Advice for the Tactical Challenges

Quick, easy advice on the hardest challenges on offer.

Preface

The Tactical Challenges section contains some of the most difficult fights within this game, the hardest challenge being as difficult as many of the fights in God Hard mode.

I'll be giving advice on the two most difficult challenges, as no matter how good you are or how well you follow the advice here, you will die, and die a lot, before completing them.

The challenges in question are Challenge #4, and the unlockable Challenge #6 (which unlocks after the previous 5 have been completed). If you are unable to do any of the previous challenges within the first few runs, then abandon all hope of completing these two, especially Challenge #6.

Challenge #4

The easier of the two, as you'd expect, Challenge #4 takes place in the forest section of the main campaign, progressing in reverse order from the facility entrance all the way to the initial spawn area.

Starting Area

The first wave of spawns will be a squad of Blue Shotgun Bots backed up by two Flamer Romanovs, this wave isn't too difficult and so long as you are sparing with your ammo they won't be a problem; my method of dealing with them is to throw a grenade in front of me to catch the first shotgunners, then shoot as many of them down before my ARS is forced through damage, at which point I'll move away past the Romanovs. Normally, the Flamer Romanovs will kill any pursuing Shotgun Bots with their flamers as friendly fire, and you can finish the Romanovs easily by destroying their fuel tanks.

Ensure you stay within the start area, as for the start next wave we want to be positioned behind the first rock with our HMG, more bots will spawn in, comprised of two Missile Romanovs, a Cannon Romanov, a squad of Orange Grenadier Bots and a swarm of Jellyfish-Ms. From behind the rock we'll be able to kill the Missile Romanov to our right before anybody realises we're there; once the Romanov is down, throw a grenade into the Jellyfish swarm to take out a cluster of them and any nearby Grenadiers. Now depending on how many bots survived advancing on you, we can either focus on the other Missile Romanov, or defend our position against the coming bots, so the following advice can be taken in any order.

Using our standard AR, attract the Missile Romanovs attention by firing at it; it will respond by launching it's full volley of missiles, including the larger homing missile, by firing on it as it launches it, we can blow up the missile in its face, killing it quickly and saving ammo. We can then kill the remaining bots at our leisure, but first destroy the head of the Cannon Romanov so that it can't focus us properly, and possibly kills friendlies as a bonus. Once this wave is complete, the gate at the end will open.

Before we advance, we'll want to collect ammo, upgrade one of our weapons (I chose the HMG) and by using a little trick, juggle an extra weapon (the LFE is a must have in my opinion) across to the next area. This can be done by standing in front of the weapon (as in, the weapon is behind you), when you pick it up, you'll notice your current weapon is thrown ahead of you. By continuously swapping out weapons in this fashion, we can bring along as many additional weapons as we want (though the sniper rifle is useless for this fight in my opinion).

Through the First Gate

In the starting wave of the next area, we'll face a small squad of standard Red Bots, supported by a flying Gatling Turret. Take cover quickly and kill any Red Bots advancing near you if possible, once the Gatling flies into view, use ARS to kill its gunner ASAP to prevent it from getting behind you, then mop up the surviving Reds as you advance to the closest tree.

By the time you're at the tree, you'll notice another spawn bubble warping in more Reds and one of the Unknown magnet orb bosses from the Kreon Act. Using the LFE and Shotgun in combination with Boost Kicks you should be able to make quick work of it in this tight area due to the lack of cover for it to hide behind. Remember to keep your distance though, in this tight environment it isn't as easy to dodge its insta-kill melee attack as it is elsewhere. Once its down, remember to resupply and juggle your weapons to the gate.

The Second Gate

This'll be the first truly challenging area of this fight; or at least it would, if you weren't able to abuse the enemy AI by hiding behind the trees to your left. The enemy will be composed of 6 Viewhounds (the flying enemies), a squad of Reds and a single Tank. Dive into cover behind the tree to your left, wait a few seconds, then fire an LFE off to your right above the treeline, the Viewhounds will come from there. If lucky, the LFE shot will take out at least two, eliminate the remaining Viewhounds by triggering ARS with your HMG or AR. Once they're down, dive back behind the tree and fire through it to eliminate the advancing Reds. The Tank will come close, but should get stuck behind another tree, effectively neutralising it as a threat; from there, destroy its turret from behind your tree, then work around to its rear and finish it off. Collect your ammo, and juggle your weaponry along to the next gate (you can leave the Lock On Laser in my opinion, the LFE and Rocket Launcher are must haves though).

The Final Gate

This is the hardest section, with the least space to manuever in. You'll be facing two Missile Romanovs, a squad of Blue Shotgun Bots, a Crystal Viper boss and a final Romanov that'll spawn in mid-way. Use the Rocket Launcher to quickly kill the Missile Romanov on your left, quick reloads (by changing weapons back and forth) under ARS will be your best bet; fire off an LFE into the closest Blues, then fire the final Rocket at the other Romanov. You'll likely take enough damage to go into forced ARS at this point, use it to finish off the other Romanov and take out any nearby Blues.

Now, we'll want to bait the Crystal Viper to charge us, so that we can use the QTE prompt for the invulnerability frames and the ARS recharge. Once you've gotten a counter in, boost over to the opposite end of the area, and finish off the other enemies with whatever weaponry. Once we've gotten it down to just us and the CV, the fight will be ours. Keep your distance and be wary of his charge attack - it'll pass through cover and can insta-kill, but I'm sure if you can make it this far, 1v1ing a CV will be a piece of cake.

Congrats on finishing the second hardest Challenge, now for the real test of your skills.

Challenge #6

This hidden Challenge is considered comparably difficult to God Hard mode, so don't expect to get it done without a lot of deaths, stay calm and be patient, you'll need to memorise some of the spawns and weapon locations yourself to build the strategy around.

To begin with, a brief overview of the map. We'll be fighting on the far bank of the mall section, where you defend the stone Pangloss statue from 3 Digger Transports in the main campaign. The important areas to note for the purposes of this section will be the spawn area, the far left sandbag next to the ravine, the rubble down the stairs and to the right of the spawn area, the Pangloss Statue itself and the sandbags by the raised bridge. These five points of cover form the corners and centre of the map and will form the basis of our plans.

The First Wave

To begin with, we'll be facing a Crystal Viper supported by over a dozen Reds, they'll all spawn in the central area of the map in front of the Pangloss Statue; the CV first, followed by staggered spawns of the Reds in 2s and 3s. We'll start by diving into cover in the spawn area sandbags ahead of us, and kill any Reds in the open whilst we wait for the CV to get close. Don't bother using much ammo on the CV, we'll use mostly melee to deal with him; pay good attention to his footsteps so you remain aware of his distance whilst he is cloaked, we don't want him to get close enough for a standing melee attack, we want his charge attacks for the useful QTEs he provides. If he refuses to charge you at the sandbags, move back outside of the cover to your original spawn and strafe around, the stairs and sandbags will provide cover from most of the gunfire provided you are far back enough. Once we have our first QTE, boost around to the far left sandbags near the ravine. From here continue picking off the Reds until the CV comes for another QTE, and continue in this fashion until only the CV remains,

When we are down to only the CV, boost back to spawn and swap out your HMG and Shotgun for the spawn area's LFE and Disc Thrower, we'll want to get these now as we won't have time to pick them up later for the Third Wave. Finish off the CV near the Pangloss Statue using the QTEs and melee attacks of your standard AR, it'll drop an upgrade, save it for the final wave. Hide behind the Statue facing the centre to await the next wave.

The Second Wave

In this wave, we'll be facing the original AR-Suit Bogey from the first Campaign encounter, backed up by three squads of Reds led by Orange Grenadiers, and flanked by two squadrons of Viewhounds. Start by throwing a grenade to the spawnbubble on our left, if timed right it'll at least kill the Reds from it that would otherwise flank you. Then, ensuring the Statue remains inbetween you and the Bogey, switch focus to the Viewhounds; strafe around and prioritise avoiding damage as much as possible over killing them. Once the second wave of Viewhounds join the fight, throw an EMP at your feet - this will instakill most if not all of them, finish up any survivors. Now we can focus on the Bogey, retreat to the sandbag position behind you, next to the bridge. Use your AR to wear down the Bogey, use ARS to shoot down any grenades he throws (both anti-ARS and cluster frags) and roll to evade any melee attacks he attempts. You'll likely need to rearm before you kill him, luckily this position comes with an AR pod to reload from. With proper cover and ARS usage, you should make short work of him before any of the RIs come to help him. Finish them off and move behind the collapsed rubble near the spawn stairs to await the next wave - make sure you still have the LFE and Disc Thrower.

The Third Wave

We'll be facing two Drill Romanovs, a Missile Romanov, a Flamer Romanov, a Cannon Romanov equipped with a shoulder-mount Plasma Rifle, and a full squad of Reds in this wave. When the spawn bubbles directly in front of you appear, pop out and time a grenade to land in the closest one - this will contain the squad of Reds and a good frag will take them all out at spawn. Now peek outside of cover slightly (make sure you are still definitely behind it though) and fire off an LFE shot at the Flamer Romanov ahead of you - this will push it towards the Missile Romanov - then finish it off by blowing up its fuel tanks with your AR; the explosion should kill the Missile Romanov and heavily damage the nearby Drill Romanov too.

Switch to your Disc Thrower after that and decapitate the closest Drill Romanov to you, this'll eliminate it as a threat, though be careful if it decides to launch its drills at you (this happened to me on at least two runs - they won't kill you, but they do hurt enough to trigger ARS). Then take out the Plasma mount of the Cannon Romanov from behind cover and decapitate that also. From here, you are free to either let the Romanovs flail themselves to death or kill them yourself - don't use too much ammo though.

Move to the far sandbags near the bridge where we fought the 2nd Wave Bogey from for the next wave.

The Fourth Wave

As the penultimate wave, this is a truly challenging round, we'll be facing 3 Sphere Bots, multiple squads of Blue Shotgun Bots, two Bials/Scorpion Bots, and two flanking flying Gatling Turrets that'll spawn slower than the others. At this point onwards, if you feel you're taking too much damage and look set to lose, throw your EMPs to buy you time to reposition, but make sure you have at least 3 left (there's an EMP pickup to the right of the area next to a Lock On Laser pod) for the final wave.

From behind our sandbag position, we'll be spawned a safe distance away from the Bials, but still within rushing distance of the fast Spheres and Blues, so be ready with LFE to knock them back and keep them off you. We'll want to hold this position until both Gatlings have spawned in and been killed - use your AR under ARS to kill them as they appear to prevent them from doing too much damage. Once the Gatlings are down, mop up the remaining enemies until just the Bials are left. The Disc Thrower is no use to us anymore, so fire the rest of it off as we move to one of the HMGs pods to change it out; use the HMGs and Shotguns to eliminate the Bials, making sure you keep as much distance as possible at all times, using the Shotgun to punish them when they rush you in Scorpion mode. If your positioning is right, the Scorpion mode Bials will often get stuck on the terrain and give you time to unload your HMG on their partner, just keep an eye on them as they'll eventually free themselves.

Once the Bials are down, you'll likely have gotten yourself into a random position - luckily the next Wave is both hard enough and spread out enough that you can viably start from numerous points - I chose the spawn area for my run however. We'll want the LFE, the Lock On Laser and the Rocket Launcher for the next wave (the RL will drop from a Third Wave Romanov, the Lock On Lasers can be found on the right and in the centre).

Challenge #6 - The Final Wave

The last wave contains numerous Sphere squads, at least 3 groups of 3, and the final two bosses of the game, Bogey Alpha and Bravo (Red & Blue).

Get close to one of the spawn bubbles and unload your LFE into the spheres as they spawn, then keep on dodging from cover to cover as the other spheres advance on you, kill them with the last of your LFE rounds then swap it out for an AR. Remember to use your EMPs to save your skin if you get caught out of cover or if you're taking too much damage in general.

Now for the final boss fight, this time with weaker weapons and destructible cover :')

We'll be focusing on Blue Bravo first, using the Lock On Laser to wear him down, use ARS for dodging and shooting down the grenades, as well as stacking laserfire when possible. When you run low, pickup the upgrade the CV dropped earlier to rearm with more ammo, then continue as before. When Blue Bravo does a charge-up attack (usually the missile volley) use the Rocket Launcher under ARS to land a rocket on him, this'll let you save Lock On Laser ammo for Red Alpha later, who'll be harder to land rockets on anyway. Eventually, and hopefully before you run out of Laser ammo, Blue Bravo will be down (he won't need a QTE to kill in this luckily), and we can focus on Red Alpha using the same technique. You'll be able to stay in cover and shoot for longer now, but due to his increased damage and mobility it's more important than ever to evade quickly and avoid damage as much as possible (of course, but it really sucks to die after you've come so far), so don't be afraid to trade out shooting time for dodging time; we're not aiming for a time record on our first run. You'll likely run low on ammo, so hopefully you've been accurate enough that there's still AR and HMG drops to pickup if you need. Keep calm and shoot down his grenades as ever, and focus your damage during these grenade throws and his charge-up attacks - his mobility makes it difficult to deal reliable damage without a Lock On even if you're safer to shoot now, best to remain safe and only shoot when you're guaranteed hits.

Using this technique, you should be able to defeat Alpha without getting into too scary a situation. Once he's down, that's it. You've won. You've joined the <1% of players to have achieved this so far. Well done, now take a rest, you've earned it.

Additional Tips & Credit

Just a few extra tips that don't fit as part of the walkthroughs above:

• You can upgrade your weapons through normal weapon drop pickups in Challenge #4, I upgraded the Shotgun a level in the first areas through this, and the AR later on through the same. Remember not to use the weapon's full ammo reserve, leave a couple extra bullets and swap weapons around to get a fresh one and you can use the old gun for an upgrade point.
  
  
• Don't bother upgrading weapons in Challenge #6. You need the drops for ammo, and you won't get any breathers long enough to upgrade from old weapons so no need in keeping a few bullets in reserve. Spend 'em all.
  
  
• Spam that roll button. You'll need to survive.
  
  
• Stuck in cover with no ARS and need to move, but don't wanna waste an EMP? Remember, cigarettes distract the enemy too. I had to use them myself in the Final Wave.
  
  
• One for the other Challenges, namely #5. At the end with the Argus fight, you can open the Gatling turret hut and hide in there to stay safe from pretty much all of the Argus' attacks, makes it much easier than #4.

Credit where it's due

Big thanks to our predecessors on the PSN forums for the advice I got for Challenge #6, namely the users "Christopher" and "piuytrewqp". I ended up devising my own preferred strategy for most of it, but the 2nd and 3rd Wave strategies were built off Christopher's original advice, with the Lock On Laser usage of the 5th Wave built off piuytrewqp's.

[Rozz Synthclair]

nice gif bro look good

[Living Death]

This is still amazingly helpful, even in 2021. I made a few little changes here and there, but overall, this is a fantastic guide. Took about 8 hours of trial and error, but it's a fun challenge.

[cantini]

Thanks!

[Kobest]

Thanks for this guide, it was helpful for me to finally beat challenge no. 6. Man, that was a really tough one.