What is the Hard Route in Star Fox 64?

Star Fox 64 takes place in the Lylat System, with an array of planets. Your goal? Reach Venom and take down Andross to free the system from his evil hold. When you jump into the iconic Nintendo 64 game, you’ll notice that different paths can lead to different locations. Therefore, it turns the game into a more replayable experience as you fight through the various worlds, which is something that has been a staple in the series since its original release. But figuring out how to chart to the specific planets in the hard route can be hard, and the game doesn’t give you a clear goal on how to do it. So if you are looking to see what it has to offer, we are here to steer you through, as well as what doing this route gives you.

Star Fox 64 Hard Route Pathway

The hard route in Star Fox 64 navigates players through tougher planets. Additionally, the bosses you fight are much harder and feature fight patterns that aren’t straightforward. While everyone starts on Corneria in the game, the planets you go to after it get harder; much more than going the normal path of the game. Furthermore, you don’t see certain planets that you normally would in a basic playthrough of the game.

However, it’s not a difficulty setting that you choose. Instead, you have to do specific things in the game to go along this path. And you can stray off of it by not completing the requirements. This is how you progress through each part of the route:

1. Corneria to Sector Y: Players need to save Falco right after he says, “Something’s wrong with the G-Diffuser.” Once you destroy the three ships chasing him, you will come across an area with water. Along with stone arches. Fly through all of them; there are seven in total. When done successfully, Falco will say, “Follow me, Fox.” And navigate you to a path through a waterfall. Once you defeat the boss at the end of this path, you will go to Sector Y.
2. Sector Y to Aquas: This step is very straightforward and just requires players to get at least 100 kills in Sector Y. Once you finish this stage, you’ll be taken to Aquas.
3. Aquas to Zoness: Another straightforward step; you just need to take down the boss on Aquas. The game will then direct you to Zoness to continue your mission.
4. Zoness to Sector Z: To progress on the hard route here, you need to shoot all of the spotlights on Zoness. There are a lot of them, but they are easy to identify. As the light beacons reach into the sky. So be sure to shoot them all. If you miss one, they will all turn red and more enemies will spawn. Because of this, you will be directed to Macbeth (which is not on the hard route). If you take out all the lights, you will head to Sector Z.
5. Sector Z to Area 6: In this mission, the Great Fox is being ambushed with various missiles. It’s a test of the player’s skills as they start to appear faster and faster. To get the hard route completion here, you have to make sure not even a single missile hits the Great Fox. If you do this right, you’ll be heading to Area 6, just one step away from Venom.
6. Area 6 to Venom: Players need to defeat all of the members of Star Wolf to complete this stage and head to Venom. Whether it’s doing loop-de-loops or braking, you need to always be behind Star Wolf’s ships to deal big damage. They tend to be very evasive and hard to hit. But once you take them all down, you’ll be moving on to Venom and finishing off the hard route.

All of the trials and tribulations you go through on the hard route in Star Fox 64 are not in vain. You get to experience unique planets to fight across. But that’s not all.

Hard Route Completion Reward

Upon getting to the end of Venom, you get to fight Andross. But things go further, allowing you to see the mad scientist in all his glory. Well, in this case, his true form. And once he is taken down, you get to see the game’s True Ending. So if you were worried when you beat the game the first time that things felt incomplete, doing the hard route clears things up. The planets will test your skills, but luckily, they don’t take long to progress through. So if you aren’t successful on your first run, it doesn’t take long to nail down the hard route.

Star Fox 64 features plenty of routes for players to explore in the game. With different planets and bosses for the iconic star-fighting team to contend with. Along the way, you’ll come across those willing to help, like Bill and Katt. While others want to put you down. Now that you know what to do to progress along the hard route, you’ll be unmasking Andross in no time!