Uncharted 2 — weapons, combat and the puzzles worth having written down

Uncharted 2 — weapons, combat and the puzzles worth having written down Late-game spoilers below. There's more to the combat here than standing behind a wall until everyone is dead. The game keeps changing the ground underneath you. You're climbing, moving between train cars, dealing with shields, getting pushed out of cover and trying not to waste the weapon you actually need for the next enemy. There isn't a campaign skill tree. You aren't putting points into a sniper build or unlocking a melee branch. The improvement is in how you use the tools the game gives you. Reward weapons, skins and tweaks are bonus unlocks, not a character-leveling system. The campaign arsenal Sidearms - Tranquilizer dart gun: the museum's quiet, nonlethal tool. A body hit is enough; the single-shot reload means a miss costs time. It isn't your standard weapon for the rest of the campaign. - .45 Defender: accurate early pistol for deliberate headshots. Its smaller magazine makes sloppy shooting more expensive. - 92FS-9mm: an adaptable, plentiful sidearm with a more forgiving magazine. Good for controlled headshots and hanging combat, but not the heavy stopping power of a magnum. - Wes-44: strong revolver for dangerous individual targets. Limited ammunition makes it a poor choice for wasting rounds through cover. - Desert-5: another hard-hitting, accurate sidearm. Useful when a normal pistol isn't ending an encounter quickly enough; still limited by scarce rounds. - Micro-9mm: compact automatic fire, useful at short range and for hip-fire cleanup. It consumes ammunition quickly and isn't the answer to a distant sniper. - P08-9mm: the old pistol found in the mountain sections. Use it for aimed shots when that's what the area supplies; don't expect a generous magazine or instant reload. - Pistole: a short-range shotgun in the sidearm slot. Good for an enemy right on top of you, weak at distance, and the two-shot capacity demands a plan for reloading. Long guns and heavy weapons - AK-47: common ammunition and reliable general-purpose fire. Control the recoil with bursts rather than holding the trigger at a tiny distant head. - M4: a steadier automatic option for medium-range fights. A useful general weapon, but ammunition availability still matters more than keeping an empty rifle. - FAL: three-round bursts and a zoomed view suit deliberate shots from cover. Less comfortable when an armored shotgun soldier is already in your face. - MP40: the older automatic weapon found in ruins and underground areas. Useful when local enemies supply it; less precise than the better ranged options. - Dragon Sniper: remove distant snipers and exposed priority targets. The scope narrows your awareness, so check for flankers before settling into it. - Moss-12: close-range stopping power. Limited range and ammunition make it situational rather than a weapon for every courtyard. - SAS-12: faster follow-up shotgun fire makes it useful against close, durable enemies. Distance still works against it, and it can burn through its supply. - M32-Hammer: repeated grenade-launcher blasts for groups and armored threats. Give the blast room; firing at an enemy beside you can end your own attempt. - RPG-7: major explosive damage, especially when the game puts a vehicle in your way. Slow follow-up and scarce ammunition mean choosing the shot matters. - GAU-19: heavy sustained fire. It trades mobility and quick handling for that damage, so don't carry it into an exposed position and expect to dodge normally. - Crossbow: quiet and powerful, with slow handling and very limited bolts. Particularly useful against Shambhala's Guardians. Pick up their dropped crossbows instead of trying to solve every late fight with rifle ammunition. Explosives, shields and emplacements - Mk-NDI grenades: flush enemies from cover or catch a cluster. Throw ahead of moving enemies and give yourself distance from the blast. - Propane tanks: throwable environmental explosives. Throw, then shoot the tank; standing around holding one under enemy fire is asking for trouble. - Riot shield: mobile frontal protection with a sidearm. It does not make your sides, back or exposed shooting arm invulnerable, and explosives still matter. - Mounted machine guns: strong fire from a fixed position. Watch for flanking enemies and grenades; the gun isn't worth dying on. The original bonus store also includes named variants such as Chloe's .45 Defender and Eddy's Golden Gun. They are bonus weapons, not extra campaign skill paths or reasons to confuse the PS3 store with the remaster's unlock menu. Getting more out of the fights Use a ranged weapon alongside something that can handle a close rush. If both weapons solve exactly the same problem, you're leaving yourself fewer options when the fight changes. Take the quiet kills the level offers before opening fire. Once everyone is alerted, change position when you get flanked; sitting in the same cover because it worked thirty seconds ago is not a strategy. Prioritize enemies with laser sights or explosives when they have an immediate angle on you. Against shields, work around the protection or use an explosive instead of feeding ammunition into the shield itself. The melee is useful, but an isolated enemy and an armored soldier surrounded by five friends are not the same situation. Especially on Crushing, don't turn a safe gunfight into an unnecessary fistfight. Chapter 8 — statue arms and the ceiling trap Leave the trident arm alone; it already matches the journal. Climb the broken pillar on the chamber's right, use the pipe and wall to reach the upper level, then climb the corner bricks above the trident to operate the upper arm. Return toward the broken pillar and take the opposite route across the poles above the entrance. Climb back up after the walkway collapses. Operate the lower arm holding the skulls, then climb the corner bricks and swing across the pole to reach the last upper arm. Drop and jump onto that arm to move it. Once all three have moved, climb the statue's center and insert the Phurba to drain the pool. In the later descending-ceiling trap, attack the exposed wall gears with grenades to stop it. Grab the Bronze Varaha Statue from the floor before leaving, then climb through the wall opening. Chapter 9 — the mirrors Aim the first mirror at the forehead of the far stone face. Insert the Phurba when it lights up. Climb the lowered central blade, changing sides as needed, and walk its narrow upper edge toward the face. Hanging from its eyebrow opens the light source. Follow the new ledges down to the next mirror. Point it into the opening of the suspended mirror cage on the right; the redirected beam illuminates another face. Use the Phurba there to lower the second blade. Return to the middle and climb again. When the next blade breaks and leaves Nate hanging, shoot the cracked structure with light showing through it. Jump to the mirror cage, climb across to the last walkway, align the final mirror and use the dagger in the last illuminated face. The central statue's mouth opens. Descend and inspect the orb below. Chapter 23 — the animal and element puzzle Put each object on the floor switch in front of the matching mural: - Cone/pyramid → red bird/devourer → fire. - Hemisphere/bowl → green tiger → air. - Sphere → white dragon → water. - Cube → yellow snow lion → earth. Then set the symbol cylinders. Using the six symbols across the relevant journal page as your reference, the bird takes the fifth, tiger second, dragon first, lion third. The blue fourth and black sixth symbols are unused. From the untouched starting positions, the alternate input route is tiger left twice, bird left twice, dragon right once, lion right twice. If you've already been turning things, use the journal symbols instead of counting from an unknown position. Insert the Phurba in the central pedestal, then climb the revealed ladder to the window. Chapter 24 — daggers and cylinders In the first chamber, turn the two wall Phurbas whose faces point down until all faces point up. Then operate the orb. At the later cylinder puzzle, face the groups directly. Starting from their original positions: - On the room's left platform, leave its left cylinder alone, turn its middle cylinder counterclockwise once, and its right cylinder counterclockwise twice. - On the right platform, leave the outer cylinders alone and turn the middle one counterclockwise once. The journal's boxed symbols identify which page goes with each side: the room's left group corresponds to the right-hand page and vice versa. Match each group's three symbols left to right. If you've already moved a cylinder, use those displayed symbols rather than continuing the starting-position counts. Operate the newly raised crank. Chapter 26 — Lazarević The answer isn't emptying your gun into him. Keep moving, let him approach the blue resin bulbs, then shoot a bulb while he's beside it. Create distance and repeat. Avoid the central drop, don't linger to admire a hit, and keep an escape route when he starts throwing grenades. If he grabs Nate, use the displayed melee prompt to break away, but don't depend on surviving that on the harder settings. For the no-death trophy, choose Normal or above and restart the chapter cleanly if you die. Don't confuse reaching the final checkpoint after several deaths with a no-death chapter clear. References: weapons (https://t.co/vbHx7Q9wOF), puzzle routes (https://t.co/O9bdw0eed7).