Contra 4 Boss FAQ

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Contra 4 Boss FAQ

v.1.0

(C) Notyou4488 2007

All Rights Reserved

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               Table of Contents

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I. Introduction

II. Layout of the Faq

III. Boss Faq

  1.A Tram Car

  1.B Wall

  2.A Snipers

  2.B Alien

  3.A Holograph

  4.A Ship

  4.B Mr. Punchy or Sir Puncho

  5.A Battle Cruiser

  5.B Fish

  6.A Skeleton

  7.A Tank

  7.B Metal Spider

  7.C Running Bug

  8.A Red Falcon's Heart

  9.A Black Viper

  9.B Black Viper True Form

IV. Acknowledgements

V. Legal Stuff





I. Introduction

Contra 4 has been called by many the hardest Contra game next to

Hard Corps. Yeah, this game is hard, there's no two ways around it.

The bosses in this game pose a great deal of challenge to players,

thus causing many deaths. For some reason I never really had too

much trouble with the bosses in this game, or the game for that

matter. Everything in the game has a pattern that can be learned and

manipulated. Utilizing this Faq you will hopefully be able to kill all the

bosses without losing a life. Hope this helps.

*To quickly search for a boss hit control f then input the number dot

and letter next to the boss in the table of contents.





II. Layout of the Faq

The layout of the boss Faq is fairly straightforward. First comes the

section number, who the boss is, the name of the boss (which is pretty

much always unofficial), then the recommended weapon. After that

there is the actual writeup section where a detailed analysis on how to

beat the boss is provided. Then, depending on whether or not the

fight drastically differs depending on what weapon you use, there may

be a 'without recommended weapon' section in which there is a

detailed analysis on how to beat the boss without the recommended

weapon.





III. Boss Faq



1.A

Stage 1 Miniboss

Tram Car

Recommended Weapon- Spreader



This boss is fairly easy. As you approach the boss, walk very slowly

down the slight hill. As you are walking the Tram Car will wizz into

view. Since you approached extremely slowly no enemies will come

at you from the left. Simply aim up and unleash as many bullets as

possible into the thing. The Tram Car moves pretty eratically;

however, before it fires it always stops. As soon as it stops make

sure you move out of the way. Besides the actually Tram Car's

attacks, enemies will come from the right. Simply shoot them as they

appear. Furthermore, make sure you do not move onto the break

away ground. Other than that fire up and prepare to dodge the car's

attacks.





1.B

Stage 1 Boss

Wall

Recommended Weapon- Spreader/Crash Shot



Another relatively easy boss. As soon as you walk into the boss'

range fire diagnolly up right. You should take out the sniper

before he manages to fire a shot. If you have the crash shot simply

stay on the ground and fire at the base door on the bottom.

Doing this will take out the base door before it manages to fire a shot.

The wall will begin to rise. Run to the far left of the screen and hold R.

Fire diagnolly up right. You will take out all four snipers before they

manage to fire any shots. Switch to the crash shot and fire to the right

at the bottom door. Once again you should be able to take it out

before it fires a shot. Don't worry about the turrets, as long as you stay

to the left of the screen they can't reach you. Now that the bottom

door is taken out it's time to go after the top core. Wait for the top

core to fire. After it is done firing grapple onto the helicoptor. Fire at the

core with the crash shot and it will go down without firing another shot.



Without Recommended Weapons-

As soon as you walk into the boss' range fire diagnolly up right taking

out the sniper. Jump onto the platform and stay left. The turrets will not

be able to reach you so simply shoot them and take them out. Wait for

the base door to fire then jump down and fire at the door. Keep firing

until you hear the door make a beep type noise. Jump back up to the

platform to avoid the shot. After the shot jump back down and repeat.

Once the door is gone the wall will begin to rise. As soon as the

helicoptor appears grapple onto it and take out as many snipers as

possible. Drop down onto the platform, not the ground, if a bullet is

headed towards you or the core begins to fire (once again listen for

the beep). When you are on the platform take out the turrets while

waiting for the oportune moment to grapple back onto the helicoptor.

Once the snipers are gone, simply take out the core and

the door with the aformentioned techniques.





2.A

Snipers at the top of the waterfall

Recommended Weapon- Spreader/Crash Shot (fully upgraded)



As soon as you get to the top of the waterfall move to the right of the

base door and fire left. You will kill every single enemy that

comes out the door. As soon as the door closes begin firing up with

the spreader. You should take out the first wave of snipers

with ease. As soon as they are gone switch to the crash shot. Platforms

will rise with grenade throwers. Stay under the right platform

and spam the shoot button up. You should take out the right grenade

thrower before he manages to attack. After the right guy is

gone simply move to the left one and take him out. The platforms will

begin to fall. Move to where the right platform was and spam

directly up with the spreader. Black snipers will appear and you will

take out the second sniper from the right before they manage

to fire. After he is taken out immediately run right to avoid the shots.

Jump left over the bullets while firing left then upon landing spam

fire at the far right sniper. You will take him out. Now the bullets are

easy to avoid. Spam fire left at the sniper that you initially spam

fired left at and take him out. The last sniper alive will automatically be

impaled.



Without Recommended Weapons-

As soon as you get to the top of the waterfall move to the right of the

base door and fire left. You will kill every single enemy that

comes out the door. As soon as the door closes run right and left while

firing diagnolly up right while running right and diagnolly up

left while running left. You should take out the snipers before they fire

a shot. Platforms will begin to rise. Move under the right

platform and spam fire up hitting the right grenade thrower. Both the

grenade throwers will throw an arced grenade that is easy to

dodge by simply moving right or left as they close in. After the grenades

explode go back to shooting the grenade thrower. Wash,

rinse, and repeat until the grenade throwers die. Now run to where

the right platform is and spam fire up. You will hit the second right

sniper. As soon as they begin to fire run right then jump left over the

bullets while firing at the left snipers. Move back under the

second right sniper and continue this tactic until he is dead. Now go

to the second left sniper and use the same technique except

substitute right for left and vice versa. Once that sniper is dead, take

out whichever sniper you choose with ease. The last sniper will

be impaled.





2.B

Waterfall Alien

Recommended Weapon- Crash Shot



Extremely easy boss right here. As soon as the battle starts he will

move right and bring down both of his claws. Stay in between the

claws. He will bring up the claws and move them left and slam them

down quickly. Do not try to stay under the claws this time,

instead move right. Now he will come back right with the claws.

Simply stay under the thing's head from here on out. All the while fire

directly up with the crash shot and he will die before even beginning

to do his tail attack. Once his first form is dead he will break the

bridge. Simply stand in the center of the bridge and fire straight up

with the crash shot. The thing will die for good before coming close to

hitting you.



Without Recommended Weapon-

Follow the above strategy up until the enemy doesn't make any effort

to slam down it's claws. Run to the far right of the screen to avoid

it's tail attack. Run back to the center of the screen and spam fire up

at the head. He will begin to fire fireballs from his mouth from the

left side of the screen to the right. As they approach you, quickly

move left under them and continue firing up. The alien will raise the

bridge and fire the fireballs from right to left. Move far left and fire

diagnolly up right at the head. You should manage to kill the first form

before he drops the bridge again. He will then chase you down the

waterfall as the bridge is falling. Fire straight up at the head. He will

continue firing from left to right then right to left as the bridge is moving

up and down. Do not attempt to run under the fire balls unless the

bridge is moving down. Continue firing and it will die.



3.A

Holograph

Recommended Weapon- Crash Shot



Quick battle. The holograph can only be attacked when it is in

one piece. Simply fire at the holograph with the crash shot. Barrels will

come towards you. Duck down and shoot the barrel in front of

you. Proceed to shoot the holograph while it is in one piece. If it

manages to make an orb appear shoot the orb before it can do

it's sweep attack. The holograph will go down before any enemies

appear.



Without Recommended Weapon-

At the beginning of the battle shoot the holograph until the

barrels start to come. Duck down and shoot the barrels in front of you.

Continue firing at the holograph. Once it begins firing the orbs

make sure you focus your attack on the orbs. Never have two orbs

on screen at once. Orbs will inevitably sweep down towards you.

Simply jump over them. Enemies will come from the right and left of

the screen. When they do focus your shots on them. If they shoot

at you duck. Proceed to fire at the holograph. Once it takes enough

damage it will move back and forth eratically. Continue shooting at

the holograph, and as before, when the orbs appear focus your

attacks on them. After a while the holograph will go down.





4.A

Ship

Recommended Weapon- Spreader



Stay on the top platfrom. Move far right, hold R and fire diagnol

down left. As the ship moves further right switch to firing straight

down.You should have taken out a good amount of the cannons.

Now the ship will fire it's lasers. Run right while firing diagnolly

down left at the lasers. As they close in hold the right button to

avoid being hit. The ship will stop completely and on the left side

of the ship a turret will open and begin firing up randomly. Dodge

the bullets and move directly above the turret. Do not move

whatsoever, the turret can not hit you. Fire straight down at the

turret until it blows up. Now the ship will fire it's lasers. Move

directly above the furthest left laser and fire straight down. After

it begins blinking run as far left as possible while firing diagnolly

down right until the lasers close in. Hold the left button until the lasers

stop firing. If there is anything still alive on the ship besides

the lasers now is the time to take them out with ease. The ship will

begin to fire the lasers again but this time from left to right. Use

the same technique to take out the lasers and the ship will go down.





4. B

Mr. Punchy or Sir Puncho (don't question me)

Recommended Weapon- Crash Shot



This is a really weird battle. It can either be unbelievably simply

or hard (talking about hard mode here). At the start of the battle,

stay to the left of the screen. With luck, the enemy will punch

directly down with it's right fist (about 75% of the time). When it

does, move to the left of the fist and fire diagnolly up right at

the arm. It will pull back up the arm and attack again. Now if it is a

punch straight down with the right hand, do the same technique;

however, the enemy may punch with it's right hand  which is off

the screen. If this happens the hand will come in at a 45 degree

angle or so. Try to time your jump so that you manage to jump left

over the edge of the fist just missing getting hit. Once out of harms

way fire at the arm. After a while the left arm should blow up.

Now move to the right side of the screen. The enemy will punch

down and simply use the same technique. Once that hand is blown

up he will move back and forth across the screen firing easy to

dodge missiles. Simply shoot at the enemy's head until it dies.

*During the entire battle the enemy will be firing easy to dodge

missiles. With the spread shot you can just shoot them down.





5.A

Battle Cruiser

Recommended Weapon- Any

When the battleship first arives, flying enemies will come out of it.

They will fire homing bullets. While attacking the enemies make

sure you shoot down the homing bullets. A bit into the battle an

automatic screen clear thing will fly across the screen. Shoot it and

get it. Continue killing the bad guys. Once they are all gone the

screen will shift and enemies will come out of the bottom of the ship.

They will fire up at you in a sweeping motion from right to left.

Stay in between the two far right enemies and fire straight down while

gradually moving left. After the first wave dissappears move right

a bit because another wave will come. Continue this technique until

the enemies are gone. Now a black enemy will be on the left end

of the ship while the flying enemies come out again. It's essentially

the same thing as before but now you have to kill the black

enemy in order to progress. Pretty easy.



5.B

Fish

Recommended Weapon- Spreader/Homing Missiles

The fish will swim across the screen. Follow it to the edge of the

screen. It will reappear and fire a laser that sweeps all the way

across the screen besides directly above it's eye. When it is done

firing the laser continue following above the eye. About halfway

across the screen jump and fire straight down at the eye. After

getting hit the fish will shoot some scales into the air that come out

of the water while swimming quickly off screen. Follow to the

edge of the screen while shooting at  it and avoiding the scale's shots.

Repeat the technique until the fish dies.





6.A

Skeleton

Recommended Weapon- Crash Shot, Machine Gun



Fun battle. During the first form the enemy will fire a row of fire

that sweeps across the screen. First it will sweep right, then left,

then right. Then it repeats. Simply time your jump over the fire.

That's the only attack the enemy has, so just unload on the thing as

you are jumping. After a while the enemy will get pissed and

chase you backwards. Now it will do the exact same attack pattern,

however it is invincible. There are two switches that can be shot,

one to the right of the door and one to the left. When the enemy

finishes it's third fire sweep it will pause. Fire at the switch on the

left as fast as you can (use your machine gun if you have it), since

the last fire sweep is left to right. The door will close decapitating

the skeleton. If you can't seem to fire fast enough, there is a trick

involving a spoon. Take a spoon and rub it quickly across the fire

button. Weird but it makes you fire faster than you otherwise

could.





7.A

Tank

Recommended Weapon- Any powerful weapon



Before the fight make sure you take out the black sniper on top of

the building. Once that is done proceed to the fighting area. The

tank will come from the righ side of the screen. It can only be hurt

while firing standing up unless you have the spreader. Knowing this,

stay to the left of the screen and fire directly at the tank. It has two

attacks, a turret shot or grenade shot. The turret shot is quick.

Either duck (recommended) or jump over it. The grenade shot is

slow, jump over it. In between dodges keep firing at the tank. After

a while it will close in on you. Duck to avoid the barrel of the tank.

Once it pulls back continue firing at it. Continue the technique until

the tank goes down.



7.B

Metal Spider

Recommended Weapon- Homing Missiles



During the entire fight, fire up at it's head. The spider will crawl back

and forth between the two buildings firing bullets straight down.

Dodge the bullets while continue firing straight up. After a while the

spider will shoot fire at one of the two buildings and move to

the opposite side of the screen. It will then shoot a sweeping laser

toward the building. The fire on the building will fall down. As the

laser approaches the building jump over the last wave of fire onto

the building and climb up to the top of the screen narrowly

avoiding the laser. Once the laser stops firing immediately jump

to the center of the stage and continue attacking the enemy. Repeat

this technique until the spider dies.



7.C

Running Bug

Recommended Weapon- Crash Shot



This is my personal favorite boss fight. As soon as you walk into the

area the ground begins to shake. Stand still. Out of the ground

rises a huge bug with you on top of it. Immediately shoot down at

one of the four red circles on the bug. Those are your main

targets for now. As the bug is running it will not attack you, nor

can it hurt you. The only way you can be hurt is by the motorcycle

bad guys at the bottom of the screen. The blue ones fire bullets

at you while the red ones throw grenades. Now, continue blowing

up the four red circles while avoiding the bullets from the motorcycle

guys. If necessary, feel  free to take them out as you see fit.

Anyway, once all four of the red circles are blown up (you don't

need to destroy all four, but it helps), kill every single motorcycle

bad guy. Jump down to the lower section of the bug then jump

onto a motorcycle. Ride right to the head of the bug and unload on

it's head by firing diagnolly up right at the head. Motorcycle enemies

will come past you from the right side of the screen. As they

do, immediately let go of R and fire backwards at them taking them

out before they can fire. The blue guys will go down quickly

but the red guys may throw a grenade. If they do, stop firing and

focus on dodging the grenade. Once the grenade is dodged

kill the grenade thrower. Once the enemies are dead go back to

shooting the head of the bug until it is dead.





8.A

Red Falcon's Heart

Recommended Weapon- Crash Shot



Stand in the center of the screen and fire straight forward with

the crash shot. The blast radius will destroy any of the enemy's

that appear. Continue firing until the heart is dead. If you don't

have the crash shot, fire at the heart. Turret type things will

come out of the ground every now and then. When they fire

just jump over the shot. Continue shooting the heart until it is

dead.





9.A

Black Viper

Recommended Weapon- Crash Shot



Before the fight begins move to the far right of the screen. Spam

fire left. If you have the upgraded crash shot or the laser

he dies before having a chance to attack you. Once the thing

turns gigantic fire straight up at it's anus or whatever until it dies.



9.B

Black Viper True Form

Recommended Weapon- Crash Shot/Spreader



Destroy the eyes. Don't go out of your way to destroy them

but if you can it gives you an extra life. Now stand under either

of the snake holes (where the long tentacle type snakes come

out). And wait for the snakes to come out. There are four

patterns they follow;

                 1. The right snake will come down to just a little above the

top of the

bottom screen and go left while the left snake goes

all the way to the ground and goes right. If this happens head

to the right side of the screen and fire left at the snake.

                 2. The opposite

                 3. The snakes will come down, make an inward

motion, then twist out. Looks a bit like this )(. If that

happens stay in the middle and fire at either snake.

                 4. The snakes will both go straight down to the second

screen then curve up in the middle of the bottom

screen. When this happens a grapple point appears on the chin of

Black Viper. Grapple it and fire straight down at the

snakes.

Memorize those patterns and be prepared to move. Once one

of the snakes dies a grapple point will appear at the snake

hole. Grapple onto it and fire at the brain of Black Viper until the

grapple point disappears. Now stand directly in the

center of the screen and fire straight up. The brain has 3 attack

patterns;

                 1. The brain will come down from the center of the

screen and unleash some orbs that move very slowly then

fly in at you real fast. Avoid the brain while firing the spreader at

both the brain and the orbs. After enough hits the brain will

disappear.

                 2. The brain will come down from the center screen

and unleash four mini brains at a time which will fly across

the screen either horizontally or vertically. Move to the left of

the screen avoiding the brain while firing at it and jump over

and mini brains that fly past you. After enough hits the brain

will disappear.

                 3.The brain will swoop in from the top left while

spewing four mini brains at you. As soon as you notic it is doing

this run to the far right, hold R and fire your spreader diagnolly

up left. You should kill two mini brains right away. The other

two can be taken down with ease.

Black Viper will reappear and follow the same attack patterns.

Use the same techniques and after a while Black Viper will die.

Congrats, you beat Contra 4!





IV. Acknowledgements

Thanks to all the sites who are hosting this, those who asked

for my permission to host this, and in particular thanks to 

Gamefaqs for having a fairly awesome message boards and

especially thanks to Rfgeneration.com for being such an

awesome videogame site. Oh, and just for fun, thanks a 

bundle to the Super Metroid board on gamefaqs. Easily 

the coolest group of people you can find on the internet.

And thanks to the users on Board 8 and FAQ Help who 

helped me format this in particular Games and Mirage 312.

If I seem to be missing something from the faq or you have

something to add email me at notyou2188@gmail.com.





V. Legal Stuff

This Faq is copyright me, Notyou4488. Don't copy, steal this,

change this, claim it as your own or any other illegal crap that

you may be tempted to do. So far this FAQ may be hosted on

RFgeneration.com, Gamefaqs.com, Neoseeker.com, Supercheats.com,

and gamerevolution.com

If you would like to host the FAQ

email me. If you are from CheatCC do not come 

anywhere near my FAQ.