Contra 4 Stage 9

Harvest Yard is the ninth and final stage in Contra 4.

Overview

The Corpse Reclamation Factory, otherwise known as the Black Viper Harvest Site, is where Black Viper is collecting both alive and dead human corpses, as well as constantly producing more alien offspring. Once you face off against her, she absorbs the dead to become a colossal monster that you must crawl inside of to give the worst case of indigestion it has ever had. Work your way through the breeding grounds inside of the beast and reach the head to battle its brain at the top. Once that's done, a chopper comes in the head in space and takes you home. Congratulations soldier. Job well done.

Environmental hazards

• Wall of crushers
• Stomach acid with spiked bones

Enemies

• Bugger
• Eggron
• Falcon Viper
• Gaping Maw Kettle
• Orian (normal, wallcrawler)
• Poisonous Insect Gel

Miniboss

• Black Viper

Boss

• Black Viper (final form)

Gallery

Intro image where the heroes walk in before the stage begins.

Area 1. Collected humans can be seen in the background.

Black Viper seen incubating inside a container in an homage to her appearance in Operation C.

Area 2. The hero must climb on the melded human bodies to proceed upward.

The inside of Black Viper's throat.

Music

Trivia

• After the wall of crushers, but before the climb upward to the final boss, a human-like face can be seen in the background on the top. Allegedly, this is the face of one of the developers of the game that was added as an Easter egg without his knowledge or consent.
  • The supposed face was removed from the Japanese version of the game, which was released a few months after the North American version.
• Harvest Yard is the second alien hive level featured in Contra 4, with the first hive found in the previous level. When comparing both alien hives, the insides of the Black Viper correspond far more with other Contra games' hive levels.
  • Black Viper's body becoming a hive-like area in Harvest Yard, in addition to her skull developing a smaller manifestation of herself in a form greatly resembling her brother (known as Red Falcon in Contra 4), all imply that the latter villain had gone through a similar transformation himself. In other words, Emperor Demon Gava may have had an initial form that grew to colossal size by absorbing corpses until his insides transformed into the hives seen in Super Contra and Contra 3, with a smaller Gava manifesting within them that combats the heroes.
• In the debug menu, this stage is called "Level Black Viper". Also according to the debug menu, the names of the locations inside Black Viper are:
  • Post orifice: The first main area of the inside of Black Viper (past the human skull shaft).
  • Crushing layer: The shaft leading to the crushing hallway.
  • Throat: The shaft containing the acid and bones elevator toward Black Viper's membrane.
  • Cerebrum: The inside of Black Viper's skull, where the final battle takes place.
• The area where the helicopter hovers over after Black Viper's destruction is named "Victory Valley" in the debug menu.