I have spent most of my weekend slaughtering thousands of systems corp mercenaries in the just released "Thing-Thing 4." I have almost completed the entire game, all that I need to do to finish is get 5000 kills (just a matter of time, lots of time) and beat hard mode (not that hard, I've just been putting it off). I thought that I would make a topic with useful hints and tips that I have discovered. These are in no particular order.
Making melee kills easier: Normally, with your lead pipe, it takes 6-8 hits to take down an enemy. This makes it extremely hard to get the 500 melee kills that you need to get the sword and complete the game. In order to make melee kills easier, you need to weaken the enemy with a gun before you hit him with your pipe. I found that most weapons in the game either do a crapload of damage, or fire really fast. You need to use a weapon that fires reasonably fast, and does a lot of damage without killing the enemy. The best weapon for this, that I have found, is the Viper .44 Magnum. Always carry one while trying to get melee kills. You shoot the enemy once in the head, then bash him 2-3 times with the pipe. It's that simple.
Preparing for hard mode: The biggest differences that I noticed in hard mode are these: enemies have more health (or your weapons do less damage), and you regenerate faster. This means that you need something that can hit enemies hard and fast. After you beat easy mode, you unlock the armory, which can be accessed through the level select. Make sure to pay it a trip. The first thing that you should reach for is the Hades Rifle. This is very useful in early levels and levels like the zombie/bean chambers, since it passes through multiple enemies, killing almost everything in it's path. The hades rifle isn't the best thing for some situations though, due to it's slow fire rate. In hard mode, shotguns are your friends! The do enormous amounts of damage and have a pretty good to spectacular fire rate. The only disadvantage is the lackof amo, which can be bypassed by using the armory. As soon as you encounter the white and black enemies, you are going to want to get the brain driller. It instakills anything (I haven't tested it on a boss... yet). I'll be sure to post more on this when I beat hard mode (I'm just a couple levels away).
Picking your special weapons: You will see red lights in various levels. If you are smart you will shoot them. Somewhere in the level, a door will open. You need to get a keycard that is somewhere in the unlocked area. Use it to open another door somewhere else in the same area. Behind the second door there will be three weapons. The game is very hard to beat without using these. This applies to easy mode only, since you can find everything in the armory after you beat it. The first selection of weapons that you unlock is this: The HK 91, a powerful rifle with a good fire rate. Take it. A grenade launcher. Low fire rate, low ammo, but extremely powerful damage-wise. Leave it. A Benelli 12-Gauge Shotgun. High ammo, high damage, and a good fire rate. Take it. The second time you unlock the special weapons, you will be presented with: A Gauss Shotgun. One of the most powerful weapons in the game. You will need it to kill the boss. Take it, but use it sparingly! The Laser Cannon. Acts much like a gauss weapon, but it is far more powerful. I found it useful when killing zombies. Take it. The HK 21. You have already seen this weapon from after you beat the first boss. It is just like the HK 91 except it has a much better fire rate. Leave it. Next, you will be able to choose between three more weapons. You need to keep your Gauss Shotgun, so only take one. The Brain Driller. The most powerful weapon in the game, it intakills anything. This one has a very small amount of ammo, so leave it. The Pancor Jackhammer. An automatic shotgun. Pretty powerful, but not the weapon you need for the upcoming levels. Tha Desert Eagle. The second magnum weapon in the game, a headshot will instakill a standard enemy in normal mode. It has an acceptable fire rate and a good amount of ammo. Take it.
Unlockable weapons: Doing certain things in the game will get you unlockable weapons. Some of the ones listed in the above section are only available in the "secret spots." Those would be the Desert Eagle, Laser Cannon, Gauss Shotgun, HK 21, and Brain Driller. Another kind-of-unlockable weapon is the "Universal Bean Cannon," which you can get by waiting for the second door to open in a certain level instead of going into the "reanimation chamber." Another unlockable is the sword, which replaces your lead pipe after you get 500 melee kills. I looks pretty sweet
Another unlockable is the Hades rifle, which is only available after you kill Hades. From then on you can get it form the armory. The last unlockable is the N.U.K.E. I haven't gotten this weapon, but I have seen pictures of it in the high scores lists. You get it after you complete all of the "goals" in the game. You can see what these are by clicking "options" then "game stats."
The last level: After you see the cutscene with the room with the TVs, just let yourself die. There is no point in fighting, you can no longer regenerate your hp. The game will end and you will win. It is a little reminiscent of the first SHIFT game.
i can't kill hades on hard. even if i jump and use gause shotgun because he kills me in the air. also i have 3000 kills now and almost half of them are melee. your walkthrough was really helpful by the way.
how can u kill all of the enemies and hades at the same time because if u focus on only hades the other people will kill you. i walked into hades and i dies she tranforms on top of me and doesn't move so when i try to move out i touch the blade and die but if i stay in then he shoots me. wtf!
Or, like Ubertuna said, use the Gauss Shotgun at point blank range over and over and keep avoiding the soldiers by jumping and double jumping.
Here are some tips I THINK might work for the more advanced weapons and the other weapons you unlock.
1. Gauss Shotgun- Always shoot this weapon at point blank range, Its powerful, but very random. Shots can vary from being almost as thin as a single shot, or being as spread out as a fan. 2. Laser Cannon- This weapon is very powerful, but it can be hard to use; I have noticed that you have to be on the ground for a small amout of time before you can make the shot count, otherwise it would just miss as if you fired it from the air, so It's pretty useless to jump around and shoot with this thing. 3. Brain Drill- The most powerful weapon in the game aside from the Nuke, but its not the best weapon if your stuck in a room(or elevator) with Systems Corp. troops swarming you and taking turns to shoot, so it is best to use this weapon early on, where there arent too many enemies, or where there is enough room to make a clear shot. 4. Universal Bean Pistol- This weapon is pretty much effective oonly against beans, because it acts a very weak grenade launcher and can kill many of them at a time(but so can lots of other weapons); But if it is used with a soldier, you will be wasting time and ammo with the five(or more) shots it will take to kill them, so it isn't recommended to use this outside of the bean room. 5. Hades Rifle- The only weapon I know that retained its one-shot kill on normal mercs ability from the normal mode to the hard mode; It's an all-around good weapon with its firing rate as its only downside. This weapon should be a mainstay, because it uses .308 win ammo(which it somehow turns into flechette ammo) and dosen't have it's own kind of ammo like all of the other special weapons, so it should be good for the whole game.
I havent unlocked the nuke yet, so I dont know what it does.
@AjWolf You don't have to get the nuke. When it says "get all weapons" it means all weapons except the nuke. I also heard something about a weapon called the PHAZR, but I'm not sure what it is. Also, ignore the soldiers, focus on hades and hades only. You have to double jump to avoid his claw arm.
I'm not sure, but I guess this is really helpful for the time being and I guess it deserved to be a sticky for now. Either that or this is just some mistake or something.
yes i finally beat the game on hard now i just need 2,000 more kills and a couple more weapons and the nuke is mine. and does it only count as a weapon u collected if u pick it up or do u only have to kill an enemy with it or something because i can't unlock all guns it says on the stats page. thanks for the help man!
I asked Asherlee to sticky it because it had an enormous view count but very few posts. Since a lot of peolple are finding it helpful, and it's a pretty comprehensive walkthrough, I thought that it should be stickied so that it wouldn't fall off of the front page and die. Also, AJWolf, are you at 3,000 kills or 8,000 kills?
You need 10,000. Remember when you got 1,000? The 5,000 kill goal didn't appear until after you got 1,000. As soon as you get 5,000 kills the 10,000 kill goal will appear.
well that sucks because i completed everything but the 5,000 goal and right now i am at 4,400. yes in 20 minutes i did go to the bean chamber and have some fun(killed 1,400 beans lol). thier better not be another goal after the 10,000 kill objective because i really want to try the nuke. the bad thing is, that there looks like there is enough room for more objectives to be added, but i don't know for sure.