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Spider-Man walkthrough, mission list and guide to sidequests and story structure

Our explainer to how Spider-Man's campaign works.

Chris Tapsell avatar
Guide by Chris Tapsell Deputy Editor
Updated on

Spider-Man has swung not only onto PlayStation consoles but also PC - bringing some welcome levity to the often rather bleak landscape of open-world action games.

There's still plenty to sink your teeth into though, with a meaty main story just the start of things you can do around Manhattan. Here on this page, you'll find our light Spider-Man walkthrough, which quickly runs through all of the main story missions, as well as links out to specifically challenging ones, and a general Spider-Man guide to how the game world works - and how you can get the most out of it as you wall crall and web sling your way around town.

On this page:

How does our Spider-Man walkthrough work?

A lot of Spider-Man's story is simple to follow - you'll find waypoints guiding you through every step of the way, and some missions are even as simple as just getting somewhere so you can watch a cutscene play out.

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6 Things We Loved About Marvel's Spider-Man (And 1 Thing We Didn't)Watch on YouTube

We won't hold your hand through everything, then. Instead, you can find a big list of Spider-Man's story missions and their XP rewards, in order, just below, and within that list we'll provide links out to our dedicated pages on the more challenging Missions and puzzles, where you might get a little stuck.

Beware some light spoilers, obviously, if you linger too long on the names of these missions below, but obviously we won't be ruining anything important.

Act 1: Demons Emerge

Act 2: The Six Assemble

  • Dual Purpose (3000XP)
  • Hidden Agenda (3000XP)
  • A Fresh Start (3000XP) - Circuit Puzzle Solution
  • Dinner Date (3000XP)
  • Up the Water Spout... (3000XP)
  • What's in the Box? - Challenges explained
  • Back to School (3000XP)
  • Spider-Hack (3000XP)
  • Uninvited (3000XP)
  • Strong Connections (500XP) - Circuit Puzzle Solution
  • First Day (3000XP)
  • Collision Course (3000XP)
  • The One That Got Away (3500XP)
  • Breakthrough (500XP) - Circuit Puzzle Solution
  • Reflection (500XP)
  • Out of the Frying Pan... (4000XP)

Act 3: End Game

  • ... Into the Fire (5000XP)
  • Picking up the Trail (5000XP) - Pattern Puzzle Solution
  • Streets of Poison (5000XP) - Pattern Puzzle Solution
  • Supply Run (5000XP)
  • Heavy Hitter (5000XP)
  • Step Into My Parlour... (5000XP)
  • The Heart of the Matter (5500XP)
  • Pax in Bello (5500XP)

Other Spider-Man guides

Looking for more help beyond the above? The following pages can help:

Resource guides:

General guides:

How does Spider-Man's mission structure work?

Spider-Man's structure is nice and simple, really: it's an open world, which opens up to you pretty early on, and there's a pretty linear series of Main Missions for you to follow as and when you wish.

Most of the time, as soon as one Main Mission finishes, another yellow waypoint will immediately pop up for the next. Occasionally however, the next mission won't trigger right away. In that case you need to do one or two things around the city, to give the illusion of passing time, before the next Main Mission pops up.

Pretty much anything counts - even just taking pictures of Landmarks - and you'll know when you have to do it when Spidey says something along the lines of "Man, I've really been neglecting the city, better go see if anyone needs me", which is quite sweet.

Otherwise, there are a handful of Side Missions - we counted ten in total - that gradually pop up as you progress through the story. There'll only be one or two available early on, but keep chipping away at main story missions if you want to do more sidequesting, and you'll get a notification pop up when more become available.

You can take on these, or indeed any of the other activities around the city that we listed in our "Other Spider-Man guide pages" section just above, at any time - even after the end of the story - so there's no rush.

Basically, play Spider-Man however you like, whether that's charging through the entire story in one go or clearing out every icon on the map before you even get properly started. The choice is yours!