Spider-Man PS4 Combat Challenges guide

Every fight in Spider-Man PS4 is a bit of a free-for-all. They’re always fast-paced, and getting good at fighting means managing a lot of things at once. When you take on one of Taskmaster’s Combat Challenges, though, you’re fighting a lot of enemies, focusing on fighting well — not taking too much damage and keeping your combo high — and trying to do it all as fast as possible. Getting through a Combat Challenge without taking any damage and with a high combo isn’t going to get you the best score — the time it takes you figures heavily into your score.

This means you can’t rely on improvisation in fights — like just web zipping to whatever enemy the game decides needs to be punched next — and have to be a lot more meticulous. In this guide, we’ll show you how to get gold (or three stars, as we like to think of it) in these Combat Challenges using the Financial District Combat Challenge as an example. You can apply the same thoughts and tactics to the Central Park Combat Challenge, Harlem Combat Challenge, and Midtown Combat Challenge — and you can see us doing exactly that in the video above.

• Start strong. These Challenges tend to start with the largest number of enemies on your screen at the beginning. If you just hop in and start punching, you’re going to be there for a long time while the seconds tick away. Instead, focus on taking out groups of enemies. You can use the Web Blossom Suit Power or — and this is what we prefer — toss out a couple Web Bombs and follow them with Concussive Blasts.
• Take out multiple enemies whenever you can. Even after the first wave, keep using combinations of gadgets to take out multiple enemies with a single attack whenever you can. Web Bombs and Trip Mines are great for this, as is the Web Blossom Suit Power.

• Web up your enemies. If you’ve got a bad guy against a wall, it only takes a few shots from your Web Shooter to web them up and remove them from the fight. That’s much faster than running or web zipping over and punching them until they fall down. Similarly, if you’ve knocked down an enemy — with a kick or an explosion — you can jump up and web them to the ground.
• Use Finishers. Keep an eye on your health (and use your Focus to heal if you ever need it), but use Finishers every chance you get. Taking out enemies with one attack is going to save you a lot of time.
• Know where your enemies appear. This will take a few runs through to get down, but try to learn where the successive waves of enemies appear. Running around waiting for someone to shoot at you and get your attention is going to waste a ton of time. Instead, get ready and know where you’re going next.

• Find the edges of the arena. A Combat Challenge takes place in a defined arena. Whenever it’s possible, toss your enemies out of that arena — off of a building or over a wall — to take them out of the fight quickly.
• Keep moving. Always sprint if you have to move. Even better, use Triangle to Web Zip instead.