Combat Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

The basic thing that you need to remember, throughout the entire game, is the rule of one life. Everything living, on the map, dies after one strike or bullet. There are four exceptions here. The first one are beefcakes, that are resistant to the majority of melee weapons, they are invulnerable to throwables and, after being shot, they either die instantly, or after several seconds. The second exception are the sword fighters in the Take Over mission, who are capable of dodging each bullet shot at them. They cannot be reached with a throwable and they need to be killed in melee. The third exception is the special police officer in the Final Cut mission. After he is attacked, with any weapon, he loses his consciousness and he gets up after several seconds. He needs to be stunned first and finished off afterwards. This takes several seconds and makes you completely exposed to enemy attacks. The fourth exception is the situation, in which an opponent can take several bullets, fired from the pistol or the machine gun. All the rest of the opponents, i.e. humans and dogs, die instantly after they are shot. It is also worth mentioning that dogs get faster when close to you. Therefore, you should always try to shoot them from distance or attack with a melee weapon early enough.

Apart from the abovementioned opponents, the one-life rule goes for you also. This forces you to approach fights carefully. You can dash into a room full of enemies only if you have plan on how to clear it, and there are no gunmen inside. Otherwise, you die quickly, after a blow or after you take a bullet and you will have to start over. For the purposes of safety, you should fight away from windows, and especially, you should not turn your back at them. There is a high chance that you then get killed by the opponent at the other side.

For this reason, it is better to fight against the smallest groups of opponents possible, who are either going your direction, or following your footsteps. This will allow you to eliminate them quickly, without fear of being attacked by someone else. Also, it is better to fight in a small room with one door only, than in a big one with many windows. Fighting in big rooms is good only in situations, in which you have a firearm, the opponents fight without weapons and there are no shooters patrolling nearby area. Otherwise, a big room means a risk of replaying the stage.

While fighting with any weapon, you need to keep in mind the reload time. This goes for both firearms and melee weapons, which in the case of the latter, means the interval between two individual strikes. This is important, because you will often be fighting groups of enemies. You kill the first one and the second one takes advantage of the interval, between the strikes, or shots, and gets you. This is especially important in the case of pistols and shotguns, because the projectiles from both kill only the first target in their way. If the enemies are running your direction, one after another, and you shoot at them, you kill only the first one. You need to fire again to eliminate the next one. This problem is nonexistent in the case of melee weapons, which kills everything within range, regardless of the numbers. For this reason, one of the most effective tactics is luring opponents out, into the neighboring rooms, hiding behind the corner and killing them in one, or two, strikes of the knife or the bar. Also, this allows you to stun some of them with the door.

While fighting with firearms, remember about ammo. After the clip depletes, you can still throw your weapon but, in the majority of cases, you do not kill anyone with that. Therefore, after each shootout, switch your weapon to the one with more ammo in the clip. This is especially important in the case of shotguns and machine guns. A machine gun, with two rounds left, given its inaccuracy, is useless. The same goes for the shotgun, especially if you are going to fight a bigger group of opponents.

While fighting with firearms, you also need to focus on a given opponent, with the lock on. Roll over the opponent and press the middle mouse button. If everything is right, the reticle turns red and your character will be following the opponent that you have locked on. This allows you more precision, especially against moving opponents. It is not necessary to complete the game and it is difficult to use against big groups of enemies, but it is useful against single targets, e.g. after you enter a room, or lean out from behind a cover. You just have to be careful when the target dies, because lock on will the stop working. It may cause you trouble when fighting multiple enemies, because after killing one of them, the aim will suddenly change its position and the rest of your bullets will fly in a wrong direction. Lock on doesn't work when playing on high level of difficulty.