Vanquish - Tricks & Techniques Tutorial

[@unknownsecret1000]

It's always nice to see when games that end up being niche/obscure 1) Have people still be committed to it so that 2) There's content like this that show just how deep it can get. It's always a shame to know these type of games always fall to the wayside; when you can see how it wasn't just some slapped together product. I don't know if this game will ever get a second life like how MGR found these past 2 years; but either way its always nice to know folks like you keep games like this alive

[@ZikosRealm]

Definitely. Figured it'll come in handy to show all this tech in one video. Yeah Vanquish gained a little traction with the pc release and console remaster but I don't see it gaining MGR levels of popularity without the music and the memes to back it up. Maybe a couple generations into the future with the re-re-remaster, when there's still nothing coming close to filling it's gap haha. Thanks man, good to know it's appreciated !

[@unknownsecret1000]

@Ziko's Realm Yeah, having a banger soundtrack and some of the most memeable memes will definitely help. Guess time will tell. And yeah, no prob! Always glad to follow fun things like this!

[@mattsspelman1457]

You guy's gonna kiss now?

[@Travis_Trauma]

Awesome lesson, we could have used this ten years ago.

[@Kole4ka_Sladenky]

This game is definitely ahead of its time. Unfortunately, there's no sequel of this masterpiece 😔

[@ZikosRealm]

Yeah sadly nothing has ever matched it in the shooting genre. It was called the future of TPS games back when it released so I expected to see more TPS/action hybrids going forward, instead of Vanquish itself still being the pinnacle 14 years later.

[@Master00167]

​@@ZikosRealm how much would you rate this game out of 10 ?

[@nav2Max_Light]

This is the level of mastery Shinji Mikami would want us Extreme players to learn !! Great video mate & WELCOME BACK TO VANQUISH !! 😎👍

[@ZikosRealm]

For sure ! Feels good to be back, thanks man.✌

[@theconsolekiller7113]

Great tutorial. Shows how much depth this game has.

[@ZikosRealm]

Thanks man ! ✌

[@theconsolekiller7113]

@@ZikosRealm No problem. Great to see these videos. Really mastered this game.

[@ZikosRealm]

@@theconsolekiller7113 Pretty much yeah. Happened naturally by dabbling in different playstyles but the fun doesn't have to end here. Still room to improve in style, set better challenge times or highscores, find new setups and just do random cool stuff.

[@theconsolekiller7113]

@@ZikosRealm Very nice. Yea the game has alot of replay when you go that deep with it. Its still one of my favorites.

[@ZikosRealm]

@@theconsolekiller7113 Same. I guess I'm the perfect target audience haha.

[@theguywithnoaccount]

I see that the Vanquish itch is back again! 😄 Excellently put together video, dude! Clear, concise, and covers every base beautifully! An advanced tech guide like this is exactly what I felt this game needed for a long time now, so major props and thanks to you for being the one to make it (and making it so well at that)! I'm sure it'll go a long ways in helping people see how much depth this game has. Speaking of, I'm still ever amazed by the fact that new stuff is still being found even now (the slow reloading weapon cancel and the LFE Gun crit against Argus). Also, I love how you just had to include a spicy little combo like the one at 3:26 even in a tutorial video, lol.

[@ZikosRealm]

Hey man, what's up ? Yeah I'm back from Vanquish hiatus. Nice ! I debated on more detailed explainations but chose to keep it simple in the end and let people do their own experimentation. Felt like the all the info was spread out too much and incomplete, plus this should answer a lot of questions I get asked. Yeah I mainly used that spicy clip to show you can HMG whiff that missile, and the sliding shotgun shot I like to use to follow up with a launch. For sure, that Argus critical also feels good to pull off because of it's strict timing. Would like to develop a strat with it to take down the Argus in challenge 5 fast in one go. It seems best to fire the LFE from medium range, just after the third EMP bursts start emminating from the core and trigger slomo when it's about to hit.

[@mclytesabr666]

This deserves way more views. I'm definitely gonna try a lot of this out the next time I play.

[@NuclearSorrow]

If anything this game has taught me, then it's that in challenge mode you need to use the Sam loadout arsenal to its peak.. great video as usual 👍

[@ZikosRealm]

Pretty much yeah. I mean you can brute force them but they're called tactical for good reasons. ✌

[@NuclearSorrow]

@@ZikosRealm brute force would be a suicide in challenges

[@ZikosRealm]

@@NuclearSorrow For sure, bad choice of words haha.

[@mkv2718]

wow… so many melee things i did not know you could do. really changes things up from being a get out of jail free card to an actual attack

[@ZikosRealm]

Nice ! Have fun experimenting !

[@darkdestructer]

Man I just discovered this game for myself. Never played it back then and finally decided to give it a go. this might be my new favorite fps game. thanks for the tips on my road to platinuming this game, homie !

[@ZikosRealm]

Good stuff man, Vanquish is a real gem ! Have fun bro ! ✌

[@SamOnKBD]

a lot of very obscure stuff, especially like the animation cancel/priority ones. good job! :) i think the most obscure thing that i would want to add to this is this: when you transition from sliding to melee dashing, you can do it instantly. but if you are melee dashing, you need a "rollout" before you can start sliding. so for some small IL routing optimizations you may want to get rid of transitions from melee dashing to sliding. obviously, when you choose to slide or melee dash will depend on your "boost" bar and if there are enemies around as well.

[@ZikosRealm]

Nice ! Didn't know or realize that at all. Thanks for the tip. Yeah I didn't include any speedrun specific tech because I don't really have any experience running campaign. Nordanix has a great playlist showing skips and individual level strategies.

[@SamOnKBD]

@@ZikosRealm yeah nordanix is the goat, there was a lot of information on the guides section on the leaderboard, something that i haven't experienced even when speedrunning much more popular games than vanquish. and there were very detailed descriptions on the individual level leaderboard runs in the submission comment, which inspired me to do the same when i managed to beat some of those times

[@ZikosRealm]

@@SamOnKBD for sure haha. Yeah he's very committed and involved. You're a GOAT player too man , great stuff !

[@Nekaelia]

I didn't know Vanquish was that deep. Thank you!

[@ZikosRealm]

Have fun ! ✌

[@preposteroussvideos]

I needed this 10 years ago😭

[@alpacino4857]

Game Director Shinji Mikami is at another level. The second spot best director is at a far away second spot.

[@ZikosRealm]

One of the best for sure !

[@CoolHandMikeYT]

A lot of cool stuff. Ex did not know the Argus was susceptible to that fast damage glitch with the LFE and AR. The unknown being exposed with the disk launcher melee was cool too. One thing I would add is the infinite grenade exploit where if you are running throw a grenade and then switch to the other type you can keep using them.

[@ZikosRealm]

Nice ! I'm not convinced that the Argus critical hit is considered a glitch. The damage seems to be fixed and not tied to high fps like the 2-3 nightmare fps exploit strat on pc. There's only a small window of opportunity to pull it off, during the closing animation of the core when it's starts retracting, possibly increasing the hitbox for that moment. Then again, it's strange there's no damage increase from other weapons. No clue if it's intended or not. Haven't done any further testing but I wonder if it's present in the OG 30 fps release as well.

[@armoredcorefan93]

really love this game, thanks for posting

[@ZikosRealm]

Tnx and have fun. ✌

[@jackek96]

Awesome tutorial, I finished game on normal and now doing hard and want to learn more tricks

[@ZikosRealm]

✌

[@HoiKaiSamXin]

I look forward to your mission gameplay

[@ZikosRealm]

Do you mean individual levels ?

[@HoiKaiSamXin]

@@ZikosRealm i mean mission，ACT 1、ACT 2，apply them to actual gameplay

[@ZikosRealm]

@@HoiKaiSamXin Ok like that. Just normal gameplay or highscore run or stylish gameplay ? I'm working on a little freestyle video now and plan to play missions after that.

[@meraclechamlotte9291]

Do you know how the health regen works? Are we supposed to not take damage for a few seconds for the health to start regenerating? I think I read somewhere it was like 3 seconds without taking damage before our health can regenerate. Do you know? And does health still regenerate if we are overheating? I think yes, but can't be too sure. What do you think?

[@ZikosRealm]

Yeah I think health regenerates like normal while overheating. I'm not entirely sure about your other question but think that's true as well.

[@astrea555]

Holy wow incredible!

[@ZikosRealm]

[@1edixo]

Bruh I was thinking bout replaying vanquish today and was curious to see if there were some advanced techniques to lab bruh good thing i looked it up

[@1edixo]

is there somewhere to lab the tech? I don’t remember if there is a tutorial level or not

[@ZikosRealm]

@@1edixo Good stuff. You came to the right place man. I covered most of the tech in this vid but have a few other short tutorials on my page. There's no tutorial room, got to practice in real time or in empty open spaces.✌

[@1edixo]

@@ZikosRealm oh bet that’s no problem lol that’s how i learned dmc3 tech, open spaces and some of the rooms with infinite respawns this gon be a breeze

[@ZikosRealm]

@@1edixo Have at it man.

[@theconsolekiller7113]

Very nice. Those loops are super useful. I see you reload cancelled on the shotgun, maybe 3rd shot. I may have to practice that in 5-3.

[@ZikosRealm]

Yeah cause you'll need 3 shots to pull it off. Even without the loop, playing a bit of 5-3 to warm up before challenge 6 goes a long way in taking the edge of so it'll be less intense when you'll face the Bogeys again.

[@theconsolekiller7113]

@@ZikosRealm Great suggestion. Which difficulty is closest to the challenge? I know things really change when you play on God Hard. Even with the missing minions that should be helpful. Im assuming I should spawn kill all the minions immediately so I can deal with the bogies.

[@ZikosRealm]

@@theconsolekiller7113 Just realized I forgot to mention that for starters, it's easier to roll back into slowmo after the 2nd shotgun hit to make the 3rd hit easier to time and safer to do. Sucks I also didn't think about that when making this vid. Their Ai and movement is God Hard, their HP only at Normal, and damage they do might be set to Hard. So it's tricky to recommend a difficulty to practice on. Mayb get a feel for it on normal if you need to, otherwise start on Hard? If you get it down on those difficulties mayb check it out on GH as well if you can manage. Otherwise just keep in mind they'll wakeup faster in the challenge. You can also use the 1-8 level with the single Bogey if that's easier to reach. And keep the campaign checkpoint for fast acces to practice again come next session. ✌

[@theconsolekiller7113]

@@ZikosRealm That makes sense with the slow motion. When I got back to the bogies on God Hard, many years later, it took me about 3 1/2 hours to beat them, so definately takes a while, ha ha. Maybe Ill practice on hard. Right now I still have only gotten to round 5 maybe once in that challenge. Interesting about the faster wake ups too. Alot of tweaks. Definately not a lazy add on by the developer. Hopefully will get a session in soon.

[@ZikosRealm]

@@theconsolekiller7113 Hard should be fine yeah. I'm sure most ppl who finished 6 didn't practice on or even finish GH so you're going to have some advantage from that already. Yeah it's probably best to save Bogey practice for when you can reach 5 somewhat consistently. Even if it's just to get more familiar and make them feel less intense. Yeah man it makes a huge difference that their HP is only normal. Would've been a hell of a lot tougher if that was set to hard as well. 😅

[@meraclechamlotte9291]

If enemies get behind you, what will you do? Bogeys often get behind me in close range. Positioning is really hard to do for me, I don't know how to prevent getting flanked or shot from behind, or how to react in that situation. How do you know if your positioning is bad and that you need to reposition/relocate? Once enemies get behind me, usually it only takes a few seconds before I die.

[@meraclechamlotte9291]

I don't understand why the rocket launcher and LFE sometimes doesn't want to shoot. Maybe it's glitched if you're doing it while taking cover. Often they simply refuse to shoot, Sam will act like he wants to shoot repeatedly performing the animation but no projectile comes out from the weapon. In other cases, it seems like I perform the weapon switch reload cancel too fast that the rocket launcher/LFE hasn't even finished the reloading animation when I switched back. Even though I only start switching weapon when the red text reload comes out.

[@ZikosRealm]

There aren't any bugs like that. There's a longer animation when shooting from cover because Sam has to peek out from, or over the obstacle first.

[@meraclechamlotte9291]

​@@ZikosRealmthen that must be it, I don't know of such a thing. I think the LFE or rocket launcher just keeps changing its form when I do it from cover, the weapon can't decide if it's ready to shoot or not, just constantly changing its form... I thought it was a glitch and pretty upset about it.

[@ZikosRealm]

@@meraclechamlotte9291That sounds different. Do you have any footage of that?

[@AftermathRain]

Great video, my guy! Do you play on PS4?

[@ZikosRealm]

Heey tnx man. Yeah I play the PS4 version on PS5.

[@AftermathRain]

@@ZikosRealm Nice. Good to know. It's always good watching great gameplay of a shooter knowing the player is playing with a controller. I was planning on getting Vanquish on PS4 and get into it again. Played it back on the 360 but my disc got messed up. Are most of these techniques reliable for God Hard?

[@ZikosRealm]

@@AftermathRain You're better off playing the ps4 version anyway for that higher framerate. I also prefer the d-pad position from the Dualshock for easier reload cancels and weapon swapping but that may be a personal preference. Yeah you can pull them off on any difficulty but I usually play on Hard because it's a whole lot less restrictive to get creative. There's some obscure stuff you may never feel the need to use but it's there if you want to try some new stuff or spice up your routine.

[@wc999]

thanks for the video

[@ZikosRealm]

Have fun ! ✌

[@meraclechamlotte9291]

How exactly do you shotgun reload cancel? How do you have such a high firing rate with the shotgun?

[@ZikosRealm]

Reload cancelling the shotgun works in the same way as the HMG, for example. You empty the magazine or hit reload manually, then wait for the reload animation to start indicated by ''reload'' in red letters. Then switch to another weapon and quickly switch back. Note that the weapon you're swapping to has to be a fast unfolding one like the HMG or AR. Hope that clears things up !

[@meraclechamlotte9291]

@@ZikosRealm Oh I was actually wondering why you can shoot the shotgun a lot more often than me. When I shoot the shotgun it takes forever to shoot another. Not talking about reload when your magazine is empty.

[@ZikosRealm]

@@meraclechamlotte9291 Oh like that. No I'm not shooting it faster then normal. For reference, the part in the tutorial where I show the shotgun reload cancel against the bogey is done on God Hard without any upgrades.

[@meraclechamlotte9291]

@@ZikosRealm what's the point of doing shotgun reload cancel when you can just shoot normally with the shotgun?

[@ZikosRealm]

@@meraclechamlotte9291 The point is to skip the slow reload animation when you have an empty clip, or just to fill the magazine fast in a moment that suits you. In case of the Bogey knockdown loop for example, you constantly need to have at least 3 bullets in the clip for the full loop, so you have to reload cancel the moment the Bogey gets knocked down to be able to continue the loop because there's only 5 bullets in the magazine.

[@greengus9925]

Sorry I’m late, but just a quick question coming from Doom Eternal, since you can animation cancel the reload by swapping weapons, would you recommend maximizing dps but switching weapons often or just switching back to the weapon you wanna reload to save on ammo? I really appreciate this video because every time I try to play this game I can’t seem to figure it out, but this has been a huge help!

[@ZikosRealm]

Best advice is to use reload cancel to your advantage as much as you can, to play as fast and efficient as possible. Wether that's quickly swapping back to continue using the same weapon, reload cancelling after a kill to refill the mag, reloading before swapping to another gun, before pressing the melee button, during enemy hit-stun or knock down, etc. As for DPS, More often then not you'll want to play specific weapons like trump cards to exploit enemy weaknesses like knockback and hitstun, rather then unloading a continuous stream of bullets from a random gun. The depth of Vanquish is best enjoyed when swapping weapons in your loadout accordingly depending on the enemy types or situation you'll be facing. You'll learn over time and through experimenting which weapons are best to choose at any given point in the game. Also depends on playstyle, like shooting for a high score run, speed focused playstyle or freestyle play. I think the most versatile and efficient loadout is to mostly have HMG in upper slot ,mostly have shotgun in down slot, and look at the middle slot as flexible, according to the enemy or level i'm facing. I think that's a solid way to experiment untill you know exactly what you want to pick up at any given time.✌

[@greengus9925]

@@ZikosRealm thanks for the advice! I’m playing the way you mentioned towards the end in terms of load out, this video was extremely helpful! I look forward to playing at your skill level 500 hours from now

[@ZikosRealm]

Hope you'll enjoy the ride haha! Have fun and thanks for your comment. 🙏@@greengus9925

[@hombre-lobo5673]

Mikami is a genius!

[@ZikosRealm]

Yeah I'd love to see Mikami and PlatinumGames collaborate on more projects.

[@judasnexus9256]

Nice video 🎉

[@ZikosRealm]

Thanks

[@kronosa.5797]

Si que me sirvió para poder explotar al máximo sus mecánicas

[@ZikosRealm]

👍

[@snzsentenzaxd]

13 years passed and we don't have Vanquish sequel unfortunately

[@ZikosRealm]

Yeah it really sucks that it didn't get much more popular. Definitely should've spawned a sequel or two.

[@qthestruggler2715]

Wait so how do you actually do the disk launcher melee glitch?

[@ZikosRealm]

There's no specific glitch tied to the Disk Launcher. It's melee only uses ammo instead of depleting the AR bar by design. One thing I forgot to mention in this vid is that we can mash the Disk Launcher melee to extend it's duration, for upto 3 secs I think. ✌

[@kizuma4269]

3:06 is this a glitch ?

[@mthacks4297]

How do you melee and not use all of your energy?

[@ZikosRealm]

Think I covered most of the ways to do that in this tutorial. Like the ''HMG melee whiff'' against Romanov, incoming missiles and Unknown's core. The Disk Launcher melee only uses ammo, and hitting the Buzzard's hands and Unknown's body also don't cause the suit to overheat. One thing I didn't mention is that we can also melee without overheating when the limiters are released, after taking down one of the Bogey bro's during the final boss fight.

[@mthacks4297]

@@ZikosRealm Ah got it. I thought you had different melee weapons didn't know they were tied to the guns. Disk launcher melee looks cool although I'm not a huge fan of the weapon itself.

[@ZikosRealm]

@@mthacks4297 When playing normally I mostly run with HMG and shotgun and rotate what's in the other slot depending on the level or enemies I'm facing. I Like to use Disk Launcher for it's melee cause it's free, staggers most enemies, and allows the AR meter to replenish in the meantime. But it's regular shots are pretty good in some situations as well.

[@NiCoNiCoNiCola]

Why is this tutorial isn't in the actual game? I never even knew half the melee stuff

[@ZikosRealm]

That's a good excuse to replay the game and try out some new stuff. 😄

[@paulhubbard1747]

Plays at 90fps on oled deck full settings.enjoy

[@kizuma4269]

3:06 is this a glitch ?

[@ZikosRealm]

This has been around since the original release and works in all versions, but I guess it's a glitch or exploit from a technical point of view. This trick has been adopted by the community as ''tech'', since it doesn't give an unfair advantage and only really adds more depth to the game. Incorporating unintended interactions as tech happens a lot in stylish action games because it gives players more ways to express themselves.

[@kizuma4269]

@@ZikosRealm I just fear that it breaks the game nalance or something for me .

[@ZikosRealm]

No worries, it only works against those Romanov enemy types, and it's easier and faster to just stun them with a shotgun. You need to be at a specific distance to do this trick without overheating.@@kizuma4269

[@kizuma4269]

3:06 is this a glitch ?