Fighting Konstantin Brayko in Alpha Protocol

[Vibalist]

I'm fighting Brayko, and despite having a wonderful and joyous time without feeling any frustration whatsoever over the fact I can't even chip away half of his health before dying, I'm thinking I need something to help me beat this guy before I end up in a mental institution. I've tried reading some guides out there on how to beat him (where I learned such useful advice as "remember to run away from Brayko when he's chasing you" and "shooting his henchmen will make the fight easier"), but I simply can't beat this guy. I managed to do it once because he bugged out and stood still (but I accidentally executed him afterwards, which wasn't my intention), but otherwise I am not kidding when I say that I've been at this for two or three hours (with sporadic smoke breaks where I've been hammering my fists into the wall), without success of course.

I *have* learned the most efficient way to outrun him when he goes mental and starts chasing you (which is to repeatedly run up on stage and then jump down just before he catches you), but whenever the guards start storming in I rarely survive for more than five seconds. Playing on hard, btw, and using MSG's* and shotguns as my main weapons (I know, I know). I also have one incendiary grenade and three regular ones left.

I need halp codex, I really fucking do.

*= typo, meant SMG's.

 

[Inziladun]

what's your character build?

 

[Vibalist]

Stealth 3
SMG 5
Shotgun 4
Sabotage 2
Technical Aptitude 4
Toughness 2
Martial Arts 2
Rest 0

A bit all over the place unfortunately, but it hasn't really been a problem 'till now.

 

[SuicideBunny]

do you have flashbangs?

 

[Vibalist]

do you have flashbangs?

No.

 

[Felix]

Any fire ammo for shotgun? use it to deal with his henchmen, but I guess it's kind of troublesome if you don't have rapid reload yet.

 

[Mangoose]

Hm. Tough character build and gadget choices... How's about... Save the nades and the bullet storm for the henchmen. Hip fire the shottie at Brayko while sprinting around, as it covers a wide area.

Otherwise you may need to start over the mission and conserve your gadgets better.

 

[treave]

Go to Taipei first and meet Heck.

Then get Heck to poison his cocaine.

Use your shotgun to get him down to the point where he starts snorting the coke.

Run and hide and kill his mooks and wait as he slowly bleeds health from the poison and you win.

edit: Oops, you just want to beat the fight. Uh, in that case, best option would be to play very conservatively. I still recommend the shotgun for Brayko. Try to stay alive until he's on his knees from the coke-use, then activate whatever weapon power you have and blast him.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

From what I've seen on videos, people just run until he gets tired of running after you, close in, headshot him 2 or 3 times, then start running again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptbzelET0is

 

[Vibalist]

Any fire ammo for shotgun? use it to deal with his henchmen, but I guess it's kind of troublesome if you don't have rapid reload yet.

No rapid reload yet. Also, the phosphorus rounds usually don't kill them if you only hit them once, they'll dance around for a while and then they go back to tearing me up.

Hm. Tough character build and gadget choices... How's about... Save the nades and the bullet storm for the henchmen. Hip fire the shottie at Brayko while sprinting around, as it covers a wide area.

Otherwise you may need to start over the mission and conserve your gadgets better.

Might need to start over. Had to do this as well with the Surkov mission, where you need to protect him.

As for shooting at Brayko while fleeing from him, it's just so damn hard. When he's charged up he's fast as fuck and will keep running at you even if you unload your shottie into his head. He's unstoppable and always ends up catching me.

Go to Taipei first and meet Heck.

Then get Heck to poison his cocaine.

Use your shotgun to get him down to the point where he starts snorting the coke.

Run and hide and kill his mooks and wait as he slowly bleeds health from the poison and you win.

edit: Oops, you just want to beat the fight. Uh, in that case, best option would be to play very conservatively. I still recommend the shotgun for Brayko. Try to stay alive until he's on his knees from the coke-use, then activate whatever weapon power you have and blast him.

I am doing this, and I realise this is probably the soundest tactic. But on hard difficulty I find it hard as hell just dealing with the henchmen, who have impeccable aim. Running up on them with the shotgun, while trying to dodge both their bullets and Brayko's is next to impossible for me. and simply running around until Brayko is down on his knees is hard when the thugs are still shooting at you. And also, Brayko can sprint for longer than I can, so I can never avoid getting hit by his knives, as he always catches me.

Can't hide from him either, he always knows where I am.

From what I've seen on videos, people just run until he gets tired of running after you, close in, headshot him 2 or 3 times, then start running again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptbzelET0is

The problem is that this guy almost certainly isn't playing on hard. In my game, I take a lot more damage from Brayko's bullets (going from 90 shield to 0 in 1.5 seconds), Brayko's aim is a lot better (to the point of never missing) and when he goes into cocaine mode, he's sprinting after me rather than just jogging around. This all makes him a pain in the ass, as there is no way to avoid him.
When he's coke'd up he catches me, as he can sprint for longer, when he's shooting he aims better and does more damage than I do (along with having henchmen), and his health decreases a lot slower than in the video.

 

[Norfleet]

Have you tried any of the classic pathfinding exploits to get him stuck behind an obstacle so you can plink away with impunity?

 

[Vibalist]

Have you tried any of the classic pathfinding exploits to get him stuck behind an obstacle so you can plink away with impunity?

Where does he usually get stuck?

 

[denizsi]

Interesting, I beat him several times in two games and only died once on my first encounter but I had Martial Arts specialization on both games.

When he's on the platform, try taking cover by the platform in front of the big speakers so he can't get a clear shot at you from above. That way, you can throw grenades up on the stage.

When his henchmen arrives, quickly rush at them Rambo style and kill them point blank with the shotgun. Also, set grenades on the doors and walls (remember the training) so will get hit as soon as they enter the room.

Shotgun is awesome. Combat is really satisfying sometimes when you simply rushing at them and take everyone up close.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

The problem is that this guy almost certainly isn't playing on hard.

You're right, the title says it's on normal. Here's a video on hard mode (Veteran difficulty, which means the PC is pumped up, but anyway)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrKUIpPhHME

to sum it up, shadow operative -> get away from Brayko ->wait until he looks the other way -> chain shot the back of his neck.

But since you have 2 in stealth, I guess you don't have shadow operative. Why so jack of all trades?

 

[sportforredneck]

Just keep trying until you beat it. Brayko seems to be a bitch for me to kill sometimes, especially if you've run out of medkits. When he's high as balls and using the knife he can chip right through your goddamn endurance.

 

[Monocause]

I've beat him twice on hard, once with a pistol&assault rifle combo, once with a shotgun&AR combo. I advise you to reload at the safehouse, do some other missions and return later. Pump up stealth or toughness if you don't want a stealthy build.

In any case, use room sweep and phosphorous rounds on the fucker when he's standing still, room sweep makes him fall to the ground - get as close as possible to deal extra damage. The trouble is he'll snort coke whenever your room sweep is over - you'll have to run then. Sprint around, he'll hit you once with a combo but you should still live. Use first aid kits and the two med stations that are around.
When he's not on coke (ie. he's shooting) take extra caution to avoid getting hit. You can try to get out of cover when he's reloading to take some shots.

The fight is much, much easier when you've got stealth operative - simply because when you go invisible Brayko returns to sobriety and stops pursuing you with knives. There's some cheese here - you can take him out with a cheesy and tedious tactic of shooting him, stealthing when he's on coke, waiting for shadow operative to reload and shooting him again.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

What about letting him knife you once after he's been running for a while, then sprinting away from the rest of his combo? That should guarantee he'll fall down once he finishes, so you can right click to line up a critical shotgun blast at his chest then unload when he puts his head down.

 

[Monocause]

You can't make him hit you just once, he always gets a whole combo through.

 

[hoochimama]

What does the difficulty level change aside from the bullet-proof properties of bosses' skulls?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Why the hell do you have both SMGs and shotguns? They're all close-quarter weapons, no wonder you can't hit him for shit.

 

[Mystary!]

You're getting fucked up by someone who looks like this?

 

[Azrael the cat]

I beat him very easily on my 3rd try after figuring out his patterns, with a build that was almost entirely sabotage and stealth, with martial arts 3rd and about 3 points in pistol. First thing I learnt was that unless you've got INSANE martial arts skills NEVER let him go melee - he does obscene damage with those knives (as his dossier indicates).

When he snorts his coke and charges at you with his knives he has huge damage resistance - run like hell, hide if you can (he has poor vision, especially during the rage period) and wait until he calms. If he knows where you are when he calms down he might call for help - which will arrive under cover of a fucking flashbang grenade. Trouble is, that's when you want to be shooting Brayko - he gets an 'exhausted' state for a brief period after his rage wears off, when he takes a LOT of extra damage and even my puny pistol shots were enough to stop him from being able to shoot back.

Save any grenades (I like the incendary ones myself) for the goons in case they appear - at the least they'll keep them temporarily occupied so you can empty a clip into Brayko (even with low gun skills, doing that while he's exhausted will take a massive chunk out of his health). Obviously it's best that you're in hiding when he calms, so you don't have to deal with any goons (instead he'll switch back to his guns and start poking around with his laser sight).

Also, despite the intimidating laser sight, his gun skills are really poor if you have cover. I easily outshot him with only weak pistol skills, and a pistol geared for silence rather than power, by running and hiding whenever he went crazy. I had the advantage of being able to use the invis 'spell' whenever he got close to my hiding spot, but you've got better gun skills than I had, so that should trade out a bit. Also remember that there are 2 health cabinets in the room - use those in between cooldowns for your own health kits.

Hope that helps.

 

[Dragula]

Wow, he was fucking easy on both normal and hard.

 

[Wulfstand]

This thread is proof that fucking up your character's build actually does affect your difficulty, and can, in turn, fuck you over.

 

[Vibalist]

Also, set grenades on the doors and walls (remember the training) so will get hit as soon as they enter the room.

This is actually a pretty good idea. I'll try that out, thanks.

But since you have 2 in stealth, I guess you don't have shadow operative. Why so jack of all trades?

I never meant to go jack of all trades. The plan was always to specialise in Shotguns, SMG's and Technical Ap., but I keep finding other skills I want as well. :D

Just keep trying until you beat it. Brayko seems to be a bitch for me to kill sometimes, especially if you've run out of medkits. When he's high as balls and using the knife he can chip right through your goddamn endurance.

Yeah, I feel like the game is using cheap tricks when he does that. After managing to actually dodge his bullets and preserve my endurance, my reward is that he goes right through my armor anyway and starts taking away my health? fuck that.

Why the hell do you have both SMGs and shotguns? They're all close-quarter weapons, no wonder you can't hit him for shit.

I guess I just wanted an unconventional build.


@ everyone. Thanks for all the advice, hopefully I can put some of it to use and take this dumb fucker down.