SH:MCD general guide

This is a general guide meant to help anyone at any given moment.
There are spoilers.

The enemy and how to kill them

This is the enemy, a.k.a. red dude/guy. They come in many different forms, sometimes with a shotgun, sometimes with a katana.
Normal enemies can normally be killed with:

• One bullets
  
• One nail fired from a fishgun
  
• One katana/knife-type throwable
  
• One shuriken-type throwable
  
• One dart-type throwable to the head
  
• Two dart-type throwables (or one punch and one dart-type) to everything that isn't the head.
  
• Three blunt objects to the body (without him getting unstunned)
  
• Three punches (without him getting unstunned)
  
• Pushing them into a wall

The three blunt objects and punches can be intertwined. You throw a blunt object at him and you will only need to punch him twice. If you hurt him, e.g. a dart-type throwable not to the head, he'll get stunned and drop his current weapon. Exceptions will be mentioned later.

The enemy shows up in different forms.

You have concrete-enemies. Their bodies have somehow mixed with the stages themselves. Normal bullets cannot hurt them in their white areas and you cannot punch them in the white areas. The only exception (without .hacks/cores) is the fishgun. White dudes cannot be stunned by throwing blunt objects in their white areas. They can, however, be stunned by bullets, dart-type throwables, knife/katana-type throwables and shuriken-type throwables. Luckily the concrete-enemies have a red weakpoint. That weakpoint behaves exactly the same as a red dude.

You have mushroom-enemies. Their bodies seem to have been infused with bullets, that will fire immediately after their host has been killed. The host can also choose to detonate, if left without a means of defending himself. The bullets seem to go into the directions the spikes are going, but it's safer to take cover than to assume. They do not trigger instantly if the host has been killed with a punch or a blunt object, they will then trigger after the host has fallen to the ground. They can be killed exactly the same way as a red dude.

You have enemies that have red weapons. Every weapon they pick up will merge with their bodies, and cannot be removed, even with (lethal) force. They can be killed the exact same way as a red dude.








One enemy cannot be another.
There cannot be a concrete-enemy with a red weapon. There cannot be a concrete-mushroom enemy. Mushroom-enemies do not have red guns.

Stage hazards

Because the game likes changing things up, there are also changes to certain stages. This can be purely visual or actually interactable. There are currently three types of changes that can be made to a stage. There does not have to be a change to a stage, at the first few nodes, there aren't a lot of these.

Mushrooms

These red "mushrooms" (I like to call them mines) explode when you get too close to them or when they take any type of damage (bullet, throwable, punch). You can hear them by their (annoying) beeping. The faster the beeping, the closer you are. They explode into bullets, which can hurt you and the enemy.

Visual glitches

The game can ""glitch"" out and make everything vertical too vertical. This visual "glitch" only influences the stage and the white parts of a concrete enemy. They're still there, just harder to see. Red dudes are not affected by the visual glitch, their position is accurate. The closer you get to a horizontal layer, the less vertical the surrounding area to that horizontal layer is. Sometimes the glitch is barely noticable (like in office).

There are also horizontal-distortions. They work the same as vertical-distortions but horizontal. These are more obtrusive due to the fact that they move cover. A red dude can be running behind cover, but due to the horizontal distortion you might think he's not, and shoot the cover (which isn't effective).




Both visual "glitches" can accur at the same time.

Barriers

These are in the way. That's the point. They can block everything, except if you shoot/throw into the gap(s).

Melee weapons

In this section I'm going to talk about melee weapons that you and/or the enemy can pick up.
Every melee weapon used by you can deflect bullets (but their durabillity takes a hit) and turn into a breakable throwable after 3 hits.

Breakable melee weapons

All breakable melee weapons are non-lethal throwables.

Shotgun

This one is player-only. After using all your shotgun shots, if you left click with it, you turn it around and it turns into a melee-weapon.

Pipe

If used by the enemy, they can deflect OR break any breakable throwable before it hits them. The enemy can't deflect katana/knife-type or shuriken-type throwables with this. Or bullets.

Wooden stick with a nail

If used by the enemy, they can't deflect anything. A small range upgrade for them.

Crowbar

If used by the enemy, they will not deflect anything. A small range upgrade.

Bat

Basically the same as the pipe.

Unbreakable "melee" weapons

All unbreakable melee weapons are

Katana

Katana's are pretty fun, because they don't break. If used by the enemy, they can deflect bullets (not nails) and throwables. However, they cannot deflect bullets that are below their knees.

Knives

This one is enemy-only. The enemy cannot spawn with a knife, but they can pick them up. CHARGE.core also recognizes this as a melee weapon, as it lets you CHARGE with it.

If used by the enemy, the Pipe, Bat and Katana can deflect things. They do have a cooldown on deflection, so you should throw more stuff at them to make sure they drop their weapon. You can't really just shoot Katana-enemies if you have a pistol, since they can destroy your bullets. This does not mean you can't stun them with only a pistol. If you shoot a bullet and throw your gun at the same time, he'll have to deflect the gun and will get hit by your bullet (or the other way around). Of course, if you have any other gun, you can just shoot them, since they can't destroy every bullet.

Guns

Guns. Guns are fun. You can kill the enemy with bullets. They only need one. If you're not sure if you have bullets remaining in your gun, throw it at the wall (or an enemy that has a gun). If the has at least one bullet, it will not be destroyed if it hits a wall. Your gun will be destroyed if you use it to stun an enemy, but will not be destroyed if thrown at a Bat/Pipe/Katana-enemy, since they'll play baseball with your gun. Some guns are better in certain situations than others, for example, if you're in a very long corridor, a fishgun (nailgun) might be more practical than a shotgun.

Pistol

The pistol has 5 bullets. If you pull the trigger, you fire one bullet. It has a short cooldown time between shots. If you shoot at the enemy behind glass, you will hit the glass, but the bullet will not go through.
If the enemy has a pistol when you have a katana, you can deflect their bullet.

Rifle

The rifle has 3 "clips". If you pull the trigger, you fire 4 bullets in rapid succession, one clip. It has no trigger-cooldown time between shots, you are just limited by the speed the rifle shoots at. If you shoot at the enemy behind glass, the first bullet will hit the glass, but the other 3 will be able to hit them. If you throw your rifle before it has fired every shot, every shot that has not been fired will be stored, so if you shoot 2 bullets (0.5 clips) and then throw your gun, you'll still have 10 bullets (2.5 clips) remaining.
If the enemy has a rifle and you have a katana, you can deflect all their bullets.

Shotgun

The shotgun has 2 shots. If you pull the trigger, you fire 9 pellets at the same time. You have more cooldown time than the pistol. Roughly 50% more. If you shoot at the enemy behind glass, one bullet will hit the glass, and the rest will hit the enemy.
If the enemy has a shotgun when you have a katana, you cannot deflect all the bullets without lightreflx.hack or defall.hack. It is possible to dodge shotgun shots (as seen in SH:VR), but it's better to not have to dodge 9 pellets.

Fishgun (nailgun)

The fishgun has 3 nails. If you pull the trigger, you fire one nail. You have a lot of cooldown time. The nail pierces through the enemy and glass. Take advantage of the fact that you pierce through the enemy, and try getting multi-kills. I'm not saying you have to with every shot, but it might be beneficial to at least try.
If the enemy has a fishgun when you have a katana, you can technically reflect the nail. The nail moves faster than you can turn your screen. Without lightreflx.hack, it's practically impossible to dodge a nail if it's aimed towards your head. You can shoot the nail, destroy your bullet and their nail, and then throw your gun at them. You cannot destroy their nail with a breakable thrown object, it will penetrate your object. It's better to not risk getting hit than trying to deflect it.

How to not get hurt

Now that we know what types of weapons are inside the game, you might want to know how to dodge bullets. You can move out of the way of a bullet. You are fast enough, even without fstmove.hack or lightreflx.hack[/i]. You cannot move out of the way of a nail, unless you have lightreflx.hack. Luckily, the enemy can miss. The enemy always tries to aim to where you're going. If you move in any direction, they assume you're going to be moving in that direction with the same speed for an extended period of time. This is in any direction, vertical or horizontal. If you jump, they're going to try to shoot the ceiling, since you're moving in that direction. Of course, until they have shot, they will keep trying to aim at your next position.
Bullets and nails can be destroyed in mid-air. If a bullet/nail hits another bullet/nail, they will both be destroyed. If a breakable throwable encounters a bullet, they will both be destroyed. If a breakable throwable encounters a nail, the breakable throwable will be destroyed and the nail will continue going towards your face. If an unbreakable throwable encounters a bullet/nail, the bullet/nail will be destroyed.
You want to make sure your enemy doesn't have a gun. They can spawn with one, but if they get stunned once, they'll drop their gun. It's better to keep everyone unarmed than letting anyone have a gun. You can go around stages, grabbing a throwable, throwing it at the head of an enemy, grabbing their gun, going towards another enemy, throwing the gun at their head, grabbing their gun and keep the cycle going until nobody except you has a gun. After you've established the gun-monopoly, you can start punching or throwing things at them. It is, however, advised to shoot them instead of trying to get inside their range.

What if the enemy has a melee weapon? You can throw more stuff at them. As mentioned under "Melee weapons", they have an animation when they deflect stuff. During this animation, they cannot deflect anything else. Just keep throwing or punch them. One hit is enough. Or just shoot them.
You should never forget that you can punch. It is not advised to go into battle only wanting to punch, but you have to realize that sometimes it is a necessity. If you do not have a throwable or a gun, you have to punch. Every enemy gets stunned by a punch. They only need one punch to get stunned. Concrete enemies can only be punched in their red areas, so aim for that. You might want to grab their weapon after you've punched them, but recognize that if your current situation is less than optimal, you might want to focus on dodging first.

Dodging bullets (and destroying bullets) can be hard. Luckily, the enemy doesn't care about friendly-fire. You can stun an enemy with a punch, grab their weapon, and use them as an impromptu shield. Their dead bodies can also be used as a temporary shield, usually until they fall to the floor and decompose on the spot. This works best with a concrete-enemy, since they get stunned from bullets instead of dying. You do not take any contact damage. The only damage you can take from "contact" is if they try to punch you. Be warned: the punch hitbox is bigger than their fist.

Breakable throwables

There are currently around 105 (not including things in different sizes, like small weights instead of regular weights) breakable throwables. Breakable throwables can stop bullets, but not nails. The best use for them is to stun dudes and to take their guns. Remember: 3 throwables (or punches) to kill one dude (without supthrow.hack). Guns are also breakable throwables when thrown at the enemy, a mushroom, or when they do not have bullets.

Unbreakable throwables

There are three types of unbreakable throwables, dart-type, shuriken-type and knives.

Dart-type throwables

There are 9 dart-type throwables currently inside the game. The one not shown here is the card, since that used to be a shruiken-type throwable. Dart-type throwables only kill in the head, and stay stuck inside enemy bodies when you miss their head. This means if there is a concrete-enemy that doesn't have their weakpoint on their head, you can't kill them instantly with this throwable, you'll need to hit them 2 times in their body before they die.

Shuriken-type throwables

There are 9 shuriken-type throwables currently inside the game. As said above, the card has been nerfed from shuriken to dart. Shuriken-type throwables kill everywhere (except in the white-areas of a white dude, of course). The shuriken-type throwable stays stuck inside the enemy's body (alive or dead).

Knives

There are current 2 type of knife-throwables, knives and katana's. Knives/katana are lethal everywhere (except white-areas). The reason why knives are under a seperate category instead of being with the shuriken-type weapons is due to the fact of supthrow.hack not making knives return to you, but instead pass through multiple enemies.

.cores

During the game, you'll unlock new .cores. They are pretty neat.

There are currently 4 .cores inside the game, MORE, HOTSWITCH, RECALL and CHARGE. Every .core has one or two "special" .hacks that only that .core can have.
(< this is a symbol for a .core or a boss)


You start out with MORE. You have 3 hp instead of the "normal" 2. MORE has two special .hacks. 4HP.hack and 5HP.hack: they both give you one more heart. You can only get 5HP.hack when you have 4HP.hack. The hacks do not heal you to full, so if you have the choice between heal.hack and 4HP.hack/5HP.hack whilst you have one heart, take heal.hack. MORE is usually the safest option (in my opinion) due to the fact that it doesn't give you anything special. You bring yourself in a situation, and you'll bring yourself out. You can only rely on yourself.

After that you can unlock CHARGE. It gives you the ability to CHARGE at an enemy and stun them. Your punches are also more powerful (you can kill people in 2 hits instead of 3). CHARGE has a range, which is why I don't really use it. You can only CHARGE with your fists or a melee weapon (including the knife). CHARGE has two special .hacks, recharge.hack and chainchrg.hack. recharge.hack reduces your CHARGE cooldown when you kill someone. In my opinion, this .hack isn't great. The cooldown that gets reduced is, in my opinion, a bit too short. It is, however, required to get the next hack: chainchrg.hack. chainchrg.hack lets you use your ability more than once (if you find someone within the time limt). The more people you look at, the more people will die. CHARGE is pretty overpowered with suppunch.hack since you can instantly kill anyone if you punch them.

After that you can unlock HOTSWITCH. It works just like in the regular SUPERHOT, you can switch places with an enemy, and your original body (which is the enemy's body now) will die. You will, however, be forced to throw the weapon away (which WILL break, only exception is the katana or the knife). There is, of course, a cooldown on the ability. If you HOTSWITCH into a grenade-enemy, their bullets will remove themselves from your body without hurting you, and with the possibllity of hitting another enemy. HOTSWITCH has two special .hacks, prfswitch.hack and ultraswitch.hack. prfswitch.hack lets you keep the enemy's weapon, except if it is a red one. ultraswitch.hack lets you switch to multiple people. It basically gives your HOTSWITCH a time-limit instead of a use-limit, just like chainchrg.hack
HOTSWITCH is useful in scenarios where you're surrounded. HINT: you can throw a throwable at the dude you're going to HOTSWITCH with, they'll get stunned and drop their gun. After you've HOTSWITCH'd with them you can grab their dropped gun. No prfswitch.hack needed.

After that you can unlock RECALL. It gives you strtkatana.hack and the ability to recall ANY katana (the ability has a cooldown, of course). The recalled katana flies through the air (and walls) towards you, and any enemy that it hits will die (even concrete-enemies). You will also automatically pick up your katana. If there is no recallable katana, the game will give you one. RECALL has two special .hacks, piercing.hack (not to be confused with piercshot.hack) and flwrecall.hack. piercing.hack lets your katana pierce multiple enemies instead of getting stuck inside the enemy's body. This kills concrete-enemies. flwrecall.hack makes your katana bounce between enemies, so if there are three enemies (generally) between you and your katana, you kill all of them.
RECALL is my second-favorite .hack, due to the fact that recalling katana's is just fun and you start with a katana.

.hacks

You start out with multiple default .hacks and can unlock more at the map.
(< this is the symbol for a .hack)

The default .hacks are:

• 3HP.hack
  
• +bullets.hack
  
• fstmove.hack
  
• heal.hack
  
• quickshot.hack
  
• rndgun.hack
  
• strtkatana.hack

3HP.hack gives you an extra (full) heart.

+bullets.hack gives you more bullets. The rifle gains 1.5 clips (3 -> 4.5). The pistol gains two bullets (5 -> 7). The shotgun gains one shot (2 -> 3). The fishgun (nailgun) gains one nail (3 -> 4).

fstmove.hack makes you move faster.

heal.hack heals all your hearts.

quickshot.hack reduces your shot cooldown. The rifle shoots faster per clip, so it's worse for the rifle (you become less efficient)

rndgun.hack gives you a random gun at the start of a stage or after a HACK-YOUR-MIND in endless.

strtkatana.hack gives you a katana at the start of a stage or after a HACK-YOUR-MIND in endless.


The unlockable .hacks are:

• grenade.hack
  
• explode.hack
  
• supthrow.hack
  
• piercshot.hack
  
• wpnmstr.hack
  
• defall.hack
  
• ricochet.hack
  
• suppunch.hack
  
• shotflow.hack
  
• berserk.hack
  
• killreload.hack
  
• dthstomp.hack
  
• lightreflx.hack
  
• killheal.hack

grenade.hack makes all your throwables expel bullets that can hurt you. No other bullet-improving .hack works with the bullets from the grenade.
This one is pretty nice, all your throwables are basically lethal now.

explode.hack makes you shoot out shurikens when you get hurt. You need to get hurt for this .hack, so it's not that great.

supthrow.hack makes throwables twice as cool. Breakable throwables need 2 bodyhits instead of 3. Shuriken-type throwables return to you after you throw them. Dart-type projectiles, knives and katanas can go through multiple enemies, but katanas and darts only when you headshot someone.

piercshot.hack lets your bullets pierce. Useless with the fishgun, since that already pierces. Decently powerful. Makes your bullets able to kill concrete enemies.

wpnmstr.hack makes your melee weapons attack faster. Not your fists. Surprisingly effective. It's great with the katana.

defall.hack makes any reflect reflect everything. Every bullet in the stage that has been fired will get reflected.

ricochet.hack makes missing a viable strategy. Every bullet that hits a wall/ceiling/floor will go towards the enemy. This one upgrades your killing power from mediocre to outrageous, if you know how to use it. You have to hit the ground in front of the enemy, since then the enemy cannot dodge. The speed of the nail from the fishgun makes it practically impossible to miss with ricochet.hack. However, ricochet.hack can try to hit the enemy through a wall, which doesn't work most of the time.

suppunch.hack makes your punches stronger. You need to do 2 bodypunches (or 1 headpunch as CHARGE.core) to kill the enemy. If you punch a dude everyone around them (in a small circle) will get stunned. You can kill concrete-enemies with your punches. You can punch bullets and they will reflect. You can punch every bullet from a rifle clip, but not a shotgun clip.

shotflow.hack makes your headshots able to headshot other people. You do need to get a kill with the bullet, otherwise it will not trigger. This one is great with the fishgun due to the speed of the nail, but mediocre with the rest due to the fact that the enemies move faster than the bullets. shotflow.hack, like ricochet.hack, tries to shoot people behind walls though, which isn't really efficient.

berserk.hack makes you invulnerable after you hit someone with a melee attack (fist or melee weapon). This one is great with CHARGE.core.

killreload.hack removes the weapon cooldown after you kill an enemy (not a mushroom/landmine). Watch out with the fishgun (nailgun), you'll probably shoot two nails instead of one. Press the button down very lightly whne using the fishgun (nailgun). Sometimes forces the rifle to shoot multiple bullets, but not that often that it really affects the rifle. It's great. It removes a lot of the usefulness of quickshot.hack, but if you miss a shot, you can always depend on quickshot.hack.

dthstomp.hack makes your stomping (if you jump on an enemy) lethal. This one seems like a joke. It's not a great hack.

lightreflx.hack makes bullets near you slow down. Makes you able to dodge nails. Makes you able to reflect all the shotgun pellets with a katana. You do still need to watch out for the bullets. They might be slow, but they still hurt. Do not walk into them.

killheal.hack makes you recieve temporary healing after you a certain amount of enemies. It only gives you an extra heart, you can think of them as soul hearts in the Binding of Isaac.

Bosses

At floor/lvl 3, you have to unlock bosses. The gimmick with bosses is that they have .cores. After you've unlocked them, bosses can appear at any node (even before node 0).
There isn't a boss with MORE.core, since they're basically already invulnerable. There are currently 3 bosses.

DOG

DOG has CHARGE.core. You can detect DOG by his dog ears. He can CHARGE at you. He cannot pick up a weapon (or at least chooses not to). You can avoid getting hurt by jumping towards him when he charges at you. Just don't jump too early. He can only charge at you if there is valid ground underneath you. If you are standing on non-valid ground (ground that is non-reachable by red dudes) he cannot charge at you, and will remain in place. DOG will break everything you throw at him (including bullets).

NINDŻA

NINDŻA has RECALL.core. You can detect NINDŻA by a slash through his face. He can throw and RECALL his katana. He can only hold a katana. You can avoid getting hurt by moving out of the way of the katana. Furthermore he's just like a red dude with a katana.

ADDICT

ADDICT has HOTSWITCH.core. You can detect ADDICT by a triangle in his face. He can HOTSWITCH with you. He can pick up any weapon. ADDICT also has a form of ricochet.hack, all bullets that he fires bounce off of walls once, but do not actually aim towards you. You are forced to throw and destroy his weapon (not destroying katana's or knives, of course) after he HOTSWITCHes, even with prfswitch.hack.

Hidden mechanics

There are some "hidden" mechanics inside the game. Here I'll mention two: WATCH YOUR BACK and anti-spawn.

WATCH YOUR BACK

SH:MCD has a mechanic to stop dudes with melee weapons sneaking up to you and stealing a heart. If you get hurt in the back with a melee weapon without having first seen the dude, you will not recieve damage but will instead recieve the message "WATCH YOUR BACK". This does not work with dudes with guns, since you can hear dudes with guns. (*click*)

Anti-spawn

SH:MCD makes sure that enemies do not spawn from certain locations if you are too close to it (around punch distance). This means you can stand near a spawning location without having to worry about getting backshot.

Map with .cores, .hacks and bosses

Here are some maps to figure out which direction you want to go, the cursor is at the location where you are at the start of the floor.

1st floor

2nd floor

3rd floor

Don't mind the white cubes, that's just me breaking the entire game (they're supposed to be regular nodes).

4th floor

5th floor

LVL 5 and "postgame" content

DO THIS LVL AFTER YOU'VE DONE THE REST.

In this specific LVL, you give up your cores and hacks. As seen above, first you give up your cores, by playing a level with the core, and then pressing E on the boss related to the core. You can do this in any order. After that you go through a check, which just checks if you've given up all your cores. Then you have to play a node without any cores. After that you have to give up all of your hacks, then play a node without hacks. After that you reach "LOST / DEATH", where you give up the rest of the things you have. During the node you get an ability called "give up", if you use it, you win the stage. During the node you have to get "hacks" that remove certain natural abilities, like moving, looking (moving your mouse around), jumping, shooting, throwing, punching. After you've completed the node you have to give up control. Everything gets deleted.

After this you get to a screen. You can press E to "SUPER" and "HOT". You have to keep doing this until a triangle shows up. After which your cursor (the red rectangle) should show up. You can freely move your cursor around the ""map"". You can find some minigames in the map, like treedude, zombie slasher and shrl.exe. Your main goal is following the grey line (like in the map). It points towards a data scanning node, which you have to interact with. After the data is scanned, you have to follow the grey line to the data selection node. After that you have to follow the line to the data recovery node. If you interact with that node, you have to wait here for 2.5 hours.

After you recover the data you get sent back to NODE 0 on LVL 1. Everything is the same as you left it, except there is a new .core below node 0. PURE.core.

PURE.core lets you play SUPERHOT:MCD as SUPERHOT. No hacks, no cores, 1 heart. Wow.

If you go to LVL 4, you can find a new node called "ERROR / [garbled text]". There are 5 of these ERROR nodes.
The first ERROR only has red dudes without guns (sometimes a pistol dude spawns).
The second ERROR is on LVL 3, it only has concrete dudes with shotguns. I advise using CHARGE.core due to the fact that CHARGE lets you stun concrete enemies.
The third ERROR is also on LVL 3, it only has mushroom dudes with all weapons. I advise using CHARGE.core due to the fact that punching mushroom dudes makes sure they don't explode immediately.
The fourth ERROR is on LVL 2, it only has concrete dudes with all weapons, CHARGE.core is advised due to the concrete enemies.
The fifth ERROR is on LVL 1, it only has red dudes with red weapons. RECALL.core is advised due to the fact that the enemies do not drop weapons.

[🅖🅞🅥🅡🅘🅝]

is there a way to delete boesses its a big turn off ngl

[Diskret]

you forgot to mention the unlocking of sigma E/endless mode

[Alex The Dragon]

@Gargaj Fixed it

[Gargaj]

Level 2 picture is missing :(

[YehudiNimol]

I find that using RECALL and HOTSWITCH interchangably depending on whether or not the level has concrete dudes in it is the easiest way to pass the ERROR levels. In general, I find RECALL to be the best core overall, because it's fun and basically makes you bulletproof if use use it correctly, since you can deflect bullets.
As with hacks, killheal and lightreflx are the best hacks overall, and I advise you to choose them whenever possible. They helped me beat node 100 with relative ease. Defall and wpnmaster are also great with the katana. If you're down a heart and need to choose between heal and another hack, almost always choose heal (killheal might be an exception, but I personally wouldn't take that risk. Suit yourself about what you think is best in that scenario)

[NvMe 令]

played node 100, not a fun experience. I actually managed to beat it 2 years after i stopped playing the game. It just takes a lot of patience. I started with the charge core btw.

[REnder Scott]

im glad im not the only one who didnt play the node 100

[WhatIsThisNot]

this was an amazing guide, take my award

[Alex The Dragon]

@Hitly AFAIK nothing happens after you complete the ERROR nodes

[Hitly]

Is there a point to these error nodes? Does anything happen after you finish them?