YMMV / Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando

• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Amusingly, the final two bosses can both be taken down before the fight even begins, due to them both appearing on the map before the battle and still being damagable in this state. See here and here.
  • Even without exploiting this, the fight with the Thug Leader on Snivelak can still be a joke with the Tankbot Glove. Simply head for a corner where the boss can't hit you, then maneuver Tankbots in between its legs and mash the fire button until the Tankbot explodes. Even with only 8 ammo, it's enough to do the job.
  • The Mutant Protopet is frequently lambasted as the weakest Final Boss of the original Ratchet & Clank PS2 quadrilogy. Not only does it not have the emotional impact that the others do (You're frequently shown the villainous actions of Chairman Drek, Doctor Nefarious, and Gleeman Vox, to hype you up to finally take them down, while the Mutant Protopet is only introduced right before its battle), the boss itself is incredibly easy, even with the intervention of Qwark's robotic guards trying to neutralize both the Mutant Protopet (uselessly) and Ratchet. All of its attacks are easy to read and dodge, and the boss can be felled in only a minute or two by using the Heavy Bouncer or Tetrabomb Gun fully upgraded before the New Game+ mode, without even counting the RYNO II.
• Best Level Ever:
  • Dobbo. The atmosphere of the place is just great, and it's a flawless, fun mix of platforming, combat and puzzles, with a fun boss fight with Giant Clank as the cherry on top. Former Insomniac Mike Stout even said in his and Tony's developer commentary that this opinion was held within Insomniac as well; Dobbo was regarded as the first time they made a level that truly nailed the essence of what the Ratchet & Clank series was all about, and as early as the very next game, Up Your Arsenal, it was considered to be the standard every level made would be held up to.
  • Silver City, Planet Boldan. While it's definitely a challenging level, the design of it is all around great, with a memorable Levitator and Grindboots section, groups of enemies that force you to move about and take cover, lots of sections combining the Gravity Boots and enemies, and an awesome song going on throughout. That it's the place you can access the Insomniac Museum is the icing on the cake.
  • Smolg, a challenging sky based level with an unforgettable atmosphere and dramatic music.
• Broken Base: The spaceship levels are one of the most divisive parts of the game. There are many R&C fans who flat-out hate them for the finicky controls, the repetitive combat and the lack of variety in the missions, others who consider them a fun and challenging diversion from the main game and a great way to stack up on bolts easily (especially once you get the Nuke upgrade), and still others like the idea of them but consider their actual execution to be undercooked.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • The Y.E.T.I. on Planet Grelbin. They are everywhere, highly durable, annoyingly cheap, and will do their best to prevent you from getting Moonstones, often attacking in large groups. Some developers admitted they were coded in a rush and break some of the enemy guidelines they set, like short attack telegraphing and constantly attacking from behind. This actually got a Medal of Dishonor made within the studio called the "Snowbeast Award", for whoever made the worst thing in a game made the previous year.
  • The Elite Thugs-4-Less Henchmen and Brutes on Planets Boldan and Snivelak are no slouches either. Their Improbable Aiming Skills and damage output alone make them tough customers to deal with as-is, but you'll often be facing fire from seven or eight of them at once with little cover in sight. Doubly so on their home planet, Snivelak, where you also have hovertanks and attack helicopters unloading on you as well. Even with the best armor in the game, you can expect to be dropped very quickly, especially on Challenge Mode. Have fun.
  • The Mothership's mooks. A single one is dangerous but tolerable; sure, they can deal high damage, push Clank around and interrupt his combos, but they at least tend to die quickly. The problem is that they come Zerg Rush numbers and never. stop. spawning. In fact, the easiest way to deal with them is not melee nor even ranged attacks, but a Goomba Stomp, as they are completely helpless when Clank is out of reach and flock underneath him when he's in the air, and landing on top of them can wipe 1/3 or 2/3 of their health.
• Designated Hero:
  • Angela Cross. After The Reveal, she's treated as a misunderstood hero who's been thwarted by unsuspecting dupes. Though she was a Well-Intentioned Extremist, her crimes up to this point include kidnapping and holding Clank hostage, repeatedly trying to kill Ratchet, harassing store clerks for kicks, and generally just acting like an actual villain. Though we learn she was forced to resort to extreme measures to stop Fizzwidget from releasing the Protopet in its current state, her actions cross the line from extremism to villainy quite easily.
  • Abercrome Fizzwidget (the real one, not the disguised Qwark) is treated as a Reasonable Authority Figure and the characters have no problem with him staying in power, even though there's plenty of in-game evidence that Megacorp under him was a destructive, reckless, totalitarian and borderline villainous organization, and nothing indicates it's going to change.
• Even Better Sequel: Quite apart from Ratchet's improvement in professionalism and character, the weapons are more serious yet still creative, the number of worlds and gameplay elements increased, RPG-like elements such as the upgrade features were added, and the wrench controls became a lot less cumbersome. There's also a ton of new features and gadgetry, and even the Clank sections underwent some major changes.
• Fan Nickname: Likely due to the climate of Tabora, the Spitting Dune Crawlers are often known as Sandy Boys in the speedrun community.
• Game-Breaker:
  • The Bouncer can be this in all but the very last levels. It does massive damage on the initial blast and lets loose mini-bombs that seek out remaining targets and explode for additional damage. The final boss can be killed in a minute or two just by bombarding it with Bouncer bombs. And this isn't even counting the Mega Upgrade — for a modest 350,000 Bolts, the already broken Heavy Bouncer's damage is significantly buffed, and its already-generous ammo capacity increases from 25 to 40. The Ultra form buffs the damage even higher, and gives it a whopping 60 ammo.
  • The Plasma Coil is an okay weapon at first, hitting a primary target for decent damage and shocking nearby enemies when it hits. However, it upgrades into the Plasma Storm, which fires an orb of electricity that shoots out lightning at anything it passes. A single Plasma Storm shot is enough to clear entire rooms full of enemies. Better yet, its Challenge Mode forms upgrade its low initial ammo capacity of 15—the Mega form holds 25 shots and the Ultra form doubles that to a whopping 50! Finally, the fact that it's not affected by gravity and never needs to impact on anything to deal damage means it's great at handling those flying enemies the Bouncer tends to miss.
  • The Shield Charger is a magnificent example of Magikarp Power. It's initially weak and almost useless, it protects you from damage and does minor damage to enemies you touch. Stick with it, though, and it becomes the Tesla Barrier, which shoots lightning to zap any enemy that gets close to you (albeit at the cost of some of your shield's durability), and it does good damage with it too. It noticeably helps against the Demonic Spider Y.E.T.I., especially if you're facing large groups of them (which you usually will be).
  • The RYNO II, this game's Infinity +1 Sword, packs 100 missiles, fires them at a fairly quick rate with generous lock-on even before buying the Lock-On Mod, and doles out massive damage with each and every shot. A single missile from this can take out all but the toughest enemies in the game, including the dreaded Y.E.T.I..
  • The Sheepinator makes fighting Protopets hilariously easy, killing them without using any ammo whatsoever and allowing you to keep your weapons stocked for enemies with more health. The Black Sheepinator is even better, killing them faster and also turning them into sheep that not only distract enemies (a la the Decoy Glove), but also run up to them and explode.
  • The Spiderbot Glove, while usually ignored, can make some levels, like Silver City on Boldan, considerably easier. It is pretty strong and cheap for the point of the game it is obtained (and later it can be strengthened further by the Acid Mod) and it allows you to engage enemies with Ratchet safely hiding behind a corner or barricade, and enemies never think about destroying the drone. While it holds only 8 ammo, the boxes restore a generous 3 ammo, making it sustainable to be continually used. It then upgrades into the Tankbot Glove, transforming it from mere guided explosive into Attack Drone, which, while useless against airborne and scripted enemies, can engage everything else and especially can destroy one of the more annoying bosses ridiculously easily.
  • Although the Mini-Nuke becomes rather useless fairly quickly in a normal game, it can easily reach game-breaking status in a New Game Plus. There's a very good reason why its Mega Upgrade costs a whopping 1.5 million bolts - once you buy it, its ammo capacity goes from a meager 8 to a generous 20, and its damage is boosted to the point that you can even wipe out an entire group of Y.E.T.I. with a single well-aimed shot. And this is before the Ultra upgrade, which increases its damage even further and gives it a whopping 30 ammo. Needless to say, it'll gain a permanent spot in your Challenge Mode arsenal very quickly.
  • While definitely tricky to use, the Hoverbomb Gun can do some pretty good damage on its own. However, the Game-Breaker status goes to its upgraded form, the Tetrabomb Gun, which not only increases the damage done by the bomb itself, but also shoots five bombs for the cost of one, with all of them doing the same amount of damage. It's highly effective at close range too, where all five bombs can be detonated in close proximity to each other to chew through whole groups of enemies. The Mega and Ultra upgrades further beef up the damage, to the point that it can deal more damage than even the RYNO II.
  • For the space battles, the Fusion Laser Cannons. For a mere 30 Raritanium you'll upgrade from the base peashooters to a set of blasters that can decimate any small enemy in 1 or 2 seconds and complement the rest of the ship's weaponry neatly. And since they're your blasters, they have unlimited ammo.
  • The Electro-Mine Launcher, also for your Star Explorer, simplifies space combat for just 10 Raritanium. When an enemy passes by, the mine extends electric tendrils that blow up them and any other foe who dares fly too close. The Mega-Mine Launcher, an upgrade that costs a paltry 20 Raritanium, makes the mines' tendrils much longer and even more deadly; any New Game Plus speedrun will show that if you shoot one into the area where the second wave appears, you can take out all of the enemies before the cutscene of them flying in even ends.
  • The Nuke, yet another Star Explorer upgrade, may cost a jaw-dropping 60 Raritanium, but it instantly makes any and all missions involving swarms of targets a breeze. Shooting it at a wall near the start of the mission can very easily complete a phase or entire mission without a sweat. It also opens up for an extremely effective bolt farming strategy; playing the second mission of Gorn and shooting a Nuke will reward you with 2,750 (27,500 in Challenge mode) bolts every 5 or so seconds, which is massive, especially considering it's worth just under the same amount as a moonstone, which is finite and usually takes a bit of time travelling from one to another.
• Goddamned Bats: The Protopets. They keep reproducing if you don't get every single one of them and you often encounter them in groups. Fortunately, as anklebiters, they don't take much punishment.
• Goddamned Boss:
  • Megapede is not difficult to beat, but it has a large health bar, moves around the arena all the time, deploys irritating bombs en masse, and when whittled down by a powerful weapon, deploys parts of his body into the arena, which then transform into mini-tanks with difficult-to-avoid machine guns.
  • The Thug Leader fight on Snivelak is tough for the reason of being a Marathon Boss. Normal weapons can barely even leave a dent, so you're forced to use the turrets all over the battlefield to even have a chance of damaging his mech. However, you'll be spending more time shooting at some homing beacons, and every time 10% of the boss's health is taken, your turret will end up destroyed, forcing you to search for another one.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • Like in the previous game, you can clip through walls by using the Decoy Glove, as well as the newly-introduced Miniturret Glove, allowing you to skip large portions of the game really easily.
  • In first-person mode (the one you unlock after beating the game, not the "Hold L1" view), if you do a double jump and use the wrench, Ratchet will actually pop up a bit. If you are near a wall or ceiling, you can spam the wrench, allowing you to climb past obstacles and even skip Clank entirely if you so desire.
  • By using the above glitch, you can actually make it pretty far in the game without having to retrieve Clank (up until Aranos, where there's an event flag to give you Clank again... unless you skip that too). If you make it to Joba and buy the Levitator, you can still use it... it's just that you don't have Clank, which hilariously leads to Ratchet magically levitating through the air.
  • Leaving the Insomniac Museum always takes you to Boldan. Even when you enter the Insomniac Museum at the very start of a Challenge Mode playthrough via the Shortcuts menu, letting you skip two-thirds of the game in 40 seconds (with 36 of those being loading screens). It's because of this that the New Game Plus speedrun category has a world record that beats the game in less than eight minutes. It inspired a subcategory called "No IMG glitch" which forbids this, and is much longer, with the current World Record at the time of this writing being just under 28 minutes.
  • In the HD port, using the Charge Boots on Grelbin while being attacked by the Y.E.T.I.s can cause Ratchet to disappear with only his shoes, helmet and Clank being visible. In this state he is immune to damage, which means you can run around collecting Moonstones or beating Y.E.T.I.s at your pleasure.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In this game, Ratchet doesn't even raise an eyebrow at the fact that Angela Cross is another Lombax. This becomes very amusing in hindsight considering the fact that Ratchet being the last of his species (in his dimension, at least) and wanting to reunite with them again is a driving plot point in Tools of Destruction and A Crack in Time. Tellingly, Angela was only mentioned in passing as having vanished with Max Apogee in both of those games to resolve this plot flaw.
  • During the snow convoy portion of Siberius, Ratchet jumps from one moving truck to the next, some six years before Nathan Drake would do the same with train cars in Nepal. As an added bonus, Going Commando was made during a time when Naughty Dog and Insomniac shared the same office building.
  • The Spiderbot Glove is this now that Insomniac made Spider-Man (PS4). In fact, the latter includes a "Spider-drone", a gadget that resembles a spider that shoots enemies (although Spidey's gadget floats and is not player-controlled).
• Ho Yay: In the first cutscene, Ratchet is told he will learn a number of bizarre skills to become a commando, including ballroom dancing. Complete with an image of him in a fancy suit, dancing with a dress-clad Clank.
• It Was His Sled:
  • The Unknown Thief's true identity, being a female Lombax-like species named Angela Cross. Of course, the series' "official wiki" does not care with the spoiler policy, so only a few fans would really not know about this before playing the game for the first time.
  • Captain Qwark is the Big Bad, and was impersonating Fizzwidget the entire game.
• Minimalist Run: It's possible to beat the game with only four weapons — your default wrench, the Heavy Lancer, the Mini Nuke, and the Heavy Bouncer.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The weapons in this game don't just look and feel good to use, they sound great (be it bringing them out or firing them), too. Standouts include the Mini-Nuke, Blitz Gun (and especially its upgraded counterpart), the Pulse Rifle, the Minirocket Tube, the Bouncer, the Plasma Storm, the Tetrabomb Gun, and the RYNO II.
• Narm:
  • On the revisit to Aranos, Ratchet's almost desperate urgency to Clank that they have to protect Angela comes off as a little too forced of an attempt at implying some kind of romantic fondness for her, even though the two barely even know each other by that point. Amusingly, Clank's reaction was probably shared by most players.
  • In-Universe, Qwark's "Flashlight of Justice" speech when he's preparing to cure the Protopet is so ridiculously corny and insipid that Ratchet, despite being held at gunpoint by Qwark's guards, cracks up in disbelief at the banal line.
• Obvious Beta: The PS3 remaster. While the new glitches are limited to visual ones, the "subtitles" option in settings is always unavailable, implying that the remastering team was planning to add them^note The original game has no subtitles but ran out of time. Oddly enough, the Vita version had subtitles at launch, but can only be toggled from the main menu.
• Play the Game, Skip the Story: The game is considered one of the best in the series when it comes to gameplay however the plot is seen as weaker than the games that came before and after. The plot is very unfocused and over-ambitious mostly due to the Troubled Production and the game not actually having a writer.^note The first ratchet game also didn't have a writer but the plot was much more simple allowing for fewer issues. However while the plot isn't that great the humor is still excellent.
• Porting Disaster:
  • The HD remaster has some... issues. Glitching, the camera being obscured and the tour of the weapons facility having the audio removed, cutting the entire tour by half.
  • The physical Vita version apparently crashes whenever the player enters the Space Limo to travel to a moon in Maktar Nebula. The digital version doesn't have this problem, but both might crash upon beating the Mothership, which dies with a giant explosion.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: After the poor reception Ratchet received from the previous game, Insomniac Games replaced his obnoxious and self-serving personality from the first game with the much more heroic and altruistic one that he would have for the rest of the series.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The infamous Cash Gates from the first game come back with a vengeance in this game, with some requiring outrageous fees from 10,000 to 40,000 bolts in order to complete the game. While this games bolt economy is far more generous than the first game, it can still be a huge pain in the ass to try saving up for the games more pricey weapons while having to deal with these recurring money sinks. Fortunately, Insomniac wised up to how hated these were and permanently dropped them from the series from Up Your Arsenal and onward.
  • Certain versions of the game - such as the NTSC "black label" or the PAL "Platinum" releases - give zero indication of where certain collectibles are; Unlike every other game in the series, the Platinum Bolt count of each planet is not displayed on the planet select screen, nor are the Crystals and Moonstones of Tabora or Grelbin shown on the map... even after you obtain the Mapper, a device that only exists to reveal secrets. Fortunately, the HD version includes the Platinum Bolt counter and shows the Crystals and Moonstones regardless of the player's region.
  • Even if you happen to enjoy the ship missions, obtaining raritanium to buy ship upgrades gets very tedious after a while. You either A) grind the ship levels or B) head to Tabora/Grelbin and use a drill vehicle to search hidden caches - the former is just grinding, while the second involves scouring deserts full of enemies to find miniscule pockets of ore. At least the whole process can be sped up by just saving up for the ship nuke and quickly wiping out entire platoons of enemies in the ship levels.
• Scrappy Weapon:
  • The Gadgetron weapons available from the special vendor in the planet Barlow, which actually were very useful in that particular game, suffer a really bad case of the "Nerf Effect" / "So Last Season Syndrome" in this game and are generally next to useless when compared to the weapons you'll have both before and after getting access to the Gadgetron weapons. They also can't be upgraded with use like Megacorp's weapons, though they can be upgraded to Mega versions in Challenge Mode, which keeps them from being completely useless. The returning Bomb Glove in particular tends to get singled out as the worst due to its truly abysmal damage output and impact, especially compared to the Gravity Bomb/Mini-Nuke.
  • The Meteor Gun. While the previous gun you had (the Lava Gun) was an effective flamethrower weapon, this version merely turns into a slightly more powerful version of the Heavy Lancer with less effective range. The result is it loses its effectiveness against swarms of small foes and gets outclassed against anything else by the rest of your arsenal. At least you can purchase a Lock-On Mod for it, which makes it a somewhat viable choice against single targets, but this does not improve its overall effectiveness by much. In the weapon's appearance in Up Your Arsenal, it instead levels up into the Liquid Nitrogen Gun, which keeps the stream effect that the Lava Gun has.
  • The Zodiac. While a neat weapon in theory, the cons far outweigh the pros of it and it's superannuated by more practical yet equally powerful weapons like the RYNO II and the Bouncer. It costs 1,500,000 bolts (even more than the RYNO II), it can only hold 4 ammo at any time (which sells for 10,000 bolts a shot, although you can get ammo for it from crates), is very buggy in terms of what it will and won't destroy on-screen, and is useless against bosses. And to add insult to injury, you need to buy it to get the Weapon Envy skill point.
  • New Game Plus has the Clank Zapper. It costs as much as the RYNO II, but is extremely weak even when compared to the first game's weapons and in fact, even the non-Mega Tesla Barrier is stronger. The other issue is that there is no indication whether it's still active besides Clank's rather sparse attacks, and when you'll get it for the first time you'll probably waste a ton of ammo just trying to activate it because you won't realize it's already on. The developers probably realized this too, because it is not even needed for 100% Completion.
• Self-Imposed Challenge:
  • Beating the game with the bare minimum of weaponry—your Wrench, the Heavy Lancer and Mini-Nuke, and the Heavy Bouncer.
  • Its possible to beat the entire game using only the Omniwrench, with only three very specific exceptions ^note The out of range hovertank inside the factory at Dobbo where you have to kill it to get the Swingshot target to appear (unless you climb up part of the scenery nearby and use the Charge Boots to bypass it), the two robots high up on the roof of the courtyard after the bank on Damosel (which can be destroyed by exploiting the fact that a Nanotech upgrade kills every enemy on-screen), and the two tanks on the other side of the ravine on Yeedil which need the Minirocket Tube to be destroyed since they're out of range of the wrench and your starting weapons are way too weak on them—but take note that all three of these can be bypassed with the wrench wall jump glitch in Challenge Mode, but it makes the game extremely difficult. It also makes some optional challenges, like the Arena challenges where you can only use a certain weapon or killing the Arctic Leviathans on Grelbin, impossible.
  • Beating the game without buying any armor upgrades. This makes the later levels extremely hard (especially on Challenge Mode), since Ratchet can only take a couple hits from any attack before keeling over.
  • There's also the No Ammo Challenge (no getting ammo from vendors, only crates).
  • Hilariously enough, abusing certain glitches, (such as wall climbing and wall clipping) allows one to beat the entire game without rescuing Clank. Completing the second solo Ratchet section on Aranos II puts Clank on Ratchet's back, but even this can be bypassed by clipping through a wall and walking around the trigger.
• That One Achievement:
  • While "Smash and Grab" on Oozla is feasible with the Wrench and Lancer, "Vandalize" on Maktar Nebula is a huge pain in the ass to beat without the Box Breaker (which can't be acquired until the midway point of the game). You have to destroy every breakable object in what's a fairly long level (save for the Jamming Array) and it is very easy to miss that one little hidden object or two you have to smash. "Destroy All Breakables" on Endako is equally frustrating for the same reasons.
  • The "Speed Demon" skill point on Barlow. You have to beat a Hoverbike race within a tight time limit of 2:10, meaning you have to spam boosts nonstop in order to make it. Challenge 3 makes it slightly easier due to the shortcuts, but it's still one of the toughest skill points to get. "How Fast Was That?" on Joba is also tough for similar reasons.
  • The "Old Skool" skill point has been getting this reputation, but probably for the wrong reasons. It's a pretty tricky skill point in and of itself: requiring you to kill everything in a particular level (and a fairly long, two-segment one at that) using only Ratchet and Clank 1 weapons, which are much weaker compared to the new Going Commando ones, and can't be upgraded. But to add insult to injury, the skill point is glitched in the HD re-release, meaning it mightn't show up even if you do everything right!
  • The "Wrench Ninja II: Massacre" skill point on Joba, which requires you to kill every enemy in the level with only your wrench and without dying a single time, is just as bad, as the enemies on that planet will often kill each other before you even reach them, and it's nigh impossible to hit some enemies without getting a few scars for your trouble. Fortunately, it's possible to come back and do it on a second visit, where there will be less enemies, and it can even be done after you get the second wrench upgrade, which allows you to kill the Tribesmen mooks in one Hyper-Strike, and the Jobian Saur-beasts in two.
  • The "Dukes Up" on Dobbo's Moon against the Thug Leader isn't really difficult, but extremely annoying. You have to destroy his mech only by melee attacks. Problem is, his mech is faster than Giant Clank and frequently runs away from you, so you'll have to wait when he flies up, uses his missile or bomb attack, then flies back to the ground, because he is immobile during landing phase, giving you an opening. This also means you'll be eating his attacks a lot, and while restoring health is easy by taking out the Thug Choppers, it means you'll have to break your pursuit to restore your health, making the fight even longer.
  • "Be A Moon Child", which requires you to collect every Moonstone on Grelbin. While getting the Mapper on Damosel makes finding Moonstones easy, getting to them is anything but, due in part to the sheer number of Y.E.T.I.s. You will die a lot trying to get this one.
• That One Boss: Swamp Monster II, an optional boss fight you can take up on Oozla once you get the Gravity Boots. It is a long and tough fight, due in part to its sheer resilience—there are no real shortcuts to bringing down this creature (although you can stall it momentarily with the Decoy Glove), and the lack of ammo crates in the area isn't helping your case^note It bears noting that it is technically possible to defeat it with only the Omniwrench's Comet Strike move to prevent the fight from being straight up Unintentionally Unwinnable, but it does so little damage that it takes a lot of skill and patience to pull off. Do not fight this thing until you've built up a sizable and upgraded arsenal already. And to make matters worse, it is very easy to fall into the muck in the arena and sink, forcing you to start the whole battle over again if you aren't fast on your feet.
• That One Level:
  • Boldan, for the abundance of heavily armed Elite Thugs-4-Less Henchmen and Brutes that can mow down your health in mere seconds if you let your guard down.
  • Snivelak. Imagine Boldan, but with even more Elite Henchmen and Brutes, and heavily-armed hovertanks and attack helicopters, and you have what probably takes the cake as the hardest level in the game. Good luck surviving more than thirty seconds in Challenge Mode. Its infamous boss fight doesn't help matters much.
  • Grelbin. When you're hunting for Moonstones, Y.E.T.I.s will pop out from underground and they are TOUGH. They can survive at least one hit from any weapon you use (except the RYNO II), and will take a "bigger than average" percentage of your health if they swipe you. And how about the Arctic Leviathans that hide under frozen water, then burst out, take forever to kill, can knock you out quickly and can destroy your Shield Charger in one attack? And if you don't knock out those Y.E.T.I.s, they will chase you as long as possible.
• That One Sidequest:
  • Getting the Nanotech Boost on Dobbo, which is tucked away in a very hard to reach spot at the beginning of the glider section, requiring you to turn around mid-glide and fly back to the start. The finicky physics and controls of the glider make a simple-looking and brief challenge far harder than it has any need to be. And to add insult to injury, you have to get it for the Nano to the Max! Skill Point and 100% completion.
  • Collecting the Moonstones on Grelbin, as they're hard to find and protected by Y.E.T.I.s and Arctic Leviathans. The crystal-gathering sidequest on Tabora had similar problems, but at least the enemies there were manageable. Downplayed, though, as the Mapper shows where the Moonstones are, making it much less of a trek to find them.
  • The Ace Bunyan space races, especially if you're going for the Platinum Bolt. You need to A) Collect every single ring, which have confusing hitboxes, and B) Still win the race. Fortunately, there's only 3 of these races in the game.
    • The Play Station Vita port accidentally makes them even harder, as the Vita has a much more sensitive analog stick, although setting camera speed to slow seems to ease it up a bit. (Unless it's just placebo.)
  • The Ghost Ship challenge on Gorn. The aforementioned ship is extremely durable — your ship can barely put a dent in it, even when its fully upgraded, and even the Nuke barely does any damage to it. Making matters worse is that its cannons hit hard and are very accurate, the ship can turn invisible for long periods of time to keep you from damaging it, and its slow movement constantly forces you to bank and turn, potentially robbing you of precious time to attack it when it becomes visible. And to add insult to injury, it's flanked by a squadron of Thug starships to distract you.
• Underused Game Mechanic: One of the 3 new robots that can assist Clank is the Lifter Bot, which can lift up blocks for Clank. Or rather, it can lift up the singular lift block in the game for Clank, and then not see the light of day again until Challenge Mode. Per word of Mike Stout, they intended to use it again for a proposed Clank section on Yeedil, but when that section was cut due to time constraints, it left the Lifter Bot a one note gimmick.
• Woobie Species: The one-eyed robots seemingly can't catch a break. They get blown up in a commercial and eaten by mutant squirrels on Todano, killed by security robots on Aranos, and massacred on their home planet, Damosel. Two skill points, "You're my Hero" and "Safety Deposit", involve keeping them alive despite the hordes of enemies waiting to get them.

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