‘Marvel’s Spider-Man:’ Six Game-Changing Tips You Need to Know

Marvel’s Spider-Man is here, and you’re about to embark on one of the greatest superhero video game journeys ever developed.

Spider-Man is amazing, but it can also be challenging. Enemy mobs, even at lower levels, can overwhelm you quickly, and you may find yourself wondering how you can best use your time in between the main story missions. What do you need to know in order to dominate every fight, and what do you need to be doing in your free time around NYC in order to maximize your playthrough?

Don’t worry. We’ve played through the entire game (our review is here), and I’ve isolated six things that you need to keep in mind in order to make the most of your journey. Here are our top tips that will take you from zero to hero!

Equip Suit Powers That Clear the Space Around You

Combat in Marvel’s Spider-Man is absolute bliss once you get the hang of things, but even seasoned superheroes can get overwhelmed. It’s very rare that you’ll get to fight enemies one-on-one. Hell, it’s rare that you get to fight enemies in groups of two or three.

Most of the time, Spider-Man will throw entire mobs at you at once, and having enemies pile onto you with lead pipes, guns, shields, and grenades is not fun. I died quite a bit while playing through the game — and then I started actually using my suit powers.

Make sure you equip suit powers that clear the area around you. If you know you’re about to go through a combat-heavy mission, or take care of some street crimes, make sure that when you activate your suit power everyone around you falls or flies back. That will give you plenty of room, and time, to isolate one or two enemies and take them out quickly.

Web Blossom is a suit power you will unlock very early on that should serve you well until you get Arms Race, Negative Shockwave, or Rock Out.

Fill Out Your Map ASAP

Marvel’s Spider-Man lets you loose inside a huge, in-game version of New York City. When we say huge, we mean it. Getting from one end of the map to the other can take a very long time, even for experienced swingers.

To make matters worse, when you begin the game, most of the map is obscured. You’ll have to travel to special towers in each district and sync their frequencies in order to reveal that section of the map and all of its activities, kind of like Assassin’s Creed or Breath of the Wild.

You’ll want to do this as soon as possible, because many of the suits you’ll want to unlock can only be attained by completing the side-quests and missions you’ll find scattered across the map. The sooner you reveal all of NYC, the sooner you can start unlocking the coolest gear in the game. There’s also a trophy in it for you!

If You’re Struggling in Combat, Adjust Your Suit Mods

No matter what suit you have equipped, and no matter which suit power you have equipped, you’ll be able to equip three separate suit mods at any given time. These suit mods adjust the way you build meter, adjust certain bonuses you get while fighting, and adjust how you take damage.

If you find yourself getting taken out in combat a lot, you need to stop what you’re doing and adjust your suit mods to better suit your weaknesses.

For instance, if you find that you do fine in hand-to-hand combat, but distant enemies with guns keep shooting you and taking you out, you need to unlock and equip the “Ballistic Inserts” mod, which decreases incoming bullet damage.

Adjust the mods depending on what you need. There are mods that decrease incoming melee damage, mods that increase the amount you can be healed, mods that make you harder to detect while in stealth, and more. There are 23 of these mods. Take the time to find the 3 that you need the most at any given time, and use them. That’s what they’re there for.

Use Your Gadgets In Every Fight

You start unlocking gadgets at a pretty brisk pace, and they can be easy to ignore. When I got into the game, I found myself just leaving the R1 button mapped to my default web-shooters, and even those I would use sparingly in combat. I just had more fun pounding enemies into the dirt, and I didn’t want ot worry about slowing things down by navigating a gadget wheel in the heat of the moment.

Here’s the thing, though: combat is going to get significantly harder, and you’re going to need to use those gadgets. Learn to use them sooner rather than later. Train that muscle memory so when you want to use a web bomb, or electric web to stun a group of enemies, you know right where to go on the gadget wheel.

With a little practice you can swap gadgets on the fly with absolutely no break in the action. They reduce the pressure from mobs, they’ll save your life, and they’ll build up the takedown meter faster than almost anything else. Use them in every fight, and you’ll have a much easier time.

Don’t Forget to Hit ‘Down’ On the D-Pad When in Trouble

It’s hard to remember every tool you have at your disposal while in the middle of a fight. When you start taking some hits, and you start getting shot up, the immediate reflex will be to dodge like crazy and keep fighting.

What you absolutely cannot forget, though, is that as long as you have some focus meter built up, you can heal yourself. If you have some meter sitting there, press down on the d-pad and heal yourself. You can do this multiple times in a single fight, and you may need to if you’re going to survive.

More than once while playing through Spider-Man I died, and as my ragdoll body flopped to the ground I looked up to see that I had a ton of meter built up. I could have healed myself and completed the mission, but I forgot. Don’t be like me. When your health starts blinking red, train yourself to press down on the d-pad immediately.

Use Your Takedowns on Enemies With Shields

When in combat, as you land blows, use gadgets, and execute perfect dodges, you’ll build up a special meter. Once that meter reaches a certain point, you can press triangle and circle together to perform an instant, flashy, animated enemy takedown.

These look really cool, and you will very likely find yourself using them as soon as you have enough meter, because you can’t them to instantly take down bosses or stronger enemies.

You have to use them on the grunts, but make sure you’re using them on the right grunts. Early on in the game you’ll start encountering enemies with shields, and these guys can be really annoying. You’ll learn to dodge behind them and attack them where they’re vulnerable, but then you have to chase them down and keep pummeling until they’re out, otherwise they’ll get back up and swarm you.

Do yourself a favor, and weaken the mob by using your takedowns on enemies with shields or pipes. These guys can’t be attacked normally from the front, and can really slow you down when you’re trying to thin out a crowd. Get rid of them quickly, and then get back to punching faces.