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Important Edit, September 8, 2012:
Unfortunately, Rockstar has implemented a patch that has severely reduced the amount of time you can earn from explosions. Therefore, my guide isn't that useful anymore. However, if you are fine with not getting a timestamp, you can clear your cache and play offline to avoid the new patch. That way you can play NYMH with the old explosion bonuses. Otherwise, and I say this not to be smug, but you're out of luck. I don't see how this draconian mode is possible without the explosion bonuses.
I strongly recommend playing this mode offline and without a patch from now on, to take advantage of the huge time bonuses you get from explosions.
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Important Edit: Here is what Doctor Lollypop has to say about Rockstar's update. It looks like it is pointless to try to play without the patch. So despite what I wrote above, you'll likely have to play with the patch, with the reduced explosion bonuses, and try your best, hopefully combining my tips below, with tips from other solution writers, and your perseverance and skill, to get this achievement.
From Doctor Lollypop:
"Just as an FYI there no way to clear your cache to remove the patch b/c the last update is a physical save on your Harddrive, and if you delete it, it wont let you play game and will freeze you on the load screen. The only way to actually do this pre patch is to remove the patch save on the harddrive, and all your single player data. then you can do it offline but you'll have to beat it on hard, then NYM, and then you can do NYMHC.
But in my opinion it isnt worth all that effort because you lose all your grind progress, and golden guns. I just beat NYMHC today on my 3rd attempt . I went into CH 14 minutes with 30 minutes banked 2 times and finished the Becker area the 2nd with over 25 minutes left, so its still very possible to do even with the patch."*****************************************************************************************
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First of all, like MarkyShizzle says, don’t even think of trying for this achievement without the following painkiller location guide, written by Infernal from xbox360achievements.org:
http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?t=37...Additionally, my strong recommendation is to complete old school before touching New York Minute Hardcore. Old School trains you to use painkillers manually, and you will want to be accustomed to doing this to avoid Last Man Standing at almost all costs. You don't want your NYMH run being ruined because you entered Last Man Standing and the perpetrator is hidden behind a pillar.
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Having said that, here is my guide: To get this achievement, first you need to beat the story mode on any difficulty (easy/medium/hard). That will unlock the regular New York Minute mode. Once you beat the regular New York Minute mode, you can start playing New York Minute Hardcore. Beat New York Minute Hardcore for the achievement. NYMH is basically medium difficulty on a timer, with no deaths allowed whatsoever! You have to beat the entire game in one sitting without dying.
The number one thing you want to aim for in this mode is a big time bank.
You want to accumulate a healthy amount of time playing the easy early chapters. This allows you to take your sweet time and comfortably and patiently fight through the difficult late-game encounters. For example, if you have enough time saved, you can burn 3+ minutes in the airport terminal fight. Or you can spend 2+ minutes trying to smoke the UFE boss in Chapter 13 out of his hole.
You’ll want to become very good at strafing in bullet time to line up headshots. Strafing left and right in bullet time allows you to dodge bullets. You'll see them whiz by your character. But most of all, strafing lets you line up headshots with ease. Even if early game enemies can be killed with shots anywhere to their body, you'll want to be accustomed to lining up headshots because the Cracha Preto and UFE have bullet sponges for chests. And dispatching early game enemies quickly with headshots will grant you additional time bonuses.
However, explosions are the best massive contributors to your time bank. You can add a full minute of time in one brief encounter just from using explosions wisely. First of all, you should note that an explosion will not give any time bonuses if its blast radius doesn't kill enemies. So time your propane tank shots just right, so that the propane tank (or gas canister or vehicle or whatever you shoot) will capture as many enemies as possible in its blast radius. Below I will list the best spots for accumulating giant time bonuses through explosions:
*Chapter 4 Part 1: After you exit the bar building, there are numerous cars you can explode for big time bonuses. Blind fire four shots into the first car you see for a big bonus. After blind firing the four shots, make sure you're not just waiting for the explosion. Passos might get shot while you wait. Go into bullet time and kill one or two of the enemies with your gun while you wait for the explosion. Shoot the second car too. If the second explosion doesn't kill everyone, take care of the stragglers and move on. Once you go further on and you see a cutscene with a black car screeching to a halt, that will be your cue to blow up two or three more cars for time bonuses.
*Chapter 4 Part 2: After you climb to the roof of your apartment building, and before the water tower bullet time sequence, there is one last enemy encounter. There is a propane tank against the wall here. Time the shot right, because the enemies won't spawn right away.
*Chapter 5 Part 1: There are many propane tanks to shoot here. In the first half of this section, there are two wide open fights. Each of these encounters has a propane tank (both of which is the fuel tank for a forklift). Time your shot right, so that the tank explodes when enemies are near its blast radius. Also, before triggering the rickety boat jump sequence, make sure you shoot the propane tank on the stairs. Lastly, at the beginning of the very long docks fight, you will kill a lone gunman before dealing with a boat that swoops in from the left. After dealing with this boat, move onward and pick up the gun that the aforementioned lonesome thug dropped. Use this gun and its zoomed in scope AND bullet time to pop a propane tank that is near four or five guys. You'll get a big bonus from this.
*Chapter 5 Part 2: This is the on-rails boat chapter. There's a big building with a giant propane tank and lots of gas canisters. Shoot the propane tank first and then wait. Once the enemies start congregating inside the building, start shooting the small gas canisters too (there are about three of them). Then kill two or three enemies just to be safe. The explosion takes a really long time to kick in, and I kill two or three just to make sure I don’t die while waiting for the explosion. Anyway, the explosion will eventually occur and you'll get a hefty time bonus. ADDITIONALLY, make sure you take care of the jeep section by exploding every single jeep. Don't kill any of the machine gunners standing on the jeep with direct gunfire. Instead, shoot at each of the trucks to make them explode. This way the machine gunners get caught in the explosion and will reward you with additional time bonuses.
*Chapter 10: When Giovanna is driving the bus, she will approach a gas station. Shoot out both pumps for a big explosion near many enemies.
*Chapter 12: Remember when you needed to blow up that propane tank to blast open a door? Well that door has three enemies in front of it. So instead of taking care of the enemies and then shooting the tank like you probably did in your first run, use bullet time to strafe left out of cover, shoot the propane tank, and then strafe right back into cover. That will get you a modest time bonus.
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I also have some general tips for certain difficult sections. Among these tips I outline weird areas that you wouldn't think would be hard, but will fail you unexpectedly.
*Chapter 3: When you and Passos are still together, don't rush through an exit before killing every enemy. Passos will instantly die.
*Chapter 4 Part 2: After the car mechanic fight, when Passos opens the gate, do not wait behind the gate to pick off enemies from afar. Passos will die. You must join him and fight those enemies head on.
*Chapter 5 Part 1: At the very beginning, do not kill the two guys near the jeep stealthily. If you do this stealthily, then you'll skip out on four or five goons that come out to investigate. These guys are easy to kill and will give you an extra 25+ seconds of banked time after headshotting them.
*Chapter 6 Part 1: After the boardroom, you will have two cubicle fights with the IT guy. In both fights, the IT guy is hiding behind you, so make sure you move away from him as soon as possible. You don't want him to get hit by a grenade. I've failed from a grenade hitting him before. As long as you fight away from IT guy, he will be safe from grenades.
*Chapter 6 Part 2: Getting through the burning building is way harder than it appears. Do not casually walk towards any of the enemies in this chapter, even with bullet time, because you have only half health and you have no painkillers. Furthermore, Max is partially injured and blinded in this chapter, so aiming will be unusually difficult. Make sure to patiently stay in cover and kill the enemies very carefully. Burn off some of your accumulated time to get through this chapter safely.
*Chapter 8: The sniper part is the hardest encounter in this chapter, because he'll instantly fail you if he shoots you. I have no real tips, other than take your sweet time. You should have enough time banked to comfortably burn 3 full minutes at the sniper fight alone. So just take your time and be careful.
*Chapter 9: Courtesy of user Hurricane of 87 from xbox360achievements.org. "At the beginning of Chapter 9 there's [an] easy melee kill on the UFE thug with the helmet. Since it's hard to get multiple headshots in a row with no Bullet Time available it's better to run up to the wall, then pop out and let him have it, THEN use the BT you just earned on the bald guy slightly down the stairs."
*Chapter 10: You must try to minimize your bullet time consumption in the very first fight of this chapter. Don't use shootdodge, and try to get as many non-bullet-time kills as possible. This is because the second fight is against two one-hit-kill snipers. One-hit-kill snipers will give you an instant game over screen if they shoot you, even if you have painkillers left! So save some bullet time for those snipers, and use it to easily dispatch them.
*Chapter 11: Here's a tip for the part when you're in the balcony on the yacht and you're fighting guys emerging from jeeps from across the canal. Courtesy of user Hurricane of 87 from xbox360achievements.org.
"Immediately run past the initial wide open balcony area, you don't want to get stuck here, total deathtrap/waste of ammo. While running use Bullet Time to take out the first guy. Run into the next room and pick up the 2 PKs off the table, then crouch and slowly step out from behind the wall to pick them off one by one whether it be through the door you entered this room by or though the broken windows behind the piano.
“I find standing behind an obstacle and slowly edging out with LT aiming to be superior to taking cover and popping out. You can edge out just so their heads are visible, but even though you can see them and they can presumably see you they don't fire until you step too far out."
*Chapter 13: Absolutely do NOT try to shoot the first guy in this chapter. If you pop out of cover at the wrong time, the dude will juke his head and you'll miss your head shot and he'll kill you INSTANTLY since you have no painkillers... and then you'll restart all the way to Chapter 1. Instead, run up to him and melee kill him for an easy +10 seconds.
*Chapter 13: Courtesy of user Lima from xbox360achievements.org. GRAB THE GRENADE LAUNCHER in the armoured car sequence in Chapter 13! This will make an UFE encounter later in the chapter dirt easy. I’m speaking of the sequence where they all emerge from an elevator. Just hit them with the grenade launcher while they are all bunched up and they'll die easily. Remember that there are two elevators. So after you kill the first batch of guys, wait a few seconds, and aim slightly to the left of the first elevator. There will be smoke obscuring your vision, but sure as you're born, there is an additional elevator to the left of the first one and three more guys will emerge from there.
***Extremely Important Warning about the Grenade Launcher: people like Just Blaze (from xbox360achievements.org) and MarkyShizzle (from TrueAchievements.com) have been screwed over using explosives at the elevator scene, blowing themselves up accidentally. To avoid this, shoot out the entire glass pane on the right with your pistol before you approach the security console.
*Chapter 13: After the pushcart sequence, be wary of the sniper with a red laser... he's a one-hit-kill sniper. Like I mentioned before, this is a guy who will instantly fail you if he shoots you, no matter how many painkillers you have.
*Chapter 14: Do what MarkyShizzle does in his video at the beginning of this chapter. Get off the conveyor belt and hide at the very back and slowly pick everyone off. You should have enough time banked to comfortably handle this area.
*Chapter 14: In the Becker boss fight, abuse shootdodge, going left first, then right and left and right and left over and over again. When I did this, Becker did throw grenades at me and I was forced to pick them off in slow-mo shootdodge. It's scary, but doable.