Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2/Combat

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is mostly about fighting. There are three types of fighting: basic melee, Powers and Fusions.

Basic melee
All characters can punch and kick using two attack buttons: Quick and Strong. Quick attacks are faster and do less damage; strong attacks are slower and do more damage with a chance of knocking opponents back. You can also charge strong attacks by holding the Strong Attack button for a couple of seconds before unleashing the attack.

You can string quick and strong attacks together to achieve certain effects.


 * Pop-Up: Quick → Quick → Strong — Launches the opponent into the air.
 * Trip: Quick → Strong → Quick — Knocks the opponent to the ground.
 * Stun: Quick → Strong → Strong — Stuns the opponent, preventing him from attacking.

Powers
All superheroes have four active Powers that can be used in combat. Most of these Powers are offensive in nature, a few are defensive or boost Powers. Superheroes also have a range of passive powers (i.e. powers that are always active). The passive powers are called Abilities, and are generally defensive and are discussed in more detail in the Character pages.

Active powers are automatically mapped to the four face buttons on your controller (i.e. ). Press and hold the Powers button and press the appropriate face button to activate the power. Some powers allow rapid firing by tapping the button; others allow continuous use by holding the button (as long as your Stamina holds out).

In order to use active Powers, you must have Stamina, which is displayed as a blue semi-circle to the left of your character portrait on screen. Stamina restores itself over time; the speed at which it recovers depends on the hero and the hero's abilities. Stamina can only be restored when on the ground; flying characters cannot recover Stamina.

As in earlier games in this series, powers are far more effective than straight-up melee. Ranged powers are especially useful as many of your enemies have ranged weapons of their own and the sooner you hit them the better.

Fusions
Fusions are special attacks created by two superheroes "crossing their streams", i.e. using their powers to complement each other. You see an early demo of a fusion when ../Iron Man/ shoots a pulse at ../Wolverine/, who deflects the pulse with his adamantium claws, creating a huge explosion.

Fusions can only be performed if you have a Fusion Star. You earn Fusion Stars by defeating enemies. You can only store two Stars at any time. Using Fusions often is the name of the game. In single player, activating a Fusion is simple: hold the Fusion button and press the corresponding face button for the character you want to pair with (button icons appear over the heads of your teammates). In multiplayer, if you want to pair with another human-controlled character, both players must press the Fusion button to activate the Fusion.

There are three types of Fusions: Clearing, Guided and Targeted.

Clearing Fusions create explosive blasts that damage enemies in a large radius around the paired heroes. After activating the Fusion, follow the on-screen prompt in the lower right of your screen to increase the Fusions power (e.g. rapidly tapping Quick Attack). Clearing Fusions do the least amount of damage over the largest area. Clearing Fusions are best used in large, open areas where you are surrounded.

Guided Fusions create areas of effect that you can move around the battlefield, trapping enemies in their wake. Once the Fusion is active, you can move your heroes around the battlefield, trying to catch enemies in the area of effect of your Fusion. Guided Fusions do more damage than Clearing Fusions; and, overall, are a better choice unless you are literally being swarmed and need to get the enemies off your back as quickly as possible. Some of the most powerful guided fusion attacks, are the tornado-based ones. Recruit, Storm, Jean and Thor with Human Torch, Iceman, Green Goblin and Gambit and create tornados with fire, ice, bombs and explosive playcards leaving destruction in your wake.

Targeted Fusions only work on a single target. Once you have activated the Fusion, a countdown circle appears on the ground. Use to move the circle over your target before it fills completely; then, watch your heroes inflict major pain on your enemy. Targeted Fusions, of course, work best against bosses. You can rapidly tap Quick Attack while waiting for the timer to expire to increase the area of effect of the Fusion. The target Fusion from the X-men or Fantastic team members are considered the strongest. For example, the Rock of fire between The Thing and Human Torch, or the vicious kinetic stab with Jean Grey and Wolverine.

For each type of Fusion, there is a target that, if reached, automatically awards you a Health Token. For Clearing and Guided Fusions, the target is a certain number of enemies (typically ranging from 10 to 15) that are hit by the Fusion. For Targeted Fusions, using the Fusion on a boss – as opposed to just a strong regular mob – earns the Health Token.

There are no names for the various Fusions (though the developers occasionally refer to a Fusion by name); however, the important info on each Fusion is the type of Fusion. When putting together any team, you want to be sure you have at least one Targeted Fusion and one Guided Fusion. Clearing Fusions, while nice, are not as indispensable.

Boss battles
Here is the generic, one-size-fits-all boss battle strategy for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.

Run around blowing up minions or pounding the boss with ranged attacks until you earn a Fusion Star; then, hit the boss with a Targeted Fusion. Collect the Health Token that pops out for using a Targeted Fusion on a boss; heal or revive teammates. Keep moving to avoid as many of the boss' attacks as possible. Repeat until the boss is down.

It's really that simple. There are a two or three battles (including the final boss battle) where you have to modify these steps a bit. But, only a bit. The primary mix-up is to throw two bosses into the mix and have one be invulnerable for a while. Still, if you keep on the move and have good ranged attacks, you're golden – even at Legendary difficulty.

The important thing for any boss battle is to have at least one (preferably two) heroes on your team that have a strong ranged attack that targets multiple enemies and does a lot of knockback. You can use this Power to move around the battlefield blasting away, keeping enemies off-balance and rapidly racking up the points needed to earn a Fusion Star.