Hello there! If you're reading this guide, then you're probably starting up with the game. No worries! With my info, you'll get back into shootouts in no time!

Let's start with a simple fact:

The game is hard.

You'll certainly die at some point, especialy at harder modes, so don't get angry at your failures. Instead, try and figure out what went wrong, and avoid it next time.


"I felt like the Angel of Death. I looked like a fat bald guy with a temper."

Getting that out of our way...

The key to survive Sao Paulo is Bullet Time.

"Everybody wanted a ticket for the Max Payne Express..."

With a simple press of your L.Shift button, you'll slow down the time to a crawl, allowing you to dodge bullets and land precise hits, as if you just broke the game.
There is a limitation though: Adrenaline.
It's that big white bar on the right of your Health meter. Entering Bullet Time will start draining it at a rather quick rate.
To recover adrenaline you have to kill enemies, but depending on how you do it, you'll recover various amounts of it.

From worst to best:

1. Getting hit
   
2. Blindfire kill
   
3. Normal kill
   
4. Aimed kill
   
5. Headshot / Heartshot / Crotchshot(!) kill
   
6. Explosion / Enviroment kill

As you can see, headshots are the way to go, they kill instantly, and in Bullet Time you can land a lot of them in a short amount of time, making up both the Adrenaline loss and some room in the area.
Don't be afraid to press the button. It can, and it WILL save you a lot of restarting.

There is also the Shootdodge.

"I needed something to improve my game."

Pressing Space will make Max lunge forwards, slowing down time, even when your Adrenaline bar is empty. And adding to that, you are also a bit harder to hit for your enemies.
How awesome is that?
Well, not THAT awesome.

"I needed to get to my unhappy place."

Careless Shootdodging will get you killed faster than you can say:

After the slowdown ends, you will be on the floor, helpless, barely able to move and aim, if you do have some adrenaline saved up, it'll drain anyway, and you can't return fire when you're getting up. Therefore, look at the name again:

Shoot. Dodge.

You dodge, while you are shooting. Simple, isn't it? Use that fancy little move to get out of nasty situations quickly, while you're still attacking the bad guys. (Be careful, you can still take falling damage when doing this, and bashing into enviroment will stop your act dead in it's tracks.) It's also useful when trying to move between covers, if for example: it broke down.

Speaking of covers...

"The storm had grown to a vertical rain of bullets. I was afraid to go on."

Press Q, hug a wall, you are safe. Not really.
Enemies are smart, and will try to flush you out of the cover or flank you, if you stay too long in one place. Thankfully, you can still fire your guns. But that allows for mercs to hit you! Don't worry! Use your Blindfire. Enemies that get too close for your comfort will be quickly stopped by your inaccurate hail of bullets.
Watch out; some covers will break down, and eventually expose your bald head for a quick headshot from that guy on the rooftop. Oh, yes; check for enemies that are high up, they can negate your fancy concrete fence.

In conclusion:

• Be always ready to move.
  
• Don't be afraid to use Bullet Time.
  
• Shootdodge your way out of trouble, not into trouble.
  
• Don't abuse the Shootdodging.
  
• Check your surroundings for possible cover and snipers / soliders who flank.
  
• Do trickshots, and blow stuff up.

It's the time for the main event: Guns.

"Fancy seeing you here!"

You better use diffrent ammo pools in your loadout. Having a pistol, SMG and a shotgun is often a way to go. Trust me. Even though going in with dual 1911s is very tempting, you'll run out of ammo quickly. Speaking of Dual Wielding ; you can hold a rifle/shotgun in Max's free hand, but the second you'll use a second gun, you'll drop that longarm to the ground. Therefore, I mostly use up the heavier weapons first. Then, when I'm out of ammo, I go with my Revolver / Ingram combo. Why this specific combo? Faster firing, but low damage guns will stunlock tougher enemies (80% of the time) while a heavy, slow-firing pistol will finish the job.

The first gun you'll see, and use in the game. Offering 15 rounds of 9mm bullets, good accuracy and low damage, it'll keep you alive for some time. It becomes useless later in game, and then it dissapears alltogether.

A rather dissapointing gun. very slow fire rate, 6 slow reloading shots and a bit better damage and accuracy than the PT92. Take it to balance your current stats and throw it away when you find something better.

Very good pistol. Okay damage and accuracy, slightly disatvantaged by the small clip of 8 shots. It is still better than the PT92 however. Grab it when you see it.

Look at this beast. Do I need to say more? Yes, I do.
One of the most damaging pistols in the game (second best in fact) having 5 shots in the cylinder, high accuracy and a rather quick reload, it is the best choice for a pistol. Thankfully, it starts to appear much more frequently later on.

Gon' hunt myself an elephant! No, seriously. One shot from this handcannon will kill, or at least criticaly injure the poor sod on the reciving end of it, and it's high accuracy will make sure that it happens. Problems? Rather slow firing speed and the fact that YOU CAN'T GET MORE AMMO FOR IT. Once you find it, use it up and discard it. Bull will get you further by itself.

First SMG you'll pick up; low damage and accuracy are somewhat ballanced by the high ammo count, clip size and the highest firing speed of all SMGs. Best used with a pistol.

Straightforward upgrade from Micro; higher damage, slightly higher accuracy and a bit slower than it's 9mm counterpart, it should be seriously considered as your 2nd sidearm.

Looks like a pistol, but it's classified as an SMG by the game.
It can fire either in full-auto, or semi-auto. Compared to Ingram, it has a bit worse accuracy and damage, with only firing speed being on the same level. It is useful when trying to balance your current equipment.

Good damage and reload time, along with acceptable clip size makes this gun good for dual wielding. It is slightly less accurate than the Micro 9mm though.

A mediocre gun, with very well ballanced stats. Two-handed. Good if you don't have anything else, but that's pretty much it, as it's outdone by the other longarms.

Highest accuracy of all SMGs, medium damage and a bit slow firing. Pick it over the MPK, but it's still not a great two-handed weapon.

First boomstick to grab. Slow firing, pump-action gun. Slow reload and low clip size. High spread. Devastating in close combat. Useless against armor.
Interestingly, it allows you to turn faster during the Shootdodge than the other shotguns.

Fires semi-automaticly, with mediocre spread, but lower damage and clip than M-500 Good choice if you like something dead further away fast.

A bit faster and with a bigger spread than the M4, but still not as inaccurate as M-500.
Very fast shooting and reloading powerhouse. Drains ammo quickly.

Lowest spread of all shotguns with mediocre firing speed and good damage, slightly disadvantaged by the small clip. Best choice for a shotgun.

One-handed, two-barreled shotgun for all your boomsticky needs. Uses it's own ammo, not normal shotgun shells. Highest spread, damage and fastest reload speed of all shotguns. Pick it up if you tend to do stuff up close and personal.

Rather powerful, accurate and quick, this will be your first proper rifle, untill you find some automatic ones. It runs on it's own ammo supply, so don't expect to carry it a lot.

A soild russian powerhouse. Good damage, but it loses accuracy quickly when fired for longer amounts of time. Very devastating in close to medium combat.

Very high power and accuracy along with a slow firing speed and low clip size. Much better for sniping enemies than cutting them apart close up.

A ballanced but slightly underpowered in terms of damage, it is useful when you need a solid rifle right here, right now, due to it appearing very often later in game.

Best assault rifle in the game, I would say the best gun in the game.
High accuracy, good damage, good clip size with quick reload and firing speed. Grab it when you see it.

Only proper sniper rifle in game.
Very high damage and accuracy, but also very low clip size and fire rate. Rarely seen, but in right hands, it can be very deadly.

A proper gun for a proper man. Big, fast firing, high damaging and with a big box of ammo. It's ballanced by the low accuracy when fired for longer periods of time and rather lengthy reload.

RPK

More damage than LMG.30, but it loses accuracy even faster. Loses only to shotguns when it comes to close range attacks.

Now, a short PSA about Painkillers.

"I had a hole in my second favorite drinking arm[...]"

Taking pills will recover about 50% of your health instantly, as soon as you press the TAB button.
The key to getting through the worst of the shootouts is to conserve them and use them at the right moments.

Try to take pills in cover, or when there are no enemies in the area that could shoot you.
When to take those pills? When the red area is a bit below Max's upper arms on the icon; that's when you should consider popping up some meds.

If you miraculously survived with your whole icon going red, don't use them now.
Wait for the mild regen effect to kick in, and heal up when the red falls to Max's shoulders.
Try to keep at least one bottle of pills, but not for healing.

If you happen to "die", with at least one dose of painkillers, you'll enter the Last Man Standing mode.
During it, Bullet Time will be automaticly triggered, and the camera will center on the guy who dealt the killing blow, and let you try and kill the jerk. One bullet is often enough to do it in this mode.

If you succesfully kill the opponent, Max will automaticly use up the bottle and heal up, saving you a checkpoint.
Unfortunately, LMS leaves you on the ground; out of your cover if you were behind it. This means you have limited aiming abilities, all while the rest of the enemies possibly turn you into swiss cheese. And the camera might not even let you see the enemy fully, disallowing your right for an extra life.

While Last Man Standing might save your butt a couple of times, you'd better be off just by healing up, and saving the last bottle "just to be sure".

"I knew this was a bad idea, but, in the absence of any good ideas, I continued forward."

Now a bit about Golden Guns.
Each Chapter has 6 parts for golden guns (except Chapter 13, which has 9 parts). Collect 3 of the same set, and you'll get that model of the gun.
Golden guns are, well, golden, but that's not all to it.
Along with a slightly crappy reskin of your weapon, you'll also get some upgrades.
You'll either get an extended magazines, or additional 10% damage increase (SawnOff gets slug rounds), making golden guns always suprerior to their normal models. The problem is with the whole treasure hunt for them, as it is very easy to miss some parts. Collecting them will make your game easier, especially if you get the model you often use yourself.

That's all I can tell you so far. I hope this guide helped you, or in case of the veterans, showed you something that you might have missed in the game. Remember, grit your teeth, and continue if you fail. No matter how much you fail, you'll get through whatever is stopping you.