The villain that defined Miles Morales’ Spider-Man has returned in Marvel’sSpider-Man 2, and the newest Wall-Crawler gets to enact some revenge against Martin Li, the man who was responsible for Devli’s Breath, and the death of Miles’ father, Jefferson Davis. Marvel’sSpider-Man 2 has a pretty emotionally intense boss fight with Mister Negative, and here’s how to beat him without the Symbiote Black Suit.
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Mister Negative has grown since players last fought him in Marvel’sSpider-Man. The character is set on a new path, and his abilities run deeper after his time at RAFT. Players will be forced to fight the formidable Mister Negative during the No Escapemain mission of Spider-Man 2.
Mr. Negative Phase One
Upon entering Kraven’s arena, players will come face-to-face with Mister Negative, the man who murdered Miles’ father. It’s time to take revenge, but before players can do that, they will be shown a quick tutorial on how Mr. Negative’s attacks work. Martin Li will slash his sword from a distance in a horizontal fashion, and players are prompted to jump over the attack with the X Button. To avoid these attacks in the future, try and stick close to Martin Li, so he can’t jump back and send this wave of negative energy toward Spider-Man. Jumping is the only counter to this attack.
As well as the horizontal swipes, Mister Negative can also use vertical slams with his sword, in which a vertical wave of negative energy is sent out into the arena. Players can use the Circle Button to dodge these attacks, and they are far easier to counter than Li’s horizontal swipes. If Li is feeling aggressive, he can send out multiple vertical strikes.
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An important move to look out for in Mister Negative’s phase one fight is his Crush attack. In a Crush attack, players must dodge, as there is no way to dodge or parry the strike. Players can watch Martin Li’s body for this blue circle, and they will be able to tell if he is going in for a Crush attack as he will hold his sword to the side and dash forward. Swinging around the arena is also a good counter to this attack.
If players are at a notable distance from Li, he will often fire out two negative energy beams from his hands, but players can dodge these with ease. The best way to deplete Li’s health is to stick close with a Web Strike and to watch for Spider-Senses, and parry Martin Li’s attacks. Miles’ moveset is great if players have invested in his skills and abilities, as his special attacks can deal great damage against the hard-hitting Mister Negative.
Mr. Negative Phase Two
After beating Li long enough, a mini cutscene will play, where Martin Li will state that Spider-Man cannot win this fight because Spider-Man doesn’t kill. Miles has a great and bitter retort to his father’s killer, stating that he hasn’t fought this Spider-Man before. This will begin the second phase of the fight, which will start with Li summoning a large demon. This large demon will dissipate, and keep Martin Li safe in a negative energy bubble. Whilst this bubble is up, players can’t attack Li, and their Venom Powers will be disabled.
With this bubble up, players will need to dodge and jump through horizontal and vertical negative energy slashes that swirl in the air like tornadoes. Dodging these attacks is easy, and the best way to counter these effects is to simply swing around the arena with R2. When swinging around Li, it seems that Spider-Man is impervious to his attacks. Once Miles’ Abilities come back, or they have charged them, players can use an ability like the Venom Punch/Chain Lightning (L1 + Square) to get within the bubble and destroy it from within.
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With the bubble broken, the fight can continue, and Mister Negative will use the same moves as phase one, except with a few added moments of flair. Mister Negative has a combo, in which he will try and slash Miles twice with his sword. These are easy enough to parry or dodge. On the third attack, Martin will perform an overhead slash, which players need to parry in order to avoid getting hit. Parrying this attack allows players to come in with their own moments of fury and beat Li to lower his health.
The best method for beating Mister Negative in Spider-Man 2 is to utilize a combo of gadgets and punches, as gadgets will distract and stun Li. Spider-Man’s abilities will also lower his health, as well as the use of the Special Takedown with Circle + Triangle. However, it might be a good idea to save the Focus meter for the healing properties players can access with the Down Button on the D-Pad, so that they can heal themselves and avoid dying, thus causing them to restart at an earlier checkpoint into the fight. It’s worth noting that Insomniac Games is fairly generous with its checkpoints, so if players do die in this phase, or the later phase, they will start from the phase they died in, meaning they won’t return to phase one.
Mr. Negative Phase Three
After taking out Mister Negative’s health again, he will become more aggressive. This means that his attacks will string together in combos, allowing him to utilize the moves that players have studied and countered, but in quick succession of one another. These moves can consist of multiple negative energy slashes, and then a barrage of projectiles, which finish off in an overhead parry-only attack. This aggressive style of combat from Li can actually benefit Spider-Man players who have a good grasp on the parry system, as they can effectively wail on him repeatedly whilst he tries these attacks.
However, it could be safe for players to just avoid these moves and wait for an opening to attack. Mister Negative doesn’t have the best health of all the bosses, nor does he have the most brutal attacks. However, being caught in his combo could spell deadly for those on higher difficulties.
Once Mister Negative’s health is near enough to 0%, he will once again summon the negative demon to encase himself in a protective bubble. Players just need to zip around and dodge the tornado attacks until their Venom Abilities recharge, to which players will then strike at the bubble with one of these Abilities, and end the boss fight. However, at its end, the fight from within begins.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2
- Platform(s)
- PS5
- Released
- October 20, 2023
- Developer(s)
- Insomniac Games
- Genre(s)
- Open-World , Action-Adventure