Ok,let's see. This FAQ is for the game Freedom Force. It includes a general over-view of the lesser known features of the game and character information. I'll pass on what I know as I find it out. Contents: 1. Game/guide overview: Basics Character creating Attributes Traits Powers 2. Characters: Core characters Optional characters 3. Level guides 4. Enemies: Minions Villians 5. Contact info 1. Game/guide overview: Freedom Force is a real time strategy game with RPG elements and a pause time feature. What all that means is,generally,the game takes place in real time (as real life time passes,so does game time) and relies on your strategic abilities to see the heroes through the missions. The RPG elements are that your heroes gain new powers and abilities as they gain experience by going through the levels. The pause time feature means you can pause the game and issue orders to your team,but nothing happens til you unpause it. The game also quick pauses when you use the right click menu with a character and unpauses when you make a selection from said menu unless you used the main pause feature. If you hold down the right mouse button,you can move the menu around with the mouse til it highlights what you want. You can find out more about the game's features as you play the first few missions which have lots of information on features and game play. Basics: As I said,the in-game tutorials offer a pretty in depth review of your controls and what your characters can do. So right here,at least for now,I'm going to go over a glossary of terms so you can understand this guide better and some basic strats. If you have any questions about game play,feel free to e-mail me at the address below and I'll see about adding it here. The right click menu/power level menu - Refers to the menu that pops up when you right click with a character selected. This menu lists availible,compatible powers for what you've got it clicked over. For example,right clicking on a boulder will show the same options for attacking as well as the option to pick it up if the character is strong enough. The menu that pops up when you right click on a power listed in the right click menu is refered to as the power level menu. Overpower and overcharging - Overpower refers to when someone with the Hot Head trait preforms a more powerful than usual attack. It's basically the same as overcharging,only it's random. I also don't know if getting an overpower attack will push it higher than level 3. Overcharging refers to when you select a power from the right click menu and right click again to set it's power level. I refer to these levels as underpowered (the lowest option),normal (the default setting),level 2 (the one above normal),and level 3 (the highest setting). Thus,when I say,a level 3 overcharged Tongues of Flame,I mean the Tounges of Flame skill set with the power level menu's highest setting. Canisters - Energy X canisters are found in pretty much every level. They come in 4 flavors: Experience,prestige,health,and energy. Energy is the most common,it allows you to use your special powers more often as your EP meter refills faster as well as giving you a full tank right off. Prestige gives you a prestige bonus of 100 points per canister. Health gives you a full health meter. And experience gives you an experience bonus. CP,XP,HP,and EP - Character points (CP) are points awarded to your character at a level up that can be used to buy new powers and abilities. You get 600 CP per level. XP is experience points. You got a set amount per mission. 300 for active team members,200 for non-squad members,and you can gain bonus points by finding experience canisters in the missions,worth 300 experience points *to the team member who picked up the canister*. You need 600 XP to level up. Hit points (HP) tells you what your character's condiction is. The lower the HP bar,the less he has. You can get an exact amount,in numbers,of HP a hero has by holding the cursor over the hero. HP can be replished by special abilities,health canisters,and Heroic Deeds. EP,energy points,is what your heroes use to do their heroic thang. Each power has an EP cost. Low power skills,like a basic melee attack,cost little or no energy. High power skills,which can really put the hurtin' on someone,can cost your entire EP meter. You can check EP cost against your current EP meter by using the right click menu. If the EP meter on the left side of the menu flashes red when you put the cursor on a power or power level,you don't have the EP to use it. You can still force your hero to use the power,but you take a chance that the power won't work or,worse,leave the hero stunned. The more power you need to use a skill safely,the greater the chance it'll leave you defenseless. The EP meter refills over time,so as long as you don't tax your powers too much,you've nothing to worry about. Flying characters should note that while airborne,their EP meters refill slower. So if you need your meter to refill faster,find a safe place to land and recharge. Heroic Deeds - See that medal on Minute Man's portrait on the bottom left of the screen? That's not a knot-tying badge,that's how many Heroic Deeds he can perform. A Heroic Deed is a special action your characters can take to do something far beyond his normal abilities. 1 medal = 1 Heroic Deed. The more medals you have,the more Heroic Deeds you can perform. You usually get more Heroic Deeds by having the "Heroic" and "Extra Heroic" traits. The "Unheroic" trait takes away one of your medals. Heroic Deeds break down into 3 choices: Heroic Recovery,Heroic Remedy,and Heroic Revival. Remedy heals your character back to full health,like they'd picked up an health canister. Recovery removes any statis effects your character might be suffering from like stasis,stun,or acid burn. Revival refills your EP meter instantly. Don't ask me,I didn't name 'em. Basic strategy - It's always a good idea,when starting a new level,to pause it and look the level over. Although enemies will not appear until your heroes get to a certain distance from them,canisters and other items are always visible. You can also think about how you're going to approach the level and set up your troops. After you've done pretty much everything else,it's also a good idea to sweep a level for any stray bad guys to help pump up your prestige. Some canisters are in hard to get to places because of some unseen flaw in the map. You may have to destroy something to get to them or come at them from a different direction. Also,never assume a member of your team's doing his/her job. Pause and check on them occasionally to make sure they're doing their part if they have to split up. Also,for characters who use grenades,like Ant and Liberty Lad,it's best to target the ground about halfway between the character throwing the grenade and the place you want it to explode. This has worked very well from me and turned LL and Ant into my main group stompers. Try it,you'll like it. Character creating: Freedom Force offers a very nice character editor that allows you to make your favorite comic book heroes for use in FF or create all new heroes and maybe some villians. ;) You can also load up new skins and models for use with these new characters. To put new models in,simply make a new folder,or directory for us old school comp geeks,in the data\art\custom_characters directory in your Freedom Force directory with the name of your new model. In this directory should be the model files and a "skins" subdirectory. This directory is where you put the directories for the various skins the model uses. All models need a standard directory for the default skin. All skin files for a single skin go into a directory under the skins directory in the model's directory. So,to add a new model,you'd open the Freedom Force directory,go to data\art\custom_characters,make a new directory with the new model's name and put your files in that. To add a new skin,you'd go to data\art\custom_characters\(model's name)\skins\ and make a new directory there and place the new skin files in the new directory. It's simple once you know where to put everything. After that,it's a simple matter of choosing powers,traits,and attributes. You can custom name powers if you want,but remember to choose traits for their effect,not their name. But the best way to make a good character is to see how the game makers set up their characters to better understand how it all comes together. That's in the next section. For right now,let's just look at the options availible. Attributes: Attributes determine a character's universal skills and abilities. Strength,speed,agility,endurance,and energy. Strength covers lifting ability,throwing damage,smack down damage,and melee attack damage. Speed determines running speed. Believe me,a slow character can be really hard to work with if s/he doesn't have a distance attack. Agility determines dodging. A high agility can make a character all but untouchable. It's also a factor in how often you hit someone. Endurance largely covers hit points. Energy is how fast your energy meter recharges. A fast recharge rate can help alot with high energy cost powers. Traits: Traits add new powers or give your characters weaknesses. Weakness inducing traits can give your characters,well,character,as well as lowering their prestige cost. You'll just have to read up on what each trait does. Powers: Your character's powers are the other special abilities,attacks,and defenses they have. Because there's so many and you can make your own custom powers,I'm not going to bother to list them all. But it's a good idea to look them over as they're used in the characters Irrational made. 2. Characters: Freedom Force has 2 kinds of characters built into the campagin. Core characters and optional characters. Core characters are characters you will be given by the game at no cost. Optional characters,like player created ones,are bought with prestige points,but you don't have to have them. Optional characters do have special scenes in the game,so if you want to see all of them,you have to get the character. It should be noted you can do what I did,level up all your characters evenly,or train a certain set of characters to be your strong arm. Either way has it's drawbacks. Mine won't let you see the final set of powers on most of the characters,but the other leaves you pretty screwed if one of your powerhouses can't join the party. Still,all your characters get XP,whether they're in the squad or not once they join the team,so you'll probably not have to worry too much about being saddled with a loser as long as you power up the right abilities. Core characters: (in order of appearance) Minuteman: Dressed as a Colonial trooper,Minuteman has a very Captain America look to him. And,also like him,Minuteman is mainly a melee fighter who works best up close. Though he has a distance attack,the Minute Missle,he's largely useless at long range and not a good choice with foes who are hard to get close to or engage in melee combat. But make no mistake,few can match MM at melee combat,being as he's able to take out a thug,or even a number of thugs,in one hit. Throw in special abilities like 300 percenter (triples damage) and you've got a nasty little powerhouse. I suggest following the game's advice and getting him the Minute Missle ASAP. He also has the disciplined,heroic,and extra heroic traits,but the last 2 aren't really necessary. I'd suggest using the points for those to pump up his skills. Mentor: If Minuteman is the quintessentual meleeist,Mentor is the quintessentual support character. His only offensive power starting off,psyche-slash,takes a bit to start up. With an unhindered foe,he's going to take damage if he's not knocked out of doing the slash altogether. As such,it's best to use his slash as a last resort or after you've hit the enemy with cortical suppression or have them stunned by a teammate. His electron beam attack,which you can get later,is a good,if EP expensive,ranged attack. It's especially powerful against Shadow's darkmen. In stages with lots of enemies,instinct dominance can cut down their numbers or at least slow them down. Outside of that,I didn't have much use for Mentor as all his attacks use alot of EP or have some kind of requirements. Also note I never got him to where he can use his modulating beam,so I don't know how good that is. If you do take Mentor into the later levels,it'd be a good idea to give him levitate and partner him with someone with the ability to transfer EP or accelorate his EP regeneration. El Diablo: Somewhere between Minuteman's melee abilities and Mentor's long distance attacks lies El Diablo. Though he leans more towards Mentor with his melee abilities somewhat on the sucky side,he makes up for this with extremely high powered long range attacks. Though Tongues of Flame is a decent skill,Inferno and Hellfire are where the real damage is. Inferno alone will have him dominating most battlefields single handed. Like Mentor,this can drain his power reserves quickly,so a walking battery like Man-bot or another character who can speed up his EP regen is most welcome. Just be careful in places where civilians like to get in the way as his higher power skills have a wide blast radius. His swift punch attack is quick to hit,but takes a while between punches,so hit and run is the best way to use it if at all and be sure to overcharge it to get rid of weak foes quicker. Man-bot: A goofy name,but a useful hero. He's slow,his Focus beam attack is hard to hit with at longer ranges,and his Wallop tends to miss alot too. But get this boy a lamp post and LOOK OUT! I don't call him "big daddy smack down" for nothing. He'll slam dinos,clones,most anything goes flying when he takes the big swing. And Focus can be used on robots for a nice confusion attack in addition to it's damage. He also has various EP recharging skills,making him a walking,or if you buy the trait,flying,battery for fast burning characters like El Diablo and Mentor. Just try to avoid going at it bare handed with anything other than robots. Alchemiss: With explinitives like "Peaches an' cream!",Alchemiss soon grated on my nerves. Still,she's got some nice support skills and her arcane bolts do a goodly amount of damage to most things. She's pretty lacking in melee skills,but you probably shouldn't be going melee with someone who panics when hit anyway. Use repulsion to keep enemies at a distance and pound 'em from there. In later levels,you can use aloft to do some good damage while she makes a run for it. The Ant: Ah,the Ant. He's an odd one,but properly used,can take on whole levels by himself. His shove attack,though undamaging in itself,can hurt enemies by sending them flying off cliffs and from fall damage. The acid bombs hurt and usually kill multiple enemies and his later melee attacks just beat ass. There's little this guy can't do,properly used. Warning! The Ant has a bug in his "burrow" skill that,if you click on another character while he's under,you won't get the "emerge" option,instead getting "move to". And it will be the only option availible. Although Ant can still activate various things,like interrogate a thug,activate a switch,etc,he can't attack or do anything else. He will be stuck this way until a cutscene or the end of the level. Let's hope Irrational's working on a patch. :) Liberty Lad: He pops up just after the Ant makes the team. Another multi-talented guy,LL's stun grenades and fast damaging "one-two" melee attack can cut through most low end goons pretty quick. For the higher end nasties,there's the energy bomb,which hits multiple targets. LL isn't a stand up fighter,but he dodges like nobody's business. Like the Ant,he softens up the enemy with grenades,then moves in for the kill. Microwave: The end all bestest character in the whole game. Simply put,he clones himself. Up to 6 clones,with a couple of energy canisters,he can make an army of himself. Considering the damage one can do,well,even with half hit points,they kick ass. That's current hit points,not max hit points. Outside of that,his radiation based attacks do great damage against most flesh based bad guys,excepting for clones. However,he's a distance attacker and the closest he gets to a multiple target attack is rad bolts. Still,when you consider he can make multiple copies of himself,that's a bit less a problem. Just remember the clones act on their own and mindlessly attack the enemy,regardless of who's between them. Eve: Eve is a unique character as she can only fight from long range. Her only close range attack,nature's kiss,doesn't do damage. Lucky,her arrow attack does great damage,requires very little EP,and hits reliably at long ranges. She also has various arrow types and some statis attacks to slow down persuers. Basically,Eve's a sniper. Play her as such and you'll find her quite powerful. If you must go hand to hand,try picking up something to hit with. Optional characters: Man o' War: Probably the most balanced character in the game. A good melee attack coupled with a powerful distance attack and a variety of special abilities makes Man o' War a great guy to have around. Try to get the flight ability before you take on Mr. Mechanical's giant robot and you'll have a much easier time with him. Sea Urchin: Sea Urchin,like Liberty Lad and the Ant,is a high maintence character,requiring almost constant supervision to be used effectively. Her melee attacks aren't spectacular,but they'll get the job done. Her acidic bubble swarm attack,though useful,has the annoying drawback of not caring who it targets. It's multi-targeting and sends bubbles not only after the guy you targeted,but anyone in front of her. While this is handy,it also targets civilians and allies. So be careful of how you use it. Law and Order: Ok,these characters are put together for one simple reason. They go together. Buy one,get the other free. Assign one to the mission and you can't put in the other one as they can't be in the same place at the same time. However,the one assigned to the mission gets the squad 300 XP while the one not choosen gets the non-squad 200 XP. This,however,can be balanced out by letting the non-squad one get an XP canister which will give that character the XP bonus. For example,choose Order,transform into Law,and have her grab the XP bonus from the level,and she'll have 500 XP at the end of it. Personally,I'd always choose Order to be the offical team member as he has a load of hit points and they have to get by on whatever hit points the offical team member has. As far as game play goes,Law and Order can do some good for your team as either a front liner or a support character. Law can give up her hit points to heal more needed characters and Order can go toe to toe with a T-Rex,just trading hits,and walk away with well over half his hit points. However,there's nothing they can do that can't be done better by other characters,so if you want to use them or not is up to you. Bullet: One of my favorite characters,he is,unfortunatly,also high maintence. But he hits hard,hits fast,and can put a beat down on most enemies faster than they realize it's happened. His whirlwind attack hits airborne enemies and can send people flying. Throw in solid skeleton and fast healing and he's nearly unstoppable. Just keep an eye on his energy meter as it can drain quickly. 3. Level guides: As other FAQ makers have pretty good run downs of the levels going,I'm just going to include levels with stuff they missed. Level 1: Came a Hero! This is more a training mission than anything. Just follow the signs and you'll find most of the enemies and bonuses. One that's easy to miss,though,is the prestige canister in the dumpster by the gangster. He's in the alley in the first block on the far right as you leave the park. Once you see,and deal with,him,just break or pick up the dumpster and there's the prestige bonus. Before interogating O'Conner,save the game so you can come back and sweep up any thugs you missed if you didn't get them all. There's a thug inside the park on the right as you're leaving the park that's easily missed. Strange Visitors In this level,you have to find Suhkov in the warehouse area. The most complained about part of this level is they give you 2 secondary objectives that take alot of luck and good planning to pull off together. If you want to complete both objectives,your best bet is to stun,then whack the guy who runs to activate the alarms. If they aren't heading for you,they're going to trip the alarms,making them your target. This is hardest right at the start where you have to stop 2 runners at the same time. Whack the one nearest to you and take down the second ASAP. However,unless you want bragging rights or just want to have a good reason to be thankful they didn't make those 2 secondary objectives primary ones,it's interesting to note you get more prestige for beating up the extra thugs that come out after the alarm is sounded (about 150 prestige) than fulfilling the secondary objective of not alerting the guards (80 prestige). Of course,that's only if the alarm is tripped at every guard post and every thug is then defeated. Skating on Thin Ice. Ah,winter in the park. In the middle of summer. Well,once Minuteman says his line and busts open the gates,you'll be attacked by 2 ice warriors. They shouldn't be too tough as Mentor's instinct dominance can keep them busy til Minuteman sends them to dream land. Once they're done,you can unfreeze the citizen or leave him for now. Either way,head into the park. Head straight in to find a woman being mugged by a very large gang. Deal with the first 4 thugs,then move up to deal with 4 more. Once that's done,she's safe and you can take care of the ice warriors around the park. Use instinct dominance to keep them confused and Minuteman to bash their heads and the ice warriors won't be too much trouble. Leave the citizens frozen,though,as they can wander into more ice warriors and cost you prestige. Don't forget the 2 thugs on the far end of the park on the other side of the fence. Once all that's done,unfreeze the citizens and trigger the appearence of the ice queen and a couple more ice warriors. They shouldn't be too much,especially if you enrage the ice queen so she attacks her own troops. Once she's beaten,you can sweep the park again or just interrogate her and move on. If you run low on health,there's a health canister hidden in the fountain near the frozen lake. 4. Enemies: Minions are the basic bad guys found in the levels. Villians are unique characters and act as bosses for some levels. Minions: Thugs: Thugs come in several varieties. Regular,gangsters,and clones. Cloned thugs will be covered in the clones section. Regular thugs: These guys have 20 hit points,are armed with bats and guns and don't have any super human abilities. They're hurt by just about anything,so don't be picky. The ones armed with guns wear brown jackets and green hats and will try to keep some distance between you and them. Bat weilding thugs wear black vests,white or red shirts,and hold their weapons where you can see them. They have no distance attacks and will try to close quickly. Neither kind of regular thug is dangerous on his own unless you're really low on hit points,however,they can be annoying in groups. Ganster thugs: They look like regular thugs,but have more hit points and/or weapons. Hitmen are just like thugs with guns except they seen to have better aim and 35 hit points. Traitorous grendiers are just like thugs with bats except they have low power grenades. Although they don't do alot of damage as grenades go,it adds up and can hurt more than one hero. They also seem to be able to stun better when they hit with their bats. Gangsters are the last of the gangster thugs. They wear light colored suits and hats and weild tommy guns. Their aim isn't great,but they get multiple shots and have a nasty slap attack,though it doesn't do much damage,it seems to hit well. At 55 hit points,they're the toughest thugs on the street and are often near or with other thugs. Nuclear Winter's frozen hordes: What's worse than a no-good commie? A no-good commie with super powers. And what's worse than that? A no-good commie with super powers and an army of like powered minions. Disclaimer: I said a *no-good* commie. If you're not a no-good commie,then you shouldn't be offended. In fact,any communists who are offended by that,probably wouldn't enjoy Freedom Force anyway as it parodies the cold war anti-communist propaganda by using it extensivly in the game,much like an actual comic book from the 60s. Thusly,the above comment was made in the same spirit as that parody. If you're still offended by my comment,you really need to lighten up a little before you give yourself a heart attack. Ice Warriors: These are the first to fight,and fall to,Freedom Force. Armed with a rifle that fires low damage ice bullets,they also have a freeze beam that can freeze you solid. Although it's only temporary and you can't be hurt while frozen,it's annoying and can leave your other heroes without a major part of their offensive. At 20 hit points,they aren't much trouble to take out,so there's that. On their own,they're not bad,but when coupled with other,more powerful minions,they can freeze a hero and have him surrounded by the time he thaws. They wear dark grey trenchcoats and those furry Russian hats. Ice Queens: Ice queens are female agents of NW that have been given super human powers. Though they don't have a distance attack themselves,their heavy lifter traits mean they can pick up most anything and send it flying for heavy damage. Their ice slashing double attack does about 10 points per hit and can hurt,or,if vulnerable to ice,kill,a hero pretty quick. Their jumper trait means you can run,but you can't hide. And with 55 HP,they can take a beating. They seem to have it in for El Diablo,especially if he's flying,but a good hard whack from Minuteman will send these frozen femmes to the cooler. They also work well when they fall victim to Mentor's instinct dominence. They wear white snow suits with short capes. Frost Warriors: Though they look like ice warriors in red coats,frost warriors are much tougher (35 HP). Their rifles fire powerful beams that do good damage,at least nearly 10 points a shot,and can knock a hero on his back. It's worse if the hero is flying. As the beam is ice based as well,these guys are very dangerous to El Diablo if left unhindered. However,a few thrown items from Minuteman or a little mental confusion from Mentor and they're easier pickings. Dinosaurs: They don't play a big role in the game,but they're very annoying and often numberous. They also have a taste for civilians,so be sure to protect everyone you can. Radiation attacks work very well against all dinosaurs. Raptors: The bulk of the dinosaur population you'll face is the variety of raptors they have. Regular (green),wild (yellow),and tough (blue). All of them have a nasty bite,10 HP easy,the jumper trait,and an annoying tendancy to attack you when your back is turned. Regular and wild raptors have 20 hit points,while tough raptors have 35. Mystical and fire attacks don't work well against them,so power those up when you can. Wild raptors also have the berserker trait and tend to turn on civilians when enraged. T-Rex: These guys are the first really big guys you fight,with 100+ hit points,high damage attacks,and the fact they do damage just by walking,you'll be glad they're rare. T-Rex are best handled from a distance and by characters with radiation attacks like Microwave. Outside of that,the only way to stop them is an all out assault with whatever distance attacks you have or just have Order go at it with that hammer of his. Giant Ants: It'd take a pretty big magnifying glass to fry these ants. Fortunatly,they're pretty easily dealt with using arcane bolts and the exploding mushrooms found in the level. There are 2 kinds of ants,workers and soldiers. Soldiers,though only having 20 HP,are very dangerous because of their acid spray attack. Once acid burned,you either have to tough it out or,if you've got a low HP character,use a heroic deed. Kill these quickly and hope they miss. Worker ants have 55 HP and won't usually attack you on their own,however,if they do,they may do it by picking up and throwing large rocks. If they do,take cover. Those things hit hard and fast. Both kinds of ants have a bite attack,but the soldier ant's bite is worse. Darkmen: These guys come in 2 flavors,blue and purple. Blue darkmen use an electrical field that surrounds them and stuns enemies,so don't let them get close,especially to a group of your heroes. It also does some nasty damage,especially to Man-bot. Purple darkmen use a direct distance attack that hits for low damage. Both darkmen are weak against Mentor's electron beam,making him very useful in the levels that have darkmen. They also don't stand up too well against the Ant's acid. But whether you should charge in or keep your distance depends on the color of their robes. Clones: There are several types of clones in the game. Clones are super powered copies of other characters you've met. All clones are resistant to radiation,but not impervious,so think twice before taking Microwave into a clone fight. They also seem to share the glass bones weakness. Cloned thugs: Cloned thugs are just like their gangster-level counterparts,but with added powers. Both have the jumper trait and even though the thugs with bats don't have grenades,they run a little faster and hit a little harder with better stun. Cloned civilians: Cloned civilians come in both male and female versions,as well as a police clone. Not only can you tell them from the real civilians by holding the mouse over them (the caption reads "An unusual inhabiant" or "Defender of the wicked"),they also have some visible differences. Female clones always wear pink dresses and look a little slouched. They also walk funny. Male clones always wear brown suits,don't carry a briefcase like every other guy in the city does,and also slouch and walk funny. I don't think the clone cops look any different from real cops,though. All three kinds of clones are very annoying and dangerous. Clone cops and females both have the fast healing trait which allows them to recover from damage,so once you start in,try not to leave them alone or they'll come back at full strength. All of them have a means to follow your heroes just about anywhere. Males have wall crawling,females have jumper,and cops have flying. The females attack with a screech that can rob you of your EP. While this is not a lethal attack itself,it can be very hard to fight several clones with no energy. They also have a scratching attack for decent damage. The most dangerous trait they have,however,is they have the beautiful trait,which makes even attacking them dangerous. Still,it's a low chance of taking effect,only happened once out of several encounters,but if it does,have another hero hit him and knock him out of it. Male clones have a powerful punch with a lot of knock back. This ability alone can make them dangerous as a knocked down hero can't fight back. They also explode either when you talk to them or when they run out of HP,so don't fight them near any real civilians. Cloned cops are annoying because they fly away as soon as you get close. As such,it's best to hit them with distance attacks or somehow stun them,hit them really fast,or use a persistant stasis attack like acid burn from Ant or Sea Urchin. During the clone levels,it's best to have your heroes either all together or in 2 man teams with one distance attacker and one brawler. Robots: There are 2 kinds of robots. The yellow mech men and the larger,red flame mechs. Mech men have no distance attack,but do have powerful wrecking ball arms. As they were made for knocking down buildings,not heroes,they have no defense against air attacks. As such,it's best to hit them from the air when you can. Grounded heroes should keep their distance if they can as the wrecking balls do good damage and have a high knock-down,so hit and run and at a distance is the way to go. Flame mechs attack with a flame thrower arm and can hit airborne targets. For this reason,they should be prime targets for all your flyers. Both robots have 55 hit points and are resistant to radiation and crushing attacks. They are,however,weak against lightning attacks and can be stunned by them and anything that hits has a chance to make them take on the blank statis effect,but don't count on it in the later Mr. Mech levels. Aliens: Mentor's race,which looks nothing like him,is made up of 2 kinds of fighters,warriors and sargents. Both have beam weapons and shields. Shields protect for a certain ammount of damage and the beam weapons do a good bit of that too. However,both are weak against physical attacks,but resistant to mystical and radiation damage. Try to swarm them and don't let them regroup if you can. Keep pounding on the shield with your low end melee attack and then hit 'em with the heavy stuff when they come out. Both aliens have 20 HP. Alien sargents can also fly. You can also hurt them in groups with acid bombs or bubble swarm and Bullet can give 'em all a red ass beat down. Slyphs: These bimboes *will* get on your nerves. They have *the* most annoying voice packs in the whole game. I swear,it's like someone went to the local high school,found the most annoying hippie/stoner girl there,and had her record the base voices. Game play wise,they're a pain,but nothing a band of mighty,mighty heroes can't take down. Each Slyph has an elemental kind of theme. Silver slyphs use lightning attacks,red ones fire,and green ones,wood. Watch out for the green ones,they have acid spears and a stasis attack. Though you can capitolize on the elemental theme,they're all vulerable to radiation and a good old fashion fist beating,except the green slyphs. They're pretty resistant to fist beatings,so if you take that route with them,get someone who hits hard (MM,Order) or fast (Bullet,Liberty Lad) with overcharged attacks. Otherwise,El Diablo or Microwave should burn them down. Villians: O'Conner: Outside of being a spy,he's not much trouble. He's armed with a pistol and behaves like a thug with a gun. Once his running crew is out of the picture,he's toast when Minuteman gets to him. Suhkov: At 80 HP,Suhkov is pretty tough. He has an average punch and a 3 shot pistol. Just run up and whack him with an over-charged smash if you have the HP. Otherwise,try to get Mentor to cordical suppress him. Nuclear Winter: Old Nukie's a tough nut to crack if he's got troops with him,so try to take them out seperatly and get him alone. I don't really know what all his attacks do,as he pretty much just ice shelled when Man-bot focused on him. After that,just keep pounding til he comes out of his shell and he'll drop pretty fast to El Diablo's flames. Evil Ant: He has the Ant's abilities,including sonic squeal,so don't let him get close. At 66 HP,he's not as tough as the real Ant,fortunatly. Use exploding mushrooms and overpowered electron beams from Mentor to take him out quick. Also,if the Ant comes with you on the last mission,he'll mention he can "get rid of" the giant ants by himself. Then the Evil Ant shows up. Makes you wonder if Shadow was friends with Deja Vu,don't it. He's just like he was in the underground city and shouldn't be too much of a problem. Hold the giant ants off while you acid bomb the Evil Ant,then beat him down with whatever is handy. Shadow: She's a pain,but Ant's acid bombs should keep her at bay while the rest of your team deals with the darkmen,prestige canisters,and pillars. Once the pillars are down,one last acid bomb should finish her off. Her main attacks are a weak shuriken and a blinding grenade. Deja Vu: A pain in the ass who has a pretty weak beam attack and makes clones of himself. Although the clones have half his hit points,they also have his beam attacks. Deja himself starts with 80,but a well-placed acid bomb,energy bomb,or blast will whittle that down quick. Take out the real one and the clones are gone too. Mr. Mechanical: His giant robot has about 1000 hit points,powerful attacks,and can walk through buildings. All this leads up to one nasty little city destroyer. Man O' War,with flying,can easily keep up with,get away from,and take this guy down with his storm bolts. So get that trait and power up his bolts and Mr. Mech's going to be a junk dealer before long. Preator: Basically,he's just a tougher version (100+ HP) of the other aliens. And he's just as susceptible to Bullet's flying fists o' justice and face rearranging. Throw a little acid on him,then let Bullet do his thing while Alchemiss sneaks around and closes the portal and he'll be lucky to remember his name. Pan: His flute attack hypnotyses and he's fast with a kick and lightning bolt. However,get someone with knock back on him and he's helpless. He also doesn't like Microwave's radition damage. Still,you can't beat him without Eve. Since Pan turned her into a green slyph,treat her as such and she'll soon be unconcious and then back to normal. After than,either start a Microwave clone assault or whack him with a microwave beam and let Bullet sneak up and sucker punch him. Repeatedly. Lord Dominion: Dominion isn't as all-powerful as the game has lead you to believe. Though his beam attacks are nastier,he only has 55 HP and he's usually too busy trying to hurt someone to put up his shields. You might not even notice it's Lord Dominion you've just told Bullet to wipe the floor with til after it's done. Timemaster: All the versions of Timemaster,temporial twin or giant economy sized,fall prey to Microwave's cloned army as there's lots of energy canisters around in both fights. Have Microwave keep him and his time-displaced twins busy and the rest of the team doing whatever needs to be done and he'll be out of time in no time. 5. Contact info: Freedom Force is made by Irrational Games. Their website has lots of community links and the offical sites. You can go there to get directions to new skins,models,and news as well as the stuff they make for the game. www.irrationalgames.com This FAQ was made by me. If you want to post this FAQ somewhere,use information contained therein in a website or FAQ,or have corrections to what I've got here,feel free to e-mail me at: merlynn27@comcast.net This document is copyright 2002 Curtis Burt. For freedom!