River City Girls 2 Cheats and Tips
Fight Your Way (Through)
River City Girls 2 is a brawler, so expect to punch your way through a whole army of yakuza thugs on your way towards Sabu, the big man on top. Unlike some older-school arcade brawlers, though, it’s also an RPG, with levels, progression, and unlockable skills. That means fighting is rewarding, particularly when you’re starting out. Beating everything in your way senseless is a great way to gather up money, which you’ll need to buy supplies, skills, food, and accessories. It’s also a way to gather up XP, which is needed to level up.
Leveling up will improve your stats, which make you do more damage and take less, among other things. A character at the maximum initial level of 30 will take significantly less damage from a goon’s attack than a level 1 newbie, giving you room to breath when dealing with bosses or tough enemies.
Home Sweet Hideout
The hideout is a new addition to River City Girls 2, and there’s one in every zone. Every hideout is a safe zone, and serves as a place to swap characters, pull healing items out of storage, and change out your assist attacks. You’ll also have the option to respawn here if you die, in exchange for no monetary penalty. Early on, going home is the smart move, because it allows you to beat up more baddies on the way to the objective, earning you more money and XP.
Once you unlock a new zone, try to locate the hideout by exploring nearby areas. That way you’ll minimize your return time if you die.
Money Makes the World Bow Down
Money is the lifeblood of River City Girls 2, and you’ll need it to buy everything, including new attacks. Early-game players should focus on saving their cash to spend on moves at the dojo. New moves expand your combat toolkit, letting you beat up enemies and earn more money, more effectively. Accessories also tend to be more expensive, and are better considered “Nice to Have” rather than “Critical” things like new moves and healing supplies.
When you can afford them, though, some accessories can be very powerful. The Socks and Fire Gem accessories are particularly strong, as they add shock and fire effects to your heavy attacks. These have a chance to stun or ignite enemies, disabling them briefly and even transferring the effect to enemies they touch.
Play the Story to Unlock Marian and Provie
Marian Kelly from Double Dragon and Provie from River City Underground are arguably the headline additions to River City Girls 2. Unfortunately for the impatient, they’re not available at the start of a fresh game. You’ll need to play through the story to encounter, then unlock the two for use in your roster.
Marian is unlocked first, and you’ll encounter her as you make your way into the Flatiron district from Downtown. Provie is unlocked in the closing moments of your time in Uptown.
Both characters join with a slightly lower level than your active character (about half their level if you’ve been soloing the game with a single character on normal), and can be swapped to from a hideout.
Make sure to visit a dojo before proceeding with the game, as they’ll need to buy moves to expand their move list past the basics. Luckily, they should have a fairly fat stack of cash when they join, so you should be able to buy a good number of moves off the bat.
