ALIENS VS PREDATOR CLASSIC 2000 STRATEGY GUIDE
By Jefequeso
(single player information also applies to the original release of AvP Gold)

GAME INFORMATION
Aliens vs Predator Classic 2000 is a re-release of Aliens vs Predator Gold,
updated to run on modern systems.  The game includes all of AvP Gold’s
content (including the ‘Millennium Expansion’ Pack), and the Steam version
has been updated to support multiplayer.  The game currently sells on Steam
for $4.99.  In my opinion, it’s well worth that price.

INTRODUCTION
I’ve never written any sort of strategy guide before.  Why?  Well, because
there aren’t many games that I know well enough to feel confident about
instructing others how to play.  With Aliens vs Predator Classic 2000
(hereafter referred to as AvPC2K), there are still facets I’m not as familiar
with.  However, I’ve read through a couple guides for this game (well…guides
for AvP Gold, that is), and I’ve found that there are certain details about
the game that most of them fail to cover.  The working of the stealth
mechanics, for instance.  So, I’ve decided to write my own guide that tries
to cover every facet of the game’s mechanics to the best of my knowledge.
This is not intended as a walkthrough.  It doesn’t detail every mission or
possible multiplayer strategy.  Rather, it’s intended as a reference for
experienced players, and as a handy introduction for new players.

CONTENTS:
SINGLE PLAYER
       General Tips
       Marine
       Predator
       Alien
       Skirmish Mode
MULTIPLAYER
       General Tips
       Modes
       Maps
       Marine
       Predator
       Alien (Includes a guide to speed exploits by Aph3x-SkorpioN)
CHEATS
       Cheat Modes
       Debug Mode
ADDONS AND MODS

SINGLE PLAYER
AvPC2K’s single player is broken up into 3 bite-sized campaigns.  Each
campaign is made up of 5 missions, with an extra boss battle against an Alien
Queen for both the Marine and the Predator.  The game also features 5 bonus
missions for each race, the fifth of which can only be unlocked by completing
the game on Director’s Cut (the hardest difficulty).  Each bonus mission is
actually a level from one of the other races’ vanilla campaigns, redone with
appropriate enemies and reversed.  The Marine and Predator are each given
special items to complete missions that were originally designed for the
Alien.  The Marine gets a jetpack with infinite fuel, and the Predator gets a
grappling hook.  Unfortunately, neither of these items can be used anywhere
but the bonus missions, so there’s not much strategy to discuss.  You should
be aware that each mission only gives you a limited number of saves, so don’t
be spamming the quicksave button.  Time your saves appropriately.  Learn just
how far apart you should space them.  Besides the three campaigns, the game
also features a “skirmish” mode against waves of Xenomorphs, Praetorians, and
Predaliens.  You can play this mode as either a Predator or a Marine (co-op
mode in multiplayer is basically identical, but with other players).  The
game also features no less than 20 cheat modes, which vary from rather
pointless (a mode that makes everything on your screen rainbow colored, a
mode that makes all NPCs into wire outlines, etc) to quite entertaining
and/or gamechanging (a “mirror mode” that mirrors levels from left to right,
a mode called ‘Pigsticking’ that makes the Predator’s Speargun fire multiple
spears, etc).  These cheats are unlocked by completing challenges in select
single player missions, much like the original Goldeneye.  However, unlike
Goldeneye, AvPC2K has a lot more challenges than simply speedrunning.  You’ll
be tasked with getting a certain number of headshots, maintaining a certain
speed, and biting a certain number of heads, as well as completing levels in
a certain amount of time.  Requirements for unlocking a cheat are shown in
the endgame screen that appears when you win a level or die, under the column
marked ‘Target.’  At the end of the level, if you’ve succeeded, the
requirement will be highlighted in red.

General Tips
The first thing you’ll notice upon starting a new game is that your
character, be it Alien, Marine, or Predator, has the average land speed of
a…erm…umm…ok, I can’t think up a good analogy.  Basically, you’re fast.
You’re really fast.  Even compared with other 90s FPSs, you’re ridiculously
fast.  And at first, this can be quite offputting—especially if you’re
expecting the same slow pace of the Monolith developed sequel.  You get used
to it fairly quickly, and will probably find that it turns out to be one of
the more addictive elements of the game, but you need to know that for the
first 15 minutes or so you’re going to feel like you just hacked your speed
stat in Morrowind.

AvP’s 90s characteristics aren’t limited to the movement speed, either.  You
also will find that there’s a fair amount of that good ol’ “hunt around the
level until you find the button you were supposed to press to open an
arbitrary door” routine.  This shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s used to
playing older games, but it can be a significant barrier for new gamers.  So
here’s a few tips:  First, pay attention to anything in the environment that
seems to stand out, or seems to be deliberately placed where you will see it.
As the Marine and Predator, 99.9% of the things you need to activate will be
some sort of switch, wheel, button, etc.  So if you find that you don’t know
where to go next, or are up against a locked door, chances are that hunting
around and mating the ‘use’ key against anything that looks useable should
help you progress.  The game isn’t above pulling dirty tricks, though.  There
is at least one Marine level where an environmental feature needs to be shot
(and two instances where a particular enemy must be eliminated to make a door
magically open).  There’s no penalty for destroying stuff, though, so if you
can’t find any buttons or levers, start spraying.  The Predator is sometimes
expected to cut ropes, break open vents, or other similar tasks.  And the
“destroy stuff to progress” maxim holds especially true for the Alien, who
only has his claws and tail to solve problems.  You won’t ever need to “use”
anything…just smash the proper computers or equipment.  In this case,
however, it’s not always completely clear what can and can’t be destroyed.
You’ll have to use some trial and error.  Pay attention to what sort of
things are destroyed to progress.  They usually show up again in the level,
or even in later levels.  And again… apart from the damage caused by
exploding barrels, there’s no penalty for slashing at everything you find
until you smash the right stuff.

Finally, a note about stealth.  Yes, it’s possible to sneak up on humans as
both the Alien and the Predator.  However, this isn’t Thief.  Even if you’re
cloaked and/or hiding in the pitch dark, enemies still might see you.  It is
entirely possible, however, to be stealthy and sneaky in the game (and it’s
required to unlock some cheats).  But it takes skill, luck, and some
experience with the game’s mechanics to make it work (Aph3x-SkorpioN, a guru
of AvPC2K and AvP Gold, posted a short video demonstrating how to properly
utilize stealth as both the Predator and Alien.  As of this writing, it can
be found here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQTTjzWnHzg).  A few tips:
First, darkness is your friend.  Or rather, lightsources are your enemy.  I
did a little bit of testing, and it seems that taking out certain lights can
mean the difference between being spotted and being completely invisible
(even if, to the eye, the actual light level might look the same).  As the
Predator, your three dot lazer sight can and will be seen by enemies.  Keep
the wrist blades out if you’re trying to be sneaky.  And use the cloak, of
course, but realize that it only makes you harder to see… it doesn’t make you
completely invisible.  As the Alien, crawling on ceilings makes you a lot
harder for NPCs to spot.  As either race, Keep in mind is that unalerted
Marines are much MUCH easier to sneak past than alerted Marines.  In some
cases, certain Marines are alerted by default, so pay attention to their
behavior and stance.  Loud noises will put Marines on the alert, and cause
them to move toward the source of the noise (the Predator’s roaring taunt can
be used to “lure” them toward you as a result.  The Alien’s seems to work as
well.).  Most importantly, never lose track of your ultimate goal.  Stealth
is a tool to be utilized, and seldom an end unto itself.  The quicker you
take out your prey and the less time you spend glaring at them menacingly,
the better.

Oh yeah, and one real quick “protip.”  If you get set on fire, running around
like a lunatic actually puts the fire out faster.  Which is kinda funny when
you think about it.

Marine
The Marine is my personal favorite character.  Why?  Because you get to shoot
stuff.  You get to shoot stuff with big guns.  The Marine is all about guns,
you see.  You start each level with just a basic Pulse Rifle, and can find
other guns scattered around the map.  Effective utilization of these guns is
the key to your success.  So, in other words, bigger guns for bigger foes.
Most levels are pretty dark, so you’ll need to use either flares (which are
unlimited, although only 4 can be thrown out at once) or night vision (which
illuminates all dark areas but disables your motion tracker and tends to make
light sources blindingly bright).  I personally prefer flares since the night
vision can make it harder to distinguish foes, and also tends to get washed
out by dim light sources that really shouldn’t blind you, but some people
swear by it.  You’ll have to decide for yourself based on the situation.
Also, you’ll probably want to keep an eye on your motion tracker, which shows
movement up to 30 meters in front of you.  It’s always helpful to know where
enemies are.  Overall, though, there’s not much to say about the Marine
because he’s the most straight forward and easy to understand of the three
races.  Oh, and one last note.  The game doesn’t have a reload button, so no
changing out half-full magazines.  If you want a fresh clip, you’ll need to
waste the remaining ammo in your current clip.
NOTE: The Marine campaign features a few secrets scattered around levels that
usually contain a powerful weapon or extra health.

Weapons:
Pulse Rifle: Your meat and potatoes.  The Pulse Rifle is an average gun for
average situations.  Learn to love this one, because most of your time is
going to be spent with it.  Secondary fire launches grenades.

Smartgun:  Kind of like a faster-firing version of the Pulse Rifle, but with
auto tracking instead of grenades.  Secondary fire toggles auto lock on and
off.  This gun is especially useful for taking out Alien Facehuggers, since
its autotracking can pinpoint them far easier than you can by hand.  It can
also make do against Praetorians in a pinch.  Don’t use it to fight anything
bigger unless you don’t have a choice.

Flamethrower:  The traditional weapon of choice for pyromaniacs everywhere.
The Flamethrower is a rather unique weapon in that enemies actually seem to
fear it—they’ll stay out of range of its flames while you’re firing it, even
to the point of coming to a complete halt.  However, its limited range and
danger to the player (flames can rebound off walls or foes and catch you on
fire) combined with the fact that flaming Aliens can still kill you just as
dead as their cooler brethren means that the flamethrower’s uses are somewhat
limited.  It’s not an entirely pointless weapon, but there are very few
situations where another gun wouldn’t do just as well.  This weapon has no
secondary fire.

SADAR:  Although this gun looks like a rocket launcher and acts like a rocket
launcher, it’s better to think of it as a big, bulky, highly explosive sniper
rifle.  The initial rocket impact does a ton of damage.  Enough to take out
basically any enemy in the game in a single shot.  But the splash damage from
the explosion is far less effective, and poses more of a threat to you than
it does to your enemies.  Don’t waste your rockets on the small guys.  This
is the gun for taking out Xenoborgs and Predators.  PredAliens and
Praetorians too, if you can spare the ammo.  This weapon has no secondary
fire.

Grenade Launcher:  Easily the most complex gun in the Marine’s arsenal, the
Grenade Launcher fires not one…not two…but THREE types of grenades, which are
cycled through with the secondary fire.  The first type are your generic
bouncing timed grenades, whose exuberant physics make them useless at best
and fatally counterproductive at worst.  The second type, frag grenades, are
basically the same except that when they explode they shoot out dozens of hot
pieces of jagged metal.  Like the normal grenades, their usefulness is
limited, but they sure look cool (especially since you can actually see the
metal shards embed in walls and cool down).  The third type, proximity
grenades, fare a little better.  These don’t bounce when they hit a surface.
Rather, they stick to it, and detonate when anyone (including yourself) gets
too close.  If splash damage is what you want, then I suggest going with
proximity grenades.  Note that undetonated proximity grenades will explode
after a certain amount of time.

Minigun:  The most useful weapon in the game?  Possibly.  Few creatures, if
any, can withstand the might of this throwback to “Ol’ Painless” from the
original Predator movie.  The only downside to the Minigun is that it cannot
be fired while moving.  If you do, your character will stop and your aim will
veer off to the high left.  Luckily, you’ll usually eliminate any potential
threats long before they get close enough to make you want to backpedal.
Also, a useless little fact: this is the only gun in the game that makes the
screen shake when you fire it.  Use this against Praetorians, PredAliens,
Xenoborgs, Predators, or even particularly large hordes of Xenomorphs.  This
weapon has no secondary fire.

Skeeter Launcher:  To be honest, I’m not completely sure what to make of this
weapon.  It fires a little UFO-like thing that bounces around for a bit, then
zeroes in on the closest enemy and explodes, killing anything nearby.  So
it’s certainly powerful, but I don’t think I’ve ever found a use for it in
single player.  It’s kinda fun to hear the hollow “toink tonk tink” of the
UFO as it bounces around tunnels, though.  This weapon has no secondary fire.

Pistol:  It’s powerful—far more powerful than you’d expect for a pistol— and
it’s accurate, but the pistol’s relatively slow firing speed means that you
need godlike aim to effectively utilize it.  I believe that every level has
at least one pistol lying around somewhere.  The secondary fire shoots faster
but is less accurate.

Dual Pistols:  Same as the pistol, but times two.  Again, this weapon
(singular??) is powerful but made nearly useless by its slow firing speed.
It is, however, both massively entertaining and highly appropriate to use
dual pistols along with the John Woo Mode cheat.  The secondary fire shoots
both pistols at once, and fires faster than the primary fire.  There’s a cool
trick you can do with Dual Pistols.  If you tap the secondary fire, then tap
the primary fire, then secondary, then primary, etc in quick succession you
can fire as fast as fast as the secondary fire but use 1/3 less ammo.

Bonus Item:
During some of the bonus missions (any one which uses a level from the Alien
campaign), the Marine is equipped with a jetpack, which functions basically
how you’d expect a jetpack to function.  Apart from its obvious uses in
navigating levels, the jetpack can be used to hover out of reach of Aliens.
This is especially useful in the first bonus mission, Temple.

Enemies:
Xenomorph: Nothing too special here.  You’ll fight a lot of these guys.  They
can leap at you, slash you with their claws, stab you with their tail, bite
you with their extendable mouth, crawl after you if their legs get shot off,
and bleed on you (which is significantly more effective than it sounds, since
their blood is acidic).  Oh, and they can crawl around on walls and ceilings,
which makes them hard to hit and lets them get just about anywhere they want.
Most anything will kill a Xenomorph in a few shots…assuming you can hit them.

Facehugger: There aren’t too many of these crawly little guys around, but the
few you do encounter can be quite a threat, if you aren’t paying attention.
If the Facehugger gets close enough, it will leap onto your face and
instantly kill you.  Be alert for their tell-tale “scratching” crawling
noise, and watch your motion tracker once you know one is around.  The
Flamethrower and the Smartgun are the two best weapons for killing
Facehuggers, the former because of its wide flame jet (making them easier to
hit), and the later because of its autotracking abilities.

Praetorian: Basically a stronger and more deadly version of the Xenomorph
that can’t climb on walls but can prance after you even faster.  A Minigun is
usually best for taking these ladies out, but a single SADAR shot, a few
Pulse Rifle grenades, or even a long barrage with the Smartgun will do the
trick just as well.

Predalien:  Take one part Predator and one part Alien, stir and cook for an
hour, and you get one PREDALIEN!  He’s slow, but he’s also quite resilient
and can kill you with only a few swipes.  Unlike the Praetorian, the
PredAlien can climb on things.  Anything less powerful than a Minigun isn’t
going to cut it with this foe, but if you keep your distance he shouldn’t
cause too much of a problem.

Predator:  Most of the Marine campaign is spent fighting Aliens of various
shapes.  However, you will come up against a few Predators, armed with either
a short-range spear or the iconic shoulder cannon.  The biggest thing to keep
in mind about Predators is that they can and will self destruct if you don’t
make sure to kill them COMPLETELY.  If a Predator falls to his knees, he is
not dead.  Just keep shooting until he falls down flat and doesn’t more.
Otherwise you’re in for an insta-kill and eerie maniacal laughter.  Use the
Pulse Rifle on spear Predators.  It’s extremely easy to stay out of their
range, so there’s no use wasting powerful ammo on them.  For shoulder cannon
wielders, however, use the most powerful weapon you have.  And USE COVER.  It
only takes a few shots for them to kill you, so it’s important to hide behind
something whenever they start drawing a bead (shown by red light bloom from
their lazer sight).

Xenoborg:  The Xenoborg is essentially every Marine’s worst nightmare.  A
cyborg-Alien that is nearly invincible and can kill you with a single
lightning blast from its high-tech weapondry.  You won’t fight many
Xenoborgs, but when you do it’s important to stay out of their line of sight
as much as possible.  They can’t really move around at all, and they take
awhile to turn, so try to maneuver behind them and then unload your most
powerful ammo into their backside (you can tell where they’re looking by the
lazer beam they emit).  These are the guys you save your SADAR ammo for.

Alien Queen:  Impervious to your weapons, although she tends to shy away from
fire.  Watch out for the various boxes and objects that she throws.  Use the
flamethrower to keep her off your back while you try to figure out a way to
kill her (hint: it’s nearly identical to her demise in ‘Aliens’).

Predator
In my opinion, the Predator is the oddest of all three races, but also
potentially the most dynamic.  His campaign is also usually considered the
easiest of the three, so it might serve as a good one to start with.
Basically, your time will be split up pretty equally between hunting down
human prey and fighting against swarms of Aliens a la the Marine campaign.
Against humans, you are effectively a superman.  Although they’re fairly
adept at spotting you (see “General Tips” on stealth for more information),
and getting hit with their bullets tends to throw off your aim, the sheer
power of your weapons combined with your massive health (and the ability to
re-charge said health) means that the advantage is very decidedly on the
“Predator” side of the table.  However, don’t take this to mean that you’re
invincible.  As already mentioned, getting hit will set your view jumping
around rather dramatically, making it nigh impossible to aim.  So you can’t
run into the middle of the room Doom-style and annihilate entire platoons of
enemies.  No, you’ll need to make sure to engage only a few Marines at once,
and take them out as fast as possible.  Execute hit and run assaults, by
going into a room, killing a few enemies, then dashing out again.  Keep
darting to and from cover, when possible.  When fighting Aliens, however, the
entire game dynamic changes.  You can forget about sneaking around anymore,
because your cloak doesn’t work on the pheromone-sensing Aliens.  And Aliens
are much faster than Marines, and somewhat more resilient, so you need to be
very careful with your ammo (it’s hard to hit them with the speargun, and
other weapons will quickly deplete your energy, which will slowly recharge
over time or can be fully recharged via pickups scattered around the map).
However, you’re still a Predator.  Not a Marine.  Their acid blood won’t hurt
you, and getting up close and personal is unexpectedly effective (and
satisfying).

Vision Modes:
Unlike the Alien or the Marine, the Predator has 4 separate vision modes that
each highlight different species.  In later levels, especially certain bonus
missions, effectively juggling these vision modes is important.  If you are
in the appropriate vision mode, the Shoulder Cannon and Disk will
automatically lock on to targets.

Normal (no color):  Just your average, run-of-the-mill vision mode.
Thermal (blue):  Highlights the heat signatures given off by humans.  Also
fairly useful for navigating in the dark.
Electric (red):  Highlights Aliens, Praetorians, the Xenoborg, autoturrets,
and Predaliens (although they are a slightly different color, presumably
because they’re part Predator).
‘Predator’ (green):  Mostly useful for multiplayer.  Highlights other
Predators.  Also highlights energy recharge nodes and thrown disks, which can
be useful.  It also makes light sources black.  Not sure why that would be
useful, but it is kinda cool.

Weapons:
Unlike the Marine, the Predator doesn’t have to pick up weapons as he goes.
You start the first two missions with the Wrist Blades, Speargun, Shoulder
Cannon, and Medicomp.  After the second mission, the Pistol and Disk are
added to your arsenal.  As a result, most the weapons are mostly equally
balanced.

Wrist Blades:  Your basic melee weapon, useful in just about any situation.
Their primary attack is unforgivably weak and good only for destroying lights
or environmental objects.  The secondary attack, which lets you charge up
your swipe for greater damage, is significantly better.  A half-charged
attack can easily 1-hit kill either a Xenomorph or a Marine.  This combined
with the fact that Alien blood doesn’t affect the Predator means that the
Wrist Blades are probably the best choice for taking out single Xenomorphs.
Against swarms or more powerful Aliens, however, their slow speed makes them
less effective.  One hidden feature of the claws is that you can use them to
take “trophies” of your kills (this is required to unlock certain cheats).
Crouch down over the body of a dead enemy, charge up your secondary attack,
aim at their head, and release.  If successful, you should hear the Predator
triumphantly roar, and their head should disappear in a shower of blood.

Speargun:  When combined with the Predator’s view magnification, this makes a
great sniping weapon.  It’s also a one hit kill for humans and Xenomorphs.
Its only downside is its slow firing speed, and the fact that firing it
disengages your cloak.  Also note that unlike the Predator’s other weapons,
it doesn’t recharge.  Like the Wrist Blades, the Speargun also has a hidden
use.  It can be used to “rocket jump,” just like in Quake and Unreal
Tournament.  Simply aim straight down at your feet and fire just as you jump.
You’ll go a lot higher than usual. This doesn’t have much use in single
player, but it can be invaluable in multiplayer.  Oh, and with the
‘Pigsticking’ cheat turned on, the Speargun is also the ultimate stress
relief tool.  This weapon has no secondary fire.

Shoulder Cannon:  Yes, that very same weapon that took Jesse Venttura out of
‘Predator’ far too early.  The primary fire can be held to charge up your
shot (much like in the Metroid games), and the secondary fire will charge up
a “stored” shot for firing later.  Don’t get too carried away charging up
your shots, though, because the Shoulder Cannon can use up energy very
quickly.  A quick tap of the secondary fire usually charges the weapon enough
to one hit kill humans or Xenomorphs.  I’ve found it to be most useful
against Aliens.  Its autolock ability makes them easy to hit.

Medicomp:  The Medicomp isn’t really a weapon, but that doesn’t mean that it
isn’t useful.  Basically, it fully regains your health, but takes a huge
chunk of your energy in the process.  It goes without saying that this is
best used right before picking up an energy recharging node.

Pistol:  This weapon fires strange glass-like balls of energy that don’t go
very far before dropping to the ground and causing some minor splash damage.
It uses about as much energy as the Shoulder cnnon, and doesn’t end up being
significantly more effective than a well-placed Shoulder Cannon bolt or
spear.  I believe I once used it when I was being attacked by a bunch of
Praetorians at once in one of the bonus levels, but otherwise I’ve never
really seen a reason to pull it out.  This weapon has no secondary fire.

Disk:  In contrast, the disk is probably the single most overpowered weapon
in the entire game.  Not only is it completely guided if used with the
appropriate vision mode, but it will also kill anything the game can throw at
you in one hit.  That’s right.  One hit.  Be it Alien, human, Praetorian,
Predalien, or even Xenoborg.  The disk will also return to you like a
boomerang, unless it hits a wall or environmental object first (which it
usually does).  In this case, it can either be picked up or returned
automatically to your hand with the “call disk” key, which uses a chunk of
your energy.  The only downside to the disk is that it’s relatively slow, and
thus not particularly useful against hordes of enemies or the speedy
Xenomorphs.  However as a tool for cutting through powerful baddies, it’s
unmatched.  As with the Speargun, using this weapon will disengage your
cloak.

Bonus Item:
For navigating Alien-inspired bonus levels, the Predator gets his very own
neon blue grappling hook.  Not much to say about it, except that it can be
used to get a “speed boost” of sorts.  Simply fire the grappling hook down a
long hallway or open area, and jump.  The “rubber band” physics will drag you
majestically forward at alarming speeds.  Not sure if anyone will find a use
for this, but it can be entertaining if you’re really bored.

Enemies:
Marine: (NOTE: Any human with a weapon is considered a Marine for the
purposes of this guide)  Armed with everything from pistols to Miniguns, the
human Marine is a weak but occasionally dangerous opponent.  You’ll spend
about half the missions hunting down these guys.  I find that the Speargun
works best against them, since they don’t move very quickly.  Any other
ranged weapon (apart from the Pistol) is just as effective, but relatively
unnecessary.  I don’t believe that you ever encounter Marines carrying the
SADAR or the Skeeter Launcher, but you will encounter ones with Miniguns,
grenade launchers, etc.  Grenade Launcher Marines only ever use regular
grenades, and will drop their weapon and pull out a pistol if you get too
close.  Pulse Rifle Marines will use both the Pulse Rifle’s primary fire and
secondary fire.  Note that Marines tend to be a little free with their
“friendly fire.”  They’ll gun down friends that are between them and you, and
often fire a grenade in such a way that it bounces back and blows them up
instead of you (which NEVER stops being funny).  Originally I decried this as
an AI failure, until I played some team-based multiplayer and discovered that
that’s EXACTLY what happens when you and your teammates are faced with a
Predator.  I suppose that it’s probably a lot more work to try to get your
prey to kill eachother than it is to just shoot a couple of spears into them,
but it’s immensely satisfying and entertaining regardless.
Synthetics:  Yep.  Those darn white-blooded freaks as introduced in ‘Alien.’
You get to fight them too.  Usually they’re carrying shotguns (and can do a
fair amount of damage if you let them), and are unique in that they’re the
only human-esque enemy that doesn’t die if their arm gets cut off.  They’ll
simply keep firing with the remaining arm.  Also, there isn’t a vision mode
that will highlight them, so you can’t lock onto them with the disk or
Shoulder Cannon.  Usually, I use the Speargun to kill Synthetics, but there’s
no reason that a manually aimed Shoulder Cannon blast wouldn’t do just as
well.  I’m not sure if they are any more adept at spotting you than regular
Marines.

Civilians:  The absolute lowest end of the AvP food chain.  Most civilians
don’t have any weapons, and will simply cower or make pathetic attempts to
run.  Some do carry Molatov Cocktails, but they usually end up killing
themselves in the process of trying to get you.  So as a result, there’s not
much to say about them strategy-wise, apart from  “if you see one pulling out
a Molatov, just get out of their range.”

Autoturret:  Capable of dealing a large amount of damage quite quickly, you
shouldn’t underestimate these cute little terrors.  Your strategy should
almost ALWAYS be to get behind them and take them out with the Wrist Blades
secondary fire.  Engaging them from the front is suicide, even for the
resilient Predator.

Xenomorph:  Back by popular demand!  You’ll fight about as many Xenomorphs as
you fight humans.  Like in the Marine campaign, they are quick and difficult
to nail.  Your Shoulder Cannon will autotrack them (and even compensate for
flight time and their movement speed), but it can go through ammo pretty
quickly given the number of Aliens you’ll face at once.  And the Speargun
doesn’t end up being very effective, since it requires a high level of
precision to hit them, and can sometimes simply take off an arm or leg
instead of actually killing them.  The Pistol is only about as useful as the
Shoulder Cannon, and the Disk is far too slow.  Luckily, the Wrist Blades are
surprisingly effective against Xenomorphs.  A quick tap of the secondary fire
will charge up the claws just enough to break them into little crunchy bits.
Get used to the timing of this attack and use it as often as possible against
single Aliens, and you’ll have a much easier time than if you just rely on
your ranged weapons.

Facehugger: Yep, you need to deal with these little buggers even as the
Predator.  And they’re no less deadly, either.  I recommend using the
Shoulder Cannon against Facehuggers.  Although you can’t lock onto them, the
minimal splash damage from your shots is enough to kill them.  The Pistol
also works pretty well.

Praetorian:  The Praetorian is a surprisingly dangerous opponent.  They
combine a generous amount of health with high movement speed and a damaging
array of attacks.  So the Wrist Blades, which were so effective against
Xenomorphs, become effectively useless, as does the Shoulder Cannon, due to
the amount of energy required to actually make the kill.  The Speargun,
however, is somewhat more effective simply because there’s more to hit.
Personally, I usually try to get some distance between me and the Praetorian,
and use the Disk.  Its slow speed can make it hard to score a hit, but if you
do, you’ve saved yourself a lot of ammo and possible lost health.

Predalien:  In the vanilla campaign, you’ll fight one Predalien at the end.
In the bonus missions, you fight a few more.  I don’t think there’s any
reason to use any weapon but the disk against these guys, unless you’re
facing other enemies at the same time.  Their slow movement speed makes them
quite easy to hit with this weapon.

Xenoborg:  And, once again…the Disk is your best friend!  Nothing else is
going to be as effective against the Xenoborg.

Alien Queen:  Unlike the Marine, the Predator is perfectly capable of killing
the Alien Queen, although during your encounter with her your energy weapons
are “disabled.”  So in other words, you’ve only got the Speargun and Wrist
Blades to do the job.  I think it goes without saying that the Speargun works
best, but if you what to feel awesome you can try to kill her with just the
Wrist Blades.

Alien
The Alien campaign certainly has the least amount of variety of the three
campaigns (only 3 “weapons” and about as many enemy types) and it tends to
accentuate the game’s highly unintuitive level designs.  However, this
doesn’t mean that playing as the Alien isn’t fun.  On the contrary, few other
games do as good a job making you feel like a ruthless killing machine.  The
Alien spends most of his time fighting humans, almost all of which can be
killed with a single swipe.  He’s also the fastest of the three races.
However, this doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to mindlessly dash through
missions.  Your health is fairly small, and although you can regain health by
“eating” corpses (i.e, repeatedly attacking them with your claws), you can be
killed quite quickly if you let your prey get the drop on you rather than
vice versa.  Make sure to study the layout of enemies and consider travel
time.  Levels usually give you plenty of dark places to hide to contemplate
your attack (see the “General Tips” on stealth).  Do you eliminate the guy
with the smartgun first, or go for the grenadier?  Can you get across the
room and slay that Marine with the Minigun before he has time to unload on
you?  Are there any patches of darkness or pieces of cover to hide behind?
Should you take a rushing leap in, or drop down from the ceiling?  Speed is
the key.  Eliminating all threats before they have time to react is
preferable in early missions and downright required in later ones.  As for
level progression, refer to the “General Tips” on puzzle solving.  Use your
special vision mode for navigating dark areas.  Try to get used to viewing
the world from all angles (since you’ll be doing a fair amount of clambering
around on the level geometry).  Oh, and avoid moving fan blades.

Weapons (attacks):
The Alien’s arsenal is limited strictly to what his momma gave him.  Tail,
teeth, and claws.

Claws:  The left mouse button uses your Claws, which are pretty fast and do
enough damage to eliminate most humans in a single swipe.  “Clawing” dead
bodies will cause you to “eat” them, which slowly regains your health.

Tail Whip:  Holding the right mouse button will charge up your tail (much
like the Predator’s Wrist Blades), and releasing will…well…release it.  This
attack is quite powerful, but isn’t much more useful than the Claws since
your primary enemies (humans) have so little health.  However, it only takes
two fully charged Tail Whips to kill a Predator, and it’s a lot more
effective against autoturrets than your Claws are.

Head Bite:  If you aim you’re close enough and aim your view directly at an
opponent’s head, you’ll see teeth appear at the edges of your screen.
Clicking the right mouse button will then initiate a Head Bite, which
decapitates them for an instant kill and gives you a chunk of health.  The
Head Bite can be done on dead bodies as well, although it gives less health
in this case.

Leap:  Although not really an attack in and of itself, keep in mind that
jumping while running forward makes you go really far, really fast.  When
timed right with other attacks, this Leap is absolutely deadly.

Enemies:
Marine:  The Marines are significantly more threatening in the Alien campaign
than they are in the Predator campaign, mostly due to your low health.  There
are also a lot more of them wielding Flamethrowers, so you best acquaint
yourself with the “running around like a maniac” strategy (see “General Tips”
on running around like a maniac).  Pulse Rifle Marines and Pistol Marines can
be easily dealt with, but they start to become a considerable threat once
they’re lugging around Miniguns and Smartguns.  Just remember everything
discussed above about planning and speed.
Civilian:  Once again, they don’t pose much of a threat apart from the single
Molatov Cocktail that some of them carry.  As discussed in the Predator
section, just dodge back when they start their slow throwing animation and
chances are that they’ll kill themselves in the process.  If, however, they
survive long enough to start cowering, they serve as something of a handy
“health pack.”  It’s easy to get a live headbite on them, which will give you
a healthy chunk of health.

Autoturret:  Autoturrets are annoying.  Really annoying.  Because they can
kill you nearly instantly, and it’s sometimes hard to predict where they’ll
be.  Generally, the game provides ways to quickly get behind them with
minimal to no damage.  Make sure to think “out of the box.”  You are an
Alien, which means that you can climb on things.  If the ceiling provides
cover and the floor is an open deathtrap, you should probably use the
ceiling.  Once you get behind the Autoturret(s), your Tail Whip will forcibly
deactivate them quite easily.

Predator:  You meet your first Predator about 2 minutes before the vanilla
campaign ends.  So although you’ll fight a few more in the bonus missions,
you still won’t have to deal with these intergalactic hunters all that much.
When you do, two fully charged hits with your tail will kill them.  And if
you strafe around fast enough, they shouldn’t be able to hit you even if they
have a Shoulder Cannon.

Skirmish Mode
In recent years, games like Halo ODST and Gears of War have popularized
what’s known as “Horde Mode.”  In essence, Horde Mode pits you against a
theoretically unlimited stream of enemies, usually broken up into various
types of waves.  Back in the early 2000s, however, AvP Gold (and thus AvPC2K)
had a primitive version of this exact same concept, in the form of Skirmish
Mode.  While Skirmish Mode isn’t quite as fleshed out or addictive as its
modern day brothers, it can be quite an entertaining little diversion in its
own right.  Essentially, you play as either a Marine (who can choose to spawn
with pre-set weapons just like in multiplayer) or a Predator, and face off
against unlimited hordes of Xenomorphs, Praetorians, and Predaliens.  Any of
the included multiplayer maps can be used for Skirmish Mode, as well as any
addon maps with a “(c)” suffix.  Some user-made maps work with this mode, and
some don’t.  You can also specify a point limit, lives limit, and/or time
limit at gamestart (the setup screen is exactly like the setup screen for
creating a multiplayer server).  I find that the best way to have fun with
Skirmish is to set challenges for yourself with these settings.  Can you
survive 5 minutes with only one life?  How long will it take you to get to
20000 points?  Things like that.  Without a goal (e.g, played with the
default settings), Skirmish Mode can get rather dull.  But if you mess with
the settings and start experimenting with different maps (especially if you
download the map packs discussed in the ‘Addons and Mods’ section), you’ll
find that this mode is perfect for wasting some extra time, or just getting
your AvPC2K fix for the day.

MULTIPLAYER
General Tips
So.  You’ve bought AvPC2K on Steam.  You’ve taken a look at this guide, maybe
a few others... you’re ready to jump into multiplayer and start pwning some
noobs.  You start up the game, select “Join Existing Game…” and...“No
Sessions Found.”  Confused, you restart steam, restart your computer,
reinstall, maybe even do a complete hardrive format just to make sure… and
you again select “Join Existing Game,” and again see “No Sessions Found.”
What is going on?  Where are all the servers?  Is the multiplayer
community…*gasp*…DEAD???

Well, yes and no.  You see, the AvPC2K community is quite small, but almost
universally dedicated.  We all love the game.  We love playing it.  The best
of us have been playing it since AvP Gold was released in 2000.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that we manage to find each other ingame
very often.  Oh, don’t worry.  You’ll see games pop up every once in awhile.
But you can’t just log on and choose from an endless list of possible servers
like you can with Counterstrike or Quake III.  So if you want to get involved
with AvP’s multiplayer (and believe me, it’s worth it), the most important
thing isn’t learning the classes or the maps.  The most important thing is
learning how to find people to play with.  First of all, you need to know
that the AvPC2K community is chronically disorganized.  We don’t have our own
site, we don’t have regular events scheduled (although when we did about a
year back, they were pretty well attended), and we don’t keep up a regular
play schedule.  So the first thing to do is find some people who play the
game and friend them.  Steam groups like “AvP Classic”
(http://steamcommunity.com/groups/goldstandard) or the “official” Aliens vs
Predator Classic 2000 group (http://steamcommunity.com/groups/avpc) are great
places to find people.  Heck, most of the group comments are players asking
“Hey, friend me if you want to play some AvP!”  So..friend them!  Plays some
AvP!  If you’re not really that sort of person, you can use the time honored
method of starting up a co-op game, then suggesting a switch to something
more competitive once enough people join (and you’ll be surprised how often
this works).  In fact, it’s probably a good idea to start loving co-op,
because you’ll probably be playing a lot of it.  Finally, invite some friends
to the madness!  Recommend that they buy the game.  Or, since AvPC2K is a
measly $5, just gift it to them.

One quick note about the AvP multiplayer scoreboard.  It’s not quite as
intuitive as most.  Basically, it not only shows a person’s overall score (on
the far right of the board), but also their score vs other players (by
reading across).  But this is hardly a game about score or winning…it’s about
the experience.

Modes
The multiplayer modes in AvPC2Krange from basics like Deathmatch and Species
Deathmatch to more entertaining modes like Alien Tag and Last Man Standing.
Here’s a rundown of each mode.

Deathmatch:  Your basic, run-of-the mill Deathmatch.  It’s everyone vs
everyone.  This mode is the only time that you’ll have bouts of Marine vs
Marine, Predator vs Predator, and Alien vs Alien, all three of which can be a
whole ton of fun in their own right.  This is probably the most frenetic and
action-packed mode.

Species Deathmatch:  AvP’s version of the ubiquitous ‘Team Deathmatch.’  It
pits each race against one another.  One of the more popular modes.

Last Man Standing:  Yet another mode that gained popularity from Halo, but
which AvP actually did first.  Infecti…erm…Last Man Standing starts one
player off as an Alien, and all the other players as Marines.  Every Marine
killed respawns as another Alien, until only one person remains.  I love this
mode, because it really shows off the game’s ability to successfully
translate genuine feelings of fear into a multiplayer setting.

Alien Tag:  Like Last Man Standing, one person starts off as an Alien and the
rest as Marines.  In this case however, whoever kills the Alien takes their
place.  Can get pretty frenetic when you have multiple Marines each becoming
the Alien in quick succession.

Predator Tag:  The same as Alien Tag, but with the Predator.

Cooperative:  Easily the most-played mode, simply because it provides
something to do while you wait for other people to join your game.
Cooperative mode is basically just multiplayer Skirmish, with the added
“challenge” of remembering NOT to shoot Predators as the Marine, and Marines
as the Predator.  Aliens are your common foe, here.  Unfortunately, it
doesn’t seem that there’s a way to up the difficulty, so the more people that
join the easier it becomes.

Maps
Note:  This only details the maps included with vanilla AvPC2K.  The
downloadable map packs have their own descriptions in their readme files.
Subway:  Probably the most popular multiplayer map, Subway encompasses a
chunk of cityscape (with plenty of buildings for the Alien to climb around
on) and a darkened subway station.  A great choice for any PvP modes, but
significantly less fun in Cooperative.  Aliens should beware the electrical
fences that keep you from going out-of-bounds.  Predators should use Speargun
jumping to get to higher sniper points.  Marines can easily hold one of the
subway cars and kill anything that comes through the door, if they get a good
weapon first.
Statue:  This one is absolute Alien heaven.  It’s a confusing multileveled
compound built around a gigantic statue of an Alien.  There are plenty of
dark places to hide, and plenty of different angles for ambushes.  As the
Marine, make sure to watch your back and keep moving.  As the Predator, don’t
get too cocky.  There are  many places where Aliens can attack from behind
you.  As the Alien, rejoice and be happy…for this is your turf.  This map
cannot be played in Cooperative Mode.

Office:  In contrast, Office gives Marines a distinct advantage.  Relatively
speaking, that is.  It’s almost entirely well-lit, for one thing, so the
Predator’s cloak is much less useful.  There are a bunch of environmental
objects that Aliens can get caught on if they aren’t careful.  And the two
big rooms that make up the majority of the level give a pretty clear line of
sight from just about anywhere.  Aliens should utilize the speed tricks
discussed below, and get used to navigating without getting stuck on things.
Predators will have to rely on their large health and the player’s quick aim,
because chances are that Marines will see you as soon as you see them.  You
should be careful of the deadly and inexplicable jet of flame in the
basement.  This level cannot be player in Cooperative Mode.

Massacre:  Dark, metallic, and full of hallways and blind corners, Massacre
provides a highly entertaining experience in any PvP mode.  It’s just really
hard to navigate.  Aliens should beware the fans in this level, as they have
a tendency to make mincemeat of any critters that stray too close.  This
level cannot be played in Cooperative Mode.

Hadley’s Hope:  A very loose recreation of the abandoned laboratory from
‘Aliens,’ this is one of my favorite settings.  With long moody hallways,
Facehuggers suspended in preserving liquids, and even a maze of air ducts
underneath the floors complete with a severed doll head, this provides the
perfect setting for Last Man Standing or Alien Tag.  Other modes play just as
well, but seeing Predators running around the level doesn’t seem right
somehow.  This level is rather easy to navigate, so Marines shouldn’t have
much trouble learning where the best weapon spawns.  As in many of the
levels, Aliens get their own little network of tunnels in the ceilings.
There are even destructible ceiling tiles, for crashing through onto
unsuspecting foes.  Predators should note that this level has a lot of red
lights.  So in other words, it can be harder for enemies to see the glare of
your red laser sight.  Use this to your advantage.

Meat Factory:  A meat processing plant for you to battle in.  This map is
made up of a bunch of different rooms, each with varying degrees of darkness
(as well as some cool meat-factory-appropriate decorations).  I prefer this
level for Marine vs Marine Deathmatch, since its small size and relative ease
of navigation makes battles fast-paced and frequent.

Stranded:  You playing co-op?  Than chances are you’re playing Stranded.
This map is the single most popular for Cooperative Mode, almost to the point
of exclusivity.  And it’s easy to see why.  Stranded is the only map that has
an “objective” to it.  You start at your crash site, and must navigate
through a treacherous canyon to a bunker filled with weapons and health.  The
atmosphere of danger and urgency in Stranded is quite compelling, and its
simple level design makes it readily accessible to any new players.  This
level is only playable in Cooperative and Skirmish Mode.

Lab 14:  Entirely set on a single floor with a single ceiling height, this
map exudes the sort of simple charm of early FPSs like Wolfenstein 3d.  It’s
the perfect setting for Deathmatches, with a looped level design that keeps
you moving, and also a little hidden gem of Cooperative Mode since it’s so
enclosed.  With so many levels that exemplify fear and paranoia, this one can
be a welcome action-heavy break.

Elevator:  A small level with a circular hallway and little offshoot rooms,
encompassing a central elevator shaft.  I don’t think I’ve ever done anything
in this map except Cooperative, so it’s hard for me to say anything about it.

Nostromo:  A sequence of large, open caverns with some big machinery.  This
is another one of those levels that seems to favor the Marine, due to its
well-lit nature.  Another one that’s good for Deathmatches or Species
Deathmatch.  Doesn’t seem to work as well as others for Last Man Standing or
Tag, however.

Hive:  A few small hallways and rooms built around an Alien Hive.  Easy to </pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
navigate and learn, but still full of potential hiding spots for Aliens and
Predators.  Marines should make use of the Grenade Launcher that spawns right
next to a hole looking down into the hive.  A few frag grenades down this
hole can sometimes net you unexpected kills.  In fact, it’s a good choice to
try and hold this area rather than go running around, since it’s full of
great weapons and is well-lit.  A nice choice for some Deathmatch or Species
Deathmatch, but perhaps a little small for Last Man Standing or Tag.  Also
not a great choice for Cooperative Mode.  Again, it’s too small.

Compound:  One of my favorite levels for both Cooperative Mode and Skirmish,
Compound is a big network of Alien tunnels with a couple large rooms.  Most
servers that are doing Compound use it for Cooperative Mode, but I see no
reason why it couldn’t be just as much fun in Last Man Standing.

Leadworks:  A map from both AvP and AvP2.  Leadworks is set inside what seems
to be a rusty industrial facility.  It plays out quite similar to Massacre,
although it’s a bit less complex visually.

Sewer:  A lot like Leadworks and Massacre, but with a much stronger vertical
element.  Sewer features lots of precarious staircases and pathways, and the
opportune placement of the Grenade Launcher makes it a great level for
setting traps and getting “cheap kills.”  Predators should also love this
level.  It’s perfect for hiding and stalking prey.

Jockey:  A huge mashup of everything Alien-related.  You’ve got your steely
hallways, your hives, your militaristic garages, and to top it all off, that
huge room with the ‘Space Jockey’ from the original ‘Alien’ movie.  I like
this map, but it can be a real pain to navigate and to find people on.

Trapped:  This one’s a rather odd concept.  Like Stranded, Trapped is a
Cooperative/Skirmish-only map.  Functionally, it’s the smallest level in the
game, being made up of a single L-shaped hallway and some overhangs that look
out into a large (inaccessible) room.  The twist is, that room is where all
the Aliens spawn.  So you are, appropriately enough, trapped.  It’s small and
frenetic, and sometimes frustrating, but a neat concept.  This level is only
playable in Cooperative and Skirmish Mode.

Marine
In multiplayer, the Marine is probably the weakest character.  If you’re
looking to dominate, you should probably choose a different race.  However,
if you’re looking for tension and scares, he’s your man.  As in single
player, your weapons are what determine your effectiveness.  Learn the
placement of powerful guns like the Minigun and grenade launcher in maps.
Or, you can opt to spawn with any weapon, but this will keep you from being
to pick up other weapons during the match.  The choice is really yours.  If
you want to be better matched against Aliens and Predators, it might be best
to spawn as a Minigun Marine or SADAR Marine.  But I find that it ends up
being a lot more fun to have to find your own weapons.  Always keep in mind
who you will be fighting.  If you’re going to be getting into firefights with
other Marines, the basic Pulse Rifle grenades and/or a Smartgun will serve
you perfectly well.  If you’re facing Aliens, try to secure a Minigun, and do
your best to kill them before they get close (since their fully charged Tail
Whip is effectively a one hit kill).  With Predators, the Minigun, SADAR, or
Proximity Grenades will do the trick.  You should also remember that, as the
Marine, you’re the only race who doesn’t have to worry about trying to stay
hidden.  Aliens and Predators can easily spot you whether you’re crouching in
the dark or not.  In fact, light should be considered your friend.  The more
light, the easier it is to see your foes.  Besides which, flares tend to
attract enemies, so a clever player could theoretically use them to lure
opponents into an ambush (practically, this isn’t the best strategy…but it is
fun :3).  So don’t be afraid to use flares, and don’t shy away from bright
hallways.

Weapons:
Pulse Rifle:  The Pulse Rifle’s primary fire might as well be shooting glass
beads for all the damage it does to your opponents.  The grenades, however,
are quite effective at killing Aliens and other humans, if you have
relatively good aim.  Against Predators, however, they’re not nearly as good.

Smartgun:  The Smartgun’s bullets fare a little better than the Pulse
Rifle’s.  Their increased power/rate combined with the gun’s autolock makes
this a perfect weapon against other Marines.  The only downside is that its
targeting system will lock on to enemy flares as well as enemies, so an
experienced Marine can easily disrupt your aim by chucking a few flares
around.  It’s not impossible to kill an Alien with the Smartgun, but it can
be difficult since any relatively competent Alien player is going to move
faster than the gun can track.  Against Predators, its main advantage is that
it will lock on to them even if they’re cloaked, so it’s more useful as a
detection device than as a weapon.

Flamethrower:  Although technically underpowered due to the amount of time it
takes to actually kill an opponent, the flamethrower can be a really useful
tool.  Why?  Because nobody…NOBODY…wants to be set on fire.  The damage over
time, the irritation of having to run around to put themselves out, the way
it highlights them as an easy target… the psychological effect that this fire
flinger brings with it is invaluable.  Most enemies will think twice about
getting near you if you have a flamethrower.  Plus, there’s nothing more
satisfying than getting post mortem kills.  This weapon works best against
Marines and Aliens, due to their lower health.

Grenade Launcher:  Although it’s a little useless in single player, the
Grenade Launcher is easily one of the most useful weapons in multiplayer.
The first two ammo types still have limited application, but can be used for
that ever-popular “launch explosives in random directions and see if you get
any kills” tactic.  And the proximity grenades…oh, the proximity grenades!
Not only are they effectively a 1-hit kill against Aliens and fellow Marines,
but they also provide giddy opportunities for setting booby traps and
inciting rage in the otherwise nigh-invincible Predators.  Useful against
pretty much every class.

SADAR:  Even more than in single player, it’s important to realize that the
SADAR does most of its damage from the initial rocket impact, and that its
splash damage is negligible.  That said, it is potentially one of the most
powerful weapons in your arsenal.  I’m not quite sure how many rockets it
takes to kill a Predator, but it’s not many.  Use against any race.

Minigun: Once again, this is a weapon to be feared.  It will absolutely shred
fellow Marines, make Aliens look like origami swans, and knock down Predators
in the time it takes to say “groovy.”  Just be aware that while you’re
standing still and firing the Minigun, you’re essentially a sitting duck for
other players.

Skeeter Launcher:  I’m STILL not sure what to make of the Skeeter Launcher.
For getting a few one-hit kills here and there, it’s pretty effective, but I
wouldn’t recommend using it as a serious weapon.  It’s too slow, it doesn’t
have much ammo, and it’s unpredictible.  No amount of power can make up for
those faults, in my opinion.  Use as a tool for when heated battles are going
on in a room and you want to steal everyone’s kills.

Pistol/Dual Pistols:  The slow rate of fire and required aiming skill limits
these sidearms usefulness even as a last resort.  I don’t recommend using
them unless you’re absolutely out of ammo for everything else.  Actually, I
take that back… if you have to choose between the Pulse Rifle’s primary fire
and dual pistols, I think dual pistols would be the best choice.  But
otherwise, don’t bother.

Predator
The Predator is the undisputed god of multiplayer.  Nobody claims that AvPC2K
multiplayer is balanced, and the Predator is basically the single reason why
(although some people will claim that the Alien is overpowered as well.).
You see, not only does he have a ridiculous amount of health, he also has the
Disk.  If you’ve forgotten the many virtues of this weapon, let me reiterate.
It is a one hit kill against practically everything, and it is also guided.
Can you see why this might slightly unbalance things?  Anyway, the point is
that if you’re the type of person who gets off to seeing their name at the
top of an endgame scoreboard, then the Predator is your race.  The only
problem you might run into is that many servers will actually disable the
Disk.  So you DO have to be strategic after all.  Bummer.  Still, though,
your massive health and powerful arsenal make it quite easy to dominate as
the Predator.  Use invisibility and destroy light sources and Marine weapon
drops to keep Marines on their toes (although you should be wary of
Flamethrowers and their respective ammo.  They explode if destroyed).  Make
sure to keep your laser sight out of…erm…sight.  Use your various vision
modes…most of them will also help you see in the dark in addition to
highlighting enemies.  Learn to utilize “Speargun jumping” to get to high
areas (this is especially useful on the everpopular map Subway).  If you do
all this, you’re nearly unbeatable.

NOTE:  I am MUCH less experienced playing Predator in multiplayer than I am
playing the other races.  So I don’t have as much information about him.  If
something I say is contradicted by someone…ahem…competent, then what they say
takes precedence.

Weapons
Wrist Blades:  Although massively useful in singleplayer, the fast movement
speed of other players makes these melee weapons all but useless in
multiplayer.  I use them primarily for taking out lights and/or Marine
weapons.

Speargun:  Highly effective, in the right hands.  The Speargun will one hit
kill Aliens and Marines (not sure about other Predators.  I haven’t had
enough experience fighting Pred vs Pred), and is quite accurate.  The only
problem is aiming accurately enough to hit anything, due to the previously
mentioned speed of your opponents.  Like the railgun in Quake III or the
Shock Rifle in Unreal, this is one weapon that takes a lot of hand-eye
coordination.  And if you’re good with it…REALLY good with it…the Speargun
has the potential to be even more deadly than the Disk.  Also, it can be used
to do a quasi-rocket-jump, as discussed in the Predator single player
portion.  I suppose that, in theory, this could be used to confuse opponents
by jumping over their head.  But then, you still need to be able to hit them
with the darned thing, and anyone who CAN hit them probably doesn’t need to
be using confusion tactics.

Shoulder Cannon:  Never underestimate the power of autolock.  With the
appropriate vision mode, the Shoulder Cannon locks on to your opponents, just
like in the movie(s).  It even compensates for travel time and their movement
direction!  Although most Predator pros seem to prefer to use the Speargun, I
find the Shoulder Cannon to be easier to get the hang of, and pretty
effective in open combat.  Don’t bother with anything other than fully
charged shots (which can be saved for later by using the secondary fire,
remember), and try to keep your distance from Aliens, since it’s easier to
hit them that way.  Works best against Marines, but will do well against
Aliens too.

Medicomp:  Not really used any differently than in single player.  Exchanges
some energy for full health.  Do be aware, though, that other players can
hear the roar that you emit when using this device.

Pistol:  Another overpowered weapon (the Predator certainly has a lot of
these, doesn’t he?).  Although maps such as Subway give Aliens the
opportunity to leap at you from outside its range, it’ll usually keep them
from being able to get close to you, much less kill you.  Against Marines
it’s not quite as effective, since they rely entirely on ranged weapons.
This weapon often gets turned off on pro servers.

Disk:  Well…as already mentioned, the Disk is baws.  The only problem…ONLY
problem…is that it’s a little slow, so a clever Alien could still potentially
avoid it, at least long enough to do some damage to you.  Oh, and it doesn’t
work quite as well as the Speargun against multiple enemies in an open fight,
because of how long it takes to throw and retrieve it.  Still, if you’re on a
server that hasn’t made it unavailable, the Disk is an incredibly powerful
weapon, and makes hit-and-run attacks a breeze.  This weapon often gets
turned off on pro servers.

Alien
Unlike the other two races, the multiplayer Alien isn’t as much about weapon
mastery as he is about movement mastery.  Generally, you’re going to be
making most of your kills with the Tail Whip, with the Claws reserved for
backup in case you miss and the headbite reserved as a tool for humiliating
players who don’t realize how vital it is to keep moving.  Personally, I
prefer to play the Alien as stealthily as possible.  I hide in the shadows,
take out light sources, stay behind enemies (since the Marine’s motion
tracker won’t pick you up if you’re behind them, and the Predator won’t be
able to lock onto you), and try to choose my battles.  However, this strategy
isn’t completely foolproof.  Experienced Marines will know what to
look/listen for, and if they’re using their flares and night vision properly,
it can be difficult to remain hidden even in the dark.  And it’s virtually
impossible to hide from the Predator, since his vision will highlight you in
stark, compromising white.  Your best bet is to try to put cover between you
and your prey as often as possible, but that’s not really a practical option
in many maps.  There are certain players who have managed to do quite well as
stealth-focused Aliens (such as Emsk).  But most pros (including Aph3x-
SkorpioN, who is co-writing this section) prefer to use the Alien’s superior
speed to their advantage, which makes it possible to hold your own in open
battles without the hassle of sneaking.  Leaping around, sticking to and
jumping from walls, and generally making yourself into a nuisance will
guarantee that Marines are going to have a hard time hitting you, and
Predators will find it hard to lock on with the Shoulder Cannon or the Disk.
There are also certain movement exploits that can be used to get an even
greater speed boost.  Since I’m not too well-versed on how to do these, I’ve
asked Aph3x-SkorpioN to assist me, and he’s contributed a rather lengthy (and
highly useful) segment on how to properly utilize the various physics
glitches/techniques that have helped him become an unstoppable force.

Aph3x-SkorpioN’s Guide to Dominating in Multiplayer as the Alien:
Alright.  Jefequeso was kind enough to ask me to share my experience as an
Alien player by discussing the Alien's various jumps. Since the Alien's jumps
are rather advanced stuff that requires decent control of the Alien's more
basic movement features, I will explain the jumps as a subsection of a much
bigger topic - Speed.

So let's get started.

The Alien is a melee only character that lacks any advantages in terms of
health compared to the other two species. It does however possess the ability
to walk on walls, cause great damage at close range and it also can outrun
and outjump just about anything. This simple analysis alone is enough to
determine that mobility is an Alien's greatest ally, thus the lack of
mobility will end up getting the Alien killed.
Unlike the other two species, the Alien does not have the luxury of standing
still or camping, as the transition from standing still to running, and from
running to jumping takes time, and the whole essence of the Alien is getting
near its target as fast as possible, causing maximum damage while its near
the target, and getting out before the target can retaliate.

In order to effectively reach the opponent, regardless of the opponent's
skill level, without getting shot in the process, an Alien player has to
master certain abilities. I have listed those abilities below from the most
basic to the most advanced, with explanation on how to perform each of them,
along with a short description on the benefits gained out of using those
abilities.

Strafe Running:  To get near an opponent, first you'll have to learn how to
run fast on the ground. Like many other late 90's FPS games(Quake,Unreal
Tournament and so on), this game also has certain key combinations that can
boost up your character's movement speed. By holding either the strafe left
or the strafe right key along with the run forward key, you will notice that
your character will tilt a little to whichever side you're "strafe running"
to, and also that your running speed has increased. This movement boost can
be applied for all three species, and on top of faster running speed, your
jumping range will increase as well.

Wall Walking/Attacking:  Too many Alien players use the Alien's wall walking
ability strictly to surpass obstacles, while opting to go for the ground
route when attacking enemies. This is wrong. Walls are the Alien's friend,
and if you're not taking advantage of them, you're not playing the Alien
correctly. Walls open a variety of new ways to attack Marine, Predator and
even other Alien players, as they tend to stay close to the walls many times
out of a false sense of security. Two other important features of using the
walls is that they make you harder to spot and hit, and more importantly,
they are the key to the Aliens various jumps. Mastering wall walking is very
important, because it will keep you from getting disoriented when performing
the Alien's jumps.
Now that we've covered some basic aspects of the Alien's movement, let's
discuss jumps.

Basic Ground Jump:  Not much to say about that - just a simple jump forward
while you're on the ground. Can be done either while standing on two feet or
while crouching. Each jump has pros and cons. When preformed while standing
on both feet, one claw attack can kill a Marine, however, you are a much
larger target to hit for all 3 species. If preformed while crouching, you get
a slight distance boost and you're much harder to hit for all 3 species,
however your claws won't do as much damage(though they still get a slight
damage boost as well). Since all experienced players will agree that tail is
a more efficient method of attack than claws, jumping out of the crouched
position is also more common with experienced players.

The High Jump:  A key feature for most of the advanced jumps to come. When
the Alien is in crouched position, look up and hit the jump key. This will
result in the Alien performing a jump that allows it to reach great heights.
This move can be preformed while moving as well.

Advanced jump type 1 - The Wall Bounce:  The simplest of the advanced jumps,
and some will argue that it's the most important one as well. It relies
greatly on The High Jump, and Strafe Running. What you do is basically
perform the high jump towards a wall. While you're in mid-air, continue
holding down the jump key and "turn your head" towards the next place you
wanna jump to. This will result in the Alien "bouncing off" the first wall to
the next. Doing this move while moving and by adding the forward and strafe
left/right keys will result in much faster jumps that can cover greater
distances. Pulling 5-6 wall bouncing combos will disorient and might even
frustrate your opponent, increasing his chances of making mistakes and also
decreasing his ability to defend against your upcoming attack.

Advanced jump type 2 - The Wall Jump:  This is sort of an offensive use of
The High Jump. It combines features from The High Jump, Wall Walking and
Strafe Running. In order to pull this one off, you need to climb a wall,
center your view at your objective, strafe run down from the wall, and just
as you're about to reach the ground, hit the jump key and keep the forward,
strafe left/right, the crouch and jump keys held. This will result in a very
long range jump at an extremely high speed. So high, in fact, that your
opponent will have a very low chance of hitting you while this is preformed.
This move is usually one of the signature moves of high level Alien players,
due to the difficulty of performing attacks while moving at such a high
speed.

Advanced jump 3 - The Wall Glide:  A relatively new move, and probably the
least important one of the ones described so far. Nevertheless, it can be
effective under certain conditions. To perform it, you must stand next to a
wall in a way that forms a 45 degree angle between you and the wall(you will
be facing away from the wall). Once you do that, press and hold the move
backwards and strafe-to-whichever-side-the-wall-is-at keys. The idea if for
the Alien to sort of try to run "into" the wall, while the wall blocking it,
resulting in the Alien staying perfectly still. Once you've achieved that,
you add and hold the crouch and jump keys to the ones you're already holding.
That will result in the Alien sort of "gliding" along the wall. The beauty of
this move is that unlike the other moves mentioned so far, this one allows
you to accelerate; the longer you will keep the move
backwards/strafe/crouch/jump combination held, the faster the Alien will go.
This move has the potential of reaching even greater speeds than the Wall
Jump, however it is only limited to situations when your enemy is standing
next to a wall himself, or as a quick method of getting out of dangerous
situations.

CHEATS
Cheat Modes:
As mentioned in the introduction, AvPC2K has 20 cheats that are unlocked by
completing challenges in different missions.  Personally, I find that part of
the fun of unlocking all of these is not knowing what you’re going to get
when you complete a challenge.  However, some people don’t feel that way.  So
here’s a quick run-down of all the cheat modes and the requirements for
unlocking them.

Marine Mission I (‘John Woo Mode’):  Unlocked by completing the level with
80% or more headshots.  This mode will dynamically slow the game down when
you’re near enemies.  Loads of fun!

Marine Mission II (‘Grenade’):  Unlocked by completing the level with 40% or
more.  This mode spawns you with a Pulse Rifle with 99 grenades and no other
ammo.  You also can’t pick up any new weapons.  Odd, but can be kinda
entertaining in a weird way.

Marine Mission III (‘WarpSpeed’):  Unlocked by completing the level in under
4 minutes.  This mode makes the game go hyper fast.  Not easy to unlock, and
easily duplicated with debug mode.

Marine Mission IV (‘LandoftheGiants’):  Unlocked by completing the level with
less than 20 shots.  The SADAR is especially useful here.  This mode makes
you reeeealy tiny.  Fun for a little while.

Marine Mission V (‘SlugTrail’):  Unlocked by completing the level with 32 or
more Aliens killed.  This mode spawns all Aliens with one leg missing, so
that they leave a trail of blood and go significantly slower.  Strangely fun.

Marine Bonus Mission I (‘FreeFall’):  Unlocked by completing the level with
only 100% or less health damage taken (the game keeps track of how much
health you’ve lost, even if you get medkits).  This mode makes the level
slowly spin, much like that one scene from Inception.  It can only be played
on one Marine level, and one Predator level.  However, it’s playable on all
Alien levels.

Marine Bonus Mission II (‘UnderWater’):  Unlocked by completing the level
with only 60% or less health damage.  This mode makes everything blue and
wavy, and makes you fall slower…just like you’re underwater!

Alien Mission I (‘SniperMunch’):  Unlocked by getting 10 or more live
Civilian headbites.  This mode gives the Alien a long-range bite attack.  An
awesome power trip after playing particularly punishing Alien levels.

Alien Mission II(‘Nausea’):  Unlocked by completing the level in under 2
minutes.  This mode makes everything wave around.  Very disorienting, and not
much fun.

Alien Mission III (‘Pipecleaner’):  Unlocked by getting 15 or more dead
civilian headbites.  This mode makes all enemies white, stick-figured, and
glowy.  Strange but cool.

Alien Mission IV (‘MotionBlur’):  Unlocked by completing the level in under 4
minutes with an average speed of 9 m/s or more.  This mode blurs everything
that moves.

Alien Mission V (‘MirrorMode’):  Unlocked by getting at least 1 live Predator
headbite (which is incredibly easy to do.  Just stun him with your tail and
bite off his head).  This mode mirrors levels from left to right, which
changes their entire feel.  Great for replaying!

Alien Bonus Mission II (‘ImpossibleMission’):  Get 20 live Marine headbites.
This mode makes the game much harder.  If you’ve learned to laugh at
‘Director’s Cut’ difficulty, unlock this one.

Predator Mission I (‘Pigsticking’):  Unlocked by getting 80% or more
accuracy.  This mode gives the Speargun unlimited ammo and makes it fire many
spears in a shotgun-like pattern (read: it will absolutely shred enemies).
It’s easy to get, and it’s possibly the best stress relief out there.

Predator Mission II (‘SuperGore’):  Unlocked by getting 25 Marine ‘trophies.’
See the entry about the Predator’s Wrist Blades for information on how to get
trophies.  This mode makes all enemies sput more blood than usual.  Fun for a
little bit.

Predator Mission III (‘DiscoInferno’):  Unlocked by completing the level with
under 100% damage.  This mode not only turns your character into a continuous
light source, but also makes all light sources (including explosions and
flares) flash colorful discoball patterns.  Looks very cool, and shows off
the game’s surprisingly good lighting effects.

Predator Mission IV (‘BallsofFire’):  Unlocked by getting 40 Alien kills.
This mode makes all enemies continuously burn.  Makes it pretty easy to see
them in the dark.

Predator Mission V (‘RainbowBlood’):  Unlocked by completing the level
without being spotted more than 15 times.  Makes blood, lights, and bullet
impact effects flash colorful rainbow patterns.  Absolutely useless, and
kinda ugly looking.

Predator Bonus Mission I (‘TickerTape’):  Unlocked by completing the level
with 15 or more Alien trophies.  This mode makes Alien enemies have a trail
much like the Predator’s Disk.  Not quite sure what the point is, but ok…

Predator Bonus Mission II (‘TripTastic’):  Unlocked by completing the level
with 10 or more Civilian trophies.  This mode makes everything wavy,
transparent, rainbow colored…basically it’s an LSD trip.

When unlocking stuff as the Marine, keep in mind that the particular weapons
in a level usually help with level’s cheat.  For instance, when accuracy is
needed you can find a pair of pistols.  When you need to be fast, a
flamethrower is usually lying around.  When you need to use less ammo, you
can find a SADAR.

Debug Mode:
AvPC2K features a handful of “traditional” cheats that can be used while in
debug mode.  Unfortunetly, activating debug mode isn’t quite as easy as it
was in the original release of AvP Gold (which was was simple as adding –
debug to the file path).  The basic steps to entering debug cheats are as
follows:

- In the “properties” for AvPC2K in Steam, select “Set Launch Options.”
- In the text box that appears, type the following without quotes: ‘-debug –
lampcxtr’
- Ingame, open the console window by pressing either the chat or teamchat key
(default ‘T’ and ‘Y’).  DELETE THAT TEXT THAT SAYS EITHER ‘SAY’ or ‘TEAMSAY.’
- Enter the desired command in ALL CAPS.  Press enter.
- To exit the console, re-type ‘SAY’ in all caps and press enter.
Here are the commands:
GOD : Makes you effectively immortal.  Although you will still take damage,
you won’t die when your health reaches zero.
GIVEALLWEAPONS:  Gives the player all weapons.  Of course.
GIMME_CHARGE: Re-charges your energy as the Predator
SHOWFPS:  Displays an FPS counter
MOTIONTRACKERSPEED #:  Lets you speed up or slow down the Marine’s motion
tracker.  # is any number from 1 to 16.  The default value is 1.
LIGHT:  Brightens a light source around you.
ALIENBOT: Spawns an Alien in front of the player.
MARINEBOT #: Spawns a Marine/Civilian in front of the player.  # is a number
from 1 to 15 (as detailed below).
PREDOBOT #: Spawns a Predator in front of the player.  # determines what
weapon he is using.  1 for the Shoulder Cannon, and 2 for Wrist Blades.
PREDALIENBOT:  Spawns a Predalien in front of the player.
PRAETORIANBOT:  Spawns a Praetorian in front of the player.
XENOBORG:  Spawns a Xenoborg in front of the player.
TIMESCALE #:  Changes how fast the game goes.  1 is the default speed.
WIREFRAMEMODE #:  If # is 2, the environment and characters will be shown as
wireframes.  Other numbers don’t seem to do anything.
DOPPLERSHIFT #:  Enables or disables the Doppler sound effect as the Alien.
SKY_RED #:  Change the red value of the sky.
SKY_GREEN #:  Change the green value of the sky.
SKY_BLUE #: Change the blue value of the sky.
LEANSCALE #:  Changes the amount that the screen tilts when strafing.
SHOWPOLYCOUNT:  Shows how many polygons are being rendered.
The Marine bot types are as follows:
0:  Random type
1: Marine with pulse rifle
2: Marine with flamethrower
3: Marine with smartgun
4: Marine with SADAR
5: Marine with grenade launcher
6: Marine with minigun
7: Civilian with shotgun
8: Civilian with pistol
9: Civilian with flamethrower
10: Civilian (unarmed)
11: Civilian with molotov
12: Marine with pistol
13: Synthetic with shotgun
14: Synthetic with one-handed shotgun
15: Synthetic with pistol

Note that AvP’s bot spawning is a little…picky.  There are a lot of factors
that seem to effect it.  Most importantly, remember that you can’t spawn a
bot that is the same species as you.  Also, you cannot spawn a bot type that
doesn’t already exist in the level.

ADDONS AND MODS
NOTE:  During the writing of this guide, Megaupload was shut down.  So
naturally, the listed megaupload links no longer work.  The best way to get
the files now is probably to contact K4M4CURU5 directly (his Steam profile
can be found at http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198044223878).

AvP has a relatively small modding community, even considering how small its
overall community is, so your only real options for mods will probably come
from Mad Max RW, the guru of AvP tweaking.  He currently has a ModDB page at
http://www.moddb.com/mods/aliens-versus-predator-classic-redux, which serves
as a nexus for his Aliens vs Predator Classic Redux mod.  This AvPC2K-
exclusive conversion (no, it won’t work with AvP Gold) improves the visuals,
adding features such as light bloom and high resolution textures, and also
changes some gameplay elements and level designs.  It’s also completely
compatible with multiplayer, to my knowledge.  I highly recommend it to
anyone who wants to get some more mileage out of this highly undervalued
game.  His page also has some other downloads, like the original in-game FMV
movies (which were changed to inferior ones in AvP Gold, and thus AvPC2K) and
a 100% completed profile in case you want to explore all the cheat
options/levels without going through the necessary steps yourself.  I would
also suggest getting hold of the official map packs and/or the most popular
user-made maps.  Most dedicated online players have these, and matches are
often held on maps that don’t necessarily come with the game.  And even if
you aren’t planning on playing multiplayer, they provide great locations for
skirmish mode.  This thread
(http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-1111330.html) has
download locations for all the important maps.  And a huge collection of maps
both official and unofficial is currently hosted on megaupload
(http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OETFJHBW), which includes all official map
packs as well as a huge collection of user-made maps.  Finally, if you’re
interested in learning to mod the game yourself, I strongly suggest getting
in contact with Mad Max RW via the steam AvPC2K forums.  Not only does he
know the game inside and out, but he’s also willing to teach anyone who wants
to learn.

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