Move on until the ground below you is blown apart. Look up and use the
secondary fire of the pulse-rifle against the right-most Combine. This should
also take care of another Combine, only leaving one behind. Kill him, climb
up, smash a crate and get outside. Take cover behind the various walls,
eliminate some Combine above and run away from any grenades, but don't waste
too much time here. Don't try to kill ever enemy; instead go around the
corner, pick up some items, lean against the wall to hide from the strider
and haste into the closed room nearby. Shoot a Combine with the shotgun and
break open a few supply crates.

Go up, take down a Combine with the shotgun and definitely ignore the goodies
nearby. If you get close to them, the strider in the background will fire off
its big beam at you. Instead, drop down and keep fighting for a while until
the strider opens a new path in front of you. Drop down, hide in the small
room on the left where some crates wait to be cracked open and then haste out
and up on the left. Kill a few enemies without stopping. Afterwards enter the
building, look for some goodies on the left and walk up the stairs to the
roof. Defeat another Combine and equip the missile launcher to battle the two
striders. But before that, retreat into the staircase until the gunship flies
off. Then ignore the Combine on the other roofs, restock at the missile crate,
hide in between your attacks and whenever all of your squad members are dead,
retreat into the staircase until you have some rebels at your side again, as
these draw most of the striders' attention on them. Also don't refrain from
patching yourself up at the health panels on the ground level whenever you
need to.

After taking down the two striders, clear the roofs from the Combine, using
the missile launcher. Hey, it's fun and you there's a missile crate nearby.
Then balance over the girders at the side of the roof where the stairs end.
Drop down behind the wall, kill a Combine, pick up some suit energy in a dead
end on the left and move on, triggering D0g to appear. While he doesn't
defeat the whole opposition, he at least draws the attention to him, giving
you the chance to clear the area. Go to the barricade and drop down into the
hole, D0g reveals for you.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=3.13 Chapter 12 - Our Benefactors=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=C12

[Outside the Citadel]
Carefully climb down the cliff on the left, kill a headcrab in the dark (it
guards a medkit) and drop down onto the upper pipe. Wait for the machinery in
front of you to come up, hop onto it and then quickly to the right. Turn left,
move on, drop down a bit, enter the big hall on the right, follow the rail
beneath the ceiling and drop down again, this time to the left. Drop down to
a small ledge in the hall where the human capsules come through a laser beam.
Carefully advance to enter one of those capsules yourself. Press E at the
second one you come across, as the first one would get you fried in the laser.

[A Bumpy Ride]
Yeah, Monster's Inc...ok, sorry for that. ^^ Look around on your journey to
see Combine not wearing suits and masks and also to see some other
interesting stuff. You end up in a rather small room, with the hatch opening,
making you fall out. Whatever you do, don't commit the same mistake I did
once: You can turn around quickly and press E again to stay inside the
capsule forever. There is no way out there again, besides loading the last
autosave (or some other save file, of course).

[A New Weapon]
Sometimes a bug instantly kills you after this area has been loaded
completely. If this happens, you have to load a save file from the last area
and hope for the bug to not appear again.
Anyway, you are taken away all your weapons (hey, didn't this already happen
in HL1?), but the machine somehow can't handle the gravity gun, which is
turned into a super gravity gun in the process. Wait for four Combine to
storm the room. This is the perfect chance to try out the new gun. How? There
are no loose objects around here? Well, simply aim at the enemies directly
and either pull them in or hurl them away. Furthermore the new gravity gun is
able to heave heavy objects like the computers found all around the Citadel.

Restock at the wall panel (from now on those panels both give health and suit
energy; the latter one even up to 200). Rip out a monitor, move on and hurl
it at the Combine in front of you. Quickly proceed as new Combine keep
spawning. Pull them in briefly and drop them to be able to pull in another
one. If you and the enemies build a straight line, then pull in the first
enemy and toss him at his companions. Hop over the railing and hurl the two
Combine into the light pole to see its devastating effect on any living
being...which includes you as well, so watch out not to get too close to it.

Go along the right, kill a lone Combine and ride up the lift. Pull in the
left-most energy ball both to turn off the force field and to have a powerful
weapon at your disposal: Toss the ball at the elite Combine and then pull in
another energy ball to also dispose of the normal Combine. Patch yourself up
at the wall panel.

Shut down another force-field, kill numerous Combine and keep up the pressure
on them as they keep spawning. Swiftly move on to stop the spawning. Use
another wall panel and leave this area.

[A sloooooow Lift]
Easily dispose of two Combine. Then head for the open hall, press the switch
and run to the wall panel. Defend yourself against hordes of scanners,
manhacks, Combine and elite Combine coming from various directions. Ignore
the computer and the energy balls. All it takes here is a straight forward
attack against the enemies and some healing whenever possible.

After a while the lift in the centre of the hall will reach your level, so
step onto it to be taken up automatically. This is one of the most difficult
passage of the game and it can get really tedious on hard, but unfortunately
there isn't a lot to tell you about it. Keep moving, look up to see where
enemies might stand and hurl energy balls at them. Whenever you are close
enough to an enemy, try to pull him in directly instead of using the plasma
balls.

Once you're finally up, you definitely deserve the health panel. Stop before
the force field on the left to wait for a few Combine running into your arms.
Move out into another high hall and haste through as you eliminate a few
small groups of Combine. Use the health panel.

Drop down and quickly pull in the capsule on the left. Use it to safely reach
the second capsule, hurl the first one at the Combine in front of you, pick
up the second one and also hurl it at the enemies after reaching capsule #3.
As you are extremely close to the Combine now and as there should only be a
few of them left you can attack them directly. Run on, pick up another
capsule and shoot it at the other Combine across the bridge. Hide behind the
capsules on the left, wait for any survivors to come near and dispose of them.

Not it's time to fight a strider with the super gravity gun. Stay behind the
capsules, pull in an energy ball, peek out on the left and fire at the
strider. Hide again and repeat. If your cover gets blown apart somehow,
constantly strafe from the left set of capsules to the right one and back
again while rapidly shooting off energy balls. Lower the force field at the
other end of the bridge after the battle and hop down.

[Another Bumpy Ride]
Heal yourself and enter another capsule. A laser scanner unfortunately
recognizes you, forcing you to take another path than the other capsules. See
those big frog-like things below you at one place during the ride? I wonder
if those appear in Episode 1 or any later episode.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=3.14 Chapter 13 - Dark Energy=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=C13

[The Portal]
After the long and interesting dialogue you have to follow Dr. Breen. See
that thing he speaks with? I guess that has to be some sort of Combine Queen
or something like that. Shortly after you get back your super gravity gun and
Alyx enables you to enter the lift your nemesis escaped with.

Listen to some more text; then move along the wall on the right, kill three
Combine and move up the ramp until you can pull in the six energy balls of
the first two force fields. Proceed to third one. As you shut it down you
should ignore the enemies coming up from behind. Hop onto the thing that goes
up and down and let it take you up to some enemies. Kill them and move on to
a small platform at the inner circle. It takes you up to near a health panel.
Jump towards it, patch yourself up, ignore the enemies below and hop onto
another platform near the panel. Just watch out not to fall down. Ride the
platform up, close in on three enemies, kill them, turn left and take one
last platform up to the final battle.

Position yourself at the far end of the platform. Two gunships will come in
through the portal. Since there are two streams of energy balls around you
will have to use these to crash the gunships. Stay at the far end, pull in
energy balls, fire them off at the left enemy (luckily, they don't zoom
around as they usually do) and strafe around a bit to hide behind the column
in between your attacks. Once the first one is down, strafe to the right to
repeat the procedure against the second gunship.

After that, return to the far left of the platform and hurl plasma balls into
the portal core to break off those spinning plates.

That's it! You've just beaten HL2. Congratulations.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                                  4. Weapons                   DDD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

--------
Crowbar:
--------

Primary Fire Mode  : Swing the crowbar.
Secondary Fire Mode: n/a

Ah, the famous crowbar; one of your most reliable aids in the original Half-
Life. Unfortunately, though, it loses almost all of his purposes once you get
the gravity gun. Before that, use the crowbar to break crates apart, to
destroy manhacks and to fight headcrabs when trying to save ammo. Afterwards
you can at least still use it against normal zombies and toxic zombies unless
there are objects lying around you can toss at them with the gravity gun. Oh,
and also don't use the crowbar against Barnacles as you could do in HL1.

------------
Gravity Gun:
------------

Primary Fire Mode  : Toss something away.
Secondary Fire Mode: Pull something to you and make it float in midair right 
                     in front of the gun.

Probably the best idea Valve had: The gravity gun can be extremely fun to use
and it allows for a lot of experimenting. Use the gravity gun to destroy
crates, to defeat manhacks, antlions and any kind of headcrabs (by attacking
them directly), as well as against antlion queens, normal zombies and toxic
zombies when there are heavy solid objects lying around.
Furthermore it can perfectly toss away those pesky sentry guns and mine balls
and in combination with concrete blocks, explosive barrels and radiators it
even is a great weapon against the Combine as long as you know how to aim.
Explosive objects that are thrown away with the gravity gun explode on
landing, so this can both be a great danger to any enemy and to you, so makes
sure to only do this when there is a lot of space around you and when the
enemy is quite far away.
Also employ the gravity gun to pull in items that would be out of reach
otherwise.
While you can use the gravity gun to pick up grenades and throw them away, I
really don't recommend this as they might explode right in your face this way.
Only try this in multiplayer when it's a make or break situation.

-------
Pistol:
-------

Primary Fire Mode  : Normal Shot
Secondary Fire Mode: n/a

The standard pistol works well against headcrabs before obtaining the gravity
gun, but after that it should only be used against single normal zombies.
Unlike other Ego-Shooters, Half-Life 2 has a pretty lame pistol and you
definitely shouldn't use it except for the two situations I mentioned above.

-------
Magnum:
-------

Primary Fire Mode  : Normal Shot
Secondary Fire Mode: n/a

The magnum kicks ass in any game it appears in and so does it in Half-Life 2.
It is somewhat slow, its reload time is a pain and its ammo is rare, but it
sure hits hard. Use it when you need to take out any kind of (non-mechanical)
enemy quickly or when you just feel like going rampage.

----------------
Sub Machine Gun:
----------------

Primary Fire Mode  : Rapid Fire
Secondary Fire Mode: Grenade

This gun used to be my weapon of choice in the first Half-Life. Unfortunately
it is way less effective in the second one. The normal fire is decent, but a
magazine is a lot earlier empty already than you'd expect, it is imprecise
and it doesn't deal as much damage as it should. The grenades on the other
hand are great as they are powerful and as they explode immediately upon
contact. Still the grenades on their own don't make a good weapon and
switching to the SMG just to fire off a grenade also isn't a good thing to do.
Bottom-line is: Use the SMG when you are low on pulse-rifle ammo and on
shotgun ammo or when you have lots of health left and not too many enemies
around.

------------
Pulse-Rifle:
------------

Primary Fire Mode  : Rapid Fire
Secondary Fire Mode: Disintegrator

Best. Weapon. Of the game.
Seriously, the pulse-rifle has a high rate of fire, it is pretty precise even
at long distances, it is extremely powerful and after about half of the game
you will find pulse ammo at many fallen Combine. Furthermore the secondary
fire is a feast to use as well. You fire off a big ball of plasma energy
which bounces off any walls a few times, instantly killing any living enemy
upon contact. Since its ammo is scarce, though, you should save it for really
hard passages. Another (minor) downside is that the secondary fire not only
dissolves the enemies, but also their weapons.
Use the pulse-rifle against Combine and elite Combine and also on super
zombies if you feel like you need to. It can even be used to snipe at enemies
if you run low on crossbow ammo. Just don't waste the pulse energy which
especially means not to use it against weak enemies and to aim for the
Combine's heads.

--------
Shotgun:
--------

Primary Fire Mode  : Single Shot
Secondary Fire Mode: Double Shot

Well, it's a shotgun. I guess you know what that means: Great damage in close
quarter, but extreme scattering at long distances. The shotgun is of good use
against any kinds of zombies and headcrabs, but should also be used against
Combine inside of buildings to save the pulse ammo. The secondary fire
basically is the same as the primary one, differing in that it takes two
shells and hence dealing twice the damage. If you are confident in your
aiming skills, I recommend the double shot against Combine, as it would
otherwise usually take two hits ion hard difficulty to kill a Combine.

---------
Crossbow:
---------

Primary Fire Mode  : Single Shot
Secondary Fire Mode: Zoom in / zoom out

Other Ego-Shooters might have sniping weapons that are both more effective
and cooler, but at least you have a sniping weapon after all. Zoom in at an
enemy (never even think of fighting enemies up close with the crossbow) and
fire off a slow bolt. Not only are they slow but they also are bound to
gravity, which means that they lose height as they fly. Furthermore the
crossbow bolts often don't hit, somehow disappearing in midair for no obvious
reason. Still, since it is a one-hit-kill weapon and since it has a great
zoom, this should be your first choice against Combine standing far away, at
least as long as they don't move around too much. If the Combine are at
medium distance or if they keep dodging your attacks, I rather recommend the
pulse-rifle.

---------
Grenades:
---------

Primary Fire Mode  : Press to lob a grenade or keep pressed until you want to
                     lob it. It doesn't make a difference.
Secondary Fire Mode: Light throw.

Grenades either explode a few seconds after having been thrown (no matter how
long you kept in your hand) or upon contact with anything, when being picked
up with the gravity gun and hurled away.
Sadly the latter choice is too risky and the first one is rather useless in
most situations as fast enemies that try to rush in on you are too hard to
hit and as Combine most often run away from the grenades. Only throw grenades
to clear a stationary machine gun or against numerous enemies in tight places.
Secondary fire makes Gordon rather drop the grenade than really toss it, so
use it to attack close targets, but make sure to run from the explosion.

-----------------
Missile Launcher:
-----------------

Primary Fire Mode  : Fire off a missile.
Secondary Fire Mode: n/a

The missile launcher is an extremely strong weapon, just as it is supposed to
be. Like in HL1 you can steer a missile after having fired it off, making it
easier to hit moving targets. The bad thing, though is that it actually isn't
a can, but rather a must. Unlike HL1, HL2 doesn't allow for turning off the
steering function, so you cannot fire and forget. Its most important use is
against gunships, which require the steering function, but still I feel like
they shouldn't have changed the weapon in the second game.
The missile launcher is crucial against gunships and striders, but it should
also be used against strong groups of Combine. Don't worry: If you definitely
need the missile launcher to proceed you will always have a missile crate
somewhere not too far away.
Also note that the blast radius isn't as effective as you might think. In
order to kill a Combine you have to hit him directly or the
ground/wall/ceiling extremely close to him.

----------
Pheropods:
----------

Primary Fire Mode  : Toss a Bug Bait to determine a target for the antlions.
Secondary Fire Mode: Squeeze a Bug Bait to make all antlions follow you.

The pheropods grant you control over all antlions (except for the big ones)
even if you don't have 'em in your hands. Still you should use them for most
of the time when antlions are around as they are not only fun to use, but
also pretty effective when commanding the insects to charge in before you.
After leaving Nova Prospekt, however, the pheropods become rather useless,
since you leave your insect friends behind. The only remaining use for them
is to distract Combine by throwing the pheropods right at them. Only do this
if you need to kill a Combine desperately without risking to lose any health
and also only if that Combine has no friends around, though.

------------------
Super Gravity Gun:
------------------

Primary Fire Mode  : Toss something away.
Secondary Fire Mode: Pull something to you and make it float in midair right 
                     in front of the gun.

Ok, actually this isn't listed as a weapon on its own in the game, but I fell
like the enhanced gravity gun deserves its own section.
Basically the super gravity gun works the same way as the normal gravity gun,
but it wields so much more power than its little brother. It allows for
manipulating Combine, plasma balls, heavy computers and monitors and, of
course, all the stuff the normal gravity gun can.
Since it is your only weapon once you get it, you surely have to use it, but
let me give you the advice to mainly use the gun on the enemies directly.
Hurling heavy objects takes too long and you don't have a clear view. Plasma
balls also take a while and they are rather hard to aim with. Pulling in an
enemy directly takes him down quickly and you can hurl it at its buddies.
Alternatively, when fighting Combine over a big distance, you can pull in the
first one, drop him while he flies over to you and quickly lift the second
one and so on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                                  5. Enemies                              EEE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In this section, the first field for every enemy holds its name (or what I
believe to be its name), the second one holds my opinion on how dangerous
they are (from 1 to 5 asterisks, with five being extremely lethal) and the
third one holds its outer appearance.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-5.1 Combine-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=EE1

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Combine Soldier |   ***OO   | Humanoid alien wearing a blue suit and a mask|
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Pulse-rifle | 2. Shotgun / Crossbow       |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|The common Combine Soldier probably is the enemy you will encounter the    |
|most. They either wield a shotgun, an SMG or a pulse-rifle, all of which   |
|are rather strong weapons. Furthermore they can toss grenades, smack you   |
|with their gun I close-quarter and man machine guns. They also dodge your  |
|grenades and sometimes hide behind objects. Definitely kill them quickly,  |
|especially when being close to them as a shotgun can rip you apart in no   |
|time.                                                                      |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Elite Combine   |***OO + 1/2| Humanoid alien wearing a white suit          |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Pulse-rifle | 2. Shotgun / Crossbow       |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|These are pretty similar to the usual Combine Soldiers, but they always    |
|carry a pulse-rifle, even employing its secondary fire mode. In addition   |
|they can take a bit more of damage than the blue Combine. On the other hand|
|their pulse-rifle obviously does the same damage as the one of the normal  |
|Combine and the white guys cannot throw grenades. Bottom-line is that they |
|are a bit more dangerous than their blue buddies, making them your first   |
|target whenever you see one of them.                                       |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=5.2 Xen Aliens=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-EE2

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Headcrab        |   *OOOO   | Little alien trying to jump at you           |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Pistol / Shotgun         |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|I guess you know these pesky little creatures from HL1 or from the Alien   |
|movies. Although they tend to be tedious as they can be hard to hit, they  |
|are only a minimum threat as they deal few damage. Early in the game you   |
|should use the crowbar, later on the gravity gun. If you want to get them  |
|out of the way quickly you can also use the pistol or the shotgun.         |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Toxic Headcrab  |   *OOOO   | Similar to headcrabs, but thinner and black  |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Pistol / Shotgun         |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Like the normal headcrabs, these try to assault you with a long jump, but  |
|they don't deal damage the usual way. Instead they lower your health to one|
|point as they poison you. Your health slowly restores to nearly the amount |
|it was at before the attack, so toxic headcrabs on their own can only take |
|away a bit of your life, but in combination with other enemies, they can   |
|mean a quick death. If these appear together with other headcrabs, you     |
|should use the shotgun, otherwise there is no need to worry.               |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Super Headcrab  |*OOOO + 1/2| Similar to headcrabs, but thinner            |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Pistol / Shotgun         |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Probably Valve had some other name in mind for these, but I think super    |
|headcrab gives you a good idea of what they are: Better headcrabs. They are|
|a lot faster than the normal type, but that's about it. Because of their   |
|speed they also do more damage in a short amount of time, but still they   |
|aren't too much of a threat.                                               |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Zombie          |   *OOOO   | Mutated human with a headcrab on its head    |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Crowbar / Shotgun        |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Zombies are human beings that have been overtaken by a headcrab. They are  |
|dumb, they move rather slowly, they only attack in close-quarter and their |
|dead after a few hits. Unless you're trapped, hurl objects at them with the|
|gravity gun or use the crowbar, but if you lack space to dodge their pretty|
|strong attacks, just give them a blast from your shotgun. Sometimes the    |
|headcrab survives the death of its host, so be prepared. Sadly, you don't  |
|have any effect on whether this happens or not.                            |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Toxic Zombie    |   *OOOO   | Fat human with toxic headcrabs on it         |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Crowbar / Shotgun        |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|These bulky (or even fat) guys have been overtaken by toxic headcrabs,     |
|three of which they hurl at you. Just kill those three headcrabs and either|
|ignore the host or take him down with the crowbar.                         |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Super Zombie    |   ****O   | Human with a super headcrab on its head      |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Shotgun     | 2. Pulse-rifle              |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Super zombies are heavily mutated human beings that have been infected by a|
|super headcrab. Other than the normal and toxic zombies, these are         |
|extremely fast and dangerous. Try to strafe and back off all the time while|
|aiming the shotgun at their head. Like the normal zombies, the super       |
|zombies sometimes give you a second fight as the parasite can survive.     |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Barnacle        |OOOOO + 1/2| An alien creature hanging at the ceiling     |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Pistol      | 2. Shotgun                  |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Ahh, the lovely Barnacles get a comeback. Simply avoid walking into their  |
|tentacle and you should be fine. If you cannot easily get around it, either|
|kill them from below or feed them some object that lies around to quickly  |
|pass by. If you still get caught by one, swiftly eliminate it on your way  |
|up or else you will not only get hurt by the Barnacle directly, but also by|
|the fall.                                                                  |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-5.3 Bugs-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-EE3

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Antlion         |*OOOO + 1/2| A big insect                                 |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Shotgun / SMG            |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|These insects behave similar to headcrabs, but they keep respawning in the |
|sand and they deal more damage. Stay in your buggy as long as possible and |
|stay off the sand. Those machineries that look like oil pumps can hold them|
|off when being activated. Once you've got the pheropods, the antlions stop |
|attacking you.                                                             |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Antlion Queen   |   ****O   | An even bigger insect                        |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Shotgun     | 2. Gravity Gun / Pulse-Rifle|
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Luckily you encounter these huge antlions only a few times. When you do,   |
|keep running from them backwards and try to get solid obstacles between you|
|and it. Antlion Queens usually try to tackle you, but they can also hurl   |
|loose objects at you, so keep strafing when one of them aims for a radiator|
|or a crate or whatever.                                                    |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=5.4 Heavy Gear=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-EE4

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Helicopter      |   ****O   | Well...it's a helicopter                     |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Machine Gun | 2. None                     |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|These appear only at the beginning of the game. Later on they are          |
|substituted by the gunships. As you don't have the missile launcher when   |
|facing the helicopters, try to avoid their heavy fire, hide and move       |
|quickly. The only way of destroying them is with stationary machine guns   |
|and with the one you get attached to your hovercraft.                      |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Dropship        |   ***OO   | An insectoid flying machine with a black box |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. None        | 2. None                     |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Dropships cannot be taken down (except for one scene where it is absolutely|
|trivial), but they have a machine gun at their front side and they carry   |
|four Combine, that they drop out right at the machine gun. Try not to get  |
|into the view of the machine gun; the best position is next to them, so you|
|are safe and can easily kill the Combine while disembarking. Otherwise,    |
|stay away from them and wait until they are gone.                          |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Gunship         |   *****   | Similar to dropships, but thinner and w/o box|
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Missile L.  | 2. None                     |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Gunships are the hardest enemies in HL2 in my opinion. Not only do they    |
|deal lots of damage, but they also withstand a lot of damage and they can  |
|blow up your missiles in midair. Since the missile launcher is the only way|
|to take them down you still have to use them. Step out of your hideout,    |
|fire a missile rather far away from the gunship and steer it in, in a      |
|zigzag motion. Another good way of dealing with a gunship is to wait for it|
|to get close and/or to turn around, so you get to aim at it directly.      |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Strider         |   ****O   | Three-legged walkers                         |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Missile L.  | 2. Pulse-Rifle second. fire |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Imagine the walkers from War of the Worlds and put in some insectoid looks |
|and you know what you have here. Striders are powerful and they take a lot |
|of damage before going down. Luckily, though, you will only face few of    |
|them and most of the time you will have a missile crate and allies nearby. |
|This means you get to hide, shoot, hide and so on, with your buddies even  |
|distracting the Strider, further easing the fight for you.                 |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=5.5 Small Machines=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-EE5

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Hopper          |   *OOOO   | A mine with a light on top of it             |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. None                     |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Hoppers first of all indicate if they mean any danger: If the light is     |
|turned off, they don't do anything, allowing you to use the gravity gun on |
|them, so they get a green light. When the light is green, they explode if  |
|an enemy closes in. If the light is red, they react on Gordon and his      |
|allies. Either ignore hoppers or carefully approach them and backing off,  |
|once they hop up, or using the gravity gun once they hop up. Hoppers are   |
|sometimes dropped by small transporters. Simply ignore those.              |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Sentry Drone    |   OOOOO   | A flying camera                              |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Crowbar                  |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Scanners cannot hurt you. In fact the only thing they can do is annoying   |
|you with their flash light. Destroy them when you aren't amidst a real     |
|battle.                                                                    |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Laser Ball      |   *OOOO   | A Metal ball with blue laser light           |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. None                     |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|They try to get close to deal some damage, but as they are weak, you don't |
|have to worry too much. Pull them in with the gravity gun and throw them   |
|down a cliff or into the water.                                            |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Sentry Turret   |   ***OO   | A small turret that fires automatically      |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Shotgun                  |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Sentry Turrets hit hard and they cannot really be destroyed. Hide from them|
|and either hurl objects at them or close in to use the gravity gun directly|
|to knock them over.                                                        |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Sunken Gun      |   ***OO   | A sunken gun, that pops out of the ground    |
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Grenades    | 2. None                     |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|When you see a blue laser line, first of all search for differently colored|
|metal plates on the ground. This is where the sunken guns pop out once you |
|cross the line. Equip a grenade, hold the primary fire button, aim at the  |
|plate and break the laser. Once you do, instantly release the button and   |
|hide somewhere. Hopefully the grenade rolls right into the hatch of the    |
|gun, destroying it in a single blow. If it misses: Repeat.                 |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------+
|Manhack         |   **OOO   | A small mechanic flying thing with saw blades|
+----------------+-----------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Weapon of choice against it:| 1. Gravity Gun | 2. Crowbar                  |
+----------------------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
|Actually manhacks are a big threat early on in the game, requiring you to  |
|dodge well and swing the crowbar with skill, but once you get the gravity  |
|gun, they become nothing but a little annoyance. Simply hurl them against  |
|the walls with it and they will explode on the first hit when being close  |
|to the wall. Otherwise you might also use the SMG before getting the       |
|gravity gun.                                                               |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                             6. Closing Comments                          FFF
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Probably lots of people disagree with me on this, but I was kinda
disappointed by HL2. Half-Life 1 basically had it all (plus those stupid Xen-
levels), whereas I really didn't get the same feeling carried over by the
atmosphere in HL2 as I did in its predecessor. I missed the cool setting in
Black Mesa, I missed the aliens, I missed the great weapons and I certainly
hated the puzzles in HL2; one of the strong points of HL1. I mean: Come on,
stepping onto a crate, dropping another one in front of you, stepping onto it,
turning around, picking up the first crate, dropping it in front of you and
so on isn't fun once and this game requires stuff like that various times.
What could've been...hopefully Dark Messiah of Might & Magic makes better use
of the potentially great Source Engine.
Oh and I haven't mentioned the final boss and the ending so far: HL1 had one
of the most intricate Ego-Shooter bosses in a world where the highest trouble
makers in games like RTCW, Duke Nukem 3D, Goldeneye, Painkiller and so on
disappoint in terms of creativity and difficulty, but in HL2 you can stand
still at a place and keep firing to beat the final boss. That's just plain
bad game design, directly leading to the ending: You might think differently
on this, but I thought the ending of HL1 was cool (with the decision-making
part and the teleportation) and made me long for a sequel, whereas the ending
of HL2 just made me mad. I don't want to spoil you (maybe you read this part
prior to finishing the game, although I doubt anybody reads this section at
all ^^), so I won't say anything more about it, although there actually isn't
much to spoil about it.
Still HL2 is a good game and I enjoyed it. The gravity gun was a great, yet
not fully taken advantage of, weapon, the graphics are still stunning at
times and there's lots of variance in gameplay...so please don't email me how
much of a moron I am for criticizing "teh Uber-Shooter!!1!eleven". ;)

I'd appreciate any comments, questions, high scores, critics or whatsoever,
so please mail me at KeeperBvK@web.de if you have anything to tell me (even
misspellings and stuff).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                               7. Experimental                            GGG
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In some other guides I've seen the author implement the following and I
thought "Why not give it a try for your own guides?":

If you really like this guide and you think it helped you or entertained you
a bit or whatsoever and you feel like rewarding me not only by writing a nice
e-mail, feel free to send some money to my paypal account at:

LH_Zerberus@web.de

Of course I don't want to make somebody send me money who doesn't really want
to (even if I could, I wouldn't ;) ), but (also of course) I'd appreciate any
contribution.

Thank you very much for reading this guide and hopefully some more of my
stuff on gamefaqs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                                  8. Credits                              HHH
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thx go out to:

O Bruce Zhang, for pointing out that the secondary fire of the Pulse-Rifle
  also hurts Striders.

O Robbie Vancourt, for telling me that Alyx' robot pet's name isn't Dog but
  D0g.

O Walker Wilson, for sending in some good info on the pheropods.

O Dominic_rules, for informing me that grenades also have a secondary fire
  mode.

Kevin Johnston's Blog - http://www.300bucks.ca