Red Faction Weapons, Enemies, and Bosses Guide:
September 29, 2005
by Alan Chan (joylock @ hotmail.com)
The Usual:
This document is mine. Please don't rip it off or take credit for it. That
being said, feel free to post it on any site you want, provided you a) don't
make any changes to it, and b) don't charge money for it. You don't even have to
get my permission to post it (as long as it remains unaltered), but it would
be nice if you emailed me and let me know (joylock @ hotmail.com).
Why?:
I know a weapons and enemy guide for Red Faction is a bit unnecessary, since
for most of the game there's only two basic enemy types. Still, I wrote one
anyway since I had the time.
Note:
This FAQ is based on the normal difficulty setting. The amount of damage
enemies can take and the amount of damage they do to you varies based on the
difficulty you play under.
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*Version History:                                                          *
*(Latest version of this FAQ can always be found at www.gamefaqs.com):     *
*                                                                          *
*Update #1: - Made changes in enemy names and descriptions based on        *
*             information from the RED editor.                             *
*        - Made major changes in weapon damage values and enemy         *
*             health based on RED editor info.                             *
*           - Rewrote information on several weapons based on replaying the*
*             game.                                                        *
*                                                                          *
*Update #2: - Corrected several typos, fixed errors in weapon information  *
*                                                                          *
*Update #3: - General corrections and additions                            *
*             Reformatted guide for better readability                     *
*             Added info about Hard and Impossible difficulty              *
*                                                                          *
*Update #4: - Large overhaul of weapon damage values based on info from    *
*             source code.                                                 *
*                                                                          *
*Update #5: - Minor reformatting for easier reading                        *
*                                                                          *
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**********
*Weapons:*
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KEY:
WEAPON NAME:
Ammo Type: The type of ammo the weapon uses. Certain weapons, such as the
pistol and SMG, use the same type of ammo.
Maximum Ammo: The maximum amount of ammo you can carry, based on the current
clip + the ammo in reserve.
SP Damage: The amount of damage the weapon does to enemies in single-player.
Since armor-piercing rounds do 150% damage against most foes, this
value is noted in the weapon description.
MP Damage: The amount of damage the weapon does to enemies in multi-player.
Damage Type: The type of damage the weapon does.
Accuracy: How accurate the weapon is, on a scale of 1 to 5.
NOTES:
- Armor-piercing bullets do 150% damage against most flesh-and-blood enemies
(with the exceptions of Capek and Elite Guards). Thus, weapons such as
the assault rifle or precision rifle will usually do more damage than
their base damage amounts indicate (the assault rifle does 90 damage
instead of 60 damage per shot, for example). Armor-piercing bullets also
have the ability to travel through walls.
- The weapons are listed in the order in which they appear in the weapon menu,
rather than the order in which you find them in the game.
===============
=Close Combat:=
===============================================================================
Control Baton:
Ammo Type: Battery Cell
Clip Size: 6 zaps per battery
Maximum Ammo: 10 + 1 Batteries
SP Damage: 60 (swing) / 120 (zap)
MP Damage: 60 (swing) / 80 (zap)
Damage Type: Bash
An electrified baton for riot control, the control baton is the first weapon
you receive in the game, and really isn't all that useful since it can only be
used up close, making you vulnerable to the various projectile weapons your
enemies carry. To be fair, the control baton has a quick rate of fire and
decent stopping power, one or two whacks to the head are all it takes to take
down an Ultor security guard. Unfortunately, as a melee weapon in a firearms
game you won't find much use for it.
The secondary fire electrifies the baton, which does electrical damage to any
enemies you poke with it. This actually doesn't do much damage at all, you can
actually kill guards much more quickly by striking them with the primary fire
instead of trying to zap them with the secondary fire. The secondary fire also
drains the baton's battery pretty quickly, and control baton battery ammo is
pretty rare when compared to bullets.
On the whole, the baton should only to be used if you run out of ammo for all
your guns, which really shouldn't happen if you're even halfway competant.
Riot Shield:
Ammo Type: None
Clip Size: None
Maximum Ammo: 1
SP Damage: 10
MP Damage: 60
Damage Type: Bash
Health: approx. 475 health
A transparent arm-mounted plexiglas shield, the riot shield can be used to
protect you from bullets as long as you're facing in the direction of the
people shooting at you. Bullet fractures appear on the shield as it takes
more and more damage, and it will finally shatter after absorbing many bullets.
The shield can take lots of punishment, and will protect you from 10 sniper
rifle shots, 20 precision rifle shots, and close to three dozen normal bullets.
Unfortunately, you cannot use a weapon while holding the riot shield, severely
limiting its usefulness. Pressing the fire button while holding the shield will
swing it like a weapon, but it's a fairly poor weapon working only at close
range and doing a miniscule amount of damage (it takes several whacks to kill
a single Ultor security guard). The shield also doesn't protect you while
you're swinging it around.
The shield also only protects about 75% of your body, and enemies can still
harm you if they hit you in the head or legs. Once the shield is destroyed,
you'll have to pick up a new one. Since they're fairly uncommon after the
game's first few levels, you won't be able to use them much anyway.
On Impossible difficulty, the riot shield has marginal usefulness in the
game's early levels. If a couple guards have you pinned down at long range
in a narrow corridor, and you don't have any long range weapons (such as the
assault rifle or the rocket launcher's secondary fire), you'd normally be
in trouble since your pistol lacks the range to hit them accurately, and if
you try to run closer to them they're likely to cut you down before you can
get within pistol range. By equipping your riot shield, you can absorb their
shots while you run closer to them. Once you're close enough, find some cover,
switch to your pistol, and take out your enemies.
Flamethrower:
Ammo Type: Fuel Cannister
Clip Size: 20 Flames per Cannister
Maximum Ammo: 10 + 1 Cannisters
SP Damage: 20 (primary fire) / 100 (secondary fire)
MP Damage: 60 (primary fire) / 150 (secondary fire)
Damage Type: Fire
The flamethrower fires a stream of flames which sets organic enemies on
fire upon contact. Enemies wearing armor will have their armor rapidly drained
away by the flames, and once the armor runs out the enemy will burst into
flames. Upon being set alight, most enemies will cease fighting and instead
run around screaming until they finally collapse. As a bonus, flaming enemies
will set any other enemies they run into on fire as well. The downside is that
they'll also damage you if they run into you, so you should try to keep your
distance as soon as they begin burning.
A single flame is all it takes to set fire to mutants, two or three flames will
incinerate regular guards,while Elite Guards can resist a couple seconds of
flame before being set alight. Mercs can withstand several seconds of flame and
will continue fighting even as they burn to death.
The flamethrower's short range makes it less useful than the submachine gun or
assault rifle when fighting guards, but it's wide arc of fire makes it the
ideal weapon against Capek's fast moving mutants. The only disadvantage is that
flamethrower ammo is relatively scarce, especially in the levels you need it
the most such as Capek's zoo. The flamethrower uses up ammo incredibly quickly,
but you can conserve fuel by tapping the fire button and roasting your enemies
with single flames, rather than focusing a continous stream on them for several
seconds.
The secondary fire unscrews the entire fuel cannister and hurls it like a
grenade, which causes it to explode on impact, briefly creating a wall of
flames that sets anything it touches on fire. The secondary fire isn't very
useful as it takes a few seconds to wind up and is pretty much a waste of fuel,
but you can feel free to use it when the fuel cannister's almost empty anyway.
Flamethrowers and the fuel cannisters for them are fairly rare, so you won't
use them all that often. They can be very useful in particular situations,
such as when battling mutants in Capek's Zoo.
=================
=Semi-Automatic:=
===============================================================================
12mm Pistol:
Ammo Type: 12mm bullets
Clip Size: 16
Maximum Ammo: 125 + 16
SP Damage: 40
MP Damage: 25
Damage Type: Bullet
Accuracy: 4/5 (slow fire), 2/5 (rapid fire)
You'll pick up a pistol from a fallen Ultor guard almost as soon as the game
starts, and it will serve you well for a large portion of the game. The pistol
is an excellent weapon... although it's semi-automatic, it has a very high rate
of fire as long as you tap the fire button quickly enough. Additionally, the
pistol is reasonably accurate at medium range, and the bullets are powerful
enough to kill most Ultor guards with 4 to 5 chestshots or a single headshot.
Even when you pick up more powerful weapons such as the shotgun, the
submachinegun, or the assault rifle, you'll still sometimes find yourself
using the pistol to save ammo.
The only drawback of the pistol is that the accuracy decreases drastically
when you fire rapidly with it. In order to hit targets consistently at long
range, you need to fire very slowly and pause between each shot. Rapid-firing
the pistol is still effective when fighting at close range, where speed is
more important than accuracy.
The pistol also has an optional silencer attachment that you can attach or
remove with the secondary fire. The silencer reduces the pistol's noise level
so that nearby guards won't be alerted to your presence when you fire a shot.
Although the pistol's an excellent all-purpose weapon, it is somewhat
under-powered when facing multiple enemies or tougher opponents such as
Elite Guards, Mercs, or enemy vehicles, in which case you should break out
the bigger guns.
On Hard and Impossible difficulty, the pistol becomes somewhat less useful,
because enemies do much more damage to you and thus you can no longer afford
to stand in the enemy's line of fire. On Impossible difficulty, the only
way to fight enemies without dying rapidly is to shoot them at long range,
outside the accurate range of their weapons. To do this with the pistol,
you need to use very slow shots to ensure maximum accuracy.
Automatic Shotgun:
Ammo Type: 10-gauge shotgun shells
Clip Size: 8
Maximum Ammo: 48 + 8
SP Damage: 40 x 8 (primary fire) / 40 x 4 (secondary fire)
MP Damage: 35 x 8 (primary fire) / 35 x 4 (secondary fire)
Damage Type: Bullet
Accuracy: 2/5 (primary fire), 1/5 (secondary fire)
You'll get this weapon from the riot guards inside the miners' barracks. It's
your standard FPS shotgun, firing a tight burst of pellets (12 per shell) that
do damage based on how many hit your foe.
The primary fire is a pump-action shotgun that fires two shells worth of
pellets at once but needs to be pumped after each shot, causing it to have a
relatively slow rate of fire. The secondary fire is fully automatic, each shot
only fires a single shell's worth of pellets, but the shotgun can fire
consecutive rapid bursts for as long as you hold down the secondary fire
button, until the clip is completely empty.
The primary fire is excellent. The spread is reasonably tight, so that you'll
get decent damage against enemies even if they're a couple dozen feet away
from you. A single shot will usually kill a normal Ultor guard even at medium
range. Unfortunately, since the primary fire uses up 2 shells at once, you'll
only have 4 shots before needing to reload.
The secondary fire can be devastating up close, but the pellet spread is much
wider and thus is much less effective than the primary fire at anything past
close range. The secondary fire also eats up ammo like crazy, and since you
can only carry a small number of shotgun shells at one time, you'll tend to
run out of ammo if you use it too much.
Because of the low ammo capacity, low rate of fire, and limited range, the
shotgun is more of an alternative weapon to use when you want to conserve
submachine gun or assault rifle ammo, rather than a preferred default weapon
in its own right. Still, it's a decent weapon for the game's early levels,
and a good one-hit-kill weapon against the Ultor guards.
On Hard or Impossible difficulty, the shotgun becomes somewhat more useful,
because of the greater need to deliver a large amount of damage in a short
amount of time. On the higher difficulty settings you can no longer go
toe-to-toe with Ultor guards and exchange fire with them. instead, you'll
need to take cover, strafe out just long enough to fire off a shot, then
strafe back behind cover before the enemy can retaliate. The shotgun's
primary fire is pretty good for this as each single shot does lots of damage.
Sniper Rifle:
Ammo Type: .50 caliber AP rounds
Clip Size: 6
Maximum Ammo: 36 + 6
SP Damage: 250 (375 vs flesh)
MP Damage: 150
Damage Type: Armor-Piercing Bullet
Accuracy: 5/5 (zoomed), 3/5 (unzoomed)
A rifle. For sniping. The sniper rifle's very powerful against human enemies,
capable of killing Ultor guards with a single bullet and Elite Guards or
Mercs with a headshot. It's zoom feature also lets you pick off enemies from
a distance, outside the range of their weapons. The 12x sniper rifle scope has
a VERY long zoom (at least when compared to most other FPS sniper rifles), but
the usefulness is somewhat limited by the fact that most of the game takes
place indoors at close to medium range.
The sniper rifle's a great weapon in the game's few large outdoor areas, but
much of the game takes place inside tight, narrow corridors that neutralize
the advantage of the sniper scope. However even unzoomed the sniper rifle is
still fairly accurate and can kill the weaker Ultor guards with a single shot,
allowing you to run around and use it as a one-shot-kill gun (just be sure
to zoom for medium or long range kills, as the rifle is still somewhat
inaccurate when unzoomed).
Unfortunately, ammo for the sniper rifle is relatively scarce, which means
you'll have to conserve your shots and rein in the desire to kill every bad
guy from 100 feet away. The sniper rifle also has a relatively low rate of
fire, and it doesn't do quite enough damage to be effective against the
tougher opponents like Elite Guards or Mercs that you encounter in the
game's later levels. Still, its quite a nice weapon in the game's first
half, although you'll eventually replace it with the precision rifle when
the Mercs show up.
Precision Rifle:
Ammo Type: 5.65mm explosive-tipped AP rounds
Clip Size: 20
Maximum Ammo: 80 + 20
SP Damage: 125 (190 vs. flesh)
MP Damage: 60
Damage Type: Armor-Piercing Bullet
Accuracy: 5/5
An excellent weapon that's dropped by most Mercs in the second half of the
game, the precision rifle combines the power, range, and accuracy of the sniper
rifle with a large clip size and a quick semi-automatic rate of fire. You'll
depend primarily on this weapon while battling the Mercs, not only because it
does great damage against them but also because ammo for it is quite plentiful
since the majority of Mercs carry it.
Like the pistol, the precision rifle is semi-automatic; it has a very quick
rate of fire, but only if you can tap the fire button fast enough. three
or four shots, quickly delivered in the space of a second, can easily drop a
Merc before he has a chance to retaliate with his own weapon.
The precision rifle is excellent against Mercs, but since it only carries 20
shots per clip, there's a chance you can run out and need to reload in the
middle of a firefight if you encounter a group of several Mercs. Against large
Merc groups, the heavy machinegun may be preferable since it has a higher
clip size and thus won't need to be reloaded as frequently. Precision rifle
ammo is much more common than heavy machinegun ammo, though, so the precision
rifle is probably best against small groups of 2 or 3 Mercs.
The secondary fire is a sniper zoom similar to the sniper rifle's, allowing
you to pick off enemies from a distance. Take out Mercs at long range whenever
possible, as it reduces the chances of them hitting you with their own rifles.
Just be sure to try and fire from behind cover whenever possible, because
mercs CAN still hit you at long range.
The precision rifle is a great weapon with only one very minor drawback: you
can only carry a total of 100 bullets for it, which you can quickly burn
through when firing rapidly.
========
=Heavy:=
===============================================================================
Assault Rifle:
Ammo Type: 5.56mm AP rounds
Clip Size: 42
Maximum Ammo: 200 + 42
SP Damage: 60 (90 vs. flesh)
MP Damage: 40
Damage Type: Armor-Piercing BUllet
Accuracy: 4/5 (primary fire), 2/5 (secondary fire)
The strongest rifle used by the standard Ultor guards, the Assault Rifle is
generally wielded by the high-ranking guard captains. The primary fire shoots
a quick 3-shot burst that's highly accurate, but requires a split second pause
between each burst. The secondary fire is full-out automatic fire, spraying
bullets as quickly as the submachine gun, but with twice the amount of
inaccuracy. To conserve bullets it's generally best to stick to the primary
fire, since a single 3-shot burst is generally enough to kill an Ultor guard.
The 3-shot burst primary fire is extremely accurate, and is great at picking
off enemies from a distance. It will be your weapon of choice on Hard or
Impossible difficulty, as it allows you to pick off Ultor guards outside the
range of their highly damaging firearms. The fully automatic secondary fire
is less useful, since it's one of the most inaccurate firearm modes in the
game, but it can be useful at close range to kill enemy guards that get
too close for comfort to you.
The assault rifle is a great weapon that you'll find after an hour or so of
gameplay, useful at both medium and long range and against a wide variety of
enemies. It's your weapon of choice against Ultor guards, and can even be used
against the Mercs in a pinch (although the precision rifle is definately
preferrable). Just try not to waste the bullets for it. Oh, and the digital
ammo read-out on the side of the weapon is pretty cool, if not particularly
useful.
Submachine gun:
Ammo Type: 12mm bullets / 5.56mm rounds
Clip Size: 30(12mm) / 20(5.56mm)
Maximum Ammo: 200 + 30(12mm) / 200 + 20(5.56mm)
SP Damage: 40(12mm) / 45(5.56mm)
MP Damage: 30(12mm) / 50(5.56mm)
Damage Type: Bullet
Accuracy: 3/5
An MP5-style submachine gun, this weapon isn't as accurate as the pistol
and doesn't do a large amount of damage, but it has a high rate of fire and
is fully automatic, spraying bullets into your enemies. The 12mm pistol can
fire almost as quickly as long as you can tap the fire button quickly enough,
but the submachine gun can be useful when facing many enemies, or a few
particularly tough enemies such as Elite Guards. It's also an excellent
weapon for close range combat and room clearing, and is accurate enough to
do the job at medium range. Just don't try sniping with it.
A few Ultor guards carry submachine guns in the game's middle levels, and
they're standard equipment for the Ultor Elite Guards. The submachine gun's
secondary fire switches the gun's ammo type, it can use either pistol ammo
or assault rifle ammo. Assault rifle ammo is a tiny bit more powerful and
can pierce walls, but the difference isn't really significant so you're
best off sticking to pistol ammo. Conserve assault rifle ammo for use with
the assault rifle, as that weapon does much more damage with it than the
submachine gun does.
The submachine gun is a good all-purpose weapon for close-to-medium range
combat. Against single enemies, the pistol is normally preferable since
the SMG uses up ammo more quickly, but the SMG is great for clearing rooms
of multiple enemies.
NOTE: Due to a coding error, 5.56mm rounds are NOT considered
armor-piercing bullets when used with the submachine gun.
Heavy Machinegun:
Ammo Type: 7.62mm AP rounds
Clip Size: 99
Maximum Ammo: 240 + 99
SP Damage: 75 (115 vs. flesh)
MP Damage: 45
Damage Type: Armor-Piercing Bullet
Accuracy: 3/5 (primary fire), 4/5 (secondary fire)
While the majority of Masako's Mercs carry precision rifles, it's quite common
for several of the heavy Mercs to carry heavy machineguns, and you can swipe
one from them after you kill them.
Besides having a high rate of fire and doing more damage than the smaller
assault rifle or submachinegun, the heavy machinegun also has a huge ammo clip
and can fire 99 bullets before needing to reload. On the down side, the primary
fire is somewhat inaccurate, although it's not nearly as bad as the assault
rifle's secondary fire (in fact, the primary fire of the heavy machinegun
is actually of average accuracy, comparable to that of the submachine
gun).
The heavy machinegun's secondary fire has a somewhat reduced rate of fire, but
it's much more accurate. It's no precision rifle, but most of your bullets will
hit where-ever you point the targeting cursor, even at long range.
The primary fire is excellent against Mercs at close or medium range, just
unload a hail of bullets at them while strafing left and right like crazy.
The primary fire's wide spread actually works in your favor as your aim
doesn't need to be dead-on to hit the Mercs, allowing you to dodge around more
to avoid Merc bullets. Not only will you damage them quickly, but the
suppression fire will causes the Mercs to flee and take cover rather than fire
back at you.
The heavy machinegun is great for mowing down groups of Mercs and makes the
later levels much easier, but the only caveat is you can burn through your
ammo fairly quickly (although this isn't a huge problem since a reasonable
number of Mercs carry heavy machinegun ammo).
Rail Driver:
Ammo Type: Rail bolts
Clip Size: 1
Maximum Ammo: 10 + 1
SP Damage: 2550
MP Damage: 587
Damage Type: Armor-Piercing Bullet
Accuracy: 5/5
Red Faction's ultimate weapon, which you'll receive a couple levels after
the initial appearance of Masako's Mercs. Firing an aluminum spike several
inches long at close to the speed of light, the Rail Driver hits instantly
where-ever you aim at, and can drill through walls, doors, and several warm
bodies and kills most enemies in a single shot. The chamber only holds one
spike, however, and it takes a few seconds to reload after each shot, so
you'll have to make each shot count. To top it off you can only hold a total
of 11 spikes at one time, so you'll have to use it wisely. Fortunately,
Mercs drop ammo for the rail driver on a reasonably consistent basis.
You also have to be extremely accurate with this weapon, since the projectile
must hit your target directly to cause damage, making it difficult to use
against enemies that strafe around a lot, like the Mercs.
The secondary fire is the real crown jewel of this weapon, as it activates a
heat-seeing scope that allows you to see enemies' heat-signatures through
walls. Not only does this help you spot potential ambushes, but you can also
use it to shoot enemies through walls with the Rail Driver before they even
spot you. Picking off Mercs through the wall before they spot you makes the
last few levels of the game much, much easier. Don't worry to much about
conserving rail driver ammo, Merc commanders drop these on a reasonably
regular basis, and each Merc Commander normally drops about 4 rail driver
rounds each.
============
=Explosive:=
===============================================================================
Remote Charge:
Ammo Type: Remote Charge Packs
Clip Size: 1
Maximum Ammo: 20
SP Damage: 500
MP Damage: 350
Damage Type: Explosion
Remote detonated explosive packs used for mining, you can find stacks of
these laying around Ultor's underground mines. Remote charges are designed
for clearing away rubble and debris, and you can use them to blow holes in
mine tunnels and geo-mod through the landscape.
Because they're high explosives, you can also use them to kill bad guys.
Pressing the fire button will throw the remote charge several feet in front
of you, pressing the fire button again will activate the charge's remote
detonator and blow it up. You can place remote charges on the ground and
lure enemies toward them, or you can actually toss the charges onto most
human enemies. The explosives will adhere to their bodies, and they'll run
around screaming in terror and flailing their arms in the air as they wait
for you to blow them up (Mercs, Capek, and Masako can quickly throw off
explosives, unfortunately).
You can throw charges on the ground and use them as traps by detonating them
when an enemy runs past, but this tactic has limited usefulness. It's only
effective in narrow corridors, otherwise there's no guarantee enemies will
be near enough to the charge when it explodes. Enemies are also smart enough
to try and shoot any explosive charges they see lying around, so there's a
good chance they'll blow up your trap from a distance rather than stepping
near it. Still, you can occasionally nail enemies with this trick, although
it's normally simpler just to walk up to them and fill them full of lead.
Remote charges can also be used as distractions. If an enemy spots one,
they'll often attempt to shoot it in order to detonate it harmlessly. While
they're distracted trying to shoot the remote charge, you can go ahead and
shoot them.
Remote charges have a limited throwing range and become less and less common
in the game's later levels, so you probably won't use them very much
throughout the game. They can be useful in certain specific situations,
however.
Rocket Launcher:
Ammo Type: Rockets
Clip Size: 6
Maximum Ammo: 18 + 6
SP Damage: 400
MP Damage: 275
Damage Type: Explosion
You'll pick up the rocket launcher surprisingly early on the game, during
the first few levels. The rockets it fires do a relatively decent amount of
explosive damage, but the weapon is hampered by its relatively slow-moving
projectiles, its somewhat slow rate of fire, small splash damage radius,
and the relative rarity of the ammo it uses. The splash damage usually isn't
big enough to kill multiple enemies, and you need to fire multiple rockets
to kill the stronger opponents like Elite Guards or Mercs. While a single
rocket is powerful enough to kill the regular Ultor guards, bullets are
generally more effective.
Still, the rocket launcher is useful against big, armored opponents such as
enemy vehicles or robots, and thanks to Geo-Mod you can use it to tunnel
through the landscape. The rocket launcher's secondary fire allows you to lock
onto enemies, causing the rocket to home in on them. To use the secondary fire,
point the rocket launcher's aiming reticule at an enemy, then hold down the
secondary fire button. The rocket launcher will emit an increasingly rapid
beeping sound, and when the beeping sound becomes a steady hum the rocket will
have locked onto your enemy, and you can release the secondary fire button to
fire a homing rocket. Releasing the secondary fire button before a lock has
been established will fire a regular old non-homing rocket.
Finally, a computer screen scope attached to the side of the rocket launcher
serves as a thermal imaging sensor, showing the thermal outline of any enemies
in front of the rocket launcher. This is a cool feature that allows you to see
bad guys even through walls, but since you can't use it to aim and since the
rocket launcher can't fire through walls, it's not nearly as useful as the
thermal imaging scope on the rail driver.
Because the rockets fired from the launcher travel somewhat slowly, it's
actually rather easy for enemy guards to strafe out of their way. You can
get somewhat better results by aiming at their feet, but they sometimes strafe
outside the blast radius before the rocket hits. The homing function of the
secondary fire is extremely accurate, but takes a few seconds to lock onto
an enemy. The secondary fire is mostly useless up close since enemies can
shoot you up while you're waiting for the rocket to lock on. It can be very
useful at long range, however, especially for striking fast-moving enemies
that would otherwise be difficult to hit.
One final quirk of the rocket launcher is that the rockets are NOT fired at
the center of the crosshair. Instead, they'll hit slightly down and to the
right of where the crosshair is. Keep this in mind and compensate for it
whenever you fire off a rocket manually.
Grenade:
Ammo Type: Grenades
Clip Size: 1
Maximum Ammo: 8
SP Damage: 150
MP Damage: 250
Damage Type: Explosion
Futuristic, computerized weapons shaped like old WWI German potato mashers,
despite their high-tech appearance these items behave pretty much like their
20th century counterparts... throw them at a bad guy and watch them go boom.
Throwing with the primary fire tosses a timed grenade that bounces off objects
and explodes after a set amount of time. The fuse on the grenades is VERY
long, and it takes several seconds for the grenade to explode.
Throwing with the secondary fire tosses an impact grenade that explodes as soon
as it hits something. Grenades are uncommon, but that's OK because they're
actually not that useful either. Their range is limited, their splash damage
radius is actually pretty small, and it takes a couple seconds to activate,
wind back, and toss them... time which could have been better used shooting
half a dozen bullets at your enemies with a gun.
I never ended up using grenades during the game, mostly because of the
annoying two second delay it takes to throw one. Theoretically you could try
hiding behind a low barrier and chucking grenades over it at your enemies,
but I never encountered such a situation while playing the game.
On the higher difficulties, grenades have some slight usefulness, in that
you can toss them around corners to kill enemies, to avoid exposing
yourself directly to their line of fire.
Fusion Rocket Launcher:
Ammo Type: Fusion Rockets
Clip Size: 1
Maximum Ammo: 5 + 1
SP Damage: 1000
MP Damage: 1500
Damage Type: Explosion
The Fusion Rocket Launcher is the last and biggest weapon you'll obtain. It
fires a single energy rocket which travels very slowly, but which makes an
enormous nuclear explosion upon impact, killing almost everything within its
blast radius (try not to look directly at the blast).
Like the Rail Driver, the Fusion Rocket Launcher can only carry one projectile
at a time, and must be reloaded after each shot. It's excellent for clearing
out large groups of bad guys, but you won't pick it up until the very end of
the game, and ammo is incredibly scarce for it. Of course, with such a
powerful weapon you don't really need a fast rate of fire.
Unfortunately, this weapon takes up almost 1/3 of the screen, seriously
blocking your view. The Fusion Rocket Launcher doesn't have a secondary fire,
but then again it doesn't need one. Heavy Mercs will bring out Fusion Rocket
Launchers to destroy you in the game's last few levels after you destroy
Ultor's space station, and you should be able to pick one up from them then.
**********
*Enemies:*
*******************************************************************************
NOTES:
On the higher difficulty settings, enemies do more damage with their
weapons and strafe and evade more often instead of standing still. Enemies
also appear to be slightly more accurate on the higher difficulties, but the
difference isn't too dramatic (unlike, say, Halo's Legendary mode). Enemy
health and durability is the same regardless of difficulty level.
Damage values for enemy weapons are for Normal difficulty. On Easy
difficulty, enemies do less than half as much damage (150% less damage).
On Hard difficulty, enemies do approximately 60% more damage. On Impossible
difficulty, enemies do more than twice as much damage (approximately 125%
more).
Impossible difficulty is extremely difficult. At full health and armor, Ultor
guards can kill you in approximately 9 shots, while Mercs can kill you in 4
shots. Thus, on Impossible difficulty you and your enemies are nearly
physically equal in terms of how much punishment you can take.
Damage values indicate how much total damage a weapon does. If the player
is wearing armor, half of the total damage is taken from health and the
other half from armor. (At full health and armor, you essentially can survive
200 damage).
Enemies also take 50% damage to their health if they have armor left.(So a
Merc with 200 health and 250 armor would be able to survive 400 damage).
Shots to the head do about 5.125 times the damage a shot to the
chest would (thus, a headshot from the pistol would do 205 damage instead
of the usual 40 damage). You cannot headshot robots or non-human mutants.
Likewise, shots to the arms or legs do somewhat less damage than a normal
shot to the chest would.
Enemies use the same weapons as you, but the amount of damage they do
with them is seriously reduced.
For some reason, large enemies such as the Rock Worm and the Combot have
significantly reduced health if you fight them after loading from a
savegame on the same level as they are.
============================
=Allies and Non-combatants:=
===============================================================================
Not everyone on Mars is trying to kill you. Fellow miners and Red Faction
fighters are your allies, and will even fight on your side (albeit very poorly)
in a few minor encounters. You'll also encounter many civilian employees of
Ultor throughout the game, and although these people will fear and dispise you,
they aren't actually armed with weapons and thus are technically non-hostiles.
Red Faction Miner:
Appearance: Miner in red envirosuit (outdoors) or red prisoner-like
coveralls (indoors)
Weaponry: Varies
Health: 100
Armor: 100
Difficulty: None
Members of the Red Faction rebellion against Ultor, miners (the guys in the red
envirosuits) will fight on your side against any enemies you encounter.
Unfortunately, miners are lousy fighters. In any given situation where you
find miners battling security guards or Mercs, the miners will always lose
unless you step in and interfere. In some cases the miners are simply
outmatched (such as when battling Mercs), but often they're scripted to die
the moment you step into a room.
Throughout the game you'll find miners wielding a variety of weapons, from
pistols to sniper rifles to rocket launchers. You actually won't find very
many miners helping you, usually you'll only come across a couple of them
during a few scripted sequences in the game.
Eos:
Appearance: Brunette woman wearing light armor, with a broken visor covering
the Plague-deformed half of her face.
Weaponry: Submachine gun (7 damage)
Health: 500
Armor: 200
Difficulty: None
Eos, the pushy Red Faction leader, will blast in to help you in the boss fight
against Capek. She's somewhat helpful with her SMG, but most of the
responsibility for killing Capek falls to you.
Eos' has quite a lot of health and can survive a few more hits than you can,
but it is quite possible for her to die in the fight after 3 or 4 shots from
Capek. To avoid this, you need to shoot Capek constantly so he'll target you
instead of Eos.
Hendrix:
Appearance: Black man wearing a blue Ultor technician uniform.
Weaponry: None
Health: 100
Armor: 0
Difficulty: None
Hendrix, the guy who's been yakking with you on the radio through the game,
shows up in the last couple levels. You'll need to follow him around and
prevent Masako's Mercs from killing him. Hendrix is unarmed and unarmored,
but fortunately he's smart enough to avoid combat and usually takes cover
in a safe area. Enemies also won't target him, but he can still be killed
by splash damage or a stray shot.
Ultor Medic:
Appearance: Male medic in white uniform with red cross, Female medic in
nurse's uniform
Weaponry: Healing Hypo
Health: 25
Difficulty: None
Ultor medics are sworn to heal anyone that needs their help, even Red Faction
rebels such as yourself. Talk to them and they can heal you to 100 health an
infinite number of times. Only medics equipped with a hypo will be able to
heal you, the others will simply tell you that they're out of supplies.
Medics come in both male and female varieties, but the males generally have
hypos and the females generally don't (although this isn't always the case).
Like civilians, medics will cower in terror if you approach them with your
weapon drawn. Since they're no help to you in such a condition, you'll have
to exit the room, holster your weapon, and wait a few minutes for the medic
to calm down. Since medics can restore your health to full an infinite number
of times, it's a good idea to keep them alive and revisit them whenever you
need a pick-me-up. They're especially important on Impossible difficulty,
where you'll burn through health very quickly and will definately need a
infinite renewable source of it.
Ultor Employee:
Appearance: Technicians in uniforms, men in bio-hazard suits, executives in
business suits, scientists in lab coats, etc.
Weaponry: None
Health: 25 / 75
Difficulty: None
Workers, scientists, and executives employed by the Ultor corporation,
civilians will neither support nor hinder you throughout the game. If you try
to talk to them they'll simply refuse to help you, and if you approach them
with your weapon drawn they'll either cower in terror or run away calling
for the guards.
In the spirit of the game (RED Faction... not particularly subtle) you can
kill the capitalist scum if you're feeling particularly Marxist, but usually
there's no point in wasting your ammo (unless of course you're in a stealth
mission where keeping the guards unalert to your presence is important). Ultor
Employees rarely if ever drop items or ammo, so even if you don't give a damn
about commiting war crimes, killing them is still pretty much just a waste of
bullets.
==============
=Ultor Guards=
===============================================================================
The boys in blue, easily distinguished from miners by their blue envirosuits
and uniforms. These folks will be your primary adversaries throughout the game,
and you'll fight them in practically every level until about 3/4ths into the
game when the Mercs show up. They're smart enough to occasionally strafe away
from your shots, take cover behind obstacles, and temporarily flee when
injured, but their low durability, rather bad aim, poor selection of weaponry,
and tendency to stand in the same spot for long periods of time while firing
make them more of a nuisance than a challenge. Still, they can wear away at
your health and armor as you face wave after wave of them, especially in some
of the later levels where health and armor refills are scarce.
Ultor Envirosuit Guard:
Appearance: Man in blue, lightly armored envirosuit
Weaponry: Control Baton (2 damage)
12mm Pistol (10 damage)
Shotgun (40 damage)
Submachine gun (7 damage)
Assault Rifle (10 damage)
Sniper Rifle (47 damage)
Rocket Launcher (20 damage)
Grenades (72 damage)
Health: 100
Armor: 100
Difficulty:**
When operating in the cold, airless enviroments exposed to the Martian
atmosphere, Ultor guards wear their armored envirosuits into combat. Their
envirosuits provide just a wee bit more protection than the bulletproof vests
they wear indoors, but it really doesn't make that much of a difference, the
small amount of extra armor merely means they can survive an additional bullet
before dying. They're still easily dispatched with a few pistol shots, a
single shotgun blast, or a single headshot from any weapon.
Both regular security guards and guard captains can be found wearing
envirosuits, and thus some envirosuit guards can be found using regular
security guard weapons, while others pack captain-level weapons such as
assault rifles and even sniper rifles.
During the first few levels, a few envirosuit guards will try to rush up
and whack you with control batons, these guards are particularly pathetic
due to their limited range and measily damage (although they do run at you
surprisingly fast).
A few envirosuit-wearing guards also use rocket launchers or grenades against
you, but the damage done is surprisingly light, and it's not too tough to
dodge the incoming rockets at medium or long range.
Ultor Security Guard:
Appearance: Man in blue uniform with helmet and bulletproof vest
Weaponry: 12mm Pistol (10 damage)
Shotgun (40 damage)
Submachine gun (7 damage)
Health: 100
Armor: 50
Difficulty: **
The most common, lowest ranking member of Ultor's security forces, these
regular security guards are equipped with the poorest weapons and are the
easiest to terminate. Their bulletproof vests barely provide any protection
against your weapons, and it only takes a few bullets or a single headshot to
bring them down.
Guards equipped with pistols submachine guns have rather poor aim, and at
medium range will often only hit you with only a few bullets from an entire
clip. Coupled with the low damage done by their attacks, and these guards are
barely a threat as long as you're even halfway competant.
Guards armed with shotguns can be somewhat tougher, but as long as you
keep your distance the damage from their attacks will be significantly
reduced.
At first security guards are mostly armed with 12mm pistols, but in the later
levels they'll be more likely to use shotguns and submachine guns against you.
Ultor Riot Guard:
Appearance: Man in padded blue riot armor with yellow chest protector
and boxy helmetwith opaque faceplate
Weaponry: Control Baton (2 damage)
Shotgun (40 damage)
Rocket Launcher (20 damage)
Health: 150
Armor: 200
Difficulty: **
Ultor sends in riot guards after the first few levels to suppress the
spreading rebellion in mine M-4 and the nearby miner's barracks. Some riot
guards are equipped only with control batons, and thus shouldn't pose much
of a challenge. However, many of them carry combat shotguns, especially
inside the miner's barracks, which makes them the deadliest guards you'll
face in the game's first few levels. Fortunately, they only use the shotgun's
primary fire, so their actual rate of fire is fairly low. Also, due to the
shotgun's spread, they don't do much damage at long range, allowing you to
pick them off from a distance with your pistol. They can still do serious harm
to you in narrow spaces and close quarters, though.
Many riot guards can withstand somewhat more damage than the regular guards,
but the difference isn't significant: it only takes a few bulets more to bring
them down. You'll mainly encounter riot guards inside the miner's barracks
near the beginning of the game, and won't be seeing them afterwards.
Ultor Guard Captain:
Appearance: Ultor guard in dark blue uniform with yellow-trim shoulder pads
and red helmet visor
Weaponry: Assault Rifle (10 damage)
Sniper Rifle (47 damage)
Health: 100
Armor: 75
Difficulty: **
These higher-level Ultor guards are equipped with assault rifles, and can be
distinguished by their red helmet visors and gold-trimmed shoulder pads, as
well as the yellow stripe that runs down the middle of their helmet. They
like to spray bullets rapidly with their assault rifle's secondary fire, and
are a little tougher and more agile than the regular Ultor guards. They're
still not anything to write home about, especially since their aim is just
as bad as that of the regular Ultor guards.
Just be sure to take cover when you see them and kill them quickly with your
own assault rifle, because the damage from their attacks can quickly add up,
especially when you confront them in groups or alongside other Ultor guards.
Guard captains are fairly common later in the game, you'll usually encounter
one or two leading each group of Ultor guards you face.
A couple guard captains are specialized snipers, and they can do serious damage
to you if you get into their line of fire without realizing they're there.
Fortunately guard captains armed with sniper rifles are extremely rare, almost
all of them are equipped with assault rifles.
Ultor Elite Guard:
Appearance: Futuristic Secret Service Guy with dark sunglasses, comm headset,
crew-cut, beige uniform, and bulletproof vest.
Weaponry: Submachine gun (7 damage)
Health: 500
Armor: 250
Difficulty:***
The personal bodyguards of Ultor's corporate executives, Elite Guards are
incredibly tough, and if you think they'll go down as easily as the regular
guards you fought before, you'll be in for an unpleasant surprise. Though
they're 'only' armed with submachine guns, Elite Guards have excellent aim
and can really reduce your health quickly if you don't try to get out of
their line of fire. They're also more agile and intelligent than regular
guards, and they can rapidly strafe out of your line of fire to avoid your
shots, and can even drop and roll to evade you.
Additionally, Elite Guards tend to have better armor and are often much
more durable than the regular Ultor guards. The Elite Guards in the Admin
Area near Gryphon's office can survive twice as much damage as a regular
Ultor guard, while Capek's personal bodyguards are incredibly tough and can
survive 4 to 6 times as much damage. Elite Guards are also the only human
enemies in the game who do not take extra damage from armor-piercing rounds.
Elite Guards can also resist a few seconds worth of fire damage, although
when set on fire they still run around screaming just like regular guards.
This makes the flamethrower an excellent weapon against them, but since ammo
is so scarce for it you probably won't be able to use it very much. Ideally
you should either snipe them with the sniper rifle at a distance outside
their range of fire, or in close quarters engage them with the submachine gun
or the assault rifle's secondary fire, as the repeated bullet hits will stun
them and prevent them from attacking as often.
===================
=Ultor Mercenaries=
===============================================================================
Masako's Mercenaries show up in the later half of the game, after you kill
Capek, and they quickly replace the Ultor guards as your primary enemies.
Unlike the guards, Mercs are skilled and dangerous enemies that can kill you
real quick if you're not prepared. Like the Elite Guards, they're much more
agile and difficult to hit than the regular guards, constantly strafing out
of the way when you try to point your gun at them.
Remote charges don't adhere well to the Mercs' armored envirosuits, and will
slip off and fall to the ground after a couple of seconds. Their heavy armor
makes them resistant to flames, and it takes several seconds of being soaked
in napalm before they catch fire. Mercs also continue to fight to the death
when on fire, instead of running around and screaming in pain like guards do.
The most dangerous thing about Mercs is that their weapons have a high rate
of fire and do lots of damage; even if you're at full health and armor,
their standard precision rifle can kill you in just 8 hits on Normal difficulty.
With extremely damaging weapons and high durability, the Mercs increase the
difficulty of the game by several orders of magnitude once they begin to
appear.
Ultor Grunt Mercenary:
Appearance: Man in average-sized armored combat envirosuit with reflective