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B.03: Combat
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Combat, and lots of it, is the name of the game in X-Men Legends II. Each 
character has two primary melee attacks: Attack and Smash. By hitting an 
opponent with different sequences, you can perform a special attack that 
does more damage. Some of the special attacks are:

 - Triple Hit: Attack, Attack, Attack
 - Knockback: Attack, Smash, Smash, Smash
 - Stun: Smash, Attack, Smash, Smash

While some characters can be effective just unloading melee attacks on the 
bad guys, the best way to win fights is to use your mutant powers. Even 
better, you should learn how to hit Power Combos--two mutant powers used on 
one opponent at the same time.

Hitting combos in multiplayer requires communication between the players 
and a good sense of the timing of each mutant power being used. Wolverine's 
Feral Slash, for example, is much faster than Storm's Lightning Strike. If 
a player controlling Wolverine wants to hit a combo with a player 
controlling Storm, the Wolverine player must watch the timing of the LS and 
initiate the Slash immediately before the lightning hits.

In single player, hitting combos is part luck and part skill. In combat, 
you spam the Call Allies button to have them attack your opponent with 
their mutant powers. Again, timing is an issue, but you don't have much 
control over when the computer AI will actually unleash its power(s). 
Experiment to find different teams that work well for hitting combos.
 
Make sure you always have either a character with Leadership on the team. 
This skill adds bonus experience points earned from an enemy on whom you 
used a combo, and it increases the critical strike chance for the entire 
team. You do not have to actually defeat the enemy with the combo. As long 
as you used a combo on that enemy at some point, you get the bonus XP.
 
You can also score combos even if you are just fighting hand-to-hand; just 
keep pressing Call Allies while you're punching to keep your teammates 
blasting away with their powers. There's even a "Batter Up!" combo that is 
scored when one character hits with a strike sequence at the same time 
another character hits with another strike sequence. You can also score 
Batter Up! combos by picking an enemy up (by hand or with powers) and 
flinging the foe into the rest of the team.

There is a small window of opportunity surrounding each power when you can 
cause a combo. Powers that temporarily stun your opponents are especially 
good for combos as you can hit with the second power any time while the foe 
is stunned. Area-of-effect powers also give good chances for hitting combos 
as multiple enemies are affected.

Once you get to level 15 and purchase Xtreme powers for your X-Men, you can 
use these powers by pressing Use Powers + Jump. You can hit super power 
combos by hitting a combo with one or two Xtreme powers. Xtreme powers 
require Xtreme icons, which will display at the bottom center of the 
screen. In order to fill these icons, you need to collect Xtreme tokens the 
same way you collect health packs, etc. Each token fills one-quarter of an 
icon, so you must collect four tokens to get one full icon and use an 
Xtreme power once.

The Xtreme power icons are shared by all X-Men. Thus, if you have one icon 
filled, and Bishop uses Big Bang, Deadpool cannot then immediately follow 
with Nitrogen Blast until you pick up more tokens. At level 15, you can 
have one filled Xtreme icon. At level 20, you can have two filled icons. At 
level 25, you can have three; at level 30, you can have four; and, at level 
35 and after, you can have five filled icons.

Xtreme powers are most useful for crowd control. Try to avoid using Xtreme 
powers against bosses, as most Xtreme powers are large area-of-effect 
powers that are intended to damage multiple enemies. Against a single 
enemy, they're a lot less powerful. Use focused, single-opponent powers and 
combos against bosses.

Another method of dealing with your enemies is to throw things at them. A 
character with the Might skill can pick up and throw cars, trucks and other 
really heavy things. Any character can throw barrels or crates; the 
exploding barrels are especially nice.
 
As you attack enemies, keep an eye on the enemy status bar in the top 
center of the screen. This shows your opponent's health status and any 
damage resistances possessed by the enemy. For example, some enemies are 
physical resistant. This means attacks causing physical damage are less 
effective. Team up on the foe with energy and mental attacks. The same goes 
for opponents listed as mental resistant, etc.

Finally, if you can, avoid combat on bridges (especially bridges built by 
an X-Man) or near ledges. The computer AI is just stupid enough to 
occasionally send your teammates jumping into the abyss after enemies that 
have fallen over the edge. That's a bad thing.

Combat in XML2 is fast, furious and goes on forever; so, you'll get plenty 
of practice in taking care of the bad guys. If, for some strange reason, 
you can't get enough combat, try the Danger Room.