Issue 17, Looking for Trouble

Primary Objectives:
Track down Pinstripe's base
Interrogate thugs for clues to Pinstripe

Secondary Objectives:
Find the owner of the second purse and return it

Baddies:
Crooked Cop
Gangster
Thug with gun
Thug with bat

Cannisters:
2x Red (Health) on rooftops; they are both hard to miss after a thorough aerial survey.

2x Green (Experience) on roof of a building with a "Fresh Coffee" sign; the second one is "behind" a Tomato ad signboard on another roof -- swivel the camera around to spot it.

Liberty Lad must now prove himself to be let in on the Freedom Force. This stage isn't hard as long as you play smart. Liberty Lad is a hit and run fighter. He should use Stun Grenades or Schoolyard Taunt on large groups of enemies to either disable them or to stun them. Double overpowering the Ole One-Two will put most thugs to rest fast. Remember to attack the stunned enemies so the Lad can hit them without missing. Just follow the red arrows until you can board the truck.

The second purse (and for that matter the first purse) belong to two wimmen (women) standing on the same block where you find the purse snatchers. Take a walk around the block and try your command window on each female civilain who is standing still to see if the command to "Return Money" is available.

 Issue 18, Looking for Trouble 2

Primary Objectives:
Find and defeat Pinstripe
Destroy the four warehouses

Secondary Objectives:
None

Enemies:
Gangsters
Thug with bat
Thug with bombs
Thugs with gun
Microwave Robot
Pinstripe

Cannisters:
1x Gold (Prestige) on top of warehouse number four.

"This should be fun," so sayeth Jim Raynor, ex-Confederate Marshal. Law and Order (or rather, Order) will go about engaging enemies and buildings as an ally. So you technically have five capes for the mission, but you'll find Order is pretty stupid and single minded. Once, I couldn't find his body after a building collapsed, yet he was available for hire afterwards. Fun.

Be sure only to destroy the Warehouses with numbers on them as some warehouses are not licensed to Pinstripe and will penalize your prestige. However, El Diablo and Man-Bot's combo will prove more than enough to roast the competition (Inferno and Transfer, respectively). Minuteman can also use 300 Percenter, and the Lad can use the Stun Bombs to help his master -- I mean, partner -- uh, heroic big brother (man, there's no way of putting this without getting into the Robin/Boy Wonder problem is there?) land the blows.

Try to knock over the prestige cannister to the ground, but if you can't see to nudge it off, be sure to pick up the cannister with all the heroes who can jump and/or fly to maximize the prestige. Remember Pinstripe can't be hurt by either Liberty Lad or Minuteman, so use El Diablo's Inferno and Man-Bot's Transfer to blast him and the Microwave Robot. Just be sure to keep Minuteman and Liberty Lad away and to keep El Diablo moving after he fires off an Inferno -- Microwave's attacks are all radioactive. Don't worry too much Man-Bot since he can suck up a good amount of damage before needing to resort to Heroic Remedy.

Training
New Heroes: Law (a.k.a., The Blind Chick, Dagger wannabe); Order (a.k.a., The Token Black Guy); Bullet (a.k.a., Condom Head, Chrome Dome, Shine-O-Ball-O); Microwave (a.k.a., Robocoptic Richard Simmons, Flat Screen, Army of One)

Upgrade Liberty Lad by buying some new grenade types, although if you want the Tumble ability, you'll have to forego the new weapons. Be sure that Black Bird has flight and her Seeking Beam built up to level 5, and all of El Diablo's attacks more or less satisfactry. You may want to take Ant on missions from now on to build up his Acid Bomb attack. If Man O'War can fly and has his Storm Bolt and Ball Lightning (the second attack is not very cost effective), you can leave him alone. The most important thing to bring along Microwave for the next few scenarios even if his attacks are not very effective against the enemies you'll meet since he (it) needs the experience to purchase Clone Self (hands down the rules breaking power of the game if used properly).

By now, you should have a good idea of what kind of hero you want. Make sure that you read through the section about customizing your hero or you'll wind up with a hinderance more than a help. A custom hero who is radiation and acid resistant, who can fly or jump, and who has good acid and cold attacks should be considered. But if you really want to have some fun and put in almost any kind of hero, you should have about 10,000 Prestige now (you only hired Man O'War and Black Bird didn't you?) and hire the Acid Guy detailed in the secrets section to build up prestige.

Issue 19, Wanted - The Minuteman 1

Primary Objectives:
Locate the stolen moneybags
Return the stolen moneybags to the bank manager

Secondary Objectives:
Apprehend all of the robbers

Enemies:
Tough bat thug
Tough gun thug

Cannisters:
1x Green (Experience) in the alley at the edge of the stage

1x Red (Health) in alley near thugs talking about how to split the haul.

The thugs in this mission are much stronger than those you previously met, but are still relatively easy to subdue. Be sure that you have Minuteman overpower his Smash after Liberty Lad throws a Stun Grenade. To start with, go around the bank block and fetch the experience cannister first, then head to suspiciously standing thugs and knock them out. That should help once the real bank robbers start running into the city streets; it'll be easier to search for them.

If you go to the bank, the robbers will immediately scatter. Always move as a team and sweep the city. Be sure to pick up any moneybags that the robbers drop. Once the scum are dead and dying, go back to the bank manager in front of the bank. It doesn't get much more straight forward than this. Just be aware you can't user the Diablo/Man-Bot combo any more unless you don't care about the prestige. Microwave can fry these crooks quickly with his Microwave Beam. Don't forget to underpower Microwave's Teleportation to conserve his energy reserves. The Ant should do the same thing with Burrow and Tunnel Travel since the energy you expend doesn't enhance or detract from the effects of the power.

Issue 20, Wanted - The Minuteman 2

Primary Objectives:
Bring the Minuteman clone to justice
Keep Liberty Lad safe

Secondary Objectives:
Apprehend all of the robbers

Enemies:
Tough bat thug
Tough gun thug (30pp each),
Police clone
Femme Clone
Male Clone

Cannisters:
1x Red (Health) in the center of the city.

There are two ways to do this level. The quick way is to take after the red arrow and kill the Minuteman clone. Or sweep the city and find the other clones for added prestige. The police clones are more annoying than dangerous, since they can fly off and heal all the damage they've taken (well, almost; they can only restore 100 hit points before the ability becomes useless).

If you see any civilians on the street, pause the game and move your mouse cursor over them and read the description. If the keywords, "unusual", "odd", wicked", "lawless", or any one of those combinations show up in the description, you should blast first and ask later. Those are clones and should be Acid Bombed to death. Microwave will not see much action this time around, but he can still do some damage as well as serve as a decoy. Liberty Lad can't take too much punishment, but if he can stun the clones, his crushing attacks can cause better than normal damage on these real-life wannabes.

When you spot the fake Minuteman, try to lure the thugs to fight the Ant (use Acid Bomb), and have Microwave tangle with evil Minuteman. Like the real Minuteman, Microwave can use his Microwave Beam and fry the s.o.b. into tommorrow faster than setting up a cooking timer on a Kenmore 3800 Space-Saver. Since the stage doesn't end until you interrogate the fake cape, use Ant and finish off the rest of the robbers; just remember to use Heroic Remedy if a hero is about to bite the bullet.