Unreal Tournament 2004 Finals

The Unreal Tournament 2004 Finals are the 2 hardest levels in the UT2004 Single Player ladder.

Finals overview

There are 3 possible bosses that you can face, the leaders of the Godlike Tier:

• Thunder Crash, with Malcolm as final opponent.
• The Corrupt, with Xan as final opponent.
• Iron Skull, with ClanLord as final opponent.

Which one you'll fight depends on how well these teams fared in the Ladders. You can follow this by going to the Details button, and then to the Opposing Teams tab at the top.

The teams

Iron Skull

The Skaarj disposed of all other competitors on their way to this year's finals. In reaction to their surprising defeat in the ladder at your hands, they have brought in their Clan Lord to reinforce the team. The Clan Lord is like no Skaarj you have ever faced.

Main article: Iron Skull

Team overview

This team is focused on attacking you, so it's easy to get overwhelmed by their berserk rage, and getting the flag/ball in CTF/BR respectively. But this is also it's Achilles' Heel. If you play smart with strategies you can dominate them.

ClanLord

ClanLord is the meanest, greenest, and most aggressive of both the team and the three Godlike leaders. His fighting style is offensively oriented: he will attack you pretty much every time he sees you, and the first thing he cares about is fragging you, to the point of being willing to attack even with the Assault Rifle. He can be extremely annoying since he never gives up the chase for his prey. But, like his team, you can use it as your advantage as well.

Final match strategies and hints

• Your best bet is to go outside of the ship and blast him to outer space, because he constantly jumps and dodge towards you, where he can flak you.
• Another area of interest may be the Shield Pack area, where the space is so tight, he can be easily shock-combo'd. If he somehow survives it, then he'll probably be knocked off the ship, and if he isn't, finish him off by shoting a flak grenade at him.

The Corrupt

The Corrupt have done the bidding of their master, Xan Kriegor, and advanced to the Tournament finals. Now Xan enters the fray, and your previous success against The Corrupt is rendered meaningless.

Main article: The Corrupt

Team overview

The Corrupt is always hard. This team is an excellent demonstration of shock combo whores and annoying dodgers. In fact, they take it to a whole new level. Like Xan, they're all afraid of dying so they'll often take shields and try to max their health. Don't go with just a fully loaded flak cannon and 100 health against them, you'll be annihilated. Give them a taste of their own medicine and stock up on health yourself. In CTF and Bombing Run, use your Translocator as a security camera, and telefrag them.

Xan Kriegor

Xan fights defensively. The first thing he cares about is weapon, shield, and health, and then, in fragging you, when he has more shield and health than you. He'll run from you if he doesn't have enough health, or has a bad weapon, to the point that you'll find yourself usually hunting HIM down instead of HIM hunting YOU down.

Final match strategies and hints

• The basic thing is to learn the map and time both Shields, so you can always get the shields before him. If you don't know the map or how long the Shields take to spawn, he'll destroy you. If he beats you to the Shields (especially the Super Shield) at least 3 times, you're dead. Needless to say, it would be a good idea to play some small Instant Action matches in the map before facing Xan.
• If you find that Xan took the Super Shield before you, then camp outside the ship and don't let him take the small shield.
• The best weapon against Xan is the Minigun, since he constantly jumps around. Make sure your minigun has plenty of ammo.
• If you want to do a turnback, collect a lot of Adrenaline and use the Booster Adrenaline Combo.
• If you're really lucky, and Xan decides to go to the Super Shield from the lower ship, (where the Bio Rifle and Flak Cannon are) use the Shock Rifle (you should have got one and plenty of Shock Cores while you were camping outside the ship) to kick him overboard. 3 or 5 shots should knock him off. Xan can then say goodbye to his armor.

Thunder Crash

Malcolm is back, and his return transforms Thunder Crash. They defeated all the other contestants without their great champion. His return would seem to make their ultimate victory certain.

Main article: Thunder Crash

Team overview

Surprisingly, Malcolm's team isn't that hard at all. They decided to go all balanced with their skills, but their tactics are awesome, so, if you think The Corrupt are cool and try to copy their moves, don't play with them when fighting against this team; instead, try Iron Skull Skaarj if you're into that. Speaking of which, the same tactics that team uses and their aggressive berserk rage tactics work excellent against this team, and it's very easy to copy Iron Skull's tactics. Because of this, many people think Thunder Crash is the weakest Godlike team...

Malcolm

...but this doesn't count for Malcolm. He's the one you gotta watch out for. As long as he doesn't get in your way, you're good to go. His fighting style is all-round. He isn't too aggressive or too defensive; he's the most balanced of them all; in fact, he's half the way between ClanLord's berserk rage aggressiveness and Xan's max-health/max-armor attitude. Many people say that Malcolm is the hardest boss, this is because, unlike Xan, Malcolm isn't jumpy, but he dodges a lot, making splash weapons useless, and he's a Flak Monkey. Sometimes, depending on if his winning or losing, he will change his combat style.

Final match strategies and hints

• Like the rest of the bosses, don't let him get the Shields, and the Minigun works well on him, so lure him outside the ship, and whip him out with the Minigun.
• Use the Shock Rifle and, if you got the skills, combo him.
• You should be able to change your fighting styles as well. You can control him in this case. Remember. Defensive beats Offensive, All-Round beats Defensive, and Offensive beats All-Round.

The matches

DM-Deck17

Main article: DM-Deck17

DM-HyperBlast2

Main article: DM-HyperBlast2

Trivia

• Torgr's ladder in Unreal Championship 2 suggests that ClanLord didn't won the 2303 tournament.