Spider-Man 2 Good Men: How to find the key and code
Help MJ stealth her way through a Hunter base to rescue an old frenemy.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2's main story mission Good Men sees you step into the shoes of Mary Jane Watson, who notably doesn't possess the powers of a radioactive spider. Instead, MJ relies primarily on stealth to get around the legions of baddies she manages to encounter in the course of her story — and, incidentally, if you want to go into that story totally fresh, beware spoilers from this point on!
In order to rescue Dr Connors, MJ needs both a code and a key to open up the cage he's being held in. You can do these in whichever order you choose, but like about 90% of people I'm right-handed and therefore instinctively headed for the code first, so that's the sequence I'll demonstrate in this guide. Here's how to find the key and code during Spider-Man 2's Good Men mission.
On this page:
- Spider-Man 2 Good Men: How to get the code
- Spider-Man 2 Good Men: How to get the key
- Spider-Man 2 Good Men: How to free Dr Connors
- General advice for stealth sections in Good Men
Spider-Man 2 Good Men: How to find the key and code
Spider-Man 2 Good Men: How to get the code
In order to collect the code in Spider-Man 2's Good Men mission, break right from MJ's starting position and sneak down the stairs. Head towards the iron railings of the enclosure directly in front of you, being careful to stay in cover wherever some is available.
Have MJ crouch behind the crates to the left of the enclosure — she won't be spotted here unless you do something to alert the Hunters to her location. There are three Hunters in the immediate vicinity: two are wrestling each other by a bonfire, while the third is in a green lean-to hut with some computer equipment inside it.
Throwing a distraction object towards the bonfire causes the Hunter in the lean-to to go over and investigate.
This gives you the opportunity to examine the computer in her hut. This isn't essential, but does give you a bit of optional extra story. Once you've had a look, head around the right-hand side of the lean-to and crouch behind it, where you can safely avoid being spotted.
Throw another distraction object further past the bonfire to ensure that the three Hunters are investigating in that direction while you head up the stairs. There's an area to your right as you reach the top where you shouldn't be spotted unless somebody's already on your trail, so you can sneak over into the far corner if you need a bit of a breather.
At some point, though, you are going to need to break left and go up some more steps, since the room with the code in is straight ahead of you. This one's a bit more tricky, since the middle of the three Hunters on this level is very likely to investigate the stairs if you throw a distraction anywhere he can hear.
Honestly, the easiest method here is to throw distractions to either side of the landing so that two of the Hunters will disperse to the far ends, then simply dash past the last one before he can fill up his alert metre enough to shoot you.
The code room itself is a safe room, meaning that alerted enemies won't follow you in here for story reasons, so if you did catch the eye of one Hunter during that last part, he's helpless to stop you from getting what you need.
Follow the prompt to examine the desk and MJ will bemoan the fact that nobody writes their password on a conveniently prominent post-it any more (ha ha). She'll then be grabbed from behind by a female Hunter in a scripted event.
After a frantic QTE to taser her assailant, a voice will come over the woman's radio identifying himself as Mongoose and asking Vika for an update. MJ will hit upon the idea of posing as Vika in order to trick the other Hunter into giving up the info.
There are three bits of information you need to collect:
- Interact with and examine the whiteboard showing the team allocations to learn that Vika is the captain of Team Echo.
- On a desk with some paperwork, you find a list of callsigns and discover that Mongoose's real name is Garin.
- Examine another desk with an open book on it to learn that Vika writes in flawless Symkarian, giving MJ a clue as to her native language. By a fantastic stroke of luck, MJ is fluent, as she and Peter were on sabbatical in Symkaria just recently (explaining their absence during the events of Spider-Man: Miles Morales).
Once you've done all three of these, head to the radio and talk to Mongoose to learn that the enclosure code is on the whiteboard. (Don't worry about actually remembering everything you just found out, since MJ takes care of the talking for you.)
Cross to the whiteboard covered in netting next to the one with the team allocations on it — you can now interact with it and, erm, move the netting aside, revealing that the enclosure code has been clearly written there all along. To add insult to injury, the code is 0451.
Exit the room through the door you came in by and hang an immediate right to sneak past the guards, who are thoughtfully covering the stairs you came up via, meaning that another set of steps leading down and away from this area is completely fine to move around in.
Here you can squeeze through some enclosure bars and into a grassy area, allowing you to make your way back to the start and begin work on getting that key.
Spider-Man 2 Good Men: How to get the key
If you elected to get the code first, then the route to get the key is actually pretty straightforward in Spider-Man 2's Good Men mission. Keep moving through that grassy area towards the yellow objective marker until you reach a gap in a stone wall with a green lean-to next to it.
Crouch between the lean-to and the wall and throw a distraction object towards the overgrown circular planter nearby to get the guard in the hut off your scent.
This will give you long enough to sneak past, into the area with a helicopter. Surprisingly, if you just stick to the left-hand perimeter of this area, the Hunters on guard duty don't seem to be able to spot you.
Don't get too close to the helicopter and stick to the outer wall near the big bonfire and the park benches instead, crouching behind a big concrete planter if you need some cover, and you can approach the stairs you need to go up before anyone gets alerted to your presence.
Head all the way to the top of the stairs and crouch behind the planter, near the signs pointing to the Aviary and Lion's Den enclosures. Throw a distraction object at the one guard on this level.
He'll investigate where the object came from, so hide behind the barrels at the top of the stairs while he heads down past you.
Then quickly sneak up the next flight of stairs leading into the building where your next objective is.
Unlike the room with the enclosure code, this room is not a safe area, and is in fact filled with Hunters. However, interacting with the computer directly in front of MJ as she enters activates a "camo field" to the left that she can use to hide behind.
Walk behind the camo field to its other end and a Hunter will eventually come over to do something with a nearby laptop. Use a throwable distraction to lure him over to MJ's side of the camo field and hide behind the nearby crates until he's looking in the corner.
MJ can then perform an (alleged) stealth takedown with her taser and — what a stroke of luck! — it turns out that this is the guy with the handcuff keys, which she'll automatically loot.
The best way to leave this area is to sneak back out the way you came in. Just use those boxes for cover again until the coast is clear, as the other Hunters in this area patrol quite a bit more once you've finished the objective — honestly I blame that noisy-as-hell "stealth" takedown.
Spider-Man 2 Good Men: How to free Dr Connors
This is the only part of the Good Men mission where you need to be completely undetected before you can interact with the objective, so you'll need to be extra sneaky as you make your way to the centre of the area where Dr Connors is being held in a cage.
The easiest route I found to avoid detection was to retrace my steps around the perimeter of the helicopter area mentioned above, right back to the top of the flight of stairs where you began this mission. From here you can sneak back down the stairs to the left again and approach the wall at the edge of Connors' enclosure without crossing paths with any patrolling Hunters.
There's just one Hunter on guard in front of the cage where Connors is being held, so from the edge of the enclosure area, you just need to throw a distraction object into the nearby tunnel to lure him away.
One Hunter patrolling the level above might spot you while you do this, but they're slow to see you and you can hide down the other side of the cage and wait until their alertness dies down.
When the coast is clear, approach the cage door and interact with it to end this MJ section.
General advice for stealth sections in Good Men
The enemies in "Good Men" are armed with poisoned arrows, which they will fire at MJ if they detect her. MJ can tank the first hit but will be knocked out by the second, which usually comes in such quick succession that there's not much point in the grace period anyway; you'll then be reset to the last checkpoint to try again.
MJ has a taser but is for some reason reluctant to use it outside of scripted events at this stage in the game, meaning that her best weapon during this mission is to use throwable objects to clear her path of enemies before sneaking past them. However, if you're having trouble with this — or just getting bored — there are a couple of things you can bear in mind.
Firstly, the room at the entrance to the zoo where you begin this part of the mission seems to be a safe room, meaning that enemies won't follow you in there. If you get spotted, retreating to this room until the baddies forget about MJ seems to be the best way to reset their alertness, although that does take a minute.
Honestly though, if you just really find MJ's missions a drag in an otherwise well-paced game, I recommend whacking the game difficulty down to Friendly Neighborhood for this section. In this easiest difficulty your characters can't be knocked out in combat, and that mercifully does include MJ, infinitely extending her two-hit limit. While you'll still need to be undetected to complete certain mission objectives, you at least won't have to restart every time you get spotted.
Looking for more help with Marvel's Spider-Man 2? We've got guides to ensure you don't miss out on the You Know What To Do and Home Run trophies, plus a full list of all the suits you can unlock in the game.