Krazy Ivan FAQ 1.1
by Wendell Martin
Created 5/25/96
Revised 7/11/96
NEW/REVISED ITEM: Added "CHEATS" section.
INTRODUCTION
Krazy Ivan is a Psygnosis game for the Sony PlayStation. It has a look
somewhat similar to giant robot/mech games, and resembles them in a few
ways, but is more of a 3D shooter. Actually, it plays rather like an
improved (*much* improved ) version of Cyber Sled. Viewed from this
perspective, Krazy Ivan succeeds well.
You are Ivan Popovich, commander of a Steel Cossack powersuit, who is
fighting to free Earth from alien domination. Your psychotic hatred for
aliens makes you perfect for the job. "Ivan" is pronounced "ee-VAHN" in
most of the game (since that's the correct Russian pronunciation), but the
American in a cut scene does pronounce it "EYE-van." BTW, the Russian word
appearing sideways on many pages of the manual and on the CD is OPASNO (in
Latin letters) and means "dangerous."
The game has well-done FMV introduction and cut scenes (especially if you
like heavy Russian accents ), and the in-game graphics are beautiful.
The controls can be reconfigured into one of several useful presets, so
they're pretty easy to get used to, regardless of how you prefer them. One
odd aspect is that side-stepping/strafing is not continuous; you must
repeatedly press the button to repeatedly side-step (unless your controller
has a turbo option).
There are five zones in the game, each with several "sentients" (bosses)
and several types of drones (20 sentients and 10 drone types total). You
are free to engage the sentients in any order, but it's probably wisest to
take out the toughest one first, while you're at full capacity. Once you
engage a sentient, you must defeat it before going on.
Destroying sentients and drones releases prisoners, which you can pick up
for points, and various pickups which are usually, but not always, helpful
to pick up. You can destroy drones in order to gather prisoners and
pickups, but if you take too long between engaging sentients, Black Knight
will appear, and you must defeat him before going on. Once you've defeated
all sentients on a level, you must destroy the zonal shield generator to
complete the zone and get to the upgrade section.
After each upgrade, you may save your game to a memory card before
continuing. You also need to save your configuration if you want to keep
your high scores and audio and control settings, but don't save your
configuration onto a saved game or you'll lose your progress in that game.
The game has three difficulty levels, and it's simple to beat it on Easy.
It's correspondingly more difficult at Medium and Hard, but is a fairly
quick game at any level (each zone takes about 10-20 minutes to play,
depending on how much time you spend on the drones).
CHEATS
This is one of the easier games available for PlayStation, and seems to have
no cheat codes (if I learn of any, I'll post them). If you're having
trouble winning, try the Easy setting (it's *really* easy). If Easy gives
you trouble, try circling your enemies (side-stepping while turning to
bring your guns to bear). Fire quickly and repeatedly, and use your
heaviest (missile/special) weapon against the toughest enemy on the level.
PICKUPS
Guns Rearm (vertical bullet) - rearms all guns
Missiles Rearm (angled missile) - rearms your missiles
Special Rearm (five small yellow balls) - rearms your special weapon
Energia Mode (yellow lightning bolt) - brief invincibility plus speed boost
Zombie Mode (skull) - brief invincibility plus speed reduction
Schizo Mode (light/dark circle) - brief invincibility plus reversed controls
Air Strike (large yellow ball) - Arrow drones appear and attack you
Energy Core (red sphere) - repairs your shields and provides a variable
number of energy cores which are used to "buy" post-mission upgrades.
ZONE INFORMATION (sentient strengths are the initial levels on your HUD)
Available in any zone
Arrow - flying dark green drone, summoned by Air Strike pickup
Black Knight - black powersuit sentient - strength 7
Zone: Russia - 50% difficulty - 154 prisoners
Trilobite - tracked black land drone that lays mines
Bane - flying green drone with four jet engine pods
Manta - flying red drone with flapping wings
Transona - flying green drone with three jet engine pods
Dedlok - gray and brown, ape-like sentient - strength 5.5
Dwarf - gray and red bipedal walker with huge launchers - strength 5.5
Raptor - green bipedal walker sentient, toughest in zone - strength 5.5
Zone: Saudi Arabia/Middle East - 70% difficulty - 187 prisoners
Manta, Trilobite
Hovertank - green land drone with turret on top
Demonseed - floating brown drone with two engine pods
Prowl - orange tiger sentient, toughest in zone - strength 5
Qualm - light blue humanoid sentient - strength 5
Sentinel - floating brown squid sentient - strength 6.5
Bane, Hovertank, Trilobite
Contrail - flying dark blue/gray and red drone with hang-down turret
Wasp - flying brown wasp-like drone
Arachan - tall, white, four-legged spider sentient - strength 8
Behemoth - gray and red "Empire Strikes Back AT-AT" walker - strength 8
Buzzsaw - flying green and yellow insectoid sentient - strength 5
Carapace - flying brown insectoid sentient with jet engines - strength 6.5
Scorch - dark green snake sentient - strength 6
Zone: North America/USA - 90% difficulty - 362 prisoners
Arrow, Bane, Contrail, Demonseed, Transona, Trilobite, Wasp
Reaper - red and white land drone with helicopter blades
Roach - brown roach-like land drone that lays mines
Fireball - purple and yellow bipedal walker sentient - strength 7
Granite - green, domed, quadrupedal sentient - strength 7.5
Reflex - flying red "Empire Strikes Back probe droid" sentient - strength 5
Thunderfoot - red and gray humanoid sentient - strength 8
Zone: Japan - 100% difficulty - 408 prisoners
(Runnning into the shield generator as is explodes will take you
to the "real" last zone, facing Black Knight.)
Arrow, Contrail, Demonseed, Reaper, Roach, Transona, Wasp
Arclight - gray and yellow tripedal sentient - strength 9
Claw - yellow and red crab-like sentient - strength 8
Colossus - tan bipedal walker sentient - strength 9
Flamefront - light blue humanoid sentient - strength 9
POWERSUIT SYSTEMS
(Energy core "prices" are for Easy/Medium/Hard)
Armor - 1/2/2 energy core per 10% (up to 100%)
Guns (up to five)
2 x 30mm Rotary Cannon - infinite ammo - initial equipment
2 x 50mm Rotary Cannon - 300 rounds each - initial equipment
2 x Laser Cannon - 250 rounds each - 10/12/14 energy cores
2 x Plasma Cannon - 60 rounds each - 14/16/18 energy cores
2 x Z Beam Cannon - 70 rounds each - 20/24/30 energy cores
Missile Weapons (one at a time)
2 x Wolf Rocket Launcher - 10 rockets each - initial equipment
Hyena Missile Launcher - 10 missiles - 10/12/14 energy cores
2 x Hyena Missile Launcher - 10 missiles each - 5/7/9 energy cores
Cerberus Missile Launcher - 10 missiles - 12/14/6 energy cores
2 x Cerberus Missile Launcher - 10 missiles each - 6/8/10 energy cores
4 x Cerberus Missile Launcher - 10 missiles each - 10/12/14 energy cores
Special Weapons (one at a time)
Scythe Beam - 5 charges - initial equipment
Vortex Bomb - 3 charges - 10/12/14 energy cores
ULF Pulse - 1 charge - 12/14/16 energy cores
EM Pulse - 1 charge - 15/17/19 energy cores
Kraken - 1 charge - 18/20/22 energy cores
Medusa - 1? charge - 23/25/27? energy cores
If you have corrections or additions to this FAQ, please e-mail me and I'll
implement them with credit. The latest version of this FAQ can be found via
my home page.
