AVP Classic 2000 introduced one of the most unique gameplay experiences ever to be implemented in a first-person shooter: the xenomorph. This creature plays unlike any other and is unusual in its perspective, speed, weapons, and abilities. I personally love playing as the alien precisely because it is so unconventional. It's incredible fun to stalk players from the shadows, pounce on unsuspecting victims, and cause massive amounts of mayhem, confusion, and fear from your terrifying prowess.

I've wanted to make a guide on the alien for some time but never got around to it. Now that GOG has just released AVP Classic 2000 on its servers, I finally have my motivation to start back up with this guide. This is a work in progress but hopefully I can share some of my tips, experiences, and perspectives on a few things to help new players become better at playing the alien.

This guide will break down into five sections. The first two will be geared towards the absolute basics of the alien. This is mostly for very new players, including those who don't know what they're doing. Part 1 will be a sort of a general fundamentals section that will explore the alien's most basic advantages and disadvantages and primary abilities. However, it will mostly discuss these aspects abstractly. Part 2 will be based more on concrete gameplay elements and will be focused on aspects such as health, attacks, and basic gameplay strategies.

Part 3 will discuss some intermediate-level techniques. These are for players who understand and are competent with the basics of jumping, wall-crawling, closing the gap, and effectively attacking, who want to improve their game. This also goes for players who feel that the advanced tricks are cheap and who want "legit" strategies to improve as the alien.

Part 4 will be framed as a matchup section in order to discuss strategies for playing the alien well in multiplayer. This assumes you know how the alien generally works, either from reading the first two sections of the guide or just from your own experience. I will freely mention things like wall-walk, headbite, and crouch-jump, under the assumption that you know what these things mean. You can easily look them up in the earlier parts.

Part 5 will explain the alien's advanced techniques. This section is obviously geared toward experienced players, so don't jump right into this part unless you really know your chops. The advanced maneuvers give the aliens super speed and the ability to leap from wall to wall without losing momentum. This section will not only explain the techniques and why they work, but it also contains a much-needed defense of the tricks against accusations of hacking, glitching, cheapness, and unfairness.

In Part 1, I'm going to go through the very basic generalities of the alien, specifically the controls and advantages/disadvantages. This section will provide you with general ideas of the alien's strengths and weaknesses without much detail of the actual gameplay. This is a more abstract/theoretical section on the alien; Part 2 will cover the gameplay basics.

Before you actually get to the gameplay, you should check your controls. Do this by selecting Controls on the main screen or by going to Alien Key Configuration in the pause menu while playing the game. In my humble opinion, the default controls are absolutely atrocious so I recommend changing them ASAP.

Below are my settings. I am by no means advocating you set up your controls exactly like mine. This is just to give you an idea of how I play.

Forward: W
Backward: S
Turn Left: Unassigned
Turn Right: Unassigned
Strafe Left: A
Strafe Right: D
Jump: Space
Crouch: Left Ctrl
Walk: Left Shift
Fire Primary: Mouse 1
Fire Secondary: Mouse 2
Cycle Vision Mode: Mouse Wheel Up
Center View: Mouse 3
Taunt: R
Operate: E
Show Scores: Tab
Say: ~ (Tilde)
Species Say: Y
Toggle CROUCHMODE 0: Z
Toggle CROUCHMODE 1: C

I want to give a brief explanation as to why I have the controls set up the way I do. Obviously, I use a WASD setup. I believe the default setup for movement is the arrow keys. Some players are excellent at using the arrow keys, but let me explain why I use WASD. First and foremost, because the WASD keys are on the left side of the keyboard, when my left arm rests on my desk, it doesn't cross the center of my body. This makes the position of my hand more natural. Secondly, look how many other key are close to the WASD keys and compare that to the arrow keys. With a WASD setup, I can easily reach the E, R, Z, C, Left Shift, Left Ctrl, and Tab keys. On most keyboards, the arrow keys are only close to Right Ctrl, Right Shift, 0, and 1 on the num pad. I used to swear by the arrow keys, but I now highly advocate using WASD instead.

As you can see, a lot of the controls I have are pretty common to most shooters nowadays. Let me explain a coupld of the oddballs. I have Tilde as Say so I accidentally don't hit it in the heat of the moment. I assign Cycle Vision Mode to Mouse Scroll Up for all my species so I don't have to sacrifice movement for switching vision modes. Since as the alien you want speed, you'll want to be strafe-running a ton, and having to stop strafe-running to change vision modes can be a hindrance. I recently added the binds for CROUCHMODE 0 and 1 to Z and C (CROUCHMODE 0 means that you have to physically hold press the crouch button to crouch, while in CROUCHMODE 1 it functions as a toggle between crouched and standing upright). This is a custom bind that you won't find in the options. I find this gives me some relief when I have to stay crouched for a long period of time, such as perched on a wall or ceiling. Nevertheless, I normally stay in CROUCHMODE 0 for about 98% of the time.

The most important thing I recommend when assigning your keys is to ABSOLUTELY MAKE SURE YOU CAN EASILY HIT THE JUMP AND CROUCH BUTTONS WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY MOVING IN TWO DIRECTIONS! For instance, don't assign jump to spacebar when you have movement assigned to arrow keys. This is the point I want to stress the most.

So you've set up your controls, you enter a multiplayer server, you choose the alien and...you get slaughtered over and over before your very eyes. Okay, so the alien isn't the most intuitive species. Before you start actually playing with others (if you expect to at least somewhat hold your own against other players), it's essential that you know the alien's basic advantages and disadvantages. This entails knowing what the alien is and what it isn't. I assume you've seen the movies and know that the xenomorph is one of the most feared biological species: relentless, remorseless, they can shred a human in mere seconds. But the aliens of AVP Classic aren't the same aliens as in Alien, Aliens, etc. This game makes a unique contribution to the xenomorph legacy. So let's explore what strengths the alien has in this game.

SPEED. The alien is fast. Really fast. It is by far the fastest species in the game. Most newcomers who come face to face with an experienced alien will be shocked at the speed, which seems nearly impossible to hit. The alien's speed, though, is balanced by its inherently weak ability to sustain damage and its need to get up close to do any damage. The alien's speed doesn't make you impossible to hit, it makes you harder to hit. You also need to find out how to use your speed in conjunction with other techniques; it doesn't matter how fast you are, if you run in a straight line to a marine or predator, you're just asking to take a hard one to the face. On the other hand, if you do learn how to manage your speed with certain strategies, such as catching enemies unaware or escaping unwinnable situations, you'll be able to use that speed to dominate your opponents.

JUMPING. In addition to being the fastest species, the alien can also jump the farthest. This allows you to close the gap, traverse large sections of the map, and escape bad situations more quickly than any other species, as well as make you harder to hit. There are two kinds of jumping. The first is a pathetic kind of basic jump and should never be used seriously. The second is a crouch-jump: hold crouch before you jump and look up, and you will gain some serious air. You can also do consecutive crouch-jumps. This is a great feature that makes the alien even more deadly.

WALL-WALKING. This is probably the signature feature of the alien, the fact that it can walk on any surface (including walls and ceilings) with ease. The crouch button serves the dual function of crouching and letting you climb on nearly any surface, straight, curved, diagonal, you name it. This has the side effect of being disorienting, but as with the speed, it's something you'll get used to with practice. As any seasoned player will tell you, it's an essential part of not only the single-player game, but forms the crux of playing as the alien in general. It allows you to flank enemies, escape quickly, and reach areas that the predator and marine can't get to. Never forget that the alien has this ability all the time. If you're ever wondering how to get somewhere or get around something, 9 times out of 10 the answer is wall-walking.

NO FALLING DAMAGE. This is very useful. While not all multiplayer games have falling damage turned on, the alien will NEVER have to worry about taking falling damage. You can drop from any* height and survive, helping you get the drop on enemies.

* There are some drops in the single-player levels that even the alien can't survive. These include the fall into space in Gateway, the waterfall drop in Waterall, and the jump mid-way through the Area 52 level.

STEALTH. The alien has a number of features that allows it to stay hidden. A stationary alien doesn't show up on a marine's motion tracker, effectively seeming like nothing's there. Also, since the alien is itself coloured black, it can easily hide in dark places. The game's AI is actually realistic when it comes to spotting you. This isn't as much a factor for other alien players, who can see you all the time because of your aura. Against predators it's a mixed bag because they can spot you easily in electrical mode, but if they're fighting marines, you might be able to catch them unawares. This tactic probably works best against marines, who are dependent on flares, the motion tracker, and a grainy night vision to spot you.

ELEMENT OF SURPRISE. The alien is, let's face it, not a cute, cuddly teddy bear. A xeno appearing out of nowhere can be pants-shíttingly scary. A more eloquent way of saying this would be that the alien can use the element of surprise to scare people, which will throw them off-guard. Hopefully this will lead them to making a wrong move, allowing you to secure an easy kill.

SELF-SUFFICIENT. The alien is almost entirely sefl-sufficient. It doesn't need to pick up any items, and the only thing it needs to do to regain health is get a kill. This is a huge plus, because as the alien you'll always have all the tools you need to get the job done.

PERSPECTIVE. Now let's talk about how the alien actually sees. The very first thing you'll probably notice upon playing as the alien is that the alien sees through a fisheye perspective, meaning that it sees things on the left and right with a slight curvature. This is because the alien's field of vision is higher than 100%. I believe the FOV is 125% (marine and pred FOV is 100) so you can see things to the left and right that a marine and predator wouldn't be able to see. This might not seem like a huge advantage, but it does give you a certain edge above the other species. Another thing that gives you an advantage is the fact that there are no numbers cluttering the HUD, and by default no weapons take up a portion of the screen. The only aspect that regularly appears on the alien's HUD is the alien's health bar, shown at the bottom of the screen. This lack of clutter gives the alien a greater range of visibility than the marine or predator, whose HUDs obscure part of their screen by including numbers and their selected weapons.




HUNTING VISION. The alien has two vision modes: hunting mode (the default or "normal" vision) and navigation mode. Hunting mode is just a normal perspective with the fisheye aspect discussed above. It is susceptible to light changes so darkness will hinder this vision mode. However, this mode has the extremely useful benefit of being able to see the auras of aliens, humans, and predators. This is incredibly useful and is one of the best advantages that the alien has. It can see other players in pitch black, even cloaked predators. The best part of all is that it can see all three species highlighted in the same vision mode, unlike the predator, which specialises in vision modes that can only detect one at a time. In single-player, the human auras switch between blue, green, and red (this is a bug), but the predator and alien auras will be green and red respectively. In multiplayer, the marine aura will always be blue.





NAVIGATION MODE. The second vision mode is navigation mode, and this one's usefulness is limited. It looks like a photographic negative, and is used as the alien's night vision. It's not terribly useful, because objects a certain distance away get washed out in a sea of white. You also can't see as much to the sides, and species auras don't appear. On the other hand, other species do stand out somewhat from the map, so it's not entirely useless.





HEALTH/HEALING. Unfortunately, the alien doesn't get a pickup like the marine, and can't heal itself at will like the predator. What it can do, though, is regain health by headbiting enemies. To do this, line up the head of a marine, civilian, or predator in the center of your screen. When you see two jaws come down, the primary fire button will change from claws to the headbite. This instantly kills the enemy and gives you health. You can headbite dead enemies for less of a health boost, but it can still make a difference if you're running very low on health. In single-player, clawing at dead bodies restores a miniscule amount of health for as long as you claw at the body. Finally, it should be noted that you can actually go beyond your starting health bar. If a starting health bar is 100 HP, you can reach a maximum of 200 HP by gaining health by headbites. However, this health boost will gradually deplete back down to normal after a short while.



WEAPONS. Although the alien is limited in its attacks it still has a number of advantages. First of all, the alien attacks with its own body and as such will never lose its "weapons."* They also don't require energy or ammunition, and can be used as much as you want. The jaw attack is one of the deadliest attacks in the game; although very risky to pull off, a successful headbite will give you a significant health boost and is a one-hit kill against the marine and predator. A charged tail attack is also a one-hit kill against a marine and alien. Of course, you'll have to master the above aspects (speed, jumping, wall-walking, and stealth) for your attacks to be effective, but with enough practice you'll learn the value of the alien's attacks.

*Note that this pertains to player-controlled aliens only. AI aliens can have their limbs torn off.

TAIL'S HOMING ATTACK. The alien's tail will gravitate towards certain objects on the screen. This is a double-edged sword, though. On the one hand, it's a plus because you don't have to exactly line up the enemy in the center of your screen in order for the kill to count. On the other hand, the tail also gravitates toward items and objects on the screen, including pickups, lights, and even some indestructible objects. It can be a real pain when you meant to kill that minigunner but the tail hit an armor pickup instead. However, it is an advantage when the player you're attacking is nowhere near an item.

ACID FOR BLOOD. This may not seem like much of an advantage, because as an alien, you can't bleed on enemies while you're still alive. However, you're immune to the acidic blood of other aliens, and if you die right on top of or next to a marine, you'll likely cause a bit of damage, perhaps even going so far as killing him. This won't count towards your score because it technically counts as a suicide, but this will take away the Base Kill Value from the score of the player who dies (default is 100 points). Meaning, even if a marine kills you, if your acid damage kills the marine, the marine gets 75 points but loses 100 points, meaning his total score is lowered by 25, assuming standard scoring.

BACKSTAB DAMAGE. Melee attacks against the backs of enemies do double damage in AVP Classic 2000. Since all the alien's attacks are melee attacks, everything does double damage when it hits as a back attack.

EXTINGUISHING FIRE. Although limited in its usefulness, this is good to know. If you're set on fire, you will gradually lose health until you're extinguished. A fast way to extinguish yourself is to just run and/or jump for a short while. You won't take too much damage from the fire this way. You can extinguish the flames faster than the marine and predator, unless the pred already has the medicomp out.

POINT VALUE. If you're going with default scoring, the alien is worth 75 points, while the marine is worth 100 and the predator is worth 150. So even if another player may technically get more kills on you, you can beat their score. This is important to remember for tournaments whose winner is determined by point limit rather than number of kills. The alien has the advantage of being worth the least number of points of the three species, and therefore, has more leniency in terms of the number of times it can die.

For all the alien's advantages, it also has a number of disadvantages. It's not invulnerable or overpowered, as newbies are wont to claim. Here I'll outline some of the most prominent disadvantages.

MELEE WEAPONS ONLY. Yeah, this one's obvious. You can't do any long-range damage at all, meaning you always have to get up close and personal to get a kill. Since you can always get killed by marines and predators from a distance, your first goal should always be assessing the situation to see whether or not you can take on the enemy, and then plan on how best to close the gap. You have a lot of ways to do this, but some work much more effectively than others. I like to think of it like this, though: if you're in range to get an attack in, you can be attacked right back. Which leads to our next disadvantage...

GENERALLY WEAK. The alien can't sustain much damage before dying. Whether it's a blast from a pulse grenade, a quick burst from a minigun, a charged shoulder cannon blast, or a glob of energy from the predator pistol, the typical alien will die quickly. To avoid getting killed over and over, as an alien you have to be cunning, agile, and relentless: quick enough to dodge attacks, strategic enough to prompt enemies to fire and miss, and stealthy enough to catch them by surprise. A direct assualt against a good marine or predator will just get you killed.

HEALING CAN BE DIFFICULT. As I've stated above, there are a number of ways to heal. If you can get the drop on a player and get a live headbite, or kill a player for a dead headbite or find a killed player for a dead headbite, then you shouldn't have too much of a problem. However, if you can't do any of those, you may find yourself in a bad situation. You can't just run over a healthpack or use your medicomp, you actually need another body to heal. And forget about healing when you're playing against other aliens because you can't headbite them. Another problem can be when your alien already decapitates a body upon killing a marine, which eliminates the possibility of getting a headbite. This is a real annoyance, although fortunately predator bodies will (I believe) always remain intact for a headbite upon death.

ALIENS DON'T LIKE CLOSE QUARTERS. Xenos fare best in open sections of maps. This just makes sense: the less space you have to move around, the less a predator or marine has to adjust his/her aim to hit you, especially with weapons that deal splash damage. Imagine a narrow corridor where you can't move much to the left, right, up, or down. A marine will have no problem killing you with a pulse grenade because you're such a big target in comparison to the surrounding environment. So the alien will unfortunately be at a disadvantage in closed spaces, of which AVP Classic 2000 has a TON. On the other hand, if you are in an open environment and are taking advantage of the open space, the marine and predator will have to constantly be adjusting their aim, prompting them to miss and waste their ammo. The best standard maps for the alien are Subway and Nostromo, given the wide range of open spaces it has available to it. Every other map is mostly close-quarters, and this leads to our next disadvantage...

CAMPERS CAN BE A PROBLEM. Camping minigunners or speargunning predators present a unique problem to the alien, which must figure out how to kill enemies who have secured a location for themselves where they can get you but where you might not necessarily be able to get them. We'll get to strategies on how to deal with campers later, but just remember that if you find yourself in this situation, the odds are stacked against you.

TRIPS OVER ITEMS. AVP's engine featured a special quirk when it comes to jumping: when any species jumps on an item, it jumps a very low distance vertically rather than forward. This affects the alien's performance the most because the alien needs the most flexibility with moving quickly through open spaces. It's very easy to accidentally get hung up on a stupid item that you just happen to run over (usually a pistol or medikit). This point might seem minor but in practice it's annoying and this disadvantage useful to be aware of.

REQUIRES PRACTICE. Many players find the alien disorienting, difficult to use, confusing, and ineffective because they don't take the time to learn how to play. Unlike the marine and predator, the alien isn't something you can just pick up and instantly be very good with. Considering the amount I've played of Classic 2000 on Steam as well as the regular AVP Gold Edition, I have a combined total of over 1000 hours, and I still get my ąss handed to me (although that may say more about me than anything else). The speed, wall-walk ability, and melee-only attacks make the alien unlike almost every other FPS gameplay style. It definitely requires practice to get better. In my experience, most non-serious gamers play the alien for its quirkiness, as kind of an unconventional oddity but still play as though they were a marine. That is, they simply run straight forward on the floor to their enemy and spam the claw button. If you haven't gotten it through your head yet, let me say it one last time: DO NOT PLAY THE ALIEN AS YOU WOULD PLAY A MARINE OR PREDATOR.

Part 2 will go more in-depth into the actual gameplay of playing as the alien.

The HUD represents the alien's health in a different way from both the marine (arabic numerals) and predator (predator numerals). The alien's health bar is literally just a horizontal bar (taken from the "I" in the Aliens logo), which stretches from the left side of the screen to the right. When the alien takes damage, this line gets thinner and shorter, whereas if the alien gains health, the bar gets thicker and longer (and actually gets more white than blue).

Every time you spawn as the alien, whether in single-player or multiplayer, you get a certain amount of health. I call the amount of health you get when you spawn "starting health," or 100%. However, unlike the marine or predator, this is not the maximum health it can get, it is possible to reach a higher threshold. The manual states this as well, saying you can get into a kind of feeding frenzy mode. This is only possible through headbites, as claw attacks will only replenish your health between the minimum and the starting health (100%) levels. The "feeding frenzy mode" gives you up to a maximum of 200% of your starting health. If you get enough headbites to reach this level, the bar will become very thick and stark white.

Below is a representation of four different health levels. At the top is the maximum (200%) health you can achieve. Below this is the amount you start with whenever you spawn (100%). Below that is the alien's health at roughly 50%. At the bottom is the lowest at which any damage will kill you (1%). Obviously, the health bar is just gone entirely when it's depleted (0%).



Below are the amounts of health that are obtained by headbites, both from a living victim and a dead one. These were obtained in debug mode from 0 zero health, so you can be assured that these are absolutely accurate amounts (there's no health from beforehand on either of them).



Actual Numerical Values: Using the 1998 AVP demo, I discovered that there are actual numerical values for the alien's health. The alien starts out with 100 HP and 100 armor (explained below). The maximum HP an alien can obtain is 200, however, any health higher than 100 will constantly deplete until it returns to 100. Live headbites restore your health by 56 HP, and dead headbites restore your health by 22. Therefore, you can reach maximum health with two live headbites in quick succession, one live headbite and two dead ones, or five dead headbites, assuming you're beginning at starting health. Having played both the game and the demo, and knowing that the alien demo came out last and that numerical values were retained even in review copies of the game only a few weeks before the game's release, I have zero reason to doubt that the numbers listed above for HP, armor rating, and headbite amounts discovered in the demo are any different from the final game.

Armor Rating: The alien also has an invisible armor rating that starts at 100. Unlike the health, the armor cannot surpass its initial 100 rating. Taking damage will reduce the alien's armor, however, it doesn't replenish as easily as the alien's health. Sometimes headbites will restore armor, sometimes they won't. I can't tell you why this is.

I mentioned these earlier, but in this section I'll go more in-depth in regard to the alien's three attacks.

Button: Primary Fire.
Attack Type: Single swipe (quick press) or rapid fire attack (holding down).
Attack Damage: Light
Speed: Quick
Range: Mediocre
Notes: Makes it more difficult for the marine and predator to aim.
This is the alien's basic attack. A single swipe is usually sufficient to kill humans in the single-player game. Androids and predators require more swiping. In multiplayer it has much more limited usefulness because it does much less damage. I see this as most new players' attacks, presumably because it's easy to use, just hold down Primary Fire. It doesn't always hit, though, and it requires you to be really close to the target. As a melee attack, however, it can do double damage when used as a back attack. The only time I find the claw attack useful is when I know I've hit a predator with a charged tail attack a few times. It's actually decent for whittling down the HP of already damaged characters or if there's horrific lag and your tail attacks aren't registering. As Grzegorz and I have noted, the claws can be useful in throwing off the aim of a predator or marine, but if you're close enough to have your claws hit, there's not much aiming required on their part to kill you anyway. I recommend only using this if you're against a preoccupied predator using the wristblade or speargun, or a marine using a weak weapon, such as the smartgun. In summary, this attack can be okay in certain situations but you shouldn't rely on it as your only means of attack.

Button: Secondary Fire.
Attack Type: Single shot
Speed: Quick
Attack Damage: Very Light
Range: Poor
Notes: Homing attack
The uncharged tail attack is actually a step down from the claws. It doesn't do as much damage as a single claw swipe and it doesn't have a rapid fire attack pattern. It's the worst attack the alien has. It is analogous to the uncharged Shoulder Cannon or pistol bullets. An uncharged tail attack should never be used seriously. Even though you can make quick successive attacks by pressing Secondary Fire over and over again, it doesn't do enough damage to be effective.

Button: Secondary Fire.
Attack Type: Single shot
Speed: Slow to charge, quick to release
Attack Damage: High
Range: Poor
Notes: Homing attack; one-hit kill against marines and aliens in multiplayer.
This is the alien's strongest attack aside from the jaw attack, so it should be your primary attack. The tail charges when you hold down your Secondary Fire button until the tail is completely coiled, then the attack will occur when you release Secondary Fire. While it's slow to charge, the attack will be nearly instantaneous after releasing the button. It one-hit kills aliens and marines at full health. It requires 4.3 charged tail attacks from the front alone to take down a predator, which is why you definitely need to attack a predator from the back (remember, back attacks do double damage). Against almost all enemies, this is the attack to rely on.

Button: Primary Fire.
Attack Type: Single shot.
Speed: Must wait for jaws to appear, but quick to attack
Attack Damage: Instant kill
Range: Poor
Notes: Headbites gives health. Can headbite corpses, too. Cannot headbite other aliens.
This one is risky because you need to be right next to the other player, line the character's head in the middle of your screen, and wait a second for the jaws to come down. Primary fire then changes from the claw swipe to the jaw attack, which instantly kills a character by biting its head off. In multiplayer, you can headbite marines and predators, but not aliens. Interstingly, in single-player, you can't headbite predators until you've dealt enough damage for them to initiate their self-destruct mechanism, however, this is not the case in multiplayer. The jaw attack is your primary source of healing. Live headbites will give you more than 50% of your starting health. You can also headbite dead bodies, which will give you slightly less than 25% of your starting health.

This is a very basic damage rate sheet. It measures the damage that the various weapons do against the alien. Hopefully this will convey a sense of how much damage you can sustain as the alien.

Claws: Low
Tail (uncharged): Medium
Tail (charged): Instant kill
Jaw Attack: N/A

Pulse Rifle (Bullets): Low
Pulse Rifle (Grenade): High (direct hit is instant kill at starting health)
Pulse Rifle (Melee): Hilariously Low
Smartgun: Low
Flamethrower: Low
SADAR: Instant Kill
Grenade Launcher: Instant Kill
Minigun: Very High
Skeeter: Instant Kill
Pistol(s): Very Low

Wristblade (Uncharged): Very Low
Wristblade (Charged/Attack From Front): Medium (Two will kill an alien)
Wristblade (Charged/Attack From Back): Instant kill
Speargun: Instant Kill
Shoulder Cannon (Uncharged): Very Low
Shoulder Cannon (Charged): High (Direct hit is instant kill)
Pistol: High (Direct hit is instant kill at starting health)
Disc: Instant Kill

This section will cover aspects that are intended for sufficiently experienced aliens improve with techniques and knowledge that implements the basics described above.

Strafe-Running: An awesome aspect of this game is that every species gets increased speed when you hold one of the strafe keys in conjunction with the forward run button. This makes the already very fast alien even faster. Obviously, you'll see the greatest benefits of strafe-running on straightaways or otherwise open sections. But as a rule of thumb, you should pretty much always be strafe-running. One of the additional important aspects of strafe-running is that you won't be moving in a straight line directly forwards, you'll be moving at an angle. This takes a little bit of practice to get used to, since you'll need to direct yourself more carefully where you want to go with the mouse, but even strafe-running has the added benefit of giving you more options on the direction you want to go, making your movement slightly less predictable.

Ceiling Wall-Crawl: This is a pretty obvious technique. If you spot some humans in a big open area, oftentimes the best method of approach is to climb a wall to the ceiling, then stay up in the ceiling and wait for the best time to pounce, either by getting behind them or surprising them from the side or front. This technique works best against marines because they don't have a vision mode that can highlight you, and it also works best in darkened rooms. Remember that if you're playing stealthy, stay still because any motion you make can be read by a motion tracker, thus blowing your cover.

Side Wall-Crawl: Like the ceiling wall-crawl, the side wall-crawl is a specific way of using the wall-crawl ability. Many aliens who like to scale walls tend to crawl vertically up to higher ledges or to the ceiling, then wait for their chance to drop. Always remember, though, that you should also use the walls not just to climb vertically, but horizontally as well. This will help you quickly avoid obstacles like stairs and traverse maps unseen.

Upside-Down Jump: This is a trick that I learned from watching Skaniol's speedrun of AVP. This move will allow you to jump a great distance whilst on a vertical wall. Normally when you're on a wall and you jump, you jump in a short arc towards the ground. You may gain some distance but it's not much. To do the upside-down jump, climb on a wall, then look towards the direction you want to jump to (usually directly opposite the wall you're on). Now turn your perspective so that the floor is on the top of your screen and the ceiling or sky is on the bottom of your screen. Now when you perform a crouch-jump, you'll now jump in an upward arc in the direction you aimed yourself. This technique is incredibly handy in large maps, and definitely helps you jump from building to building in the multiplayer map Subway, but you'll have to be able to turn your perspective quickly for it to be effective.

Here I'll outline some of the most basic strategies to employ as the alien.

THINK VERTICALLY. If you're walking on the ground and running up to enemies hoping to kill them before they kill you, you might as well be a marine because you're not playing the alien right. The alien is in large part an ambushing class; you're supposed to get the drop on enemies because an outright frontal assault will just get you killed. Ask yourself how best you can use the architectural layout of the map to your advantage. You shouldn't always be on the floor. Use the walls and ceiling, drop down or jump up high, or use your speed to get around enemies. Remember that other players are used to firing at the center of their screen or slightly below center, so coming from above will likely throw them off guard.

DESTROY PICKUPS. As the alien, it is to your advantage to destroy every pickup (except the shítty ones). The most important pickups to destroy are health packs, field charge orbs, and minigun pickups. Preventing players from getting these pickups will give you an upper hand.

KEEP THE TAIL COILED. More relevant in multiplayer than single-player, the tail is your insta-kill attack. It insta-kills aliens and marines, and does a great deal of damage to predators. Don't wait until you see the enemy to start coiling the tail, always keep it charged. This is annoying at first but given enough time, you'll get used to it.

ALWAYS LISTEN. All three species have audio cues that will help you in locating them. They may be as obvious as a taunt or as subtle as a footstep. I personally almost always use a headset when playing AVP Classic 2000, which helps immensely in picking up the more subtle cues. These sounds, while minute, have saved me time and time again in situations where I was being followed, or when I had otherwise lost sight of my enemy. The most important sounds to keep in mind are: weapon/attack firing, taking damage, taunting, running (in close proximity you can hear footsteps), picking up a weapon/item, jumping (not applicable to enemy aliens), and landing a jump (not applicable to enemy aliens).

GET BACK ATTACKS. In AVP Classic 2000, there are special hitboxes for back attacks. Melee attacks on the back do double damage. This is most relevant against predators, who normally require over three charged tail attacks to bring down. Get two charged tail whips as back attacks and you can bring it down.

ESCAPE IF YOU'RE IN AN UNWINNABLE SITUATION. Sometimes fleeing or hiding is necessary. The alien can't heal whenever it wants to. If your health is wittled down and you're either surrounded by enemies or are put in a bad spot (in a tight corridor, for instance), retreat first and ask questions later. While you might not be able to heal, you may be able to get past the enemy or take down someone easier to regain a bit of health.

HIDE IN UNUSUAL PLACES, BE STILL AND BE QUIET. If you need to retreat for a moment, don't go someplace that's easily accessible to marines and predators. Stay off the ground as much as possible and try to blend into the dark. A marine will probably have a tough time spotting you unless he throws a flare right next to you, and if a predator is not in electrical mode, he may have trouble spotting you as well. Remember that the motion tracker won't pick you up if you stay perfectly still. Find a hiding spot that players won't be likely to look or that are inaccessible to them, such as a tunnel or vent shaft in the ceiling. Also, remember that swiping, whipping your tail, getting headbites, hissing, and even walking around has the potential to give another player an audio clue to know roughly where you are, so if you want to hide, don't do anything to give yourself away. Be perfectly still and quiet.

DESTROY LIGHTS. It can sometimes be in your best interest to destroy lights as much as possible to force other species to use their alternate vision modes. The marine can only throw four flares at a time, and his Image Intensifier is grainy and doesn't allow him to use the motion tracker. Always think about how the environment looks to other players and how best to put them at a disadvantage. As stated above, the alien can hide against inexperienced players somewhat easily, and darkness is an alien's best friend.

KEEP YOUR SPEED UP. If this game worked the way it was supposed to, the alien would have been a stealth class that hid in hard-to-spot places and would ambush unwary prey. You can play that way, mostly against inexperienced players...but only up to a point. If you play long enough and start getting good enough to being playing against experienced players who won't fall for those tricks, there comes a certain point if you're going to have change your strategy. It's at this point that you'll have to come to terms with the fact that the alien class is really a speed demon. This means that the class is a very good attacker, granted you can keep yourself unseen, going for back or side attacks, or attacking preocccupied or otherwise unsuspecting players. The alien is also an especially good pursuant. This is most relevant to predators, as in situations such as chasing a predator who's fleeing to heal (when you can't circumvent him). You'll want to do everything you can to maintain your speed. This means always strafe-running (since it raises your speed) and not spamming the claws because using the claws actually slows you down. It's generally only a good idea to spam the claws as a back attack against a marine or predator when you're close enough. Keeping your speed up also helps you avoid getting hit.

In Part 4, I'm going to cover strategies for countering specific species and weapons.

The marine is the most diverse class in terms of its number of weapons, but, depending on the map, can be easy pickings for an alien. Let's briefly review the marine.

Marine (standard): The standard marine has 100 HP and 100 armor. He can replenish his health to max by running over a medkit and he can replenish his armor to max by running over some armor. He takes falling damage. Physically the marine very weak, and can be killed with a single fully charged tail attack. This should be your primary attack against marines. Standard marines can pick up any weapon that is allowed on the server and available in the map. However, they only start off with the pulse rifle (5 magazines, 5 grenades). A marine can't see very well in the dark, requiring the use of flares (of which he can only use 4 at a time) and Image Intensifier, which is grainy. The marine is outfitted with a motion tracker, which only works in normal vision mode, and whose rate of pulsation is actually pretty slow. Furthermore, stationary aliens don't appear on the tracker. All these allow the alien to use darkness as a way to sneak up on marines.

Marine (specialist): The marine can also specialize in specific weapon classes. This is chosen from the species select screen when joining a server. You can specialize in any weapon, considering it's permitted on the server. Specialists can only pick up their weapon of specialty, as well as pistols if the server allows it. Most servers permit specialists to carry pistols and have infinite ammo for their pistols. This is in case the specialist runs out of ammunition for his primary weapon. Specialists also start off with more ammunition than a standard marine would normally pick up with that weapon. So a minigun specialist starts off with 4 magazines while a standard marine who picks up a minigun will only get 1 magazine.

Now that we've covered the basic outline of the marine, I'm going to cover the marine's weapons in order from the least to most effective.


Pulse Rifle (Melee): Admittedly I'm only including this for the sake of completeness, since this weapon is really just a joke. When a marine runs completely out of ammo for every weapon, he can use the pulse rifle as a melee weapon (even if he technically shouldn't have it). It does almost zero damage and has absolutely miserable range. I've only ever seen it used comedically. It does the same amount of damage as an uncharged predator wristblade attack, which means it takes 42 hits to actually kill an alien from starting health with it. If you can't kill a marine that needs 42 hits to kill you, just uninstall this game because there's no hope for you.

Pistol(s): Like the pulse rifle melee, this weapon is also just a joke. People who swear by this weapon (and yes, I actually met one) probably have a serious brain tumor. The pistol does very minimal damage and has a slow fire rate. Each pistol has only 12 bullets. The marine can dual-wield pistols but even together they still do very little damage. The reload time for dual-wielding pistols is also quite long. Killing a pistol-wielding marine should be a piece of cake for the alien, just walk right up to him and bite his face off. If you're having trouble with taking them down, you probably should play as a different species...or play a different game entirely.

Flamethrower: Unlike every Alien movie ever made, the flamethrower in AVP Classic 2000 is utter shít. All it does is ignite you. As stated in the Advantages section, an alien can quickly extinguish the flames by running for a brief period. If you're an idiot and just sit there and let the flamethrower light you up, then you deserve your death. But if you do get ignited, there's not much more a flamethrower marine can do to you...so kill him.

Smartgun: The way most people use this weapon is absolutely worthless. Most players will leave tracking mode on because it generally works in single-player mode. However, aliens in multiplayer will generally move much faster than AI aliens, so the smartgun's tracker will usually be unable to keep up with an alien. Even funnier, it does a much smaller amount of damage against the alien than you would expect, at approximately the same damage as pulse rifle bullets. The only thing that's kind of annoying with this gun is that marines can use it to spot you across a map, even if you're covered in darkness. If that happens, just quickly close the gap and take him down.


Skeeter Launcher: This is a one-hit killing auto-targeting laser-shooting...thing. I don't know what this is. All I know is that the Skeeter makes a large charge-up sound that's impossible to mistake, it shoots a saucer-like object that moves slowly through the air for a second or two, which fires a laser in multiple directions where enemies are. This can be an annoyance in crowded spaces, but it can usually be dodged. Just run behind a corner or into a different room. The laser can also be dodged relatively easily if you crouch-jump away from the projectile.

Grenade Launcher: This weapon is a major annoyance of mine. The standard and frag grenades (the marine can switch between types by using secondary fire) will always shoot in an arc towards the floor, which can be avoided if you jump up to a ledge or climb to the ceiling. Proxy mines are a major pain in the ąss, though. They detonate if a target gets too close and they can be planted on any surface. They also suck because the alien moves so fast that if you don't expect them to be in a certain area, you'll likely die just as you realise you're fucḳed. I usually quit when there are proxy spammers because mines are cheap kills, requiring no skill to use, and they severely inhibit the alien's main strategy, which is to use the environment's space.

SADAR: This weapon is the token rocket launcher of AVP and it packs a punch. One direct hit will kill an alien, and a specialist gets 10 rockets. Fortunately the fire rate is relatively slow and the weapon itself blocks a large part of the right side of the HUD. As an alien, always try to attack a SADAR-wielding marine from the back or right side. The splash damage from a SADAR blast is negligible. I believe (unconfirmed, though) that the rocket's speed is actually slower than the pulse grenade, making it harder to hit stuff with it. Just don't attack head-on and you should be fine.

Pulse Rifle: Forgetting the pulse melee, the standard pulse rifle is, in my opinion, the second best weapon against an alien and is usually my go-to weapon against aliens, for personal preference. Even though bullets are basically useless against an alien, pulse grenades can be devastating. One direct hit will kill a starting-health alien. A standard marine starts off with 5 grenades, and most maps contain a bunch of these weapons strewn about. A pulse rifle specialist, on the other hand, starts off with 15 grenades and can obviously pick more up. Also, unlike the SADAR, the pulse rifle barely takes up any of the HUD at all, so the marine doesn't have that blind spot. The only bit of good news for the alien is that pulse grenade doesn't fire instantaneously. Rather, it takes a split second to actually reach its target after firing, so it requires a bit of practice to pull off. It can also cause the marine to commit suicide if the blast is close to him. Nevertheless, it is possible for a pulse marine to completely wreck an alien or group of aliens in multiplayer. The pulse rifle might not seem like an outstanding weapon at first, but in the right hands it can be extremely deadly.

Minigun: The toughest and often considered the best marine weapon, this bad boy can kill an alien with just a quick burst, provided it's a direct hit. The minigun fires rapidly but the intense recoil means the marine can't move while holding it down (technically he can if the gun is aimed down, but the marine likely won't hit anything this way). This is probably the most dangerous of the marine's weapons for the alien to handle because closing the gap means you're a bigger target and more likely to get hit. Unlike pulse grenades, which have a moderate firing rate, the minigun can be held down and used in a "spray and pray" fashion, in attempts to shred anything and everything. Usually this is the marine's best option to use against aliens. So here are my tips on taking down a minigunner.

Obviously, the alien should exploit the minigunner's main disadvantage, the fact that he can't move while firing. This makes him slightly easier to kill if you try to get at him from different angles. Most new players who use the minigun will hold it down and stay fixed in one position, so getting them from behind isn't impossible. Better players will have learned that it pays to constantly keep moving, only fire in bursts, and will have developed near-perfect accuracy.

As usual, your best bet is the charged tail. In the case of an occupied minigunner, sneaking up behind him is ideal. If it's just you against him, though, you'll need to jump around like a motherfucḳer. Disorient the player as much as possible. Wall-bouncing (explained in Part 3) is great for this because it keeps you moving quickly as you jump from wall to wall. Then when he's looking around for you, get up behind him or leap right at his face for a world of hurt. Often it comes down to trading kills, but it is possible to beat minigunners if you maintain enough speed.

I also feel I should bring up camping minigunners. In AVP Classic, a minigunner may back himself against a corner and kill anything that moves. As the alien, you actually have a few options. The first is to use a wall-glide (explained in Part 3) to rush right into him and tail whip his ąss. The second is to work in tandem with other players: have another player rush in from another angle and hopefully try to have one of you kill the camper. If you can't do either of those, there is another simple trick you can use. Climb up on the wall behind the minigunner, run vertically down and tail whip him. I like to use this trick a lot, as most players don't expect to have to aim vertically up.

Well, that's all I have to say for the marine at this point. Now let's move on to...

The predator. Oh, the predator. This is the one that trips aliens up. This is the matchup that will have people pulling their hair out, throwing their keyboards out the window, punching a hole through their monitors, and cursing the name AVP.

As in the movies, the predator in AVP is one tough son of a bítch. It takes three fully charged tail attacks PLUS more to bring this bad boy down, and every single one of his weapons can instakill you. No, that's not a typo. EVERY. SINGLE. WEAPON. CAN. INSTAKILL. YOU. An alien going against a predator will always have the odds stacked against him. There's just no comparison. The pred is incredibly durable, agile, and decked out with one-hit kill weapons. The pred can see you in electrical mode, auto-target you, and heal whenever it wants. Oh, and did I mention that electrical-based weapons do more damage to the alien?

Of course, the predator isn't impossible to take down. You still have your saving grace: speed. This will help you immensely. Your first priority should be to deplete the predator's only physical resource by destroying all field charge units in the map. If the predator runs completely out of energy and you make sure he can't restore it, 3 of his weapons won't work. If he runs out of spears and the disc is disabled (you did remember to disable it, didn't you?), then he'll only have 1 weapon available, the wristblade. Obviously, this is much easier said than done, but it is possible on some maps. Every alien plays differently, and you may adopt different aspects against predators depending on how risky you're feeling and whom you're up against.

First, let me cover the predator's weapons.

Wristblade: The signature blade from the first movie, this is the predator's most basic weapon, and it's a melee one. Primary fire is absolutely worthless, but secondary fire, which charges up the attack, is not. The predator can kill an alien with a charged blade in two hits, or one if it's a back attack. Since predators are slower than you and have to get just as close to you to do any damage, the predator is actually at a disadvantage if you can maintain your speed.

Speargun: Fun fact: did you know that this weapon was actuallly made up by Rebellion for AVP 99 to replace the combi-stick? Yeah, you can even see combi-stick-wielding AI predators in the single-player game. Of course, Rebellion replaced what could've been a fair and probably more interesting weapon with a sniper rifle that can one-hit kill you no matter what, requires no charging time, fires instantaneously, and comes with 30 shots right off the bat. Fucḳ. Even AVP2's sniper rifle only started with 10 rounds. The good news is that the predator's aim has to be incredibly precise for it to hit because the spear is a very small projectile. Still, the gun is deadly at pretty much any range. So what do you do? As always, remember to keep your speed up. The predator gets zero replacement spears, so once they're out, he can't get them again without dying. Also, try to constantly get behind the predator. Back attacks do double damage, so you only need to get 2 successful fully charged tail attacks on a predator from behind to kill him. Another thing to do is wear the predator out by jumping and zipping around. As you can imagine, 30 shots is a LOT to dodge. In close quarters, it's often better to flee. Attacking straight on can work if you're strategic, but never stay right in front of a predator for longer than a second. Using the slingshot maneuver and suddenly jumping away can be a decent strategy.

Shoulder Cannon: The shoulder cannon is like the speargun, but under the right conditions it can be even more deadly. A direct hit from a fully charged shot will instakill an alien, and unlike the speargun, this weapon has splash damage, has an auto-targeting system, and can be used indefinitely. Luckily, the auto-targeting system tends to miss in open maps, but it will hit in close quarters. It's actually even more imperative to not go head-on against the shoulder cannon than with the speargun because it's more likely to hit. Honestly I find this worse than the speargun. A predator with full energy will be able to get off five fully charged shots before depleting its field charge. The only strategy I really have is to first and foremost destroy the field charge units, and secondly prompt the predator to miss by using the speed tricks in medium to long range. Most good players won't waste their shots at long range but will at medium range. Never get in close range to the shoulder cannon unless you're attacking from behind. As with the uncharged wristblade, the uncharged shoulder cannon is an absolute joke. Often you'll see new players spam mini-shots hoping in vain to hit you; just put them out of their misery.

Medicomp: I know this isn't a weapon but you will also have to deal with healing predators. When you see a predator running and jumping around with no apparent weapon out, or escaping the field, try to attack as quickly as possible. Use your claws if need be because this usually means the predator is low on health and is trying to heal.

Pistol: In Steam games, we usually ban this weapon because it's a cheap kill against aliens. One direct hit will kill a starting-health alien, and the predator gets about twenty shots. The pistol fires an energy globule (making this an energy weapon, to which the alien is weak) that travels in an arc toward the ground. It has a high rate of fire and has high splash damage, plus the globule it fires is pretty big and travels predictably in an arc at medium range. This makes it absolutely devastating at close and medium range. My best strategy for going against the predator pistol is to stay up high until the pred either runs away or switches weapons. Staying on ground level is a death sentence. It's not reasonable to try to expect to dodge this weapon if you make a frontal assault.

Disc: The infamous disc is not only a one-hit kill weapon, but is a homing weapon that will follow players around corners and can kill you even after the predator has died. It's nearly impossible to dodge. Just to give an example, I was in the large center room in Statue where a predator threw a disc; I ran into the hallway that leads into the red room and got all the way to the health kit and armour before the disc got me. Let me reiterate that the pred was in a completely different room. And did I mention the pred doesn't even have to aim the disc? For these reasons it is considered by many to be ridiculously overpowered and is usually prohibited from servers. I consider it a noob weapon and I think that newbies' failure to ban this weapon, as well as the grenade launcher, led to AVPC's demise on GOG servers. If you do find yourself going against a disc-user, though, my recommendation is to leave the server unless you don't mind cheap deaths. Otherwise, run into a different room than the pred or try to get the disc stuck in a wall.

Now that I've covered the weapons, let me next outline some different strategies you can use as the alien to cream the predator. I'm assuming you're playing by "Steam rules" (that is, Disc and Pistol disabled) and item respawn time is 40 seconds.

1. HIT AND RUN. My primary strategy when going against predators is the hit and run technique. This involves getting a quick hit on the predator and then getting back for a moment. A direct assault against a speargun or SC-poised predator is a death sentence, so it's almost always in your best interest to at least jump back to mid-range after an attack, then jump around a bit before attacking again. This obviously works best in areas where you have a place to retreat to, meaning open spaces or areas that allow for usage of the advanced alien tricks (see Section 4). Speaking of which, let me outline the best maneuvers to use with the hit and run technique. The best one to get in close is probably the slingshot, followed by wall-glide, and finally wall bounce (because it's not that fast and it's pretty easy to see coming). To escape, the best option is usually wall bounce or wall glide. Wall bouncing toward the enemy is predictable, whereas an accurate slingshot, while incredibly difficult to pull off, puts you right up to a predator in a split second.

2. WEAR HIM DOWN. This entails running the predator dry on field charge by destroying field charge units and making him miss his shoulder cannon shots. This also means getting him to miss with the speargun. The best maps for this are Subway and Nostromo, the two best alien maps, because you have a lot of room to move around. Of course, wearing the predator down will take a ton of time and is often more exhausting for you than it is for the predator. It is also incredibly risky. The payoff is that the resulting predator will be vulnerable as he searches in desperation for field charge. Don't expect good players to use all their spears at one time, though. Sometimes it will be worth it to actually leave the battle to destroy the field charge units, then come back.

3. DESTROY THE G0DDAMN ORBS. As one great predator player told me, he who controls the orbs controls the battlefield. If the predator ensures he always refills his field charge, you'll never succeed. The field charge is the predator's only external resource, so destroy them as soon as possible. This means you'll have to play the hell out of the maps to learn where the orbs are and the shortest path to take to destroy them. Always make it a point to destroy them, especially when you're taking a break to flee for a moment. The maps with only one orb are: Office, Nostromo, Lab 14, and Massacre. The maps where you'll likely not be able to control the orbs are the big maps like Jockey, Compound, and Elevator.

4. KILL THE ESCAPEE. It's common for players of every race to flee the scene when they feel they're running the risk of dying. If a predator ever turns his back on you, immediately focus all your attention on him. If a member of the strongest race is fleeing a member of a weaker race, there must be some reason. Nine times out of ten, it's to heal or to find field charge. Also, attacking the back yields double damage, so you run a good chance of killing them. But be careful! Good predators will sometimes FAKE run away into a tight corridor, then turn back around to kill any followers with the shoulder cannon. Against this tactic, I don't really have any strategies, except not to follow them. Unfortunately, they'll likely pick up the field charge unit. Any advice on this would be helpful if anyone has any suggestions.

5. SURPRISE ATTACK. Unlike the marine, the predator doesn't have a motion tracker to sense where you are behind walls. This means you can hang from a ceiling or a wall right above a doorway where you anticipate a predator to run. A successful hit, especially as a back attack, can be a great start to your fight. Don't wait on the floor where a field charge unit should be, though, because you'll just end up as mince meat. Instead, stay in an area where you anticipate the predator will run past and not notice you, that way you can get a back attack.

6. GROUP ATTACKS. This obviously works best in SDMs, but oftentimes I've coordinated group assaults against predators with other enemy aliens. Most aliens recognise that it's easier to take down a predator as a group than solo, and the predator usually poses the biggest threat. Even if you don't get the points from the kill, you can potentially stay alive longer by taking down a predator.

AvA fights can be very exciting, and they can also be very exhausting. Both players have the same capabilities and neither rely on external resources, such as energy, health pickups, or weapons. Both players will want to use their speed and jumps effectively and time their tail attacks as well as possible. Obviously the map will have a huge influence on how the fight will play out, but in my experience, most AvA fights eventually move to the place on the map that grants the most space, since that's where the alien performs best.

Since aliens can't headbite other aliens, they're limited to claws and the tail. A fully charged tail attack will be an instant kill on another alien, and since the tail also homes in on enemies, this is what I suggest you primarily use. Expect the other alien to be using a charged tail attack, too. This means you'll have to figure out how to dodge. Since both players need to eventually close the gap, AvA fights ultimately come down to the timing of the tail. I see this as a huge minus, because certain elements like lag come into effect when timing depends on fractions of fractions of a second.

There are a few different strategies you can use. You can choose to play offensively, defensively, or a mixture of both. Let me explain some of the pros and cons of each.

OFFENSIVE STRATEGY. An offensive strategy is obviously one where you actively try to instigate the kill. This means tracking the other player, aiming oneself at the player, and overall being more on the attack. The advantage to this strategy is that by rushing around your enemy, if you can aim yourself directly at him and time your tail correctly, you can quickly get kills before the other player even noticed where you came from. This method can be risky because the other player will be prepared for your attack and will likely try to dodge and counterattack. Remember that when you fire your tail, it takes about a full second to recharge the tail. This leaves you incredibly vulnerable to attack. Another disavantage with this technique is that on certain maps, going all-out with the alien could cause you to reach the limits of the map (I'm thinking here particularly of Subway). For an offensive assault on another alien, I HIGHLY recommend learning and using the advanced speed techniques.

DEFENSIVE STRATEGY. Playing defensively might appeal to other players. This involves letting the attacker come to you, dodging attacks, and countering when they've stumbled. This can obviously be very effective, but requires figuring out how the other player moves and knowing just how much you can wait before unleashing your own tail attack. An additional defensive strategy is to fake an offensive move to prompt your opponent to release the tail. Then as he's recharging the tail, you can use your own tail to take him out. This strategy requires you to keep track of the other player, predict his movement, and always be on your guard, but you won't necessarily have to learn the speed tricks. I still recommend learning what they are and how they work so you can know what to expect, but you won't have to master them.

COMBINATION OFFENSIVE/DEFENSIVE. You should mix up your strategies during the course of an AvA fight. A good way of doing this is by learning the slingshot move, which puts you in a defensive position before quickly unleashing an offensive one. The downside to this is that a slingshot maneuver is relatively easy to see being prepared. Another way of doing this is by playing offensively for a bit, then retreating to a completely different area and waiting for them to chase you. Hopefully you'll be able to get the drop on them.

USE ITEMS. One technique I personally love to do in AvA fights is attack around an item, such as a health kit. This has the dual function of creating a stumbling block for the other player (being unable to execute a large jump) as well as creating a new target for the tail to potentially attack. If you simply circle-strafe around the item and wait for the other player to attack first, you might be able to get a free kill if your opponent's tail hits the item instead of you.

That's really all I have for AvA fights. It ultimately comes down to knowing where your opponent is and timing your tail when they're at the perfect distance.

Here I will discuss the advanced techniques that will allow you to move very fast through the game. These are also known as the "speed tricks." This is for players who have already mastered the fundamentals of the alien and are looking to get even better.

"There are plenty of oversights or unintentional designs that are now features and fundamental parts of gameplay." - A friend of mine on a different game entirely.

Somewhere down the line, players discovered maneuvers that the alien could pull off that would allow for incredibly fast motion. In terms of speed, these maneuvers supercede anything covered above, and in fact are so fast that some people refer to them as teleporting. From everything I've researched from the developer, Rebellion Developments, which includes watching their livestreams, uncovering their promotional material, and reading development diaries, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that not only were these advanced techniques not planned or anticipated by the developers, but Rebellion probably still doesn't even know about them to this day. This shouldn't be too surprising. Many fun games have unexpected strategies that allow for unintended results. Half-Life, which is regarded as one of the (if not the) best first-person shooters of all time, actually has very similar features that caused unintended results, such as b-hopping, gauss jumping, wall-knocking, and item flinging (the last of which is actually pretty similar to one of the major advanced alien techniques). Are these moves legitimate? That is a question that I will tackle in much more detail in the next section, but suffice it to say that since these were unplanned parts of the game and they make the game very difficult for those unfamiliar with them to counter, the usage of one or all of these techniques has been often received negatively by many an inexperienced player. But if you want to get better, this is a part of the game that you will inevitably have to deal with, and you'll either have to accept it and learn how to use these moves and learn how to anticipate, strategise around, and counter them, or you'll have to move on to a different game. If there is a single alien at top level play, there is simply no getting around this fact.

As said above, these techniques allow the alien to move at blazing speeds, making them almost untrackable. Almost. The reason these tricks work is because of the mechanic of the crouch-jump. Remember when I said the crouch-jump allows you to reach very far distances that a regular jump doesn't allow? Well, the crouch-jump not only increases your maximum trajectory but it increases your velocity as well. This only works when you look above the 45 degree angle from the surface of the floor (looking straight ahead is 45 degrees, looking straight up is 90 degrees). This is because the crouch-jump (called the pounce in the game manual, and called the super jump in the Prima strategy guide) is a special feature given to the alien. When crouching is combined with the jump feature and when the player is looking higher than 45 degrees above the ground, it not only increases maximum travel distance but also velocity. I call this the IV (Increased Velocity) factor.

How can you test this? If you measure the amount of time it takes for you to arrive at a far area having used a crouch-jump, the time is actually very short. Since you're covering a long distance in a short amount of time, your velocity is actually very high, in spite of maybe not appearing that way. This is what makes the crouch-jump so effective. It would be much less useful if it made you move slowly. So a crouch-jump increases your velocity because you're covering a much greater area of distance in a shorter amount of time than a regular jump.

When you combine the crouch-jump plus the "46 degree angle view" with other motions, the IV factor applies to your actions. I'm not sure of the actual algorithms, but it seems that the factor of increased velocity is added or even multiplied to the velocity that your actions would normally be. To sum up, the alien's crouch-jump, when executed when looking at an angle greater than 45 degrees away from a surface, adds a factor of increased velocity. This IV factor can be applied to other actions if executed in tandem with the crouch-jump + 46 degree angle view to allow you to move faster than the developers probably intended. Each trick will employ some usage of the crouch-jump + 46 degree angle view.

Okay, enough explanation of what factors cause the tricks to work, let's talk about what they are and how to do them.


This is the easiest speed trick to use. It allows you to bounce from wall to wall without stopping. Here's what you want to do. First, you need multiple walls to bounce off of (duh). Start off on the floor and face the first wall. Crouch and jump to it. Keep holding crouch and jump throughout the whole motion (so basically, don't let go of crouch or jump). Right before you land at the first wall, quickly look away from it (I highly recommend increasing your mouse sensitivity to max or close to max). If you do this, you should bounce off the wall and maintain the speed of the first crouch-jump. You can keep chaining wall-bounces as long as you keep holding crouch and jump, and turning away from the wall you're bouncing off of.


This is potentially the hardest to use. This requires a wall that meets the floor at a 90 degree angle and another wall parallel to it. So a rough diagram might look like: |______________________|
Start off crouched on the first wall, close to where the wall meets the floor. Now look at the wall across from you. This is the wall you're going to speed to. You should be holding the crouch button. At this point, move forward, which should move you down to the floor. At the exact instant you hit the floor, press and hold the jump button. You should also be holding forward and crouch throughout the whole motion. If you did it right, you should slide at breakneck speed along the floor to the opposite wall. If you want to get even more speed, press and hold one of the strafe keys throughout the motion as well (because strafe-running gives you more velocity than simply running straight forward).


This is probably my favorite speed move and can be somewhat tricky at first. For this trick, you will also need a wall that meets the ground at a 90 degree angle. Stand on the ground next to the wall.

If the wall is to the left of you: You should NOT be looking at the wall, but rather you should be looking at the direction of where the wall is going. Press Left Strafe so you're standing directly next to the wall and you can't move any closer. Now hold Left Strafe and Backwards. You should start moving backwards. Move the mouse to the right until you reach the perfect position so that you're not moving at all anymore; this should be exactly 45 degrees away from the wall. Notice that if you keep moving the mouse to the right, the angle will increase and you'll actually start to move forward. This is what we're going to use to move forward. Practice a few times finding that sweet spot of roughly 46-48 degrees so that you start to move forward even though you're hold Strafe Left and Back. Now, hold Crouch and Jump along with Strafe Left and Backward. You should quickly glide along the wall. If you're seeing the screen stuttering or spasming, it's because your angle isn't right; look a little bit further away from the wall.

(The same instructions apply if the wall is to the right of you; just replace Strafe Left with Strafe Right).

For a different written explanation of the speed tricks, see Aph3x-SkorpioN's guide, which appears in Jefequeso's FAQ on Gamefaqs here[www.gamefaqs.com].

Finally, here's a YouTube video I made some time back demonstrating and walking through the tricks.

Screenshot captured the very same day this guide was published.

As mentioned before, there has been a noticeable pushback against the usage of the alien advanced techniques (to which I will refer as "speed techniques" or "speed tricks" from now on). There's even a Steam group that unites under the banner of opposing the speed tricks, ironically called AVP Sane Players. So let me take a brief moment to outline the rationale for this argument, and allow me to say a few words on why I feel the speed techniques are a legitimate part of this game.

The argument against the techniques: It seems that a lot of the arguments stem from the fact that the techniques are not understood. Some claim the players using them are hackers. Others see them as glitches or bugs in the game, and that a player who uses one or all of the moves is manipulating a flaw in the programming, which gives the player an unfair advantage. So let's dissect this argument.


This is just plainly not true. The speed moves are clearly NOT hacks because anybody with the game can perform them, provided they know how. You do not need to have a trainer, be in debug mode, or alter any of the game's coding. It does not require the game to be changed in any way. It's not like adding SniperMunch or Godmode to multiplayer, or giving infinite ammo/charge, rapid fire, or increased weapon blast radius. It's also not changing one's timescale in multiplayer. The moves are simply the result of crouch-jumping in a certain way.


This claim is dependent on a number of assumptions. Remember that long explanataion I made for how and why the tricks work? I explained that when crouching is combined with jumping when the player is looking higher than 45 degrees above the ground, it not only increases maximum travel distance but also velocity. I call this the IV (Increased Velocity) factor. The IV factor was a part of how the crouch + jump function was programmed. If the crouch-jump feature is used in any different way, it turns out that the IV factor applied, whether it's bouncing between walls, running on the ground, or moving forward against a wall. Is this technically a glitch or a bug? Let's take a look.

First of all, what is a glitch? Dictionary.com defines it as:

1. a defect or malfunction in a machine or plan
2. Computers. any error, malfunction, or problem.

Are the speed tricks a "defect" or "malfunction" in a machine or plan? Well, the IV factor is working correctly, it is simply applied to something unexpected. Looking at the second definition, it's again not an "error" or "malfunction" because everything is working normally.

Now let's take a look at the definition of a bug. The appropriate entry under Dictionary.com defines a bug as:

4. Informal a defect or imperfection, as in a mechanical device, computer program, or plan; glitch.

Again, we've determined that the IV factor is correctly applied to functions combined with it. Hence, there is actually no glitch or bug going on here, everything is working correctly.


I would actually agree with this claim...partially. I don't see the programmers as having expected these speed tricks to be possible. I wouldn't call the crouch-jump ability bad programming, and I certainly wouldn't call the speed tricks the result of a programming error. The speed tricks are simply an application of one of the game's functions to something unexpected. The word "exploit" or "exploitation" assumes that you're taking advantage of someone/something at their loss. Rather, the speed tricks are akin to bunny-hopping in Half-Life and the wave-dash in Super Smash Bros: simply an unexpected result of the way the game was made.


This claim, unlike the others, deals with the ends to which the speed moves are used. This is the moral argument that opponents of the speed tricks use to criticize them: that it's unfair. Let's dissect this for a second.

Fairness is clearly a subjective idea. It can of course be said that usage of the speed tricks makes the alien less likely to get hit by a projectile weapon, since it's more difficult to hit a fast target than a slow or stationary one. But let's think about this: is the actual problem that the speed tricks make it difficult to hit the alien with long-range attacks? Long-range attacks that can one-hit kill an alien? An alien that has zero long-range attacks? The accusation that it makes the alien more difficult to hit seems absolutely ridiculous to me. Should the alien move at a snail's pace for the sake of players who can't aim that fast? I could easily reverse the argument and ask, what about the alien player, who has zero long-range attacks and therefore needs to get into melee range to attack the predator with FOUR fully charged tail attacks, when the predator can kill it in one long-range speargun shot? Is that fair? AVP Classic 2000 is definitely NOT a balanced game as it already stands.

The opposition's argument comes down to this: The crouch-jump, which increases velocity, must ONLY be used for crouch-jumping from one point to another, but never combined with other motions. They're trying to enforce this hindrance by appealing to some abstract notion of "fairness," because they'd rather handicap others than develop the necessary skills to hit a fast moving target. They insult others by implying that the alien player in question is using dirty methods to win, but even worse, it speaks to an undertone of the democratization of playing, resulting in the deterioration of seeking to improve one's skill, since "everybody's equally good." When good players who can use the speed tricks are accused of being unfair by players who are simply not as good, it speaks to a juvenile incapacity to internalize the fact that some players are better than them; that, unlike all the coddling they've received from their friends, Steam achievements, and YouTube comments/views, that they are NOT good players. The very fact that these accusations are thrown around demonstrates the policing of good players by shítty ones in an attempt to decrease the disparity between skilled and unskilled and to limit the blow to the loser's self-esteem by justifying the loss as a result of unfairness rather than a lack of skill. Skill is not innate; it must be cultivated, and not having adequate or sufficient skill is not an offense on one's personal life. Losing is an essential part of learning, and if we maintain the illusion that everyone is equally good, then people who actually aren't good will never improve, and will instead continue to resort to the path of least resistance to secure a win: using the predator disc and pistol, as well as proximity mines and the skeeter launcher, if not outright going for trainers and hacks. Those who play legitimately and choose not to play AvP Classic because of people who use the speed techniques, well, it's their choice and they're free to play whatever they want. But those who resort to scapegoating, playing the victim, and banning everything they don't like just so they can feel good about themselves should not be yielded to by someone with much more experience and/or a greater understanding of the game.

This is the second most common moral argument, that the moves are cheap. What does cheap mean in this instance? Google's dictionary service gives some good definitions and synonyms.

4. of little worth because achieved in a discreditable way requiring little effort.
synonyms: despicable, contemptible, immoral, unscrupulous, unprincipled, unsavory, distasteful, vulgar, ignoble, shameful

Anyone who read my above descriptions of how to execute the speed moves would know that the moves are certainly not easy to pull off, nor are they easy to control. It's difficult to figure out what the opposition's argument is. In my mind, a cheap trick is something performed in such a way as to get the same result or better as something that requires skill, but which circumvents having to learn that skill. My question, then, is this. What skill does performing these moves circumvent? It's clear from the start that the alien is at a disadvantage against predators and marines because it has no long-range attacks. What skill would other players like to have aliens use instead?

What I see is that predator and marine players are complaining because they can't hit a species that has no long range attacks, but who happen to be making it difficult for them to be hit. Ask anybody who can use the speed techniques; these moves definitely DO require skill and practice for competent usage. Again, the opposition attempts to discredit players who have learned and perfected a difficult art by questioning an actually irrelevant aspect of the moves, the learning curve. Apparently the moves can't be used because of some vague notion that it doesn't require real skill or experience on the part of the accuser. I guess aliens should only use moves that require "skill" to use? Like basic wall-walking? As I said before, these are advanced tricks that take more skill to pull off than regular moves, such as walking on walls, crouching, or regular (e.g. short) jumping.

The whole argument strikes me as a titanic double-standard. Of course, nobody would be complaining if the moves made the aliens easier to hit. The whole impetus for the argument boils down to the fact that the moves make it more difficult for other players to hit them and they don't like that. Never mind the fact that the predator is clearly overpowered and even a marine who only uses a pulse rifle, the marine's starting weapon, can dominate a speed tricking alien (just watch this video if you don't believe me).

So I have a message for the people who blindly accuse users of the speed techniques of being cheap or unfair. I guess I should just slowly walk right up to you and let you kill me. I guess I should only use weapons and techniques that you approve of. I guess I should tell you exactly where I'm going to be. I guess I should only stay in the light. I guess I should just make a win button for you so when you push it, you'd be awarded with 10 million points and everyone else given 0. Maybe THEN you would be happy. Why are you even playing a game if you just want to win by your own rules? If you were any decent at this game, you would A) know how much skill and practice the moves take to be effective, B) know that speed moves alone can't win a battle, and C) want to improve your skill so as to be able to match the skill of a speed tricking alien. Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000 isn't simply a game you can pick up and win at. So you have 5 hours in the game? 15? 50? Please. Some people have over 1500. Don't be surprised if you can't beat everyone you come across. So stop accusing people who are clearly more skilled than you as being cheap or unfair. You're being juvenile because you want to win based on your own terms that you set for everybody else. It would be one thing if speed moves were hacked moves, but they're not: they're a legitmate part of the way the game was designed. If you don't like the way someone uses strategies against you, and if you try to control what everyone else does, you're only revealing how pompous, self-centered, and immature you are. Good luck going out into the world with that attitude.

And by the way, if you don't like the speed tricks because they're "unfair" or "cheap" or not an intended part of the game, why don't I ever hear an argument against AVP2's stagger? Or what about the wave dash in Super Smash Bros.? Or bunny-hopping in Source games (such as CS:GO, an e-Sport)? Or strafe-jumping and rocket jumping in Quake Live? I can tell you why. Because these players I'm talking about in AVP Classic expect to be good right from the start, and when they see that they're not, they accuse speed-trickers of being lazy and contemptible to explain to themselves and to others why they can't succeed. It's both a coping mechanism and a way to justify to themselves why they don't have to and shouldn't try. In the words of Burke: "It's really sad. It's pathetic."

N.B. Even if you still remain unconvinced and think that all speed trick users are cheaters, let me give you this food for thought. I and literally every other experienced player I've talked to about this will tell you that against a predator, an alien who uses the speed tricks is still at a disadvantage. Even against a good marine, the outcome of a fight depends on many factors, such as reaction time, the choice of and layout of the map, and flat-out skill. Speed tricks alone can't win a fight. The moves need to be controlled, the player must be able to aim the alien with precision, and the tail must be perfectly timed. For the alien, getting four perfect hits using the speed tricks against a predator who's using one-hit-kill long-range weapons is always more difficult for the alien than the predator. Always.

N.B. 2: I also would like to provide a quote from one of the aforementioned videos on the wavedash in Super Smash Brothers because I think it's equally applicable here. "For some, it's seen as game-breaking, therefore ruining the gameplay experience altogether. But for others, it's a tool for performing and inventing new ways to combo an opponent. Now wherever you are on the spectrum, it's important to respect others and their choice to play casually or choosing to learn different techniques to better verse themselves in competitive play. Wave-dashing [In our case, using the advanced alien techniques] or the lack thereof should be no reason to alienate another player for their choice of playstyle. It's simply another tool, that when utilised correctly, can yield some pretty phenomenal results, and that's only if you know what you're doing." ("Wavedash" by Super Smash Academy, 3:02-3:33)

N.B. 3: The only other thing I can think of to say is, if you hate getting destroyed by a speed-tricking alien, learn how to perform the tricks yourself and level the playing field by using the same moves against him.

The speed techniques are necessary to stand a chance against the highest tier of marine and predator players.

This is just a fact. Not having any long-range weapons, the alien can't simply look in an opponent's direction from across a room, or even across a map, and press a Delete button. The marine and predator can. Any high-tier marine player can pick up a minigun and shred an alien that doesn't use the speed moves. Change that weapon to the predator's speargun, and an alien that simply wall-crawls and does some light jumping stands zero chance. Keep in mind that such a predator or marine can already place a foot in a small entryway and, upon camping there, be almost guaranteed to win in a one-on-one against an alien.

Think about either of these locations: the small entrance leading to the lower subway station in Subway (not by the ticket stands, the other location by the staircase, medikit, and smartgun), or the small purple corridor underneath the platform with the field charge orb in Statue that leads to the red room. As an alien player, ask yourself how you would stop a minigunner or predator speargunner camping there? In both scenarios there are only way to approach, from the front or from behind. If you're not attacking from one direction, the minigunner or speargunner will know you're coming from the other. Most alien players who don't really stop to think about the game, their playing style, etc. would simply try to run up and hold mouse 1 to scratch a lot, end up dead, give the other player plenty of time to recover and then come back to the camping spot. There are plenty of these places and

It's also not relegated to dealing with campers. If a pulser's or speargunner's aim is good enough, an alien simply cannot beat them even with the speed techniques. Just watch the first minute of this video if you don't believe me.


Even moving around as fast as I did, I still got shot out of the air. How do you think someone would stand against a predator like that if they didn't use the speed techniques?

The bottom line is this: everyone I've ever encountered who disparages the speed moves doesn't actually play this game for very long. They don't play the game long enough to get used to the game's overall speed, the mechanics, the skill required to be very competitive. In my experience it's almost always been predators who only know how to press 2 and hold mouse 1, and then they get pissy when they don't automatically win. They're not realizing that alien players have learned how to counter that type of play, they say that such method of countering is cheating. Because I guess since I chose alien, I should just sit down and let predators win. It's a sore loser mentality that instead of encourages getting better and finding ways to counter the alien's counter, it comes down to whining and crying like a baby.

And at the end of the day, the highest level predator player will always get more kills on an alien player anyway. That's why the predator is worth twice as many points as an alien by default. The speed techniques are part of a good alien player's arsenal to be competitively viable. Without it, an alien is just a sitting duck and stands no chance against players with great aim, who do exist and do kick alien butt routinely.

This guide turned out to be longer than I expected and yet it probably didn't even cover half the things that can be said about the alien. For that, I'm solely to blame, and yet I feel that I still don't want to give everything away. Every alien I've played against uses it somewhat differently. The things I've mentioned are what personally I find work for me, but they're by no means gospel. Some aliens can still hand my ąss to me, so there's always more to learn. For more information on the alien, check out the Advanced Alien gameplay guide by BROOD-SkorpioN and the tips in the AvP Classic 2000 guide by Jefequeso[www.gamefaqs.com]. Also, don't overlook the original game manual if you still have questions. You can view it here.

What I love about the AvP Classic 2000 alien is that it is not only the most versatile character in the game, but affords quite possibly the most unique and creative playstyle in any first-person shooter to date. It uses strategies undreamt of in most other games and has by far the most options available to it among the three races in this and any other AvP game. Consider any other games that use a playstyle as wholly original as the alien. Can you think of another game that implements such aspects as location along three planes of space, speed, complex movement, environmental awareness, usage of level architecture, resource independence, self-sustenance, freedom of mobility coupled with extremely limited weapon range, and application of darkness given the engine's advanced (for its time) dynamic lighting to the same degree? Although I haven't played every game out there, I know from experience that these aspects are very rarely explored in other competitive games to the same degree, if at all. Such aspects tend to be much more interesting, more rewarding, and more competitive given their skill-based nature than the oft-tread and overly simplifying gameplay features of modern games, such as bullet-time, cover-based shooting, regenerating health, cloaking/shielding, crouching-to-avoid-line-of-sight stealth, backstab stealth take-downs, single-button prompts to obtain kills, no-skill-required class and hero abilities, summons, and killstreak rewards. And yet the AvP Classic 2000 alien will never make a top 10, top 50, or even a top 100 list of most creative playstyles or gameplay elements because of how completely unknown and mysterious most of its features are. Paradoxically, although the AvP Classic 2000 alien has the potential to be used more creatively and idiosyncratically to the player than just about any other playable character in any first-person shooter, the brialliance of its construction is not only unknown to the entirety of the gaming world, but has, beyond a shadow of a doubt to me, never been recognised or realised by even the game's developer themselves. Sadly, the alien's greatness is sentenced to eternal obscurity because of its steep learning curve and extreme paucity of information. It may not be the most powerful character in the game, that honor goes to the predator. However, it is the most versatile one and it affords the player the most freedom in playstyle.

I hope you've found this guide helpful, or if nothing else at least somewhat interesting. I felt most comfortable discussing the alien because that's the species I play the most. It was interesting making this guide too, because it required me to write down things that I simply learned to intuit.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. If you have something to accuse me of because you don't like the advanced alien moves, suck a cocḳ.

This guide was written solely by me, Olde (Olde72 on GOG). You can (and should!) use this guide and share it with others. However, you should not distribute it while giving authorial credit to either yourself, someone else, or to nobody at all. You may quote from it at length but please do not post the entirety as a guide on any other forum or site without my express permission. I also reserve the right to remove or modify this guide at any time and/or make it unavailable, with or without providing a reason.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment below and I will try to respond as quickly as possible. You can also contact me via Steam, YouTube, and GOG.

Thanks for reading and enjoy playing!