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         z o m b i e						

                            R  E  V  E  N  G  E
                                                      by  SEGA
	a less-than-definitive,
  arcade and kinda Dreamcast FAQ
		   by
	     Mav (c) 2000     email: web_tester226@yahoo.com
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Version 0.99


***Advance thanks to BLui, who helped inspire me to write this FAQ, and
whose GameFAQ got me started in Zombie Revenge! His FAQ also helped fill
in some blanks for the move names, combos, holding moves, and Act names
where my memory fails me.



S  E  C  T  I  O  N  S
-------------------------------------------------------------
I. Introduction/Disclaimer

II. The Story

III. "Select Players...": Stick, Linda and Rikiya

1. Stick Breitling
2. Linda Rotta
3. Rikiya Busujima

IV. The Playing Screen

V. Moves List

1. Basic Moves	
2. Advanced Moves
3. Advanced Gunplay
4. Basic Combo Moves
5. Advanced Combo Moves
6. Advanced Fighting Techniques
7. Higher Scores Through Cool Combos
8. A Note on Zombie Poison
9. A Note on Two-Player Games

VI. Items and Weapons

1. Pickups
2. Special Weapons

VII. Walkthrough

Part I: Woodside City

Part II: Edward Street

Part III: Industrial Sewage Plant

Part IV: Chemical Plant

Part V: South Union Railway

Part VI: Cassandra

Part VII: Mount Sacrifice

Part VIII: The House of the Dead

Part IX: The Dawn

VIII. Helpful Hints, Closing Thoughts, Mysteries of the Game, and Other
Stuff

IX. Credits



-------------------------------------------------------------
I. Introduction/Disclaimer

Here begins my first attempt at an arcade FAQ (though the FAQ might also
be helpful for Zombie Revenge players on Dreamcast's Arcade Mode), and
very first Internet FAQ of anything, really. Hope you find it helpful,
or at least amusing and entertaining to read. Heck, I think it's fun to
read through FAQs of great games I'll never even play :). There's lots
of great FAQ writers out there! Zombie Revenge is really a great game,
though it might take some time getting used to. (e.g. slight control
problems)

This FAQ also goes out to all the can-do gamers who've seen the game,
watched others play it, and decided to pop in those quarters and give it
a spin, to HECK with the humiliation of being a beginner! Trust me, I
sure felt nervous as heck before I finally mustered up the courage to
begin my video game quest against Zed and his minions of evil. It's not
over yet, but I DO have a firm hold on the top score board...and if I
can do it, so can you!

Of course, no FAQ or guide of any kind can replace the experience you
get from playing the game for yourself. At the very least, I'd like it
if this FAQ could help gamers who like the game, but can't get past the
first boss (yep, he's a real doozy in the early going), or gamers who'd
like to get to the next levels, or gamers who'd like to refine their
techniques and kick their scores up a notch (props to Emeril Lagasse),
etc...

Which brings me to the obligatory "Disclaimer" section. First off, sorry
if my FAQ reads like a novel. This FAQ will attempt to tell you
_everything_ I know about playing the game. But heck, maybe you'll warm
to my rambling yet conversational style :P. Please refer to my quick
reference guides if you just wanna know the moves first. As for the
items and weapons...there's just too many to put in a quick reference
chart :).

Second, I apologize if my FAQ starts sounding kinda know-it-all with all
the add-ons, heads-up notes and do's and don'ts that I'm bound to start
adding as I get this FAQ on the road. Be forewarned: I think lotsa folks
might find my playing style a bit...weird  ;), but I think going for the
combos and fancy plays is one of the reasons we play games in the first
place -- to get the high scores! (if not win the affection of members of
the opposite sex [maybe not], get bystanders oohing, aahing, and
swarming to see your bad self kick major zombie booty, and so on...oops,
I'm rambling again)

Third, as I hinted to on the "splash page," this FAQ is in no way meant
to be the definitive way to get ahead in Zombie Revenge. This FAQ is
written from a single-player point of view and my own style of playing,
since I don't normally play with other players (unlike in Area 51 -- 2
1/2 hour one-credit glory days and glory plays, not to mention super-
sore wrists, Entity, you bonus hogger); the only player I really play is
Stick Breitling; I haven't passed the game, though I'll wager I'm the
best (Zombie Revenge) player at my local arcade; many times I go for
points over safety and survival; I don't always get to the same level
with my plays; etc. If my strats don't work for you, try your own! Well
enough of the build-up, here comes the FAQ! Hope you enjoy it!
*************************************************************



II.  The Storyline (fictional, of course)

A government experiment to "recycle" the dead for military use has gone
horribly wrong, and an entire city has already fallen to its ravages.
It's now crawling with zombies. As it seems, foul play and sabotage by a
mysterious figure named Zed are responsible for the mayhem. Of course,
it's up to the forces of good (you) to stop this madman. Basically, you,
as one of three elite AMS agents, have been assigned to single- (or
double-) handedly foil the evil Zed's plot to raise an army of
horrifying undead soldiers which would surely take over the earth...if
you didn't stand in their way. (See BLui's FAQ for the actual in-game
text) If that weren't enough, you have a set time limit with which you
must complete a stage, or a demon of destruction will swoop in and
finish you off! Now that you know what you've gotta do, it's time to
save the world!


-------------------------------------------------------------
III. "Select Players...": Stick, Linda and Rikiya

1. Stick Breitling

Character Info:

Stick Breitling is a early-to-mid 20s AMS agent who has the most
personal involvement with Zombie Revenge's (ZR's) zombie crisis. It
seems his parents were also scientists who worked on the mysterious
government project which has since backfired. Aside from the moral
struggles that must surely come about from his parents' indirect
involvement in this disaster and knowing what source material was used
for the experiments, Stick must now face a neverending undead horde.

Analysis:

In my humble opinion, Stick Breitling is THE character to use in the
game. He is ideal for beginners and I would probably say all players.
Stick is a well-balanced player with a nice variety of useful moves,
pretty good footspeed, and most importantly, the quickest if not most
powerful melee attacks. He is _most_ definitely the go-to guy if you're
looking for the highest scores (more on that later). His handgun, which
all characters have as a default weapon, is the "weakest" of the
characters, but is still plenty good enough.


2. Linda Rotta

Character Info:

The lovely Linda Rotta is the youngest AMS agent, being barely into her
20s, and may or may not have a romantic connection with Stick (we'll
never really know, but isn't that the way it always is?). Despite
outward appearances, she is not a character to be underestimated. Used
properly, she is a force to be reckoned with.

Analysis:

Linda's primary advantage would be that of speed. She is the most nimble
of the characters and has the fastest dash. Unfortunately, her superior
footspeed does not carry over to her melee ability. Her hand-to-hand
combat attacks are for the most part very slow and not very powerful,
which can at times lead to vulnerable moments. However, it seems in
gameplay demos and BLui's FAQ that these attacks are quite maneuverable,
allowing Linda to handle more than one zombie at once. In any case, her
slower and weaker melee attacks are somewhat compensated for by her
superior firing speed of the handgun. I repeat: Firing SPEED. She won't
lock on any faster, or do any more damage. I would recommend only
advanced players use her.


3. Rikiya Busujima

Character Info:

This mysterious Japanese AMS agent, in his 30s, bears numerous scars and
even a metallic mesh that partly grafts his face! At the same time,
however, his melee attacks reflect possible "enhancements" that improve
his ability to battle the minions of Zed. Although he speaks only
Japanese, Stick and Linda, who are also fluent in Japanese, can easily
communicate with him. (Don't worry, everything spoken in the game is
subtitled anyway).

Analysis:

Rikiya's defining attribute seems to be raw power, although this is
debatable from my limited experience using him. His attacks are somewhat
faster than Linda's, but not nearly as fast as Stick's. His standby
basic combo, however, ends in two short-range but wide-arcing attacks
that can really hurt multiple enemies at once. Rikiya is the slowest of
the characters, although his dashing speed seems to match Stick's.
Rikiya's additional advantage is his more powerful handgun, which not
only looks bigger, but can also finish a job in 2 shots whereas Stick or
Linda would require 3. All of his moves are fun to pull off and watch,
and quite over-the-top, but I wouldn't choose Rikiya until passing the
game or getting good with using Stick first.

Note: To select alternate costumes for the characters (thanks to BLui
for the tip), simply depress and hold the start/play button and then
press any of the other three buttons to begin (you can let go as soon as
your character is chosen)



-------------------------------------------------------------
IV. The Playing Screen

The screen/character interface for Zombie Revenge is very simple and
straightforward. Your character's essential info will be displayed in
the top left corner of your screen if playing solo, or the top right
corner of your screen if playing as a second player. Right next to your
character's picture is a test tube positioned horizontally (thanks to
BLui for pointing this out) filled with yellowish liquid. This is your
life bar, which will decrease as you take hits from enemies, projectiles
and obstacles. If your life bar runs out, it's game over...with one
possible exception :).

Underneath your life bar is an image of a handgun, the default ranged
weapon for all characters. To the right of this is the number of bullets
remaining in the loaded clip (represented by little bullets). A fully
loaded clip holds 10 shots. To the right of the bullets remaining
indicator are little bullet clips, which represent the number of spare
clips you're carrying at the present time. As you empty your loaded clip
one spare clip will disappear from your reserve while you reload. You
can carry up to 5 spare clips. Underneath the handgun info display will
pop up special weapons displays with the image of the weapon you have
and the ammo it has left, if applicable.

In the top center of the screen is your time counter. Make sure you
clear each scene within the time remaining, as you can't extend or
freeze the time counter! Or else...

Under the time indicator appear any special items you might come across
and collect, such as a diskette, a flashlight, a weapons bag, or an
elixir. These items are automatically used/activated when the need
arises or at certain times.

Finally, at the bottom left or bottom right corner of the screen, again
depending on if you're playing solo or 2-player, is the all-important
score. Don't be scared of the fact that there's EIGHT numerical
placeholders...I've barely been able to break 300,000, much less
99,999,999 :P. Go for the highest score you can!

In the middle of all of this is where the action takes place. Awesome
3-D graphics, character models, animation, etc., from a basically third-
person perspective...you get the idea :).

Now that we know our interface, let's proceed to the moves list.



-------------------------------------------------------------
IV. Moves List

1. Basic Moves	

On the ZR arcade cabinets there are three buttons: Guard (G),  Punch (P)
and Shoot (S), from left to right.

                O     O
            --->|   O P O
            |       G   S
	    joystick,
     moves character
     in all directions

-------------------------------------------------------------
QUICK REFERENCE: Basics

Joystick -- move, hold in a direction to climb up/jump down from low-
level platforms

G: makes your player guard
P: makes your character punch
S: fires one shot from your handgun

Dash: Press G while moving

Roll: Press G and P while standing still

Clear Out Attack: Press G, P and S at once

Dash Attack: Press P or S while dashing

Charged Physical Attack: Press and hold P for about one second and then
let go

Charged Handgun Attack: Press and hold S for about three seconds, wait
for player animation ready position, and let go

Guard Break: Press P rapidly just after blocking an attack

Attacking Fall: Hit G, P or S just as you are being hit by an attack
(when you're not blocking)

Fall Recovery: Press P rapidly after falling

Back Attack: Press G and S at the same time
-------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------
QUICK REFERENCE: Combos and Holding Moves

Basic Combos (button presses must be fairly quick):

Stick:
1. Press P 5 times or P rapidly until combo finishes
2. P, P, S

Linda:
1. P, P, P while joystick is neutral
2. P, P, P while holding joystick towards enemy
3. P, S, P, P

Rikiya:
1. P, P, P, P or P rapidly until combo finishes
2. P, S, S, S

Holding Moves (performed after pressing and holding P briefly; you must
hit zombie with the button press; zombie cannot be facing too far away
from you; see following section for more details)

Stick:
1. Press P 3 times or rapidly while joystick is neutral
2. Press S 3 times or rapidly
3. Press P 3 times or rapidly while holding joystick towards opponent

Linda:
1. Press P 3 times or rapidly while holding joystick towards opponent
2. Press S 3 times or rapidly while holding joystick towards opponent
3. Press S 3 times or rapidly while joystick is neutral

Rikiya:
1. Press P 3 times or rapidly while joystick is neutral
2. Press S rapidly and continuously while joystick is neutral
3. Press S rapidly and continuously while holding joystick towards
opponent
-------------------------------------------------------------
	
--Guard

Guard is one of the most essential functions in getting through Zombie
Revenge, although it may not be often used. Shortly after pressing and
_holding_ Guard (Caution: there is a slight lag before your guard is
really up), your character will assume a defensive position where you
are currently facing. He/she can then block all manner of attacks so
long as they are headed directly at you (with some small degree of
error).

Guard will help you deflect punches, swipes, grabs, electric bolts,
zombie spit, lunges, and more for only a fraction of the cost of life
than if you took the attack full-on, or unsuccessfully tried to run from
an attack that's just too fast (e.g. one tick of life vs. 1/3 or WORSE).
You can even block many boss attacks. You will almost always take a
little damage, but you can take a ton of blocked hits as opposed to only
a handful of unblocked hits, depending on the zombies you're facing.
Guard also has more advanced defensive uses.

Of course, guarding has its limitations, as it should since many
fighting games of this type don't allow for blocking, especially with a
dedicated button. Guard will help you block many attacks, but not ALL of
them (don't worry, I'll try to make the unblockables very clear). You
can only successfully block attacks that don't come in from too far of
an angle from where you are presently guarding. You certainly can't
block an attack from behind. Your guard will probably break down if more
than one zombie is attacking you. Also, you can't move to adjust while
your guard is up. However, you can drop your guard immediately at any
time to continue moving.

--Punch

When weaponry won't do the trick (and in many situations it won't), one
must resort to fists and feet. Luckily all three characters are quite
capable of melee combat, if in varying degrees and styles. Press the
Punch button when facing an enemy to, well, throw a punch. Stringing
multiple and fast presses of the P button (and P followed by the S
button in various combo presses) allows for your bread-and-butter
basic combos, as a single jab does next-to-no damage to a normal zombie,
although it will stun them. P can also be used for advanced tactics.

--Shoot
	
While melee attacks are great and all, perfect for getting physical with
the undead, there will be many times when charging in just won't work.
Either the zombie will be spitting projectiles at you from afar,
multiple zombies will be headed your way, getting close is much too
dangerous, or punches will go over the zombie's head (especially those
that are short or crawling). That's when the default handgun weapon,
activated by the Shoot button, comes in. Pressing S will fire one bullet
at the enemy.

However, effective use the default handgun requires the proper
technique. You aim the handgun at one zombie at a time, and at a close
enough range a blue spherical sight will appear, signifying that you're
locked on. You can lock-on to a target from a good distance away. You
can certainly shoot and hit now, but damage will be very limited.
Emptying your clip at the zombie in this manner (with just a blue-sight
lock, or, in other words, not taking the time to aim) will get up to
a 10-hit combo, but will do VERY little damage, while you have to
reload, draining your precious supply of ammo and leaving you vulnerable
in the process (chances are the zombie will continue right on towards
you). By keeping your sight trained on your target zombie, your handgun
will power up, the sight turning from blue to yellow to orange and
finally red as you take careful aim at your target, where it will do the
most damage with only one bullet. This feature is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!
The gun also has a secondary function.



2. Advanced Moves

Moving around, blocking, punching and shooting alone will serve you well
through the early part of the game. However, more advanced moves will
enhance your character's ability, get you farther in the game, and
ultimately improve your ZR gaming. These moves are the Dash, Roll,
Clear Out Attack, and the Dash Attack, Charge-Up Punch, Charge-Up
Handgun attack, Guard Break, Attacking Fall, and Fall Recovery...oh, and
the Back Attack (silly me). What you get is a surprising amount of
gameplay and character depth with the use of only three buttons.

--The Dash

The Dash should definitely be one of most frequently used "advanced"
moves. Not only will your character move much faster, so as to get out
of harm's way, charge into the fray, etc., you will be able to burst out
of the dash into the all-important Dash Attack!

Execute the Dash by simply walking your character in any direction, and
while doing so press the Guard (G) button. He/she will be able to run
for a considerable amount of time (about 2 seconds) so long as you do
not stop running. The Dash can be started very easily over time as you
learn to hit the Guard button immediately after moving. While you don't
turn corners so well when Dashing, you can instantly stop the Dash by
letting go of the joystick to its neutral position. After that, you can
immediately do something else, or start the Dash again. In this manner
you could practically Dash as long as you want with almost no stops.

--The Roll

The Roll is another useful move which will make your character execute a
roll by pressing the Guard and Punch (G and P) buttons at the same time
while you are NOT moving.

Rolling can be used to quickly move a short distance to get out of
harm's way. It even inflicts a small amount of damage on any enemies it
hits (even those on the ground or knocked to the ground), and it can be
performed 2 or 3 times in a row. However, excessive Rolling will
drastically reduce the speed of the Roll, rendering it quite useless in
battle, and the slow Roll will not hit enemies, so try to use it
sparingly. The Roll also has advanced applications to help extend
combos!

--The Clear Out Attack

If you've seen most beat 'em up games in the style of Final Fight,
you're probably quite familiar with the Clear Out Attack. Hitting all
three buttons at once (G, P and S) will cause your character to spin
wildly in place, arms out, turning you around 180 degrees and knocking
down all nearby normal zombies. To my knowledge every zombie hit by this
attack will suffer the rough damage equivalent of a fully powered
handgun shot.
	
The Clear Out Attack's biggest limitation, of course, is that it takes
your lifebar to execute. Most of the time. Occasionally you can pull it
off for free, but the occasions are rare and there is no pattern for it.
The even BIGGER limitation is that as far as I know, it takes off the
most life of any of the clear out moves of any game. I'm talking
somewhere between 1/6 and 1/5 of your OWN life with a single clearout.
And life-ups are not too easy to come by. Worse, if you accidentally
clear out on an already defeated but still falling or un-disappeared
foe, you will still suffer the large life deduction.
	
Thus, use this attack VERY sparingly around your foes, and only when
you're surrounded or absolutely must knock down the zombies fast (e.g.
otherwise you eat two shotgun blasts, which will almost certainly wipe
off your life bar). Also note that you can't execute clear out attacks
if your lifebar is less than the life cost it would take to execute.

However, you can execute the Clear Out Attack with impunity and with no
cost to your lifebar as long as you don't hit a zombie/enemy with it :).
Fine, you might say, but why on earth would I toss clear out attacks if
there's no zombies around? For fun? To beat the stuffing out of thin air
:P? Actually...the clear out attack is very useful, especially for
getting to those hard-to-reach boxes (more on this later). The attack
can be performed fairly quickly and as many times as you want to knock
around things, knock DOWN items, and break open boxes and destructible
barriers, etc. Besides, it looks cool and causes the screen to shake and
stuff!

--The Dash Attack

This advanced move is executed by pressing either the P or S button
while Dashing, and before your Dash is completed. This attack is
extremely useful, though it does even LESS damage than the Roll, as it
will knock down non-crawling normal zombies. This will give you all
sorts of opportunities in terms of breathing space, focusing on one
zombie at a time, shooting at a zombie while it's flat out on the ground
for effectively free and safe damage, and so on. The even better news is
that a good hit will knock down up to three zombies at once!

Stick, Linda and Rikiya all have different Dash Attacks. Stick will Dash
Attack with his left arm sweeping out in a limited arc before hitting
home, allowing knockdowns with offset hits (the swinging left arm
shadow, basically). Linda will leap in the air and come down with an
overhead kick; unfortunately, her Dash Attack takes the longest to
execute and needs excellent control and distance judgment to use. Rikiya
will Dash Attack with both arms thrust straight forward, yelling out
like the take-no-prisoners guy that he is, and appears to have an edge
in terms of range.

The Dash Attack does have some lag and recovery time after it's
executed, but with practice you can execute a Dash Attack mere moments
after your last one finishes up. How? Thanks to the responsive buttons
on the ZR cabinet, you can start moving, hit G and almost immediately
afterward hit P or S, launching from a stop into an instant Dash Attack
if needed. Right after the Dash Attack ends (at least for Stick and
Rikiya) you can repeat the process. (use your index and third finger to
hit G then P or S in a quick left to right pressing motion for best
results)

--The Charge-Up Punch

While I have yet to see any real use for the Charge-Up move, it does
have its uses, and it's great for when you feel the need to show off, or
let a Boss know that you simply can't be beat...even when using the
charge-up move :P. The Charge-Up move is executed by holding down the P
button for about a second, then letting go. NOTE: If you hit and hold P
but hit a zombie, you will go into a holding move ready position and it
will take much too long to execute a charge-up move if you can at all.

Charge-Up moves vary. Stick will jump into the air with a quick double-
kick, hitting a zombie twice and launching normal zombies into the air
for possible juggle opportunities. In any case the move will knockdown.
Linda will lunge a short distance forward with two quick and slightly
arcing punches, possibly hitting multiple enemies but NOT knocking any
down. Rikiya will raise his arms to concentrate his energy, then release
it in a purplish blaze; the problem is, though, you can't move while
charging Rikiya's move, the range is horrible, and I've never actually
hit any zombie with it -- also, whether it knocks down is unknown to me.

If you're ever really gonna use the Charge-Up move, you basically will
need to throw a punch in the air and then move around while charging up
for the attack, as hitting the zombie with that punch will begin a
holding move combo since you're holding down the button after the hit
(See Basic Combo Moves for details.). Still, you can immediately begin
charging for another charge-up attack even as your first one is being
pulled off, meaning for example that Stick can double kick a mere second
after the first move so long as you press and hold the Punch button
again while Stick executes the double kick. This does not apply to
Rikiya though, I believe.

--The Charge-Up Handgun Attack

This move is also not always frequently used, but I find it much more
useful than the Charge-up physical attack. I always use this move at
least a couple times in every game :). Pressing and holding S will
cause your character to enter a windup position for about 3 seconds
before snapping back to the ready with their handgun drawn, ready to
fire as soon as you release the S button. Releasing the S button will
use up 5 bullets. So what? The resulting blast will shoot straight
with a fairly wide blast radius, and deal a fully powered single shot's
worth of damage on any zombie it hits, usually knocking down the normal
zombies unless the shot merely grazes them (and even then it will still
do full damage). Careful and skillful use of the charge-up handgun move
will allow you to knock down multiple zombies bunched together in a
single blast. Additionally, there's a little trick: you can still fire
the full power charge up blast with less than 5 bullets in your clip!
Just charge and fire as normal and your clip will be emptied and
reloaded to the full 10 from your reserve.

Also, unlike the guarding move, you can swivel in place slowly while in
the charge-up handgun ready position to adjust your aim (use the
joystick), but you will only be able to move left or right; your blast
will always shoot straight from the shoulder and cannot be adjusted up
or downwards. In the meantime, you will have to deal with the rather
long startup time for the move. Still, you can cancel the windup
anytime, and this move is great for knocking down zombies from a safer
distance. You can move or fire again immediately after firing a charged
blast.
	
You might wonder, OK, so this cool move uses up 5 bullets after I end my
windup. But I have to press S before I hold it, and I always have to use
up a bullet, so I lose 6 bullets! The solution: Throw a punch first. Hit
P, and then press and hold S very quickly afterward. After the punch,
you will begin the windup with no wasted bullets. So you can still fire
the charge-up with but one bullet left (and that can be very handy).

--The Guard Break

How can you tell if your Guard worked? Instead of seeing your character
reel from a hit, you will instead see a purplish-bluish blocking light,
and hear a blocking-type sound. Guard successful! But now what? Luckily,
the Guard button can be used for more than just turtling.
	
Right after you successfully guard from an attack, but not before, begin
pressing the P button rapidly as you recoil slightly from the enemy's
attack. You will then recover more quickly, crouch slightly, then charge
forward with a short range shoulder dash. This move will knock down any
zombie it hits, and do slight damage, allowing for great breathing room
when dealing with a crowd. I do not recommend Guard Breaking against
bosses.

--The Attacking Fall

Of course, not everything can be blocked, and sometimes your reflexes
won't allow you to block either. Getting hit happens. But you do have
limited recourse. By hitting either G, P or S just as you are hit, you
will (hopefully) turn to face the enemy and fire four quick and fairly
damaging shots back at the enemy as you fall. The connecting shots have
a good chance of knocking down zombies. Being able to fall out of a
zombie assault, firing as you fly backward, is often much better than
reeling from a zombie attack, leaving you stunned and vulnerable to
others. After you fall, you may also further retaliate with a recovery
attack on the way up. This move is just about the hardest Advanced Move
to execute, as it requires excellent timing (and who WANTS to get hit?)

--The Fall Recovery

When you fall, it will generally be because you successfully pulled off
an Attacking Fall, got knocked down by the only trap crate I know of,
got knocked down by the first boss, got absolutely floored by a shotgun
blast, etc. In any case, you can recover with a feet-first charge at the
enemy as you get back up by pressing the P button rapidly, rather than
merely standing up. This will stun the zombie/s you hit. Do not use this
move against Bosses, it usually does no good.

--The Back Attack

Now this move is pretty darn useful, at certain points. Pressing G and S
at the same time will have your character execute an attack in back of
them without turning around. This can of course be a good thing if you
need to stop a zombie coming in from behind you. The attacks vary, but
in general the range of the attack is quite decent, as in Stick's back
kick, and the Back Attack can even be used towards combo strings
:)...although it isn't the fastest move and doesn't do much damage. Fun
for use in breaking down a paneled-up door and other objects "no-look"
style.



3. Advanced Gunplay

The handgun can be used for much more than hitting a zombie from far
away for a small amount of damage. You can only have 60 bullets max at
any one time, after all. It is quite integral to distance and even
close-range gameplay!

Firstly, the most important way to expand your handgun's potential is to
conserve your bullets. Train your sight on a zombie (after you lock on,
you will track the target so long as another doesn't get in range or in
the way), letting the sight turn to red or as red as possible before
firing. You will get far more damage from a single powered-up shot, and
get the zombie bashing done much faster. Remember that you can also aim
and fire shots at a fallen zombie, reducing its life bar or finishing it
off before it gets back up. There are times, though, when rapidly firing
off shots can also be useful (why wait for a red lock on a zombie that's
almost done for?), so use your own judgment.
	
Without getting into too much specifics at this point (I'll have
gameplay examples later), your handgun can be used to 1) finish enemies
more quickly at close range, and 2) even be used to string together
combos! You will find after playing ZR several times that the closer you
are to the zombie (or if the zombie is headed towards you), your sight
will turn from blue to red much faster. If the zombie is practically
right next to you, you can execute a full-powered single shot in less
than a second! I don't consider this a bug or cheating at all since if
you're so close to the zombie, you won't have much trouble aiming at it.
While even a full-power handgun shot's damage isn't quite as high in
comparison to that of most standard physical attack combos, you can
reduce a zombie's lifebar by incredible amounts with relatively quick
single charged shots up close. This is possible as most normal zombies
do not attack you immediately after getting close, and also that the
full power shot will often stun them or knock them back while you are
already charging up for another red sight lock. Single shot lag is very
low, and you can do practically anything not long after the shot is
fired. Do experiment, but in a nutshell, using close-up shots followed-
up with physical combos can do devastating damage, defeating a zombie
even before it is knocked down!
	
Secondly, experiment with the aiming feature of the handgun to string
together really nice and long combos. You can finish off one zombie with
punches and kicks, then turn to a fresh zombie and firing off a blue
lock-on shot soon after, closing in quickly to extend the combo with
further punches, handgun shots, or possibly a combination of both.



4. Basic Combo Moves

Here's the Basic Combo moves for Stick, Linda and Rikiya:
NOTE: In order to do the basic combos, you'll need to press the
specified buttons fairly quickly, as the fighting system for combos is
slightly time-delayed, where you press the buttons "in advance."


Stick's Basic Combos:

1. Straight Flush -- Press P five times rapidly, or to eliminate the
guesswork, just hit P until the knockdown punch :)

Stick will execute four quick jabs, then a slight windup before
finishing up with a knockdown punch from the opposite hand for a 5-hit
combo. As the name of the move implies, Stick can really only advance in
a straight line while performing this move. It does appear possible to
refocus Stick on another opponent to finish the 5-hit chain IMMEDIATELY
after the first hit, but I haven't gotten it down...it's either very
hard to do or it's a random bug.

Straight Flush is a very powerful basic combo which does not take long
at all to execute as compared to Linda's and Rikiya's basic
combos...however, it also happens to be the combo I use least often.
Why? It's the slowest of Stick's two combos, and takes a bit longer to
finish up than the Heel Thrash combo does. There also seems to be a
longer recovery time after the knockdown punch. This wouldn't be so much
of a problem given the high damage of the combo if it weren't for the
fact that Stick covers a LOT of ground when doing the Straight Flush.
Depending on the situation, this either means you'll combo straight into
a group of enemies, or move too far away, or just generally move around
too much. You'll probably feel a lack of control since Stick will be
attacking in long segmented line patterns with this.

Straight Flush, despite those disadvantages, happens to be just perfect
for other uses. If you need damage quick, Straight Flush will do better
than a Heel Thrash or fancy combo. Also, should you be lucky enough to
run around to the backs of Bosses, you will not be able to keep them
stunned WITHOUT continually hitting them with the Straight Flush (as
many Bosses are pushed forward quite a bit when hit from the back).

2. Heel Thrash -- Press P, P, S fairly quickly.

Stick will throw two quick jabs followed by a two-hit axe kick which
knocks down, for four hits in total. While the combo counter will only
acknowledge hit combos 5 and over, this can easily be remedied by
_finishing up_ with the Heel Thrash, which only requires three button
presses for four hits (less effort, hehe). This combo is also a no-
worries combo as the axe kick will lock on to the enemy and will always
connect. This combo is in my opinion THE best basic combo that Stick
could use, with a few possible exceptions.

Here's an estimated time comparison of Straight Flush and Heel Thrash:

Straight Flush: Total combo time including recovery = 1.7-2.0 seconds
Heel Thrash: Total time including recovery = 1.2-1.5 seconds

In ZR, things can get really fast-paced in the heat of melee combat.
Having a quicker basic combo, even one that's a _little_ quicker, can
often times be critical to success!

Heel Thrash does a little less damage than Straight Flush, but it's
still plenty enough. I prefer using Heel Thrash as my basic combo as it
executes a bit more quickly, has a lower recovery time, and most
importantly, you more or less stand in place while the combo is
executed! Thus you can stay in one place and dispatch zombies with
precision.

There are no real disadvantages to using Heel Thrash, except when you
are in situations where covering ground with your attacks is important
(and such occasions will arise). For example, bosses being hit in the
back with Heel Thrash will likely recover as they are forced forward
while you stay in place, so they can turn around and before you know it,
you're in trouble again. Another problem with Heel Thrash is that you
must commit to the 2-hit axe kick when you press P, P, S -- while the
Straight Flush can be fully controlled and stopped simply by pressing P
less than 5 times (See Advanced Combos for more details). All in all
though, Heel Thrash is my preferred standby.



Linda's Basic Combos:

1. Sunrise Uppercut -- Keep the joystick neutral and hit P, P, P.

Linda will execute two punches and one uppercut. I'm pretty sure the
combo is for three hits and not four. This combo is slow, has some
recovery time, and does not do nearly as much damage as Stick's combos.
It also doesn't knock down. The damage caused is about one fully powered
handgun shot. There is possible combo potential since the zombie won't
fall..._but_ I don't think Linda was intended as a combo character.

2. Heartbreaking Hurricane -- Hold the joystick towards your opponent
and hit P, P, P.

This move will cause Linda to execute toward two punches, the
second hitting low, following up with a dragon punch-style rising
double-fist hammer type thing (sorry, but it's best way I can describe
it :P). I believe this combo does five hits in total. Again, not a very
damaging combo, and rather slow, but this one does knock down. Since the
zombie will fly kinda high after the hammer fist swing knockdown, you
will be able to hit the downed zombie not long after you recover.

3. Stepping Kick -- Press P, S, P, P fairly quickly.

Linda will perform a series of punches and kicks ending in a hop kick
for five hits total. This combo will knock down (I think). The timing of
the hits is a bit odd, but the combo is the fastest of Linda's moves.
Just note that it's a fully preset combo though, for only one zombie at
a time, and you have to wait for all five hits before you do anything
else. If you want extended combos, this is probably the best combo to
finish off with. The damage done is also somewhat higher than the above
two combos. Of course this move is still rather slow compared to
Stick's attacks.

I don't have much experience using Linda, but I imagine her slower
physical attacks don't fare as well against most Bosses. The solution
would be to attack from a distance whenever possible with the handgun.



Rikiya's Basic Combos:

1. Busujima Sonic Boom -- Press P four times quickly.

Rikiya will punch once with each fist and then execute two wide arcing
attacks with nifty accompanying swooshing sounds :) (oh yes, and those
battle cries). The trick with these last two attacks is that any normal
zombie caught in the attack radius will be hit and knocked down (given
they take both hits). If you finish off a normal zombie with the swoosh
attacks, they will neatly come apart at the waistline -- cool effect,
but this also means you can't do any more combos on them... Damage for
this move is very good, but as for being superior to Stick's Straight
Flush, I'm don't think it's much better if at all. Disadvantages with
this move are that it's kinda slow, with recovery time longer than
Stick's moves. Rikiya also covers a fair amount of ground with this move
(heck, even his regular jab moves him forward a bit). Also, I've seen
other players attempt to use the radius attack advantage against large
crowds and as a general rule, it doesn't work. My guess is the radius
attack (which isn't 360 degrees) wasn't intended for that purpose given
it's very short range.

2. Busujima Combo -- Press P, S, S, S fairly quickly.

Rikiya will begin a three hit punch combo (it's kinda slow and involves
turning backhands), start a long windup (yep, you won't get to extend
the 3-hit after this), and unleash a rather flashy purple flaming energy
backhand with energy trails that should connect for a 6-hit burst of a
combo. Thus, it's 9 hits in all, though the best combo you'll get is 6.
This combo does great damage, but it just so happens to be THE slowest
basic combo in the game...hence no practical applications. Of course, if
you want to show that near-gone last zombie who's boss, feel free to
whip this one out of your bag of tricks.



Stick, Linda and Rikiya also possess a variety of so-called "holding
moves." Very flashy, but usually not very useful. So generally, you
leave these moves for the very last zombie still in your way. All hold
moves are performed by pressing P to hit a zombie, then KEEPING P held
down for a short time after the hit connects. If you just tap P, it
registers as a standard hit.

You'll know it worked if the hit causes a rain of blue-white sparks, the
character crouches backward into a ready position amidst some shading
effects, and says "Take that!" or "Take this!" (or whatever funky yell
Rikiya cries out :)), and you see a red console button that seems to
demand you start button mashing right away. You can now start the
holding move of your choice. Even if you didn't want to do a holding
move, I suggest you pull one off quick -- you'll waste more time by not
doing so and waiting for your character to leave the ready position.


Stick:

1. Chest Crusher

Theoretically, just keep the joystick neutral and press P, P, P. For
better results hit P until the move starts. For BEST results don't STOP
hitting P until the move is finished.

Pure and simple. Stick does three nifty low gut punches, the last of
which knocks down. It covers considerable ground and is fun to watch.
The punches look powerful, but I'd be surprised if they do one powered-
up handgun shot's worth of damage (so what the heck IS one powered-up
handgun shot's worth of damage? See Walkthrough Part I for the
"answer"). In short, a pretty weak holding move. However, it's also
Stick's fastest holding move. This is the only holding move I know that
can also be used to EXTEND/finish combos (requires quick timing), and
man you look good when you do it to tack on three flashy hits. (e.g. to
get from 17 to 20 hits in STYLE! :))

2. Boomerang Kick

Tapping S a few times is supposed to be enough. However, to ensure you
get all the hits, just tap S throughout the combo.

The windup is a bit long, so any combo you mighta been doing before is
done with, but the end result is 3 quick high kicks, brief pause,
3 more quick high kicks, and a 2-hit front and reverse roundhouse kick
that really SHOULD knock down after all that punishment. :) The end
result: 8 hit-combo, the best you can get from this type of move (but
trust me, if you like combos, flash and scoring, you can do MUCH
better!). This is one of my favorite holding moves to do. Does supreme
damage, the most of any preset-type combo, but sorta slow.

3. "Zombie Revenge" (OK, I made this name up ;))

Hold the joystick towards your opponent and hit P three times, but you
know what I'd do by now :P.

Stick gets MAD! Well, maybe not, you wouldn't actually see it, but it's
a VERY brutal move. Stick will initiate a so-so speed shoulder charge to
knock down the target zombie, and then, depending on if you keep
pressing the buttons, get up to 7 additional hits (or is it stomps?) on
the zombie. 8 hits total, you end up with a 7-hit combo. In case you
were wondering, the shoulder charge can continue your present combo for
one hit...on occasion, but the other 7 hits won't count. It's an
entertaining move for some, a total shocker for others...it'll
definitely get other people's attention if they happen to be watching
you. It'll get funny looks from other people for sure if you do this
move on every zombie :P. Does pretty good damage.

You know, it'd be really um interesting, if not controversial, if the
intro sequence for ZR was just Stick stomping and stomping away on a
fallen zombie. Maybe even funny... ("Disclaimer: Only undead 3D
fictional zombies were harmed in the making of this intro")


Linda:

1. High Pressure Bomb

Hold the joystick towards the opponent and hit P three times.

Linda will first knock the zombie over, get some air using the zombie as
a trampoline and...well, land on the zombie. No idea how much damage
this move does, but you WILL find Linda's holding moves are the
flashiest (and thus coolest, in my opinion) in the game.

2. Neck Drive

Hold the joystick towards the opponent and hit S three times.

Linda will again demonstrate the proper usage of zombies as a
trampoline, but unfortunately for the zombie this time, the zombie will
still be standing when it takes the punishment. This time, Linda will
execute two sets of two stomps on the zombie's FACE (OUCH!), all while
about 6 feet in the air, and end with a double foot knockdown blast as
she backflips a good distance away with a clean landing. This does a 5-
hit combo, and I think for decent damage.

One heck of a move to see up close, but man it has its problems. You
might think that this holding move would give you a tactical advantage
during combat, as you can pound on zombies with impunity while you're in
the air, way out of reach! This is true. You might also think that by
head-pounding the zombie right in front of you, you can finish off
backflipping right behind a host of formerly comin-right-at-cha zombies.
That's also true. Problem is that Linda, having finished the supreme
out-of-reach combo, will then proceed to wave at? taunt? (I'm not sure)
the zombies for about 1.5 seconds, making total recovery time about 2
seconds. Ouch. Even the zombies will be on to you by then. Thus, I
suggest you use this move with caution.

3. "Zombie Rag Doll Toss" (OK, I made this one up too ;))

Keep the joystick neutral and hit S three times.

Again, another interesting move. Unsure of the damage done. Linda will
first grab the zombie by the neck, slam the zombie down, then heft the
zombie up, swing it about 60 or so degrees, and let it go the hard way
-- with a knee to the midsection. She'll then clap the dust off her
hands =). So much the worse for the zombie if a wall happens to be in
the way :). Oh, and I did I mention she only uses one hand?

I must note here that Linda is one heck of a strong lady (in character
as well as physical strength) -- in the gameplay demo you see her doing
this move on a 300-pounder of a zombie, and I repeat, with only one
hand!!! Thus she can lift practically any normal zombie. Another
interesting aspect of this move is the lifted zombie will also hit any
other nearby zombies in its path (for a little damage, I think) while
being helplessly swung around by Linda. At the very least, I guess this
move would temporarily halt a zombie advance from the front. Again,
though, not a very useful move.



Rikiya:

1. Busujima Throw

Keep the joystick neutral and hit P three times.

Probably the most useful holding move in the game! It's very quick,
although damage isn't great. Rikiya will grab the zombie by the arm,
tossing the zombie overhead with a 180 degree turn and giving it a nice
hard slam on the ground. So, whatcha get is a downed zombie and Rikiya
turned around 180 degrees. If a zombie's coming up from behind, or more
than one zombie, this throw will make for great repositioning since
recovery time from the throw is also very low (and all of your enemies
are now in front of you). Immediately after the throw you can also shoot
at the downed zombie...but watch out as the zombie might grab your foot,
leading to the zombie smothering you on the floor for a bit of damage.
You can shake free with button mashing and stomp the zombie some before
the zombie drags you down, but no matter the outcome, just button mash
for best results!

2. Busujima Hold

Keep the joystick neutral and hit S like crazy.

A very un-useful move, though interesting in its own right. Rikiya will
grab the zombie's leg, get down on the ground, pull on that leg, and
basically try to do as much damage as possible. This move is ultra-slow,
won't combo, and I'm not really sure about damage. Note the zombie can
also reverse the hold if you don't jam on S fast enough, and of course
that's bad news. Save it for the very last zombie.

3. Busujima Fireworks

Hold the joystick towards the zombie and hit S like crazy.

Rikiya will hold the zombie up with one hand and gather energy in that
hand (it'll be easy to see) in an attempt to explode the zombie. If
successful you'll see a nifty explosion, and watch the zombie go flying,
or get blown apart. The problem is that this move hardly finishes off
zombies with full life-bars (at least to my knowledge).


Maybe my minimum required button presses is too high, and maybe you only
need two or three P or S presses. But really, the best way to do these
holding moves is to keep button mashing until the move ends, because
otherwise you might not get all of the hits in, or the move will
backfire on you (possibly in Rikiya's case).

Trust me on this one, if you button mash (you don't have to press em too
fast or hard, other people are gonna play too!) until the holding move
is done, you're guaranteed all the hits even on a zombie with a string
bean's worth of life left. I don't believe button mashing will increase
damage, though.

Since I'm gonna keep playing Stick until I pass the game (DOH!!!), note
that the move descriptions for Linda and Rikiya may be inaccurate --
sorry, but I just don't play them much (and I certainly can't now :P).
I've either done their holding move once or I've seen what other players
do. But don't worry, the basic formula is very simple, so if the move
doesn't work, you either just press P or S a lot, or you hold the
joystick towards the zombie and press P or S a lot. Works every time :)



5. Advanced Combo Moves

There really isn't much to pulling out the big string combos, once you
get the hang of things. The key is timing of the button presses. The
cool part about the combo system is that many-hit combos can be
accomplished in any number of ways. However, the basic 10+ hit combo
will usually begin with physical attacks. It will also have to do
(usually) with NOT finishing your characters' basic combos.

WHAAAT? You might ask. Don't worry, I'll give you the combos I use in
the walkthroughs as I use them, so you might understand the method in my
madness :P. But I'm serious. The groundwork of combos, melee ones
anyway, is not just doing the basic knockdown combos. For example:

*****Linda is the slowest character in terms of melee fighting and
throwing punches, but even she can rack up some decent combos.
Experiment with hitting P only twice before hitting P three times to
finish the P-based basic combos. If my memory serves me correctly, then:

You got yourself a zombie. Hit it twice by hitting P twice. After the
second punch in the combo is finished, wait a bit then do either the
neutral PPP combo or the flying hammer punch PPP combo. You will then
get 5 hits or 7 hits!

Now suppose you hit PP, wait a bit, hit PP again, and THEN do the flying
punch combo. Now you have 9 hits!

I believe the same logic also applies to the PSPP combo. After hitting
PP, you can tack on 5 hits with PSPP for a 7-hit combo! Keep
experimenting to see how you can create longer and more damaging combos!
*****



So why do advanced combos? Several reasons. If we're talking general
gameplay, you'll find that executing extended combos does more damage to
the zombie. More importantly, you can finish off a zombie before
knocking it down, and make sure that zombie won't get back up to haunt
you. Of course, as you go on to higher and more difficult levels you'll
find that the flashy combos won't do the trick as the zombies come too
fast and furious. But even then simpler advanced combos will still be
very important, in that you can tack on extra hits without the recovery
time of the basic combo's finishing moves. To illustrate:



*****Rikiya is also not the best character to use for making nice long
10+ hit combos. However it's not too hard to do. This is because
Rikiya's attacks are somewhat faster than Linda's. The bread-and-butter
of Rikiya's extended combos will derive from not finishing the PPPP
basic combo.

You're fighting a zombie. PPPP would normally do 4 hits and knock down.
You won't even get a cool ghostly floating "5 HIT" above your head. But
try one quick P jab first, THEN going into PPPP. That's 5 hits! You
won't get any more damage from the combo since the jab is so weak, but
you get the idea. Now try doing PPP (you get one swoosh only), then
PPPP. You'll get 7 hits for Rikiya and a ton more damage! Also notice
that recovery from the PPP alone is significantly faster. PPP, wait,
PPP, then PPPP does 10 hits and still more damage! If the damage is
enough to take a zombie out in one go, even better since you won't have
to deal with it anymore! If you keep doing PPP, wait a bit, PPP, etc.
you'll tack on major hits! In fact PPP, wait, PPP, wait-type combos are
Rikiya's best advanced combo tools before finishing up with PPPP (PSSS
won't extend the combo past the first three hits)
*****



In my humble opinion, advanced combos will improve the fighting ability
of even the weaker hand-to-hand fighters such as Linda. It will make
Stick, however, an _extremely_ dangerous zombie buster. Here's how:



*****Stick Breitling has no advantages when it comes to using his
handgun. Linda can fire hers faster and Rikiya's will deal more damage
per shot. However, he has the ultimate advantage in his very quick
hitting (I guess he musta been at the speed bag a whole lot :P). For
this reason it's not inconceivable for Stick to do 10-hit combos on
zombies at all. Even 20-hit combos. Even 30-hit combos with his fists
and feet alone. I've done 60+ hit combos with certain (lucky) chaining
and stringing techniques!

While Linda would need to use PP to start her bigger combos since the P
jab alone is just too slow, and Rikiya is best off with PPP only for
pretty much the same reason, Stick is able to jab with impunity! His
single P jab is very fast, and can net you huge combos given the timer
isn't ticking down to 0 and you've only got one zombie left to finish.
But P jabs alone are boring and do very little damage. Stick can derive
1, 2, 3, and even 4-hit strings (well maybe not PPPP strings, they lag
some afterward and if you're not careful, you end up with the 5-hit
basic combo) out of his Straight Flush, and use them again and again
with very little recovery time to pound at his foes while tacking on
mondo hits and also points. Just remember, it's all about timing.

A good low-level advanced combo to use for Stick is PPP, quick wait,
followed by PPS or PPPPP. You'll get 7 or 8 hits and do much more
damage! PPP, PPP, then PPS will do 10 hits, and so on. PPP by itself
will do almost one full-power handgun shot's worth of damage, and you
can perform the PPP again almost immediately after the third punch hits.
Given Stick's speed in hitting, you will find that using extended combos
dispatch zombies much faster than doing just one basic combo and waiting
for the zombie to get back up... And by all means, don't just use PPP to
extend combos all the time. Mix-n-match with P and PP as well! Given the
interesting nature of the fighting engine, you'll get combos that are
impressive and even "to the beat!" Try this one out for Stick, for
example: PPP, PPP, P, P, PPP, P, P, P, P, PPPPP. Remind you of any
floor-pad dancing games? :)
*****

I have to note that with extended combos does come less damage per
successive hit for all characters. PPP may be pretty powerful to start,
but PPP strings after the combo meter hits, say, 10 or 15, won't do as
much damage. But it'll still hurt quite a bit!



6. Advanced Fighting Techniques

Here's just a few pointers to use your characters more effectively in
ZR:

1. Dashing is great. But Dash Attacks are essential for knocking down
zombies and getting more space to fight and less zombies to concentrate
on. Use it often. Good use of the Dash Attack can keep practically all
normal zombies on the floor.

2. Don't underestimate the value of the charged-up handgun shot. It's
slow to warm up, but it can knock down 3 or more zombies at once with
decent damage. It will help you dispatch zombies from a distance and
give you more time to deal with them.

3. Don't think you have to knock zombies down with basic combos alone.
With Rikiya and Stick, you might want to consider quick hits combined
with Dash Attacks to keep from getting hit.

4. Advanced combos are also useful in that they end when you choose for
them to end. For example, if Stick is concentrating on one zombie with
PPP, PPP, and is up to 6 hits while other zombies are closing in, he's
not in the same pinch as if he had just finished a Straight Flush, or
had to reload his gun, both of which take recovery time. Stick can stop
the combo, run, back attack, roll, attack another zombie, dash attack,
clear out...you get more options!

5. Guarding is extremely important in reducing damage from zombie
attacks, and really should be used at least once against _almost_ all
bosses. It will save you from many a big hurt.

6. When moving around, you should try to be Dashing as much as possible,
with certain exceptions. You're just faster that way. With practice
Dashing around will become second nature.

7. If you're in the mood for big bad 15+ hit combos, don't think that
you have to get all the hits in on one zombie otherwise the combo meter
resets! You can chain together a massive combo on multiple zombies with
quick reflexes and closing in fast. When doing this, you also don't have
to use knockdown moves either if it's faster (though I usually do to
keep my rhythm and control)

8. Timing is everything! Especially for the combos. As you go along,
you'll eventually establish a "rhythm" with your character, very much so
in terms of button presses.

9. Always, always experiment. Often times you'll find your own unique
and effective way to make it past the various areas with the highest
scores and least damage taken. You'll find certain items to be useful
and other less so. You'll even find additional uses for some of the
items you come across.



7. Higher Scores Through Cool Combos

OK, so advanced combos are useful for tacking on more damage. But so
what if I have a 15-hit combo compared to, oh, a 9-hit one? An
attractive incentive for high scorers: MORE POINTS.
And I mean it.

Here's a quick point breakdown.

Single Handgun Shot - 50 pts.
Single Punch - 50 pts.
Every punch/shot up to 5-hit combo - 50 pts. each.
Every punch/shot from 5-9 hit combos - 50 pts. + 20 pt. bonus = 70 pts.
each.
10-hit combo - 50 pt. bonus on the 10th hit
11-hit combo - 60 pt. bonus on the 11th hit
12-hit combo - 80 pt. bonus on the 12th hit...
13-hit combo - 100 pt. bonus
14-hit combo - 150 pt. bonus
15-hit combo - 200 pt. bonus
16-hit combo - 250 pt. bonus
17-hit combo - 300 pt. bonus
18-hit combo - 350 pt. bonus
19-hit combo - 400 pt. bonus
20-hit combo - 500 pt. bonus
Each additional hit: 500 pt. bonus

It really adds up!

The special moves are also good for increased points!
For example:

Dash Attack: 50 pts. base for each hit
Roll: 100 pts. base per hit
Clear-Out: 100 or 150 pts. base per hit
Charge-Up Shot: 150 pts. per hit

Don't forget that the handgun can also be used to extend combos as well!
Experiment!



8. A Note on Being Poisoned

Lone zombies aren't too hard to handle. But add additional zombies to
the mix and things get interesting, with hits harder to avoid. Whenever
you are hit by a zombie or projectile, you will notice that you will get
about double of a purple mist over your lifebar for the damage that you
take. This mist, as it fills up if you take more damage, will eventually
slow you down to a dangerous extent if you're hit too much. You'll
literally turn purple and start limping, and the poison takes time to
wear off. However, your attacks will become more powerful to compensate.
Hopefully you'll never get into such a situation, but the following
super combos will be available if the poison meter (purple mist) takes
up over half of your lifebar. I'll leave it to you to see what they do.

Stick: P repeatedly; or P, P, S, and then S repeatedly
Linda: P repeatedly while holding the joystick towards your opponent
Rikiya: P repeatedly; or, P, S, S, S (you might want to keep hitting S
afterwards)

Do note that there may be other high-poison meter super combos or
special moves I haven't uncovered yet, especially for Linda. Experiment!
Also note that you also seem to temporarily improve in other departments
when the poison meter is high. If you're knocked down, you seem to get
up quicker if you use a rising attack, and the rising attack may hit
more than just one nearby zombie on the way up...

9. A Note on Two-Player Games

I don't usually play two-player games, but if you do or are thinking
about it, here's some very general tips. See BLui's FAQ also for more
details.

1. Your attacks and weapons will do less damage (all of em, even mass
destruction special weapons), because you'll be fighting the same
number of enemies, but with two players. This applies ESPECIALLY to
holding moves, which do dramatically less damage. This is good for
combos but bad for getting the job done quickly. Plan accordingly. Also,
while a red-sight lock is also less powerful, consider having both
players focus red-sight locks on the same zombie. It's very effective.

2. Don't get in each other's way. Some attacks will affect the other
player; while no damage will be done, it'll stun your partner and
possibly cause big trouble. Don't be on opposite ends of the screen if
you can help it as the other player can't progress in the level, and you
do have a time limit to deal with.

3. Try to plan ahead which zombies to target first, etc. While it sounds
somewhat scripted, and the zombies you run across are the same each
game, it'll help you get farther along. Trust me, the game won't play
the same every time ;)

4. Try to cooperate during boss fights. For example, one character can
attract the boss's attention while the other gets behind the boss and
hammers away, so that the other player can now join in or wait around to
cover in case things get ugly. A stronger character might also want to
act as the tank while waiting until a life up comes along.

If the other player is defeated and quits, the damage will return to the
one-player setting (just watch out for your former partner, who is now a
green zombie ;)).

5. Be mindful of the bonuses around. You might want to leave a certain
weapon for the other player if he/she's better at using it, or let the
other player pick up spare handgun clips, or more importantly let a
beat-up player have the life-up. I've seen good and cooperating two-
player teams get quite far on one play.



V. Items and Weapons

Here's a list of the items and weapons you'll come across in ZR and what
they do. There's a whole lot of em.

1. Pickups

These first four items are obtained simply by walking over them.

Bullets - The most common item in the game, and important for keeping
your handgun ammo supply up. Every zombie you defeat will drop one of
these, so if you're careful about using your ammo you'll never run out.
Gives you one clip of 10 bullets, and you can hold 5 spare clips max at
a time.

Point incentive: You'll find you get a 200 pt. bonus after picking up 3
clips so long as you haven't used up your present clip (had to reload).
You'll continue getting the 200 pt. bonus for picking up the extra clips
so long as you don't reload. It pays to spare ammo! (Sometimes...)

Antidote - The second most common item in the game, found on many but
not all zombies, the antidote herb will completely remove any poison
from your lifebar. As you get better at avoiding attacks, though, you'll
also be rewarded with point incentives. If you pick up 2-3 antidotes
without getting hit, you'll start getting 300 pt. bonuses for each
antidote you pick up thereafter (usually, anyway).

Life-up - Probably the most crucial item in the game. Appears in various
locations, and almost always in hidden locations or boxes. Depending on
the life-up you get, you will receive anywhere from 10-100% of your life
back. The life recovery for each specific life-up box does vary from
game to game as well. You'll also get point incentives from life-up
boxes. If your lifebar is presently full, you'll get a really nice 2000
bonus pts. for every life-up box you pick up. This can mean racking up
really high scores in certain situations.

Elixir - The rarest item in the entire game, there's only one of em.
(okokok, so there's only one Drill and one Cannon Shot in the game that
I know of too, but hey, I'm making a value-based judgment here -- see
below for why I think the Cannon Shot and Drill don't even compare ;).
The magical elixir essentially acts as a free continue, as you will be
automatically brought back to full health once if your lifebar runs out.
It's even better though because your score won't reset :) I don't
remember if you get a point bonus for picking this up.

-------------------------------------------------------------
2. Special Weapons

All of the following items are picked up by pressing P (or S?) while
over the item (the square around the item will glow as you step over
it).

Be very careful when using these weapons! If you are hit even once by
anything, you will drop the weapon and have to pick it up again. On the
other hand, with the exception of the hatchet, you can't let go of the
weapon unless you get hit or use it up! Shot-based weapons cannot be
reloaded with fresh ammo -- you'll need to pick a new one up.

You will still be able to Dash and Dash Attack with many of these
weapons in hand. You will also be able to block while carrying many of
these weapons, but not all. If you absolutely need to, you can still use
a Clear Out Attack while holding many of these weapons, but the range
and effect will remain the same.


Pipe - Found in Area 1 and Area 2.
Slowdown Factor: Low. You can still dash and dash attack.
Rating: Good

Press P to swing.

This pipe is essentially a ranged melee weapon you can use for a certain
number of hits (about 16-20 swings). Pressing PPP will execute three
relatively quick hits (not as fast compared to Stick, but it's much
faster than Rikiya and Linda's attacks) for very good damage. Note that
the pipe hits will not knock down, though this means you can keep
swinging away until a zombie goes down. Another advantage is that your
character will swing the pipe in very wide arcs, hitting zombies to the
side of you and even right behind you. The pipe can also be used for
fairly nice combos, using P swings, PP swings (more difficult), or just
plain PPP. After a number of hits your player will lean back some and
toss away the pipe, so be careful. I still find it quite useful when you
can find it. You will be unable to punch while you have the pipe, but
you will be able to fully use your handgun.



Axe - Found in Area 3 and 5.
Slowdown Factor: Moderate. Dashing/Dash Attacking still possible?
Rating: Very Poor

Press P to swing.

This very big and heavy axe can be used once for one big swing at a
zombie. Should it connect it'll lodge in the zombie's skull and it's
bye-bye for the zombie no matter what. If it misses you can keep
swinging until it connects. You can also fully use your handgun since
the axe is used by one hand. However, this axe slows you down quite a
bit. In any case, the axe has a very long wind-up, and if you whiff it
can be bad news. The zombie must also be standing for you to hit with
the axe (if it's too short, below you or crawling, no go). I just
wouldn't use it.



Hatchet - Found in Area 5 and Area 8.
Slowdown Factor: Very Low. Dashing/dash attacks still possible.
Rating: Very Poor

Press P to throw.

You'll find hatchets on the highly annoying and dangerous hatchet-
zombies later on. You can still use your handgun, but you can't use your
fists. The hatchet, while a throwing weapon, does very little damage to
anything it hits, so I don't recommend you pick one up.



Machine Gun - Found in Area 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, but I don't think 9
:P.
Slowdown Factor: Moderate. You can still Dash/attack.
Rating: Very Good

Holds 40 bullets. Has lock-on ability.

Press S to fire an aimed stream of 5 bullets at the enemy (get a blue
sight lock-on first).
Press P to fire an unaimed stream of 10 bullets in a wide arc.

Machine guns are very common weapons, found in every area. Firing rate
is very good. One S-burst will only do maybe the damage of a red-sight
handgun shot, but I find this weapon absolutely fantastic for dealing
quick distance damage to foes. Against a larger group of foes, it won't
do much, but if you concentrate your fire or fire P-bursts, you'll still
do considerable damage and be better off in the long run. You get slowed
down quite a bit by it, but this is compensated for by the machine gun's
versatility and nifty combo potential. :) The machine gun can also
directly aim at and hit downed zombies or zombies on raised platforms.
This weapon will only knock down weaker zombies, but it will send all
zombies packing with the proper use.



Shotgun - Found in Area 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
Slowdown Factor: Moderate/High. You can still Dash/attack.
Rating: Depends...in general, Moderate/Low.

Holds 6 shells. Does not lock-on to targets.

Press S to fire one shot.
Press PPP to hit a zombie three times with the shotgun itself, which
knocks down.

Shotguns are also very common in ZR, but I find them generally less
useful. Firing rate is poor, with considerable reload time needed. This
wouldn't be so bad as the shotgun often deals tons of damage to a group
of zombies in front of you (though it doesn't knock down). The problem
is that either by virtue of a bug or having to aim very precisely, hits
will either do awesome damage or REALLY LOW damage (maybe one Roll's
worth). This problem only seems to apply to non-Boss zombies, though.
Still, many times the shotgun will do terrible damage just when you need
it most. The fact that it doesn't lock-on also makes things difficult at
points. For some reason, though, if a ZOMBIE carrying the shotgun hits
you with it, it _always_ hurts :) (and knocks YOU down, btw :P).

Also, the shotgun slows you down, so be careful with it. The PPP
knockdown combo has almost no practical use, is super-slow, and does
pathetic damage. Dash attack instead. Overall, the shotgun is useful,
but only for some occasions.



Grenade - Found in Area 1, 6, 7, 8.
Slowdown Factor: Very Low. You can still Dash/Attack.
Rating: Good

Press P to let 'er rip. Does lock-on, though it isn't necessary to work.
Can't be reused if you miss. :)

The grenade are one of the three mass-destruction type explosives you'll
find in ZR. It's also the most useful. Note that you'll never be hurt by
the grenade. While you can only carry one at a time, it can wipe out all
zombies within a limited radius after thrown with a really impressive
boom. You can still use your handgun while carrying it. It doesn't take
too long to let it fly, but you'll be in a mandatory crouching "Take
Cover!!!" animation (not actually blocking though) until the grenade
blows.  Of course that doesn't matter if the grenade blows everything up
:P. The lock-on ability makes the grenade doubly useful...but in
general, as soon as you see any blue-sight lock, chuck it! Even if it
wasn't the best target to toss the grenade at, in most cases you'll have
some margin of error *grin*. Careful, it occasionally misses and rolls
some ways off the mark.

Also note that in two-player games, the grenade and all mass-destruction
devices will not necessarily mean instant doom for the zombies, though
it'll hurt em quite a lot.



Land Mine - Found in Area 4 and 7.
Slowdown Factor: Pretty Low. Dash/Attack still possible.
Rating: Good

Press P to lay the mine. It will be primed to explode in about 3-4
seconds.

This is the second-most effective of the big boom devices in ZR :). It
will also never hurt you. You can still use your handgun. The advantage
over the grenade is that after you set the mine, you're free to move
about and do whatever you want. No take cover animation. The bad news is
that the mine is time-delayed, so it isn't the best bet for moving
targets. Still, since you get explosions about the size of the
grenade's, it isn't so bad :P. Of course any zombie in the blast radius
is history. Same damage rule as the grenade applies in two-player games.




Cannon Shot - Found in Area 6, and that's pretty much it.
Slowdown Factor: Moderate/High. You can still Dash and Dash Attack.
Rating: Very Poor

Press P or S to let loose one big-butt rocket at the enemy. One shot
only.

This is the third mass-destruction weapon in ZR. It's also the least
effective, unfortunately. To be honest, that's really not giving it a
fair shake, but the only appearance it does make is in an area full of
fast and dangerous enemies where you couldn't possibly use the cannon
shot effectively. (Whew! Say that 10 times real fast!) Think of the
destructive power as that of a launched land mine or grenade. I've never
actually hit anything with it, however...no lock-on ability, and it
fires horizontally (not like you get to use it against any bosses
anyway). Well, it looks cool anyway...it's a guitar case! Your character
will mount the cannon shot on his/her shoulder and fire it bazooka-
style. :) I just wish the cannon shot coulda been available in narrow
corridor-type areas...



Guitar - Found in Area 6, and I think that's it.
Slowdown Factor: Moderate/High. Dash/Attacking is possible.
Rating: Moderate/Low

Holds, hm, 48 bullets? (24 per case)

Press S to fire an concentrated burst of about 8? bullets at the enemy.
Press P to fire an unaimed burst of about 16 bullets at the enemy in a
wide sweeping arc.

This is the less powerful but sorta more useful cousin of the Cannon
Shot, which only comes in one case. This guy comes in two cases! :):)
It's not bad to use, but it takes time to fire and it burns up ammo
really quick. Luckily it does fire pretty quickly, once it does. There
doesn't appear to be any lock-on ability, but if the zombie you're
firing the guitar at is more or less in your line of sight, then you
will automatically adjust to hit it when you press S. It'll spray the
enemy with bullets for good damage, but it might not knock down. Combine
that factor with a considerable reload time and a long enough time just
to aim and shoot and you should really think twice about using this
weapon on a fast-approaching zombie crowd.



Dual Handguns - Found in Area 2 and maybe 7.
Slowdown Factor: Very Low. Dash/Attack is possible.
Rating: OK

Holds 40 bullets, 20 per gun.

Press S to fire 5 shots at one enemy. Does lock-on.
Press P to fire 10 shots in a wide arc.

Think of the dual handgun as a slower-firing version of the machine gun,
and you'll get the idea. You can move around quicker while you use this
weapon, and you can also combo with it, but the problem is, well...it's
a slower-firing version of the machine gun. Won't get the job done as
quickly, and I think it does the same amount of damage. Since you'll
have the choice to use this weapon or the machine gun, I'd go for the
machine gun...but if you gotta use the dual handguns, you're still good
to go.



Gasoline Canister - Found in Area 4
Slowdown Factor: Moderate/High...I think Dashing and Dash attacking is
possible
Rating: Not Bad

Holds a whole lotta gasoline.

Press S to douse the floor with gasoline.
Press P to swing this 5-gallon sucker at the zombies, and PPP for a 3-
hit knockdown combo.

This weapon is actually quite interesting. In its S use (dousing the
floor), it's completely useless (at least to me). It looks like you're
applying floor cleaner to the ground. Where's my mop?!? You can move
around while emptying the gas can's contents on the floor, but...why
even bother? It's just silly. Here's the deal: Once the gas is on the
ground, you can create a nifty area explosion by thereafter igniting it,
which is possible by firing off a shotgun in the direction of the
spilled gas. It might also damage you, though, if you're near the flames
which result. So OK, all I need to do is let go of the gas can, find me
a shotgun, and blast the gas to get me a zombie barbecue, right?
Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. The gas can will stick onto you
like no other weapon. I haven't EVER been able to empty the gas
canister, or toss it off by whacking some zombies with it. Thus, you'd
have to get hit before you drop it and go for the shotgun. Even if you
could let go of it, going for the shotgun, getting clear, and hoping
that the zombies haven't moved from the place where you spilled the
gasoline is just too much trouble anyways.

Surprisingly however, the P-swing use is far more useful. It's slow to
start, but three mighty swings at a zombie later and you've got a
knockdown combo that does rather good damage. The gas can even whacks
zombies on the ground, the swings are so sweeping! Looks funny too :).
Of course, the slowness of the attack is a real problem in Area 4...but
at least it's better than nothing. In Area 4, I use it for one specific
purpose :), but in general, I don't recommend you get stuck with it.



Taser - Found in Area 4
Slowdown Factor: Very Low, Dash/Attacking is OK.
Rating: Awful

Press P to fire a short-range electric beam at the zombies (shock it
with the taser)

Again, perhaps I'm not giving the taser its due. But in the only scene
where you can use it, it just doesn't have any practical use (and you'd
want to go for another weapon instead). You basically need to clear the
room of all threats anyway before you can access it. As such I can't
honestly say how much damage it does. When I've used it, I also haven't
ever hit anything with it.


Drill - Found in Area 4.
Slowdown Factor: Supremely High. Don't even think about dashing.
Rating: Worse than Awful

Press P to swing the drill around in a short arc to damage multiple foes
(low damage).
Press S to concentrate on drilling the heck out of one zombie.

It's big, it's slow, it's powerful, and it's no use in the one scene
where you get to use it. By the stage you find it, all of the zombies
are capable of smacking you around with multi-hit attacks, so avoid
picking the drill up at all costs...at least until only one unarmed
zombie is left. The drill is good for S-drilling 5 or so zombies to
oblivion, but it'll take too long to focus on one zombie, because by the
time you want to drill another, you're surrounded. Still, it's not a bad
deal using the drill on the last zombie remaining...the S-drill will
carve a rather nasty hole in the poor zombie for about 15-18 hits, and
has a nice whiny sound.



Chain Gun - Found in Area 7 and 8.
Slowdown Factor: High, can't dash with it
Rating: Not bad

Holds 80 bullets, if I remember correctly. No lock-on (sigh).

Press S to fire a rapid burst of 16 bullets at one opponent.
Press P to fire a burst of 32 bullets in a wide arc.

Now we move on the really big guns. This chain gun is even bigger than
the drill! Well, this weapon is really good for firing merciless streams
of bullets at them zombies, though depending on how you use it you get 5
or 2.5 uses max. I've only tried this weapon against the Area 7 Boss,
but it must do fabulous damage IF it connects with normal zombies.
Hopefully it'll either knock down or shred your target zombie to a pulp.
Which is pretty much the biggest issue with this big gun. Since there's
no blue lock-on sight for this weapon, you've got to aim right at your
target -- easier said than done -- since the auto-correction before
firing doesn't always kick in. If you miss, you're in real trouble. On
the other hand, if you're feeling lucky, you can hit a zombie for a
meaty 16 hits! The chain gun also has combo potential. I once hit the
Area 7 Boss for a 30-hit combo with the chain gun, and if you keep
jamming on S (given you started from close range), you could probably do
better! Overall, use with caution.



Laser Gun - Found in Area 7 and 8.
Slowdown Factor: High, can't Dash with it
Rating: Not bad

Holds about 18 or so laser charges. No lock-on.

Press S to fire a single straight laser blast.
Press P to fire an arcing burst of about 3-4 laser shots.

Yet another big gun. But since I never use it, I can't tell you much
about it other than to experiment. The S-blast is very efficient
(really, you get the most shots out of all the weapons), it only uses up
one charge, but like the chain gun, it's straight-line hit or miss. Not
good against a big lumbering Boss. I don't have a clue what kinda damage
the laser gun does. In general, I wouldn't use the laser gun unless
there's only one zombie left (Area 8), and I wouldn't use the gun for
the Area 7 Boss unless you're feeling adventurous.

*****Actually, I did just use the Laser Gun on the Area 7 Boss not too
long ago...check the Walkthrough for the results.
*****

Flamethrower - Found in Area 4 and 7.
Slowdown Factor: High, in that you can't Dash, but you'll be able to
move at near-walking speed.
Rating: Supremely Good! (Ok, I'm biased, but it is effective)

Press P (or S) to spit a stream of mid-ranged flame to ignite zombies.
No lock-on, but that's not a problem. When fired continuously, streams
flame for about maybe 10 seconds.

One of my personal favorite big guns! First found in Area 4, just pick
it up and start firing! This gun is different from all the others in
that there's no reload time whatsoever. Essentially, that means you can
walk around and activate the flamethrower with impunity. One secret to
using the flamethrower properly is to tap P in bursts, rather than burn
up all the ammo in one shot. It will greatly extend the usage of the
flamethrower. Using the flamethrower in narrow sweeping motions is also
effective against groups of zombies. The flamethrower does excellent
damage and can really clear out a whole room of zombies, given its good
range. Also effective against the Area 7 Boss should you choose to get
it.



Where will you find these items? Some are just laying there. The
hatchets, machine guns and shotguns are sometimes held by the zombies,
and you'll need to knock them down to make them drop the weapons. All
others can be found by breaking open certain crates, or entering secret
doors.


And finally, we get to...


VI. Walkthrough
Notes:
(all "*****COMBO" opportunities I have are while using Stick)
(all "*****" sections contain additional commentary/secrets/etc.)

Part I: Woodside City

Stick, Linda and Rikiya are hanging out in their armored carrier
transport when they receive a cryptic e-message from Zed, signed with
love toward all humans :P. Yeah right. Linda wonders, "Are we still
following this guy?" Stick replies, "He's the one making the zombies. To
catch him we have to follow." And with a "Let's go!" you're on your way.

Difficulty: Low
Life-ups: 2 (for 20-30ish% replenishment total)
Expect to lose this much life: Maybe 10-25%
You're fine if you leave the Area with: at least 50% life
Secrets: 2
Combo Opportunities: 2 really, and possibly more

The very first level serves all sorts of purposes, it's generally a
starter course in playing the game. This is by no means to say it's an
easy level, though -- it can all end very quickly if you don't know how
to properly deal with the Boss at the end.

Once you leave the safety of your very big, solid, multi-wheeled
transport (which no longer seems to be able to help you on your
journey), the game begins.

The first wave of four slow, weary-looking zombies will start coming at
you. They really pose no threat, they can only swipe at you once for 8-
10% damage or grab you for even less damage. You can easily defeat them
simply by standing in place and firing four red-sight shots. Note that
their lifebar is pretty much exactly equal to the damage of a red-sight
handgun shot for future reference (if you're playing Rikiya you get
about 10% bonus damage on that).

*****POSSIBLE COMBO OPPORTUNITY: (All of these combo examples are done
using Stick) Shoot down only the first two zombies you see. Then walk up
to the third zombie (closest to you) and just keep hitting it with weak
P jabs. You will get anywhere from 9-12 hits. By then the zombie will
either be defeated or the fourth zombie will be right in front of you.
Continue the chain by closing in with P jabs on the fourth zombies
(finish off the third zombie first if it's still got life left when the
fourth zombie gets there). You get up to a 25-hit combo on just 2 weak
zombies this way.

You could also keep the combo going by adding on additional hits after
the combo meter hits about 20 and the fourth zombie still has a little
life left. At 20 hits, do PP, P, PP, P, PPS for 30 hits and a knockdown!

But that's STILL not all! You can keep the combo going by executing a
Roll immediately after the PPS finisher. If you connect twice, you end
up with 32 hits (though typically you settle for 31 :P)! Not bad for the
first scene!
*****

After the four zombies are dealt with there comes a second wave of four
zombies. This time you get 2 funky walking zombies with baseball caps
and 2 red-coat zombies.

The baseball-cap zombies can leap in the air with a non-guided fist
swing attack that can hit for 1/5 damage and knock you down if you don't
run out of the way or shoot them out of it. They can also hit you with
an arcing sideways arm swipe for about 1/6 or 1/7 damage. If you're
unlucky, they can even hit do a 3-hit combo on you for over 1/2 damage
(watch for a very important lag between the second and third attack)!
Luckily all of these attacks are fully blockable...if you see them
coming.

The red-coat zombies can either shoot at you with their weapons, swipe
at you once for low damage, or grab you for also low damage.

The best way to deal with the above zombies is to attack the red-coat
zombies first. Since they carry one machine gun (about 1/3 damage if
you're hit) and one shotgun (almost 1/2 damage!) and can shoot it at you
(and you can't block the bullets), that makes them more dangerous, and
higher priority to get rid of. Go for the zombie nearest the your
transport first. As soon as you get a lock on the zombie (can hit it),
bring it down with a PPS combo (or PPP, PPS if you want). You'll notice
the PPS combo does just enough to put down the zombie. Take note of the
damage if you want. You can then charge into the fray and knock down the
shotgun-holding red zombie. These three zombies won't be hard to deal
with as long as you take the initiative and are not afraid to get in
there with dash attacks. Be careful though as the shotgun-holder may let
off a shot. If it starts to aim at you and track you and you don't think
you can hit it in time, just keep dashing away from it at a safe
distance (MAKE it track you by running left or right from it) and
there's a chance the zombie will miss, possibly igniting the gas under
it :).

After the zombies are cleared, you are instructed to lift up the
aluminum vertical sliding "door" and enter the next room. Don't forget
to break open the big crate for an extra machine gun, and take the time
to practice your moves outside if you've still got a lot of time on the
clock left. I advise you pick up a machine gun for this next section. So
you don't accidentally waste ammo, go up to and face the big door and
hit G instead of P or S to enter the next room.

You'll first find two red-coat, but unarmed zombies, waiting for you
there. You'll also see a cowering girl there that you really should save
(you don't have to, but you're a good guy, it's your job!). Here's where
the machine gun comes in handy to take care of these 2 zombies.

****COMBO: This one's really easy since you've got the fast-firing
machine gun at your disposal. Walk in as far north as you can (just to
right behind the girl -- "Help me! Helllllp!" :)) as soon as you enter
the room, and then start opening fire on the nearest zombie. Spray 2 S-
bursts at it in quick succession. The first 5 shots will connect and
send the zombie flying, and some if not all of the next 5 shots will
connect. Don't wait too long, and as soon as you see the blue lock-on
sight on the zombie in back (you don't really even have to look for the
sight, the target switching is more or less automatic), plug away with
the S-bursts. The combo should still continue. Don't stop firing even
after the zombie gets blown to bits...you can still get hits on what's
left of the zombie :)

This will yield anywhere from a 35 to 40-hit combo by only using the
machine gun's 40 bullets (and practically standing still, no less)!!
Cinch combo for big points baby! Sure to turn heads at the arcade.
*****

After the two red-coat zombies are dealt with, down will come 3 more
zombies (2 armed) after some shaking and rumbling. The camera view will
whip around 180 degrees. First off, position yourself near the back of
the room (opposite from the aluminum door), and get ready for a shotgun-
holding zombie to drop from the ceiling and get back up. As soon as you
get a sight lock, do a PPS combo or whatever and get rid of it. You will
usually be able to run up to the next red-coat zombie and dash-attack it
down before it lets off a shotgun blast.

***NOTE: Machine-gun and shotgun-holding zombies can be tricky even
though they do take considerable time before firing at you, and it's
easy to tell if and when they're going to fire at you. If you can't
close in with melee attacks in time, there's also the possibility of
stunning it with handgun shots, special weapons or the charge-up shot to
buy more time. The problem is that all except the charge-up shot will
merely stun the zombie for a short time. For all the recoil the hit
seems to do, the zombie is still as ready as ever to pull the trigger
after its quick recovery. Also be careful as the charge-up shot will at
times "graze" the zombie for full damage, but will not knock down...
***

The only other zombie left is a pretty weak one that can't pick up
weapons, so deal with those two as you please. After you've defeated all
the zombies, the girl (if she's still alive) won't thank you. Instead,
she'll strike a rather pouty pose, and give you a disk ("Here! A man
with the golden eyes said to give it to you!"). It's useful for later.
If she doesn't survive, just pick up the disk left on the ground. Now
head out the door before the time runs out (While she wonders "How did I
get myself into this mess?"). Don't pick up any shotguns unless you have
to.

You're now back outside. You can pick up the shotgun the zombie left
behind if you want and then head straight for the Boss if you want, but
if you've been hurt at all or want the 2000 pt. bonus head for the
regular door to the left of the aluminum sliding door and hit G, P or S
to enter the ***SECRET ROOM***. You'll find a weak zombie and a life-up
perched atop some boxes. You can try this Stick combo practice on the
zombie: P, P, PP, P, PPP, PPS + 2 rolls if you want (or make your own
combo!). Then after the zombie's gone, just keep punching the boxes to
make the life-up (10-15% life up) drop down. Handgun shots and even
clear-out attacks will also help, and hitting the boxes gets you about
30 pts. per hit. Head on out after you're done.

Before going for the Boss, I highly recommend you get the Shotgun. It
will be immensely useful in the early going. However, if you wanna combo
up on the Boss, get the machine gun on the ground first (there should
have been two, one on the red zombie and the other in the crate). Note
that the machine gun will do less damage per burst and just won't do the
job as well. Head in the direction of the guiding blue arrows and you'll
face...



BOSS: Scrapyard Monster - not too hard

Walking towards what looks like a scrap heap, Stick feels rumblings
underneath and wonders "What?" (this expression varies depending on
character...e.g. Rikiya will say "I smell evil"). What indeed? Welp,
next thing ya know there's a really really big monster who's quite
literally full of junk bursting outta the heap, who seems none too
pleased to see you!

Attacks: (damage to you based on your full lifebar)
All attacks are blockable except the shockwave!

1. Tantrum attack from getting hit too much; will tremble and be
invincible, then lunges forward with two claw swipes. Also produces
shockwave that will knock you over if you're too close. Does various
damage to you, from about 1/3 to maybe 1/8 damage depending on where you
are when the Boss pulls off this move, and how much you get hit by it.

2. Lunging claw swipe/punch (in place). 1/4 damage.

3. Counter attack. Boss will turn red and charge at you, hitting you for
about 1/12-1/15 damage and knocking down.

4. Extreme anger attack. Boss will raise both arms in the air, shaking,
and then bring them both down in a mighty blow, knocking down. Does
about 4/5 damage to you if not blocked!

5. Grab attack. Boss will grab you and head squeeze for about 1/15
damage...if you don't shake out of it with the joystick and button
mashing, he'll double-slam you headfirst for about 2/3 or more damage!
If you do shake out of it (quite easy to recover), you'll recover and
kick him in the face for about 1/8 or so total damage to him, and will
then shake free.

For a first Boss, this superzombie has an amazing arsenal. But play your
cards right and you'll take only minimal damage. You WILL learn to block
here, or face near-certain defeat.

Getting this Boss down to 50% life (long green bar near the bottom of
your screen) can be done in many ways. The easiest way is to take your
shotgun (which hopefully has at least 5 shells in it), and fire off 4
shells without thinking at the monster, since you'll start the battle
facing right at it. That'll rip off 50% from the Boss.

The second way, if you're a combo nut (though I don't recommend this
much for the reasons above and below), is to empty your machine gun at
the Boss. You should get in at least a 30-hit combo as the Boss will
just sit there and take the damage (for now). The Boss will probably NOT
be down to 50% life though.

Note for ways 1 & 2 that the Boss may occasionally launch into a tantrum
attack after you damage the Boss for about 50%. The best thing to do is
just start Guarding until it's over.

The third way, if you forgot to take a weapon along (though you really
really should bring a weapon), is to just run in there and hammer away
with basic combos. Again, the Boss will not counter until his lifebar is
about 50%. Careful for the tantrum/anger attacks though.

The Scrapyard Monster will have two normal zombies to assist it. If you
have the shotgun, try to run away from the Boss after the fourth shotgun
blast and try to get both zombies roughly within your sights. With luck
you can take em both out in one shot, and possibly even hit the Boss
again too! This won't be so easy if you have the machine gun.

In general though, getting the first Boss down to 50% is pretty easy.
But keep a firm hold on the joystick. The perhaps slightly overly
responsive controls once made me face away when the Boss was launching a
Supreme Anger Attack and I ate it for 80% damage. Owwww.

Now comes the harder part. The Boss will now turn red and do a long-
distance charge (no, it's not a collect call :P) at you if you hit it
even once. The charge/swipe won't hurt you much, but it'll knock you
down and eat away at your valuable time (and if you run out of time it's
just plain Game Over). You WILL take damage, but once you get the hang
of things, only minor block damage. Here's my approach:

Trying to run around and hit the Boss in the back while playing alone is
a dicey proposition. Running away from what seems to be a slow-moving
claw punch is surprisingly difficult since the Boss tracks you, and if
you're hit, you'll get hurt a whole lot. So...what I recommend is to run
away as far as possible once it's just you and the Boss (after the Boss
is down to 50% life and you used up your special weapon) and get in as
many red-sight locks as you can, firing after the handgun is fully
powered up. But if it looks like the Boss will reach you with his
counter attack after a shot, immediately hit G to start blocking and you
should be able to easily block the hit.

Now comes the somewhat more tricky part. While this is optional, I do it
all the time :). After blocking the charge, Dash up to the Boss quick if
the distance is short enough, stop, then throw a punch and KEEP HOLDING
P for a holding move (if the attack the Boss does is non-tantrum, you'll
hit him out of it), it takes guts but it practically never fails ;).
Then, hit P like crazy and you'll extract a pipe from the Boss himself
(no damage to the Boss though)!

So great, I have a pipe now, you may be thinking. What good does it do
if any combo I try will immediately result in getting knocked over by a
charging attack? Well for one thing the Boss will be hunched over in
pain for a short amount of time, plenty good enough to get in a point-
blank red-sight shot...but careful, it might counter, so be ready to
block if you have to. You can then give the Boss a one-swing whack with
the pipe if it still doesn't counter (one swing does quite good damage),
and by then it probably WILL charge at you. Block it, you'll have plenty
of time. Then, fire a shot (it should be pretty powered up since you
walked in close -- yes, walking up to the Boss and NOT Dashing works
just fine at this point). Block the charge. If you can, walk up and
swing the pipe once. Block. Fire a shot. Block. Repeat as necessary so
long as you have the pipe. If you keep on blocking, moving in close,
swinging the pipe once, blocking and firing once, this whole process
takes maybe 15 seconds, tops :) You'll find that this method, though a
bit tricky, will put down the Boss in the quickest and easiest way,
since you don't have a lotta time to waste.

If you get knocked over and thus lose the pipe, just try and get in
there, substituting a single punch for the pipe swing...there's no
critical need to pick up the pipe again especially if the Boss is close
by. Don't recover from a knockdown with a rising attack, this frequently
means you hit the Boss and it just counters you down again before you
can do anything (and it just looks silly, hehe...since the rising attack
does well, a shred of damage on the Boss, you'll never defeat it in
time). If you need breathing space, you can do another P-based holding
move (punch the Boss and hit P like crazy) and shoulder charge the Boss
a good distance away for some breathing space after the pipe's out. Just
stay aggressive and keep blocking and the Boss will go down without much
trouble at all.

You are victorious! You now have the remaining time to run over to the
narrow alleyway to begin the next stage. Before you do, though, be sure
to get the hidden life-up and the grenade first. The life-up crate will
usually be hidden in the back after the camera view shifts, and you can
_usually_ get to it (but sometimes the camera is cruel and the life-up
is inaccessible...or maybe you somehow broke open the crate early in the
Boss fight, didn't notice the life-up and it disappeared...oh well, no
biggie). Run up to the crate (it's at the top of the scrap "hill"
surrounded by the metal-fence barrier) and smash it with a Roll,
a Clear Out Attack (easiest way :)), a pipe swing COMBO if you still
have the pipe, or a Clear Out Attack with the pipe to get the life-up
(10-15%). Many times, your lifebar will be refilled to 100% (See? Block
damage isn't THAT bad...), and you're back in business!

Before entering the next area, I highly recommend that you break open
the small crate just before the alleyway to pick up the Grenade.

You're now headed to...

------------------------------------------------------------
Part II: Edward Street

Difficulty: Low generally; can depend on luck sometimes
Life-ups: 0
Expect to lose this much life: 0-all%, hopefully 0
You're fine if you leave the Area with: at least 25% life
Secrets: basically 0
Combo Opportunities: 2, 3 with good Pipe use

Whichever character you're playing at the time will now hop over the
small barrier of wood and other junk to enter Edward Street, making
various comments. For example, Stick will say "What's happening?" and
Linda will say "Is that another zombie, too?" Really? Another zombie?
You gotta be kidding me! :) (the voice scripting/acting can get sorta
silly, I have to say)

After the computer type letting you know where you are, you'll see four
zombies drop down and start heading for you. Actually, I stand
corrected, THREE zombies...I believe the fourth zombie flies? shimmies?
slithers? ;) out of the garbage container to your right and just falls
flat on its face...it's a subtle detail, but a really nice touch :). If
you didn't pick up the grenade from the last area, or used it on the
boss, no worries -- use lots of dash attacks and keep your distance and
you shouldn't get hurt too much. These zombies can only swipe or grab to
my knowledge, no multi-hitter combos YET. If you DO have the grenade,
however :), give it a whirl and keep pressing P right before the
transition cinema ends to make sure you toss it right away. Take
cover!!! If the grenade doesn't miss and roll like it occasionally does,
it'll blow the heck outta 3 zombies for about 450 or so pts. Sure, no
combos, but better safe then sorry...besides, it's fun to use the
grenade. :) The other zombie, who was apparently spared as it was still
on the ground and not yet "hittable," should stand up by then. Until to
get to the door in the alleyway, all you need to do is deal with this
zombie and the upcoming baseball cap zombie as you like, it's really,
really easy. If you feel like it, you can try hitting some of the
garbage containers on the right side to cough up some bullet clips, but
I don't think it's worth your time. Especially if you're gonna make up
the points in grand style with this next combo :).

*****COMBO: Should you wish to combo your way to the door, it's also
pretty easy to do ;)!. Start hitting the surviving regular zombie
(remember, the funny one that clambered out of the garbage can into the
cruel world only to taste the floor? :P) with P jabs and/or other small
combo sets and keep advancing until you see the baseball cap zombie
approaching. Now, you can either finish off the regular zombie quickly,
or try to move in between punches (you can slightly "push" zombies as
you move with no harm to yourself as long as they aren't attacking) so
that when you hit the zombie, it hits the baseball cap zombie right
behind it! :) In any case with some good timing you can move in and
start hammering away at the baseball cap zombie with P jabs or whatever
you feel like, extending your combo. If you wanna get fancy and practice
those advanced moves feel free to do so, like finishing with a PPS combo
(for Stick) and then doing two Rolls in succession (you _could_ try
using the handgun on the downed opponent, but by then the zombie
probably has less than zero life :P --remember you can still hit zombies
quite a bit after they're defeated and still standing-- but it doesn't
work so well). You can get anywhere from 30-50 or more hits! Don't worry
if you can't carry the combo to the baseball cap zombie though. Two
smaller combos are still plenty good enough ;)
*****

In the meantime you will also come across a flashlight on the ground.
Get it for a cool flashlight effect in front of you or just for kicks,
it's not necessary to have it.

You will now come to a door which the game very clearly tells you to
enter. Walk up to it and hit G, P or S (I'd hit G from now on to enter
doors) to enter.

Once inside, you'll be in a small, dimly lighted room with two zombies
that pose no threat to you whatsoever. One of them is even holding a rag
(if the rag had a SEGA logo, it'd be funnier, but it's still strange
enough) and will continue to hold it for a while. Deal with them however
you want or make yourself a...

*****COMBO: If you wanna try for a nice string/chain combo involving a
quick transition to a second zombie with handgun shots that also looks
really cool, check this one out!

Go for the zombie that's not holding any rag first. Start with P jabs
and move on to PP or PPP sets to get in closer to the rag-holding zombie
and finish off the regular zombie before you string along the combo.
(It's actually not as difficult as it sounds.) By then you should have
10-15 or so hits and one defeated regular zombie. Now, move left VERY
quickly (you should now be something to the right of the rag zombie,
who's since tossed the rag) and try to get a blue-sight lock in that
zombie as soon as possible (it takes some practice but it's second
nature after a while). As soon as you get one, fire off a single shot.
You'll notice that if you were fast enough, your combo counter
increases! Now move in and finish the combo however you like -- don't do
just single P jabs though, use PP and PPP sets, since you've gotta get
rid of both zombies in a short amount of time. This can net you up to a
30+ hit combo...not too shabby at all.
*****

After the two zombies are defeated (watch your time), dash attack or
just plain hit the two-door metal cabinet to the northwest to grab a
pipe (optional) and some bonus pts. for opening the cabinet. Then get
next to the dusty old computer the game points you to and press a button
to insert the disk you got into it. You then get a cinema with a weird
floating head who claims not to be your enemy (I wouldn't know about
that...), and you'll then be presented with three cards to choose from,
red, blue or yellow. Press a button to pick a card, any card, it doesn't
really matter until the very end. The floating head will now compliment
you on sealing your fate (ha ha) and give you further instructions...but
if you just want to pick the darn card and get on with things, hit the
start button to speed things up.

You're now free to leave the small room and get back on the street.
Before you do, though, you might want to empty your present handgun clip
to get a full clip of 10 bullets (you'll need them for the next
section). Get in the habit of reloading your gun before heading for the
next scene, it's good practice and hey, if you're good you'll need FAR
less then 50 bullets (full clip + 4 spares) to get past a room...besides
the zombies drop extras along the way. You can also take the time to
practice your charge up shot right now. Wind up for a charged handgun
shot and turn left or right as you need to and aim for the folding chair
that's now in the back of the room thanks the camera angle change. If
you hit it, you get 500 pts. and the chair folds itself! ;) Head on out.

Back outside, you'll be facing south and you'll be headed in a due south
direction. Make sure your handgun has a full clip and follow the arrows
to meet...

Three bats which suddenly fly out of a manhole! (Yeesh, they're good)
You'd best try and get rid of them as quickly as possible since another
big wave of zombies isn't far behind. If you don't get rid of the bats
they'll become a big problem.

The good thing is that these bats have very little life. My best advice
is to just stand in place as the bats fly out and fire away at the bats
without trying to get a powered-up hit. As you fire though, don't just
fire blindly; fire your handgun with deliberate, well-timed S presses.
This seems to get you past this area better. You can usually drop the 3
bats with 6 shots standing in place. The bad news is that this doesn't
always work. You can aim at those bats way up high, but they will be
somewhat hard to track and will occasionally dive at you for about 1/7
damage. If you ever see a bat swooping down at you, block right away.
Don't be fooled, since the attack is much faster than it looks.

Should you defeat the bats you've only got the oh, 5 or 6 zombies left
to deal with? Whew! The first one you should really take care of,
though, is right "behind" you. As the zombies variously come out of the
manhole or drop from the sky, this red coat zombie will fall down
carrying a machine gun. If you happen to have the pipe on you though,
getting rid of this zombie will be a snap. Wait until you can attack the
zombie, and first wait until you get a red-sight lock, which won't take
very long since you'll be right next to it. Fire a single shot once the
handgun shot is fully powered and THEN immediately combo with a PPP pipe
swing combo (don't start off swinging the pipe, you need to save it and
it takes longer to get the job done). You'll be simply amazed by the
damage you do! In fact...oops, no more zombie-from-behind problem, cuz
he's done for. :) One less thing to worry about, at least. Unfortunately
in the meantime the other zombies are comin' at cha and there's another
red coat zombie with a machine gun getting ready to fire. If he's gonna
be trouble, rush in and dash attack him flat. Be aware of your
surroundings though...a brown zombie will crawl out of the manhole while
you're putting down the red-coat zombie behind you, and usually whiff a
claw swipe in your direction...but it'll end up kinda close to you.

At this point you may find yourself surrounded. This is exactly where
the pipe excels. Use any combination of pipe swings once you're in the
thick of things to bash your way out, smacking all nearby enemies for
good damage and possible nice combos before the pipe is used up. Do try
and "focus" your attacks though...you want at least 1 or 2 enemies gone,
not just heavily damaged, before the pipe is used up. If you lose the
pipe, you could always pick up the machine gun and let fly some S- or P-
bursts to make some room. Or just keep your distance and use your
handgun. Just be very careful now since many of the zombies can
multi-hit for terrible amounts of hurt. In the end, though, you'll
usually be able to get past this area with no life lost after some
practice. Head on to Area 3 by entering the manhole, and hit the box way
at the back for handgun clips and bonus pts. if you haven't done so yet.


-------------------------------------------------------------
Part III: Industrial Sewage Plant

Difficulty: Low/Medium
Life-ups: 2 (normal route), 3 with lucky "???" box, 5 with secrets
(so...about 25-40% replenishment normal route, 35-50% replenishment if
you're lucky, and about 100% replenishment if you get all 5 life-ups)
Expect to lose this much life: 0-30%
You're fine if you leave the Area with: at least 50% life
Secrets: 4
Combo Opportunities: 2

You'll now see a brief cinema where our three heroes are near the
manhole (you see this from the "manhole's perspective"). Stick is
kneeling and looking down into the manhole. Linda's also looking down,
hands on knees. Rikiya is, well, doing what Rikiya does. :) Stick breaks
the brief silence with a "Let's go!" Linda nods, Rikiya locks and loads
(so cool) =), and the cutscene ends. Enter the next episode.

You're now headed down a ladder on a field trip to the sewer :P! I think
Stick sums it up best: "That smells aweful" (misspelling included in the
game). But that's not all that's awful down here...

The reason why I said you're OK even if you have only 25% or so life
left is because this level provides opportunities to get a good sum of
life-ups and "build up" your health, and with practice you'll lose
little or no life until you have to face the final Boss.

This level will emphasize the use of the handgun and other weapons over
melee combat.

After you drop down from the ladder (camera view will face north, and so
will you), you'll be greeted with 2 brown sewer zombies (careful, they
can hit quick and hard), 2 grayish crawling zombies (new), and 2 very
large but stationary Venus Fly Trap-like plants (also new). The crawler
zombies can move fast and will stay low to the ground so only handgun
shots are practical until they stand up. Also, the zombies can make a
slow leap at you at any time without warning, and can hit for about 1/7
damage. The crawling zombie, once standing, can also charge forward with
a fast lunging one-handed swipe at you (light damage). These attacks,
like all the attacks so far except the machine gun/shotgun, are
blockable.

So great, now you have to deal with 4 quick-hitting zombies and 2 big
plant-things that you've never seen before (lucky you though, they don't
move). Fear not -- it's actually quite easy. There's two ways to go
about this.

You will begin the level with an immediate height advantage -- they'll
all be in the water, while you'll be on a raised platform. If you need
to play really cautious you can even stand in place and aim at the
zombies for red-sight shots as they shimmy on over and slowly crawl up
to your level, and you'll have no trouble at all. You could even get rid
of the flytrap monsters with no problems while standing on this
platform/walkway. However, if you want to get a bit more adventurous,
feel free to drop in the water. It's actually almost as safe, if you use
the power of the charge-up shot.

Way #2: Jump into that lovely sewage by moving right and face towards
the advancing enemies (they're still very far away). Don't worry, the
water won't slow you down a bit. If you don't want to waste the 6 shots
in pressing then holding S, toss a punch first and then hold S down to
begin the charge-up handgun shot windup. Move the joystick left or right
to adjust your aim and try to get as many zombies in your sights as
possible, but if you can only knock down two, fine, don't wait for the
perfect shot or you're in trouble! And then, as soon as you get a nice
group of zombies standing near each other, let that charged shot fly! On
a good day you can hit up to 4 monsters, knocking down 3 zombies and
getting rid of one of the flytraps since the shot goes through
opponents. An easy 600 pts.

In any case just stay where you are and fire red-sight shots at the
survivors (who may be missing certain chunks by now :)), using melee
attacks to ward off any zombies that get too close. You'll then be left
with a good amount of time and one flytrap left to finish off. Move back
onto the platform and head on over to the middle left of the room, where
you'll see a blocked tunnel/large industrial fan. Shoot into the tunnel
to hit a concealed box, which yields you three bullet clips and a life-
up! (15-20% healing) Now move on to the flytrap and finish it with a
single red-sight shot from your player's maximum range -- the flytrap
will spit unaimed and blockable arcing purple projectiles all around it
a good distance from where it is, and if you're too close that means a
potential ton of hurt. Never use melee attacks on the flytraps.

You now move onto the next scene, where a crawler zombie will move right
up to you. Finish it easily with a single red-sight shot, and move up a
little to the right (camera will face right) so you don't get nicked by
the laser there. If the zombie suddenly stands up after the shot (only
to fall again), hit it up if you want for some points and melee combat
practice (for example, I find [P, PPP, dash attack] or [P, PPS, roll]
good "drills" to make sure I've got my coordination down). Don't move
too far right from where the zombie was -- just stay away from the
laser's limited range -- and strike a charge-up handgun pose (facing
right) and wait until the timer hits the low 40s. Why? You could do this
scene in other ways, but this way is in my opinion the least trouble for
you. This is because if you moved up to face the platform zombies, you'd
be surrounded by four brown zombies, all of which can attack quickly or
from afar by spitting purple goo at you!

Sure enough, two brown zombies will stand up from the water to your
right (looks like they'll be the ones surprised now), but don't fire the
charge shot at them until they see you, turn around and start moving
towards you (they'll be hittable then). You'll watch em take a spinning
flying knockdown hit after eating the charged shot blast :). Then it's a
simple matter of red-sight locks while they're flattened (or Rolls if
you're feeling cocky) to finish them off. Try not to hit the floating
crate marked "???" if you can help it, there's a "technique" for a
higher chance at a life-up prize.

Now continue to move east. You'll find two brown zombies on a platform
who can spit the purple stuff at you and one flytrap blocking your way.
Move eastward carefully so you can only see and get red-sight shots at
one brown zombie at a time, and they'll never have the chance to fire at
you. If they do, just block, it's easier than trying to run away.

Now there's only the flytrap left. From maximum range, fire 2 red-sight
shots and another quick shot to get rid of it, it's got a pretty big
lifebar. Rikiya only needs to use 2 shots, the lucky guy. Now, before
you turn your attention back to the "???" box, empty your clip and don't
hit the box (credits to BLui for the tip). Now turn back west and punch
the box. You could Clear Out on it, but it might hurt you sometimes.
Having a full clip when you punch the box seems to mean a higher chance
of getting a 10-15% life-up. The other two alternatives are 3 bullet
clips, or the bad-news prize...a bat. If the bat flies out, just aim at
it, wait for the red-sight and bring it down. If you clear out on the
box and the bat's in it, the bat's history...but you'll also take the
clear out move damage penalty (and be left wondering, "Huh?!?" ;))

You're not done here yet, though. If you're interested in picking up
some special weapons, and who isn't?, head on up to the platform and
break down the panel blocking up the door (I find the no-look back kick
a very flashy way of doing this :P), then enter the secret room.

You'll now be in a small room with a single weak zombie. Take care of
the zombie first, and then break down the 3 boxes on top for a load of
bullet clips and an assortment of weapons to choose from should you want
to take them. You can also be a real showoff and break all three boxes
at once by using a clear-out move just left of the center box (you won't
lose any life so long as the zombie you beat up has disappeared).
Remember, crates are worth points! I recommend picking up the machine
gun.

Once out of the weapons room, head right to enter the third scene.
Careful -- it's a bit more dangerous this time.

The gimmick about this scene is that rather large chunks of rock will
plummet from above. Frequently. Rapidly. Mercilessly. And I really doubt
you can block these suckers :). Maybe you can, but do you really wanna
find out ;P?! Any zombie here is also fair game for getting hit but if
the unlucky recipient of the virtual stone anvil to the head is you,
you'll get knocked down for a whopping 1/3 damage, which is really not
good since from here on in til Area 5 you'll want to keep your lifebar
up as high as possible. While on the ground, you could even get creamed
with yet another falling rock. The best way to avoid this is never to
stay in any one place for too long a time. Also keep an eye out for
falling rock shadows appearing near you. Don't use high recovery-time
moves, and keep running around, and you should be safe.

Now, onto the enemies you'll face. You will be headed "southward" (like
heading out of the playing screen) and the camera adjusts accordingly.
You'll first be met with two crawling zombies with kinda high lifebars
who will quickly float their way towards you. A brown zombie with a
large lifebar will follow not far behind. Should you have the machine
gun (:):):)), you now have a chance to launch into another big combo!

*****COMBO: Sure, you're limited to the 40 shots of the machine gun, but
hey, don't get greedy! As soon as you finish walking into the next area
with the transitional cinema, look for or get a blue-sight machine gun
lock on the closest crawler. Let loose three quick S-bursts at it. Since
the crawlers just take the bullets (while crawling) with no recoil,
getting the combo meter up to 15 is a breeze.

Now, with a little luck the next crawling zombie will have been far
enough away so while you were hitting one crawler, you also weren't
hitting the other (this does happen quite often btw). Get a lock on this
zombie quick and plug away 3 more S-bursts to bring your combo meter to
30 hits! Woooo!

It gets better if you've still got some spare luck left. Try and get the
brown zombie in your sights now and use up the last 10 shots in your
machine gun with S-bursts. The first 5 shots will send the zombie
flying, but the next 5 still have a good chance to connect. You could
get up to a 40-hit combo!
*****

If you don't have the machine gun or just get unlucky, just try to get
red-sight shots and do quick combos on those three zombies and move
around a lot to keep the rocks from hitting you.

*****Note: Should you enter this area with a low life-bar, you might
want to try your luck and enter the secret room to your left first (but
bring a machine gun). After you begin the scene, run to the left side,
climb up to the platform, and enter the door using the G button. Deal
with the two crawlers and the brown zombie later.

You'll then be met by five zombies with very high lifebars, who can all
attack very quickly. If you're gonna get your lifebar back up, you're
gonna hafta earn it big time. As soon as those five zombies get REALLY
close to you, and it won't take long, let loose with the machine gun.
Rip at them zombies with unaimed P-bursts, and don't stop firing until
the machine gun is empty. If you can afford the life, get in there and
give em a whack with a Clear Out Attack to help even the odds a little.
With all those bullets flying around the life ups (50% restoration) will
have been long freed from the crate :) so go get em, they do disappear
after a while!

The biggest problem about going for the life-ups here is that you've
gotta fight five very tough zombies in a very tight space, and the way
to the lifeups is often crammed with zombies. Even the best players will
have trouble avoiding getting hit. I'm not one of those players...I've
only been lucky enough to beat all 5 zombies and escape unharmed once.
Even if most of the machine gun bullets hit, the zombies are still gonna
have a lotta life left. My best advice for anyone brave enough to head
in this room (read: I don't recommend you head here unless you gotta) is
1) bring a fully loaded machine gun with you (shotguns won't work
because the zombies won't stop coming...if you're going to MAKE this
work with the shotgun, you'll probably going to HAVE to use up a clear
out attack on the zombies); 2) never stop firing or moving; 3) use dash
attacks and rolls; and 4) keep to the basic combos. Ah, to have a
grenade for this room :P. As you play more, you'll find that although
the room might not be worth the trip (in that you come out with less
life than you started with), you can survive it.
*****

Three zombies down (8 if you entered the first secret room in this
scene). Three to go. It's not too bad, really -- you've got a pretty
weak brown platform spit zombie to your left, a stronger one of the same
variety to your right, and a flytrap in the center. Take out one of the
spit zombies first with the handgun -- I go for the stronger one first
-- and then head out to take care of the other one. Remember, as soon as
you see the little green lifebar pop up (when fighting one zombie at a
time), you're already starting to establish a handgun lock. Note! Spit
zombies are not like gun-toting zombies in that if you fire off a quick
shot to stop the zombie before it spits at you, you really WILL buy
yourself more time -- it'll have to go through the spitting prep
animation all over again. So don't be afraid to fire a blue-sight shot
if you have to. After getting rid of the two brown zombies, you can then
get rid of the flytrap now, or save it for later, and get up on the
platform to your lower right near the end of the scene and enter the
door. Don't forget, rocks are still falling from the sky the whole time,
so watch your step. Then enter the "secret" room.

It's really not so much a secret since you can see the door. But this
secret room should be a required visit for all players, because it
contains a life-up (10-15% life) and it's only guarded by one lone weak
zombie. If you get rid of the zombie with the Boomerang Kick move, or
corner the zombie and finish it very quickly, the many laser cannons
situated around the room will never charge and fire at you (they won't
hurt much, but you still don't want to be hit anyway, your lifebar is
precious). You're then free to break open that nifty crate on top of
another crate (which can't be opened, too bad) and pick up your reward:
the life-up and two antidotes (possibly worth 2600 bonus pts. in total
if you've been good about avoiding attacks).

Once outside again, move south to meet the Sub Boss(es).



SUB BOSS: Two Very Big Plant-Things - easy if you play things right

I think all of the Sub Bosses' attacks are blockable (except the rocks)

Attacks:

1. Charge-up to fire purple spit projectile. Does something like 1/7
damage. The Sub Bosses will flash between whitish and reddish, and when
they flash so quickly that they look almost pink, they're about to fire
the projectile. Also watch for the plant zombies to kinda stand their
ground as an indicator for this attack. If you damage them enough, they
will fire double projectile shots with greater frequency; does double
the damage if both connect.

2. Jump. If you're bothering a Sub Boss from too far away (with handgun
shots I'd imagine) it will try and cover the distance quickly with a
quick jump near you. A Sub Boss might also jump in to assist its
partner. I'd imagine you take some damage if a Sub Boss lands on you,
but the move isn't intended to do that. You can hit the Boss out of
the jump with a blue-sight lock while it's in midair...it'll fall to the
floor and you can shoot at it some while it's on the ground.

3. "Plant Knee Bumper." A bit hard to describe, this is the Sub Boss's
only real physical attack. It can occasionally bump you with some of its
root leg things for minor damage (maybe 1/8), but only if you're not
attacking it.

4. Earthquake Jump. You'll be able to tell this highly annoying attack
from the regular Jump as the Sub Boss(es) will jump straight up and down
quickly, causing a shaking effect. You'll probably take damage if the
Boss itself lands on you, but again it won't if you stand still. This
shaking jump will cause several rocks to fall from the sky and land near
your area. BIG trouble if it hits. So if the Sub Bosses do this, run
away from your present position and you'll be fine.

The biggest annoyance about this Sub Boss is that it's really Sub
Bosses. You get not one, but two giant plant things to deal with --
which can get tough for the single player. (Two player strategy is easy
-- each player take one Sub Boss and hack away with basic combos) The
good thing is that each sub boss is ridiculously weak compared to most
other bosses you find. Even a blue-sight shot will take off some damage.
The problem is that if you don't attack right away, you'll find it
impossible to focus on one sub boss as the other one is doing something
to damage you...the most annoying thing is probably the projectile shot.

Let me first tell you about the approaches that don't really work. The
playing field (you'll start off moving west to battle the giant plants)
is too large, and the giant plants will be too far away to deal with
them using the handgun from afar. Granted, a red-sight lock does immense
damage -- a sub-boss can take no more than 6 or so such shots -- but
from a distance, the lock takes too much time. Firing a lot of unaimed
shots won't do nearly enough damage either, and you'll find yourself out
of bullets before long. So, NEVER fight this battle by waiting for the
two sub bosses to come to you. It's generally not a good idea. Charge-up
shots generally won't work well enough either.

The other thing you shouldn't do is rush in and try to bring down one
sub boss with basic melee combos. At least, it doesn't work when you're
using Stick, and probably not with Linda either. You'll find that though
basic combos do lots of damage to a sub boss, it won't do enough of it
fast enough - the sub boss can take oh, 25-30 hits, and in the mean time
the other boss is free to concentrate on you.

What DO you do then? The key is obviously taking down one of the sub
bosses, since after that the remaining sub boss will be no problem. This
is where the quick-charging close-up point-blank red-sight lock becomes
critical to success, because it works on bosses, too! And it's nearly
foolproof in this case.

As soon as you can move, head in a West/Southwest direction (just walk,
don't dash) while the sub bosses are falling to the ground. You will be
on a more or less direct line to meet the closest giant plant. Try to
get yourself aligned so that the first giant plant is between north and
northwest of you (not too tough), and establish a lock. By now you
should have at red, orange-red or at least orange lock on the sub boss.
Fire a shot. The sight will very quickly power up again as long as
you're very close to the sub boss. Fire again once you get a red sight.
Repeat. You can in this manner take down the first sub boss in less than
10 seconds and 10 shots (its life meter will be melted away to nothing)!
Keep at it even if the big plant's double jumps in. So now there's only
one big sub boss to deal with. And since the "fresh" Sub Boss can't
attack you so long as you keep up the assault on it (it can't counter),
that means it's time for a...

*****COMBO!! Well, only if you want to...but since you'll have so much
time left over after getting rid of the first sub boss, you don't have
much of an excuse _not_ to :). This sub boss will basically just sit
there while you dole out the hits (it doesn't get forced back or
anything), so make em count and make yourself a really big combo! You
could always jab the sub boss until it falls with Stick or possibly
Rikiya, but again, it's no fun, and it gets really tedious. Mix up the
hits for maximum zombie busting enjoyment. Depending on how you go about
your combo, you'll get anywhere from 20 to 60 hits. After the Sub Boss
falls you can also roll to extend the combo, or try hitting it with the
handgun while it's on the ground, possibly tacking up to 10 more hits.
*****

If you find that you can't get rid of the first sub boss when the second
sub boss enters the picture, don't worry. The first sub boss will
already be very much weakened and it's just a matter of finding the
right time to finish it off. Your main concern is blocking/avoiding the
purple spit, and especially the falling rocks if they perform such an
attack. The falling rock shadows are not always so easy to see, and if
you're in the middle of a combo when a sub boss stomps, you could be in
real trouble. Once I was doing just fine, though dealing with both sub
bosses at once, when one sub boss did the rock stomp. 3 quick rocks
later, I was chain-comboed by the rocks and lost my formerly full
lifebar! Now's THAT'S a big ouch!!! Generally though, you can make it
through the sub bosses without losing any life.

After making it through this section, you'll enter another sewer room.
It's a snap, just use the handgun. Make life easier for yourself by
immediately climbing out of the water and up to the platform on your
right. Avoid the axe on the ground there, you don't want to be burdened
with it. You'll see four crawling zombies in the water not too far off
(you will be facing "north" or into the screen). Run along the platform
and shoot each one down with a single shot, even an orange sight will be
plenty enough. After these zombies are dispatched, run towards the
northeast corner of the room and turn around. You will soon see five
brown zombies coming out of the water. Luckily for you they're all easy
to take out, since they must clamber up to the platform first before
even trying to attack you. Snipe away from above, getting red-sight
locks on a zombie, firing a red-sight shot and then a quick shot
thereafter to finish it off. Note that Rikiya may only need one shot to
finish the job. Repeat 4 more times, and use melee attacks if a zombie
gets onto the platform walk and moves in too close. They'll be tons of
bullets and antidotes for you to pick up if you want after you beat them
all. After you beat all 9 zombies the camera view will shift and you'll
notice a stream of rats pouring into an opening the game directs you to
enter. Get inside the tunnel with the inactive fan and you're on your
way to...



BOSS: Electric Predator - pretty easy

You can now take a short breather and watch the transitional cinema
while Stick, Linda and Rikiya make their way into the tunnel/pipe/fan
(funny, even if you're only playing 1 or 2 players you'll always see the
three in the cinemas). After a quick fade you'll now be in a medium-
sized grayish room...with a weird machine inside (giant monster mold?
:P)! Wonder what it is. Stick will shout "It's coming out!" But what is
it? Meet Mr. Electric Predator (funky cool lookin boss)...

Lucky for you, since this superzombie Boss just seems to have been
created/released from cold storage/whatever, it's pretty slow and not
difficult to run away from. In a sense it's a way easier boss than the
Scrapyard Monster. However, it does make up for the slowness and pretty
weak physical attacks with its dangerous bolts of electricity.

Attacks: All Boss attacks are fully blockable! Lucky you!
(Electrical)

1. "Bowling Ball Bolt." After a very quick windup the Boss will toss an
electric bolt that runs a short distance along the ground. Rather fast,
so be careful. If you're hit you will take about 1/7-1/8 damage.

2. "Short Range Roast 'n Toast." The Boss will take considerably more
time to windup for this attack (watch it kinda rear back and get really
charged up with electricity), then will proceed the shock the living
daylights out of anything a short distance from it (it will look like a
stream of bolts covering the ground in a 120 degreeish radius five feet
from where it's standing). This includes the boss's own helper zombies.
If you're nailed by it, you fry and get knocked down (I think) for 2/5
life lost!

3. Tantrum Electric Clear Out Attack. If you damage the Boss enough, or
if it just plain feels like it, it will hunch over a lot, as if to roll
into a ball, and turn kinda translucent blue. What it's doing is
charging up to release 4 very long-range electric blasts from its body
in all directions (like one bolt north, one east, one south, one west).
While in the animation for this move, the Boss cannot be hurt. Also, be
careful, this move happens faster than you'd expect. Does about 1/6-1/7
damage.

4. Electric Slam. The Boss will utter a ghostly zombie sound (as an
audio cue, though it's hard to hear in a noisy arcade), and attempt to
grab you with its long reach. It sorta looks like the Scrapyard
Monster's lunging punch but careful, it's not! The grab takes a while,
but if you see it coming, just block it. Should you be unlucky enough to
be grabbed by the Boss, you will be raised about 10 feet in the air by
one hand, utterly fried with electricity (strangely, you don't take any
damage yet), and promptly slammed on the ground for a whopping 2/3
damage! The worst thing is that there's nothing you can do to shake out
of it. Your only hope is that you're playing with another player. Have
that player hit the Boss ASAP to make it release you, and you'll take no
damage.

(Physical)

1. Simple Claw Swipe. The Boss will uppercut swipe you at close range
with either one or two hands. About 1/6-1/8 damage to you. Careful,
there may be variants of this attack where the Boss will dash towards
you a bit then swipe.

2. Counter Claw Swipe. After the Boss's life is down to about 1/2, it
will start recoiling from a hit slowly (the Boss will rear back a
little, looking kinda clearish), then dash a good distance forward and
attempt to knock you off your feet with a two-handed charging swipe.
It's not as fast as the Scrapyard zombie's counter, so it is possible to
run away from it, but be careful. Like the Scrapyard Boss, when
performing its counter attack, this Boss becomes much harder to damage,
it takes a watchful eye to hit the Boss and stop the counter but it's
quite possible to do. Does about 1/6-1/8 damage.


The best way to finish off this Boss is with mostly melee attacks first,
and then red-sight handgun shots later. You'll start off at the back of
the Boss room (facing "southward" or out of the screen again) with an
automatic lock on one of the two fast crawler zombies (Boss helpers) who
are closing in from the southeast. I suggest you fire once at it. Some
people try to run around and let the Boss accidentally fry its own
helpers (it looks amusing :)), but it can be risky. Try to wait for red-
sight locks and shoot down the crawlers while standing in place if you
can, then life becomes easier for the first part of the Boss fight. If
you can't, run away and get some space to either finish them or sandwich
them between you and the Boss so the Boss will fry em for you :). Just
remember that the Boss's electric attacks cover a bit more ground than
they seem to.

After the crawlers are finished, it's just you and the Boss again (but
no dinner and a movie, that's for sure). Until the Boss is hurt to
around 50% life, or does it's first tantrum attack, don't let up with
the melee attacks. What I like to do is make the Boss reel by pegging it
with a couple of handgun shots from far away to make sure it's safe to
move in. While it's still reeling, dash in there and you should be able
to get off a few basic combos and maybe even a charge-up physical attack
if you want :). Then the Boss will quickly disappear after several hits
and teleport to a new location (watch the moving shadow) where it will
probably do an electric attack. Keep your distance and prepare to block
any electric bolts headed your way. Then, just fire off a couple more
handgun shots after the attack's over to make sure the Boss is stunned
once again and move in for more basic combos. You can repeat this
process until the Boss hits about 50% life because the Boss is so slow,
or

It does its first tantrum attack. Be careful, it will take aim even with
the horizontal bolts, so I advise you face the Boss and block just in
case. Now things start to get more difficult, as the Boss will start
countering at you after taking a single hit. The best thing to do is to
again, keep your distance and wait for red-sight locks with your
handgun, these shots do pretty good damage. You can also fire another
shot before the Boss charges at you (watch for the lock) and you can
often stop its dash. You basically finish off the Boss at this point
with lots of handgun shots, definitely mostly well-aimed ones, which is
why you should try to conserve your ammo in the early going until you
really need to use it (the Boss does drop ammo, but it's hard to pick up
unless it's really safe). The Boss will keep teleporting and firing off
electric attacks, but stay quick on your feet and the Boss should go
down with you taking minimal block damage, if any.

You'll usually be left with maybe 1 or 2 spare clips after the Boss
fight. Whew! Now, head on out to the elevator to the right of where you
started (just follow the arrows), and you'll be headed up to...


-------------------------------------------------------------
Part IV: Chemical Plant

Your three heroes will now get on the elevator and head on up to the
next level. Midway up, Rikiya, deep in thought, says, "I'm not afraid of
dying, are you?" Linda and Stick look at him, perhaps surprised. After a
quick departure from the elevator, you begin the next area.

Difficulty: Medium
Life-ups: 1 (gives about 10-20% replenishment)
Expect to lose this much life: 10%-all
You're fine if you leave the Area with: any shred of life left
Secrets: 2 (2 hidden boxes)
Combo Opportunities: 1 really big one, typically

Even this first part can be tricky, as all three zombies you meet for
the first wave can all attack quickly. The two skinnier worker zombies
have less life, but can attack as quick or faster than the brown zombies
from the previous area. The bigger zombie has a ton of life, but attacks
more like a baseball cap zombie. The thing to do here is to get rid of
the two worker zombies ASAP as a first priority, because not long after
you start the level, two worker zombies will drop down packing serious
heat in their shotguns. Having five tough zombies on you at once, 2 of
em armed with those annoying shotguns, is not a good thing.

Fortunately I've found a strategy that generally gets you through this
first scene with little or no damage taken. You will begin this level at
the back of the room, and you have to advance northward to the large
catwalk. Immediately after you leave the elevator you'll see the two
worker zombies (they can carry weapons, but don't have any on them)
approaching you. Knock over the closest zombie as soon as you can with a
PPS combo (if playing Stick). Knock down the next worker zombie very
quickly in the same way (with PPS - hopefully the axe kick will also
stun the big zombie behind the worker, buying more time for you). You'll
see how the PPS combo has very apparent advantages over the Straight
Flush at this point in time.

With both worker zombies floored for the moment, but still with a tad of
life left, proceed to quickly finish them on the floor with handgun
shots. Do what you can to make sure the big zombie is not an annoyance
to you, because you probably won't have time to finish it before the two
shotgun holders drop down from the ceiling/sky. They'll be way up at the
"northern" end of the scene.

The shotgun holders are quite annoying. Unlike previous armed zombies
who drop in, they recover from the jump down very quickly and then
proceed in short order to aim their shotguns at you. This can be, of
course, a very scary experience. Should both fire and connect, it gets
even worse because of the terrible amount of damage shotgun blasts do.
The additional problem is that the shotgun-wielder zombies are just far
enough apart so that you'll HAVE to take them on one at a time. Fear not
though, there's still a way to get rid of them safely...most of the
time.

The secret is not to run away or let them come to you -- they can fire
at you and still hit from a good distance away. Instead, charge into the
fray. Another key is judging exactly when the armed zombies will become
hittable so that you don't waste precious time whiffing attacks or
waiting. What I would do is to try to knock down one of the zombies with
a dash attack (I go for the one on the left, but it doesn't really
matter). As soon as you do, get that other zombie knocked down before it
fires (you will have some time for this)! -- but another dash attack
isn't always the best way, at this crucial time it has a strange
tendency to miss the zombie, maybe since you'll be kinda far into the
screen and things are harder to judge when the camera's not closer up.
The remedy for this is to quickly establish a sight lock on the zombie
so you know you'll hit it, and then knock it down quick with a quick
combo (PPS for example). Life will now be easier if you were successful
since the other zombie will have to get back up, so you can damage
it/bring it back down as you please, and focus on getting rid of one of
the zombies at a time. In any case the worker zombies can't do their
shotgun thang on you without picking a shotgun up again first, but
they're plenty dangerous enough with their quick melee attacks.

If you find that for some reason this just doesn't work (you can't bring
the first zombie down soon enough, you miss, whatever) and you might be
about to take gee, 50%-90% damage?, the best thing you can do is to get
between or near the zombies and let loose right away with a Clear Out
Attack (don't worry, this move has some range). Don't try to do a roll
or anything fancy, just trust me on this one. Sure, you'll take damage
using the move, but hey, 2 knocked down zombies and a 15-20ish% damage
penalty is much better than the alternative.

After the shotgun zombies are dealt with, it's only a matter of
finishing off the big zombie with the high lifebar to move on to the
next, mercifully EASIER scene. This can be done in any number of ways --
if there's time left and the big zombie has lots of life left, you might
wanna consider a fancy combo if you're into scores. Anyhow, it's easy to
clean up if you've survived all the threats so far, you could even do it
by picking up one of those hit-or-miss shotguns the worker zombies left
behind.

Congrats, you did it! But don't head east to move on to the next scene
yet, though! It's time to reap the rewards of your hard labor (you
really wouldn't have had much of a chance to get the goodies before
since you were so tied up with the zombies)! This comes in the form of
two crates on the far north end of the scene. Break them open for lots
of nice stuff. How to break the crates? Well the higher one can be
reached with a punch, but the other crate will require a pistol shot to
break open. Or, you could TRY to use the shotgun to bust open both
crates :P. In any case, the higher crate will yield a life-up (10-20%
life up) and that ever-so-fun-fun-fun gasoline canister I mentioned
earlier :P. If you want, you can pick up the questionable behemoth gas
can and give it a single P swing at the boxes, and you'll break open the
out-of-reach crate for a land mine and a taser, all without using up the
handgun shot. Behold! The only practical use of the gas can ;)! Pick up
the land mine, I highly recommend it for the next scene.

After following the arrows, your player will do a quick hop over the
metal pipes to the east, and the camera view will switch once again so
that you'll be facing and eventually headed northward again. This scene
comes in two parts. Once you finish the first wave, you'll then be able
to move farther along in the scene to face the second wave.

What's the first wave? Two zombies. Whew, what a relief! But wait,
they're NEW zombies...zombies you haven't been before...the intensely
annoying hatchet zombies!

*****Briefing info: First, I'll give you the good news. These hatchet
guys do attack with what seems like lightning speed, but as with all
normal zombies, their attacks are all blockable. Secondly, they don't
attack fast in the way that a fast regular zombie can drop you with 3
quick hits for like 60% damage. They'll only deal you one attack at a
time, and their attacks do only moderate damage (I'd say about 1/6-1/7
damage). The better news is the power of their attacks is diminished
considerably if you get rid of the hatchets they're carrying.

OK, now here's the bad news. The hatchet zombies attack REALLY fast.
They have two chief ways of doing this...1) with a spinning, semi-homing
mid-air attack that runs into you like a flying buzzsaw blade (careful,
they can fly backwards and THEN swoop in for the hit). You CAN hit them
out of this with handgun etc. shots though. The second way is to dash at
you quickly and deal you a slash from their hatchet. They can also throw
their hatchets at you for really really poor damage, but you don't ever
wanna be left reeling from a hit around these guys. The other bad news
is that these guys can really gang up you in numbers, buzzsawing you and
dash-slashing you all over the place all at once...and as you might
imagine that really hurts. Yet another bit of bad news is that these
hatchet zombies are really short -- regular attacks might not all
connect, the best way is to knock em over is to dash-attack them down.
You'll be sure to let out a "Doh!" when you try to run from the hatchet
zombie and instead it ends up nailing you from behind.
*****

But there's good news to compensate. If you have the land mine on you
right now, you won't have to worry about this new threat until Area
5...and 6, and 8 :P. In any event, the hatchet zombies in the early
going will not be able to take much damage at all, so going for red-
sight locks if possible would be a really big help. You can still dash-
attack them down, it'll usually help a lot.

Here's what you do for the two hatchet zombies at hand. If you took the
shotgun by accident, fire away and you should still be OK. If you have
nothing, red-sight the hatchet zombies one at a time and you should also
still be OK. But hopefully you took that land mine. If you did, lay it
down as soon as you're able to (right before the camera pans from the
hatchet zombies to you), and just keep blocking until the land mine
explodes. In most cases the hatchet zombies will be close enough to be
utterly blown away while you only take a minor shred of blocking damage
(they'll be attacking you). In practically all cases one of em will go
up in smoke, so dealing with the remaining one is no prob. Make note
though, don't try to peg it with blue-sight shots unless you must. Aim,
aim, aim! These annoying zombies are even MORE resistant to quick shots,
the damage done will be very very low.

After the hatchet zombies are done for, my suggestion to you is to run
northwards as fast as you can TOWARDS that lovely piece of equipment in
the far northwest corner known as the flamethrower. Why? Because very
soon, 4-6 (can't quite remember) zombies will pop up from all
directions, 1 or 2 of em with machine guns! Before you actually pick
it up, however, dash attack down the zombie that's near the weapon
first. If you can do this fast enough and get the flamethrower in hand,
the rest is generally a breeze. Take care to roast any immediate threats
first, namely the armed worker zombies who took the trouble to climb up
from the side of the catwalk (!) just to meet 'n greet you. Give em a
good taste of the flamethrower to finish them off and make em drop their
weapons.

It's really just a matter of walking around with your mid-range can of
flaming zombie purification ;), barbecuing your enemies. Careful, you
only get about 10 seconds of uninterrupted flame, so don't just hold
down the fire button the whole time. On a good day, you can clear the
whole room with the flamethrower and still have almost 5 seconds of
flame left to use (can't bring any special weapon over to the next
section though, I'm afraid). On an average day you'll still have a
straggling zombie with almost zero life left to polish off. Combo it
down or pick up one of the machine guns to finish the job :P. If for
some reason you can't get to the flamethrower (I've always been able to,
even on bad days), just do that thing you've been doing so far to keep
going in the game, and you should be fine. You know, knock over the
weapon-carriers first, fight the good fight, and so on. You will now be
directed by arrows to walk over the ramp/heap of sheet metal and other
stuff to enter the next scene prior to a very tough boss.

The camera angle will switch horizontally so you'll be facing east...but
of course you might have to run back and forth to finish this zombie
fight, as you may have had to do before. Before the fight begins,
though, you'll see a poor chemical worker guy who flies through of what
looks like an office window. Why is he a poor guy? Because he just flew
through an office window!

Running to his aid, your player will ask "All you all right?" The
worker, who's been too badly wounded, can only weakly warn you "This
place is gonna explode in three minutes..." "What happened here?" you
plead. It's too late -- the worker starts convulsing and turning into a
zombie before your very eyes. The office from which the unlucky worker
flew forms a backdrop from your next battle...and the first zombie
you'll have to take out is that same worker.

Horrible as this may seem, this former human is now one of the enemy.
Even more horrible ;) the "fresh" zombie can be the start of...

*****The single most ambitious and wild combo opportunity in the game!!!
Poor zombie's now gonna become a combo punching bag. Its back will be
towards you when it gets up, and you can then start the combo.

Now it's a little tricky. The first step towards this potentially big
and fantastic combo is getting the zombie from about the middle of the
scene to the far wall on the east side. How? With Stick's combo ability.
I'd try a combo something like this, one that covers lots of ground
while hitting the zombie towards the east wall. P, P, PP, P, P, PP, P,
P, P, PPP, PPP, PPS, and then another PPS immediately after the last (it
does work). If it worked, you're now at the east wall and you have about
20-25 hits on the combo meter.

By now, the second wave of worker zombies has dropped down and is making
their way towards you. Time to earn your combo stripes! I'll leave it up
to you to create your own combo from here. But the one thing you
absolutely must do to keep this already big combo going from the fallen
zombie to a new one is to immediately turn around and fire off a quick
blue-sight shot on the zombie closing in from the left. If you're quick
enough, the combo continues...keep the combo going with handgun shots
until you can get close enough to add in melee hits (you can move in a
little bit, fire a shot, move in a little bit more, then fire another
shot, the combo system is fairly forgiving). Note that there's also two
other worker zombies out there to string the combo onto!

Trying to pull off this combo stunt can be a bit risky, and is only
possible with Stick. The three zombies coming in from the west are fast
hitting and dangerous. Also note that sometimes, you just can't keep the
combo going since the zombies are crowding up on you, you can't move in
on a new zombie fast enough, and so forth. Don't worry, you can defeat
this wave of zombies the safe way, and take no damage (See below). But
if you're into combos, you can reap some serious point awards. I was
once able to carry the combo from the human-turned zombie to the other
three for a whopping 60+ hits (but nowadays it's like in the low 40s
hits). And no special weapons :)! If you're willing to take the risk,
you'll end up with very impressive and impressive-looking results.
*****

If you take the safe approach, just finish off the new zombie. After
you've dealt with that zombie, the other three zombies in the
second wave will come falling down.

Whatever you do, don't pick up the drill!!! It's not a good thing to
have right now.

Whether or not you want to try the combo above, you should now run over
to the right end of the screen to prepare for the new zombies' arrival.
If you want to take care of them safely, do this if you have Stick.
Establish a red sight lock on the closest zombie. Be sure you're within
melee range. Now fire and immediately combo with a PPS. Get a red lock
on the next zombie and repeat. The combined damage of the red shot and
the PPS combo will completely drain the zombies' lifebars :). 3 shots
and 3 basic combos later, the zombies are done for, you've haven't been
in any risk of taking a shred of damage, and you're all set for the
(ugh) third wave of FIVE worker zombies this time.

This third wave looks harder to defeat than it really is. It's just a
matter of choosing your targets to thin out the zombies' ranks. Five
zombies will drop in all over the scene, three of em armed (2 machine
guns and 1 shotgun). Get yourself left of where you found the worker who
was thrown out the window, and a safe distance from the 2 unarmed
zombies who will drop down. These are your first targets: floor em with
a single red-sight shot, they have little life.
Now run on over to the machine gun zombie to your left. Try to keep all
armed zombies out of the playing view, they can't seem to aim at you
this way since you can't see them either. Take it out. I'd suggest
starting with an aimed shot, and then a basic combo (use Straight Flush!
:)) to tack on big damage and finish the zombie before it's knocked
down.

Now it's just a matter of taking care of the other two zombies. Dash
over to them and dash attack both down. Use a quick handgun shot before
moving in if you think you'll need a little bit more time while the
zombies recover. Finish off at least one of the two (e.g. the weaker
one) After this, it's easy. You can pick up the drill if you want and S-
drill one of the zombies safely as long as it hasn't rearmed itself, it
might shoot before you drill it.

Well, that was a lot of fun. Make sure you've got a full handgun clip,
and head down the stairs on the east end to meet...

BOSS: Big Multi-Head Monster Thing - can be a nightmare, or a breeze

You'll start running down the stairs to chase after Zed, and head out
the door. Once outside, your group will confront Zed. Zed looks mildly
impressed, remarking "So you made it here alive...not bad for a human."
Stick asks, "What are you doing??" Zed simply responds "Why am I doing
this....he he he he, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...YOU FOOLS!" In the
meantime, a VERY big ugly reddish two-headed superzombie monster on four
legs? (meet the Boss) is making its way through a building, breaking
down the pipes in its way. With a final ferocious charge, the monster
breaks down the last barrier between it...and you. Ut oh. Here comes a
possibly tough fight.

I suggest you keep your lifebar as high as possible before facing the
Boss. Every sliver is critical.

Attacks: (all blockable, amazingly, except for maybe two or three)

(Physical)

1. Radius claw swipe. The Boss will lash out with a sweeping claw that
covers tons of ground. Blockable, but if it hits, expect to take 1/3 or
more damage and get knocked to the ground. Careful, this swipe comes in
various speeds, slower and faster. There are some windup signs.

2. "Use Your Head" attack. This attack gives new meaning to the phrase
"two heads are better than one." Ick. The monstrous Boss also has a
second skully/fleshy head embedded in its chest. It will whip out this
head very quickly for a short-range attack that hurts for about 1/3 or
so damage. Blockable, but it's hard to see coming.

3. Counter Claw Swipe. If you've been watching the countering patterns
of the Scrapyard Monster and the Electric Predator, this will be a
familiar attack to you. After taking a hit when it gets hurt enough, the
Boss will turn red and not long after do a radius claw swipe in an
attempt to knock you away. This attack is not too fast, luckily, and you
can easily see it coming. Life is greatly complicated by the Boss's
helpers, however, who are created by the Boss itself (see below).
Blockable, but you take heavy damage (1/3ish) if you're hit.

4. Counter Flying Spinning Claw Swipe. You won't see the Boss do this
move too often. In fact, you won't ever see it do this move unless
you're really pounding on it and its helpers are too far away to get
there in time. The Boss will appear to cringe more than it usually does
when you nail it with punches (and you think, "Yeah! This sucker's
MINE!"). But then, making the distinctive Boss zombie audio cue roar
(from Area 1 and 3 Bosses at certain points), it flies up about 15 feet
into the air, spinning around with its claw out kinda like a helicopter!
If you don't notice this and are still attacking up close, you'll be
knocked over, but for mercifully less damage (about 1/4 to 1/5).
Remember, getting hit by this Boss is not a good thing. Blockable.

5. Evasive Jump. The Boss normally does the Evasive Jump when you've
been pounding on it up close. It will ready itself for a moment and then
spring very high into the air (I wonder if it's got onboard rocket
boosters?), float around a while, and leap its way to a new location.
You get hurt big time (1/3+ damage) if it lands on you from this jump.
Be careful because the Boss will not always jump a long distance away. I
don't think this is blockable.

6. AMS Agent Snack Time. Now this move is simply brutal, though rare.
The unluckiest of ZR players will witness this happen to their
character, and I'm not sure how to describe it. This attack is hard to
see coming, and I'm not sure if it's blockable. Your best defense is to
always be on the attack so the Boss has a lesser chance of doing this.
Basically the Boss grabs you, slams you, and proceeds to munch on you
while you're on the ground. There's no way to shake out of it, and
you'll be messed up for 70-80% damage if you're lucky enough to survive.
If you've got another person playing with you, have the non-grabbed
player whack that Boss and spring you loose QUICK!

(Projectile/Range) -- used only if you're not up close

1. Projectile Spit. If you fight the Boss from a distance it will
frequently use it's second head to fire a wide arc of about 10-15 or so
purple goo blasts at you (same damage as the other purple spit from Area
3). Avoiding this attack is difficult even from far away. The attack is
very quick, if blockable, and it'll really hurt from closer range.

2. Flamethrower. The Boss will rear up on its hind legs and proceed to
suck in air for a very long time. I suggest you move in right now and
give it a few quick hits to cancel this attack. Otherwise it sets itself
back down and fires a VERY long-range attack that basically looks like
it's firing clouds of flame at you. The Boss tracks, and the flame is
unblockable and unavoidable except at the most extreme distances. I'm
uncertain as to the damage this does, but it's about 1/5 or more
depending on how much you're hit.

Also note that as the Boss begins to take damage it will lay (ew) four
eggs that very quickly hatch into giant scorpions (littler than the
boss, but still big enough to smother your face!). These suckers are
fast, a bit hard to see, but fortunately very weak. A blue shot will
finish them, normally. They also do very little damage to you. Still,
they can hit you virtually on contact, or can leap in the air at you to
hit you or stun you as you try to rip them off your face. You can never
truly be rid of them, as the Boss will just lay more eggs. Your biggest
problem with these little helpers is that they will keep you busy or
reeling while the Boss smacks you around with the heavy hits.


I honestly don't have a 100% effective method of taking out this Boss,
as the fight is unpredictable and it can occasionally be very unfair.
Perhaps Sega made this Boss too difficult. But you must defeat it to
move on, so try your best!

At the local arcade I've never seen anyone take this Boss down from a
distance. Red-sight shots don't charge up as quickly, and don't hurt the
Boss enough. My best advice is for you to move in close and try to pound
away with physical attacks.

Here's how I go about it, playing Stick. At the very outset of the fight
(you get a wild camera swing with a kinda at the floor view), run on
over to the boss (move in a southeast direction). You could just start
pounding away, but then the scorpions will start to hatch and then
things get really tough. What I do is Dash right up to the Boss, and
then start blocking right away. The Boss will then do the second-head
attack or the swipe attack. After blocking, I then try to run around the
shortest way to the monster's backside while the monster is recovering
from the attack. (I'm three for three on my last three games, though, I
guess you just need to be quick) Then start pounding away at it whether
you succeed or not. If you can attack the Boss from behind, the hatching
scorpions can't reach you, and that's a definite plus! After several
hits, the monster will cringe/prepare to jump away. At this moment the
monster gets much more vulnerable to attacks, but the window of
opportunity is very small so I wouldn't worry about it much, since your
melee attacks still do enough damage.

Basically, what you do is chase the Boss after it flies off and try to
start hitting it in the back again. If you can, excellent -- just watch
for the helicopter-type move. If you can't, keep pluggin' away with
PPPPP (straight flush) UNLESS you see the Boss start to glow red. If
THIS happens, keep the combo short to PPP (much less recovery time) and
immediately start blocking to intercept the swipe. After blocking return
to the attack until the Boss tries to counter again, in which case you
block. Chase it after it runs off. You might also want to try shooting
the Boss just as it starts flying in the air, every bit of damage helps.

This Boss fight would be quite easy, really, if it weren't for the
problem of the scorpion helpers hitting you and interrupting your
progress while the Boss seizes the chance to beat you up. But really,
this aspect of the fight is out of your control. You can only hope the
scorpions will either ignore you while you're beating on the Boss close
up (which they generally won't) or that the Boss jumps far enough away
so the scorpions can't follow immediately, in which case it's just you
and the Boss for a brief period of time. You can't waste much of your
time shooting down the scorpions if you're exclusively playing the
close-up game, which is to my knowledge the one best way to deal with
the Boss. Catch-22, it seems :( Stick to short combo sets, be an active
blocker and play aggressive and you'll usually finish off this monster.
I can only imagine the problems a Linda player would have, though...

If you start getting hit around by the Boss, DO try things like an
attacking fall. Don't try to run away as you will probably get pegged by
something else. The Boss has an annoying tendency to "combo" you around
with very damaging blows while you're still stunned from its last blow.
Kinda cheap if you ask me, but no one said the zombies played fair, I
suppose.

Even after playing ZR for close to a year, I can only get past this Boss
about 90% of the time. There are just too many random factors involved
in the fight. Another problem is that even if you don't get _hit_ by the
Boss, you WILL have to block, and if you don't have much life to spare,
the block damage will add up. But hopefully by using the strategies I
have you can win. If anyone knows a better way to deal with this Boss,
lemme know!

Should you make it to the next stage, you will be handsomely rewarded
with life-ups (maybe Sega's programmers figured it's time to give the
player a mid-game break)...but you have to make it past this next
section first.

After the Boss meets its dramatic end, you'll see the chemical factory
blow up just like the worker said it would. An AMS helicopter with the
good guys on board will show up, ready to take you away. Stick asks if
everyone's OK, and is about to grab the ladder the helicopter drops
down. But Rikiya will notice a number of big zombies still around in the
wake of the explosion, telling Linda and Stick "It's not over yet!"

But don't worry, it will be very soon. Just use your handgun wisely and
you should take no damage at all. You'll now be surrounded (kinda) by a
ring of fire, the helicopter ladder waiting for you on the right side
when you finish your mission objective (Shoot down the surviving
zombies!). You won't have much space to move, but don't worry, it
doesn't seem like the flame will hurt you. Just try as much as possible
to get red-sight locks on the advancing zombies, concentrating on them
one at a time if you can. The fourth zombie for you to defeat will come
from behind you, just turn around to shoot it once real quick and the
threat is over with. You'll have to shoot down about 10-12 zombies, but
it's all really easy compared to your earlier Boss fight. If you find
yourself with plenty of breathing space, try to rack up small 10 or 10+
hit combos on the zombies with quick shots from the handgun ;). After
you're done, follow the blue arrows to hop on the ladder and be on your
way to...


-------------------------------------------------------------
Part V: South Union Railway

Once aboard the helicopter, your fellow AMS operative/support staff will
inform you of "The next instruction!" In other words, where Zed's
bringing along his virus of doom. In the meantime, one of the big
zombies will get a hold of the helicopter, but it's quickly shot off :)

So where are you headed to? "South Union Railway! South Terminal
Cassandra!" (the railway first) "The train is loaded with explosives,
and the virus is headed for Cassandra!" Enter a cool cinema where the
helicopter flies in to deposit you on top of the fast moving train where
the virus is onboard, somewhere. 3D graphics are so cool. Don't spend
too much time admiring the sights, though, you'll soon be met with
company!

Difficulty: Medium, varies depending on how you play
Life-ups: 14!!!! (You could refill your lifebar many, many times, or get
tons of bonus points)
Expect to lose this much life: 15%-all
You're fine if you leave the Area with: at least 75% life
Secrets: 4
Combo Opportunities: Maybe 1, but you've got to improvise

The "scenes" in Area 5 take place on top of individual railway cars.
Nifty. In case I didn't tell you who the company you're having was, it's
five hatchet zombies.

WHAAATTT? How on earth do you deal with 5 at once? You really only have
two ways.

*****Way #1 assumes you have at least 30-50% life remaining as a safety
net in case you get hit. And a full clip of 10 shots too, there's no
time for reloading. You can try this method even if your lifebar is near
zero (as it can be), but the risk is higher. You'll also need any life
left over for the secret room underneath (inside the railway car). This
is my preferred method when my character's lifebar is high enough.

The secret to dealing with the five hatchet zombies is that they don't
all come out at once. Three fly up to the top of the train one after
another, and then two more follow after a brief pause. Deal with each
one as soon as they arrive and become "hittable" and it all becomes
quite easy. But how? Starting to think I'm gonna invoke the quick-charge
close-up red-sight handgun shot technique again? You better believe it!!
You'll be facing east on a more or less horizontal battleground. Move
"east" to meet the first hatchet zombie when it pops up so that you're
in front of it. The sight will power up to red very quickly after you
lock-on, so fire off the shot as soon as it's fully charged and very
quickly follow it with another quick shot to finish off the hatchet
zombie -- its lifebar is very low. Recall the 5 brown zombies from Area
3, it's basically the same technique, and also remember that lucky
Rikiya might only need one red-sight shot to finish a hatchet zombie..
Now run up right next to the second hatchet zombie to fly atop the train
and deal with it in the same way. Same for the third. If you were quick
enough, you can also dispatch the next two hatchet zombies in the same
way, using up a measly one clip of ammo :). You have the advantage as
although the hatchet zombies are fast, they won't attack you right away.
Even if you can only bring down 3 zombies in this way, though, don't
panic. Dealing with 2 isn't too tough, attack with aimed shots, block if
you must, dash attack if you need to, and so on. After beating the
hatchet zombies rather handily, you can now head down into the secret
room on the same car (DON'T go to the next scene!) for your reward.
*****

*****Way #2 assumes you're way too low on life to risk having to fight
the hatchet zombies (hey, you gotta stay in the game right?). What you
do is enter the secret room underneath the top of the train car right
away. You'll have plenty of time to do this as the hatchet zombies fly
on up. However, if you do enter the secret room first, you've got all of
the hatchet zombies to contend with once you're back on top of the car,
so be careful.
*****

Where is this secret room? It's basically right under where you start
(the camera angle can change on you so you might have to adjust), and
you climb down into the car. "Probe" your way along the car with the
joystick and the G button if you can't find the entrance...but it's
normally visible as the train car's "middle" window that's a little more
well lighted than the others (this is because there's an opening there
for you to enter). If you can see the window you can also see a red-coat
zombie inside. This is the window to go for.

Once you make your way down to the secret room, you'll find 4 red coat
zombies waiting for you, 2 of them armed, 2 on each side of the car.
You'll have to earn the life-up on the south side.

However, I don't recommend you head for the south side first. Since
you're closer to the north side (camera view is vertical), hit the
closest zombie once, and then floor both zombies on the north side with
dash attacks since they're close together. After they're flattened for
the moment, dash attack the other two zombies on the south side. It's
really pretty easy, just make sure the armed zombies don't fire their
machine guns at you. The life-up will be waiting for you on the south
end, run over to get it quickly before it disappears. If the fallen
zombies are in your way, try using a roll to get over them. After
retrieving your tasty life-up, you'll notice (if your lifebar was low to
begin with) that your lifebar will creep up quite a bit. And it won't
stop refilling right away. And in fact, it might get completely refilled
:). This life-up is good for 50-100% healing, which is why it's always a
good idea to get it. You'll almost never have less than 80% life once
you grab it, and that's not a bad thing at all. Well deserved after all
the zombie bashing you've been doing! Don't forget the four formerly
floored zombies though -- they still gotta be dealt with. Use one of the
machine guns they dropped, or charged shots or whatever, to get rid of
them. Their lifebars are high, but so long as the zombies aren't armed
they're not much of a threat to you.

Before you open the sliding car door on the north side (with G, P, or S)
to leave, pick up a machine gun with lots of ammo in it, and then head
on out. If you chose Way #2 the hatchet zombies will be waiting for you
outside. I suggest you face the zombies and start blocking right away,
make space with the guard breaker attack, and then let loose with the
machine gun with P and S-bursts as soon as you can. If you've gotten
this far, you'll probably make it to the next zone. A clear out attack
might also help if you're in trouble, since the hatchet zombies don't
have much life.

Head in the direction of the arrows to make the short hop to Car #2. And
now the train heads into a tunnel. Good stuff! The camera angle will
switch so you face north. Again, there are two ways to deal with these
zombies depending on whether or not you have a machine gun. But this car
is easy -- you shouldn't take any damage at all since the zombies are
all regular ones who don't attack fast, and you have a lot of space.
Deal with the zombies any way you like -- just be careful not to stay in
the middle of the car for too long, now and then a light post will come
up, and smack you for a bit of damage. If you have the machine gun, have
a combo field day. If not, use aimed shots until the zombies get close,
or use a charged shot to knock down. You'll have 5 or 6 zombies, all
unarmed, but they won't all come out at once.

Having cleared the train car of zombies, you can now head towards one of
two secret rooms (and practice rolling under the light posts if you feel
so inclined). Both rooms involve a measure of risk, one much more so
than the other. In fact, if your lifebar is high enough (nearly full)
you might want to play it safe and avoid both rooms altogether. However,
if you're interested in seeing everything this game has to offer
(especially for high scores =)!!!), you might want to try heading down
into one or both of these rooms.

Here's what I do. I normally head for the room in the northwest corner
of the car first. Don't go too far north or you're in the next scene,
though. You may notice a hint of a stepladder at that corner: press a
button to climb down the stepladder into one of the cargo rooms below.

And what a cargo room it is! You don't find 1, or 2, or 3, or, 4, or
even 5 life-up boxes here...you find 10!!! Needless to say you'll get
more than your share of life-ups here. Unfortunately, that's not all
you'll find. The life-ups will disappear if you don't get them quickly
after entering the room, so you will have to grab em right away, and
before you know it three groups of two zombies will drop out of nowhere.
If you want to play it safe, this room is probably not worth your time.
If the hatchet zombies messed you up on the last car (to under 50%
life), though, I still think you should try to take on the zombies.
You'll probably come out with more life than you started with, and it's
not that hard to survive this room.

What I do is quickly collect all ten life-ups before the zombies come
along. I then do a quick PPS combo on each zombie as it becomes
hittable. I'll repeat this four times in all for the first two weak
zombies, and the next two red coat armed zombies, if I can. After the
two hatchet zombies drop in, I'll then throw a Clear Out Attack to knock
the hatchet zombies down and damage the other four zombies still on the
ground. Then by using the handgun (not the unreliable shotgun), I'll
finish off the hatchet zombies first and then everything else. The
lifebars of all your foes are rather high, but I find that about 70-80%
of the time all the damage I'll take is that of the Clear Out Attack's
penalty...and I don't even think I'm using the best strat to get rid of
the zombies. After you clear the secret room, climb up the stepladder to
get back atop the train.

You might be asking, why risk going into a secret room that's only a
little less risky than the Area 3 one (the small room with 5 zombies)
especially if your lifebar is full? I guess the primary reason is points
;). If you have a full lifebar going into the northwest room, you can
rack up a quick *20,000* points by collecting the 10 life-up boxes.
That's huge! The other reason is that since with practice you'll
generally leave the secret room with only the Clear Out damage, you can
then head to the secret room on the south east corner and use the ladder
to get into another cargo room to recover most if not all of that damage
with the life-up there.

The southeast room is much easier to handle compared to the northwest
one, although the life-up is still guarded by three not-too-durable
zombies. They single-swipe at you quickly, but they can't combo. You
will enter the secret room from the right side, with the life-up at the
back of the room. The best thing to do is to first dash straight to the
left past the zombies, then make a tight left "U-turn," heading right
and dash attacking down the two zombies nearest the life-up. Strange as
this sounds, you can actually knock down 2 out of the 3 zombies at once.
Collect the life-up for about 15-20% healing and proceed to dash attack
down the other zombie/shoot it out of the picture/whatever. Keep your
attention focused on one zombie at a time and keep the zombies on the
ground and you probably won't take any damage at all.

After leaving the secret room (if you chose to enter it), head north to
hop onto Car #3.

Well, there's no more hanging light posts to worry about since the train
is now traveling on an open-air bridge. But now you have two red-coat
zombies (1 armed) and two hatchet zombies to deal with, all with very
high lifebars! This is probably the car where you have the greatest risk
of being seriously beat up, between the hatchet zombies and a machine
gunner zombie.

A basic strategy for getting past this car is to first knock down the
machine gunner zombie on the far side (you will basically face north),
knocking down the hatchet zombies beforehand if it looks safe to.
Whether you pick up the machine gun or not, the important thing is to
get distance between you and the zombies, who would have pretty much
trapped you if you stood there in the beginning and let them close in.
There's no real formula to follow for defeating the four zombies from
there, but you could use the machine gun to weaken the zombies (my
preferred method if I can do it), go for the hatchet zombies first, etc.
Aimed shots will be helpful here. Just make sure no red coat zombie is
armed or it will complicate matters for you greatly.

Should you not be faring well against the four zombies in this scene
(and it's often a tough fight), head over to just short of the northeast
end of the train car and enter yet another secret room. Inside this car
you will find two life-ups (for about 40-50% life up) guarded by two
red-coat zombies, 1 armed. Just dash attack-them down and deal with them
as you please, it's a snap. Save the machine gun for the outside if you
were previously running from the zombies and haven't defeated them yet.
_Don't_ shoot the dynamite packs in the secret room unless you want to
risk injury, and don't waste your bullets on the hanging bat creature
behind the bars. It'll come out before long :P. After getting your life-
ups and the machine gun, head on out the door on the left.

After you clear this car, charge up on the life-ups in the northeast
secret room if you haven't done so yet, then discard your machine gun if
you still have it by emptying its clip and get yourself a full handgun
clip for the next car -- which houses the Boss.

BOSS: Flying Monster/Winged Zombie -- piece of cake

After making one last hop to the final train car, you'll notice that
_something_ is trying to bust through the metallic ceiling of the train
-- and is doing a frighteningly good job. Two or so punches later, the
Boss frees itself from inside the train and flies out to face you.

Attacks. (All blockable)

1. Flying Wing Swipe. The Boss will swoop in a short distance forward
and execute a very quick swipe with its wing and claw. About 1/7 or so
damage.

2. Hovering Projectile Spit. The Boss will hover in the air for a bit,
out of reach from your handgun, and then spit out a red projectile
towards you. Easy to see coming, does 1/7 damage. Think the purple spit,
only redder.

3. Grab. The Boss will swoop in to grab you (kinda like the scorpions
do), and will continue to do damage until you shake it off with button
mashing and wiggling the joystick. You will know the Boss tried the grab
if you block what looks like a small, not too quick swoop and you don't
take any block damage. If you shake the Boss off quickly, damage done to
you is very small (1/8-1/10 or maybe even less depending on how quickly
you shake the Boss off).

4. Large Swoop. The Boss will fly way out of reach, as the camera view
changes to where you can barely see the back of your head as it follows
the Boss. The Boss will now start to swoop in again aiming right for you
as the camera changes to the Boss's perspective. Just block this,
Rolling is possible but timing may be tricky. Damage done is unknown
since I've never been hit by this attack.

The flying Boss is extremely easy to defeat, despite the fact it can
bash its way through what looks like steel, or aluminum alloy at least.
Maybe it's all tired now? :P In any case, this Boss is a welcome relief
after the tough fights atop the train cars. Since there's a good chance
your lifebar is less than 100% from those tough encounters, you'll want
to make sure the Boss's attacks, though weak, don't hurt you any
further, since life-ups from here on in get very few and far between.

The first thing to do against this Boss is to run to about the middle of
the car, getting pretty close to the Boss, and then start blocking.
Continue to block until the Boss attacks you. The reason why you should
do this is that the attack the Boss commonly does at close range, the
wing swipe, is lightning fast and can't be countered by you in time. You
can choose not to block and fire off a handgun shot, but all too often
the Boss will trick you by not getting stunned and swooping in, and you
won't be able to recover and block before you're hit. After you block
the Boss's attack (or if it looks VERY evident the Boss _won't_ attack
you), open fire with your handgun. Try to get at least the first shot to
be somewhat aimed, but otherwise you can just fire blue-sight shots
after that -- you'll frequently reduce the Boss's lifebar a lot, or to
almost 50% this way. If the large swoop follows, just see it coming and
block it for a little block damage, then turn around and try to finish
the Boss off in two passes and 2-3 clips. The Boss will surely fall
before your superior ability, as long as you have at least enough life
to take block damage.

After beating the Boss, you still have one more objective to accomplish.
Follow the arrows into the engine room. You must now stop the train
before it crashes into the Cassandra terminal, which would presumably
mean bad news. An orange speed bar indicator will appear on the screen,
as you enter the engine room (you're now in the head car), and you'll
need to stop the NAOMI train (nice touch :)) by pulling on the brake
lever in the center of the room on the north end. Careful though...hold
the joystick neutral near the brake lever, and THEN press P, it's more
effective this way and you're less likely to throw punches instead.

Did I mention one pull isn't going to do the trick? It will take a good
deal of pulling on that brake lever (good thing it doesn't break on ya)
to get the job done. Oh, and did I forget to mention three zombies will
be in this room to keep you busy as well, and that replacements keep
falling down as you get rid of them?

Despite the complicating factor of the zombies, the process is really
quite simple. You also have a lot of time to finish this section, so I'd
prioritize clearing the room of zombies before pulling the brake lever.
The key, yet again, is quick-charging close-range shots, but you won't
need much more than a yellow-orange lock, these zombies are all very
weak and will be done for with a single shot. They also can't do
anything but a swipe, but again, you can't afford to lose any life here
because the going gets tough, and soon.

Here's whatcha do, just use your handgun and make sure you don't have to
reload while the zombies are after you. Once inside the engine room,
wait patiently for the first zombie to drop down, and then the second,
and maybe even the third if they're not immediately on you before you
start shooting down the zombies in quick succession and in that order.
You want to have all three zombies in the room at once so you can
quickly take them all out. Then return to pulling the brake lever for a
little bit. In this way you don't always have one zombie constantly
dropping in to annoy you, since the three replacements must all drop in
again. It boils down to wait, wait, wait, drop, drop, drop, shoot,
shoot, shoot, pull the lever, shoot, shoot, shoot, pull the lever,
etc... Just be careful of any swipes and you should escape any damage.
Don't hesitate to fire off a quick shot if you think a zombie might
swipe at you. Don't combo though, you don't have the time. Also note
that every couple of replacement waves, a zombie might drop down next to
the brake so pulling on the brake too long for that particular occasion
is probably not a good idea...just finish off the 3-zombie wave and get
back to pulling. After you reduced the orange speed bar to zero, you'll
be done here and headed to...


-------------------------------------------------------------
Part VI: Cassandra

Enter a cinema of your character trying his/her best to get the train to
stop before derailing and crashing in Cassandra terminal. Ooh and ahh at
the nifty lighting effects, and did I mention crisp 3D graphics? You'll
ultimately be successful, as the NAOMI train sends a small wooden
barrier flying but stops just short of a very large metal barrier.

One quick hop off the train, and onward you go.

Difficulty: Medium/High, luck definitely a factor
Life-ups: 0, so be careful
Expect to lose this much life: 20%-all
You're fine if you leave the Area with: at least 50% life
Secrets: 3
Combo Opportunities: None really

As soon as you hop off the train, the next scene begins. The camera will
be slightly overhead. You will start off facing three incoming zombies.
The biggest problem here won't be the zombies themselves (kinda high
lifebars, but they don't have combo attacks) so much as the fact that
all three are headed for you at once at a pretty fast clip. You could
try to run through them with dash attacks or around them, but I find it
100% effective just to stay in place and stand and deliver with the
handgun. Don't use aimed shots though -- harness the power of the
charge-up shot. Aim carefully and you should be able to knock down two
of them at once, after which dealing with the one you didn't hit should
be fairly easy. Once you got the first two zombies knocked down, the
rest is easy. Trust in your abilities :).

Before you head off to the next scene, be sure to break open the crate
on the north end (guitar) and on the south/southwest end (machine gun,
this crate is harder to see) if you want the 1000 bonus pts. I wouldn't
bother going for these weapons to deal with the three zombies you
dispatched with your basic gear just fine, and I REALLY REALLY don't
recommend taking these weapons at all into the next scene (UNLESS you're
playing 2-player). Now go through the gate on the upper right side
empty-handed to enter the big nasty room of zombie doom!

The next room can be very tricky unless you make a break for the weapons
of mass destruction. Even then, it's still tough -- there's 2 hatchet
zombies (low lifebars), 2 armed Area 4 worker zombies (high lifebars)
and I believe 2 regular non-comboing zombies (high lifebars) to deal
with all at once! Lately though, I've been able to get through this room
without taking damage about 60% of the time.

*****Two-player note! I've seen a two-player group do not too bad at all
against the zombie horde in this scene by each picking up the guitar and
the machine gun before entering the next scene. As soon as they did,
they opened fire with P-bursts (wide arc shots) and didn't stop firing
'til they ran outta bullets. It looks a bit silly and cool at the same
time -- and it did the job pretty well. They also racked up some
impressive combos. In any case, the zombies are thereafter either
completely wasted or dramatically weakened so that the fight now becomes
much easier. If you're playing two-player, I highly recommend this
strategy for this room. You might not have to do the one-player strat
afterward since it's two AMS agents vs. 6 zombies...much better odds :).
The only reason why this works for two-player games only is because you
can spray rains of zombie-blasting flak around -- 88 bullets in total.
*****

If you're playing alone, you don't have the luxury of firing P-button
blasts, you'll either be slashed by the hatchet zombies or floored by
the shotgun-carrying zombie before you empty the special weapon. The key
is to go for the hidden grenade. You will start the scene facing east in
the middle of the left end of a very large playing field. At the far
south is a crate that contains a cannon shot. Don't even think about
getting this one. Instead, you'll want to break open the crate carrying
the much quicker and more useful grenade, which is the box in the
southeast by the door leading to the next Boss.

I basically follow BLui's strategy for this section, except that I run
straight at the zombies in the early going instead of trying to go for
the grenade and hoping for the best. The variation is that I run east a
short distance and immediately dash-attack down the hatchet zombie which
is further to the south (lower on the screen). This may seem completely
idiotic, with the shotgun zombie right in front of you starting to aim,
and another nearby hatchet zombie that's still standing, but actually
it's not.

Why? Because you can then make that same shotgun zombie miss when it
fires. Because they do miss :). The still-standing hatchet zombie will
also NOT attack you right away (at least on the local arcade's ZR
cabinet). Now that one of the hatchet zombies is temporarily knocked
down, now's the time you start running like hell ;). My advice is to run
southeast like there's no tomorrow, but don't bee-line it while you're
heading towards the grenade crate -- try to run more like you're
following the curve of a wide circle in a counterclockwise direction
(dash more south than east in the beginning). Establish as much distance
from yourself and the shotgun zombie as you can while running away and
towards the grenade, and certainly don't stop running when it locks,
loads and fires. But when it's almost done tracking, loading and firing,
make sure you're now running much more east than south. Remember my
advice from Area 1: MAKE that zombie track you. 100% of the time I do
this, I don't take damage with the quick charge in, and the shotgun
zombie misses by a mile. It might even have shot the cannon crate for
you :). Regardless, don't get it, it can't aim like the grenade can.

Here's where things get much less certain. Now you must break open the
crate and toss the grenade. The annoying thing is that the grenade won't
just fall, it will bounce a bit before you're able to pick it up. The
crate can be reached with a punch, but then you have to wait and
basically stand still while the zombies home in on your position...not
good, especially with those quick hatchet zombies.

So...right after the shotgun zombie misses, you'll probably still have
some ways to go before reaching the crate. This is kinda difficult, but
your best bet is to hit the crate with a quick handgun shot before you
reach the crate (you can't lock-on to it, so you'll hafta aim manually)
so that the grenade is ready for pick-up, or at least is almost done
bouncing, when you arrive. Most of the time you'll survive to see the
grenade, if not pick it up, so long as you have enough life left. Now
it's a matter of picking up the grenade and chucking it at the first
blue-sight lock you see. You now pray for rain, hope that it hits, and
also hope that there's lots of zombies so that life gets easier.

If that just doesn't seem like a good idea for any reason, you should
also consider running around the playing field once you grab the grenade
to try and find yourself a better opportunity to chuck the grenade.
Remember, by dashing in wide arcs the armed zombies will almost
certainly miss you, and you can outrun any zombie except the hatchet
zombies.

Usually the grenade will at least hit something. 5 zombies to go is
better than 6 to go. But try to make the grenade count -- while in your
take cover animation, the other zombies are free to attack -- and, gulp,
blast you with a shotgun or machine gun -- before you're able to move
again. Now that the grenade has done its job, you'll now have to rely on
your instincts to get rid of the survivors before facing the Boss. Aim
to finish off the hatchet zombies first if any survive, running around
in wide arcs to make sure any surviving armed zombies can't get a good
shot off at you while you concentrate on the hatchet zombies. Then knock
down any surviving armed zombies to disarm them if you can do so safely.
Then just deal with the surviving normal zombies.

Even if you can't get to the grenade, or it missed, or whatever, don't
lose hope! The battle is half won if the hatchet zombies are taken out
-- and remember, they can't absorb much damage. I've been able to clear
this scene once without the grenade with hit-and-run tactics. Keep at
it!

Should you make it past this scene, you can always get yourself the
cannon shot and give it a whirl just to see what it looks like, but
watch your time. Lucky you, after just two short scenes you've gotta
beat the Boss. Follow the arrows through the double doors (make sure you
have a fresh handgun clip) and you'll find yourself facing...

BOSS: Big Green Gooey Head (yeah, I KNOW it sounds silly) -- usually not
TOO bad, but still a rough fight

You enter a first-person perspective cinema as you run down the narrow
corridor leading to the Boss, and your party gets a look at the goopy
monstrosity. It's basically a big pinkish reddish weird giant head with
multiple eyeballs (but not where the sockets are -- ewwww) with
something of a lizardish neck, attached to a column/pool of green slime.
Ick. The sight of this weird Boss will make Linda fall to her knees. Aw,
c'mon, she's a rough-and-tumble AMS agent, but hey, I didn't write the
script :P. Get ready for an interesting fight.

Attacks: (Projectile attacks are not blockable, physical attacks are
blockable)

(Projectile) -- both have start-up signs and charging time.

1. Laser Blast. Kinda like the second head of the Area 4 boss, but not,
the Boss will open its mouth to reveal -- a laser?!? Don't gawk too
long, it'll start charging and then fire a streaming straight-line laser
blast for about 2-3 seconds which also tracks you. If you are in its
path from the beginning, you are hit multiple times for 50-70%+ damage.
If you are caught by the laser after running from it for a couple of
seconds, you are still hit multiple times, but only for 30-40% damage.
The Boss's head must be in a specific retracted state, and not hanging
overhead, before it can do this move.

2. Torrential Reddish Spit. The Boss will hang its head maybe 6-10 feet
above you and then spit out a large vertical column of dark reddish
fluid that tracks you. Lasts about 4-5 seconds. If it connects it does
multiple hits, but strangely for ridiculously low damage. You shouldn't
be too afraid of this move, but remember, avoid damage wherever
possible, especially now. The Boss must be hanging its head somewhat
downward, looking directly downward, before it can perform this move.

("Head-based" :P)

1. Head Butt (don't laugh). Watch for some start-up signs, for example
when the Boss isn't moving much or just seems to be staring at you. It
will then charge down rather quickly to home in on your position. If it
head butts you, you take 1/3+ damage. The Boss's head must be somewhat
high in the air and not hanging overhead before it can perform this
move.

2. Triple Head Bang (again, don't laugh, I'm trying my best here). The
Boss will hang its head above you for a little while, but instead of
doing the Torrential Reddish Spit move, it will instead proceed to hit
the floor three times with its head. It won't try to track you. Watch
for an abnormally long lag while the head hangs over you, and for the
head NOT to be facing downward at you. If you are hit you will probably
automatically stagger out of its range to avoid the next two hits. The
actual hit does no more than 1/10 damage. However, what it also does is
bring down 4 the little scorpion helpers Area 4 Boss helpers) from the
ceiling to assist it. Be very careful, the Boss seems to love performing
a Laser Blast right after the scorpions land. The Boss must be hanging
above you to do this move.

I suppose you can be thankful this Boss doesn't seem to have more
attacks, or especially any super-duper slam/munch/shock/whatever moves
(that I know of). But its four attacks are plenty bad enough. Perhaps
one reason why this Boss doesn't NEED a "super" attack is because of the
fact that its projectile attacks, should they hit you, hit multiple
times. This of course means multiples of damage.

The only way to defeat this Boss is to take careful aim and fire only
red-sight shots at its head whenever possible (to save your ammo). Be
patient, the Boss can move its head out of range sometimes. Also, this
Boss is quite durable, expect to hit it many times before it falls. Just
try to conserve your ammo as much as possible.

The key to beating this Boss is recognizing its patterns. There are
start-up signs for everything, and you can be assured that unless the
Boss is in certain positions, it will be unable to attack you in a
certain way. For example, don't worry at all about the head butt or the
laser if the Boss hangs just above you. (As you get experience fighting
it, you'll HOPE it hangs its head above you all the time, the two
attacks it can't do are much more powerful =)=)=)) Do worry about the
column of spit or the calling down of the scorpion helpers though.

One helpful way to think of this Boss battle is to think of the Boss's
attacks as "events." When it acts, you must also act appropriately to
avoid getting damaged. In between the Boss's attacks are ample
opportunities to shoot at the Big Zombie Head and get at least one red-
sight shot off. But don't think you can just shoot the Boss around after
you've escaped one attack. There will be plenty of attacks to come.

If scorpions are summoned, take care to try and get rid of them as
quickly as possible (note they have more life than the previous scorpion
helpers on Area 4), they can complicate matters a whole ton. They will
NOT come down again unless the Boss does the triple headbang thing.
Manage this task carefully with avoiding the Boss's own attacks.

Also, since the projectile attacks track, you have no choice but to run
or face certain doom. However, I'd be careful about just plain dashing
around for the Laser attack. Dashing around is perfect for the spit
attack -- you could practically run circles around the Boss's column of
spit. However, the Boss tracks just as well while it's charging to fire
its _Laser_ whether you dash or not. There may also come times where
you're dashing in one direction and you run out of space too quickly, in
which case you eat the later part of the laser attack, which is quite
painful. What you do while the Boss BEGINS charging is to merely walk
around (for about a half second). Since the room you have to move is
somewhat limited, if you're near a corner take the time to turn yourself
around. But don't walk for long, and break into a dash before it fires
the laser. You will get hit much less by the Laser with this technique,
since you won't have to cover as much ground and have less of a chance
of running out of running room.

Also be warned that the only really effective way to dodge the laser is
to make it track you left and right. The laser beam is rather wide and
fires at an angle; running from the end of the laser isn't effective,
and you'll get zapped if you try to make the laser fire over your head.
Run from the laser itself.

Other than the laser, another big worry to deal with is the Head Butt,
since it hurts so much. My best advice to you is to just block to
deflect it well before the Boss actually starts to headbutt you. You can
run from the head, but you'll need a lot of space and you'll need to be
very fast. The Boss will also be very persistent in trying to run you
down. If you can avoid it, great, you get some free shots in. The
problem with this strategy is that you frequently won't have much life
to spare when you fight the Boss. The block damage from the headbutt is
more than a little, and it can in time wear down your lifebar a lot, but
it's better than taking 1/3+ damage in one blow that you probably can't
afford. I'd only try running away if I knew I didn't have enough energy
left to block the headbutt. So my general advice, lots of life left or
not so much, block the head.

But when to block the head? You want the Boss to use this attack as
little as possible, since it's probably the most dangerous attack, but
at the same time you want to be sure you can attack the head without it
"countering," although the Boss technically does NOT have a counter
attack. You'll find that the biggest warning sign is when the Boss has
its head higher in the air, and it just seems to be staring at you and
following you as you move around, if you're moving around. If this
happens, just face the Boss and start blocking right away until it
headbutts. If you fire a shot at it, you'll all too often fall for a
trick very similar to the "Area 5 First Handgun Shot Sucker Punch" (See
above). After you hit it, it will "counter" and pound you before you can
recover and block in time. Remember that the Boss headbutts quicker than
you think, and that even after you recover from the handgun shot, you
still need some time to put up your guard.

But I'm digressing. Since excessive blocking against this Boss will cost
you valuable life in the long run, try to make it use its other attacks
by 1) moving around a lot and 2) not fire too many shots at it at any
one time (of course, the other three attacks aren't fun either). If
you're scoring too many successful hits, the Boss will probably try to
headbutt you (be especially watchful if you hit the Boss and it suddenly
recoils backward). If you just stand there and shoot at the Boss, you'll
almost certainly have to block another headbutt soon after. The block
damage/Boss damage trade-off is not good because the Boss can take some
serious punishment.

Just keep this advice in mind and you shouldn't have too tough a time
with this Boss. One note though - if you fire an unaimed shot at the
slime column and see a machine gun fall out, don't get it. It'll slow
you down too much.

Another thought -- the Triple Headbang attack is one that requires quick
response. The scorpions summoned are weak by themselves, but they can
hit you practically on contact, and when the Boss is charging up to
blast you this means really bad news. Targeting and eliminating the four
scorpions quickly is not an easy task. One possible way of preventing
this attack is 1) firing a quick volley of unaimed shots at the Boss
before the Headbang to make it recoil its head or 2) try to hit the head
with a melee attack (practically impossible though, but you could try
Stick's charged physical attack?). I don't know if these 2 things would
work since I've never tried them. Maybe you're just out of luck if the
Boss gets ready to handbang. But experiment and see if these or other
methods work to stop this annoying attack.

After you defeat the Big Scary Head, relax, stretch your hands and
fingers, control your breathing and your pulse :), and enjoy the cinema
before you arrive at...


-------------------------------------------------------------
Part VII: Mount Sacrifice

Good thing the movie's pretty long! You need the break!

In the cinema, our three heroes look around surprised as the Boss's
environment shakes. Enter Zed, big surprise. Zed will go through his
thing of getting revenge on and getting rid of the humans. Stick bravely
dismisses this as nonsense. Linda for some reason starts getting really
panicky and covers her face with her hands, wondering why Zed's leading
them around, and wondering if they're all gonna die. Huh? An AMS agent,
scared of a mere threat?! (Well, it is kinda cheesy and B-movieish) Zed
will then go through his normal ha ha ha ha routine, remarking that
Stick especially must suffer (but why?) as green gas erupts from the
floor (Stick wonders: "What's with the smoke?"), and Stick, Linda and
Rikiya collapse from inhaling it ("W.....H.....A.....T.....").

We next find our AMS agents lying face down on a decidedly spooky dirt
path (I guess this is Mount Sacrifice) with very well done moody
lighting, rain effects, and windswept trees on the side. Stick will be
the first to recover, and everyone is OK. But not long after, the first
wave of zombies comes along...

Difficulty: Medium/High
Life-ups: 1, but ya gotta extract it from the Boss ;) (gives about 10-
15% life)
Expect to lose this much life: 25%-all
You're fine if you leave the Area with: at least 50% life
Secrets: 1
Combo Opportunities: 1, maybe

You'll need all the life you can get when you arrive in this section,
since you encounter a "new" breed of zombie this stage. These green
zombies, who are present in this area and the next, can and will both
spit at you and combo you around like nobody's business. They seem
similar to the brown zombies of Area 3 but they've got more life, they
attack a little more quickly, and unlike the brown zombies, aren't
"assigned" to any specific task as it seems in Area 3. You'll notice
after time that the Area 3 brown zombies have a primary means of attack,
either standing on a platform and spitting at you, or actually moving in
and attacking you up close. The platform zombies won't normally use the
combo moves, and the melee-type brown zombies won't often spit at you.
The green zombies, however, have no such scruples. Try as you might,
you'll often find yourself getting hit at least once or twice before
getting to the Boss, especially in the first scene...it's really
annoying.

Unfortunately, every regular zombie in this area is a green zombie. And
the very first wave is none other than 3 green zombies. Oh boy.

You'll begin on the west side of the screen, the camera taking a
horizontal perspective until you get to the Boss. The green zombies are
a good distance to the east in this first scene, and so is the entrance
to the next scene. The first thing I recommend you do is to start
dashing towards them right away, but not directly. Dash in a east/south
easterly direction so that the green zombies will all be above you in
the screen, or due north. You need to dash at the start because one or
more of the zombies is preprogrammed to spit at you at the outset, and
you might get nailed if you wait for the zombies to come at you -- even
worse, they might just stand there and spit. I wish you good luck :P.
It's now up to you to deal with them as best you can without them
nailing you with either melee attacks or spit. This is the difficult
part. For some reason dash attacks miss much more often for me...
grrr...leaving the door open for you to get nailed by spit. I suggest
you try to knock down as many of the three zombies as you safely can,
block any incoming spit, and use quick basic combos or close-up shots to
do quick damage when possible (I recommend PPS). With luck you'll make
it to the next scene, over to the east, unharmed.

You'll hop over some patches of fire in a transitional cinema, and
you'll now find yourself nearby three landmarks: 1) an open building or
back of a vehicle? at the north, 2) a cave-like bunker to the southwest,
and 3) the second and last "???" box in the game. Save the ??? box for
last and be careful not to break it open until you defeat all the
zombies -- it contains a green zombie who will roll out and usually
knock you over, if for little or no damage.

Out of the vehicle/building/whatever will come 3 or 4 green zombies for
you to deal with. The initial problem here is that until the zombies
actually leave the structure, you can only see their feet. This means
you can't really tell if they're gonna spit at you. One thing I try to
do which helps is to peg them with a charge-up shot as the zombies
become hittable. It knocks them down and leaves me better able to
concentrate on one zombie at a time until they exit the structure. There
are possibly other ways around this, but it works the best for me. Just
damage them as much as possible before they leave the structure (now you
have to deal with spit AND combo attacks), and then do what you did last
scene to defeat them all. Overall, the odds of getting hit this scene
are a little lower.

If you have some leftover time and you're a point/combo fan like I am,
feel free to break open the zombie box now :) Since there's no other
zombies left anymore, and you don't take much if any damage from being
knocked over at all, take out your frustrations on this lone zombie with
a niceeee long combo...it's got a long lifebar :P. Don't fight it all
the way to the east end though, because you can now enter the Boss area,
and you don't want to yet, you want the bonus weapons first!

In any event, before you go east to fight the Boss, enter the secret
cave/bunker to the southwest by kicking open the doors (press G, P, or
S). You'll be treated to a special room where you can select three
weapons, not by picking them up, but by "shopping" for them by centering
them in your sights and selecting them in a first-person perspective.
Use the joystick to pan from weapon to weapon, and press P to select
(this is the first time you get to see the special weapons in their
close-up glory :)), but choose quickly, you don't have much time. As you
press P to select your desired weapon it will show up in a weapon slot.
Get three weapons and you're off to fight the Boss.

Be careful what you choose...you get many options, but limited time to
pick them. The first-person perspective isn't immediately intuitive as
you select the weapon which is in the "center" of your field of view,
rather than walking over it and picking it up (you don't see your
character here, you seem to instead look through his/her eyes). Also,
the camera pans rather fast from weapon to weapon, it can get kinda
dizzying. Talk about polygon-pushing power! Also note that you can only
take one of a certain weapon (no three grenades for you), and you can't
change any choices you've made. Be careful with selecting with P as
well, I suggest you tap it lightly.

That all being said and out of the way (I know, heck, it's a BONUS
room!), it's time to pick what weapons you want. It's up to you, really,
but I would as a general rule ALWAYS pick two weapons -- the machine gun
(get the shelf with the two machine guns on top in your sights to get
em) and the grenade (see the grenades in the cardboard box, you start
off looking right at em). The third weapon is really up to you, but I'd
pick either the chain gun or the flamethrower. The flamethrower is
probably the safer bet since the chain gun isn't great at aiming. You
could also select a land mine or the shotgun as viable alternatives
(unsure about dual handguns and other weapons, look around if you have
enough selection time). With time you'll remember where to look for the
weapons you want, it'll save you time and worry.

Special Note: I would *avoid* the futuristic looking gun you might come
across while shopping for weapons against the Boss. That's the laser
gun. While it's wonderfully efficient and can fire about 18 laser blasts
one at a time, it slows you down, you can't dash with it, and most
importantly, it doesn't have the concentrated power to actually bump
back the Boss since it fires both slowly and in single sharp beam, as
opposed to searing streams of flame or 16 chain gun bullets. It does
SUPER damage against the Boss -- I got the Boss down to 1/3 life and
still had some laser charges left -- but the Boss isn't blown back when
you fire the weapon, and firing just takes too long. This gun wouldn't
stop a counter attack or keep the Boss away from you. Don't forget that
it also can't lock-on. Just don't get it if you can help it.

Sorry if it seems like I spoke 10 volumes too many about the bonus room
-- but really, it's very important to take the right weapons for the
Boss to even the odds, since it does have 2 forms.

After you leave the weapons room, you'll notice you don't actually
"have" the weapons ready for use. What you DO have is a "Weapons Bag"
with the weapons inside. Don't worry about it for now, just meet the
Boss...who kinda looks like the Area 1 Boss, only mechanized and
robotized (and with a spookily grayish human face!)

BOSS: Mechanical Monster (two forms) -- pretty tough

Attacks: They are exactly like that of the Scrapyard Monster, but I
can't exactly remember how much damage each attack does. I think the
damage done is basically similar except for the counter attack, which
does more damage when it knocks you down. All the attacks this Boss has
in common with the Scrapyard Monster are blockable except the old
shockwave tantrum thing.

This Boss also has some extra attacks to make it more dangerous.

1. Physical Attack - Shoulder Charge. After not very long of a start-up
at all, the Boss will start running at you to knock you down. Worse, the
shoulder charge TRACKS. It only looks slow; it can catch up to Stick's
dash with frightening speed, especially if you're not far away when the
charge begins. The Boss will keep running for a long time to knock you
down and if it does, you suffer about 1/6-1/8 damage. This is NOT
blockable.

(Weapons attacks -- not blockable)

2. Chain-gun attack. The Boss will crouch on one knee, stop, and open up
a chain gun in its chest, proceeding to blast away in a wide arc (looks
quite identical to one P-burst from the chain gun you can carry). If
you're not close to the Boss when he fires, you'll take really low
damage if you get hit at all. If you're in front of him and don't try to
hit him out of the move, you'll probably suffer heavy damage. In
general, just keep your distance and you'll be fine. Not a very
dangerous move, and one you should take full advantage of.

3. Rocket Attack. The Boss will stop, stand straight up and open a panel
in its chest to reveal four small red-tipped rockets. If you don't hit
the Boss out of it with a dash attack etc. it will launch the rockets in
the air one at a time. They will be somewhat guided and then fall to the
ground after a time, one by one.. If they all hit you, you take about
about 50-60% damage (about 1/8+ damage per rocket)

I have nothing against trying to get around to the backs of Boss zombies
(e.g. Area 1, 4) and hitting them while they're vulnerable and can't
fight back. The whole game is basically one or two people alone against
a zombie horde, I'll use any strat I can to defeat Zed :P. The classic
problem is that actually running around to the back of a Boss is rather
tough, at least for me. The Boss pivots to track you as you run, and
will often whack you good with a swipe or whatever before you can circle
it. While this Boss is pretty slow, trying to run around it after it
attacks is still a very risky proposition, especially if you don't have
much life to spare (and I rarely do). If you can run to the back of this
Boss, excellent, hammer away with PPPPP if playing Stick and just watch
out for the temper tantrum shockwave, back off and start pounding again.
If you can't do really do this, like I can't ;), that's where the
Weapons Bag comes in to make life tons easier.

The Weapons Bag you collected will automatically drop to the ground at
the beginning of the Boss fight and out will magically pop the three
weapons you chose earlier, ready for you just when you need em the most.
And you'll need em soon, since the Boss is lumbering towards you.
Fortunately, you and your weapons are a good distance away, so take the
time to pick one up (heavier weapons usually pop up behind you). I would
take the flamethrower or chain gun first. If you have the flamethrower,
it's a piece of cake, flame the Boss at maximum range and watch his
lifebar melt away...just remember that if he does a tantrum attack or
counters, he's near impossible to damage for the time being. The tantrum
attack probably won't reach you, but if the counter attack looks like it
might, flame the Boss good to stop him in his tracks. Do note that the
flamethrower will probably hurt the Boss for less damage than the chain
gun -- about 1/2 damage as opposed to 2/3 damage on the big bad
superzombie -- but also keep in remind that you never have to worry
about missing and reloading.

If you have the chain gun...well...aim at the Boss as best as possible
and wait til he gets pretty close before letting loose with the S-burst.
If it works, he'll be drilled for up to 16 hits and be bumped _way_
back :). The chain gun is the superior keep-away weapon, and does better
damage on the Boss if all the bullets hit, but since it doesn't aim
well, use it with care. Repeat until the weapon is empty, and always
wait until the Boss is "within range" to mow it down with the S-burst.
It doesn't work from too far away.

Generally after using this first heavy weapon, the Boss will be at about
half life, or maybe a bit more, and only rarely will he have had the
chance to even touch you. The flamethrower and chain gun make excellent
keep-away weapons.

Next, I recommend you move on to the machine gun. Sure, it's not nearly
as powerful as the shotgun here, which actually does pretty nice damage
against the Boss, but I recommend you pick the machine gun for three
main reasons: 1) it fires more quickly and you're slowed down a bit less
by it, 2) you can fire 8 bursts of ammo at the Boss vs. 6 shells, and 3)
the machine gun has the all-important lock-on capability. The blue lock-
on sight makes this weapon the most worry-free of all to use against the
Boss. The range is good, and as soon as you have a blue sight, fire an
S-burst. Don't burn all 40 bullets at once (actually get 8 blue sight
locks) and be patient, and the Boss will be further damaged, again
without ever having had a chance to hurt you. The machine gun also does
a decent job at keeping the Boss away.

*****...You know, now that I think about it, I might have been leading
any readers astray :P! Don't forget that there's nothing stopping you
from picking up whatever weapons you want at the secret cave/bunker
room. Now that I think about it, getting a flamethrower, THEN a chain
gun and grenade is also a possible collection combo. In theory the chain
gun will almost certainly finish off the first form of the Boss after
the flamethrower's done its job. So why'd I tell you to get that wimpy
machine gun in the first place when you can play with REAL fire :P?!?

Well, I have a valid defense for not thinking of this earlier ;). Don't
forget, the machine gun locks on. Also note that in the very beginning,
you and the Boss are quite far apart, so you have lots of time to get a
heavy weapon from the Weapons Bag. This is usually no longer be the case
after you finish using your first heavy weapon. Also note the general
rule that as Bosses lose life, their attacks seem to become more
aggressive. Thus, you're at risk of a shoulder charge or even a rocket
attack (particularly bad news since you'll have to run from it at top
speed to avoid it). But whatever. If you've had better luck than me with
using the chain gun first, superb! Get the flamethrower next and burn
that Boss to the ground. But be careful for any incoming attacks...
*****

So hey, things aren't going so bad after all, and you still have the
awesome power of the grenade left! But save it unless you're really
feeling insecure and need to stay in the game. The Boss should now be
near 1/4 life or less. Now all you have to do is bring that down to 0 to
finish the first half of your fight. Not as easy as I would like it to
be without the grenade, though. Try keeping your distance and use aimed
shots. If the Boss does a weapons attack, interrupt it if you can
(physical attacks, possibly a fast volley of blue-sight shots if far
away) and hit the Boss in the back while it's vulnerable. If the Boss
does the charging attack on you, dash away with quick cornering and hope
he doesn't catch you -- although you CAN take advantage of the Boss's
relative stupidity. There's a very big metal wall that serves as a
boundary for this fight, and if you can "steer" the Boss into it, it
will stop the charge and the Boss will be stunned :). Let me know if
there's a better way to avoid the shoulder charge.

When the Boss is almost out of life in its first form, it will drop a
life-up (10-15%). Don't get it yet, though -- the life-up sticks around
a while, and the Boss is just about standing over it. When the Boss is
at 0 life, it will automatically perform one tantrum attack before it
goes into its second form.

The second form is actually a mini-boss which comes out of the Boss
itself! It acts as a mini hatchet monster and also as a mini-scorpion in
terms of its attacks. It's also very, VERY small, too small to possibly
hit with fists. It is somewhat fast and can damage you, but not very
much. This miniature Boss is no threat to you by itself. The problem is
that the original Boss will still be around to attack you freely, and
this makes things difficult.

The trick to putting down this Boss once and for all is to concentrate
on attacking the little zombie/creature Boss, since only it takes any
damage. The bigger Boss is now invincible, although it can be stunned.
Luckily the little Boss is very vulnerable to well-aimed handgun shots
and is weak in general. Still, it won't be easy finding opportunities to
hit the little Boss. This is where the grenade you also hopefully chose
comes in real handy :).

Run over to the grenade and get it as soon as it's safe to. Pick up the
life-up too if you haven't done so yet. Of course, the grenade, being so
light and all, doesn't slow you down a bit, and since only handgun shots
are of any real use at this stage, you can afford to carry the grenade
with you for a while until the time is right. What you're trying to look
for is an occasion where the little Boss is either separated from the
bigger Boss by some distance, the bigger Boss is performing a useless
attack like the chain gun move so it can't really hurt you, or where
you've been able to hit the little Boss while it's flying in the air so
it's now downed for a moment. If you can get a blue-sight lock, chuck
the grenade at the little Boss and hope it hits. You might want to try
and shoot the little Boss once with a quick handgun shot to stun it
first, though, this seems to increase the odds of success. If the
grenade hits this little creature....KABOOOOM! It's lifebar will be
devastated for up to 60-70% damage! A definite, definite help :).

Even if the grenade misses, don't worry too much. The little Boss is
vulnerable whenever the big Boss can't effectively protect it, or if you
can knock the little Boss down mid-air and pelt it with quick-charging
shots. With patience, luck and skill, you will prevail, and this Boss
will be done for good.

Congratulations on surviving yet another tough battle! You're now going
to enter...


-------------------------------------------------------------
Part VIII: The House of the Dead

***After a certain point in this level my game frequently ends just as I
step foot in the door to Da Big Scary House.
The following information after entering the house and up to the second-
to-last boss in Part IX is less reliable, as I've only gotten past the
first room in the house about three times.***

That big red metal wall barrier I mentioned earlier turns out to be a
giant door! Our heroes watch as the walls give way for them to enter,
and so the assault on the House of the Dead begins.

Difficulty: High
Life-ups: 2 (for about 70-100%+ life altogether)
Expect to lose this much life: a lot, 0 up to the Boss if you're
extremely skilled or extremely lucky
You're fine if you leave the Area with: unsure, at least 50% life
Secrets: 3
Combo Opportunities: 1-2, I generally wouldn't think much of big combos
at this point

If you get here, you REALLY deserve a pat on the back! It's difficult
with one player and one credit :P. You won't get much time to control
your surely erratic breathing and racing pulse since the cinema is
rather short (hey -- this game is INTENSE), but things aren't so bad to
start.

As a starting note, all battles up to the actual House of the Dead
(HOTD) will be shown from a vertical camera angle, and you'll begin each
scene facing north and generally having to progress north.

When I finally make it to Area 8, I frequently find my character in
quite a trashed state; very rarely do I actually have anything near half
a lifebar :). And the life-ups are still quite far from reach! Luckily,
the first scene at least is very manageable.

You begin on the road leading to some outer entry gates. You will face
three very weak regular zombies far to the north. Just get rid of them
any way you like, they are absolutely no threat to you. Try and knock
down all three with a charge-up shot, it's fun :). Stand in place and
use your handgun and you'll take no hits. Enter the gate to the north to
enter the next scene, a gated fountain area.

This area is also not too hard if you play it right, although you now
have to deal with up to 5 green (ugh) zombies. Try as much as possible
to take care of them one at a time. The first zombie will hop out of the
fountain in the center to land near you (don't worry, it's programmed
to, don't move til it drops to the left of you and you won't take any
damage). I generally recommend you get rid of it quickly with three
quick-charging red-sight shots, as long as any other green zombies in
the area aren't ready to spit at you (they would be to your north). I
bet that Rikiya will excel in this department. After getting rid of this
zombie, face the one to your north and finish it off if the other three
green zombies haven't yet clambered out of the fountain yet (what _do_
they put in this mansion's water supply...)

Just remember these general rules of thumb. Block any incoming spit
tossed at you, and make frequent use of the dash attack, followed by
quick-charging shots, and then quick basic combos or more dash attacks
to floor the zombies again. After you're all done here (you can usually
clear the room without taking any damage), empty your clip for a fresh
one and leave the gated area through the north gate.

You will then come to a bridge leading to the HOTD. If you played the
HOTD light gun game, this is all starting to look really familiar to you
:). A lone green zombie will be at the far end of the bridge.
Immediately run up close to it to eliminate the distance gap so it
doesn't get the chance to spit at you. Don't worry, it won't attack you
right away. Then plug away its lifebar with those oh-so-great quick-
charging shots. Three or four should do the trick, no knockdowns
required, and you get the job done much faster! Now run back across the
bridge, firing a quick shot off midway...for some reason you'll usually
nail one of the two green zombies who have since shown up from the back.
This is a good thing because the zombies often feel like spitting at
you, and one of em won't for a while now that you've stunned it. Finish
running across the bridge and deal with the two green zombies, it isn't
too difficult with all you've learned so far. You stand a very good
chance of making it through this area unscathed, too.

Congratulations. You've played it smart and conserved your lifebar up to
this point. It's just too bad that it's hard to have a lot of life
coming into this Area, because things get more difficult in the next two
scenes.

Now that you've beaten the zombies in the bridge scene, head over the
bridge and up the stairs to the north to enter the next scene, but watch
for the frogs bouncing across your path, shoot them or run while there's
a gap to avoid taking damage.

Now you face four zombies, and they're ALL PACKING SHOTGUNS!!! Now this
is a more frightening scenario than even the 5 hatchet zombies of Area
4, or the green zombie barrage of Area 7, and possibly even the tough
zombie room in Area 6. Don't panic, it's manageable with practice. The
camera will swoop in on the two armed zombies at the top of the stairs
that look like they're just about ready to floor you. They're really not
(yet), it's just for show. These are your first targets. Dash attack
them down quickly and THEN try to damage them with quick-charge shots or
combos, whatever's faster, as quickly as possible before the two armed
zombies at the bottom of the stairs move within firing range. Don't
immediately panic, the shotgun zombies, like you, cannot aim
upwards...but be wary of the shotgun's wide area effect. Also remember,
if they DO stop and aim, it means they've got a lock on ya. I suggest
that you now turn your attention to disarming them before they put a
very quick end to your game. I wouldn't pick up any shotguns if I could
help it due to the slowdown factor and again, the unreliable damage it
does. While you have averted the shotgun threat temporarily, the zombies
will inevitably rise and re-arm. This now becomes an exercise in precise
dash-attacking and very quick attacks to try and eliminate the zombies
while preventing the others from either shooting you or crowding you
(careful, these guys can combo attack). Luckily, these zombies don't
have that much life, and 2 of them don't have much life at all.

Man, that was a lot of work just battling your way to the front door!
But there are still 2 waves of enemies between you and the nearest life
restoration pickup...

Follow the arrows north and you'll now find yourself in the HOTD. It's
interestingly brightly lit as opposed the outside, but don't waste any
time trying to warm up and dry off. Two hatchet zombies will come down
from the chandelier above and attack, and lucky for you, the last two.
But there's also two fast-hitting zombies who will soon converge on you
from behind.

I have absolutely no doubt that if you had a full lifebar coming into
this room that you would survive. You can burn a few Clear Out Attacks
to even the odds ;) The problem here, as I've said many times before
like a broken record (sorry :)), is that from Area 6 to here, you have
to make do with one life-up and scads of dangerous enemies who eat away
at your lifebar. That said, you're almost to the legendary life-
restoring elixir, if you can just get past this and the next wave of
enemies.

This room lends itself to potential starting strategies that I haven't
been able to practice. But I can tell you that the first thing you see
when you finish the transitional cinema is a hatchet zombie right in
front of you, with you locked right on to it. So you have the choice to
get a free hit, which is important. The problem is the lifebars of all
four enemies are sky-high. If you try to basic combo, the punches might
go over the hatchet zombie's head. If you try to shoot it down with
quick-charging shots, the two zombies from close behind will get you. If
you try to run around, the other hatchet zombie will soon fall from the
chandelier and give chase. In any case, you must somehow dispatch four
durable and fast-moving opponents. Any advice I can give is theoretical
at best, but make getting rid of the hatchet zombies a first priority
...the two regular zombies are much less dangerous. If you do have about
40-50% life, I might try a Clear Out Attack once the two zombies from
behind get into range, so that 3 of the 4 zombies will be temporarily
floored. Keep moving as best you can in the somewhat tight space, and
knock down the two regular zombies if it's safe so you can work on the
hatchet zombies.

Should you make it past this stage, head on over to the left by the
staircase (knock over any statues if you wish). You will now be facing
three bats at the top of the stairs, but they're a piece of cake --
three quick shots standing in place should drop them all. After this,
though, DON'T head up the stairs! Instead, face leftwards and press G, P
or S near the wall with the picture frame to kick open a secret
passage!!

Once inside you'll find two spiked walls slowly closing in, a host of
brown zombies (but different looking and weaker), and at the far end of
the cavern, the coveted Elixir!!! Get to that Elixir by dash attacking
down or very quickly getting rid of the zombies in your way. Don't just
run at the Elixir, a zombie might hit you on the way. Get the elixir
(blue bottle) by climbing up the platform. Success! But now you have to
get out, and worse yet, even more brown zombies have sprung up. Deal
with them quickly (I recommend handgun shots and PPS), avoid the spikes
that are closing in as best as possible (they damage you for about 1/6),
and finish off all the zombies so that you can leave the room.

If you've made it all this way and now have the Elixir in your grasp,
Bravo! You've earned an effective free play, since you'll be brought
back to full health if your lifebar runs out. Now head up the stairs.

You will soon face four armed zombies once again, but these are the
familiar, non-comboing red coat zombies. Knock down the three in the
back of the room (due north) with dash attacks quickly before they
utterly waste you, and then turn your attention to getting rid of the
armed zombie behind you if you can. Then pick up a machine gun and rip
those zombies to shreds. You should make it through unhurt.

Head into the narrow corridor for the next scene, replete with flaming
torches for lighting. The wall (or is it a gate?) will slam behind you
and you must now face a new enemy, the laser zombies. Strangely enough,
they're not that dangerous at all! They can fire a guided laser attached
to their arm (can't be knocked off) that hits for 1/7ish damage (don't
know if this is blockable), or stab at you with the gun attachment
itself (blockable), but to compensate, they act very slowly. They also
start with kinda low life. Take advantage of this to run in there and
raise some hell (or, un-raise the undead, whatever :P), it's actually
very effective since the laser zombies attack so slowly. Charge-up shots
also work well to knock these zombies down. Just take care to knock down
any of the six zombies here that are readying to fire the guided laser
or stab at you and you should be just fine. When I was playing my best
game (in score and progress -- can't play anymore, sniff :P), I had the
elixir and about maybe 7% life left, and I made it through with the 7%
life left. Although I was largely running on nerves, I still think this
room isn't too hard.

Next up for you is the Burning Boss, who you must face in a kinda narrow
corridor.

BOSS: Burning Monster -- easy...usually...

Attacks: exactly the same as the Scrapyard Monster, basically, except
there's the addition of flame to these attacks. I don't know what damage
any of these attacks do since I've been lucky enough never to get hit.

This Boss is VERY slow, and very very vulnerable to handgun shots,
especially aimed ones. Unfortunately you can't quite gun it down before
it reaches you. Since the Boss is quite slow, I would try to run around
it when it attacks (you might want to try blocking the attack first),
and pounding it in the back until it's finished. Or heck, if you have
life to spare, block one of its attacks and run all the way to the other
side of the room to shoot it down, that might work just as well too!
Just watch for any tantrum attacks.

The Boss also makes good combo fodder as it takes a long time to fall
after you defeat it. The barrier gate to the north will now lift and you
will now have to face a lot of laser zombies spaced out in a large
corridor. Breezy. Again, take full advantage of their lack of quickness,
and Dash past them all (easy), to enter a secret room on the northeast
end of the hall. Don't engage em in combat just yet.

Once you enter the door, defeat the two weak zombies in there (not a
problem),  and hit the dresser? repeatedly to make a life-up (10-20%
life) fall from the top. Then hit the cabinet to pick from one from an
array of weapons. I'd get the grenade. If for some reason you can't find
things around here, toss clear out attacks like crazy (they're free
unless zombies are in the way) if you have enough life to execute them
(AFTER the zombies have disappeared) and you'll make the items fall out
sure enough.

After you leave the secret room, use the grenade as you wish to thin the
ranks of the laser zombies. Dealing with them from here is a snap, hit
them with charged shots from afar, and rush in up close. You shouldn't
take much damage, and it will be a GREAT help to you if you don't have
to use the elixir up to this point.

Yeah, whatever, you might say. My lifebar is still pretty low, and now I
have to face the Boss, it doesn't matter, does it? Actually it kinda
does. To the left wall of the door you enter to face the next Boss are
two pillars. Tucked in between is a secret crate that holds a life-
up...the special kind that fills 50-100% of your lifebar (recall Area
5)! You probably won't have a chance to get it until you clear the
scene of zombies, though. Shooting the crate is a bit tricky, but you
should get the life up after a few tries. Your lifebar will now be
restored to 60-100% right before the Boss fight, a very handy and a very
welcome reward. That's why you save the Elixir!!!

Head through the doors to face the largest Boss ever!

BOSS: Giant -- not so easy, not so easy at all...

The head of this monster will remind you somewhat of the Area 6
Boss...but don't look into that tidbit too much :P This sucker doesn't
have many moves to anticipate, but they all do BIG damage. And did I
mention this Boss is huge? It's so big you only fight its upper body...

Attacks:

Physical -- both blockable

1. Pancake Hand Sweeper. The giant Boss will use his right hand (always)
(it appears from your view as his "left" hand) to swipe you or squash
you flat. If you don't block (and properly), say goodbye to 1/2 of your
lifebar.

2. Grab. The Boss will use his right hand once again to try and grab
you. If it does, you're slammed around like a rag doll, and there's
nothing you can do about it. I'd say this move would just about finish
you off in any circumstance, I've never been hit by it (lucky me) but I
have seen the Boss slam the stuffing out of a grabbed zombie and I'll
tell you, it's not funny...well it is to see the zombie get punished
instead :P.

Projectile -- unblockable

1. Laser Eye. The Boss will spend a very long time charging up (the head
even smokes :)), and then fire a searing laser blast from its eye that
tracks, but for a much longer period and duration than the Area 6's
Boss's Laser. Lucky for you it doesn't track as fast. Does unspeakable
damage and multiple hits if it connects, but it probably won't finish
you in one shot. The double-laser variety, however, probably will finish
you if you're hit, no matter what. The double laser occurs after the
Boss has been significantly damaged. Not much changes except the power
and possibly the tracking duration of the laser.

Facing the Boss by itself is surprisingly easy, actually. You can shoot
any one of three targets on its body (head or either of two hands, but I
think shooting the head does the most damage), and the Boss's attacks
some very slowly with long build-ups. Blocking the physical attacks
actually don't cost you much life at all, maybe because blocking is a
mandatory thing this time (you could run from the Area 6 Boss's head
butt, but you can't run from the swipe and grab here, at least to my
knowledge). For some reason, though, your best bet with blocking the
physical attacks is to run over to the far right side of the playing
field (I think there's a stack of wood there), then block facing
leftwards before the hand comes down. You'll never be hurt this way, but
according to BLui you will get clobbered if you're anywhere other than
at the far right of the screen...

The laser blast is also not hard to deal with. Once you figure out how
long the laser takes to charge, it's easy to run from -- make sure
you're either on the extreme left or right end of the screen and run
straight to the opposite end once the laser fires and it will miss. I
don't recommend just standing around before the laser fires, instead
walk around some so you can be ready to dash (see Area 6 Boss strat).

Unfortunately, there's the complicating factor of two regular helper
zombies who will keep coming even if you take them out or the Boss does
;). Just dash-attack them down when they get close if it's safe. If they
manage to get in your way, you're at risk of being utterly beat up, but
that's where the elixir comes in to save the day :)

Concentrate fire, I'd say on the Boss's head if you can, after each
attack finishes. The Boss takes a long time to attack, and just ignore
the shaking and growling it does while you're hitting it. You can even
punch it in the face, but it's not always possible. Just be ready to
react once you see the start-up signs (try to watch for the Boss just
staring and following you to be ready).

Should you succeed, the Boss will die a dramatic death, and you're
headed for the final stage...


-------------------------------------------------------------
Part IX: The Dawn

(cinema info unavailable)

Difficulty: High
Life-ups: 2, both from Bosses (don't know what % life-up)
Expect to lose this much life: who knows?
You're fine if: you win the game :)
Secrets: 0
Combo Opportunities: 0

Welp, you're finally here at the very last Area of ZR. Deep within the
inner sanctum of the headquarters of evil, you will face "the man with
the golden eyes" in a fight to the death. It won't be easy, but should
you defeat Zed in his two forms, the world is saved...

Unfortunately this walkthrough will not tell you how to defeat Zed,
since this humble author has never made it to him yet! Arrggh! But
please do read BLui's and R-Jay's FAQs on the GameFAQs site for good in-
depth strategies and information.

I'm not sure how exactly you get to this Area, but your player and two
companions are suddenly transported across time and space or something
like that in some really trippy and really cool looking graphical
effects. Next thing you know, you are headed downward on a elevator-type
platform, and must next battle a total of 8 laser zombies! It's actually
more like fighting 4 at a time...as you defeat one, a fresh laser zombie
will take its place.

The battle isn't quite as easy as last time in the more confined
corridors of Area 8, since the laser zombies will surround you, starting
off at each corner of the platform. But the one time I was at this Area
and fought them off, I'd only been hit once for about 1/7 damage. The
trick at the very beginning is to not worry too much about the other
laser zombies and to basically hit up the zombie nearest you until the
other 3 are pretty close. It's then a matter of very quick combo sets,
shots and dash attacks when they prepare to attack you (maybe even
incomplete combos in the case of Stick -- e.g. use PPP instead of PPS).
Just remember the laser zombies are pretty slow to the attack. The fight
is tough since the zombies have high lifebars, but your real opponent is
the clock.

All in all, though, you just have to be very quick on your feet, and
don't try to run from the zombies. Stand and deliver. Even then, though,
don't feel you need to do a whole bunch of damage to one zombie before
focusing on another. I did a lot of my fighting with Stick with a quick
shot here, a dash attack there, a 2-hit PP on one laser zombie, a PPP on
another, and even when pecking away like this (probably not the best
method) with almost no full basic combos, I still had enough time left
to head off to the next scene. With patience and a watchful eye you'll
vanquish all 8 laser zombies. Remember, they're not nearly as bad as the
green zombies, except for their funky yellow-stream guided curving laser
thingy (which doesn't hurt too much anyway).

You now head to what appears to be an dark abyss of empty space. But
it's not entirely, actually; paths and platforms made up of shiny
lighted white cubes will rise for you to face your first Boss, your old
friend the Electric Predator.

BOSS: Electric Predator, Take 2 -- easy, so very easy...

Attacks: Same as Area 3 Electric Predator, except now the electricity
bolts are greenish....oooooooooooooooooo

If you've gotten this far the Electric Predator is a complete piece of
cake. The Boss's attacks are still all blockable, it doesn't move any
faster, I don't think it does ANYTHING differently. As long as you can
still withstand a few ticks of block damage, you should be able to
breeze past this guy. The only difference this time is a smaller area
with which to fight. Don't worry, you can't fall off the floating
platforms.

Just deal with this Boss the exact same way as you did in Area 3, since
this Boss is exactly the same, and you'll be just fine.


BOSS: Mechanical Monster, Take 2 (in the second form) -- very hard

Attacks: Same as Area 7

This battle is nail-grindingly annoying because the Boss is in its
second form. True, all you have to do is shoot down the little Boss to
win, but this time the platform you have to work with is really small,
much smaller than the previous Boss platform. And the big Boss is still
invincible as usual.

This makes the Boss much more dangerous since you can't run around as
well to avoid its attacks. The shoulder charge is probably almost
impossible to avoid (maybe you can roll out of the way, I don't know, I
didn't make it past this Boss even with 60% life), and don't even think
about running from the rocket attack if the Boss fires em off into the
air, hit the Boss out of it ASAP!. Should you be able to defeat the
Boss, according to BLui's FAQ, hit the big Boss several times after it's
finished off and before it falls to make it drop a very crucial life-up.
After this, it's on to Zed at last.

***But since ZR isn't at the arcade I'll never be able to GET to Zed!!

*sniff*

***

END BOSS: Zed (two forms) -- probably even harder

I can't tell you much of anything about his attacks, moves or
difficulty, only what I've seen from other people who used continues to
reach him. Lots and lots of continues. He is by all accounts very fast,
durable, and all-around tough even in his first form. Luckily many of
his attacks don't do too much damage, but the problem is that Zed can
fly and swoop with impunity, and also that Zed just has so many attack
options available to him -- he can blast you with lasers from above, use
a flaming hand, teleport at will, and even use his handgun! And I don't
think I've identified his full repertoire. Many of his attacks are also
unblockable.

Should you beat his first persona, Zed will collapse, and ask our heroes
"Why do you still want to live?" before transforming into the mighty God
of Destruction (looks kinda like Magician from HOTD). The second fight
gets even tougher. The former Zed now gains more attacks, gets speed
enhancements on his old ones, and according to what card you chose at
the Area 2 computer terminals, a custom set of attacks if you beat him
up enough. All the while the background is absolutely psychedelic.
You'll have to see it to believe it.

Needless to say, since you've gotta face a superfast flying final boss,
the handgun is absolutely critical to success. Follow the advice BLui
and R-Jay have for you and you just might win the day for the side of
good. Zed will drop bullets and a life-up during the battle, and these
items will be invaluable to you.
----------------------------------------
Should you defeat the fearsome God of Destruction, you will find our
heroes standing (or sitting, can't remember which) in an open field
after their victory, deep in thought. Stick will start to wonder about
his scientist father...but just then, the AMS helicopter comes to take
our heroes away, perhaps for more adventures ahead.

For the ending, you will now see all of the rooms from ZR in reverse
order starting from the last level while the credits roll, except now
things are rather lighter and brighter since the zombie threat has been
averted...for now. You'll finally revisit the room where you saved the
girl, and she's still waiting there several hours after you saved her!
Why? She's waiting for her money promised from Zed for giving you the
disk! Oops, she might not get her check in the mail for quite some
time... :P and so the game draws to a close.

VII. Helpful Hints, Closing Thoughts, Mysteries of the Game, and Other
Stuff

I apologize for not having a more complete FAQ, but the game's really
really hard to beat with just one credit :). It's a very challenging,
but also very fun game. With practice you'll find you can go for 20-30
minutes on a single credit, even on an average day...and that's a LOT of
3D gaming goodness for your money! Spread the joy of ZR to everyone :)
if you have the game or know of a ZR arcade game nearby, you never know
how long the somewhat less popular games are gonna stick around... Just
schedule things around your games :P. Keep experimenting as you go on,
implement effective strategies to get you through each scene in the best
possible conditions, and always be thinking about new techniques and
battle strats...

Here's a whole bunch of thoughts from me that you may or may not find
useful, they're kinda disorganized but hey, they're fresh theories you
might want to try out (many of which I haven't tried myself)...

Area 1 - no insights really; but with the technique I mentioned in the
Area 2 small room, you might be able to make a significant combo out of
the 2 baseball caps zombies you find in the stage.

Area 2 - Remember, you don't have to wade into a bunch of zombies in the
alleyway with the Pipe, as I always do (though you should always pick up
the Pipe to quickly polish off the machine gun zombie that falls down
behind you). You can choose to play it safe and fire at the zombie crowd
from a distance with the machine gun, just watch out for the other
machine gun zombie holder.

Area 3 - Ah, purple spit zombies. They won't be too much trouble here,
but they will be in later areas. Do note that zombie spit always tends
to fly and connect rather high. Is it possible you could roll to make
the purple spit fly over you without harm?

Also note how if you're playing Rikiya, you have distinct advantages in
this level. Where many occasions call for two shots with Stick and
Linda, Rikiya players may only need one due to higher handgun damage.
This translates to FANTASTIC quick-charging red-sight shot damage and
lots of opportunities for dealing quick and heavy damage to zombies.

There may be uses for Rikiya's charged-up physical attack (the purplish
close-range energy field) that I don't know about. You could possibly
try it on the secret room with the five zombies in this Area. Clear Out
on them, and then collect your energy and see if you can hit em with the
energy blaze while they're down (don't bring in a weapon). Heck, you
never know what might happen :). But try it at your own risk!

Area 4 - Might the Roll work to duck under the claw swipes of the Boss?
The swipe looks kinda low, but you never know...

Area 5 - If you can find you can roll under the light posts in the
tunnel without getting hit, you might want to try using Rolls against
the Boss at the end when it swoops at you. The timing may be difficult,
but you might be able to avoid block damage, especially when the Boss
does the long-distance dive that frequently hits for two hits of block
damage.

Area 6 - Remember the big room of gloom n' doom right before the Boss?
There may be more ways to get through it safely than I've thought of.
No, this doesn't mean getting the cannon shot :P. For example, might a
Rikiya player be better off firing a quick-charged red-sight shot on the
hatchet zombie I as a Stick player would dash attack instead? The
hatchet zombie does have rather low life, and getting rid of it would be
an immense help...

Also, is getting the grenade and then tossing it right away the best
idea in this scene? It usually works fine, but what if you disregard
everything I said and ran well around the zombie horde in this scene
(don't hit any zombies, just head south then east or straight for the
grenade box), and just hit the grenade crate right away? Given you can
usually run around the zombie bunch, could you then either 1) run away
without the grenade and make the zombies follow you so you could pick it
up later or 2) try to pick up the grenade, but then run around the
zombies until you can find a good time to toss it? Running around with
the grenade and waiting for the right time to use it might not be a bad
idea at all if you can avoid the hatchet zombies and armed zombies...

And bringing up the Roll once again...could you use it to avoid
headbutts from the Boss just before it hits you to avoid taking block
damage?

Area 7 - I noted above that once you run around the green zombie wave at
the beginning so that all the zombies are north of you, dash attacking
them all down seems really tough. This might be because some of the
three zombies are not "hittable" yet (true, one did spit at you though).
If you find it very hard to hit some of the green zombies in this first
wave, maybe you should try to see if certain zombies are immediately
hittable and if others are not. This will help you to prioritize which
zombies to go for and possibly minimize damage taken in this scene.

Invoking the Roll yet again for the Boss: could you Roll away in a
certain direction to avoid its shoulder charge?

Area 8 - When you reach the staircase with the 2 shotgun zombies up top
and the 2 at the bottom, do you necessarily have to keep switching your
attention between those at the top of the stairs and those at the
bottom? Or, could you disarm them all, then run down to the bottom of
the staircase and deal with them all from the bottom? Remember that your
handgun can aim upwards and downwards and their shotguns can't, and also
that there's a considerable height difference from the bottom to the top
of the staircase.

When you meet the laser zombies, note that their long streaming semi-
guided curving laser blast things hit rather high. If you can't block
these blasts, can you roll under them?

The same goes for the Giant Boss at the end. Are there alternatives to
just blocking all the time? And could you possibly roll under the laser
at the last minute if you're in a pinch?

Area 9 - Yep, here comes more droning speeches about the Roll...but in
the End Boss strats that BLui and R-Jay have, they mention that rolling
may be absolutely essential to effectively dealing with Zed's swoops,
even the big ones. Also, I've heard (and actually seen) that when you
pick the blue card at Area 2's computer terminal, the attacks of the God
of Destruction do seem relatively the same after he gains the "powers"
of the card, and are thus easier to deal with. Maybe picking a card
chooses the Boss's difficulty and changes the ending...but heck, if
you're just trying to pass the game for the first time, why NOT pick the
card that translates into an easier Boss fight?

Other random thoughts and mysteries --

Which Stick, I've been able to occasionally pull off a PPPP string
followed immediately by a roll. Is this repeatable? Might this be
useful?

You can cancel out of a roll anytime into a Clear Out Attack.

Some of the strats I listed here can also be used by Linda and Rikiya
players. Machine gunning zombie combos are equally easy since all
characters handle special weapons the same. You can beat the Area 1 Boss
the same with Linda and Rikiya, I've tried it myself. You can use the
Pipe with either Linda or Rikiya in Area 2 with the same results as
Stick. General gunplay is the same for all three characters, and every
character can use the quick-charging shot tactic to great effect.

Note that if you're interested in high scores, the scoring system seems
to be a bit different than most. Actually defeating a zombie, or even a
Boss, doesn't seem to net you any points. In any case, you're gonna get
your best scores from the actual hits and combos you do, because that's
were most of the points are to be gained.



Also, don't forget to ask yourself "Are there any secrets I haven't
found yet?" Every life-up you can find is critical to success at ZR.
Once you get used to the game, I guarantee you'll be having fun and
coming back for more. Just make sure you keep your social/academic/other
important aspects of life in harmony and balance :)

VIII. Credits

Again, thanks to BLui for providing much of the inspiration to write
this FAQ of Zombie Revenge in the first place. Thanks also for R-Jay for
the great End Boss Strategy that I can't use right now since ZR is gone
:)

Thanks also to Entity, resident fighting game guru on the block, and the
guy who reaffirms the hardcore gamer's credo; if your one credit's up,
start over! Never continue! (Hey! My side, my bonuses! No! You hog! My
x20! MY x20! ARGH! NO!! MY EGGS! MYYY EGGSSSS!!!) ...bah, I always
covered for you in Area 51 anyway :P.

That's it for the FAQ! Thanks for reading it!
--Mav

***END***