The Complete Guide To... : R jZ5 ,5j#5MMMKL9LZPMM#MMM KNMMMMMRZ2j595P72i;5i5HMMMM5 M@LXP2LPLX7LL59@PL;j7:::R5MP ; M@ZLPPP#MMMMKMMRL9Z27j;j:M ZinmMPLPLXMMi KMX9RL7;9M MMMX59HMM RMNMMMM MZPHMNj MLMRMPR XPMXKRKMjMR ZP9MM MMRN9KMZXHKMNKX9K#ZPi ;PMRMM XM 2@ MM9jMMMMj.M MMMiM M jM:K.MX2HX;M:XMLj MZMj M,7:, M7 ;K#2MMMM MM M M M #9MMM i2XMMM7 @MKN,:72Z9ji H,M M MNM MM MMHMH5R MM R m.M X M MM 2Z9RX ZM9P : :L. M,HQ# M K7,X HPM 9 2M7i MM9RX@MXZLM @.2M RM29,Z9# 9M7K i Mj#XM5#:M M .LPX7MK M M@MM :j MMMN#P9M9MM MRMM 5MMLMM7 NMMM7j M MMLZRMj9M 7,MM@;M ,MMMMMMMM :ijL, Z27 ,ZiZ PZN ,5PR 95LK ,55PM ; iMMMMMMMk: :@MZPHKMMMM NMNK9HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM5Z 9NMM9MMM#MMMMM5M5 j . @ _______________________________________________________________________________ Contra FAQ/Walkthrough Written by Pseudonym Version 1.00 Email: shdwswrm@hotmail.com _______________________________________________________________________________ T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S .................................Revision History.............................. .....................................Copyright................................. ...................................Introduction................................ .....................................Storyline................................. ...............................Game Basics/Mechanics........................... ....................................Walkthrough................................ ......................................Secrets.................................. ........................................FAQ.................................... ......................................Closing.................................. _______________________________________________________________________________ =============================================================================== Revision History =============================================================================== Version 1.00 July 29th, 2003 Initial version. Completed the walkthrough and game basics/mechanics sections. The rest of the guide will be added in a future update. =============================================================================== Copyright =============================================================================== This document is licensed for public use according to the GNU Free Documentation License. If you'll read the license, you'll see that it allows for inclusion within another work, provided that the other work in turn maintains the license. Some key parts of the license: This license applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms of this license. Such a notice grants a world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration, to use that work under the conditions stated herein. The "document", below, refers to any such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and is addressed as "you". You accept the license if you copy, modify or distribute the work in a way requiring permission under copyright law. A "modified version" of the document means any work containing the document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with modifications and/or translated into another language. You may copy and distribute a modified version of the document under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the modified version under precisely this License, with the modified version filling the role of the document, thus licensing distribution and modification of the modified version to whoever possesses a copy of it. To summarize, you may use my guide in part or whole, without any additional permission from myself, except for the bottom examples, provided that the resulting guide is similarly released under the GNU FDL. If this is a major problem for you, I would be happy to give you separate permission to use parts of the guide, provided that I am given credit and a link to my guide is provided. I expressly forbid this guide being used in a direct way to gain money for themselves (hack writers, incentive to buy something else, etc.), but use in a indirect way (pay-to-access sites, etc.) must obtain my explicit permission before you use it. Thanks. Copyright 2003 Tim Courchene aka Pseudonym. =============================================================================== Introduction =============================================================================== In 1989, Konami released what is today an absolute NES classic - Contra. It has a few rough edges, but the gameplay speaks for it's self. It isn't "toss-the-controller-against-the-wall" (such as Ghosts 'n Ghouls for example) difficult, nor is it easy, it actually has a good balance of difficulty that doesn't have very many cheap points that require a good deal of luck - this game is all about skill... and memorization, well, mostly skill. But enough about that, this guide will attempt to walk you through the game, with as little deaths as possible (hopefully). It was written for both beginners and veterans alike, so that there's little confusion. Well, that's it, and I hope this guide's helpful. Also, I know that the guide isn't complete. I'll fix that as soon as possible. Anyway. Enjoy. =============================================================================== Storyline =============================================================================== Story from the Contra manual: In 1957 a large object from outer space crashed into Earth's Amazon basin, near the ruins of a lost Mayan civilization. Scientists worldwide heralded the incident as a trivial cosmic occurrence, and thus the collision was soon forgotten. Now thirty years later, rumors of an evil force have swept into the Pentagon's front office and tales from frightened villagers of a hideous being with an army of alien henchmen are sending chills down the spines of top military brass. Unwilling to upset current political stability, an all-out assault on the region has been overruled and instead, two of America's most cunning, courageous and ruthless soldiers from the Special Forces elite commando squad have been selected to seek out and destroy these alien intruders. Congratulations, pal, you're one of the chosen. But before you take pride in being the best, be warned. Your about to come face to face against Red Falcon, the cruelest life-form in the galaxy. He arrived on Earth thirty years ago (that is six months time in an alien's life) to establish a foothold from which he will attempt to conquer our world and then use it as a stepping stone toward his ultimate fiendish goal: domination of the universe. Needless to say, playing hero won't be easy. But you have no choice - you must be a hero. Because if you fail, life as we know it will cease to exist, and the vile Red Falcon will rule forever. If you succeed, well...it doesn't matter, because I doubt you will... =============================================================================== Game Basics/Mechanics =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Player Options ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Single Player: Self-explanatory. You play through the game alone. Two Players: You play through the game with a partner on the same screen, sharing all the resources in the game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Controls ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Start Button: Pauses the game. Select Button: Not used. B Button: Fires your weapon. A Button: Not used. Directional Pad: Moves your character around the screen. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weapons ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weapon: Shotgun Usefulness: Below Average The initial weapon you start the game with. It's pretty bad, so you'll want to find something else quickly or you'll be in trouble all throughout the game. It's a little stronger per shot than the Machine Gun, but it requires that you manually press the B Button for fire, this is it's main weakness. Besides that, has good range as it's bullets can reach all the way across the screen, but can't easily hit enemies at diagonals because you have to manually press the B Button to fire and some enemies will manage to slip between the bullets. Weapon: Machine Gun Usefulness: Above Average The second best weapon in the game. Not the strongest weapon per shot but it's strength lies in the fact that you can just hold down the B Button and let 'er rip - it's the only weapon that can do this. It also has good range as it's bullets can reach all the way across the screen, and can hit enemies easily at diagonals because of it's rapid fire action. If you have the Shotgun or some other weapon besides the Spread Gun, grab this weapon right away. Weapon: Laser Gun Usefulness: Below Average-Average Not a bad weapon in certain situations, like during some boss battles and stages, but not really recommended to keep if you can find the other weapons. It has a thin little stream of energy that behaves like a very rapid fire Shotgun, but has little range or versatility to hit enemies at diagonals or otherwise. Another one of it's weaknesses is once you fire it, you have to wait for the beam that was fired to leave the screen or hit something to fire again. You can fire it again while another beam is on the screen, but it will cancel out the first beam and send out another one. Sucks, I know. Weapon: Flamethrower Usefulness: Average Like the Laser Gun, this one isn't a bad choice overall, but there are better weapons out there. When you fire it, the fireball that comes out moves slowly across the screen, but it's pretty strong. It doesn't have much in the way of versatility due to it's slowness, but the wide arc the fireball travels will allow you to hit enemies easier. Still it isn't worth to have this weapon if you can help it. Stay away from it. Weapon: Spread Gun Usefulness: Extremely High If you've ever played Contra, you'd know that this is the weapon to have. It fires at a wide arc (roughly 60 degrees from the point it's fired from) so it can easily hit any enemy and it does great damage at close range, and moderate damage at far range. Basically you can just stand and fire in most cases, and the weapon will do all the work. Don't lose this weapon and you'll have the game finished in no time flat. Powerup: Falcon (Bomb) Usefulness: Below Average This thing is nearly useless, in my opinion. When you touch it, it'll destroy all the enemies on the screen. While that sounds good, it only appears on stage 5, and when there aren't many enemies to kill. It could have been better, if there were more of them, but as it is, it isn't very good at all. Powerup: Barrier Usefulness: Average Like the Falcon, this doesn't appear very often, but it's generally more useful than the former though. When you grab it, it'll protect you for roughly ten seconds from almost everything in the game, except holes in the ground, which you would die anyways. It's not bad, I just wish there were more of them. Powerup: Rapid Fire Usefulness: Below Average Unlike the other two powerups, this one appears somewhat frequently, but, unfortunately, it's effect is nearly useless. It acts to slightly speed up the firing rate of certain weapons, specifically the Spread Gun and the Machine Gun, but I haven't seen any change in any of the other weapons. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Enemies ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Soldier: Regular cannon fodder of your guns, but they're incredibly persistant and annoying because they have the ability, like the birds in Ninja Gaiden, to appear at exactly the wrong time. In the early stages, they just move and occasionally jump to get onto another ledge, then head off the screen. In the later stages, they'll start firing at you, and even later in the game, start ducking and firing at you. Turret 1: These things only appear in stages one and three. They're initially dormant when you're not around, but as soon as you get close enough, they'll open up and start firing at you in the standard eight directions. As soon as you move far enough away from them, they'll close up again. Turret 2: These also only appear in stages one and three. You can't see them at first, but when you get close enough, they'll pop up and start firing at you. They're pretty weak though, because they can only fire in one direction - forward, so you can just duck or move under them and fire to destroy them easily. Sniper: These annoying enemies are, unfortunately, a mainstay all throughout the game, except the last stage. They usually just stand in place until you get near, then they'll start firing at you. They have pretty good aim, so you should kill them as quickly as possible. B-Turret 1: The main defence for the stage one boss. All these things do is lob large shells at the ground, and are no real threat to you if you stay far enough away and just fire at them. Once in a while, they'll lob one a little farther than usual, so watch out for that. B-Turret 2: The main defence for the base stages. They can only fire in four directions, but they're nevertheless annoying when they mix with the various soldiers also defending the place. It's usually best to destroy these turrets before they become a problem. Grenadier Soldier: These guys also defend the bases in stages two and four, and they come in two flavors: fast and slow. The fast ones run across the screen, throwing grenades at you, and the slow ones stop every few seconds, but don't start tossing grenades until they line up with you. Rolling Grenadier Soldier: Another defender of the bases stages. These guys run across the screen, then usually run back across the other side, dropping grenades that will slowly roll towards you. They're pretty easy to kill, so you should kill them quickly. B-Turret 3: The main defender for the bosses of stage two and four. They fire three bullets simultaneously, one forward, one diagonally left, and one diagonally right, but they're weak at the corners, where the bullets can't cover a turret from being fired at. Scuba Soldier: These guys only appear on stages three and five. You can see them, but you can't hit them at first, and they won't hit you either. They'll only start firing their shells at you when you get above them. The shells will split into three then hit the ground, but they're still easy to avoid. The only real way you can kill these guys is with the Spread Gun, then go into a corner and start firing until they get into the Scuba Soldier's path. Red Sniper: Appears along with the Winged Soldier to form most of the defence for the stage four boss. They appear from the side of the screen, move part way across the screen, then fire three bullets each at you. Like the Snipers, they have pretty good aim, so you should kill them quickly. Winged Soldier: Appears along with the Red Sniper. These guys just move across the screen until they're level with you, then they jump down at you. They're very easy to kill since they'll be in range of any weapon you have. Tree Grenadier: These guys only appear on stage five, and attack by throwing grenades from behind the trees. You can't kill them, since they're behind trees; you can only try to avoid their grenades and move on. They typically appear along with Gunners to make your day miserable. =============================================================================== Walkthrough =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stage 1: Jungle ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You start out on the ledge, but you can either go into the water (it won't kill you or anything like that) or stay on the ledge. I'd recommend that you stay on top, it's easier and you can get more weapons. Anyway, head to the right, kill the few soldiers that will inevitably appear along the way all throughout this stage (and the game), then kill the sniper guarding the item container, or just fire diagonally at them as some people like to do to kill them. Either way, the sniper should be dead, and you should get a Machine Gun from the item container for your troubles. A little further ahead, an item capsule containing a Rapid Fire will fly by, get it and move on. Another sniper will be waiting for you at the next lower ledge, so take him out, then jump, NOT walk across the bridge to your right. If you try to walk across, you'll fall into the water. Another bridge is ahead so do the same thing, and you'll make it across easily. Right after that you'll be greeted by a turret and a sniper, kill the sniper, but don't move any further until you destroy the turret. After you do, go right again and you'll come across a pair of snipers hiding in the jungle, move close to them, duck and kill both of them when they appear. Not far past that spot an item capsule will fly by, be sure to destroy it and you'll get the vaunted Spread Gun. You'll be the stereotypical Rambo-type killing machine now that you have the Spread Gun. Anyway, kill the sniper on the upper ledge than drop to the lower ledge where the turret and the item container are located. Destroy the turret but don't get the contents of the item container if you have the Spread Gun. Now, drop into the water and wade to the right onto the lower ledge and there'll be another turret waiting for you. Destroy it, then onto the ledge to the right and destroy the other turret when it pops up. Jump to the narrow ledge then to the upper ledge to the left, and take out the turret that appears on the right side of the screen. Continue to the right and pick off the sniper on the opposite ledge. If you lost the Spread Gun previously, destroy the item container under the ledge to get another one. Yes! After that an item capsule will appear that contains another Rapid Fire, get it if you want. Moving along... keep going right, and jump up to the top ledge, but don't shoot the two item capsules that appear if you have the Spread Gun. You might want to though, if you're using the Shotgun, one of the item capsules contains a Laser Gun, the other contains a Rapid Fire. Mosey on to the right, destroy the turret that appears, then jump onto the next ledge over the pit, and destroy the other turret under the upper ledge on the other side of the pit. Now jump over the pit to the upper ledge, fall off the right side to the lowest ledge and destroy the turret near you. All you have to do now is go right and jump to the highest ledge again and you'll be at the boss. You'll know you're there because a siren will go off in the background, plus you'll see a huge structure on the right. BOSS: Base Defenses 1 Kill the sniper pirched on top the structure, then drop to left edge of the upper-middle ledge near the base to destroy the guns in the midsection or if you're the more careful type, stay on the middle ledge and fire until the front gun is destroyed, then jump to the upper-middle ledge and destroy the other gun. Either way, after the both guns are destroyed, go to the lower ledge and destroy the door to finish the stage. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stage 2: Base 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This stage is a lot different than the first one, as in it's semi-3d perspective and it's unique objective. The idea here is to destroy each of the doors by disabling the locks (the flashing red lumps) on each of them. Defending the doors are turrets (as usual) and soldiers that appear from the sides. Usually the soldiers are just fodder for your guns but they get so numberous at times that you'll have to duck to avoid getting hit. That's a hint, by the way. And the red soldiers will drop a weapon when their killed, but the weapon varies from room to room. The only other problem... well, their not really a problem, more like a nuisance, are the soldiers that throw grenades, and later roll grenades at you. Thrown grenades should just be dodged as neccessary, but rolling grenades should either be destroyed if you have a strong weapon (spread, laser, or flamethrower) or jumped over from the left or the right, never jump straight over a rolling grenade. Another tip is to stand at the extreme right or left if some soldier starts rolling grenades at you, they'll rarely reach the far sides of room and you should be safe. One final tip (I swear) is not to press forward while the door is still there, you'll get a shock from the electric current which leaves you motionless for a few seconds. That's about it, lets get on to the walkthrough. [o] = lock [t] = turret ||| = grenade slots lock/turret in center = level with your gun. lock/turret near top = above you, you'll have to jump and fire to hit it. lock/turret near bottom = below you, you'll have to duck and fire to hit it. Door 1: _____________________ | | The lock is level with you so just concentrate on it | | until it's destroyed. There won't be much resistance | [o] | yet so you should have an easy time here. | | |_____________________| Door 2: _____________________ | | The lock is on the left and a turret is on the right. | | Destroy the turret first, then go after the lock. | [o] [t] | Again, there isn't much resistance, so it should be | | easy. |_____________________| Door 3: _____________________ | | This door is very easy to destroy, as seen in the | | drawing. Just move to the center, duck and fire away | [t] [t] | away until the lock is destroyed. Don't even bother | [o] | with the turret, but you can if you want to. |_____________________| Door 4: _____________________ | | The lock is level with your gun and there's a turret | [t] | above it. The slots below the lock are where rolling | [o] | grenades will start coming out once in a while. Stand | ||||||||||||||||| | center with the lock and fire away. If rolling |_____________________| grenades start appearing, they should miss you. And don't bother with the turret, just work on the lock. Door 5: _____________________ | | Here it is, the final room, and it isn't that hard | [t] | even though it's quite well guarded. The best way to | [t] [o] [t] | destroy the door is to destroy the two turrets to the | | right and left of the lock, then concentrate on the |_____________________| lock itself until it blows up. Forget about the upper turret, it's just a waste of time, in my opinion. BOSS: Terminal 1 Like the stage, this boss is fought in the same left to right manner perspective. As soon as you're able to move, head to the extreme left or right of the screen quickly, you'll soon see why. Probably not long after you do this, the turrets above will activate and start firing bullets in groups of three. Depending on which direction you when, you should stand a little to the left of the left turret and start firing at it, conversely, if you went to other side, stand a little to the right of the right turret and start firing at that one. You'll notice that you'll be able to hit it while they can't hit you, even though both of them are still firing at you, so destroy the one closest to you then move to the other side and do the same thing. Now destroy the all the rest of the nodes (as I call them) to activate the real boss. It'll appear along the long black section near the top of the screen and start firing large orbs at you. If you have the Spread Gun, this battle will be easy, just stand in the center of the floor and fire away, none of it's orbs should get close to you, and if they do you can just move. If you don't have the Spread Gun, this battle is a little tougher but still easy. Stand and fire, and if you can, destroy the orbs. If you can't, just move to get out of it's path and fire at the boss again. Keep doing this until it's destroyed. It won't take long. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stage 3: Waterfall ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the only stage in the game that goes upward instead of to the right, and it's pretty easy to boot! I'd rate it as roughly the same difficulty as the previous stage, only this one is a lot more fun. We don't techically go near the waterfall (this stage could, possible, be more appropriate with the name Mountain or something), albeit, the few times you get to see it through the huge gaping holes in the rock. Anyway... head upward, avoiding the rocks that fall onto the ledges from time to time until you reach the item container, although I wouldn't recommend getting it (it contains a flamethrower). Continue upwards an there'll be another item container here, it contains a Laser, which I don't recomment get at all. Keep going up until you reach the sniper on the far side side of the screen. After you kill him keep going up, ignore the Scuba Guy in the waterfall, or, if you have the Spread Gun, position yourself on the far ledge of any ledge until your shots are able to cross into the Scuba Guy's path, then wait for him to surface, and blast him. When the screen scrolls up again, there'll be a turret in the top right corner, so quickly jump to the upper right ledge and destroy the turret either from the bottom or the left (if you have a Spread Gun). If you accidently activated the turret before you were able to get to the upper ledge, you'll have to destroy it from the bottom, where they're be plenty of Soldiers coming from the right. Once you get past that turret, there'll be a long bridge bridging the two ledges on the left and the right. There's two small fires moving back and forth across the bridge, so you'll have to cross somewhat carefully. When you reach the ledge where the bridge is, two item capsules will come up from the bottom to the top of the screen - one of them is a Rapid Fire, the other one is... I forget, sorry. Unfortunately, the turret that didn't activate while you were below it will now, so you'll have to destroy it, and if you don't have the Spread Gun, you'll have to stand up and fire at it between the turret's bullets. And, if you didn't already, you should stand under the upper ledge to avoid getting hit by the Soldiers that will inevitably come from above. Once it's gone, go to the left and continue upwards on the moving rock to get to the next ledge. Now, jump to activate the turret, then destroy it, and jump again to the moving rock to the right. Ignore the Scuba Guy to the left and continue up, but you can kill him the same way you did the other one. If you don't kill him, watch out for it's bullets when they land. You'll be safe on the right side of the screen and on the same ledge as the item container. Once you get the Spread Gun, destroy the turret above you, then jump up to make the screen scroll again. Destroy the turret on the long ledge quickly, because Soldiers will almost definately start swarming in from the right to pester you. Now, jump to activate the two turrets above you, ignore the item container to the left, it's a Machine Gun. After you've destroyed the turrets, jump to the opposite ledge, and continue up to the moving rock (last one, I swear), then to the ledge above. You're near the end of the stage now, so enjoy the change in scenery while it lasts. Continue up and kill the Sniper waiting on the left ledge above, then keep going and you'll be at the boss. BOSS: Mechanical Alien-Thingy Run to a corner and start firing at the arm nearest you. Both arms should now start firing rather large fireballs at you, but they're easy to dodge, later on the head will shoot out three fireballs in different directions. Concentrate all your firepower on one of the arms, and dodge when neccessary, and it'll be destroyed. After that, concentrate on the other arm until it's destroyed too. Now, move a little to the left or right of the head and start firing at it. Like the previous boss, you can hit it while it can't hit you, if you're standing in the right spot. Do this until it blows up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stage 4: Base 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This stage is almost the same as the previous base stage, only harder and um... more rooms, and more enemies to deal with. One small difference though, the locks now have shields on them, and you'll have to remove them before the lock itself can be destroyed. Other than that, it's the same ol' thing as before. There's typically a lot more action happening here, in almost every room: more Soldiers, more Grenadiers, more rolling grenades and so forth. Because of this, the Spread Gun is invaluable here. If you lost the Spread Gun beforehand, it's going to mean a lot more dodging and moving around in general for you. That's about it... [o] = lock [t] = turret ||| = grenade slots lock/turret in center = level with your gun. lock/turret near top = above you, you'll have to jump and fire to hit it. lock/turret near bottom = below you, you'll have to duck and fire to hit it. Door 1: _____________________ | | Destroy both turrets to the left and right of the | | lock, then concentrate on the lock to move onto the | [t] [o] [t] | next room. | | |_____________________| Door 2: _____________________ | | This room is extremely easy, all the locks are on the | | bottom, so you can just duck, fire, and destroy each | | of locks with ease. | [o] [o] [o] [o] | |_____________________| Door 3: _____________________ | | The turret is at the very top, under the two locks. | [t] | You might want to destroy it - it isn't really | [o] [o] | neccessary, but it would save you some trouble ahead | | of time. Other than that, this room is standard fare. |_____________________| Door 4: _____________________ | | Same configuration as the previous room, except that | | all the turrets and locks have been moved down a | [t] | notch. Destroy the single turret, then duck and fire | [o] [o] | to destroy each lock. Easy. |_____________________| Door 5: _____________________ | | Destroy the single turret in the center, then work on | | the locks on either side of the turret. Nothing | [o] [t] [o] | special. | | |_____________________| Door 6: _____________________ | | The only thing of interest in this room are the slots | | at the bottom. Stand level with the lock and the | [o] | rolling grenades that come out of the slots should | ||||||||||||||||| | miss you. Duck when neccessary, but concentrate all |_____________________| your fire on the lock to destroy it easily. Door 7: _____________________ | | Destroy the turret quickly, then concentrate on the | [o] | lock above the turret. | [t] | | | |_____________________| Door 8: _____________________ | | Same configuration as the last room in the previous | [t] | base Destroy the two turrets to the left and right of | [t] [o] [t] | the lock quickly, then fire at the lock to destroy | | it. Ignore the turret above the lock. |_____________________| BOSS: Terminal 2 This boss is almost like the boss of the previous base, but with some key differences. For one, this one is a lot harder, and a real pain in the ass if you don't have the Spread Gun... and that's about it. Move a little to the left or right of the central turret and destroy the node blocking it, then try to destroy the turret itself as fast as you possibly can. There's one big problem though. Once every ten seconds or so, a group of soldiers will come out from the sides, and attack you. The first group are four red soldiers who move to your general area, and each fire three bullets at you. Move toward them while their still moving and kill them, quickly. You don't want them to fire at you if at all possible. The second group appear after the first group, and they're blue, winged soldiers who move to your general area and jump down on you. They're not as bad as the first group, but they should still be killed as soon as possible. This will repeat endlessly until you destroy the nodes and the turret at the center, then the real boss will appear. This time the boss is composed of four shadowy images that move along the top of the screen, occasionally intersecting each other. You can only hit the boss when two of the images intersect each other, when they do, they'll stop for a few seconds, then separate again. After they separate, they'll shoot small, quick orbs that also try to home in on you when they get near the bottom of the screen. They can be destroyed, but when you can't hit them, just jump over them when they swing in towards you. If you have the Spread Gun, this battle is very easy, just sit in the center and fire at the boss, but if you don't, it's going to take longer, but with some patience, you'll easily win. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stage 5: Snow Field ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This stage and the next stage are what I call the "make or break" point of the game. They're the toughest two stages in the game, in my opinion, and, particularly this one, introduce several new enemies that will pester you and generally make your day a living hell. Well, maybe not a living hell, but close enough, now on to the cast of new enemies: the Gunner - this fellow is a mainstay in the rest of the stages, except the last, and likes to appear in the most unlikely and annoying places. The Tree Grenadier - likes to throw grenades at you from behind a group of trees. Although you never actually see him, he also likes to annoy the hell out of you by appearing, like the Gunner, in the most unlikely and annoying places. The Gunner and the Tree Grenadier make good buddies and you'll see them together plenty of times all throughout this stage. ... and finally, the Tank, which, fortunately, only appear on this stage. They don't hide or anything like that, like the other two enemies, but come right up to you, fire a few rounds at you, then move forward again. If you don't destroy these guys quick enough, they'll run right over your sorry ass. So... anyway, enough about that, let's get on with the walkthrough. Head right, until you see a group of trees, then duck or you'll get pegged off by the Gunner waiting nearby. Moving right along, dodge the grenades that are being thrown at you from behind, then duck and destroy the other Gunner ahead. If a grenade looks like it's going to hit you, you're going to have to move somewhere else when the Gunner isn't firing or you'll get hit. Now that you're past that, jump to the upper ledge and grab the Machine Gun inside if you don't have the Spread Gun. After that, destroy the Gunner on the next ledge, then the lower ledge,then again on the upper ledge ahead. Not long after this, an item capsule will fly by with an Rapid Fire inside. You'll come to another group of tree then, so move along slowly, while avoiding the grenades. Right after that, another there'll be another bunch of Tree Grenadiers, move past them carefully, then jump to the ledge ahead, where there are more trees, but it's better than the lower ledge, where a Gunner is waiting. Jump off the edge of the ledge you're on, to the lower ledge where the item container is located. The item container has a Flamethrower inside, grab it if you want and move on. At the right, three item capsules will fly by across the screen from the left. The lowest one contains a Spread Gun, the middle one is a Rapid Fire, and the top one is a Falcon, the only one in the game. It'll destroy all the enemies on the screen, which is pretty good. Once you've collected them, continue to the right by jumping to each ledge ahead while avoiding the Scuba Guys in the water. Kill the Sniper at the last ledge after the water, and continue ahead until you reach the pipes. Once you go far enough to the right, the first Tank will appear, and guess what? You'll have to destroy it. When the screen stops scrolling and the Tank appears, move to the far left side of the screen, then a step or two forward. Once the Tank has stopped moving, it'll start firing several rounds of bullets in your general area, but they should miss you. Pump as much bullets into it as soon as possible, and you should destroy it before it's able to make road-kill out of you. Note that if you have the Shotgun, it's still possible to destroy the Tank before it kills you, but it's very hard and it hurts your hand (my hand anyway). Anyway, keep going and you'll reach good ol' terra firma soon, with a Gunner to greet you. Once you've killed him, you'll be back on the pipes with another Tank to deal with. Take care of it the same way you destroyed the other Tank, and you'll be fine. Right after, there'll be another Gunner and more Tree Grenadiers, then another ledge, then more Tree Grenadiers. Soon after, there'll be one last Gunner thrown in for good measure. The boss is right after this. BOSS: Flying-Thingy This boss isn't that strong or that hard for that matter, but it can be a very annoying little SOB if you don't have the Spread Gun. If you managed to hold on to the Spread Gun, just stand a little to the left or right of the center and fire away. You should be able to destroy it before it disappears. If you don't have the Spread Gun, it takes a little longer, but it's still easy. Like the strategy with the Spread Gun, stand a little to the left or right of the center and fire away until the little things the boss lets out from the top get near you, then start to jump over them two at a time, and you'll be fine. When the boss reappears, stand off center again and start firing away, and it should be dead before those little things are able to get near you again. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stage 6: Energy Zone ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to Energy Zone, the second of the "make or break" stages I talked about in the previous stage, although this one is possibly the tougher stage of the two. It even come with a catchy, energetic little tune. Yay! *hums the Energy Zone theme aloud* So, as I was saying, this stage is tough, but you can make it significantly easier if you follow this one rule: TAKE YOUR TIME. Running like Rambo through this stage will only get you killed more often. Now that I've got that out of the way, lets get on with the walkthrough. Move to the left and shoot diagonally any soldiers that come down from the step-like ledges ahead, then kill the sniper waiting near the item container inside the floor. After you kill him, you might want to grab the Machine Gun inside the item container if you don't have anything better. Moving on... destroy the Gunner on the opposite ledge, then fall off the side to the bottom and destroy the other Gunner waiting there. Continue on, and when you reach the break in the middle ledge, there'll be another Gunner, kill him and go right until you see the rather large hole along with the pipe above with the flame popping around. This is the stuff I told you that you should watch out for... no, not the pipe, the flame coming from the pipe; it'll shoot out as soon as you try to pass in front of it. To get over the hole without dying, you'll need to jump towards the flame until it shoots out at you, but not too far or you'll get killed. Now quickly jump to the other side while the flame retreats back into the pipe. Problem solved, right? No? Well, if you died, you might as well cross through the flame to the other ledge, then drop to the lower ledge afterwards. When you do, there'll be two Gunners waiting for you, destroy them both, and there'll be another flame gauntlet ahead. When you get close to the wall, start inching forward, then duck when flame comes at you or you'll be shish kabob. Wait for the flame to retreat, then quickly go closer to the flame's source. After the bottom flame retreats a second time, get ready to jump to the middle ledge when the middle flame goes out, then to the top when the top flame goes out. Fall down to the bottom on the other side and do it all over again... what fun. This next section is tricky, so listen up. First kill the Sniper on the other ledge, then inch forward until the flame above you starts shooting out, then jump to the other side just as it retreats. Resist the urge to go for the item container below, it's suicide as far as I'm concerned as I've never been able to get it consisantly without dieing. When you reach the other side of the flame, inch forward again until the flame at the far right starts shooting out. Wait for it to retreat, then make a break for the slightly lower ledge next to the flame's source and duck. Now, you'll have to wait for both the upper and the middle flames to retreat before you can drop to the middle ledge. Note that you'll stand up briefly once you drop from a ledge, so watch out. Once you've made it to the middle ledge, wait for the middle flame to retreat again, then drop to the bottom ledge. Continue forward and kill the Gunner on the middle ledge, then jump to the top. Pass under the flame ahead once it's retreated, then drop to the lower ledge once you're beyond the range of the short flame at the bottom. Kill the Gunner ahead, then the Gunner on the middle ledge. Jump to the middle ledge, then kill the Gunner a little ways ahead. Now jump to the top ledge then back to the bottom ledge ahead - don't try to get past the flame at the edge of the upper ledge, it nearly extents to the very bottom. You're in the clear now, all you have to do is meet the boss. BOSS: Giant This boss is one possible candidate for the easiest boss in this game. Seriously, he isn't that hard to kill. On another note, this guy looks exactly the same as the guys behind the guns you've seen all throughout this stage, but MUCH larger. The typical pattern of this boss is to run (slowly) back and forth across the screen, then throw out these little spinning things that move along the ground. The easiest way to get over the spinning things he throws is to jump over the first two, then if he throws another one, jump over that one too. He'll usually wait a second or two before he throws the third one so you have a little more time to react. When he starts moving back and forth across the screen, simply jump over him and continue to pummel him with bullets. That's all there is to it. Onward... to the next stage. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stage 7: Hangar ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It goes without saying that you're near the end of the game. Why do I say that? Because the game is starting to recycle music - the classic sign that an NES game is near the end. Seriously though, you've cleared the previous two stages, relatively easily I hope, and it all gets easier from here on in. The two stages that are left, are pretty easy. Err... this stage can be a tad tougher than I've been letting on if you're the impatient type, but much like the previous stage can be cleared easily with CAUTION. You start just outside a huge complex, which you'll obviously have to enter. So, head to the right, jump to the upper ledge. Oops. I forgot to tell you another tip: it's almost never a good idea to follow the lower route through this stage - it's usually tougher and rife with Soldiers who will appear on both sides of the screen. Anyway, stop at the four mechanical arms ahead and study the pattern for a moment. It's easy, so make your way through them. There'll be much more mechanical arms all throughout this stage, but they all have easy patterns, I don't think I need to explain them to you. So... once you make it to the edge of the upper ledge, a item capsule will fly by that contains a Flamethrower - I wouldn't get it if you have a Spread Gun. At the next ledge, there are some more mechanical arms, but again, the pattern is easy to figure out. Make your way past them and wait a second at the edge of the ledge. If you have the Spread Gun, just waste the Gunner on the higher ledge at will and continue on. If you don't, just fall to the bottom and move past the mechanical arms there. You can't as far as I know, with the possible exception of the Flamethrower, destroy the Gunner from the lower ledge, and if you try to get up there, the Gunner will... well, gun you down easily, so don't bother. When you get through the mechanical arms, take a short jump to the edge of the next, raised ledge, and destroy the spike wall that pops up from the ground. Destroy the next one too, then the series of long ones ahead. Once you've done that, jump to the edge of the upper ledge and destroy the spike wall there. A bunch of Soldiers will probably start pouring in from the left, and some of them will try to jump to the ledge you're on. If they do, turn around, duck and fire at them. You should kill them before they're able to get on the ledge. Continue to the right and move past the mechanical arms ahead, then destroy the spike wall at the other end. Now, fall off the ledge and use the mine cart to get onto the ledge above you. You'll get another little gift in the way of a Barrier. Muh hah hah hah, now you're playing with power (ok, ok, that was lame, but still, I couldn't resist). Now that you got the Barrier, just run through the mechanical arms ahead and jump onto the mine cart heading to the right. If you don't have the Barrier, DON'T run past the mine cart or you'll get run over by it (thus losing a life). Anyway, once you pass two of the walls, jump onto the ledge above you, kill the Sniper, then jump across the large gap between the two ledges to the ledge of the right. It can be done, just jump at the edge of the left ledge and you'll make it. The worst you could do is fall to the lower right edge of the screen, onto the mine cart below, in which case you should get off of it, then continue to the right past the mechanical arms. Good luck! If you made to the top right ledge, destroy the series of spike walls ahead, fall off the ledge, then destroy the set of spike walls in front of you. Again, fall to the lower ledge and continue to the right. This next section can be tricky, so be careful and briefly study the pattern before moving on. A spike wall will pop up near the end of the mechanical arms, so you'll have to continually move between the mechanical arms to stay alive, while firing at the wall. Rinse, lather, repeat until the wall is destroyed then move on. Once you pass the three-quarter size double walls, you'll be back on the outside. Here you'll encounter two Gunners and more Soldiers that will come from the left. Once you reach the slightly higher platform, there'll be anothe Gunner and more Soldiers waiting for you. Kill them and you'll be in the clear, with the boss just ahead. BOSS: Base Defences 2 This boss is sort of similar to the boss of the first stage, but is somewhat tougher. I say somewhat because this boss, while being rather easy for the point in the game that you're at, still poses some problems that should be explained. First off, the turrets. Ignore them and just run to the far right side where the flashing panel is located above the door. Probably around this time, the turrets will start firing bullets that split into three and hit the ground like a grenade. The second thing are the Soldiers that will occasionally come pouring in from the left or through the door on the right. You'll have to kill them quickly before they become a problem, which they are in the first place... =P Just concentrate on the flashing panel and you'll hopefully destroy the boss before the turrets and the Soldiers become too much trouble. It actually won't take very long, even with a weapon other than the Spread Gun, so don't worry. Once you've destroyed the boss, give yourself or a friend a high-five because you going on to the last stage in the game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stage 8: Alien's Lair ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, for such an easy stage (yes, I said easy stage), it sure has some forboding music, and... what's this, aliens! Well, well, well, that's where they've been hiding, so much for the storyline of the game. Heh. Anyway, this stage is short and sweet... and possibly a little painful if you don't have the Spread Gun, but it's alright, as long as you have something other than the Shotgun. You don't? Err... well, that might be a problem. You'll have to do some fancy footwork to get out of this stage unscathed. Anyway, on with the walkthrough. Head to the right and DESTROY the two item capsules that fly by from the left, get them if you don't have any decent weapon. The best way to get both of them while they're flying by is to destroy the bottom one by firing downward at it then destroy the other one by firing up and diagonally at it. You'll get a Machine Gun and a Barrier for your troubles. Continue to the right, and you'll come across an enemy straight out of the movie Alien. You know what I mean? The pop-out-your-stomach aliens from the movie; this enemy has an uncanny resemblance to it. Anyway, the easiest way to dispatch of this blatant movie rip-off is to stand right against the wall and fire diagonally at it, while destroying any of the little shrimp-aliens that it shoots out. After a while the alien and the wall will blow up, allowing you to continue. This whole next area, right up to the boss is the problem I told you about - the one that I said you might have trouble with if you only had the Shotgun. Conversely, those people who still have the Spread Gun at this point will have no trouble whatsoever. In fact, they probably don't even need my help anymore, so let me just concentrate on those unfortunate people who don't have Spread Gun. Continue to the right and you'll come across a bunch of mouths on the ceiling, four to be exact. When you come up to the first two don't move any further to the right until you destroy them and the little balls they shoot out. This brings up another point. ALWAYS destroy the little balls the mouths shoot out because, if they're left along, they'll start to home in on you. Once the first two mouths are destroyed, move on to the next two, then jump over the crap below you to the little ledge. At this point, an item capsule will fly by, do everything in your power to get the Spread Gun inside. Once you got it, the rest of the stage will be a cakewalk. Continue on your shooting rampage by destroying the two mouths to the right, then jump to the next ledge and destroy the row of mouths along the bottom. Now jump to the higher ledge ahead and destroy the two mouths level with your gun, then fall to the bottom ledge again and destroy the two sets of mouths below and above you. Jump over the two holes and destroy the next set of mouths at the bottom, then the ones at the top. Around this time, spider-like aliens will start coming from the right, so watch out for them, they move quickly. Continue to the right and you'll see one last mouth, destroy it and you'll be at the final, final boss of this game. BOSS: Red Falcon Okay, enough with the small talk before I get to the strategy, lets just finish this thing. Once the screen scrolls to reveal the boss, duck and fire at the two pods at the base of the heart. The spider-like aliens will come out of the top pods too, so you'll either have to destroy them or avoid them. Anyway, once the bottom two pods are destroyed, move right against the heart (don't worry, you won't be killed if you touch the boss) and fire diagonally at it. More spider-like aliens will come, and occasionally try to fall on you, so destroy them and continue to pummel the heart. After awhile, the heart will start to beat faster and faster, this is a sign that you're almost there. Just continue to fire at it, while avoiding or destroying the aliens that appear above, and the boss will be dead in no time flat. Congrats on finishing the game. A winner is you! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ending ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The island will blow up and a helicopter will carry you away to safety. See, didn't I say that you shouldn't expect much of an ending from an NES game. Anyways... "Congratulations." "You've destroyed the vile Red Falcon and saved the universe. Consider yourself a hero." Oh! *claps hands* I should consider myself a hero. Yay for me. Bastards... so good fun, right? Enjoy the rather poppish tune while the credits roll, then you'll get to start all over again, with all the points and weapons you ended with. That's it. =============================================================================== Secrets =============================================================================== Konami Code (One Player): At the title screen (preferably before it completely scrolls to the left) press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start. Konami Code (Two Players): At the title screen (preferably before it completely scrolls to the left) press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Select, Start. =============================================================================== FAQ =============================================================================== Q1: I have an alternate strategy for . Will you use it? A1: Sure, just send it in and I'll add it whenever I do another revision. =============================================================================== Closing =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Final Comments ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Goodbye and it's been fun writing this thing for you all. Well, not really, but I had to have something nice to say since this guide is almost at the end. Heh. Just kidding. Anyway. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, praise or criticism, they should be sent to . If you're looking for specific information and it isn't in this guide, please tell me about it and I'll remedy the problem as soon as possible. I'm eventually going to add everything that's pertinent to this game. Check the GameFAQs Contra board for more information. There are plenty of experts there that can help you out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Credits ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Konami - for creating this game and many others that I've enjoyed. My Brother - for his insight on this game. Pepsi and Mountain Dew - for keeping me awake while I'm writing, as always. And you for reading. Thanks. Anyone else who contributes will get a nifty spot here, so don't delay, contribute today! End of Document________________________________________________________________