Quick Tips

This is a collection of tips from the most common things we've seen new players talking about in the Discord and Steam forums.

Basics

• You start with an extra Defensor pistol. Unlike the Defensors your mercs are initially carrying, the extra Defensor in Inventory does NOT have a silencer. You can buy a silencer for it in the Marketplace.

• Camping out to kill all enemies is usually not the goal. Remember the mission, get to the objective, and get out.

• Pressing H (default keyboard) or Y (default controller) highlights characters, enemies and important objects on the tactical map.

• Unless there are specific objectives related to the security level or enemies that need to be killed from a mission you choose to take on, it's your choice how much you want to use tactical stealth vs going guns blazing. Just remember to build your squad for your combat strategy *before* the mission. Like to go loud early on? Unequip silencers and gear up with heavier weapons / damage-increasing mods. Like to stealthily pick-off enemies at first? Bring some quieter secondary weapons and squad members with body disposal talents.

• Sprinting while outside audio and visual range of guards gives you a lot more AP to work with than creeping everywhere; remember to toggle so you're not sneaking when you don't need to.

• Enemies killed before the round ends are unable to report to the level's Security AI; any security tally that's been stacking up that round from events they've seen, heard, or been affected by will vanish if you kill them.

• You are (mostly) faster than the guards; use that to your advantage.

• Reinforcements WILL be coming, plan accordingly.

• Enemies are displayed on the HUD only after they have been detected at least once by a teammate, and remain displayed and known to the entire team thereafter.

• Enemies can be detected through walls if they are within detection range of a character (40m, or 20 floor tiles)

Initiative

• Keep close track of the initiative order; use Yield, Delay, and Talents to adjust initiative order tactically.

• When a character or enemy finishes their turn, the initiative tracker lists their initiative in the following turn.

• Initiative buffs given to a character who has finished the current turn will adjust their initiative in the next turn.

• Arranging to take a turn after all enemies in one turn and also before all enemies in the following turn gives lots of Action Points for tactics such as move/fire/retreat.

• Delaying your turn until a nearby guard moves is often useful.

• Enemies never Delay; once they take their action(s) they cannot take another action in the turn, though they can still turn in place toward a noise.

• Hovering over an enemy or character flags their position in the initiative tracker.

• Hovering over an enemy in the initiative tracker displays their vision cone, like hovering over the enemy itself.

• Clicking on an enemy or character in the initiative tracker shifts the HUD center to them.

• Double-clicking on an enemy or character in the initiative tracker opens a pop-up with details on their Talents and current buffs and debuffs.

Combat

• When attacking an enemy, have a plan for handling the situation if the first attack does not kill them. Do you have a squadmate who could finish the target off before the target's next action? Are you attacking from good cover?

• Don't take low-percent shots unless you have literally nothing better to do; reposition, use utility talents, reload, use a medkit, hunker.

• When taking a Full Auto shot, use the Page Up and Page Down buttons to adjust how many available targets are attacked by the shot.

• As the game progresses you'll start encountering enemies with heavier armor. Weapons with better armor-shredding chance (Shotguns, E-rifles, E-cutters) and concentrated fire from your squad are key to taking these enemies down.

• Blades cause a lot of damage and almost no noise, as long as you are able to get toe-to-toe with the enemy (remember, it doesn't matter if they spot you if you kill them the same round).

• When enemies are coming from one direction, try to get them to bunch up, to make good targets for Area of Effect talents and weapons.

• Dealing with enemy Overwatch:
  • Many talents can cancel enemy overwatch. If your squad member being overwatched doesn't have one, see if you have another squad member in the timeline you could yield or delay to who does.
  • Yielding or delaying to a different squad member who can attack the enemy overwatching you is also effective; any damage to a target will cancel their overwatch.
  • Items like smoke grenades and dazzlers or talents with similar effects can also be useful.

• When the enemy has a long-range weapon, mercs can rush inside their range and hit them with short range weapons.

Equipment

• Don’t forget to use grenades when silence is no longer needed. Grenades can be bounced off objects or walls to go around corners or extend their range. Place the center of the blast closer to enemies to deal more damage.

• Weapon mods can be a more cost-effective upgrade than new weapons early on. They are cheaper and can be moved to a new weapon when you do upgrade the weapon.

• Smoke grenades are very useful for temporarily neutralizing enemies in an area, blocking sightlines to allow you to maneuver, or giving melee-wielding characters a safe killing ground.

• Battlefield healing with medkits helps you survive the fighting, but does not affect post-mission injury time.

Stealth

• Especially at early stages, stealth is a useful tactical option, not a requirement. Don't get so caught up trying to stay stealthy that it slows your pace to a crawl or gets you killed!

• You can creep through or crouch within the obstructed part of an enemy or camera vision cone (the orange portion) without being seen.

• Use talents like Lure to turn a guard’s vision cone in the direction you want immediately and keep them busy on their next few turns.

• Sneaking cuts noise made from moving in half; only certain talents allow completely silenced movement. Guards will not be distracted by sounds (including talents like Lure) after they have been Alerted to enemy presence.

• The area below a camera or radar device is a blind spot. Cameras and radar will stop moving when they are disabled and restart pointing where they left off when re-enabled. Just because a camera doesn't see you killing someone doesn't mean it will not see the body you leave behind.

• If an enemy spots you, you can still prevent them from calling security by killing them before the end of the Turn.

• You don't need to make your mercs crouch at the end of their Turn; they will automatically crouch if during an enemy's turn to avoid being spotted.

Matrix

• Executing a Hard Disconnect from the Matrix causes Dump Shock (physical damage) to the Matrix specialis

• In the Matrix a full Scan (2/2) will not identify a CPU in a neighboring node; this is a hint that the neighbor could be a CPU

• In the Matrix, raising scan on the local Node to 2/2 will let you see the active and passive IC on neighboring Nodes before you connect to them

• Never end a turn in the Matrix in an Incinerator Node

• Disable traps and blocking IC on the Matrix Node before trying to download paydata

• Trap IC in the Matrix may not be visible until you run another Scan or trigger the trap

• Passive IC can be temporarily disabled with a Sleaze program

• Active IC can be temporarily disabled with a Deception program

• Trap IC can be temporarily disabled with a Disarm program

• All IC can be directly damaged and deleted with Attack programs or talents

• Watch out for Ice Pick IC in a Matrix Node-–it can cause long-term Wounds

• Do not connect to a Matrix Node that you know has dangerous IC until the Matrix specialist has loaded the correct counter program

Strategy

• Keep close track of the turn order, and use talents and delays to adjust turn order to your advantage,

• Initiative buffs given to a character who has finished the current turn will adjust their initiative in the next turn

• Hovering over an enemy on the map or in the initiative tracker displays their vision cone,

• When previewing a move, a shield splashed by the HUD on the side of a nearby object indicates that the character will get a defensive bonus from cover.

• To get a cover bonus, a character must be standing/crouching against a cover object; a blue shield must have been displayed near the waypoint when moving there.

• Cover objects only provide protection against lines of sight that pass through/over the object.

• Cover effectiveness is not affected by whether you are standing or crouching.

• Sometimes it is best to split up to reach multiple targets at the same time.

• You can both sprint and move stealthily within a same turn, allowing you to save on Action Points.

• All Talents have a limited number of Charges. Once used, a Charge immediately starts to Recharge over a number of Turns; only 1 Recharges occurs at a time.

• Firearms are loud when used and will attract attention within a certain radius. Check the sound icon by your weapon in the bottom left to see how many will hear an attack from your current location; enemies close enough to hear your weapon are marked on the HUD with a yellow bullet airstream icon.

• Actions Points do not transfer between Turns, but if you end your Turn with AP remaining, you automatically use the Take Cover Talent

• When an enemy dies, a Body Timer is started. When it expires, someone will come looking for the missing agent.

• Speed is a key tactic for a heist team, whether you are fighting or sneaking through a job.

• On most jobs, the Security Tally increases every Turn and will eventually Escalate. So, keep moving.

• Looting Lockboxes is useful but don’t spend so much effort that you endanger your ability to get out safely.