Twisted Metal 2: The Deathless Guide - RetroAchievements/guides GitHub Wiki

1) Introduction

This guide is only going to cover one achievement. That is because it is easily the hardest achievement in the set (and one of the hardest in any core set period imo). If you can complete it, you can complete the other achievements with ease.

No One Can (100)
Complete the game as Sweet Tooth on hard without dying

The objective of this achievement is rather self-explanatory. How you're actually meant to accomplish that objective is a whole other can of worms, and is what this guide is going to explore.

A word of warning though: this game is incredibly cheap and will do some absurd things to screw you over. You WILL have deaths that aren't your fault. If you don't want to deal with egregiously unfair game design, then it's best to just not go for this achievement (or play this game at all, really).

This guide assumes you've played through the game a few times at least, so it won't cover things like control layout or map layouts.

Also, if you want a video guide for this game, these two videos by Dolphin-Chucks and Mr. BPD respectively are great.

2) Table of Contents

This guide will be split into these sections:

  • Weapons: Covers each weapon and the most effective way to utilize them

  • Advanced Attacks: Covers each move that requires a d-pad combo and how to most effectively utilize them

  • AI Behavior: Covers the patterns of all AI opponents (besides bosses) and discusses which to focus on.

  • Sweet Tooth: Advice specific to using Sweet Tooth effectively

  • Levels: Covers strategies specific to each level and for both bosses.

3) Weapons

NOTE: Every weapon has damage falloff, which means that if the enemy is too far away, the weapon will do no damage. The rule of thumb is that if an enemy is more than halfway away from you on the radar, damage falloff activates.

Fire

  • Has poor damage and homing. Better than nothing, but you should prioritize other weapons over these.

Homing

  • Good damage and great homing capabilities. Can also knock enemies back. Definitely get these when you can.
  • These are the ideal weapon for Holland as they're decently damaging while not requiring that you focus on aiming while simultaneously dodging all of the enemies.

Power

  • Great damage but no homing capabilities. Best used in conjunction with a freeze and ram. If your aim is good enough though, a freeze may not be necessary.

Napalm

  • Freeze + Shield + Ram + Napalm is a great damage-dealing combo
  • Freeze + Napalm on its own does decent damage as well
  • Useful for hitting enemies not directly in your line of sight

Remote

  • If detonated on slopes, their damage is tripled.
  • Also very effective against groups of enemies.

Ricochet

  • Useful for knocking enemies off cliffs and away from you in a sticky situation.
  • Can also hit enemies not directly in your line of sight

Lightning

  • Has poor hit detection, it will very rarely damage enemies. Recommend avoiding this weapon

4) Advanced Attacks

NOTE: If you input these combos too quickly, they won't work. Delay your button presses slightly to make the combos more reliable. Also, if you see an enemy coming around a corner, you can start doing an advanced attack and end it when the enemy is in your line of sight to get it out as quickly as possible.

The color of the energy bar indicates which moves you have enough energy to use. The colors are green, then yellow, then red.

  • Freeze Missile: Left, Right, Up
    • Can be used at Green bar
    • Use this to ram opponents and rack up massive damage.
    • You can use multiple freezes in a row to keep opponents frozen for long periods
  • Napalm: Right, Left, Up
    • Usable at Green bar
    • Best combined with freeze to do a lot of damage
    • Also useful for hitting enemies not directly in your line of sight
  • High Jump: Up, Up, Left
    • Usable at Green or Yellow bar
    • You can reach places you never thought possible with this move. I recommend going into challenge mode and experimenting to see where you can go using this move.
  • Energy Shield: Up, Up, Right
    • Usable at Green bar
    • Makes you invulnerable from enemy attacks for 3 seconds
    • Useful when you're low on health
    • Particularly useful against Spectre's special
  • Rear Attack: Left, Right, Down
    • Uses no energy
    • Fires your currently equipped weapon behind you
    • This move is very useful with Sweet Tooth's special
  • Drop Mine: Right, Left, Down
    • Can be used at Green or Yellow bar
    • Lay these down after using a teleporter to damage opponents (not necessary on Antarctica)
    • Useful against opponents chasing you
    • Use this against Mr. Slam in conjunction with a shield to most effectively escape his special
  • Invisibility Cloak: Right, Down, Left, Up
    • Useable at Green Energy
    • Useless, the AI sees right through it
  • Minion's Special: Up, Down, Up, Up, R2. You can hold R2 while pressing Up, Down, Up, Up, also.
    • Does a large amount of damage but requires 90% of your meter. I would only recommend using this if there are no other enemies around as it leaves you without energy for a shield or freeze.
  • Weapons for Health: Down, Up, Right, Left, Up, Up, Down, Down
    • Sacrifices all your weapons to refill health. The health gained is proportional to the amount of weapons you have.
    • I generally find it better to just use your weapons to kill the enemy instead of using this code, but it is useful to know this code if you're low on health and all the pickups are gone.

5) AI Behavior

Spectre:

  • The most dangerous opponent. He spams every weapon in the game besides remotes. His special will constantly harass you through walls and knock you upwards at the most inconvenient of times. He is the highest priority target.

Outlaw 2:

  • Will spend most of the match running away from you until all other combatants are dead(although she may attack you occasionally). Then she becomes insanely aggressive and spams her special constantly, knocking you into the air each time. I recommend killing her before she's the last opponent to avoid dealing with this if you can(sadly, this is unlikely to be the case since other enemies will hound you while you chase her)

Shadow:

  • Spams his special from his rear and front constantly. This special can shred your health in an instant if you get too close; however, if you manage to ram him and lock him in place before he fires off a special, he likely won't be able to burst fire you. If his health is low, just pick him off at a distance to avoid this happening. Also, be very cautious around slopes, as his special damage is tripled when detonated on them.

Mr. Grimm:

  • Spams his special and freezelocks you. High priority target as if he freezes you once, chances are your run is over. Freeze + Special + Ram makes quick work of him.

Axel:

  • Spams homing missiles and his special. Try to stay out of his line of sight or else his homing missiles will knock you around when you fight him. Also, it's possible to take a large amount of damage when ramming into Axel, even when he's frozen. I find ramming his sides makes this less likely to happen. High priority target.

Twister:

  • Loves to trap you in her special. You can escape the special by equipping a ricochet and hitting the fire button right as you touch the ground. Keep a ricochet on you at all times to ensure you can do this. Is harmless besides.

Mr. Slam:

  • Spams freezes so he can grab you with his special and uses ricochets when retreating. When you get caught in his special, use a shield to prevent damage and a mine to prevent him from grabbing you again. Be careful to avoid Slam's behind, especially near cliffs, lest he hit you with a ricochet. High priority, but less likely to end your run than other freezelockers like Grimm or Roadkill since he will stop freezing you to grab you

Grasshopper:

  • Loves to chase you relentlessly with her special. Homing missiles are great for hitting her out of the special. Running from her and laying down a mine is also effective. Once you hit her out of it and do significant damage, she will rear fire freezes and run away. Attack from the sides to avoid being frozen.

Warthog:

  • Very tanky but has a low dmg special. Recommend having a decently sized inventory or a full energy bar before fighting him if he's at full health. Only dangerous if you're at low health as his special has good homing capabilities and travels far.

Thumper:

  • His special does a massive amount of damage, but as long as you avoid the front of his vehicle, the special is a non-issue. He likes to spam napalm and can hit some surprisingly accurate shots, so be ready to shield those. Other AIs take priority over him.

Hammerhead:

  • Likes fire missiles, napalm, ricochets, and front + rear freezes. Nothing too difficult to deal with, but be careful near cliffs to not get hit by those ricochets. Also, avoid his front so he doesn't trigger his special.

Roadkill:

  • Spams freezes and his special. The special will rebound towards himself and deal 3x damage if it hits you. Either freeze him or shield if you attempt to get near him. Will freezelock you so he is a high priority.

6) Sweet Tooth

Sweet Tooth is a heavy character with low speed but good armor and great ram damage. His special does decent damage, has decent homing, regenerates quickly, and locks enemies in place, making it easy to rack up ram damage on them.

A few recommendations for Sweet Tooth

  1. GET LOTS OF TURBO! It greatly compensates for his lack of speed. You will be a sitting duck otherwise.
  2. Conserve Turbo, as in, save turbo for emergency situations, and don't use it to put out a fire if you don't need to. If you reach the maximum amount of turbo, you can afford to be more liberal with your usage, but I still would recommend keeping an eye on that gauge.
  3. Freeze + Special + Ram is a highly damaging combo for him.
  4. Only use his special at mid to close range unless the opponent is frozen or gets stuck on their own. The homing is decent, but not good enough to be effective at long range if the opponent is moving.
  5. Sometimes in Hong Kong, your special will glitch out and not travel in a straight line. I recommend only using the special when you ram into enemies if this happens.
  6. To reduce the amount of times you roll over, when on sloped surfaces, avoid using either turbo or tight turning.

7) Levels

Note: Every level has a spot you can park on to regain health. This video by nikki_sensei showcases them all.

Los Angeles

  • Gather remotes and turbo. Save at least one remote (preferably more) for Moscow
  • The most effective place to use a remote is a sloped area on the roads at the edge of the map.
  • The glass windows can be broken to reveal pickups above them

Moscow

  • Use a remote in the middle of the arena to destroy the ramps and reveal pickups
  • If Slam is in the level, he will often drive into the center, so not detonating the remote immediately is a good way to damage him.
  • You can also use the remotes on the slopes to deal significant damage to enemies, especially if they're in a group.
  • Don't be hesitant to grab the health pickups, chances are the AI will pick them up and regain health if you don't do it first.
  • If you pickup the lightning, make sure to use it before you exit the level. If you don't, it will be stuck in your inventory and the max amount of weapons you can carry will be lowered.

Paris

  • Enemies like to ambush you in this level. Pay close attention to your radar.

  • Use a remote in the Eiffel Tower to make the rooftops accessible.

  • You can camp in the Eiffel Tower and ambush enemies once they teleport in.

    • Enemies can take forever to follow you sometimes, so this isn't always viable.

  • The cathedral is also a good place to ambush enemies

  • You can access the rooftops by using Turbo on the top of the cathedral

Amazonia

  • Most of the level is sloped so remotes are highly effective.
  • Take care to not drive too quickly as it will be difficult to control your vehicle with all of the slopes
  • When on lava, use high jumps to prevent damage. You can also use a shield, but that takes significantly more energy.
  • The platform with 2 homings is great for chipping at enemies at a distance
  • The two secret rooms with either the 3 switches or a remote are great for hiding in and chipping away at enemies

Minion

  • There are two methods I find to be most effective for dealing with Minion
  • The safe way is to hide in one of the two secret rooms with either the 3 switches or a remote and shoot at him until he dies
  • The quicker yet more risky way is to lay a series of mines ended with a remote on the bridge to shred his health
  • Make sure that Minion starts firing at you before you leave the bridge. This indicates that Minion is close enough that damage falloff won't negate your damage.

New York

  • The grey platform with ricochets on it is a great place to camp and wait for enemies. You can use the ricochets to knock enemies off the roofs and get an instakill. The timing on this is tricky, so I recommend going into challenge mode and practicing it.
  • There is a glitch where if Mr. Slam dies, you will flip over. If this happens when you're near an edge, this can end your run. Avoid edges if you think Slam is about to die.
  • The enemies from this level onwards are more aggressive than the earlier levels. BE CAUTIOUS!

Antarctica

  • Make sure you have at least 4 ricochets
  • Go into the teleporter and wait for enemies to follow you. Use the ricochets to knock the enemies off the stage
  • If you have less than six ricochets, destroy the red tower to get an additional two.
  • If you hear enemies crashing into each other, then you will have to go back into the teleporter and fight them so they get unstuck. You can either continue fighting them or use the teleporter again depending on how confident you are.
  • If you're low on turbo, pick some up in the ditch. Also pickup a large amount homing missiles and some remotes. They are all essential for Holland.

Holland

  • Use the windmills to hide while waiting for your energy to recharge
  • Go to one of the corners of the map (I prefer the corner where the green windmill is to use its rubble as cover) and wait for enemies to come for you.
    • If enemies group up, you can use one of your remotes + a shield to damage them, but retreat back/continuing heading to the corner after you do this.
  • The full health pickup and the health pickup in front of the green windmill get taken by the AI often. I recommend picking these up early to prevent this

Hong Kong

  • The subways have a lot of turbo and a health pickup. As long as Spectre is dead, it is a great place to refill supplies and get your bearings (the AI will chase you in here eventually, so don't linger for too long)
  • The harbor and temple areas are also great for getting good pickups
  • KILL SPECTRE ASAP. He will make it impossible to navigate the subways if you don't.
  • The AI loves to team up on you in this level. Keep an eye on your radar for any enemy ambushes.
  • If you had an easy run in Holland, get ready for some bullshit to happen on this map. That's just how this game works.

Dark Tooth

  • Remote and Napalm spam is the quickest method of killing him. Gather a lot of both weapons, shield, get close to him, wait for him to jump, go under him, and unload the remotes and then the napalm onto him. If he doesn't die immediately, he will be extremely weakened.

  • Running away from him and planting mines can also be effective.

  • Alternatively, you can camp a specific ramp inside the temple to cause his AI to wig out. You MUST choose the ramp with a neon blue sign visible at the top left or else it won't work. To ensure it works, stand in the exact spot as the vehicle in this photo:

  • The second phase is easy, just freeze and shoot him until he dies. He can deal a lot of damage though, so it's important to remain cautious.

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