Resident Evil Revelations: Strategy Guide for Achievement Hunters: Resident Evil Revelations

This guide is intended for achievement hunters, but the first sections will likely have some points of interest for anyone that wants to play the game well. It is a strategy guide more than a “how to” guide.

It is the goal of this guide to give you a set of specific pre-planned runs which when completed will complete the campaign Steam Achievements and a summary strategy for Raid Mode which can be followed by most players to complete the more difficulty Raid Mode Steam Achievements.. In general it assumes you are competent at playing the game and that your skills with the game will increase as you play the game. It provides a list of Achievements you should be working on during each portion of the strategy and the guide is staged such that tools you will need to complete a portion will be unlocked in previous portions of the guide.

The guide does not provide the quickest nor the easiest way to complete all of the challenges, rather it intends to give a clear path for a player of any skill level to complete all of the challenges while attempting to keep the game entertaining and challenging. A lot of the information in the guide would be considered spoilers as it doesn’t appear in any of the in-game instructions, nor the official CAPCOM game manual. However, it is not the intent of this guide to give away “secrets” nor to remove any of the challenge of the game.

This guide is not a “how to” guide, it is meant to help seasoned players understand how the Steam Achievements are built into the game and provide basic direction on how to build the characters, equipment, and player skills necessary to complete those achievements with only limited detailed instructions – leaving you to experience the pride in completing the game and beating the achievement challenges.

At the end of the guide a few sections are added with information specific to a few of the challenges simply to make sure that if you get stuck you have a handy reference to follow.

Resident Evil Revelations is essentially two games. The entire Storyline is contained in the standard Campaign Mode and progress in the Campaign unlocks various stages of the Raid Mode game. Raid mode does not contain any of the Storyline, and is a “Third Person Shooter” while the Campaign is a “Survival Horror” game.

If you are familiar with previous Resident Evil games, this split between a story rich Campaign and an “after game” 3rd person shooter will not be unfamiliar. However, in previous games the “after game modes” have not been as deep nor as elaborate as those provided by Raid Mode in this game. In addition fully 1/2 of the Steam Achievements for this title are for challenges in Raid Mode.

A player reasonably skilled with modern 3rd person controls and reasonably familiar with the previous Resident Evil games (including the HD Remastered versions) should expect anywhere from 20 to 30 hours of game play to complete a thorough run of the campaign and no more than 50 hours to complete the campaign Steam Achievements.

By contrast, the same player should expect 150+ hours to complete the Raid Mode Steam Achievements – if they run the Raid Mode fully in cooperative dual player mode with a similarly skilled friend also new to the game. If you attempt to complete all of the Raid Mode achievements in solo play (except the one which requires cooperative play), you should easily expect 300+ hours of play in Raid Mode.

You need to understand this time commitment in order to make an informed decision up front on whether or not you really want to obtain full 100% Achievement status for the game and how much commitment you have to Raid Mode.

The ultimate goal of playing Resident Evil Revelations is to fully enjoy this truly classic and great entry in the Resident Evil franchise. To get the full experience of the game you will need to complete the campaign Storyline at least a couple of times and spend some time with the Raid Mode between the runs to fully understand the creatures you come into direct conflict with.

Our general strategy to get the most out of the game includes four phases of game play.

• Normal Campaign – A deep dive fully engrossed play through of the Campaign.
• Normal Campaign – A guided pass of the campaign with the goal of completing treasure hunts and challenges
• Raid Mode – This can be anything from a cursory exploration of unlocked “Chasm” stages for a few hours to full completion of the raid mode achievements after hundreds of hours of game play.
• Infernal Campaign – A final playthrough of the campaign

If you are simply interested in experiencing the Storyline and understanding how it fits with the over all Resident Evil story arch and the characters Jill and Chris, then all you really need to do is play through the game once. We suggest you use “Normal” difficulty as the game was initially designed to be experienced in this way and while there will be some challenge, this is not the most challenging game in the series.

If you wish to complete the Steam Achievements for the campaign portion of the game, you will likely need at least two passes, one on Normal difficulty so that you can fully explore the game and gear up for a second pass on Infernal Difficulty. However, we suggest to plan for a 2nd Normal difficulty in addition so that you are free to experience the game fully in your first run without the clutter and time consumed by worrying about various treasure hunt achievements which will likely require referencing detailed guides.

We also suggest spending at least enough time with Raid Mode to make it through the 20 stages of Chasm difficulty which will be unlocked by your first playthrough of the Campaign (you will also unlock the Bonus “Ghost Ship” stage – but it will be hundreds of hours before your character can make any use of that bonus stage). Raid Mode will help you confirm your tactical approaches to various foes and situations in the campaign and fine tune your game play skills to prepare you for a campaign run on Infernal Difficulty.

Raid Mode REQUIRES a non trivial amount of repetitive play and FARMING for gear to adequately progress very far, which can lead to frustration with the game overall and leave you with a bad overall impression of the game, so tailor your Raid Mode to meet how much you enjoy the 3rd person shooter game play. Stop when you feel you are no longer getting enjoyment out of it.

We have broken this guide down into two sections – the first covering Campaign mode and the second section covering Raid Mode.

While both campaign and raid mode play with the same controls and are generally the same game environment, there are some significant differences in basic game mechanics between the two modes. We will first describe the mechanics that are common to both, and then go into more detail about each mode.

Controls
Resident Evil Revelations uses common modern 3rd person game controls. If you are using a game controller, the left stick moves the character while the right stick moves the camera view. Character movement is relative to camera view and the stick also controls walk/run. This game has chosen to make the left and right controls “strafe” rather than turn and forward on the camera stick looks “up” rather than “down” by default though you can change this in the Controller Options.

Unlike all previous Resident Evil games, Inventory isn’t really a thing in this game. In fact you may never even access your inventory other than to maybe read a couple of documents. All quests items can always be picked up and carried. However you can carry only three different guns and four different grenades at any given moment. There are only 4 grenade types – so you never have to choose which grenades to take with you, however there are 5 different weapon types as well as variations of each type of weapon – so you have to choose which weapons to carry for any given segment of play. During play you will have the option of increasing how much ammo, how may grenades, and how many herbs you can carry by gaining “pouches”.

You can have one weapon and one grenade selected as “active” at the same time and can cycle through the two separate lists using the D-Pad on your controller (if you are using a Keyboard and mouse you can directly select your grenades with number keys).

Special Movements
Each playable character has the ability to dodge attacks. It cannot be stressed enough that learning to dodge well is a game changer as you can become nearly invincible if you can’t be hit. On the surface, dodging doesn’t seem all that difficult as you press forward and the interact key at the same time – however, in practice it is the timing that is hard to master. The dodge must occur at the exact right instance for the attack, if the timing is off your character simply steps forward – and likely gets hit. You can not simply dodge all the time, so it is hard to practice and get use to the timing of a dodge. Dodges will also occur if you are attacking with your knife, reloading, and sometimes it seems even if all you do is press forward.

Pulling the weapon trigger without first aiming will attack with your melee weapon. If you daze a foe you can also perform a charged melee attack by getting close to the dazed foe and pressing and holding the “interact” button. The longer you hold the button the more powerful the attack will be. The “charging” of the melee attack can be interrupted by other foes attacking – but if you release the attack before fully charging you may interrupt their attacks and even hit multiple foes.

Doors separate areas. No foe will ever go through a closed door and you are generally invulnerable to any attack once you have initiated the act of going through a door.

Healing, Weapon Upgrades, & Foes
Healing is still provided by “Green Herbs” but there is no herbal mixing and no blue or red herbs to worry about.

Weapons will have between 1 and 6 slots for upgrades and there is no way to increase the number a specific weapon has. Most upgrades are specific to particular weapon type while others may be used on all weapon types. Parts used to upgrade a weapon can still be removed from the weapon and used on a different weapon so don’t feel like you have to “save” and upgrade for later.

All foes have “sensitive” spots which take more damage and some foes have armor that is impervious to damage.

Scanning
The Genesis Scanner is your friend and is only available in the campaign starting with the beach segment (It is not available in in the initial segment, nor the two flash back episodes with Parker). If you do not consistently use the scanner to scan the environment you will feel you simply do not have enough ammunition… This is part of how the game manages the “imaginary difficulty” in how many ammunition and herb drops there are. Using the scanner to scan various foes (alive or dead) will increase a counter in the scanner – when the scanner reaches 100%, you will be granted another green herb (assuming you have room to carry it). When you bring the scanner up, if there are unfound items in the area, the “dot” in the bottom right corner will be “yellowish” and slightly larger. If all items have been found in the area, the dot will be “green” and smaller. To find items hold the scanner up and “look” around the area. It will sometimes trigger on items that are not in the room but on different floors or adjacent rooms. While consistent use of the scanner is necessary to stay equipped, you can easily get yourself killed trying to get a green herb by scanning.

Some special uses of the scanner:
When you first use the scanner on the beach as Jill – if you point it at Parker, he will comment on it. The scanner can be used to find fish and other underwater creatures before you trigger their attacks. It can also be used to see which “laser walls” are active in the laboratory – the in game motions of Chris make this apparent, but some people miss that he is pointing the scanner not a handgun.

Inventory
As you move through the campaign you will find your “inventory box” in various locations. The inventory box will store all weapons and weapon upgrades you have “found”. When you open a box you will have the option to select the 3 weapons you want to carry. You may also change which upgrades are configured on any gun in your inventory. When you find a new weapon type on the map, interacting with the weapon will swap the currently active weapon for your this new weapon. It will also add that weapon to your inventory box. If you want to continue with you old weapon, simply pick it back up, the new weapon type will still be available the next time you open your inventory box (except rocket launchers – they can not be “carried forward”). Weapon upgrades can only be accessed within the inventory box and can not be moved between weapons “in the field”.

Characters
During campaign play you will primarily be Jill Valentine. However, in some Episodes you will play as other characters. Only Jill has access to the inventory boxes. Weapons found by other characters are not added to the weapons box and they will never encounter weapons upgrades. You never get a choice of which weapon types to use with the other characters. Herbs are also not shared between the various characters.

All characters are “static” they do not learn new skills, improve skills, nor “level up” as the campaign progresses. They only improve if your control of them improves.

Saved Games
Your progress in the campaign will automatically save as you cross various milestones in the Storyline. There are 12 Episodes each with 1 to 3 “parts” and you can manually save your game at the end of each part while auto saves occur slightly more often. You are allowed 12 “manual save” slots. When you start the game you will have the option of “continuing” from the last auto save location or “loading” a saved game (including the last auto save). When you die you have the option of continuing or quitting. If you continue your game will restart at the location of the last auto save and it will be counted as a death. If you choose to quit, you can then chose continue from the game menu and restart at the location of the last auto save without it counting as a death. The only difference is the annoyance of having to skip the Previously On video if you quit.

Once you have completed the campaign at least once the “New Game+” option will be added to the Campaign menu.This allows you to make your next run with the upgraded weapons you ended your last run with.

Scanning
There is no Genesis Scanner and scanning is not a thing.

Health Bars
The first most glaring difference in the game mechanics you will notice is that foes have “health bars” above their heads and the damage inflicted by each bullet that hits a foe will be shown in color at the point of impact. White damage numbers indicate low amounts of damage, yellow numbers a moderate amount of damage, and red numbers indicate hitting the foes “sensitive” spot. Critical hits have a noticeable impact effect along with larger numbers. This information is meant to help you understand how exactly to deal with each type of foe and is directly usable in Campaign mode.

Stages vs Storyline
Raid mode is broken down into 20 stages with three difficulty levels (Chasm, Trench, and Abyss). Each stage uses a specific portion of the campaign game map which corresponds to different episodes and sub-episodes (this is why they are unlocked initially as you progress through the campaign episodes). The goal of each stage is to get your character from the starting location to the ending location. Completing the campaign (on any difficulty) will also unlock The Ghost ship bonus Stage making the total number of stages 61.

Levels
Everything has a level. You as the player have a maximum level of 50. Your weapons also have a maximum level of 50. There is a recommended Player Level associated with each stage (starting at 1 for Chasm Stage 1 and increasing to 50 for The Ghost Ship). Your foes have a maximum level of 60. The level of your foes is displayed to the left of their health bar.

You can artificially lower your Player Level between runs in the Character menu. Lowering your Player Level in this way also lowers the level of your weapons, you will do less damage to foes, take more damage from foes, weapons will shoot slower and have less capacity when fully loaded. However, armor, pouches, and “permanent” weapon upgrades will still be in place. Permanent upgrades are only available after clearing Trench difficulty. You can also use the menu to raise your Player Level back to the highest level you have unlocked.

Stage Bonuses and Ranking
There are four possible “Bonuses” which can be achieved on any stage. Low Level is achieved by completing the Stage at or below the recommended player level for the stage. Genocide is achieved by killing all possible foes for the Stage. No Damage is achieved when you complete the Stage without taking any damage. If you manage to achieve all three of these “Bonuses” in the same run, you will also be awarded the Trinity Bonus for the stage. You can complete the Low Level bonus even if you have already advanced past the recommended level for the Stage by lowering your player level before running the stage.

You are granted a Ranking when you complete a stage.

• C – Run Completed
• B – Reasonable
• A – Well Done
• S – Flawless

Ranking is based on how well you shoot, how much damage you take, and how fast you complete the stage. In our experience there seem to also be “unstated” factors such as the number of foes you kill and the amount of ammo you use. The exact criteria for an S-Rank on any given stage is unknown and varies from Stage to Stage. For any stage, completing a Trinity Bonus will always grant an S-Rank.

Saved Games
There are no auto save points within a Stage. Progress on a Stage gathers Battle Points (BP) and player experience (EXP). Once a stage is started there are three possible outcomes: Death, Retire, or Completion. Completion grants the most BP and EXP, retiring retains most of the BP and EXP, and death retains only a small fraction of the BP and EXP. You can also find “hidden” BP bonus targets (look like stars), destroying these targets will grant the specified number of BP regardless of how the Stage ends. Your player experience, consumable resource levels, inventory, and BP balance are all saved when a Stage run ends.

During a stage run you may encounter Weapon’s Cases and Weapon Upgrade Parts. Sometimes these can be picked up, and sometimes they are dropped and auto collected when you kill special foes. The contents of these cases and parts are identified at the end of the stage run. Weapons will typically be the recommended level of the stage (+/- one). Similarly, the higher the recommended level of the stage, the stronger the weapon upgrade parts are likely to be (though you can get very basic stuff even on the highest level stages). The only way to get level 47+ weapons is to find them on the Ghost Ship bonus stage.

Inventory & Store
You will not encounter Inventory Boxes within the stages, thus you will not be able to change weapons or upgrade configurations while running a stage. Rather, you will have access to your inventory box between running stages, where you can choose the weapons and weapon upgrades you wish to use the next time you run a Stage. Each weapon you equip will always start the stage fully loaded with ammunition. In addition you will have access to a consumable stash of additional ammo, healing herbs, and grenades based on the size of “pouches” you have obtained. The pouches are not automatically filled, and my deplete with subsequent runs. Foes can drop ammunition and healing herbs when killed. Dropped ammunition and herbs are automatically added to your available inventory.

Between Stages, you also have access to a Store where you can exchange BP for equipment. The weapons and upgrade parts available in the store are relative to the currently active Player Level. Weapons will be no more than one level higher than your current player level. The maximum level weapon offered in the store is 46, and typically only level 45 weapons are available to Players level 45 to 50.. In addition to weapons and upgrade parts, you can refill your ammunition, grenade, and healing herb pouches as well as buy permanent upgrades. Permanent upgrades include Player Armor, increases in pouch sizes, and at later stages of the game permanent weapon upgrades.

Character Costumes
As you progress and complete various achievements, you will also unlock various character costumes. Different characters have differing degrees of mastery of different weapon types. You may find it easier to complete some stages with different characters, however, being comfortable with how your character moves, dodges, and the tempo of their attacks is generally more useful in the long run. Unlocked character costumes can also be used in the campaign after you have completed the campaign at least once, the “Select Outfit” option will be added to the campaign menu.

Chances are you purchased Resident Evil Revelations because you were interested in the “next” installment of the ongoing Resident Evil storyline. All of that content is contained in the Campaign Mode.

Resident Evil Revelations is the first Resident Evil game to be presented in “TV Episodic Form”. While this is mostly just a curiosity and sometimes a nuisance when you die, I personally found it an entertaining way to start each segment of the storyline. These short videos can easily be skipped. Characters appear in their standard costumes in these videos as well as in all cut scene videos regardless of the costumes you are currently using.

Campaign mode is the only mode available when you first start the game. Starting a new campaign you are given the choice of difficulty:

• Casual – For the truly casual player that just wants the storyline.
• Normal – The intended first impression experience – not overly difficult.
• Infernal – Meant for subsequent playthroughs with upgraded weapons.

The goal of our 3 pass strategy is to allow you to fully experience the true character of the game and the masterful story telling and direction that went into the game design, artwork, and musical score. For each of our recommended campaign runs we will describe how you should approach the run, what game functionality is unlocked by completing the run, and what Steam Achievements progress will be made if you complete the run. Our 3 pass strategy is:

• Pass #1: Normal Campaign – A deep dive fully engrossed play through of the Campaign.
• Pass #2: Normal Campaign – A guided pass of the campaign with the goal of completing treasure hunts and challenges
• Pass #3: Infernal Campaign – A final playthrough of the campaign

You are encouraged to give Raid Mode a try between the 2nd and 3rd runs of the campaign.

Campaign => New Game => Choose Difficulty (recommend: Normal)

The goal of the first pass is entertainment. Play the game the way the authors intended. Focus on exploring the game, learning all the ins and outs, the secrets and the story. Try out every weapon you find, watch every cut scene, and read every file you find. This is a story rich game and one of the best horror games of all time – make sure you enjoy it. Do not worry about the time it takes you to complete the game or what resources you use to do it. Just Enjoy the game. While each “Episode” and “Segment” is given a rank, the ranks really do not matter and have no bearing on completing the Campaign Achievements.

Expect this run to take 20 to 30 hours.

Completing this run will unlock a significant amount of game content.

• Raid Mode
  
  • Stages 1–7 – Unlocked by completing Episodes 1-3.
  • Stages 8–12 – Unlocked by completing Episodes 4-6.
  • Stages 13–17 – Unlocked by completing Episodes 7-9.
  • Stages 18–20 – Unlocked by completing Episodes 10-12.
  • The Ghost Ship – Unlocked by completing Episode 12.
  • Jill Diver Costume – Unlocked by completing Episodes 1-3.
  • Chris Snowy Mountain Costume – Unlocked by completing Episodes 1-3.
• New Game+ – Option to start the next campaign pass using the inventory status of a previous saved game.
• Select Outfit – Option on the Campaign menu to chose a character costume (additional costumes are unlocked in Raid Mode)
• Weapons
  
  • Hydra Shotgun – Unlocked by completing the campaign on Normal.
  • PC356 Handgun – Unlocked by defeating a total of 150 enemies.
  • PSG1 Rifle – Unlocked by scanning 15 hidden handprints.
• Weapon Upgrades
  
  • Bind 1 Custom Part – Unlocked by evading 20 times in the campaign.
  • Charge Shot 3 Custom Part – Unlocked by completing the campaign once.
  • Large Mag 2 Custom Part – Unlocked by landing 10 fully charged melees.

You will complete all but one of the campaign progress achievements in this run as long as you manage to complete the game without ever “continuing” from a death.

• We’ll Find You, Jill – Clear Episodes 1-3 – Can not be missed
• Get Us Out of Here! – Clear Episodes 4-6 – Can not be missed
• The Queen Zenobia – Clear Episodes 7-9 – Can not be missed
• The Storm is Gone – Clear episodes 10-12 – Can not be missed
• The Dark Forest – Clear casual difficulty or higher – Can not be missed
• The Shores of Purgatory – Clear Normal difficulty or higher – Can not be missed
• Surviving Deep Darkness – Clear the game in Normal Difficulty or higher without dying once. Simply never “continue” when you die. Instead choose “Quit” then from the campaign menu chose “Continue”. You will start in the exact same place in the exact same state, but no death will be recorded.

You are likely to complete the following Exploration Achievements if you are playing slowly and fully exploring the maps. Don’t overly stress some not triggering for you, just focus on completing them in the next run.Unfortunately the counters for these achievements are not available – so it can be hard to gauge how close you are to getting them to trigger.

• Researcher – Scan an enemy for the first time
• First Victim – Scan 1 Hidden hand print. Handprints don’t trigger the “something near” on the Genesis Scanner, but you are almost certain to find at least one of them if you are using the scanner consistently.
• The Pool Is Open – Swim in the Solarium When you first get to the central “Hall” of the ship, go through the doors on the 2nd floor to access the 3rd floor and enter the Solarium. Look at the murky water from the edge of the pool. Find the switch in the small side room to turn the filter on. Leave the solarium and continue the storyline. When you have accessed the communication room and talked to Raymond, return to the Solarium and enter the pool.
• Trace of Tragedy – Scan 15 Hidden hand prints – Don’t overly stress this Achievement in this run, but finding 15 is likely even without a guide if you are trying…

All of the Campaign Combat Challenge Achievements are easily completed in this first run. However, if some do not trigger for you, don’t stress it, just make a concerted effort in the 2nd run to complete them. Unfortunately the counters for these achievements are not available – so it can be hard to gauge how close you are to getting them to trigger.

• B.O.W. Hunter – Defeat 150 enemies – If you don’t avoid many fights this is not an issue
• A Packaged Deal – Defeat a Scaminglore as a whole without killing both parts of the body separately (These are the tall brown “shark people” encountered in the Lab). Likely if you get enough head shots
• Dodge Master – Dodge 20 Times – This may take some effort
• Bamboozle The Oozes – Defeat 10 Oozes with headshots – These are the standard human shaped foes, including the Pincers and Tricornes.
• Angry Fist – Land 10 Fully Charged physical attacks – This may take some effort. Shooting both “hands” of the non Tricorne oozes will daze them.
• Triple Play – Defeat 3 enemies with one shock grenade. This is almost tailored to jumping fish in the bilge areas.

Campaign => New Game+ => Choose a saved game and difficulty (recommend: Normal)

The purpose of this run is to complete two of the more involved Exploration Achievements which you were unlikely to complete in the first run along with four Combat Challenge Achievements which become much easier with more powerful weapons. If you have completed these achievements along with the long list of achievements in the 1st Run, there there is no reason to make this run, simply skip it and move onto the 3rd run on Infernal difficulty.

If any of the expected achievements in the first run didn’t pop for you then try to make sure you work on them in this run as well.

You should expect this run to take between 15 and 25 hours.

The remaining 3 combat challenges are much easier on a 2nd pass using the “New Game+” which allow you to start with the weapons and weapon upgrades you ended your previous run with.

• Die Another Day – Evade a “scagdead’s” instant-death attack – This may happen on your first pass if you have been practicing dodging… if not just keep trying till it does happen.You may find it easier with Chris in the Casino rather than Jill vs. the Comm Officer.
• By the Crosshairs – Defeat Rachel before she gets to the cafeteria – Unlikely to happen in the first pass simply because you don’t have the fire power – but not too bad in 2nd pass. You have several opportunities to encounter her before she reaches the kitchen. Using decoy grenades and/or pulse grenades should help you keep her “contained” for longer encounters.
• Rockets are for Losers – Defeat the Malacoda without using a rocket launcher – This can happen even in the first pass, but is much easier in the second pass as your weapons are stronger. Simply ignore the first box the helicopter drops and continue to shoot the parasite arms that come out of the huge beast.

To complete this achievement you need to scan all enemy types. While this could easily have been done in the first pass of the game, there is a good chance that you were caught up in the storyline and excitement and missed an enemy type somewhere along the way. Unfortunately there is no counter or check list available in the game to determine which types you have scanned… so we provide a list of the enemy types here and you can check them off as you go through this 2nd run.

• Ooze – your standard roughly human shaped slime monster. Can be scanned before or after killing.
• Pincer Ooze – roughly human shaped monster with spiked pincer arms. Can be scanned before or after killing.
• Tricorne Ooze – The oozes that shoot projectiles from their tricorne arm. Can be scanned before or after killing.
• Chunk Ooze – The bulbous oozes that explode when you get close to them. MUST be scanned before exploding Shoot a leg and scan them while they kneel down before they explode.
• Globster – The mounds of flesh you find on the beach – You can’t miss these as it is part of the storyline
• Fenir – Standard zombie wolf. These disintegrate quickly when killed, so catch one before you kill it.
• Black Fenir – The larger wolfs with black fur – they also disintegrate quickly, so catch one before you kill it.
• Hunter – Your standard “green” hunters which disintegrate quickly, catching one that has been knocked down or dazed is best.
• Farfarelo – The “invisible” hunters which disintegrate quickly, try to catch one that is dazed or knocked down.
• Wall Blister – The long armed things that charge you and have a one shot kill. Scanning it on the wall is sufficient.
• Ghiozzo – Jumping infected fish you first encounter in the casino fountain. These disintegrate quickly. The easiest way to scan them is in the Bilge area of the ship while they are underwater before you trigger them to attack.
• Sea Creeper – The water bug like monsters that try to drown you. These disintegrate quickly. The easiest way to scan them is in the Bilge area of the ship while they are underwater before you trigger them to attack.
• Scagdead – what the Communications Officer turned into. They disintegrate quickly, the easiest one to catch before you kill it is actually the Comm’s Officer through the window just as you break him out of the locked room.
• Rachel Ooze – Not hard to catch this one as her body lies there a long time after you first kill her.
• Draghignazzo – The big snail/crab creature in the Observatory is easy to scan multiple times after you kill it.
• Scarmiglione – The tall brown “shark” people in the laboratory. The disintegrate quickly, but luckily they move very slowly, giving you plenty of time. You do not have to catch all three forms (Standing, crawling, and walking spark legs), any one will do.
• Malacoda – Easily missed as you have to scan one of the parasite “arms” from the deck of the boat before getting in the helicopter… very hard to make yourself take the time to do this.
• Norman Mutant – Easily missed as you catch your breath watching him die and fade away. If you can remember, scan him at the beginning of the fight.

To complete this achievement you need to scan all of the hidden hand prints scattered throughout the game. In my opinion this really was a “community” achievement, as no single person was likely to put in the time to hunt for handprints hidden amongst the huge maps. These types of pixel hunting achievements are almost always first solved as a group effort. With that in mind don’t be surprised if you didn’t find all 30 in your first pass. In fact if you got the 15 needed for Trace of Tragedy you should be impressed.

Once you scan a handprint it will no longer be there even in subsequent New Game+ runs. The following lists group the handprints based on the episode where they can first be found and in the general order you should expect to encounter them in a normal playthrough of the campaign. Many of the handprints can be scanned at a later point in the game as they don’t go away and are not time sensitive – however, several are in areas where you get only one opportunity to be in the area.

Episode 1:

• #1 – On the beach after going through the tunnel, the handprint is on an FBC container on your right
• #2 – After the beach sequence back track on the boat to the first corridor you went through on the ship. The handprint is on a wall close to the floor and a vent grate near a bloody smear.
• #3 – On the vending machine in the crew cafeteria / break room.
• #4 – On the X-Rays in the room where Rachel is killed next to a computer monitor

Episode 2:

• #5 – On the instrument panel of the crashed airplane
• #6 – Exit the area where you were first attacked by wolves to the left, the handprint is on the Stalagmites to your left
• #7 – On a turkey in the dining room (door is labeled Cafeteria)
• #8 – On the shower wall in the bathroom where Jill wakes up
• #9 – On the far right window that looks out over the deck in the bridge

Episode 3:

• #10 – In one of the niches of the grand hall behind the stair case
• #11 – On the Wall directly opposite the door to the communications room on the 2nd floor of the grand hall
• #12 – On a wall panel box in the small Solarium room where you turn the pool filter on
• #13 – On a crate in the room where the Comms Officer was locked up
• #14 – On a cabinet door above the sink and coffee maker in the Promenade

Episode 4:

• #15 – On the end of the diving board in the Solarium
• #16 – On the left side of a slot machine along the left side back wall (if you are facing the escalator)
• #17 – On the Veltro flag in the room where you thought they were holding Chris (where you were gassed)

Episode 5:

• #18 – On the bottom right corner of the projection screen
• #19 – On the book standing up on a cabinet in the corner of the room with the Bilge freight elevator

Episode 6:

• #20 – BEFORE approaching the panel box to reactivate the radio antenna scan it for the handprint.

Episode 7:

• #21 – On the second table in the lounge after taking the elevator to the deck
• #22 – At the very end of the deck out at the front of the ship (think Titanic), on the ground

Episode 8:

• #23 – After you come out of an elevator in a cargo bay area, the hand print is on the middle window in the control room
• #24 – In the room just before the decontamination areas, the handprint is on one of the locker doors on the left
• #25 – After decontamination the handprint is on the side of the large fish tank in the center of the room
• #26 – On the left side of the 1st arch in the hallway that leads to the main lab area

Episode 9:

• #27 – On the wall to the left and above a computer monitor in the corner of the morgue

Episode 11:

• #28 – In Fight with Large Monster… move to the center of the area and turn around facing away from the monster. The handprint is on a canister lodged in the debris

Episode 12:

• #29 – In the room with the partially turned bodies on the table, the bloody smear on the wall has a hand print
• #30 – On the dais just below Norman in the final boss fight – get it while he babbles.

If you need a visual reference for them I recommend the following video by PowerPyx:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAEgbgdmq3A

Campaign => New Game+ => Choose a saved game and difficulty (Infernal)

It is suggested that before you make your Infernal run of the campaign that you spend whatever amount of time you want to dedicate to Raid Mode. The two game modes are very different in many ways, but there are some things that you can only really learn by playing Raid Mode to better prepare for Infernal difficulty. Don’t be mistaken, Infernal difficulty is not at all like Abyss difficulty in Raid Mode. Abyss is far more challenging (if you are playing solo). But you will learn things about your weapons and foes in Raid Mode from displayed information that simply isn’t in the campaign.

Fair warning though you will get use to seeing the information as well as the faster pace and movement of Raid Mode and this will create some amount of re-adjustment when you come back to the Campaign.

I bought the game for the Campaign, and can’t say that my Raid Mode experience left me feeling great about the game – so the reason I suggest making your Infernal run of the campaign the last thing you do with the game is so that you will remember the game more fondly than if you try to complete Raid Mode as your last experience with the game. Others may love Raid Mode much more than the campaign – in which case, by all means, let that be your last impression of the game.

This pass of the Campaign will complete the one remaining Steam Achievement. If you didn’t manage to complete the other Achievements in the first two runs, you may want to do another Normal run, or simply continue working on them in this run.

Completing this run will unlock the best weapon available in the game… too bad there will not really be a reason use it other than just goofing around after the game is over.

• Infinite Rocket Launcher

The only goal of this run is to finish the game – it doesn’t matter how you do it, how fast you do it, or what tools you use along the way. Play the game the way you enjoy it, and make the most out of it.

• The Vestibule of Hell – Clear Infernal difficulty

CONGRATUALATIONS You are now 100% complete with the Campaign Achievements… or all achievements if you took our advice and did the Raid Mode achievements before this last campaign run.

The final boss in the campaign and the final boss in the Raid Stages and even on The Ghost Ship is a hard fight to win.

Norman will take damage no matter where you shoot him. However, the damage is greatly reduced if you do not hit one of his two weak spots. The large mass on his back between the fins is the weakest spot where you will do the most damage – you should attack this anytime it is available to you, but his back fins make this hard. The second weak spot is the big red heart on his chest, this target is only available while he is either stunned or in the middle of an attack. There are essentially two approaches to the fight and it all depends upon you ability to dodge his attacks.

Method 1: Dodge his attacks which always over balances him and if you are quick you get behind him and shoot the large mass on his back.

Method 2: Shoot his heart just before he attacks. This takes more hits to stun him, but is a bit more straight forward than dodging running behind and quickly shooting his mass. I highly recommend this approach over trying to dodge him, it is easier to time correctly, and always leaves you in a strong position for the next attack.

Critical to beating Norman is understanding the progression of his attacks. He progresses through the following stages of attack if you manage the battle well enough. If you get out of sync and are running or maneuvering a lot, it may be hard to recognize what attack is coming. At any stage he can incorporate any of the listed attacks in any order. Each Stage typically ends with him stumbling a bit and then bellowing before starting the next group of attacks. Make every effort to do as much damage as possible in these “Pauses” – even throwing grenades if you have them.

• Stage 1 – Solo Blink Attacks
  
  • Blink to right in front of you – shoot the heart or dodge and hit from behind.
  • Blink to right behind you – Quick Flip when he blinks but isn’t in front of you. Once flipped same options
• Stage 2 – Dual Blink standing attacks
  
  • Quickly determine which Norman is “Real” When there are more than one of him in the attack, the one with the purple mist coming out around his heart is the “real” one
  • Dual Blink with both in front of you. Shoot the real one or dodge around
  • Dual Blink with “Real” Norman behind you, if on a blink there is only one in front of you, flip around…
  • Dual Blink with delayed “Real” Norman, if when you flip upon seeing just one Norman in front of you and there is nobody behind you, just wait looking in the same direction and he will appear right in front of you.
• Stage 3 – Dual Charging Attacks.
  
  • After the 2nd pause and bellow he will typically charge directly at you. Charges are hard to stop by shooting but it is possible if you hit the heart hard enough. Dodging this charge may be a better approach.
  • Dual direct charge. If there is only one Norman visible and it is swinging a back hand charge attack, then the real Norman is charging from behind – simply run through the one in front of you, the one behind will miss and stagger – opening himself to attack.
  • Dual angled charge. This can sometimes be hard to detect but the two of them are coming directly for you. Running though the fake, or directly between the two usually works to dodge the attack.
• Stage 4 – Multi Blink Attack
  
  • After his Stage 3 Pause he is likely to charge you directly again.
  • At this point he may use any of the previous attack types. Most often the Dual Charge attacks again.
  • The Multi attack can be distinguished because the “Fake Norman” will bring his claw hand back LOW for an upper cut attack. When this happens there will be 2 or 3 of these “Fake Attacks” before the real Norman appears. Just stand your ground and wait for the Real Norman. You can tell which is real by the purple mist around the heart.

Before beginning your Raid campaign you should probably re-read the game mechanics section of this guide.

As mentioned, Raid mode is broken down into 20 stages. Each stage uses a specific portion of the campaign game map which corresponds to different episodes and sub-episodes (this is why the are unlocked initially as you progress through the campaign episodes). The goal of each stage is to get your character from the starting location to the ending location. Some stages will require you to kill certain groups of foes in order to collect keys which you will use to open other sections of the stage map. Some stages will have “optional” sections which can also be accessed by keys. There are always enough keys to open every lock. Keys are used up once used. Keys are not persistent and can only be used in the stage session they were found in.

Each of the 20 stages can be played on three different difficulty levels: Chasm, Trench, and Abyss. The 20 Chasm stages are unlocked during campaign play (regardless of the campaign difficulty played). The first Trench stage is unlocked when you complete the 20th Chasm stage. From that point forward completing a stage opens the “next” stage with Trench 20 unlocking Abyss 1.

Unlike the campaign, Raid Mode can be played as online co-op. That is you and One friend can play each stage in a cooperative manner. When you select Raid Mode from the main menu you are presented three options:

• Solo Play – in this mode you are the only character running each stage. There is no AI partner.
• Player Match – in this mode you will be matched up with another random player who is also looking to play cooperative.
• Private Match – In this mode you will invite another Steam Friend to play cooperative with you.

The word Match in the descriptions is in reference to how your partner is chosen and not describing competitive play…

In most cases the number and strength of foes you will face on a stage IS NOT dependent upon whether or not you are playing Solo or Co-op. Thus there is a huge advantage in playing co-op in terms of clearing a stage – you get twice the resources and can do twice the damage. However, loot drops are split – the one landing the killing blow gets the loot drop (though of course either player can pick up loot from the ground or boxes).

The second huge advantage to playing cooperative is finding a friend that can already solo the hardest stages – they can then “carry” you through most of the play allowing you to pick up the weapon cases and custom parts. This will allow you to essentially “fly” through many of the achievements. HOWEVER… it is a rare friend that is wiling to invest the time to carry you to level 50 – so while you might have high level equipment quickly, open and even complete higher stages early, and complete many of the harder achievements more quickly – you will still be faced with playing Solo for a significant amount of time to grind your character to the highest level.

You can tell that most steam players do opt to play co-op based on the global achievements earned. The three rarest achievements are:

• Top Of My Game – Reach player level 50
• One For Each Minnesota Lake – Defeat 10,000 enemies
• Bonus Demi-God – Acquire 150 Bonuses

If you are playing Solo, you will pass the 10,000 enemies long before reaching level 40, none the less level 50…

The final advantage to playing cooperative is that one Steam Achievement (Dynamic Duo – Land a fully charged physical attack on an enemy at the same time as your partner) requires you to play at least a few minutes in online co-op.

Still… even with all the advantages to playing cooperative, there will be times when you want to play solo, improve your skills, and really immerse yourself in the game play. If for no other reason than to help you be a better player for your online co-op friend. For some, playing solo is simply what they prefer, holding their own destiny in hand and facing the horror head on.

What you really need to know is the time investment Raid Mode requires. These are my estimates for how long it will take to get the Raid Mode achievements based on your choice of whether or not to play cooperative:

• Solo – expect to spend around 300 hours
• Co-op with both players starting from level 1 – expect to spend 150 to 175 hours
• Co-op paired with already fully leveled and equipped player to carry you through a lot of it – expect to spend 50-75 hours. Where most of your time will be playing solo or Player Match simply to grind to level 50.

This guide assumes you are going to play Solo (except for a few minutes getting the Dynamic Duo achievement). If you choose to play cooperatively, then I would advise you find an advanced player willing to carry you for a significant period of time – and do whatever they tell you to do as well as you possibly can. If you have a friend playing from the start with you, then this guide may still be of use to you, but you should complete various stages of the guide much quicker.

For 90% of the time you play Raid Mode, having enough BP to buy what you need to buy in the shop will be a challenge. Even at the end of the game you will be “farming” various stages in order to get BP to improve your weapons.

The most important thing you can buy in the shop is Armor. Every time Armor becomes available you should make it a priority to purchase it. There are 6 stages of Armor, and the first 5 each have two parts – so over all you will purchase 11 pieces of armor. It is always worth the price.

Anytime pouches are available in the Shop to increase the amount of consumables you can carry (Ammunition, Grenades, Herbs) you should absolutely buy them. Obviously prioritize the pouches that increase ammunition for the weapons you primarily use over those for weapons you don’t often use – however, you should buy them all for every ammunition type. For no other reason than at least one Gluttony will be critical to completing the Ghost Ship.

The weapons and custom parts available in the store will be based on your active player level. As your player level increases it is a good idea to purchase higher level weapons as well. Every time you open the shop, the list of weapons and custom parts will change randomly. The weapons will always be your active player level +/- 1 level. The most important weapon attribute you need to look for is the number of slots available on the weapon. The store does does not carry any weapons beyond level 46 regardless of your player level and so end game weapons can pretty much only be found on the Ghost Ship.

You are awarded BP for completing a stage. The amount you are rewarded is based on your ranking for the run as well as any Bonuses you are awarded for the run. You can be awarded the same bonus multiple times for any stage.

There are four possible bonuses which can be acquired on any stage. Once you have acquired the bonus, it will be recorded in the bonus icons for the stage it was acquired on. This allows you to quickly look through the list of stages and determine what bonuses you have acquired for each stage. The four bonuses are:

• Low Level – Complete the Stage at or below the recommended Player Level
• No Damage – Complete the Stage at any Player Level without taking any damage.
• Genocide – Kill all foes on the Stage.
• Trinity – Complete Low Level, No Damage, and Genocide Bonuses in a single run of the Stage.

The easiest of the four Stage Bonuses is Genocide. The trick is to simply be thorough. There may be multiple paths you could take to reach the end goal, areas you could skip completely, or late triggering mobs… However, you must trigger all foes and kill all foes no matter where they hide. The issue here is typically limited ammunition/herb storage, which is easily overcome with player level and store purchases of pouches.

The Low Level Bonus is awarded when your Player Level is at or below the recommended level of the Stage. Remember you can lower your Player Level (and raise it back up) in the Character Menu. Other than to complete the Gutsy Achievement there is no reason to attempt a Stage at a level below the recommended level. The issue with getting this bonus on a Stage is your fire power. You will do less damage at lower levels but you will find that upgraded weapon levels and parts will help compensate. However, when you lower your player level, the base attributes of your weapons are also lowered to the same level. So the issue becomes doing enough damage to the minimum number of foes possible to complete the Stage. This is why it is important to purchase all ammunition pouches available in the shop. There are no “infinite ammunition” weapons available in Raid Mode. With enough ammunition and herbs, Low Level is a matter of just completing the Stage. The End Game pouch sizes for each ammunition type are:

• Handgun – 280 Rounds
• Machinegun – 700 Rounds
• Shotgun – 140 Shells
• Rifle – 112 Rounds
• Magnum – 84 Rounds
• Herbs = 14 Plants

No Damage can be tricky to say the least. You must learn where the foes will be, how they will react to you, and how to avoid being touched in anyway. In the end, this typically comes down to greatly overpowering the foes. At high Player and Weapon Level compared to the foes, they die easily and quickly, allowing you to never even be attacked. Needless to say, at the end of the Abyss, this is no longer an option as you will be essentially the same level as your foes. Foe level vs. Player/Weapon Level becomes the limiting factor in completing the stages with no damage and is always an issue for Trinity.There are some exploits which can be used on various Stages to help you better manage the number of active foes. The exploits are not exactly bugs – just things about specific foes and environments which are not easily understood, but which can provide a huge advantage if understood.

In the earlier levels, better weapons and weapon upgrades along with very careful play will allow you to complete the Trinity bonus. As stage levels increase, the number and level of the foes will also increase, and Trinity becomes harder and harder to get. Trinity is all but impossible on most of the Abyss Stages without using many of the exploits and highly upgraded weapons.

In the menus before starting a stage you can choose up to three different weapons to take with you into the stage. While running the stage these are the only three weapons you will have access to. The weapons you have to choose from are based upon weapons you have either purchased or found in Weapons Cases during previous stage runs. Your character can only use weapons at or below your maximum player level. The weapons come in 5 different types:

• Handguns
• Machineguns
• Shotguns
• Rifles
• Magnums

There are multiple variants of each weapon type, each with pros and cons. You will typically find you have both a preference which type of weapon you use as well as which variant of each weapon type you use. There is a rhythm to how the weapons fire, how long between reloads, and how long reloads take that become familiar and “comfortable”. To some degree this will also be dependent upon which character you like to play as each character (and character variant) has different proficiencies with different weapons.

For most of the time you are playing Raid Mode you will be changing weapons nearly constantly as you gain player levels and advance to higher level Stages. Weapons found in Weapons Cases while running a stage will typically be at the recommended level of the stage and are not based on your Player Level. Weapons in the store are based on your currently active Player Level (+/- one). Because you can refresh the weapons offered for sale in the store simply by exiting the store and reentering the store, you will find it easier to find the specific weapon you are looking for in the store.

Weapons have Five specific core attributes:

• Firing Power – this is how much damage a projectile from the weapon does (NOTE each shotgun shell is 6 or 9 projectiles)
• Firing Speed – Time between firing (all weapons are essentially automatic if you hold the trigger down)
• Capacity – how may “shells” the weapon can hold
• Number of upgrade slots (maximum of 6)
• Reload Speed – NOT shown in the weapon’s menu

You will find that different variants of the weapons have rather specific Power, Speed, and Capacities. The number of upgrade slots will vary even between different weapons of the same type and variant, but the maximum number of slots for a variant seems constrained… for example it is relatively easy to find a PCS356 handgun with 6 upgrade slots, but impossible to find a Government handgun with 6 slots, PCS356 handguns shoot faster but hit lighter.

Weapon upgrades come in all flavors and types with the more “powerful” or sought after upgrades coming only at the highest stages and player levels. Unlike the weapons themselves, we did not find the store a useful place to search for weapon upgrades. Sure they are available, but it seemed they were always easily found in running stages and so weren’t worth spending BP on in the store. Weapon upgrades can be removed from a weapon and applied to another weapon when you upgrade your weapon – so you won’t need to keep large quantities of the upgrades around. Some weapon upgrades are specific to a weapon type while other upgrades can be applied to any weapon type (the “numbering” system is a bit wonky that way).

Occasionally you will see weapons with “bonus” features which change the attributes… The weapons “attributes” in Raid Mode can vary well beyond what they do in the Campaign. These “upgrades” typically come at the cost of upgrade slots. You can for instance even find Magnums and Shotguns that come with scopes and behave more like rifles. In our experience, it seemed better to stay away from such exotic attributes.

The store will stop being useful for you once you have level 46 weapons occasionally you might find a level 47 weapon in the store – but the chances of it being one you want to purchase is low. To obtain weapons above level 47 you will need to find them in the bonus Ghost Ship stage.

After completing all 20 Trench stages, permanent weapon upgrades will become available in the store. These upgrade DO NOT come as “custom parts” which can be moved from weapon to weapon and applied to upgrade slots… Instead they are applied to the weapon you choose. Since they can not be moved once they have been applied, I do not recommend buying any of these upgrades until you are at or very near your “End Game” weapons… that is until you have level 46+ weapons, this is a waste of time and BP. Once you have level 46+ weapons of the type you are comfortable with, these upgrades will allow you to indefinitely upgrade your weapons until they are exactly what you want/need to finish Raid Mode regardless of your game play skills.

Ammunition, green herbs, and grenades are called Consumables. Each of the three weapons you choose to start a stage with, will start “fully loaded” based on the capacity of that weapon, but the additional ammo you carry into the stage for each weapon is based on the amount you had stored in pouches. The pouches ARE NOT automatically “re-filled” between stages as the weapons are – instead the ammunition gets “consumed” while you run the stages and reload your weapons.

In Raid Mode defeated foes may drop loot. Sometimes it is ammo, sometimes it is health, and in specific cases it will be weapon cases or weapon upgrades. Defeated foes never drop grenades but grenades of specific types can be found in specific locations in specific stage maps. There are weapon upgrade parts which can modify the drop rate of herb and ammunition loot from defeated foes.

NOTE: Since weapons are re-loaded to full capacity before each run, you can essentially “Farm” for ammunition if you can complete a stage without re-loading your weapons, as the ammunition you find will go into your pouches and the ammunition you use will be replaced before the next run.

Ammunition you find in boxes or dropped from foes will ALWAYS match one of the three weapons you are carrying. If you are comfortable in completing a Stage with out three different weapons, you can use this game mechanic to help make sure you do not deplete your ammunition during a farming run.

You can purchase refills of your consumable pouches in the store between Stage runs. In most cases you will find that it is a lack of ammunition or health herbs that is keeping you from completing stages. This can be caused for two reasons: (1) Either your weapons are not doing enough damage with the ammunition you have, or (2) your pouches are too small to carry enough ammunition based on the damage your weapons do. If pouch upgrades are available in the store – buy them as soon as you can.

Cornucopia upgrades can be found for each weapon type in Illegal Custom Parts on the Ghost Ship. These upgrades generate ammo for the gun they are equipped in every 30 seconds. Bottomless Pouches can also be found to regenerate grenades every few minutes. The pouches are rewards for getting the Trinity Bonus on specific Abyss Stages, or found in Illegal Custom Parts on the Ghost Ship.

If you are attempting to complete the Raid Mode achievements solo (or with a partner that is also starting from scratch), then hopefully this strategy will help you maintain some level of interest all the way through the hundreds of hours it will take. I have broken the strategy into four basic blocks. These blocks are based upon the general strategy I used in the 300+ hours it took me to complete the Raid Mode achievements solo. Had I fully understood them upfront I may have been able to reduce the time it took me and some of the initial panic and confusion about how it all would work out in the end.

These four blocks of progression do contain an insane amount of mind numbing farming… There really isn’t much of a way around that farming if you don’t have a high level partner who can carry you through a significant amount of the grinding easily. But hopefully having a planned goal in mind for the farming will help you mentally prepare and get through it without too much issue.

The four progression blocks as I see them:

• Part 1 – Chasm Completion – Complete 20 Chasm stages and get to around Player Level 20
• Part 2 – Trench Completion – Complete 20 Trench stages and get to around Player Level 36
• Part 3 – Get to Player Level 46 – You will probably not complete all Abyss stages yet
• Part 4 – End Game – Complete Abyss stages, S-Ranks, and The Ghost Ship

In the following sections I’ll describe the goals of the block in terms of Stages completed, Bonuses achieved, S-Ranks achieved, how to farm for what you need, and the Steam Achievements you should expect to complete during the block.

Many of the 26 Raid Mode Steam Achievements are staged in levels of completion and track to specific progress in four areas (listed from Easiest to Hardest):

• Stages Cleared – You must complete all 61 Stages
• Player Level – You must reach the maximum Player Level of 50
• S-Ranks awarded on stages – You must be awarded S-Rank on the 60 Standard Stages (it is not required for the Ghost Ship)
• Stage Bonuses acquired – You must obtain 150 of the possible 244 bonuses, we make recommendations on 144 we feel you are most likely to complete… this means you must find and additional 6 to complete.

There are 2 Raid Mode Achievements which will be harder to get if you are playing with a high level partner who can carry you through most of the grinds until you get the weapons you want. Without the higher level partner they are guaranteed to pop as you will be playing and grinding and trading in the shop much much longer. Though it is hard to say exactly when you will cross these thresholds.

• Shop Till You Drop – Spent 1,000,000 BP in the Store – you will spend many multiples of this in the end.
• Defeat 10,000 Enemies – You don’t get credit for your partner’s kills

There is 1 Raid Mode Achievement which requires you partner with another player online. In the Steam Discussions for the game there is a post always near the top of people needing this achievement. Send a Steam Friend request to anyone that has commented recently on the thread and you are likely to find someone willing to help you get the achievement. When you do this will depend upon how much of the early Raid Mode experience you intend to do Solo.

• Dynamic Duo – Land a fully charged physical attack on an enemy at the same time as your partner

You probably won’t need to worry to much about exploiting some game play vulnerabilities until you get to the Abyss. Often hard core players have a negative opinion about exploits in general. You are certainly welcome to do it the “old fashioned way and Earn It”… but it is clear that the creators of this game understood the exploits and even planned for you to use them in their designs of the Abyss Stages. So just know them up front and use them as you feel necessary or correctly.

Door Exploit #1
You cannot be hit going through a doorway. This includes the blast from Chunk Oozes. You can use this to your advantage to bait a Chunk Ooze to a door and wait till you hear him about to explode and “exit” the room.

Door Exploit #2
Almost all foes will “freeze” when you exit a room. Often when you enter a room or kill one foe, new foes will be generated, coming up out of the floor or dropping out of the sky. They will immediately start to move toward you. Simply turning and exiting the room will freeze them in their location. If when you re-enter the room they are not directly facing you, they will remain frozen.

Elevator Exploit
Elevators are a very tight box with a small door. Many larger foes can not enter them nor reach the back of them and the door way makes a great pinch point killing zone. On larger Stages where you have to enter an area via an elevator, there is usually a “Trigger Point” in the room that causes foes to spawn. When the elevator doors open there will be a fixed timer after which they will close if you are not in the elevator. The exploit is to race to the trigger point, flip and run back to the elevator getting inside the doors before they close. If you can do this – you can usually clear the area simply by killing anything that appears in the doorway at very little risk.

Some “Trigger Points” are a good distance into the room and you may need to carry a “light weight” labeled weapon to move fast enough to get to the trigger point and back to the elevator in time.

Stuck Toes Exploit
There are some places on the Stage maps where larger foes simply can’t navigate a turn, or get between obstacles, or simply get stuck on rails trying to reach you. This is similar to how every player has experienced the difficulty of going through a door way or stepping over some odd pebble on a beach… knowing when foes can’t get through an area allows you to stand just out of reach and dispatch them with impunity.

Farming is such an important part of Raid Mode that it just felt like it needed a concise reference source of it’s own. We define farming as running a single Stage over, and over, and over… repeating the same Stage well beyond the number of times you would normally enjoy doing so. The reason you would do this is to collect resources. In Raid Mode there are three resources you will need to “farm”:

• BP / Exp – in game cash and Player Experience
• Consumables (Ammunition, Grenades, Herbs)
• Weapons / Upgrade Parts

Typically you will begin farming a level because you can do so at little risk compared to the BP and Exp you can gain by making the run. This is the case when the recommended level of the Stage is relatively near your Player Level and you have hit a bit of an impasse in progressing to higher level Stages.

Consumables can quickly become an issue if you are spending too much on each Stage run. Consumables can be refilled in the Store – however, doing this constantly will make it hard to purchase better weapons and you can easily get stuck running out of BP and Consumables. In some cases you may be exchanging some amount of consumable ammunition for BP/Exp/Grenades/Herbs, but the end goal is to be able to refill any of your consumables without spending BP. When farming, you should be careful about reloading your weapon(s). Obviously you should not be attempting to farm Stages that are higher than your Player Level. Ideally you should not have to reload your weapons during a farming run. This way the ammunition you use will automatically be replaced. This may mean a considerable use of your Melee Attacks.

In the final stages of Raid Mode your farming goals become focused on finding Weapons, Weapon Upgrades, and Exp farming stages that provide sufficient BP to easily refill your consumables after the run and still “bank” a profit.

When deciding whether or not to farm a Stage you need to consider:

1. Can I “profit” from making the run (gain more of what you are farming for than you expend farming)
2. How quickly can I farm this Stage – even if the stage is well beneath your ability, you may still want to run it simply because you can refill consumables quicker, or gain BP/Exp quicker by running this stage rather than a higher level Stage. This can be a hard trade off between enjoying the run and quickly progressing.

Use Ammo Magnet Custom Parts and limit the type of weapons you bring with you when farming in order to help assure you refill your ammunition pouches. For example, if you normally carry a Handgun, Machinegun, and a Shotgun when attempting to push completion of the “next” Stage, then during farming runs of relatively easy Stages, you can refill your Machinegun pouches by carrying only 3 machineguns, trying to limit reloading them, just switch between them and have Ammo Magnets on them. This will assure more ammunition drops from defeated foes, and all ammunition found during the run is for Machineguns. Once your Machinegun pouch is full, do the same with Handguns, then again with Shotguns. You may not have enough Ammo Magnet custom parts for all guns to have that upgrade, but hopefully you will find at least a few along the way.

Earning Stage Bonuses is the best way to farm for BP and Exp. Running a lower level Stage and getting Genocide and No Damage bonuses is the quickest and easiest way to start earning more BP and Exp. Once you can easily get Trinity on a Stage (even Stage 1), this should become your default farming stage for BP and Exp, moving up as you become more powerful. In most cases you will find it quicker and easier to not worry about getting Trinity – Genocide and No Damage will be quicker and less likely to deplete ammunition.

Remember that on any Stage – using a charged melee attack to break the Final Seal for the stage will grant you a Green Herb if your herb pouch is not full.

The following sections describe the Stages we found useful to farm. They are listed in the order of “difficulty” and only you can gauge whether or not your current Player Level, Weapon Level, Weapon Upgrades, and player skills are ready for them.

Yes, the earliest stages in the game are useful long after the fun of running them is gone. Grenades are only found laying around on Chasm Stages and can be expensive early on to refill in the Store. Also, when you are low level each stage provides enough BP and Exp to make them useful in gaining early levels.

Stage 1 is useful for the single hand grenade and green herb that can be picked up on the run. You should quickly progress to where making this run does not cost any ammunition as you should not have to reload all three of your weapons – when you run out of ammunition in one weapon change to another. There are few foes and a few BP stars for the boost.

Stage 2 is useful for the single Shock Grenade and green herb that can be picked up. In addition the yellow fish will give you a weapons case assuring you have something to sell. After crossing through the tunnel run to the pier. The “blobs” can not follow you there. There are a couple BP stars laying around to boost the BP gain.

Stage 3 is useful for the single Pulse Grenade you can pick up. This run is a bit longer than Stage 1 or 2, but early on can also provide a fair amount of BP / Exp to low level characters without much risk. The “Door Exploit” can be used to advantage in the stairwell.

If BP/Exp is your primary focus for your farming, you may want to start running these for Trinity Bonus rewards if you are not yet able to move to the next farming phase effectively.

Initially this Stage will be challenging even to complete. However, it becomes a good source of farming quicker than you might expect. This stage can quickly become your primary source of refilling ammunition as there are a lot of ammunition boxes placed about the level. It also has a single B.O.W Grenade which can be picked up. At the end, a weapon’s case and a couple of upgrade parts drop which can be sold for BP.

It takes a bit longer for Stage 20 to become an effective farming source as it is initially very challenging. This stage will continue to be of use to refill ammunition even to End Game play. With ample herbs, ammunition boxes, weapon drops, and 3 significant BP stars all in a single room with no running around, the BP/Exp gained per minute here becomes very hard to beat even for level 50 Characters. Not to mention the satisfaction of killing Norman in just a few shots. There is also a single grenade to be picked up per run as well.

Once this stage becomes a viable farm for you, you may still visit Stages 2, 3, and 12 for the special grenade drops, but you may also find purchasing those refills in the store cost effective.

This stage should be run at your maximum character level, the difficulty of the Stage doesn’t lend itself well to farming for the Trinity Bonus.

This is primarily a BP/Exp farm only as there are no herb or grenade drops and by the time you can effectively farm this stage the weapon and parts dropped will be of only minor interest. You should work to find a consistent way to obtain the Trinity Bonus on this stage. Once you can get this bonus consistently, the BP/Exp per minute will be greater than Chasm Stage 20. When you are farming the Trinity Bonus on this stage, it will produce enough BP to refill the ammunition and grenades you use and still make a profit. For Ammunition farming, Chasm Stage 20 will probably remain the quicker and better source.

Completing this stage with the Trinity Bonus grants one of two Custom Parts.

• Burst 2 – two rounds fired rather than one – we found this very useful, even critical to completing Abyss Stage 20 and the Ghost Ship
• Bottomless Pouch 1 – This upgrade really was of very limited use

This is a detailed description of the approach we found worked well for farming this stage both initially for No Damage and Genocide bonuses and later for a Trinity Bonus:

• Use the Chunk Ooze to kill the charging pincer ooze (will probably need an extra shot or two)
• If you need to, use the Door Exploit to continually freeze the remaining two pincer oozes to get head shots
• Throw grenades around the corner (bounce off far wall) to kill Chunk Ooze and small Draghignazzo
• Don’t forget to shoot the BP Star in cleared hallway
• Shoot the knee of the large Chunk Ooze to kill or knock down Pincer Ooze – then kill Pincer Ooze
• Approach bottom of stairs carefully and kill small and large Pincer Ooze (use Door exploit if needed)
• Use Pulse Grenade to freeze Pincer Ooze around the corner then kill it.
• Shoot BP Star hidden at pipes at end of hallway past closed elevator
• Use knife to kill yellow fish below where the star was (DO NOT BACK UP)
• Trigger Chunk Oozes and use B.O.W. Grenade to cause them to explode (throw it between them)
• Kill small Pincer Ooze that drops out of the vents.
• Trigger the Medium Draghignazzo in hallway that leads to Kitchen area. DO NOT trigger the large Pincer Ooze here
• Kite the Draghignazzo back to where you came into these halls at the bottom of the stairs.
• The barrels here will block the Draghignazzo from getting to you
• Once the Draghignazzo is “trapped” shoot the Large Pincer Ooze you can see behind the Draghignazzo
• Wait for the Pincer Ooze to come around and be blocked by the Draghignazzo
• Kill the Large Pincer Ooze
• Kill the Draghignazzo
• Head to the cafeteria – Entering will trigger another Draghignazzo. Pick up the BP Star
• Position yourself to throw grenades or shoot the Draghignazzo from behind the benches and tables
• Kill the Draghignazzo before it gets around the benches and tables…
• Run down the area where the Draghignazzo just was – this will trigger two Pincer Oozes behind you.
• Kill the Pincer Oozes (if you are strong enough – if not use the Door to the Kitchen to freeze them).
• Upon Entering the kitchen IMMEDIATELY flip around and Exit the Kitchen – this will freeze most foes in the kitchen
• If you didn’t kill the Pincer Oozes try to kill one at this point
• Re-enter the Kitchen and IMMEDIATELY flip but do not exit the kitchen until you hear the Chunk Ooze start to explode. Use the Door Exit exploit to not be damaged by the explosion.
• You are back in the cafeteria, if a Pincer Ooze is still present kill it.
• 3rd Entry to the Kitchen – step slightly to the left and kill the Pincer Ooze in center of room
• If you stepped to the left enough (but not too much) the next Pincer Ooze will be a small one coming out of the vent
• Kill the small Pincer Ooze.
• IMMEDIATELY turn right and kill the Pincer Ooze that appears near the door
• Kill the Pincer Ooze that appears in the center of the room (DO NOT accidently hit the frozen Large Pincer Ooze)
• A small Pincer Ooze will appear near the large one – let it separate enough to hit just it and kill it
• Throw a B.O.W Grenade at the large Pincer Ooze – the Chunk Ooze will go over there and explode
• Continue to throw B.O.W Grenades until both Chunk Oozes have exploded hurting the large Pincer Ooze.
• Finish off the Large Pincer Ooze and Exit

The Ghost Ship is unique in that it contains foes ranging from level 1 to level 60. So technically you could enter the The Ghost Ship even at the very beginning of Raid Mode. HOWEVER… this is not recommended as until you can complete the entire Ship, you will either die, or have to “Retire”… either of which greatly reduces any BP/Exp you might gain from the venture.

In addition The Ghost Ship is unique in that there are NO AMMUNITION and NO HERBS to pick up. The foes WILL NOT DROP ammunition nor herbs unless your weapon is upgraded with either an Ammunition Magnet and/or a Fertilizer custom part you will not have enough ammunition / health to effectively farm or complete the level.

The 3rd thing that is unique about The Ghost Ship is the very reason you do want to farm it – Level 47+ Weapons and some upgrade parts that CAN ONLY BE FOUND here. This makes it the only real source of effective End Game gear. You should expect to have to refill your consumables after each run the Ship by either farming or purchase in the store.

When farming the Ghost Ship you should have a primary weapon (typically a handgun) with both an Ammunition Magnet and a Fertilizer installed (PCS536 Handguns with 6 slots work well). You should also have a second weapon that has at least an Ammunition Magnet installed, this weapon should be your go to for pesky foes that aren’t bosses but are harder for you to deal with using your primary weapon. And finally a “Boss Killer” weapon (something that does big damage – shotgun, rifle, or Magnum)

The path you will take to Farm The Ghost Ship WILL NOT BE the same path you would take to complete the Ghost Ship. The following is our recommended path for farming The Ghost Ship. You should follow it as far as you can, but should retire once you have exhausted your ammunition and/or health. Do not attempt it if you can not get at least to the first Custom Upgrade Part. This path will net you:

• Custom Part dropped from a kill
• Weapons Case pick up
• Illegal Custom Parts pick up
• Weapons Case drop from a kill
• Custom Part from a kill

In this stage there are no weapon or part drops – you must be able to complete it using at most a few rounds from your primary weapon. You should only have your primary weapon active to make sure the ammunition magnet and fertilizer are in effect. If you take damage and have a full pouch of herbs, use one instantly to let the fertilizer have a greater chance of replacing it. Try not to use more than 2 heals from a non-full pouch.

• Get the elevator key from the Kitchen – you should attempt to do this using very little ammunition from your primary weapon.
• Take the elevator to the Bilge area and kill the few enemies here using only your knife.
• Climb up to the Casino – kill everything in the casino using only your knife (Get the BP Star)
• Killing the foes in the Casino Gives you a Key.
• RETURN to the Bilge – DO NOT open the casino doors.
• Dive in the Bilge to head toward the Lab Area by way of the cargo bay.
• In the cargo bay, get out of the water and to the other ladder jump down and use the key to exit the room.

The goal is to get to the “decontamination” area with the Scarmiglione with full ammunition and health pouches. Don’t fret if you are a bit shy of either of these goals. If you complete this portion of the Ghost Ship you can consider retiring with the hope you get a custom part you need to progress.

• Use shock grenades, primary weapon, and reluctantly your secondary weapon to kill the Scarmiglione and other foes.
• Race down the corridor, using your primary weapon to explode early Chunk Oozes and a B.O.W. grenade at the end. Avoid the Rachels.
• Use the equipment boxes on the right for cover and your primary weapon to kill Tricorne in center of area.
• Make your way through the lab offices to the center area killing foes with primary and secondary weapons (shock grenades as needed).
• Once foes in Center Area of the lab trigger IMMEDIATLY retreat back to the offices.
• Return to the outer loop of the lab area
• From the outer loop use your primary weapon to kill Tricornes, but try to group other Oozes around Chunk Oozes and then use the explosion from Chunk Oozes to kill them.
• Make sure you kill all of the Oozes, some will appear after you get a key, stay and finish it to get the Custom Part.

Things will start to be a challenge here as it is a fairly long run. Proper use of grenades, ammunition, and health are crucial. Eventually this will not be overly challenging but if you are pushing you abilities, this will certainly be a place to retire after you complete it. For those looking to help others get End Game weapons, they can follow you through this and pick up a Weapons Case and Illegal Custom Part at the end even if they have killed none of the foes.

• Exit the outer ring of the lab through the locked door and make your way to the sunken part of the ship
• After your underwater swim, make your way to the area where you have to turn off the steam. This is a long area and you should use a few Shock Grenades to dispatch foes in the waste deep water but make sure you have at least 2 remaining.
• In Steam Area, Kill the two Scarmiglione and quickly get up the ladder in the back of the area – DO NOT face the large Scarmiglione and Draghignazzo together on the bottom level.
• Dispatch the large Scarmiglione on the top level with your primary weapon by getting around past the pipes and shooting him though them as he makes his way slowly on the other side.
• Dispatch the Draghignazzo by shooting down at it from the ladder.
• Once those two foes are dispatched, walk back around the top part of the area, this will trigger a small Draghignazzo, a small Scarmiglione, and a large Scarmiglione – throw a pulse grenade to pause the Scarmiglione and retreat back down the ladder. DO NOT attempt to face all three of these on the upper level.
• When the Scarmiglione drop down dispatch them with your secondary weapon.
• Throw (2) regular Grenades up to the second level by the ladder to dispatch the small Draghignazzo.
• YOU MUST HAVE 2 SHOCK GRENADES REMAINING AT THIS POINT
• Return up the ladder and move around toward the second ladder, triggering a “broken” Scarmiglione near the ladder.
• Use the two shock grenades IMMEDIATELY to dispatch both parts of the Scarmiglione.
• Climb the ladder and make your way to the Side Deck.
• The side deck is a gauntlet of Hunters, Scarmiglione, and Draghignazzo.
• Use Grenades to kill the Draghignazzo – if you don’t have grenades left you should not be here
• Use your Primary and Secondary weapons for most of the Hunters and Scarmiglione.
• Use your boss killer weapon on the final two Scarmiglione and final Hunter as needed.
• Kill the little yellow fish and pick up the Weapons Case and Illegal Custom Part.

The Bridge is filled with foes that just keep coming in waves. Near the end a “Crowned Scarmiglione” will appear, he is big, hits insanely hard, and is very hard to kill. But he drops another Weapons Case. DO NOT attempt this unless you have a significant amount of ammunition and health herbs left after the Side Deck. You could have gotten here without going by the Side Deck, but approaching the Bridge from the Cabins area is NOT RECOMMENDED as you are a huge tactical advantage entering from the Side and Main Deck.

• DO NOT go to the main deck… this would trigger the Final Battle and you will not have enough ammunition or health
• REPEAT: DO NOT go to the main deck – this is not the right path to win that battle.
• Instead enter the lounge, kill the yellow fish and get the Key from the safe.
• Exit the lounge by the elevator in the back and go to the Bridge (avoid the Promenade).
• DO NOT go in the conference room where there is a safe with only a BP Star in it – this will trigger yet more foes and you do not need to waste the ammunition.
• When you enter the bridge at the bottom of the stairs IMMEDIATELY turn around and exit. This will use the Door Exploit to freeze all enemies that can not directly see you.
• Re-enter the bridge and dispatch the foe directly in front of you, then turn and use the door glitch to freeze any new foes generated by his death.
• Re-enter the bridge and slowly find a foe you can see, shoot it once with your primary weapon to get it to come over and down the stairs – dispatch it on the stairs with your secondary and boss killing weapon, make sure you save some primary weapon ammunition to draw the next foe.
• Whenever possible bate the Tricorne and Scarmiglione first.
• Exit the bridge as soon as you dispatch the foe you lured down the stairs – freezing new foes
• Rinse and Repeat this process one foe at a time.
• Eventually the Crowned Scarmiglione will be generated at the bottom of the stairs right there with you!!!
• Kill it as best as you can, as quickly as you can, he is as surprised as you are and this is a brutal battle. You may need to retreat up the stairs – leaving doesn’t do much good as he is right there waiting when you return. This is why you need to have killed as many of the Scarmiglione and Tricorne as possible because you do not want to face them all in conjunction.
• Once this beast is dead and you have his Weapon’s case drop you can either exit at the bottom of the stairs to freeze remaining foes, or exit behind the command deck toward the elevator to the Cabins.

If you survive the Bridge you will definitely want to take the extra few moments to get another Custom Parts drop as it will take next to no ammunition and hopefully no healing at all.

• Exit the Bridge behind the command deck and get to the elevator that goes to the cabins
• Go to the Upper Cabins. In these halls do not enter any of the rooms – nothing worth the ammunition in any of them.
• Work your way through the halls to the circular balcony area killing a few things in the halls on the way.
• When you enter the circular balcony IMMEDIATELY turn and exit through the same door. The door exploit will freeze the wolves and hunters.
• Re-Enter the balcony and run to the door at the end of the balcony to your left, try to be quick to avoid being hit.
• Once in these halls, DO NOT open the safe – this will trigger foes you do not need to bother with.
• There are a few foes anyway – dispatch them and go to the cabin where in the campaign you get the shotgun.
• dispatch the small quick “Blister Bull Thing” for the Custom Weapons Part.
• If you like, re-enter the halls and get the bonus BP form the safe.
• Use the pause menu to “Retire”

Part 1 starts when you first start playing Raid Mode and ends when you have completed all 20 of the Chasm Stages.

Having completed the campaign at least once, all 20 stages are open to you on Chasm. The goal of this first part of your raid experience is to simply experience Raid Mode. Get use to the menus, all the levels(Player, Stage, Weapon, Foe), health bars, the damage numbers flying, the shop, and farming. This is also the part of Raid Mode where you will complete the largest number of the Raid Mode Steam Achievements.

At this point you should be around Player Level 20. Though you may attempt any of the stages (assuming the campaign is complete), it is STRONGLY suggested you start with Stage 1 and work your way one by one to stage 20. There is NO REASON to even think about attempting the Ghost Ship alone at this time.

On the 20 Chasm Stages you should eventually get 72 Chasm Stage Bonuses of the possible 80. You are not likely to get all 72 of them on your first pass at the Chasm Stages, but you should make an effort to get as many of them as possible and a minimum of 10. You should attempt to complete the following 43 bonuses in this Part:

• Genocides on non-timed Stages (13 and 18 are timed) (18 Bonuses)
• Low-Levels on the first half of the stages (10 Bonuses)
• No Damage on the first half of the stages (10 Bonuses)
• Trinity on the early stages (1-5) (5 Bonuses)

Getting S-Rank on these Stages is simply a matter of Player/Weapon level. You will eventually find it ridiculously easy to get S-Rank on any of these Stages, but during this first part S-Rank will likely elude you on many of the harder Stages (6, 7, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20). At this point don’t overly stress getting the S-Ranks.

By the time you complete Chasm Stage 20 you should have completed the following 11 Achievements:

• The Unbroken Thread – Acquire No Damage Bonus for the first time
• Three is the Magic Number – Acquire Trinity Bonus for the first time
• Bonus Enthusiast – Acquire 10 bonuses
• On Your Way – Reach Player level 5
• Moving On Up – Reach Player level 10
• Reaching Higher – Reach Player level 20
• Gutsy – Clear a stage at 5 levels lower than the recommended level. Most players complete Stage 8 with Player Level 3 after they have already reached Player Level 10 and have Level 10 Weapons with some custom parts.
• Legendary Find – Obtain a super rare weapon
• Legends are Made Not Born – Obtain all super rare weapons – don’t stress if this doesn’t pop – it will eventually
• That’ll Leave a Mark – Inflict 1,000,000 points of damage to an enemy in one hit. Throw a shock grenade when you enter the hallway in Stage 9 (Bilge Block) where there are a lot of Ghiozzo (fish that swim on the surface).
• First Circle – Traveler Complete all stages in Raid Mode on Chasm

During this early part of Raid Mode, you will want to spend BP first to purchase any pouch and armor upgrades that become available. You will initially be finding weapons at or around your level by completing stages at or around your level. If at anytime you find yourself using a weapon that is 3 or more levels below your character level you should consider finding a replacement in the Store (do not let your weapon get more than 5 levels below your player level).

It is suggested that you only move to a higher stage if you are finding the stage you are running “easy”. If you are able to run the Stage and get the No Damage bonus, then you should have no issue moving up a stage or two.

In order to build up your player level quickly and to conserve BP for armor, pouches, and weapons, you will need to find a way to fill your consumables by running lower level stages. It is strongly suggested you use the Farming progression discussed earlier in this guide.

Part 2 starts when you unlock Trench Stage 1 and ends when you unlock Abyss Stage 1.

Unlike the Chasm Stages which were opened as you completed the Campaign, the Trench Stages are opened one at a time. As you complete Chasm Stage 20, Trench Stage 1 will open, completing Trench Stage 1 will open Trench Stage 2, and so on. Once you have opened Trench Stage 1, the next goal you should work toward is opening Abyss Stage 1 by completing Trench Stage 20.

Each map for Trench is identical to the same Stage in Chasm, however, the foes you face will change. The number of foes will be increased, and the level of the foes will increase to match the increased recommended level for each Stage. Most of the strategies you developed for the Chasm Stages will be only marginally workable in the Trench Stages.

Trench Stage 20 has a recommended level of 31, so you should expect to be around level 36 when you complete this part.

During your effort to make it through the Trench Stages you should also revisit the Chasm Stages to complete the expected Chasm Stage bonuses. In this part you should make a strong effort to complete the following 108 bonuses (many of which you may have completed in Part 1). In addition you will start to acquire a significant portion of the Trench Stage bonuses:

• Chasm (72 Bonuses):
  
  • All Genocide Bonuses (20)
  • All No Damage Bonuses (20)
  • All Low Level Bonuses (20)
  • Trinity bonuses on all Stages except 6, 7, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18, and 20. (12 Bonuses)
• Trench (36 Bonuses):
  
  • Genocides on non-timed Stages (13 and 18 are timed) (18 Bonuses)
  • Low-Levels on the first half of the stages (10 Bonuses)
  • No Damage on Stages 1 through 8 (8 Bonuses)
  • NO Trinity Bonuses (0 Bonuses)

As you will be more than 2x the recommended level of all of the Chasm stages by the end of this part, it should be no issue to complete all of the Chasm Stages with S-Rank. On the Trench Stages, however, you will still be pushing to get through many of them with no damage and should expect to get S-Rank on the lower third or so of these stages.

By the time you complete Trench Stage 20 you should have completed the following 5 Achievements:

• Bonus Ace – Acquire 50 bonuses
• Bonus Legend – Acquire 100 bonuses (do not overly stress this if you are a few short at this point)
• Raising the Bar – Reach Player level 30
• Midland Traveler – Complete all stages in Raid Mode on Trench
• First Circle Overseer – Clear all stages in Raid Mode on Chasm with an S-Rank

You should still prioritize purchases of Armor and pouch upgrades. In addition you should never let your weapons fall more than 3 levels below your current player level – so you will be spending a significant amount of BP on new weapons unless you get very lucky in what you find.

Unlike the Chasm Stages, there are no grenades to pick up in the Trench Stages, and Herbs are also not nearly as plentiful. So most of your farming for BP and Exp will continue to be done on Chasm Stages. This farming should begin to become routine and relatively straight forward where most foes are taking only a couple of shots to defeat and each run goes quickly. Again follow the progression discussed earlier in the guide with the intent of transitioning to using Chasm Stage 12 and then Chasm Stage 20 for ammunition and herb replacement.

The transition to farming Chasm Stage 20 is an important transition as it will yield significantly more BP and Exp. However, it can be unnerving to say the least. Gauge when to attempt the transition based on your farming of Chasm Stage 12 – when this gets routine, you are probably more ready to farm Chasm Stage 20 then you would think.

Remember it is important to find the highest level Stage you can beat easily without reloading your weapons in order to refill your ammunition. Eventually you will find Chasm Stage 20 becomes your go to farming destination for this as well because there are 8 ammunition boxes to help refill if you have to reload once or twice.

Part 3 starts when you unlock Abyss Stage 1 and ends when you reach Player Level 46.

The Abyss Stages are again the same 20 maps, but the number, type, and strength of the foes is greatly increased. Genocide will require hanging around and killing waves of foes after the exit has been opened, and weapon power becomes critical. Many of the Stages will seem ridiculous at the start, and in many cases will remain so long after you beat them. Specifically Abyss Stage 2 is likely to be an overwhelming experience when you first unlock it.

Something that helped us get through the Abyss was to watch professional gamers get Trinity bonus on Abyss levels, then adapt their strategies (including the use of various game mechanic exploits) to your preferred character and weapons at full Player Level. The reason being that if they could survive the Stage at the recommended level without damage and killing every foe, then we should be able to mimic the strategy at max player level to at least complete the level. The key here is to find players that are not using overly exotic weapons with upgrades beyond what you have at the time. We found the following YouTube playlist helpful – though we rarely used the characters or weapons Tora used and we certainly didn’t obtain Trinity on most of the Abyss Stages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRzMPP210SQ&list=PLWpxj_gJE7X-CPoIFt9OQZ33ZDHGriaFI

Abyss Stage 20 has a recommended level of 47 and Stage 19 recommends level 46, so you are unlikely to complete all of the Abyss Stages before reaching level 46 and the end of this part of the guide.

During your effort to make it through the Abyss Stages you should also revisit the Chasm and Trench Stages to complete the expected Stage bonuses. In this part you should make a strong effort to complete the following 136 bonuses (many of which you may have completed in Parts 1 & 2). Relatively few of your over all Bonus count will come from Abyss but you should make an effort to get the few listed here as you open the corresponding stages.

• Chasm (72 Bonuses):
  
  • All Genocide Bonuses (20 Bonuses)
  • All No Damage Bonuses (20 Bonuses)
  • All Low Level Bonuses (20 Bonuses)
  • Trinity bonuses on all Stages except 6, 7, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18, and 20. (12 Bonuses)
• Trench (52 Bonuses):
  
  • Genocides on all Stages (20 Bonuses)
  • Low-Levels on all Stages except Stage 20 (19 Bonuses)
  • No Damage on all Stages except 9, 10, 12, 16, 17, 18, and 20 (13 Bonuses)
  • NO Trinity Bonuses (0 Bonuses)
• Abyss (12 Bonuses):
  
  • Genocide on the first 12 Stages (12 Bonuses)
  • NO Low-Levels Bonuses (0 Bonuses)
  • No Damage on No Stages (0 Bonuses)
  • NO Trinity Bonuses (0 Bonuses)

By Player Level 46 you will be more than 10 levels above all Trench Stage recommended levels and should be able to achieve S-Rank on all Chasm and Trench Stages. Any S-Ranks you can get on Abyss Stages above stage 7 should be considered a bonus at this point.

By the time you reach Player Level 46 you should have completed the following 2 or 3 additional Achievements:

• Bonus Legend – Acquire 100 bonuses (if not already acquired)
• Meteoric Rise Reach Player Level 40
• Midland Overseer Clear all stages in Raid Mode on Trench with an S Rank

You should still prioritize purchases of Armor and pouch upgrades. In addition you should never let your weapons fall more than 3 levels below your current player level. The goal is to obtain level 46 weapons that match your play style and chosen character(s).

DO NOT waste BP buying permanent weapon upgrades for weapons below level 46! These extravagant upgrades should be saved for what you consider End Game weapons.

You will need to be using Chasm Stage 20 as your primary farming location to refill ammunition and herbs as well as to gain BP and Exp. For at least part of this time you may want to continue to farm Chasm stages 2, 3, and 12 for their unique grenades. You will need to gauge the BP savings vs. the boredom of running stages well below your ability.

There are three big goals for Farming at this point:

• Learn to run Abyss Stage 1 for No Damage and Genocide without depleting ammunition
• Learn to run Abyss Stage 1 for Trinity (BP and Exp)
• Push yourself to get as far in the Ghost Ship farming as you can.

Part 4 starts when you reach Player Level 46 and ends when you have completed the remaining Raid Mode Achievements.

At this time, you should be comfortable with how you want to farm, how long it takes to level up, and how close you are to completing the Abyss Stages. The challenge should be apparent… as the maximum Player Level is 50 and the final Abyss Stage recommended level is 47, you will never get to a point where you completely over power the final Abyss Stages by Player Level alone. What is more the final foes in the Ghost Ship will always be at least 10 levels higher than you.

Your strategy needs to change from using Player Level to over power lower Stages, to over powering your weapons in order to complete the final Stages.

You are left with a short list of things to accomplish. These tasks correspond directly to the remaining 5 Raid Mode Achievements.

• Top of My Game – Reach player level 50
• Seventh Circle Traveler – Clear all stages in Raid Mode on Abyss
• Bonus Demi-god – Acquire 150 Bonuses
• Seventh Circle Overseer – Clear all stages in Raid Mode on Abyss with an S Rank
• Beyond the Veil – Complete the bonus stage, The Ghost Ship

In our experience, the tasks are listed in the most likely order you will complete them, but you will need to work on “Top of My Game”, “Seventh Circle Traveler”, and Bonus “Demi-God” at the same time. Pushing higher in the Abyss Stages, working on obtaining missing bonuses in lower stages as well as the Abyss Stages, and farming for both BP and Exp to increase levels and weapons. You may very well complete these Achievements in a different order.

Each of these 5 remaining Achievements deserves their own section in the guide.

Your first goal should be to reach Player Level 50 as this will best prepare you for the other four Achievements. Player Level is determined strictly by Experience gained. Exp is rewarded at the end of each Stage attempt (regardless of outcome). Completing a Stage successfully grants a relatively standard amount of Exp based on the recommended level of the Stage and the Player Level used on the run. Running the stage with a Player Level equal to the recommended Stage level is considered the base line for the Stage. Earning various bonuses (No Damage, Low Level, Genocide, and Trinity) give additional Exp. Completing a stage with Trinity Bonus grants the most Exp by far. Retiring from a Stage cuts the amount of Exp awarded, and dying during the attempt cuts it even further.

The first thing to do is work the remaining Abyss Stages until you hit an impasse, a Stage that is simply beyond your current character’s ability to pass. You are likely to get stuck trying to complete Levels somewhere around Stage 15 until you have strongly upgraded Level 46+ Weapons. When this happens, transition from pushing the Stages and focus on Player and Weapon upgrades. After a few improvements try the blocking stage again, rinse and repeat…

• Chasm Stage 20 – run for Genocide and No Damage Bonuses. Less than 5 minutes – so the BP/Exp per minute is decent
• Abyss Stage 1 – run for Trinity Bonus. The Burst 2 reward maybe critical.
• Abyss Stage 1 – run for Genocide and No Damage Bonuses – much quicker, but less of a payout

Once you have acquired level 46 versions of your chosen weapons, there really is only one way to get higher level weapons and the weapon upgrades you will need to complete Raid Mode… The Ghost Ship. Review the Ghost Ship farming guide provided earlier and work to continually get a bit farther. When you are able to complete that farming run you will have two opportunities for a level 47 to 50 weapon as well as three chances at great upgrades.

The general strategy that we recommend is to build a set of weapons along these lines. There are two things that biased our opinion on this which may be contrary to how you play… We used the standard Jill character with Handgun and Machinegun mastery, and I personally suck at using a scoped rifle in quick combat (I’m pretty damn good as a sniper – but that isn’t this game…).

• Your Knife – you will use this to an extreme in The Ghost Ship
• Primary Weapon: Used when the knife isn’t quite enough
• Secondary Weapon: Used sparingly when heavier damage is needed or for crowd control.
• Boss Killer: Hard hitting weapon (Shotgun, Magnum, Rifle, Handgun), Saved for things that need a big stick

For our strategy, we found the following weapon upgrades were needed to complete the remaining Achievements.

• Relatively Common Upgrades:
  
  • Damage boost: +5 – +6 available in Ghost Ship Custom Parts
  • Long Magazine 8 – 9 & 10 can be found in Ghost Ship custom parts
  • Bind 5 – if you have room
  • Daze 5 – if you have room
  • Piercing +2 – useful for handguns and some machineguns for crowd control
  • Critical +4 – +5 available in Ghost Ship Custom Parts
• Parts for specific use on The Ghost Ship:
  
  • Brass Knuckles 2 – Used in Primary weapon (found on Abyss Stages 1-12)
  • Ammo Magnet – Type is specific to your weapon – needed on Primary and Secondary Weapons
  • Fertilizer 3 – Used in Primary weapon (found on Abyss Stages 1-12)
• Rare Parts for your Boss Killer Weapon
  
  • Narrow 2 – If your Boss Killer is a shotgun, you will want a tight grouping.
  • Burst
    
    • Full can be used if the weapon is stable and doesn’t hold many rounds (Magnums for instance). One is given when you complete the “Shop Till You Drop” achievement, otherwise this is an Illegal Custom Part from the Ghost Ship.
    • Burst 2 worked well for us. Reward for Trinity bonus on Abyss Stages 1, 2, and 3.
  • Auto Loader – # must match the type of your Boss Killer Weapon. Found only in Illegal Custom Parts on The Ghost Ship.
  • Gluttony – # must match the type of your Boss Killer Weapon. Found only in Illegal Custom Parts on The Ghost Ship (except #5 see note below).

NOTE: Gluttony was absolutely critical for us to even complete The Ghost Ship. In our case we used a Windham Shotgun as our boss killer, so needed Gluttony 2… Gluttony 5 would be needed for a Magnum. But Gluttony 5 can only be obtained one way… Achieving Trinity Bonus on The Ghost Ship… Genocide on The Ghost Ship does not seem possible (imo) without two players – there simply would not be enough ammunition (imo) to do this solo – without already having Gluttony 5… if you can Trinity Ghost Ship solo you would have no need at all for Gluttony 5.

Once you have a set of weapons you feel could be your End Game weapons, you will want to start applying Permanent Upgrades to them. These can be applied even if you have not yet found the custom parts you need. Costing hundreds of thousands of BP per upgrade, these upgrades are a guarantee that you will eventually complete Raid Mode as you can apply as many as it takes. Which upgrades you will want to apply to your weapons depends upon what weapons you have. You can make harder hitting weapons fire faster, faster weapons hit harder, or low capacity weapons carry more ammunition. Here are a few things to consider:

• If you are using full burst, firing rate is less of a concern, but still has some effect.
• Fire Power can never be too high
• Capacity and Speed Load mean nothing if you have an auto loader for the weapon
• There are very few encounters considered “Long Range” in this game
• Easy Grip helps you avoid damage and do more melee damage – but costs capacity. Great if you like to dodge and do it well
• Boss Killers get a big boost from Short Range as bosses are typically “in your face” encounters
• Many of the “label” upgrades can essentially give you the bonus of 2 specific custom parts
• Only one “label” can be active on a weapon
• Careful of the “+” labels as they don’t give the same bonuses as the non “+” labels… for example:
  
  • Sonic Assist: +150% hit radius, daze +80%, stopping power +100%, dodge time -100%
  • Sonic Assist+: +200% hit radius, piercing +2, fire speed +10%, reload speed +15%, -1 slot

Unfortunately the Store isn’t very informative about what the label upgrades provide. To get this information you will need to look at weapons you find, or which are in the store to get some idea of what they do… or google it…

For the most part, completing this Achievement is not that different from what you have been doing, you simply need to finish the rest of the Abyss Stages. In most cases it is a matter of endurance of health and ammunition. The final stages present the most issue as your Player Level will never be that much higher than the recommended level of the Stages. You may need to have your “End Game” weapons and have started adding Permanent Upgrades to them before you can complete Abyss Stage 20, but several other Stages may pose obstacles even getting Stage 20 open.

All of the Abyss Stages will seem insane compared to their previous Trench and Chasm counterparts. For most however, you will simply need to acquaint yourself with the foes you will face and where they will be. A few of the Stages need a bit more of an introduction:

• Stage 2: Beach.
• Stage 7: Teragrigia 1
• Stage 10: Snowy Mountain 2
• Stage 15: Zenobia
• Stage 16: Airstrip
• Stage 19: Teragrigia 2
• Stage 20: Mad Banquet

No you are not wrong – this is insane when you first open it. Believe it or not you can do significant damage to the Scagdead with your knife if you are careful to stay behind him… but the real key is to lure him into the water with the hunters and hit them with Shock Grenades. It is basically a mad scramble to stay alive and kill them to get the key. There are foes that don’t come until after you have the key – but your best bet is to use the key as quickly as you can, then run past the pier to the water on the other side and try to dispatch as much as you can before it gets to the water and shock grenade those that get in the water.

When it comes time for the elevator, turn and run back into the hall you came from. The “s-curve” of the exit from the room to the first short corridor makes a great pinch point for killing zone. But be aware that some hunters will spawn farther back in the hallway at first. If you use this corridor as a “Last Stand” location, you are in the fight till the end, do not try to run for the elevator when the key drops – instead stand your ground and hold the hallway.

The invisible hunters (Farfarello) are tough and you will want to separate your fights with them and the Draghignazzo as best you can. This can mostly be done by using the length of the battle field – get the Draghignazzo to chase you all the way to one end and then the other while you dispatch the faster Hunters and Wolves.

This is a long and large map. It can be made short in the following path:

• Go directly to the door marked “Cafeteria” on the second floor of the hall where you start – it is unlocked
• Kill everything in this room with the stair case – Grants one key
• Go up stairs to the door (loot mid floor room on way)
• Kill the waves of Ooze and Pincer Ooze that appear in this first room on the 2nd floor – Grants a 2nd key
• DO NOT progress on the 2nd floor – return the way you came to the hall and go to the ground floor (you can loot some ammo up stairs toward the Solarium but don’t go to the Solarium)
• Unlock and enter the Promenade – loot boxes at bottom of stairs and in the next hallway
• Use the Door Exploit to freeze hunters in the top floor entering the Promenade.
• You will likely have to kill one hunter to get past it, do so and use door to freeze the new ones spawned
• Jump down to first floor and run through the large Promenade hallway to door in back – use key to unlock it
• In this hallway to the elevator kill the small Tricorne, Rachel, and Hunter combination
• Take elevator to the Deck
• Loot the ammo boxes in the lounge
• Exit and deal with the invisible hunters. Enter the Helipad… triggering a few waves of stuff
• Deal with the waves (use the area between the lounge and Helipad as a bottle neck. Pulse grenades work well
• Exit.

You have probably been dreading this Stage from the time you opened up Abyss Stage 1 and saw how hard it was going to get. There are a couple of Exploits that can make getting by this stage easier:

• In the first “bunk room”, as soon as the foes appear, run back out the door you came in.
• Having exploded the Chunk Ooze, dispatch the other Ooze that was frozen by your exit.
• Use the Chunk Ooze in the hallway to hurt (maybe kill) the other Ooze.
• Enter the room with the projector screen and walk till you trigger the Hunters
• Run back to the door you came in through – kill the Hunter between you and it
• Use the Door Exploit to freeze the hunters in the room
• One by one shoot the hunters and get them to come over for you to kill – using Door to freeze any new arrivals
• Elevator Exploit the lower level… This is difficult as you have to run a good distance into the room, flip, and run back. The distance is 6 to 7 steps (depending upon where you start counting). It is possible for standard Jill to make it back to the elevator with normal weapons – but she is faster than the male characters… It may be best to take a weapon with the “Light Weight” label for this Stage as you will run faster with any character if this is readied. It may still take several tries to get this timing down.
• Once in the elevator – don’t let anything get in with you and don’t exit till everything is dead.

This is a very tough Stage to complete until your weapons are heavily upgraded – and even then presents issues as you will never be more than 5 levels higher than the recommended level of the stage. There also are not a lot of exploits that can be used to make it better. Remember, if you are just trying to clear the stage you can skip the trip up the stairs to the room with all the cubes and go straight to the large building entrance.

A couple of tips (not a full walk through:

• You can use the elevator Exploit at the beginning – though it doesn’t make that much difference other than the invisible hunter that appears behind you when you exit the elevator.
• In the building entrance, try to do most of your fighting in the area between the main room and the elevator. Hunters appear in that blocked off hallway – so be careful of ambushes. One hunter and a couple of the Draghignazzo are too big to make it around the corner near the entrance to the large room – you can use this to block off the area and kill with grenades.
• If you are quick when you get the key you may be able to make it to the lecture room and exit without facing the final rounds of foes.

There are 6 waves and how well you address the first 5 will determine if you have enough ammunition and health to face Norman in the final round. These are our suggestions for each wave:

• Wave 1 – Rachel and Oozes:
  
  • IMMEDIATELY throw a Pulse Grenade
  • Target and kill the Tricorne on the left side of the room
  • Switch to B.O.W Grenades and run toward the broken furniture on the right side of the room
  • Throw a B.O.W. Grenade BEHIND the furniture and run as far up in the room on the right as you can
  • Target foes trying to get to the Grenade with piercing rounds until the B.O.W. Grenade explodes
  • Immediately throw another B.O.W. Grenade for them to chase
  • A small Tricorne Ooze will appear near you – doesn’t always take the bait – Target it when it appears
  • Keep Rachel and others busy with the B.O.W. Grenades as you kill them from the corner beside the dais
• Wave 2 – Blister and more Ooze
  
  • IMMEDIATELY use 1 or 2 grenades from behind the Blister to kill it – DO NOT LET IT SEE YOU – it will charge if it does
  • Kill the Oozes as they approach your position. Stay in the corner
• Wave 3 – Scarmiglione and more Ooze
  
  • Kill the small Scarmiglione and Ooze coming at you.
  • Ease out a bit but don’t “wake” the large Scarmiglione
  • Kill the other Ooze across the room without disturbing the large Scarmiglione
  • Headshot the Large Scarmiglione and leave your corner to engage it.
  • It takes a lot of damage – may want to use some Shock Grenades here, but save them if you can
  • Kill it from near the front doors.
• Wave 4 – Large Draghignazzo, a small Ooze and a Large Ooze
  
  • Kill the Small Ooze first
  • Kill the Large Ooze next
  • Run around the charges of the Draghignazzo and shoot it’s head when it stuns itself
  • Try to be near the right side of the room near where you killed Rachel in Wave 1 when you kill it.
• Wave 5 – Two Scagdead and two Ooze
  
  • Use your remaining B.O.W. Grenades to trap the Scagdead the same way you did Rachel
  • When the two Scagdead are closely grouped use a Pulse grenade to pause them and switch to Shock Grenades
  • Throw 2 shock grenades in quick succession – this will damage them greatly as well as throw them off balance.
  • Follow up with pairs of Shock Grenades until you run out of them (Oozes should die quickly in this)
  • There will be one Scagdead left chasing you.
  • Use Pulse Grenades to make him take a knee and open his weak human head up to attack
  • Repeat this till it dies. Try to be near the dais when it dies so you will be behind Norman
• Wave 6 – Norman – Kill by any means you can (See earlier section of guide).

There 4 possible bonuses for each of the 20 stages on each of the 3 difficulty levels as well as 4 possible from the Ghost Ship. This is a total of 244 possible bonuses. 150 represents less than 62% of the possible bonuses… However, this is the rarest Steam Achievement, achieved by just 2.4% of players.

The following 136 Stage Bonuses can probably be completed before you begin upgrading your “End Game” Weapons with “permanent upgrades”. In our opinion they represent a core set of Bonuses that must be completed to give you a chance to complete the Bonus Demi-God Achievement. If you have been following our guide you should already have completed these, or at least be very close:

• Chasm (72 Bonuses):
  
  • All Genocide Bonuses (20 Bonuses)
  • All No Damage Bonuses (20 Bonuses)
  • All Low Level Bonuses (20 Bonuses)
  • Trinity bonuses on all Stages except 6, 7, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18, and 20. (12 Bonuses)
• Trench (52 Bonuses):
  
  • Genocides on all Stages (20 Bonuses)
  • Low-Levels on all Stages except Stage 20 (19 Bonuses)
  • No Damage on all Stages except 9, 10, 12, 16, 17, 18, and 20 (13 Bonuses)
  • NO Trinity Bonuses (0 Bonuses)
• Abyss (12 Bonuses):
  
  • Genocide on the first 12 Stages (12 Bonuses)
  • NO Low-Levels Bonuses (0 Bonuses)
  • No Damage on No Stages (0 Bonuses)
  • NO Trinity Bonuses (0 Bonuses)

This leaves you 14 Bonuses short of the achievement. As you reach Player Level 50 and complete the 20 Abyss Stages, you will also begin upgrading your weapons with Permanent Upgrades. Completing the final 8 Abyss Stages along with the increased Player Levels and Weapon power you should expect to complete an additional 10 Bonuses:

• Trench (1 Bonus):
  
  • Low-Level on Stage 20 (1 Bonuses)
• Abyss (9 Bonuses):
  
  • Genocide on Stages 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, and 20 20 (6 Bonuses)
  • Low-Levels Bonus on Stage 1 (1 Bonuses)
  • No Damage on Stage 1 (1 Bonuses)
  • Trinity Bonus on Stage 1 (1 Bonuses)

Completing The Ghost Ship will also earn you a Low Level Bonus as you cannot be higher than the recommended Player Level 50 for this Bonus Stage.

If you manage to get all of these bonuses, you will have 147 Bonuses. This means you must find 3 additional bonuses amidst the remaining 97 unearned bonuses. You may in fact have already obtained at least 3 additional Bonuses not mentioned, if that is the case and you are still not quite to the 150 needed, I suggest using those listed above to search for “easy” targets to complete the 150.

If you are stuck and can’t quite get to the 150 Bonuses with the above list and any others you may have completed, then maybe the following list of 8 additional Bonuses we obtained in our game play can serve as another place to look:

• Trench (4 additional Bonus):
  
  • No Damage on Stage 12
  • Trinity Bonuses on Stages 1, 3, and 5 (3 Bonuses)
• Abyss (4 Bonuses):
  
  • Genocide on Timed Stages 13 and 18 (2 Bonuses)
  • Low-Levels Bonus on Stage 3 (1 Bonuses)
  • No Damage on Stage 3 (1 Bonuses)

In our Raid Mode play we completed 155 Bonuses. Once we were at 150, we did stop pushing to find other Bonuses we could get, but achieved a few in attempting S-Rank runs, and did complete the 150 prior to completing The Ghost Ship (where we picked up the Low Level Bonus as well).

Starting with Abyss Stage 8, it becomes a great challenge to achieve S-Rank. You will probably need to start the permanent upgrades to your End Game weapons before you will be able to attains S-Rank on most of these Stages.

As indicated previously, our general weapon strategy gives a purpose to each of our weapon slots.

• Your Knife – you won’t use this often on Abyss Stages, but don’t forget you have it.
• Primary Weapon: Your go to weapon, needs to have some punch and be accurate – usually a handgun
• Secondary Weapon: Used sparingly when heavier damage is needed or for crowd control.
• Boss Killer: Hard hitting weapon (Shotgun, Magnum, Rifle, Handgun), Saved for things that need a big stick

In our runs using Jill #1 our end game weapons used on Abyss Stages were:

• PC356 “Sonic Assist” Level 46 (+26)
  
  • Damage 5 (+12%)
  • Long Magazine 9 (Load Capacity +90%)
  • Bind 5 (Stopping Power +200%)
  • Daze 5 (+120%)
  • Critical 4 (+40%)
  • Piercing 2 (+2)
• High Roller “Steady Hand” Level 46 (+29)
  
  • Damage 5 (+12%)
  • Long Magazine 8 (Load Capacity +80%)
  • Daze 5 (+120%)
  • Bind 5 (Stopping Power +200%)
  • Critical 5 (+50%)
• Windham “Short Range} Level 47 (+17)
  
  • Damage 6 (+15%)
  • Gluttony 2 (All Ammo Available)
  • Auto Loader 2 (Auto-Reload)
  • Narrow 2 (Scatter -10deg)
  • Burst 2 (2-Shot Burst)

Primary Weapon: PC356 Handgun:
Our PC356 is a basic weapon. It can easily be purchased. The upgrades are not that unusual or hard to come by either. The Long Magazine 9 is nice – but really just use the largest one you have. Many people use the Government handguns for the added fire power, but since we were buying permanent upgrades for the weapon we felt the 6 slot customization was much more critical than Fire Power or Firing Rate which could be infinitely upgraded. Piercing was critical to us for crowd control and central to how I play, trying to establish firing lines that bottle neck groups into killing zones. We made it a “Sonic Assisted” weapon, giving it a wider hit-zone and even more daze and stopping power.

Secondary Weapon: High Roller Machinegun:
Having a 5 slot High Roller was a great find and lucky. The high roller comes with natural piercing and a wide hit-zone, which makes it the ideal machinegun for crowd control (and “panic shooting”). Making it a “Steady Hand” with a permanent upgrade helped keep the spraying to a minimum and upped the already high critical hit rate. If you cannot find one with 5 custom slots, remove the custom parts applied from the bottom up (i.e. Critical then Bind). Don’t settle for a High Roller with less than 3 customization slots.

Boss Killer: Windham Shotgun
Obviously the other shotguns come with more punch – and in fact we did find a level 47 Drake with 6 custom slots, but it came after we had already poured millions into our Windham so it would have required more farming to upgrade a second shotgun.

What was critical to completing S-Rank on the Abyss Stages was damage and firing rate. While both of these can be gained through permanent weapon upgrades, we found that a combination of Narrow 2 + Burst 2 put us over the top of what was needed to rock Norman in Stage 20 hard enough to assure smooth Blink transitions. Must of our upgrades were then spent on firing rate.

Gluttony 2 & Auto Loader 2… yes, these are very rare upgrades. They can only be found farming the Ghost Ship. They are not necessary to complete S-Rank on the 20 Abyss Stages. These upgrades are numbered based on the type of weapon they use – so you have to find the exact match to the type of boss killer weapon you are going to use.

Until you have an Auto Loader that matches your weapon there are two options – use Full Burst and keep the magazine of your weapon small, or use a Long Magazine to increase the capacity of the weapon. In our case we found it hard to control a shotgun with full burst on it, and the Burst 2 upgrade worked perfectly.

Gluttony was our signal that we could complete the Ghost Ship. Prior to that we tended to use either a specific type of damage upgrade (such as Giant Rabbit’s Foot, Dehumanizer, etc…) based on the Bosses we would encounter on a stage. Or just throw a Critical boost in there if you don’t want to bother swapping in and out with each stage change.

You Need to get Genocide in order to get S-Rank.
This may not be strictly true – however, in our experience it was certainly the deciding factor. On runs we could complete in under 10 minutes, shooting over 80%, with very little damage in our End Game gear, we were still getting A-Ranks… Until we got the Genocide bonus as well. Even though the times were of course slower, the results were S-Rank.

The one exception to this was Stage 15 – Zenobia. On this huge level we had to make sure we cleared a significant portion of the ship and at least two of the major fight zones (Bridge, Promenade, Casino, Upper Cabins balcony, Solarium) in order to get the S-Rank, but it wasn’t a full Genocide run.

Don’t Use the Elevator Exploit on Stage 16 – Airstrip.
Using the Door Exploit and the Elevator Exploit things didn’t spawn and die quick enough to get S-Rank for us. We limited the Door Exploit to a single exit and re-enter – but that was not enough. Eventually we had to not use the Elevator Exploit. Instead we ran to the small elevated platform at the farthest corner from the Elevator. Getting to the center of that platform makes you mostly invulnerable to the wolves. It can get very crowded though with hunters and Ooze. When it gets to be too much – jump to the near by platform, flip, and fire away. That small platform is your best bet for fast clearing and the S-Rank – but you have to be able to it without taking too much damage.

Stage 20 Tips:
Follow guide in section 9.2 and keep upgrading your weapons. The key for us was to use “Autoloader” and “Burst 2” upgrades on our level 47 Windham shotgun. This along with several power and firing rate upgrades to the weapon meant that once we were consistently hitting Norman in the heart before attacks, that we did enough damage to always assure he would blink attack and not directly charge us in the later stages of the battle.

Equally important was an upgraded High Roller machine gun which could kill Rachel and the Oozes in the first wave quickly enough to still have some B.O.W. grenades to trap the two Scagdead and hit them with all 14 Shock Grenades. This assured we got to the battle with Norman with enough firepower to close it out.

Completing The Ghost Ship is the final step for a reason. This is the only time you will face level 60 foes, that coupled with no natural ammunition nor health herb drops makes this by far the most challenging of the stages to complete. Completing this solo means your character must be at max level with equally impressive upgraded weapons.

If you have been following our guide, you will be familiar with making farming runs on the ship in order to obtain the weapons you are now using. So you should have a clear understanding of the real challenge of the Stage being access to ammunition (and maybe health). But you are compensating using Ammunition Magnets and Fertilizer upgrades on at least one of your weapons.

You will want to run this Stage at player level 49.
This may seem to be counter intuitive, because you are certainly Player Level 50, and every level helps with the damage taken and the damage given… HOWEVER, if you attempt this Stage at Player Level 50 you will face an additional boss wave in the final battle. You can certainly consider this a challenge and attempt to complete the Ghost Ship as player level 50, but I would highly recommend that you complete it as level 49 before attempting the additional challenge of completing it at Player Level 50.

As indicated previously, our general weapon strategy gives a purpose to each of our weapon slots.

• Your Knife – you will want to use this a lot
• Primary Weapon: Your go to weapon, needs to harvest ammunition and green herbs constantly
• Secondary Weapon: Used sparingly and is primarily your ammunition dump for the boss killer
• Boss Killer: Hard hitting weapon (Shotgun, Magnum, Rifle, Handgun), Saved for things that need a big stick

In our runs using Jill #1 our end game weapons used on the Ghost Ship have a very different loadout. These are very specific changes that were essential getting to the end fight with sufficient fire power to beat Norman.

• PC356 “Sonic Assist” Level 46 (+26)
  
  • Damage 5 (+12%)
  • Long Magazine 9 (Load Capacity +90%)
  • Brass Knuckles 2 (Physical Damage +50%)
  • Ammo Magnet 4 (Ammo Drop Rate 28%)
  • Fertilizer 3 (herb Drop Rate 25%)
  • Piercing 2 (+2)
• High Roller “Steady Hand” Level 46 (+29)
  
  • Damage 5 (+12%)
  • Long Magazine 8 (Load Capacity +80%)
  • Daze 5 (+120%)
  • Bind 5 (Stopping Power +200%)
  • Ammo Magnet 4 (Ammo Drop Rate 28%)
• Windham “Short Range} Level 47 (+17)
  
  • Damage 6 (+15%)
  • Gluttony 2 (All Ammo Available)
  • Auto Loader 2 (Auto-Reload)
  • Narrow 2 (Scatter -10deg)
  • Burst 2 (2-Shot Burst)

Boss Killer: Windham Shotgun:
What you absolutely must have for your Boss Killer: Gluttony and Auto-Loader. You may be able to complete the Ghost Ship without them – but you will have to farm and upgrade your weapon many many more times. Just farm the Ghost Ship as described earlier in the guide until you have versions of these upgrades that match your chosen Boss Killer weapon.

You do not have to use a shotgun as your boss killer. In fact a Rifle is probably better if you are good with it (I am not good at using a rife in close combat). I DO NOT recommend a Magnum simply because you WILL NOT have access to a Gluttony 5 if you are doing this Solo Find only. Some People use a heavily upgraded Government handgun with full burst, and that certainly makes sense.

If you do use a Shotgun, you hopefully will find an M3, Hydra, or Drake that will probably work better than our Windham. You will also need a slot to tighten up the spread to make sure all the slugs are on target (Narrow 2), and I would suggest either having a tiny magazine with Full Burst or limiting it to Burst 2.

With Gluttony, you boss killer will use all of the ammunition available in all of your pouches, even the ammunition for the weapons in your stash. Thus your “pouch” for this weapon is a total of (700+280+140+112+84 = 1316 rounds). Gluttony will start to drain the pouches of other weapons when its native pouch runs dry. The order of preference is:

• Handgun – 280 rounds
• Machinegun – 700 rounds
• Shotgun – 140 rounds
• Rifle – 112 rounds
• Magnum – 84 rounds

If you can also find a Cornucopia upgrade for any of your weapons, then you will essentially have a limitless supply of ammunition. At which point Genocide becomes a real possibility on the Ghost Ship. Many have stated that a Cornucopia is required for the Ghost Ship, however, we simply never found one.

Primary Weapon: PC356 Handgun
You will note that we removed three of the powerful upgrades from our PC356 and replaced them with a boost to physical attacks and boost to ammunition and herb drops. Without the Ammo Magnet and Fertilizer upgrades, you WILL NOT have enough health or ammunition when you get to the final area of the Ghost Ship. Period. End of Story… Even with the Ammo Magnet, you MUST use your knife for a large number of foes, and the Brass Knuckles become critical.

You may want to swap either the Damage or Long Magazine for a Fangs upgrade as this will allow you to use the weapon to heal rather than having to use a green herb. However, the heal rate may be a bit slow if you take heavy damage.

You MUST have your primary weapon with these three upgrades readied 99% of the time. Never run around with the other weapons readied. Only ready the other weapons when you have a specific intention of using them. Even if you have a cornucopia available, as the fill rate for cornucopia is a bit slow.

This weapon does not have to be a handgun, in fact we’ve seen some players use a 3 slot machinegun for this purpose.

Secondary Weapon: High Roller Machinegun
For our play style a machinegun was a good choice for a secondary weapon as we found it particularly useful against Scarmiglione, Scagdead, and Hunters. Since the Machinegun pouch is providing 700 of the 1,316 rounds for your Boss Killer with Gluttony installed, you want to be very careful about the use of it as it can quickly deplete your ammunition stores. Swapping out the Critical damage upgrade with an Ammo Magnet helps slow the loss, but you still need to be very careful using this weapon.

The path you will take to complete the Ghost Ship WILL NOT BE the same path you have become familiar with from farming. Your goal is to avoid as many fights as possible, saving ammunition and health for the final confrontation on the Helipad on the main deck of the ship. Our recommended path takes advantage of some exploits that are specific to the Ghost Ship in order to get keys that will allow you to bypass expensive and draining confrontations. You should arrive at the Deck with the following resources:

• 14 Grenades of all four types (52 total)
• 14 Green Herbs
• Boss Killer pouch near full (Using Gluttony – 1316 minus any used Primary Weapon rounds)
• Machinegun pouch full (700 rounds)
• Your primary weapon pouch mostly full (around 110 handgun rounds)

Your path through The Ghost Ship is altered from the farming path almost immediately, but will still seem very familiar as you will touch on three of the same parts of the ship you play through when farming. The order is different, and you will have to face an area you previously just skipped through. However, the goal remains the same – get through this quickly and cleanly. When you complete this section any ammunition you used in the Kitchen and Cargo Bay should be refilled by the Casino.

• Get the elevator key from the Kitchen – you should attempt to do this using very little ammunition from your primary weapon.
• Take the elevator to the Bilge area and kill the few enemies here using only your knife only.
• Dive into the Bilge and head toward the Lab Area by way of the cargo bay.
• Kill everything in the sunken cargo bay using mostly your knife. You can use some ammunition for your primary weapon to kill the two small Scagdead and Purple Crowned Tricornes. Immediately heal if you are hit and have 14 herbs.
• RETURN to the Bilge – DO NOT open the underwater door to the Lab Area.
• Climb up to the Casino – kill everything in the casino using only your knife – this should refill your ammunition and healing herbs.
• Exit the Casino into the Grand Hall (uses one key)

You should have received a key in the Cargo Bay and the Casino, but used one to exit the Casino. The goal here is to get a second key that will allow you to skip right to the end. Use your Primary weapon to kill all of the foes, but try not to waste any. You should come out of this with at least 60 handgun rounds remaining and all of your health.

• Use the Elevator in the Grand Hall to ascend to the Observation Deck.
• Use the Elevator Exploit by exiting the elevator, getting around the corner slightly then running back to the elevator.
• Keep all foes from getting in the elevator with you… Small and normal size Hunters do fit…
• When the Draghignazzo comes simply wait for charges to end and shoot the soft spots – DO NOT leave the elevator
• When everything is dead, exit and kill the yellow fish
• Return to the Grand Hall in the elevator with a 2nd Key

At this point you are in the Grand Hall with two keys… but three locked doors stand between you and the main deck. You will use one key to enter first part of the promenade, get another key from a Scagdead there and use it and the remaining key to skip by the huge promenade battle. You should complete this encounter with your knife only – refilling at least some of your primary weapon ammunition. Try to have 13 green herbs in the end as well. Though you won’t be using it, make sure your primary weapon is readied for the ammunition and herb drops to trigger. If injured, heal immediately unless you have less than 12 herbs.

• Use a key to enter the promenade “air lock”.
• When you open the other side of the “air lock” stay in the enclosed space – it is not as good as an elevator, but…
• Use your knife to kill the wolves as they try to enter the “air lock”
• When you hear the Scagdead calling or when most of the wolves are dead, exit the “air lock”
• Engage the wolves running up and down the stairs avoiding the small Scagdead
• Eventually running in circles will trap the Scagdead against the rails trying to get to you
• Finish the Scagdead off with your knife to replace the key you used.
• Use a key to enter the long hallway that leads to the main part of the promenade
• Jump off the balcony to the lower floor, run up the stairs, and pass through the lift gate (avoiding anything you encounter)
• Run quickly down the hall to the balcony outside the room where the Comms Officer appears in the campaign
• Jump off the balcony and run to the locked double doors in the back of the Promenade
• Use your last key to get through the door as quickly as possible
• Use the elevator at the end of this hallway to get to the deck
• In the lounge kill the little yellow fish for an additional green herb

You are about to enter an 8 wave battle that makes Abyss Stage 20 seem like a stroll in the park… But you should have arrived here with 100% of your Boss Killer and Machinegun ammunition (over 800 rounds) as well as a good portion of your primary weapon’s ammunition (around 100 to 200 additional rounds) as well as most of your healing herbs and all of your grenades.

Wave 1: Hunters and Scaminglore

• The most immediate threat are the half Scaminglore – so get Shock Grenades on them quickly
• After that the faster moving Hunters are the issue, one will die quickly, the other is crowned and takes a bit
• The crowned Scaminglore takes a lot of damage – I found it reasonable to use your secondary weapon here

Wave 2: Chunk Ooze, Ooze, and Pincer Ooze

• Quickly use B.O.W grenades to get the chunks to blow – as close to the others as you can.
• The rest are reasonably easy to dispatch
• Try to be close to the container when they die

Wave 3: Two Scagdead

• You can throw B.O.W grenades over the rail near the front of the Container (onto a deck not into the ocean)
• The Scagdead will get trapped on the rail trying to get to them, use your secondary and even Boss Killer to dispatch

Wave 4: Three Draghignazzo

• Target the smallest and non crowned with standard grenades first
• When you are down to just one, use the container to get it to shuffle after you
• More grenades and your primary weapon should be enough

Wave 5: Globsters and Tricorne

• target the Globsters first with any remaining shock grenades
• Try not to get in a cross fire with the Tricorne – use the container

Wave 6: Wolves and Invisible Hunters
I find this to be the biggest ammunition dump.

• The Wolves are not much of an issue but will keep you off balance trying target the Hunters
• Any B.O.W. grenades left (probably not many) can help keep the wolves busy
• Kill the weaker Hunter as quickly as possible then focus on hunting the remaining hunter
• Use the Boss Killer to finish it if you can get it knocked down

Wave 7: Four Rachels
Oddly the easiest of the waves.

• Use Pulse Grenades to stun all four, Try to get them grouped up
• Target the nearest with your knife and chop away
• Get a charged attack in before they come all the way out of the stun
• Rinse and repeat: Grenade, Knife, Charged attack

Wave 8: Norman

• Treat this Norman exactly the way you do all other Normans

Wave 9: Yellow Fish

• Not a threat, just kill them by any means
• Pick up two weapon cases and two illegal custom parts