================================================================================ ___ __ __ / \___ / _| \ \ __ _ _ __ ___ / /\ / _ \ |_ \ \/ _` | '_ ` _ \ / /_// __/ _| /\_/ / (_| | | | | | | /___,' \___|_| \___/ \__,_|_| |_| |_| _____ _ _ _ __ _ ___ __ | ___(_) __ _| |__ | |_ / _| ___ _ __ | \ | \ \ / / | |_ | |/ _` | '_ \| __| | |_ / _ \| '__| | \| |\ V / | _| | | (_| | | | | |_ | _| (_) | | | |\ | | | |_| |_|\__, |_| |_|\__| |_| \___/|_| |_| \_| |_| |___/ o----------------------------o Currently version 1.0 Author: Barry Willemsen \ Copyright: 2005 and after \ Release: 03/27/2005 \ Updated: 07/13/2005 \ ================================================================================ I TABLE OF CONTENTS / o===============================o I ............... Table of Contents II .............. Introduction to the FAQ III ............. Crack those Chumps! IV ............. Story Mode Walkthrough V ............. Compendium VI ............. Legal Stuff, Contact Info, and Version History VII ............. Credits ================================================================================ II INTRODUCTION TO DEF JAM / ================================o This FAQ was meant to clear up one of the greatest beat 'em ups I've ever had the good fortune to get my hands on. Should I say that this game is better than the Tekken series, the Dead or Alive series, Soul Calibur, etcetera, I would probably get a junk pile of hate mail in my box, so I won't. Though perhaps a matter of taste, one can hardly deny that Def Jam: Fight for NY does not deserve its high marks (8-9) given by people who know a lot about games (or pretend they do). Now, for starters, I will be very blunt: first time I played this game, and I already made sure it was on EASY, I got my ass handed to me in a bucket of Foundation steel. By the thirtiest time I gave it a try, and lost, I threw the game into a corner for nearly a month. Eventually, scouring over the Internet, I viewed the renewed interest in the Def Jam series, which gave me some good ideas. Banning all chills of anger from my spine, I took the Def Jam CD out of its box as calmly as I could, stomped it into my XBox, created a new character for Story Mode... and kicked ass. Unfortunately, most knowledge that helped me was spread over a wide range of sites, and they are not anyone's particular idea, so I decided to compile all of them into this document. Also, keep in mind that I originally created this guide as a walkthrough for newer players to beat the Story Mode, so strategies I suggest will probably not work on the HARD level. But, if you're playing on HARD, what are you doing here? You don't need any tips by now, I hope? ;) ================================================================================ III CRACK THOSE CHUMPS! / ================================o The scene may be original, and the possibilities refreshing, Def Jam: Fight for New York remains - in essence - a beat 'em up game. So, you'd best learn how to hold yourself out in the clubs if you want progress in Story Mode. The basic controls are these: ----- ~*~*~*~* ----- <||||| Controls |||||> ----- ~*~*~*~* ----- LEFT THUMBSTICK - In combat, it moves your fighter around. - In menus, you may highlight different options with it. - When in a grapple, you may press A and hold the Left Thumbstick in a desired direction to throw your opponent that way. RIGHT THUMBSTICK - When your Momentum Gauge is full and blinking, move the Right Thumbstick to activate Blazin' Mode. - When in Blazin' Mode, grapple your opponent with A, and then move the Right Thumbstick in any direction to execute a Blazin' Move. - If your Momentum Gauge is not yet full, using the Right Thumbstick will do a Taunt. A Taunt slowly increases your Momentum Gauge, and is quite funny to see, though you're completely vulnerable during execution. You can interrupt a Taunt at all times by using the Right Trigger to block. D-PAD - In combat, it is an alternate way to move your fighter around. - In menus, it is an alternate way to highlight different options with. - (You guessed it) An alternate way of defining a direction once you try to throw your opponent somewhere once you've locked in a grapple with A. A BUTTON - Confirms a highlighted option in menus. - In battle, press A when in close proximity to your opponent to try and lock-in a grapple. B BUTTON - Cancels a previously selected option, transports you back to the previous menu when not in battle. - Pressing B while holding the Left Thumbstick in a direction will make your character run that way. Beware, running detracts from your momentum and if you're out, you won't be able to run anymore until it refills. - When on the ground, press B to stand up, or press B and hold the Left Thumbstick in a desired direction to roll and get up. Y BUTTON - Throws a light punch in the direction of the opponent you're fighting. Can be used from standing position, from the ground and from a post. - If well-timed, it can be used to escape from an opponent's grapple. - Use Y + the Left Thumbstick to execute your desired move once you've locked in a grapple. X BUTTON - Throws a light kick in the direction of the opponent you're fighting. Can be used from standing position, from the ground, and from a post. - Use X + the Left Thumbstick to execute your desired move once you've locked in a grapple. LEFT TRIGGER - In battle, this is the Light/Hard Modifier Button. It basically means that if you're holding the Left Trigger while punching (Y), kicking (X), or grappling (A), your fighter will execute a "hard version" of the move, which is more powerful, but also slower to come out and usually with an abysmal recovery time. RIGHT TRIGGER - Use this in battle to block incoming punches and kicks. Notice that this will NOT block grapple attempts. Can also be used on the ground. - Press the Right Trigger and tilt the Left Thumbstick TOWARDS or AWAY FROM your opponent to attempt a Counter. A Counter is hard to pull off, but it will leave your opponent wide open for a crushing combo. BLACK BUTTON - No uses. WHITE BUTTON - In fights with multiple opponents, use the White Button to shift your attention to another combatant. START BUTTON - Confirms a highlighted option in menus. - Pauses the game during battle. BACK BUTTON - Use this in menus to return to a previous menu. ----- ~*~*~*~* ----- Unfortunately, such a schematic will hardly serve you, unless you're looking for a quick reference guide. And that's why I'll give you the following thorough explanation, a bit of a walkthrough on itself. Please don't think that I'm acting like you're a small child, I'm not belittling you, just trying to help you through the game as good as I can. There is some basic strategy involved already, so even if you know the buttons, it will still do no harm to look through. ----- ~*~*~*~* ----- <||||| Fighting |||||> ----- ~*~*~*~* ----- To make all workings clear, we should first take a battle as an example. For this purpose, I will take the first battle you really fight in story mode. To be more precise, we will take a custom character versus Trick at the damp basement of the Foundation: So, now the battle has loaded, and you two are standing perpendicular to each other. Immediately you should crave to follow RULE NUMBER ONE: Agressiveness, because that is what most people are lacking when they first play the game, and not following the rule means becoming pissed off at the game, at the guide, and therefore at ME, which I wouldn't like. So be as agressive as you can without being reckless. There's a thin line to walk. At first, things are easy. See, we can hardly be agressive from such a distance, so to get a head start we will go and RUN for Trick now to grab his ass. Simply tilt the Left Thumbstick towards him while holding the B button and your character should automatically run up. Unfortunately, running will do nothing if we don't make an action. So, as you are close to Trick, press the A button to initiate a grab. Your character will lunge out with both arms to grab the opponent. It should work if you're quick and rush Trick right from the start. So now, Trick is down from your grappling move. Will we just let him rest there and recover his health? No way. Walk up to him by tilting the Left Thumbstick normally, and lay down a single strike, with Y or X. Which one depends on your style, but I won't go in-depth on that right now. Hit Trick once with one of them, and then back off. Why? Because if you don't, Trick will hit you from the get-go and you will be stunned, wide open to his dangerous Haymaker. Right now, Trick will get up, and since you've backed up quite a bit to not get hit by him, the guy's pretty pissed off. He will now probably run at you and try to hit you with a punch. Simply hold the Right Trigger and your character will block it, without taking damage. Trick will have some recovery time from his reckless attacks, and so he is open to a grab. Press the A button to do so. As you've locked in the grapple, quickly press Y to lay down a fierce knuckle arrow right onto the poser's face. Notice that you can also use the Left Thumbstick in conjunction with the Y button to lay down different kinds of throws. This adds to your variety, and therefore to the sum of money you receive at the end of any fight you win. Trick will be stunned momentarily. Very momentarily. But it's enough for you to go up to his downed body and press A to pick him up. Once the guy is back on his feet, quickly do a 2-hit combo. A combo is basically a string of commands consisting of Y and X. The best combo to take for this example fight would be YY. Now pay attention: did Trick block your little combo? If he didn't, continue tapping Y to finish the combo string and knock him to the floor. If he DID, then be quick and press A to grapple him. This won't allow him any time to counter your grapple. Once you're all locked in, tilt the Left Thumbstick in the direction of a pillar or a jukebox, or - only if none of the previous can be found nearby - into the crowd. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-= YOU THREW HIM INTO A PILLAR OR A JUKEBOX? =-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Follow up by quickly walking up to him and pressing A again. Your character will automatically do an environmental attack: these are random and somewhat dependant on your fighter's style, but they all lay down very heavy damage for the moment. Not only do they diminish Trick's health bar, they also leave him crippled right afterwards. You can see this as the poor guy grabs for his face to claw away the pain. At such a moment, get up to him and get him up with (A). Grapple him, whip him into the pillar/jukebox again, and lay down another portion of great damage! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-= YOU THREW HIM INTO THE CROWD? =-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= First of all, you have to remember that throwing an opponent into the crowd is but a last resort: you're far better off whipping him into a wall or another thing that's solid enough to crack skulls with. Still, sometimes you have no choice, and it only adds to your variety. If you throw an opponent into the crowd with (A) + Left Thumbstick, they will ALWAYS throw him back at you. Wait for Trick to come stolpering towards you and hit (A) once again to give him a Running Counter Grab. These don't do as much damage as an environmental attack, but they damn sure stun him. So quickly pick him up afterwards, and this time, try to get him into a pillar or a jukebox. A small note on crowd attacks: apart from the "bouncing an opponent back", there are another two varieties of crowd action. The first will happen when you knock your opponent back into the crowd with a HARD strike, that is the Left Trigger + (Y) or (X). Such attacks will make your opponent back off quite a bit, but they are easy to counter, so only use them if you are COMPLETELY sure that they will connect. Once the knocked back opponent makes contact with a crowd member, the guy will be nice and grab him for you. Be quick and walk up to your clutched opponent and perform another grapple (A). You will perform a Crowd Double Team Move. These add to your variety, score, but most importantly, they STUN and do about as much damage as an environmental attack. The second variety is quite rare, and it's not even useful. If you whip an adversary into the crowd, RIGHT into the hands of a crowd member who is holding up a weapon (or to the member right next to the weapon-wielding one), the guy will smash his weapon into the opponent for some mediocre damage. Though this stuns your opponent big time, you should NOT do it. And why not? Because the damage is not nearly as much as when you would have used the weapon yourself. You see, once the crowd guy has lain down his strike, the precious weapon breaks and can no longer be used. Which is not a good thing. So now you've pounded Trick a good two times, so his health bar should have suffered quite a bit. Not only that, if you have not been hit by him, which should be the case, then your Momentum Gauge should be flashing right now, with an "R" dancing next to it. It means you are ready to execute your Blazin' Move, think of a fatality in other fighting games. First, activate your Blazin' Move by moving the Right Thumbstick in any direction. The game will pause and show a small cutscene of your character hyping up, which is usually paired with a scream. The Momentum Gauge will be on fire, with the word "Blazin'" engraved in it. The hardest part is, of course, performing your Blazin' move. Trick should have gotten up from his knock-out trip, so be sure to be on the offensive after doing the blazin' taunt, before he can hit you. Do the YY combo again, but this time, EVEN IF HE DOESN'T BLOCK, lay down a grapple and attempt to lock him in. The Blazin' moment will only last for a short amount of time, so you'll need to do this quickly. Once you succeed, all you have to do is quickly move around the Right Thumbstick to do your Blazin' move, and right then you can sit down and enjoy the brutal strikes evoked upon Trick's battered body. Once it's done, you may be surprised that your Blazin' move did not lead to an instant Knock-Out. It certainly seemed painful enough. Don't worry, Trick should be at least in Danger Zone, which is indicated by his health gauge turning red and flashing. Beware though, you'll have to act quickly or he will get back into safer parts (green) and you won't be able to knock him out. Trick should be down and, inevitably, stunned. People are ALWAYS stunned after taking a Blazin' Move, and for a fairly long time, yet their health bar DOES recover, so you still have to act with quickness. Depending on your chosen style, there are multiple ways to knock Trick out: KICKBOXING: Pick Trick up with the (A) button, and immediately lay down a Hard Grapple by pressing (A) while holding the Left Trigger. Go berserk on the X button and you should perform a seven-hit combo, which will KO Trick with its last hit. STREETFIGHTING: Pick Trick up with the (A) button, then do a Haymaker. A Haymaker is the same as a Hard Punch, so you only have to hold the Left Trigger and press (Y) to execute it. It's a one-hit-knock-out. MARTIAL ARTS: This is quite hard. Pick Trick up with the (A) button, then SPRINT towards a pillar as fast as you can while holding the (Y) or the (X) button, and your character will perform a flying attack, which, if it connects while Trick is still in Danger Zone, will knock him out. WRESTLING: Pick Trick up with the (A) button. Next, perform a Hard Grapple by holding the Left Trigger when pressing the (A) button again. Do any Hard Grapple Move in your repertoire and it will knock Trick out. SUBMISSIONS: Unfortunately, they have no specific way to KO. They'll have to do some environmental attack/crowd double team to gain the victory. But, they DO have the ability to make someone submit, so don't think that Submissions style fighters are useless. Please don't. It'll be the last mistake you make in the game. It didn't work? Or have you chosen Submissions as your primary style? Yo, no sweat bro, as Blaze would say it. There are other ways to knock Trick out when he's in danger zone, but since they've been explained in the walkthrough itself, above, I will only sum them up: - Environmental Attack - Crowd Double Team Move - Weapon Attack - This may require some explanation. If you see someone in the crowd holding a weapon, simply walk up to him/her and it should be automatically given to you. Use the (Y) button to do vertical strikes, and the (X) button for horizontal strikes. An opponent in danger zone hit by a weapon will immediately be KOed. Weapon attacks are unblockable, but they CAN be countered - which is dangerous, as the weapon will be transferred to your opponent. You can block with a weapon without losing it, but a succesful enemy grapple will make you drop it. If you dropped your weapon, you can press A while standing on top of it to pick it up again. - Double Team - Does not apply to this situation, but will have to be mentioned. If you and another fighter grab an opponent at the same time, a double team move will be initiated. If the adversary is in Danger Zone, the move will instantly knock him out cold. There are others, but they are level-specific and I will mention them as we get there. For now, remember these basics, but even if you do not wish to, at least remember: GOLDEN RULE NUMBER ONE: Be Agressive! ----- ~*~*~*~* ----- <||||| Tips |||||> ----- ~*~*~*~* ----- NOTE TO NEW PLAYERS: It's better if you NOT read these until you've fought and won some battles. When compared to the previous text, which was intended for you, it may confuse you and that's not what we want. Feel free to look into it, but I don't recommend it until you are a "non-newb" player. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-= ON BLOCKING =-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Some people will tell you that blocking is your salvation in Def Jam, some will tell you that you should never, ever block unless you want to burn in gamer hell forever. To tell you the truth, they both hold somewhat of the truth. As a newer player, blocking is NOT a good idea. This is mainly because of the speed of the gameplay. If you have no idea of how certain fighters will react to your blocking, they will grapple you and hammer you to death, without mercy. In such a case, it isn't wise to block. That doesn't mean blocking is entirely useless. In a sense, it can be a very, very useful feature, but you'll have to know the situation you're in, and you'll need some reflexes in case it all goes wrong. First of all, you've got running attacks: these bitches come out so quickly that it is near-impossible to interrupt them. In such a case, it would be wise to block, but don't block to early, or the AI will shift to grappling moves (= you're dead). Second, attacks like the Haymaker and attacks from the get-go when an enemy is on the ground. Though a Haymaker can be easily interrupted, you may want to deal some more damage than a mere combo. In that case, simply block the Haymaker and your opponent will have to deal with its horrendous recovery time. It gives you enough time to do a Hard Grapple on them. For the second option, sometimes you're just out of space to run away, or you want to keep the pressure onto your opponent. At that moment, it's better to block any attacks from the ground and resume your combo- and grapple sequences. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-= THE COUNTER =-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Probably the most difficult feature of Def Jam, even for the players who are used to Def Jam's lightning gameplay, is countering. Basically, a counter comes out quick, so even computer opponents can be surprised by it. Thereby, you receive no damage from your opponent's attack and, more importantly, it leaves your adversary open to Hard Grapples or Haymakers the moment after the counter is exacted. More than anything else, I'd say. The input for a counter is quite easy. Tap the Right Trigger and move the Right Thumbstick TOWARDS or AWAY FROM your opponent. A short animation can be seen wherein your character heaves his hands in front of his chest, ready to intercept an attack. If an opponent's attacks connects with you in one of these few frames, the attack will be countered and you'll be set to pack a LARGE amount of damage. Note that the timing has to be very precise for it to work. If you've got time, then Countering can be learnt, slowly. The easiest way to start learning it is to get someone to constantly throw a Haymaker at you in a multiplayer game, just for practice. The Haymaker is the most predictable attack in the game, and therefore the easiest to counter. Once you get the timing down, you can go and reverse quicker attacks. Even if you manage to perfect this skill, you'll still need to learn all opponents' attack patterns to become a master at it. Since nobody has that much times on their hands, I think it better to NOT try and counter until you've played through Story Mode several times and have got to know your adversary's attacks. Because of the issues with countering, I will not incorporate it in any of the strategies I employ during Story Mode. If you still want to try your skillz and initiate your countering career, use the D-Pad instead of the thumbstick. The D-Pad's input seems to work better than the analog one. Countering throws is another story. It also requires timing, but it's easier as you can see the lunge coming. As your opponent's hands are about to connect to your character's shoulders, press the (X) or (Y) button to stomp them away. Afterwards, they are open to Haymakers or Hard Grapples, though not as much as they would from the strike counters. =-=-=-=-=-=-= =-= STUNS =-= =-=-=-=-=-=-= Knowing whether an attack will stun an opponent or not is key to victory. There are some rules that apply to stunning, though the length of the stun (sometimes even the possibility to be stunned itself) are dependant on your opponent's general health and toughness. Still, here are some small helps, that can make your fighting more efficient and less time-consuming. - An opponent can be stunned by the following: a Grab, a Hard Grab, Hard Kicks and Hard Punches, Environmental Attacks, Crowd Double Teams, Weapon Attacks, and Running Counter Grabs. The length of the stun depends on the power of your attack: an environmental attack will yield you more time than an ordinary throw move. When an opponent is stunned, he will sometimes (but not always) claw away the pain at certain parts of his body. There are situations where they will just lay still and not get up. - The algorithm for stuns is quite easy. Basically, the first time you do any of the attacks above, the opponent will be stunned. Your second attack, they will not be stunned so watch out for any assaults from the get-go. You get it? Any odd number (1st, 3rd, 5th) of attacks will get you a stun. - A Blazin' Move ALWAYS stuns, and relatively it is the longest stun available to you. So what should you do when your rival is stunned? Take notice that you can only pull off one move (aside from getting your opponent to his feet) before the enemy is destunned. Also, if you wait to long, the stun will wear off, so make sure you act quickly. These are the best things you can do when your opponent is stunned: - Get him to his feet and perform a cheap, yet damaging environmental attack, or a crowd double team, or use the time to get a weapon. - A stun is the PERFECT time to do the Blazin' Taunt and make sure that your move connects. Always be on the lookout for this. Simply get the opponent to his feet with (A), activate Blazin' Mode, quickly grab the adversary while he is still endazed and your move should come out succesfully. - Sometimes, especially with Blazin' grabs, your opponent will be in Danger Zone, AND stunned. Get him to his feet and then perform your style's special KO-attacks on him to still get the knock-out. This saves you a hell a lot of frustration. As you can see, stuns are valuable assets in your road to victory. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-= ON STYLES =-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Wherever you search on the web, whenever it concerns Def Jam, it's always about which style is best. Usually, these discussions end in the useless conclusion that it's a matter of taste. Maybe, but those people argueing are not beginners, and can probably beat the game with ANY style. But a beginner reading this may be confused, because there are some fundamental features in particular styles that make them more effective to begin with than the others available. So here they are, and I arranged them from MOST effective (top) to LEAST effective (bottom). Note that this doesn't mean these styles are "bad", they're very balanced, but some are just easier to master for beginning players. 1. STREETFIGHTING Definitely the easiest style to start with, mainly because of the problems most people have with KOing their opponents when they're in the Danger Zone of their health gauge. To be a good streetfighter, a character needs a superior Upper Strength and lots of Speed to keep the upper hand. They do very well when employing the YY-to-Grab combo, and their Upper Strength also means that they can grab and throw an opponent every once in a while. Still, their most important feature is the Haymaker. This is just a Hard Punch (L+Y), but actually it's much more damaging. And more importantly, a Haymaker can KO someone in danger zone. No longer you have to search for environmentals or crowd doubles, it all can be done with a single, powerful punch. Be wary though, the Haymaker may be powerful, but it's the most predictable and one of the slowest attacks to make up for that. 2. KICKBOXING There are lots of people that say Kickboxing is best to begin with, but I prefer to differ. It simply requires better attuning to Def Jam's quick gameplay to be as effective as Streetfighting, and its special KO move is not as straightforward as the Haymaker. As a kickboxer, a character has dire need for Lower Strength and Speed. Instead of YY, they can do a quick XX-to-Grab combo. A special feature of the kickboxer is the "clinch". A clinch basically means that, whenever you grab your opponent, your character keeps locked in to him/her, and can deliver punches from there. From a normal grab, a kickboxer can lay down a maximum of 2 blows, while from a Hard Grab, you can get in the whopping amount of 7. If such a 7-hit combo is completed succesfully, and the opponent was in danger zone BEFORE THE LAST BLOW, he will be knocked out. Yes, this means that a kickboxer can knock-out an opponent without the adversary being in danger zone by tapping X rapidly enough from a clinch. 3. WRESTLING We all know it, we all love (or hate) it. In Def Jam, it's definitely a showman style we pursue. Wrestlers have a wide arrays of throws, but with them lacking in the speed to succesfully string combos together, you may want to try with Wrestling later on, after you're accustomed to Streetfighting and Kickboxing. Once mastered, however, their throws become a lethal weapon. To enhance your skills, take Upper Strength for your character, and Speed to make sure you get your throws in. General Toughness could help too, to fend off all those quick attacks martial artists tend to throw at you. Hard Grapple WHENEVER the opponent is stunned for insane damage. When your adversary is in danger zone, you can finish him off easily by performing a Hard Grapple move on him while the health gauge is red. It yields you an instant KO. 4. SUBMISSIONS Meh, submissionists are a mixed bag. On one hand, they're totally average and not really weak against anything, but at the same time, they are not versatile at all and they do not have a special KO move. Instead, these fighters gain the ability to make an opponent submit by constantly crackling their joints, until they're eventually broken. Submissionists need a little of everything, but I recommend Speed, Health and Toughness to make sure they last through the fight. Weaken the opponent with normal grapples or environmental attacks to stun them. Once stunned, Hard Grapple them and work on their arm/legs/head/whatever. Two small bars should pop into view, a red one and a golden gauge. If the red one depletes, the opponent will submit. The golden gauge fills up quickly when rapidly tapping any button, and once it has reached its end, the submission will be released. In order to have success with this fighting style, you should always work on a certain bodypart, and don't spread your attention over several limbs: remember when fighting with a submissionist, the longer the match takes, the more chance you'll have to lose. 5. MARTIAL ARTS Speed is the keyword when it comes to martial arts. Difficult to master fully, and requiring some quick reflexes, this fighting style, has some great, beautiful moves and very quick combos. Choosing martial arts as a style increases the amount of animation frames in which a counter can take place, adding to your defense. Unfortunately, they are not very good offensively, especially at low levels. Lots of people tend to choose this for their first character, and I can't blame them for it, because the flying thingies look really, REALLY cool. If you are intent on being a martial artists, you'd best make sure you get Speed and either Lower or Upper Strength (depending on what you like more, punching or kicking). If you master the timing of the flying attacks, you can do some great damage and deliver stuns easily, but I'll warn you: it takes time, and lots and lots of practice to make full use of the Martial Arts' power. Also, try to counter some moves, you'll notice that it's easier if you have this style in your repertoire. Though martial arts are very tricky to use correctly, a master in them could probably take on any other style with ease. ================================================================================ IV STORY MODE WALKTHROUGH / *BEWARE: SPOILERS!!!* ================================o ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *=*=* SCENE 1: THE STREET SWEEPER *=*=* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So, the story mode presents you with a nice way to test your skills against computer-controlled opponents. It all starts when D-Mob, quite an imposing, black man gets arrested by two police-officers. On their way to the station, Starks and Jervis - the policemen - have a ridiculing chat about something we all don't understand, but then the action starts. Starks shouts out in surprise and disbelief as a giant truck rams them on the crossroads. We see someone getting out of the car, but we can't see how he looks as we are actually viewing the crime scene through the suspect's eyes. D-Mob crawls out of the car and looks up in bewilderment as the not-so-legal chump signals him to follow into his truck. However, the camera shifts backwards and we see that Jervis has got a clear view of the man, before the screen fades out to black. Once all goes to normal, we see a sad Jervis sitting at a desk, a red-haired woman walking up to him. The woman's name is Lauren, and she is a mug-shot sketcher. She asks the policeman to describe the person that rammed their car. If you hadn't already noticed, this is the moment to create the chump you're gonna forge into a legend. Make sure you like his looks, though, there ain't nothing worse than fighting with a character you don't like ;P Just for giggles, here's my character. Feel free to copy, though I suggest you make up your own: +--------------+ My Character +--------------+ NAME: BLITZ HEIGHT: 6'2" WEIGHT: 245 lbs BODY SIZE: L SKIN TONE: 2 FACE: 7 EYES: 6 EYE COLOR: Dark Green BROWS: 2 NOSE: 5 LIPS 5 EARS: 4 HAIR: 4 FACIAL HAIR: 2 HAIR COLOR: Jet Black VOICE: Gruff When you're done, the camera changes scenes and we are presented with D-Mob's little hideout, his headquarters. You can catch a glimpse of Doc sleeping on the couch, and Sticky Fingaz and Method Man as "Blaze" playing against each other on... well wouldn't you know it, an XBox... anyway, Sticky seems to be winning as D-Mob comes in. Of course, Blaze and Sticky are startled by his appearance, thinking that their boss was arrested and taken away. Behind the big man you can see your own character, looking straight at the two men, but none speaks to him. Instead, the two chumps go asking D-Mob whether you are in or out. Without a doubt D-Mob replies with a gruff "He's in!". Still, they are not convinced of your fighting prowess, and therefore Blaze suggests a practice match to see how well you'll fare with them. This little tutorial match will take place against anoter one of D-Mob's fellas, a large guy called House. Before you face him, you'll have to pick a style. Pick Streetfighting for your first time, otherwise, choose anything you want. Do notice that this guide will always act like you've chosen "Streetfighting". +-------+ House +-------+ VENUE: Practice Ring REWARD: 75 Development Points on EASY 100 Development Points on MED 125 Development Points on HARD I won't write down stats for House, because this is a tutorial fight, which means that House won't fight back unless you are required to block. Blaze walks you through the basics of the game, but I've explained them thoroughly before, so I'll give in to the temptation of saying: "Simply follow Blaze's orders and you'll be fine." +-------+ After your peformance, Blaze seems impressed with your talent, but Sticky isn't as convinced. He says that he will only believe in you if you win some real fights. And that's exactly what we're gonna do. D-Mob also gives you some money to spice up your gear. Because, as he says, if you want to run with his crew, you'd better look the part. Finally, Blaze shows you your crib. Your crib is your own little base of operations, from where you travel out over the map, change the way your look by using your wardrobe, set the different options available, and look at different trophies you've earned. The crib will be described more in-depth a tiny wee later on. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *=*=* SCENE 2: YOUR CAREER STARTS *=*=* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yay! So now we can go out and beat up those punks everywhere without showing a sign of fatigue! Uhmmm... no way. First of all, you should take a look at your crib and get accustomed to all its different options. Right at the start of your adventure, you get a pop-up saying you've got some new messages on your special organizer, prompting you whether you wish to read them or have them wait for a later time. It's always a good idea to stay up-to-date of what is happening, so let's just listen to what these people have to say. FROM: Blaze MESSAGE: "Hey man, it's Blaze. I just talked to D, and here's the deal. He wants you to hit the clubs, start putting them to work. We'll give you a call when we got something for ya. Peace." FROM: Rollins MESSAGE: "So D-Mob wants me to put your ass to work and get you in shape for the circuit. I can teach you new moves, new styles, and help you improve your fighting skills. Come down to Stapleton when you're ready to sweat." Henry Rollins is your "personal trainer", as to say, but don't think that he's not worth worrying about, as you'll be facing him later. We'll go to the gym later. First, we'll have look at the crib. There are six icons in the bottom of the screen through which you can scroll. Choosing "Map" will allow you to travel to different places to fight or to shop. "Messages" lets you review all messages you've received. With "Wardrobe", you can change your outfit to whatever's in your locker. "Options" should be straightforward, and so should "Exit". But the second one from the left, "Trophies", deserves some special attention. For now, these shelves are empty, but as you accomplish certain objectives, you may gain more and more trophies. Some are harder to get than others. If you want to know what the objective for a certain trophy is, simply select its shade with the D-Pad and an explanation should appear in the bottom right corner of the screen. Since there's not much more to do here, choose "Map". You'll be brought to a schematic of New York City. From here, you can scroll through different places with the D-Pad. Press (A) to go there. Whenever you access this map, your cursor will always be on a spot with a dollar sign. If you press (A) here, you are taken to the shopping district. Do so now. You get five new choices: you can go and purchase clothing from Syndicate Urban Streetware (SUS), get your body tattooed at Manny's Tats, let Stingray do your hair at his Barber Shop, or buy shiny new bling from St. Jacob. Finally, there's the Stapleton Athletics gym, which is where you should go first. Rollins welcomes you as you tread in. Immediately after you'll get a menu in which you can choose what to do: "Train Skills" allows you to use your earned Development Points to increase your expertise in certain areas (Upper Power, Lower Power, Speed, Toughness, and Health). "Learn Styles" is very expensive, but against the price of $2,500, you may learn up to two new styles in addition to your first one. Needless to say that this isn't anything to be happening in the close future. "Learn Moves" gives you a chance to buy new Blazin' Moves. Usually, as you beat other fighters, you unlock there Blazin' Move in the gym. Costs vary per move. Usually, the cooler moves will cost you a bunch of Dev Points. Finally, there's "Assign Moves", in which you can assign the moves to the four directions of the Right Thumbstick (so you can have four different Blazin' Moves at the same time, though this will probably never happen on Easy difficulty). Assigning Blazin' Moves doesn't cost you any Development Points. Use "Train Skills" to increase your abilities before you go and take on the first combatants. I recommend to increase Speed, and then increase your style- reliant attribute somewhat (for a Streetfighter, this would be Upper Power). When you're done, press (B) a couple of times to get back to the Shopping District, and take a look at all the different shops. Of course, I'm not going to tell you what your character should dress like, or which tattoos or hairstyle he should take, that's personal taste. BIG NOTE: Though I may not act like shopping is too important, you should never forget that changing your looks and icing yourself out is a NECESSARY part of the game. It keeps your Charisma high, and thus it allows you to Blaze faster than normally. And, on a minor note, fighting with the same guy over and over again is nothing short of boring. Once you're done stocking up, go back to the NY City map and highlight the only available venue, the Foundation. A small screen pops up where you get a decent overview of all the other fighters you can try to tackle. Notice that there's one "locked" fighter at the end of the line. This fighter is like a boss-enemy and is only unlocked if you beat all of the other combatants in that venue. Most of the time, these venue-leaders are tougher to beat than others. Just so you know. I recommend starting out with Trick, who is first in line anyways, because he has some weaknesses which can be used to your advantage greatly with your speed increase. +-----+ Trick +-----+ VENUE: The Foundation STYLES: Streetfighting BLAZIN' MOVE: Kidney Stones _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Speed |_|_|_|_|_ _ _ _ _ Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Health |_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Quite the pushover, I have to say, though you may not feel the same after battling him once. Taking a look at his stats, we see that he can be hell to deal with if you let him take the initiative, especially so early in the game. With good Health and excellent Toughness, Trick can take a beating. Or, more importantly, his high Upper Power stat makes sure he can dish it out, too. Now, don't get discouraged. I've described a fight with Trick in an earlier section. There are some things to keep in mind when fighting this guy. For one, Trick seems to be even less offensive than a turtle if you stay away from him, and even IF he rushes you he will almost never grab you, so you can safely block. Secondly, this man is an absolute ADDICT of the Haymaker. Which is great, as you can easily interrupt it with a light, quick punch combo of yourself. Rush him from the start, that's important, and keep pounding him with light punch combos "until death do you part". Be careful, though, when he blocks your attacks, quickly switch into a grab and toss Trick into something or someone for a Crowd Double Team and Environmental Attacks. These will help you get this toughie's health gauge down far quicker. When you're finally ready to BLAZE, make sure that you don't try to do it on Trick without him being stunned. Most of the time, if you try him with a single grab, he will counter, and there will be shit to pay. You can also try the YY-into-Grab combo, it will work on him too the majority of the time. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 112 on EASY, 150 on MED, 188 on HARD [Fighter] Trick [Blazin' Move] Kidney Stones +-----+ Yay! So you beat the first opponent in the game. Congrats. Now, as you return to your crib, you notice that there are new messages waiting for you, so let's take a look. FROM: Snowman MESSAGE: "Hey yo, it's Snowman. Yo, you GOTTA come down to the shop, I definitely got some stuff you're gonna love. Holla back, with love!" FROM: Ludacris MESSAGE: "I don't know what kinda guy D-Mob thinks he sees in you, but you better step up. No time for losers in this crew!" FROM: Rollins MESSAGE: "There's lots of ways to KO someone. First, get his health into the DANGER zone. Then, you can unleash a BLAZIN move, use a weapon, perform an environmental attack, or hit him with your style-specific move. He'll be picking his teeth up off the floor in no time." FROM: Blaze MESSAGE: "Hey yo, it's Blaze! You lookin' good out there, killah! D's liking what he sees. Keep it up. Talk to ya later." Guess there was more than the average crowd spectating your match with Trick earlier. Anyway, go to Stapleton and increase your skillz some more to help in kicking ass. The next fighter you face will be less predictable than our beloved Trick, so keep on your toes. Perhaps you can go do some shopping as well to give your Charisma a small boost. Once done, head over to the Foundation again, and this time select Bo as the one you want to face. +--+ Bo +--+ VENUE: The Foundation STYLES: Martial Arts BLAZIN' MOVE: Pop Your Collar _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_ Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_ Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Health |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Now this is an ENTIRELY different story than Trick. Instead of relying on harsh power, Bo takes a sneaker approach by taking high Speed and Toughness, and mixing it up with some Lower Power. Martial Arts as a style also helps him in his hit'n hit approach. Also, for such a nimble fighter, Bo has a little surprise: almost maxed out Toughness and excellent Health... One thing to remember in this contest is that you should avoid being thrown into a pillar or jukebox AT ALL COSTS. If you get pummeled into it once, Bo will just keep picking you up and whipping you into the pillar again with his tremendous speed, which - at your current level - means you'll be knocked out in no time. Though you'll still have to be agressive to win this contest, you have to be smart in your approach. If you're stuck in Bo's sick-speed light combos, you may want to make use of the Block button every once in a while. Best way to defeat him is to use his own strategy against him: attack with a quick YY (or XX if you're kickboxer) and follow it up with a grab, whip him into a pillar, and deliver good environmental damage. Be repetitive, nobody will give a flying fuck anyway at this level, right? Your momentum meter should build up with considerable speed, as well, so take Bo into your Blazin' Move when he's stunned from yet another one of your environmental attacks. If that doesn't KO him, throw him into a pillar and immediately follow up with a Haymaker, even his max Toughness won't save his arse out of that. Also, don't be afraid to grab one of them pretty bottles from the top of the jukeboxes. They're one-hit, but they do nice damage and it's generally fun to see. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 112 on EASY, 150 on MED, 188 on HARD [Fighter] Bo [Blazin' Move] Pop Your Collar +-----+ Stapleton's next in line. If you substantially increase the Speed attribute with your earned Development Points, the next fights will be a whole lot easier than they would normally. Enhance your appearance if you want to, and check your new messages FROM: D-Mob MESSAGE: "Hey yo kid remember - you take a cut of all the action that goes on behind the scenes at your fights. There's always bets going on, so the more cool shit you pull off in the heat of battle, the bigger your cut will be." FROM: Rollins MESSAGE: "Hey this is Rollins. If you're not there right now you'd better be on your way to the gym!" Done? Time to head over to the Foundation again, this time to face Nyne. +----+ Nyne +----+ VENUE: The Foundation STYLES: Streetfighting BLAZIN' MOVE: Speedbag _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_| Health |_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Where Trick focuses on power, and Bo on speed, Nyne strikes a balance between the two. This shows from his two very different styles, but also from his stats. With the exception of speed, Nyne is just about above-average at everything. This can make him a mess to deal with since he's kinda unpredictable, but then again, he's not really strong at anything but Speed. Rush him with a running grab and pounce on him with combos. If he doesn't block your strikes, then keep pounding him until he does. Once he blocks, grab him and whip him into something for big environmental damage. Make good use of the time when he's stunned to execute Hard Grabs or yet another pillar-bashing attack. Or punch right through him with a Haymaker. It's not a good idea to Haymaker without Nyne being stunned as he will block it almost all the time (or worse, reverse it). You'd be wide open. Also, Nyne's bloody Haymakers can be a pain. You should keep on your toes when he lunges backwards, and block it, then make use of the assault's recovery time to lay down a Hard Grapple or Haymaker yourself. Smash a bottle on top of him to lower Nyne's momentum if he gets anything going (which is exactly what you should avoid, so it would be best to be even more agressive than normally, here.) =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 112 on EASY, 150 on MED, 188 on HARD [Blazin' Move] Speedbag +-----+ Well wouldn't you know it? New messages for your entertainment: FROM: O.E. MESSAGE: "Anytime you wanna go one-on-one just let me know." FROM: Stingray MESSAGE: "Wassup? It's Stingray. Let's update your looks, I got some new ideas. See ya soon." FROM: Rollins MESSAGE: "Every time you win a match, you gain development points that we can use to train your ass. Keep coming by the gym every couple of days and I'll make sure you show results." FROM: Blaze MESSAGE: "Just like we thought, Crow and his boys up in Harlem have been eyein' up our turf... Ain't nothing to be worried about though. So far all he done is send second rate chumps down to stir up a little shit in our clubs. Let's hope that's the end of it." O.E., or Omar Epps, is someone new. He's the "boss enemy" of the Foundation, and he's quite strong, so I strongly suggest to leave him be until you've boosted your attributes somewhat more. Fortunately, ever since you beat that guy Trick, a new venue has been unlocked, a brawling bar going by the name of "The Limit". There are new fighters waiting for you there, but first, go to the gym and spend those D-Points you earned by defeating Nyne. Then head over to The Limit and choose Skull as your next opponent. +-----+ Skull +-----+ VENUE: The Limit STYLES: Submissions, Streetfighting BLAZIN' MOVE: Latin Twist _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_ _ Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Health |_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Basically, Skull is just a more difficult and probably more versatile spinoff of Trick, though his Blazin' Move and looks are much cooler, in my opinion. Maxed out Upper Power and Streetfighting style indicates that you're DEAD if you allow him to land Haymakers on you. He can be hard to KO at first because of his maximum Toughness, but if you're familiar with the "I do Blazin' Move to get him in DANGER zone, then I pick him up and quickly do a Haymaker" tactic, you should punch right through him. Note that Skull also features some experience in Submissions fighting style. It's sort of a secondary, a last resort, for him and he won't use it very often or to great success, but don't be surprised if you find yourself Hard Grappled and down on the floor with your limbs in awkward positions. It's easily escapable by tapping any button. Now, for beating him. It should take you little time to get used to The Limit as a venue. There's a crowd, and on the far left there is a jukebox wherein you can ram your enemy's head to dust. Then, on the far right side, there's a pool table which can serve you just like a wall or a pillar. The crowd closes any other gap, and they wield weapons here more often than in the Foundation, so if you find yourself getting your ass kicked, grab hold of an "object" and cripple Skull with it. Just on a side note, as you did with Nyne, there's no doubt you'll have to avoid being hit by Skull's Haymakers at all costs. It's easily blocked, but be careful not be stunned, for he might just unleash his Streetfighting wrath upon you ;P =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 150 on EASY, 200 on MED, 250 on HARD [Fighter] Skull [Blazin' Move] Latin Twist +-----+ When Skull's finally out cold, a small cutscene takes place. There seem to be some "people" around here who are really good at grabbing male attention, for the sake of being vague. Now, you can choose one to take home with you. No matter who you choose, it will always be Nyne who blocks the path towards them. Guess what? You've got fighting to do. He's not really hard, just use Nyne's previous strategies and you'll be fine. This fight also gives you 150 D-Points on EASY, 200 on MED, and 250 on HARD. So, as you return from your confrontation with the Latino chump, you have new messages waiting for you. From now on, I will only list those that are truly important. So there won't be any Snowman, or Manny, or Stingray, or Jacob telling you about there new assortments. Though I'll probably say that there are new things available for purchase. Heck, there'll probably be a special section for it in the FAQ in the future. For now, only Manny tells you he has some new designs for you to check out. FROM: Blaze MESSAGE: "D-Mob's set up a fight for you against the Iceberg himself, Ice-T. This is your first big shot. Head down to 357 whenever you're ready." FROM: Rollins MESSAGE: "Use the environment to your advantage. Set up your opponent for an environmental attack by throwing him against an object. Once he's stunned, grab him again to perform a crushing move." FROM: Blaze MESSAGE: "Hey yo, it's Blaze, man! A lot of going down early that night. Heheh, hit me back." Well, Blaze's a different story, isn't he? ;) Anyways, there's a new venue for you to travel to, but I advise you to take your time building stats up before you even think of taking on Ice-T. Fortunately, there are enough fighters left to battle for Development Points. Three, to be exact, and the first you should face is Cruz, at The Limit again. +----+ Cruz +----+ VENUE: The Limit STYLES: Wrestling BLAZIN' MOVE: Flatline _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_ _ Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ _ Health |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Charisma |_|_|_|_|_| This dude isn't very hard if you know what you're doing. Or, more importantly, if you know what the hell HE's trying to pull on you. Taking a look at his stats, we see the usual set-up for a beefy wrestler. He only uses his Upper Power for throws, combos are not really his thing. Unless the AI learns that you're weak to them, which shouldn't be the case. Then, there's his health. You have to keep on dominating him for a LONG time and this can get frustrating. Keep cool and you should eventually beat him, as his bar doesn't fill up that quickly because of Cruz's mediocre toughness. When fighting, Cruz likes the Hard strikes. Actually, he's nearly obsessed with them. He'll do a dropkick or a football tackle which can both be easily blocked, and then countered in their recovery time. Almost the entire remainder of the match, the guy will go for grabs. You should interrupt these with a quick punch (Y) and you'll be fine. Since Cruz does not seem to use the environment or weapons that often, the only thing to really worry about is his Hard Grapples. These are his trademark and he'll do it again and again if you don't keep on your toes for his grapple-attempts. Also, he will continue doing them mercilessly when you are stunned, even if there's a wall for greater damage nearby. Give him a lesson in environmental attacks and do the YY- to-Grab to pounce him into the wall again and again. It may take some time with Cruz's health stat, but it'll do the job just fine. Be careful for the crotch shot when he tries to get up though, he's fond of doing that. Combos don't really work on him, he blocks them most of the time, but if you manage to hit the first (Y)(Y) two strikes, go for a Haymaker to finish the combo because it will most likely connect for some good damage. Or grab a weapon to get his health down more quickly. Running grabs work fairly well, too, but usually Cruz tries to close the distance immediately, so it's not really worth trying. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 150 on EASY, 200 on MED, 250 on HARD [Fighter] Cruz [Blazin' Move] Flatline +-----+ Yeah. New messages. Seems Snowman has got some new gear, but at the same time there's Blaze saying that the guy's an absolute joke when it comes to fighting inside the ring. That's why D-Mob kicked him out. FROM: Crow MESSAGE: "I've seen what you're doing against the small-timers out there. But if you for real, let's see you go against someone serious!" FROM: Rollins MESSAGE: "When you're fighting in a place that has a crowd, make sure you get them involved in the action. Throw or knock your opponent into the crowd to set up big moves, and always be on the lookout for weapons." Could someone please tell me why Rollins is trying so hard to ruin my FAQ? Ah, at least he's helpful. Hmmm, it seems you've gotten Crow's attention for now, though he doesn't think you're for real. But he will. Oh yeah... he sure as hell will. You're gonna have a more difficult fight than the ordinary bar brawl next, so make sure you're prepared before you head over to that joint the Foundation to face O.E. in a one-on-one. +-----------------+ Omar Epps as O.E. +-----------------+ VENUE: The Foundation STYLES: Streetfighting BLAZIN' MOVE: Bombtrack _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ _ Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Health |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| It's time to face Da Big Boss of the Foundation. And he's very worthy as an opponent, probably more than enough for all those new players out there. He's a very good taste of what's to come, and you should definitely not expect too much of your first fight with him. First, look at that Upper Power and his Speed. That makes for some tight combos, I'll tell you that, O.E.'s the combo machine at this stage. It also makes his Haymakers very dangerous. Add the good Toughness and Health and you've got a damn good fighter. Still, he's far from impossible to beat. Mainly because he's not as proficient at countering grabs or strikes. And because O.E.'s quite predictable. He has a certain pattern in his attacks: either he will lay down ONE strike and then go for a grapple, or he will just finish the combo. That's it. Keep this in mind while facing him and you should be alright defensively. When he goes for the Haymaker, block it (or counter if you're da man), and then attack while O.E. recovers from it. Offensively, you can be in for a pain if you rely on strikes for damage. O.E. likes to block a lot even though he doesn't counter very often. So, you're best off trying to hit him, and when he blocks, go for a grab to whip him into a pillar or jukebox. Be careful though, he may not counter normal grabs a lot, if you try a Hard Grab your sorry ass will be in pain afterwards. So only do Hard grapples when O.E.'s stunned and you should be fine. Also, keep on the lookout for weapons. They can make this fight somewhat less of a pain. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 375 on EASY, 500 on MED, 625 on HARD [Fighter] O.E. [Blazin' Move] Bombtrack [Venue] The Foundation +-----+ One step closer to celebrity status... at least some people will take you serious now. But there's a bigger fight coming up which will definitely put you on the map. Crow's map, to be precise. Also, Stingray seems to have some new hair designs to increase your charisma. FROM: Blaze MESSAGE: "Hey yo, it's Blaze! Let's hit the clubs tonight, man, you in? Hit me back! I think I'll see ya tonight!" FROM: Rollins MESSAGE: "Make sure you mix up your moves to keep your opponent guessing. Otherwise he can learn your pattern of attack and use it to his advantage." FROM: D-Mob MESSAGE: "Tough fight last night, kid. You pulled it out. Good work." Ludacris also comments on you, but what the heck anyway. We're just here to fight, not to listen to messages, right? Right. So perhaps we should get to it then. Next up is one of Crow's top dogs, Danny Trejo, so you'll probably want to increase your skills and looks before you face him. As soon as you're ready, head over to The Limit and choose Trejo as your opponent. +-----+ Trejo +-----+ VENUE: The Limit STYLES: Streetfighting BLAZIN' MOVE: Readjustment _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_ Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Health |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Charisma |_|_|_|_|_| Even with his bear-like attributes, facing Trejo doesn't seem too much of a challenge. Sure, his Upper Power means that his Haymakers are deadly, and he can take a beating before going down, but he's SOOOOOOO predictable at this time. And with a low Charisma stat like that, you won't even have to worry about him getting any momentum because you made a mistake somewhere in combat. Don't think that means he's easy. Especially on your first time through, you'll have a hard time reacting to his punches: he's probably the most agressive fighter you've met so far. He even sends you a threat before you face him... heheh. It won't help him that much. You should rush him from the start, but watch out with your timing as Trejo usually moves backwards somewhat from his starting position. When he's down, deliver a quick blow. Don't bother picking him up after anything but an environmental attack, as he will recover from things like these quite quickly. Now, for his attack patterns. They are much like Cruz's, only a tad more agressive. Either he will go for the Haymaker, or he'll do a punch-to-Haymaker, or he'll go for a grab. Rarely he tries a combo over three hits before grabbing your ass and tossing you against a wall. That's Trejo's specialty: the environment. He'll keep pouncing on you if you allow him to do it once, so keep on him and interrupt his grab attempts with quick punch combos. To whittle down his health, you'll want to make good use of the environment yourself, especially the pool table at the right side of the battlefield. Keep in mind that Trejo is not much of a blocker and that he will usually counter your grab attempts if you don't force him to block beforehand. BLAZE when you have the chance, it will definitely help in putting his ugly face down. So will weapons, but Trejo does like to counter when you use them, so be unpredictable in your strikes. (Y) will deliver a vertical strike while (X) executes a horizontal swipe. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 375 on EASY, 500 on MED, 625 on HARD [Fighter] Trejo [Blazin' Move] Readjustment [Venue] The Limit +-----+ As you can imagine, neither Crow nor Trejo is very happy about you kicking his sore ass. No wonder that the chump sends you a new threat message. Empty, as you may have noticed, something about a "Lucky Night". Yeah, right. We'll meet him again. You should also have gotten a message from Jacob the Jeweller, since he's got some new pieces in store for you. It's an excellent chance to ice yourself out before you face Ice-T (get the pun? ;P) FROM: Blaze MESSAGE: "Yo, there's a Free For All tournament getting underway this week at The Powerplant. Money's decent, but more than anything it's a good way for you to establish yourself as a name out there." FROM: Rollins MESSAGE: "If you wanna keep winning, you gotta control the momentum of the fight. Work on increasing your charisma and crowd appeal to boost the momentum you earn for each move." FROM: D-Mob MESSAGE: "You smacked Crow's boy around last night. He should be hurting after that loss." Yeah, Rollins does what he's good at and that's ruining this document. But he IS right, however much I hate to admit it, so with help of Jacob's acquired masterpieces you can boost your charisma enough so you can hold yourself against Ice-T. Be sure to use those 500 Development Points you gained from beating Trejo before heading down to Club 357 to face the only available opponent left. The other card on the map is an FFA tournament and you can trust me when I say you don't wanna be going there right now. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *=*=* SCENE 3: ICE COLD KILLAH *=*=* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +-----+ Ice-T +-----+ VENUE: Club 357 STYLES: Submissions, Martial Arts BLAZIN' MOVE: Iceberg _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_| Health |_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ _ _ Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Now this is a fight worth betting on. As you may notice from the Iceberg's stats, most people will be betting on Ice-T, using common sense as the major factor. But we'll prove them wrong, won't we? Well, probably not at our first attempt, but we'll still prove them wrong sometime. Viewing his stats, we see that allowing Ice-T to take the initiative is absolutely deadly. He'll be BLAZIN' and putting your ass on the stew in no-time. Also, he has very good Upper Power and decent speed, and also two different fighting styles. It all adds up in one heck of a challenge, especially at higher difficulty levels. On first time through, getting used to the new environment is a vital asset in being succesful. No crowd, no walls to ram your adversary into, so there go our early strategies. Instead you get an old-fashioned wrestling ring. This time, the ropes can serve you just like the crowd in other places, because they will bounce your opponent back towards you should you throw him into them. Also, you can diagonally whip someone into a turnbuckle, and then grapple them for a special move, like a superplex, hurricanrana, or eye rake. Occasionally, if you appeal to the crowd, emptied bottles will be thrown in for you to use as a weapon. Rush Ice-T from the start with a running grab and pound him with light combos. If he doesn't block a lot, go for some (Y)(Y) combos with a Haymaker at the end. If he does, go for the grab and try to get him into the turnbuckle. If you do a grab from there, Ice-T will be stunned long enough for you to hit your feared Haymaker or other Hard grapple move in your repertoire. Be sure to mix in grabs with your light combos, or Ice-T will start furiously countering your moves. On the defensive, you may want to block the Iceberg's soft combos. He likes them. If he climbs a turnbuckle, get the hell out of his way or he may smash'n stun you to death, and be sure to keep close to him or he will get a bottle to take a chunk out of your health gauge. About nine out of ten times his Submissions style won't pose a threat, but at least keep in mind that he has other ways to defeat you than a mere KO. In all, you should be fine, especially if you can avoid being stunned. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 1125 on EASY, 1500 on MED, 1875 on HARD [Fighter] Ice-T [Blazin' Move] Iceberg [Venue] Club 357 [Song] O.G. Original Gangster +-----+ A small cutscene triggers in which Crow affronts you and the rest of the gang, but it seems he's too scared to start something in a club which is not (yet) his. So, he cowardly leaves, with Crack and Trejo trailing in his footsteps, but not before the snake has called out all of D-Mobs fighters to come battle for him... and for some real money. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking: WOW, 1125 D-Points, I can boost my skills A LOT with those. That may be true, but the FAQ's planning otherwise so please keep your desires down. We'll be learning a second fighting style soon. Check your messages, Manny has some new designs for you so go there if you want some ink to make yourself look better. Then there's Ice-T, with a surprisingly polite message on how you "earned" his respect that night. And now, Crow's trying to persuade you into joining him. You wouldn't get involved with the guy, would you? WOULD YOU? FROM: Rollins MESSAGE: "Charisma is the key to getting the crowd on your side. To improve your charisma, you need to dress with style. The crowd also loves a warrior. The more matches you win, the more likely they are to get behind you." FROM: Blaze MESSAGE: "Hey yo, it's Blaze! I dunno what you heard, but Crow's really been messin' with our shit. It's gettin' bad out there, man, we are losing clubs, and dudes are starting to flock. No time for losing, 'right? Hit me back!" FROM: Blaze MESSAGE: "Crow is trying to muscle D-Mob while he's still off balance. His little performance last night cost us a good soldier. WC just left to go fight for Crow. That ain't right, man. We better play it smart or this whole crew might fall apart." These people really have skills when trying to motivate you, don't they? Well, at least you're on the map now. A new club has been unlocked, the Babylon, but first, we'll want to go and get some Development Points for the new style we want to learn, right? Therefore, we will go to the Syn Energy Powerplant first and win the first round of the Free For All tournament. Enhance your appearance (DON'T spend your D-Points) and head over there. +-----------------------+ FFA Tournament: Round 1 +-----------------------+ VENUE: Syn Energy Powerplant POSSIBLE: Havoc, Bo, Meca, Trick Free-For-Alls are a lot different from the normal matchups as they have more opponents waiting for you, and backstabbing is not all that unusual. Since the opponents in the tournament are somewhat random, I can't give any stats here, but I'll try to give some useful tips. First of all, you have to make sure you aren't reckless. Take on one opponent at a time, or I can assure you that you'll end up dead within the minute. Don't rush at the start and slowly make your way to the opponent you are facing by default standards. Remember, if you ever take your attention off a target (because you were backstabbed, for example), you can use the WHITE button to shift your attention to another fighter. It's best to focus on one adversary at a time to make sure you don't get multiple fighters coming after you. Furthermore, I suggest you take care of that first opponent as quickly as possible. In the powerplant, make use of the fences on both sides of the arena. Don't use weapons, just pound on your opponent and BLAZE when you have the chance, perhaps use a sneaky Haymaker to dispose of them while the other two competitors are bashing each other's brains out. Use standard strategies for this, but leave the weapon part out. Grabbing a weapon takes time and the longer the fight takes, the bigger are your chances of being ganged upon. Now that the first contestant is out of the way, your character will automatically choose a new target. Make sure you are targetting the STRONGEST foe by now. Head to him and do a Hard grapple from the back, this is truly a nasty art of backstabbing. It deals big damage without being exposed yourself, and it will fill up the momentum gauge considerably so you can BLAZE a second time quite quickly. With the temporal double-team you have, quickly dispose of the guy, then turn to the next. This third fighter should be very much weakened from his previous struggles, so you can take him out quickly with anything you like. Weapons, environmentals, crowd double- teams, whatever. Just make sure the job is done. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 750 on EASY, 1000 on MED, 1250 on HARD +-----+ As your iced character returns from the triple confrontation, you'll see that Blaze congratulates you on your victory. And Snowman has some new stuff for you to enhance your appearance with. FROM: Rollins MESSAGE: "Blocking is great, but if you really want to turn the tide of a fight you need to learn to counter. When your opponent punches or kicks you, press Block and Toward your opponent to try and counter his attack. Time it right, and he'll be picking himself up off the floor." Next up: that lovely Jamaican joint, the Babylon club. You'll be facing four opponents there... first of which... the ELEPHANT MAN! Muahahahahahahaah! ;P +------------+ Elephant Man +------------+ VENUE: Babylon STYLES: Kickboxing, Martial Arts BLAZIN' MOVE: Good 2 Go _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Health |_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| The Elephant Man can give you some trouble if you aren't used to Def Jam's speed yet. Just look at his stats, an excellent Speed combined with maximum Lower Power with Kickboxing and Martial Arts is an excellent combination. Toughness ain't that bad either, so you can look forward to a good fight. If you don't block a lot, you'd better learn how to do it now. Approach him cautiously once the fight starts. Most of the time, Elephant Man will walk over to the nearest jukebox and grab a bottle. If this happens, quickly force him into block with quick combos and grab him to make him lose his weapon, then whip him into the wall to pound him. Pick him up and do it again for some early-fight damage. Also, if he dropped the flask, you can pick it up and hit him with it. Now comes the tricky part. On the offensive, Elephant Man is probably to nimble to interrupt, so you'll have to resort to blocking his quick combos. Fortunately, he doesn't grab a lot, only if you block far too much. Simply wait for him to finish his combo and then do one of your own once he stops. Make sure you don't get rammed into walls because the Elephant Man will keep giving it to you and there won't be a damn thing you can do about it. If the fight takes long, Elephant Man will also resort to the Martial Arts specialty: flying attacks. When you see him sprinting towards a jukebox or a wall, move out of the way so that he can't hit you with it, then do a Haymaker or a combo in its recovery time. Keep on your toes and you should win this fight without too much hassle. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 562 on EASY, 750 on MED, 937 on HARD [Fighter] Elephant Man [Blazin' Move] Good 2 Go +-----+ Hey look, it's Carmen Electra! That's right, we'll have to choose between two girlies again. Choose whoever you like, it's the one you will be controlling during the catfight that follows. I can't give you any specific pointers on this. If you choose Carmen, and you win, you get Carmen. Choose Carmen, and lose, and you get... Carmen. So it really doesn't matter. If you still want to win because it's good for your ego, make use of general strategies like the crowd, the pillars, the bottles on the jukeboxes, and the jukeboxes themselves to pack a punch. We see our man exiting with the woman of his choice when it's done. And back to the crib we go. D-Mob will congratulate you on your win and sounds quite hopeful that Crow won't have any fighters left in the near future. FROM: Blaze MESSAGE: "Yo, we got the Triads to let you into one their clubs down in Chinatown. There's some serious competition at the Dragon House. Make sure you go check it out." FROM: Rollins MESSAGE: "Even the worst kind of ass-kicking can be turned around with the right weapon. If your opponent gets a weapon, remember that your only options are to run, or try and counter his attacks to take the weapon away." Rollins: WE ALREADY KNEW!!! Anyways, we're pretty close to the 2500 D-Points right now, so the next fight should do it. Fortunately, the other two fighters at the Babylon aren't as hard as the Elephant Man, so you'd best be on your way there to kick some ass. Next up: Meca. +----+ Meca +----+ VENUE: Babylon STYLES: Kickboxing BLAZIN' MOVE: Don't Come Back _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ _ Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Health |_|_|_|_|_|_| Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_| After the Elephant Man, this fight should be a breeze. Really, Meca doesn't have anything special to throw at you, except for his BLAZIN' move, which is kinda cool. Yet, since he shouldn't even be able to build any momentum, it can't speak in favor of him. His stats are default for a kickboxer, excellent Lower Power, good Toughness, but all other stats are mediocre. Once again, he shouldn't be much of a problem. The only reason some people have trouble with Meca is because of the guy's tendency to reverse grapples a lot. Don't try a simple grab out of nowhere, as it will be countered 85% of the time, perhaps more. Instead, go for a few hits, and when he blocks, go for the grapple. The good'ole strategy. Your grab will still be countered sometimes, but much less than it would normally. A rush from the start will usually nail him good. Even if it misses, Meca will usually go for a light grab, resulting in two measly clinch kicks thrown your way. Once you're set for action again, make sure to force your opponent towards the closest wall with quick combos, or irish whips. If you don't, you will probably end up in one of Meca's own kick combos, and at this level, those are quite deadly. Use one of the bottles from the jukeboxes if you're getting your ass kicked to turn the momentum in your favour. Once near a wall, the fight is basically over. Use the tactics previously mentioned to keep pounding him with devastating environmental attacks. Meca has low health and only mediocre toughness, so getting a KO shouldn't be a problem. Use your Blazin' when you can - but only when he's stunned - and don't use any slow attacks out-of-nowhere (Haymakers or Hard Grapples) and you might even finish this matchup without taking a single scrap of damage! =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 262 on EASY, 350 on MED, 438 on HARD [Fighter] Meca [Blazin' Move] Don't Come Back +-----+ If you didn't have enough D-Points to buy the next style after beating the Elephant Man earlier, make sure you hurry to the gym now to purchase it. With Streetfighting as your first style, Kickboxing would be a good complementary, as long as you don't forget to put points into Lower Strength (!). You won't need as much of it as U-Strength, but pumping your legs up will definitely pay off in the long run. You also have some messages waiting for you. Mostly reminders of what you can do. When you're done upgrading your character, head over to the Babylon to face the "true Jamaican", Solo. +----+ Solo +----+ VENUE: Babylon STYLES: Martial Arts, Streetfighting, Submissions BLAZIN' MOVE: No Way Out _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_ _ Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_ Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Health |_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ _ Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Honestly, I can't understand in the least why EA had to give one of the coolest fighters in the game such a HORRIDLY, GODFORSAKENLY BAD artifical intelligence. I mean, just look at the guy. Three styles, maximum charisma, maximum upper power with Haymaker? I own anybody with him, any time of the day. A tear comes to my eye when I have to play AGAINST him in Story Mode. First time through, I beat him in under 30 seconds, with only a minimal amount of health loss. Still, for the sake of completeness, I will offer some tips on him - but you won't even need them. Don't rush Solo from the start as he will come running for you with a strike 75% of the time. Now, this flying body attack has a recovery time that belongs to the Guinness Book of Records, so you can easily nail the Jamaican with a combo. He usually won't even block or reverse it if you manage to land the first strike. Now, do whatever you like. Crowd double teams, practice your Haymakers, anything... If you use environmentals I bet it'll be over in under a minute at first try. Add your Blazin' to the ass-kicking and - unless you are a merciless sadist - you should sniff at how helpless Solo is. Don't let his current behaviour fool you, though. Like said before, Solo is great if you know how to handle him in multiplayer. But that's not now, right? So roll him up and be done with him. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 262 on EASY, 350 on MED, 438 on HARD [Fighter] Solo [Blazin' Move] No Way Out +-----+ Things don't seem to have gone very well, or so you notice as you return from that relaxing trip to the Babylon club. Just look at your messages. Blaze has lost the match to Crow's lap dog, Crack, and he's being quite touchy about it, so Ludacris advises you to be careful when you speak with him. Also, Rollins teaches you about reversing grapples. A little late. Anyway, you don't get that much DP from beating Solo, but if you want to go to the gym - or any other shop - who can stop you? Once done, prepare to go over to the Babylon one last time, to fight another big shot in Crow's arsenal. Sean Paul. +---------+ Sean Paul +---------+ VENUE: Babylon STYLES: Martial Arts BLAZIN' MOVE: Street Respect _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ _ _ Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ _ _ Health |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Arrogant fool, but so damn cool. Honestly, I bust up rhymes out of nowhere when I hear this guy speak. I can't even understand what he's talking about... He's probably bragging. And who can blame him? Four stats maxed, including Speed which will be his main asset during the fight. In short, fighting Sean Paul is a pain if he gets any momentum going. With that Charisma you'll be kicked out with Street Respect in no time. Is the fight all that bad, then? Not at all if you keep going yourself. Rush him from the start with a running grapple, and whatever you do afterwards, don't stop your assault. Never. If you make a mistake and get it, roll backwards and start your cycle of hit'n throw attacks over. Even though Sean Paul has a great amount of health, his mediocre toughness makes sure that his bar doesn't refill that quickly. Use environmentals, and don't try to do pretty things. If you land a normal punch succesfully, follow up with a Haymaker in- stead of a grapple - usually, landing a normal attack on Sean Paul succesfully means you've interrupted one of his own, which means that if you try to grapple him, he'll almost automatically try to continue his combo and so break up the clinch. Don't go for weapons in this fight, that slacks you down and allows Sean Paul to mount an attack of his own. Which is pretty to look at, but not when it's being done to your own character. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 750 on EASY, 1000 on MED, 1250 on HARD [Fighter] Sean Paul [Blazin' Move] Street Respect [Venue] Babylon [Song] Anything Goes [Jewelry] Sean Paul's Chain +-----+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *=*=* SCENE 4: YAKUZA RECOGNITION *=*=* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That puts the Babylon off the map: everytime you beat all of Crow's fighters in a club, you win that club for D-Mob and his gang. That earns you respect amongst their ranks. Read your messages, and then take a look at the map to find the Dragon House. Sure, it was there earlier, but now that you can spend the DP from beating Meca, Solo, and Sean Paul, this will be a walk in the park. Go check on Chiang. +------+ Chiang +------+ VENUE: Dragon House STYLES: Martial Arts BLAZIN' MOVE: Back Attack _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_ Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ Health |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_| Very nimble, but quite weak. A frail martial artist that is quite annoying to face. As you can see, his speed is a big pro, taken combined with his single style. So you could say he's potent in combat. Let me tell you something. He's not. The only way Chiang can truly beat you is by frustrating you to the point of no return. Which happens to people quite often, including me. To say it bluntly: Chiang is Cheap. Everytime you start those two punches or kicks that lead up to your grapple, he'll throw a punch himself. Because of his great speed and his Martial Arts movelist, that punch will almost always break your combo and leave you open to one of Chiang's attacks. You needn't worry too much about that, by the way, on the offensive this Chinese really has nothing standing for him. As this is your first fight in the Dragon House, I should point out to you that there's an alternate way to win. Bash the same section in the fencing three times in a row and it will break. Now whip your opponent into the opening and follow up with a heavy attack to knock him off the platform. You have to be quick, a Haymaker usually won't cut it, but if you manage to do it you will get an instant win. Of course, if you miss, you'll be attacked from behind and get thrown out yourself. Therefore, I hardly use this method, I prefer to kick Chiang's ass normally. It's your call, though. If you want to do things the ordinary way, I say you best get some anti-stress pills for the first encounter. You can win doing the YY-Grapple way, but it'll take longer than normally. One thing I've noticed is that if you start a Haymaker from afar, he'll get hit by it quite often, and get rammed into a wall. I haven't seen him countering any of those Haymakers I threw at him, so it's worth a try. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 450 on EASY, 600 on MED, 750 on HARD [Fighter] Chiang [Blazin' Move] Back Attack [Song] Koto +-----+ That wasn't too hard, fortunately. You've got new messages after the fight but none too important. Go enhance your looks and skills if you wish, then return to the Dragon House to face Masa. +----+ Masa +----+ VENUE: Dragon House STYLES: Submissions BLAZIN' MOVE: Chiropractor _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_ Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Health |_|_|_|_|_| Charisma |_|_|_|_|_| With the appearance of a Yakuza-gangster, a fighting attitude like a dragonslayer, and an amount of tattoos that would awaken jealousy within a chameleon, you'd say Masa has to be a force to be reckoned with. His stats aren't that shabby, either. Good lower and upper power so his submissions can bring you to the ground quite quickly, and he's quite the tough cookie. And still, you won't have a lot of problems taking this fella out. First off, he can only initiate those submissions from a Hard Grapple, but since you're throwing light attacks at him the entire match, he shouldn't have a chance to do that normally. So, he'll have to resort to punching and kicking before he does it. What's so great about that, then? Just look at his speed. Submissions isn't a style relying on quickness, so in short his attacks are slow, which only adds to the (our) fun. You can basically use any strategy you want against this guy. Think of some new ones if you want to. Or try to throw him out. I can't give any specifics, but you should do just fine. If you don't believe me... you haven't fought him yet. Go fight him, you'll be back within one or two minutes, I guarantee you. The blazing move you get for beating him is kinda cool, fortunately, which compensates for the fighter's lack of usability. I'm sure some of you love to use him in multiplayer, and I'm sure you can win with him. He's just... not my style. And he's easy to beat when computer- controlled. Period. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 450 on EASY, 600 on MED, 750 on HARD [Fighter] Masa [Blazin' Move] Chiropractor [Song] Dragon House +-----+ If you want to add the Chiropractor to your character as one of his Blazin' Moves, you can do so at Stapleton, with help of our dear friend Rollins. The same guy who's also sent you a message - along with others - to tell you things you already know. You already know that Crow hates you and wants to sway you to his cause, so why listen? Anyway, get your stuff together and set out to that Dragon House once more. +------+ Santos +------+ VENUE: Dragon House STYLES: Kickboxing BLAZIN' MOVE: Filipino Pride _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ _ Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Health |_|_|_|_|_|_| Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_| This fight will be a step up from the other two you've been through at the Dragon House, but keep it cool and you should be fine. We see great kickboxing skills when we look at his stats. Lower Power and Speed will cause you some pain throughout the fight, and KOing him will be tricky with that maxed-out toughness. Fortunately, you have lots of time to do so, because Santos doesn't have that much health to dispose of before he gets into the danger zone. It's fairly strange, but you can actually break his kick combo with your light punches - that is, if you took the combination of styles I suggested. Which makes this fight a cakewalk, because you can continuously pound on him and throw him against the walls. You should be careful when he's down, however. He'll usually get up with a nasty, quick kick and follow up with a kicking combo that hurts like hell. Otherwise, he's pretty much Chiang, but without the frustration. I only think this fight was harder than the rest because Santos can actually bring you dangerously close to KO if you make mistakes by mistiming your strikes or something. He's absolutely nothing on the defense, so make sure you stay agressive. Count his falls to make sure you don't get hit by that nasty kick - only tread closer if you're sure that Santos is stunned. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 450 on EASY, 600 on MED, 750 on HARD [Blazin' Move] Filipino Pride +-----+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *=*=* SCENE 5: WINNER-TAKE-ALL *=*=* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It seems there are some new things for you to buy, judging from Snowman's and Manny's messages. Get down there if you want, but DO spend your DP right now, increase your skills to the max. There's an important fight coming up - a bit like the battle with Ice-T, but only this time you're facing a far tougher opponent. Quite painful that he used to be part of D-Mob's gang before he went over to fight for Crow. It's payback time in the Red Room. +--+ WC +--+ VENUE: Red Room STYLES: Martial Arts, Streetfighting, Wrestling BLAZIN' MOVE: Westside Special _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_ Health |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Yeah, I do expect you to curse and utter foul language right now, since WC's just... good at all stats. Or at least above the average fighters you've met before. Thereby, you're fighting in a wrestling ring again, so there's no way to pull environmentals on him, unless you force him into one of the turnbuckles, which is quite hard. The most annoying thing, however (guess you didn't see that coming) is WC's tendency to NOT get stunned. Really, he rarely gets stunned, and even if he is, he will get up in a second. Heck, I even landed my Blazin' Move on him and he just got up again like nothing had happened, at all! Need I say more? Yes, I need say more. Otherwise you'll get your ass kicked and I wouldn't have done my job well. Though you'll probably get your ass kicked at first try anyway. Rush him from the start, WC taunts a lot to build momentum, so you'll be able to land a quick running grapple on him. After that, hit him on the ground - don't pick him up - and then retreat. Now, you can just use old-skool combo-to- grapple tactics to whittle his health down. There are a few things to remember though. First of all, as said before, WC doesn't really get stunned unless you hit him with your Blazin' Move. That said, it's usually not a good idea to pick him up, as he'll just counter with a quick, nasty punch or kick that'll leave you wide open. Resume your attacks when WC's up and you'll have little problems. Of course, use your Haymaker anytime you land two punches on him succesfully, you've actually got a good chance of hitting him with it. Another thing to notice is his flying attack: even if you've got WC pinned down in a corner, he might pull one of these off. It means he jumps against the ropes or a turnbuckle and immediately bounces off it with a powerful diving attack. Get out of its way or you'll be downed and stunned. A big pro about these attacks is that WC's open to Haymaker combos if he misses. One last thing about landing your Blazin' Move. It's hard in this battle. Make sure WC's blocking by initiating some light attacks, and then do the grab with the Blazin' Move. It's the best chance you have of performing it. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 1500 on EASY, 2000 on MED, 2500 on HARD [Venue] Red Room [Jewelry] WC's Chain +-----+ Oh dear, it seems Crow has finally come to his senses in the short cutscene, after you've won the fight. He suggests a Winner-Take-All match between his and D-Mob's best man. Sticky Fingaz immediately volunteers for D-Mob. He gets all upset when D-Mob tells Crow that he wants YOU to face Crack. This makes him join Crow's gang. D-Mob tells you not to worry but... will you? You'd better. After reading your messages, head over to the gym and spend all your available D-Points. I know it's tempting to spare them for a third style, but just trust me on this. Crack's far from a pushover. Also, spend your money on new clothes, jewelry, and a hairstyle to boost your charisma. You'll need everything at hand to beat Crack. When you think you're ready, select Club Murder from the map, and watch as the cutscene unfolds. Shortly after, you'll face... The Crack. +----------------+ Fat Joe as Crack +----------------+ VENUE: Club Murder STYLES: Streetfighting, Wrestling BLAZIN' MOVE: The Crack Attack _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ _ _ Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Health |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Whoa! Look at that sheer strength and toughness! Crack is one heck of a fighter. Or perhaps grizzly bear would suit his looks better, at least if it wasn't for his TS piece. He fights like a Trejo on steroids, but without the predictability. Notice that he only lacks in the speed department, which would normally be lethal against the punch-punch-grab strategy. But not for Crack. You see, Crack is terribly fond of reversing your grabs unless you force him into a block. Worse, he doesn't even block that often, your punches just seem to bounce off his belly. His health bar is immense, so it's not like they'll really hurt him. And that means that he can easily reverse your grapple if you try it after the second punch. Which he follows up with his trademark move... the Sit-Out Facebuster, more commonly known among WWE-fans as Triple H's finishing move, the Pedigree. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't be agressive when fighting him. On the contrary, you should be more offensive than in any other fight you've done so far. If he doesn't block, like I said before, hit him hard with your Haymaker. That will even bring Crack down to the floor. Don't go pick him up, he can't be stunned very easily. Though I have to say that he gets stunned more than WC. When he finally blocks, initiate a grapple and whip him against one of the walls. You're fighting in a cage: this is a big pro and you have to take advantage of it. It's almost impossible to beat Crack without the use of environmental moves. Fortunately, there's always a wall around to throw him against. When you've bashed his thick skull against the wall - which still doesn't take much health from him - he should finally be stunned. At this time, hit him with either a Haymaker or use the help of the wall to break him. Rinse and repeat until he's dead. It's cheap, but it's the only "easy" way I can offer. Still, it will take a lot of time before Crack gets into Danger, and due to his maximum Toughness he'll get out of it pretty quick. This is where the Streetfighting/Kickboxing combo truly shines, because we've got a nice Clinch Style Combo on our hands. It's the secret to KOing Crack easily. When he's in danger zone, he usually gets out of it before the damage from a follow-up KO attack is subtracted. That's annoying, so here's what you should do: Get his health down until he's in danger zone, and make sure he is stunned by a wall attack or something. Pick him up and do a Hard Grapple (L+A). When you've got him frantically tap the (X) button to initiate clinch kicks. If you don't do it fast enough, this isn't gonna work. Now count the kicks you deal: don't go any farther than SIX kicks. It should be more than enough to get him in danger zone attacks. Then quickly press the (Y) button to switch styles and do a Haymaker. This KO's him, even though he wasn't in the danger zone at the start of the grapple. Even with all these strategies I'm giving you, I wish you good luck when facing him. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 2250 on EASY, 3000 on MED, 3750 on HARD [Fighter] Fat Joe as Crack [Blazin' Move] The Crack Attack [Venue] Club Murder +-----+ In the cutscene D-Mob shows his gratitude by giving your character a chain, signifying that he's truly a part of the family. Moments later, a drive-by ends the fun. D-Mob gets shot - though not mortally wounded - and the car crashes. Immediately your character looks around to see who did this. He sees Trejo escaping into the subway, and quickly chases after him. Then, Trejo tries to shoot him, but (what luck) his gun has run out of bullets. So you get to fight him. Refer to the Trejo section above and use those tactics against him. This time, though, his health bar is significantly bigger, so the fight will last longer than your previous encounter. You can pull off two or three Blazin' Moves in this match only, if you keep attacking. Alternately, you can also try to throw him in front of the subway train. I don't recommend this, for the same reason as trying to throw someone out of the Dragon House: more often than not, your effort will recoil and you end up getting thrown there yourself. It's one more danger to reckon with. Beat his arse and your character will run back to D-Mob and Blaze. D-Mob gets arrested while Blaze and you get away from the cops. Back in the crib, Blaze suggests that you take no rash action and go do what D-Mob wants you to: get Crow's clubs by beating his fighters. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *=*=* SCENE 6: SILENT STRIKEBACK *=*=* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now you get control again. You've gained lots of DP from beating Crack and Trejo, so you can purchase a third style, now. I don't really suggest anything, just take what you think you'll like. If you're going for speed, take Martial Arts, if you want some painful grappling moves, take the Wrestling style. Or take Submissions. With the character I'm playing for this FAQ I took Wrestling, but I usually alternate between the three. Once you're done, head to the Terrordome for a not-so-important-but-still- needed-fight with Dan G. +-----+ Dan G +-----+ VENUE: Terrordome STYLES: Streetfighting, Martial Arts BLAZIN' MOVE: Break Beats _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_| Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Health |_|_|_|_|_ _ _ _ _ _ Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Break Beats to the bone, man. Dan G is a breakdancer and he's incorporated those swinging moves into his Streetfighting style, but don't get too intimidated. He's a cool guy, but he can't really land much damage with that average Upper and Lower Strength. His health is very low for a streetfighter, so Dan G won't last long if you keep hitting him where it hurts. Max Charisma won't help Dan G if you don't even allow him to get ANY momentum on. Just about everything I throw at this guy seems to work just fine. It's a new arena, one of my favorites because there are so many things you can throw opponents against. Make full use of the environment and he should be down in seconds. One piece of advice: if you want money, you shouldn't KO Dan G before you're ready to Blaze. It happened to me a lot early on. To me, a fight is simply not worth seeing if there's no Blazin' Move in it, at all. Unless it's a boss battle, of course. Dan G uses Haymakers quite often, but they can be seen from afar, easily. He's actually one of the best opponents to do some Counter practice on. Just don't let him get momentum going or you'll have to deal with one of the nicest Blazin' Moves in the game... Break Beats. It's just not funny that you don't get that move when you've beat him here. That means you'll have to face him again, later. Not like it poses a problem or someting, but I thought I'd just mention it. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 375 on EASY, 500 on MED, 625 on HARD [Fighter] Dan G +-----+ Seems nothing too new is going down. D-Mob's still in jail, but Ludacris has sent you a message saying that the whole crew's behind you. Also, Blaze mentions that the second round of the Free-For-All Tournament is taking place at Hunt's Point Scrapeyard. There's no need to go there yet, it's better to win back some clubs and earn more DP first. Spend money and DP, then return to the Terrordome for your second fight. +------+ Baxter +------+ VENUE: Terrordome STYLES: Streetfighting, Martial Arts BLAZIN' MOVE: Old School Beat _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_ Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ Health |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_ Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| With Charisma as his highest stat, you can simply conclude that, when fighting Baxter, you shouldn't let him mount an offensive on you or you'll be eating the Old School Beat - a funny, but way too expensive Blazin' Move. Fortunately, that won't pose too much of a problem. Sure, Baxter can be annoying with his good Speed/Martial Arts combo, but nowhere near what Chiang could do. And you did beat Chiang, right? That leads us to a familiar strategy. If you truly want to be done with him quick, launch him into the wall or one of the obstacles present in the Terrordome and whoop his ass onto the concrete. It's basically a standard fight in an arena where environmentals are plentiful. His health and toughness don't work together, which is perhaps the greatest weakness in his repertoire. If it wasn't for his overall coolness and funny-to-pull-off- in-multiplayer Old School Beat, I'd deem Baxter one of the worst characters in the game. That said, I'd be surprised if you have any trouble beating this guy after dealing with fighters like WC and Crack. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 375 on EASY, 500 on MED, 625 on HARD [Fighter] Baxter [Blazin' Move] Old School Beat +-----+ Returning to your crib, you notice that there's only one message waiting for you. It's an announcement about an oncoming team tournament from Blaze, at the Chopshop. We won't be going there for a time, because it'd be suicide to fight there without upgrading your skills. Do whatever you wish in the shopping district, then go to that beautiful Terrordome one more time to face its boss... the man with the crazy legs... Crazy Legs! +----------+ Crazy Legs +----------+ VENUE: Terrordome STYLES: Martial Arts BLAZIN' MOVE: Rocksteady _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ _ Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_| Health |_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Alright, I don't understand this guy, at all. I agree with any- one saying he's tricky to take down, but then again, as I look over my previous encounters, I've never lost a single one. And I mean absolutely never. He has VERY quick attacks, and his combos leave no doubt that he has "crazy legs". And with that lower power and speed, you're in for a world of pain. Still, Crazy Legs never gets me anywhere near the danger zone. Low health and toughness, which is a bad combination. Or, of course, it's good from our point of view. You don't have to land a lot of attacks to get Crazy Legs into danger zone, and since he gets stunned like any other fighter, that should be no problem. Especially in the Terrordome where there's so many concrete for you to crash his skull into. Follow these simple steps and Crazy Legs will be KO'd: first rush him with a running grapple. Pick him up, grab him and whip him into a nearby wall/obstacle. Do an environmental on him. Do two punches followed by a grapple as he gets up, and throw him into the wall again, then follow up to bash him into it. Pick up, do a Hard Grapple and six kicks, then press (Y) for the Haymaker. Done. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 937 on EASY, 1250 on MED, 1562 on HARD [Fighter] Crazy Legs [Blazin' Move] Rocksteady [Jewelry] Crazy Legs Chain +-----+ It's weird, but it seems the Semi-Finals for the FFA Tournament are already going down at the Foundation, even though you haven't even made your way through the quarter finals yet. Don't worry, though, it'll remain open until you choose to participate. Of course, at some point, you won't have any choice but to choose that tournament. We'll skip it for now. Buy stuff and spend those DP before you go to the Syn Energy Powerplant to face another of Crow's lackeys. +-----+ Bless +-----+ VENUE: Syn Energy Powerplant STYLES: Martial Arts, Kickboxing BLAZIN' MOVE: Platinumberg _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ _ Health |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_|_| This guy is fond of reversing attacks. Way too fond of doing that, in my opinion. His stats are solid, and Martial Arts with Kickboxing is dangerous if used properly. Bless doesn't use it like he should, but that only gives you a reason to rejoice, as this fight will be quite difficult. Bless delivers frustration and hands it to you in a bag. Annoyance will be his greatest weapon. Don't go for any combo with more than two strikes because he will just about always reverse that third punch. The punch-punch-grab will have more effect, but even then there's a big chance he'll kick you away when you try to grapple. He'll immediately follow that up with a kickboxing combo of his own. His kicks don't hurt that badly if you've upgraded your char's health and toughness, so you can - and will - get hit at some points in the fight. Pay attention though, don't give Bless the upper hand after taking that first combo. Retreat and renew your assault. Eventually you should be able to get him around danger zone, and then you can stun him and do the Clinch-Kicks-to-Haymaker combo to take him out. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 375 on EASY, 500 on MED, 625 on HARD [Fighter] Bless [Blazin' Move] Platinumberg [Song] Seize the Day Get it Now +-----+ No new messages! My my, it gets hard to type these interludes and provide you with something useful. They're only here for organization. But if there's nothing I can talk about... well, it gets hard, so bear with me. Perhaps I should just give some general hints throughout the document. Anyway, you know the drill by now, go and spend stuff, then return to the Powerplant for your second opponent. +-----+ Havoc +-----+ VENUE: Syn Energy Powerplant STYLES: Martial Arts, Wrestling BLAZIN' MOVE: Hostility _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ _ Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Health |_|_|_|_|_|_ Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_| Somewhat of a good fighter, this one-on-one with Havoc will be challenging, no doubt. But somehow I never have so much trouble with him as with Bless, which is fairly weird because his moves are quite painful. Maybe it is because it's easier to keep cool when facing him, because Havoc doesn't reverse that often. Mind you, I'm not saying that he doesn't reverse at all, if you just go throwing random Haymakers at him you're begging to eat a counter. Strategies for beating him are quite generic. I'd say you force him to one side of the field - where the fences are - and then constantly ram him into those metal grates. To do that use the ultimate technique, Y-Y-Grapple. Blaze when he's stunned and then pull off the move... *yawn* I'm not really telling anything new here, am I? Trust me, this way you'll beat him easily. The crowd often holds weapons here, remember that. Even though it's hard to see because the arena is quite dark, occasionally flashing with light, they can help if Havoc is somehow causing you a lot of trouble. If you cling to normal tactics, though, there won't really be a need for using them. Hostility, by the way, is a great Blazin' Move. Unfortunately it costs 2000 DP to learn. Unless you're playing on Medium (this guide was written for new players on "Easy" level) you shouldn't really add it to your movelist. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 375 on EASY, 500 on MED, 625 on HARD [Fighter] Havoc [Blazin' Move] Hostility +-----+ Did you know that you can actually climb objects other than turnbuckles and do highly stylish flying moves from them? To climb an object, simply run towards it and keep (B) repressed even as you're crashing into it. Your man will climb up. From there press (X) or (Y) to do the flying move, which will be different depending on whether your opponent is standing or on the ground. All styles can do these moves. Do your stuff, then continue the storyline by fighting at the Powerplant again, this time against Rome. +----+ Rome +----+ VENUE: Syn Energy Powerplant STYLES: Streetfighting, Martial Arts BLAZIN' MOVE: Rough Night _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_ _ Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ _ _ Health |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_| This is another, painfully obvious example of a fighter that is troubled by the Solo-Syndrome. Terrible AI. Of course, Rome does not really make me cry, because his stats and styles aren't as good as Solo's, but still, have a little compassion. His only great attribute is Health, and that won't help him if he can't mount a proper offensive himself. He's a poor being with cool looks. And even the latter of those is only temporary - just see how he looks after he gets carried away from the fighting area... Anyway, Rome is probably the easiest opponent you're facing at the Powerplant, at this time, and there's really nothing else for me to say but to plant his ass with Y-Y-Grab. You won't need weapons, heck, you don't even need environmentals to deal with him. Maybe he'll land a punch combo. Wow. He almost never uses his Haymaker in the middle of a combo, which is bad because that would be the only way for him to truly damage you. So, this is the first and the last time you'll be facing Rome. Believe me, when you're facing off against Teck or Doc later on, you'll think back of this fight as tranquil, silent, and relaxing. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 375 on EASY, 500 on MED, 625 on HARD [Fighter] Rome [Blazin' Move] Rough Night +-----+ There's some new jewelry available at Jacob's if you're interested. It would be a good idea as getting new bling-bling will greatly increase your charisma, more than tattoos, a new haircut, or clothes. Of course, Jacob's thingies are fairly expensive. Still, if you haven't changed your look in quite some time, you should give it some consideration. Your next opponent won't be pushover like the last, so prepare yourself before you head over to the Syn Energy Powerplant. +----------+ Slick Rick +----------+ VENUE: Syn Energy Powerplant STYLES: Kickboxing, Submissions BLAZIN' MOVE: The Show _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Upper Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Lower Power |_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ Speed |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_ _ Toughness |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Health |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Charisma |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| Now this is a fighter that can pose problems. Slick Rick has a good bunch of stats, especially for a submissionist: he has the necessary toughness to stay alive. That's the biggest threat you're facing in this fight, the drag. The longer it takes, the greater Slick's chance to force you into submission. This is especially dangerous if you haven't upgraded your own character's health stat yet. However, there's no need to despair if you haven't. Just be on your guard and don't do anything stupid. Slick Rick tries to go for the Hard Grapple at almost occasion. He'll even try to from out of nowhere: if this is the case, bash the (X) and (Y) buttons to kick him away. Don't try to time it yet as a new player, you won't have a chance - that's not meant belligerently, I know this from my own first time through. Anyway, on to the fight. Rush him from the start and only use the light combos (with the occasional grapple) to force him to the left or right. Once there, you can go and plant his ass into the fencing. Getting him there will be tough. Don't try to use the Haymaker in a combo, he'll reverse it 9 out of 10 times, and then he'll try a submission. Submissions which, in addition to damaging you greatly, also stun you, so you're open to ANOTHER as soon as you make your way out of the first. As you get closer to the fencing and keep in control of the fight, things get significantly easier. Simply use the fencing to keep stunning him again and again, don't do risky Haymakers unless Slick is stunned, and make good use of those kicks you can do from a clinch. Slick Rick almost never does a large series of those kicks, but they're very useful, and you know that. =*= REWARDS =*= [Dev Points] 1125 on EASY, 1500 on MED, 1875 on HARD [Fighter] Slick Rick [Blazin' Move] The Show [Song] Poppa Large +-----+ No relevant messages waiting for you, only one telling you that you're doing well and that D-Mob would be proud. You've got a lot of DP from beating Slick Rick and I suggest you spend them all before you go over to the second round of the Free-For-All Tournament. It's not gonna be easy, mind you, so be sure you're all set and ready to go before you enter Hunt's Point Scrapeyard. +-----------------------+ FFA Tournament: Round 2 +-----------------------+ VENUE: Hunt's Point Scrapeyard POSSIBLE: Memphis Bleek, Bless, Baby Chris, Comp, Fam-Lay Yes, I am giving you the same strategy, because it's the easiest to do and it works in about all Free-For-All matchups. Free-For-Alls are a lot different from the normal matchups as they have more opponents waiting for you, and backstabbing is not all that unusual. Since the opponents in the tournament are somewhat random, I can't give any stats here, but I'll try to give some useful tips. First of all, you have to make sure you aren't reckless. Take on one opponent at a time, or I can assure you that you'll end up dead within the minute. Don't rush at the start and slowly make your way to the opponent you are facing by default standards. Remember, if you ever take your attention off a target (because you were backstabbed, for example), you can use the WHITE button to shift your attention to another fighter. It's best to focus on one adversary at a time to make sure you don't get multiple fighters coming after you. Furthermore, I suggest you take care of that first opponent as quickly as possible. In the powerplant, make use of the fences on both sides of the arena. Don't use weapons, just pound on your opponent and BLAZE when you have the chance, perhaps use a sneaky Haymaker to dispose of them while the other two competitors are bashing each other's brains out. Use standard strategies for this, but leave the weapon part out. Grabbing a weapon takes time and the longer the fight takes, the bigger are your chances of being ganged upon. Now that the first contestant is out of the way, your character will automatically choose a new target. Make sure you are targetting the STRONGEST foe by now. Head to him and do a Hard grapple from the back, this is truly a nasty art of backstabbing. It deals big damage without being exposed yourself, and it will fill up the momentum gauge considerably so you can BLAZE a second time quite quickly. With the temporal double-team you have, quickly dispose of the guy, then turn to the next. This third fighter should be very much weakened from his previous struggles, so you can take him out quickly with anything you like. Weapons, environmentals, crowd double- teams, whatever.