Nero Weapons and Abilities

Note that because DMC4 appears on both the 360 and the PS3 (as well as the PC), we can't give precise input commands for all versions of the game. Instead, we'll use M to stand in for Melee attack, G to stand in for Gun attack, and S to stand for Style attack. Find the buttons that these correspond to on your controller and go to town.

Red Queen

The Red Queen is Dante's sword, and the weapon you're going to be using throughout your time with him. He doesn't get any other swords to play around with, which is perhaps a tad disappointing, but in the end the Red Queen is a very solid sword that will serve your purposes as well as can be expected.

Combo A: M, M, M, M. A standard four-slash attack that will hit multiple enemies if they're close together.

Combo B: M, pause, M, tap M. If you pause after the first swing, Nero will start smashing his sword against the floor, causing heavy damage over a bit of time to a single foe. You can expect to get hit by other enemies if they're in the area, but this is still a fairly brutal-looking attack.

Combo C: M, M, pause, tap M. A combo that will slash at multiple enemies around Nero. Useful, but not always necessary.

Combo D: M, M, M, pause, M. A few slices and then a powerful finishing move.

The Red Queen is going to be the source of a lot of pain for demons.

Aerial Combo: While in midair, tap M for three slashes. Nothing incredible, but this will be all but required against many of the bosses. Against normal enemies, the third slash will knock them to the ground, so it's often better to hit them with two slashes, then use Buster.

Roulette Spin: While in midair, hit M, M, pause, M. Two slashes followed by a powerful spinning attack. The description claims that this allows you to gain altitude, and that's true to an extent, but don't expect to fly or anything. Even if you pull off multiple Roulette Spins in midair, you'll still eventually hit the ground.

Exceed 2: Allows you to use level 2 Exceed moves.

Exceed 3: Allows you to use level 3 Exceed moves.

High Roller (Exceed): Hold lockon, press backwards on the LAS, tap M. Launches an enemy up into the air. Hold down M to jump up after them, which will let you perform a Split or an aerial combo on them.

Streak (Exceed): Hold lockon, press forwards on the LAS, tap M. This will rocket you forward towards your foe, just like Dante's Stinger move. One of the most useful maneuvers you'll have, if only because it'll get you up close and personal with your enemy in the blink of an eye and allow you to move right into delivering combos. Against most smaller enemies, though, this attack will knock them backwards. This isn't always a bad thing, however; you can repeatedly use Streak to knock them around the area and separate a single enemy from a larger crowd.

Streak 2: A version of Streak with a longer range. Buy this as soon as you possibly can and use it often!

Split (Exceed): While in midair, hold lockon, press forward on the LAS, and tap M. This will send your blade downwards in a mighty chop towards your enemy. It's a handy move for following up on an Aerial Combo or simply for hitting a few enemies who are directly beneath you.

Calibur (Exceed): While in midair, hold lockon, tap the LAS backwards and then forwards, and hit M. This will cause Nero to fly through the air towards his opponent and deliver a sword attack. It's great for attacking aerial enemies that you're not close enough to hit with an Aerial Combo, especially since Snatching your way over there will usually take long enough for your enemies to reposition themselves, but it's worth noting that tapping the LAS from back to front can be wickedly difficult to do if you're playing in Automatic Off mode and your enemy is moving around.

Shuffle (Exceed): While on the ground, hold lockon, tap the LAS backwards and then forwards, and hit M. You will dash backwards, away from your foe, then move forward again to counterattack. Handy, but again, difficult to pull off in Automatic Off mode.

Red Queen Exceed Mode

A note on Exceed here, one of Nero's most mystifying abilities. Exceed allows Nero to power up his Red Queen, infusing the sword with fuel and setting it alight for more powerful attacks. In order to charge up the sword, press down on the left trigger on your controller; you should notice the gauge in the upper left corner of your screen move up a bit. If you press it down, release it and press it down again, you should be able to charge the sword with as many as three red bulbs. These designate the amount of fuel that your sword is charged up with.

The next time you swing your sword, that attack will deal a fair amount more damage than it would otherwise have done. You don't want to waste Exceed on normal combos, though; instead, you'll want to use it on the moves that have special Exceed versions of themselves. These are, as marked above, High Roller, Streak, Split, Calibur, and Shuffle. If you perform one of these moves while your sword is powered up, Red Queen will blaze with fire and the maneuver will be much more powerful than it normally is.

The only problem here is that it takes a while to charge up your Exceed meter if you stand there clicking on your left trigger button. There are a couple of ways around this problem. The first is a hard-to-find skill called EX-Act that is apparently available to you at the very beginning of the game, but which doesn't show up on your in-game skill list for whatever reason. (You can find it in the Library, however.) What it consists of is attacking, then tapping the left trigger just after your attack animation starts. The timing is tricky on this, but if performed correctly, you should be able to instantly boost your Exceed meter up to the first rank. You can perform this after any attack, even one that doesn't hit an opponent, so if you have time and can get used to the timing on the manuever, you can get to rank one Exceed by simply swinging your sword at the air and tapping the trigger.

There is also a Max ACT ability that you can purchase, which offers you the ability to instantly boost your Exceed meter all the way up to the third rank. This is performed in much the same manner as the other ability mentioned above, but the timing is much trickier to pull off, making it effectively a random bonus to your charging abilities unless you nail the timing perfectly through a lot of practice.

Lastly, there are also Exceed 2 and Exceed 3 abilities you can purchase which make your Exceed abilities much more powerful. If you have three bulbs in your Exceed meter, but haven't purchased Exceed 2 or 3, then you will perform a level one Exceed ability when you use an ability, and drain one bulb from your meter. If you have Exceed 3, you'll use up your entire Exceed meter but perform one of the more powerful maneuvers.

Exceed moves are powerful on their own, but if you combine them with Devil Trigger, the damage you're capable of dishing out becomes pretty incredible. It can be a pain to charge the meter, and it usually isn't needed during normal fights, but against bosses you can use it to inflict a lot of pain.

Previous PageNext: More Nero »