dreamcast</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Phantasy Star Online 3 for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Pikmin for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Pikmin 2 for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure for Genesis/SNES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Pokémon Colosseum for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Pokémon Red/Blue for Game Boy</td><td>N/A</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Pokémon Yellow for Game Boy</td><td>N/A</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Pokémon Gold/Silver for GB/GBC</td><td>N/A</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Predator 2 for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time for GCN/PS2/Xbox</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones for GCN/PS2/Xbox</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Prince of Persia: Warrior Within for GCN/PS2/Xbox</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Quackshot for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Quest 64 for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Rayman: Raving Rabbids for Wii</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Ren & Stimpy: Stimpy's Invention for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Resident Evil for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Resident Evil for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Resident Evil 0 for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Resident Evil 2 for PSX/N64</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Resident Evil 3: Nemesis for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Resident Evil 4 for GCN/WII</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Resident Evil 5 for PS3/360</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Resident Evil: Survivor for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Revenge of Shinobi for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Road Runner's Death Valley Rally for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Rogue Galaxy for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Rogue Squadron, Star Wars for Nintendo 64 (no Expansion Pak)</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Rogue Squadron, Star Wars for PC/Nintendo 64 (Expansion Pak)</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader, Star Wars for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike, Star Wars for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Rush 'n Attack for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Rygar for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Secret of Mana for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Serious Sam: Next Encounter for PS2/Xbox/GCN</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Shadow Man for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Shadow of the Colossus for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Shinobi for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Silent Hill for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Silent Hill 2 for PS2/PC/Xbox</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Silent Hill 3 for PS2/PC</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Simpsons: Hit And Run, The for PS2/Xbox/GCN/PC</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Simpsons: Road Rage, The for PS2/Xbox/GCN</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Solstice for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Sonic Adventure for DC</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Sonic Adventure DX for GCN/PC</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Sonic Adventure 2 (Battle) for DC/GCN</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Sonic the Hedgehog for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Sonic 3 & Knuckles for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Sonic 3D Blast for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Sonic Heroes for PS2/Xbox/GCN</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Soul Calibur 2 for PS2/Xbox/GCN</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Splinter Cell, Tom Clancy's for GCN/PS2/Xbox/PC</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Spyro: Year of the Dragon for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Star Fox for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F3</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Star Fox 64 for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Star Fox Adventures for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Star Fox: Assault for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Star Ocean: Till the End of Time for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Star Ocean 4 for Xbox 360</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Strider for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Super Mario 64 for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Super Mario All-Stars for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Super Mario Bros. for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Super Mario Bros. 2 for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Super Mario Bros. 3 for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Super Mario Galaxy for Wii</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Super Mario Land for Game Boy</td><td>N/A</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins for Game Boy</td><td>N/A</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Super Mario Sunshine for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Super Mario World for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island for SNES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Super Metroid for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Super Monkey Ball for PS2/Xbox/GCN</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz for Wii</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Super Smash Bros. Melee for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Syphon Filter for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Tales of Symphonia for GCN/PS2</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Tales of Vesperia for Xbox 360</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Terranigma for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>TimeSplitters 2 for PS2/Xbox/GCN</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Tomb Raider for PSX/PC</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Tomb Raider II for PSX/PC</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Tomb Raider III for PSX/PC</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Tomb Raider Anniversary for Wii/PS3/360</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 for Xbox/N64/PS2/GCN/PC</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Tony Hawk's Underground for PS2/Xbox/GCN/PC</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Tony Hawk's Underground 2 for PS2/Xbox/GCN/PC</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Toy Story for SNES/Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Trauma Center: New Blood for Wii</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Trauma Center: Second Opinion for Wii</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>True Crime: Streets of LA for PS2/Xbox/GCN/PC</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Turok: Dinosaur Hunter for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Turok 2: Seeds of Evil for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Ufouria for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Universal Studios Theme Park Adventure for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Vagrant Story for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Valkyrie Profile for PlayStation</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Valkyrie Profile 2 for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Vectorman for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Vectorman 2 for Genesis</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Wario Land: Shake It! for Wii</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>We Love Katamari for PlayStation 2</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Who Framed Roger Rabbit? for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Wii Play for Wii</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Wii Sports for Wii</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Wizards & Warriors for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Wonder Boy in Monster Land for Sega Master System</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap for Sega Master System</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Worms 3D for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F1</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Wurm: Journey to the Center of the Earth for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Yoshi's Story for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure for Wii</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Zelda, The Legend of for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Zelda II: The Adventure of Link for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Zelda: A Link to the Past, The Legend of for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Zelda: Link's Awakening, The Legend of for Game Boy</td><td>N/A</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Zelda: Link's Awakening DX, The Legend of for Game Boy Color</td><td>N/A</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Zelda: Majora's Mask, The Legend of for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F3</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The Legend of for Nintendo 64</td><td>D4</td><td>F3</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, The Legend of for Game Boy Color</td><td>N/A</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Zelda: The Wind Waker, The Legend of for GameCube</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Zelda: Twilight Princess, The Legend of for GCN/Wii</td><td>D1</td><td>F2</td><td>3D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Zen: Intergalactic Ninja for NES</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
<tr><td>Zombies Ate My Neighbors for Super Nintendo</td><td>D4</td><td>F1</td><td>2D</td></tr>
</table>

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Tanker

2009-10-13T05:26:49Z

B'man: /* Tricks */

{{contents}}
== Optimal Routes ==

=== Any% ===

* VE/Easy/Normal
# Aft Deck -> east hatch
# Deck B crew's quarters -> west stairs
# Deck C crew's quarters -> north stairs
# Deck D crew's quarters -> south stairs
# Deck E the bridge -> west hatch
# Navigational deck port side (Olga)
# Navigational deck wing -> west hatch
# Deck E the bridge -> south stairs
# Deck D crew's quarters -> north stairs
# Deck C crew's quarters -> west stairs
# Deck B crew's quarters -> east door
# Deck A crew's lounge -> downstairs east door
# Engine room -> northwest hatch
# Deck 2 port -> east hatch
# Deck 2 starboard -> south exit
# Deck 2 starboard (Soldiers)
# Hold 1 -> northwest door
# Hold 2 -> northwest door
# Hold 3 -> computer

* Hard/Extreme/EE
# Aft Deck -> west hatch
# Deck A crew's quarters -> east door
# Deck A crew's lounge -> upstairs east door
# Deck B crew's quarters -> west stairs
# Deck C crew's quarters -> north stairs
# Deck D crew's quarters -> south stairs
# Deck E the bridge -> west hatch
# Navigational deck port side (Olga)
# Navigational deck wing -> west hatch
# Deck E the bridge -> south stairs
# Deck D crew's quarters -> north stairs
# Deck C crew's quarters -> west stairs
# Deck B crew's quarters -> east door
# Deck A crew's lounge -> downstairs east door
# Engine room -> northwest hatch
# Deck 2 port -> east hatch
# Deck 2 starboard -> south exit
# Deck 2 starboard (Soldiers)
# Hold 1 -> northwest door
# Hold 2 -> northwest door
# Hold 3 -> computer

=== 100% ===

* Extreme
# Aft Deck -> west hatch
# Deck A crew's quarters -> east door
# Deck A crew's lounge -> upstairs east door
# Deck B crew's quarters -> west stairs
# Deck C crew's quarters -> north stairs
# Deck D crew's quarters -> south stairs
# Deck E the bridge -> west hatch
# Navigational deck port side (Olga)
# Navigational deck wing -> west hatch
# Deck E the bridge -> west hatch
# Navigational deck wing -> east hatch
# Deck E the bridge -> south stairs
# Deck D crew's quarters -> north stairs
# Deck C crew's quarters -> west stairs
# Deck B crew's quarters -> east door
# Deck A crew's lounge -> west hatch
# Deck A crew's quarters -> west hatch
# Aft Deck -> west hatch
# Deck A crew's quarters -> east door
# Deck A crew's lounge -> downstairs east door
# Engine room -> northwest hatch
# Deck 2 port -> east hatch
# Deck 2 starboard -> south exit
# Deck 2 starboard (Soldiers)
# Hold 1 -> upper northeast door
# Hold 2 -> upper northeast door
# Hold 3 -> southeast door
# Hold 2 -> southwest door
# Hold 1 -> northwest door
# Hold 2 -> northwest door
# Hold 3 -> computer

== Tricks ==

* Projector avoidance
Methods of dealing with the projector:
# Crawl under it (yeah, right).
# Press Tr next to the box to turn the guards around, and use the other exit.
# Equip a box to run underneath it.
# Run past, very close to the southern line of marines.

* Hold 2 progression via left side
The normal route for Hold 2 is to travel along the right side of the area. The left side has two metal boxes with marines standing very close.

While the marines are looking to the right, if you squeeze past them, you'll touch them and they'll turn clockwise to look south. As long as you don't stick around this is no problem. Alternatively, do a running hold-up and they'll lean forward enough for you to squeeze through without touching them.

* Hold 1/2 upper exits
You can make it to the upper exits with Lv.1 grip. You must have full Life.

* MARINES photo from distance
You can take the MARINES photo from the same location you would take the front-right photo from (near the computer). First, make sure that you are behind the metal box. If you look closely you should be able to see the white logo on a circular area at the left side of Ray. The box should be right in front of you while you're pointing at it. Stay zoomed out and take a photo centred on the logo.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Tanker

2009-10-13T05:25:43Z

B'man: /* Tricks */

{{contents}}
== Optimal Routes ==

=== Any% ===

* VE/Easy/Normal
# Aft Deck -> east hatch
# Deck B crew's quarters -> west stairs
# Deck C crew's quarters -> north stairs
# Deck D crew's quarters -> south stairs
# Deck E the bridge -> west hatch
# Navigational deck port side (Olga)
# Navigational deck wing -> west hatch
# Deck E the bridge -> south stairs
# Deck D crew's quarters -> north stairs
# Deck C crew's quarters -> west stairs
# Deck B crew's quarters -> east door
# Deck A crew's lounge -> downstairs east door
# Engine room -> northwest hatch
# Deck 2 port -> east hatch
# Deck 2 starboard -> south exit
# Deck 2 starboard (Soldiers)
# Hold 1 -> northwest door
# Hold 2 -> northwest door
# Hold 3 -> computer

* Hard/Extreme/EE
# Aft Deck -> west hatch
# Deck A crew's quarters -> east door
# Deck A crew's lounge -> upstairs east door
# Deck B crew's quarters -> west stairs
# Deck C crew's quarters -> north stairs
# Deck D crew's quarters -> south stairs
# Deck E the bridge -> west hatch
# Navigational deck port side (Olga)
# Navigational deck wing -> west hatch
# Deck E the bridge -> south stairs
# Deck D crew's quarters -> north stairs
# Deck C crew's quarters -> west stairs
# Deck B crew's quarters -> east door
# Deck A crew's lounge -> downstairs east door
# Engine room -> northwest hatch
# Deck 2 port -> east hatch
# Deck 2 starboard -> south exit
# Deck 2 starboard (Soldiers)
# Hold 1 -> northwest door
# Hold 2 -> northwest door
# Hold 3 -> computer

=== 100% ===

* Extreme
# Aft Deck -> west hatch
# Deck A crew's quarters -> east door
# Deck A crew's lounge -> upstairs east door
# Deck B crew's quarters -> west stairs
# Deck C crew's quarters -> north stairs
# Deck D crew's quarters -> south stairs
# Deck E the bridge -> west hatch
# Navigational deck port side (Olga)
# Navigational deck wing -> west hatch
# Deck E the bridge -> west hatch
# Navigational deck wing -> east hatch
# Deck E the bridge -> south stairs
# Deck D crew's quarters -> north stairs
# Deck C crew's quarters -> west stairs
# Deck B crew's quarters -> east door
# Deck A crew's lounge -> west hatch
# Deck A crew's quarters -> west hatch
# Aft Deck -> west hatch
# Deck A crew's quarters -> east door
# Deck A crew's lounge -> downstairs east door
# Engine room -> northwest hatch
# Deck 2 port -> east hatch
# Deck 2 starboard -> south exit
# Deck 2 starboard (Soldiers)
# Hold 1 -> upper northeast door
# Hold 2 -> upper northeast door
# Hold 3 -> southeast door
# Hold 2 -> southwest door
# Hold 1 -> northwest door
# Hold 2 -> northwest door
# Hold 3 -> computer

== Tricks ==

* Projector avoidance
Methods of dealing with the projector:
# Crawl under it (yeah, right).
# Press Tr next to the box to turn the guards around, and use the other exit.
# Equip a box to run underneath it.
# Run past, very close to the southern line of marines.

* Hold 2 progression via left side
The normal route for Hold 2 is to travel along the right side of the area. The left side has two metal boxes with marines standing very close.

If you squeeze past these guards, you'll touch them and they'll turn clockwise to look south. As long as you don't stick around this is no problem. Alternatively, do a running hold-up and they'll lean forward enough for you to squeeze through without touching them.

* Hold 1/2 upper exits
You can make it to the upper exits with Lv.1 grip. You must have full Life.

* MARINES photo from distance
You can take the MARINES photo from the same location you would take the front-right photo from (near the computer). First, make sure that you are behind the metal box. If you look closely you should be able to see the white logo on a circular area at the left side of Ray. The box should be right in front of you while you're pointing at it. Stay zoomed out and take a photo centred on the logo.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

2009-10-13T05:12:46Z

B'man: /* Enemies */

[[Category:PlayStation 2]]
[[Category:Xbox]]
[[Category:Games]]

{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/MetalGearSolid2.html}}
{{contents}}
=== Weapons ===

* Quick reload

Double-click R2 to refill your clip quickly. You can also use this to skip the end of a long firing animation (e.g. the M9, which needs a round loaded for every shot), which enables you to shoot at a faster rate. For example, if done fast enough, you can run at a guard and send them to sleep in three shots (Ex/EuEx) before they can turn around.

You receive a magazine when you run out of bullets in a clip - using quick reload stops this from happening.

* Lock-on headshots

Pressing L1 while aiming with a basic gun (M9, USP/SOCOM, M4/AK) while near an enemy (not bosses in Ex/EuEx) switches your aim to their chest. You can use this to run and shoot by holding L1, but it also simplifies aiming for headshots.

Hold Sq and R1 to aim in first person, then tap L1 to aim at the chest. Then move the aim up to the head and fire. With practice this becomes easy and quick.

* Quick equip modes

There are two quick equip modes in the Options menu - they affect what happens when you tap L2 or R2 instead of holding it. Unequip mode unequips the current item if it is equipped, and equips the last-equipped item if there is nothing equipped. This is the same behaviour as L1 and R1 in MGS1. Previous mode acts like Unequip mode if you have only equipped one item since you last had nothing equipped. Otherwise, it will switch to the last item you had equipped, meaning it will switch back-and-forth between two items repeatedly.

Unequip is the default mode. It is most useful when you expect to use a variety of items or to grab enemies without a weapon. It's also the easiest mode to use, and in general it won't do anything you don't expect it to.

Previous mode is significantly quicker, and more intuitive, than Unequip when you expect to use two items only, or when you will repeatedly switch between two. In the Tanker, where the only weapons you're likely to use are the M9 and USP, Previous is king - once you've equipped the USP, you probably won't need to enter the weapon menu again. However, in the Plant, if your second weapon is first-person - Stinger, PSG-1(T) or Coolant - techniques like quick reload will make you stop running for a short time. You can deal with this by quick-reloading during a cartwheel.

=== Enemies ===

* Knock-down tranquilize

If you shoot an enemy with a tranq dart (M9, PSG1-T) anywhere, they will fall asleep as soon as they are knocked down. Any technique will do; combo, roll, throw or grab/strangle.

* Tranq an enemy looking in your direction without stopping

When running at an enemy that is looking in your direction, wait for them to see you, then shoot them once with a USP/SOCOM/M4/AK round shortly before they fire. This normally gives you enough time to approach them, shoot them with the M9, and knock them over. If not, you can shoot them again before they finish recovering.

This only works if you selected Not Game Over If Discovered, and depending on the situation it may alert other guards.

* Daze

Shoot an enemy's blue "!"-sign and they will stand in a daze for 10 seconds (or until you attack them). The easiest way to do this is to stand a certain distance away in front of them and wait for them to walk towards you and notice you.

It is possible (though difficult) to shoot them once in a nonlethal location (lethal: head, crotch, heart), then shoot the "!" that appears quickly.

* Hold up with any weapon

Any weapon can be used to hold up an enemy. Hold Sq lightly with the M4, AK, Nikita and RGB6. Simply equip the Stinger, PSG1 and PSG1-T while looking at the enemy to hold them up.

* Scare without firing

Normally you would scare a held-up enemy by shooting them with a lethal weapon in a nonlethal area (or by shooting near them, which is faster). You can also scare them by equipping the Stinger and looking at them, or by aiming the RGB6 or Nikita at them. This can be useful if you don't have a suppressed pistol or rifle but do have one of the above weapons.

* Coolant attack

The coolant, while it has a short range, also affects a large area in front of you. It stuns an enemy for about three seconds, and can be used in stealth (the enemy acts as though they have been shot by an unseen enemy) or in battle (it affects all enemies in front of you so it is an effective close-range crowd control weapon).

=== Movement ===

* Coolant rise

While crawling, with the coolant equipped, press X to rise and immediately press R2 to unequip the coolant. You will immediately be in a standing position. The timing is quite lenient; you can press both buttons at the same time.

The trick can be used in general play (e.g. Strut A during the bomb run) when you have no weapon equipped and the coolant is your last-equipped weapon (Unequip mode), or when it is your previous weapon (Previous mode). Crawl as normal, then, when you are able to rise, tap R2 and immediately tap R2 and X together. Depending on your speed, this can be up to a second quicker than rising normally.

* Travelling with a box

Walking with a box equipped has three uses that I know of:

# You have a smaller turning circle, so you can turn 180 degrees in place while running. This makes Fortune significantly easier on Ex/EuEx.
# Your height is halved, making it useful in areas with low cover such as Strut E. It also travels underneath the projectors in Hold 1 and Hold 2.
# It slightly increases the size of your hitbox for setting off claymore mines, but your hitbox for being hurt by them remains the same. This means that it's possible to set off a mine but not actually be hit by them (e.g. Strut A roof after Fortune - dodging the claymore is possible without the box, but is easier with it).

* Roll/cartwheel tricks

# You can roll up or down about 4 steps of stairs with Snake.
# You can cartwheel down stairs with Raiden significantly faster than running.
# Raiden can cross gaps (e.g. Shell 1-2 Connecting Bridge after Harrier) with his cartwheel.
# Roll/cartwheel is about the same speed as running, but it is faster at first and slower at the end. In some situations you can cartwheel into an enemy's line of sight so they see you earlier, and (e.g. Raiden Sneaking 2) notice you rather than alert. In others you can use it to reach the side of an enemy as they turn towards you (e.g. Raiden Sneaking 5).
# Use roll/cartwheel to travel forward in situations where the game would normally force you to stop (e.g. Strut D-E Connecting Bridge when called by Deepthroat). You can also use it as a buffer to equip a new item/weapon without stopping.

=== Misc ===

* Quick bomb freeze

If you are at an angle (e.g. facing near the side of the bomb), the coolant will sometimes affect more than one point on it, and freeze it in half the time.

* Quick elevator summon

The elevator trick from MGS1 is also in MGS2, but isn't quite as quick. Press the button to summon the elevator twice, and the doors will open about two seconds later.

If you're unlucky, this can be slower than normal play - occasionally the doors will open immediately the first time you press the button.

* Answer codec calls manually

Some mandatory (the icon appears red rather than blue) codec calls force you to stop. You can answer the call immediately with Select and save about a second.

This can also give you a head start in some areas (e.g. in Arsenal Gear as X-Raiden, if you answer Campbell at the start immediately, you can run along the south wall and change the first Tengu from what would normally be an Alert, to a notice).

* Skip some codec calls and cutscenes

You can avoid Rose's codec calls that usually appear on the first time through Strut F-E Connecting Bridge and Shell 1 Core 1F by being in Caution status when you enter these areas. This also works in the Engine Room to stop the door repair guard appearing.

Video Capture Devices

2009-10-11T18:21:22Z

B'man:

Not all video capture devices are created equal. Here's a list of DVD recorders, capture cards and capture cables, along with what we know about them.

If reading this page to find out whether a specific device is good or not, take it with a grain of salt, as you would with any review. Most of these views are based on one person's experience.

See [http://hdtvlag.googlepages.com/ourtest HDTV Lag] for instructions on how to test a recorder's lag. The source PC/laptop should be connected to the recorder, and the recorder's TV set to the appropriate channel. Each F2 (25/30fps) frame of difference on the screen is 40ms (PAL) or ~33ms (NTSC). When working out the lag in ms you should use a median number - e.g. if PAL lag is 2 or 3 frames, the stated lag will be halfway between 80 and 120 (i.e. 100). Bear in mind that high definition TVs also lag, so don't test recorders using them.

Don't assume that your recorder has no lag just because you can't see any. Any digital recorder - which includes all these devices - has at least one frame of lag due to the way they work. Because lag is also dependent on the application used, it is not listed for PC capture devices.

Inputs:

'''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_aerial_plug RF]''' Analogue SD, low quality. Uses coaxial cable for audio and video. AKA "TV aerial plug", "PAL connector".

'''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_video Cmps]''' "Composite video". Analogue SD, medium quality. Uses a yellow [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA_connector RCA plug] for video and one (white) or two (white/red) RCA plugs for audio.

'''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-video SVid]''' "S-Video". Analogue SD, high quality. Uses a black [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini-DIN_connector 4-pin Mini-DIN plug] for video and RCA plugs (as Composite) for audio.

'''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCART SCART]''' Analogue SD, very high quality. Uses large rectangular connector for audio and video. AKA "Péritel", "Euroconnector". Europe only.

'''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_video Cmpn]''' "Component video". Analogue SD/HD, very high quality. Uses three (red/green/blue) RCA plugs for video and red/white RCA plugs for audio.

'''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hdmi HDMI]''' Digital SD/HD. Uses a single connector for video and audio.

'''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaxial_cable Coax]''' "Coaxial audio". Analogue, high quality. Uses a coaxial cable for audio only. Rare.

'''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOSLINK Opt]''' "Optical audio". Digital. Uses a fibre-optic cable for audio only. Rare.

Any information on devices we don't have listed, or extra info for those we do, is more than welcome. See the [http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php/topic,8811.0.html VCD List Topic] on the forum for details. In particular we need supported video modes and lag measurements (see above) for many of the DVD recorders.

==DVD Recorders==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Model/Title !! Manufacturer !! NTSC !! PAL !! PAL-60 !! SECAM !! HiDef !! Quality !! Lag (ms) !! class="unsortable" | Inputs !! class="unsortable" | Notes !! class="unsortable" | Buy
|-
| DVDR3576H || Philips || Yes || ? || ? || ? || No || ? || 0 || RF Cmps SVid || Source: [http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php/topic,9228.msg259859.html#msg259859 nate, Humorisk, Essentia] || [http://www.amazon.com/Philips-DVDR3576H-Recorder-160GB-Built/dp/B0013WM0BQ/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top US]
|-
| DVR3004 || Bush || Yes || Yes || Yes || ? || No || Good || ? || RF SCART Cmps SVid || Drive sometimes unresponsive. Occasionally bricks rewritable media. Source: [http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=409 bmn] || N/A
|-
| RDR-HXD870, 970, 1070 || Sony || Yes || Yes || Yes || ? || No || Good || 100 || RF SCART Cmps SVid || Must switch between PAL and NTSC through system menu. Cannot record, edit or erase PAL video while in NTSC mode and vice versa. Source: [http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=409 bmn] || [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-RDR-HXD870-Recorder-160GB-Freeview/dp/B000OQ7878/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1221270984&sr=8-1 UK]
|-
| ? || Presidian || Yes || ? || ? || ? || No || Average || ? || ? || Source: [http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php/topic,3191.msg61308.html#msg61308 t r i - h e x] || N/A
|-
| DVR-233-S || Pioneer || Yes || ? || ? || ? || ? || Good || ? || RF Cmps More? || Source: [http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php/topic,3191.msg61309.html#msg61309 t r i - h e x] || N/A
|-
| DVR90VF || Sylvania || Yes || ? || ? || ? || ? || ? || ? || RF Cmps SVid More? || Source: [http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php/topic,3191.msg61318.html#msg61318 grndino] || N/A
|-
| MRV660/17 || Magnavox || Yes || ? || ? || ? || ? || Good || ? || RF Cmps SVid Cmpn More? || Bricks discs. Crashes. Source: [http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php/topic,3191.msg61327.html#msg61327 Lord_VG] || N/A
|-
| DNR-ES20 || Panasonic || Yes || ? || ? || ? || No || ? || ? || RF Cmps SVid || Source: [http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php/topic,3191.msg61672.html#msg61672 Lord_VG] || N/A
|-
| DMR-ES40VS || Panasonic || Yes || ? || ? || ? || No || ? || ? || RF Cmps SVid || Source: [http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php/topic,3191.msg61925.html#msg61925 InsipidMuckyWater] || N/A
|-
| DVDR520H/00 || Philips || Yes || Yes || ? || ? || No || ? || ? || RF SCART Cmps || Source: [http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php/topic,3191.msg62089.html#msg62089 Raven75] || N/A
|-
| A30 || Andersson || ? || Yes || ? || ? || No || Good || ? || RF SCART Cmps SVid Opt || Source: [http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php/topic,3191.msg71363.html#msg71363 HidoiMidoriRyuu] || N/A
|}

==PC Video Capture Cards==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Model/Title !! Manufacturer !! NTSC !! PAL !! PAL-60 !! SECAM !! HiDef !! Quality !! class="unsortable" | Inputs !! class="unsortable" | Notes !! class="unsortable" | Buy
|-
| Intensity Pro || Blackmagic || Yes || Yes || Yes || ? || 1080i 720p || Good || Cmps Cmpn SVid HDMI || Includes lagless passthrough cloned to all outputs. Source: [http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php/topic,8811.msg245421.html#msg245421 CMiller], [http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=409 bmn] || [http://www.blackmagic-design.com/resellers/ World]
|-
| SweetSpot Video Processor || PluggedIn.tv || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || No || Good || Cmps Cmpn SVid SCART* || SCART only using custom-made cable. Source: [http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php/topic,8811.msg245517.html#msg245517 Andrew_Mills] || [http://www.pluggedin.tv/store/SweetSpot_Video_Processor.html World]
|-
|}

==PC USB Video Capture Cables==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Model/Title !! Manufacturer !! NTSC !! PAL !! PAL-60 !! SECAM !! HiDef !! Quality !! class="unsortable" | Inputs !! class="unsortable" | Notes !! class="unsortable" | Buy
|-
| Movie Capture Video Xpress USBAV-192-EF || ADS Tech || Yes || Yes || No || Yes || No || Very Bad || Cmps SVid || No drivers for Vista. Hard to get working. Unstable software. Source: [http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php/topic,8811.msg245431.html#msg245431 MortyreR45] || [http://www.amazon.com/ADS-USBAV-192-EF-Movie-Capture-Xpress/dp/B000MTUQKS US]
|-
| GameBridge AVC-1400 || Adaptec || || || || || || || || || [http://www.amazon.co.uk/2179900-Adaptec-GameBridge-AVC-1400/dp/B000DLBAFU UK]
|-
| Hi-Speed USB 2.0 DVD Creator || Belkin || || || || || || || Cmps SVid || || [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belkin-Hi-Speed-USB-2-0-Creator/dp/B00008KIUI UK]
|-
| Ez Grabber || Techgear || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || ? || Average/Good || Cmps SVid || Video mode must be changed manually, defaults to NTSC whenever the device is inserted. No audio in apps that don't recognise the video device as an audio device (e.g. DScaler). Can't capture natively at D4 (uStream.tv, Justin.tv et al). Source: [http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=409 bmn] || [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Grabber-designed-capture-source-editing/dp/B000S0QIPI UK]
|-
| Dazzle DVD Recorder || Pinnacle Systems || || || || || || || || || [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pinnacle-Systems-Dazzle-DVD-Recorder/dp/B001918NLC UK]
|}

Uplink

2009-10-04T05:17:07Z

B'man: Created page with 'Category:PC Category:Games {{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/Uplink.html}} ''Alternate title: '''Uplink: Hacker Elite''''' ==Categories== * Low% (No Awards Bad E…'

[[Category:PC]]
[[Category:Games]]

{{sda run|http://speeddemosarchive.com/Uplink.html}}

''Alternate title: '''Uplink: Hacker Elite'''''

==Categories==
* Low% (No Awards Bad Ending)
Play the game as normal until April 14. Get the email from ARC and accept their offer. As soon as you receive Revelation for the first mission, use it to complete the game as if you were doing GrandTour.

* 100% (10 Awards Bad Ending)
Follow the ARC missions, and accept Arunmor missions 2, 3 and 4 from the Mission List when they appear. Also complete Wargames and Mole...? before completing the game.

* ARC Completion
Complete the game following the ARC missions and receiving all five ARC awards.

* Arunmor Completion
Receive all five Arunmor awards. The run is complete when you receive the email congratulating you for completing CounterAttack.

==Tricks==
* Fast timer modes
Use the two fast timer modes at the top of the screen to advance time quickly. You can use this time to do tasks that aren't time sensitive, such as deleting and replying to emails, using servers with no security, completing the Wargames mission, and buying stuff.

* Button animations
Switch button animations off in the options to speed up your progression through menus.

* Keyboard shortcuts
As long as the mouse is still, use the Tab key to progress through forms. When not focused on anything, Tab will focus on the first text box.
A number of screens can be skipped through using the Enter/Return key rather than clicking the button.

==Strategies==
* InterNIC
InterNIC should be the first server in your bounce. This is because it has no security and the admin password never changes. After every hack, delete the "Admin password" and "Bounce" logs to cover your tracks.

* Early money
If you need money to buy your first pieces of software early in the game, use the Contact option in the Mission List.
If you like, you can try the "I want more money" option, but it doesn't work often.
Use "I want all the money now", and accept the mission if the client accepts. If they don't, say "No thanks" and try again.
"I want half the money now" has a higher chance of succeeding, but is normally slower in the long run as you need twice as many missions and have to deal with more emails later.
You can abandon the missions later with minimal consequence.

* Minimum-equipment bank hack
You require 15,500c of software (Log Deleter v4, Password Breaker, Proxy Disable v5) to hack a bank.
The earliest method to find a suitable target is to use "Trace a recent balance transfer" missions. Hack the provided account and look at the statements - the recipient in "Deposited [large sum] to [target]" is your new target.
If you need a higher agent level to access that mission, get caught by the International Social Security Database and hack the account (transfer money to another account) they tell you about.
Once you have a target, create a new account at the same bank, start Proxy Disable, hack the target, and transfer the cash. Make sure to delete the logs on both ends and at InterNIC.

* Mass-copying missions
You only need to copy a single file to complete mass-copy missions, though you won't receive much of the reward.

* Server takedown missions
If you have Revelation, use it instead of deleting everything and restarting. You need to copy it over, but even then it's significantly faster.

==Mission-specific Strategies==
* Wargames
In order to receive the award, you only need to access the map screen (by clicking on the empty area under the list). You can exit as soon as you see this screen.

* Mole...?
You only require the app and one data file. The two-week timer before you are contacted starts when you open the app - the data file does not need to be decrypted at this point to start the timer. When you copy the data to the file server, you only need that one data file to receive the award.