Retro Game Walkthroughs for Lair (PlayStation 3)
Submitted By: Black8704
This walkthough will guide you through the PS3 game 'Lair'. All those tips and tricks are revealed in this walkthrough. Stuck? Then read on!
1: Day of Terror
This is the first part of the game and after a brief stint on learning the controls of your dragon, and a short cut-scene, you'll be thrown into battle. Head towards the sea coast where the catapults are firing. Once there, start destroying the ships. Use the R2 or L2 buttons to slow down and hover over the catapult ships, and rapidly press your attack button to destroy them -- which takes about four hits. You can find your primary targets by looking at the yellow arrow in the upper right corner.
Die boats, die!
Continuing from there Aafter another short cut-scene, you'll fight ice dragons. Rapidly press the X button to get there faster. Once you're in the thick of conflict, attack any ice dragon you want. You could also use your strike attack (O button) on any of these dragons. After a few kills, you'll face off against a miniboss.
Them be some dragons that need a killin'
Lock on to him with the R1 or R2 buttons and then strike attack him to get closer. Now all you have to do is line up next to him by swerving left, right, up or down. Once next to him, slide your controller to the left or right -- while keeping it parallel to the ground -- depending which side he's on, to execute an attack. After a few solid hits the level will be over.
2: Blood River
At the start of this level, get over to the burning tower as quickly as possible (push forward on the Sixaxis to go faster). Once there, you'll engage some ground troops. Drop to the ground (L2 and R2 buttons at the same time) and set the troops on fire, or swat at them. After you've killed a decent amount of troops, a short cut-scene ensues and you'll have to destroy some catapults.
Humans taste better after they're well done.
Get off the ground and fly towards the catapults, towards the levels starting point, and destroy them. If you're having trouble flying and shooting, you can just land and stand in front of the catapult and fire away on it.
Die catapult, die!
Now the next objective is a combo of defending rafts of grain and killing ice dragons. Position yourself above the rafts as they head for the castle door, and fire at any ice dragons as they approach. Once the rafts enter the castle wall, your last objective is to destroy trebuchets.
If it's too hard to destroy them while flying, drop to the ground and take them out. This applies for just about every enemy in the game.
Analogous to the strategy used against the catapults, just drop to ground level, run towards each of the trebuchets and fire away. Don't bother flying in circles around the targets, because it won't take long for them to destroy the castle walls. The mission is over once you knock out each of the four trebuchets.
3: Demon Pass
When the level starts, head straight for the mountain with the light beams shooting out of it, but do not get "spotted" by the beams or else you'll be killed instantly. Once you get within range, shoot the light beams coming from the stone faces. Soon after, a passageway will open up -- fly into it.
Shoot the eyes, then fly into the mouth. Yes, it's THAT easy.
Inside the mountain, target any of the flame chandeliers with either the L1 or R1 buttons, and then start shaking the Sixaxis up and down until the short cut-scene kicks in as you're thrown free from the mountain. Now, make your way back and engage the enemy dragons (you may be forced into fight mode, so be prepared). Once you have the chance, shoot out more light beams, enter the mountain again, and destroy another flame chandelier.
Once inside the mouth, target the main machine and shake your controller until it breaks apart...the machine that is, not your controller.
Thrown from the mountain a second time, you'll have to engage the boats at sea. Destroy enough of them until the game lets you know you have to go back, then attack the mountain one last time. Back inside the mountain, destroy another flame chandelier and the level is over.
4: Crossing at Dawn
After the long cut-scene, jump on your dragon and save the Guardians. There are a few ways to spot these guys. The first would be to look at your arrow in the upper right pointing to their relative location. Now, look for a combination of a smoke trail and red flags in a rectangle or turn on your rage vision (directional arrow down) to spot the mission objectives. Once you get in close enough, the game will take over and save the first of the Guardians. Now, save the next one, located at the other end of the bridge (naturally), with the same set of markers.
Look for these flags as your markers for who you need to save.
Once that objective is down, you must fight the ice dragons. You've done this before in previous levels; attack them by locking on and dashing towards them in pursuit mode. After you've killed off the ones responsible for the attacks (see: all dragons), you must fight the enemy troops.
Your next objective has you dropping down to the bridge to set these troops on fire.
Your troops are colored in red, so don't attack them. Concentrate all of your attacks on the enemy decked out in blue. Instead of performing a strafing run of flame like the game suggests, get down to ground level and plow through the enemy troops by swatting at them. After you've inflicted the desired amount of damage, another cut-scene kicks in advising you to take off and attack more ice dragons.
Pick up the taros and then drop them off the bridge.
It'll be a futile attack against the ice dragons, but you have to do it anyway. In a minute they're drop tauros onto the bridge, tearing through your troops. Disengage your attacks against the ice dragons and work on spotting the tauros on the bridge (lock onto them), and then dash towards them to pick them up and then toss them off of the bridge. Or shoot your flames at them. Do not attack them on the ground. They'll just charge you and knock your dragon down, killing you in the process.
Now you have more dragons to fight, except they're called dark dragons, killed only by melee attacks. So, target one to get in close, triggering a context-sensitive situation. Repeat this process against all of the dark dragons until the enemy releases rhino's.
Rhino's are a lot harder to take out. You need to rip off their protective armor before you can make a dent in their health.
You can't kill the rhino's like the taruos -- flame will just deflect off of their armor. Instead, you have to target them, and then dash towards them. Now, rapidly shake the Sixaxis up and down to rip the rhino's to shreds. The level is over after you've killed them.
5: Serpent Straight
An escort mission, yay! Your main objective for the entire first half of this level is to ensure the survival of the manta -- the large super delicate flying creatures. Protect the mantas by locking onto any mokai dragons attacking them, and swiftly killing them with either pursuit mode or flame attacks.
Chase down the enemy dragons before they kill off your mantas.
After a short cut-scene introducing the coral snake (you'll deal with it soon enough), you'll fight more mokai dragons. Use the same strategy as before: lock on, dash attack or fire your flames at them. Some of these dragons are larger dark dragons, so for them you have to get in close and trigger the context sensitive events, just like what you did during the last level.
Sometimes you'll have to get in close to take out some of these goons.
The other type of attack is the fight mode, experienced earlier in the game. Just remember to block the flame attacks while in fight mode and counter-attack at every opportunity. After you've killed off all of the mokai dragons, a short cut-scene will kick in and it's time to take on the coral snakes you saw earlier.
Boss Battle: Coral Snake
For your first plan of attack, fire at the scales on its back as it's jumping out of the water. After you've destroyed some of the scales, only one of them will rise out of the water at a time to face you. When it does this, it's going to spew black goop at you. Simply dodge left or right with the SIXAXIS so you don't get hit. While dodging, be sure you're constantly firing at the snake's mouth. After accomplishing this, dash forward towards the snake's eyes to enter a context-sensitive event. If you miss this chance, don't worry, because you'll have plenty of chances to get back in there. You just have to follow the snake around again and fire at the scales on its back.
Watch out for the mouth!
Instead of spewing black goop at you, the snake may outright eat you up. Just keep an eye on the top of the screen to either dodge left or right with your controller to avoid the snapping jaws of death. But your main goal consists of destroying the scales, so you can get in close to destroy the eyes. Level complete.
6: Ravine of No Return
You might die at least once during this level. However, once you get the hang of how to play this level, you will do just fine. For starters, the trick to avoiding those spotlights is to shoot out the power cables that connect them. It's pretty easy -- just get in close enough to target the joined section to the tall towers and fire once. Destroying these cables won't take all the spotlights out, but it will disable enough of them for you to navigate above and below the spotlights, through the ravine, and to the second section. If at any time you're spotted, dash away or do a 180 degrees turn and get out of there. Otherwise you'll end up dead, forced to start over. Not fun.
Ravine of No Return "Fly-Through" Part 1 of 2.
The level is divided into two main sections; so theoretically, you could just blast through this first section using dash until you reach the second. However, if you do this, you will not get any medals and you will not unlock any special attacks or extras that this level could reward you. Instead, concentrate on shooting out the power cables to help open up some of the ways through this the ravine to the second area.
Ravine of No Return "Fly-Through" Part 2 of 2.
Once at the outpost, there will be three main generators you need to take out. They are powered by, you guessed it, power cables…sort of. Since the generators are marked by spotlights at all times, and in order for you to get in close enough to destroy these generators, you need to destroy said power cables in order to get close enough to rip them apart. Once the lights go down, target the generator, dash towards it and shake the SIXAXIS up and down to destroy it.
This will notify the appropriate dragons to come after you, so be prepared for lots of context-sensitive events, pursuit mode attacks and fight modes. Attack the remaining two generators the same way you did with the first by knocking out the surrounding spotlights, ripping the generator apart and dealing with whatever resistance the outpost sends your way. After the third generator is destroyed, a cut-scene will kick in and the level is over.
7: Firestorm
When the level starts, you need to immediately destroy the flak cannons that are attacking your mantas. They are powered by the same type of generators that you tore apart a from the Ravine of No Return level. Just like before, lock onto them, use your pursuit mode attack, and then shake the SIXAXIS up and down to rip the generators apart.
Explore strange new cities and bomb the hell out of them.
After the brief escort mission, you have to bomb the city. Don't rely on the manta's to be able to do this objective for you (even though they are bombers), you are still responsible for destroying the city. If you noticed at the top center of your screen, will be a ticker which will count-down the number of buildings you need to destroy in Steamcity for this objective to be completed. The only way you'll be able to do all the work is to grab buckets of bombs from the mantas. Once you have the bombs, just pick any part of the city -- where there are buildings still standing -- and drop the bombs until you meet your quota via the ticker.
Bomb the hell out of the armory to end this level.
Now that you have destroyed an ample number of buildings, it's time to bomb the hell out of the armory. Just as you did before when destroying the city, grab bombs off of the backs of the mantas, and drop them on top of the armory. That's it!
8: Out of the Ashes
This level is divided up into three sections. The first is a maze through the canyon's to the boss. Fly straight through the canyon at the start, and take a left after you pass the horde of black flies on your right. Follow the green trees around until you come across a large rock formation which has a hole in it. Fly through the hole, and glide to your right. Fly straight for a little bit and you'll be attacked by some nasty flying insects. Make a right at the stone pillar lying on the canyon floor. Fly straight for a few meters and then take your first left, you should see to large stones jutting out of the ground. Take a left at these stones; fly straight past the two engraved pillars coming out of the ground, and towards the tree lined hilltop in front of you.
Here is the correct flight path through this desert canyon.
Boss Battle: Spiderwasp
Watch how to take out the Spiderwasp.
Now you have to fight the spiderwasp. First, start firing at it and dodging its slime attack. After you get in a few solid hits, you'll have to dash up close to it and engage in a face-off. At this point, you need to simply dodge its attacks by moving the controller left or right (look for the on-screen cues). After dodging the attacks, wait for the on-screen cue to push the controller forward, which will cause your dragon to latch onto the spiderwasp. Now, move the controller up and down rapidly to tear off part of its shell. Repeat this attack pattern two more times and you will have vanquished the dreaded spiderwasp.
Latch onto their legs and drag them to the ground.
Now its time to curb an attack, proving your devotion to your newfound allies. Your two primary targets are the large warbeasts. Ever seen Empire Strikes Back and the fight against the ATAT's? Same concept, here. First, attack the weapon platforms on the back of the warbeasts. Once those are destroyed, fly in low under their legs and look for the on-screen icon to flash "Latch". Press the triangle button and then move the controller forward to bring the warbeasts to the ground. Do this exact same attack pattern to the one remaining warbeast and this level is over.
9: Breaking the Ice
Although the objective is to destroy the ballistas in the fort, you won't have a chance of taking them out unless you start dispatching the enemy dragons in the sky, and the boats at sea. Once you takeout seven to ten dragons, and preferably all the enemy boats, you can swoop down and destroy the ballistas without distractions. If you're running low on health, there are sections of enemy troops who refill health.
Take out the ballistas to save the day.
Now that the ballistas are destroyed, drop to ground level of the fort and kill as many troops required by the ticker at the top-middle of the screen. Don't forget you can eat the troops for health.
10: Deadman's Basin
Overall, this level is more frustrating than difficult, as you'll fly to one end of the level and then the next, just so you can protect your troops long enough for the manta to show up. But first, your objective is to support the ground troops on the slope of the hill, identified as a concentrated mass on the ground (see image below).
Protect the troops on the ground.
Eliminate the enemy troops as quickly as possible by using the flame attack and spin attack amid the cluster of enemy troops. Now you have to deal with a combination of rhinos and warbeasts. Concentrate on the rhinos first, since the warbeasts are slow, and you'll have plenty of time to kill them.
Rip off the rhino's armor and then kill the damn things.
The next wave comes from the sea, so it's easy to spot where the origin of the assault by tracing back the arc of the cannonballs towards land. Take out the ships and then head back to the land to fight off the next wave of attacks -- a combination of rhinos, troops, warbeasts and a manta.
Stop this manta!
And when the manta appears, take it out immediately. Its bombs will totally decimate your troops, so you can't let too many of them drop. When the manta shows up, concentrate all of your fire on it until the brief cut-scene kicks in, and its body slams up against the dam.
Target these areas of the dam and rip them (i.e. shake your controller up and down) apart.
Now for your last objective: destroy the dam. Enemy dragons pour out of the sky to keep you away from it. Occasionally, you will be forced to battle them, but work on destroying the dam above everything else. Your attack plan? Look at the top of the damn for a group of pylons, who you must grasp and shake with your controller. Repeat this process on the remaining pylons for the dam to come crushing down.
11: Ruins of Mokai
Another mission full of objectives and excitement. When it starts off, you have to kill over a thousand enemy troops. Yep. There isn't any easy way around it. Get on the ground and swat at them and set those enemies on fire.
Kill and repeat 1,000 times.
After you complete this miniobjective, the enemy will send more troops and rhinos at you. Once again, kill them and rip the rhino's heads off like you'd done throughout the game. After dealing with various waves of enemies, they'll lock the main gate. Fly up to the main lock and rip it apart. Now, it's time to defend the ships.
After killing the troops, fly up and rip apart the lock and chains.
The ships attack from two fronts: the fort and the enemy's ships. First, concentrate your fire on the enemy ships, which are easier targets than the fort guns -- easy target and weaker armor. Once you've knocked them out, target as many of fort guns as you can, then dash towards them and rip them apart. Finally, no mission is complete without some enemy dragons.
Take out these turrets to save the day.
They'll come at you from all directions and attack your boats. So, be on your dragon toes and be sure to keep an eye on your fleet, not just the enemy dragons. In order for the mission to end, you have to destroy every single enemy dragon.
12: Bridge of the Ancients
This opening part of the mission is very unforgiving, and you need to take out each fort gun as quickly as possible. So, when you approach the forts, fire just one power shot at each turret rather than a flurry of attacks. You will get one warning about the lack of protection over the ships, in the form of a short cut-scene involving the destruction of a boat. So stay on top of it, or this mission will end rather abruptly.
Fly ahead and destroy these tower's before they destroy your ships.
As soon as this mission begins, accelerate towards the first fort on your left, and quickly destroy each canon. Now, turn your attention to the group of dragons attacking your convoy on the road to the left of the fort you'd just destroyed. Before the dragons destroy your warbeasts, take them out immediately, then dash ahead to the next fort in order to destroy its canons. As soon as you knock those canons out, proceed to the next fort and repeat the process. Keep it up until the cut-scene plays.
Defend the mantas, destroy the ships. Easy right? Well...it's more irritating than anything else.
If you thought the opening level was frustrating, just you wait. Now, you have to defend your mantas from dragons, while killing enemy ships attacking the bridge. Plus, you have to defend your own ships from more dragons and enemy ships. Ideally, you want to get the enemy dragons off your mantas backs a.s.a.p. or else they're going down in flames, fast. The boats are not that hard to take out; you've destroyed hundreds of them in earlier levels.
Take out the warbeasts as soon as they show up, or else they might wind up destroying the bridge under their weight.
Just to mix it up a bit, three warbeasts will walk across the bridge. Take them out as you have in previous levels by destroying the gun placements on its back, then wrapping your cable around their legs. After you take care of them, concentrate on the enemy dragons, as they pose the most serious threat when their numbers increase. Keep this up until the cut-scene comes in and the level will be over.
13: Maelstrom Sep
The opening section of this level requires the destruction of three steam generators powering the prison gates. So, just like what you did back in The Ravine of No Return and Firestorm levels, target the steam generator, fly up to it, and shake your Sixaxis up and down to rip the generator apart. Repeat twice.
Destroy the canons before they destroy the prisoners.
Now, you have to destroy two canons firing on prisoners who are trying to escape. Target the cannons and shoot them until they're destroyed. Yep, it's that easy. Now for the hard part.
Boss Battle: Loden
Watch the entire battle against Loden. Maybe you'll learn a thing or two.
You're going to square off against your old ally Loden, whose most damaging attack is not against you, but against the boulders he flings at the escaping prisoners. If they die, your mission is over. It's also very difficult to determine which boulder flies towards the prisoners. So while you're approaching Loden, continually press the L1 or R1 shoulder buttons to target a boulder flying towards the prisoners, and to destroy it. Meanwhile, you should get closer to Loden, engaging him in melee combat, which is the only way to inflict damage on him.
After his health drops down, a short cut-scene will play and you'll literally dive after Loden on the back of his dragon. Navigate through the floating rocks until the context-sensitive situation comes on screen, then the mission is over. One more to go.
14: Battle for Asylia
The beginning of the end. First, protect your fleet by taking out the canons firing at your boats, and as they move up river, destroy the small bridges obstructing their path. (Grab bombs off the backs of the mantas and toss them at the bridges up river.) Take care of any remaining canons firing on your fleet until the cut-scene depicts the ground attack-force.
First, take out the bridge.
Fly towards the battlefield and attack the enemy mantas before they drop bombs on your troops. After you take out all of the mantas, turn your attention to the battlefield below.
Then, kill off all the mantas in the sky.
Kill 2,700 troops on the ground by flying to a manta, grabbing a bucket of bombs, and unloading them on the enemy. The game auto-saves once you complete the objective. It's time to attack the city palace.
Use bombs to take out large amounts of troops at once.
Your only targets are the four gun placements surrounding the large capital. Destroy them, then attack a volcano (no kidding).
Lock on, fire, repeat. Sound familiar? That's because you've been doing it this whole game.
Grab bombs off the backs of your manta bombers, and drop three of them into each volcano vent. This is how you destroy a volcano, folks. After you've destroyed all three vents, grab more bombs off the back of your mantas, and toss them at the palace dome structure until the ending cut-scene kicks in.
Yes, the rumors are true. The final boss is a...volcano.
Bonus: Keep your ears peeled and listen for "The Wilhelm" scream.
1: Day of Terror
This is the first part of the game and after a brief stint on learning the controls of your dragon, and a short cut-scene, you'll be thrown into battle. Head towards the sea coast where the catapults are firing. Once there, start destroying the ships. Use the R2 or L2 buttons to slow down and hover over the catapult ships, and rapidly press your attack button to destroy them -- which takes about four hits. You can find your primary targets by looking at the yellow arrow in the upper right corner.
Die boats, die!
Continuing from there Aafter another short cut-scene, you'll fight ice dragons. Rapidly press the X button to get there faster. Once you're in the thick of conflict, attack any ice dragon you want. You could also use your strike attack (O button) on any of these dragons. After a few kills, you'll face off against a miniboss.
Them be some dragons that need a killin'
Lock on to him with the R1 or R2 buttons and then strike attack him to get closer. Now all you have to do is line up next to him by swerving left, right, up or down. Once next to him, slide your controller to the left or right -- while keeping it parallel to the ground -- depending which side he's on, to execute an attack. After a few solid hits the level will be over.
2: Blood River
At the start of this level, get over to the burning tower as quickly as possible (push forward on the Sixaxis to go faster). Once there, you'll engage some ground troops. Drop to the ground (L2 and R2 buttons at the same time) and set the troops on fire, or swat at them. After you've killed a decent amount of troops, a short cut-scene ensues and you'll have to destroy some catapults.
Humans taste better after they're well done.
Get off the ground and fly towards the catapults, towards the levels starting point, and destroy them. If you're having trouble flying and shooting, you can just land and stand in front of the catapult and fire away on it.
Die catapult, die!
Now the next objective is a combo of defending rafts of grain and killing ice dragons. Position yourself above the rafts as they head for the castle door, and fire at any ice dragons as they approach. Once the rafts enter the castle wall, your last objective is to destroy trebuchets.
If it's too hard to destroy them while flying, drop to the ground and take them out. This applies for just about every enemy in the game.
Analogous to the strategy used against the catapults, just drop to ground level, run towards each of the trebuchets and fire away. Don't bother flying in circles around the targets, because it won't take long for them to destroy the castle walls. The mission is over once you knock out each of the four trebuchets.
3: Demon Pass
When the level starts, head straight for the mountain with the light beams shooting out of it, but do not get "spotted" by the beams or else you'll be killed instantly. Once you get within range, shoot the light beams coming from the stone faces. Soon after, a passageway will open up -- fly into it.
Shoot the eyes, then fly into the mouth. Yes, it's THAT easy.
Inside the mountain, target any of the flame chandeliers with either the L1 or R1 buttons, and then start shaking the Sixaxis up and down until the short cut-scene kicks in as you're thrown free from the mountain. Now, make your way back and engage the enemy dragons (you may be forced into fight mode, so be prepared). Once you have the chance, shoot out more light beams, enter the mountain again, and destroy another flame chandelier.
Once inside the mouth, target the main machine and shake your controller until it breaks apart...the machine that is, not your controller.
Thrown from the mountain a second time, you'll have to engage the boats at sea. Destroy enough of them until the game lets you know you have to go back, then attack the mountain one last time. Back inside the mountain, destroy another flame chandelier and the level is over.
4: Crossing at Dawn
After the long cut-scene, jump on your dragon and save the Guardians. There are a few ways to spot these guys. The first would be to look at your arrow in the upper right pointing to their relative location. Now, look for a combination of a smoke trail and red flags in a rectangle or turn on your rage vision (directional arrow down) to spot the mission objectives. Once you get in close enough, the game will take over and save the first of the Guardians. Now, save the next one, located at the other end of the bridge (naturally), with the same set of markers.
Look for these flags as your markers for who you need to save.
Once that objective is down, you must fight the ice dragons. You've done this before in previous levels; attack them by locking on and dashing towards them in pursuit mode. After you've killed off the ones responsible for the attacks (see: all dragons), you must fight the enemy troops.
Your next objective has you dropping down to the bridge to set these troops on fire.
Your troops are colored in red, so don't attack them. Concentrate all of your attacks on the enemy decked out in blue. Instead of performing a strafing run of flame like the game suggests, get down to ground level and plow through the enemy troops by swatting at them. After you've inflicted the desired amount of damage, another cut-scene kicks in advising you to take off and attack more ice dragons.
Pick up the taros and then drop them off the bridge.
It'll be a futile attack against the ice dragons, but you have to do it anyway. In a minute they're drop tauros onto the bridge, tearing through your troops. Disengage your attacks against the ice dragons and work on spotting the tauros on the bridge (lock onto them), and then dash towards them to pick them up and then toss them off of the bridge. Or shoot your flames at them. Do not attack them on the ground. They'll just charge you and knock your dragon down, killing you in the process.
Now you have more dragons to fight, except they're called dark dragons, killed only by melee attacks. So, target one to get in close, triggering a context-sensitive situation. Repeat this process against all of the dark dragons until the enemy releases rhino's.
Rhino's are a lot harder to take out. You need to rip off their protective armor before you can make a dent in their health.
You can't kill the rhino's like the taruos -- flame will just deflect off of their armor. Instead, you have to target them, and then dash towards them. Now, rapidly shake the Sixaxis up and down to rip the rhino's to shreds. The level is over after you've killed them.
5: Serpent Straight
An escort mission, yay! Your main objective for the entire first half of this level is to ensure the survival of the manta -- the large super delicate flying creatures. Protect the mantas by locking onto any mokai dragons attacking them, and swiftly killing them with either pursuit mode or flame attacks.
Chase down the enemy dragons before they kill off your mantas.
After a short cut-scene introducing the coral snake (you'll deal with it soon enough), you'll fight more mokai dragons. Use the same strategy as before: lock on, dash attack or fire your flames at them. Some of these dragons are larger dark dragons, so for them you have to get in close and trigger the context sensitive events, just like what you did during the last level.
Sometimes you'll have to get in close to take out some of these goons.
The other type of attack is the fight mode, experienced earlier in the game. Just remember to block the flame attacks while in fight mode and counter-attack at every opportunity. After you've killed off all of the mokai dragons, a short cut-scene will kick in and it's time to take on the coral snakes you saw earlier.
Boss Battle: Coral Snake
For your first plan of attack, fire at the scales on its back as it's jumping out of the water. After you've destroyed some of the scales, only one of them will rise out of the water at a time to face you. When it does this, it's going to spew black goop at you. Simply dodge left or right with the SIXAXIS so you don't get hit. While dodging, be sure you're constantly firing at the snake's mouth. After accomplishing this, dash forward towards the snake's eyes to enter a context-sensitive event. If you miss this chance, don't worry, because you'll have plenty of chances to get back in there. You just have to follow the snake around again and fire at the scales on its back.
Watch out for the mouth!
Instead of spewing black goop at you, the snake may outright eat you up. Just keep an eye on the top of the screen to either dodge left or right with your controller to avoid the snapping jaws of death. But your main goal consists of destroying the scales, so you can get in close to destroy the eyes. Level complete.
6: Ravine of No Return
You might die at least once during this level. However, once you get the hang of how to play this level, you will do just fine. For starters, the trick to avoiding those spotlights is to shoot out the power cables that connect them. It's pretty easy -- just get in close enough to target the joined section to the tall towers and fire once. Destroying these cables won't take all the spotlights out, but it will disable enough of them for you to navigate above and below the spotlights, through the ravine, and to the second section. If at any time you're spotted, dash away or do a 180 degrees turn and get out of there. Otherwise you'll end up dead, forced to start over. Not fun.
Ravine of No Return "Fly-Through" Part 1 of 2.
The level is divided into two main sections; so theoretically, you could just blast through this first section using dash until you reach the second. However, if you do this, you will not get any medals and you will not unlock any special attacks or extras that this level could reward you. Instead, concentrate on shooting out the power cables to help open up some of the ways through this the ravine to the second area.
Ravine of No Return "Fly-Through" Part 2 of 2.
Once at the outpost, there will be three main generators you need to take out. They are powered by, you guessed it, power cables…sort of. Since the generators are marked by spotlights at all times, and in order for you to get in close enough to destroy these generators, you need to destroy said power cables in order to get close enough to rip them apart. Once the lights go down, target the generator, dash towards it and shake the SIXAXIS up and down to destroy it.
This will notify the appropriate dragons to come after you, so be prepared for lots of context-sensitive events, pursuit mode attacks and fight modes. Attack the remaining two generators the same way you did with the first by knocking out the surrounding spotlights, ripping the generator apart and dealing with whatever resistance the outpost sends your way. After the third generator is destroyed, a cut-scene will kick in and the level is over.
7: Firestorm
When the level starts, you need to immediately destroy the flak cannons that are attacking your mantas. They are powered by the same type of generators that you tore apart a from the Ravine of No Return level. Just like before, lock onto them, use your pursuit mode attack, and then shake the SIXAXIS up and down to rip the generators apart.
Explore strange new cities and bomb the hell out of them.
After the brief escort mission, you have to bomb the city. Don't rely on the manta's to be able to do this objective for you (even though they are bombers), you are still responsible for destroying the city. If you noticed at the top center of your screen, will be a ticker which will count-down the number of buildings you need to destroy in Steamcity for this objective to be completed. The only way you'll be able to do all the work is to grab buckets of bombs from the mantas. Once you have the bombs, just pick any part of the city -- where there are buildings still standing -- and drop the bombs until you meet your quota via the ticker.
Bomb the hell out of the armory to end this level.
Now that you have destroyed an ample number of buildings, it's time to bomb the hell out of the armory. Just as you did before when destroying the city, grab bombs off of the backs of the mantas, and drop them on top of the armory. That's it!
8: Out of the Ashes
This level is divided up into three sections. The first is a maze through the canyon's to the boss. Fly straight through the canyon at the start, and take a left after you pass the horde of black flies on your right. Follow the green trees around until you come across a large rock formation which has a hole in it. Fly through the hole, and glide to your right. Fly straight for a little bit and you'll be attacked by some nasty flying insects. Make a right at the stone pillar lying on the canyon floor. Fly straight for a few meters and then take your first left, you should see to large stones jutting out of the ground. Take a left at these stones; fly straight past the two engraved pillars coming out of the ground, and towards the tree lined hilltop in front of you.
Here is the correct flight path through this desert canyon.
Boss Battle: Spiderwasp
Watch how to take out the Spiderwasp.
Now you have to fight the spiderwasp. First, start firing at it and dodging its slime attack. After you get in a few solid hits, you'll have to dash up close to it and engage in a face-off. At this point, you need to simply dodge its attacks by moving the controller left or right (look for the on-screen cues). After dodging the attacks, wait for the on-screen cue to push the controller forward, which will cause your dragon to latch onto the spiderwasp. Now, move the controller up and down rapidly to tear off part of its shell. Repeat this attack pattern two more times and you will have vanquished the dreaded spiderwasp.
Latch onto their legs and drag them to the ground.
Now its time to curb an attack, proving your devotion to your newfound allies. Your two primary targets are the large warbeasts. Ever seen Empire Strikes Back and the fight against the ATAT's? Same concept, here. First, attack the weapon platforms on the back of the warbeasts. Once those are destroyed, fly in low under their legs and look for the on-screen icon to flash "Latch". Press the triangle button and then move the controller forward to bring the warbeasts to the ground. Do this exact same attack pattern to the one remaining warbeast and this level is over.
9: Breaking the Ice
Although the objective is to destroy the ballistas in the fort, you won't have a chance of taking them out unless you start dispatching the enemy dragons in the sky, and the boats at sea. Once you takeout seven to ten dragons, and preferably all the enemy boats, you can swoop down and destroy the ballistas without distractions. If you're running low on health, there are sections of enemy troops who refill health.
Take out the ballistas to save the day.
Now that the ballistas are destroyed, drop to ground level of the fort and kill as many troops required by the ticker at the top-middle of the screen. Don't forget you can eat the troops for health.
10: Deadman's Basin
Overall, this level is more frustrating than difficult, as you'll fly to one end of the level and then the next, just so you can protect your troops long enough for the manta to show up. But first, your objective is to support the ground troops on the slope of the hill, identified as a concentrated mass on the ground (see image below).
Protect the troops on the ground.
Eliminate the enemy troops as quickly as possible by using the flame attack and spin attack amid the cluster of enemy troops. Now you have to deal with a combination of rhinos and warbeasts. Concentrate on the rhinos first, since the warbeasts are slow, and you'll have plenty of time to kill them.
Rip off the rhino's armor and then kill the damn things.
The next wave comes from the sea, so it's easy to spot where the origin of the assault by tracing back the arc of the cannonballs towards land. Take out the ships and then head back to the land to fight off the next wave of attacks -- a combination of rhinos, troops, warbeasts and a manta.
Stop this manta!
And when the manta appears, take it out immediately. Its bombs will totally decimate your troops, so you can't let too many of them drop. When the manta shows up, concentrate all of your fire on it until the brief cut-scene kicks in, and its body slams up against the dam.
Target these areas of the dam and rip them (i.e. shake your controller up and down) apart.
Now for your last objective: destroy the dam. Enemy dragons pour out of the sky to keep you away from it. Occasionally, you will be forced to battle them, but work on destroying the dam above everything else. Your attack plan? Look at the top of the damn for a group of pylons, who you must grasp and shake with your controller. Repeat this process on the remaining pylons for the dam to come crushing down.
11: Ruins of Mokai
Another mission full of objectives and excitement. When it starts off, you have to kill over a thousand enemy troops. Yep. There isn't any easy way around it. Get on the ground and swat at them and set those enemies on fire.
Kill and repeat 1,000 times.
After you complete this miniobjective, the enemy will send more troops and rhinos at you. Once again, kill them and rip the rhino's heads off like you'd done throughout the game. After dealing with various waves of enemies, they'll lock the main gate. Fly up to the main lock and rip it apart. Now, it's time to defend the ships.
After killing the troops, fly up and rip apart the lock and chains.
The ships attack from two fronts: the fort and the enemy's ships. First, concentrate your fire on the enemy ships, which are easier targets than the fort guns -- easy target and weaker armor. Once you've knocked them out, target as many of fort guns as you can, then dash towards them and rip them apart. Finally, no mission is complete without some enemy dragons.
Take out these turrets to save the day.
They'll come at you from all directions and attack your boats. So, be on your dragon toes and be sure to keep an eye on your fleet, not just the enemy dragons. In order for the mission to end, you have to destroy every single enemy dragon.
12: Bridge of the Ancients
This opening part of the mission is very unforgiving, and you need to take out each fort gun as quickly as possible. So, when you approach the forts, fire just one power shot at each turret rather than a flurry of attacks. You will get one warning about the lack of protection over the ships, in the form of a short cut-scene involving the destruction of a boat. So stay on top of it, or this mission will end rather abruptly.
Fly ahead and destroy these tower's before they destroy your ships.
As soon as this mission begins, accelerate towards the first fort on your left, and quickly destroy each canon. Now, turn your attention to the group of dragons attacking your convoy on the road to the left of the fort you'd just destroyed. Before the dragons destroy your warbeasts, take them out immediately, then dash ahead to the next fort in order to destroy its canons. As soon as you knock those canons out, proceed to the next fort and repeat the process. Keep it up until the cut-scene plays.
Defend the mantas, destroy the ships. Easy right? Well...it's more irritating than anything else.
If you thought the opening level was frustrating, just you wait. Now, you have to defend your mantas from dragons, while killing enemy ships attacking the bridge. Plus, you have to defend your own ships from more dragons and enemy ships. Ideally, you want to get the enemy dragons off your mantas backs a.s.a.p. or else they're going down in flames, fast. The boats are not that hard to take out; you've destroyed hundreds of them in earlier levels.
Take out the warbeasts as soon as they show up, or else they might wind up destroying the bridge under their weight.
Just to mix it up a bit, three warbeasts will walk across the bridge. Take them out as you have in previous levels by destroying the gun placements on its back, then wrapping your cable around their legs. After you take care of them, concentrate on the enemy dragons, as they pose the most serious threat when their numbers increase. Keep this up until the cut-scene comes in and the level will be over.
13: Maelstrom Sep
The opening section of this level requires the destruction of three steam generators powering the prison gates. So, just like what you did back in The Ravine of No Return and Firestorm levels, target the steam generator, fly up to it, and shake your Sixaxis up and down to rip the generator apart. Repeat twice.
Destroy the canons before they destroy the prisoners.
Now, you have to destroy two canons firing on prisoners who are trying to escape. Target the cannons and shoot them until they're destroyed. Yep, it's that easy. Now for the hard part.
Boss Battle: Loden
Watch the entire battle against Loden. Maybe you'll learn a thing or two.
You're going to square off against your old ally Loden, whose most damaging attack is not against you, but against the boulders he flings at the escaping prisoners. If they die, your mission is over. It's also very difficult to determine which boulder flies towards the prisoners. So while you're approaching Loden, continually press the L1 or R1 shoulder buttons to target a boulder flying towards the prisoners, and to destroy it. Meanwhile, you should get closer to Loden, engaging him in melee combat, which is the only way to inflict damage on him.
After his health drops down, a short cut-scene will play and you'll literally dive after Loden on the back of his dragon. Navigate through the floating rocks until the context-sensitive situation comes on screen, then the mission is over. One more to go.
14: Battle for Asylia
The beginning of the end. First, protect your fleet by taking out the canons firing at your boats, and as they move up river, destroy the small bridges obstructing their path. (Grab bombs off the backs of the mantas and toss them at the bridges up river.) Take care of any remaining canons firing on your fleet until the cut-scene depicts the ground attack-force.
First, take out the bridge.
Fly towards the battlefield and attack the enemy mantas before they drop bombs on your troops. After you take out all of the mantas, turn your attention to the battlefield below.
Then, kill off all the mantas in the sky.
Kill 2,700 troops on the ground by flying to a manta, grabbing a bucket of bombs, and unloading them on the enemy. The game auto-saves once you complete the objective. It's time to attack the city palace.
Use bombs to take out large amounts of troops at once.
Your only targets are the four gun placements surrounding the large capital. Destroy them, then attack a volcano (no kidding).
Lock on, fire, repeat. Sound familiar? That's because you've been doing it this whole game.
Grab bombs off the backs of your manta bombers, and drop three of them into each volcano vent. This is how you destroy a volcano, folks. After you've destroyed all three vents, grab more bombs off the back of your mantas, and toss them at the palace dome structure until the ending cut-scene kicks in.
Yes, the rumors are true. The final boss is a...volcano.
Bonus: Keep your ears peeled and listen for "The Wilhelm" scream.