Welcome to Demoville. --------------------- Whether you're being pulverized or just looking to see if you missed anything, these hints should help you along. Where are those @%\^%#$ enemies... let me at 'em! ------------------------------------------------- Don't be hasty. Before you rush headlong into battle, you will find some benefit in visiting the locals. While Gabby may be a wealth of information, good 'ol Jake in the junkyard can offer you much more than chit-chat. It's worth your while to peruse his wares. I spotted an enemy, but then he disappeared! -------------------------------------------- He didn't disappear--he just left your character's line-of-sight. If an enemy can't be seen by your mercenaries, you won't be able to see him either. I wish my security company was as good as theirs! ------------------------------------------------- Having a problem with the alarms? Keep in mind that the sound of gunshots is not going to be missed in nice, quiet Demoville. Fortunately, there are a few ways to take out enemies silently. Silencers are helpful... and while not every gun will accept a silencer, those pistols make nice quiet weapons. Throwing knives are also nice and silent. Jake can give you hand, and don't forget to look around. You never know what some people throw away. And finally, don't underestimate the power of hand to hand fighting. "Bah, against guns?!" you say? Well, it's hard to aim a weapon when you're on your knees heaving for breath... Oh, and since you're likely to find better weapons later on that will also accept the silencers, don't forget you can move the silencer from one weapon to the next. Help! I'm bleeding all over the place! -------------------------------------- Sounds like you may need some med kits. While there are no guarantees in life, there are some likely places you may want to check out. Where might you keep first aid supplies? How about the medicine cabinet over your sink...? Yep, me too. Keep your eyes open for these wall mounted sinks and cabinets. There are 3 of them in the upper level. And don't forget Jake, he stocks first aid kits too. To have one merc heal another, put the med kit into the main hand of the doctor. Then select the doctor and right click to bring up the red cross cursor. Click the red cross on the injured merc to begin healing. How many times have I told you, don't interrupt... -------------------------------------------------- Are you regularly interrupted by the enemy? And are you running everywhere? Here's some things to keep in mind about running. Yep, it's fast. Yep, it gets you to cover quicker. Nope, you're not as alert when you're going full out. It's much harder to spot and react to enemies when you're flying from place to place. Crawling's for babies. ---------------------- And smart, bloodthirsty mercs... Don't forget about the crouched and prone positions, and the crouched and crawling forms of moving. Sure, it's slower, but often you can avoid detection or at least be protected by obstacles when in these modes. It's usually a good idea to save some AP's to drop your stance. Heck, no one says you can't stand to take shot and then duck down again. Oh, that 'ol noggin makes a nice round thing for the enemies to shoot at if you're crouched next to a window. I'm going to kill that damn sniper... er... that is... if I could. ------------------------------------------------------------------ It's important to remember that there are 2 levels in JA2, roof level and ground level. Hit TAB to switch between them. You'll know you're on the upper level if you see the "ghost" cursor below your actual cursor. If the target remains black when you place it over the sniper, you may not be on the correct level. Try hitting TAB, and your cursor should become red over the enemy on the roof. It's only a matter of time before they're onto you. --------------------------------------------------- When tackling the basement, think about where you want to be when the enemies figure out you're down there. Standing in a nice little group in the first room is probably not it. Upgrade. -------- You'll come across lots of fun stuff along the way. Check out the damage and range capabilities of the weapons, and keep in mind the firing speed of each. It can be useful to hang onto the lower damage, but faster weapons, as sometimes the extra shots can come in handy. Oh, and firing a weapon beyond its maximum range really does affect accuracy. Whew... this stuff's heavy. ---------------------------- Your mercs aren't supermen (or women). Check out their load. If it's over 100%, then you're losing out on Action Points (APs)... I need AMMO!!! -------------- You should find a variety of ammo around Demoville. But if you're constantly running out... are you using burst fire continuously? Sure, it's fun to riddle that dying enemy full of bullet holes, but it certainly does consume ammo quickly. There must be something good in there, I can't get it open. ----------------------------------------------------------- Maaayybee. If you can't open a crate, perhaps it's nailed shut too securely. The strongarm tactics might work, and a crowbar can give you leverage, but if you're too weak to stand up you may have some difficulty. Use your strongest mercs for this kind of manual labor. Some general advice. -------------------- Don't get hasty. We know it's hard... You just know that one more shot and that enemy's goin' down. But keep in mind that he may have buddies just around the corner so even if you do take him out, if you're left standing in the wide open yonder afterwards, you may go down just like he did. Unless you're pretty sure that he doesn't have backup, you probably want to use those last Action Points (APs) to take some cover, and forgo that last shot until your next turn. Don't get too spread out. While a cluster of mercs is a nice compact target for a well placed grenade, if you spread out too much, it might be hard to have mercs ready to assist should your front guy fail to take out an enemy. Worse yet, if you're exploring in real time and send one lone soul up ahead to scout things out, when you do spot those enemies, the rest of your team will only be able to get there so fast once you're in turn-based. Advance cautiously. You may find it helpful to move a lead merc short distances, move up some other guys, then go back and move the front guy forward a bit more. You're more likely to be set up the way you want when the enemy comes into view, and not likely to be as caught off guard as if you moved a single merc more into range before moving up the others. You can always go back to other mercs that have AP's left; you don't need to use them up all at once. Some extra hints for new players -------------------------------- It's generally a bad idea to run out of AP's while standing in a doorway. Not only are you a sitting duck for any enemies on the other side, you'll block the way for the other mercs. Most of the time it will only take you 2 AP's to move out of the way. Watch out for windows! Windows on the "off-sides" of the buildings are depicted with wireframes. You can be spotted fairly easily through a window unless you are in the prone position. Use realtime to do some maintenance activities like putting attachments on weapons or reloading weapons low on ammo. While the enemies don't mind watching you attach a silencer to a weapon, you'll be using action points that could otherwise be used in more damaging battle behaviors... like shooting. Mercs can apply first aid to themselves. Place the first aid kit into the merc's hand, right click for the first aid cursor, and click on that merc. He'll begin applying first aid to himself. You can close doors. To do so, hold down the CTRL key to force the cursor to be the hand. Hold it over the door so that it says OPENED DOOR, and click. The merc will go over and close it. If you "miss", your merc will probably end up outside looking for nothing in the dirt, so make sure you see the OPENED DOOR. Want to max out what you can do on a turn? Combine modes of movement. If you know you're hidden from enemy view for a few tiles, go ahead and run but stop short of where you think you may be exposed to new enemies. Then change to walk, crawl, etc. to move the last tile or two and you may save yourself from being interrupted and have an extra AP or two to spend on aiming that shot. Good luck, hope this helps!