Tips and Beginner's Guide

Star Fox 64 Tips and Beginner's Guide

Star Fox 64 and its 3DS remake, Star Fox 64 3D, are basically 3D rail shooters that pair largely linear levels with a non-linear campaign progression path. The main "story" can be beaten in around 2 hours, but that doesn't mean the game is complete.

Stage Setup and Progression

There are 15 different levels, ranging from planets and nebulas to a satellite, asteroid field, and a fiery sun.

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Every new journey starts in the bottom left corner of the Lylat System map on Corneria and features seven levels. Depending on how and what you perform in each stage, the paths will branch until you get to the final level, Venom.

The difficulty of each stage depends on which path you take as sometimes, depending on where you arrive from, the challenges may differ slightly. But generally, the routes between these stages are either easy, medium, or hard in difficulty.

Here is an example showing the requirements for the two paths you can take from the asteroid field, Meteo:

Refer to our walkthrough for full details on each stage. The white routes marked below are warps that let you switch from one difficulty path to another.

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The map screen is updated in real-time whenever you finish a stage and will show your current position. Once you've beaten a stage, you can also choose to switch paths from the map menu, or retry a mission to get an alternate path at the cost of one ship. The top stats show your total hits so far, top hits so far, and remaining ships.

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The bottom bar shows which locations you've completed during this run, displaying the abbreviations (eg: CO for Corneria), the total hits, and which one of your wingmen survived the battle. P is Peppy, S is Slippy, and F is Falco. So, "PSF" means all three made it through unscathed. If one of your allies' ship is damaged, they have to sit out the next battle.

Medals

If you finish a stage with all three wingmen and you reach a preset hits threshold, you can win a medal. These medals are displayed in the stage progression bar, as shown in the example above for Meteo. The reward for getting all medals is a cosmetic change and bragging rights.

Here is an example showing the medal requirements for the Meteo stage. In the N64 original, only the Meteo N64 Medal can be unlocked at first, with an Expert mode Medal available after you collect them all. The 3DS remake introduces a rebalanced game, so players can switch between N64 and 3DS modes, thus each one of the these modes has its own medal.

Additionally, the 3DS version also features a special challenge mode with bronze, silver, and gold medal tiers. The silver medal here is equivalent to the campaign "main" medal. Here are the Score Attack medal requirements for Meteo:

Refer to the Walkthrough sections to see the required hit counts for each stage. But the TLDR is that each downed enemy (not counting vegetation and some fixed installations) is worth a single hit, with additional hits given as bonus points for large enemies. These bonuses are displayed on screen (eg: "+3"). Some bonuses decrease the longer it takes to shoot down the enemy.

How to Play

The built-in Tutorial mode will teach you everything about how to control your Arwing ship -- but there are two more vehicles that players can command later in the campaign: the tank-like Landmaster and the submarine, Blue Marine. The basic principles are the same, though. All three can shoot and lock-on, speed up and slow down, and perform a barrel roll to deflect shots. They also have some exclusive abilities, however. While the Arwing can fly loops and turn faster by banking, the Landmaster can hover temporarily, and the Blue Marine has unlimited torpedoes that automatically lock on.

The vehicles' ability to lock on to a target is crucial. Hold the fire button and, when in range, you can lock on to an enemy and send a charged homing shot their way.

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This charged shot will take out multiple enemies at once and is needed when competing for hits, which can unlock an alternate exit or a medal.

Each vehicle's lasers can be upgraded to more powerful shots (twin lasers for the Arwing) by picking up a wing-shaped Laser upgrade item, marked with an L.

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When colliding with the ground or an enemy, the Arwing can lose a wing or both, which impacts its maneuverability. With one wing, it'll slowly drift to one side, for example. When the wings are damaged, the next Laser pick-up item will automatically be a wing repair item.

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All vehicles take damage from hostile projectiles and by colliding with enemies or the environment, which is shown via the shield gauge in the upper left corner. Once the shield is gone, the next hit will blow up the vehicle and end the level. Players will either start at the beginning or at an in-level Checkpoint (if they went through the ring). If no lives are left (displayed in the upper right corner), the game ends. Silver Rings will replenish shields, while Gold Rings will replenish and expand the shield gauge if three are collected. Gold Ring collection progress is displayed in the upper left corner.

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Finally, players can pick up bombs (red B items). Toss a bomb at the enemy, and the large explosion that ensues can damage or destroy multiple enemy craft in range. Note, however, that simply firing a bomb into the distance may mean the explosion is too far away from anything in the foreground.

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Endings and Unlocks

Star Fox 64 has two endings, depending on which path you take.

Here are the unlocks:

Collect All Medals:

Earn a Medal on Venom:

Complete Expert Mode:

Collect All Medals in Expert Mode:

Up Next: Medal Tracker