Buffy The Vampire Slayer for the xbox FAQ author: Phunk King (Dave Frasier, email to phunk_king@hotmail.com) This document can be found on gamefaqs.com, and stormpages.com/phunkking/buffy/btvs.html (my site of course). Any place else wishing to use this document should contact me first. Monday, September 16, 2002 FAQ Version 1.0 First version of my combat guide. *Notice* If you have a question that is not answered here please check out my website, I have a lot more information on other aspects of the game there. If you have double checked and still do not see an answer please email me your question. Combat Techniques There are various combat techniques, or fighting styles that you could use. Like a lot of games you have the standard punch and kick combinations, but Buffy, being the slayer, has special slayer moves for that extra bit of power when needed. The basic punch, if using the default controller setup, is the X button and the default kick is A. There are some basic slayer attacks that consist of hitting a three button combo and holding the last button of the combo. This makes her glow with a blue aura for a bit and adds some power into the attack. On top of these there are some 'Super Slayer' moves that take a substantial amount of your slayer power bar but do some major damage. Personally, when I use these, I tend to use the sequence of UP, UP, A (kick). This will make her do a running kick in the air called the Triple Kick I believe. There are many other slayer moves, since I don’t really know the names of any of them (the game doesn’t tell you and since I know practically nothing concerning names in the various fighting styles out there I couldn’t even guess) for now I will just leave the moves out. Experiment for yourself and you should be able to come up with a style that works well for you. Basic fighting tips The standard punch and the kick are almost interchangable. I tend to stick with using kicks, they are a bit more powerful I think and I tend to land a lot more blows with them. On the easy mode you can probably stick with either punching or kicking and do alright for the most part, but when you move up in difficulty the demons tend to block a certain attack after you have hit them with it enough times. If you see you are not landing blows, switch tactics, or back off a bit and then come back in at them... it catches them off of their guard and you can continue to wail away at them. Similar to arcade style fighting games there are a lot of special combo moves that can be done too. A lot of these look really impressive and do a lot of damange. From the manual you can get an idea of the basic combos available (pg 14). It lists the; -jab cross combo (X,X,X) -low/high kick combo (A,A,A) -rushing right cross combo (left stick in the direction you want to run and hit X,X,X) -rushing spin kick combo (left stick in the direction you want to run and hit A,A,A) -snapfist combo (left stick towards the enemy and press X simultaneously, then press X,X) -shin breaker combo (left stick towards the enemy and press A simultaneously, then press A,A) Those are just the basic combos, for the slayer moves you can try these but hold the final button to raise the level of damage done. The manual lists two of these as well. -slayer jab cross combo (X,X then hold X) -slayer jumping back fist (left stick away from enemy, hold X) There are plenty more of these to be discovered but unfortunatly I am not very good at thinking up different combo possibilities. I accidentally will do some other cool moves but often don't realize how I did it. If you have any suggestions for combos email me them at phunk_king@hotmail.com, if/when I post it, credit will be given to the contributor. From the Gamefaqs.com message board a few moves have been developed. I am going to list them here without edits. From ComboKid "...Combos: Note- these assume the enemy does not block -Juggling stake in the *nuts* (4 hit juggling kill): with state in hand & vampiric enemy low on health, run & press punch, punch, keep pressing forward & punch (this launches) then wait a split second and press the stake (use?) button to jam the stake into undead dingle-berries- dusting them! -Cross-bow juggle dust (4 hit juggling crossbow kill): with cross-bow in hand & enemy low on health, tap forward & press kick, then kick & then kick again BUT HOLD IT down to do the special glowing version- this launches them REAL far into the air, press the punch button to kill the vampire mid-air. Totally freaking awesome! -Super tricky combo to toss to slayer triple kick combo to flying stake destruction (12 hit grappling juggling ground kill)!!!: This maybe is the most crazy one I found.. line an enemy up so their back is near a wall (2-3 feet), jump in and do a DEEP kick, then kick again (knee should come out if you are close enough), press kick, punch, kick and kick & HOLD (special version)- this knocks the vamp stumbling back into the wall- the vamp will crunch off the wall and then stagger forward back to you- then press punch & kick to grab the vampire & press back (behind you) to toss the vamp over your shoulder (away from the wall)- THIS IS CRITICAL as soon as you see the animation of the toss about to go over your shoulder double tap back (the way you are tossing the vamp) & press kick- as the vamp is tossed buffy will bust out the slayer triple kick freezing the action of the vamp upside down just as your feet are about to juggle it's ugly face!! from there, get this- when you land jump at the vamp (who will be landing about the same time) & mid air press kick again- you will air stomp the vamp & then for pure humiliation if you have a stake, press the stake button to dust him!! I got a 12 hit combo this way!! >>>Reverse Spinning Kick Slayer Launcher: Did you know you can do pressing back (behind you) + attack (at same time!) to get different spinning type moves!? If you hold the R-Trigger is makes it totally easy to do them because you can at your leasure walk backwards and press attack to get them. Ok to the launcher now: When a vamp is in front (and none behind!!) hold r-trigger (easy way), press back & press & HOLD kick to do the slayer powered (glowing) reverse spinning kick- this will launch the vamp about 6 feet in the air RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!! you have all day to do another quick move- stake, jab juggle , etc. >>>Launch juggle into tripple kick super!!: Do the above slayer kick launcher, then standing still do punch (jab), punch (2nd jab) & 2in1 (as the 2ns jab comes out start this command oldschool streetfighter super style!) into the doubletap fwd & kick to buffer in the super tripple kick!!! Checkit: I found some more ill moves: -Reverse stake throw:-Knee into extended kicks!: Get close and press kick to do a knee. pressing kick again does some left snapping kick right? BUT if from the knee you press back + kick you get the left kick & then kick again does a second left snapping kick before going into the right low and high kick enders. I have used this to get a big combo as follows: -Jump in DEEP +kick (deep so you are right next to the enemy), kick (to knee), back+kick (left kick), kick (left kick), punch (jab), punch (2nd jab), 2in1 into the slayer tripple kick (2xtap +kick)- that = 9 hits. Now I am going to try the wall stagger extension trick + this to break the 15 mark on 1 guy with no weapons! Also, it seems that some enemies let you get more ground hits then others.." From DJAMES (one of the game developers) "My favoite but simple combos are these: **Chip Up Juggle Explode a dead fool trick: A) against crawling zombie hold the stalk button (right trigger) & tap forward & kick to do the "chip"kick (a special kick that flips the zombie up about head hieght- if you do it wrong she will just stomp FYI) B) & then immediately press back & hold punch- she will do the slayer boosted spinning backfist to splat the zombie mid air. there are all kinds of variations you can do from this chip kick- this only works on zombies and spiders FYI. **Break A Leg, Juggle & BATER UP a zombie: Setup for this trich is critical: You need a zombie (weak kind is easiest & a shovel with plenty of slayer power in your bar. Use standing kicks to wear a zombies legs down till they are just about to break (usually 3-4). This is the critical setup! B)Then start the tap kick shin breaker combo- tap fwd & kick (if this has worked right the zombies leg breaks here- if not stop! & try again) C) press kick again doing the 2nd shin breaker (which launches the zombie into the air) & simultaineously 2in1 into the super shovel decapper by doing a full 360 on the stick & pressing punch (must complete by the time 2nd kick hits!) D) if done right watch buffy bust out the super shovel 360 decapped and literaly hit a homerun with the zombie exploding it mid air. brutal! Plus any other enemies in 360 range of the super will likely get killed too!... reverse stake by pressing fwd & hitting the use/stake button. try this in combo- like tap fwd & punch (snapfist), punch then fwd & use. but are you done? is there more? Yes. from a succesful reverse stake you can do several cool things, I will not say what but experiment. Maybe someone else here can list them all. This carries over to other stakings as well.. Front to back staking: I am sure many of you have done this but this is how to set it up. Try to wear down 2 vamps, then intentionally get them in front and back by about 5 feet, run up and stake the front vamp - the back one should magically go in for the kill almost simultaineously, hit use again (must be while the stake is still in!) and buffy will perfectly stake backwards into the now dead surprised vamp! I have killed 3 vamps this way -manual back, front, and auto turn slightly right and back. friggin funny. I want to tell you more and exactly how to do it all, but that would ruin it. Let me just say, I spent a lot of time putting in tons of staking techniques & decapping moves with all the weapons that make sense. think about how many ways buffy in the show kills vamps and bet many of them are in this game and more! it's all there and exactly the way you would think is should be done (i hope :) ). [In response to someone saying that the enemy was getting to far away by the 4th or 5th hit. -Dave] Bickle: You may not be starting your combos "deep" enough (i.e. actually being as close to the enemy as possible, especially if you are jumping in for a flying kick starter- you can actually kick them so deep you hit thier toe just like in oldschool sf2 (only fully 3d). Once you max out your possible nomral chain sytle combos, you will need to then add in a SUPER 2in1 combo to replace whatever you are problably ending (yes, believe it or not buffy has 2in1 supers like oldschool capcom- only fully 3d). This should easily get you into 7-9 hit territory with a combo vs. a standing enemy in open territory. If you want to go way higher, the next level you need to tack on is: wall splats, juggles and ground (lying enemy) combos and weapons. Refer to one big nasty combo in this thread by "combokid", he found quite a tricky use of staggering a fool off a wall to extend his combo nicely into something like 12. My personal best on just 1 enemy (note you can trade off 1 to another and keep the meter going!) is over 15 bare handed, but I am still in search of the biggest combo since just about anything is possible! I am hoping to see a site put up where people can send mpegs of thier sickest buffy combos so we all can see the best tricks! [I am currently working on that! -Dave] Tap fwd + Use to reverse stake. What is not documented is if you land the stake you can keep holding the use button to keep the vamp alive longer on the end of the stake (about 1.2 seconds)! Try it then press punch or kick to know the freak off your damn stake! LOL!" From rpeterclark Power Flying Kick: double-tap forward, Jump + Kick" In response to rpeterclark, DJAMES says; Hey- Great Find! Just to help (so you guys do not blow your slayer meter by mistake while trying to it )here is the actual command: ReverseDropKick = Jump+Kick (tiny bit of slop allowed), hold kick to slayer boost it into the "Slayer ReverseDropKick". Either one is a block breaker vs. normal vampires which can lead to a nice big unblockable combo." I again state that I am terrible at these types of combos. I have not been able to confirm any of these suggestions except DJAMES' "Chip Up Juggle Explode a dead fool trick" which worked great! As I get suggestions sent in I will add them to this section. Throws Another very useful move is to grab the enemy and throw them. This can be achieved by pressing the punch and kick buttons together when near the desired enemy. This works well with vampires if there is an overturned table with legs sticking up, or a large wooden plank conveniently stuck out in the open, a ledge to throw them off of (preferably into lava or into a bottomless pit so they never come back) because if you manage to aim correctly (a task that will take some practice to master) you can dust them almost immediately. If nothing else, throwing the thing at another enemy on screen will cause damage to both of them and may disorient one or both enough that you can move in for the kill with your stake or other weapon. Some people have problems with the Docks level because a couple of new, stronger vamps first come out and there are also some pretty large demons that can be tough to kill if you are not prepared. For those that you can throw (cannot throw the 'shrimp demons', they are too big), an easy plan is to toss them into the water that is found around all the toughest fights. Sure the vamps jump out after a while but it gives you some time to take out others while that one is taking a swim. Probably the best enemy to use this on are the zombies. They are toast when you break their heads, picking them up and throwing them with full slayer force into a nearby wall is a really good way to reduce their skull to dust. I don’t recall any enemies doing this on the easy difficulty, but on the harder difficulty levels as you progress through the game some of the enemies will shrug you off so you cannot grab them. If you hit them a couple times to daze them you usually can move in again for another toss attempt. There are also various weapons (stakes and holy water/hellfire vials and the reaper wing) that can be thrown. Throwing the holy water and hellfire vials is a bit of a waste. You can combine them with cross bow arrows for a stronger attack and it will make three arrows so you can kill three vamps instead of one vamp per vial. Stakes are good to throw when you have knocked an enemy clear across the room and you wish to dust them without having to go over there. While they are out cold you can easily launch the stake for the dust. The Reaper Wing is a deadly weapon when thrown, it can destroy some enemies in one hit, others it will take down to near death. To throw all of those items you need to hold your stalk button, (right trigger by default) and then hit the use/stake button (Y by default). This document is a work of my own creation; I have quoted some posts from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer message board on gamefaqs.com giving credit to the authors. Future versions will have information listed that was contributed by readers that wished to help, with credit given to them as well. This document is designed for use on gamefaqs.com and www.stormpages.com/phunkking/buffy/btvs.html. Anyone else wishing to use my document should contact me first. Copyright 2002 Dave Frasier (phunk_king@hotmail.com)