Dead Rising/Psychopaths

Throughout the game, Frank will encounter Psychopaths - survivors of the zombie outbreak who aren't in the mental state to be rescued. Often, they've taken other Survivors hostage and will attempt to kill them; your only course of action is to take them out first.

The list below is in more or less chronological order, and may contain spoilers.

Food Court
Carlito can be tough if you're careless, but there's a couple of different approaches that will work against him - the one you choose will depend how brave you're feeling, and how much health you've got.

The safer course is to use the food court restaurants and pillars as cover, using your handguns to chip Carlito's health down and using the food and drinks in the area to keep your own health topped up. After his health drops a bit, Carlito will retreat from the gantry at the front of the Wild West section to the roofs of the stores at the back. At this point, if your ammo is running low, you can jump up onto the entrance arch of Chris' Fine Foods to pick up a sub-machine gun.

Alternatively, if you prefer the direct and reckless course of action, equip your katana and head up to the raised area below Carlito's perch. On one side of the central steps along the front edge of the Food Court's Wild West area are a few boxes which you can use to climb up onto Carlito's walkway. You'll want to wait until he's as far to the right as possible to give yourself the best cover when pulling yourself up onto the gantry, then run around and start attacking him. You might take a couple of hits from Carlito's machine gun, but you should survive long enough to land the three or four katana hits required to end the fight.

Entrance Plaza
This guy's a tough cookie - not long after his first defeat at the hands of Frank, Carlito is back for another one. This time, he's armed with a powerful sniper rifle, and as such will be much more difficult to get close to than last time.

The best tactic is to head up either of the escalators right beside your starting position, and then head around to the right, and take cover behind the corner of Outta Sight on the left. From here, you should be able to target Carlito on the opposite walkway without exposing yourself to his fire.

Alternatively, you can run into the sports shop and grab a hockey stick, then hide behind the pillar next to it. Since the stick is so long, you can target Carlito, but he can't target you. Just one stick should be good enough, but if you miss a lot, I suggest taking two.

The Convicts
The convicts are unique among Psychopaths - they'll respawn at midnight each night, with the exception of September 22, and they don't count towards the Psycho Collector, Psycho Taker or Punisher Achievements.

The first time you encounter the Convicts you'll find them chasing Sophie and another unnamed survivor across the Leisure Park in their jeep. As if the chance of getting run over wasn't bad enough, the jeep has a mounted machine gun which they're not shy of using.

Unless you've unlocked the Real Mega Blaster, the most effective way of dealing with the convicts is to use a Rifle; go for the gunner on the back first so that they're not able to attack you from a distance, then take out the driver. The passenger will then jump into the driving seat, so take him out too.

If you can't get a Rifle and have to get close, head into an area with lots of trees so that the jeep will find it tough to maneuver. Aiming at the convicts can be difficult while the jeep's moving, so at close quarters a Submachine Gun or Shotgun will be a little more effective.

An easier way, but exploits the AI, is simply hide right behind a tree. They'll keep ramming the tree, trying to get to you. I suggest taking out the gunner first, then running behind and stealing the gun to shoot the driver and passenger.

If you get the van out of the Maintenance Tunnels, you can also use it to ram the jeep and kill the convicts, but you'll then run the risk of destroying the jeep as well, which will prevent you from getting the Carjacker achievement, so it's best just to take out the gunner this way and then concentrate on the other two using the tactics above.

Adam MacIntyre
This clown went insane after seeing the children he was entertaining being killed by the zombies. He now obsesses over the Space Ride that he worked at, and will not allow anyone to stop it.

At the start of the fight, Adam is on the far side of the Space Ride track. Head shots are effective against him, but the best tactic is to run out of the Space Ride station away from Adam and onto the walkways around Wonderland Plaza. His dual chainsaws are capable of doing a lot of damage, so you want to keep your distance and shoot the balloons he inflates before he throws them at you; they'll damage him much more than almost any of your weapons can, with the bonus of distracting him for a few seconds to land another couple of shots.

When the fight is over, stop the Space Ride to save Greg, who will open a shortcut for you between the Wonderland Plaza and Paradise Plaza bathrooms.

Steven Chapman
The crazed manager of Seon's, Steven has an intense hatred of vandals - and a prisoner stuffed in a tricked-out shopping cart, in the form of Isabela, the woman Frank saw in the Entrance Plaza just before the undead hordes swarmed in.

As if Steven's murderous shopping cart wasn't bad enough, he's also got a shotgun for those moments when you're out of range. Fortunately, the store has plenty of cover in the form of the aisle shelves, as well as loads of items to help you get health back when you need it.

Steven's shopping cart is very slow to turn, so start off by running down the aisle away from him, then duck to one side and stand a couple of aisles over with your guns out, waiting for him to come out. Fire a few shots and then duck back down another aisle then repeat. If he's getting too close, you can also hop up onto the shelves and into an adjacent aisle; while it might be tempting to stay up there, Steven will just resort to his shotgun.

It is possible to get behind Steven to use melee weapons, either by outrunning him or using the shelves (he can't turn around once he's down an aisle) but it's really not recommended as your first course of action unless you've got a katana or two handy and have plenty of health just in case.

Raincoat Cult
The Cultists make their first appearance, attempting to sacrifice Jennifer, near the entrance to Colby's Movieland in Paradise Plaza early on the afternoon of the second day. Like the Convicts, they don't count towards psycho achievements, but you'll get a 500 PP bonus for every one you kill.

They'll also keep showing up all around the mall up until the A Strange Group scoop at 12.00am on the 21st.

Isabela Keyes
As soon as the fight starts, Isabela guns the engine of her bike and drives straight at you. That bike can do significant damage if you're not careful, so the first order of business is to keep out of the way - you can either dodge, or if you're a decent aim and have a gun, a well-placed shot will cause her to swerve.

However, if you want to cheat a bit and exploit the horrible AI, you can run to the center scaffolding near 'Seon's' and climb to the tallest scaffold. Just keep aiming and firing with your pistol whenever she stops (either to try (poorly) to run you over or to shoot at you). If she starts to head away from you, jump down. Then, when she's coming back, jump back to the top scaffold.

If you need to recover some health, climb up onto the scaffolding in the area to get out of the way before eating anything - but don't try to get into Seon's, as Isabela will escape and you'll fail the mission.

Kent Swanson
Makes his first appearance in Cut From The Same Cloth and shows up again in Photo Challenge, but this time he's got a hostage. Determined to prove once and for all that his skills and commitment are greater than Frank's, he's planning to infect poor Ted with a zombie queen to record the transformation process.

If you don't show up quick enough after the scoop kicks off at 12, it'll be too late to save Ted.

Larry Chiang
It's important to note that if you take too long against Larry, Carlito will end up in the meat grinder - and while that may seem like reasonable punishment considering the trouble he's caused you, it won't help solve the mysteries behind the zombie outbreak.

Keep your distance and use the hanging meat as cover when you need to eat, but watch out for thrown items - including the cattle carcasses, which Larry will occasionally throw at you. Submachine and shotguns are great for chipping away at his health, but if you get in close a katana will also make short work of the butcher - although you'll have to watch out for his cleaver.