Had a blast beating TR2 NG+ and here is how I did it the easy way and how to do some basic speedrunning strats. This could work as a template for regular NG doing the speedrun achievment, just gotta have to switch things up a bit (as in not bother taking the secrets when they give you harpoon ammo xD etc).
I will assume you’re already familiar with the game already so this is not a proper step by step walkthrough, more like general tips and tricks for the hardest parts. You should already be comfortable with the game, knowing the secrets locations and all. Watching a speedrun is great too as it provides an idea of how the glitches look like and how they should be done. I’m not a speedrunner and we’re not even trying to do an actual speedrun so no worries, it’s something anyone could do with very little practice and we only go for the super easy glitches.
About the achievements. you may unlock some in NG+ but most do not. So don’t think too much about it and focus on beating the game.Good luck 😀
STUFF TO KNOW BEFORE YOU START
何よりもまず. you get to save at anytime so use and abuse it.
Getting all secrets in a level grants medpacks (4 合計で, sometimes a mix of large and small, other times only large) so make sure you get them when possible. You must consider if getting 4 medpacks are worth potentially wasting the same amount or more. As usual beating a level refills your health so if you’re near death but you know you’re at the end, well then stay low hp lol who cares.
Make sure you’re good with fighting strats. keep moving and get in their backs. Going melee range on gun guys and rolling will force them to run in circle trying to face you. this is when you roll again and repeat the loop, thus killing them with no damage taken if done right. Melee ennemies you want to shot them while backflipping or find some elevation to deal with them. It’s not always an option though and sometimes the best move is to ignore ennemies and just keep going in order to avoid risking medpacks and/or ammo. Underwater ennemies we do not care about and shoot them with real guns from above or we ignore them completely.
Learn some speedrun strats. we can’t get the speedrun achievement in NG+ so there’s no point in rushing the game, better take your time and cheese any situation when possible. Still the skips you get to perform are a blessing as it saves supplies (less encounters means, また, not wasting ammo / precious medpacks). Also running and jumping is faster than just running. Might sound obvious but it’s really helpful to keep that in mind when you’re running away or trying to close the gap towards the ennemy. That being said you can’t outrun some ennemies as they are still faster than you (tigers and such).
Quick gun review. basic pistols are always good to save ammo when cheesing ennemies. Auto pistols. 素晴らしい, that’s your go-to main weapon for most of the game. Shotgun is meh, could be great, could be your downfall, it’s too slow in most situations. Uzis. they are the best, try to save ammo for Floating islands / dragon’s lair. M16. very awkward, yet it has high damage and is useful as a sniping tool, I used it on flying Xian warriors and a few specific ennemies but that’s about it. Grenade launcher. very situationnal, it’s too slow and too easy to miss your target, unreliable in most cases. ハープーンガン. who cares xD
1. The Great Wall
Easiest level, get all pickups including secrets. Try to take as little damage as possible in order to not waste a medpack.
Avoid the shuriken trap in the flooded room by hanging on the ledge if you’re uncomfortable dodging them in the water. they do hurt a lot now.
Cheese the dinos by staying in the gold dragon location. they can’t reach you there. The tigers at the end might be slow enough to catch you, maybe burn a small medpack if you must, that’s ok.
2. Venice
Snipe the first gunner on the balcony from below by jumping left and right ; no damage is possible if stars are aligned. Then move slowly towards the house. it’s possible to trigger the dog alone so go for it.
Then proceed as normally, get stone and gold dragons. Once outside use the guns while on the boat (open inventory and manually select guns) in order to kill the gun guys easily. one near the other boat, one midway through and one at the switch near the ramps.
Grab the jade dragon along the way and swim under the wooden door so there’s no timer to worry about. Don’t bother with the side rooms.
3. Bartoli’s Hideout
Here we start doing some funny stuff. There’s too many ennemies. it’s not worth doing the whole level.
Play normally until you get to blast a window leading to a balcony with a gunner. You could trigger him and run back to the previous room to cheese him, it’s hard to avoid damage otherwise.
Follow the fence until you hit your face on the wall. roll twice from this position and walk through the fence thus skipping a good chunk of the level. From here you may jump on the wooden roof and go get the uzis (but it doesn’t matter if you don’t) and drop down to the courtyard into the library.
Open the door in front of you. 2 gunners blast through the windows. これは難しい, either trigger them and move backwards to fight them in the main room or just run past them towards the small wooden door and heal if need be (probability of having to burn a medpack. 99%).
Here just go for the jade dragon location (we skipped the other secrets so whatever) and climb to the end of the level. Funnily enough jumping+action doesn’t let you climb but vaulting (action+forward) works lol let’s go.
4. Opera House
Ok this one may be the hardest level. it’s filled with gunner ennemies so we’ll skip most of it.
First jump on the ledge on your right (or left your choice) and snipe the gunner below. Then go get the key and proceed normally until you reach the crumbling roof room.
Alternatively you could corner glitch on the roof from the very start, jump with late grab to the locked door and glitch your way through the wall there.
Either way get into the mega room filled with ennemies. make sure you start shooting first, forcing the gunner to move and thus not be shooting you. Multiple options here ; either you fall fake-grabbing for the gold dragon, then glitch through the elevator, or just play as intended until you reach the upper part of the opera.
Here we just do the curved “banana” jump and head straight for the end. Don’t bother with the ennemies and mini boss in the last room. It is best to stay above, jumping from crate to crate but if you fall like I did it’s not the end of the world and you could make it too.
5. Offshore Rig
No major trick here, play the level as you usually would. Early on rush for the windows the gunner is supposed to break for you and roll through instead, then jump on the plane to get your pistols back.
Be careful in the other parts of the level. you want to move slowly in order to trigger the bat guys one at a time, if you’re too fast you’ll have to beat multiple at once, that’s unnecessary. Get the autopistols and the harpoon gun, stone and jade dragon on the way.
In the giant room with catwalks and water below, try killing the diver dudes from above, just like you should be able to snipe everyone from afar using pistols. The gold dragon location triggers 2 bat guys, kill them with the shotgun (4 shots each lol). One of them drops the M16. On your way back to the green lock room there will be an enemy in a small corridor, use the shotgun again.
6. Diving Area
Do the usual thing and get the grenades behind the giant fan. Then you want to jump on the small platform with swinging hooks and jump again towards the batguys (thus avoiding a dog and a gunner).
You want to kill the batguys here so use autopistols or something. Otherwise they might follow you into the stone dragon location and that that’s a big no-no. You could also try to cheese them from the hook block but it takes forever and the gunner behind you might come around.
Then do the snake eater ladder memes until you get to open the doors leading to the main area. Here there’s 4 dogs and a flamethrower guy, very easy to die here. The best move is to go right first and kill 2 dogs with autopistols, then move left and deal with the 2 other dogs and the fire guy from a distance.
Proceed normally through the level until you get to the diving part with the jade dragon. Here I feel it’s a smart move to bait the divers into the first room and kill them with pistols as they can be troublesome. From the last room in this section you could perform a curved banana jump or a diving corner glitch, thus skipping a fair chunk of the level. Keep going until you reach the end and don’t forget to ignore the monk to get the gold dragon.
7. 40 Fathoms
Not too many options here, play as intended and make sure you get the stone dragon before dropping in the room below. Then go for the jade dragon (hidden switch at the entrance).
We can’t run through the fire and spam medpacks. the fire is just too strong. Play as you normally would and keep going, grab the gold dragon on the way.
The following rooms with “ごみ” your’re supposed to move around, you may do it as intended or perform the swan dive skip. It’s a bit tricky but really not that hard, it prevents a diver from spawning so that’s good. Wether you do it or not the very last room is a death trap if the shotgun bro feels like doing his job today, so just go for the switch, eat some medpacks and reach the end level while ignoring these nerds.
8. Wreck of the Maria Doria
Here we could do the circuit breaker skip glitch by virtue of killing a bat guy in a specific spot and glitch our way upwards, but I’m not good enough to do it reliably so I’ll give you another easier way to get through this level.
初め. play as intended until you get to move a few blocks leading to a huge blue wooden room. There’s a few ennemies there so make sure you deal with the shotgun guy first and flip around to avoid the batguys (be careful of another gunner on an upper floor). Once the room is clear, go get the key near the broken glass and move to the upper level to get a single circuit breaker. Then move back to the entrance (the upside down swimming pool), and reach the room with the fire you’re supposed to turn off.
Again it’s hard to avoid damage here so just rush the gun guys. When you’re safe we’ll do an item dupe glitch. First use the circuit breaker manually (get to the lock, open inventory and select the circuit breaker), move to the next lock and again, open the inventory and manually select the key you got earlier. You’ll know this is working because the item isn’t rotating in the inventory screen. If you press action to auto use then it won’t work so save before trying. Keep doing this to turn off all the fires and pull the block to reach the lever. One sneaky bat guy above so be ready to use some real gun.
Proceed to the end of the level as you would usually do. In the last room with broken glass on the floor and gun people everywhere, don’t even bother. just find a spot to dive in the water and get to the end of the level.
9. 居住区
Play as intended for 1 minute and realize there’s a few tricky early encounters you’d rather skip straight up by glitching towards the level in the machine room (the first proper room). It’s a bit hard to explain with words and there’s multiple ways of performing this glitch.
The way I did it. facing the normal corridor path move towards the left corner leading to the machines. Get ready to perform a corner glitch but roll instead of the usual straight jump. This lever will flood the room below and despawn ennemies so that’s good. 立ち止まるな.
In the other wierd machine room you’re supposed to activate levers and do all sorts of things but you could just jump forwards+grab the ledge leading to the end from the very beginning. So let’s do this instead xD
Once you get to the blue wooden parts the end is near. get rid of the ennemies on the way and there you can do a long jump to the end to skip the theater room. Walk to the edge, hop back once, do one jump to give you some extra distance and do a regular running long jump with a late grab, this might require multiple attempts lol
10. The Deck
Ok this level could go very wrong but we’ll skip some parts and still get the dragons. From the very start, going towards the open area. note the sliding slope on the left side, this is important. Deal with the bat and flamethrower guys first and explore this floor to get the grenades in a corner, come back to the slope.
Here you may perfom a glitch to lift you upwards. It’s a bit hard to explain and there’s many setups but here’s how I do it. First face the slope and walk to its left corner until you can’t anymore. Roll once. Then slightly tap right twice to give you some angle. Perform a backwards rolling jump and immediately press action+forward. YES you’re on the 2nd floor already 😀 .
From here go straight to the next slope. you could do the same glitch again but I couldn’t be bothered and moved the crate instead, leading to the next floor. Be careful as reaching floors this way could trigger some random bat guys to spawn in your back and they just walk these slopes like it’s nothing so keep your ears open.
Next slope do the same as the first one (walk to it) but here you can just do a slightly curved jump forward+grab, nothing too crazy (bat guy spawns, some gunner down below too so give yourself some room to deal with the bat guy and ignore the gunner).
From here walk the stairs and you’ll see a wierd sloped block on your immediate left. Climb it from behind and slide jump to the roof. Here just go straight, jump to the other roof and fall through the trapdoor.
From this position play the level as you should xD There’s a lever behind a block in this room and now some bat+shotgun guys will spawn so strategically kite them around the area.
It is now time to get through the caves leading to the huge fall with mandadory damage, in order to get the key on the boat. Once you’re there get the stone dragon in the water and get back to the upper deck floor through the cave.
After getting the storage key on the very top of the level, just start going down into the pool to get the golden dragon. Then jump on the platforms to get the jade dragon too.
Back to the very first slope we glitched. follow the wall until the big drop. there’s a wierd rock formation to jump to, letting you slide down unharmed. There’s a few flamethrowers guys around so be careful. Do not waste too much time asking yourself what kind of person would bring a flamethrower underwater and go get the Seraph instead.
11. Tibetan Foothills
Not too many wierd stuff to do in this level. you probably want to jump over the canyon leading to the snowmobile. From here jump to the rocky parts on the left side to avoid spawning 2 gunmen (the gun people are now super strong and tanky so let’s avoid as many encounters as possible).
Get the stone dragon and do the snowmobile parts. there’s nothing unusual to do here, just roll over the ennemies to instantly kill them and don’t forget the jade dragon on the way.
At the very end where you’re supposed to trigger an avalanche you may jump on blocks and proceed on foot rather than taking the bridge key. Get the cabin key and honestly the best move here is to just ignore the guy on the black snowmobile and turbo your way back to the cabin.
The lever here will spawn 3 gun guys and I couldn’t find a satisfying way to kill them without taking huge amounts of damage. So I suggest wating a bit and when you feel they’re near the cabin entrance, rush outside and ignore them xD
Then there’s a big room with a black snowmobile guy. It’s kind of tricky especially if the previous gunmen are still alive, so try to climb the isolated white block in the center, this is mostly safe although the black snowmobile dude can still randomly shoot you sometimes. M16 him down and steal his glorious snowmobile.
Grab the golden dragon in the pit and then use the infinite ammo machine guns to deal with the snowmobile duo. Roll over the last 2 guys and fall in the water leading to the next level.
12. Barkhang Monastery
Ok so in NG+ the monks are hostile by default so this is going to be tricky. Also if the monks usually win the fights against the gunmen, in NG+ they die quickly, so you can’t even rely on them for anything.
The best way to clear this level goes like this. Just ignore everyone and run to the rocks, where you want to climb the blocks at the very end of this path (eagle spawn hello). From this ledge you may perform a curved long jump + 掴む, leading you to the windows of the monastery. Blast them and be ready to deal with a few monks.
Go left twice to climb the ladder. Grab the main entrance key and move into the boulder traps. Keep going right and climb down the ladder. Push the block here, face its corner (between the wall and the crate) and jump through it. Gunner guy here, jump over the fire things and grab the prayer wheel.
Take the same path in reverse (one guy spawns where the key was) and open the door to the main room. Here just rush to the end of the level and perform the item dupe glitch. manually put the prayer wheel, then manually put the seraph in the slots. boom level is done.
You could try to come back the the main room and finish off some gunners (assuming the monks did achieve anything) to get some ammo and stuff but this is risky and unncessary.
13. Catacombs of the Talion
Nothing special to do here, don’t forget the first stone dragon. After getting the first mask, you could cheese the 2 gun men from this position as they’re having a hard time shooting you there (but they still can).
On your way to the second mask, make sure you don’t rush the area as it is possible to trigger the snow leopards to spawn by waves of 2 instead of all of them at once xD move back to a trusty block near the entrance and cheese them. Take the second mask. Couple of gunmen to deal with afterwards, nothing to it. just play good and kill them.
Back to the mask lock. don’t forget the ammo above the ladder then it’s yeti room time. Out of the 4 yetis 2 of them tend to stay stuck below in which case that’s great otherwise try to have them follow the same path and cheese them by dropping down when you need some breathing room.
Now the room outside will spawn a few gunnners. this is rough and they might kill you instantly if you aren’t careful. I applied the same tactic as the cabin in foothills. wait for them near the entrance and when they’re getting close rush out and run for your life. You’ll eat some bullets on the way but you’ll eat bullets if you fight them anyway so it’s not worth doing it.
Get the jade dragon in the water part and aim for the level block in the last room to cheese the snow leopard. Back to the main room and through the doors. again avoid the gunners and jump over the pit, no reason to fight the leopards down there. Get the golden dragon at the end.
14. Ice Palace
Once again not too many wierd things here. after releasing the yetis in the cage you’d better run for the gold dragon location, they can’t reach you here. The room isn’t really practical to kill the yetis and they are so strong it would take forever to cheese them from this position (しかし、それは実行可能です). I ended up ignoring them. Get the gold dragon.
At the end of this corridor leading to a lever, a yeti will try to jump scare you. He’s quite troublesome as he’s too close and too tanky to be sniped and there’s not enough room to kite him around. grenade launcher him into oblivion while backflipping is the best option here.
立ち止まるな, until you reach the ladder after the bell memes. In a room above a single yeti will try to fight you. use the block to cheese him, get the stone dragon on your way to the mask room. Quite a few snow tigers here, your best bet is to ignore them following the right wall until you reach the mask and cheese them from this position.
Room above the spikes. one tricky yeti to deal with. Your best option is to jump over the pits and keep side flipping back and forth each time the yeti gets too close. Find your way below and deal with the yeti down there, or jump through the opening into the wooden bridge to avoid the confrontation.
From here just move to the cauldron lever to melt the ice, get in the water to grab the hammer and move forward into the gauntlet. Be careful of the icicles and just run past everything until you reach the boss room. Bang that gong and go get the jade dragon first. Grab the Talion and cheese the boss by jumping on a block (facing the arena from the talion position. 一番右へ).
15. Temple of Xian
This level could take a while and it’s not worth clearing. Make sure you’re facing the waterfall backwards to grab the ledge leading to the gold dragon. From here you may perform a curved banana jump into a sliding ledge, from which you may do a backwards rolling flip and curve yourself to the right. This way you reach the wooden bridge and it’s almost the end of the level already. Few eagles to deal with, nothing too eventful 😀 Bouncing pads memes yay.
16. Floating Islands
Ok this is where we get serious, there’s no special trick here except good knowledge of the level and fighting skills. I was fairly loaded with medpacks at this point but I still got all the secrets, 念のため, as they happen to be on the path anyway.
Use the M16 to get rid of the flying warriors. This isn’t necessary but they are so tanky you want them gone as fast as possible.
On the island with the small house (jade dragon location) there’s a mini green island you can jump to in order to cheese the double spear dudes, probably a good idea to do that.
Once you open the main doors, get the stone dragon and deal with another flying guy. To get to the bridge below you’re meant to let go of the zipline but you could also strategically slide your way down and do a curved jump to reach it now (small health loss no big deal).
Room with 3 double spears dudes. only one wakes up as you’re approaching the lever. One answer. backflipping uzis. Activate the switch and run for your life to the zipline. I had trouble grabbing it and found it easier to just do a running jump to the ladder. Your call.
Keep using the M16 for flying guys and clear the level as usual until you get to the room, you know this one, you’re in a cage, plenty of knife throwing guys eager to kill you and a bunch of double spear dudes sleeping. Here you want to stay on the main square to deal with the knife guys first. Despite their outrageous tankiness they are fairly easy to deal with, they only throw knives which are slow and easy to avoid. Try to get them all facing you and keep jumping sideways. Time to eat some of those medpacks we’ve been stacking.
For the spear guys you want to jump back and forth over the lava pits, forcing them to move all the way around while you’re blasting them away. Once you’re through you end up in the room above with the exit open, ladders with spikes on lava. I couldn’t find a way to climb the ladder while avoiding the spear warriors so I tried jumping around the pit in the center. It does kinda work but it’s easier to actually run back to the death room below and repeat the same strat as before, jumping over lava pits that it.
あるいは, because the risen cage makes these jumps awkward, you could climb the block with the lever and cheese them from here. Now it’s time to climb those ladders and get the last secret before the end.
17. Dragon’s Lair
You don’t really have many options here, the spear guys at the start must be dealt with and performing some forward rolling jump over them is your best bet.
The next room with the knife throwing dudes could be an issue, if so try to trigger only some of them and run back to the first room to cheese them by lining them up in the entrance and keep jumping sideways.
The dragon itself is easily dealt with by hiding behind the left pillar and manually aiming the grenade launcher towards its belly. If you ran out of grenades for some reason then it’s running around time. The dagger is yours but it’s not over yet !
18. ホームスイートホーム
Right so this is it, shotgun only, no medpacks and no super easy cheesy strats. Here you want to be extremely careful as taking too much damage early on will make the level almost impossible.
Start by getting the shotgun and ammo and wait there for a few bat guys to come over and cheese them kind of. You can’t stay here forever so move out and deal with the guy on the balcony.
From here onwards the ennemies location will be very different according to what you’re doing and how. Avoid moving out through the main entrance. too many gunners here, but it’s a good idea to step out to trigger them, then move back inside and wait to deal with them one at a time.
Move outside using the kitchen exit instead into the training course, use it to take cover and try to isolate ennemies. When they’re all down the boss will spawn and that may or may not be a difficult encounter if you played your cards right.
Since he does a ton of damage and I was basically 1 hp away from death, it was time to get creative. Find a wall to take cover and wait for him. if you manage to get to his back he’ll start running in circles, desperately trying to get to your back, but since you’re doing the same thing he will just be unable to do anything but keep running in circles getting shotgun blasts in the back for days.
結びの言葉
Well this has been a lot a fun for a first time clear of TR2 NG+.
I really enjoyed it and thought it’s a more interesting challenge than the NG+ we had on the original games. I wonder what kind of crazy strats actual speedrunners will come up with. Some extra challenge like glitchless all secrets or something would be really impressive!
I hope you didn’t find this wall of text too boring and that it ended up somewhat useful. I feel TR2 NG+ is most likely the easiest of the NG+ challenges, just because of the saving and medpack options you get. Plenty of strats to go for… 幸運を 🙂
