This Guide is an in depth guide to melee fighting in Aliens vs. Predator. The
tactics I describe here should apply across all platforms. It should be noted
that, obviously, lag will play a huge factor in whether or not these skills
will work.
You can test for lag a number of ways when a match starts. The number one way I
have found is attacking someone and determining if there is a delay from the
time you press the attack button to the time it actually has an effect on the
person you’re attacking. You can also tell if you are getting damaged from
someone who should not be able to damage you i.e. someone you’ve just killed
and is now lying on the ground. What this means is, on their side they died
shortly after you think you killed them and so they were still able to attack
for a short time before dying. In other words there is a delay in effect that
causes events on one side to happen at different intervals than the other.
The following is a guide for melee skills for all three species. I’ve developed
these skills over my time playing the game and I find that anyone I’ve taught
them to seems to improve their kill count exponentially. I will also include
warnings for the limitations of each characters melee abilities. Such as
potentially exploitable moves that can be much harder to defend against.
Basics
The basics of melee are pretty simple. Knowing just the basics will help but,
against anyone who’s spent a lot of time developing their skills, you will find
the basics don’t quite cut it. There are many subtle nuances that are hard to
understand unless you spend a good deal of time playing the game. However here
is how the basic melee system works
Blocks defeat light attacks
Light attacks beat heavy attacks
Heavy attacks beat blocks
When you block a light attack you are then able to perform a counter attack by
hitting the light attack button. In other words when you block a light attack
immediately hit the light attack button and you will hit your attacker and stun
them. This opens them up for further attacks until they are able to regain
control.
Works a bit like rock paper scissors
The Predator
The predator is by far the best at melee combat. It cannot be knocked down and
it takes the most hits to kill of any species. The predators’ heavy attack is
also faster than the alien heavy and much harder to counter.
The breakdown for the predators’ health works like this
Pred Vs. Pred: Heavy Heavy heavy = Dead
Heavy heavy light = dead
Heavy light light light = dead
Light light light light = dead
The lunge attack is performed by holding the focus button (L2 on PS3 by
default). The lunge attack counts as a light attack and follows the same
formula above. Unlike with other species you can never knock another predator
down with a lunge attack.
Pred VS, Alien: Heavy heavy = Dead
Heavy light light = dead
Light light light light = dead
The lunge attack is performed by holding the focus button (L2 on PS3 by
default). The lunge attack counts as a light attack and follows the same
formula above. Unlike with other predators, against an alien you have the
ability to knock them down. It still counts as a light attack but you have the
added advantage of being able to now pull off any move you like. While grounded
the alien is completely at your mercy.
Predator VS, Marine: Heavy Heavy = Dead
Heavy Light = Dead
Light Light Light = Dead
The lunge attack is performed by holding the focus button (L2 on PS3 by
default). The lunge attack counts as a light attack and follows the same
formula above. Unlike with other predators, against a marine you have the
ability to knock them down. It still counts as a light attack but you have the
added advantage of being able to now pull off any move you like. While grounded
the marine is completely at your mercy.
WARNING: once you counter a predators’ heavy attack be EXTREMELY cautious of a
follow-up heavy attack. This second heavy attack CANNOT be countered. I haven’t
been able to determine if this is something the developers overlooked or if
they intentionally put it in the game. Either way it is, in my opinion, the
cheapest melee move the predator has. If you’re reading this guide I expect you
to fight with at least a small amount of dignity. After all, the predator has
always been portrayed as a creature of honor, and if you truly want to play
like one you should never take unfair advantage of any situation.
SECOND WARNING: Both the predator AND the alien have the ability to start a
heavy attack and then stop it with a block. If you attempt to counter the heavy
attack with a light attack and they do this you will be countered instead.
Again this seems like something the devs must have overlooked because it
completely undermines players who have taken time to get good at the game. That
is, players who had the presence of mind to react quickly enough to even do the
counter get unfairly manipulated into a cheap trap.
Always remember, if you’re doing something that’s extremely effective AND
extremely easy to do, it’s probably also extremely cheap.
The last tip for overall gameplay as the predator is, DO NOT HIDE. The
predators’ cloaking is a TOOL to help you get the drop on people. You’re not
going to win any matches just standing on top of a building or pillar or
whatever, the whole time trying to pick people off from afar. The predator is a
HUNTER. That means you need to go out and, you know, hunt.
When fighting as the predator there are several strategies that are effective
against specific types of players. I’ll try to explain how each type of player
fights and with what species and how to defeat them.
Pred Vs. Pred
Against predator players you’re going to have the greatest difficulty because
they will almost ALWAYS go for either the plasma caster or the spin disc. To
get around this you need to be very agile and run in and out of walls, doors,
pillars, whatever you can to close distance. AS SOON as you get within about 10
feet start a heavy attack (this is the ONLY thing that can interrupt a
predator’s weaponry. NOTHING else will work except perhaps a weapon of your
own). If you successfully perform the heavy attack and stop them from using the
weapon you can then follow up with mostly any move you like keeping in mind the
way the predators health works as I described above.
For instance if you successfully connect with a heavy you need either; two more
heavy attacks, or one heavy and one light, or three light attacks. In my own
personal opinion if they are going the cheap route and are using weapons then
they deserve an equally cheap death by using that second heavy that they will
not be able to counter, followed by a light attack to finish things quickly.
If they do not go strictly for the weapons then they are likely to try
exploiting the predators’ heavy attack. If you encounter a predator starting a
heavy attack IMEDIATELY perform a light attack. If you are fast enough you will
counter their heavy. The next attack you do is extremely important. If you
suspect they are going to try another heavy after you’ve countered them you
HAVE to do a heavy your self before they get the chance to power theirs up. If
they pull of that second heavy you might as well consider the fight over
because afterwards all they need is another heavy and a light as described
above to kill you. And they will almost ALWAYS do so.
Once you’ve performed your second attack follow-up with whatever attack you
think necessary based on the predator health breakdown I described above.
Personally if I do a heavy counter and then a heavy you’ll only need two lights
to kill them. More often than not you’ll pull them off before they even know
what hit them).
If they do not go for either of these they are most likely not one of the
“cheap” pred players and you can fight them on fair equal footing. This can
still be a challenge though as the predator has some formidable melee
abilities. The best method of fighting a predator in a fair fight is to simply
hone your reflexes. The timing to counter a heavy is VERY short. Once a heavy
has begun to charge up you will hear the predator start to growl, as well as
seeing the predator draw his striking hand back to let loose a heavy. Once this
process starts you have about half a second OR LESS to perform a light counter.
It’s insanely tough but with practice you can get that fast.
A couple of things to keep in mind as well, if you block and counter a light
attack from a predator and the predator tries a light attack again you can
still block it but your counter will not stun the predator. You must wait for a
second block in order to start another counter. I don’t consider this
particularly cheap because it can be fairly easily defended against but it is
still something to keep in mind.
Predator vs. Marine
It may not make much sense but the marine is actually the second hardest
species to fight as a predator (assuming you don’t fight with the weapons. With
weapons NOTHING is hard to fight, which is why the weapons are cheap). Melee
against a marine is mostly a judgment call. If the marine likes to shoot shoot
and shoot some more go for a light attack as this will temporarily stun them
and allow you to follow up with another attack. If you notice them blocking a
lot go for a heavy BUT, be careful because they may be an advanced player and
counter you. If you’re fighting the marine and at ANY point you get countered,
well, you’re going to die.
There are a few things to be very cautious of while fighting marines. These are
the shotgun and the grenades. If you are a close range fighter (as all
predators SHOULD be) the shotgun and grenades are instant death or near enough
any way. If either don’t kill you outright they WILL stun you and leave you
easy pickings for follow-up shots. Always approach marine players with caution.
Sometimes the marine will go for the smart gun. This may seem like a formidable
weapon but ONLY if you hesitate. It takes the most shots to kill anything aside
from the pistol and the flame thrower. If you’re swift you can duck in and out
of cover to get to them and kill them before they can do any serious damage to
you.
Rarely, you’ll find a marine coming at you with the flame thrower. Do your best
not to die laughing at them and put them out of their misery quickly. Be
careful though. As with the pistol, this may be a highly advanced player who
really knows their stuff and is simply testing the limits of their skills. It
still won’t be terribly difficult to kill them but, if you slip up just enough,
you could find yourself dead.
Pred Vs. Alien
Lastly, the alien, by far the easiest opponent to kill as the predator. The
alien may take more hits than the marine but the difficulty in pulling off
those hits is laughable. Firstly, the aliens’ heavy attack is slow. Slow enough
that it can almost ALWAYS be countered, and furthermore it CAN ALWAYS be
countered. Unlike the predator, which can perform an uninterrupted heavy attack
after the first one is countered, the aliens’ heavy attack can be countered
again and again so long as they don’t use the heavy fake out attack.
The second thing that makes the alien particularly easy to kill is the fact
that it can be knocked down. If you perform a block counter on the alien it
will fall to the floor, nearly guaranteeing victory.
There are a couple of things to be cautious of though. The alien can attack you
with its tail from ceilings and walls. It’s completely uncounterable and
unblockable and in close quarters it’s a guaranteed kill if it connects because
it stuns you. It can be fairly easily avoided if you are just aware of your
surroundings. You CAN knock the alien off the wall if you manage to hit it
before it can hit you. If you manage to knock it off the wall or ceiling you
should try very hard to not allow it to get there again. Kill it, and kill it
quickly.
The second thing to watch out for is the alien jumping up in the air to heavy
attack you. This is actually a glitch in the game that the developers actually
took out in the pc version. The reason it’s a glitch is because when you
counter the alien while it’s doing this it reacts differently from when you
counter it on the ground. It seems to be random how the alien reacts exactly.
Sometimes they don’t get countered AT ALL other times they start moving around
in ways I can’t really describe in words. Point is it’s cheap and more and more
players are exploiting it. While it is annoying the alien can STILL be killed
fairly easily while doing this if you act quickly enough
The Alien
The Alien is probably the hardest character to truly be “good” at. It has
several useful abilities but they tend to fall short against the other species.
The aliens’ greatest strength is its speed. It can get in and out of places
quickly and survive to fight again.
The breakdown for the aliens’ health works like this:
Alien vs. Alien:
Heavy heavy heavy = dead
Heavy heavy light = dead
Heavy light light = dead
Light light light light = dead
The lunge attack is performed by holding the focus button (L2 on PS3 by
default). The lunge attack for the alien does more damage than a light attack
but not quite as much as a heavy. It also does not stun the person you are
attacking giving them the ability to block and counter a light attack or
counter a heavy with a fair amount of ease.
Alien VS, Predator:
Heavy Heavy heavy = Dead
Heavy Heavy Light = dead
Heavy light Light Light = dead
Light Light Light Light Light = dead
The lunge attack is performed by holding the focus button (L2 on PS3 by
default). The lunge attack for the alien does more damage than a light attack
but not quite as much as a heavy. It also does not stun the person you are
attacking giving them the ability to block and counter a light attack or
counter a heavy with a fair amount of ease.
Alien VS, Marine:
Heavy heavy = Dead
Heavy Light = Dead
Light Light Light = Dead
The lunge attack is performed by holding the focus button (L2 on PS3 by
default). The lunge attack for the alien does more damage than a light attack
but not quite as much as a heavy. It also does not stun the person you are
attacking giving them the ability to block and counter a light attack or
counter a heavy with a fair amount of ease.
There are a number of setbacks to the alien. These are:
No ability to manually heal like the predator or marine:
If you get near death you have only two options. Go out and try to get just one
more kill (the way I suggest to go) or wait and hide somewhere for about 30
seconds to get your health back. If you decide to wait and hide you’re wasting
time not getting kills. If you go out and fight you could possibly get one or
two more before dying. And even if you don’t you’ll re-spawn with full health
faster then it would take to wait and heal. As with the other species you must
NOT be a wait and strike player if you want to get a lot of kills. While I
agree that a wait and strike strategy is more like the alien from the films,
game wise it will just put you at the bottom of every match.
The wall crawling ability:
While it can be useful for getting the drop on someone every now and then, it
can get severely disorienting. Unless you spend a LOT of time getting used to
it, you will likely find yourself confused about just where the hell you are
more often than not.
The alien can be knocked down by EVERYONE:
By far this is the biggest disadvantage the alien has. If you get in a fight
and someone knocks you down you ARE going to die. Unless they decide to take
pity on you instead and let you get back up. Make no mistake though, if you get
back up it IS because they let you.
The best alien payer can be easily defeated with the pistol:
I can personally attest to this. If you have decent melee skills you can EASILY
kill the best alien players with your pistol. It takes something like 10 or 12
shots and you have to REPEATEDLY counter and knock down the alien. But it CAN
be done and not with much difficulty. This is assuming they don’t use the cheap
tactics I described before i.e. the jump heavy attack and the heavy fake-out
attack. If they don’t do either of these things and fight you fairly, you can
beat them easily.
No long range attacks:
All of the other players have multiple long range attacks AS WELL AS some melee
abilities. The alien has nothing to fight with at a distance if the need arises
FORCING them into close quarters fights. Couple this with the awful melee
skills the alien does have and you’ve got a nearly useless game character.
The alien lunge attack rarely knocks down a human and NEVER knocks down a pred:
The predator lunge attack will almost always knock down the alien AND the
marine but the alien can only ever HOPE to knock down a human. One upside is
that the lunge attack does a great deal of damage. Almost as much as a heavy
attack, which means you only need to hit a human once more with a light attack
to kill them. The only problem is the lunge doesn’t stun the human. If you
lunge at a human and manage to hit them they have the opportunity to start
blocking. Which means you either HAVE to try a heavy attack which, again, can
easily be countered, or, more likely, you’ll automatically go for a light
attack to finish them and get knocked to the ground.
Setbacks aside, the alien has similar melee mechanics to the predator. It has a
slightly faster light attack so it can counter the predators’ heavy attack more
easily than a predator can.
Here are some strategies for the alien against the different species
Alien vs. Alien:
The only species you will ever be on fair footing with. Although as an alien
you have the option to go up on walls after other alien players who are hiding
their and knock them of with your tail attack. You have to be very quick to
catch up with them again though.
If you feel like you HAVE to do a grab MAKE SURE it’s safe to do so. Invariably
when I play alien players they do the grab every chance they get, so my advice
is if you’re going to do it try to make sure you’re not going to be immediately
killed afterwards. Otherwise just melee kill everyone and get the hell out of
there to fight someone else. I’ve tested this time and again and there really
is no better way to rack up kills than to go out and fight. If you’re good
enough you can take out about one person every 15 to 20 seconds. With grabs you
can only get an average of about one every 30 to 40 seconds.
Ultimately you’re going to want to stick with melee as you can potentially kill
more than one person in a fight if you’re fast enough and with a bit of luck.
Alien vs. Marine:
Can potentially be the hardest to kill depending on the play-style of the
marines and other preds in the match. If the marine is using the shotgun or
grenades it’s going to be damn near impossible to get a lot of kills. Both are
almost as cheap as the pred weapons against an alien. The best shot you have
against someone using shotgun rounds is to get in behind them and do a light
attack. This will stun them for about a second giving you time to do a heavy
attack and kill them. You can try hiding on a wall and lunge at them and follow
up with a light attack but it’s risky. If they see you coming or think to block
you will most likely get killed.
Alien vs. Predator:
Can potentially be the hardest to kill depending on the play-style of the
marines and other preds in the match. If the predator is using the plasma
caster or the disc it’s going to be damn near impossible to get a lot of kills.
Your best bet is to try and close distance by ducking in and out of cover. If
there are marines on the map this can be a lot easier as the pred will likely
be in heat vision mode and not see you coming, at least, not as well. If you
can close the distance to about 15 to 20 feet start a heavy attack. But you
need to make sure it’s a proper heavy attack and not the aliens’ quick tail
whip. If you can connect the heavy attack before the predator fires you will
counter him. Follow that up immediately with another heavy and then a light and
the pred will go down. Never give predators using weapons a chance. If they’re
cheap enough to use them they’re cheap enough to do anything else that’s
unfair.
Against predators using nothing but heavy attacks you’re going to have a hard
time as well. Keep in mind that the alien has a larger range than the predator
so if you know this is a heavy attack spammer try to start your own heavy from
as far away as possible to stop them. If you connect you have a couple of
options. You can just destroy them if you need to get out of there by doing
another heavy and a light. Or you can try and show them up by waiting for them
to try another heavy and countering it. If you go this way you HAVE to connect
another two light attacks. You will not be able to pull off a second heavy
attack after you counter them before they can hit you with a heavy of their
own.
Even if the predator doesn’t do either of these two cheap tactics it will still
be difficult fighting them because they have the ability to knock you down like
everyone else. Always keep in mind that the slightest mistake can lead to a
knock down and guaranteed death.
Ending note:
I think the alien COULD have been a great character if the developers had just
tried a little harder. Giving the alien a long range attack for instance. Even
in the single player version you encounter acid spitting aliens. Why not
replace that useless screech with something like that. Or they could have even
implemented the face hugger into it. Imagine if scattered around each map were
alien eggs that worked like the other weapon pickups for the marine and
predator. You could then hide up in a dark space and send one of them out to
attack people. Or something like that, I’m sure it would have made the alien a
much deeper character.
The Marine
Probably the most balanced of the characters. Though not with out a couple of
cheap tricks of their own.
The marine easily has the weakest melee attacks of any species but that doesn’t
mean they aren’t staggeringly effective.
The breakdown for the marines’ health looks like this
Marine vs. Everyone: Approximately 30 strikes. But you have guns so why bother.
The marine has a lot of strengths and not too many weaknesses. The combination
of your radar and good judgment can make you a formidable opponent if you have
good melee skills. Always shoot everything you can see if it’s at a distance
and use your melee skills when fighting in close quarters.
The marines’ melee abilities can’t really be talked about without including
their weapons. All the weapons have strengths and weaknesses. Some have more
weaknesses than strengths but we’ll get to that later.
The one thing you should always keep in mind is that the pulse rifle (the gun
you start with) has a seemingly built in delay in its counter speed than ALL of
the other weapons. Where all of the other weapons can counter instantly upon
pressing the light attack button, the pulse rifle has about a half second to a
full second delay, Which may not sound like much but trust me it makes a WORLD
of difference.
Strategies for the marine against other species are:
Marine Vs Marine:
Almost entirely straight forward, Point and shoot until dead. You will almost
NEVER have to worry about melee while fighting another marine. Even TRYING to
melee a marine is a guaranteed loss.
Marine vs. Alien:
Almost laughably easy, IF you know what you’re doing you can beat an alien
player with the pistol, and even the awful awful flamethrower. The only thing
you need to be very cautious of is aliens on a wall or ceiling, the jump heavy
attack, and the heavy attack fake-out. Either of these three can spell quick
death.
To avoid the wall or ceiling tail attacks just stay clear of them. You need to
maintain a distance of about 15-20 feet away from an alien on a wall or ceiling
to keep from being tail attacked. If you see one and have a weapon that can
reach it from afar don’t hesitate to open fire. If you have a shotgun you can
take a chance and get close but I don’t recommend it. I find the use of the
shotgun against an alien to be distasteful any way, as well as the grenades.
But against an alien using equally cheap tactics I can’t really blame you if
you decide to kill them that way. Face to face though, you should never do it
except in infestation. And the only reason it’s ok then is because more often
than not if everyone is an alien they will all rush you and use every cheap
trick in the book just to prevent you from winning.
To beat the jump heavy attack it’s mostly the same as face to face just about 3
times as hard, AND the alien can react unpredictably to being countered while
in the air. So just be cautious and shoot shoot shoot every chance you get.
Eventually they will try light attacking you and there are some good strategies
for when they try this as well. I’ll explain them in the fair fighting portion
of the marine guide.
The heavy fake-out is one of the hardest things to predict when fighting the
alien, and even the predator. Just remember that ANY time you have the chance
to shoot DO SO. It dose not take many bullets to kill an alien and if your
timing is good you can kill an alien trying to heavy attack you before the
heavy attack even finishes, which means if they try to fake you out you just
keep shooting and they’ll go down easy.
For fair fighting aliens (that is, aliens who fight you face to face and commit
to every attack without using the cheap tricks described above) you should tone
down your efforts a little as well. If they have the decency to fight you
fairly you should return that in kind. For instance let them get close enough
to actually have a chance at fighting you before shooting at them, don’t use
the shotgun OR the grenades, and allow them to get up from time to time if you
knock them down.
In a melee fight against an alien you have a number of options as the marine.
First and foremost is offense. Shooting and shooting and more shooting. If you
get in close, things get a little trickier. If the alien goes for a heavy, you
light attack them to counter and then shoot till dead. If they go for a light
attack block and counter they’ll fall down and again shoot till dead. IF THEY
LAND ONE LIGHT ATTACK they WILL get another before you can block. One more
light attack after that and you’re dead BUT, you CAN BLOCK AFTER THE SECOND
LIGHT ATTACK. Almost ALL aliens will go for that third light attack because
they know that’s all they need to kill you. If you block and counter you can
completely turn the fight around.
Even though you can knock the alien down there are still a couple of odd bugs.
These are almost ONLY ever encountered while killing the alien with the pistol
or another weak weapon. If you block and counter the alien once knocking it
down and let it get up you can’t knock it down again until you’ve blocked it
twice. In other words, if you block and counter an alien, let it get up, and it
tries another light attack, you can block it but you can’t knock it down. You
have to wait until the next attack after that to start countering again.
So it works like this, block counter block block counter block block counter
etc etc. if you decide to take on the alien with a weak gun to test your skills
keep this in mind. Also keep in mind that the alien heavy attack can ALWAYS be
countered if you see it coming in time
Marine vs. Predator:
By far the hardest species to beat even playing a fair fighting predator
player. Against a weapon only predator or a heavy attack exploiting predator
you’re going to have a hell of a time. A predator using weapons is going to be
standing still A LOT, which means their cloaking is going to be much harder to
see (the preds cloaking shimmers and breaks up in places while moving) and it
only takes a couple seconds to get a lock on with the plasma caster and kill
you. It also only takes about 5 seconds for a predator to recharge their
energy. All of this adds up to a very unfair UNFUN playing experience. You CAN
defeat a pred player that plays like this but it’s going to be very VERY hard.
The first thing you need is the smart-gun so that you can get a fix on them.
You then also need lots and lots of cover. You need to be able to get behind
something quickly in order to take them out. Also try to hang out in spots
where the plasma caster is to try and catch the predator before he has a chance
to pick it up. You’re also going to need to be on a careful lookout for mines.
Although, predators that go straight for the caster tend not to bother with
mines, and vice versa. Even being on your very best game, fighting a player
like this is not likely going to go well.
The heavy attack spamming predator is SLIGHTLY easier to kill than other
species because you’re bullets kill them faster than any melee attacks will.
But you HAVE to know it’s coming. These types of players will run around more
so it’s easier to spot them but it’s still difficult to kill them before they
get to you. You’re going to want to stick with the shotgun. Because as soon as
they go for that heavy you need to counter it and the shotgun counters faster
than the pulse rifle (along with every other weapon) and deals the most damage
at close range. Always use the alternative fire for the shot gun. This shoots
both barrels at once and so doubles the amount of damage you deal. Just be sure
to make every shot count. You can’t afford to miss. As soon as you counter
start unloading shotgun shells into the pred and he should go down.
Against a fair fighting predator (one that doesn’t hide in a corner waiting for
you to happen by or using weapons or any of the cheap stuff I’ve described
above) it’s still going to be hard. You’re going to need to rely on two things
almost exclusively, your radar and sound. Your radar lets you know where things
are in terms of distance away from you on a horizontal plane. It does not give
you any indication of where things are above or below you. Pay very careful
attention to this and listen VERY hard for the predators’ growl. 9 times out of
ten this is the sound of the predator lunging at you. With some luck you will
be facing the predator because you were using your radar and have the ability
to block (you can block ALL lunge attacks) and counter. As soon as you counter
open fire. Sometimes the predator will be able to pull off a light attack just
before being countered and stun you. The next attack by the predator will
almost always then be a heavy attack because that’s all he will need to finish
you off. If you block and counter the lunge and get hit with a light attack
immediately try to counter the predators’ heavy attack. If you are successful
you can then shoot him to death.
About Grabs (applies to ALL species)
One more thing to keep in mind as ANY species in regards to being grabbed.
First of all, all grabs from behind are instant kills. There is nothing you can
do to survive being grabbed from behind. If the animation for it starts, you
WILL die regardless of all other circumstances. This means if you get grabbed
and the grabber dies before he actually finishes killing you, you STILL die and
the grabber gets a point. HOWEVER, there are a number of ways you can escape
being grabbed from the front and most of them only work if the person doing the
grabbing makes a mistake.
It works like this
As a marine:
1.) If a predator or alien lunges at you and knocks you down
You will survive a lunge grab as long as you have at least a small portion of
health in your third bar. In other words if you haven’t lost a COMPLETE bar of
health when you get grabbed you will survive.
2.) If a predator or alien blocks and counters you and you fall down
You will survive this with the same circumstances as number 1. In all other
cases you WILL get killed as a marine. Anything beyond that first bar of health
is a guaranteed death if you get grabbed FOR ANY REASON.
As an alien OR a Predator:
1.) Same as one and two for the marine. If you have full health before getting
knocked down you will survive a frontal grab.
2.) You can survive ONE heavy attack and a follow-up grab. In other words if
you have full health and are then heavy attacked the attacker will be given the
prompt to grab you. If they do so you WILL survive.
You WILL NOT survive a grab if it is performed after being light attacked once
and then heavy attacked OR being light attacked twice in the case of the alien
or three times in the case of the predator. It’s also possible to walk around
behind a knocked down opponent and perform a grab from behind.
Possible defenses after surviving a grab:
Number one thing to do is start BLOCKING. Frontal grabs take a HUGE amount of
health away from you but not all of it (this is why you have to be damaged
first before getting grabbed from the front for it to work). The reason you
start blocking is because you only need to be hit one or two more times to be
killed and MOST people will try to light attack you to finish the job. If you
are blocking you can counter them and turn the whole fight around.
If they go for a heavy attack you will be ready to counter it as well. If you
are a marine player you will have the easiest time killing someone who tried to
grab you because after one counter of any kind you can kill them very quickly
with bullets. Chances are you’ll be looking them right in the face already. As
the predator or alien it’s a little harder because you have to worry about
committing to your attacks and it’s not terribly hard to counter them if you
aren’t careful.
I hope this guide is useful to all of you who play this great game.
