TOP GUN: THE SECOND MISSION

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TOP GUN: THE SECOND MISSION
FAQ V 1.0
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By Mariner, 2002
Latest Addition - 5/7/02

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Table of Contents
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I. Pseudo Legal Stuff
II. Updates
III. The Basics
A. Modes of Play
B. Screen Layout
C. Controls
IV. Adventure Mode
A. Missiles
B. Stage 1
C. Stage 2
D. Stage 3
E. Points
V. Dog Fight Mode
A. Explanation
B. Opponents and Ranks
C. Missiles
D. General Tips
VI. Landing FAQ
A. Speed
B. Location
VII. Contact Information

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I. Pseudo Legal Stuff
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You know the drill...
This FAQ is written by Mariner for http://www.gamefaqs.com only.
Do not use without permission
If you would like to use this FAQ in any way, email me first
Email: [email protected]
Top Gun is copyright Paramount Pictures.
The game was made by Konami.

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II. Updates
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Version Sections Description Date
------- -------- ----------- ----
V 0.1 I - III, General formatting, basics, landing FAQ, and 1 - 18 - 02
V - VII the dogfight mode completed.

V 0.2 IV A-B Missiles and L1 of adventure mode completed 1 - 27 - 02

V 0.3 IV C Level 2 of adventure mode completed 3 - 10 - 02

V 0.4 IV D Level 3 of adventure mode completed 3 - 25 - 02

V 1.0 IV E Point listing for adventure mode completed 5 - 7 - 02

No more updates of FAQ planned.

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III. The Basics
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A. MODES OF PLAY
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There are three different modes in this game. They are:
1P Game - This is what I call the adventure mode, and is the main portion of
the game. There are three missions that you must complete, and you have three
lives to do it (extra lives can be picked up). The missions generally consist
of fighting some fighters, than some land based units, some dogfighting, some
fancy flying, and a boss at the end. See part IV.

1P Vs Game - This is what I call the dogfight mode. You face seven Soviet
officers, and must dogfight with them one by one. Each time you when, you move
up in rank. You have one life and must start all over if you lose. Each new
opponent is harder than the previous one. See part V.

2P Vs - This is pretty self explanatory. You dogfight a friend in split screen
mode. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same as the 1P Vs Game mode.

Options - There's also an options menu where you can turn the music on or off
and change your controls. You can either have normal or reverse (see
controls). Both players (if playing a 2 player game, of course) can choose
their controls.

B. SCREEN LAYOUT
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This should be pretty simple. The screen is made to look like the inside of a
cockpit. As such, much of the screen is your window. The green edges make out
a large square that represents your missile range. In other words, enemy units
must be inside of that square before you may fire missiles at them. The small
square inside it is the center, and also represents where your machine gun is
pointed. This should help with your aim. Now then, on to the cockpit.

The big grid in the middle is your radar obviously. Your fighter is in the
center. Enemy units are represented as white circles, and the small black
ones are stray missiles
The yellow rectangles at the bottom of the radar is your life meter. Every
bullet that connects will take away one of those.
The type and number of missiles remaining is on the far right.
Speed is to the left of the missiles remaining.
Pitch and yaw are pictured at the far left
The gray rectangles below the radar is where messages come in. It is closed
most of the time.
The four buttons to the immediate right of the radar represent four warnings.
First one - You are in range of the enemy
Second - Enemy has a missile lock on you
Third - You have a missile lock on the enemy
Fourth - You are pulling too many Gs (very rare)

C. CONTROLS
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A - Accelerate
B - Fire machine gun (hold down for continuous fire)
Tap B twice - Fire missile
Tap left or right twice - Do a barrel roll
D-Pad - movement
Select - choose options at the menu
(There is no pause in the game. Sorry)

There are two different types of controls that you can choose in the options,
normal and reverse. For normal, pressing up puts your nose up in the air, and
pressing down puts it down. Reverse does the opposite (to simulate a joystick;
pulling back is the same as pressing down). Choose whichever one you're most
comfortable with.

For landing, A is accelerate and B is decelerate.

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IV. Adventure Mode
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A. MISSILES
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Before you start your missions, you must choose your type of missiles. You can
switch in between missions as well. Here are your options:
PHEONIX - You get 20 missiles. The range pretty much takes up the entire
vertical length of your viewscreen, and roughly half of the length.
SPARROW - You get 40 missiles. The range is roughly 2/3 the size of Pheonix.
SIDEWINDER - You get 60 missiles. The range is about 1/2 the size of Pheonix.

In order to fire a missile, your enemy must be within the range shown. The
enemy must also remain inside the range in order to insure a hit (although you
may still hit him anyway). What should you choose? I recommend Sparrow
missiles. The sidewinder range is just too small to be totally effective, and
this way you don't have to worry about using too many missiles. Of course,
it's your choice based on your own preference. But the Sparrow is a good
intermediate choice.

B. MISSION 1: DESTROY ENEMY BOMBER
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To make this easier to read, I have broken the mission down into 4 parts.
1. Up to the subs
2. First set of subs and the dogfight
3. More subs and planes
4. The bomber

1. After lifting off, you are ready to go. Three fighters will come at you,
one after the other, without firing, to get you warmed up. Two more fighters
will come from behind, but will not fire. You can ignore them if you'd like;
it really doesn't matter. Two more fighters will fly at you, and then two
more, but you have to be quick to knock them down. Now the fun starts. 3
fighters will fire a volley of missiles at you. You can dodge them if you
want, but the missiles are slow enough that they are easily shot down. A trio
will then fire their machine guns at you, but will probably miss. Just shoot
them down. Another trio of planes will shoot their missiles at you again,
just take care of them like you did the first time. After all the planes are
shot down or leave your radar, the subs appear.

2. Make sure you are level with the ground. The subs move forward and then
fire a missile at you. They tend to shoot you from behind if you let them go,
so you need to shoot them down and do so quickly. Using missiles is quite
acceptable here if you aren't quick with your aiming skills. The pattern is:
2 subs, centered
1 sub, centered
2 planes (they don't fire)
1 sub, off to the right
2 planes (no firing here)
Once the subs are gone, you will be notified that an enemy approaches. The
water turns purple (odd, I know), and you have to dogfight with an opponent.
He appears off to the left, and starts firing immediately. My suggestion is
just to hold down to the right, let him swing by, and then catch him as he
comes around again in front of you. One quick missile ought to do it.

3. After you destroy the jet, the sea will go back to normal. Two planes will
attack from behind and destroy you if you don't pay attention. The easiest way
around this is to just hold down to the right and the missile will miss. Now,
more subs to kill.
1 sub, center
2 planes (won't attack)
1 sub, right + 1 plane (ignore plane)
2 subs off to the left + 2 planes (ignore plane)
2 subs off to the right
2 planes
1 sub, center + 1 plane (plane shoots missile, be sure to shoot it down)
2 subs off to the left
1 sub, center + 1 plane (plane shoots missile, so shoot it)
You will now get another enemy to dogfight. Use the same strategy as before.
You're in the home stretch now. Two sets of planes will fire missiles at you.
Avoid the missiles and then shoot the planes down, and the bomber will appear.

4. The bomber sits in front of you and fires bombs or something at you. In
order to knock it down, you must aim for it's four engines. Missiles will be
useless against them. However, missiles also have a tendency to destroy the
bombs flying towards you, so you may want to keep firing them. Thus, this is
my recommended strategy. Knock out the engines with your machine gun while
rapidly firing your missiles. The engines will be completely black when fully
destroyed, so don't be fooled by half damaged engines. While going from one
side of the bomber to the other after knocking out half the engines, I suggest
you first move all the way up and then over, as the bombs can't hurt you. Good
luck. When the bomber finally crashes, all that's left for you to do is land
(see section VI). Congratulations.

C. MISSION 2: DESTROY TOP SECRET HELICOPTER
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As before, the mission will be broken down into sections to make it easier to
read. This one's much harder, so good luck.
1. Fighters and Trees
2. The Tanks
3. Up to the Copter
4. The Helicopter

1. You're over a desert now, isn't that nice? In any case, multiple squads of
fighters will appear. All of them will fire missiles at you, so be careful.
If you hold down to one side and keep flying in circles, there's a very high
chance you will not get hit by anything. On the other hand, that won't net you
many points and will take longer. If you refuse to take the safe route, just
keep moving. Shoot down as many planes and especially missiles as you can.
Watch your radar, as they like to appear behind you and shoot a missile at your
back. This is rather dangerous, and may take some practice. Only two jets
will be on screen for a while, but eventually three will appear. You're almost
through. When all the planes leave the screen or are shot down, you will enter
a forest. Unlike reality, you can't just fly over it, and you must navigate
around the trees. This can be hard, and there is no set pattern. Watch where
the trees appear and always aim for the largest hole. I wish I could give more
advice, but there is none. Just watch carefully and hope for the best.

2. Like the subs of yore, you must now destroy all of the tanks. There are
also numerous planes to worry about as well. Use up your missiles here, as you
don't have time to waste killing these things. Watch your radar, as planes
will fire missiles from behind as well. It starts out with two tanks and a jet
in the middle. Knock out the missile, and then quickly concentrate on the
tanks. A couple of fighters will fly around you; knock them out. Hit the next
tank while watching your back and maneuvering out of the way of the incoming
missile, and then get the next one. Once again, another fighter will attack
you from behind, so evade. One final tank will appear, so knock it out. Just
keep watching your radar and maneuver often and you should be ok. A dogfight
will commence, much like the first level. He appears from the bottom right and
immediately fires at you. Dispose of him as usual. You're almost through.

3. The next group of tanks is a cinch. One tank will appear along with a jet.
Shoot down the missile the plane fires and then focus on the tank, ignoring the
plane altogether. After two of these, another tank will appear while a couple
fighters attack from behind. Dodge out of the way and then knock out the tank.
You will then enter another short forest, so dodge out of the way like before.
Some planes will attack from behind, so dodge out of the way, and then shoot
down one more tank. Another dogfight will ensue, this one coming from the
bottom left. Finish it. You will be treated to a few more groups of planes,
all firing missiles, so follow the same strategy as in section 1. Finally,
after they all fly off or are shot down, you will reach the fabled helicopter.

4. This guy can be very easy if done correctly. The helicopter rapidly fires
rounds of missiles and bullets which you have little hope of dodging. However,
you shouldn't need to. Focus on the center of the copter and fire your machine
gun. You should ain for the black nose of it. After you hit both the upper
and lower sections of the nose, the helicopter will crash. That's it! Sadly,
if its first volley hits you, which is quite possible, you will have absolutely
no time to react, which is rather cheap. I've been killed like this before,
but it fortunately is rather rare. After it crashes, you will go to the
landing sequence.

D. MISSION 3: DESTROY ENEMY SPACE SHUTTLE
******************************************
This level takes forever. It's all basically the same too, just with the
difficulty pushed up a notch. So instead of just giving you the walkthrough,
we'll do things a little different.
1. Order of enemy apeearances
2. Tips on the level
3. Space Shuttle

1. Fighters (about 6) - Lots of missiles, so dodge like mad
Dogfight - comes from right in front of you
Lightning storm
Fighters (about 8) - not as many missiles as before
Dogfight - from bottom right, shoots lots of bullets
Fighters (about 12) - more missile fun
Dogfight - Just like the last one
Meteor shower - ooh, pretty
Dogfight - right in front of you, just keep firing
Fighters (about 6) - Yawn, more?
Space Shuttle - finally!

2. First up, we'll deal with the fighters. There's a lot of them, and they
fire tons of missiles at you. Shooting them down can be very deadly, so I
suggest just flying in circles for the most part. Once again, if you're going
to attack, always watch your radar. Also, some of the later ones seemed to
have heat seeking missiles of some sort, so be careful. If you see a missile
change course and start heading in your direction, just hold bank sharply until
it's gone. The dogfights are the same as all the rest, except there are many
of them. The last one can be killed immediately as it runs straight at you.
That leaves the lightning storm and meteor shower. All you have to do is hold
down to one side and you're fine. Really. That's it. Just for the record,
the white flashes are harmless and the colored ones are the ones that kill you.
That is, if you actually try to avoid them rather than just holding to the
side. If you can pull all of this off correctly, you shall soon see the space
shuttle.

3. Your message box will tell you the shuttle is equipped with laser beams.
Oh joy. Actually, this guy is not all that hard. First of all, missiles are
useless. Now for defense. When you see the lasers flashing (they are at the
top of the shuttle), stop what you're doing and move. It doesn't matter where,
as long as you do not stay in the same spot. Otherwise, you're dead. So your
first order of business is to get rid of the lasers. Fire your gun at each of
the laser emitters to destroy them. Once they're gone, you should have no
problem quickly shooting out the two large engines of the shuttle. And that's
all there is. Congratulations!

E. POINTS
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In the adventure mode, you get points for shooting down various stuff.

Normal fighter- 200
Missile- 100
Dogfight fighter- 500
Submarine- 500
Tanks- 100

Blackjack bombs- 0
Partial BJ Engine- 100
Complete BJ Engine- 100
Blackjack- 5000
Total Blackjack- 5800

One half of Apache- 1000
Apache- 5000
Total Apache- 7000

Shuttle Laser- 1000
Shuttle Engine- 1000
Space Shuttle- 5000
Total Shuttle- 7000

Landing- 500

You recieve an extra life at 20000 points

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V. Dogfight Mode
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A. EXPLANATION
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This is the "1P vs Mode" on the menu screen. In it, you will face, 1 by 1,
seven top pilots of the enemy (do you really have to guess who the enemy is?).
After you dispatch your opponents, you have a landing sequence. For every
opponent you knock out, you move up in rank until you eventually become a
Commodore (Commodore? Couldn't they have added one more to make me an
admiral?). But if you get knocked out, it's over, and you start all over. Got
it? Don't worry, it's incredibly simple if you know what you're doing.

B. OPPONENTS AND RANKS
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Starting Rank Opponent New Rank
Cheif Warrant Officer Boris "Buzz" Bombzinsky Ensign
Ensign Gorky Skykovsky Lieutenant (j.g.)
Lieutenant (j.g.) Lieutenant Gregovich Lieutenant
Lieutenant Dmitri Jetsky Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander Bobo Bubushka Commander
Commander Stalin Fortimesky Captain
Captain Capt. Cy Beeria Commodore

C. MISSILES
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Like the adventure mode, you need to choose your missiles:
PHEONIX - You get 5 missiles. The range pretty much takes up the entire
vertical length of your viewscreen, and roughly half of the length.
SPARROW - You get 7 missiles. The range is roughly 2/3 the size of Pheonix.
SIDEWINDER - You get 9 missiles. The range is about 1/2 the size of Pheonix.

Like in the adventure mode, your enemy must be within the range shown before
you can fire your missile, and the jet should remain inside until it connects.
I personally recommend Pheonix missiles. You won't even be using missiles for
most of the fights, and you only have one enemy to knock out. The smaller
number will almost certainly not make a difference.

D. GENERAL TIPS
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Let me just say flat out. If you know how to do it, at least 5 out of the 7
pilots are incredibly easy. So, for the first three fights, just hold down
the fire button and position yourself so that he flies right into the bullets.
They may fire some missiles or something as well, so you will have to destroy
them first (just fire your gun at them and they will explode. These fights
should take you no more than two seconds. Literally. The same can be done for
pilot 5 and 7.

Which just leaves us with 4 and 6. For some reason, these two are intelligent
enough to fly past you before you can destroy them. And now you have to
actually hunt them down. Sigh.... In any case, to get them on your screen,
just hold to the side for a while. Eventually, he will make it up to your
screen. If he's not moving in the radar or moving closer to you, switch to the
other side quickly. You may also want to have a small burst of speed as well.
In any case, eventually he will show up on your screen. Just fire away, maybe
let loose with a missile, and try to hit him. He won't stay in front of you
for very long, so you have to be quick.

That's pretty much all there is to it. This mode is extremely easy if you know
what you're doing. After a few rounds you should have no problem making it to
Commodore. Congratulations.

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VI. Landing FAQ
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Landing is much, much easier than the first game. It only takes a few seconds,
too. Still, I had some trouble at first (granted, I was a little kid, so I had
an excuse), so I might as well throw this in.

A. SPEED
*********
You should be at or around 288 mph. Generally, this means +/- 5 mph or so.
You start out at 320 mph and slowly decrease. A speeds you up, B slows you
down. Simple, isn't it? In fact, I'll make it even simpler. The easiest way
to get to the correct speed is... do nothing! If you don't press the A or B
buttons while landing, you will end up at 289 or 290 mph. Can't complain about
that. So all you have to worry about is...

B. LOCATION
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Now it's time to make sure you land on the carrier. This isn't that hard
either. You can try to follow the directions, but it's really not worth the
effort. I tend to ignore them, and it works out fine. You may or may not be
a little off to the left at first. If so, compensating is rather easy. As for
the up and down stuff, that's easy. See that target in the middle of your
screen? See the bottom two horizontal lines on that target? Now, see the two
small horizontal lines on the carrier (you won't until you get closer to it)?
Line those up so that the bottom two horizontal lines of the target box seem to
rest on top of those lines. You will land without any problems whatsoever.

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VII. Contact Information
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Questions? Comments? Complaints? Suggestions? Errors? Anything else?
Email me at [email protected] Thanks.
There's a good chance you will get a reply.