Shank Walkthrough

Shank is a 2D sidescrolling beat 'em up title developed by Klei Entertainment and is currently available for download on the Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. A PC version is being developed and is to be released some time in Fall 2010, http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/shank/index.html

The story of the game follows a former gang member named Shank who is on a blood soaked path of vengeance as he sets out to hunt down and kill everyone involved in the murder of his girlfriend. In order to get his revenge, Shank must fight his way through hordes of enemies and take down his former allies before he can finally reach the mastermind behind the hit, his former leader and mentor, Cesar.

Shank sets itself apart from other 2D Beat 'em Ups with its unique visual style and its deep combat system that allows players to chain grapples, light attacks, heavy attacks, gun attacks, and grenades together in flashy and damaging combos. Shank starts out the game with just his knives, a chainsaw, and two pistols, but can upgrade his arsenal as the game goes on by finding new weapons. The chainsaw can be replaced with dual machetes, a metal chain, and a katana, while the dual pistols can be replaced by a shotgun or an uzi.

Shank's cooperative mode is a completely separate entity from the single player mode and tells a prologue story of Shank working together with his partner and friend, Falcone. As of August 25, 2010, there is currently no option to play the cooperative campaign online, meaning in order to play the prologue story of Shank, the player and a friend must play locally on the same system.

• Square: Light Attack
• Triangle: Heavy Attack
• Circle: Guns
• X: Jump
• R1: Grapple
• R2: Pounce
• L1: Block
• L2: Grenade
• Left Stick: Movement
• D-Pad: Change Weapon

Combat Advice

• It may be tempting to make full use of your chainsaw due to its power and how satisfying it is, but use it sparingly. Heavy attacks in general are very slow, making it easy for an enemy across the room to interrupt you with a gun shot, and making it hard to dodge an otherwise easily avoidable enemy attack since you can't cancel a heavy attack once it starts up.
• Your jump + square attack is one of your greatest allies in Shank. It's fast, it's damaging, it hits multiple enemies at once, and you can recover from it quickly and roll out of danger's way.
• Grabs are another one of your greatest allies in Shank. They can be used to throw enemies into a crowd and knock them all down as well as be used for picking up and damaging enemies that you have knocked down to the floor. While you can attack enemies in a grapple as well, you should do so only when there aren't many enemies around you to avoid getting hit out of the grapple.
• Don't underestimate the value of your guns due to the flashiness and fast paced action caused by using your melee attacks. Guns can be very damaging from a distance, making them a great way for you to deal damage without fearing much retaliation outside of the enemies' own guns.

Combos

Shank's combat system is a little more complex and flexible than most traditional beat em' ups. By combining light attacks, with heavy attacks, and then with guns and even grenades, you can string together lengthy and damaging combos that make quick work of most enemies. Here are a few stylish combos for you to try out yourself.

• Square, square, square, square, down + square, circle, circle, circle, circle
• Square, square, square, square, down + square, jump, square
• Square, square, square, square, down + triangle, circle, circle, circle, circle
• Square, square, square, square down + triangle, up + L2
• Square, square, square, square, R1, square, square, square, square, down + L2.
• R2, square, square, square, square, square, down + circle
• (With Chainsaw) Square, square, triangle, square, circle, circle, circle, circle

These are just a few of the combos possible with Shank's combat. Experiment with different weapon combinations and try to find your own!

While enemies in Shank come in many different varieties, they can all be basically broken down into three categories: Standard enemies, big enemies, and dogs. There are several notable characteristics about each enemy type that you can exploit to your advantage.

Standard Enemies

• Standard enemies are the bulk of what you will fight throughout Shank. They come in many different varieties, but the main difference between them is simply the type of weapon that they use.
• All enemies will flash right before most of their attacks, so be on the look out for the flash, then prepare to either dodge or block.
• When an attack of a standard enemy is blocked, Shank will have the opportunity to perform a counter-attack by pressing either square, triangle, or circle.
• Standard enemies are the only ones who can be pounced. Once you've pounced an enemy, use your gun to shoot at nearby enemies and get them away from you so you can shank away in peace.
• Standard enemies are also the ones that you'll be able to do most of your aerial combos on. Only standard enemies will fly high enough in the air for you to hit them with a lob grenade or a jumping slash attack.
• When you see an enemy pull out a gun from a distance, try to go for him first so you don't get cheap-shotted from a distance while you're focusing on another enemy.

Big Enemies

• Big enemies obviously have more health than standard ones, but they also have several other properties about them that make them tougher to take down.
• For one, while they can be grappled, they cannot be thrown. If you grapple a big enemy, you'll be able to hit them with three shank attacks, or one gun/heavy weapon attack. If you press a direction to throw them, they'll break the grapple.
• Big enemies also cannot be pounced upon, so don't even use the move when a big enemy is nearby. You'll just get thrown off before you even take them to the ground.
• As a general rule, when faced with a horde of standard enemies along with two or three big enemies, try to clear out the smaller enemies first. Big enemies hit harder, but their attacks are also easier to avoid. The exception to this is of course if the big enemy is packing a big weapon like a grenade launcher or minigun.
• Be quick and evasive. Dodge past their attacks and then unload on them with quick strikes. Again, don't rely too much on your heavy attacks. For the most part, your square attacks get the job done the best.
• From a distance, you can deal some pretty heavy damage with your guns. Just stand still and start shooting with either the dual pistols or the uzi. Just be sure to dodge out of the way once they close the distance.

Dogs

• Dogs are extremely annoying, but they're also fairly easy to kill as long as you know two things about them.
• First, blocking a dog's attack will cause Shank to throw them, knocking down any enemies in the way. Use this when you see a dog diving or dashing towards you instead of trying to hack at it with your knife.
• Second, dogs can pounce on you while you're dodging. It may become second nature to try and dodge out of the way of enemy attacks, but note that this doesn't work again dogs. Your best bet is to simply block their attack and throw them.
• You also cannot do anything to dogs other than throw them when they're grappled.

Level Notes and Tips

• The first level of Shank eased you in to the combat mechanics of Shank. You'll fight a variety of standard and big enemies with no real curveballs being thrown your way.
• Make sure to refill your health by drinking the bottles that appear after most big battles

BOSS - The Butcher (Fake)

• You can actually beat this boss by simply climbing the walls, waiting for him to use his charge attack, and then pressing R1 when he's stunned and the button prompt appears.
• But if you prefer to get your hands a little dirty and actually fight him, just focus on using quick attacks and using your dodge to roll past him to his backside whenever he starts up one of his slams or grabs.
• When the boss flashes, he's about to use his charging attack. Quickly run to his backside and wait for him to charge against the wall. Grab him with R1 to deal some massive damage and then repeat the process.

Level Notes and Tips

• You will receive the shotgun in this level. The shotgun is a fantastic weapon for dealing heavy damage to enemies close up as well as being a great way to buy yourself some breathing room since a shot from the shotgun up close will knock enemies away.
• You can press R2 while moving along a pole to pounce on to unsuspecting enemies and get a free kill. There will be several opportunity to do this not only in this level, but throughout the rest of the game.
• When you reach the big enemy wielding the minigun, take him out without proceeding further to the right. If you go too far to the right, you'll cause more enemies to arrive. Once you take him down, you can pick up the minigun and use it to mow down all the incoming enemies on the bridge.
• About midway through the level you'll reach an area where enemies from above will rain down bullets while you deal with the enemies on the ground. Make it a top priority to shoot down the enemies above with your pistols or you'll be taking a lot of unanswerable damage along with getting your combos interrupted.
• After you finish the above fight, another minigun wielding enemy will step in. Take him out, then take his minigun into the next fight where you'll have to deal with a bunch of soldiers and a shield wielding big enemy.

Level Notes and Tips

• When you reach the third swing skull, a short cutscene will play showing the enemies up ahead. Take their cue and shoot the propane tank from the skull by aiming at it and pressing Circle.

BOSS - The APV

• This battle is actually pretty tough. The main thing you want to do here is stay close to the box at the right end of the train. When the truck is close, dont touch any direction and simply press L2 to throw a grenade at the APV.
• When you run out of grenades, bust out your pistols and just stand still and shoot at the vehicle do chip away at its health.
• All the while, you need to be on the lookout for incoming grenades that explode on impact. Do you best to dodge the grenades by holding L1 and pressing a direction. If you start to take too much damage, grab some health from the bottle, but be careful, those two bottles are all you're going to get in this fight.
• When the APV moves back to shoot rockets down, position yourself next to the box, jump, and then throw your grenades.
• You don't need to worry too much about the enemies here since they endlessly respawn and the APV's grenades tend to take care of them anyway. If they get near you, simply grab them and throw them off the train.

Level Notes and Tips

• This level is one of the more platform heavy levels in the game. Whenever you're sliding down a slope, be ready to jump to avoid sliding into a death trap. The game will slowdown to let you know when it's time to jump.

BOSS - The Butcher

• The battle with the real Butcher is actually about as easy as the battle against the fake one.
• At the start of the fight, get ready to dodge through The Butcher's opening charge.
• From there what you have to do is equip your dual pistols and aim upwards at the pieces of meat hanging from the ceiling.
• Once you get the meat hanging as low as they can go, just keep your distance and shoot away at the butcher while keeping one of the pieces of meat between you and him.
• Once he uses his chain attack, he will hook the meat and become tied up, allowing you to approach him and grapple with R1. Once you've got a hold of him, mash square to deal some massive damage.
• Repeat this process about three times and you should take him down without too many problems.

Level Notes and Tips

• There's actually not much to note in this short level other than the introduction of shielded enemies that wield shotguns. They take a long time to shoot once they pull their shield away, so you should have plenty of time to jump to their backside or hit them with a quick attack before they get the shot off. Note that you can't block the shotgun blast.

BOSS - Cassandra

• Cassandra's weakness is her susceptibility to counter attacks. Pepper her with quick attacks and be ready to dodge whenever she flashes. What you're waiting for is a prompt for you to press L1.
• Once that prompt appears, stand still and hold L1 to block her next attack, then follow it up by mashing square repeatedly.
• Note that Cassandra will pretty much block all of your gun shots, so stick to the shank for this fight.
• You should also be careful when Cassandra blocks. She has a tendency to attack right out of her block and catch you off guard. Be on the look out for those flashes and be sure to roll through her as soon as you see them.
• Keep this up and eventually a cutscene will play that has Shank putting a bullet in her head.

Level Notes and Tips:

• You'll fight against a new female variety of standard enemy in this level. Females are generally much tougher to kill and tend to be much more evasive. Still, they can be grabbed and thrown, so you should make use of this as much as possible to keep them grounded and neutralized.
• During the part where hordes of enemies come down the stairway, put your grenades to good use and try to take out groups of them at a time.

BOSS - Denny

• Like previous boss battles, Denny has a glaring weakness that, when exploited, makes this fight really easy.
• You'll notice that periodically, a guy with a squirrel mask will hop out of the cage above and try to grab hold of you. Try to always have this squirrel guy in between you and Denny at all times.
• When Denny flashes and charges, if he runs into the squirrel mask, he'll start squeezing the life out of it, allowing you to run over to him and press R1 for some big damage.
• One easy way to make sure that the squirrel mask is always in between you and Denny is simply by climbing the walls. There's nothing that either of them can really do to get you down and eventually Denny will charge into the squirrel mask.
• Regular attacks hurt Denny as well, but your best off just avoiding him altogether and just letting your R1 attack do all the damage when he's vulnerable to it.

Level Notes and Tips

• This level starts out pretty standard, but about halfway through you'll start to get showered by grenades as you're trying to make your way from building to building.
• Note that you don't actually have to kill the enemies here. It might be better advised for you to just ignore all enemies and keep on moving until you come to a fight where you actually can't proceed until you take out the enemies.
• Eventually you'll reach the roof where the grenade launcher guy has been hiding out. Take him out first so you don't have to deal with his grenades anymore.
• After you deal with grenade launcher guy, pick up the minigun and get ready to mow down the incoming enemies to the right.

Level Notes and Tips

• This level is nothing more than an arena style battle against waves of increasingly tough adversaries.
• Try to conserve your grenades for the last two waves where you'll have to deal with big enemies wielding flamethrowers, miniguns, and grenade launchers. It may be tempting to pick up the big weapons once they're dropped, but be careful if there are too many enemies still around. The minigun takes a while to get going and the flamethrower has very short range.

• Halfway through the level, Angelo will start randomly firing rockets with some pretty nasty splash damage. Once again, you don't have to fight every battle here. Keep moving and only fight when you're forced to in order to proceed.
• When you get to the part where the rockets cause the roof to fall on you, be conservative with your dodge and only use to to avoid getting hit by the falling rocks. Use your jumping Square attack to plow through the enemies without having to actually fight them.
• You need to be quick on the poles, so instead of just shimmying across them, press X to jump forward a significant distance. Just be careful not to jump off by accident.

Level Notes and Tips

• Again, only fight the ninjas when you have to. Otherwise, just speed through the platforming sections until you reach the top of the tower.

BOSS - Angelo

• Angelo's main weakness is that he can be backed up into the fire for a stun.
• Try to bait him into a sliding attack near one of the edges of the stage and then roll past him. From there, go on the attack with quick attacks and just keep hitting him until he backs up into the fire.
• Once he's burned, a prompt will appear over his head. Move up to him and press R1 to execute a cool looking scripted combo that will hurt Angelo immensely.
• Be careful while Angelo's blocking. After he blocks about three or four attack, he will flash and hit you with a counter attack if you don't back him up into the fire quick enough.

• Lots of enemies with shields and shotguns inhabit this level. Use your grenades on them whenever possible so you don't have to deal with getting in close to them.
• There are also lots of strategically placed propane tanks. Use your shotgun to shoot through an enemy and blow up the propane tank if it's located behind them. Also know that throwing an enemy into a tank will blow it up as well.

• Very annoying rocks will fall from the ceiling throughout this level that will not only hit you while you're fighting enemies, but also while you're just trying to run across a wall or shimmy along a pole.
• You'll know when rocks are about to fall by seeing the screen shake. If you're on foot, hold L1 to block the rocks. If you're swinging or sliding down something, there's really nothing you can do other than use trial and error.
• The placement of the falling rocks is consistent, and thankfully, checkpoints in this level are fairly generous. If you get hit by rocks while swinging between two skulls, you either went too fast or went too slow. Adjust your speed accordingly and either wait on the previous skull until the rocks fall, or just pick up the pace a little.

• Pretty standard level in comparison with the craziness involved with the previous two. You'll fight some tough enemies here, so make sure you combat skills are up to snuff.
• You'll come to another section where enemies standing on top of a ceiling will shoot you while you deal with enemies down below. Use your dual pistols to take out the enemies above before you deal with the enemies down below.

BOSS - Toro

• This boss is actually just like the first boss you fought against, with the exception of the fact that now when he charges into the wall, he will jump off of it and try to slam on you. After he misses a slam, he'll be vulnerable to a grab by pressing R1 next to him.
• Aside from that, the same strategies that applied to the fake butcher battle still apply here.

• More areas with enemies shooting down from above await you after your boss fight with Toro. The good news is that for the remainder of these types of fights, the enemies above won't shoot you if you stand under their platform. Use this to your advantage and clear out the bottom level so you can easily take out the guys on the top.

BOSS - Cesar

• Unfortunately, there are no real weaknesses to Cesar. However, that doesn't mean you have to go in this fight without a strategy though.
• What you definitely should not do here is button mash. While there is no glaring weakness to Cesar's attacks, he does offer you the chance to counter by pressing L1 when prompted to. The problem is, that if you're just mashing square, you'll press it when the prompt appears and miss the chance to counter.
• So instead, what you should do is get in close, hit square twice, dodge to his backside, hit square twice, dodge to his backside, and repeat.
• By doing this, you hit him quickly enough to avoid any attack he might throw at you, and by dodging after throwing just two hits, you'll typically counter his attack without even trying to do so.
• Of course, this strategy isn't fool proof so you likely will take some damage, but thankfully after every phase of the fight, you're given two bottles to refill your health with. Just make sure that the fight doesn't move over to the bottles or you might accidentally take one when you don't need the health.
• Stick to the strategy and avoid using heavy attacks or guns. Heavy attacks are too slow and typically will get stopped before you get a chance to damage him with them, and guns will just be blocked and cause Cesar to use his own guns on you.
• During the third phase, after you deal enough damage to Cesar, you'll get a chance to use a grapple attack when prompted. Use it to bring him within a inch of his life and then finish him off.
• After you defeat Cesar, your revenge will be complete and you'll have beaten Shank!

• Controls
• General Tips
• Enemies
• Walkthrough
• Level 1 - Return Home
• Level 2 - A Big Show
• Level 3 - Other Side of the Tracks
• Level 4 - Ride
• Level 5 - Gears and Grenades
• Level 6 - Meatpacking Plant
• Level 7 - The Butcher
• Level 8 - Red Lights
• Level 9 - A Good Fight
• Level 10 - On the Run
• Level 11 - Sweet Love
• Level 12 - Venom of the Vipers
• Level 13 - World of Warriors
• Level 14 - A Bad Confession
• Level 15 - Bombs and Bells
• Level 16 - Unjust Steward
• Level 17 - The Underworld
• Level 18 - Leap of Faith
• Level 19 - Fertile Ground
• Level 20 - The Final Fight