Marvel's Spider-Man 2 tips and tricks cover everything that we wish we'd known when we started playing the first time, and have since had to learn on the fly (or on the swing) across the course of the game to follow. If you want to know more, we've got a quick summary of all these tips and tricks to start with, then go into greater detail across the course of the page below.
Quick tips for Marvel's Spider-Man 2
Here are my top Spider-Man 2 tips to get you started in the game off the best possible foot:
- Fight in the air rather than the ground when you can
- Focus on shared abilities when leveling up
- Miles is slightly better at stealth, Peter at combat
- Learn the parry early, you'll need it a lot later
- Traversal skills are fun, but won't help for combat or challenges
- Ensure you upgrade damage, as enemies get tanky later
- Use all the abilities you can in combat, but save Focus for healing
- Pick side content according to the resources and rewards you need
Scroll down to get more detail on any of these in Marvel's Spider-Man 2.
It's also worth noting that some choices about what you unlock or upgrade in the early game can affect how easy you'll find the late game. There's a few surprising difficulty spikes in Spider-Man 2, and I found that at least in part due to choosing certain options and abilities early on that weren't as helpful later, or not fully mastering mechanics that eventually become crucial.
1. Combat is more effective in the air than on the ground
Most enemies in Spider-Man 2 are ground-based and can't do much to you in the air. So launching them upwards by holding Square, or web-yanking them to you with Triangle puts them in a position where they can't touch you, but you can hammer them with attacks. At the same time you'll be keeping you out of range of most of the other danger around. You're not entirely safe – there are flying enemies and ranged foes to watch out for – but brawling twenty feet above ground level plays to your advantage far more than your enemies.
2. Invest in the shared Spider-Man skill tree first
There are a lot of Spider-Man 2 skills, abilities, gadgets and suit tech on offer and there's three skill trees in all – one for Peter, one for Miles, and one that they share. You'll want to invest in this last one as much as you can at first. It has a lot of very fundamental abilities, like being able to disarm opponents, while the fact that powers are shared simply makes it a smarter investment. You're basically doubling your investment across the Spider duo.
3. Miles is better at sneaking, and Peter at brawling (sort of)
There's not a huge difference between Miles Morales and Peter Parker in Spider-Man 2, and even a lot of their "different" abilities are actually very similar. However, Miles is better suited to stealth, while Peter has a combat advantage. Miles' ability to become invisible clearly gives him a sneaking edge, but Peter's Spider-Man 2 Symbiote powers are better suited to battling groups, especially the Surge mode that unlocks later.
It's not really a huge enough distinction to feel like different classes, and you won't always be able to choose who you play as, but if you have a preference for one approach over another, this might help decide who to be as you swap between Miles and Peter in Spider-Man 2.
4. Learn to parry early as you'll need it later
Spider-Man 2 introduces a parry mechanic early on, where tapping L1 at the right time will block and counter certain attacks. It's a little fiddly at first and you might wonder why you even need to use it when dodging, disarming, and just webbing people to walls is more effective.
However, learn this skill. When you start progressing through the plot you'll encounter more enemies who need to be parried - either because their attacks are hard to avoid, or because it opens them up for damage. Either way, ignoring skill will sting you later when it comes to those moments.
5. Swinging skills are great fun, but don't help with much
On the skill tree you'll notice that there's a mix of traversal skills that help you swing about the city, and combat skills which help you fight. The traversal skills are incredible fun but don't really help you deal with the real challenges and threats. That's not to say you shouldn't get them - to be clear, they are fun! But if you're struggling and need all the help you can get, it might be better to invest in combat-oriented skills instead.
6. Get all the damage upgrades to avoid spongy enemies
Enemies in the second half of the game have some major health bars, and you'll need some damage upgrades from the Suit Tech tree to really hurt them. There are some ways around this - like sticking people to walls or using takedowns – but when it comes to bosses and similar enemies, you'll just find yourself wailing on them for ages with little effect if you don't increase your damage. Put extra power in your punches early to mitigate that.
7. Spam gadgets and abilities in a fight but save Focus for healing
With so many robot arms, venom shocks, gadgets, and Symbiote powers to work through it's better to cycle through them all in a fight rather than use Focus for a takedown. Instead, keep that banked for the healing it can provide. There's a few enemies in Spider-Man 2 who can do massive damage without warning – the twin flamethrower wielding Flame Cultists spring to mind – so you'll want your Focus bar ready to heal if they get a hit on you.
8. Pick side activities according to the resources you need
All the side activities in Spider-Man 2 provide a different kind of reward - rare tech parts, hero tokens, city tokens, and more. Different skill trees and upgrades each require at least one of these. So, if there's anything you need or want, it's best to check the requirements and then go out and find the side missions or collectibles that provide that reward specifically. Pressing Triangle over the upgrade will show you what you need.
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