Crysis: Weapon and Enemy Guide: & Crysis: Warhead: Weapon and Enemy Guide: Guide Started: March 25, 2008 by Alan Chan (joylock @ hotmail.com) The latest version of this guide may be found at www.gamefaqs.com The Usual: This document is mine. Please don't rip it off or take credit for it. That being said, feel free to post it on any site you want, provided you a) don't make any changes to it, and b) don't charge money for it. You don't even have to get my permission to post it (as long as it remains unaltered), but it would be nice if you emailed me and let me know (joylock @ hotmail.com). However: If you do post this guide on your web site, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES REMOVE !!ANY!! PART OF IT, INCLUDING THE HEADER WITH CONTACT INFORMATION AND DISCLAIMERS. ESPECIALLY DO NOT REMOVE THE LINE "The Latest Version of This FAQ can be found at www.gamefaqs.com". Thank you. Purpose of this Guide: Despite being a fairly major release, I noticed that there aren't many FAQs written for Crysis and its stand-alone expansion pack, Warhead. So, I browsed through the game files and wrote this detailed FAQ for the game's single-player weapons and enemies. I hope you find it useful. TABLE OF CONTENTS: CRYSIS: GAME MECHANICS: - The Nanosuit WEAPONS: - Attachments - Backup Weapons - Primary Weapons - Explosive Weapons ENEMIES: - Enemy Soldiers - Enemy Vehicles - Aliens - Bosses CRYSIS WARHEAD: CRYSIS WARHEAD NEW GAME MECHANICS: CRYSIS WARHEAD NEW WEAPONS: CRYSIS WARHEAD ENEMIES: - Enemy Soldiers - Enemy Vehicles - Aliens - Bosses **************** *GAME MECHANICS* ******************************************************************************* - The damage enemies take varies based on what body part is hit: Head = 5000% Torso = 120% Body Armor = 75% Limbs = 65% Hands/Feet = 30% - The damage the player takes also varies based on where the enemy shoots them: Head = 100% Torso = 100% Body Armor = 45% Limbs = 65% Hands/Feet = 30% - Game difficulty primarily effects how quickly your health regenerates. In Normal difficulty, your health regenerates 10 units per second in Armor Mode, while on Delta difficulty your health regenerates 4 units per second in Armor Mode. Game difficulty does not seem to affect the amount of damage enemies do with their weapons, or how much health they have. - The 1.2 patch increases the damage done by the most common player-fired weapons, allowing you to kill enemy soldiers with fewer shots than in the unpatched version. The weapons mainly affected were the pistol, FY71, and SCAR (all of whom had their damage increased by around 50%). The stats and commentary in this FAQ were written for the patched version of the game. The 1.2 patch was also supposed to decrease the damage done by enemy weapons when fired at the player, but due to a programming oversight this never happens, as weapons do the exact same amount of damage whether used by the player or by enemy soldiers. As a practical result, after the patch enemies can survive fewer shots, but this also applies to the player. =============== =THE NANOSUIT:= =============================================================================== - In Crysis, you have 100 units of health, and your nanosuit will gradually regenerate any health you lose after taking damage. On Normal difficulty, health recharges at a rate of about 10 units per second in Armor Mode, and 5 units per second in all other suit modes. Note that your health recharges at a rate of only about 70% if you're moving instead of standing still. Also, if you take damage, your health recharge will be interrupted, and it'll take about a second or two before your health starts recharging again. Also note that your health regeneration rate is affected by difficulty; on Delta difficulty, you only recharge health at a rate of 4 units per second in Armor Mode, and 2 units per second in any other mode. - Besides health, you also have 100 units of suit energy, which powers the various special functions of your nanosuit. Suit energy recharges at a rate of about 20 units per second. Unlike health, suit energy recharges constantly, and won't be interrupted even if you take damage. - Additionally, your nanosuit acts as heavy body armor and significantly reduces the damage your health takes from enemy attacks. For example, while an enemy assault rifle normally does 80 damage per hit, your health will only take about 20 to 30 damage. Unfortunately, your Armor Mode shield doesn't benefit from this reduced damage, and takes full damage from enemy attacks. - Finally, your nanosuit has 4 different functional mode, each mode uses suit energy to perform a different special function. Intelligent tactical use of each of your 4 suit modes will aide you greatly throughout the game. ARMOR MODE: Armor Mode is the default mode of your nanosuit. While in Armor Mode, your suit energy serves as a "shield", and any damage you take will be subtracted from your suit energy instead of your health. Only when your suit energy is depleted by gunfire will you take direct damage to your health. Your health also regenerates twice as quickly as normal when you're in Armor Mode. Unfortunately, your Armor Mode shield actually isn't all that strong: it only lets you take 2 or 3 bullets more than you could in any other mode. For example, a single hit from an enemy assault rifle will take off 80 of your 100 units of suit energy. This is because your Armor Mode shield takes full damage from enemy attacks, instead of benefiting from your suit's damage-reducing body armor like your health does. However, 2 or 3 bullets can mean the difference between life and death. Also, your shield energy constantly regenerates, even while you're taking damage from automatic gunfire, so even after the first couple of hits, it still provide a slight, constant cushion absorbing some of the damage you're taking to your health. Armor Mode also allows you to survive attacks that would otherwise kill you (i.e. a single sniper round is normally fatal, but in Armor Mode it merely knocks out your shield and takes you down to about 50% health). STRENGTH MODE: Strength Mode, which causes your nanosuit to glow red, greatly increases your physical strength. It allows you to jump higher (with a vertical leap of more than 12 feet), punch harder, and throw objects with more force. It also lets you aim and fire your weapon much more steadily; Strength Mode causes your crosshair to drift less when you're aiming through a sniper scope, and it also reduces the bullet spread when firing an automatic weapon, especially the minigun. With Strength Mode, you can kill enemies with a single punch, or throw an object such as a barrel or crate at them for an instant kill (without strength mode, thrown objects usually only knock enemies down for several seconds). Each application of Strength Mode costs a different amount of suit energy; Jumping: 35 units per jump Throwing: 12 units per throw Melee Attacks:10 units per punch Firing: 3.5 units per shot when firing a weapon SPEED MODE: Speed Mode, which causes your suit to glow yellow, greatly increases your speed. In speed mode, you walk at the same speed you normally run. You can also run in Speed Mode, about as fast as a speeding car. Walking in Speed Mode doesn't use up suit energy at all. However, running in Speed Mode uses up suit energy, and very quickly too. You can only run for a total of about 3 seconds before your suit runs out of energy. Even with your suit energy depleted, you can still walk in Speed Mode at the same speed you normally run. Speed Mode also allows you to punch and melee attack faster, at a slight cost in suit energy per punch/melee strike. CLOAK MODE: Cloak Mode is a Predator-like cloaking device which renders you invisible to enemies. While in Cloak Mode, you can sneak past enemies without them noticing you. It even helps you escape from enemies who are already alerted to your presence and firing at you (although enemies will still occasionally spray wildly at your previous known position or chuck a frag grenade at the place where they last saw you). Cloak Mode constantly uses up suit energy; the rate at which it uses up energy depends on how fast you're moving. When standing still, the cloak uses up 1 unit of energy every 2 seconds, allowing you to remain cloaked for almost a minute and a half. When walking normally, you use up more than 9 units per second, allowing you to move for about 10 seconds before decloaking. To reduce the cloak's power consumption, try moving slowly while crouched. When your suit energy is reduced to about 10 units, Cloak Mode automatically shuts off, and the suit defaults back to Armor Mode. The cloak is very good, but not perfect. It emits a slight buzzing sound, and you still cast a shadow on the ground. Functionally, enemies will be able to notice you if you're standing about a dozen feet away from them. If you fire your weapon or perform an attack while in Cloak Mode, your suit energy will automatically drop to 0, and you'll be booted back into Armor Mode and forced to dive for cover from all the enemy soldiers who can suddenly see and shoot at you. A much better strategy is to manually switch to Armor Mode, fire your weapon, then quickly switch back to Cloak Mode. Because this doesn't empty your suit energy, this allows you to pick off enemies one-by-one, while still remaining hidden. You even regain about 10 to 20 units of suit energy during your brief attack period in Armor Mode. In the jungle, it's a good idea to hide in foliage, then switch to Armor Mode to recharge your suit energy. Enemies can't see you when you're hiding in foliage or tall grass. Use the cloak to move from foliage to foliage to sneak past enemy patrols. ********** *WEAPONS:* ******************************************************************************* - In Crysis, you are allowed to carry 2 primary weapons, 1 backup sidearm, as well as a missile launcher, C4 charges, and an assortment of grenades. All weapons and ammo have to be manually picked up with the USE key; simply running over them doesn't do anything except kick them around. - Ammo in Crysis is persistent. If you have 300 spare bullets for your SCAR rifle, and drop your SCAR rifle, when you pick up a SCAR rifle a few levels later, you'll find that you'll still have those 300 bullets in reserve. - Most weapons do reduced damage as range increases. Short-range weapons such as the submachine gun are more affected than long-range weapons such as the assault rifles. Attaching a silencer to a weapon causes that weapon's bullets to dramatically decrease in power as range increases. - The 1.2 patch increases the damage done by the most common player-fired weapons, allowing you to kill enemy soldiers with fewer shots than in the unpatched version. The weapons mainly affected were the pistol, FY71, and SCAR (all of whom had their damage increased by around 50%). The stats and commentary in this FAQ were written for the patched version of the game. The 1.2 patch was also supposed to decrease the damage done by enemy weapons when fired at the player, but due to a programming oversight this never happens, as weapons do the exact same amount of damage whether used by the player or by enemy soldiers. As a practical result, after the patch enemies can survive fewer shots, but this also applies to the player. ============== =ATTACHMENTS:= =============================================================================== - Each of the game's weapons can be modified with various nanotech- created attachments, such as silencers, scopes, and undermounted grenade launchers. You can acquire new attachments by collecting a weapon with that attachment on it. There are 5 different categories of attachments, however not all weapons can fit all 5 categories (i.e. a shotgun can be outfitted with a flashlight/laser pointer and a scope, but not a silencer or a grenade launcher). - Once collected, an attachment is permanently in your inventory. For example, if you attach a sniper scope to a rifle, then drop that rifle, you won't "lose" the sniper scope, and will still be able to attach it to all your other weapons. (1): Silencer: A silencer reduces the noise produced by a firearm, thus preventing enemies from being alerted to your presence when you fire that weapon. Normally, when you fire a weapon, the enemy will hear the noise, spin around to your direction, and move to your location to investigate. With a silencer equipped, the enemy won't be able to tell where the shots are coming from (although they may move to investigate the area where you bullet LANDED, as it makes a noise on impact). The BIG DRAWBACK to the silencer is that it causes your bullets to rapidly lose power as distance increases. At 50 meters or more, you bullets barely hurt enemies; you might as well be shooting spitwads at them. Because it seriously reduces the damage your weapons do, I generally recommend not equipping the silencer by default, only in specific situations when you want to be stealthy. As a stealthy Delta Force special forces soldier, you begin the game with this attachment available. (2): Laser Pointer: A laser aiming module that creates a red target dot on whatever you aim your weapon at. This replaces your crosshair when you have it equipped, and it serves a similar function. The laser pointer also makes your weapon much more accurate, by decreasing the spread of the bullets. It's GREAT if you like running- and-gunning "from the hip". Although the laser emits a bright red beam that gives away your location, enemies don't seem to be able to see it at all (multiplayer is a whole different story). A laser pointer can first be obtained at the enemy HQ near the beginning of Mission 3: Relic; you can get it from a submachine gun dropped by one of the KPA Special Forces soldiers sent in as reinforcements during your attack. Flashlight: A flashlight attached to the barrel of your firearm, for manuevering in the dark. If only they had these on Mars (a crack which you've probably already heard a thousand times). Unlike your Nightvision goggles, the flashlight doesn't use up battery power and can be kept on indefinitely. The drawback is that enemies can see your flashlight beam. If you've got one on while cloaked, enemies will be able to spot you regardless of your cloak (why they can't likewise spot the laser pointer is anyone's guess). Like the silencer, you start the game with this attachment available. (3): Grenade Launcher Attachment: An undermounted grenade launcher that fires a grenade shell, which explodes on impact. The shell is affected by gravity and travels in an arc, but still travels reasonably far with a range of more than a few dozen feet. Rifle grenades have a smaller splash damage radius than frag grenades, but are still effective against enemy infantry and light vehicles (LTVs and patrol boats). You can carry a total of 10 rifle grenades (plus 1 in the chamber). Rifle grenades are pretty rare, and can only be found in enemy armories or weapon stockpiles. Tactical Attachment: The tactical attachment fires a tranquilizer dart that knocks out enemy soldiers for 60 seconds. The dart is completely silent, and is a good way to take down a KPA soldier without alerting other nearby enemies. You'll probably want to run over to them and either shoot them in the head with a silenced shot, or melee them to death, otherwise they'll just get back up again after a minute. You have an unlimited number of darts, but you have to wait 10 seconds after firing a dart before you can fire another one. You start the game with this attachment available. (4): Iron Sights: The basic iron sights attached to the weapon by default. Iron sights provide only a very slight zoom, but allow you to target enemies more accurately that just firing from the hip with the crosshair. When firing from iron sights (or any scope), you also get less bullet spread during automatic fire. It takes some skill and practice to aim with these properly. They also obstruct the bottom half of the screen when you're aiming down them. Reflex Sights: A red dot reflex scope. Provides only a very slight zoom, but is easier to aim with than iron sights, as the red dot inside the scope indicates exactly where your bullet will hit. The reflex scope also gives you a clearer view than iron sights, as the lower half of the screen isn't obstructed by the weapon itself. You start the game with this attachment available. Assault Scope: The assault scope provides a fixed 3x zoom, allowing you to target more distant enemies than with the naked eye alone. This makes medium-long range combat much easier, although it's not really powerful enough for true long-range sniping. You can first acquire an assault scope by picking up a precision rifle from an enemy sniper or stockpile in Mission 2: Recovery. Sniper Scope: The best scope available for long range combat, the sniper scope is a variable scope that features a 3x and a 10x zoom, allowing you to snipe enemies from long range. This works great for both assault rifles and sniper rifles, and allows you to pick off enemies from relative safety. You can get a sniper scope in Mission 3: Relic off an enemy sniper's precision rifle. (5): FY71 Normal Ammo: The normal ammo for the Korean FY71 assault rifle. FY71 Incendiary Ammo: Incendiary rounds for the FY71. These are very powerful; they can kill enemy soldiers in just 2 hits, and also work well against the basic alien enemies. Unfortunately, they're rather rare, and can only be found at certain very specific enemy weapon stockpiles. You can first acquire incendiary rounds at the end of Mission 4: Assault, in a warehouse armory inside the enemy harbor. You can carry 300 rounds of incendiary ammo, plus 31 rounds in the clip (the same amount as normal FY71 ammo). ================= =BACKUP WEAPONS:= =============================================================================== Fists: Damage: 80 DESCRIPTION: These are your hands. Obviously, you'll always have them (you'd really be in trouble if you didn't). You can punch enemies for decent damage; most enemies die after about 3 to 4 punches. You can also use Strength Mode to increase the damage of your punches, allowing you to kill any standard enemy soldier with a single punch. Punching isn't particularly practical, especially in a large firefight, but it's a fun way to take out lone enemies. You can also perform a melee attack with any of your firearms. The damage varies from 50 to 80 depending on the firearm (i.e. the pistol does 50 damage, the minigun and alien MOAC do 80 damage, while most weapons including rifles do 65 damage). Meleeing is a good way to deal with enemies if they somehow end up right in your face. ENEMY USAGE: Enemy soldiers will never fight bare-handed, but they can melee you with the butt of their firearms at close range. ===== Pistol: Faction: U.S.A. and North Korea Damage: 60 Rate of Fire: 450 rpm Clip Size: 20 (+1 in the chamber) Max Ammo: Single Pistol: 200 + 21 Dual Pistols: 200 + 42 Damage Drop: After 25 meters, 0.3 per meter Attachments: (1) (2) BRIEF BLURB: A pistol, which you'll always carry as a sidearm along with your 2 primary weapons. Makes a decent backup weapon, but isn't as good as a primary weapon in a firefight. Can fire in 2-shot bursts for quicker takedowns, but this also results in increased recoil. Can also be dual-wielded, increasing the number of bullets you can fire before needing to reload (dual-wielding does not increase your rate of fire, as you fire the pistols alternately instead of both at once). DETAILED DESCRIPTION: Modeled on the USSOCOM pistol (aka the H&K Mk23 pistol), this sidearm is carried by both Korean and U.S. forces as a backup weapon. You start the game with a pistol and a SCAR assault rifle. You can also pick up a second pistol to dual wield pistols akimbo. When dual wielding, you can fire off twice as many rounds before needing to reload. The pistol can be fired either in single-shot, or 2-shot burst mode. 2-shot burst allows you to deliver a double-tap with each trigger pull, but also results in increased recoil pulling your aim upward. The pistol has decent stopping power; 3 or 4 shots should kill an enemy solder. With the 2-shot burst, that's just 2 trigger pulls. You also start the game with a silencer and a laser-aiming module for the pistol, increasing it's accuracy when firing "from the hip". Unfortunately, the pistol's lower rate of fire and lack of automatic fire make it less potent in combat than an assault rifle. Pistol ammo is less common than FY71 assault rifle ammo, but you'll still usually find pistol ammo at all enemy weapon stockpiles, and some enemies also drop pistols after being killed. The pistol's not as useful as a primary weapon (such as a SCAR or FY71 assault rifle), but you'll always carry them throughout the game, so they make a decent backup weapon if you run low on ammo for your two primary weapons. ENEMY USAGE: Pretty much every enemy soldier in the game carries a pistol as a sidearm. If the ammo mag on their primary weapon runs out, and you're still in their line of sight, enemies will sometimes whip out their pistol and open fire on you instead of pausing to reload their primary weapon. Enemy snipers also carry pistols, and will use them if you're too close to safely fire at with the precision rifle. In the first couple of missions, you'll also find a few unprepared enemies who are armed only with a pistol. Enemies with pistols are the lowest priority threat, but they can still kill you if you've been weakened by assault rifle fire. ================== =PRIMARY WEAPONS:= =============================================================================== SCAR: Faction: U.S.A Damage: Normal Rounds: 120 Grenade Launcher: 250 Rate of Fire: 700 rpm Clip Size: 40 (+1 in the chamber) Max Ammo: 280 + 41 Damage Drop: After 50 meters, 0.1 per meter Attachments: (1) (2) (3) (4) BRIEF BLURB: The U.S. assault rifle, significantly better than its Korean counterpart (the FY71). Does more damage, has a larger clip size, a higher rate of fire, and is also slightly more accurate too. Can be used in short bursts to pick off enemies at long range, or go full-auto to mow down enemies at close range. Unfortunately, you won't be able to get ammo for it for much of the game, which usually forces you to use the FY71 instead. Makes a decent weapon in the later levels for fighting aliens, though. DETAILED DESCRIPTION: The SCAR assault rifle is the standard weapon of the U.S. forces in Crysis. You, your Delta Force squadmates, and almost all U.S. Marines seen in the game carry one into combat. An ergonomic and highly engineered weapon, it is superior to the North Korean FY71 assault rifle in every way; it has a higher rate of fire, greater stopping power (50% stronger than the FY71), a larger clip size, and slightly less bullet spread when firing in full-auto. Even heavily armored enemy soldiers should drop after only 2 or 3 hits from the SCAR. In fact, the SCAR's higher damage and rate of fire combine to let it do almost twice as much damage over the same period of time as the FY71 would. You start the game equipped with a SCAR assault rifle and a pistol. On a side note, the SCAR in Crysis seems to be modeled on the canceled XM-8 assault rifle, rather than the actual SCAR-L assault rifle. With its high accuracy, the SCAR works well at long range for picking off distant foes with short bursts. With its high rate of fire and powerful bullets, it also works well at close to medium range for mowing down enemies with full-auto fire in close quarters. It's one of the most versatile weapons in the game. The big drawback to the SCAR is that ammo for it is extremely rare for most of the game, as you won't be finding any ammo for it on the North Korean dominated island. You're pretty much limited to the bullets you start with, plus a couple clips you can take off killed teammates in the game's first level. As a result, you'll probably be forced to use the FY71 instead once you run out of bullets for the SCAR. SCAR ammo does become more common in the game's later missions once U.S. forces are introduced to the conflict, but it's still not nearly as common as FY71 ammo. ENEMY USAGE: None of your North Korean enemies are armed with this American weapon, and obviously the aliens that show up later in the game won't be using it either. The SCAR is, however, carried by practically every U.S. Marine seen in the game. You can acquire SCARs and SCAR ammo from U.S. stockpiles, and if a Marine dies you can get their weapon from them. ===== FY71: Faction: North Korea Damage: Normal Rounds: 80 Incendiary Rounds: 150 Grenade Launcher: 250 Rate of Fire: 620 rpm Clip Size: 30 (+1 in the chamber) Max Ammo: 300 + 31 Damage Drop: After 50 meters, 0.2 per meter Attachments: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) BRIEF BLURB: The Korean assault rifle; most of your enemies carry one, so ammo for it is extremely common. Although not quite as good as the SCAR, it is still a very good weapon that works well for close, medium, and long range combat. It's got great accuracy and no recoil, and can be used to snipe enemies at long range once you get a sniper scope. This should serve you well as your primary weapon for most of the game. For particularly tough enemies, you can load it with powerful incendiary bullets. DETAILED DESCRIPTION: The FY71 assault rifle is the primary weapon used by the enemy North Korean soldiers for most of the game. It's pretty much a standard first-person shooter assault rifle. It holds 30 rounds per clip, fires at 620 rounds per minute, and kills enemy soldiers in 3 or 4 shots. Modeled after the AK-47 series of assault rifles, it's a typical signature weapon for military entertainment bad guys. The FY71 is a rugged and reliable firearm; although it's not quite as good as the U.S. SCAR assault rifle, it's still a great weapon that works well in most situations. Although not quite as good as the SCAR, the FY71 is still an assault rifle. It's accurate, fast, and reasonably powerful. You can use it to snipe enemies at long range (especially after you acquire a scope), as well as to mow them down in close-quarters combat with full-auto bursts. It makes a good primary weapon for most of the game. Additionally, the FY71 can load powerful incendiary rounds, which do even more damage than SCAR rounds. Unfortunately, incendiary ammo is even harder to find than SCAR ammo, and only shows up at select enemy stockpiles. Since almost every enemy in the game carries one, and since ammo for it is plentiful at enemy weapon stockpiles, you'll always have plenty of FY71 ammo to work with. Note that in the last few Korean missions (the end of Mission 4, and Missions 5 and 6) enemies stop carrying the FY71 so much, primarily using the submachine gun instead. As a result, you'll find less ammo for it in the field, although FY71 ammo is still plentiful at enemy weapon stockpiles. ENEMY USAGE: The FY71 is carried by most of the enemy soldiers you'll encounter, especially in the game's first few missions. Later in the game, however, enemy soldiers seem to prefer the submachine gun, especially those guarding enemy bases and headquarters. Enemies are reasonably good with their FY71 assault rifles. They can kill you in several hits, and are reasonably accurate shots even as they spray you with automatic fire. Good use of cover and your suit's abilities is essential for survival. ===== Shotgun: Faction: North Korea Damage: Normal Spread: 50 x 10 Narrow Spread: 35 x 10 Rate of Fire: 60 rpm Clip Size: 8 Max Ammo: 40 + 8 Damage Drop: After 15 meters, 2.0 per meter Attachments: (2) (4) BRIEF BLURB: A powerful combat shotgun, great for mowing down enemies at close to medium range. It's strong enough to kill enemy soldiers in just one direct shot. It can be fired in either wide spread or narrow spread mode. Wide-spread does more damage and allows you to hit a larger area, while narrow spread is more accurate (you can actually snipe enemies at several dozen feet away with it). It's surprisingly effective for medium range run-and-gun combat, and in narrow spread mode a single shot can be lethal up to several dozen feet. Quite similar to the original Doom 1 & 2 shotgun, actually. The shotgun also works very well against the Alien Troopers in the game's later levels. DETAILED DESCRIPTION: A powerful combat shotgun, modeled after the Benelli M4 Super 90. The shotgun packs a punch, firing a spread of 10 pellets that at close range can kill any enemy soldier in one shot, or kill basic alien enemies with 2 or 3 shots. Enemy soldiers often carry shotguns, and you can acquire one about halfway through the game's first mission. The shotgun can be fired in either wide or narrow firing mode. Wide firing mode does more damage, but disperses the shells in a wider spread. This is good for hitting fast-moving enemies at close range (you don't have to be so accurate), but means you can't really hit anything at medium to long range. Narrow firing mode fires a narrower cone of pellets; it does less damage, but the narrow spread allows you to accurately hit enemies even at longer range. When aiming with a reflex sight or using a laser sight to increase accuracy, the narrow spread lets you can kill enemy soldiers with just 1 or 2 shots even at several dozen feet away! Unlike most other FPS shotguns, the Crysis shotgun isn't limited to just close-quarters combat. It's also very effective for medium range run-and-gun shooting, especially if equipped with an accuracy- improving laser sight. In narrow spread mode, it's even effective even at near-long range. It's great for clearing out enemy bases, or any other sort of combat that takes place at less than 100 feet. Even running around firing from the hip, you can still mow down enemy soldiers at medium range with just a single shot. The shotgun is also great for killing the fast-moving, melee-focused Alien Troopers in the game's later levels. Ammo for the shotgun is pretty common; enemies often drop shotguns, and shotgun ammo is quite common at enemy weapon stockpiles. ENEMY USAGE: Many enemies carry shotguns; and ever squad of enemy soldiers usually has at least 2 or 3 guys with shotguns. When used by enemies, the shotgun really isn't much stronger than an assault rifle. A close-range blast from an enemy shotgun does only slightly more damage than an assault rifle bullet. Also, most of the game takes place at medium to long range, where the shotgun's lethality is reduced somewhat by distance. When enemies use the shotgun, their pellet spread is pretty wide; they still do decent damage at medium range, and it's easy for them to hit you, but at least they won't be quite as lethal as automatic fire from an assault rifle. ===== Submachine Gun: Faction: North Korea Damage: 45 Rate of Fire: 950 rpm Clip Size: 50 (+1 in the chamber) Max Ammo: 350 + 51 Damage Drop: After 25 meters, 0.5 per meter Attachments: (1) (2) (4) BRIEF BLURB: A fast-firing submachine gun, designed for close-to-medium range combat. Has a higher rate of fire than an assault rifle, as well as a fast reload speed and a larger clip size; however it doesn't work as well at long range, and the bullets are significantly less damaging. The SMG also suffers from recoil, and will drift upwards during automatic fire. It's not quite as good as the FY71 assault rifle, but ammo for it is very common in the later Korean levels, since most KPA soldiers start to use it instead of the FY71 as their primary weapon. DETAILED DESCRIPTION: The submachine gun is a compact weapon with a very high rate of fire, designed for spraying out a high volume of bullets in close-to- medium range combat. It seems to be modeled on the MP7 PDW (seen in Half Life 2), but larger in size. Korean forces begin carry submachine guns by the game's 3rd mission. The submachine gun has a higher rate of fire, a faster reload speed, and a larger clip size than an assault rifle, allowing you to spray a higher volume of bullets during automatic fire. On the downside, the individual bullets are weaker than those of an assault rifle (it takes about 4 to 6 shots to kill an enemy soldier), and the submachine gun is also less accurate, largely limiting it to close or medium range combat. The submachine gun's high rate of fire also gives it quite a bit of recoil; unlike an assault rifle, the submachine gun's aim will climb upward during automatic fire due to the recoil. The submachine gun's weaker bullets actually undermine its higher rate of fire and clip size; it does less damage over the same period of time as a SCAR or FY71 assault rifle would, as well as less damage with a full clip of fire. Still, it's by no means bad, and works well for close-quarters room-clearing, or mowing down enemies at medium range. I suppose it's a good backup weapon if you run low on assault rifle ammo. Just don't try sniping with it. Note that, while the submachine gun works fine against standard Korean soldiers, it is markedly less effective than an assault rifle against stronger enemies, such as Nanosuit Soldiers or Alien Troopers. Submachine gun ammo is less common than FY71 ammo for the game's first few missions, although you can still get some at many enemy weapon stockpiles. From the end of Mission 4 onwards, enemies begin carrying submachine guns almost exclusively instead of FY71 assault rifles, so submachine gun ammo suddenly becomes much more common than FY71 ammo. ENEMY USAGE: Submachine guns are first seen near the beginning of Mission 3: Relic, wielded by KPA Elite Special Forces soldiers who are sent to the Korean HQ base as reinforcements during your attack. While enemy soldiers usually carry FY71 assault rifles or shotguns, they'll sometimes use submachine guns instead. From the end of Mission 4: Assault, enemies seem to swap the FY71 assault rifle for the submachine gun as their primary weapon of choice. Pretty much every enemy in the harbor HQ at the end of MIssion 4 carries a submachine gun instead of a FY71 rifle; the same is true of most of the enemy soldiers in MIssion 6: Awakening. ===== Precision Rifle: Faction: North Korea Damage: 250 Rate of Fire: 44 rpm Clip Size: 10 (+1 in the chamber) Max Ammo: 30 + 11 Damage Drop: None Attachments: (2) (4) BRIEF BLURB: The precision rifle is essentially a bolt-action sniper rifle. There's a delay of 1.36 seconds between each shot to bolt the next bullet into the chamber. It's very accurate, and the damage done by its bullets doesn't decrease over distance. A single shot to the chest is enough to kill any standard enemy soldier (even those wearing armor), however a shot to the limbs will knock them to the ground, but leave them still alive with a small amount of health. The precision rifle is a good 1-shot, 1-kill weapon for picking off enemies at long range once you get a sniper scope, but ammo for it is pretty uncommon. DETAILED DESCRIPTION: The precision rifle is a sniper rifle modeled on the H&K PSG-1. Unlike the PSG-1, the precision rifle is bolt-action, so you'll have to manually bolt a new round into the chamber after each shot, result in a delay of about 1.36 seconds between each shot. A powerful weapon, the precision rifle can kill any standard enemy soldier (even heavily armored ones) with a single round to the chest. A round to the limbs won't be fatal, but will seriously injure an enemy soldier as well as be powerful enough to knock them down on the ground for several seconds. Extremely accurate, the precision rifle is designed for long-range combat. With a sniper scope, you can zoom in on enemies at long range, and pick them off from safely outside their effective range of fire. You first acquire a sniper rifle in Mission 2: Recovery, but it'll only be equipped with an assault scope, which doesn't zoom far enough for the precision rifle to be used to optimum effect. Only when you get a sniper scope in Mission 3: Relic does the precision rifle really shine. Unfortunately, precision rifle ammo is quite rare. You often won't find any at enemy weapon stockpiles, so the only way to replenish your ammo is to kill enemy snipers and take their weapons. This is a shame, because the one-hit kill, long-range nature of the precision rifle makes it a fun weapon to use. Ultimately, the precision rifle is useful to carry, but the scarcity of ammo prevents you from using it as much as you'd like. Also, once you get a sniper scope, you can snipe enemies pretty well with short bursts from your assault rifle, so you don't actually NEED the precision rifle for anything. It just does the job a bit better (with 1-hit kill shots to the chest at any range, whereas the assault rifle needs several shots at longer range to do the job). ENEMY USAGE: The precision rifle is only used by enemy snipers, and enemy Nanosuit Soldiers. It is VERY powerful; in Armor Mode, a single hit will knock off all your armor as well as more than half of your health, and a second shot will kill you. In any other mode, a single shot is fatal if the enemy manages to land a headshot or torso shot on you. Enemies are also extremely accurate with it, and will always hit you even at a few hundred meters away if you just stand still. To survive against snipers, you'll need to keep moving, find cover, and counter- snipe them before they can kill you. CRYSIS WARHEAD NOTES: In Crysis: Warhead, the precision rifle is carried by several North Korean Snipers as well as several North Korean Nanosuit Soldiers. Fortunately, enemies do much less damage with the precision rifle in Warhead than they did in the original Crysis (80 damage in Warhead compared to 250 damage in Crysis) and it takes about 5 shots from their weapons to kill you in Armor Mode (which gives you plenty of time to cloak or dive for cover). As a result, enemy snipers are no longer the 1-or-2-hit-kill major threats they were in the original game, which makes fighting them much easier. ===== Gauss Rifle: Faction: U.S.A. Damage: 500 Rate of Fire: 30 rpm Clip Size: 5 (+1 in the chamber) Max Ammo: 20 + 6 Damage Drop: None Attachments: (2) (4) BRIEF BLURB: The gauss rifle operates similarly to a railgun, firing a metal slug at supersonic speeds and leaving a blue contrail in its wake. It has a slow rate of fire (with a delay of 2 seconds between each shot), but is very powerful. It can kill KPA soldiers or Alien Troopers in 1 shot, or kill light armor vehicles, Nanosuit Soldiers, or Alien Scouts in just 2 shots. Unfortunately, it's no use against heavy armored vehicles such as helicopters, tanks, or APCs. Functionally, it's very much a more powerful version of the sniper rifle. It's kind of overkill against KPA soldiers, but works very well in the game's later levels for shooting down Alien Scouts (against whom it's probably your best weapon). DETAILED DESCRIPTION: A high-tech future weapon used exclusively by U.S. forces, the gauss rifle fires a large metal slug at supersonic speeds for massive damage against whatever it ends up hitting. If you shoot a human being with it, expect their body to be blown a couple dozen feet through the air. In gameplay terms, it's a railgun (in fact it's appearance and firing animation is surprisingly similar to the old Red Faction railgun). The gauss rifle has a relatively slow rate of fire (there's a 2 second delay between each shot), but it's very powerful; it kills standard enemy soldiers in 1 shot and light enemy vehicles (such as LTVs or Patrol Boats) in 2 or 3 shots. It also kills Alien Troopers in 1 shot, and Alien Scouts in just 2 shots. Unfortunately, it's a heavy weapon that slows you movement rate down somewhat. You first acquire a gauss rifle at the end of Mission 5: Onslaught, from a U.S. supply drop. Like the precision rifle, the gauss rifle serves as a sniping weapon for long-range combat. It's designed for use against infantry and light vehicles. Unfortunately, it has no effect against heavier enemy vehicles (you can't shot down helicopters or blow up tanks with it). It is, however, fairly effective even against the large alien warmachines. The gauss rifle is THE BEST WEAPON for taking out Alien Scouts, and you should always carry one in the last couple of missions solely for fighting Alien Scouts with. Gauss ammo is pretty rare, especially when you first acquire it. However, a single gauss ammo pickup usually gives you the maximum 20 rounds you can carry. Gauss ammo is also more common in the last couple missions of the game, especially in areas where you really need it (i.e. for fighting swarms of Alien Scouts). ENEMY USAGE: Fortunately, no enemy Korean soldiers will ever get their hands on a gauss rifle. However, you'll occasionally see U.S. Marines fighting with gauss rifles against the aliens in the game's last couple of missions. Unfortunately, this is mostly for show, as the game is designed so that Marines' attacks do very little damage to most of the larger alien warmachines. CRYSIS WARHEAD NOTES: In Crysis: Warhead, a handful of North Korean soldiers are equipped with gauss rifles captured from fallen U.S. Marines. These guys are extremely dangerous, and can kill you in a single direct hit even if you're at full health and armor. You need to kill them quickly before they can kill you (Cloak Mode helps a lot in this regard). Fortunately, these guys are extremely rare, and there are only about 3 of them in the entire game. ===== Minigun: Faction: North Korea Damage: 90 Rate of Fire: 1200 rpm Clip Size: 500 Max Ammo: 500 + 500 Damage Drop: After 50 meters, 0.2 per meter Attachments: (2) BRIEF BLURB: The minigun is pretty much what you'd expect; it has an extremely high rate of fire, but average to below-average accuracy. As a result, it lets you spray out an incredible amount of bullets, but you can't precision target specific enemies at long range with it. It also has a very slight spin-up time, which causes a small delay between when you press the fire button and when the gun actually begins to fire. The minigun also slows you down when you have it equipped. Overall, I don't really recommend it, as I prefer the more accurate and versatile assault rifles instead. Your mileage may vary. It's only available in 2 of the game's 11 missions anyway. DETAILED DESCRIPTION: The Hurricane minigun is exactly what it sounds like; a huge spinning minigun that spits out powerful bullets at an incredible rate of fire. The minigun does more than twice as much damage over the same period of time as the FY71 assault rifle, and can shred multiple enemy soldiers very quickly. On the downside, there's a split-second spin-up time before the minigun begins firing, and its accuracy is rather low. Also, the longer you fire the minigun, the wider the bullet spread becomes. The minigun is also heavy, and will cause your movement speed to slow down while you have it equipped. The minigun's performance can be improved when firing in strength mode; in strength mode, it won't weigh down your movement speed, and the bullet spread is reduced as your increased strength lets you hold the weapon more steadily during automatic fire. In the single-player campaign, the minigun is actually only available in Mission 6: Awakening, and Mission 11: Reckoning. Ammo for it is actually reasonably findable in the levels where it is available; every minigun ammo pickup gives you 500 bullets, and you can find ammo in weapon stockpiles or from killed enemy Nanosuit Soldiers. I actually prefer the precision of the assault rifle over the indescriminate mass damage of the minigun, but your personal mileage may vary. ENEMY USAGE: The minigun is so heavy that a normal human soldier can't possibly wield it. As a result, it is used exclusively by elite enemy Nanosuit Soldiers. You'll face a total of 6 Nanosuit Soldiers armed with miniguns, although fortunately only 1 or 2 at a time will fight you at once. When wielding the minigun, enemy Nanosuit Soldiers have a very high rate of fire, but reduced (yet still decent) accuracy at long range. Still, they're a walking machinegun turret and can cut you to pieces with a second or two of constant fire. Firing from cover and/or using cloak to get the drop on them is essential for victory. CRYSIS WARHEAD NOTES: Minigun-wielding Nanosuit Soldiers do not appear in Crysis: Warhead, so you won't see any enemies wielding the minigun against you. You can, however, find one or two miniguns laying around in enemy weapon stockpiles, but it and ammo for it are extremely rare. ===== Alien MOAC: Faction: Aliens Damage: 150 Rate of Fire: 800 rpm Clip Size: 5 seconds of constant fire before overheating Max Ammo: Infinite Damage Drop: None Attachments: (2) BRIEF BLURB: The Alien MOAC fires ice shards, and functions essentially like an alien minigun. It has a high rate of fire, a split-second spin-up time, significant bullet spread at long range, etc. The big advantage of the MOAC is that it has inifinite ammo, but will overheat after 5 seconds of continuous fire, requiring it to cool down for a second or two before you can fire it again. It's a decent weapon for fighting Alien Troopers and Alien Scouts with. As with the minigun, it's only available in 2 of the game's 11 missions. DETAILED DESCRIPTION: The alien MOAC (MOlecular ACcelerator) is a large alien cannon that rapid-fires damaging shards of ice at high speed. In size, shape, and behavior, it's very much like an alien minigun. It even has a split second "spin-up time" before it begins firing. The MOAC is more accurate than the minigun, and doesn't suffer from increasing spread during full-automatic fire. The MOAC also has infinite ammo, but overheats after 5 seconds of constant firing, requiring a second or two to cool down before it can fire again. Like the minigun and gauss rifle, the MOAC is rather heavy, and slows your movement rate down somewhat. Prophet appears out of nowhere wielding a MOAC in the middle of Mission 8: Paradise Lost, and gives it to you soon afterwards. In the singleplayer campaign, the MOAC is only available to you in Mission 8 and Mission 9. Unfortunately, the aliens are pretty resistant to their own weapons. Alien Troopers only take 30% damage from the MOAC (45 damage per shot), and Alien Scouts take only 40% damage from it (60 damage per shot). Then again, the aliens have partial resistance to most other weapons too. The MOAC still works decently well against aliens due to its high rate of fire; you can kill Alien Troopers with a couple seconds of constant fire, and Alien Scouts can be shot down with about 2 or 3 full 5-second bursts. The MOAC's got infinite ammo, and it works decently well against Troopers and Scouts, so you might as well use it while you have it. Switch to the gauss rifle for shooting down Scouts once it becomes available, though, since it's much more effective than the MOAC against Scouts. ENEMY USAGE: Although no-one except Prophet and yourself will wield the player- usable version of the alien MOAC, most aliens and alien warmachines are equipped with their own versions of the MOAC, which they use to rapid-fire ice shard bullets at you. CRYSIS WARHEAD NOTES: The usable version of the MOAC does not appear in Crysis: Warhead. Enemy Alien Troopers are still equipped with their own version of the MOAC to fight you with, though. ==================== =EXPLOSIVE WEAPONS:= =============================================================================== Missile Launcher: Faction: U.S.A. and North Korea Damage: 300 Rate of Fire: 60 rpm Clip Size: 3 BRIEF BLURB: A compact, 3-shot disposable missile launcher with a built-in scope and laser sight, designed as an anti-vehicle weapon. The missile launcher is pretty much your only practical means of taking out heavily armored vehicles, such as helicopters, tanks, or APCs. You really should always carry one around, just in case you end up in a firefight with a heavy vehicle. The launcher's laser sight can be used to guide missiles (they'll home in on the red dot), allowing you to track moving targets with your missiles. You'll be familiar with the concept if you've played Half Life. Note that missiles cannot turn around 180 degrees, so if you miss a target, the missile won't be able to circle around and hit it again like the RPG rounds in Half Life 2 can. DETAILED DESCRIPTION: The missile launcher is a disposable, 3-shot anti-vehicle weapon used by both U.S. and North Korean forces, and serves as your main method of taking down enemy helicopters and tanks in Crysis. The missile launcher comes pre-loaded with 3 missile shots, and must be discarded after all 3 shots have been fired. It's carried seperately from your pistol and your 2 primary weapons, so you can always carry one regardless of whatever else you're holding. The missile launcher is pretty much the only weapon you have that's effective against enemy helicopters, enemy tanks, and enemy APCs, so you'll always want to have one with you for sudden helicopter or tank attacks. Fortunately, in most areas where helicopters or tanks may attack you, you can find spare missile launchers laying around if you search carefully enough. Enemies in Mission 5 and Mission 6 also carry missile launchers that you can take from them. The missile launcher comes with both a laser targeting light and a targeting scope. The scope can be used to target vehicles at a longer distance, while the laser dot shows where the weapon is aimed when firing from the hip. The launcher also emits a beeping sound to let you know the dot is aimed at a target (useful for fast- moving targets, like helicopters). The missiles are actually semi-guided; they'll curve to follow whatever you point the laser dot at (if you've played the Half Life series, the concept should be familiar). The missiles are less manueverable than those in Half Life (they can't fly in circles or do a 180 degree turn), so while the dot is useful for adjusting the missile's path to track a moving target (i.e. a helicopter), if the missile actually flies past your target, you can't make it curve back for a second try. ENEMY USAGE: Mission 5: Onslaught is filled with enemy soldiers carrying missile launchers, who will use them to blast the U.S. tanks, including the one you yourself are driving. Fortunately, enemies tend to not use their missile launchers on you if you're traveling on foot (although they occasionally do, and can kill you in 1 or 2 hits). Somewhat unfairly, enemies with missile launchers can fire an unlimited number of shots, instead of being limited to only 3. They don't even have to pause to reload. Several enemies in Mission 6: Awakening also carry missile launchers, but don't seem to actually use them. ===== Explosive Charges: Damage: 1000 Max Ammo: 4 DESCRIPTION: Explosive C4 charges, which can be attached to walls or enemy vehicles, or simply laid down on the ground. C4 is extremely powerful; a single charge can destroy pretty much any enemy vehicle. The downside is that you can't throw the charges more than a few feet, so you actually have to walk up to whatever you want to blow up and plant the charge manually. To detonate C4, press the zoom key to switch to the detonator, then press the fire button to blow up any C4 charges you've laid down. C4 is an alternative to taking out enemy tanks or APCs, if you don't have a missile launcher available. Use cloak to sneak up behind the enemy vehicle, then plant a charge on its vulnerable rear area, then run to cover and quickly detonate the charge before the vehicle notices you and opens fire. ===== TAC Cannon: Faction: U.S.A. Damage: 10000 DESCRIPTION: In the single-player campaign, the TAC Cannon is used exclusively for killing the final boss. You aren't even allowed to fire it at anything else. Basically, the TAC Cannon is a tactical nuclear cannon that fires a small, guided nuclear shell and is loaded with at least 3 shots. The TAC Cannon needs to lock onto a target before firing, and t takes 3.5 seconds for the cannon to do so. On the plus side, once the target is locked, you can fire-and-forget since the shell is computer guided. =========== =GRENADES:= =============================================================================== Frag Grenade: Damage: 250 Max Ammo: CRYSIS: 10 CRYSIS WARHEAD: 16 DESCRIPTION: These are your basic frag grenades. You throw them, and they explode a couple seconds after landing. Frag grenades have a good- sized splash damage radius, and can wipe out an entire group of enemy soldiers. Enemy soldiers will notice grenades and try to run away from them, but they usually don't succeed as long as they're reasonably close to where the grenade lands (enemy soldiers in Crysis actually have pretty good A.I., but rather slow reflexes). Even enemies caught at the very edge of the blast who manage to survive will be knocked to the ground for several seconds. Frag Grenades are reasonably common; enemy soldiers don't drop them when killed, but they are almost always found at enemy weapon stockpiles. You often get 5 grenades in a single ammo pickup, which is half the total amount you can carry. Feel free to use them frequently, as needed. ENEMY USAGE: Enemy grenadiers (distinguished by an armored collar they wear around their neck and shoulders) carry grenades, and use them to either attack you or flush you out of cover. They are extremely skilled and accurate, and can usually land a grenade right at your feet from a distant of several dozen feet away. Enemy grenades usually aren't fatal (as long as you have full health/armor and are in Armor Mode), but they do knock off all your armor as well as more than half of your health, and are therefore best avoided if possible. They also have a nasty habit of destroying whatever cover you were hiding behind (A LOT of cover objects in Crysis are destroyable). CRYSIS WARHEAD NOTES: In Crysis: Warhead you can carry a larger total number of frag grenades at a time. Psycho in Warhead can carry a maximum of 16 frag grenades, compared to a max of 10 for Nomad in Crysis. This can be helpful for dealing with Warhead's greater concentration of enemies and more frequent firefights. ===== Smoke Grenade: Max Ammo: 10 DESCRIPTION: Smoke grenades produce a large cloud of gray smoke, which obstructs the view of enemies and prevents them from seeing your position. Note that being inside the smoke itself causes the blinding effect, so for best results, you should throw them at your enemies, not drop them at your feet. Although smoke grenades don't do anything your suit's Cloak Mode does better, they can be useful to escape if you're out in the open with no suit energy to cloak with. Smoke grenades are pretty rare, and you'll only find them at a few enemy weapon stockpiles. ENEMY USAGE: Enemy Nanosuit Soldiers use smoke grenades in combination with flashbangs to disorient you. Some regular enemy soldiers also use smoke grenades, but this rarely happens. ===== Flashbang: Max Ammo: 10 DESCRIPTION: Flashbangs explode a second or so after landing, producing a bright flash and loud noise that disorients enemy soldiers for a few seconds. They're a good way to buy yourself some time if you find yourself surrounded by flanking enemies, or under assault by overwhelming numbers. Note that enemy Nanosuit Soldiers are immune to flashbangs, which seems to be one area in which their suits are superior to yours. Flashbangs are pretty rare, and you'll only find them at a few enemy weapon stockpiles. Use them when you can, but don't expect them to be common enough to be a core element of gameplay. ENEMY USAGE: Flashbangs are used exclusively by Korean elite Nanosuit Soldiers. They'll use them in combination with smoke grenades to disorient you, while they move in for the kill with their submachine guns, or snipe you from long range with their precision rifles. Note that flashbangs are actually MORE deadly than frag grenades, because if you get shot while disoriented, it's an instant kill regardless of your health or armor. You can avoid the flashbang's effect by turning away from it before it explodes, or hiding behind a piece of cover that obstructs your view of the flashbang. ********** *ENEMIES:* ******************************************************************************* - It should be noted that the 1.2 patch for Crysis increased the damage done by certain weapons (namely the pistol, FY71, and SCAR) by roughly 50%. This guide was written with the 1.2 patch changes in mind. If you're playing an unpatched version of Crysis, enemies can survive slightly more bullets than they can in the patched game. ================= =Enemy Soldiers:= =============================================================================== North Korean Soldier: Appearance: North Korean soldier wearing a camouflage uniform (appearance varies by class). Health: 180 Primary Weapons: FY71 assault rifle: 80 damage Shotgun: 100 damage Submachine Gun: 45 damage Secondary Weapons: Pistol: 60 damage Missile Launcher: 300 damage Other Attacks: Melee Attack: 65 damage Frag Grenades: 250 damage DESCRIPTION: The standard soldiers of the Korean People's Army (KPA) will be your main opponents for the majority of the game. They range all the way from unarmored grunts, to Heavy Guard wearing a full suit of heavy body armor, to Elite Special Forces soldiers with optimal training and equipment. However, they all share the same basic behaviors and combat tactics. In essence, they're your basic FPS soldier-type enemies. What distinguishes KPA soldiers from most other FPS soldier types is that there are a LOT of them. It's not uncommon for you to fight more than a dozen of them at once in a single minor encounter; going into an enemy base can involve you versus a few dozen KPA soldiers if you took the Rambo approach and went in guns blazing, thus alerting everyone to your presence. Individually, KPA soldiers aren't exceptionally tough; it only takes about 2 or 3 direct hits from the assault rifle to kill an unarmored soldier, and even armored Heavy Guard soldiers go down after only about 3 or 4 shots (enemies do take more shots to kill at longer range, and also if you hit them in the arms or legs instead of the chest). Their weapons do decent damage against you, however, and it only takes several direct hits from their assault rifles to kill you. KPA soldiers have pretty good A.I., being highly mobile moving targets that strafe while firing, make decent use of cover, and will take advantage of their large numbers to try to flank and surround you. Ultimately, however, you're a nanosuit-wearing Special Forces Supersoldier, and they're... not. You'll fight a total of about 600+ North Korean soldiers throughout the entire game (the game helpfully keeps track of how many enemies you've killed in each level in your save game info). BEHAVIOR: KPA soldiers patrol in squads of several at once, usually led by a KPA Squad Leader wearing a red beret. KPA also have pretty good hearing, and will run across a town or base to investigate if they hear gunfire and screams coming from the other side. In certain areas (such as the school house village in Mission 2: Recovery or the harbor base in Mission 4: Assault) it can seem like enemies are respawning around you as you mow them down; this is simply enemy soldiers from other areas of the base running over to where you are to investigate what all the commotion is about. Enemies will cautiously approach your last known location if they lose sight of you. Enemies equipped with grenades also tend to throw them to flush you out of cover if you hide behind a solid object or inside a house. In actual combat, enemies are fairly mobile, tending to strafe while firing and also trying to run behind cover. Enemies react to return fire and, if shot at, enemies usually sidestep or slide sideways away from your shots to try and dodge your fire. If caught out in the open with no place to hide (or if you try to headshot them and miss), enemies will sometimes duck and fire to present a smaller target profile. If pressed, enemies will often retreat into better cover. Depending on their A.I. type, enemies will either try to camp behind cover defensively, aggressively advance on your position from cover to cover, or flank around to your sides. In all cases, enemies spread out across a level to a decent degree instead of clustering in one spot for an easy kill. Enemies move and operate in coordinated squads: attacking together, providing each other with covering fire, and advancing together in a coordinated manner. KILL STRATEGY: Overall, KPA soldiers are easy enough to kill individually or even in groups of several. One or two bursts of assault rifle should bring each KPA soldier down, and once you get the better scopes such as the assault scope or the sniper scope, you can mow KPA soldiers down from long range where their own ability to shoot back at you is lessened. If KPA soldiers are grouped together closely or inside an enclosed space, you can toss a frag grenade at them to wipe them all out at once. In all firefights, you should fire from behind cover to minimize the damage you take from enemy return fire, and also so you'll have a place to hide and regenerate your health if you get hit a few times. Be ready to switch to a different piece of cover if an enemy grenadier lands a frag grenade at your feet. All enemy soldiers are extremely vulnerable to the cloaking device; they will often stop firing completely once you vanish from their sight (although they will still move to your last known position to investigate), and are completely unable to see you unless they're only several feet away from you. They do occasionally fire wildly or toss a grenade at your last known position, so it's a good idea to reposition yourself after cloaking. One extremely cheap tactic is to decloak (by switching to a different armor mode), shoot a KPA soldier in the head, then cloak again. Normally, firing a weapon drains all your suit energy in cloak mode, but if you decloak manually, fire, and recloak, this doesn't happen. You can use this to murder multiple KPA soldiers at will, as they seem unable to spot or shoot at you when you're cloaked, even if they see you pop in and out of sight right in front of them. VARIANTS: North Korean soldiers use a "component" system to distinguish themselves from each other and fulfill different combat roles. There are 4 different "component" types that mix together to create different soldiers. Soldiers Type: Infantrymen (Camp), Recon (Jungle), or Special Forces (Elite) Armor Type: Light or Heavy Equipment Type: Standard, Grenadier, Laser-aiming Module, Antitank, or Special Forces A.I. Type: Cover, Camper, Flanker, or Leader NOTE: Special Forces (Elite) soldiers are always equipped with the Special Forces equipment type. - SOLDIER TYPE VARIANTS: North Korean soldiers come in 3 basic ranks; Infantry (Camp soldiers), Recon (Jungle soldiers), and Special Forces (Elite soldiers). Infantry (Camp): These are the standard soldiers of the Korean People's Army (KPA). Their uniforms come in a variety of shades (grey, green, and brown), and they will serve as you main opposition for most of the game. Infantry soldiers are usually encountered guarding enemy bases or outposts, or patrolling in open areas. They come in different armor, equipment, and A.I. variants (see below). Recon (Jungle): Recon soldiers patrol the wild jungle areas of the island. They are usually encountered out in the jungle, or in remote outposts or checkpoints away from the main KPA bases. They wear black facepaint, green or brown uniforms, as well as pieces of green grass attached to their uniforms to help them blend in with the environment. Behavior-wise, they are identical to standard Infantry soldiers, and come in various armor, equipment, and A.I. variants. Special Forces (Elite): These are the most skilled North Korean units, aside from General Kyong's personal Elite Guard of Nanosuit Soldiers. Special Forces soldiers have black facepaint, and their armor and uniforms are a much darker shade than that of the standard North Korean soldiers. Special Forces soldiers have more accurate aim than normal soldiers, and are also much better equipped: they always wear armored vests (all except for Elite Light Flanker soldiers), always carry grenades, and are always outfitted with laser-aiming modules and silencers on their weapons. They also have assault scopes if equipped with FY71 assault rifles. (Special Force soldiers are discussed in detail in their own section below). - ARMOR VARIANTS: North Korean soldiers come in two armor variants; Light and Heavy. At first, you'll fight Light soldiers exclusively. A few Heavy Camper shotgun soldiers guard the schoolhouse near the end of Mission 2: Recovery, and Heavy soldiers become increasingly more common from Mission 3 onwards. This category refers to how much armor the enemy soldier is equipped with, with Heavy soldiers being much better armored than Light soldiers. Body armor reduces the damage enemies take from torso shots down to 75% (whereas unarmored enemies take 120% damage when shot in the torso). Helmets protect enemies from headshots. If a bullet strikes a helmeted enemy in the head, it will knock off the helmet but leave the enemy unharmed. However, this only applies to unaimed shots fired "from the hip". Headshot an enemy soldier while aiming with sights, and he'll die instantly, helmet or not. Light: Light soldiers tend to wear simple uniforms, without helmets or body armor. Light Camper soldiers do wear a medium armored vest (and often a helmet), but no shoulder pads. Light Squad Leaders always wear a full set of body armor, including a medium armor vest and shoulder pads. Heavy: Heavy soldiers are always equipped with body armor. They also wear a heavier armored vest than the Light soldiers (although the effect is purely cosmetic and doesn't actually provide better protection). They also tend to wear full body armor, including a helmet, heavy armor vest, and shoulder pads. - EQUIPMENT VARIANTS: All North Korean soldiers come equipped with a primary weapon (FY71 assault rifle, submachine gun, or shotgun), as well as a pistol sidearm. Certain soldiers are also given additional equipment packs to fulfill specialized combat roles. Standard: This North Korean soldier has no extra equipment. They essentially are only armed with their primary weapon (which has no attachments), and their pistol sidearm. Laser-Aiming Module: This North Korean soldier simply has a laser- aiming module attached to their primary weapon. It makes their aim more accurate, but also allows you to spot their location by the red laser beam their weapon emits. Grenadier: Some North Korean soldiers are armed with frag grenades, which they use to attack you or flush you out of cover. These guys can be distinguished by a thick, dark brown armored collar they wear around their neck and shoulders. They are extremely skilled and accurate throwers (able to often land grenades right at your feet, even if you're behind cover or at long range), and use their grenades fairly often, especially when you try to hide behind cover. These guys are actually pretty common; every squad of enemy soldiers will usually have at least 2 or 3 grenadiers. Shotgunner: North Korean soldiers armed with shotguns are visually distinguished by caches of shotgun shells strapped to their arms and legs. This is purely a cosmetic difference (you can't actually pick up the shells from the corpse or anything). Shotgun Grenadier: Some North Korean shotgun soldiers are also equipped with frag grenades. These guys have both the shotgun caches and armored collar on their uniform. Antitank Soldier: In addition to their primary firearm, this soldier is equipped with a missile launcher for taking out enemy tanks and other vehicles. There are a LOT of these in Mission 5: Onslaught, and Mission 6: Awakening. Two or three of them can easily wipe out a U.S. tank, but fortunately they seldom (but do occasionally) use their missile launchers against you if you're on foot. Special Forces: All Elite Special Forces soldiers carry grenades, and have the signature armored collars of grenadiers. They are also outfitted with silencers, laser-aiming modules, and assault scopes (if they carry a FY71 assault rifle). Their pistols are also silenced as well. - A.I. VARIANTS: There are 3 basic A.I. types in Crysis: Cover, Camper, and Flanker (There are also 3 special A.I. types: Squad Leaders, Snipers, and Nanosuits). All standard North Korean soldiers (including Elite Special Forces) are one of the 3 basic types: Cover: Cover soldiers are the most standard A.I. type. They advance on your position while firing, moving from cover to cover to protect themselves from your return fire. Cover soldiers are intermediately armored; Light Cover soldiers have no armor (except for Elite Special Forces), and Heavy Cover soldiers have fully body armor but one or no shoulder pads. Camper: Camper soldiers are a more defensive A.I. type. Instead of advancing on you, they tend to dig in on a secure position and defend it against your attempts to move in. Camper soldiers are usually found defending mission objectives or enemy bases. To aid their defensive role, Camper soldiers are more heavily armored than normal. Light Camper soldiers still wear armored vests, and Heavy Camper soldiers wear full body armor with all armor pieces (i.e. they always have two shoulder pads, and usually a helmet). Flanker: Flanker soldiers are the sneakiest A.I. type. Instead of advancing on you in a straight line, Flanker soldiers will attempt to circle around you in order to attack you from the sides or back and catch you by surprise. They like to use both objects and foliage as cover to sneak around you. They also do not provide covering fire, preferring to sneak to your side and shoot you directly. Flanker soldiers are more lightly armored than normal, probably to assist their manueverability. Light Flanker soldiers wear no body armor or helmet, and Heavy Flanker soldiers wear a medium armor vest only, with no shoulder pads or helmet. ===== North Korean Elite Special Forces Soldier: Appearance: North Korean soldier wearing black facepaint, dark uniform, and full body armor. Health: 180 Primary Weapons: FY71 assault rifle: 80 damage Shotgun: 100 damage Submachine Gun: 45 damage Secondary Weapons: Pistol: 60 damage Other Attacks: Melee Attack: 65 damage Frag Grenades: 250 damage DESCRIPTION: Korean Elite Special Forces soldiers are the most skilled enemy soldiers you'll face in the game, aside from General Kyong's handful of Nanosuit Soldiers. They can be distinguished by the black facepaint they wear, as well as the fact their uniforms are several shades darker than those worn by normal Korean soldiers. Special Forces soldiers are notably much more accurate with their weapons than standard Korean soldiers. All Special Forces soldiers carrying full equipment. They always wear full body armor and helmets (with the except of Light Flankers, who lack armor). Special Forces soldiers also always carry grenades, and are also always equipped with laser-aiming modules and silencers on their firearms. There are a total of about 80 Special Forces soldiers in the game. They first appear in Mission 3: Relic, where Special Forces Flanker soldiers are dropped off by helicopter as reinforcements at the various enemy bases and checkpoints if you're spotted and the alarm is sounded. About 3 dozen or so Special Forces Flanker soldiers also hunt you down towards the end of Mission 3, as you're trying to escape at night through the level from the dig site to the extraction point. A few Special Forces soldiers also appear at a roadblock in Mission 5: Onslaught. Finally in Mission 6: Awakening, groups of Special Forces soldiers (backed up by Nanosuit Soldiers) guard both the Ore Crusher, as well as the mine where General Kyong is holed up. BEHAVIOR: Special Forces soldiers have the same behavior and use the same tactics as the game's other Korean soldiers. The major difference is that they are noticeably more accurate with their firearms, and also since all of them are equipped with grenades, they all have the ability to use grenades against you. Otherwise, they use the same general tactics as other enemy Korean soldiers, moving in coordinated squads, using cover, closing in on and sometimes attempting to flank around your position, providing each other with covering fire, etc. KILL STRATEGY: Special Forces soldiers can be taken out using the same basic strategies you've been using against the standard Korean soldiers. They're a bit tougher, more accurate, and better equipped than most enemy soldiers, but ultimately they're still regular humans who are no match for you and your superpowered regenerating nanosuit. Notably, Special Forces solders are just as vulnerable to the cloaking device as the basic soldiers, so it's easily enough to use the cloaking device to get the drop on them and pick them off one by one. ===== North Korean Squad Leader: Appearance: North Korean officer wearing red beret, armored collar, and fully body armor with armored shoulder pads. Health: 180 Primary Weapons: FY71 assault rifle: 80 damage Shotgun: 100 damage Submachine Gun: 45 damage Secondary Weapons: Pistol: 60 damage Other Attacks: Melee Attack: 65 damage DESCRIPTION: North Korean Squad Leaders can be identified by the red berets they wear. Squad leaders lead squads of North Korean soldiers into combat, issuing them orders and coordinating their movements and attacks. Most enemy squads you encounter in the game will have a squad leader calling the shots. North Korean Infantrymen, North Korean Recon, and North Korean Special Forces all have squad leaders. Squad leaders also come in both Light or Heavy variants. Infantrymen squad leaders sometimes use Camper or Flanker A.I., but otherwise squad leaders use their own unique A.I. set and are neither Cover, Campers, or Flankers. Regardless of their military branch or armor level, squad leaders always wear full body armor, with one or two shoulder pads. They also wear the same armored collar grenadiers do, even though squad leaders are never equipped with grenades. They also never come equipped with missile launchers. BEHAVIOR: Squad leaders have the same basic behaviors and tactics as the game's other enemy soldiers. However, in their role as squad leaders they issue orders to the soldiers under their command, coordinating the movements of their squad. Kill the squad leader will reduce the cohesion and combat effectiveness of an enemy squad, although the difference is pretty subtle and not that much of a factor. Squad leaders seem to have a slightly higher than average fondness for shotguns, although they also often carry FY71 assault rifles or submachine guns. Squad leaders don't really hang back in combat, and aren't afraid to charge in on your position alongside the rest of their men. KILL STRATEGY: Squad leaders can be killed using the same tacics you'd use against any other standard North Korean soldier. Since they always wear body armor, they're slightly more durable than an unarmored soldier, but individually they still die pretty easily. ===== North Korean Sniper: Appearance: North Korean soldier wearing light uniform, with no body armor or helmet. Health: 180 Primary Weapon: Precision Rifle: 250 damage Secondary Weapon: Pistol: 60 damage Other Attacks: Melee Attack: 65 damage DESCRIPTION: The North Korean forces in Crysis include a number of snipers armed with precision rifles. Although unarmored, wearing only light uniforms with no helmet or body armor, snipers can be dangerous as they can pick you off at long range, often without you even being able to figure out where you're being shot from. Snipers can actually be pretty dangerous; depending on where they hit you, they can kill you with just 2 shots to the body if you're in Armor mode (a single sniper shot will knock out your entire suit energy bar and more than half of your health). They can often kill you in a single shot if you're in any other suit mode. Snipers first appear in Mission 2: Recovery, where their precision rifles with be equipped with assault scopes. From Mission 3: Relic and onwards, snipers will have more powerful sniper scopes instead. On the plus side, they're actually pretty rare, and I only counted about 16 of them throughout the entire game. Most Missions have between 2 to 6 snipers, usually found guarding major enemy outposts. BEHAVIOR: Snipers are typically found in high-up locations such as sniping towers or cliffs, where they snipe at you using their precision rifles. They've got good accuracy, and will usually hit you unless you're behind cover or using your cloaking device to hide from them. Snipers really don't move around that much, although they will dodge around and try to take cover if shot at. Even snipers up in sniper towers will duck down behind the tower's side walls when shot at. If you get within close range of a sniper, they'll put away their precision rifle and pull out a pistol to fight you with at close range. KILL STRATEGY: The best way to deal with snipers is to counter-snipe them, ideally before they become aware of you and start shooting at you. Your FY71 assault rifle is actually accurate enough to counter-snipe a sniper at long range, provided you're equipped with a sniper scope so you can actually zoom far enough to see them. Be sure to counter-snipe from near or behind cover, so you'll have a place to hide and regenerate if you get hit. Alternatively, you can sneak up on snipers using foliage and your cloaking device, then mow them down at close to medium range with your weaponry of choice. Because you're equipped with a regenerating nanotech supersuit, enemy snipers aren't the frustrating instant-death annoyances they are in games like Medal of Honor: Allied Assault or Iron Storm. Still, they can kill you in just two shots, so you want to watch out for them and kill them as quickly as possible. ===== North Korean Nanosuit Soldier: Appearance: Elite soldier wearing a nanosuit with green and tan armor plates. Health: 500 Suit Energy Armor: 250 Primary Weapons: Precision Rifle: 250 damage Submachine Gun: 45 damage Other Attacks: Melee Attack: 65 damage Smoke Grenades Flashbangs DESCRIPTION: North Korean Nanosuit Soldiers are the elite of the elite for the North Korean forces, and the most powerful North Korean enemy infantry units in the game. They are equipped with the same superpowered nanosuits that you are wearing, giving them access to the same assortment of superpowers that you have. Design-wise, I actually prefer the clunkier look of the NK nanosuits compared to the US version, as the NK version looks more like an armor-plated combat suit, as opposed to the US's muscle-shaped black fetish wear. Like NK Special Forces soldiers, Nanosuit Soldiers are significantly more accurate than standard North Korean troops. They're quite dangerous with both their long range precision rifles and their medium range submachine guns. Nanosuit Soldiers are also much more durable than regular enemy soldiers. Additionally, they can use Armor Mode to survive even more damage; it takes almost half a clip of assault rifle fire to kill one in Armor Mode. It even takes 2 gauss rifle shots or 2 direct rocket launcher hits to kill a Nanosuit Soldier in Armor Mode. Nanosuit Soldiers are also unaffected by headshots, as they do not take extra damage from being shot in the head. They are also immune to flashbangs, and cannot be grabbed or thrown (you can still knock them down by throwing stuff at them, though). Standard enemy Nanosuit Soldiers are equipped with both precision rifles and submachine guns. They use the precision rifles to snipe at you from long range, and fire at you with the submachine gun for close to medium range combat. They also toss smoke grenades and flashbangs at you to confuse and disorient you. Their flashbangs are particularly dangerous, because taking a single bullet hit will kill you if you're "stunned" from a flashbang hit. Enemy Nanosuit Soldiers are actually extremely rare. In fact, there are only 6 regular Nanosuit Soldiers and 6 Nanosuit Soldiers with miniguns in the ENTIRE GAME. You fight 4 regular Nanosuit Soldiers at night in the graveyard at the end of Mission 3: Relic, and 2 regular Nanosuit Soldiers serve as snipers guarding the rooftops of the rock crusher in Mission 6: Awakening. NANOSUIT POWERS: Enemy Nanosuit Soldiers can use Armor mode, Strength mode, and Cloak mode. Armor mode (their default mode) acts as a sort of "energy shield" that absorbs the damage from your attacks, allowing them to absorb 3 or 4 bullet hits before you can directly damage their health. They use Strength mode for melee attacks (a single punch will kill you in 1 hit), and also to allow them to jump up to high platforms (such as a pillar or tomb) for a better position to snipe at you. Nanosuit Soldiers also use Cloak mode to sneak around when not in combat, or while trying to flank or advance on you or to escape from gunfire. Fortunately, they always disengage their cloak once they start shooting at you. One consequence of their nanosuit power use is that, just like you, they are more vulnerable to damage while not in Armor mode. If a Nanosuit Soldier is in Cloak mode or Strength mode, you can kill them with a burst of several assault rifle bullets or a single gauss rifle shot. In addition to their nanosuit powers, enemy Nanosuit Soldiers also have regenerating health, just like you do. Their health gradually and constantly recharges, so you need to kill them quickly in one go instead of trying to fight them with hit-and-run tactics. BEHAVIOR: Because Nanosuit Soldiers are equipped with both long-range precision rifles and medium-range submachine guns, they'll vary their tactics based on their distance to you. At long range, they'll snipe at you with their precision rifles, and will manuever to a different position for a better shot if you try to run or hide. At close to medium range, they'll switch to standard infantry tactics; blasting at you with automatic submachine gun fire, strafing sideways while firing, dodging away from your return fire, taking cover (regenerating health while doing so), and attempting to flank or advance on your position. Regardless of range, Nanosuit Soldiers will also occasionally chuck smoke grenades or flashbangs at you between shots to try and disorient you. At long range, enemy Nanosuit Soldiers will use Strength mode to jump up on high objects such as pillars or tombs, in order to get a better position to snipe you from. They will also use Cloak mode while hunting you to hide and prevent you from shooting them while they manuever around; they will only disengage their cloaks when they actually fire at you. Finally, if you get within melee range, enemy Nanosuit Soldiers will activate Strength mode and try to punch you. A single Strength- enhanced punch will kill you, so you want to avoid getting that close to them. One notable attribute of North Korean Nanosuit Soldiers is that, unlike regular North Korean soldiers, they always speak in Korean instead of English, which disguises their tactical chatter from you (unless you happen to understand Korean yourself). KILL STRATEGY: Nanosuit Soldiers are considerably tougher than standard enemy soldiers, but they're really not that tough when you consider how incredibly rare they are. You can kill an enemy Nanosuit Soldier with about half a clip of assault rifle fire, which is just a couple seconds of sustained automatic fire. The shotgun also works very well against Nanosuit Soldiers, and can kill them in just 2 shots (1 shot if they're not in Armor Mode). By firing from cover and using aim mode to maximize your accuracy, you can take out enemy Nanosuit Soldiers using the same general tactics you use against standard enemy soldiers. Just remember to kill them with a single sustained attack, because their health regenerates if you don't press your attack. Surprisingly, Nanosuit Soldiers are also still vulnerable to tranquilizer darts. A single hit from a tranq dart will knock out a Nanosuit Soldier just as effectively as it would a regular enemy soldier. You can then kill them at your leisure while they're unconcious. Nanosuit Soldiers are also just as vulnerable to your Cloak mode as regular enemy troops. They can't see you while you're cloaked, so you can just cloak, wait for them to get close, then uncloak and unload on them with sustained assault rifle fire before they realize what's happening. The only thing that doesn't really work against Nanosuit Soldiers are explosives, due to their enhanced health and armor. So don't bother trying to kill them with a frag grenade, because they can survive the blast. ===== North Korean Nanosuit Minigunner: Appearance: Elite soldier wearing a nanosuit with green and tan armor plates. Health: 750 Suit Energy Armor: 375 Primary Weapon: Minigun: 90 damage Other Attacks: Melee Attack: 65 damage DESCRIPTION: Some North Korean Nanosuit Soldiers are equipped with miniguns, giving them devastating medium range firepower. Their nanosuit- augmented strength makes them the only soldiers in the game capable of wielding the minigun as a man-portable weapon. Besides their very damaging, extremely high rate of fire weaponry, Nanosuit Soldiers with miniguns are also even tougher than standard Nanosuit Soldiers, capable of surviving even more damage (it takes more than half a clip of assault rifle fire to kill one). As a trade-off, their ability to use nanosuit powers and behave tactically are reduced. Nanosuit Soldiers with miniguns do not use their cloaking device, nor can they throw grenades. They also do not seem to use strength mode to jump up to higher platforms. They mostly just remain in Armor mode and walk towards you while blasting away with their miniguns; the only other suit power they really use is Strength mode, which they only use to punch you if you get too close to them. Like standard Nanosuit Soldiers, Nanosuit Soldiers with miniguns have regenerating health, so you want to kill them quickly before they have a chance to heal any damage you inflict on them. These guys are extremely rare. There are only 6 of them in the entire game, all appearing in Mission 6: Awakening. 2 are guarding the rock crusher, 2 are guarding the entrance to the mine/excavation site where General Kyong is holed up (alongside a dozen or so North Korean Special Forces soldiers), and 2 can be found inside the mine tunnels leading to the excavation site itself. BEHAVIOR: Nanosuit Soldiers with miniguns can be very dangerous. Their weapons do good damage and have an extremely high rate of fire, and can kill you very quickly unless you seek cover. They're also quite accurate, even at long range, so you'll take damage from them even if they're firing at you from several dozen feet away. Think of them as walking machinegun turrets. As a trade-off to their heavy firepower and enhanced durability, these guys are tactically pretty simple. They mostly just walk towards you while blasting away with their miniguns, although they sometimes stand in one spot and fire at you instead. They will, however, react relatively intelligently if you fire back. They usually try to dodge sideways if you fire at them, and can sidestep and fire at the same time, and will often sidestep behind cover if you shoot at them, in order to protect themselves and regenerate their health. They can also exhibit searching and flanking behavior if you try to hide or dig into cover. KILL STRATEGY: As with standard Nanosuit Soldiers, you need to kill nanosuit minigunners quickly with sustained automatic fire, in order to prevent them from regenerating their health. A good strategy is to fire at them with a scoped assault rifle, while firing from behind cover to reduce the damage you take from their miniguns. At close range, 2 or 3 shotgun blasts should be sufficient to do them in. Also like standard Nanosuit Soldiers, these guys are vulnerable to tranquilizer darts and the cloaking device. You can knock them out with a tranq dart, then kill them while they're unconcious, or use cloak to get close to them before decloaking and unloading a clip of assault rifle fire into their torsos. ================= =Enemy Vehicles:= =============================================================================== ShiTen Mounted Machine Gun Turret: Damage: 60 Rate of Fire: 800 rpm DESCRIPTION: These mounted heavy machinegun turrets are scattered throughout the game, typically positioned at checkpoints, roadblocks, or the entrances to enemy bases. An enemy soldier is usually stationed at the machinegun turret, and other enemy soldiers can also run over and take control of any unmanned machinegun turrets. Turrets deal fairly high damage and have a high rate of fire and good accuracy, making them markedly more dangerous than an enemy soldier armed simply with an assault rifle. Taking out enemy soldiers manning turrets should be your number one priority in most firefights. If you get shot at by a turret, you should take cover to protect yourself. You can either snipe the soldier manning the turret (an assault scope or sniper scope helps), or use your Cloak Mode to sneak up on the turret and take out the gunner from close range. Also, turrets are limited to about a 90 degree cone of fire in front of them, so if you can flank them from the sides they won't be able to shoot at you. ===== Light Tactical Vehicle: Health: Hull: 180 Engine: 160 Wheels: 100 Lights: 45 Weaponry: Machine Gun Turret: 60 damage Damage Modifiers: Bullets: 2% Melee: 5% Gauss Rounds: 15% Frag Grenades: 25% Missile Launcher: 200% C4 Explosive Charges: 100% DESCRIPTION: The Light Tactical Vehicle is essentially a lightly armored Jeep with a machine gun turret on top. The LTV is decently armored, and requires a few clips of assault rifle fire to destroy. Enemy LTVs typically carry two enemy soldiers; a driver and a machine-gunner. Killing the driver causes the vehicle to stop moving, whereas killing the machine-gunner causes it to stop shooting at you. Like the ShiTen mounted machine gun turret, the LTV's mounted machine gun is very dangerous, with great accuracy and high damage. You'll want to take cover from the machine gun fire or kill the machine-gunner as soon as possible, or else you'll be cut to shreds in seconds. BEHAVIOR: Most enemy LTVs in Crysis will simply drive to a fixed position, then idle stationary there, opening fire on you if you come into the LTV's machine-gunner's line of sight. In this sense they function pretty much like a mounted machinegun turret. Some LTVs will actually drive around and patrol an area. If they spot you, the driver will keep chasing you while the machine-gunner opens fire on you. This is actually pretty rare; the only LTV I remember doing this specifically is the one guarding the harbor HQ in Mission 4: Assault. KILL STRATEGY: Because of their armor, LTVs are impractical to take out with small arms fire. Sure, you could blow one up with a few clips of assault rifle fire, but doing so is kind of a waste of ammo. It's much easier to take out the machine-gunner with a couple well-aimed bursts of assault rifle fire, at which point the LTV is no longer a threat to you (although the driver may get out and try to shoot you, or continue driving around and possibly run you over if you're not paying attention). You can also blow up a LTV with one or two frag grenades (if you're lucky, you might even flip it over and render it inoperative), but again it's much simpler to just kill the gunner. Probably the easiest way to take out an LTV is to use your cloak to sneak up on the LTV without getting shot, then decloak and blast the machine-gunner with a well-aimed burst. Alternatively, the LTV has a major "weak spot" in the form of a fuel can stored in the rear of the vehicle. A single bullet to the fuel can will cause the entire LTV to explode, killing the occupants as well as any enemy soldiers standing next to the vehicle. ===== Truck: Health: Hull: 600 Engine: 400 Fuel Tanks: 120 Wheels: 150 Lights: 45 Weaponry: Machine Gun Turret: 60 damage Damage Modifiers: Bullets: 2% Melee: 5% Gauss Rounds: 15% Frag Grenades: 25% Missile Launcher: 200% C4 Explosive Charges: 100% DESCRIPTION: The North Korean forces use convoy trucks to transport soldiers across the island. Enemy trucks typically carry a squad of North Korean soldiers riding in the back, as well as a driver, and a machine-gunner manning the mounted machinegun turret on top of the truck. As with the mounted machinegun turret and LTV's machinegun turret, the truck's machinegun turret is pretty dangerous, and you'll want to use cover and your cloaking device to avoid getting shot by it. Trucks are pretty durable, and you can't really destroy them with small-arms fire. Explosives work alright against them, however, and you can also destroy them by shooting their fuel tank. However, your main concern is killing the enemy soldiers they carry, since the truck isn't a threat once the machine-gunner and the soldiers have been eliminated. BEHAVIOR: Enemy trucks behave extremely simply. They drive to a pre-set position, then off-load a squad of enemy soldiers who will patrol the area looking for you. A machine-gunner will usually remain behind to man the turret and fire on you if you approach the truck itself. KILL STRATEGY: Like LTVs, Trucks have a fuel tank that you can shoot for an instant kill. The fuel tank should be a metal cylinder on the right side of the truck just behind the cab. Shoot it, and the truck will explode, killing any enemy soldiers inside it or standing near it. Otherwise, enemy trucks really aren't much of a threat, your main concern is killing the squad of soldiers they drop off. ===== Patrol Boat: Health: Hull: 1250 Weaponry: Machine Gun Turret: 60 damage Damage Modifiers: Bullets: 10% Melee: 10% Gauss Rounds: 50% Frag Grenades: 100% Missile Launcher: 400% C4 Explosive Charges: 400% DESCRIPTION: Enemy motorized patrol boats drive around the waters off the island's shore, and will open fire on you if they spot you. Patrol boats are crewed by a driver and a machine-gunner manning the boat's machinegun turret. If the boat's driver is killed, the boat will stop moving, but the machine-gunner will continue firing at you with the boat's turret. If the machine-gunner is killed, the boat is no longer a threat to you, and the driver will usually drive away to retreat. Sometimes, the driver will beach the boat further down the shore, and attack you with a pistol when you reach that area. Patrol boats are pretty tough, so small arms fire really isn't an option against them. If you fight one, your main concern is killing the machine-gunner to stop the boat from firing at you. BEHAVIOR: Patrol boats basically drive around in the ocean patrolling the shores of the island. If a patrol boat spots you on the shore, the driver will typically drive around in circles while the machine-gunner opens fire on you. Patrol boats have very long range and can spot, fire at, and hit you from a considerable distance away. KILL STRATEGY: Patrol Boats are fairly resistant to gunfire; unlike with LTVs, you can't really defeat them even with a couple clips of assault rifle fire. While you CAN eventually destroy a patrol boat with gunfire, it'll take so much ammo that doing so is simply impractical. The best way to take out a patrol boat is to kill the machine-gunner, preferably with well-aimed assault rifle fire assisted by a scope. With the gunner dead, the boat is essentially harmless to you, as the driver is unable to do anything except drive away and maybe beach the boat downriver and try to ambush you with a pistol later on. Alternatively, you can simply evade patrol boats, using cover and your cloaking device to move away from the shoreline if a patrol boat spots you and starts shooting at you. The gunner and driver can be tough to hit if the boat is in motion, which it usually is as long as the driver is alive. You can fire the assault rifle in bursts and try to lead your shots, or hide behind cover and wait until the boat pauses momentarily for you to get a better shot. Alternatively, you can run from the patrol boat by moving further inland, using cover such as rocks or the jungle trees until the boat loses track of you. ===== Attack Helicopter: Health: Hull: 300 Wings: 150 Rotor: 200 Rear Rotor: 150 Rotor Tail: 100 Weaponry: Coaxial Gun: 30 damage Hellfire Missiles: 110 damage Damage Modifiers: Bullets: 2% Melee: 0% Gauss Rounds: 2% Frag Grenades: 25% Missile Launcher: 100% C4 Explosive Charges: 100% DESCRIPTION: North Korean attack helicopters appear semi-regularly thorughout the game, usually called in as air support after you start an attack against an enemy base. Attack helicopters are heavily armed, capable of attacking with both a coaxial-mounted machine gun, and Hellfire missiles. They can kill you extremely quickly (especially with a missile barrage), and it's also very difficult to take cover from their attacks since they fire at you from the air, and can very easily circle behind you if you try to hide behind an object on the ground. Attack helicopters possess heavy armor, and are incredibly resistant to small arms fire. They're almost impossible to take out with bullets; you can use up all your assault rifle ammo against them and barely phase them, and even emptying a fully-loaded minigun into a helicopter will only seriously injure it at best. Since they're airborne, you can't really hit them with grenades either. In fact, the only weapon you have that can really destroy enemy attack helicopters is the missile launcher. You'll fight a total of about 9 attack helicopters throughout the game. They first appear in Mission 3: Relic, and will make semi-regular appearances throughout Missions 4, 5, and 6. Attack helicopters are also occasionally seen dropping off enemy soldier reinforcements, but these helicopters won't actually attack you, and typically fly off after delivering their troops. BEHAVIOR: Attack helicopters circle around you overhead, while peppering you with machinegun fire from their coaxial-mounted turret. Occasionally, attack helicopters can also launch a barrage of a few hellfire missiles at you. These missiles are very powerful and will generally kill you if they hit; fortunately, helicopters very rarely use them. Helicopters are very persistant, and will follow you throughout the level once they spot you. If they lose track of you (i.e. if you use Cloak Mode to disappear), they'll continue to patrol the area where you were last seen in hopes of spotting you again. They also often fire a burst of machinegun fire and occasionally a couple missiles at the spot you were last seen. If you take cover behind something to avoid the helicopter's gunfire, they'll try to circle around behind you to get a better angle to shoot at you. KILL STRATEGY: The only weapon you have that can really take out an attack helicopter is the missile launcher (a tank cannon also works, but obviously that's only an option if you have a tank). If you don't HAVE a missile launcher, or the one you do have isn't fully loaded with 3 missiles, then you're kinda in trouble if you run into an attack helicopter. Sudden appearances by attack helicopters are one of the prime reasons you should ALWAYS have a fully loaded missile launcher with you at all times. If you do have a missile launcher, taking out an attack helicopter is straightforward enough. Aim the missile launcher's red laser targeting dot at the helicopter to "paint" it as a target, then fire a missile at the helicopter to damage it. The missile should home in on the laser dot, and strike the helicopter accurately despite it being a moving target. Even with homing missiles, hitting a helicopter is still much easier if you wait for it to stop moving and hover in one spot for a couple seconds. It usually takes 2 or 3 missiles to blow up a helicopter, but the missile launcher has a good rate of fire, and you can shoot down an attack helicopter relatively quickly. Because the attack helicopter will be shooting you with its machinegun the entire time, it's a good idea to fire at it from behind cover to try and avoid getting shot up while you're targeting it with youre missile launcher. A good strategy is to hide behind cover, then pop out and shoot the helicopter during the pauses between its machinegun bursts. If you don't have a missile launcher, you can usually find one in an ammo stockpile somewhere nearby where the helicopter first appears and attacks you. Use Cloak Mode, foliage, or buildings to try and hide from the helicopter, and search around for an ammo stockpile with a missile launcher in it for shooting down the helicopter. One final thing you really should try to avoid is having to fight an attack helicopter and enemy soldiers at the same time. Because attack helicopters are brought in as air support, they can attack you in areas where enemy soldiers are also patrolling. Try to engage the helicopter away from the soldiers to avoid having to fight both at once. If an attack helicopter appears in the middle of a firefight against enemy soldiers, try to hide somewhere where the helicopter can't get to you (such as inside a building or train car), and take out the soldiers from cover before facing the helicopter. ===== Tank: Health: Hull: 1200 Engine: 700 Turret: 800 Treads: 490 Fuel Tanks: 100 Weaponry: Tank Cannon: 300 damage Coaxial Gun: 30 damage Machine Gun Turret: 60 damage Damage Modifiers: Bullets: 0% Melee: 0% Gauss Rounds: 0% Frag Grenades: 0% Missile Launcher: 200% C4 Explosive Charges: 150% DESCRIPTION: A North Korean main battle tank. Extremely heavily armored, with a powerful main cannon that can rotate 360 degrees, as well as a mounted machinegun turret for taking out any enemy infantry that try to get close. Tanks are very powerful; the main cannon can kill you in one shot, and the machine gun can cut you down pretty quickly if you try to get close to the tank. Their heavy armor also makes them completely immune to almost all forms of small arms fire, including bullets, gauss rounds, and even frag grenades. The only weapons you have that can damage a tank are the missile launcher, C4 explosive charges, and (in Mission 5: Onslaught) a tank of your own. You encounter two tanks near the end of Mission 2: Recovery, after clearing out the large village being held by the North Koreans. You also face about 14 enemy tanks throughout Mission 5: Onslaught, which is essentially one long running tank battle with you behind the controls of your own American main battle tank. BEHAVIOR: Tank behavior is straightforward enough; they drive around looking for you, and will open fire on you with their main cannon once they spot you. They also will shoot you with their machinegun turret at medium-to-close range if you try to get close to them. On the plus side, their rate of fire is fairly low, as there's a couple seconds delay between each shot of their main cannon. KILL STRATEGY: Tanks are completely immune to small arms fire. Bullets, frag grenades, and even gauss rifle rounds are absolutely useless against a tank. The only portable weapons you can carry that have any effect against a tank are the missile launcher, and C4 explosive satchels. The most straightforward way to destroy an enemy tank is to shoot it with the missile launcher. The tank's armor is thicker in the front and top, and weaker in the sides and rear. If you shoot a tank in the front or top, there's a chance it will take 4 missiles (and thus 2 missile launchers) to destroy it. Shoot the tank in the sides or rear, though, and it should only take 3 missiles to blow it up. Missile launchers are usually pretty common around areas where you have to fight tanks; there are a few in the school and town hall in the village where you fight 2 tanks in Mission 2: Recovery, and many enemy soldiers will drop missile launchers when killed in Mission 5: Onslaught. You can also use Cloak mode and foliage to sneak up on an enemy tank, then attach a C4 charge to them and detonate it to blow them into scrap metal. However, this requires getting close to the tank, and will only work if there's foliage nearby for you to hide and recharge your energy, due to the cloak's high power drain. In Mission 5: Onslaught, you'll battle about a dozen or so enemy tanks throughout the level. Fortunately, you'll have access to a U.S. tank of your own to fight them with. It takes 3 direct hits from your tank cannon to destroy an enemy tank, and your own tank can only take several hits before it is destroyed. There are two tactics you can use to maximize the survival of your own tank; "snipe" enemy tanks from long range to reduce their ability to hit you, and at medium range fire at the enemy tanks while moving to make yourself a moving target. If your tank takes more than 90% damage, you'll just have to bail out and progress on foot. Don't worry too much, as you can get a new tank at a couple points further down the level. ===== APC: Health: Hull: 750 Engine: 450 Turret: 650 Wheels: 50 Weaponry: APC Cannon: 200 damage APC Rocket Launcher: 300 damage Damage Modifiers: Bullets: 0% Melee: 0% Gauss Rounds: 0% Frag Grenades: 0% Missile Launcher: 200% C4 Explosive Charges: 150% DESCRIPTION: North Korean APCs (Armored Personnel Carriers) appear in Mission 6: Awakening, and serve as sort of mini-tanks. Like tanks, APCs are heavily armored and can only be damaged by high explosives. APCs are armed with a rapid-fire main cannon that shoots small explosive shells, as well as a side-mounted rocket launcher. The APC's main cannon is really dangerous; not only can it kill you in just 1 or 2 hits, but it also has a relatively high, fully automatic rate of fire. This makes APCs more dangerous than tanks, since tanks can only shoot at you once every couple of seconds. APCs are quite rare; there are only 3 of them in the entire game. One patrols the village and rock crusher yard, and one guards the entrance to the mining complex where General Kyong is holed up. There's also an unmanned APC in the rock quarry near the mining complex; if you're quick, you can actually hijack this APC and take it for a ride. However, the APC's pilot is standing next to it, and if he gets alerted to trouble before you kill him, he'll hop into the APC and drive around looking for you. BEHAVIOR: APCs pretty much patrol an area, looking for trouble. Once you START trouble (i.e. by running into the North Korean village HQ or rock crusher yard and shooting up the place), any nearby APCs will move to your location and start firing at you with their main cannon (as well as the occasional rocket). If you take cover, APCs can drive around to get a better angle to fire at you from. APCs typically don't move when they're firing at you, which makes them an easier target for you to hit with your missile launcher or explosive charges. KILL STRATEGY: Like tanks, APCs' heavy armor makes them are completely immune to small arms fire, including from heavy weapons like the minigun or gauss rifle, and even from frag grenades. The only portable weapons you carry that can take out an APC are the missile launcher and C4 explosive charges. It takes 3 missile launcher shots, or a single C4 explosive charge, to destroy an APC. Also, if you manage to take control of an APC of your own, you can use it to destroy enemy APCs. The easiest way to take out an APC is with a fully-loaded missile launcher. Take cover behind something really solid to protect yourself from the APC's cannon, then pop out and fire a missile at the APC whenever it's not shooting at you. 3 hits should cause the APC to explode into scrap. You can find missile launchers stockpiled in the village, there's one in a weapons stockpile in the rock crusher yard, and some of the enemy soldiers in the level also drop missile launchers. If you don't have a missile launcher, you'll have to sneak up on the APC and plant a C4 explosive charge on it. Use the environment to stay out of the APC's line of sight while advancing on it, and use your Cloak mode whenever you have to move through it's direct line of sight. Once you get close enough, toss the explosive charge onto the APC's hull, then quickly dive for cover and detonate the charge. ========= =Aliens:= =============================================================================== Naked Alien: Appearance: Water-like alien lifeform with a transparent, amoeba- like body. Has a Predator-like head, a humanoid torso with two arms, and several tentacles for "legs". Health: Melee: 400 Ranged: 600 Attacks: Light MOAC: 40 damage Melee Attack: 250 damage DESCRIPTION: The alien lifeform is encountered only in Mission 7: Core, inside the zero-gravity environment of the alien mothership. This is the alien in its natural state, outside of the assorted robotic exosuits you fight for most of the game. You'll often only face 1 or 2 aliens at a time, although they can sometimes appear in groups of 3 or 4 at once. They're not very aggressive, though, and if you move quickly you can often fly past them to the next section of the ship without taking any damage. They are hostile, however, and will attack you if you hang around and let them. BEHAVIOR: Aliens are very agile in their natural zero-gravity environment, able to quickly swim through the air and manuever around. They're usually constantly on the move, seldom stand still, and can be tricky to hit. They're also quite flightly and will use hit-and-run tactics; attacking you, then quickly swimming away to hide behind objects in the environment when you try to counter-attack. The aliens' most basic attack is to charge at you and ram you. This does heavy damage; in Armor Mode a single hit will knock off all your suit energy and almost half of your health, while in any other suit mode it can kill you outright. Additionally, aliens can often ambush you from behind or the sides due to the wide open, zero- gravity environments you fight them in. After ramming you, the alien will swim away from you quickly and try to hide, waiting several seconds before coming out and trying to ram you again. Some aliens are also equipped with hand-held MOAC pistols, which they will use to shoot a rapid-fire stream of ice-shard bullets at you. Aliens armed with MOACs can still try to ram you, but will mostly float at long range and pelt you with ice-shards. They also tend to dart around between MOAC bursts, and if you try to chase them or shoot at them they'll swim away and hide for several seconds before popping out from somewhere else to attack you again. The aliens' MOAC pistol is roughly on par with the North Korean submachine gun in terms of damage. KILL STRATEGY: Aliens are somewhat tougher than North Korean soldiers, but not too tough. You can still kill them with several assault rifles bullets, or a couple shotgun blasts. The most difficult part about fighting aliens is actually hitting them, since they move pretty quickly, seldom stand still, and are fond of swimming out of your line of sight and hiding behind obstacles. You also fight them in a zero-gravity environment, so they can appear and disappear from all directions. Probably the best time to shoot them is when they're charging at you, since they'll be moving in a straight line and thus are an easier target. The assault rifle works well for shooting aliens are medium or long range, while the shotgun works well if they get too close to you. When fighting aliens, the biggest thing you should probably remember is patience. Because of their tendency to run away and hide when attacked, you'll be doing a lot of chasing and waiting if you want to fight and kill them. Also, while fighting aliens, you should constantly keep moving in order to make it harder for them to hit you with their ramming attacks and MOAC fire. If an alien gets close to you, you can actually grab it by the throat, immobilizing it and allowing you to punch it to death. While floating in zero-gravity, you can also press RUN+LEFT or RUN+RIGHT to jet sideways several feet. This is useful for dodging aliens that are charging at you. One major thing to remember about the aliens is that you often don't have to fight them. Instead, you can just run away from them and proceed to the next section of the alien ship. Unlike Korean soldiers, aliens don't constantly shoot at you once they spot you, instead spending a lot of time swimming away and hiding for several seconds before trying to attack. As a result, you can often safely ignore them, and they won't have a chance to harm you as long as you don't remain in the same area as them for too long. ===== Alien Trooper: Appearance: 4-foot tall floating mechanical robot squid with 4 metal "leg" tentacles and 2 small "arm" tentacles. Health: 700 Attacks: Fast Light MOAC: 40 damage Melee Attack: 100 damage Damage Modifiers: Pistol: 120% SCAR: 90% FY71: 90% Shotgun: 70% Submachine Gun: 80% Precision Rifle: 150% Gauss Rifle: 150% Minigun: 50% Alien MOAC: 30% Missile Launcher: 300% Frag Grenade: 300% DESCRIPTION: The Alien Trooper is the basic foot-soldier of the alien attack force. Troopers are tougher, more accurate, and more agile than human soldiers, and are equipped with a MOAC gun that shoots rapid-fire streams of ice-shards. The Trooper's alien armor gives it some resistance to small arms fire; it takes slightly reduced damage from most automatic weapons. Combined with their high health, this makes Alien Troopers fairly durable, although you can still bring them down with about a dozen assault rifle hits or 2 to 3 shotgun blasts. Troopers can survive roughly the same amount of damage as Korean Nanosuit Soldiers, but unlike Nanosuit Soldiers their health doesn't regenerate. Alien Troopers cannot actually fly. Instead, they float a few feet above the ground, hovering around the environment. They can also use their tentacles to cling to objects, walls, and ceilings, as well as to hop around with dozen-foot-high jumps. Notably, Alien Troopers glow bright blue and self-destruct a few seconds after being killed. This energy explosion does heavy damage and will kill you in one hit if you're standing too close to them when they explode. As a result, you should remember to stay away from killed Alien Troopers, even as you're dodging around to avoid the attacks of their still-living squadmates. Alien Troopers typically attack in groups ranging from 2 or 3 up to several at once. They only appear in the last few missions, and you'll fight a total of approximately 60 of them throughout the entire game. About 24 Alien Troopers attack you throughout Mission 8: Paradise Lost. You'll fight about 5 to 7 of them in Mission 9: Exodus (along with a couple dozen Alien Scouts), and will fight about 28 of them throughout the corridors of the U.S. aircraft carrier in Mission 11: Reckoning. BEHAVIOR: Alien Troopers basically float around an area, and will attack you once they spot you. Unlike Korean soldiers, they don't really take cover or try to flank you, although they do move around while firing, and can also jet sideways several feet to dodge incoming fire. At long range, Alien Troopers will float around while shooting at you with their MOAC guns. Damage-wise, this is similar to submachine gun fire, and can do serious harm to you if you don't manage to hide behind cover or use Cloak mode to disappear. While you can slightly minimize the damage from MOAC fire by dodging around, you'll only survive if you take cover or kill the Alien Trooper before it does too much damage. At close range, Alien Troopers will strike you with their tentacles. This does fairly high damage. Sometimes, Alien Troopers can even kill you with only one hit even if you're at full health and armor. This usually happens if they strike you from behind. Otherwise, you can survive a few hits from them before dying. Finally, Alien Troopers have a sort of "ram" attack where they leap more than dozen feet into the air, then activate some sort of afterburner and jet at you at high speed. This attack does high damage if it hits, and like their melee strikes can kill you in one hit if they nail you from behind. Alien Troopers are quite fond of their melee attacks, and if they have a clear path towards you will often quickly float towards you in order to get within melee striking range. At long range, they'll also often use their "ram" attack to get close to you quickly. KILL STRATEGY: A lot of your fights against Alien Troopers will take place at close range, especially due to their fondness for melee attacks. The shotgun is one the best weapons you have against Alien Troopers. It only takes about 2 to 3 shotgun blasts to kill an Alien Trooper, and they're pretty easy to hit at close range since they don't dodge around very much when right in your face. Thus, one of the most effective strategies against Alien Troopers is to run up to them and blast them with the shotgun a few times. Just remember to stay out of range of their melee strikes, and to keep moving to minimize the threat of other Troopers hitting you from behind. When fighting Troopers at long range, you can snipe them with bursts of assault rifle fire, although they do move around and dodge sideways to avoid your fire. If fighting them at long range, it's a good idea to take cover behind something and pop in and out of cover to shoot them. Alternatively, if you have the gauss rifle, you can snipe the Troopers at long range for an easy one-hit-kill. If an Alien Trooper gets right in your face, you can sometimes grab it by the throat, immobilizing it and allowing you to punch it to death. This is kind of random, though; unlike Korean soldiers, the game doesn't always let you grab Alien Troopers even if you're right in front of them (this is likely due to buggy hitbox detection). Finally, aliens are just as vulnerable to your Cloak mode as North Korean soldiers. You can go into Cloak mode at any time to escape from Alien Troopers and find someplace to recover health and energy, or move to a better cover position to fire at them from. ===== Alien Trooper Leader: Appearance: Alien Trooper with a large, glowing, fan-like headcrest. Health: 700 Attacks: Fast Light MOAR: 5 damage (1.5 freeze speed) Melee Attack: 100 damage Damage Modifiers: Pistol: 120% SCAR: 90% FY71: 90% Shotgun: 70% Submachine Gun: 80% Precision Rifle: 150% Gauss Rifle: 150% Minigun: 50% Alien MOAC: 30% Missile Launcher: 110% Frag Grenade: 300% DESCRIPTION: Alien Trooper Leaders are a modified version of the standard Alien Trooper. They can be distinguished by their large, fan-like headcrests with glowing trails of energy running through them. As the name suggests, they seem to serve an "officer"-type role in the alien forces, and are usually accompanied by 2 or 3 standard Alien Troopers. Unlike standard Alien Troopers, Trooper Leaders are equipped with a MOAR weapon instead of a MOAC weapon. Instead of rapid-firing ice shards at you, the MOAR fires a freezing beam which freezes you solid if it manages to hit you for about a second or so. While frozen, a single hit from a Trooper's tentacles or ice bullets (or sometimes even the impact from falling over onto the ground) will shatter you and kill you instantly. However, if you avoid getting hit, you should recover from the freezing effect after several seconds. Alien Trooper Leaders are actually extremely rare. In fact, you'll only see about 4 of them in the entire game. In Mission 8: Paradise Lost, Prophet kills one in the cutscene where you meet up with him again, and one attacks you along with a couple standard Alien Troopers towards the end of the level. An Alien Trooper Leader and a few standard Alien Troopers attack you inside the carrier in Mission 11: Reckoning, and an Alien Trooper Leader and two standard Troopers constantly respawn and attack you during the final boss fight. BEHAVIOR: Alien Trooper Leaders behave pretty much the same as standard Alien Troopers. They float around a few feet above the ground, jet sideways to try and dodge incoming fire, leap around the battlefield, and attack with melee attacks, leaping attacks, and their MOAR freeze ray. The Alien Trooper Leader's version of the freeze ray is actually pretty weak, and they'll almost never manage to freeze you as long as you keep moving. KILL STRATEGY: As with the standard Alien Troopers, you can take out an Alien Trooper Leader with a couple sustained bursts of assault rifle fire, or about 2 or 3 close-range shotgun blasts. They're really nothing special, and their lack of a MOAC gun actually makes them weaker than standard Troopers considering how generally ineffective their freeze ray is against you. ===== Alien Scout: Appearance: 10-foot tall floating mechanical squid with 5 trailing tentacles. About the size of a transport truck. Health: 2000 Attacks: MOAC: 20 damage Singularity Cannon: 250 damage Damage Modifiers: Pistol: 70% SCAR: 45% FY71: 65% Shotgun: 70% Submachine Gun: 100% Precision Rifle: 130% Gauss Rifle: 200% Minigun: 80% Alien MOAC: 40% Missile Launcher: 200% DESCRIPTION: The larger of the two main alien units, the Scout is the alien equivalent of an air vehicle. When attacking, the Scout flies around high in the air, while blasting you with an accurate, narrow, rapid-fire beam of ice shards from its MOAC gun, as well as the occasional incredibly powerful blast from its Singularity Cannon (fortunately, not all Scouts are equipped with Singularity Cannons). Scouts are sometimes also deployed as enemy troop transports, using their 5 tentacles to carry and drop off 3 to 5 Alien Troopers before flying away. Scouts are quite tough; unlike human vehicles, they can be brought down with small arms fire, but it still takes a decent amount of ammo to kill one (they can take almost 2 full clips of assault rifles fire to kill). You'll fight a total of about 45 to 50 Scouts through the entire game. They're first encountered in Mission 8: Paradise Lost, where 4 will attack you one at a time throughout the level. Mission 9: Exodus mostly consists of several battles against swarms of Scouts, totalling about 23. You'll dogfight about 8 Scouts in Mission 10: Ascension, and several Scouts will attack the deck of the U.S. aircraft carrier in Mission 11: Reckoning during the initial invasion, and also during the final boss fights. BEHAVIOR: Scouts essentially circle around overhead while raining down an accurate, narrow, rapid-fire beam of ice shards at you with their MOAC weapon. On the plus side, they move at an average speed and aren't too difficult to hit. Scouts will sometimes hover several dozen feet above your head and rain MOAC fire down directly on you, and they'll sometimes fly around in strafing runs, speeding over you while shoot you before turning around and flying over you again. Sometimes, a Scout will fly off to long range and hover in one spot while blue energy builds around its "beak". This is a sign that the Scout is charging up and preparing to fire its Singularity Cannon. The Scout's Singularity Cannon takes about a second to charge and fire, and launches a blue vortex ball which travels at average speed, and explodes on impact, doing heavy damage. A single hit from the Singularity Cannon will critically injure you if not kill you outright, and is powerful enough to blow up light armored vehicles in one shot. Fortunately, the Singularity Cannon's brief charge time and average- speed projectile makes it very easy to dodge as long as you keep moving. KILL STRATEGY: You typically fight Scouts out in the open, where there's very little cover available to hide behind from their MOAC fire. Unlike machinegun fire, the Scout's MOAC fire is focused on a very narrow area, making it more like a narrow beam than a wide cone of bullet spray. Thus, you can avoid a decent amount of the Scout's MOAC fire by moving around, run-strafing sideways, and making it more difficult for the Scout to track you with its fire. While dodging around, return fire at the Scout with your own weapon. Scouts can be brought down with a couple clips of assault rifle fire, or 2 to 3 full 5-second bursts from the alien MOAC weapon. Probably the ABSOLUTE BEST weapon against the Alien Scouts is the gauss rifle. It only takes 2 gauss rifle shots to bring down an Alien Scout, and the gauss rifle's perfect accuracy and long-range (combined with a scope) makes it fairly easy to hit Alien Scouts with it. Indeed, there are a few points in the game (in Mission 9: Exodus) where you'll be ordered to shoot down several Alien Scouts with a stationary anti-aircraft gun; you're actually better off fighting them on- foot with the gauss rifle, as the anti-aircraft gun is extremely vulnerable to their Singularity Cannon attack (you can't dodge around while inside it, and a single hit from the Singularity Cannon will blow up the AA gun and kill you). Finally, if pressed, you can use Cloak Mode to hide from the Scout and move to a better, safer position from which to attack it from. ========= =Bosses:= =============================================================================== General Kyong: Appearance: North Korean Colonel-General, who looks like Dr. No, wearing nanosuit armor with no helmet. Health: 1600 Suit Energy Armor: 800 Primary Weapon: Minigun: 90 damage Other Attacks: Melee Attack: 65 damage DESCRIPTION: General Kyong is the relatively young leader of the North Korean forces in Crysis, and the game's main human antagonist. You fight him in a one-on-one battle at the end of Mission 6: Awakening. Like his nanosuit-wearing elite guards, Kyong is also equipped with a nanosuit, and fights wielding a powerful minigun. Kyong has a really high amount of health. He has more than 3 times as much health as a standard Nanosuit Soldier (in addition to the damage-absorbing benefits of the nanosuit's Armor mode), and it takes several precision rifle shots or a full clip of submachine gun fire to kill him. Additionally, just like regular Nanosuit Soldiers, Kyong's nanosuit constantly regenerates his health and Armor Mode energy, allowing him to heal any damage you do to him if you don't kill him quickly enough. Finally, despite the fact he's not wearing a helmet, Kyong is unaffected by headshots, and takes no extra damage from being shot in the head. You start the boss battle against Kyong without any weapons, but an assortment of guns are scattered around on the ground floor of the small combat arena in which you fight him. You can find pistols, submachine guns, precision rifles, and a shotgun from the various ammo piles or dead Nanosuit Soldiers around the arena. BEHAVIOR: General Kyong basically runs around on the upper platform of the combat arena, occasionally stopping to stand still and blast at you with his minigun for several seconds. Kyong always stays on the upper platform, and never comes down to the ground floor unless you knock him off the upper platform yourself by throwing something at him. Unlike regular nanosuit minigunners, Kyong can't move and shoot at the same time. He always stands still when firing his minigun, and won't sidestep or move to cover when shot at. Kyong doesn't really use cover at all, and pretty much just runs back and forth when he's not shooting at you. Kyong also doesn't use most of his nanosuit powers at all. The only nanosuit ability he ever uses besides the default Armor mode is Strength mode, which he only uses to punch you if you get too close. Keep your distance, though, because his Stength-augmented punch will kill you in one hit. KILL STRATEGY: Despite his boss-like durability and powerful weapon, General Kyong is actually an extremely easy boss. His attacks are very easy to avoid, and he can easily lose track of you entirely if you run out of his line of sight or use your cloaking device. The main challenge in fighting General Kyong is that he has ridiculously high health, and also regenerates any damage you do to him if you don't kill him quickly enough. Thus, you can't really beat him with hit-and-run tactics (such as popping in and out of cover to shoot him between his minigun bursts), and instead need to kill him quickly with one or two sustained attacks. Just like Dr. Krieger's extreme vulnerability to crotch shots in Far Cry, General Kyong has a major, hilarious weakness... thrown barrels! In the unpatched version of the game, throwing a barrel at him in Strength mode would kill him outright in one hit. After the latest patch, thrown barrels no longer kill him, but it will still damage him and knock him to the ground for a few seconds, during which he'll be completely vulnerable, allowing you to just walk over to him and pump him full of lead. If Kyong is on the right side of the upper platform, you can even knock him into the water by tossing a barrel at him. Like the aliens from Signs, North Koreans in Far Cry are apparently weak against water. General Kyong will die after several seconds of floating in the water (and he's also unable to shoot at you or do much of anything while in the water). Finally, if you want to kill Kyong in a straightforward manner, the shotgun is the best weapon to use. It only takes 3 or 4 shotgun blasts to kill Kyong, which can be quickly delivered in the space of a couple seconds. Get up on the upper platform, take cover and wait for him pause between minigun bursts, then pop out and blast him to death. The submachine gun or precision rifle are NOT recommended for this fight, as they take a lot of shots to kill him with, and also barely harm him faster than his health regenerates. ===== Alien Hunter (Exosuit): Appearance: 60 foot tall alien war machine; a 40 foot body walking on 4 tentacle-like legs (looks a lot like a War of the Worlds Martian Tripod). Health: 6000 Attacks: MOAR: 5 damage (4.0 freeze speed) Singularity Cannon: 500 damage Grab Attack: Damage Modifiers: Bullets: 15% Body Part Damage Modifiers: Leg Shots: 25% Torso Shots: 50% Head Shots: 100% Weak Point Shots: 200% DESCRIPTION: This giant alien war machine is the largest and most powerful alien unit seen yet, other than the massive alien warship itself. The Exosuit is huge ground unit that walks on 4 tentacle-like legs, slowly advancing forward towards its intended goal while obliterating everything that gets in its way. The Exosuit can briefly be seen in Mission 7: Core, walking past a viewing port inside the alien mothership. It next makes a major appearance at the end of Mission 9: Exodus, which features a huge battle between the Exosuit and a few dozen U.S. Marines (who, like you, are unable to harm it or stop its progress due to its impenetrable energy shield). The Exosuit is finally confronted in a boss battle at the very end of the game, in Mission 11: Reckoning, where it appears on the carrier deck of the U.S.S. Lexington, forcing you and a handful of U.S. Marines to fight it. Fortunately, the Exosuit's invincible energy shield gets disrupted once the battle begins by means by Plot Device, but it is still an incredibly tough opponent that will require a vast amount of firepower to bring down. BEHAVIOR: The Exosuit basically stands in one spot on the carrier deck, rampaging with its energy weapons and tentacles. It has 3 basic attacks; grabbing and throwing things with its tentacles, a MOAR freeze beam, and a Singularity Cannon. The Exosuit is fond of grabbing and throwing things. It will often send a small tentacle out of its "mouth" to grab the U.S. Marines who are helping you fight it, and hurl them through the air. This kills them, but isn't much of a threat to you since it doesn't actually aim the bodies at you. Likewise, the Exosuit will occasionally use one of its 2 front "leg" tentacles to grab a truck and throw it; this would kill you if it actually hit you, but the Exosuit just seems to toss the object in a random direction instead of directly at you, so you're unlikely to be hit unless you're really unlucky. Finally, if you get too close to it, the Exosuit will grab you and throw you through the air. This actually doesn't do as much damage as it seems like it would, and isn't much of a threat to you (although being thrown does stun you for a couple seconds after you hit the deck). The Exosuit is also equipped with a powerful MOAR freeze-beam, which it will fire at you at regular intervals. The MOAR beam is quite powerful, and can freeze you in less than a second of exposure. While you can recover after being frozen for a few seconds, being frozen can be quite dangerous, as you'll shatter into pieces if you get hit by any single attack (such as an Alien Scout's MOAC fire) while frozen. You'll also sometimes die randomly if you topple over and hit the deck too fast. You should try to avoid the MOAR beam by hiding behind an object when the Exosuit fires it at you (you can usually spot the Exosuit charging up its MOAR beam for a couple seconds before firing). Finally, the Exosuit is equipped with a powerful Singularity Cannon, which it will occasionally fire at you. A single hit from the Singularity Cannon will kill you outright. However, it takes a few seconds for the Exosuit to charge up the Singularity Cannon, during which it will open its "beak", kneel down, and glow with energy. When it does this, you should take cover behind an object to avoid the Singularity Cannon shot. KILL STRATEGY: Once Helena Rosenthal disables the Exosuit's invulnerable energy shield, defeating it is simply a matter of blasting it until it dies. This is easier than it sounds, though, as the Exosuit can take a LOT of damage. Besides having very high health, the Exosuit also takes significantly reduced damage (only 15% of normal) from all bullet- based projectile weapons (including the Gauss Rifle). Apparently, the Exosuit's mouth is its weak spot and it takes extra damage if you shoot it there (part of the Exosuit's hull will explode and it'll shake for a split second to let you know you're shooting the right spot), but even if you consistently shoot its "weak spot" it still takes a lot of hits to bring it down. In fact, the Exosuit is so tough that most of your standard weapons aren't going to be any good against it. You can forget about trying to kill it with an assault rifle. The Exosuit is even resistant against the gauss rifle; you can shoot it with every single gauss rifle round you can carry, and it'll still not take too much damage. Frankly, the only weapons I've found to be effective against the Exosuit are the minigun and the missile launcher. There's an infinite crate of missile launchers on the carrier deck, so you'll always have missile launchers available to you for the fight. The minigun is a bit tricker; it's VERY effective against the Exosuit, but there isn't one available on the carrier deck (although there are a couple boxes of minigun ammo near the door to the carrier interior). In order to have a minigun to use against the Exosuit, you need to pick up the minigun you get at the beginning of the level, and keep it with you throughout the entire level so you'll have it available to fight the Exosuit at the end. (NOTE: There IS a minigun is a dead-end room just past the lab where you pick up the TAC Cannon, but it's rather easy to miss). If you have the minigun, just blast away at the Exosuit on full auto. Unloading a full load of 1000 rounds into the Exosuit should kill it (if you consistently hit its weak spot, you can sometimes manage to kill it with about 500 rounds). You should take cover behind something if the Exosuit tries to blast you with its MOAR freeze-beam or Singularity Cannon, but otherwise just stand in one place and shoot the Exosuit with your minigun. Using the minigun, this fight is surprisingly easy. If you don't have a minigun, you'll just have to take the Exosuit down with missiles. It takes about 20 missile hits to bring down the Exosuit, which means you'll need to use about 6 or 7 missile launchers to do the job. You can grab a new missile launcher from the launcher crate on the carrier deck whenever you use up the 3 shots your current launcher holds. Be sure to dodge behind cover whenever the Exosuit attacks you, and also keep an eye out for Alien Scouts that may appear and attack you during the fight. Be sure to shoot down any Scouts that appear with your gauss rifle. ===== Alien Warrior (Alien Warship): Appearance: Massive, battleship-sized alien spaceship, more than 150 feet tall and 350 feet long. Health: N/A Attacks: Alien Turrets: 20 damage MOAR: 5 damage (0.65 freeze speed) Dual Singularity Cannons: 500 damage DESCRIPTION: The true final boss of the game is a giant Alien Warship (referred to as the Alien Warrior in the in-game files) that rises out of the ocean to challenge you after you destroy the Exosuit. You may have noticed the Alien Warship floating overhead at the end of Mission 8: Paradise Lost. Destroying the Warship basically involves dismantling it over a series of 3 "phases" in which you take out the assorted weapons mounted on it, while also occasionally dealing with Alien Scouts and Alien Troopers that appear while you're busy fighting it. BEHAVIOR: The Alien Warship floats in front of the port side of the U.S. aircraft carrier you're standing on. It floats in one spot, and doesn't really move around, although it does drift left and right slightly. The Warship attacks with MOAC ice-shard fire from the four turrets mounted on its front, as well as a powerful MOAR freeze beam from its main front cannon. If you take too long, the Warship will also occasionally fire its two powerful side-mounted Singularity Cannons at you. A single hit from either Singularity Cannon will kill you instantly. Fortunately, the Warship rarely fires the cannons and also fires them one at a time, instead of both at once. Each cannon also produces a large blue targeting beam a couple seconds before the cannon actually fires. The beam shows you the path of the cannon's shot, making it quite easy to avoid as long as you're paying attention. KILL STRATEGY: PART I: THE TURRETS: Your first task in defeating the Alien Warship is to destroy the four turrets mounted on the front of the Warship. Each turret takes 3 gauss rifle shots or 2 missile hits to destroy. You should take cover behind an obstacle to protect yourself from the turrets' MOAC fire and the Warship's MOAR freeze-beam, then pop out to shoot the turrets with your gauss rifle. This part of the fight is actually pretty easy, and you should destroy the four turrets without much trouble. PART II: THE ARMS: After taking out the turrets, you'll need to destroy the Warship's two side-mounted Singularity Cannon "arms". To destroy each arm, you need to shoot down the 3 Alien Scouts that attack when Helena attempts to "hack" each arm (as always, the gauss rifle is your best weapon against Scouts, and kills them in 2 shots). After the Scouts are destroyed, Helena will drop the shields around the Singularity Cannon arm, allowing you to blast it with your TAC cannon. PART III: THE MAIN HATCH: Once the Singularity Cannon "arms" are down, the Warship will float overhead above the deck of the aircraft carrier. You need to destroy two additional turrets that are mounted to the sides of the Warship's main underbelly hatch. Finally, you need to destroy the metal shielding covering the main hatch with a couple missile launcher shots, and then finally fire a TAC cannon shot through the main hatch to finally destroy the boss and end the game. Probably your biggest challenge while trying to destroy the main hatch is the fact a squad of 3 Alien Troopers (consisting of 1 Alien Trooper Leader and 2 Alien Troopers) will appear and attack you. If you kill the 3 Alien Troopers, 3 more will launch out of the Warship's main hatch, and will continue to infinitely respawn. These Troopers have the annoying tendency to one-hit-kill you with a backstab attack while you're busy shooting at the Warship's hatch. The best way to deal with the final part of this boss fight is as follows; first, destroy the 2 turrets quickly with your gauss rifle before the 3 Troopers appear. Then, use Cloak mode to hide from the Troopers, and kill 2 of them with hit-and-run tactics. As long as the 3rd Trooper is still alive, new Troopers won't respawn from the Warship. Use Cloak mode to hide until the 3rd Trooper loses track of you and wanders off, then decloak, destroy the main hatch's covering with a few missiles, then power up and fire your TAC cannon through the main hatch to win the game. ***************** *CRYSIS WARHEAD:* ******************************************************************************* ************************************ *CRYSIS WARHEAD NEW GAME MECHANICS:* ******************************************************************************* - In Crysis Warhead, you take noticeably less damage from enemy handheld firearms than you did in the original Crysis. This is because each handheld weapon has a different damage value when fired by the player or when fired by an AI soldier. However, in the original Crysis, all weapons used the player damage values regardless of whether they were fired by the player or by the enemy. In Crysis Warhead, the player's weapons do normal damage, while the enemy's weapons now use the reduced enemy weapon damage values. Most enemy firearms do 50% as much damage as those held by the player. As a result of this, you can survive about twice as much damage in Crysis Warhead than you could in the original Crysis. Note that unique weapons that cannot be used by the player, such as vehicle-mounted weapons or alien weapons, are unaffected and do about as much damage as they did in the original Crysis. ***************************** *CRYSIS WARHEAD NEW WEAPONS:* ******************************************************************************* - NOTE: Dual-wielding has been somewhat altered in Crysis Warhead. In the original Crysis, dual-wielded weapons (the pistols) were fired one after the other, which doubled the number of shots you could fire before needing to reload, but didn't affect your rate of fire. In Crysis Warhead, each pistol is fired seperately, with the left pistol fired by the left mouse button and the right pistol fired by the right mouse button. This allows you to fire both pistols simultaneously, doubling your rate of fire. Unfortunately, firing the right pistol CANNOT be remapped to another key. Even if you bind an alternative function (i.e. jump or crouch) to the right mouse button, pressing the right mouse button will remain the only way for you to fire the right pistol. Even after a year Crytek has not addressed this with a patch, so there's no reason to assume that they're ever going to. AY69 Machine Pistol: Faction: North Korea Damage: 45 Rate of Fire: 950 rpm Clip Size: 40 (+1 in the chamber) Max Ammo: Single Pistol: 400 + 41 Dual Pistols: 400 + 82 Damage Drop: 0.2 per meter Attachments: (1) (2) BRIEF BLURB: A full-auto machine pistol that serves as an alternative sidearm to the standard semi-automatic pistol. Damage and rate of fire are actually comparable to a submachine gun, and the machine pistol can put out a lot of lead in a short period of time. On the downside, it has below average accuracy and high recoil, and damage decreases noticeably at long range, making it best suited for close-range combat. Can be dual-wielded for double the firepower. A decent backup weapon, but not as useful or versatile as an assault rifle. Is quite powerful at close range when dual-wielded, though. DETAILED DESCRIPTION: An new sidearm introduced in Crysis Warhead, the AY69 machine pistol is a potential alternative to the standard pistol sidearm. Like the pistol, the AY69 is carried as a backup sidearm in addition to your 2 primary weapons. The AY69 machine pistol features a full-auto, very high rate of fire as well as a large clip size, making it akin to a submachine gun. Indeed, the weapon's damage, rate of fire, and clip size are all comparable to that of the game's standard submachine gun. On the downside, the machine pistol has significant recoil, causing your aim to quickly rise upwards during full-auto fire. The AY69 also cannot be mounted with a sight or scope, and damage also decreases noticeably at long range, making it best suited for close to medium range combat only. Like the standard pistol, the AY69 machine pistol can be dual- wielded for double the firepower. The left mouse button fires the left pistol, while the right mouse button fires the right pistol. Both machine pistols can be fired at once, resulting in twice as much lead being put out in the same period if time. You can also alternate between machine pistols, firing the left pistol until it runs dry, then firing the right pistol while you reload the left. Unfortunately, a major bug in Crysis Warhead prevents you from binding the pistols to any other key besides the left and right mouse buttons. For example, only the right mouse button fires the right pistol, and there is absolutely no way to rebind it to another key or mouse button. Even after almost a year, Crytek still hasn't fixed this in a patch, so there's no expectation that they're ever going to. Just something to keep in mind if you're not the sort who uses the standard control configuration. Overall, the machine pistols work well for good close-to-medium range combat, especially if you dual-wield them for double the firepower. I found them noticeably more useful than the standard pistol, especially due to the high, full-auto rate of fire. Still, they're not as versatile as a primary weapon such as an assault rifle or shotgun, which work for both close and long range combat. The AY69s make for good backup weapons, but you'll still be mainly using your primary weapons for most of the game. ENEMY USAGE: A few enemy soldiers are equipped with an AY69 machine pistols instead of a primary weapon such as an assault rifle or shotgun. These are usually low-level, unarmored enemy soldiers. Surprisingly, though, they actually do slightly more damage and have a noticeably higher rate of fire than enemy soldiers equipped with assault rifles. They still don't do that much damage, however, and have below average accuracy at long range, so they're not a major threat. Some enemies also carry an AY69 instead of a standard pistol as their sidearms, and will sometimes pull out the AY69 to fight you with if they run out of bullets in their primary weapon and are too close to you to safely reload. ===== FGL40 Automatic Grenade Launcher: Faction: North Korea Damage: 250 Rate of Fire: 80 rpm Clip Size: 6 Max Ammo: 36 + 6 Damage Drop: N/A Attachments: (2) BRIEF BLURB: A grenade launcher with a six-round revolver cylinder. Lobs explosive grenades which travel a few dozen feet and explode on impact. Grenade rounds do good explosive damage, similar to that of a frag grenade. Good against groups of enemy soldiers, or light- armored enemy vehicles. Can also take out an enemy ASV with several shots, but is useless against heavily-armored APCs. Can also fire EMP grenades which disrupt enemy vehicles, Nanosuits, or Alien Troopers. Ammo is fairly uncommon, but you can usually find a lot of it just prior to a boss battle or major fight. DETAILED DESCRIPTION: This six-shot grenade launcher is the second of Crysis Warhead's two major new weapons. The grenade launcher fires explosive grenades that travel for a few dozen feet and explode on impact. They are affected by gravity and travel in an arc, but still have decent range and also travel further and faster than a simple thrown frag grenade. The damage of each individual grenade is also comparable to that of a frag grenade explosion. A single grenade can wipe out a tightly spaced group of enemy soldiers, and you can take out light enemy vehicles such as LTV Jeeps with just a couple grenade hits. You can even take out a well-armored ASV with several grenade hits. Unfortunately, the grenade launcher is no good against heavily- armored enemy APCs, which are too well armored to be damaged by grenades. Instead of a standard cross-hair, the grenade launcher instead displays a tiered rangefinder that takes practice to use properly. This, combined with the grenade's trajectory arc, makes the grenade launcher difficult to aim precisely at long range. Instead, it's best suited for firing at targets at medium range. Still, with the weapon's splash damage, you don't need to aim too precisely when fighting enemy soldiers, and enemy vehicles present relatively large targets that are easier to hit. In addition to standard frag grenades, the grenade launcher can also be set to fire EMP grenades. These grenades emit a burst of electromagnetic energy that disrupts enemy electronics for several seconds; this works well for disabling enemy vehicles, Nanosuit Soldiers, and Alien Troopers. While grenade launcher rounds usually explode on impact, they can be toggled to remote bombs which lodge into the ground and only explode after being triggered. This can be used to set up traps and ambushes by laying down multiple bombs in a single area, but I never really found much use for it personally. Grenade launcher ammo is fairly uncommon, and can only be found at a few enemy weapon stockpiles. You'll mostly find a grenade launcher and ammo for it just prior to a boss battle or major shootout. Still, whenever you do find a grenade launcher, there's usually a decent amount of ammo for it nearby, so you should definitely feel free to use this powerful weapon whenever you come across one. However, you might not want to lug the weapon around with you everywhere you go, since there's not really enough ammo throughout the game to use it as your default weapon, and it takes up one of your 2 primary weapon slots. ENEMY USAGE: You won't find any enemy soldiers equipped with grenade launchers. U.S. marines and Delta Force soldiers don't seem to carry them either. This is strictly a player-only weapon, which is just as well as the explosive splash damage and decent rate of fire would make enemies equipped with it quite annoying, especially at close to medium range. ===== PAX Plasma Accumulator Cannon: Damage: 3300 Rate of Fire: 23 rpm DESCRIPTION: The PAX is an experimental plasma accumulator cannon that you can acquire at the end of Crysis Warhead's very last mission, just prior to fighting the game's final boss. The PAX fires a powerful plasma charge that hits instantly and does massive damage, enough to kill pretty much any enemy in the game other than the final boss in a single hit. The plasma charge also has splash damage at the point of impact, which can allow you to kill multiple enemies if they're grouped together. It's rather similar to the alien's Singularity Cannon, except it hits instantly instead of firing an average-speed energy projectile. On the downside, the rate of fire is quite low, and there is a delay of more than 2.5 seconds after each shot before the weapon is ready to fire again. Additionally, the PAX has a maximum range of about a 100 feet or so, after which the energy blast will simply explode even if it hasn't yet reached its target. Also, the weapon's damage seems to decrease noticeably as range increases, so that it's most effective within a few dozen feet or so. Also, be very carful about using this weapon at close range, as the splash damage can kill you also. Indeed, using it on a target less than 15 or 20 feet in front of you is downright suicidal. It's still an extremely powerful weapon than can destroy Alien Troopers and Alien Scouts in a single shot, and can bring down the final boss in just 8 or so shots. An excellent weapon once you figure out how to use it properly, although it does have its quirks that can get you killed the first couple of times you fire to fight with it. I highly recommend using it, both for clearing the area of Troopers and Scouts, and also for defeating the final boss (against whom it's probably the only practical weapon available). ===== Mine (AT): Damage: 1000 Max Ammo: DESCRIPTION: A laptop-sized, disc-shaped anti-tank mine. AT mines were usable in the original Crysis' multiplayer mode, but only make an appearance in the single-player game in Crysis Warhead. AT mines are basically laid down on the ground in front of you. If an enemy steps on one, or an enemy vehicle rolls over one, it will hop into the air and explode, dealing extremely high damage. The game is kind of finicky about where it lets you lay down AT mines, though, and they can usually only be put down in an open area outdoors. One good hit is usually enough to bring down most enemy vehicles, provided you can actually get them to drive over one. Unfortunately, mines are quite rare. You can occasionally find them in enemy weapon stockpiles, but you'll only find a handful of them throughout the entire game. They're also kind of difficult to use, as there are few locations in the game where you can set them up in such a way that they'll be beneficial to you (sniping enemies is much easier than laying down mines and luring them into an ambush). I never found much use for them, but your mileage may vary. ===== Mine (Claymore): Damage: 290 Max Ammo: DESCRIPTION: A block-shaped mine that, when stuck into the ground in front of you, will emit a laser trip wire several feet in front of it. If an enemy steps in front of the claymore mine, it'll explode instantly, dealing significant damage. Intended for anti-personnel usage, claymore mines can placed pretty much anywhere, and work well for setting up indoor ambushes. Like AT mines, they were available in the original Crysis' multiplayer mode, but only appear in single-player in Crysis Warhead. As with AT mines, claymore mines are unfortunately quite rare. You can occasionally find them in enemy weapon stockpiles, but you'll only find a handful of them throughout the entire game. They're also kind of difficult to use, as there are few locations in the game where you can set them up in such a way that they'll be beneficial to you (sniping enemies is much easier than laying down mines and luring them into an ambush). I never found much use for them, but your mileage may vary. ===== Nanodisruptor Grenade: Max Ammo: 10 DESCRIPTION: A new grenade type introduced in Crysis Warhead, the nanodisruptor grenade is designed specifically for use against Nanosuit Soldiers. The grenade produces a bubble of electrical energy for a second or so; any Nanosuit Soldiers caught in the bubble will have their nanosuits shut down for several seconds. The bubble has a decent radius of more than a dozen feet. With their nanosuits disabled, enemy Nanosuit Soldiers are unable to use suit powers such as Cloak or Strength Mode, and are also easier to mow down as they are no longer protected by the nanosuit's suit energy armor. Nanodisruptor grenades also work against Alien Troopers. Alien Troopers hit by a nanodisruptor burst will deactivate and fall to the ground for several seconds, allowing you to finish them off while they're stunned. This is great for thinning out a crowd of several Alien Troopers, or disabling a Guardian Trooper that's shielding nearby Alien Troopers. Nanodisruptor grenades can be found in enemy weapon stockpiles, usually just prior to a fight against several enemy Nanosuit Soldiers. They're noticeably less common than frag grenades, but are more common than flashbangs or smoke grenades. You'll mostly find them in Mission 3: Adapt or Perish, and Mission 4: Frozen Paradise, the two levels where you mainly fight Nanosuit Soldiers and Alien Troopers. ENEMY USAGE: Enemy Nanosuit Soldiers in Warhead are equipped with EMP grenades, which function essentially the same as nanodisruptor grenades. They have a decent radius of more than a dozen feet, and will completely deactivate your Nanosuit for several seconds, leaving you vulnerable to gunfire as well as preventing your HUD from displaying your current health and energy status. Fortunately, even with your Nanosuit disabled your health can still take several hits before you die. Also, enemy Nanosuit Soldiers are sometimes caught in the blast of their own EMP grenades, which results in their own suits shutting down. ************************* *CRYSIS WARHEAD ENEMIES:* ******************************************************************************* - Enemy handheld firearms do noticeably reduced damage in Crysis Warhead than they did in the original Crysis (see NEW GAME MECHANICS for details). As a result, most enemy soldiers do 50% damage with their handheld firearms when compared to the original Crysis. ================= =Enemy Soldiers:= =============================================================================== North Korean Soldier: Appearance: North Korean soldier wearing a camouflage uniform (appearance varies by class). Health: 180 Primary Weapons: FY71 assault rifle: 40 damage Shotgun: 100 damage Submachine Gun: 20 damage Secondary Weapons: Pistol: 30 damage AY69 Machine Pistol: 45 damage Missile Launcher: 200 damage Other Attacks: Melee Attack: 65 damage Frag Grenades: 200 damage DESCRIPTION: Once again, the standard soldiers of the North Korean army will be your primary opponents in Crysis Warhead. They still use the same equipment and tactics as they did in the original Crysis, operating in coordinated squads and making decent using of flanking, covering fire, and grenades to combat you. As in the original game, North Korean soldiers often operate in large groups, and you'll often find yourself battling more than a dozen at once. The enemy soldier A.I. has been slightly tweaked in Warhead to address some of the deficiencies seen in the original Crysis. For example, when you use Cloak mode to vanish in front of them, enemies will now often fire blindly for a couple seconds or even toss a grenade at your last known position, instead of just staring blankly at the spot where you were previously standing. One notable difference in Crysis Warhead is that enemy soldiers do significantly reduced damage with handheld firearms such as assault rifles or submachine guns. Indeed, most enemies do about 1/2 as much damage with handheld firearms than they did in the original Crysis. The reason for this is that, in the original Crysis, both the player and enemies did the exact same amount of damage with each weapon. However, in Crysis Warhead, enemies do noticeably reduced damage with equippable weaponry than the player does. Non-standard weapons (i.e. vehicle-mounted machineguns, or alien weapons) still do the same amount of damage as they did in the original Crysis, though. ===== North Korean Elite Special Forces Soldier: Appearance: North Korean soldier wearing black facepaint, dark uniform, and full body armor. Health: 180 Primary Weapons: FY71 assault rifle: 40 damage Shotgun: 100 damage Submachine Gun: 20 damage Secondary Weapons: Pistol: 30 damage Other Attacks: Melee Attack: 65 damage Frag Grenades: 200 damage DESCRIPTION: As in the original Crysis, North Korean Elite Special Forces soldiers are the most skilled and well-equipped standard enemy soldiers in the game. They have better accuracy than standard enemy soldiers, and always come equipped with full body armor and frag grenades, as well as laser aiming modules and silencers mounted on their weapons. However, they're still regular human opponents, while you're a supersoldier equipped with a super-powered regenerating nanosuit. Surprisingly, Special Forces soldiers are actually extremely rare in Crysis Warhead; indeed, only three squads of Special Forces soldiers appear in the entire game, and you'll only face a total of about 18 of them. Almost all of them are equipped with FY71 assault rifles. A squad of 6 Special Forces soldiers (led by a Special Force Squad Leader) are dropped off by helicopter at the end of the pier at the very end of Mission 2: Shore Leave to serve as your final opponents on that level (for kicks you can actually shoot down the helicopter with a missile launcher before it can drop them off). Finally, in the game's final mission, Mission 7: All the Fury, a squad of 5 Special Forces soldiers are guarding the airport hangar where the Warhead casket is being held, while a final squad of 7 Special Forces soldiers (led by a Special Forces Squad Leader) are guarding the area around the radio tower at the very end of the map, which you need to enter and activate to trigger the game's final battle. ===== North Korean Squad Leader: Appearance: North Korean officer wearing red beret, armored collar, and fully body armor with armored shoulder pads. Health: 180 Primary Weapons: FY71 assault rifle: 40 damage Shotgun: 100 damage Submachine Gun: 20 damage Secondary Weapons: Pistol: 30 damage AY69 Machine Pistol: 45 damage Other Attacks: Melee Attack: 65 damage Frag Grenades: 200 damage DESCRIPTION: Once again, most enemy patrols in Crysis Warhead are led by a red beret-wearing Squad Leader who coordinates the movements and actions of the soldiers under his command. Squad Leaders are always equipped with body armor, but otherwise aren't noticeably tougher or more skilled than regular North Korean soldiers. Squad Leaders use all the standard enemy movement and tactics, and aren't afraid to charge ahead into battle alongside the rest of their men. The most noticeable difference is that in Crysis Warhead enemy Squad Leaders are sometimes equipped with frag grenades, whereas they never used them in the original Crysis. ===== North Korean Sniper: Appearance: North Korean soldier wearing light uniform, with no body armor or helmet. Health: 180 Primary Weapon: Precision Rifle: 80 damage Secondary Weapon: Pistol: 30 damage AY69 Machine Pistol: 45 damage Other Attacks: Melee Attack: 65 damage DESCRIPTION: There are a handful of North Korean snipers in Crysis Warhead, mostly found in watch towers at the game's various enemy bases. Additionally, a pair of enemy snipers equipped with body armor can be found guarding the pier at the end of Mission 2: Shore Leave. North Korean snipers are much less dangerous in Warhead than they were in the original Crysis, since they do significantly less damage with their sniper rifles. In Crysis, an enemy sniper could kill you in 2 shots (1 shot if you weren't in Armor Mode), whereas in Crysis Warhead enemy snipers do less than 1/3rd as much damage as they did in the original game, and it takes about 5 shots for them to kill you (which gives you plenty of time to cloak or dive for cover and regenerate). As in the original Crysis, you can counter-snipe enemy snipers with a scoped assault rifle, or a sniper rifle of your own. ===== North Korean Nanosuit Soldier: Appearance: Elite soldier wearing a nanosuit with green and tan armor plates. Health: 500 Suit Energy Armor: 250 Primary Weapon Loadouts: (06) Submachine Gun + Precision Rifle (02) Shotgun + Precision Rifle (04) Shotgun + Missile Launcher (02) Shotgun + Gauss Rifle (12) Submachine Gun (02) Precision Rifle (01) Missile Launcher Other Attacks: Melee Attack: 65 damage EMP Grenades DESCRIPTION: The enemy's elite, superpowered Nanosuit Soldiers return in Crysis Warhead, and play a more significant role in the game than they did in the original Crysis. Nanosuit Soldiers are noticeably more common in Crysis Warhead than they were in Crysis, and you'll face a couple dozen of them fighting through the ice sphere in Mission 3: Adapt or Perish and Mission 4: Frozen Paradise (they are the only North Korean forces you encounter inside the ice sphere, as their nanosuits allow them to survive the below-freezing temperatures whereas regular humans would be instantly frozen solid). You'll also witness a few shootouts between North Korean Nanosuit Soldiers and alien Troopers and Scouts. There are about 6 Nanosuit Soldiers in Mission 3: Adapt or Perish, and about 22 in Mission 4: Frozen Paradise (the number seems to vary a bit, as a few may be killed by Alien Troopers before you encounter them). A final Nanosuit Soldier attacks you alongside several standard North Korean soldiers in an underground warehouse room near the end of Mission 5: Below the Thunder. There are a total of about 29 Nanosuit soldiers throughout the entire game (not counting those Nanosuit soldiers seen driving ASVs inside the ice sphere). ATTRIBUTES: Nanosuit Soldiers have the same superpowered nanosuits that you do, giving them the same assortment of powers including increased durability, regenerating health, regenerating Armor Mode armor, Strength Mode for enhanced jumps and punches, and Cloak Mode to conceal their movements when not attacking. Nanosuit Soldiers also have a much wider weapon selection in Crysis Warhead than they did in the original Crysis. Besides their standard submachine gun + precision rifle loadout, you'll also encounter Nanosuit Soldiers equipped with shotguns, missile launchers, and even gauss rifles. Instead of flashbangs and smoke grenades, Nanosuit Soldiers are now equipped with EMP grenades, which disrupt your own nanosuit for several seconds, disabling your suit modes (including the protective Armor Mode) and preventing you from regenerating your health. Fortunately, you can still survive several submachine gun shots with your nanosuit disabled, but it's still a good idea to take cover and hide if a Nanosuit Soldier manages to nail you with an EMP grenade. On the plus side, Nanosuit Soldiers sometimes get caught in the blast of their own EMP grenades (especially when fighting indoors at close quarters), disabling their own nanosuits. Nanosuit Soldiers usually appear in teams of 3. They fight using standard enemy infantry tactics, manuevering from cover to cover, sidestepping away from enemy fire, providing each other with covering fire, and tossing EMP grenades to attack enemies or flush them out of cover. They can also use their nanosuit's Strength Mode to leap more than a dozen feet upwards to reach a high platform or ledge to fire at their enemies from. When searching an area for enemies, Nanosuit Soldiers also fade into Cloak Mode to search for trouble while remaining hidden themselves. Overall, Nanosuit Soldiers are noticeably tougher than standard enemy soldiers, but can still be brought down with sustained automatic weapons fire. It takes quite a lot of submachine gun fire to kill them, but they can be brought down reasonably well with half a clip of assault rifle fire, or a couple shotgun blasts. You can also use nanodisruptor grenades against them to shut down their nanosuits for several seconds, leaving them vulnerable to your weapons. ================= =Enemy Vehicles:= =============================================================================== Light Tactical Vehicle: Health: Hull: 180 Engine: 160 Wheels: 100 Lights: 45 Weaponry: Machine Gun Turret: 60 damage Damage Modifiers: Bullets: 2% Melee: 5% Gauss Rounds: 15% Frag Grenades: 25% Missile Launcher: 200% C4 Explosive Charges: 100% DESCRIPTION: Just like in the original Crysis, this light armored Jeep is the most commonly encountered enemy vehicle seen in the game. LTVs are typically crewed by a driver, as well as a gunner on the roof-mounted machinegun turret. LTVs are usually found patrolling the island roads, as well as circling around inside enemy bases, and the gunner will open fire on you with the vehicle's machinegun once he spots you. LTVs are best dealt with by sniping the gunner down with a couple quick bursts of assault rifle fire. Once the gunner is dead, the LTV poses a limited threat, as enemy soldiers never seem to run over to take the dead gunner's place, and the LTV driver almost always ends up getting out of the vehicle to shoot at you or driving in circles instead of actually trying to run you over. LTVs can also be destroyed by shooting the exposed spare fuel tank mounted on the vehicle's rear. If you have a heavy weapon such as a grenade launcher or gauss rifle, a few shots will also blow the vehicle up nicely. ===== Truck: Health: Hull: 600 Engine: 400 Fuel Tanks: 120 Wheels: 150 Lights: 45 Weaponry: Machine Gun Turret: 60 damage Damage Modifiers: Bullets: 2% Melee: 5% Gauss Rounds: 15% Frag Grenades: 25% Missile Launcher: 200% C4 Explosive Charges: 100% DESCRIPTION: You'll also encounter a few enemy troop transport trucks in Crysis Warhead. Mostly, trucks will drive to a pre-scripted location and drop off the squad of enemy soldiers riding in the rear hold. Trucks do have a roof-mounted machinegun turret that enemy soldiers may sometimes take control of to fire at you. The turret is pretty powerful and accurate, and the gunner should therefore be a priority target for you. He's easy enough to snipe with a couple assault rifle bursts, though. Trucks can be destroyed by shooting the exposed fuel tank on their right underside just behind the cab. You can also blow them up with heavy weapons or high explosives, although you'll probably want to save those for heavier enemy vehicles such as helicopters or APCs, since the truck itself isn't much of a threat, only the enemy soldiers it drops off are. ===== Attack Helicopter: Health: Hull: 300 Wings: 150 Rotor: 200 Rear Rotor: 150 Rotor Tail: 100 Weaponry: Coaxial Gun: 30 damage Hellfire Missiles: 110 damage Damage Modifiers: Bullets: 2% Melee: 0% Gauss Rounds: 2% Frag Grenades: 25% Missile Launcher: 100% C4 Explosive Charges: 100% DESCRIPTION: You'll face a handful of enemy attack helicopters in Crysis Warhead. However, they're actually quite rare, as much of the game takes place either inside the ice sphere (which is too cold for helicopters to navigate) or inside underground tunnels. Typically, a single attack helicopter will fly overhead and open fire on you when you attack a major enemy base. Dodge around, use cover, try to get indoors, or use your Cloak Mode to evade helicopter gunfire. Helicopters are heavily armored and nearly impossible to bring down with small arms fire. Pretty much the only weapon you have that's any good against them is the missile launcher, which is why you should try to always carry a fully loaded missile launcher around with you. It usually takes 2 or 3 missile launcher shots to destroy an attack helicopter. Fortunately, you can usually find a missile launcher nearby in an enemy weapons stockpile whenever you end up confronted by an attack helicopter. ===== ASV: Health: Hull: 500 Engine: 420 Wheels: 180 Weaponry: Armored Vehicle Mounted Machinegun: 40 damage Damage Modifiers (General): Bullets: 2% Melee: 2% Gauss Rounds: 15% Frag Grenades: 0% C4 Explosive Charges: 150% Damage Modifiers (Hull & Engine): Gauss Rounds: 10% Frag Grenades: 50% Damage Modifiers (Wheels): Bullets: 50% Gauss Rounds: 30% Frag Grenades: 50% DESCRIPTION: The Armored Security Vehicle, or ASV, is a new enemy vehicle you'll face in Crysis Warhead. The ASV is basically a heavily armored 4- wheel armored car with a computer-controlled machinegun turret mounted on the roof. Because the ASV's machinegun turret is computer-controlled, the gunner is safe inside the vehicle, so you can disable the turret by shooting the gunner like you can with an LTV or truck. The only way to stop an ASV from attacking you is to blow it up completely. ASVs are well armored, and almost impossible to destroy with small arms fire. They can even survive sustained fire from vehicle-mounted machineguns. They even take several shots from the gauss rifle or grenade launcher to destroy. You can destroy an ASV with a single missile launcher shot, however. Unfortunately, missile launchers aren't always available nearby when ASVs are encountered. ASVs typically appear during the game's 2 vehicle chase sequences in Mission 2: Shore Leave and Mission 6: From Hell's Heart, and you'll also find several ASVs being driven by North Korean Nanosuit Soldiers battling aliens inside the ice sphere during Mission 3: Adapt or Perish and Mission 4: Frozen Paradise. BEHAVIOR: ASVs basically drive back and forth while pounding their targets with machinegun fire from their roof mounted turrets. They can't really perform complex manuevers, but they can somewhat drive around to get a better angle on you if you try to hide behind cover. ASVs encountered during vehicle chase sequences pretty much follow your own vehicle while shooting at you. They're very difficult to destroy even using your own vehicle mounted machinegun turret, so it's best to try to outrun them instead. KILL STRATEGY: ASVs are quite tough. The easiest way to destroy them is to shoot them with a single missile launcher shot. Unfortunately, if you're not already carrying a missile launcher when you encounter an ASV, you might not be able to find a missile launcher to pick up near the ASV. You can also use Cloak Mode to get close to them and plant a C4 explosive charge or Anti-Tank mine near them, which should destroy them in 1 blast. ASVs can also be destroyed with several grenade launcher shots, although they will eat up a decent portion of your available grenade launcher ammo. Fortunately, when encountered inside the ice sphere in Mission 3 and Mission 4, ASVs are often occupied fighting against alien war machines, allowing you to simply drive or run past them without actually engaging them in combat. This is probably the best course of action to take, since they're rather difficult to kill without a missile launcher. Towards the end of Mission 3: Adapt or Perish, you and Eagle Team (a squad of allied Delta Force nanosuit soldiers) need to travel through a frozen valley on foot to reach the end of the level. About halfway through, you'll pass through a frozen village guarded by 2 enemy ASVs, who you'll have to bring down to proceed (you can run past them, but Eagle Team will refuse to run and will stay behind to fight the ASVs). You can bring down each ASV with a missile launcher shot, but if you don't have a missile launcher you'll have to search the village for explosive ammo to destroy the ASVs with. ===== APC: Health: Hull: 750 Engine: 450 Turret: 650 Wheels: 50 Weaponry: APC Cannon: 200 damage APC Rocket Launcher: 300 damage Damage Modifiers: Bullets: 0% Melee: 0% Gauss Rounds: 0% Frag Grenades: 0% Missile Launcher: 200% C4 Explosive Charges: 150% DESCRIPTION: The APC is basically a heavily armored mini-tank equipped with an automatic main cannon that rapid-fires explosive shells, as well as a side-mounted rocket launcher. The APC's cannon is very dangerous, as it has a high rate of fire and yet is also extremely powerful and can gib you in just 1 or 2 hits. Good use of cover to protect yourself is vital when facing APCs. APCs are completely resistant to small arms fire (including gauss rifle rounds and grenade launcher shots), and can only be damaged with high explosives such as the missile launcher or C4 explosive charges. Since an APC's heavy weapons make it extremely dangerous to approach, you're best off destroying them with 2 or 3 missile launcher shots. Fortunately, you'll usually be able to find several missile launchers at nearby enemy weapons stockpiles whenever you encounter enemy APCs. Cloak Mode is VERY helpful in lining up a shot on an APC without having to worry about its return fire. You'll encounter 2 APCs guarding the roads bordering the seaside resort at the very end of Mission 1: Call Me Ishmael. These APCs shouldn't be too difficult to take down, as the village's houses, walls, and bordering forest offer plenty of cover to hide from the APCs' line of sight while you prepare to blast them with a missile launcher. You'll also encounter about 7 APCs patrolling the airport runway at the very end of the game's final level, Mission 7: All the Fury. You'll need to search the area for missile launcher pickups and use them to fight your way past each APC to reach the end of the runway and the radio tower at the end which you need to activate to begin the game's final battle. Don't be afraid to turn back and backtrack to search the previous area for missile launchers if you run out of missile launchers and see additional APCs ahead of you. ========= =Aliens:= =============================================================================== Alien Trooper Mk II: Appearance: 4-foot tall floating mechanical robot squid with 4 metal "leg" tentacles and 2 small "arm" tentacles. Health: 525 Attacks: Fast Light MOAC Mk II: 30 damage Melee Attack: 100 damage Damage Modifiers: Pistol: 120% SCAR: 90% FY71: 90% Shotgun: 70% Submachine Gun: 80% Precision Rifle: 150% Gauss Rifle: 150% Minigun: 50% Alien MOAC: 30% Missile Launcher: 300% Frag Grenade: 300% DESCRIPTION: The basic alien infantry soldier encountered in Crysis Warhead is the Alien Trooper Mk II. While mostly identical to the Alien Troopers seen in the original Crysis, these new Troopers have some minor tweaks and modifications. The Alien Trooper Mk II's MOAC weapon does slightly less damage than the version seen in Crysis. It can still kill you with sustained fire, though, especially from multiple Troopers at the same time. Their melee attacks are also still quite dangerous. Alien Trooper MK IIs also now emit a blue searchlight whenever they are looking for you if you enter Cloak Mode or hide behind cover for a prolonged period of time. Alien Trooper Mk IIs also have somewhat less health than the Troopers seen in Crysis, making them somewhat easier to bring down. The shotgun is particularly effective against them and can kill them in just a couple blasts, although a burst of several assault rifle bullets will also do the job. BEHAVIOR: Alien Troopers float a few feet above the ground, hovering across the battlefield. They cannot fly, although they can use their tentacles to leap large distances. They have decent agility and can jet sideways several feet to dodge enemy fire, and will sometimes jump up into the air and jet towards you from a few dozen feet away in an attempt to ram you. Noticeably, Alien Trooper A.I. has been tweaked and improved somewhat in Crysis Warhead. Alien Troopers now use some human infantry tactics, dodging in and out of cover, operating in squads, and attempting to flank their enemies. They fight more like human soldiers, with multiple Troopers spreading out and concentrating their MOAC fire on a single target, instead of being so reliant on getting close and using their melee attacks. As usual, Alien Trooper will self destruct a few seconds after being killed. This explosion is powerful enough to kill you if you're standing next to their bodies when this happens, so you want to stay clear of killed Alien Troopers while fighting their surviving squadmates. KILL STRATEGY: Alien Troopers are noticeably more durable than North Korean soldiers, but can still be brought down with a reasonable amount of firepower. The shotgun is excellent against them, and in narrow spread mode can bring down an Alien Trooper in 2 shots from several dozen feet away. You can also kill them with a burst of several assault rifle rounds, either sniping them from a distance or in close quarters combat. If you have a gauss rifle with a sniper scope, you can even snipe Alien Troopers with a single gauss rifle shot from long range. As with any enemy soldier, good use of cover is important to hide from their MOAC fire. You can also disable Alien Troopers for several seconds by with either thrown nanodisruptor grenades, or EMP grenades fired from the grenade launcher. You can then mow the disabled Troopers down with your weapons while they're immobile, or use the time they're stunned to concentrate on killing any remaining active Troopers. ===== Alien Guardian Trooper: Appearance: Alien Trooper with a large, glowing, fan-like headcrest. Health: 750 Attacks: Fast Light MOAC Mk II: 30 damage Melee Attack: 100 damage Damage Modifiers: Pistol: 120% SCAR: 90% FY71: 90% Shotgun: 70% Submachine Gun: 80% Precision Rifle: 150% Gauss Rifle: 150% Minigun: 50% Alien MOAC: 30% Missile Launcher: 300% Frag Grenade: 300% DESCRIPTION: A new alien enemy introduced in Crysis Warhead, the Alien Guardian Trooper is similar in appearance to the Alien Trooper Leaders from Crysis, but have entirely different behavior. Like standard Alien Troopers, the Alien Guardian Trooper is equipped with a rapid-fire MOAC icicle gun, hovers across the battlefield, and uses its tentacles to make large leaps as well as for powerful melee attacks. The Alien Guardian Trooper's main feature is that it emits a energy beam that creates bubble-like shields around up to 2 nearby Alien Troopers. The energy shields created by the Alien Guardian Trooper protect the standard Alien Troopers from your gunfire. Additionally, grenades thrown at the energy shields will bounce off and fly straight back in your direction. Shielded Alien Troopers will continue to move around and shoot at you, and the Guardian Trooper will also shoot at you while simultaneously shielding nearby Troopers. Alien Guardian Troopers are also somewhat tougher and more durable than standard Alien Troopers. Fortunately, they're rather uncommon, and you won't encounter too many of them throughout the game (you'll rarely see more than one in the same general area or battlefield). BEHAVIOR: Alien Guardian Troopers behave much like standard Alien Troopers. The only major difference is the energy beam they emit that creatures impenetrable bubble shields around up to 2 nearby standard Alien Troopers. The Alien Guardian Trooper itself is not shielded, and needs to be destroyed in order to make the shielded Troopers vulnerable. KILL STRATEGY: The Alien Guardian Trooper should be a priority target, since destroying it is the only way to shut down the energy shields it creates and therefore make the shielded Troopers vulnerable. The Guardian Trooper can be killed in pretty much the same manner as any standard Alien Trooper; 2 or 3 shotgun blasts, a little over half a clip of assault rifle fire, or a single well-aimed gauss rifle shot from long range. While a Guardian Trooper can survive somewhat more damage than a standard Alien Trooper, the difference isn't particularly dramatic. The shielded Alien Troopers may get between you and the Guardian Trooper. If this happens, you'll just have to strafe or flank around them to get a clear shot at the Guardian Trooper, since the shielded Troopers are protected from your weapons. You can also shut down a Guardian Trooper with a well-thrown nanodisruptor grenade or EMP grenade from the grenade launcher. Just be careful when sending grenades at the Guardian Trooper, as the grenades will bounce back at you if they hit an energy shielded Trooper instead. ===== Alien Scout: Appearance: 10-foot tall floating mechanical squid with 5 trailing tentacles. About the size of a transport truck. Health: 2000 Attacks: Scout Beam: 20 damage Singularity Cannon: 250 damage Damage Modifiers: Pistol: 100% SCAR: 80% FY71: 90% Shotgun: 60% Submachine Gun: 100% Precision Rifle: 150% Gauss Rifle: 100% Minigun: 100% Missile Launcher: 400% DESCRIPTION: Alien Scouts return in Crysis Warhead as the alien's main air support unit. Scouts basically fly around overhead, circling over you while firing a damaging ice beam down at you. Unlike Crysis , where Scouts were equipped with a rapid-fire ice pellet machinegun, Scouts in Crysis Warhead are equipped with a narrow continuous ice beam. It's visually different, but has pretty much the same effect, since the Scout's original MOAC weapon fired a narrow stream of projectiles also. Since their attack is a narrow beam, you can avoid it by dodging around a lot to prevent them from tracking you with the beam. Scouts' resistances to small arms fire has noticeably changed in Crysis Warhead. They're somewhat more vulnerable to automatic weapons such as the assault rifle or submachinegun, but are noticeably less vulnerable to the gauss rifle. While Scouts could be brought down with just 2 gauss rifle shots in Crysis, in Crysis Warhead it takes at least 4 gauss rifle shots to do the job. On the plus side, the missile launcher does twice as much damage to Scouts in Warhead than it did in the original Crysis, and Scouts can now be brought down with just 2 missile launcher shots. They still take reduced damage from the shotgun, but can still be brought down with a dozen or so shotgun blasts fired in narrow spread mode. Overall, Scouts are more resistant to the gauss rifle in Warhead, but it still works well in bringing them down. If you don't have a gauss rifle, you can also shoot them down with a couple clips of assault rifle fire, a dozen or so shotgun blasts, or a couple missile launcher shots if you have a missile launcher to spare. ===== Alien Scout Bomber: Appearance: 10-foot tall floating mechanical squid with 5 trailing tentacles. About the size of a transport truck. Has an orange energy glow instead of the standard blue energy glow. Health: 2000 Attacks: Smart Bomb Launcher: 200 damage Damage Modifiers: Pistol: 100% SCAR: 80% FY71: 90% Shotgun: 60% Submachine Gun: 100% Precision Rifle: 150% Gauss Rifle: 100% Minigun: 100% Missile Launcher: 400% DESCRIPTION: The second of two new alien enemies introduced in Crysis Warhead, the Scout Bomber is an orange Alien Scout. Instead of being equipped with an ice beam and a Singularity Cannon, the Scout Bomber instead flys around overhead while dropping heat-seeking rolling mines known as Smart Bombs onto the battlefield. These Smart Bombs seek you out once they hit the ground, rolling towards you at an average speed and detonating when they hit you. Smart Bombs do heavy damage and can knock out your armor and most of your health with a direct hit. Like regular Scouts, Scout Bombers can be brought down with 4 gauss rifle shots, a couple clips of assault rifle fire, or a dozen or so shotgun blasts. Alien Scout Bombers are actually extremely rare; in fact, only 2 of them appear in the entire game. One appears as part of one of the final waves of enemies at the end of Mission 4: Frozen Paradise when you're defending the mine entrance alongside Eagle Team, and one appears during the game's final battle in Mission 7: All the Fury. BEHAVIOR: Alien Scout Bombers pretty much fly around overhead while dropping Smart Bombs onto the battlefield. They have no other means of attack, although they do fly in circles to make themselves a somewhat more difficult moving target. KILL STRATEGY: Scout Bombers can be brought down in much the same way as standard Alien Scouts. 4 shots from the gauss rifle or 2 missile launcher shots are probably the simplest ways to defeat them, although sufficient automatic weapons fire also works if the gauss rifle or missile launcher are not available. By the time you fight the 2nd Scout Bomber, you should be able to acquire the PAX, the game's ultimate weapon. One direct hit from that bad boy should blast the Scout Bomber to pieces. ========= =Bosses:= =============================================================================== Alien Hunter (Exosuit): Appearance: 60 foot tall alien war machine; a 40 foot body walking on 4 tentacle-like legs (looks a lot like a War of the Worlds Martian Tripod). Health: 6000 Attacks: MOAR: 5 damage (4.0 freeze speed) Singularity Cannon: 500 damage Grab Attack: Damage Modifiers: Bullets: 20% Body Part Damage Modifiers: Leg Shots: 25% Torso Shots: 50% Head Shots: 100% Weak Point Shots: 200% DESCRIPTION: You and your allied Eagle Team nanosuit soldiers will battle a collosal Alien Exosuit walker in a boss battle at the end of Mission 3: Adapt or Perish. Oddly, this particular Exosuit lacks the indestructible energy shield the one in the original Crysis had, so defeating it is simply a matter of shooting it until it dies. It is VERY durable, however, and requires a huge amount of firepower to defeat. The Exosuit is fought inside a small frozen North Korean outpost, with several small buildings to take cover behind, as well as multiple enemy weapons stockpiles you can run over to in order to retrieve ammo. There's also a machinegun turret in the outpost, but you can't really use it yourself as one of your Eagle Team teammates will run over and occupy it instead. BEHAVIOR: The Exosuit basically stands in one spot, attacking you and your Eagle Team teammates with its MOAR freeze beam and Singularity Cannon. It can also grab and throw you if you get too close to it, but otherwise doesn't grab and throw objects as much as the Exosuit fought at the end of the original Crysis did. On the downside, the fact the Exosuit spends less time grabbing and throwing stuff means that it'll be using its MOAR freeze beam and Singularity Cannon attacks much more often. In particular, the Exosuit seems to fire its powerful Singularity Cannon much more often than in the original Crysis, which can kill you in a single direct hit. Fortunately, Both the Exosuit's freeze beam and Singularity Cannon attacks take a second or two to charge up, warning you about when it's about to fire and giving you plenty of time to dodge behind cover. KILL STRATEGY: Your Eagle Team teammates do noticeably reduced damage to the Exosuit with their attacks, in order to ensure that the responsibility for killing it falls mostly on you the player. Eagle Team does do a decent job of distracting the Exosuit, however, and their attacks do some damage. They're also unkillable (running out of health only results in them being knocked unconcious for several seconds), so you don't need to worry about them during the fight. The Exosuit is highly resistant against small arms fire, even from the gauss rifle. Explosive attacks such as the missile launcher or grenade launcher work well against it, however. Try to aim all your attacks at the Exosuit's "mouth" in order to do the most damage. Also, be sure to dodge behind cover whenever the Exosuit looks like it's charging up an attack shot. I found that probably the easiest and fastest way to bring down the Exosuit is to shoot it with grenade launcher rounds. You should be able to bring it down with 30 or so grenade launcher shots, which shouldn't take too long since the grenade launcher has a decent rate of fire and also holds up to 42 rounds of ammo. However, due to the grenade launcher's arcing trajectory, you'll have to get relatively close to the Exosuit to be able to hit it accurately. That's OK, though, since there are still buildings and crates at close range that you can use as cover from the Exosuit's attacks. ===== Alien Evil Hunter (Red Exosuit): Appearance: 60 foot tall alien war machine; a 40 foot body walking on 4 tentacle-like legs (looks a lot like a War of the Worlds Martian Tripod). Health: 50000 Attacks: Hunter Beam: 50 damage Hunter Turrets: 10 damage Hunter Smart Turrets: 200 damage Damage Modifiers: Bullets: 15% Body Part Damage Modifiers: Leg Shots: 0% Torso Shots: 50% Head Shots: 75% Weak Point Shots: 200% DESCRIPTION: This highly modified Red Exosuit serves as Crysis Warhead's final boss, and makes its appearance at the very end of Mission 7: All the Fury. With it's 4 large tentacle legs and 2 claw-like smart rocket launchers, this giant red walking war machine is rather akin to a alien Giant Enemy Crab, and it will fight you on the huge wide open airport runway. Like the regular Exosuit boss, the Red Exosuit is resistant to small arms fire, taking only 15% damage from bullets and gauss rifle rounds. The Red Exosuit is also INSANELY durable, and can survive several times as much damage as even the already powerful standard Exosuit boss. The Red Exosuit's attacks are also entirely unlike those of the standard Exosuit, and it has a number of damaging weapons systems to attack you with. Fortunately, immediately before you face the Red Exosuit, you're given access to the game's ultimate weapon, the PAX Plasma Accumulator Cannon. While you don't NEED to use the PAX to defeat the Red Exosuit (you can hop into an ASV and drive around shooting it with the ASV's turret, for example), the PAX is probably the fastest and easiest way of dealing with the Red Exosuit. In addition to the Red Exosuit, the airport runway area is also swarming with Alien Troopers and Alien Scouts. It's best to wipe out the Troopers and Scouts before triggering the appearance of the Red Exosuit, so you won't have to worry about their attacks while you're busy fighting the Red Exosuit itself. BEHAVIOR: The Red Exosuit has a number of unique weapons systems to attack with. Firstly, for long range combat, the Red Exosuit is equipped with two large, claw-like Smart Turrets. These Smart Turrets fire a spread of several heat-seeking smart rockets that travel at average speed and home in on your position. These rockets are very powerful; a single rocket will critically injure you, and the splash damage from two rockets will kill you outright. Secondly, for medium range combat, the Red Exosuit is armed with a powerful "Hunter Beam" that replaces the standard MOAR freeze beam used by the normal Exosuits. The Hunter Beam is a purple energy beam that does heavy continuous damage and can cut you down in less than a second of constant exposure. Since it's a beam, though, you can try to avoid it by dodging around, although even a glancing hit does 50 damage. The Red Exosuit will open its jaw and charge up the Hunter Beam for a second or two before firing, giving you some time to try to run for cover. Finally, for medium to close range combat, the Red Exosuit is equipped with 2 defensive shoulder-mounted turrets that fire narrow ice beams similar to those used by the Alien Scouts. These ice beams do minor damage (1/2 as much as the Scout's beam does), but do continuous damage. As with the main Hunter Beam, you can avoid or reduce the damage you take from the turret beams by dodging around to avoid being exposed for too long. Additionally, if you get too close to it, the Red Exosuit can pick you up and throw you several dozen feet. Fortunately, this only does modest damage. The Red Exosuit can also step on you if run around directly under it, which does heavy damage and can kill you outright if you're even moderately wounded for its other attacks. The Red Exosuit will basically stride towards you while blasting you with its various weapons. It uses its heat-seeking rockets at long range, and will attack with its two shoulder-mounted ice beams and well as the main Hunter Beam at medium or close range. At distances of less than a 100 feet or so, the Red Exosuit likes to walk right up to and even right over you, which puts you at risk of being stepped on. KILL STRATEGY: The Red Exosuit first appears when you pass the crashed plane carrying the PAX and run down the runway in the direction of the airport hangar. Before triggering the Red Exosuit's appearance, you'll probably want to equip the PAX and use the airplane as cover to kill any Alien Troopers or Alien Scouts running around, as you don't want them following you when you run forward to face the Exosuit. It's actually a bad idea to fight the Red Exosuit in the middle of the airport runway itself. The runway is a huge, wide open area with almost no good place to hide or take cover from the Exosuit's attacks. The PAX also has a limited range, so it's pretty much impossible to snipe the Exosuit from the few pieces of cover that ARE available. Instead, when the Exosuit appears, you want to ignore it and keep running forward towards the area near the airport hangar where the Warhead container is. This area has several stacked shipping containers you can use as cover to hide from the Exosuit's attacks, and it's also close enough for your PAX shots to affect the Exosuit. There should be a hole in the fence near the hangar area that you can slip through to get inside. The Exosuit itself shouldn't attack you until you get its attention by getting too close to it or shooting at it, since when it first appears it should be occupied with fighting O'Neill's VTOL as well as a squad of North Korean soldiers and an LTV on the ground. Once hiding behind the shipping containers, you'll want to use the PAX to take out any Alien Scouts or Alien Troopers nearby so they won't bother you when you fight the Exosuit. Cloak Mode is helpful for blasting the aliens then hiding when they return fire. Finally, once the area is clear of any other opposition, pop out of cover and shoot the Exosuit with the PAX. Aim for the mouth to do the most damage. The Exosuit should start walking over to you as soon as you start shooting it. I've found that it takes about 8 or so shots to kill the Exosuit. If you fire quickly enough, you should be able to destroy the Exosuit just as it reaches you and grabs you with a tentacle. If the Exosuit launches smart rockets at you, use the containers as cover to hide from them. If the Exosuit walks over to you to try and shoot you or step on you, you can dodge around through the containers trying to get away from it and put enough distance between you and it for you to turn around and continue shooting it with the PAX (using Speed Mode or Cloak Mode helps, just avoid getting stepped on by one of the Exosuit's legs). END OF TEXT COPYRIGHT 2009 ALAN CHAN