Welcome to my In-depth Iceman guide, created to
teach strategies and such on how to use Iceman.
Throughout my Guide I'll give growth charts, move
lists, general strategies, and anyhing else I see fit.
If you have anything to add to my FAQ, or a mistake
in it to point out, please see my "contact me" section
and I will credit any useful information to you. So
without further ranting, here is my FAQ.
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From this point forward there will be spoilers!
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Here I cover all the Frequenty Asked Questions
I see on the XML message boards, and any other
questions I had myself.
Question 1: How many playable characters are there?
Answer 1: There are 14 main characters, along with a 15th
available in a few special missions.
Question 2: How do I use Gambit/Jubilee's Overload attack?
Answer 2: Once you have at least one skill point on their
Overload attacks, approach an object (such as a trash
can) and use their basic R+A attack (like Gambit's
"charged cards" attack). This causes the object to
get "charged" and will henceforth explode in several
seconds.
Question 3: How do I cross large gaps with the holograph "X"
marks?
Answer 3: The ideal way to cross these gaps is with Iceman
Jean Grey, or Magma's R+A attack. Standing a few feet away
from the X, and make sure you're targeting it, use your R+A
attack to create a bridge of a corresponding element.
If you don't have either of these characters in your current
party you can use any of the flying characters (Storm, Jean
Grey, or Rogue) to pick up other characters and ferry them
across the gaps (this only works if you have 3+ skill points
on the "Fly" skill).
The final way to cross gaps is to teleport characters across
with Nightcrawlers R+A teleport attack (you can only carry other
party members across if you have 4+ skill points on his teleport
attack).
Question 4: Beast did not join me after the second mission. Why?
Answer 4: Apparently this is a somewhat common glitch. Don't
freak out and restart your game, he will join you after the third
mission once you talk to him at the mansion.
Question 5: How many optional missions are there?
Answer 5: There are 3 "flashback missions", each of them can be
activated by talking to a specific mutant at a specific time.
Question 6: How do I unlock extra costumes?
Answer 6: At the main menu press up, up, right, left, down, down,
start to unlock the Xtreme costumes. Additional costumes will be
unlocked once you play through story mode.
Question 7: What is the highest possible level?
Answer 7: The highest level any character can reach is 45.
Question 8: How do I change costumes?
Answer 8: Press X at any Xtraction point's "change team" menu.
Here's some information about Iceman I thought was interesting.
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Code Name: Iceman
Real Name: Bobby Drake
Height: 5'3
Weight: 145 lbs.
Nationality: American
Place of Birth: Long Island, New York
Mutant Powers: Iceman can generate subzero cold that freezes anything in its
path, he can form vapors into ice-shapes such as ice slides which he can use
to slide faster than at a full run, and can turn into a full ice form giving
him enhanced physical abilities.
Short History*: Hailing from a small town on Long Island, New York, Bobby Drake
was much like any other youth - boisterous and mischievous. Then one night he
he was forced to use his ice-making ability to protect a friend from assailants.
Bystanders were so shocked and outraged at Bobby's display of mutant power that
they formed a mob. Luckily, bobby escaped unharmed and was able to join the
X-men.
*I copied this part from X-men Legend's bio for Iceman.
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1.4-Moves List
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Here I've listed all of Iceman's mutant powers and such.
ATTACKS:
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Freeze Blast (5 blocks)
Blast of ice that slows enemies.
-Deep Freeze (5 blocks)
Blast of ice that freezes enemies.
-Legend Freeze (1 block)
Blast of ice that freezes enemies for long lengths of time.
Mutant Mastery (3 blocks)
Increases maximum energy.
Critical Strike (5 blocks)
adds chance of getting a critical from a melee attack
Point Blank Shot (5 blocks)
Increases damage done by ranged attacks within 10 feet.
In this case bonus damage to Ice shards/spikes.
*This attack adds Defense to Iceman, but instead of adding
defense to teammates it adds punch damage, so ya know.
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1.5-Stats and Attacks 101
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This is all basic information about leveling up statistics,
etcetera. Newb stuff. Here's the crash course:
Upgrading your stats:
Every level you gain you get one stat point, except every
fifth level (25, 30, 35 etc.) you get two. You can spend
these points on any of the following stats:
Strike- Raises your attack rating
Agility- Raises your defense rating
Body- Raises your maximum HP
Focus- Raises your maximum energy, and
determines how fast you regenerate energy back.
It differs from mutant to mutant which stats they need most,
nine out of ten times they rely heavily on focus, but this
isn't always true (Colossus, Beast, and Wolverine are the
best examples, they don't need very much focus).
Upgrading your attacks:
As seen in the previous section, all mutants have various
attacks to upgrade. Some of these attacks/skills are more
important than others, so choose carefully. Just like with
attributes you get one attack point per level (two on every
fifth level), so you won't get new attacks very often. Most
attacks have more than one level ("blocks" in the Move List
section), so you can upgrade them more than once for better
effects. For example: Upgrading Iceman's Ice Tracks skill
allows him to slide on ice for ten feet on the first block,
then 20, then 30 etc. until the final block there are no
distance restrictions (although it does cost focus to use
this).
Some attacks (like "Ice Armor") have more than one tier of
blocks. After the first 5 blocks Ice Armor upgrades into
Ice Equipment. In order to upgrade to Ice Equipment you
must spend 2 points on that skill (only on it's first block,
the other two only cost one). After you have all three Ice
Equipment blocks filled you can upgrade to Ice Forge for two
more points.
I hope I've been clear enough on these areas, if you don't understand
it all don't worry, they're easy to figure out once you start playing.
If you can't decide what skills to put up you can use
Cerebro by pressing "Y" on the character screen. In
my opinion it sometimes is helpful, but not often.
Instead I've made a list of all my favorite stats to
put up with Iceman at several different levels, using
him as a support/fighting based mutant. See section
1.4 for more info about these skills/attacks.
Here are the guidelines I've made for raising Iceman's stats:
He needs no strike. At all.
He needs a bit of agility, I'd say 25%
He doesn't need too much body, probably around 15%
Focus is his main stat, I think about 60%
These are my personal favorite stats for a level 45 Iceman.
Although it says he has 13 strike, don't put any points into
it, because you'll get these automatically as you level up.
Early on you won't be able to get Iceman's best
armor (the Shi'ar Body Implants aren't even
acquired until the last mission). So here I'll
give some good substitutes until you can get the
best stuff. All of these items are either found
on the ground or bought from Forge.
Backpack:
Sword of Ogun (+3 Focus and +8% chance for punch/kick
criticals).
or
Caliban's Shroud (+2 Focus and +25-31 damage to punches).
Belts:
Focus Enhancer (+2 Focus)
or
Super Focus Enhancer (+4 Focus)
Shield:
Normal Inertial Deflector (+ 20% chance to reflect 50-63
punch/kick damage back at the attacker).
or
Super Inertial Deflector (+ 30% chance to reflect 125-
150 damage back at the attacker).
Here I'll suggest all the best armor for Iceman,
to suit his specific needs. Most of these can't
be found until the game's last quarter of play
time (estimate).
Backpack:
Shi'ar Body Implants (+3 all stats):
obtained by completing "Nightmare-Colossus".
Belts:
Ultra Focus Enhancer (+8 Focus):
Found on the ground, or bought from Forge.
Shield:
Ultra Internal Deflector (+40% Chance to reflect 175-215 punch/kick
damage).
Found on the ground, or bought from Forge.
Here's a basic outline of what type of fighter Iceman is at his best,
enjoy.
Iceman is a melee/support character, probably the only one in XML.
His Cold Smash attack is awesome for damage, but due to his lack of
spread attacks (they attack more than one enemy at once) he is best
at one-on-one style fighting, like boss or Sentinel fights, not so
good at crowds. He has some nice support attacks, specifically
Freeze Blast, which at high levels freezes any enemies in it's path
for several seconds (and slows them down considerably once they become
un-frozen). He doesn't have much for ranged attacks, just Ice Spikes,
which is comparible to other attacks like Charged Cards or Energy Burst
(I, personally, hate all these attacks). He joins your party for mission
two, and is almost essential to have at first (since he can make bridges
and put out fires). So basically we have a melee dude who can do effect-
ive support, also.
Although Iceman is generally thought of as a support character, he can
definitely get away with melee. In this section I'll outline his most
useful job in the game, a mix between support and melee.
Detailed Skill Purchasing:
As with any other characters picking the order of which skills to buy
is a big deal with Iceman. Get Cold Smash A.S.A.P., this determines
how much damage he does with punch/kick attacks, so it is helpful to
put as many points as possible as soon as possible on Cold Smash. One
important thing to know about Ice Smash is that it adds cold damage to
melee attacks, which means he does Energy damage with punch/kick attacks
as opposed to physical damage (note that some enemies are physical resis-
tant and weak against energy or vice-versa, so you'll be doing more
damage to Physical Resistant enemies). After you have Cold Smash going
the right way, I recommend putting Freeze Blast (which freezes the enemy
in place) and Critical Strike (which makes you do more criticals, a big
bonus on all damage) up, followed by Ice Armor (puts Iceman's defense up
and at higher levels puts all allies punch damage up also). Once you get to
about level 25 I recommend buying Freeze Frame, which freezes all enemies
in a small radius, just like Freeze Blast except it effects more enemies.
From here we have Mutant Mastery (increases maximum energy), Toughness
(increases maximum HP), Ice Tracks (allows Iceman to slide on an Ice bridge
for transportation), and Ice Shards (throws Ice projectiles). It doesn't
matter much what order you do these in, except make sure you have all other
needed attacks bought beforee you put any points into Ice Shards, that just
gets the left overs. Ice Tracks is pretty fun to use, and not bad for
transportation, but definitely not nescessary.
Attack/Combo usage:
For meleeing with Iceman you don't need any mutant skills, not for the actual
fighting, anyways. Freeze Blast can be your friend, if there are only two or
three enemies around you can freeze one and go beat up the others. Or if
there's a runaway you can freeze him in his tracks and go own him with mad
close-range skills, you get the point. However, Freeze Blast is all but
useless if there's a huge crowd of enemies, since freezing one doesn't do
much good if there's still twenty on your back, big groups are Iceman's weak
point. Ice Armor can be nice, it'll make you less likely to die in a big
group, and gives your teammates a slight offensive edge. As for combos, he
doesn't have any really useful ones, although, some combos I like to use with
Iceman are A+A+B (Uppercut) and B+B (Knock-back). Neither of these combos are
unique to Iceman, many characters (such as Gambit and Jubilee) use these combos
also, but that's beside the point. Uppercut is a reasonably strong combo that
ends with the final "B" strike in an uppercut punch, sending the enemy into the
air and on their back. It is somewhat strong, but the main reason I use it
is if you need a thug out of your face you can get them on the ground easily
to set up some recovery time for yourself. The Knock-back is similar, Iceman
performs two round-house kicks, the second is pretty strong and it send the
enemy flying back with some good speed. Like the uppercut, it does get the
enemy on the ground, but it also adds nice additional damage if you can
send them into a wall or car etc.
Special Attack:
The final area I'll touch down on for melee is Iceman's special attack. Freeze
Frame freezes all enemies within a 12 foot circumferance, and slows all within
33 feet. This move is good against huge groups of enemies (especially useful
for a difficult Danger Room course), and is good to have just in case. Unlike
other special attacks, Freeze Frame doesn't do any damage, although it does
freeze them still. I'd say this is just an average skill, not particularly
good or bad, but definitely nescessary to have at level 30+, just to be safe.
Support is Iceman's strong point. Although he is great at support, he's best
suited as a mixture between support and melee (what I showed in the last
section). Here's pure support Iceman!
Ranged Attacks:
Iceman has one of the better ranged attacks (besides Cyclops and Storm, they pwn
at ranged). Ice Spikes and Point Blank Shot make a nice combo. Level up both
of them as soon as you can, and try standing close to the enemy so several of
the spikes make contact, instead of just one (recall that point blank shot
makes Ice Spikes stronger if done within 10 feet). This is Iceman's main
attack for supporting, since you should mainly be freezing enemies and such.
Ice Spikes is useful if there's an enemy with a gun, chuck ice at him before
he can shoot you or a teammate. Once you level Ice Spikes all the way to
Legend Spikes Icey'll execute 7 spikes at once. This isn't a terribly
strong attack, it's mostly used for stopping an enemy in mid-attack.
Support:
For support Iceman has Ice Armor. This is a descent attack, not great or awful.
At high levels it adds energy damage to all punch attacks for allies, as well
as boosts Iceman's defense. If you really want to do hard-core support this
is a must, every time it dissapears (it lasts for about 35 seconds when fully
leveled) put it back up again, rinse and repeat.
His two best support moves have to be Freeze Blast and Freeze Frame.
Freeze Blast is a wide-spread attack of Ice that freezes enemies in place.
Use this often so your allies can run ahead and easily defeat enemies for you.
Freeze Frame is just a variation of this, it's his special. It freezes all
enemies within 12 feet of Iceman and considerably slows down all within 33
feet. These moves are awesome, it makes the game so much easier to have
Iceman's freezing abilities with ya.
Here I'll tell how to acquire/earn all Iceman's secret stuff.
Costumes:
Bobby Drake (as seen around the Mansion)
Original Iceman (as seen in the very first comic book featuring Iceman).
Both acquired after defeating the game once, you can change costumes by
pressing "X" at any Xtraction point's "Change Team" menu.
Comic: Located in the elevator room at the end of the
Satellite Control Center of HAARP (+2 body to Iceman).
Dange Room Disc: Right before starting the stage to rescue Illyana from
the Astral Plane, check the balcony next to the stairs for the "Challenge-
Iceman" disc.
Thanks again to moot for giving me tons of ideas
of stuff to fill my FAQ with.
Thanks to cablepuff for pointing out that the
Shi'ar Battle Implants give +3 to all stats, not
+4
Thanks again to moot for pointing out that Jean Grey
can also create bridges, I added this into Question
3 of section 1.2
Thanks for Papagamer for the info on where to find
Iceman's comic book and Danger Room disc.
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2.4-Contact Me
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See anything wrong with my FAQ?
Found something I should add/remove?
Just think there's more info that needs to
be covered (I do to, so Ideas are welcome)?
Contact me.
My AIM is Freaczorz, except I hardly ever use AIM anymore.
The best way to contact me is to drop a line at my home board
Board=1651; Dragon Ninja
If you wonder why I don't just post my E-mail, that's because I
know quite a few people who have gotten viruses this way, and
I'd rather get no feed-back than a virus.
Thanks (again) to cablepuff who pointed out an error in section
1.8.
None of the characters/trademarks belong to me (duh) they all
belong to Marvel. You can't use any part of this FAQ without
crediting it to me or the original source mentioned. If you
credit it properly, go nuts....Oh, yeah, I'm also not responsible
for any mental or physical trauma you experienced from reading
my guide (due to my bad grammar or something).
