~B
Mercenaries Mini Game
Nikolai Survival Guide
by
J.R. Kerr
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Resident Evil and subsequently mentioned
characters are the property entirely of Capcom.
Capcom is the Lord of the "Holy Trinity."
Capcom, Konami and Square. Don't mess with them.
------------------------------------
J.R. Kerr wrote this faq. I am a professional writer.
This is my intellectual property. No one may edit
any version of this faq that is to be shared.
For your own personal use on one computer, you may
edit out all this jargon or select bits of the tips you need.
I will not profit from this faq in any way.
Anyone may distribute or post this faq anywhere they like
provided my name remain on it.
I will use powerful internet voodoo to eat the soul of
anyone who posts my faq without my name on it.
I will only answer e-mail with no attachments and sizes
of under 6k at : jrkerrbomb@evil.co.uk
-----------------------------------
PREREQUISITES FOR READING THIS FAQ:
[0] You just want to finish with Nikolai.
Getting an "E" or "D" rank is okay with you.
You will only save Dario.
[1] find Alvin Webcraft's faq and read it first.
He is more in depth in his treatment of gameplay
than I. His faq helped me get better at playing Res 3.
[2] You have already finished the Merc game with
Mikhail and saved at least 4 people.
(I save all 6, use no FAS, have 7:20 on clock at end)
[3] You have a cursory knowledge of what beating the
4th survivor scenario in Res 2 is like. ie: hard.
[4] You are prepared to see Nikolai die over and over
as you attempt to pull off the most insane stunts
in any res evil game ever!
[5] You are willing to: SELECT > RESET instantly
if you miss any of the KEY milestones (listed below).
[6] You have a colorful repetoire of swear words to cast at the
undead ankle biters who are in your way.
[7] Do not laugh when I say:
(a) run past the dog
(b) let the zombie bite you
(c) do not let the zombie bite you
(d) "stumble" the first zombie and "domino" the rest.
(e) fake out the hunter betas and run past them.
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HOW TO RUN DOWN A HALL HOW NOT TO RUN DOWN A HALL
---------------------- --------------------------
I ^ I I ^ I
I / \ I I/ \ I
I / \ I I \ I
I L_______J I I _ / I
I I I/ I
The point is: you lose time if you put your nose into a wall,
so learn the course and then run straight without bumping the wall!
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GENERAL RULES:
[1] DO NOT USE ANY FIRST AID SPRAYS UNTIL YOU ARE IN ORANGE CAUTION.
(unless you have to run past the first rocket-nemesis )
[2] THE CLOCK PAUSES WHEN YOU ARE IN THE MENU BUT YOU NEED MOMENTUM
SO KEEP YOUR FINGER ON RUN WHILE YOU USE ANOTHER FINGER
TO ACCESS THE MENU.
[3] WHEN YOU CHANGE WEAPONS: you should not hear "boop boop boop boop"
You should hear "bloopidity-bloopidity"
This means your fingers are fast enough.
[4] NEVER TAKE YOUR FINGER OFF THE RUN BUTTON UNLESS TOLD TO DO SO.
YOUR KNUCKLES WILL GO WHITE.
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KEY MILESTONES: their number is suffixed with "KEY"
if you miss or mess up any of these: you must
press "Select" then "Reset" and try again!
[1] Check: am I frosty? Get off the first train with
the knife equipped and 1:58 left on the clock.
[2] When I run from the door/black screen~ I do not hit
the wall in front of me~ I am able to run continuously, but
swerve/curve to avoid the wall.
[3] Cross the first boxes at the sacks, drop off and
during the blink of blackness cut back in toward the zombie
I saw earlier and escape this room without hitting any zombies
or firing ANY shots.
[4] When I press "open" at a door while running at it~ I see
a weird vacuum pull me toward the door (for an instant).
[5] You know what the room looks like before you see it~ therefore
you are already squeezing "up and left" to make Nikolai run
to his left. The first zombie here is Clyde.
Run along, not run with your nose into~ the east wall.
The second zombie is fat boy.
With your knife equipped try to stumble him by mashing
"x" and "R1" when you get close. You may stumble him down, but he is
a big boy and will probably bite you anyway. "Chun Li" out of his hold
then run over him.
[6] The next zombie is "sleeper." LET HIM BITE YOU! You have the
knife equipped and YOU WILL GET 24 SECONDS!
[7] IFF you stumbled fat boy and let sleeper get you in such a way that the screen
juggles back and forth between shots while you try to stomp his head~
then the following two jokers will begin advancing. They are staggered.
Run next to the first, cut in and behind then run along past the second.
[8] Cross the crow hall with the knife equipped.
Leave the room. While the door animation happens, begin furiously
tapping your square/menu button.
[8] KEY: The first zombie cop past the crows: I can stun/drop him
while he is facing me,
with four shots and NOT hit the barrel. otherwise: S>Reset
[9] Run over the zombie cop~ who is not "dead"
and as soon as the screen blinks to where I can see the first barrel
stop and press R2.
[10] the zombie cop will stand up, but facing the wrong way.
Cops will advance toward you~ they cover the camera~ you
cannot see yourself or the zombie cop behind you.
Be cool. he is pointing the wrong way and cannot get you yet.
[11] When ALL the cops get into view: shoot once~
it may look like a zombie is blocking your line of sight on the
barrel. If you took aim with R2 before that happened, the bullet
passes magically through the zombie(s) and hits the barrel anyway.
[12] You will know you got everyone if the time you get is 69 seconds
or sometimes 82 seconds. I think you get fewer points if the flying
pieces of burning zombie do not knock the other zombies down.
[13] Run toward the gas station gate. STOP. check to see that you have
(a) ten bullets in your equipped gun
(b) only taken a maximum of two zombie bites:
possibly less if you stumbled fat boy correctly.
(c) are now ready to run past dogs
[14] Run along, not with your nose into~ the south wall.
When you see the dog coming at you~ get ready.This is screen one
of this dog running at you.
At screen two of the dog running at you: put your nose into the wall
BRIEFLY.
from here, you are not allowed to "bump" off the walls.
YOU MUST run a hairpin turn smoothly and tightly around the square sign.
YOU may not bump the sign.
The second dog will still be laying down when you run past it.
The third dog is already walking but he is north of the sign
enough for you to run along his south side.
Curve in and hit the door. A vacuum will pull you over the dogs if they
are semi-blocking the door.
[15] You still have the gun equipped from the barrel.
Before you can see anything: squeeze the R1 and X buttons.
The screen will begin with Nikolai shooting the nearest zombie.
He may only have 4 bullets.
DO NOT KILL HIM WITH THE GUN! as soon as he starts to drop:
thump square and equip your knife.
When he drops walk forward, then:
hold R1 and R2 and X and DOWN to finish him and get 24 seconds.
[16] You are standing in front of the soda machine. RUN to the crawling
ankle biter and crush his head. 24 SECONDS!
[17] Run forward to the wall perpendicular to the door.
This will allow the 3 zombies inside to see you.
Do a quick turnaround and run-step to the previous angle.
Continue walking backward. Wait.
When all 3 are visible: thump square and equip the GUN.
Give each zombie 2 AND NO MORE THAN 2 BULLETS.
You do this by holding L1 to toggle targets.
[18] Run around the table: quickly and smoothly: NO BUMPING!
IFF there are zombies "running" after you~
Face the wall by the soda machine, this may confuse the zombies
who will walk away from you. Stab up at their heads when they
face away. Two head shots from behind may drop them.
IFF you are lucky you got to the soda machine before the zombies
could get around the counter.
This means that they will line up on the wrong side of a little
chair that they cannot cross.
From the soda side of the chair~ stab using L1+R1+X.
You will continuously stab at all three zombies and they will
all die without being able to hit you.
You will only get 24 seconds for each.
IFF you feel bold, you may try to domino them and use knife
hits down to get lots more time for multiple kills from the same
position~ BUT you will certainly have to use at least
one First Aid Spray before you are done killing them.
[19] Dario is now ready to give you 60 rounds.
Most of these rounds are to be expended on the final room
full of zombies. Some dog stunning is allowed, but not preferred.
Reload your gun. Equip your knife.
The next kill for you is past the first hunter beta alley
in the "sleeper room."
[20] Run to the garage exit door. Get ready for dog run number two.
[21] The first dog is now to your right as you exit.
This means you need to jog to your left running, but ultimately
fall back into the same "south" path you used before
so that you can hug-without-nosing hairpin around the sign.
If you touch the sign, dogs hit you in the back and you
may have to use a second first aid spray. Not good.
[22] Run smooth and straight to the door. Beyond is the
nearly empty barrel room.
[23] In the barrel room, only the first zombie cop who earlier
got four of your bullets is alive. He is back at the door where
you met and he cannot see you. Relax a little.
IFF for some reason there is a lady cop still alive here~
walk backwards, not quick turnaround...two steps, equip the gun and
drop her. Three bullets at CLOSE range should drop any zombie.
--------------RECAP-----------
You have four minutes or so on your clock.
You have a fully loaded gun~ 15 rounds.
You have 45 bullets leftover.
You have at least two first aid sprays leftover.
You have the knife equipped.
You have saved your first and only person.
You are laughing maniacally and are ready to
run through two alleys full of hunters.
BEST: you have taken only two sleeper bites and have all 3 First Aids.
I have done this before.
------------------------------
[24] Run through the door to the street. Run across the street
to the next door. You are now in the T-shaped dog alley.
[25] Run straight into the wall. Turn and run straight on the
left side of the dog that you see.
This dog will not see you until you are next to him
running past him if you do this correctly.
If you have your nose on the wall, the dog will get you.
Keep running.
[26] This is a semi-safe room. Try not to hit the street lamps
just outside your entrance or just before the exit.
Nemesis awaits beyond.
[27] The first available door puts you in sight of Nemesis
in a T shaped hall. Run straight toward him~ you
cannot see him but you can hear him walking.
Turn immediately while running RIGHT into the
intersecting hall. If you do this correctly you
will only see Nemesis once and screen and you will not see him
running up behind you.
[28] YOU ARE NOW IN HUNTER ALLEY NUMBER ONE.
YOU WILL DIE HERE MANY TIMES BEFORE YOU LEARN THEIR PATTERN.
At the moment you see yourself here you should be running
forward towards a hunter who is 2 feet away from you.
1 foot from him, stop running and step backwards.
Hunter #1 will swipe lazily at you and miss because you
have stepped backwards. Then he will start to jump at where you were
because now you are running to where he was and curving right.
Hunter #2 is running at you. Curve hard left running and then stop.
Wait a tenth of a second and then run back to the right.
Run slightly forward then left again.
Hunter #1 and #2 are now behind you and not facing you yet.
Run toward hunter #3.
He will jump at you to TRY and take your head off.
Hunter#1 and #2 are now right behind you and may hit you for
moderate damage. It is not as bad as you think.
If 1 or 2 hit you, 3 may be unable to land his jump hit.
Jog hard toward the trashcan, then back toward the police car.
Holding run start to thump the X button with another finger
as you near the office door.
It is possible to clear this alley without taking a hit.
It is permissible to be in light yellow caution after clearing this alley.
[29] Check: you are in the sleeper room. STOP RUNNING.
YOU MUST HAVE YOUR KNIFE EQUIPPED BEFORE YOU MOVE.
The sleepers bite you when you step past them~ so they can get you
from behind. There seem to be two that are really dead~ notice
that they do not turn their heads to look at you.
The sleepers bite you in pairs...
DO NOT USE YOUR FIRST AID SPRAYS UNLESS YOU ARE IN ORANGE CAUTION
BEFORE YOU TAKE A PAIR OF ANKLE BITES.
I believe there are 5 live sleepers.
For stomping their heads with the knife equipped:
YOU GET 24 SECONDS A POP FOR A TOTAL OF NEARLY TWO MINUTES.
[30] Before leaving the sleeper room, equip your gun.
Run straight out the door two steps then curve hard left
so that you do not snag on the parked car. You will run past
two zombies who are not chasing you yet. They do however, block the
camera~ so you need to know what is there without seeing it.
[31] At the angle that shows a parked van on the right covering
half the screen, STOP RUNNING. Walk slowly forward, but not off
the cuurent angle. Press R2 to auto aim at a barrel you will never
get to see. Fire. You may only get 14 seconds for dropping 2
zombies, but you may get 27 for dropping three.
[32] Mysteriously, the other four zombies did not hear their
friends blow up and when you run into their camera angle,
they should all be standing still.
IFF they are walking you may drop one of them with up to 5 bullets
but not more.
Otherwise run directly into the middle of them and straight thru
them to the door beyond.
You have WAY MORE THAN 2 MINUTES! BUS NEMESIS IS COMING!
[33] Run cleanly and continuously. Bus Nemesis is jumping down.
Do not stop.
Run along his left side.
Hit the door quickly.
[34] THIS ROOM IS VERY SCARY, BUT IT IS VERY EASY !
This is Rocket Nemesis / Firehose Alley.
------------RECAP-------------
at BEST you have taken only 7 ankle bites and have
all three first aid sprays with 2-4 minutes on the clock.
(If you ran past Bus Nemesis in Caution yellow/orange)
USE A FIRST AID SPRAY JUST INSIDE THE NEXT DOOR IF YOU ARE NOT "FINE"
at MINIMUM you have used only 2 FAS and are in perfect health now,
and you still have not used up your second clip of rounds so that
you still have a box of 45 rounds left.
------------------------------
Recapping now is okay, because the first step is:
[35] Just inside this door to firehose alley: STOP AND WAIT A SPLIT SECOND.
The zombie you can see starts to walk at you.
You hear Nemesis running.
NOW RUN to Nikolai's left. Run along the wall just enough to clear the
first zombie, then cut back in behind him. (Nikolai's right)
If you don't cut back in, Nemesis can see a clear path to run at you.
If you do cut back in, Nemesis tries to run through the other zombies.
However, you cannot clear this hall on Nikolai's right because there
is stuff that protrudes from the wall that will snag you, in which case
Nemesis will rocket you to death while zombies munch you.
You must only cut in and trick Nemesis into thinking you are coming down
slightly right of center.
You should see him paste a zombie~ when this happens, cut back to the
left-hand side (Nikolai's left) and run straight and smooth thru
the rest of this alley.
You CAN make it thru this alley without getting hit or even
killing or stumbling anyone.
Most of the time you will take one zombie bite at the door but
Nemesis will only hit the zombies that you left alive behind you.
[36] The roaches all seem to run up the walls when you enter this room.
Run underneath them. If they do not go up the walls, run around them.
This "dead merc" hall is wider than it seems.
[37] Street of Crows. You will never see the crows.
Run.
[38]KEY: You must drop all but two of the zombies in your way
with the next barrel.
You are now in the Y shaped alley. Run forward on the left fork
until you reach the angle where you can "activate" AT LEAST FOUR
of the left fork zombies.
Quick turnaround and run two angles.
Begin walking backwards, but do not lose sight of the barrel.
The right fork zombies seem dangerously close....
BUT
You can still R2 aim at the barrel. Do so.
WAIT.
It seems that the zombies are blocking your barrel shot.
WAIT.
Fire. Drop the remaining right fork zombie. He will get you in the
back if you do not drop him.
[39] RUN FORWARD. there are remaining left fork zombies that were not
activated. Hopefully, only two. H gun bullets to drop, but not kill them.
[40] THREE DOG ROOM
Run slightly forward then curl to the right.
You should wind up standing on top of the dead cop who had photo A.
From here with the dogs in front of you,
begin pelting them. Listen for their final yelps.
When at least two die, it is safe to run for it.
(Some of you may feel bold enough to outrun these dogs entirely; but
there is worse ahead, so I use this to catch my breath)
[41] DOUBLE ROCKET-NEMESIS T HALL
RUN, RUN, RUN !
Forward and then hook your left.
Hit the door that Jill had to "unlock" and exit.
You should never see either Rocket-Nemesi.
[42] The next two "rooms" or "halls" somewhat escape my memory...
I forget if this is Carlos' path or Nikolai's
there are zombies in a t-shaped hall.
Drop the girl you can't see.
fire around the corner at a walking zombie.
Run dead into a pack of zombies and shove them over
which domino-drops them.
If I remember this incorrectly, apologies.
[43] Get Nikolai to the East side of the street outside the
"target point." Do not use the back alley, or you will
be covered instantly by three hunters.
[44] You should still have 20-30 rounds left.
You are running the long way down a seemingly empty street.
If you listen you can hear Hunters running.
[45] HUNTER ALLEY TWO
From the first angle where you can see the blue sawhorse
that seperates the street from the alley~ STOP RUNNING. STOP TOTALLY.
Turn perpendicular to the mouth of the alley.
Hunter #1 will be along soon.
He will get snagged on the sawhorse, briefly.
Hunter #2 will catch up.
When they begin their beeline at you, RUN forward-
you should be pointed away from them at a 30 to 45 degree angle.
When they miss you, curve into the alley.
Hunter #3 is still in the alley.
He is however snagged on the back of the sawhorse now.
He has not lept to hit you yet, which means that he will
jump hit you for moderate damage as you are running past him.
It is like "runner's high" if you make it to the crow hall door
and you are still in "Fine" shape.
----------RECAP--------------------
You have one FAS left because either Hunter Alley #1 or #2 got you bad.
You need to use it soon, because you are in Caution.
Do not use it until you are in Orange Caution.
You have 20-30 bullets left.
-----------------------------------
[46] Crow Alley. Run, but while running hit the menu button with
another finger so that you never stop running and reload
your handgun. Count what you have left.
[47] FINAL ROOM
squeeze R1 before you see anything.
Do not fire unless you see yourself aimed at the aproaching zombie.
Empty all remaining rounds at the advancing zombies.
You will probably not be able to kill many of them, but
the idea is to stall the ones in front UNTIL the ones in back and down
the steps have a chance to catch up.
You will run out of bullets before everyone catches up.
You will have to "let the zombie bite you" then shake him off
to domino the others.
When the path is 'clear' run for the target point!
[48] I almost always need to speed limp across the finish line.
"Speed limping" is when you are in Danger and you rapidly
tap your "run" button so that Nikolai seems to glide and
you do not hear foot steps.
This is not so much for moving faster, per se; but
it handicaps the gesticulations that would otherwise increase
your surface area and collision detection.
In other words, it helps you to avoid "bumping" the wall
or getting "snagged" on the corner of the stairs.
THAT'S IT. You have earned your reward and your freedom.
Save your game if you win so that other people will believe
you were able to finish with Nikolai. It saves his "result"
only if you finish.
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If anyone has done better than a "D" rank Nikolai without
cheating, I would like to know how. sincerely.
Please e-mail me
at: jrkerrbomb@evil.co.uk
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Special thanks to:
[1] Beth for letting me play.
[2] Capcom for giving me love.
[3] Alex for his years of video-game co-insanity
[4] Dave "my controller is broken" Wallin
