Shadow Man DLC (The horror difficulty) explained

[StraightVege]

@MetalFearbringer  Glad it worked for you! The positioning image you've shared is very helpful; if you don't mind, I'll edit it into the guide.

[ZachBoardyHD]

Tried and tried doing the exploit but can't seem to do it, oh well, I've only got the 3 psycopaths left and then onto Legion... I'll probably fully disconnect my internet from my PS5 until I get the game done with so if there is a patch, it won't download (hopefully I can still play the game without the latest patch if it comes out while being disconnected to the internet) as I really don't want to lose the quick save as I've not got the patience to run from the start of the level to the bosses each time I die.

[ZachBoardyHD]

Finally done and completed The Horror Difficulty. 

A little tip for the bosses. When you're in the boss stages make sure you collect the Accumulator in each 5 of the stages as when you collect the second violator your ammo WON'T increase as it does in normal mode, for it to get increased to 999 ammo you must unlock the other 2 violator ammo crates in the playroom (the two next to the second violator) with the other 2 accumulators... Thank goodness, the annoyance when I got the second violator and the ammo stayed at 250.

 

Bosses difficulty ranked from easiest to hardest that I found. 

 

YORT - This boss is very easy, all you all to do is keep going in a circle around him, the only annoyance is the RNG and hope it's on your side as at times he can whip you with his tail knocking you off the ledge which always hit me everytime. 

 

THE LIZARD KING - The challange with this boss is actually getting to the boss himself as I must have died 20 times to those damn 2 helicopters. With the boss though, he will always run towards you head on so just be constantly jumping out of his way until he's down. 

 

AVERY MARX - Slightly harder then the Lizard King, the same strategy applies. Keep moving and jumping while trying to avoid his attacks. However, the area you fight this boss is very small that I had to use the quick saves a few times. 

 

SAREPH QUEEN - The only reason I thought this boss was tough (that I could have made it easier for myself) is due to the fact I faced her early on so I didn't have any health upgrades, a violator. The annoying part of this fight was her teleportation as she tends to teleport right in front of you and stabbing you with her scissors. What I did to get a breather for a second, if you jump down to the bottom of the arena (where you entered from) as she will have to teleport to the bottom area. I used the quick save option a few times for this boss too. 

 

LEGION - This boss was a lot easier then I anticipated, even though I used the quick save option a few times I beat him first try. All I can suggest like the other fights, keep hopping around him while shooting everything you've got at him. I did have all weapons, the violator ammo was at maximum (999) and my health was fully upgraded so that would have obviously helped a lot. 

 

MILTON PIKE - I was dreading facing him as I heard in the horror difficultly there is now a helicopter in the boss fight also... The Joys. I made sure for him I had all my health upgrades and max violator ammo. 

The strategy I used which did depend on RNG, when the boss starts, shoot him with both violator guns and head towards the helicopter. There is a large box behind the helicopter, which you can use as cover. The helicopter will then go to the front of the area (where you entered from) and stay there while shooting you with its guns and explosives. Milton himself will run back and fourth to the front of the box while trying to shoot you with his gun and explosives (he would occasionally try to get around the box to you but if you move away he should retreat to his original position) The RNG side is the Helecopters explosive shots as its got a very side radius and will do a lot of damage. When you notice it's firing one of these,  jump way out of its radius and you should be fine. With Milton's explosives, he shot his much further so his would nearly all the time fall into the water behind you. 

 

MARCO CRUZ - This boss was very very tough to beat due to his ranged pinpoint attacks, he never stops shooting at you while some of his projectiles bounces off the walls and hitting you which seems to be all the time. My stretegy for him is keep shooting him from afar while constantly moving so hopefully his shots miss. And if you want a breather go behind one of the big boxes as for me he just stopped shooting at you and stayed still until you came out, I also used that opportunity to quick save when I felt I did good on a part... If it weren't for the quick save option I don't think I would have been able to do this boss as he hits hard while shooting pin point shots, killing you in seconds. 

 

JACK THE RIPPER - I really did not like this boss at all. The hardest and longest part of the fight was when he was in his true form self as he was very erratic, climbing on the ceiling and jumping down to take a stab at you that it got a bit ridiculous how much you had to hop around as he will try to stab you over and over and over again. Also I thought the boss was kind of scary also as now the arena you fight him in is really dark that it made me jump a few times as he will just pop up in front of you... There is a tip is you look on page 1 about how to make this fight easier but I didn't know this at the time. 

 

 

If they do end up patching in disabling the quick save option, good god. I would imagine this would have stayed Ultra Rare as without that option you'd have to get the boss fights spot on with the RNG on your side throughout the entire fights. The normal stages you'd have no issues with as quick saving doesn't help in combat levels (I didn't use the quick save in any of the normal mission's, apart from the boss stages when fighting some of the bosses). 

Good luck to everyone who attempts this after/if it does gets patched in, if this game does get released on the PS5 with new trophies I would happily play the game again but if the quick save option weren't there on the hardest difficulty... Not a chance ?

Edited January 8, 2023 by ZachBoardyHD

[Creasy007]

Is it confirmed that they’ll be patching the quick save option or just a fear some players are having? 

[ZachBoardyHD]

9 minutes ago, Creasy007 said:

Is it confirmed that they’ll be patching the quick save option or just a fear some players are having? 

The PC version on horror difficulty doesn't have the quick save option available, the devs even confirmed that disabling the quick save is intended for the horror difficulty only, so when they brought the DLC/updates to consoles, that was forgot. The problem is they've not acknowledged they've forgotten to take the quick save option out of the console versions but with their confirmation about how the quick save is being disabled for the horror difficulty and is intended to be that way when the PC update came out. 

I'd say it's very certain they'll soon patch it in for consoles or whenever they realise they've forgotten about it. 

Edited January 8, 2023 by ZachBoardyHD

[Mav_Ryk_1]

Anyone know of a vid showing the supposed barrel to hide behind for Jack, the fight is impossible. When cutscene ends in my game there are only yellow skulls in the corner of the room, no barrel. Done everything I can to try and beat him legit but he moves way too fast, can barely get a few hits in before it's over.

[Mav_Ryk_1]

On 01/01/2023 at 5:55 PM, Copanele said:

I just defeated Jack the Ripper now, the old strat of jumping behind the left barrel right after the cutscene ends and sniping the stupid Jack from the ceiling still works.

When he teleports, go to the room directly opposite to your barrel (right room the moment you enter the arena) and aggro him, run back behind the barrel and continue the pelting. 

Fighting him legit is a nightmare.

I found Marco Cruz to be way more infuriating, especially because of his ricochet bullets. I had to hide behind boxes, attacked him with Marteau (because of the homing fire) and then Shadowgun + Violator. Definitely a fight where I abused the quicksave  

Only 3 of the mooks left...I am not looking forward to reaching The Lizard King (Gardelle County Jail is way more awful than the actual fight)

Where is this barrel you speak of in the Jack fight?, as soon as cutscene ends there are yellow skulls the n both room corners, no barrels, fight is impossible, moves too fast and Mike is a cumbersome, slow mess.

[Copanele]

24 minutes ago, Mav_Ryk_1 said:

Where is this barrel you speak of in the Jack fight?, as soon as cutscene ends there are yellow skulls the n both room corners, no barrels, fight is impossible, moves too fast and Mike is a cumbersome, slow mess.

Oh dear...i meant that there are barrels in each corner of the rooms that drop..skulls...

For some reason your barrels broke before you even started the fight ?

Damn this game can be horror

[StraightVege]

21 hours ago, ZachBoardyHD said:

Good luck to everyone who attempts this after/if it does gets patched in, if this game does get released on the PS5 with new trophies I would happily play the game again but if the quick save option weren't there on the hardest difficulty... Not a chance

 

Well played, sir! Same here, although I think I would still attempt to finish it in this scenario, being that Shadow Man is one of my favorite all-time games. In any case, I'm doubtful the old Engine Block skip will ever be affected by patches, so that's always an option for the less scrupulous among us. ?

 

Has there been any rumor of a PS5 version, by the way? I haven't been following Nightdive's activities too closely as of late.

[Der_Schwabbler]

Are we actually sure that you are not supposed to be able to save in The Horror difficulty? @ZachBoardyHD Could you link the page where the developers said that they forgot to turn off saving? Both quicksaves / quickloads as well as normal saving and loading is enabled to for me. Also the patch notes (Update history) doesn't mention anything regarding restricted saving.

 

If you look at the Steam patch notes here (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1413870?emclan=103582791469844333&emgid=3363641088420924917) it says

Quote

You are limited to saving your game only once per level. You can save again when entering a level, activating a Teddy Bear warp point for the first time, or your shadow level increases.

But this is for the Beta version.

If you look at the release notes here (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1413870?emclan=103582791469844333&emgid=3649634250033778361) the part with the restricted saving is gone.

 

Of course I can't guarantee that saving will not be patched out in the future but I think right now it's working as intended.

Edited January 9, 2023 by Der_Schwabbler
Typo

[MetalFearbringer]

On 1/5/2023 at 5:21 PM, StraightVege said:

@MetalFearbringer  Glad it worked for you! The positioning image you've shared is very helpful; if you don't mind, I'll edit it into the guide.

Yes of course, hopefully it helps other players that don't feel like playing in a super cheesy hard difficulty. Don't forget to add the X sensitivity to max so the strafe technique can work (Making 2 consecutive jumps with both analogs facing the direction you want to go sideways)

[Elite_Agent_009]

Finally done, Jesus Christ that was really bad, enemies are in roids, bosses look like they took cocaine (especially Jack the Ripper with 'that' stabbing animation), Shadow Gun does awful damage plus it doesnt drop health anymore. The sisters are almost impossible to fight if there is like 4 in the room (especially the purple ones and the red ones, dont even know how the devs think thats even close to fair) and the Sniper Guard Hookman now has two new attacks, you get close he will fry you with the new flamethrower he has, get far? get gibbed by his new grenade launcher, super fun in early game, specially when you are in tight rooms in the asylum.

 

The rewards you get for beating it are these if someone wants to know:

 

-You get a 10 sec cutscene with jaunty drinking some beers in deadside, pretty cool.

 

-Ability to play New Game+ by inputting a code after beating the difficulty

 

About the saving thing, its intended that you can now save when you want, anytime. The save once per teddy bear or warp level has been moved to the 'Ironman Mode' which you can active by inputting a code aswell. Not only that but if you die once the game just ends and you have to reload your save to continue.

 

Good luck to eveybody going for this legit, its a real headache in the early game and its going to feel like a real slog.

 

 

[Mav_Ryk_1]

On 08/01/2023 at 7:04 AM, Copanele said:

Oh dear...i meant that there are barrels in each corner of the rooms that drop..skulls...

For some reason your barrels broke before you even started the fight

Damn this game can be horror

Ah, guess won't be doing this game then, it's just skulls in the corner everytime I play, it's way beyond me how to beat him legit, the controls and Mike are just too cumbersome to fight someone who moves like The Flash and kills in 1 hit. Only good thing about it is now I've completely gone off hunting trophies, stuff like this just sucks any enjoyment outta gaming.

Edited January 10, 2023 by Mav_Ryk_1

[Hudel1996]

 

I found a speedrun here.  Has anyone tried this jumping technique?  That would speed up and simplify the horror run a lot.

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by Hudel1996

[Phemt666]

On 10/2/2023 at 10:10 AM, Hudel1996 said:

 

I found a speedrun here.  Has anyone tried this jumping technique?  That would speed up and simplify the horror run a lot.

 

Hello there, today June 25 2023, I confirm that all the jumps are still doable, even on console. Did it today, following that exact video. It takes a bit of practice with controller. I did what @StraightVege suggested, to set x-axis sensitivity to maximum, it helps a lot. (@StraightVege quoted you and your tip in my comment below that video, in case someone want to try that, thx man )

Also, quicksaves/quickloads still work

Edited June 25, 2023 by Phemt666

[StraightVege]

Great to hear, @Phemt666! Unfortunately, I didn't see your post until now, since the name tags didn't seem to work correctly.

 

But, yes, the trick in that video has already been discussed in detail within this very thread, as well as in my topic here. It doesn't seem like something which would ever be patched, but who knows.

[Phemt666]

On 15/7/2023 at 3:10 AM, StraightVege said:

Great to hear, @Phemt666! Unfortunately, I didn't see your post until now, since the name tags didn't seem to work correctly.

 

But, yes, the trick in that video has already been discussed in detail within this very thread, as well as in my topic here. It doesn't seem like something which would ever be patched, but who knows.

If you mean my comment below that YouTube video, I just found out it got removed the day after I posted it ? Don't know why, I just thanked the creator of video and quoted this site and you for the tip of changing sensitivity, just to help others passing by the video and struggling with the controller. Kinda wierd? Maybe I'll post it again and see what happens

[Antiristus]

Silly question seeing as the game itself is the only Shadow Man product available in the PS Store, but this DLC is included in the game, yes?