Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. Guides

How to level up fast in Spider-Man 2

Jesse Lennox
By

Both protagonists in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 have been fighting crime for a while by the time the game starts, but what fun would it be if they started with all the skills in the game?

Most of the best abilities and moves from Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales are back, but there are plenty of new techniques for our heroes to unlock. While you will earn tons of materials like Rare Tech parts, City Tokens, and Hero Tokens, everything you do will also give you varying amounts of XP.

Recommended Videos

XP is still the only way to level up, which means it is the only way to get skill points you can use to unlock new and improved abilities. The villains this time around aren’t messing around, and leveling up your heroes is the only hope you have of keeping up with them. Here are the best ways to level up fast in Spider-Man 2 so you can fill your role as the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

Related

How to level up fast in Spider-Man 2

Spider-Man perched on a balcony.
Sony Interactive Entertainment

There are a lot of tasks that become available as you go deeper into Spider-Man 2, and the later ones tend to have higher XP rewards than the ones in the early chapters so you may want to hold off on grinding until you get some of the more lucrative ones unlocked. That said, since some activities aren’t available until later, some of these methods could be considered spoilers. We won’t detail any story moments or go into detail about how or what some things are, but just know we will be listing their names and the gist of what you do to complete them.

Main missions

It’s rare for a game to make anything but the main missions give the most XP, and Spider-Man 2 generally doesn’t break from this trend. We say generally because each main mission will vary on how much XP you earn based on its length. There are some that amount to little more than a cutscene and only give you around 300 XP, but for the big, meaty ones, you can expect 2-3,000 by the end. Early on, you can reliably just mainline the story and keep a good pace with leveling up with the challenges until some of the better secondary methods open up.

FNSM requests

FNSM (Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man) requests are the first and most common side quest type in Spider-Man 2. These are typically little narratives with a couple of steps to complete, such as going somewhere, getting into a small fight or solving a small puzzle, going somewhere else, and then one final stop to complete it. They’re certainly not the most engaging story content in the game, but they’re quick and at least have interesting scenarios to make doing them feel less like a slog.

Corruption

The last open-world activity that opens up in the game is Corruptions, and they can sometimes be more valuable than main missions for XP gain. Each one you do pays out with 1,200 XP, and is not all that time-consuming either. They are essentially defense missions where you set up a device and need to protect it from waves of enemies until the time runs out. While you do have to worry about making sure you and the device don’t die, it isn’t all that hard since the device has quite a lot of health, and enemies are generally slow to attack it. You also get a nice indicator when it is in danger to zip over and get the attention of whatever enemy is damaging it.

Side missions

Peter and Miles each have their own set of side missions, with Peter focusing on a returning character from the first game and Miles’ on his school and struggles to figure out college. While not as reliably high in how much XP you can get for each based on the time some of them can take, these are fully fleshed-out missions that feel almost on the level of a main one. You’ll use all the mechanics of the game, and get a much deeper look into both Peter and Miles that helps fully build out their characters without interrupting the flow of the main game. Like basically all side activities, you will be gated off from doing them all at once, so take a break between main missions to continue these stories when they show up to get a nice XP boost and some more story.

Tricks

This is only on the list if you remember to do it consistently throughout the game. Any time you’re swinging from one place to the next, make sure you do your tricks! Whenever you’re freefalling between web swings, pressing Square plus a direction (forward, back, left, or right) will have Peter or Miles do a different trick. Tricks alone are only worth 1 XP but can be comboed for a little more. That’s obviously not a lot, but when you consider the amount of swinging you do in Spider-Man 2 over the course of the game, that can add up to multiple levels worth of XP if you’re trying to hit max level.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Jesse Lennox
Jesse Lennox
Jesse Lennox loves writing, games, and complaining about not having time to write and play games. He knows the names of more…
The best weapon upgrades in Alan Wake 2
Saga fights off a Taken in Alan Wake 2.

The Dark Place and Cultists in Alan Wake 2 may be dark and twisted manifestations of an evil force, but once you shed away the darkness, everything will fall into your arsenal of firearms. Neither Alan nor FBI agent Saga are exactly equipped with the firepower you'd want when wandering through the haunted woods and mind-bending Dark Place, but they can make do with what they have in clever ways. Saga specifically is skilled enough to upgrade all the weapons in her inventory to better protect herself against the supernatural threats that stalk her. Upgrades don't come cheap, and if you find all the weapons in the game, you will need to make some tough calls on how you improve them. Here are the upgrades you need to see the final chapter of Alan Wake 2's story.
How weapon upgrades work

You can upgrade your weapons whenever you like in Alan Wake 2 by visiting Saga's Mind Place. Any weapon you have is available to upgrade there, provided you have the required amount of manuscript fragments that you collect from the hidden Luncboxes around the map. These are distinct from the Cult Stashes, so be on the lookout for them since you will need to find quite a few before you can afford even the first upgrade.
Best weapon upgrades
More Bullets
Your starting pistol may not be the most flashy gun in Alan Wake 2, but it is always reliable and it never stops being effective. The first upgrade you should get has to be More Bullets. This will increase the pistol's default magazine size from 12 to 18. This will obviously make it easier and safer to deal with encounters since you won't be caught reloading as often but also helps keep your inventory clean since less space will be taken up for ammo.
Another Headshot
For another pistol upgrade, Another Headshot is very powerful if you're a sharpshooter. If you can score two headshots in a row, the unlucky Cultist will be stunned for a comically long time. That gives you plenty of time to either deal free damage, heal, or just run away if you're low on resources and not prepared for a fight.
Ready for More
The best shotgun upgrade is easily Ready for More. Healing is not only a limited resource, which again takes up inventory space but also a somewhat long animation. If you're in a tight situation and on the verge of death, there usually isn't much you can do. Ready for More can bail you out since it will turn any kill you get with the shotgun into a bit of healing. It isn't a huge amount, but every bit makes a difference.
Two Shots
The Crossbow may be a late-game addition to your toolset, but is absolutely worth saving some manuscript fragments to upgrade ASAP. Two Shots is borderline essential, making it so you can fire twice rather than just once before needing to reload.
Magnetic Pull
Magnetic Pull could be the best upgrade in the game. With it, after you skewer an enemy with a bolt, switching to another gun will make those bullets track to the bolt for guaranteed hits. If you're comfortable swapping weapons on the fly, this is satisfying and efficient.

Read more
All nursery rhyme solutions in Alan Wake 2
Alan Wake sitting at a desk with a typewriter.

Alan Wake is a famous writer, but neither he nor the new protagonist Saga are known for being particularly fond of nursery rhymes. Whether or not you fall into that category as well won't matter because Alan Wake 2 hides some very valuable rewards behind puzzles disguised as these small children's poems. Solving them involves a little bit of exploration, deductive reasoning, and then putting all the right pieces in place. This is one of the many optional cases in the game, and these rhymes are hidden across all the major zones in and around Bright Falls. If you're stumped on any of these nursery rhyme puzzles, here are all the solutions in Alan Wake 2.
All nursery rhyme answers
There are 17 total nursery rhyme puzzles to find and solve in Alan Wake 2, broken up into all the different major locations. Whenever a puzzle involves placing dolls, make sure you pick up the dolls after solving it because they are needed for other puzzles in that area as well.
Cauldron Lake nursery rhymes

The first rhyme puzzle you will come across is in the campsite you can access after the flooding has been removed. Cross the bridge and look immediately to the left. The solution is to take the Crow doll off the table and place it on the drawing of the sun.

Read more
Where to find all inventory upgrades in Alan Wake 2
Saga stands in front of an evidence board in Alan Wake 2.

While the first Alan Wake game certainly had plenty of scares and horror in it, the mechanics were not as strictly of the survival horror variety. Alan Wake 2 has gone fully in this direction, however, with a much darker tone, disturbing imagery, and restrictive combat mechanics that sustain the tension when The Taken attack.

Aside from limited ammo, low health, and tough enemies to bring down, a key aspect of survival horror games is an inventory system. The first game let you hold essentially as much ammo, batteries, and weapons as you wanted in each chapter, but the sequel introduces a grid system that will look familiar to Resident Evil fans. Just like Resident Evil, your inventory starts off quite small, but you can see there is plenty of space for it to grow. There are specific items hidden in and around Bright Falls that can let you expand your carrying capacity, but many are well hidden in dark corners. Here are the locations of every inventory upgrade in Alan Wake 2.
All inventory upgrades

Read more