After years of waiting, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is hitting PS5 on October 20th, and if you’ve read our glowing review, you know how excited we are to cover it. That said, no one will blame you if you’re a little rusty with Insomniac’s fast-paced combat system, and they certainly won’t blame you if you don’t like all the new features the game has to offer. Some tips are needed to handle the features. Luckily, we’ve gathered sixteen tips here to help you get back into the (literal) swing of things. Fire up your PlayStation 5. Here are some early tips for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
A guide to parrying
The ability to parry is one of the most important additions to a wall crawler’s arsenal, but it can be difficult to get right at first. Here’s a tip: focus on the color of the spider’s sense indicator, not the attack animation. Some of the attack animations make it seem like the hit is coming sooner or later than you think, but the ring above the enemy’s head will never let you down. Just press L1 when it turns red. If you’re having trouble seeing it, you can change the color in the accessibility settings.
Another way to get your foot down is to be patient. It’s a bit counterintuitive since most of Spider-Man’s moveset has you moving as fast as possible to avoid attacks and tap across the field, but Parry doesn’t cancel your attacks – if you punch Press the button and quickly try to parry mid-attack, the parry won’t come out until the attack is complete, leaving you vulnerable to attacks. This is doubly true for boss fights. If you wait your turn and parry at the right time, it’s not too hard to get through unscathed.
How to travel fast.
You may have seen some impressive clips of Spider-Man 2 harnessing the power of the PS5 for its lightning-fast travel system, but that’s not a capability available to you right from the start. It’s actually only accessible after you’ve completed a certain number of quests in an area, whether it’s finding collectibles, taking photos, or doing side missions (however, in past games Conversely, crimes do not count towards this progression). You can track your progress with the district meter at the top of your map.
Once you unlock this ability, you place your cursor exactly where you want to go on the map, hold triangle, and your Spider-Man will go directly to that location.
Use wind tunnels and updrafts.
While unlocking proper fast travel can take some effort, your new web wings give you some of the fastest travel available in the series so far. If you’re using updrafts and wind tunnels when you see them, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you’re able to rocket across town – use them whenever you can.
Don’t forget to disarm the enemies.
One of the early abilities you can unlock is called Web Whip, and it’s incredibly useful. In previous games you had to unlock different skills to disarm different types of weapons, but in this game there’s no such need – the Web Whip ability gives you guns, melee weapons, shields, and rockets. Allows to grab launchers.
Here’s what each token does.
Whether it’s cosmetics, gadgets, or suit upgrades, most unlockables in the game require tokens. If you’re missing any of these, hovering over unlockables in the menu will prompt you to press a button for a quick guide that will show you which side missions are available where. You can also check any mission in the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man app or on the map to see how much XP and what kind of tokens it will award you. That said, it’s not immediately clear which token does what, so here’s a quick guide.
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Tech Parts (grey) are the most common currency in the game. Most missions and side quests will give you some money, and by the late game, you’ll have more than you know what to do with. They’re also the only currency you can collect from completing randomly generated crimes, so if you’re low, just hang around for a minute or two and stop the drug deal. Almost every upgrade requires some of these funds.
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City Tokens (Blue) are unlocked through Photo Ops, Marco Memories, and Friendly Neighbor Spider-Man app requests. Compared to the next two currencies, they are relatively low-level, but you’ll still need to find them to collect them.
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Rare tech parts (yellow) and hero tokens (red) are the most valuable resources in the game. Aside from the Prowler stashes, they’re largely unlocked through missions that appear later in the game, which we won’t list to avoid spoilers, but it’s worth keeping close track of. How many you have and how many you need of late. Game Suite and Gadget Upgrades. Speaking of which…
Don’t buy a suit right away.
It wouldn’t be an Insomniac Spider-Man game without a lot of suits, but they do things a little differently this time around. In past games, unlocking suits also unlocks suit parts that you can use to enhance your character in some way. In Spider-Man 2, upgrades and suits are not only separate, but they often use the same resources. Because of this, it is worth holding off on buying suits, especially in the late game. Unlocking the ultimate suit and gadget upgrades will require a particularly high supply of Hero Tokens and rare tech parts, and will take longer to get there if you’re spending all your currency on suits. .
Use your gadgets.
There are so many options in combat that it’s easy to forget some of the key parts of the series. Gadgets are a perfect example. In past games, you had a limited inventory that filled up throughout the battle, but now, they automatically recharge over time. Don’t be afraid to use them – you’ll be surprised how quickly they come back.
Web grabbers are your friend.
One of the best gadgets is the Web Grabber, which attaches webs to a group of enemies in an area and pulls them together. This is a fantastic opener for Miles’ venom powers or Peter’s spider arm abilities as it gathers enemies into a cluster to hit with their area attacks.
Set a shortcut on the Dpad.
Spider-Man 2 has many accessibility options at the player’s disposal, and many of them are useful, regardless of whether you have a disability or not. The best examples of this are DPad shortcuts. At the bottom of the settings menu, you can set some commands on the dpad to make your life a little easier. Personally, I like to set the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man app to one and the photo gadget to the other, so I don’t have to swipe the touchpad. You can also use it to access photo mode, quick access to certain gadgets or capabilities, or adjust settings like game speed and contrast mode.
The corner tether is extremely useful.
Having trouble making tight turns? One of the most useful options in the skill tree is called the Corner Tether, and it’s something I’d love to see return in future games. It’s available in the shared tree, just a few choices down the middle, so you can access it early in the game. To activate it, simply hold Circle in the direction you want to turn, and Spider-Man will quickly and easily round the corner, making chase sequences much more manageable.
Use tricks to gain XP.
By holding Square mid-air and pointing the left stick in a certain direction, Spider-Man can perform tricks, slowly building up XP over time. It’s not as much as you’ll get from doing one mission, but if you find yourself near the threshold it might be enough to get you a level here or there.
Web shooters can heal you.
Web shooters are good for immobilizing enemies and slowing them down, but they can also be a surprisingly effective defensive tool. Even at their most basic level, web shooters create focus, and can be upgraded to create more. Since focus bars allow you to heal yourself, it’s a good idea to move some distance, fire a bunch of traps, and raise the focus bar to recover.
Finally, web shooters can be upgraded to literally heal you on every hit, making this strategy even more effective. Traps are your best friend if you find yourself stuck on a tough boss.
You can’t finish the EMF mission until you beat the game.
A few hours into the game, you’ll gain the ability to do EMF missions, which are usually cute little games about science and nature. But while they’re initially unlocked, you can’t fully complete the actual game until you’ve finished the main game, so keep that in mind when looking for them.
Grab the spider bots when you see them
One of the most mysterious collectables in the game, the Spider-Bots can be seen in the city with different colored spherical pulses. New York is full of things to do and collect, so you may be tempted to pass them by, but you should always stop and grab them. These are one of the only collectibles that don’t appear in the map menu, so tracking them down again can be a major hassle.
Finding the Flame is worth your time.
The flame quest line specific to Peter has four quests that gradually become available as you complete the main story. While there isn’t much reason to prioritize these quests over others, you should make it a point to finish them before putting the game down. The ending has some interesting implications that will likely be picked up in a sequel or DLC.
Stick around after the credits
If you’ve been a fan of (or even been familiar with) Marvel movies for the past 15 years, you know that sticking around after the credits is now common superhero fan etiquette. Spider-Man 2’s post-credits scenes are no different and offer some new story details that will surely pop up again in sequels or DLC.
For more Spider-Man 2, you can check out his episode of New Gameplay Today , watch the launch trailer , and check out our review , where he scored a 9.5 out of 10 .
Are you excited to get your hands on Spider-Man 2? Tell us in the comments!