Shank 2 Farming Guide

This guide explains the best locations to farm for the grindy achievements!

Introduction

As you probably notice, Shank 2 has plenty of medals, some which also are Steam achievements, some unlock character skins, and some unlock neither, serving simply as a reminder. They can be very grindy, requiring you to do a certain action lots of times. Some of them may come with natural progress, though many would not. Luckily, you can perform these actions on the same enemies over and over. But you cannot reload a checkpoint from the menu, you must die. And if you die, the carried weapon you have (not the ones you equip by default) gets missing.

In this guide, I will explain the best locations to farm for these grindy achievements to help you save time. You can also progress towards these in Survival Mode, so if you plan on playing Survival Mode you might wanna farm there as well.

Freedom Fighter - Rescue 50 Civilians From The Militia
Shank, SMASH! - Kill 50 enemies with the heavy object smash
Pistol Heimlich - Perform 60 Pistol Counter Kills
That's Gonna Leave A Mark - Perform 100 Machete Counter Kills
Ditch Digger - Kill 100 enemies using the shovel
Batter Up! - Execute 150 kills with the baseball bat

General Tips

Those weapons you pick up? They break after being used a certain amount of times. If you’re going for the bat and shovel kills, it might be a good idea to lower the enemy’s health until they’re blinking red, then hit them with the weapon, and try to hit as many as possible at once. Counter killing enemies carrying said weapon will also count, so try to counter kill enemies carrying bats and shovels.

Same goes for the heavy objects such as crates, pots, etc, although they are quite a lot more durable. Many won’t survive being thrown though, with a few exceptions like the sink and tire. Best to use them to smash enemies, it can keep the big guys down.

Enemies with guns are the most dangerous, luckily they can be counter killed immediately. Prioritize killing them first in combat arenas. Enemies carrying assault rifles don’t count as pistol counter kills, and they are more dangerous.

Level 2: Through the Fire – Baseball Bat

Honestly, there doesn’t seem to be a decent enough place to farm baseball bat kills, but I got this achievement surprisingly earlier than expected, which makes me kinda suspect that kills with some weapons you pick up count as baseball bat kills. If anyone can test and confirm, it will be great.

Anyway, the farming session here begins directly after the level start. Go down the stairs to the bar, counter kill the baseball bat guy, and kill the others with this weapon. There are also more outside. Then either use the gas tanks to die faster, or exit to menu and restart.

Level 3: Dirty Docks – Pistols

In the middle of this level you’ll encounter a boss, a guy in a crane that is carrying a boat. Many pistol guys spawn here if you keep the boss alive, but in all honesty I do not really recommend farming here as getting the boat dropped directly above you instantly kills you, and even if only the sides hit it still does major damage. There are better places to farm. There’s a baseball bat guy later on though which you can use his weapon later.

Level 4: Lost in Ruins – Shovel

This is probably the one you need to farm the most, since big guys who carry shovels are very rare, and they break easy. Early in the level, you’ll jump over a pit of spikes to enter a temple. You can go either up or down, but to farm we go up first. This is where you first see the hanging corpses carrying grenades. Shoot 2 of them down to kill the 2 girls that spawn, shoot the other 2 to weaken the big shovel guy and when he’s blinking red, counter kill him for another shovel kill.

Next, you want to go back to where the path branches, go down, and shovel kill the remaining enemies. Those wolves are annoying as they can knock you down and make you drop your shovel. When you’re done, go back to the temple entrance and jump down the spike pit to restart.

The grenade stash outside the temple also respawns and you can also use this area to farm grenade kills to unlock the Kats skin, but there are no achievements tied to it.

Level 6: Human Cargo – Civilians, Pistols, and Machetes

Near the end of the level, before a boss fight, you will be tasked with freeing civilians trapped in cargo containers. After killing a large enemy, he drops a key which you can use to unlock one of the containers. Do these 3 times, and you’ll have freed a total of 7 civilians (2-2-3), but the game progresses. Naturally, more types of enemies spawn as you unlock more containers.

But here’s the trick, if you don’t unlock the first container, 2 enemies will keep parachuting down. One with a knife, and one with a pistol. Kill the knife guy, and approach the pistol guy to counter kill him. The next enemies who parachute down will be another knife guy, and a machete guy. Again, kill the knife guy, and weaken the machete guy to counter kill him. Repeat until you get enough kills or feel bored.

If you want to challenge yourself, try to unlock 2 containers which will get you 4 civilians, but don’t unlock the last one. Machete and pistol guys will still spawn, but there will be more enemies. Let yourself be killed, repeat.

There’s a grenade stash here that you could use to farm kills for the Kats skin, as well as some land mines that you can farm kills to unlock a medal, but it rewards neither skin nor achievement.

Level 7: Last Resort – Heavy Objects, Machetes, and a Civilian

About halfway through the level, you will go down a wooden deck and be in this area with a room to your left. In this area there’s a machete guy, and another is inside the room along with a prisoner. But the most important thing here is the sink. There’s only one in the whole game, and it never breaks so as long as you can survive the next arenas, you can carry it with you. If you somehow progress too far and lose the sink, there’s also an indestructible tire later in this level.

Killing one enemy with the sink unlocks “And the Kitchen Sink” achievement as well as the Cesar skin, the main antagonist of the first game. But carrying it with you, you can also work on your progress to kill 50 enemies with heavy objects. To the right is a pool and after that a sauna. Both are combat arenas and there are some more machete guys. The good thing is that if you die in these 2 arenas, you can backtrack to the room with the sink, pick it up, and use it to kill again. Machete guys and civilian in the room won’t respawn though but honestly this isn’t the best place to farm them.

Survival Mode

Survival Mode is like what you’d expect, an arena where you must survive a maximum of 30 waves while preventing enemies from destroying your supply caches. Plenty of pistol and machete guys here, and sometimes baseball bat guys appear too. Chances are you don’t need to farm them individually if you play Survival a lot.

The “Not So Fast…” achievement requires you to do 30 counter kills in a single match, and if you plan on going after that, you better counter kill as much enemies as early as possible as the waves get harder. And since many of these enemies carry pistols, machetes, and baseball bats, you can progress 4 of these achievements at once. I recommend playing the Bombed Church map as it has the highest amount of baseball bat guys, as well as being the only map where you can get the “Trigger Happy” achievement by defeating 30 enemies with the firetraps in a single match.

In this mode I recommend using the Chun-Li homage character, Chops, as she has higher health and can buy tequila to heal at a cheaper price, making it easier to reach higher waves even if you play solo. Yes she deals less damage but if you’re going for counter kills it’s actually a bit helpful. However, you’d have to finish the “Pistol Heimlich” achievement first to be able to use her.

Closing

In conclusion, I think it might be best to play the game naturally first, while also doing the easy ones such as counter kills and of course try Survival Mode to reduce the need to play these levels over and over again. But if you want or still need some more farming, here are the best locations to do that.

Let me know if you have any suggestions for better farming arenas!