Dead Rising 2 Psycho Guide

Dead Rising 2 Psycho Guide
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Chug and Slug: The Staple Dead Rising 2 Boss Fight

Lets be honest for a second, Dead Rising 2 is great when it comes to slicing the hell out of everything undead in sight, but when it comes to fighting the bosses, well the controls are clunky to say the least. Luckily most of the psychos are pretty easy once you know the trick to them, unfortunately most of those tricks are more about abusing game mechanics than coming up with anything ingenious to down them.

Before we jump into the gritty details here are a few very basic tips that ought to get you through the majority of the boss fights.

  1. Use Knife Gloves, Bub: These weapons are easy to make, do excellent damage to psychos and the materials are readily available, just outside the safe house. Plus it’s about the closest you’ll come to seeing Wolverine fighting zombies in a casino. The sports store near by has plenty of boxing gloves and the news stand by the safe house has a bowie knife conveniently placed on top. Any of the zombies in the blue and yellow shirts also bowie knives since apparently blue and yellow bowling shirts are only worn by rugged woodsmen in Fortune City.
  2. Keep a few Painkillers on hand: These are the best health item in the game and luckily also are made from the always plentiful booze bottles strewn about Fortune City. Just combine 2 of the same types of alcohol in a mixer and next think you know you’ve got a health potion. Just don’t chug to many in a row or you’ll start puking all over.
  3. Do a Barrell Roll Chuck: You can generally dodge roll away from most psychos counter attacks, it can be tough at first but once you get the timing down it makes every fight much easier. Of course you have to unlock it first.

When it comes down to it there’s not much more to most of the boss fights in Dead Rising 2 than just slugging it out and chugging painkillers. That’s not to say there aren’t a few tricks to make the process at least a little less repetitive.

Ted the Tiger Tamer

Ted

Location: Yucatan Casino

Time: Start of the game.

Ah Ted, such a poor misguided fella. It seems almost cruel to separate him from his beloved tiger, Snowflake, but it’s hard to gamble when someone’s trying to turn you into tiger chow so he’s just gotta go.

Luckily Ted is also a push over. Just grab whatever you’ve got handy, preferably something pointy, and start stabbing the crap out of him. If you happen to have a weapon with a heavy swing you can knock him down for a few seconds which will just make shanking him that much easier. There’s plenty of food and drink lying around if you start to get a low on health. On a side note you may want to avoid muching those delicious steaks for a minute, you’ll need them shortly.

Snowflake the Tiger

Snowflake

Location: Yucatan Casino (With Ted)

Time: Start of the game

Now that’s more like it. Time to make sure those tigers stay on the endangered species list right! Well hold on a minute as much fun as it would be to see a motocross champion take on a tiger with just a golf club and some vodka there’s a better way. Instead of trying to bring down the wrath of PETA for the rest of your life why not just hash out your differences with Snowflake over a few steaks?

After you’ve finished off Ted it’s time to start steak hunting. There is one in Snowflake’s display area and plenty more scattered around the casino restaurants. Grab three and get ready for some frustration because this is not an exact science. What you want is to place yourself between the steaks and the hungry tiger. Ideally Snowflake will start her attack run then be distracted by the steak and wolf that down instead of you. Get that to happen three times and you’re now the proud owner of a new pet tiger.

Unfortunately, half the time you try to pull this off Snowflake just jumps on your face instead. Your best bet is to surround yourself with a protective ring of meat. Find a nice empty corner and throw a bunch of steaks in a semi circle around you. Now just sit back and hope that you get lucky. It’ll happen eventually.

Once you finally have Snowflake on your side you can lead her around just like any other survivor, only this one’s a tiger. She can even be healed by handing her drinks or food and generally kicks the crap out of zombies and mercs.

Finally when you get tired of reliving Beast Master bring her back to the safehouse. After you’ve rescued her there is an opportunity for even more PP by going to the room with Katey and pressing B by Snowflake. You’ll give her to Katey as a gift, netting you some bonus PP and proving that Chuck is either the best, or worst father of the year.

Leon Bell

Leon

Location: Platinum Plaza

Case: Meet the Contestants.

Time: 2:30pm Day 1

Despite having one of the better puns in the game during his death scene Leon is just plain annoying to fight. How difficult the encounter is depends on your level, if you’ve unlocked the drop kick it’s a pretty easy fight. Just let Leon keep up his strafing runs at you and drop kick him in the teeth when he gets near. You’ll take no damage and knock a chunk of his health off.

If you’re not quite there yet well, it’s going to be a little more touch and go. The best time to attack Leon is when he’s off show boating with a few donuts, unfortunately these aren’t that frequent and half the time he finishes before you can catch up. If you don’t mind exploiting the game’s engine a bit it’s pretty easy to get Leon hung up on trees and fences or in tight spaces. Plenty of times he’ll get stuck for a few defenseless seconds which leave you open to beat him with whatever you’ve got handy.

Brandon Whittaker

dead-rising-2-01

Location: Americana Casino, Bathroom by the Arena.

Case: Chuck the Role Model.

Time: 5:00pm Day 1

Ole’ Brandon is one of the tougher bosses you’ll face and since he’s available on the first day if you’re not careful on your first play through it’s likely he’ll send you straight to the game over screen. He’s fast, agile and can take a beating, meanwhile chuck is stuck with his usual slow mosey of a running speed and a dodge roll if you’re lucky.

This fight comes down to environmental awareness more than anything else. Periodically Brandon will jump into the bath room stalls, disappear for a few seconds then pop out and stab you. Don’t get caught in the middle of the bathroom during this move or you’re in for some trouble. Move towards the entrance of the bathroom and his crazy eyes will eventually get the better of him and he’ll jump out and run at you.

If you’ve got dodge roll or are very lucky you can avoid some of his regular attacks and hit him during the brief time he’s open for a counter attack. More than likely this will be just another fight where you need to do your best Wolverine impression and just maul the crap out of him with knife gloves and down whatever health gear you have available. Keep at him and eventually his captive zombie will get its just deserts.

Brent Ernst AKA Slappy

Slappy

Location: Kid’s Choice Clothing

Case: Everyone Knows Slappy

Time: Noon Day 2

Every one knows Slappy! Well I certainly didn’t the first time I tried to down him. He’s got roller skates and flame throwers for gods sake, how is chuck expected to top that? Well luckily Slappy’s big plastic head is also his biggest weakness. Whenever the Slapster skates at you for an attack just jump kick him square in the jaw then slap him back to mascot hell. At the end of the fight you’ll be treated to one of the creepier Dead Rising 2 cut scenes and from then on you’ll be able to find a flamethrower at his grave.

Now if you’re feeling like tackling this in a particularly Megaman inspired fashion grab a water gun and douse those flames. That will knock his flamethrowers out of commission and make Slappy even easier to beat on. Unfortunately this isn’t really that much easier than the normal jump kick route since slappy will eventually hit you with a mask then fire up his flamethrowers again while you’re stumbling around. That ends up making the water gun method a fun distraction but not particularly useful.

Randy Tugman

Randy

Location Swept Away

Case: Here Comes The Groom

Time 5:00 PM Day 2

This fight is a perfect example of why the psycho fights in Dead Rising 2 need to be overhauled if the series is to continue evolving. It’s incredibly clunky, can be very frustrating and the best way to win the fight is just out cheesing the AI.

The way to down S&M crazy town is to use the thin walls in between the aisles of the chapel to your advantage. Use a longer range melee weapon like a laser sword or pole arm to attack Randy from behind the safety of the walls. When he turns around to chase you wait for him to get to the other side of the wall then jump over and repeat. It isn’t pretty or much fun but it’s the best way to down him.

Alternatively if you dodge his attacks for long enough he’ll start gyrating and you can get a few hits on him before he Zangief spins and takes your head off.

Antoine Thomas

Antoine

Location: Cucina Donnacci, Food Court

Case: Tastes Like Chicken.

Time: 10:30 PM Day 1

Antoine can be a tough nut to crack if you get stuck without the right gear. Luckily our ole’ friends the knife gloves are more than up for the task of filleting this chef. Antoine will do the usual psycho run around and kick the crap out of you until he takes some damage, that’s when the frustration can really set it.

Once Antoine is hurt he’ll sprint off at super speeds to munch on some grub. As usual chuck can only try to keep up with his lazy amble. This is where having the knife gloves or another strong combo weapon comes in handy. While Antoine is eating just kick the stuffing out of him until he finishes and tries to counter attack, with luck you can dodge roll to safety and start the whole process over again. Since you’re in the food court there are plenty of health items around but you need to really commit to finishing him off or he’ll end up back at full health before you know it.

If you’re really having a tough time there is a survivor on the roof of the restaurant across the way and if you can throw him a ranged weapon and keep him near the entrance of Antoine’s restaurant his added damage can help you send Antoine back to fry chef.

Bibi Love

Bibi

Location: Slot Ranch Casino Stage

Case One Hit Wonder

Time: 3:00 PM Day 3

Bibi isn’t your typical psycho and is a nice change of pace from the usual psycho battles of Dead Rising 2. Unless you’re really just feeling nasty and want to get all the other survivors blown to bits don’t try to fight her. She’ll have a few requests for you to fulfill and then eventually she’ll let everybody go and you’ll be treated to an… interesting show.

First off she’s thirsty, this should be a cakewalk since there’s plenty of drinks lying all over the place. Just grab some booze off a cart or something from the restaurant.

Next she’ll ask you to look the part. Luckily there are tuxedos just across the way in Royal Flush Plaza’s “Modern Businessman”.

Finally she wants more fans, just do whatever you feel like to attract a bunch of zombies. I used the firecrackers but in hind sight a toy helicopter would have probably worked much better. Bibi will let you know when she’s happy with the turnout and then it’s time to start the show. You’re not off the hook yet though as you’ll have to complete a small Quicktime event before it’s all over.

Finally Bibi does what every aspiring rockstar dreams of and jumps into the crowd. At this point you have a choice, let Bibi get devoured by her ravenous fans or do what Chuck does best and kill them all and rescue her. Considering you get extra PP for saving her and you’re probably going to be dragging a whole bus load of survivors back to the safehouse anyway it’s in your best interest to save her.

Carl Schliff

Dead-Rising-2-Gameplay-20-01

Location: Royal Flush Plaza

Case Mail Order Zombrex

Time: 11:00PM Day 2

Carl is a movement fight more than anything else. He’ll blast you with his shotgun if you stay too close for too long but If you get too far away he’ll throw explosive mail your way. The simplest way of doing things is hitting him a few times, dodge rolling away from his counter and then running far enough that he’ll start lobbing packages. Dodge a few of those then run back in. Just be careful of his shotgun blast, he shoots a few times and if you aren’t careful it can take off quite a chunk of health.

Overall a pretty easy fight and considering how close you are to a nice pair of knife gloves Carl should be making his last delivery before too long.

Seymour Redding

Seymore

Location: South Plaza by the hotel.

Case: WWJWD

Time: 4:00 AM Day 3

Ah, another great pun at the end of this one, thank Dead Rising 2 Psychos. Luckily this is also a really easy fight, it’s a shame that it’s back to Dead Rising 2 chug and slug basics though. Seymour doesn’t really have much in his arsenal that can do much to Chuck so just get in there and maul him with whatever you have. Beat on him until either he dies or you need to back off to chug a beer and get back in there. It’s boring but at least it’s easy.

On a side note don’t forget to grab Seymour’s gun when he’s finished. It’s great against other bosses and it’s slow rate of fire helps conserve ammo.

Roger Withers & Reed Wallbeck

Roger

Location: Atlantic Casino

Case: World’s Most Dangerous Trick

Time: Midnight Day 4

I’m not really sure if there’s something I missed in this fight or if every time I do it I just get lucky but this always ends up being a stupidly easy fight. Reed will try to blow you out of the casino with his rockets while Roger runs around with a sword. Luckily Roger seems much more concerned with the running around part of his plan and if you keep yourself in the tight spaces of the casino slot machines he’ll likely spend half the fight doing wind sprints around the casino. Meanwhile you’re free to mash up his partner.

Reed doesn’t have a whole lot of health and as long as your aggressive he can’t really bring his main weapon into the equation. Just try to dodge his melee counters and then get ready to take down Reed.

Reed does a good deal more damage than Roger and if you’re short on health make sure to fill up before you head in. He’ll run around and periodically take a run at you. Take this opportunity to dodge out of the way and get a few hits in. Before too long you’ll close the curtain forever on this duo.

Deetz Hartman, Johnny James, Derrick Duggan and Big Earl

dead-rising-3

Location: All over the Strip.

Time: 9:00am Day 3

So apparently Capcom decided that the convicts in the first game’s park weren’t annoying enough so they decided to add 4 separate sniper psychos to shoot at you and whatever survivors are unlucky enough to be trucking around with you. On top of that the most logical method of taking out the snipers, with a sniper rifle is actually way more trouble than it’s worth.

If you’re feeling up to an annoying fight go ahead and grab a few sniper rifles and try to blast them back to the woods. Just be prepared to go through a lot of ammo and go through a whole buffet of health items as these guys take almost no damage from sniper fire.

A better method is to do, surprise, the exact same thing you’ve done for most of the other boss fights and take them head on with a combo weapon and a bunch of health drinks. When you make it up to any of them you’ll end up with a fairly simple fight and if you’ve downed any of the other psychos you shouldn’t have much trouble, just mash the attack button and dodge their counters until you finally can walk the strip without fear of anything but the undead.

Amber & Crystal Bailey

Amber

Location: Shoal Nightclub

Case: 4-1

This is by far my least favorite Dead Rising 2 psycho fight. Luckily you don’t need to spend twenty minutes desperately stumbling around the club trying to chug one more health drink while you’re vomiting uncontrollably and being hacked to pieces like I did.

The nice part about this fight is that you only have to kill one of the psychos, so just pick one and start going to town. If you really want to make your life easier bring health food since they only healing in the club is booze which will of course end in you throwing up for most of the fight.

This is the one of the only fights I can think of where using a ranged weapon can be a real advantage. Meleeing the twins will generally end up with you getting in a hit or two and then getting sliced into oblivion by the other sister. If you can grab a shotgun, or better yet still have the cowboy pistol then take cover behind one of the bars, pick your target and get a few shots off before they close range and you have to dodge.

If you’re looking to make this fight easier and much more interesting I have two words for you, freedom bear. Grab the robot bear from the Brand New U store and the LMG from the club’s Casino, you can find it on top of the giant slot machine. Now combine the two and get ready for some real magic. Freedom bear is a portable, wisecracking sentry turret and if you place him in a corner of the club he’ll do considerable damage and generally keep the twins distracted. When all is said and done you and freedom bear can enjoy a beer and pick up a shinny new katana for your troubles.

TK’s Chopper

TK

Location: Hotel Rooftop

Case: 5-2

This fight, while not making any real sense, is also pretty straight forward. When the winch light turns green go over and activate it. This will pull the chopper down and then you’ll be able to damage it. How you ask? Well instead of doing something that makes sense like, shooting it or having the winch just deal the damage you need to chuck stuff at it. That’s right, it doesn’t really matter what it is, laser sword, plates, lights just grab something and throw it at the chopper.

Once you’ve damaged TK he’ll fly back up and the winch will start turning. This is really easy to dodge roll so do that a few times until you see the machine gun warming up. Once again just stay patient and dodge roll out of the way. Eventually the light on the winch will turn green and you can do the whole thing over again. After it takes a beating from, silverware or whatever other garbage you feel like killing a helicopter with the fight ends and you can walk away learning a valuable helicopter safety tip.

Sgt Dwight Boykin

custom 1240919355521 Gore

Location: Underground

Case: 6-2

This is the only other fight in the game that I would suggest grabbing a few guns for. If you try the usual melee and dodge method you’ll more than likely end up getting grabbed and thrown to the ground to eat a belly full of lead. That’s not to say that the old standby method doesn’t work, it just requires a little more precision with your dodge roll.

Luckily there are plenty of guns laying around and lots of cover. Grab a few and put all those hours playing Gears of War to use. Wait for an opening then pop out from cover and take a few shots. It can get a little tedious as he doesn’t take a whole lot of damage from gunfire but it’s much safer than getting in close.

The Scientists

Science

Location: Underground

Case: 7-2

They’re two scientists with a pistol and you tamed a tiger for gods sake. Just run in and kick their teeth in and enjoy your coffee break.

Also don’t forget to grab the BFG’s lying around the area. If you combine them with an amp you get the super BFG which is just ten shades of awesome for clearing out zombies.

Sullivan

Sulli

Location: Yucatan Casino Roof

Case: The Facts

Now this is a tough fight, Sullivan must have been getting on your nerves at this point and it’s about time you returned the favor. Unfortunately all of your awesome weapons you brought to the fight are made useless since Sullivan can and will disarm you. Fortunately our old friends the knife gloves don’t fall into that category so feel free to keep them on.

The real key to this fight is to utilize some of the combat moves you’ve learned along the way. The front kick or the drop kick make this fight a joke. Just wait for a good opening and then get a good kick in. If you have it unlocked the drop kick is preferable since it leaves you less vulnerable. Once you kick him he’ll fall to his knees and you can get a few hits of your own in. Just don’t get cocky and stay in melee range too long or he’ll do some real damage or knock you off the platform where you’re in for a whole world of trouble from his pistol and his rocket happy helicopter buddy.

Finish him off and you’ll have beaten the game, that is of course unless you gave a dose of Zombrex to a certain villain. In that case it’s off to overtime mode where you’ll have to run around doing a few fetch quests before you tie up some loose ends.

TK: There can be only one

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Location:The Arena

Case: Overtime

Oh fantastic, another fight where you can’t use any of the weapons you’ve been lugging around what is it with these Dead Rising 2 Psychos?. The final showdown with TK is actually a surprisingly easy one once you get the hang of it. Once again the key here is the drop kick TK has no real defense against it so just wait for him to whiff a punch, hit him with it and then roll away. Crank the girls up whenever he runs off but watch your back or he’ll get you with his running grab which does a fair amount of damage.

If you end up getting knocked around a bit too much there is an orange juice just behind and to the left of the crank.

If you feel like getting flashy or don’t have the drop kick unlocked yet there are other options. Scattered around the area and on the scaffolding are various weapons and a few health pick ups. Using weapons puts you at a disadvantage though since you lose out on the precious frames of invincibility that using the drop kick gives, on the other hand beating the final boss with a moose head is has it’s own satisfying feeling so it’s your choice.