Aliens by Konami FAQ

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Aliens by Konami FAQ
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VERSION 1.1

A few quick notes before we begin... my name is, for these purposes,
Cypher. E-mail me at [email protected].

ALIENS and all related characters and properties are owned by 20th
Century Fox. ALIENS the arcade game is copyright 1990 by Konami.

This FAQ is copyright 2001 by me. If you wish to use it on a website
or publish it in any other way, you must e-mail me to request permission.
Don't sweat it -- I'll probably tell you yes. But I'll still seek
action against you if you don't ask first.

"It's started." - Dillon, ALIEN 3

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CONTENTS

I. Introduction

II. Controls

III. Weapons
A. Side-Scrolling Weapons
B. Driving Weapons
C. Power Loader Attacks

IV. Your Basic Aliens and How to Kill Them
A. Adult Aliens
B. Face-Huggers
C. Chest-Bursters
D. Eggs
E. Worm-Bugs
F. Bat-Bugs
G. Others

V. Walkthrough
A. Stage 1 - Welcome to LV-426
B. Stage 2 - To the rescue
C. Stage 3 - Into the nest
D. Stage 4 - Return to the APC
E. Stage 5 - Through the Atmosphere Processor
F. Stage 6 - The queen
G. Stage 7 - The escape
H. Final Boss - The queen, round two
I. The Ending

VI. What's Up with the Japanese Version?
A. Deletions
B. Additions
C. Other Changes

VII. In Closing

VIII. Update History

IX. Other FAQs by Cypher

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I. Introduction

ALIENS is the quintessential James Cameron action film. In
1990, it also became an arcade shoot-'em-up side-scroller from
Konami. It's worth your quarters, to be sure, but you could
use some guidance before you jump into the fray. Let this
FAQ be your guide.

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II. Controls

Obviously, moving the control stick moves your character
(Lt. Ellen Ripley for Player 1, Corporal Dwayne Hicks for Player
2) around in whatever direction you push. Up, down, left,
right, diagonal.

During sequences where you're travelling through the vent
system, you can only move left and right. If you hit a fork
in the path, you can climb up by pushing up, or continue going
straight along the ground route.

Up and down also work to move your character up and down the
ladders. Wow.

SHOOT 1 fires your weapon straight ahead, in line with whatever
it's currently pointing at from your regular stance. While in
the power loader, it provides a quick punch with the mechanical
arm. At the end of the game, hitting this button rapidly keeps
a grip on the queen.

SHOOT 2 puts your character into a squat and fires along the
ground for some low-down fighting. If you're carrying bombs
or super bombs, it also launches those out. During driving
sequences, it fires off one of your three missile rounds.
While in the power loader, it causes you to slowly (but
powerfully) swipe downwards with the mechanical arm. At the
end of the game, hitting this button while holding the queen
by hitting SHOOT 1 rapidly will turn on the power loader's
blow-torch, which serves to freak the queen out and make her
scream, but has little other effect.

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III. Weapons

A. Side-Scrolling Weapons

SMART GUN - Your usual weapon. Fires endless rounds for as long
as you hold down the button. Works in both side-scrolling and
driving stages. All other weapons must be found and only last
until you lose a life. Plus, all others must be tapped
repeatedly for rapid fire. But this one is your default, and
functions as an automatic.

MISSILE - Stronger fire, with the ability to home in on the
nearest hostile.

3-BULLET - Fires three very strong bullets in a wide range,
straight out.

3-WAY - Fires a beam straight out, plus one diagonally up and
one diagonally down. Great for taking out face-hugger dispenser
boxes along those upper walls.

FLAMETHROWER - Ripley's old standby. Shoots out a wide blast that
fries any bug it touches, save for the stronger eggs and bosses.

BOMBS - Two per pack. After collected, launched by hitting SHOOT
2. Destroys anything it hits, or else does heavy damage.

SUPER BOMBS - Only one pack exists in the game. Two per pack.
After collected, launched by hitting SHOOT 2. Destroy everything
on-screen.

B. Driving Weapons

SMART GUN - Your usual weapon. Fires endless rounds for as long
as you hold down the button. Works in both side-scrolling and
driving stages.

MISSILE ROUNDS - Fired by hitting SHOOT 2. You get three for
each driving sequence. Each shoots straight out from you and
mows down all in its path.

C. Power Loader Attacks

PUNCH - Hit SHOOT 1, and your mechanical arm will perform a
quick punch, killing any alien (save for the queen) that it
hits. At the end of the game, hitting this button rapidly
will grab the queen with the loader's hand and hold her
tight.

DOWNWARD SWIPE - Hit SHOOT 2, and you will swipe one arm
down. It's stronger than the punch, but slower. Ultimately,
it's best to stick to the Punch. The Swipe is too slow,
and leaves you wide open for a counterattack by the bugs.
At the end of the game, while holding the queen by hitting
SHOOT 1 rapidly, this button will turn on the loader's blow
torch, which is effective for making her squirm a little more.

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IV. Your Basic Aliens and How to Kill Them

A. Adult Aliens

They walk or crawl across and around the screen. You have
more than enough to time to shoot these weak, basic enemies
in any way you like. They'll sometimes fall to the screen
in cocoons and burst out of them. You can't hurt them until
they emerge, but then, they're just fodder.

B. Face-Huggers

Green and low to the ground. Hit SHOOT 2 to squat and splat
'em.

C. Chestbursters

These buggers may bound down to you or bounce on-screen, but
then they're on the ground and ready for a SHOOT 2 squat-fire.

D. Eggs

These pods can take a beating, and spit face-huggers like
there's no tomorrow. Fire low with SHOOT 2 so that if any
face-huggers get out, you'll hit them, and the rest of the
time you'll still hit the egg. Flame-throwers seem to work
wonders, and 3-bullet isn't so shabby either.

E. Worm-Bugs

They're like chest-bursters, but bigger. These slimy bastards
only appear in the vents. They come from the left, they come
from the right. You should have no trouble shooting them
however you like.

F. Bat-Bugs

They first appear in the vents, but eventually they move on
outside. They fly up and down, back and forth. Line up
with the area they're buzzing around in and just keep firing.
They'll fly right into your line of fire regardless of where
it is.

G. Others

All other varieties of enemies appear rarely, enough that
their strategies appear only in the level walkthroughs. This
also goes for mid-bosses and bosses.

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V. Walkthrough

A. STAGE 1 - Welcome to LV-426

This stage is simple, short, and sweet. Just head right.
Nothing you encounter should be worth mention. Just adult
aliens and face-huggers. Watch out for the face-huggers in
tubes along the back wall - some will break out and jump before
you. Just squat and shoot.

At a couple of points in the level, you'll see Newt go racing
by with her doll (or doll's head) Casey. Don't worry, you
can't hurt her, and neither can they.

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BOSS - Stretchy-Necked Crawling Alien

Hey, I don't know what Konami calls them, you know? All right,
here's your first encounter with a bug that Konami clearly just
made-the-hell-up. First you get two waves of face-huggers.
Shoot out the middle pair and step through to avoid the others,
who will stop and come rushing at the center once they align
with you.

Now here comes the real boss. It crawls back and forth, then
will suddenly crawl forward, towards you, to try and give you
a whacking. Avoid it when it comes forth and just keep firing.
It's that simple... until it loses its head. Then, energy
balls start to shoot from its neck. They fire in a 3, 3, 2, 3
pattern. Whenever it fires three, stand at the bottom of the
screen just to the right or left of the center and you'll be
safe. When 2 come at you, stand in the center at the bottom.
Of course, continue firing the whole time. He'll be toast in
short order.
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B. STAGE 2 - To the rescue

Welcome to your first driving stage. Or, actually, more like
"riding" stage, since you ride atop the APC and don't control
it. It plows forward, and you use your character to shoot the
aliens out of the way. The meter at the top shows you how
close you are to Newt, and thusly, the end of the stage.

Remember - you don't have to kill them all. If you see one
coming at you that you can't shoot in time, just get out of
its way. It'll harmlessly leap over the APC and miss you as
long as you're not in line with it.

The blue aliens are the ones to watch out for. They walk
back and forth across various lines of fire, and you need
to take them out so that they don't end up hitting YOU when
they reach the APC. It might be a good idea to save your
missile rounds for these freaks.

At the end of this less-than-a-minute-long stage, you drive
up to Newt... and she's swept up by a flying alien. A flying
alien? Looks like Konami's taking creative license again.

C. STAGE 3 - Into the nest

Get ready for the first LONG stage.

You start off heading into the vents. Remember, face-huggers
still take a SHOOT 2 to kill in here. Fight off the huggers,
worm-bugs, and adults while proceeding right. Stick to SHOOT
1 if you see an adult coming that's on the ceiling. You can
use the motion tracker that appears at top center to tell
when you're about to be attacked, but it's easier to just
fire when something comes on-screen. Time your movements past
the steam jets. Towards the end, you'll see some blue people,
zombies, behind the grates on the back wall. We'll talk about
them more in a bit, but for now just blast them from a safe
distance. If you get too close, they're liable to lob a
grenade your way.

When you're out of the vents, forge ahead to the elevator and
climb on for the ride down to Sub-Level 3.

This is an intense section. You'll be assaulted by adults and
face-huggers. When the huggers fall down your level, you can
of course blast them with a squatting shot. But the adults
are another matter.

You see, your elevator is being held up by three cables.
Every time an adult jumps onto your car, whether on the
entire where you are or onto the roof, it damages the cables.
Bugs on the roof do the most damage, because every moment
they're there hurts the cables, whereas bugs on your level
only damage them when they land their jump on-board. If
all three cables snap, you fall and die. It's the fastest
way to the bottom, sure, but it'll cost you a quarter.

When you see an adult alien coming up alongside the elevator
car, squat-shoot it in order to get your hits in early, so
that it'll be dead in time for you to turn and shoot the
other bug on the opposite side before it jumps on to join
you. As soon as ANY adult lands on the roof, immediately
shoot up and start killing. If your reaction time is fast
enough, you should survive the ride with at least one cable
left. Personally, despite all my experience with the game,
I've never made it to the bottom with more than one cable
still functioning. And sometimes, I still fall and die.

Moving on, once you've reached the bottom you'll head right
and encounter your first out-in-the-open zombies. Zombies
are humans, or were. But now they're blue-toned and they've
been infected with a chestburster or three. Yes, Konami has
changed the details of the Alien lifecycle to allow these
poor saps to be not only infected with multiple aliens, but
also driven to evil by their current state. Plus, they even
can attack you if they should be logically dead. Quite
beyond what we know.

The first ones you see will be walking, and you can take
them out easy. Step too close, though, and they'll launch
a trio of chestbursters out from their torso at you. You
might be able to peg the bursters in midair with SHOOT 1,
but once they hit the ground, it's SHOOT 2 country, natch.
These walking blue boys will be right underneath another one
who's wielding a machine gun on a raised platform. Climb
the ladder up to him, and he'll keep on firing downwards,
giving you free reign to shoot him up. Shortly thereafter,
a ball-of-alien will roll out of a door below and eventually
roll right. You can then drop back down to the floor and
proceed. Watch out for the globs of alien resin dripping
from the holes in the wall. Time your steps past them.

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MID-BOSS - Rolling Spore Alien

Welcome to your first mid-boss. It shouldn't be any trouble.

When it first rolls on-screen, step right up and, aligned with
it, fire right into its gut with SHOOT 1. This will destroy
any spores it tries to send out and give it plenty of damage.

Next it'll start rolling. Get along either the top or bottom
wall. If you see it coming at you, move left or right to
dodge, then wait until it comes back to dodge again.

It'll eventually uncurl again. Get aligned with it as quickly
as possible and again, shoot with SHOOT 1. That should destroy
the spore headed straight for you, give the alien heavy fire to
take in, and let the other spores go by pretty harmlessly.

It'll start rolling again. Continue the cycle. Three or four
rounds of fire should do the trick.
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Moving right, there's more zombies to face. Shoot them up,
then climb up the ladder and take out the gunner just as before.
Moving to the right on the upper path, you'll start to notice
some blue, ripped-off human torsos lying on the ground on the far
right. Drop down to the ground and edge right until they pop to
life - and start firing handguns! Weave up and down to dodge the
bullets and keep firing. You'll probably take a few hits before
you get them all killed.

Going right again, keep your self along the top wall as much as
you can. The floor will eventually cave in. If you were along
the top wall when it happened, you'll land on the ledge above the
water instead of IN the water.

Now move right, staying on the ledge. Up here, you'll encounter
spiders. They're like face-huggers, but bigger and faster.
They'll come from both sides, so inch your way to the right while
holding SHOOT 2, and be ready to spin and continue shooting back
to the left if need be.

Down below, you'll see blue corpses floating in the water - a bad
sign. If you've fallen down here, shoot them immediately as they
float on-screen from the right -- if you wait too long,
chestbursters will emerge from the bodies and lunge out at you,
and you'll have to contend with those faster and smaller beasts
instead. Plus, if you're down here, you're already getting the
spiders from above falling down on you, which you'll have to
dodge as best you can. The primary concern, though, is the
bodies. You'll see a ladder partway down the path - don't go
up. You'll just get spiders raining down on you that'll knock
you from the ladder, and even if you make it, you'll miss out on
the experience of SUPER BOMBS.

Regardless of the path you're on, you'll see those Super Bombs
down in the water after going right for a while. They're the
only Super Bombs in the game. If you're down below, they
could easily save your life. If you're up above, you have a
choice. Either continue to the right for the last two screens
worth of this section, fighting off the spiders, or drop below
and use those Super Bombs to make short work of the rest of
the water segment.

When you've emerged from the water, head right a bit and you'll
soon see a beautiful sight - a POWER LOADER! Jump in and start
stomping your way right once more. If any aliens appear on the
left or right of you, just give them a quick punch with SHOOT 1
and they'll be dead fast. SHOOT 2 has a downward swipe that's
a bit stronger, but too slow to be useful. Stick with 1.
You'll soon see an orange alien spitting what appears to be balls
of fire towards you. Weave up and down to dodge the fire as you
move in, then give it a punch to kill it. As you continue to
encounter these, the same rules apply.

You'll also run into a few walls that will slam down in front of
you. Move to the very bottom of the screen and start punching
the wall. It'll eventually be out of your way. As you do that,
though, don't forget to turn and punch any aliens that may come
racing at you from the left.

After the last wall, you'll soon be kicked from your power loader
and it'll explode behind you. Time to continue on foot, into
the nest itself.

As you step into these resin-covered walls, you'll see a group
of blue torsos lying on the ground to the right. Yup, they've got
guns. Same strategy applies here.

Charging ahead, you'll start to notice people, flesh-toned people,
quivering on the wall in the background. You can't help them,
they're too far gone. In fact, as you step in front of them,
chestbursters will emerge, killing them and heading for you.
Step back left, then turn right and SHOOT 2 at them. At this
point, you should also come across some eggs. SHOOT 2 is your
best strategy, to hit both the eggs and the facehuggers that will
emerge from them. If any come at you from different angles, step
back, turn, line up, and SHOOT 2 once more.

Continuing, you'll head into a darkened area.

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BOSS - Resin-Encased Tentacled Alien

As the light comes back on, you'll see a wall of adult aliens.
Fire up at them, weaving back to forth to hit as many as you can.
They'll start falling down on you. Dodge left and right, away
from their pounces, and keep firing. Once they've all fallen
off-screen, you'll see the real boss in its full glory.

Stand in the center and fire straight up at its head. It'll
start to wiggle around either its left or right tentacle. The
tentacle will fly in your line of fire and take a few shots from
your gun before retracting. When that happens, step AWAY from
the tentacle - if it's the right one, move left, and if it's the
left one, move right. You should dodge out of the way of its
massive swipe just in time. If you keep firing as you do this,
you can also score some hits on the unmoving arm you pass beneath.
Now you can resume firing straight up at the head from the center.

Eventually, both arms will blow off, and the head will start
launching cocoons down at you. The cocoons won't hatch, they'll
just bounce off-screen. However, there's no pattern here. They
fall erratically, and the best you can do is weave back and forth,
dodging the falling objects. Don't go too far left or right as
you weave. You're most likely going to take a few hits
regardless. Keep firing at the head until it dies.
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D. STAGE 4 - Return to the APC

Another driving stage should be an absolute relief after that
lengthy experience. The same rules apply. Fire the missile
rounds at the blue aliens and shoot the regular aliens with
traditional smart gun fire. You'll see some flying aliens
in here too, but they go down just as easy as the regular
adults.

You'll also encounter black boxes coming towards you. The
same rules apply to these as they do to the aliens, except
the boxes take more hits, and are slightly tougher to dodge
when they hit the APC. Blow them up or get out of the way, and
you'll be fine.

At the end of the stage, you find Newt again, and this time,
she's safe and sound. You may have rescued Ms. Jordan, but
you've still got to go through the atmosphere processor and
take on the queen. Let's get to it!

E. STAGE 5 - Through the Atmosphere Processor

Think Stage 3 was long? You ain't seen nothin' yet. Stage 5
will make you weep at its excessive length and multiple big
bads. Thankfully, it's all downhill from here. This is the
last of the giant stages. So, on your mark...

One screen to the right, you'll encounter shadows on the floor.
Aliens on the ceiling? Nope. Aliens under the floor. Steer
clear of the shadows until they emerge from the ground, then
shoot them up as you would any other adults. A second wave
of these follows.

Moving on, you'll see globs of the aliens' acid blood dripping
from the ceiling and burning through the floor. They'll only
drip from the spots you see now, so just avoid those areas. If
you MUST pass, time your steps. You CAN step on the burned
areas of the ground and not take damage.

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MID-BOSS - Pod-Bearing Beetle Alien

Oh boy. This one's a real killer. You can't destroy those
pods that circle it like a shield, so don't try. Aim as best
you can for the higher spot, i.e. the beetle's back, without
getting out of line with its body. SHOOT 1 is the way to go.
When the pods move in close to the bug, get to whichever side
of it has the most free space before they circle wide again.
If you're on the left side of the screen, you can pass either
behind or beneath the bug to get to the right side, but if
you're on the right side, DON'T try to pass beneath it -
there's less ground space on the bottom right side of the
screen, so passing beneath would mean contact with the beetle
and injury. Stick to the high road when travelling right to
left. Keep firing until it's so much toast. Flamethrower
is a real lifesaver here.
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After the first mid-boss (yes, I said FIRST) go down the ladder
next to it and continue on your way. Watch those windows in
the background - adults will leap out from them. You'll see
their shadows through the window before they jump through, so
you'll know where NOT to be when they jump out. Continue
killing the bugs until you encounter a new breed -
floor-popping aliens. These bugs reside in the ground and
rise out of the floor to nip at you on occassion, but you can
always see them. Shoot 'em up with SHOOT 2 before you pass.

Now it's back into the vents. The same rules apply to the
bats, worms, adults and huggers in here. But there's new
threats to worry about too. See those holes in the ceiling?
Face-huggers can drop out of them. Watch your motion tracker
and you'll see them passing back and forth above you. When
they stop, they're about to drop down. Start firing a step
back from the hole that it's going to come through.

You'll also encounter some grates along the ground. These are
home to more floor-poppers. They may be in the vents and
under grates now, but the same rules apply.

Once you're out of the vents, you'll continue you on, blasting
more generic bugs and face-huggers, and you'll start to notice
bolts of electricity shooting between the background and
foreground walls. Time your passage through these. Almost
invariably, on the other side you'll find face-hugger dispenser
boxes. These strange anamolies are along the back walls and
look like metal squares of circuitry, but keep spitting out
huggers. A 3-Way gun is perfect here, allowing you to fire
up towards the box while never leaving the center of the screen
so that you can peg those huggers as they exit. Without it,
though, simply line up along the background wall (preferrably
the right side of the box) and SHOOT 2 at the dispenser. Do
this from a few steps back, so that any approaching face-huggers
are likely to step right into the line of fire as they head for
you. Continue to do this on any future boxes.

As you move past this section, the floor's about to cave in, so
get ready to making sure you're on the very TOP of the screen!

Once it caves in, if you were on top, you'll land safely on
a balcony above a pit of death. By "pit of death" I mean the
other place you could've landed, which is a surface teeming with
walking zombies launching chestbursters, adult aliens,
facehuggers spewing from rows of eggs, and acid dripping from
the ceiling. It's quite literally wall to wall down there, and
to anyone that falls in that pit, there's no real strategy.
Just keep firing in every direction and try to keep the monsters
at bay. You're probably going to die, but, well, good luck.
That's what quarters are for.

If you landed up top however, you're in heaven. There's not a
single enemy up here. Head to the right, shaking your head as
you think of all the poor saps who must've met their maker in
that pit of beasties below you. Both sections will end, and
that's when you'll step off the upper level and touch terra
firma once more, with only a few bugs to splat as you hit the
ground.

Go on down that next ladder, and it's time for the next
mid-boss.

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MID-BOSS - Shrinky-Dink Alien Quartet

Here's a interesting gang. These four buggers are small when
they first appear, but every time you hit them, they
momentarily enlarge, then go right back to being tiny. Edge
along the top and bottom walls to get to the left and right
sides of the screen, and use whichever is open to fire with
SHOOT 2 at the little guys. Eventually they'll stay large
permanently, and start to bounce around the screen slowly.
This part of the fight is actually even easier. You can
walk around the screen, easily dodging the light hops of
the slow beasts, and keep firing, now using SHOOT 1, as you
weave between them until they're all dead.
-------------

Head off once more, and you'll be going on a grated floor over
water below. As you contend with facehuggers, adults will
spring from the foreground water onto the grate and attack.
Splat 'em.

The walkway will reach a narrow part, right before a final
wide section. On that last narrow section, adults will leap
up from the water and spit acid at you, but won't join you on
the grate. Time your steps past the spitters and continue into
a whole new threat.

Here, under the grated floor you'll see golden-brown aliens
clutching to the grate from beneath. If you step over them,
they'll swipe up and hurt you. You can try to step around
them, though they'll attempt to follow you. There's a better
way to handle them, however. You should've just picked up a
pack of two bombs. With SHOOT 2, drop them right onto the
grate-grabbers, killing two of them. You should have no
problem avoiding the remains as you head over to the ladder
and climb up.

Welcome to the exterior of the atmosphere processor! Feel
that wind and breathe that processed oxygen! Out here, you'll
encounter more ground-poppers, which you know how to handle by
now. You'll also have to deal with the purple-blue electrical
bolts coming from the overloading processor, but you can always
tell where they're going to strike when that area of ground
glows purple-blue, so just don't step there. You'll also get
your first encounter with the flying aliens, like the one that
took Newt back at the end of Stage 2. That one was green,
these are reddish-brown. Whatever, just line up and shoot
them with SHOOT 1. It would serve you well to line up while
they're on either far side of the screen, because they'll take
a few more hits than a regular adult will, and you'll want to
see these flying bugs dead before they can fly into you and
injure you.

-------------
BOSS - Static Electricity Alien Duo

These aliens were apparently birthed from something with fur
or hair. They look like normal adults, except for those wooly
tops on their heads that conduct electricity, along with the
fact that they're blue.

To begin with, make sure you're on the bottom or top of the
screen when they first come in. They'll both charge in from
the sides right towards the center, and then stop a few feet
apart, taking bolts of electricity in through their wooly
domes and shooting it between them. They'll run off the screen
next, and now it's time to rumble.

They'll each appear at the edges of the screen, one on the left
and one on the right. They'll face each other directly. And
you need to get between them and start firing away at one. It
doesn't matter if it's the left or right one, but whichever one
you choose, make a decision to stick with that one for the
duration of the battle. After all, since the pair constantly
switches sides, you'll inflict equal damage on them both this
way. If you have a second player with you, you can get that
person to shoot in the opposite direction. Then they'll
charge towards each other and switch sides. As soon as you see
them starting to run, step up or down to get out of the way of
their charge. They'll then appear on the two sides of the
screen again, probably on a different plane of depth. Line up
and fire away again, and repeat this pattern.

Stay out of the center during this fight. Don't step into the
center after any their charge, because occassionally during the
battle they'll rush to the center of the screen and do a
different kind of "charge," as they shoot bolts between them
just as they did at the start of the fight. You'll want to
avoid this, as usual.

After a while of this, you'll kill one, and the other will turn
orange. It'll rush in to the center of the screen. Get on one
side of it and start firing. Now it'll launch three electrical
orbs out in different directions. In mid-flight, these orbs
will pause. Move! One or two will home in on you, and if you
get out of the way, they'll miss. Even if you don't dodge
those, you'll want to get out of the way now, because the alien
is going to run off-screen again and then rush back to the
center from the side of the screen that ie just raced off of.
Be ready on the OTHER side, the side it DIDN'T run off of, and
fire. Repeat the dodging and firing until it's dead, and the
stage is completed.
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F. STAGE 6 - The queen

Time to face the big momma herself. Head right, frying eggs,
adults, and face-huggers for a few screens until you reach
darkness. The lights will come up, and the battle is on!

-------------
BOSS - Queen Alien

With the lights back on, you'll notice that the room is a bit
crowded. Eggs line the floor and face-huggers spew forth
from them. Adults occassionally roam in. And then of course
there's the queen, and her giant egg sac.

First things first, destroy the two eggs on the left side of
the queen. With those out of the way, don't worry about the
rest. If you try to destroy any of the numerous eggs on the
right, an adult alien will just run on-screen with a new egg
and drop it in place. Get yourself into position at the far
top left corner of the screen, face right, and start
blasting at the queen's egg sac using SHOOT 1.

Watch the very top of the screen, and I mean the VERY top,
on the ceiling. There, you'll occassionally see adult aliens
crawl in and hang over you. If you see one over you, step
out of the way, kill it, then get back into position and
continue shooting the queen alien.

In addition, if a face-hugger climbs up and aligns with you,
splat it quickly with SHOOT 2 before you return to using SHOOT
1 on the queen. This shouldn't be much of a concern though,
as it's a rare occurrence in most games.

So, what's the queen's defense other than all of these minions,
you ask? Simple. Her egg sac is divided into sections. You
have to destroy that egg sac section by section. As each
section is destroyed, the remains will splatter out towards
you. You must step downwards as soon as this happens, to
avoid the flying gore, and then after it's landed, get back to
the top left corner and continue firing with SHOOT 1.

This is your attack plan. Continue with it until the queen's
egg sac is demolished, and she falls to the ground, destroying
all the cronies that were beneath her and ending the level.
-------------

G. STAGE 7 - The escape

In a few minutes, this entire area is going to be a cloud of
vapor the size of Nebraska. In other words, it's time to get
out. Don't worry, the level's not timed, and it's relatively
short. Nonetheless, move.

As you start to head for the dropship, you'll encounter the
usual adult aliens and occassional face-huggers. But you'll
start to notice alien-colored splotches moving on the ground
as well. Liquid aliens! These T-1000 esque beasts will ooze
over to you and then take shape in front of you, spitting some
acid before they retreat back into liquidy form and repeat the
process. If you see them coming at you, start firing with
SHOOT 2 and you'll get them. But if you have other kinds of
bugs also coming at you, make THOSE bugs the priority, and not
the liquid aliens, who can less damage to you, and can do it
less often. If push comes to shove, you can just try to step
past the liquid bugs.

There's also another flying alien out here, right before
the second large platform. Kill it with the same strategy
you used on it in Stage 5.

-------------
BOSS - Pod-Bearing Beetle Alien, Part Deux

You'll see the queen pass by in the background and toss out
these pods again. The beetle then comes out and takes those
pods up as a shield, and it's time to fight this bug one more
time!

This time will be easier. That's because now, the pods can be
destroyed by your weapons fire. They'll replenish, but it
provides you with an opening during which you can hit the
beetle with everything you've got. Also, this time you CAN
manuver around the beetle alien on the bottom if you're moving
from right to left around it. Plus the pods move much slower
and don't extend as far. Otherwise, keep up the same attack
plan, only with less dodging needed now that you can destroy
those pods, and you'll kill this sorry freak. Then it's onto
the dropship and off of this rock.
-------------

H. FINAL BATTLE - The queen, round two

-------------
BOSS - QUEEN ALIEN, ROUND TWO

Welcome to the final confrontation. You're in the cargo bay
of the Sulaco, but the queen's followed you here by riding
the landing gear of your dropship, and she's not looking happy.

Once you move right, you'll see her before two long, primed
for battle. You could take her on with your gun, but she's
liable to charge at you when you're so small and open for
attack. Instead, notice that you can gear up too, just by
climbing into that lucious-looking power loader on the far
right. Now the odds are just about even.

The basic plan of attack here is relatively simple - step
in close, punch her with SHOOT 1, then step back (at an
diagonal angle, to avoid her tail swipe) and move elsewhere.
Wait for her to come towards you, then step forward, in close,
punch with SHOOT 1, back off diagonally, and repeat.

It's not quite that simple though. Occassionally, the queen
will flash white. When that happens, step up or down, out
of her path, because she's about to launch something out of
her mouth (she appears to be breathing a stream of fire).
When she's done with that, continue the battle.

Also, if you're in close delivering a punch and the queen
pulls back her tail to take a swipe at you, and you don't have
enough time to step back out of the line of fire, walk down
instead. That'll get you out of the way when moving away from
her or up wouldn't do the trick.

If you've got a second player, this is complicated. You can't
just have the second player backing you up easily as in the
first power loader sequence, and you can't have him/her taking
on the queen that much, either. Try to keep the player that
isn't in the power loader behind the loader, firing at the
queen with SHOOT 1. If the queen attempts to charge the
person not in the loader, it's up the player that's in the
loader to step in and cut her off with a quick punch.

Once you've gotten enough damage on her, the airlock hatch
will open on the right. Now you've got to move in close and
rapidly tape SHOOT 1 to pick up the queen by the neck in one
of the loader's hands. As long as you're holding her, you can
also use SHOOT 2 to turn on the loader's blow torch, just like
in the movie. But this has no effect other than making the
queen scream a little bit more (which is always good).

With a firm grip on her, keep tapping SHOOT 1 rapidly as you
walk over to the right, and hold her out over the open airlock.
Now you can stop tapping SHOOT 1 and let her drop in.

Congratulations. You've just won the game.

ALTERNATE METHOD: It IS possible to destroy the Queen solely
with gunfire, but it takes a long time. A few minutes of
continuous fire at least. With two players, this might go a bit
faster, but as long as you're standing outside of the power
loader, you're extremely vulnerable. If you destroy the queen
this way, she explodes into pieces, and you see the pieces blow
out into space instead of the complete queen when you watch the
ending.

-------------

I. THE ENDING

You get a three-part cinema scene now. First, you see the
queen, looking great, hanging on for dear life in the open
airlock.

ALTERNATE METHOD: If you defeated the queen with gunfire instead
of using the loader, you see the pieces of the queen tumble into
space here instead.

Then you see a wide shot of the exterior of the ship, as a
tiny black figure, the queen, is sucked out into space.

Then you get a close-up of the queen's head, again looking
quite nice, as she screams, flashes white... and vanishes.
Rather odd, that.

Then, the following text appears on the screen. This is
directly transcribed, so any errors within DO appear in the
game:

"Mission completed.
The ALIENS breeding ground
has been destroyed and
the last of their
flung into timeless space.

You have also survived...
Congratulations!"

Japanglish? Hard to say, since that same text appears in
the Japanese version.

Now the credits roll, the Konami logo and the copyright year
(1990) appears, and the game restarts from Stage 1.

-------------------------------------------------------------
VI. What's Up with the Japanese Version?

The Japanese Version of the ALIENS arcade game is unlike any
other edition available in any other country in the world.
Most of these changes are minor, but some are truly noteworthy.
On the whole, they make the game easier. They are documented
herein.

A. Deletions

1. Most obviously, both APC driving levels have been
entirely deleted.
2. As such, the subplot of rescuing Newt is gone.
Therefore, Newt never appears in Stage 1.
3. When you take on the "Shrinky-Dink Alien Quartet"
as documented in the Stage 5 section of this FAQ, the
first one to fully enlarge hops off-screen, leaving you
to only battle the other three.
4. Many of the aliens, zombies, and mid-bosses can be
killed with fewer shots.

B. Additions

1. Two new kinds of minor enemy appear in the game.
a. An adult alien bursts out of the background
wall during the vent portion of what we consider
Stage 5. It functions much like the
Ground-Poppers and is destroyed just as easily,
but with new animations and from a different
angle. It is the only one of its type in the
game.
b. The small form of the Shrinky-Dink Alien, as
seen in the form of the second mid-boss in Stage
5, reappears in Stage 7. It stands alone on the
catwalks with a ring of orange energy circling
it and the catwalk in a kind of "shield." A few
shots destroy it.
2. Titles have been given to each level. They are as
follows, transcribed as they appear in the game.
a. Level 1 Living Quarters
b. Level 2 Factory
c. Level 3 Factory2
d. Level 4 Queen Alien's DEN
e. Level 5 Escape Route
f. Level 6 Battle Ship SULACO
3. Special weapons and bombs appear much more frequently
in the game, dropping from the sky for the players to
use at regular intervals.
4. It is now possible to attain 1-ups in the game. If
a player is still carrying a weapon from the last
special weapon power-up, the next one to fall on-screen
will contain a 1-up. It comes in the form of a red
ribbon with a bow wrapped around the word "1up".
5. In addition to the other enemies in this section,
ground-popping aliens now appear earlier, during the
nest portion of what we know as Stage 3.
6. In addition to the other enemies, flying aliens now
appear during the first power loader segment, in Stage 3.
7. Flying aliens are much more frequent throughout the
outdoor portion of Stage 5 and Stage 7.
8. Extra exploding barrels appear throughout the game.

C. Other Changes

1. Numerous aliens have changed color. Adult aliens are
now purple instead of maroon, face-huggers are now
flesh-toned instead of green, etc.
2. Many of the adult aliens in the elevator sequence of
Stage 3 have been removed. They have been replaced with
flying aliens that do NOT damage the cables. This makes
this sequence much easier.
3. The beams from the 3-Way gun have changed color from
purple to orange.
4. During the final battle, the queen does NOT breathe
fire/acid at you. Instead, after flashing white, she
sends out multiple images of herself as a projectile!
These are wider and therefore are easier to be hit by.
5. The queen charges at you constantly even if you are
in the power loader. This makes the final battle much
more difficult.

-------------------------------------------------------------
VI. In Closing

And so the day is saved. Ripley has once again fought off the
aliens, and can have peace.

Until you step across your local arcade floor and belly up to
the cabinet of Sega's ALIEN 3: THE GUN or Capcom's ALIEN VS.
PREDATOR, that is.

-------------------------------------------------------------
VIII. Update History

Version 1.0 -- The FAQ is released.

Version 1.1 -- The section on the Alien Queen battle has been
updated with an ALTERNATE METHOD of killing her, and the
section on the ending has also been updated with info on the
slightly different ending if you defeat the Queen this way.

-------------------------------------------------------------
IX. Other FAQs by Cypher

Autolycus character FAQ for XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS - TALISMAN OF
FATE on Nintendo 64.

TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE FAQ for Atari 2600.

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This FAQ is Copyright 2000 by Cypher.