Silent Scope FAQ v1.3 Copyright July 1999 Evan Mitchell Arcade shooter This FAQ is getting ever closer to completion. The big thing left is a nice fluffy walkthrough of the last level, which is very large. Maybe I won't ever get to it, because it really isn't all that needed. Disclaimer: If I'm wrong about something, sorry. I know for sure that most of the facts here are correct. For stuff that's not in here but should be, whoops. Read Billy the Kid's FAQ (@gamefaqs.com) because it's good. Version 1.0 - Inital release Version 1.1 - Fixed spelling, added aiming hints, updated walkthrough, Whined and moaned more about time constraints and Cobra's damn truck, parachuting in time extends, power box rumour, elevator mistake, Monica's attack, What happens if you miss Yacht Man, Thank you section, New high scores and better time / more time on a credit's play. Also made some explanations better and gave more detail on bosses. Version 1.2 - New high score, more on Monica, how to kill Cobra the trucker in one pass, info about time extends, added play tips section intead of having them scattered around everywhere. I beat the game on one credit! Woo! Fixed scoring too (Thanks John, whoopsie me!) Version 1.3 - New High score again, updated game tips, more on Tom and Jerry, more on Monica. Added game feature of scope in top left corner, more on the fluff guys in boss areas (they're still pretty much not worth going after.) Definitive section on time extends. Updated walkthrough (might as well read through the whole FAQ again.) More whining. STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE PLAYING The most important thing you need to know about this game is how to operate the gun correctly. If my explanation is long winded, the proper instructions are on the cabinet but a little hard to follow. Assume a relaxed, open stance with your feet comfortably placed either one foot up on the step or both feet down, depending on your height.The gun swings around on its mount. Standing on the side opposite your dominant hand (ie Stand on the left side if you're right handed) take your dominant hand and hold the butt of the rifle with your trigger finger on the trigger. Steady the rifle with your other hand, gripping the barrel at a point comfortable for you. Lean your head in and watch the scope with the eye closest to it. This eye will be used for targeting enemies close up. USE YOUR OTHER EYE to view the screen on a whole, to see where enemies are. This is very important. Just using the scope will slow you down incredibly. In the game your gun movements are tracked by a cursor on the screen showing where the gun is pointing. Looking into the scope shows the area higlighted by the cursor very nicely enlarged, just like a real telescopic lens. There is a crosshair in the scope for making those wonderful headshots. When there are enemies on the screen, they will be bracketed with blue, yellow or red lights. This is so you can identify targets with your non-scope eye. Swivel the gun cursor onto the target, then use your scope eye to line up the shot more accurately. MOVE SLOWLY and deliberately. Don't make jerky movements. USE BOTH EYES. USE BOTH EYES. DAMNIT, USE BOTH EYES! Get the picture? The enemy is initially bracketed in blue. This means they don't see you. If the bracket is yellow, they are on to you, and are trying to find you. This will happen a lot quicker if you miss on your first shot. Be careful. Red means they have you lined up and are readying themselves to fire. Prioritize, but keep in mind that they miss a LOT, even in later stages, although they get better as the game goes on. If you take a shot at them and it misses, they will often hide or reconsider shooting at you for a second or two. Use this to your advantage, but remember, time is important. Sometimes, this can cost you up to six or seven seconds, depending on how long they hide and how exposed they are. You have five bullets per clip, with unlimited clips. Your clip status is on the bottom left, which you will almost never watch. After five shots, there wil be about a 2 second pause while you reload automatically. You can only fire one shot per second or so, this is not a rapid-fire gun. You start the game with three lives. Getting shot will cost you a half-life. Getting hit with a missile or other projectile will cost you a full life, but you can shoot these projectiles before they hit you. Shooting an innocent will also cost you a full life. You can regain lives by focusing in on bikini-clad women, who are stationed in unlikely places throughout the game. Every time you see one, you will hear a sax riff. Keep them in your scope for a full second to get a full bonus life. If you hear sax while you're shooting guys, look around for the woman. They will give you a full bonus life, just don't shoot them. NOTE: sometimes you will hear the sax a few seconds after getting the extra life. It is a bug, there are only one or two girls per level. You start with 50 seconds running down to 0. After clearing out mini-areas, you will get time extended, like racing games and such, very much like Time Crisis. Run out of time and the game is over. This is unfair and stupid, but always remember that time is of the essemce. Scoring: The base value for a hit is 100 points. If you hit with the next shot, it is worth 200, the next is 300, and so forth until you miss. Back to 100 you go. If you score a headshot, it is worth twice what you would get normally. For example: I hit a guy, 100pts. Next shot hits another guy, 200pts. Next shot is a head shot, 600pts (300 for 3 in a row, X 2) Next shot isnt a headshot, worth 400pts. Then I miss. Next shot is 100. Get it? Bottom line is, DONT MISS. The streak is everything. Each guy (except bosses) takes only one shot to kill, so a leg shot is OK. It's technically the same as a chest shot, it kills and will award the same amount of points! The only vital point which will increase score is the head. Double shots score the same as a headshot no matter where you hit either guy (thanks John, I can't believe I forgot to leave this out!) Because I look back at this and it confuses even me, here is a formula. A hit = (100 X hitstreak without missing) X2 if a headshot or double shot. Bosses have more energy, their energy meters are shown like 5/5, etc. They each have a weak point which will kill them in one shot. It's usually their head. Each time you hit a boss, its worth more what you normally would get pointwise. So, if you've hit 17 guys without missing before the boss, then you hit the boss in the head, it's can be worth tens of thousands for that one shot! Guys in the third level are worth more for some reason; maybe it's because you're taking them out in the dark. They are worth 400 points, (temporarily adding that onto your hitstreak) This only applies to some guys wearing suits and sunglasses. (thanks again John) Also, your score doesn't carry over from credit to credit. When you continue your score goes back to zero. What's even worse is that if you have a potential high score and you continue, after your game is over, it won't recognize it, it only recognizes your most current credit's score when you finally quit. This sucks. Apparently, some machines are set up so that the scope view is in the top left hand corner. On my machine it only shows the this view when you kill a guy, and it centres on that guy, it's just for audience/left eye purposes, and to see where you hit the guy too. Even further, this can apparently also be set up so that ths scope is off, you only have the scope view on the top left. What's the fun in that? I think this game is incredibly challenging, but on the other hand, that just kills everything IMHO. INFO ON TIME EXTENDS You get a time extend if: You clear a mini area. You beat a boss, or the first stage of a boss. You make a choice of direction (ie elevators, path decision.) You open an elevator. You move back to pick another elevator. You hit a searchlight in Parachuting mode. You hit a lackey in any boss area. As a point of interest, if anybody can figure out how automated paths are chosen, PLEASE tell me. I know in the highway it's often chosen by if you hit the driver or not. *PLAY TIPS* - Keep it cool. Move slowly and deliberately using precise swivels of the gun. - Time is everything. You can be accurate and fast at the same time, just don't bother with headshots unless you have the time. This is how you can beat the game on a credit. Accuracy is VERY important, especially in later levels, as the enemies will hide for a long time if you miss, but BE FAST. - GET REALLY GOOD with using only the cursor and not the scope. You need to use the scope almost exclusively for the first level and second level, but for the third you should only use it for the far off shots. Just keep your eyes peeled and you won't need the night vision. - In the third level while you're moving between mini-scenes (just after a time extend) make sure you have at least three bullets in a clip. If you have 2 or one, fire them off at nothing so you reload just in time for the next batch of guys. Nothing is worse than reloading at a bad time in the middle of a scene. Don't worry about a hitstreak, time is more important. Also, those guys are worth more. My previous best game to date was 308,300 and I was just going for fast, fast kills. Was decently accurate (76%) but I just took guys out ASAP, never EVER worry about hitstreak or Headshots (as mentioned before.) NOTE: When you get good enough, the accuracy comes naturally. Reload times become less important, so you actually can focus on the streak (got mine up to 86!) Eventually you won't have to worry about having full clips, but as a beginner or intermediate player, you should disregard score and make sure you have a full clip for each little bit in stage 3. This can make a difference. - In Stage 3 you will miss guys, and as such, they will hide. It's inevitable. As well, guys will hide if you hit the guy next to them sometimes. This eats up time. Here's what to do: Say there are two or more guys. You miss one, and he hides. Take out the other two quick and if you're fast enough the third will resurface right after you take out the other guy(s). Even if the guy you just shot is right next to the hiding guy, he won't hide again unless he actually was in the process of coming back out when you dispatched the guy closest to him. Does this make sense? Also, if you miss him after that, he'll hide again. Hiding sucks, because sometimes it really eats up your time. Also, keep looking for exposed parts. If you're really stuck, very rarely will the enemy hide in a spot where you can't hit him. You may need the scope, but that's fine. Most often the top of their head is what's sticking up, so this is a good thing... guaranteed headshot. Sometimes it may be a leg, whatever. The clock is ticking, don't waste seconds waiting for him to come out if you don't have to. - If a guy is up close, go for the easy headshot (without the scope, of course.) This doesn't often eat up much time. - As of late I have been having lots of trouble with Cobra's truck. (and sometimes even Scorpion on the roof!) I will either get Cobra on the first pass (which is always guaranteed to get some cheers from the audience) or it will take four. ARRGH! On the other hand, I took out Tom and Jerry yesterday with two headshots before they could get to cover. Boom, boom. That was cool. EEEEeeee! You're ready to rock! Game Plan: This will be updated more, Night vision level needs some more work. Stage 1 - Very easy, with the exception of the bosses. It starts off nice and easy. Pick off the guys really quickly to keep your time left nice and high. You may need it for bosses. After the first few rounds of oblivious targets (some of which the cops might even take care of for you) You have to "take out all surviving sniper enemies from the roof." Eventually, there will be a bikini girl on the deck of a rooftop pool. It will be on the bottom right and remember, she won't be bracketed like other enemies. Depending on the path you're taking, you might see the pool right off the bat, or after a few more rounds. She will be there regardless. Listen for the sax. There might be two guys who are really close to you and come out in front of you bracketed in red. Don't use the scope for them, just positiong the cursor and fire. After you hit the far-off guy, you can choose either Tower Battle, Air Battle or Stadium. At this point I usually have over 60 seconds of time. This is accomplished by being at this point having played for about 55 seconds or so. You can really tear ass through this stage if you get the right path chosen for you (still don't know how paths are taken...) and get to this point in under 45 seconds. TOWER: The easiest. Get the boss in your sights right away and then DONT LET GO. This is one of the only times in which to use the scope exclusively. You have a pretty good attempt at a headshot right off the bat while he's standing, which will kill him right away. Otherwise, plug him five times. Keep in mind that because of the helicopter, you are moving in a circular pattern, so this makes scope viewing a litle harder. Also, your bullets will pull a little to the left, so aim SLIGHTLY rightwards. To get the headshot easier, move the cursor just to the right of him right away, then watch him fly right into your scope. Go for it, DONT HIT THE FIRST LADY. Keep tracking him. THE OTHER GUYS ARE OF NO IMPORTANCE. You will just waste time. They give you time extends of about two seconds each, most certainly not worth it. Also don't fire at the rockets he launches at you. Its a waste of time and they're hard to hit. With practice you can take him out before he even fires one at you. AIR BATTLE: Keep shooting the plane itself. Don't use the scope for this until he floats towards you to line you up, then use the scope and hit him in the head. If you do, this can be easier than the Tower, but if you don't kill him with that one shot, you waste another five to ten seconds before he does it again. Keep hitting the plane WITHOUT the scope in the interim. STADIUM: You won't be able to hit Cobra until the heli goes stops moving in and starts to hover. You will be facing Cobra on the ground then. He won't fire. Hit him with a headshot or you're screwed. He weaves a little, but you can hit him in the head fairly easily right off the bat. (after you stop moving.) Make sure you aim about a full body's worth ahead of him to headshoot him. If you don't you've got some problems. Avoid hitting the innocents (especially the prez's daughter) and if you dont take him out before the heli swivels to get a better shot, ignore the guys who are firing at you. Concentrate on Cobra. If you're feeling lucky, there are a lot of girls here to give you more life, up to three of them (thanks chris) NOTE: If you go this way, you dont do the highway level, instead you do the hotel level where you pick off terrorists. This is very cool, and is the only reason I do the Stadium level, its that hardcore. Just look for the guys in the windows, make sure they aren't innocents, then plug them. Theres a bikini girl somewhere. The boss here takes potshots at you from alternating sides of a little wall. Just track him from one side to the other and wait until he peeks out, pop him, then do the same for the other side. Again, ignore the other guys. A headshot here is relatively easy. At this point I usually have anywhere from 60 - 65 seconds of time. You get the time extend for killing your boss when the next stage begins, and not sooner. Stage 2 - Take out the driver of each car to eliminate both enemies shooting at you quickly. Don't bother using the scope for the heli. Aim a little high and you can hit the rotary pivot without the scope usually. Otherwise, five shots and it's toast. After the heli, there are a few more cars and trucks. The trucks have this tendency to swerve like mad, so take your time. Once I actually took out the driver of the truck, I don't know how. Methinks it was a glitch. Funny to see the truck spin out though :) Right before the last truck before Cobra, there is a bikini girl in a red convertible on the road. Listen for the sax. (thanks Chris for the tip on the heli.) BOSS 1: Hit him with a headshot, it's fairly easy. If you can't, hit him 5 times. Each time you hit him he freezes for a sec, so plug him again. IF HIS CAR IS TURNING make sure you compensate as to not hit the hostage. The pipe bomb things he tosses at you are easy to hit. Watch your time. He may hit you right off the bat with his uzi, his accuracy is pretty good. Once I took him out before the backup man said "out." He says "I've found the prez's daughter in the black convertible with Cobra. Take him out, and save the president's daughter." It was under one and a half seconds of action. I got some applause there, oh, did I ever. This game will attract a lot of people. NOTE: I am a really immature guy who craves attention. I'm not really a bigshot at this game (just today I died at Cobra's truck, for God's sake!) but when you pull off something really cool and somebody's watching, it's awesome. BOSS 2: Cobra isn't dead yet (snicker) so he hijacks a truck. The truck has 30 life. Each time it makes a pass at you it clips you and you lose one full life. It also shaves off about 10 seconds while turning around for the next pass. This is a very stupid and very hard part of the game. I think it's quite unfair. Here's what you do. Right off the bat, line up the windshield and shatter the glass without using the scope. (DO THIS RIGHT AWAY) then using the scope, hit him in the head. He comes straight at you for the first pass so you don't need to worry about pull. You need to work very very fast do kill him the first pass. You need to take out the windshield before you can kiil him! This was what kept screwing me up before, but now 4 times out of five I can kill him on the first pass, and if I don't I usually hit him somewhere so he misses me, then I kill him on the next pass with a headshot. If you do miss him on the first pass, no prob. Keep hitting the truck because you wear him down and get an impressive hit streak (if you cant get 100% accuracy trying to hit a truck with a sniper rifle, you shouldn't be this far in the game.) While the truck is turning around, try to line up the windshield vertically, and then you just have to worry about getting a head shot along the x-axis. You can do this by lining up the top stripe on the side of the truck, which is along the same vertical point as the top of the windshield (and more importantly, Cobra's head.) As Cobra is swerving to your left after the turn, aim a little to the left so he drives right into your shot. It works. Eventually, Cobra dies and his truck blows up. Funny how everything either blows up of falls off a building :) NOTE: as with the Air Battle scene, if you hit Cobra (or scorpion) in an area other than his head (ie chest) it will take off more than the standard one life, it can take off up to 8 or so. Still, hitting the head is better. At this point I have either 40-50 seconds left (if I needed lots of passes to headshoot Cobra) or I have upwards of 70. (This has been happening more often to date, which makes me very happy.) This is if I got Cobra on the second pass. If I hit him on the first I sometimes have 80 secs (this is before the time extend you get, too!) Stage 3 - This one is a monster. It's REALLY long. Choose Through the Woods unless you have a deatch wish. Time extends are puny, you get hit a lot, and it's hard. The ONLY redeeming value of this is that you will shave a lot of time off your mission time. The Woods are easier. Going thru the Woods is my favourite, although they're both pretty hardcore. It's just that there's nothing like going commando through a forest. It's dark so you're using night vision. Targets aren't bracketed until the enemy fires so you have to keep your eyes peeled. You can generally tell where the enemy is by AIMING AT THE FLASHLIGHTS. This holds true for the rest of the game. Their laser sights are a dead giveaway as to location, too. NOTE: For the better part of this stage, especially if you're going through the woods, it's much better and faster to not use the scope, just use the cursor. If you hit feet, so what, they're still dead. Again, aim at the flashlights they hold for an easy fast kill every time. If you're chuting in, don't use the scope at all. Only the computer can do this (watch the demo, it's unreal.) If you want time extends you have to hit the searchlights, which is very difficult and only gives you about 1 extra second. As for the enemies, I'm not sure. If you go through the woods, then look for the light sources and zoom in with the scope. You'll know if they're going to fire because first they shine the light on you, then they take aim with their laser sighting, which doesn't often help them very much. Take your time with far-off targets and the one dude who only has his head exposed behind a rock on the right hand side (after two mini-areas.) After he fires, or after you miss, he hides for a few seconds, which is irritating. You may need the scope for these harder shots, with time you won't... When you take out the infared alarm box, I generally use the scope. Occasionally the enemy will use flares that will screw with your night vision. This won't be a big deal if you're using the cursor instead of the scope, which as I've said is much faster and will generally work just as well as scoping. Just line the enemy up with the centre of your cursor. If you miss, take a look to see where the bullet hit and re-aim. Use your judgement; if you miss more than twice when not using the scope, use it for that shot. Anything that looks far off, use the scope for. 90% of the time on this level you won't need it. NOTE: Chris Yi, (See Thank yous) has told me that apparently his brother sometimes goes without blowing up the power and this means the hotel lights are on. I have waited for a while at this point (upwards of 20 secs) and nothing happens. Maybe you can just wait longer and let the power stay on, but for me it's not worth the time. Maybe this is for a new ROM revision, who knows. My machine has a lot of glare from the outside mall area (its poorly positioned) so this level is really hard. In another arcade where there was no glare, it was light enough that I didn't need the night vision at all! (although maybe the gamma was high.) After you blow the power box (no scope is necessary) two bikini-girls run across the patio. Scope one of them, you can only get one life out of the both of them. After a few more guys, you're up against Tom and Jerry, "The Men with Night Vision goggles!" (scary.) It's wise to have a full clip ready right beforehand unless you have a huge streak, unless you want to kill them via method one see below. Tom and Jerry can be HUGE time wasters, right up there with Cobra's damn truck. Given enough time, they can also wear down your life, too. I've seen some really good guys make it to this point and just get pummeled by these two. Be ready for them, they can be really hard. Shoot the crates in the middle first to blow them up and shed some light on these dudes. Don't worry about the knives they throw, worry about the time. They make a dash from one end of the screen to the other, starting from the middle going to the left, then back and forth (never together, except right at the start.) METHOD 1 to kill them (beginner) - have one bullet left in your clip. Blow up the boxes with this bullet. Let them hit cover while you reload. Using the cursor (not scope,) wait until one of them runs into your sights. Hit him and he will flinch and stay still for a second. He will bend over a little too, don't worry about that. Hit him four more times and he's dead. Reload and repeat for the other guy. METHOD 2 to kill them (intermediate) - Have a full clip. Blow up the boxes, then hit one of them before they hit cover on the left. Don't use the scope for the first hit. The guy you hit will flinch AND BEND OVER for a second. Use this time to scope him up and pop him in the head. Your biggest potential problem here is reloading. SOOOO many times I have one of them pinned, only to hear a click when firing at his head. Arrgh. Take them down. Headshots are sometimes difficult even right after they flinch because they bend over. Be precise. METHOD 3 to kill them (advanced) - After blowing up the boxes, hit them both in the head right away, one-two, before they get to cover. Track one, fire, then do the same for the other. This makes you look like a superstar. I've only done it twice, and never for an audience (there goes the attention-crave again...) NOTE: In order to pull all this off, you need three bullets or more in your clip left. NEXT BIT - You go inside the building where your inept backup man says he can't support you any more. Targets are no longer bracketed until they actually fire at you. Look hard, and watch out for innocents. Enemies are often well covered by pots, tables etc and it's very dark. Watch out. This is a point where you don't really need the scope, in fact its better to not use the scope after the first room. You'll do some sneaking aroung upstairs and in individual rooms, one which contains a bikini girl. Use your scope for really dark areas and for the long shots down the hallway. Eventually you get to a banquet area where you lose your silencer, but the lights are on. From here on in, don't miss or let guys fire because a) they're accurate and b) they hide right after which wastes time. NOTE: always hit the Red bracketed guys first, because right after they fire they will hide again. This is a new development, and is a pain in the ass. For the guy hiding around the corner at the end of the banquet hall, you can see his foot when he's hiding. Shoot it, it saves around three or four seconds. Soon you'll go through another hall and then you get to the point where you need to choose doorways. There are three to pick from; one holds about five guys, one holds a bikini girl (dont shoot) and the other takes you downstairs to the storage are where the Prez is hiding. This is randomized, so be wary. Each time you pick a door you get a time extend. Each time a door opens, you get a time extend. These time extends more than cover the time it took to get to the door or examine the inside of each elevator, so don't worry. When you go downstairs, the lighting is very good. Using the cursor only is possible here, but is very tricky. It will save time in the end, but if you have to (or again, if you miss more than two shots) use the scope. The only guy that hides here is the very last one hit enemy before Monica. He's hiding behind a pipe or furnace or something on the bottom middle. This guy hides for five seconds at a time and exposes just a little bit of himself when firing, and he's SO FAR OFF so DEFINITELY use the scope for him Also, some guys have a rail in front of them which will shield them. Take your time, but make each shot count. The music in this area is cool, the chorus starts kicking in, and it sounds like the music from the big-ass lightsabre fight in the new Star Wars! You get a monster time extend after this because it's right before Monica. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AT LEAST THREE BULLETS IN YOUR CLIP!!!!!! Now is when things get really rough. You will need (for guaranteed survival without continuing) two full lives usually to survive Monica, two and a half just to be sure. Count on losing one full life to Monica's hacking attack (read on) and another half to full life if not more when she starts shooting. BOSS#1 - Monica - She doesn't want to let go of her sweet president (shudder) so you have to kill her. Everybody wants to kill Monica! She has 10 life and is very heavily armored, you can only hit her in the chest, initially. It's hard to hit, but a chest shot will take her life down one by one. Don't go for the chest, it's actually counter-productive. Monica's only attack (for the first bit) is to do this flippy thing towards you and then hack you twice with these claws she has, each time will take off a half life. OUCH! Now here's the thing; She will repeat this retarded flippy dance for a while and you will keep moving around UNTIL you either hit her in the head TWICE, which makes her mask go off, or you get her down to 5 life by shooting her in the chest. HOW SHE MOVES - Monica first runs from left to right between two crates. Then she jumps from behind cover to on top of the close crate on your left. The she jumps up close to you and hacks twice. Then she will do back handsprings directly away from you until she hits cover. After that, it's pretty much the same thing, except she will jump from different crates. Each "pass" she makes can be halted prematurely if you hit her in the the chest. This wastes time. Don't bother. HOW TO GET HER MASK OFF QUICKLY - Do not use the scope by ANY means, she moves too fast. Estimate where head level is (between the crates) and try to hit her in the head as she streaks by. That's hit number one. Then she will jump onto the left crate. Don't shoot her, you will most likely hit the chest there. Then she jumps up close to hack. Track her, and hit her in the mask right before she hacks you. This is a pretty much guaranteed hit. If you hit when she was running between crates, this means she will jump back and things get a little easier; as well, she hasn't even hit you yet. If not, you lose a life. It happens. After she hacks you for the second time, line her up as she's backflipping, and just time it so you hit the head. This is also pretty much guaranteed, so you should then proceed to the next bit. If you missed again, the next time she's up close you should be able to finish it off. NEXT BIT - You get a time extend at this point, and it's the point where things become a lot easier. This is the point where you can actually kill her. She will jump back and you will be able to headshoot her. She will jump back and take cover behind the president. These crates start to rotate in front of you and obstruct your line of fire. She will move to one side (either one) and start to fire indiscriminantely at you, hitting you almost every time the crates open up a line of fire. Take the hits (may take up to two or even three)and line up a headshot with the scope, she doesn't move. Be quick though, her accuracy is deadly. You have to line up the shot and fire in between the crates. The headshot isnt all that hard, its just that she hits you so much. After killing her you get another monster time extend... read on and you'll see why. BOSS#2 - Some annoying guy - Shoot the bullet-proof glass window until it shatters. Keep shhoting in the same spot. It will shatter after you only have one bullet left in your clip. You go outside and see this guy on a yacht. He yells at you for a while, during this time you're supposed to line up the headshot. YOU ONLY HAVE ONE ATTEMPT. You'll see a cool bullet-cam style sequence and then he'll die. The Yacht blows up (surprise surprise.) I'd agree with Billy the Kid here, the ending sucks. It's not that hard, he gives you plenty of time to line him up. I don't know what happens after he stops talking, if he attacks, whatever. While this is crunch time, don't let it freak you, you have plenty of time. Just TAKE IT SLOW. You get a monster time extend after killing Monica, so lay it chilly. It is a far off shot but is entirely doable. The yacht doesn't move around a whole lot. If you miss (which just kills audience rapport) or even if you hit somewhere other than the head, he blows up everything, and you get to see your body go flying through the air into the water. It's actually worth trying if you've finished it a couple of times, or if you continued right at Monica and it doesn't matter either way, scorewise or length-of-play wise. It's funny as hell. No continues (youre dead!) and it says that your rescue mission was a failure. Too bad. Again, while it is fuuny, You dont want to miss if youve been playing on only one credit, or if you have an audience. Whenever I have an audience and I miss, especially if it's on one credit (which is 90% of the time now, big ego trip for me) Everyone just sighs and kind of walks away. I even got ribbed by this one guy, although it didn't really mean anything because it took him 10 bucks to finish the game, so he didn't have much to stand on. On the other hand, hitting him, on one credit or otherwise, is a big deal for the audience. They can see how far away he is and how much the yacht is moving. Have no doubts, this is the hardest (and by far the coolest) part of the game. All or nothing. MISCELLANEOUS FACTS: On the note of realism, Some people laugh when I hit the guys in the hand and they die and/or blow up and/or fall of some tall building. Well, Chris has something to say about that: "Most likely, the gun in the game is a Military M1-D. The M1-D has always used NATO match grade rounds, 7.62mm I think. At supersonic speed, this thing hits you in the head, and it's like getting an axe in the brain. Not even a gurgle. If it hits you anywhere on the body cavity, the impact of it creates a hole in you, and then when the sonic boom follows, it goes straight into that hole. Ouch; your organs explode. And even if it hits on a leg or something, it can ricochet off a bone into somewhere else, and if it does, that sonic boom follows. It's called hydraulic shock, and it can kill you if you get hit on a HAND." Wow. That's pretty killer. Apparently those bullets go three times the speed of sound. THANKS TO: Chris Yi. Gave me info on aiming, the power box thing, information on when to account for pull, lots of useful tips, and that bit about sniper rifles and ammo, hydraulic shock and all that. The stuff on accounting for pull really helps out your game. Thanks, Chris. John Lakin. He hasn't played much of this yet, but when he gets into it, he will probably totally kick everybody's ass. He's a Time Crisis II man, he got me into that game and we've been corresponding ever since. If it weren't for his FAQ on TC2, I wouldn't have gotten into the whole "be an expert" scene. On the other other hand, I would probably have less of a hole in a savings :) Thanks John. Look for his FAQs on shooting range and time attack modes soon. He's also contributed to scoring stuff and got on my ass to fix some obviously wrong stuff that I didn't pick out because of my idiocy. Have pity, people. There's no cure for stupidity, which makes being the stupidity poster child much harder to bear :) Also kept me up to date on the "scope on top left view" mode thing. Bragging rights: 580,600. Am able to keep time and life high, but ogle all the girls because Monica can be pretty killer with her goddamn hacking and her deadeye accuracy. Boogers. I usually get so much life that my meter gets up to 7 boxes, so much that it actually stops showing the boxes and says (box) X 7 or whatever. One game I only got hit once for a half-life and that was it until Monica, of course. Monica eats up the life, usually. More often than not now, I beat the game on a credit; if I don't its because I'm bored of the Tower bit and the highway level so I try the stadium and the hotel level. Or otherwise I get killed because of life problems at Monica. I'm actually a lot slower than I was a week ago (no practice) but I can really tear through the third stage, which is what counts. Time is still usually the big issue. A lot of this is dependent on Cobra in his freaking truck, and Tom and Jerry. My most play time on one credit is 13 min 5 sec, while my fastest finish is 10 mins 3 seconds. I would have made it under 10 minutes but I took my sweet time with the last dude, whatever. Best accuracy so far is 92% (that was a big score game, I had this HUGE streak going.) I don't do time attack or shooting range because I get more bang for my buck with Story mode. It's a pain in the ass but try and get your arcade manager to set the high score mode such that it doesn't reset every day (I think this is the default.) Rumors: Konami may be putting out a linked Silent Scope game; this would just completely empty my bank account. More Updates to come soon, hold on to your panties :) Two or three more updates to come. Copyright July/August 1999 Evan Mitchell Silent scope, all related characters and indicia are trademarks of Konami Co. This is freeware, just don't alter it and always give credit to me. Sell it and you will not be a happy person for a long time to come.