Nightmare Guide (+ videos)

Renewed.
I came up with this in May 2016, but never published it.
Basically I had no motivation to finish it, as I was unsure if it might be helpful.
However, after I realized that our famous community member Alizee haven't unlocked the singleplayer achievements yet, I thought such a guide might motivate him, to do so.
As basically, this game shouldn't be played just for the multiplayer, which is infested by hackers and even good servers cannot prevent a match with hackers for 100%. :(
But at least it's much safer. :)

So Alizee and anyone else who might be interested, feel free to take my example and run through nightmare too.
Have fun. :)

FORMAL WARNING

Dear sir or madam,
on the right there is something called like "GUIDE INDEX".
Click onto "The Marine Campaign" in that index, if you want to read some proper info about the game.
Also check the point "ADDITION" if you have issues with the alignment of text and pictures.
DO NOT READ THE INTRODUCTION, if you are not interested in my personal thoughts about why coming up with this guide, etc.

I had these thoughts when I wrote the guide and I am not about to "change my past" by editing them.

Introduction

Another one?

Yeah, I asked myself the same question.
Honestly this guide is almost a year old. I started it last year, when I replayed AvP 2010 (or AvP 3) on Nightmare.

I originally saved a video for each level, but decided to upload videos of the whole marine, alien and predator campaign.

But why? There are already other guides.

Yeah, basically because of Alizee:
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198072988878/stats/AliensvsPredator/?tab=achievements
These achievements show that there are many singleplayer parts unplayed.
That's pretty disappointing for me, so I thought it might be fine if an average player like me shows a way to beat the game on nightmare.

Dear Alizee,
we all probably already know the fact that you're not the french singer you pretend to be.
You're rather a big fan of her, probably the biggest one around here on Steam.
Nothing bad about it.

Our situation:
You're on my block list and I am on yours. You’re on mine because I don't like your attitude, while your reason for adding me to yours seems to be that I generally think badly about you (which I don't as you might be a nice person in real, I can't tell).
I don't mind that though, as I cannot change what you think or feel about me. That's only up to you.

What I do mind, is if someone is speaking big about how he is a master in a game, despite having not even completed the singleplayer on highest difficulty within more than 2000 hrs of playtime.
You like to insult your fellow online players in an arrogant way and put yourself above them. THAT was the reason why I put you onto my block list, as you cannot read the in-game chat messages in Aliens vs. Predator multiplayer of any person which is on your block list.
That was nothing personal, I just didn't want to read any of your messages anymore while playing, no offense I still continued to play with you and didn't bother about your plasma spam or else, since as I said it's nothing personal.
However, this is about singleplayer.
I really would like to see, that you play through singleplayer either.
Because then, it won't feel that cheap when you put yourself above someone else or call a veteran player a n00b, while he might already finished the game on highest difficulty.
It's pretty interesting if you try it, trust me. Furthermore no one can cheat against you, as you only have AI enemies.
I would be glad if my guide helps you to get the singleplayer achievements.
However, this is just a personal beg. Nothing you need to take serious. This is one of the few games I liked to "finish" in the case of unlocking all achievements. As I like the predator and the alien franchise and since the movie Predator 2, I liked the thought of a crossover.
Hell I even can watch the AvP movies without getting mad. Or the Predators movie, where a new caste of Preds were introduced.
It's different than something like Star Wars for example. That universe is a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Oustanding for its own, still nothing which is somehow connected to the planet Earth. While the single and even the crossover franchises are set up in our universe.
I am actually very glad that it's just fiction. ^^
HR Giger (Requiescat in pace) created an outstandingly fearable enemy, after the idea of a parasite which breeds through alive hosts, whom get killed while "giving birth".
The alien queen introduced in the movie Aliens, just finished adding more creeipness to this species. After the devil it's probably the most fearable thing invented by humankind.
Then the predator on the other side which was another creepy species. Out for a hunt since the movie Predator with Arnold Schwarzenegger. The pedator was designed as big-game hunter par excellence. Superior weapon technology, a stealth system which makes it almost invisible. No wonder, that hunting the Xenomorph species (the Alien species) is their greatest honor and their most exciting game.
And about the video game: The idea of portraying one individual of any species plays pretty unique either and is outstanding if the franchises are your cup of tea.

TL;DR: This is a game I like. And if I like a game, I often like to finish the achievements too. Which may provide some expierence, especially if the game is still not boring afterwards.

But after all: Thank you Alizee, to motivate me for coming up with this guide.

BESIDE OF THAT, anyone else can use that guide either.
If it is helpful for other players beside of Alizee, I am glad about. :)

HELP! That guide contains ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bad and ♥♥♥♥ language!

Yes, but Steam helps with censoring it, moslty.
So no worries. :P

Your english sucks!

Correct.
If my turd english isn't understandable for you, I am sorry for not reaching every standard.
But, are you a native speaker and a passionate lecturer?
Feel free to give me instructions how to correct or expand some sections in a grammatically proper way. I would appreciate it, thanks.

Your pictures suck!

Yeah... I had to get them from the web and even took screens of my youtube vids, since the originals don't waste space on my disk anymore.

You're cheating in your videos! You always have different weapons than in the level before and start with full health!

Well, blame Rebellion, they programmed the game like this.
A marine will have pre-defined weapons and full health, a predator will have full energy and full health.

OMG, E grabber!

Thanks for giving the poor NPCs your voice.
It's the most efficient and quick way to kill enemies.
Yes, it should have been removed from multiplayer.
And predators should only have enough energy for one fully loaded plasma shot too in multiplayer.
Blame Rebellion again. :P

Plasma noob!

Thanks again for giving the poor NPCs your voice.
Furthermore, have you seen the first predator movie? I wonder how much energy that plasma caster had. The pred in the movie was clearly a hacking noob for spamming plasma that much. But plasma spammers cannot stand Arnold Schwarzenegger. *awkward*

No, I mean you really suck at using plasma.

Ah, ok. Well, that's correct. There are more superior plasma users than me. :P

You suck with the disc too.

Yeah, I am rather a better brute Pred. :P
But even there I often miss with my punches. That's the issue with the ridiculous auto-aim combat system of the alien. If you get used to it, pred appears a bit more tricky. Anyways, for "trickshots", like the infamous wall tail headhsot, it still needs skill. You're able to kill a marine with full health with such a hit (multiplayer). "Her Hive's Elite Guard" did that to me pretty often and here and there I was also accused for hacking by landing such a hit. Even if I mostly suck with it, by ending up running stupidly around on the ceiling with a starter marine trying to hit me with its pulse rifle... Until someone with nades or a shotgun comes by. XD

Have you even used the combi stick before?

Sometimes... But I hate it actually. I barely used it in multiplayer as I mostly don't hit moving targets. I mean, when it already comes to problems about hitting targets which are standing still. XD

You suck!

Yeah, I haven't ever said I am the best player in the world.
Neither am I the one who have the most fun with video games. There are definitely brighter stars out there.
I am a moon. XD I am bright when others shine on me. ^^

Your guide sucks! Instructions are unclear.

Well, I cannot play through the game for you.
But please be sure to play through the game on lower difficulty, before you try it on nightmare.
Just to know what's going on already...
If you think you can start the game on nightmare on your first playthrough... good luck. :P

ADDITION

The formatting sucks!

No!

Yes, I have proof!

That's just proof that your Steam sucks.
Try this (by right-clicking anywhere on the guide):


Best result would be to scroll down to the end, for loading all guide pics.
Then press the "Reload" function there.
Guess the pictures are just squeezed together a bit too much.

The Marine Campaign

You sure?
I mean, you're literally about to get rekt, especially on nightmare.

Colonial Marines are "cannon fodder", like K. B. Weyland once said in the game.
And he is right.
You'll be playing "Rookie". The one and only who is able to survive BG-386, without getting badly harmed by the threats he has to face on this rentless planet.
Maybe BG-386 would have been a nice colony, but Weyland-Yutani is a corporation who knows best how to ♥♥♥♥ things up.

So, it all depends on YOU (the player) if poor Rookie is able to make it through.

To make things easier, here is my example playthrough.
I haven't cut anything out except unnecessary time consumptions, so you should be aware of all paths I took and all tactics which got me through and all fails I survived.

Be sure to check it out on Youtube either, as there, the time index in the description can be used to easily find various collectibles and starts of levels.

I've copied the index and the personal comments to here too, but the links to the respective times don't work of course. That's a Youtube feature.
I could put URLs into any time code here, but that would end up in opening a tab after a tab for any click... Which appears a bit dumb to me except if you want to farm clicks. :P
In addition: I recommend to read some of the respective information about weapons, enemies, etc. which I add below this section. At least if you're totally new and think any hint might help you, as a video might often be a bit too quick.

0:31 INTRO
1:52 Colonial Marines arrival

4:28 MISSION #1 - Colony
9:05 First audio diary
10:15 Second audio diary
10:39 Third audio diary
10:59 Fourth audio diary
11:30 Fifth audio diary
11:44 Sixth audio diary
12:15 Seventh audio diary
12:41 Eighth audio diary
15:00 Ninth audio diary
15:34 Tenth audio diary
18:56 Eleventh audio diary
19:47 Twelfth audio diary
24:38 Thirteenth audio diary
25:04 Fourteenth audio diary
25:52 Fifteenth audio diary

26:52 MISSION #2 - Refinery
27:05 First audio diary
28:25 Second audio diary
29:00 Third audio diary
30:47 Fourth audio diary
32:26 Fifth audio diary
34:14 Sixth audio diary
35:13 Seventh audio diary
37:00 Eighth audio diary
39:00 Ninth audio diary
42:07 Tenth audio diary
44:05 Eleventh audio diary
45:00 Twelfth audio diary

49:00 MISSION #3 - Jungle
49:03 First audio diary
49:48 Second audio dairy
51:00 Third audio dairy
51:38 Fourth audio diary
51:52 Fifth audio diary
53:07 Sixth audio diary
54:13 Seventh audio diary
56:00 Eighth audio diary
56:40 Ninth audio diary
56:56 Tenth audio diary
57:30 Eleventh audio dairy
59:00 Twelfth audio diary
1:00:25 Thirteenth audio diary
1:02:00 Fourteenth audio diary

1:04:06 MISSION #4 - Ruins
1:04:08 First audio diary
1:04:35 Second audio diary
1:05:20 Third audio diary
1:05:45 Fourth audio diary
1:08:20 Fifth audio diary
1:11:03 Sixth audio diary
1:12:20 Seventh audio diary
1:13:52 Eight audio diary
1:16:55 Ninth audio diary
1:18:37 Tenth audio diary
1:18:50 Eleventh audio diary
1:21:13 Twelfth audio diary
1:24:44 Thirteenth audio diary

1:28:21 MISSION #5 - Research Lab
1:30:18 First audio diary
1:34:03 Second audio diary
1:36:30 Third audio diary
1:43:08 Fourth audio diary
1:43:29 Fifth audio diary
1:44:01 Sixth audio diary
1:45:13 Seventh audio diary
1:47:54 Eighth audio diary
1:50:35 Ninth audio diary

1:53:03 MISSION #6 - Pyramid
1:53:38 First audio diary
1:54:03 Second audio diary
1:59:30 Third audio diary
2:03:04 Fourth audio diary

2:04:58 OUTRO


Personal comments:
1:14:38
I literally tried to punch that annoying bugger to death, but it took me too long so I rather gave it a shot. :P

1:19:48
Worst use of grenades ever!
Clearly, I got disappointed about those misses, as I started to mess around with the pred pretty badly afterwards. XD

1:56:20
A suicide commiting praetorian was probably the most hilarious thing ever happend to me in this game. ^^

Marine: Motion Tracker

HELP! I hear weird TOCK, TOCK, TOCK noises every second and sometimes weird BEEPS.
No worries, it's just your motion tracker.
As long as you hear only that TOCK, TOCK, TOCK it means your motion tracker sends out ultrasound waves and uses doppler-shift discrimination to filter out moving objects from stationary background.
A BEEP should render you cautious, as it means there has something moved nearby. However, the motion tracker also BEEPS when doors or debris is moving. So don't rely to it for 100%.
The tracker is integrated into the armor of marines.
Beside of that marines also have an Identification Friend Foe (IFF) transponder as part of their armor, which renders them "immune" to the motion tracker. Still they will be marked as X on the digital tracking screen, so you'll be aware when friends are around (which isn't often the case).
The tracking screen is part of the HUD, as seen in the screenshot.
Here are multiple moving contacts, and the tracker shows the distance to the nearest one which is 4.7 metres away. None of them is a threat, which brings me back to unreliability of the device. Still it may be handy in various occasions, especially to find an alien which jumped onto the ceiling, thus make them hard to be spotted, without any hint. While the tracker also detects movement in your back, it won't be displayed as only a half circle is shown. So if you hear a BEEP, but have no dots on your tracking HUD element, turn around.
Furthermore, when it beeps and you are already aware that enemies may be near, it's a good tactic to start blocking and check the area.
Just stay calm and don't freak out. Since with the following tips, you should be able to get a marine warmachine.

Marine: Blocking

Yes, I am serious. Blocking is an important move even if you're a tiny marine.
If you think you can play through nightmare without blocking, you should rather play on easy otherwise you will have a bad time.
You may ask, when it is good to block? Well here are some screenshots:
In picture 1 it's pretty obvious: Regardless if they raise their left or right hand, all you have to do is blocking. Be aware, that blocking will cancel any attemp of reloading your weapon. So be sure to determine if you are fine with blocking. I often ♥♥♥♥♥♥ this up myself, when I rather wanted some bullets in my gun aside of blocking a weak attack. BUT! Aliens normally make a combination of two weak punches. Left-right or right-left combo. So if they punch you once, they may punch you another time, if you don't start to block (which might lead them to perform a strong attack).
Picture 2: After you successfully blocked, you should do that what you also do when an alien performs a strong attack: PUNCH! It will stun the alien for half a second on nightmare, but that's still good time to turn around and run, for making a fair distance to quickly reload (or rush into another alien *faints*). PRO TIP: Try to walk backwards, when an alien performs weak attacks and you're actually about to reload. If you can make enough distance, the alien won't hit you even if it performs a weak combo attack and you may be able to finish reloading unharmed. But be sure there is no wall behind you. ;)
Here are two example pictures:










In the left one, the alien performed a weak swing with its left arm, in the right one with its right arm.
Both missed, as I moved Rookie backwards. Unfortunately the next weak attack was a hit and I still hadn't reloaded. XD
Now the last picture is a bit blurry (I had motion blur on) and dark, but this was the quickest way to find an example of the infamous "jump attack". This attack can be blocked too. In that case, it wasn't necessary as Rookie was out of range (lol, stupid alien ^^). However, it's mostly used as "guidance attack", when another alien is actually actively attacking the player. But sometimes even single drones surprise with this attack. My Rookie got a nice jump punch from an alien in the railway station of the Research Lab, as far as I can remember. So be careful about aliens, which are climbing on walls.
Anyways, it does the same damage as a regular weak attack, so it should be blocked if possible.
Be sure: You need to face an attacking enemy for being able to block any of its weak attacks.

Marine: Punching

Yes I am serious again. You need to punch your enemies, except androids. They need to be shot, otherwise they shoot you. :P
And rather don't get too close to Praetorians either... At least on nightmare.
However, facing a single alien isn't a big threat, when you already know how to block. Now with both this tricks, your enemy shouldn't be able to hurt you at least if you got the correct timing.
Here are some pictures for good examples:
Picture 1: When an alien suddenly makes jazz hands, starts to hiss and opens its mouth, you know you should punch quickly, to break the performing of a strong attack. As the alien wants to deeply bite you with it's attack tongue. If you give any enemy the possibility to hit with a strong attack on nightmare, you did something wrong. However, those can be tricky situations. In the screen, I actually reloaded the pistol. If you perform a punch, you'll cancel the reload. So you have to evaluate if you want to be on the safe side, punch and try to reload again afterwards (while facing another attack probably), or wait until you have reloaded. It's your choice and your risk.
Picture 2 shows, that I was successful with reloading and still disturbing the strong attack with a punch, but don't expect this outcome in any situation. It highly depends on timing.

Picture 3 literally screams "come at me bro".
This is actually an unique stance for an alien. Whenever an alien has such a "come at me bro"-alike stance, also punch it. Since this is the second strong attack. It will perform a harsh headbutt, which has the same effect as the "attack tongue" strong attack and should be avoided at any cost.
So aliens with raised shoulders, hands on the side and the head a bit lowered = punch the acid out of them!
After any strong attack is interrupted, the alien will be stunned for half a second (nightmare). Make some distance to reload or walk backwards (out of acid splash damage) and nail it down with your gun, if you still have ammo.

Marine: Weapons

(I've registered on photobucket just to give this photo a like. Please do that either.)[s293.photobucket.com]

The holy grail of the corps.
Bug hunting would be a real pain in the ass, without some proper firearms.
Here are all 6 listed:

VP78 Pistol

Comment: Unlimited ammo, bro!
Primary fire mode: Semiautomatic
Secondary fire mode: 3 shot burst
Magazine size: 18
Strength: Weak
If you're an ammo hoarder, you'll love this gun. As even if it needs to be reloaded, it never will run out of ammo. It can be very useful even against attacking aliens. If you deal enough damage you also can interrupt strong and even weak attacks of regular aliens. But don't rely on that to 100%, as you need to hit weak spots or deal enough damage to make this gun a good defense tool. If in doubt, rather block or punch. But you may be more successful in interrupting an attacking enemy with the burst mode. Furthermore, as for any firearm DO NOT use in real close combat. Sometimes you may be lucky. A headshot to an alien and you get not a single acid drop onto your Rookie. But sometimes it can even kill your marine.
If you're shooting, be sure that your enemies are in a safe distance. ;)

M41A/2 Pulse Rifle

Comment: Remember, short controlled bursts.
Primary fire mode: Fully-automatic
Secondary fire mode: (Gre)nades
Magazine size: 99 primary, 4 secondary
Strength: Moderate (primary), heavy (secondary)
Colonial Marines best friend. The clip size of 99 rounds (and a digital ammunition counter) is the trade mark of this weapon. However, even if this weapon is fully automatic, the accuracy is pretty poor, when rapid fire is used. Short bursts are the key for very good accuracy on long ranges.
If enemies are closer, the trigger can be pulled a lot longer of course.
It also is an excellent counter weapon against attacking enemies. Mostly the attack can be interrupted by a few bullets into vital systems. But be careful when aiming onto the head, as splash damage might harm your own marine too.
The grenade launcher should be used with caution, as it can damage or even kill Rookie. Furthermore, I hate nade launchers for myself, as I mostly suck with them.
However, it's a superb fire mode if you want to clear your way quickly or even if you want to damage a boss badly.

ZX-76 Shotgun

Comment: I like to keep this handy... for close encounters.
Primary fire mode: One barrel fires
Secondary fire mode: Both barrels fire
Magazine size: 8
Strength: Strong (one shot), heavy (double shot)
Actually it is meant to use this gun in close encounters, but not too close. Since as always, the splash damage of a bursting alien head shouldn't be underestimated. With a good aim onto vital parts of an enemy, the regular fire mode (one shot) is enough to kill your enemy.
The secondary mode (double shot) is against bosses, as this will unleash the true power of the gun. If all bullets of double shot hit, this gun can deal even more damage than a grenade.
The bullet spread is pretty high, so don't expect much damage on longer ranges (except your name is Karl Bishop Weyland -.-).

M42C Scoped Rifle

Comment: You actually have to hit.
Primary fire mode: Semiautomatic
Secondary fire mode: Zoom function
Magazine size: 6
Strength: Strong
Yeah, you have to hit with that thing. This can be said about any other weapon, but actually it's meant to perform single shots with this one.
If you use it in its semiautomatic way, you probably won't hit anything as the recoil is very harsh.
So, aim on the head of your target, be sure that it won't move and then pull the trigger once.
If you aim on a moving target, you need to predict when it will get into your aim and pull the trigger exactly at that time.
It's the #1 weapon against androids, but is of course effective against all kind of enemies (Though DO not waste ammunition on facehuggers).
If you use the secondary fire mode, you will just activate a zoom function, which is very advanced.
As enemies are outlined with a grey aura, so you can easily spot enemies which are hiding or even standing behind a wall. Beside of its strength (when you're able to hit :P), THIS is the big advantage of that rifle.
Gameplay notification: I haven't looked if there is a setting for, but you have to hold the secondary fire button to use the zoom. Maybe there is also an option to toggle the zoom function, but I haven't seen and neither needed it yet.

M59/B Smartgun

Comment: Fartgun
Primary fire mode: fully-automatic
Secondary fire mode: Switch between target assistance or free fire
Magazine size: 150
Strength: Strong
This gun has one of the funniest fire sounds, as it somehow remembers me of farts. *awkward*
However, it's a superior firearm, as in the target assistance mode, you can almost call it fire-and-forget. Since the weapon will automatically target the nearest alien (the one which is nearest to the middle of the screen) and all you have to do is shoot.
But similar as for the pulse rifle, rather shoot in bursts to have more accuracy and nail down your target quicker, without wasting too much ammo.
80 to 100 rounds are enough to even bring down a praetorian, which is good to know especially on the last level.
You can also switch to "free fire" mode, where the smartgun doesn't help you with aiming.
This can be useful, when there are more aliens around you and you want to control by yourself which one you want to attack. Sometimes the smartgun targets an alien which is farer away, but closer to the center of the screen, which is a bit awkward, when another one is nearby and already about to attack you. (Not so smart gun!) But don't forget that you can block and punch with this gun either. ;)

M260B Flamethrower

Comment: Last and probably least?
Primary fire mode: Throwing flames
Secondary fire mode: Spraying fuel
Magazine size: 250
Strength: Medium
First of all, I actually don't like it. This weapon isn't very handy on nightmare as aliens turn into burning explosives, which can easily harm your marine or even kill him as of massive splash damage. Even if aliens get inflamed pretty quickly (which makes them screaming and crawling on the floor), it's not a good idea to use it in close quarters. As already said the splash damage is intense when an alien dies / explodes of this weapon.
However, the secondary fire mode brings some nice tactic to it. You can spray fuel onto the ground for making a wall of fire, as soon as that fuel is inflamed.
So if you make a "way of fire" before an alien reaches you and ignite it, at the moment the alien runs over that way, it may result in a quick death of the creature. Still, ANY alien will explode as of the fire damage which leaves a big pile of acid on the ground.
Therefore I personally don't recommend to use it on nightmare, but it's up to you, how you want to play.

Marine: Enemies (Xenomorph)

BG-386... Contains a tomb of a Yautja (this is how the Predator race is called) warrior lord. In this tomb, there is also an alien queen captured.
And Weyland-Yutani messes around with combat andoids either, so this is all but a nice ride for a poor Colonial Marine.
In the following sections, I list the enemies you will have to face:

Ovomorph / Egg (Xenomorph)

Actually the term "alien" (I've used often in this guide), is just a term under which the complete species of Xenomorphs is colloquially known. Xenomorphs are an endoparasitoid organism, which only live to serve their hive, respective their queen. They kill any lifeform which might be a threat to their hive and capture potential hosts to breed new Xenomorphs.
Anyways, I'll continue to use the term "alien", as it is well known for this kind of creatures. :P
Back to the ovomorph or actually known as egg: It is the first state of the Xenomorph life cycle. It isn't really a threat, especially if it is empty. But if it doesn't appear as "open" (indicated by the 4 triangles stick out from the upper side of the egg) it is hermetically sealed and contains a facehugger. The egg opens itself, when potential hosts are nearby or when the egg is damaged.
Try to shoot closed eggs, before the facehugger emerges and you're good to go. Otherwise, immediately deal with that bugger! I failed in that screen to destroy the egg in time. :(

Facehugger (Xenomorph)

The facehugger is the second state of the alien life cycle, which emerges from an egg. Its only purpose is to find hosts and attach itself to the mouth of a host, which renders the victim unconscious. The facehugger will provide oxygen by implementing a proboscis into the mouth of the victim. Beside of providing oxygen, it will impregnate the host with a chestburster. The "baby form" of an alien warrior, drone, etc.
Sidenote: Actually there are two proboscis'. One goes through the nose and provide oxygen, the other through the mouth for impregnation. At least this is how it was originally designed. However, that would be difficult for other species than humans, since predators don't seem to have a nose. :/
After that process is done, the facehugger falls off of its victim and dies.
The chestburster has a snake-like form and will resist the digestive acid of the host's stomach. Actually it also overtakes some of the host's DNA structure, during the ripening process. If the chestburster is fully grown, it will burst through the chest of its host, which is actually the reason for its name. (I don't say?)
But back to the facehugger, as you won't have to deal with chestbursters anyways.
The facehugger is a HUGE threat, as it will take away 2 full health bars when it is attacking and leaves only a small stripe left of the last bar. Any further attack will result in getting your marine impregnated = death. Use your pistol with single shots (not the burst) to maximize your accuracy. Only two hits are necessary to kill the facehugger, so don't waste ammo if you haven't an army of facehuggers against you (like at the end of Mission #2 - Refinery).
PS: The marine in my example picture has no life left, so yeah... He is history. :/

Drone / warrior (Xenomorph)

Even if drones and warriors may appear a bit different and have also different resistance, they share the same attack pattern, so I will sum them up.
When you're playing the marine, they only have their claws for weak attacks and attack tongue or their headbutt for strong attacks.
Furthermore they can perform jump attacks from a wall, which aren't directly aimed. The alien rather jumps away from the wall and put its hand out against Rookie. This attack can be blocked, but you may often forget it as they perform that attack not very often.
Interesting AI behavior: If you have a pack of aliens against your marine, he will be targeted only by ONE alien as its primary target. Means the alien gets up on two feet and is chasing your marine for weak and strong attacks.
Other aliens which might be around don't interfere as long as your current enemy don't get killed or retreats to give another one of its pack the priority to actively attack your marine.
However, the "passive" aliens around you aren't that passive at all since they still might perform weak jump attacks which can be very disturbing together with the fact that you actually get nailed by weak and strong attacks of the bugger who put you as its high priority target. Funny fact: Even praetorians go into "passive mode", when you're in a nice distance to the praetorian and another alien makes you to its primary target.
A weakness is their head. If you're able to shoot it off, they're dead immediately. But it's gonna end in an acid mess, so be sure to stay out of range.
Another good tactic is shooting their legs off. If you manage to detach one leg, the alien will be crawling, like seen here in the picture below:
Be sure to stay away from such a crawling alien. As if you get too close, it will trigger an animation where it grabs one of your feet. Even if this will result in stomping on the aliens head to finally kill it, it still harms your marine.
The alien will bleed out while crawling, but it still lasts for a proper distance until it completely dies. Finish it off by shooting it or walk away and watch it die. *evil*

Runner respective jungle alien (Xenomorph)

The runner or jungle alien as called in this game, is the result of a facehugger attaching to various wild life. It's faster and more agile than Xenomorphs which had humans as host, but weaker. It also appears to be a bit more brownish, which makes it harder to be spotted on trees for example. It also lacks of thorns on its back, as the aliens bred by a human host. Even if its attack pattern is similar to the ones of the drones or warriors, it has an additional attack:
It can spit acid over a long range, with pretty good accuracy.
This might also be the reason, why this alien form seems to create more splash damage with its acid when getting killed (especially when their head is shot off).
Keep your marine moving, to avoid the long range attacks with their acid.
Best bet in wide, open areas like the jungle or the cave at the start of Mission #4 - Ruins would be to scan the area with the scoped rifle. One shot of that rifle should be enough to deal with them. Runners seem to seek the distance for being able to spit acid, when not very close to the marine. So the scoped rifle is probably the best recommendation against those buggers.
Of course you can defeat them easily with the pistol either, when you don't want to waste ammo.

Marine: Enemies (Xeno & Weyland)

Praetorian (Xenomorph)

The praetorian is one of the last states in an alien life cycle. They're protectors of the hive and if the queen got killed, they may be able to emerge into a queen themselves.
The first praetorian you encounter as marine, will actually also be a boss (by having a health bar shown on the HUD). Use grenades to bring it onto the ground and then quickly switch to the shotgun for a double shot. BUT, always be sure to keep a distance. Do not try to block or punch it as you won't be successful with those tricks on a praetorian.
Sometimes, it starts a "tackle attack", by jumping onto all fours and ambushing your marine. Try to avoid that attack quickly.
Rather circle things (containers) and completely move away from the battle field if you have to reload (at least if there is a secure possibility for). If you have 4 nades and a fully loaded shotgun, you should bring it down pretty quick.
Do not bother much about the other aliens summoned by the praetorian as they will leave as soon as their lord is dead.
While the boss praetorian on the end of Mission #5 - Research Lab is pretty easy to defeat with nades and the shotgun, you've to face TWO praetorians on the next level.
The best tactic in that case would be to spare the automated turret and quickly get BOTH smartguns. One is leaning at the socket of a Yautja (predator) statue, the other is nearby the automated turret in front of the start of the bridge way.
With a fully packed smartgun, change back to your pistol and RUN over the bridge to the end of it, where the aliens will attack. As soon as you get close to the aliens, switch to the smartgun and mow your way through them. Go upstairs to the big door and hold your position there, by using the smartgun to kill any bugger. Don't forget to reload, when there is a good timeframe for and try to shoot in bursts to save ammo.
After you killed the last alien, immediately reload again. The big door will now open and two praetorians are behind it. If you have 80 to 100 rounds in the smartgun left, open fire on one of that beasts and you should be able to bring it down. Damage the other praetorian if possible, so it will summon a few minor aliens. NOW QUICKLY switch back to pistol and run the way back to the place with the 6 Yautja (predator) statues. Check if the last praetorian is following you or still waiting at the end of the stairs (which he will do, when regular drones are targeting you).
In my playthrough I ♥♥♥♥♥♥ it up, as I hadn't checked if the praetorian is following me.
Basically, switch back to your pulse rifle and the sniper (located on the floor where you picked up the first smartgun). When there are only regular aliens around you, this shouldn't be as frantic, as if the praetorian is chasing you.
If you face the bridge way, there are grenades located near the statues on your right. Take them to be fully preparded for the last praetorian.
I had weird luck in my playthrough as it rather commited suicide than fighting a fully geared Rookie. Don't expect that outcome for you too. Was the first time this happend. ^^
On the other side, you may be able to throw the praetorian over the edge, by making him fall using a grenade explosion.

Queen

The alien queen rules one hive of Xenomorphs. It issues orders to all lower Xenomorphs through the hive mind.
Basically you DON'T have to deal with the beast directly, as it is stuck to its ovipositor or egg sac (funnily Dr. Groves calls it "ovithorax" in his 12th audio diary entry which I have linked here). If the queen would detach the sac, Rookie would be ♥♥♥♥♥♥. :O
Wait, where are the praetorians, who are supposed to protect the queen in this state???
Lol, JK. :P
Be glad that there is only a fair amount of closed eggs. Full of facehuggers.
I counsel to waste some ammo of your pulse rifle for killing as much closed eggs as possible.
And regardless if Tequila is this mad to say "Forget about the eggs!", you DO NOT FORGET ABOUT THE EGGS! Except if you like to get facehugged.
Tequila is heating up the oven and want you to pull a lever, for making some fire under the queens ass. So after there are no facehuggers left (don't waste time on opened eggs), pull it.
BAMM! Now that didn't work pretty well. But the containers at the left and right of the queen are glowing now. Shoot on them or use nades to be cool... Or not if you fear to miss and go so near, to get yourself a blow. *awkward*
However, destroy them quickly after you pulled the lever, as simple Xenomorph warriors will start to ambush Rookie.
After some time, Tequila fired up the oven again. Pull the lever a last time to finish the queen.

Combat android (Weyland-Yutani)

Artificial persons, synthetics or just androids. Some like Katya appear to be pretty nice. But those combat android turds are lifeless, yet dangerous killing machines. The picture shows actually how you should prefer them. Headless...
This isn't just funny to watch but there are also other major differences to a combat android with a head:

1. Their aim is pretty bad.
   
2. They make weird noises. *awkward*
   
3. They don't discharge after their death.
   
4. The stealth system of the advanced combat androids in the room shortly before facing Weyland doesn't work anymore. (Which doesn't matter much as long as you use the scoped rifle.)

So this is why you should prefer them without heads. Still they're threats, without their heads.
Therefore, go after their legs as shown in the pictures below:










Even if it is a bad example as I wasted more than a full clip on one android (1 shot for the head, 2 shots for each leg, should end with 1 shot left in the current clip), it still shows the most efficient tactic.
Hits into the body don't do as much damage and it may end up in wasting even more than 5 shots.
If the head of the androids isn't removed, they send out an energy wave by discharging all their systems, as seen in the pictures below:









The left picture shows with which nice animations Rookie gets shocked. Somehow they forgot to implement damage, as your marine will take none.
Neither will take Tequila as seen in the right picture. They should have implemented something, that drives the player to be a bit more protective about her. Like the chestburster emerges when she is hitten by such a shock and game over man, game over!

Marine: Enemies (Weyland & Yautja)

Karl Bishop Weyland (Weyland-Yutani)

The new term for ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Even if he is filled with the knowledge back to Charles Bishop Weyland his so-called "template", he doesn't have any sense for humanity.
He isn't as "fragile" as a combat android, so be sure to use the double shot of the shotgun. Immediately start to sprint as soon as you left the last room, where you fought advanced combat androids (those with stealth).
As even if it can be considered as unfair he might one-shot you at the moment you go up the stairs. Sprinting to there often helped me to avoid this nasty "start".
Try to quickly localize him and hide behind one of the statues located left and right on the top of the stairway. Use those statues to circle around and let Weylands AI freak a bit out of your tactic (sometimes he really seems to be blind). Switch between the statues to get a safer distance and watch him coming closer, to fully predict his next steps. As it might be awkward if he turns around, while you circle a statue and you run into his shotgun shots.
Weyland uses the double shot of the shotgun and somehow, he can land very ridiculous hits.
Therefore be sure to always have the control when you attack him and retreat immediately by using the current statue as cover to get away, then sprinting to the one on the other side and use that one as cover.
He is pretty easy with this cautious tactic.
The WORST PART comes, after you already defeated him. When you get his datapad, he will ambush Rookie and throw him down the stars. Now both, your marine and Weyland will get up on their feet at the same moment. This triggers a quick-time event, where you have to shoot Weylands head with one shot of your pistol. On nightmare, the timeframe is ridiculously low.
If you wait a bit more than one second, you're dead.
If you miss with your first shot, you're dead.
Try to aim as close to his head as possible, as soon as you are allowed to change the view with your mouse (the crosshair haven't appeared yet). After the crosshair appears, correct your aim, by quickly moving the crosshair onto his had and SHOOT IMMEDIATELY. Honestly, this is actually the badest part of the marine campaign. Everything else depends on skill and tactic, here it's just a timing thing which often ends up very unfair.

Predator / hunter (Yautja)

The so-called predator or hunter is a member of the Yautja species. An intelligent but brute humanoid life form. They live for the hunt and the honor, and you can bet that Xenomorphs are their most honorable hunt. Their technology is superior compared to the one of the humankind and they are sent to wipe out the tomb of any enemies and bring back the ancient relicts.
You'll have the first dangerous encounter with a predator on Mission #3 - Jungle. There, the predator doesn't actively chase you, but rather uses his plasma caster, which is even worse.
Answer with a few hits of your scoped rifle and he will retreat.
The actual boss fight is on Mission #4 - Ruins. BE PREPARED! After you cleared the area where you got the smart gun, a marine will ask you to follow him for rescuing Tequila. DO NOT FOLLOW HIM, until you haven't switched your weapons to pulse rifle with full grenades (there are laying a few nades around at the construction site of the).
IMPORTANT: DO NOT DROP (by switching to another weapon) your pulse rifle, when you already have 4 grenades as you will lose them. And if there are no more nades around, you will end up not fully geared.
Next, be sure to have the scoped rifle beside of the pulse rifle. It will help you a lot!
At the begin of the battle the pred will rather target you with his plasma caster, then attack directly by chasing you (with stealth device active!)
To make things quick, shoot (AND HIT!) with the grenades the first time he is somewhere high and uses his plasma caster. If you dealt enough damage, the pred will lose it's "first health bar (blue)" and runs to a socket near the end of the arena (not the way you came from).
On this socket he heals his "first health bar (blue)" completely.
In the time, where the blue health bar is down, you need to damage which lowers the "second health bar (red)". The pred is dead, when red health bar is down.
As I missed with my grenades pretty bad, I got into the situation to mess around with the pred.
Which gave me the opportunity for some nice screens and additional tactics.
The left bad picture shows the pred when it performs a jump attack, which can be blocked. A good notification for a jump attack is, that the pred starts to growl, even when he is out of range for a strong attack.
The right bad picture shows the pred performing a weak swing with his wrist blades. That can be blocked either (sparkly block :/).
Don't forget to punch the pred after a successful block. Weirdly you will sweep it off it's feet, even if you aren't able to punch down tiny aliens.
In term of strong attacks:
The left picture shows the pred, performing a strong attack. Another indication is, that he is near for a close range attack and starts to growl. DO NOT mistake his jump attack with a heavy one, even if he growls during performing that one either.
The right picture shows a good counter of that heavy attack, before it was performed.
However, the pred is much more agile and quick than aliens (which actually doesn't make much sense). His weak attacks are very fast and even his heavy attacks are faster than the ones of the aliens. That also lead to the situation where I punched the pred down, but his heavy still hit my marine and punched it down either. XD
Last but not least, the fuel canisters and gas tanks: The arena has many such explosive stuff laying around. The last bad picture shows that a pred can be damaged badly by such explosions, so this adds also a bit tactic to the boss fight and may spare your grenades (especially if you cannot hit with them *awkward*).

The Alien Campaign

I previously clarified in the marine guide already, what it is with the "alien". They're actually described as Xenomorphs. Endoparasitoid organisms, starting as egg which contains a facehugger.
The facehugger is "pregnant" with a larva that needs to get attached into the digestive system of a living being. So the facehugger jumps onto the host and paralyzes it, for being able to impregnate the host with the larva. After that process the facehugger dies. That larva will overtake a few DNA structures of the host body to grow.
As soon as the larva or "chestburster" is fully grown it will violently emerge from the host body, ultimately killing the host, while it is "giving birth".

The mad scientists of Weyland-Yutani don't value human lifes that much. You will get the control of Six. An alien, which is bred by a poor colonist.
Six seems to be different, as she is more intelligent than the other Xenomorph drones (her sisters).
So no wonder that she will get contacted directly by the Queen for receiving orders to break out.

Even if it didn't go that well at the first time, a total electricity failure after K. B. Weyland opened the pyramid leads to the escape of Six...

2:45 TUTORIAL

7:22 MISSION #1 - Research Lab
8:25 First Royal Jelly container
8:35 Second Royal Jelly container
8:57 Third Royal Jelly container
9:08 Fourth Royal Jelly container
9:22 Fifth Royal Jelly container
9:25 Sixth Royal Jelly container
9:40 Seventh Royal Jelly container
10:00 Eighth Royal Jelly container
10:04 Ninth Royal Jelly container
10:12 Tenth Royal Jelly container

12:43 MISSION #2 - Colony
15:12 First Royal Jelly container
15:45 Second Royal Jelly container
16:15 1st impregnated civilian
16:42 Third Royal Jelly container
16:53 Fourth Royal Jelly container
17:25 Fifth Royal Jelly container
17:28 Sixth Royal Jelly container
17:35 2nd impregnated civilian
17:47 Seventh Royal Jelly container
18:02 Eighth Royal Jelly container
19:42 3rd impregnated civilian
19:55 Ninth Royal Jelly container
19:59 Tenth Royal Jelly container

20:28 MISSION #3 - Refinery
20:42 1st impregnated civilian
20:51 2nd impregnated civilian
21:25 First Royal Jelly container
21:28 Second Royal Jelly container
21:42 3rd impregnated civilian
21:54 Third Royal Jelly container
22:50 4th impregnated civilian
23:05 Fourth Royal Jelly container
23:14 5th impregnated civilian
23:56 6th impregnated civilian
24:07 Fifth Royal Jelly container
24:09 Sixth Royal Jelly container
24:14 Seventh Royal Jelly container
24:30 7th impregnated civilian
25:09 Eighth Royal Jelly container
25:29 8th impregnated civilian
25:43 Ninth Royal Jelly container
25:47 Tenth Royal Jelly container

26:14 MISSION #4 - Jungle
27:13 First Royal Jelly container
27:25 1st impregnated civilian
28:24 Second Royal Jelly container
29:08 2nd impregnated civilian
29:16 Third Royal Jelly container
29:32 Fourth Royal Jelly container
29:37 Fifth Royal Jelly container
29:43 Sixth Royal Jelly container
29:49 3rd impregnated civilian
30:13 Seventh Royal Jelly container
31:11 Eighth Royal Jelly container
31:32 Ninth Royal Jelly container
31:39 Tenth Royal Jelly container
32:37 4th impregnated civilian

34:08 MISSION #5 - Ruins
34:36 First Royal Jelly container
34:42 Second Royal Jelly container
34:50 1st impregnated civilian
35:09 2nd impregnated civilian
35:20 Third Royal Jelly container
35:58 3rd impregnated civilian
37:08 Fourth Royal Jelly container
37:23 4th impregnated civilian
37:42 Fifth Royal Jelly container
37:59 5th impregnated civilian
38:12 Sixth Royal Jelly container
38:37 6th impregnated civilian
38:48 7th impregnated civilian
39:50 Seventh Royal Jelly container
39:56 Eighth Royal Jelly container
40:06 Ninth Royal Jelly container
40:15 Tenth Royal Jelly container


Personal comments:
37:52
Queen lucker.

38:33
Queen awkward.

Alien: Movement

Movement? What's so important about???
Well, you played marine already, no? He just can run around at always the same ground level. Sometimes climbing up to a higher level or falling down to a lower level (with fall damage included if it is too high), still he sticks to the "ground".
As seen in the left picture you're able to walk over any surface with your alien. This may be very confusing in case of high speed maneuvers, but as soon as you got used to it, THAT'S a big advantage exclusively for the alien. Beside of the button which makes you able to walk on the wall you can even aim with your crosshair onto the ceiling or any other surface nearby. If the crosshair turns green and appears as a long stripe with 3 spikes, you should be able to jump onto the surface you're pointing to.
But don't think you're 100% invisible, just because you're on the ceiling. It's true, enemies will hardly see you, especially if you use the WALK function. BUT, if they spotted you, before you jump onto the ceiling for example, they will be able to track you like seen in the image on the right.
In such cases you should bring your alien out of the heat or immediately attack the attacker.
However, in the case of a group of enemies, retreat may be a good option as your alien lacks of ANY long range attacks.
Even if the ranged weak attack may be considered as "long range attack", but as you move your alien into the middle of the battle and - even worse - the attack might be blocked, you may end up in seeking another tactic than just brute force and rentlessly attacking.
That's also pretty necessary especially for nightmare, while you can just mow through your enemies on easy.

Alien: Hiss

The HISS function is an outstandingly useful tactic indispensable on nightmare. If you use it once, you may distract a single marine of a whole group, coming right to the place where you let your alien perform the hiss.
Aliens can sense the nerve system of other life forms or even the synhtetic system of artifical life forms at a short distance, but even through walls. So this should make you always aware about, when an enemy is attracted by your hiss and where it is moving.
But be careful when you wait for your prey moving exactly to the point where you want it to be.
While investigating the noise, marines are at extreme caution, so you definitely should near yourself at the back of your victim. Even better, as you may be able to perform a steath kill, which will kill your prey, without alarming other marines.
If no marine is reacting, move a bit closer and try again.
When there is enough room to lure a single marine far away from his / her fellow soldiers, you should be able to take out all of them without even getting harmed.

Alien: Blocking

Is rather useful for multiplayer or lower difficulty as you are able to block weak predator cuts, probably even on medium?
Here on nightmare it's not really useful, as marines rather shoot than punch you and you will have hard times trying to block an attack of a predator.

I don't think I've any example for blocking either recorded in my playthrough as it is literally not needed on nightmare.
Which actually makes the pred much more interesting to be played. :P
I define alien as the "coward species" here, as avoiding fights and killing silently is much more desired than open combat.

Alien: Weak attacks

Are the ones you probably shouldn't use that often.
Especially, YOU SHOULD NOT start a combat with those attacks, at least if the victim is already aware of your alien. As on nightmare, marines love to block your weak attacks and make you look like a fool.

Close combat: Weak punch

Like seen in the picture at the left, there I was the fool. So, you're good with dizzying unaware enemies with weak punches. You can also punch another time (two hit combo), before the marine may start to block your attacks.
Anyways, do NOT waste time with a second weak attack. Rather try to perform a strong attack while circling around your enemy, to cause much damage and the possibility to stun your victim even longer than with a weak attack. Furthermore finishing grabs are possible after you hit your victim with a strong attack.
However, as seen here in the right picture, after the marine blocked me like seen in the picture before, I used an emergency sprint after recovered from the block to quickly circle around my target and being able to let Six perform a stealth kill. This is an infamous tactic especially on multiplayer, but I'll come to that later.

Distant combat: Weak jump attack

This one is even bader, especially against marines. Here is a good example, but only because it was the first enemy and just a poor Weyland-Yutani employee without proper training:
The left picture shows Six, while she is already attacking und the right picture shows the perfect outcome.
Be careful! Jump attacks are for luckers on nightmare, especially if you try them against marines.
Since sometimes, the marine isn't even aware of you, but still blocks your jump. Pretty awkward.
Anyways, the big advantage over a regular weak punch is, that you can overthrow your target.
Still that only works, if the target cannot block you. Otherwise, your alien might be overthrown...
Won't end that good. ;)
To perform such an attack, you need to press and hold the "focus" button, before you press the button for a weak attack. But if you look directly onto your enemy and press the JUMP button, you may also perform a weak jump attack.
Which is annoying especially on multiplayer as they mostly will block that attack, while you might only wanted to jump onto the ground nearby your enemy.
I wonder if there is a setting in the controls which turn that auto-performing for the jump attack off.

Alien: Wall tail attack

Another infamous move of the alien, especially on multiplayer.
I consider it as fair, but they could have reduced the aim assistance in mutliplayer so it is rather more based on skill. Indeed, for hitting enemies which are at the end of the range the tail can reach, needs to be aimed pretty well. If you're good with the wall tail you can even "one-tail attack" enemies. Means you probably cut their head off with one blow.
DO NOT try this here, as the health of marines will give you the creeps.
On multiplayer, a marine can only survive two very bad hits with the tail, in a row.
The third one should kill it
But here, they are rather for tactic than really killing an enemy (except if the prey is alone and you want to waste Six' time :P).
Pictures are worth a thousands of words (especially about the quality. :P)...
Any enemy can be attacked with a wall tail attack. It's probably one of the most effective attacks, as you make yourself also a hard target. Move around or even try to sprint over an enemy group and hit one with a wall tail.
For marines there are different outcomes of a hit:

• A marine is shortly stunned (bad hit)
  
• A marine is swept off its feet, but recovers pretty fast (medium hit)
  
• A marine is swept off its feet and recovers very slow (good hit)

So let's say you have 3 enemies. Perfect tactic would be to give 2 of them a good hit with the wall tail attack and circle grab (I'll get to that later) the thrid one. The animation of a circle grab is short enough for getting away before the other two recovered.
Try to kill one of the recovering marines with two heavys and grab the last one (if he is already on feet again, circle grab him). Depending on your skill this might had end good or bad, but probably might be one of the quickest ways to get rid of them.
However, if you want to be on the save side, lure one of them away with a HISS and kill him silently. Afterwards rush to the other two and try to give them good hits with the wall tail attack or at least one a good the other a medium.
Grab the medium one (as he will get faster on his feet, you will see that yourself) and afterwards you can deal with the one of the good hit, since he might not recovered.
However, if you couldn't land good hits after all, rushaway. The wall tail attack is also very good for hit and run tactic. If you can hit your enemies, but not good enough to even sweep them of their feed run away and recover your health.
Even androids can be swept off their feets, but be careful if you make a finishing grab, beside of a stealth grab. As they might still have enough health to fight you off and probably kill you.
So it's an effective attack as it can be performed safely especially if you attack over the brink, but beside of it's damage it may sweep enemies of their feet, unable to block this attack.
The Preds rather appear to be annoyed of the wall tail attacks on nightmare. Six just likes to hear them scream *evil*
Hint: Be sure to check what kind of weapons your enemies have. If one of them has a shotgun, you might rather lure that one away and kill him / her silently, instead of having him shooting on you in close range. ;)

Alien: Strong attack

In close combat this is your best bet to inflict massive damage against a single enemy and also stun it for 1 to 2 following weak attacks.
However, it's more efficient to spam another strong attack, since marines will survive 2 strong attacks.
Afterwards they should be dead with just one more weak punch.
But be aware, the strong attack needs some time to be built up before you can ram your alien's tail into your enemy. During that time, your alien is an easy target, so be careful.
A strong attack usually makes an enemy (marine and androids) tumbling, which opens up the possibility to perform a "finishing grab". Do not use those action, when there are more enemies around you, as they will shoot you to pieces, while your alien performs the finishing grab animation.
Basically it's pretty risky to launch a strong attack on nightmare, especially if your enemy is facing you.
Since the long time before you are able to strike with your alien's tail might be enough time to get killed. Especially if you think you need to act cool against shotgun enemies.
While a full shot may kill you immediately, a partial hit should cause enough damage to interrupt your strong attack.
So it's much more adviced to start with tactics, which make your marine enemy dizzy or even sweep it off its feet. Afterwards you're free to give it a shot with your Six' tail.
Unaware enemies may be also surprisingly hit by a tail attack, but rather NOT perform that strong attack, when you enemy is actively attacking you as that might end up pretty bad.
PRO TIP: You're able to make some small maneuvers during the performing of a strong attack.
Like hovering around or circling your enemy to get out of range. As soon as you press the button for a strong attack, combine it with the movement and even the sprint button.
You may investigate some good moves for you, even if it is still risky. Especially, it cannot be compared to the heavy walk / sprint attack of the Predator, since it's very easy to perform such an attack with a pred.
BUT, to make things fair, the range of the Predators heavy attack is poor compared to the range of the aliens tail. Which might be a reason why the alien's strong attack isn't as controlable as the one of the Pred.
BUT, the alien is rather be played vile and devious than with brute force, so you should go for grabs anway (at least in singleplayer on nightmare).

Alien: Finishing grab

The finishing grab is an immediate-kill animation.
Only performable, when your enemy is facing you and you're able to land a strong attack or sweep it off its feet. Indicated by the grab button is blended in (Default: "E"), you're now allowed to execute the animation.
So you can perform a finishing grab, after hitting with a strong attack and after sweeping the enemy off its feet by a wall tail attack or by a weak jump attack (as long as that one isn't blocked).
I literally haven't used that move very often, as it is a bit tricky. Lets get a bit more pictures:










In the left picture, I was able to throw that andoid down, by hitting him with Six' tail. A good wall tail attack over the edge.
Resulting in finish it off by a finishing grab in the right picture.
But this could have ended pretty bad, as a finishing grab isn't a 100% kill, especially against androids, as it actually "damages" the victim. If the damage isn't enough to render the victim dead, it can rather fight your grab off which may end up in the death of your lovely creature.
It's probably the main reason why I don't like this attack and I got very lucky in that case as if the wall tail attack hadn't caused enough damage Six would have been screwed.
One thing I can assure: If you perform a weak jump attack on an android (without it being able to block), you DEFINITELY don't want to finish grab that android as it definitely will survive it (when no damage was caused before).
I mean, after grabbing that one, I make Six throwing another android over the edge, after failing bad in close combat. ^^
Look what hits that white-blooded creep took! I really wonder why I was successful with performing a finish grab on the first android, but I guess the wall tail attack just was a pretty good hit.
I recommend to be cautious with this move, especially as the animations can take pretty long, rendering you an easy target.

Alien: Stealth grab / circle grab

There are actually two different kinds of such grabs. While one is the "real" stealth grab, the other can even be performed on an enemy which is aware of you and even attacking you. So rather call that "circle grab".

Stealth grab

This is it!
The most infamous move on multiplayer.
Here on singleplayer, you might love it as much as I do.
Sneak up on any marine or android and spam the grab button (Default: "E"), even if you're still climbing down the wall to the back of the enemy.
The action will be performed already then and it's a 100% kill, without giving your victim the possibility to counter you.
You may grab an enemy when you're on the ceiling and it's right below you in short distance, like seen in the right picture.
But be sure to make a good use of the WALK function, otherwise the prey may hear you and as soon as a flashlight is shining on you, the chance for a nice stealth grab are lowered pretty much.
The ceiling may also be a good option, when you're far away of the ground. Of course you cannot grab from that distance, but through that height you may get a perfect overview of the enemies around (especially in the garage on Mission #2 - Colony). Furthermore it's still possible to land good stealth grabs from those heights. Just position your alien directly above the victim (it shouldn't move or patroul, but be on a fix spot for at least the moment you fall down) like seen in the picture below on the left and detach your alien from the ceiling.
While you're falling down just start to hit the grab button and you should get to the outcome as seen in the right picture below.

Circle grab

Another variant of the stealth grab is the so-called "circle grab". Which means you perform a stealth grab onto an enemy which is facing you.
It's probably the most hated move on multiplayer...
This is actually pretty easy, when you have a good mouse (I don't know about controllers), as it involves a high-speed turn. Basically you sprint directly onto an enemy which stares towards your direction, pass it, then turn around and grab it. Aliens can sprint pretty long, so start to sprint when you're still out of detection range.
The enemy might get aware of your approach, but it still can end up as life saver.
Let's have a look onto the first map, where Six is breaking out. You literally have to face two combat androids at the end of the level which is pretty nasty as those are the most dangerous enemies from the human-side (even if they're not human themselves).
So the biggest ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that can happen is that you had a very nice start with that map but then get shot by one of the androids at the end.
Even if Six get backup by her sisters, they're mostly running targets for the androids. Good as distraction but nothing more.
If you miss to attack those androids, while they're busy with your creature's sisters you may get another tactic.
For myself it was pretty close either.
The left picture shows me already ambushing the android with Six.
The droid was already aware about the presence of Six, as I let her destroy the other one more or less in front of the first one's optical sensors, while it had to kill one of Six' siblings.
Luckily it had to reload and a pretty bad aim afterwards, otherwise I already might be dead. So I sprinted past that creepy white face, quickly turned around and pressed the grab button.
The right picture shows the successful outcome of that situation.
As shown in the "Alien: Weak attacks" section, you can also run around an enemy which blocked your punch if you're reaction quickly. Furthermore if your target shows you its shoulder, which makes it unable to block your attacks but also makes you unable to stealth grab it, punch it once weakly. That should give you half a second which is all time you need to get into position for a stealth grab.
But as always: Do NOT use a grab, when you're facing a whole group. The animation makes you very vulnerable without the possibility to retreat, until your actions are done. Rather grab seperated enemies

Alien: Enemies

I'll keep this short.
As playing with Six, you probably will face the least diversity of enemies.

Humans (Weyland-Yutani)

Ah yeah... As curious as annoying. As destructive as construcive. Any human has its own mind. No idea about something bigger, except of things they imagine and believe. Well, as alien you always have your queen in your mind. So your alien is never alone.
Beside of being tedious, some humans are of course very precious for your hive as they are perfect hosts for new sisters. Therefore keep a sense open for civilians, who can be facehugged. Your queen will be even more proud of Six.
However, a Colonial marine (still part of the company as Weyland-Yutani bought the corps) is of course something different than a Weyland-Yutani officier armed with a pistol.
As Colonial marines come with flame throwers, pulse rifles, shotguns and even smartguns.
So be cautious when facing marines, especially if they appear in groups. Be the sneaky and villainous creature you control and lure one of them into a trap, seperated by the fellow marines. Attack and retreat and repeat. As long as you make your alien a difficult target, you should have no problems as there are many tactics you can resort to as described in the sections above.

Combat androids (Weyland-Yutani)

Those are actually a fair match to the alien species. Created by human, but inhuman at all. They're cruel as they got programmed to kill. Similar as the hive mind, they receive orders by the people who control them. However, while your alien still has some individuality and can think in a creative way those androids were just created to obey orders mindlessly. No chance to envolve no chance to change their existence. Even if there are synthetic humans with an own personality those combat androids have none. They don't even have proper voice processors and sound rather like a computer on a halloween trip, than a human.
You will face two combat androids at the very end of the first level and those are actually the biggest threat in that level. Afterwards, you will only face them again in the last level. BUT there, you have a pack of them against you. Still they react in the same way as Colonial Marines, just be sure to be aware that they have way more health and are more cautious.
And they won't get killed by a finishing grab, when you punched them down with a weak jump attack. Well, they will block that attack anyways. :P
So be careful with what you're doing. A hit with the tail from the wall / ceiling might be the safest option to punch them down and grab them from behind.
You can of course also kill then with strong attacks when they're recovering from their fall, but try yourself how much hits your alien need to land in close combat without any grabbing.

Predator / hunter (Yautja)

WARNING: Do NOT seek close combat on ground. Do NOT try to block any attacks. Do NOT use weak punches or weak jump attacks.
That's it. Now to the actual tactic: As this is a boss fight, you cannot outrun your enemy.
You have to fight them, therfore do it carefully as at first, TWO predators are against Six.
Then Wolf appears and tries to hunt your alien down.
For the two predators pick one out and ALWAYS use your surrounding as the aliens advantage (therefore not the ground).
Climb up one of the blocks nearby the pred and hit him with wall tail attacks. Even if that rather looks like it only annoys the pred, it still gives nice damage.
However, the BEST TACTIC is to spam strong attacks against the preds. As they cannot recover fast enough, before you hit them with another strong attack.
So... Wait for the right moment, to jump down for close combat, even if I said you should not do that.
Well, it's difficult... You may do it, when you're absolutely sure that you will hit with a strong attack.
As soon as you achieved it, press the strong attack again.
BUT do not smash the button for the strong attack, rather press it shortly after you hit the pred with your first strong attack.
CAREFUL! Some of your alien's sisters will try to "help" Six out. But if they land a weak punch, they may cancel the stun of the predator caused by your strong hit.
Everytime the pred is attacking you, RETREAT IMMEDIATELY. Your alien is able to heal damage, so move around and try not to get hit by plasma (as the second pred will probably try to shoot you).
As soon as the first one is down, kill the other one with the same tactic of spamming strong attacks.
Then Wolf appears. He is pretty pissed and there are no siblings anymore which may "help" you out. So be sure that you're the major target of Wolf.
Try to hit with a strong attack and continue spamming those and even Wolf is history after being absolutely unable to attack or even counter any of your actions.
Boring boss fight, but hey, it's the easiest and in that case best tactic.
Strong attack, strong attack, strong attack, grab.
Unfortunately it takes waaaaaaaaaay more strong attacks. So type some text message while you continue to press that button for spamming strong attacks. LOL JK.

The Predator Campaign

The proud clan of Elites awaits you.
You've the honor to control Dark. A young blood Yautja.
Go with him through the rite of passage in form of a tutorial (even if it appears a bit weird that Yautja shoot their own statues *facepalm*) and afterwards onto a real hunt on BG-386.
As your Elite clan received a distress call from another young blood, Dark and two other young bloods are sent out to investigate the events on BG-386.

Yautja is the real name of the species refered as Predators or hunters.
Their homeworld is Yautja prime.

They have a aristocratic society, where the one with the best trophies is highly valued.
And their youngsters have to proof themselves on a true hunt, to bring their clan honor.
So as Dark, you need to do better than I did.
Missing with plasma, missing with disc, missing with combi stick... Well and the worst thing is when I like to get brute and even miss with my strong attacks. ^^

5:52 INTRO

7:39 MISSION #1 - Jungle
7:59 First trophy belt
8:20 Second trophy belt
10:00 Third trophy belt
11:02 Fourth trophy belt
12:22 Fifth trophy belt
12:40 Sixth trophy belt
13:40 Seventh trophy belt
15:45 Eighth trophy belt
18:15 Ninth trophy belt
19:42 Tenth trophy belt

22:11 MISSION #2 - Refinery
24:06 First trophy belt
25:40 Second trophy belt
26:46 Third trophy belt
29:22 Fourth trophy belt
29:54 Fifth trophy belt
30:19 Sixth trophy belt
30:25 Eighth trophy belt
31:36 Ninth trophy belt
32:50 Tenth trophy belt

33:31 MISSION #3 - Ruins
36:17 First trophy belt
38:35 Second trophy belt
38:58 Third trophy belt
39:24 Fourth trophy belt
41:36 Fifth trophy belt
41:52 Sixth trophy belt
43:58 Seventh trophy belt
44:22 Eighth trophy belt
45:25 Ninth trophy belt
45:34 Tenth trophy belt

50:22 MISSION #4 - Research Lab
51:01 First tophy belt
52:15 Second trophy belt
53:17 Third trophy belt
53:50 Fourth trophy belt
56:13 Fifth trophy belt
57:01 Sixth trophy belt
58:23 Seventh trophy belt
58:43 Eighth trophy belt
59:55 Ninth trophy belt
1:00:35 Tenth trophy belt

1:03:28 MISSION #5 - Pyramid
1:03:59 First trophy belt
1:04:27 Second trophy belt
1:05:14 Third trophy belt
1:06:56 Fourth trophy belt
1:07:45 Fifth trophy belt


Personal comments:
32:00
Elite lucker.

32:57
I just want to hug you a last time...

37:56
Well, that was awkward.

38:16
But, but I performed a counter punch. :(

53:06
Double fail.

1:04:57
Now that just sucked. :P

Predator: Movement

What the hell??? Why an own movement section for the pred too?
Well, the pred is some kind of a mixture between the alien and the marine.
It has a focus jump option which brings him to places the marine can only dream of, but he isn't that moveable as an alien is.
Aside of that, he has gear like the marine. Well not similar gear, rather technologically more advanced gear and the alien is lacking of any kind of supportive techology.
He can also sprint quicker than the marine and alien, but much, much shorter.
His sprint can be used for very bad sprint heavys (which means a heavy attack starting from a distance and performing, when an enemy is reached without the possibility to counter it).
Anyways... Let's get back to the movement regarding the focus jump.
As you can see in the left picture, when you hold the "focus" button, a digital "tower" of rhombusses appears, which indicates, that you're able to jump there. So press the jump button and as seen in the right picture your Pred will jump there.
This maneuvers has its benefits and disadvantages.
You can move away from a hot spot pretty quickly, but before you're able to jump you're vulnerable for a few seconds as the Pred has to collect strength for this jump.
The animation cannot be stopped, so no one should be able to sweep you off your feets. Still you can of course be killed during the animation, by getting shot or punched to death.
So even if it is a quick way to retreat, it has its downsides. Therefore use with caution. Try not ot perform such focus jumps, when enemies (especially enemies with ranged weapons) are aware of you and already firing.

Predator: Distraction

Similar to the alien's hiss, the Pred can distract marines by making a noise.
However, instead of having the target moving to the place where the alien performed the hiss, the Pred has FULL CONTROL of where he want the target to move.
I actually think that I have never used that tactic, as a Pred is brute force for me, which don't lure enemies into traps. Rather hunting them down with honor. :P
Anyways, there is one example of that system, so I can at least provide screenshots.
As you can see in the left picture just press the key, which is blended in.
Next step, like shown in right picture is to determine, where the marine will think the sound came from. You can place that marker in a fair distance, but of course not too far.
This move is excellent, if you want to play without plasma.
You can distract single marines from a group similar as the alien can do with its hiss.

Personally, I prefer a good fight, instead of that furtive behavior and use the iconic weapons a Pred has. Aliens can behave that sneaky. :P

Predator: Blocking

Now that's useful!
As alien you don't have enemies on nightmare you can block, but as Pred you will have a hard time, when you are unable to use the block function properly against attacking aliens.
It works in a similar way as for the marine.
Left picture shows, that aliens can of course surprisingly block your weak cuts, but as seen in the right picture, it's even possible to block their counter punches.
You just have to press both buttons for blocking fast enough.
The aliens have the same attacking animations as already demonstrated above in the "Marine: Blocking" section.
After a block you may perform a counter punch, or you walk backwards (a bit out of range of the aliens attacks) and start to perform a heavy attack which will damage the alien badly.
Another possibility is, to circle grab the attacker after it blocked the attack. Might be difficult when facing an alien, but marines usually don't counter-punch your Pred, so keep that option in your mind, especially if you face a single enemy.
Grabs are also here a good way to finish a battle quickly.

Predator: Weak attacks

Similar to the alien weak attacks, the pred also has two of them.
However, instead of punching with claws, a Pred cuts with its wrist blades.

Close combat: Weak cut

Can be blocked by the marines, androids and the aliens.
While I haven't seen a marine performing a counter-punch, aliens like to do that so be prepared to quickly block for yourself, after the failed attack. As seen in the section above, you can even block a counter-punch.
Anyways, the regular weak cut isn't as bad as the weak punch of the alien. It can be performed quicker and as demonstrated on a heavy combat android, after a few weak cuts you can even sweep your enemy off the feet. Even if I cannot recall if that also works for aliens, it did for this android:
Both pictures show weak cuts. Dark is changing his attack hand when spamming weak cuts (like combos), similar as alien Six does. But on the right picture the android is punched down by the cut.
Well, there was one heavy attack and one weak cut necessary to bring the android down in the first place. Afterwards, I just drummed with weak attacks onto that advanced synthetic, while it tried to recover. The eighth weak attack then, swept the android off its feet a second time.
I thought it was dead, so I looked away, until I ultimately realized that it still wasn't over yet.
Full 6 other weak cuts were necessary to bring it finally down.
So 1 heavy attack and 15 weak cuts for those enhanced whiteboys.
Beside of that, you can also use a weak punch to stun your enemy shortly and circle grab it. As the pred is even faster on shorter distances than the alien, this should be easy with some practice.

Distant combat: Weak jump attack

Similar for the alien, but the pred is actually much bader in hitting, especially if it is an alien crawling on the wall. I haven't used the jump attack that often as because of that.
When I attack with a heavily and miss with that one, it's awkward enough. But the auto-aim for the weak jump attack of a pred isn't that polished for aliens on a wall, which are moving.
You often will miss them.
The forced jump attacks during the tutorial are actually the only ones I could quickly find. XD
As I said, I rather like brutal force and attacking in that manner is often even a disadvantage as you never know when exactly a marine blocks your attack.
It even can happen that enemies, who are not totally aware of Dark still block the jump attack you perform with him.
But as with the alien jump attack, it still has to be said that you can sweep a target off its feet, when the attack was successful.
Pro tip: If you want to increase the chances of not getting blocked, rather use the WALK function to approximate your targets, rather then walking normally. That's at least a tip for marines. I really haven't used that attack against aliens, even if they were at walls. XD
I probably should have, especially in that bad fail on Mission #3 - Ruins with that wall crawler, that got a lucky strong attack hit on my Dark. :/
IMPORTANT Do not forget to counter-punch a strong attack of an alien. Even if it turned out bad in the situation I described above (Mission #3 - Ruins), normally you should be able to interrupt any strong attack.
How alien strong attacks look like is already described in the section "Marine: Punching".

Predator: Heavy attack / Heavy sprint attack

While the alien is attacking which its tail and can also use its tail to attack from another surface than the enemy is standing on (wall tail attack), the pred has two different ways to perform a heavy attack.

Heavy attack

You're not totally unable to move, while performing a heavy swing with Dark's wrist blades.
So be sure, to move a bit around, especially if you want to perform a heavy attack on a marine.
Otherwise you may get shot.
Aliens on the other side, can easily punch you while performing a heavy attack.
Best bet would be to make use of heavy attacks when enemies aren't aware of your Preds presence or just busy with performing a strong attack themselves.
Another good time would be, when the enemy is still about to ambush Dark, but that's a case of timing:
The left picture shows, when the heavy attack was started to be prepared.
Until the alien came in attacking range itself and wanted to perform a strong attack either, which ultimately ended up in being hitten by Dark's already earlier prepared heavy attack in the right picture.

Heavy sprint attack

This attack is infamous on multiplayer, but indispensable on singleplayer.
I actually see it as legit move, since the alien can perform wall attacks, but heavy sprint attacks are pretty difficult for those creatures (at least I cannot perform them).
So it's some kind of "wall tail compromise".
It should get your favourite attack against marines. As marines cannot be blocked, since they rather shoot, it's tricky with them in close combat They're aware of Dark, when yout get him into combat range, while they're facing your Pred (regardless if you cloaked him) and a jump attack can end up in being blocked. So rather try heavy sprints, as they cannot be countered (except of shotgun marines).
The pictures above show probably the most flawless outcome of a sprint heavy in my playthrough.
Left picture shows at which distance I started to build up the heavy attack. I still had the finger on the "move forward" button and pressed the "sprint" button shortly after I let Dark start preparing the heavy attack.
The right picture shows, that I could get over the whole distance to the android and unleash a fully loaded heavy attack, without it even knowing that my pred was there.
Sprint heavies are even more versatile, as they can let you attack very strong enemies (praetorian) without getting your lovely Predator harmed.
At least if you time them correctly.

Predator: Trophy grab

I sum up any type of grab in one section, as there is no actual "stealth kill" for the predator available (look at the mission score, they're summed up as "Finishing Moves").
Furthermore, you're also NOT able to grab aliens at their back. You always have to land a heavy attack for being able to grab them. Otherwise you can fight them in normal combat or with weapons.
Notification: In a multiplayer game, a Pred can of course grab an alien from behind. Which probably is some kind of "balancing", but the actual balancing would be to REMOVE THE GRAB FUNCTION completely from multiplayer, as a marine doesn't have any compareable move. Unfortunately, Rebellion doesn't support this game anymore.

Actual trophy grab

You've to hit your enemy with a strong attack and as a second requirement you need to stand in front of it, for being able to perform this grab.
As seen in the left picture the alien still stumbles of the previous heavy hit open for a trophy kill.
The right picture shows Dark, while he is harvesting the attack tongue of the alien. That's a nice trophy, no?
You can also perform something like that on a marine or android, by ripping their head off.
No wonder this game got indicated in germany. *awkward*
Because playing a fictive species, which is collecting human heads as trophies is so real and foments aggressions. *rolleyes*
Whatever...

Some sort of stealth grab

This grab only works for marines and androids.
You can also perform "circle grabs" as described in section "Alien: Stealth grab / circle grab".
The functionality is very similar to the ones of the alien:
Get (or run) at the back of a marine or android and just press the grab button.










In the left picture I am circling that marine, that is already aware of Dark. I let my pred previously punch him with a weak cut to make him dizzy for a short while, so I was able to circle Dark around at his back. The right picture shows a successful outcome of that maneuver.

Predator: Weapons

(Picture source.)

The Predator weapons... They're iconic, they're superior, they're brute. Everything which resembles that species of hunters.
It's a bit sad that they haven't implemented the net gun at least for singleplayer, but hey... You can't have everything.

Plasma caster

Yautja gear 101. It's the most hated weapon on multiplayer and you even get 500 extra points on singleplayer, if you DON'T use it.
Well, it's the most iconic weapon for me, so I don't mind tearing enemies to pieces with it, like the Predator in the first movie did. Even Schwarzenegger got hit by a smaller bolt of the plasma caster. :P
Press the alternate fire button as long as you can, to be sure all 3 stripes of the triangle are on the target. This will ensure maximum accuracy of the auto-aim function.
Furthermore, the longer you load the shot, the stronger it is. On the other side, the more energy is used. You should find enough energy sources around in singleplayer. Just use the "focus" mode to unveil energy sources on the map.

Remote Mines

Mines are disingenuous weapons. If you plant them directly into your enemies, they jump away maybe even without being harmed from the explosion. So rather plant them a bit away from your enemies, so they don't be aware of the mine.
Then lure them into it, watching them fragmented into pieces. *evil*
Similar as the plasma caster, they need energy. So be sure to think about that when you use them.

Smart Disc

The smart disc can be directed by the laser sight integrated into the bio-mask. They somehow also have a bit of an auto-aim or I am just lucky with them.
They still appear as some sort of mystery to me. Since sometimes you can hit the head off an alien, but next time you aim at the very same position and the alien is just falling down.
Guess there is a very small hitbox for the head.
The big advantage of the thing is that you can hit multiple enemies, if you're advanced in using it.
I still suck with the disc, as since 2010. Guess I never learn to properly use it and just have various luck shots.
Anyways, it DOESN'T consume energy. So you definitely should prefer it over mines or the plasma caster. At least against aliens.

Combistick

This is the strongest weapon in the Pred game.
Actually, it's often used as melee weapon either in the movies, here it's just used as ranged weapon.
Funnily, you always generate a new Combistick. Guess it has some synthesizing code implanted into the wrist gauntlet of Dark?
Anyways, you one-hit any regular alien and any android with it (at least if its a vital hit into the stomach for example, an hit onto the alien tail, won't kill it).
As you get this weapon in the forelast mission of the Predator campaign, you can only use it there and in the last level.
BUT you definitely should use it. Even if you need to aim yourself (and maybe you fail the same way as I did ^^), it's still a superior weapon as it furthermore doesn't unveil your position.
Just be sure to kill androids which aren't close to each other. Otherwise the android you haven't hit might freak out and shoot around.
Even if it kills Aliens with a good hit, I still prefer to use the Smart Disc over this one against Xenomorphs.

Predator: Enemies (Xenomorph)

As with the Weyland-Yutani troops and the Xenomorphs together, the Pred has actually a similar amount of diversity about enemies to face as Rookie does.
Once someone said it would be nice to have a good game from the alien side.
Well, the alien side here is really a bit poor. I remember AvP 2, where you started as chestburster emerging from its host. Now that was a bloody hell...
Hopefully someone makes a new AvP game where all 3 species are fairly treated.
Anyways, this is the list of enemies you have to face with Dark:

Ovomorph / Egg (Xenomorph)

Similar as for the marine: As long as they're open (4 triangles stick out from the upper side of the egg), it's safe to leave them like they are. But when they're closed and look like an egg actually, they contain a facehugger. If you're able to destroy the egg, before the facehugger emerges, you kill him too.
Try a heavy sprint, to unleash yours Predator strike directly when you reach the egg. As soon as you grabbed the disc, it's easy and not wasting any power to destroy them from a distance.
Additionally it's a good targeting practice.

Facehugger (Xenomorph)

What kind of creature that is, was already described in the marine section. It was a pure accident, to leave that egg alive as long as a facehugger can emerge. I never was hit on by a facehugger, while playing Predator as far as I remember.
Always avoided it as I still can remember the level in AvP 2 where many facehuggers ran around, without you knowing them coming. Once I just checked the surrounding, moved the Preds head back to direction of where I had to go and suddenly the display was overlaid by a fleshy texture with a creepy proboscis making sexual intensions to the player (as this was the ego-perspective and the Pred you played just screamed like a ♥♥♥♥♥).
If you really have to face one of them, be sure to kill them BEFORE they make some intensions...

Drone / warrior / runner (Xenomorph)

I'll sum up all regular aliens this time.
Even if the runner can spit with acid from a distance, it doesn't really harm the pred that much.
They're detailed in the marine section.
Sidenote: Still it should be mentioned that a Runner alien, is killed after getting hit by one strong attack and one weak cut, while the drones last much longer. So they're definitely the weakest form of Aliens, even if they perform the same attacks as drones or warriors, beside of their additional spit attack.
You can use anything against them. Your wrist blades, your plasma caster, your disc, your Combistick or even mines.
Still you might should to train in close combat, as that is the only way to defend yourself against a bunch of aliens at the start.
So get a good feeling about blocking, cutting and performing heavy attacks. Beside of a heavy sprint attack, you can also just walk backward starting to perform a heavy attack and move forward again to unleash it.
Still aliens might get into range for a weak punch, so be sure to cancel your heavy attack with a block before it is too late.

Praetorian (Xenomorph)

First boss for Dark. Do NOT try to get into close combat, when playing on nightmare (or even hard, since the difficulty in that case shouldn't chance except of restarting the whole level, when dying).
If you want, you can use all energy you have on your plasma caster, or rather plant mines to get the 500 bonus points for not using the caster in that level (at least if you haven't used it before).
Afterwards, the disc will be your best friend. Jump from platform to platform, for avoiding the spit attack of the praetorian. As that one can actually harm your pred.
Do not mind the other aliens that much, at least if they doesn't jump in front of you. An additional kill is always nice for the score.
Still concentrate your attacks onto the praetorian. Which means that you also can try to land a good heavy sprint attack. As that one can stun the praetorian as a regular alien was hitten by a weak cut. So enough time to attack and retreat.
As seen in the pictures above, you can start to perform a heavy attack, while Dark is standing on one of the platforms. If your timing is good enough you punch the praetorian, without giving him the chance to counter, before you are able to retreat.
But be careful, as this can happen when you fail:
The left picture was some sort of "draw attack", as Dark could land a strong attack, but the praetorian were also able to make a punch.
That punch rather appeared to be weak, so do not underestimate the creature, as Dark was still thrown onto the floor.
The right picture shows that the situation turns criticial, as the praetorian was able to land another attack, before Dark could recover from the first one. I immediately retreated with Dark onto safe ground.
So if you're unsure, continue to use your disc from the platforms.

Predalien / abomination (Xenomorph)

This alien was bred by a Yautja. So it's actually the arch enemy of the hunter species. As seen in the screenshot, it also likes to take trophies as part of the overtaken DNA structures from the Predators.
It's the final boss for Dark and as you have unlimited energy in that fight, I personally prefer to use the plasma caster. Cannot tell if another tactic is recommendable too, but I guess it may be the case. At least on nightmare, the caster is the easiest way to defeat the creature.
There are destructable platforms in the battle arena which can be destroyed with your caster.
(Example pics above.) So, wait until the creature jumps on it then shortly give a shot.
It will sink into the lava and take damage. However, those platforms disappear, after a while as the Predalien is freaking out and tries to break the battle arena.
So you should change to Alien vision and give that creature hell with your caster. But be sure to always jump between platforms to outrun its ambushes.
As seen in the pictures above, sometimes jumpting between platforms can help you out. As if the creature tries to attack you, it may miss and fall into lava instead.
Which ends up in a pretty easy kill, after it crawls out of it again.

Predator: Enemies (Weyland-Yutani)

Colonial Marines (Weyland-Yutani)

K. B. Weyland admitted it himself (or itself?) at the very end of the marine campaign.
He owns the corps.
So actually they're part of the company, even if they might not know that themselves.
Anyways, there are many, many ways to get rid of them. At first you even might to spare them if you as player cannot stand killing humans. BUT, there are a few that needs to be killed. As they have the correct eyes for the iris scan to open up some doors.
So you rather need some guts to play the Pred campaign otherwise you might not like it.
After all, it's just a video game, ya know?
Anyways, when you don't have the weapons, I recommend to use heavy sprint attacks to ambush them. If you feel save and used the WALK function to get into weak jump attack range, you may perform one of these too.
I also showed already a example of how to circle grab them, when they're aware of the presence of your Pred. Just punch them for distraction. Even if they block, that short time might be enough to circle them for a good grab.
Otherwise perform a heavy attack and afterwards a weak punch to throw them off their feet. Making them easy preys to finish them off in any way you want.

Combat androids

As already seen in the "Predator: Weak attacks" section, the advanced version of the combat androids lasts the longest of any regular enemy.
So be sure to make a good use of the Combistick against androids, as they will be killed by one good hit. Of course you may also perform heavy sprint attacks to knock them off their feet with a following weak cut, which leaves them pretty vulnerable.
But be sure to perform finishing grabs not too early, as they might fight you off and damage your Pred instead.
They can be stunned by a weak cut for a short time, similar as marines. So use that for your advantage either, to quickly finish them off by a circle grab for example.

Thanks

Thanks to Rebellion for programming this game. Even if there is still much to do according to the multiplayer, I still like the singleplayer very much.
Beside of some weird AI issues. XD
Unfortunately this game isn't supported anymore, so this is probably the best we get. Still it entertains me on the highest difficulty level here and there.
Like some movie you like to rewatch from time to time...

Thanks to Sega for publishing this game. Still I would like that this franchise will be continued. Yet it seems developing another AvP game is difficult as of legal issues. Really people, get your ♥♥♥♥ together and make another game. :P

Thanks to Alizee for motiviating me to do this guide.

Special thanks to anyone who helps me with correcting some grammatical issues or else:
1.) Inferno for reading through and editing stuff to improve it. :)

[StateofCanada]

holy crap... i apreciate the insane amount of detail... wish people in general other then you & me did that

[passion bronson]

What's crazy is i remember Alizee from back when i played this game like 8 years ago. Pretended to be the french singer and everything in a very small lobby. This guide gave me so many memories all at once.

[בְּרֵאשִׁית]

for the abomination just lay out a million mines and when she steps on one she detonates 4 and fall in lava and BOOM half dead

[Just Chill]

Well... The game only costs 15 bucks.
Just playing 1/3 of it for whatsoever reason seems fine.

[Mister Jopper]

not doing those. Too easy

[Just Chill]

Yeah, I tried to avoid these expoits in my videos, but one of the praetorians jumped down into the lava. oO
Now on with the alien and predator on nightmare. ;)
Have fun.

[Mister Jopper]

i've already completed the campaign. Pretorians are bugged. First pretorian can be thrown off the map in several ways. In the second fight if you stand near Statues they won't atack you.

[Just Chill]

Yeah, I've wrote that a stun generally works only half a second on nightmare. ;)
Good luck on the praetorians with the pistol. :)

[Mister Jopper]

On nightmare YOU DO NOT WANT to PUNCH after sucessful block. Block itself stuns aliens enough for you to get away. The stun duration is about as long as time tacken you perform the punch. Does not worth it. Back off and shoot..

[BoundCNapalm]

Note: During the Alien and Predator campaigns, I've figured out a small hit combo that works well enough on Normal (I'll try it out on Hard and Nightmare). Basically, heavy into two lights will kill or heavily damage any target on Normal. Then grabbing them will kill them. Just add either another heavy and/or a couple of lights to get the cloak androids.