Key takeaways
- Neotank (22,000G): the new crown of ground combat — harder-hitting and better-armored than the Md Tank, and the only “super heavy” unit players can build. Its real cost is opportunity cost, covered in the math below.
- Missile silos: map properties that any foot unit can fire once at a chosen square anywhere on the map, dealing about 3 HP of splash damage to everything near the impact. One shot, then it becomes dead terrain — timing it matters.
- Pipes and seams: fully indestructible terrain that walls off whole map sections. The only way through is attacking the seam joints, which take sustained fire. Several late-game maps are built entirely around piping your advance.
- Piperunners: Black Hole vehicles that can only travel on pipes — they’ll strafe your columns from angles you can’t counterattack.
- Black Bombs: unmanned units that fly to a target and self-destruct for roughly 5 HP to everything in the blast. Clustered formations get punished hard.
- Black Boats: naval transports that also repair and resupply adjacent units, letting Black Hole sustain fleets indefinitely.
What's inside
Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising on GBA takes the original Advance Wars engine and adds seven new COs, a two-tier Super CO Power meter, the Neotank, single-use missile silos, indestructible pipe terrain, and three enemy-only Black Hole units — all wrapped around a 24-mission campaign (plus four hidden lab maps and an unlockable Hard Campaign). It’s the bigger, harder half of what later became Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp on Switch, and in 2026 it remains one of the deepest strategy games on the handheld.
Everything Black Hole Rising adds over Advance Wars
The sequel doesn’t reinvent the formula — Infantry still captures, funds still equal properties times 1,000G, and CO powers still swing maps. What changes is density: more commanders, a second power tier, and map gimmicks that force new tactics rather than just harder fights.
Seven new COs and the Super CO Power meter
The biggest systemic change is the split meter. In the first game every CO charged a single bar and fired one power; here each CO has a fast-charging normal power plus a longer Super CO Power (SCOP) with a dramatically larger effect — Hawke’s Black Wave drains and heals 1 HP across the map, while his SCOP Black Storm swings it by 2. Saving for the SCOP versus spending early on the regular power is a real tactical decision in every mission.
| New CO | Army | Specialty | Powers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adder | Black Hole | Fastest-charging meter in the game | Sideslip / Sidewinder (+1/+2 movement for all units) |
| Flak | Black Hole | Damage dispersion — attacks randomly hit above or below normal | Brute Force / Barbaric Blow (wider luck spread, big boosts) |
| Lash | Black Hole | Doubles the value of terrain stars | Terrain Tactics / Prime Tactics (near-free terrain movement) |
| Hawke | Black Hole | Flat damage bonus on everything; longest meter | Black Wave / Black Storm (map-wide HP drain and heal) |
| Colin | Blue Moon | Units cost roughly 20% less; slightly weaker firepower | Gold Rush / Power of Money (funds multiplier, cash-scaled damage) |
| Sensei | Yellow Comet | Mechs and battle copters hit harder; weak navy | Copter Command / Airborne Assault (spawn foot units on his cities) |
| Jess | Green Earth | Ground vehicles stronger; infantry and air weaker | Turbo Charge / Overdrive (vehicle mobility and resupply) |
Every returning CO from the first game is back — Andy, Max, Sami, Nell, Olaf, Grit, Kanbei, Sonja, Eagle, Drake, plus unlockables like Hachi — and Sturm returns as the campaign’s final boss.
Neotanks, silos, and pipes
- Neotank (22,000G): the new crown of ground combat — harder-hitting and better-armored than the Md Tank, and the only “super heavy” unit players can build. Its real cost is opportunity cost, covered in the math below.
- Missile silos: map properties that any foot unit can fire once at a chosen square anywhere on the map, dealing about 3 HP of splash damage to everything near the impact. One shot, then it becomes dead terrain — timing it matters.
- Pipes and seams: fully indestructible terrain that walls off whole map sections. The only way through is attacking the seam joints, which take sustained fire. Several late-game maps are built entirely around piping your advance.
- Piperunners: Black Hole vehicles that can only travel on pipes — they’ll strafe your columns from angles you can’t counterattack.
- Black Bombs: unmanned units that fly to a target and self-destruct for roughly 5 HP to everything in the blast. Clustered formations get punished hard.
- Black Boats: naval transports that also repair and resupply adjacent units, letting Black Hole sustain fleets indefinitely.
One detail worth knowing: Piperunners, Black Bombs, and Black Boats are enemy-only — you never build them, even in VS mode. The sequel’s “new units” for actual play are essentially the Neotank plus silo mechanics.
Campaign structure, mission count, and where the difficulty spikes
The campaign runs roughly two dozen missions — 24 in the standard count — organized as four national liberation arcs: Orange Star first, then Blue Moon, Yellow Comet, and Green Earth, each ending with a capital defense before the allied endgame against Hawke and then Sturm in “Final Front.” Four additional missions unlock by capturing the neutral labs hidden in specific maps (walk an Infantry or Mech onto them when you see one), and beating the campaign unlocks a Hard Campaign that reruns the whole map set against tougher opening positions.
Difficulty is uneven by design. The early Flak and Adder missions are gentle; the spikes come in three places:
- Timed silo maps like “T Minus 15,” where a hard turn limit forces aggressive play — turtle players get punished for the first time.
- Hawke’s pipe maps, where Piperunners plus his map-wide HP drain make slow pushes bleed out.
- Sturm’s finale, where his Meteor Strike rips up to 8 HP off your largest cluster and pre-deployed Black Bombs guard the approaches. Spread formations and fast Recon/Mech pushes toward the seams are the standard counter.
Neotank math: what you actually give up
Every property pays 1,000G per turn, so a Neotank’s 22,000G price tag translates directly into skipped reinforcements:
| Properties held | Income per turn | Turns to afford one Neotank | What the same money buys instead |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 10,000G | ~2.2 turns | 3 Tanks (21,000G) |
| 14 | 14,000G | ~1.6 turns | 2 Tanks + Infantry screen (15,000G) with change |
| 18 | 18,000G | ~1.2 turns | 2 B-Copters (18,000G) |
On a typical mid-game map you’re holding 10–14 properties, so one Neotank costs you two or three turns of tempo — usually a bad trade unless you’re fighting across open plains where its armor actually tanks hits. Colin shifts the math: his discount drops a Neotank to roughly 17,600G, under a single turn of income on a developed map. For CO picks generally: Sami’s faster captures win HQ-rush and objective maps, Grit’s extra indirect range dominates pipe chokepoints, and Max’s direct-fire bonus is the blunt answer on open terrain.
GBA original vs. Re-Boot Camp: which version to play in 2026
Content-wise, the Switch remake is faithful — the same mission list, CO roster, SCOP system, and hidden lab maps are all there, and it bundles the entire first game’s campaign alongside it. The differences are presentation and features: redrawn 3D visuals with voice acting, faster battle animations you can skip, adjustable difficulty, an in-game coin shop for extra maps and COs, and — the headline addition — online 1v1 multiplayer plus a rebuilt map editor. The GBA original counters with the original pixel art, instant boot times, four-player hot-seat on a single cart, and secondhand carts that typically sell for $50–$90 loose.
| Your situation | Best pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You own a Switch and want everything | Re-Boot Camp (usually $40–$60) | Both campaigns, online 1v1, map editor, QoL options |
| You own a GBA, GBA SP, or DS Lite | Original cart | Authentic presentation, 4-player hot-seat, portable |
| You’re new to the series | Re-Boot Camp | Difficulty settings and faster pacing soften the spikes |
| You want a collection piece | Complete-in-box GBA copy | Holds value; boxed copies run well above loose-cart prices |
Searching “Advance 2” on GBA? Quick disambiguation
GBA library naming makes this search messy — four different “Advance 2” games show up for the same query:
| If you searched | You probably mean | What it actually is |
|---|---|---|
| advance wars 2 gba | Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (2003) | The turn-based strategy sequel covered above |
| super mario advance 2 gba | Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World | GBA port of the SNES classic with Luigi tweaks and the Mario Bros. arcade mode |
| sonic advance 2 gba | Sonic Advance 2 (2003) | Speed-focused Sonic platformer; Cream the Rabbit’s first appearance |
| lego star wars 2 gba | LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (GBA version, 2006) | Scaled-down handheld build of the console LEGO game covering Episodes IV–VI |
FAQ
Do I need to play the first Advance Wars before Black Hole Rising?
Not strictly — the story stands alone and the mechanics are identical — but the sequel assumes familiarity faster and its early missions skip the deep tutorial that the first game front-loads. Playing them in order is the smoother path, and Re-Boot Camp makes that trivial since both campaigns ship together.
Is every Advance Wars 2 mission in Re-Boot Camp?
Yes — the full mission list, the hidden lab maps, and the complete CO roster carry over. The remake changes presentation and adds online play rather than cutting content.
Is the GBA cartridge region-locked?
No — Game Boy Advance hardware is region-free, so North American and European carts run on any GBA. Japan is the odd case: Nintendo skipped a standalone release there and issued the game in 2004 bundled with the first title as Game Boy Wars Advance 1+2, which also plays on any region’s hardware.
