If you see a Duke and want to see if it's real or a holoduke, here's a little secret. Turn on the night vision goggles. If the Duke is multiple shades of green it is real. If it's just one shade it is a holoduke.
To shrink a boss, first shoot two or three RPG shots at him, then he's shrinkable.
E1L1, right after you just killed your opponent, (assuming the curtain is open) go up the projector room and close the curtain. Now slide back so your just to the right of the projector but not too far so that you can be seen from behind. Now wait for the other player to come up to the switch and flip it. When you see him, blow him to bits!!!!!!
The air vents are a dead give away of your location. Use the jetpack when flying through them. Sure your opponent will hear it but he won't be thinking it's coming from the vents.
In E1L1, put some pipe bombs in the elevator near the arcade. When you hear your opponent lower the elevator, blow the life out of him!
In any elevator, go to the top. Stay in the elevator and crouch, then throw some pipebombs so that they are just on the edge, but not on the elevator itself. Then turn to a side of the shaft and place a laser tripbomb high, then go to the other side and place it low. Immiediatly after that move the elevator down the shaft. Clear the area and have fun listening to him splatter!
To play a mean trick on the first boss, use your jetpack and fly over the part where the hallway connects with the room. (If you don't have a jet pack I imagine that you might be able to run really fast and jump, but I have never tried it) this is the switch that spawns the boss and causes him to rise out of his pit. Now you can go around and get all the goodies and even throw a bunch of pipebombs down in the hole. Be careful though. Going far enough on the other side of the rise will cause the Boss to activate also.
To cheat in DukeMatch by seeing the other player by hitting k, at dos prompt (c:\duke3d\) type "setup /r" and go through setup to launch DukeMatch. During the game hit k.
If someone shrinks you, use the z key (or whatever ducking is) and keep moving while ducking. It proves to be much more difficult for your DM opponent to step on you while you are ducking.
Pipes in shallow water (water in which you cannot submerge) work great. Your opponent will not be likely to pick them up, and you can hear your opponent sloshing in the water when they enter it. Beauty kill, eh?
It is possible to fall from ANY height without a jetpack, without death, or even injury (although without injury is tricky). Try this... Go to any level with a fatal vertical drop. If you don't want to hunt for one, just use the jetpack to fly up to the top of the buildings on levels one or two of episode 1. Before you drop, select the tripmines as your weapon. Turn off the jetpack/fall. Face the building, and plant a tripmine. For an instant, your downward speed reverts to zero, and then you'll start accellerating again. When you're going too fast, plant another. In theory, if you have just one tripmine, and you are able to plant it at about six feet before you hit bottom, you'll land unharmed.
For testing the water, you can activate the holoduke off the edge of a drop. Your enemy might not be expecting a holoduke that can move. Works well on LA Rumble, etc.
You can sneak around stealthily by crouching before dropping off ledges, providing they are not too high. You will not make any noise on landing.
It is best to play with the weapons mode on (hit w) because if your opponent is ducking behind a counter and you can't see his body, there is still a chance that you will see weapon floating above his head!
Here is a little buf I found while playing: You can place tripbombs in angled airvents and angled ramps without anything even being seen. Beware though, they are still active. This works especially well in the air vents of E1L1 if you have a user map that uses all the weapons!
If your opponent seems to LOVE the shrink ray, then always try to have some steroids on hand. Steroids will make you big again!! Once you grow up, give him a taste of his own medicine, and shrink him one!
There is one completely obvious way to avoid getting killed. Duck, darnit! Duck behind counters, cars, desks, anything, especially dumpters. It also helps to put laser trip mines in dumpters, too. They just jump in, and nothing can save them!
In E1L1, what you do is get a pipe bomb. When you press the cash register and the secret, you know the lift that takes you up to the secret, place a pipe bomb on there and stand in the secret. When the othe guy comes close the door and wait till he makes the lift go down and.... BOOOOOOOM! Good night! My friend always falls for that one! So there is a great one that always works.
In E1L2, if you know your opponent is hiding in the room with the elevator and the window, lock the door so he can't get out, and then place pipe bombs below the window. Wait for him to come out of the window and blast him when he does.
In E1L1, you can put a pipe where the holoduke is and when you hear the sound 'Don't have time to play with myself', blast it!
Use the video monitors to spot any areas you may have missed--or to see if you can spot a Dukematch opponent running around. Also, perfect for spotting pipebomb booby traps. (Don't take too long, you'll get hit from behind!)
Instead of wasting ammo, use Duke's Mighty Foot to kick down fans, knock out grates, and open trash cans.
Keep your eyes peeled for objects you can leap onto, especially after you've cleared out a level and are searching for goodies. At the start of level 1, for instance, you can jump onto the crate near the crate on the street, and from there you can hop through a window or onto the ledge just above the Innocent sign--both are secret places.
If your health is only down to, say, 90 percent, don't grab a large medikit worth 30 percent--the only thing that'll take your health over 100 is the Healing Atom. Instead, make a note of its location so you can come back when you really need it.
Use audio cues whenever possible. If you hear snarling and grunting, it goes without saying that a Pig Cop or a Trooper is nearby, and even the greenest of rookies will soon learn the sound of the Recon Patrol Vehicles. But there are other cues, too: if you hear Duke say, "What a mess!" after you've shot a grenade into a window or detonated a pipe bomb, you know for sure you killed something. The Assault Captains' transporters make a distinct noise when they materialize, and don't forget to listen for the sounds of secret doorways opening--they won't always be directly in your line of vision.
You can greatly augment the destructive power of any weapon by using it on certain objects. In the arcade above the theater in level 1, for example, simply stand in the elevator and use the pistol to blow up some yellow oxygen tanks and kill all (or nearly all) of the enemies in the room. Fire extinguishers blow up nicely, too.
RPGs and pipe bombs are no doubt powerful weapons, but they don't do you a lot of good when you're in close-quarters combat in rooms, tunnels, and other tight spaces. If you know you're about to enter some spots where the enemy will get up close and personal, try to conserve shotgun and Chaingun ammo by using grenades and pipe bombs whenever possible--remembering to save some of the heavy stuff for an emergency.
Yeah, you can tip 'em and hope they'll dance--some of 'em will even give you a little show--but don't even think about purposefully killing the ladies in the bar or dancing onstage at the nightclub. Besides displaying a very warped attitude toward women, it also will result in the appearance of one alien for each babe you shoot. But what about the women who've already been turned into pod creatures, you ask? Well, yeah, you can kill them--they even ask you to, like in Aliens--but if you gotta do it, use the Foot to save ammo.
If you have night-vision goggles, use them whenever you go into a darkened area. Helpful messages only visible through the goggles are often scrawled on the walls of tunnels, and the glow-in-the-dark aliens are ridiculously easy to spot.
Before you even think about getting into a head-to-head or network game, make sure you know the level inside and out--if you don't, you'll be tasting grenades and walking on pipe bombs early and often. Don't feel like taking on monsters, even if you're invincible? Try launching the game by typing DUKE3D /M to play without any enemies. It's perfect for carefully exploring each level.
Set up a HoloDuke in an open area, climb into a hiding space, or duck behind a counter, table, and so on, and wait for your enemy to attack the dummy. If nobody comes once the Holoduke is 30 percent gone, turn it off and launch a couple of missiles or set off a pipe bomb to attract attention. You can even set up a Holoduke on a pipe bomb, but only the most idiotic opponents will walk that close to him, even if they think it's the real McCoy.
Yes, you can have eyes in the back of your head! If you're busy punching buttons and don't want to keep constantly checking your rear for approaching enemies, just set up a HoloDuke a safe distance behind you. Anyone or anything who sees it will open fire, giving you the warning you need to run, hide, or turn and start shooting.
Oh, those pipe bombs--there are so many ways to use 'em it'll make your cyberhead spin! Toss 'em near power-ups and set 'em off when your greedy opponent goes to stock up on goodies; leave two or three scattered far apart in every crucial spot of the level, and hit the button at random for a long-shot chance at victory; or throw out a trail of pipe bombs that leads around a corner--even if your enemy is shooting them as he goes, he'll never draw a bead on the one that gets him. Death From The Clouds Ain't nothing quite as satisfying as seeing a Dukematch opponent trotting along the street trying to find you--when you're floating above him with a Chaingun or RPG, that is. By the time he figures out you're above sea level, he'll be reduced to a bloody spot on the sidewalk.
Setting traps for aliens can be a little tricky, but it works great in Dukematch games. Just toss one in a hard-to-spot location--behind a counter, say, or in a toilet stall--then jump into a hiding spot and wait for your hapless victim to mosey along. Another strategy is to leave a few traps scattered throughout several locations you know your opponent will visit, then detonate them all at once. Why more than one in each spot? Because when you hear one of them explode, you know your enemy is shooting them with a weapon--and he might unknowingly be standing close to another one as he does it. There's only one drawback to this last tactic: you can mistake the sound of a grenade for a pipe bomb and set them off at the wrong time.
When you spot an enemy, fire a shot, then immediately crouch and start advancing, shooting as you go. It'll take a few seconds for even a Pig Cop to hit the ground--and that should be enough to finish him off. You can also stay crouched to move unseen through areas with plenty of cover, such as inside the theater on level 1.
If you're stuck in a tight spot and running low on health, try leaping over the enemy facing you and getting the heck out of Dodge. This move works great in open areas, but it can be confusing and fatal when attempted in a small room.
Assault Captains love to materialize directly behind you, a habit you can use to your advantage. When you see an Assault Captain dematerialize, move forward a few steps, listening for the sound of his transporter device--then hit the Backspace key to do a 180-degree turn, and open fire. Ducking after you spin around isn't a bad idea, either.
Your RPG will try to target any living enemies, and here's a way to make the most of it. Hide behind a crate or other object; then jump in the air and fire a missile. If there's an enemy anywhere close to where you're pointing, the missile will hone in on it. Great for Dukematch slugfests.
Here's a variation on the jump 'n' shoot that'll work with every weapon. While hiding behind an object, make sure you're facing your enemy, then slide left (or right) to emerge and get off a few volleys before sliding back to safety. It takes a little patience, but the damage you'll avoid is well worth it.
When using spiral stairways, slide in one direction and occasionally turn in the other direction to keep your weapon trained on the middle of the stairway. If you're going up a spiral staircase that turns right, you'd strafe left and tap the turn right button. You can also use this technique to circle an enemy, but if you have Run Mode on you'll probably be moving too fast to keep a steady aim.