Shadow Warrior Heroic Mode Guide

Overview

The guide for completing Shadow Warrior on Heroic difficulty.

Introduction

This guide is meant for players attempting to beat Heroic Mode in Shadow Warrior. Since Heroic only becomes available after one full playthrough, I assume you’ve already completed the game and are familiar with the basics.

First things first, NO you can’t play Heroic on EX Mode (new game plus) after beating the game on a lower difficulty. This means that you need to start the Heroic playthrough from scratch, without any upgrades or unlocks.

I did my first playthrough of Shadow Warrior on Insane, so there would be less of a difficulty jump when playing on Heroic (hence the high number of deaths). It allows you to better gauge enemy strength and determine the most dangerous fights in the game. If you haven’t already played the game, I suggest you do the same. Enemies on Heroic have a lot more health and deal more damage than on Insane, so be prepared for that.

The main difference between Heroic and other difficulties is the fact that there are no checkpoints or saves on Heroic Mode. If you die, you must restart the entire chapter. It can be frustrating to replay 30-40 minutes of a chapter just because you died during a fight near the end, but it will likely happen at some point. That’s the reality of Heroic Mode.

Hopefully this guide will help you with the task of completing this fiendishly tough difficulty. I’ve also included chapter-specific sections to point out possible trouble spots and provided the score screen for each level of my Heroic playthrough for comparison’s sake.

Basic Strategy

Here are some suggestions for making the game easier via the options menu.

• Tick the “disable blur effect” box (removes screen blur while dashing)
• Reduce “weapon inertia” to 0 (removes excessive weapon sway)
• FoV slider to the max
• Display battle messages in HUD instead of floating text (a matter of preference)
• Customize the crosshair to your liking

Learn to use dashing (Shift key) to dodge enemy attacks. This is especially useful for avoiding the Warlord’s hook shot and the Warper’s leap attack. Warpers are by far the most dangerous enemies in the game. NEVER attempt to run from them, because they WILL catch you and kill you. Their leap attacks deal massive damage, especially when they’re enraged. You need to always keep an eye on them, so you could dash at the right moment.

If you’ve played Hard Reset (another Flying Wild Hog game), you know that environmental damage can be extremely powerful. This is both an advantage and a danger, so you need to always be aware of your surroundings when fighting. It might be better to pre-emptively destroy nearby environmental hazards before engaging the enemies, so you don’t suddenly find yourself blown up due to a careless attack.

There’s a useful video guide on Steam (found HERE) that you can use to find these hidden areas. Since you’ve completed the game once already, it should also be easier to remember how to get to them. Secrets only mean either extra karma or money (and in Chapter 5, an extra Ki point), so you don’t have to go out of your way to find all of them. You will likely have all the necessary money and karma halfway through the game anyway.

You will get bonus karma after each fight depending on how many multipliers you manage to stack for each kill. It doesn’t matter how long the fight takes, how much you get hit, how much damage you deal or how many different weapons you use. All that matters are the multipliers. The maximum amount of bonus karma is equal to the total karma value of killed enemies.

For example, in the screenshot to the right (the final battle of Chapter 2, on EX Mode), I killed 20 lesser demons (100 karma each) and a Warlord (5000 karma) using the method outlined below. The result was the maximum possible karma bonus (7000) at the end of the fight.

By far the easiest way to constantly get high karma bonuses (4-5 stars) is by using either Flux or Shockwave on enemies, then shooting a high-strain crossbow bolt at their heads, because crossbow headshots add a lot of Shredder multipliers to the kill. Coupled with the Sleepyhead / Aviator multipliers from your powers and any potential Tranquilizer and/or Massacre multipliers, you’re virtually guaranteed 5 stars after each fight. Stacking different multipliers on greater demons is obviously harder, as they’re immune to powers and shredding headshots. If you prefer to use the katana, a charged Divider of Heavens works as a great substitute for the crossbow.

Character Build

While many weapons, powers and skills can be effective on lower difficulties, some become almost useless on Heroic. I’ll outline the build I used for my playthrough and give the reasoning behind each choice. I’ve also listed the order in which I picked the upgrades in the chapter-specific sections.

Divider of Heavens – the first skill you unlock, and by far one of the best when coupled with Aswang Hunger. It’s especially useful against Warpers, allowing you to heal yourself while dealing decent damage. Don’t forget to charge up the strike for greatly increased damage.

Aswang Hunger – one of the best survivability skills in the game. It heals you every time you use your ki-strikes (Divider of Heavens, etc.). The amount of health restored depends on damage dealt. In other words, charged strikes heal you for more health.

Kenshi / Kensei – greatly improves the damage of Divider of Heavens (+50%). A no-brainer, as you will be using DoH almost exclusively throughout the game.

Demonslayer I / II – decent +20% damage bonus against all lesser demons, which basically means every enemy except greater demons (Warlords, Shamans, Berserkers) and the occasional humans.

Godslayer I / II – decent +20% damage bonus against greater demons (Warlords, Shamans, Berserkers). These enemies start appearing with great frequency during the second half of the game, so the bonus damage will help a great deal.

Control Pain I / II / III – increases your base health by 30, virtually mandatory on Heroic. It also makes your self-heal power more effective, allowing you to heal yourself up to 104 health if the healing power is also maxed.

Medic / Doctor – allows you to overheal yourself with medkits, up to 170 health (with Control Pain III). Since there are often medkits lying around after a fight, this basically means you can enter each new fight with anywhere between 150-170 health.

Drain Soul / Soul Hunger – another mandatory skill, essentially a second chance to keep fighting after you take lethal damage, restoring you to 50% health if you kill an enemy before bleeding out. One minute cooldown.

Quick Recovery I / II – dashing takes up a lot of stamina and this skill helps mitigate that. Stamina becomes especially important when fighting bosses and Warpers, so the Inner Reserve skills (bonus base stamina) are also worth picking up.

You will likely have several more karma points to spend by the end of the game, so use them as you wish.

Healing and Shockwave are the only two powers you need. Flux essentially does the same thing as Shockwave (temporarily incapacitates enemies), but it only hits enemies in a straight line and has a lengthy casting animation, which makes it inferior to Shockwave. The Shockwave power stuns all nearby enemies, so even Warpers that teleport behind you will be thrown to the ground. Protection might sound useful, but you can’t use any ki-strikes or powers while channeling, which greatly diminishes its value. Note that healing yourself with the Healing power makes you more vulnerable to damage, which makes it risky to use when fighting dangerous enemies.

The game has a limited amount of Ki crystals that allow you to unlock powers, but you should be able to max out both of these powers before reaching the really tough chapters. You can dump the rest of the points into Protection or Flux if you want, although I personally never used those powers.

Although many weapons can be effective on lower difficulties, you only really need the crossbow on Heroic. I never used the revolver, shotgun or flamethrower at all during my Heroic playthrough. The PDW (sub-machinegun) is occasionally useful during certain parts of the game, and the rocket launcher is great during the final arena fight on Chapter 16, but other than that, the katana is your number one killer throughout the entire game.

Don’t worry too much about finding money, as it’s only used for upgrading weapons and buying ammo. You will upgrade all the necessary stuff early on, so most of money will likely go into buying crossbow bolts, which are dirt cheap anyway (and can occasionally be recovered from corpses).

Prologue / Chapter 1

Assuming you’ve recently completed the entire game with a full arsenal of weapons, powers and skills, it might be difficult to start all over from scratch. Feel free to spam shurikens in the initial fights before you re-acquire the healing power and other combat skills (you likely won’t be using the shurikens past this chapter anyway).

There are no really dangerous fights in the first chapter, although you should definitely try to find as much money and get as much bonus karma as possible. It will only get harder from here on out, so try to get a decent start.

Skills: Divider of Heavens
Powers: Peacock’s Blessing (Healing), Tiger’s Roar (Shockwave)

Chapter 2

Birdmen, when enraged, deal massive damage with their hovering attack, so avoid the hell out of that projectile. You will likely struggle against swarms of Crawler demons, especially with the Shockwave-to-DoE strategy, because even a fully charged strike may not one-shot them yet. Things will improve after you’ve upgraded your sword damage a bit, but this is certainly one of the more frustrating chapters since you’re still relatively underpowered.

This chapter also has the first Warlord fight, but you should have more than enough experience dealing with them from your first playthrough. Cut off the left arm to disable the hook shot, then focus on the head. If he manages to hook you in, a well-timed jump will avoid the following ground slam entirely.

Skills: Aswang Hunger, Kenshi, Kensei, Drain Soul
Powers: Protective Fan
Weapons (PDW): Akimbo, Match Grade Barrel

Chapter 3

Take special care in the cave at the end of the chapter, as it’s easy to accidentally fall off the ledge while fighting the enemies there. Same goes for the water too, if you decide to go for the secret areas after the turret section. It’s insanely frustrating to complete the entire chapter only to die because of a stupid careless jump. Believe me, I’ve been there. Speaking of the turret section, feel free to pull back and heal yourself at any time if you take too much damage from the fliers.

Skills: Control Pain I, Demonslayer I
Powers: Soaring Feather
Weapons (Crossbow): High-Strain System, Extended Mag

Chapter 4

When fighting Trolls (shieldbearers) near the beginning of the chapter, mind your surroundings. There are a lot of explosive objects that you can use to your benefit. Now that you have the crossbow, high-strain shots can effectively deal with most enemies after you’ve stunned them with Shockwave. Overall, there’s nothing particularly difficult in this chapter. Most fights just consist of large groups of lesser demons, so take care not to get surrounded and overwhelmed.

Skills: Control Pain II, Control Pain III, Demonslayer II
Powers: Tiger’s Pounce

Chapter 5

The Shamans take forever to kill on Heroic, so focus on them first and be patient. Take off one of their arms to stop them from resurrecting dead enemies, then concentrate on landing headshots. Once again, this is a fairly straightforward chapter with no particularly life-threatening fights, as long as you manage to stay on your toes.

Skills: Godslayer I, Soul Hunger
Powers: Invigorating Dew, Healing Rain

Chapter 6 (Boss)

When fighting Gozu, take out the axe arm first, as it’s the most dangerous attack by far. When the boss shoots his eye beams, run towards him, as it makes the beams easier to dodge. This is by no means a difficult boss fight, even on Heroic. Like all boss fights in the game, the battle happens in a large circular arena with plenty of room to dodge, there are no minions to worry about, and infinite ammo / health drops are constantly spawning around the arena.

The crossbow is generally the best weapon in boss fights, as it does the most damage (especially with charged shots) and doesn’t expend too much ammo.

Chapter 7

You will start encountering greater demons more often from this chapter onwards. Another word of warning: the Mother demons (green exploding enemies) can one-shot you with their suicide attack even at 100 health if they’re enraged, so be careful in tight spaces and always try to pick them off first during any fight. The chapter is otherwise easy, except for one fight at the bottom of the plant where you fight two Shamans at once. Getting cornered is the biggest danger here, so stay frosty.

Skills: Godslayer II, Medic, Doctor
Powers: Deafening Roar
Weapons (Crossbow): Sticky Bombs

Chapter 8

By far the most dangerous part of this chapter is your encounter with the Warpers (teleporting sword-wielding demons). The Shaman can resurrect them, so take out one of its arms as quickly as you can. Clear out the environmental hazards too just in case. The demon heart can be a very helpful weapon here, especially if you’re downed into the “Drain Soul” state. If you manage to survive that fight, the rest of the chapter should be a breeze.

Skills: Quick Recovery I, Quick Recovery II
Powers: Calming Breeze

Chapter 9

By now you should have all the important karma upgrades, a fully upgraded crossbow and maxed healing power. It’s up to you what upgrades to pick from this point on, although further stamina upgrades are very useful for the main boss fights, dodging Warpers and simply making quicker progress through the levels.

This chapter is lengthy, but not too difficult. If you take too much damage during the turret section on the ship, retreat and heal, then return to the turret. Alternatively, you can shoot down groups of fliers with the crossbow’s sticky bombs. It’s super effective! In the large fight in the water near the end of the chapter, kill the Mother demons first, then focus on the Warlords.

Chapter 10

You will encounter a few Warpers after placing the three explosives in the ship’s control rooms, but without the threat of a Shaman, they shouldn’t be too difficult to deal with. Shockwave + crossbow headshots = good times. Demon hearts are also useful as always. When you drop down the hatch afterwards, you will be in a room with a lot of Mother demons and explosive hazards, so be careful. Fortunately, there are lots of medkits around the room.

In my opinion, this is the longest chapter in the game. It’s also the first chapter with a Berserker fight. You should have plenty of experience dealing with them from your first playthrough. Just lure him into a charge and dodge behind an indestructible object (cargo container, etc). When he charges into it and stuns himself, shoot at his back. About 18-19 charged crossbow shots should do the trick.

Chapter 11 (Boss)

The most important thing to note about this fight is that Mezu’s hitboxes are messed up. Shooting directly at the ki-crystals does nothing. After you open his armor, you need to shoot slightly in front of the crystals, into the empty space between them and the armor. Be careful of his overhead smash, as it deals massive damage. You can also “farm” ammo from around the arena. It’s a useful way to stock up on free rockets. Akimbo PDWs are very effective for shooting off the boss’s wings in the final stage.

Chapter 12

During the ride on the train, use your PDWs to clear the path (target the green exploding balls). There will be a fight with two Berserkers in the middle of the chapter. Use the trees or frozen corpses to stun them. Either try to split them up and deal with them one at a time, or lure both of them to charge at once, so they’re stunned at the same time, allowing you to attack one without worrying about the other.

Soon after that fight, there will be a large room filled with Mother demons. It’s probably best to lure them to the door one-by-one instead of charging inside, otherwise you can get killed very fast. The final fight happens shortly after you remove the gas mask, with a Warlord and a bunch of Warpers. Fortunately you have a very large area to run around in and dodge them. Use the demon heart when opportunity arises and avoid the Warlord’s hook like the plague, because Warpers will likely score a lot of free hits if you’re snared.

Chapter 13

While most people would say that Chapter 16 is the hardest, I’d contend that Chapter 13 is the most difficult chapter in the game. The reasoning is simple: there are two large fights with Warpers in this chapter and I really, really hate Warpers. It’s also a particularly lengthy chapter, which doesn’t make things any easier.

The final fight in the basement against the two Berserkers can also be a deathtrap if you don’t know what you’re doing. Provoking the Berserkers and then jumping on the stack of wooden pallets messes with their AI and causes them to try and circle around instead of charging, allowing you to shoot them in the back. Rinse, repeat.

I suggest practicing the difficult fights – against Warpers and Berserkers – on Insane with the help of checkpoints until you’re confident you can easily win the fight, then repeat it on Heroic.

Regarding the Zilla fight mid-chapter, it was originally just a cutscene, but was later patched to include an actual fight in version 1.5.0. When his health drops low and he starts regenerating, just spam your basic slash attack until the cutscene kicks in.

Later in the turret section back in the mountains with the swarm of fliers, instead of using the turret, retreat back inside the room and shoot them from afar with sticky bombs or rockets, as it’s much easier to dodge their attacks that way. I didn’t bother too much with secrets in this chapter, as I have enough money and karma to get everything I need.

Chapter 14

There are three separate Berserker fights in this chapter, but they’re not too tough. Just lure them to charge into an indestructible object and shoot at their back, you know the drill. The final Berserker fight is probably the hardest, with four Warpers added to the mix, but fortunately only two of those are the teleporting kind. After killing the second Berserker, you will enter a narrow tunnel with three waves of Mother demons, so be prepared.

Chapter 15

This is the intermission chapter with no combat. Take a breather, relax and prepare for one of the toughest chapters in the game, coming up next.

Chapter 16

This chapter is all about the final courtyard fight.
It takes about 30 minutes to play through the entire level up to the courtyard, but the fight itself will likely take more time than that. The key to beating this fight is to utilize the stairs as much as you can. Constantly jumping over the barriers on either side forces the enemies to circle around the courtyard in order to reach you, buying you time and space to deal with them a few at a time.

You first need to deal with two Berserkers (and a few Mother demons) as a warm-up. Use the same strategy as with the previous fights where you had to kill two Berserkers (lure both into a charge at the same time, hide behind a rock/tree/pillar, then shoot at their backs when they’re stunned).

The second and third wave consist of a large number of lesser demons – Crawlers, Birdmen, Trolls and Warpers. The Warpers are especially frustrating when paired with Trolls, as the shockwave attack of Trolls can stun you long enough for the Warpers to finish you off. Try separating them by jumping over the stair barriers to the other side, so the Warpers will teleport to you but the Trolls will have to circle around, giving you time to deal with the Warpers alone.

The final wave is the granddaddy of all fights – a Berserker, two Warlords, and two Shamans, who will summon a legion of lesser demons. If you survive this wave, you’ve basically won the game, as the two remaining bossfights (Zilla and Enra) are nothing compared to this. This wave is a good place to make the most out of your rocket launcher, but take care that you don’t accidentally blow yourself up.

First focus down the Warlord that spawns on the left side of the arena. The Berserker spawns on top of the stairs, so it takes him a while to get to you. Use the stairs as much as you can and spam your rockets to bring down the rest. Always be aware where the Berserker is, so you don’t get caught off guard. Run for cover as soon as you hear him charging, even if you don’t see him.

Regarding the final fight with Zilla, there have been instances of people saying that the fight is bugged, because he won’t die even if you bring his health down to zero while he’s regenerating. It worked for me just fine and only took about 20 seconds of slashing until the cutscene kicked in. I don’t know if the bug has been fixed or if I was just lucky. The fight itself is just a rehash of Chapter 13, with Zilla having significantly more health.

Chapter 17 (Boss)

The final chapter of the game. You will fight the boss three separate times, with cutscenes in between. There’s nothing especially difficult in this fight compared to the previous two boss fights. You should know the drill by this point: shoot at the weakspots and destroy the crystals behind them.

However, to make the fight even easier, damage the ki-crystals of the boss as much as possible during the first (least dangerous) phase before destroying one of them. When the boss reappears in the final part of the chapter, the damage you dealt will not be healed, so you can easily destroy the rest of the crystals behind each weakspot.

Conclusion

That’s it. I hope this guide has been useful.

Thanks for reading.

Good luck and have fun playing!