Overview
This guide is for the player who needs a few tips to beat the game, or wants to complete it the most efficient way, but has no time to play it trough 6 times like me.
General
0. Faster running in the Kreuzbasar
If your guy is offscreen when you click to move, she will run faster to the cursor, even when she is onscreen again. I frequently find myself zooming in and scrolling things to the side of the screen, so this happens.
1. Drone pop-in
This is a technique/exploit, that makes some fights very easy to win. It is tedious and not much fun, but allows you to “skip” a fight that you have problems with. Only fights with ventillation shafts can be skipped this way. The technique uses the fact, that going trough a ventillation shaft will use up no action point, if the starting point is right next to the shaft. You pop the drone out, shoot once, and still have an action point left to pop back in.
2. Mid-mission clothing change
You can redistribute equpiment in the middle of a mission via the shop interface.
3. Cram
Everyone should have a piece of cram in their inventory. It might pull you out of a tight spot.
4. 1 point spirit summoning
even with only 1 point in this you can summon a spirit behind enemy lines, and then let it loose. It will attack the nearest person, so you can fall back and hope it takes out a couple of enemies.
5. Blitz is a better decker than you
This is because he can have 2 atacker ESPs and you cant. He will have one in his inventory, and you can loan him a second one.
6. Avoid fights whenever possible
Since you get no exp for killing, there is no point in fighting. Avoid. Build your char with this in mind.
7, Character skills
I will mention recommended skill distribution each mission, but if you want a blueprint for a char
to have the easiest time, I found the following the best:
Body: slowly add to this, no more than 6
Quickness: 7, this will be enhanced by cyberware to the equivalent of 10-11ish
Ranged combat:7
Rifle: 4 for the auto burst, which is the most effective attack mode (edit: apparently this sits on 3 now)
Dodge: a couple of points, this will be your dump stat. I ended up with 5 in it, thats 15 karma spent. You can put this into more quickness or rifle if you prefer.
Str: no poinst wasted here.
Int: 5 for some skill checks
Biotech: at least 2 to see enemy HP. I ended up with 4 for a misssion(edit: apparently 3 is enough now)
Decking: 5 for skill checks
Drone control: 4 for skill checks and 2 drones. A drone is a high priority target for the AI, so its like free hp that can shoot/heal.
Drone combat: no points wasted here.
Willpower: 4 for skill checks
Spellcasting: 4 for spells
Charisma : 4 for skillchecks. This can be boosted by clothing to 6 which is enough for everything.
Spirit summoning: 3 for totem (Eagle) The totem helps alleviate the spellslot loss of cybering up.
Spirit control: no points wasted here
Conjuring: 2 / 4 for the barriers, which are awesome
As you see there is some room to play around, and if you dont like rifles, you can change the blueprint to your liking.
Clothing: YOu should get the +2 char clothing given the chance, and the clothing with most defense that gives to your chosen weapon skill. Alteratively you can get the +1 to all suit.
Weapons: the starting rifle will serve you suprisingly well. You should not waste money early on on new weapon.
Buy a new one midway trough the game. With smartlink.
Drones: just get some drones. They will suck at shooting, but the robodoc can heal/shoot concussion grenades, so it is the more helpful.
Spells: the barriers are very useful, Aim is also very useful. Time the cybering up of the character so that it coincides with totem selection. Drop aim, get Eagle. Mind wipe can save your ass in a tight spot. You will have an extra spell slot, so pick whatever you like. I picked the other barrier.
Items: always have some healing, some doc wagons, and cram. Other than that, whatever. Keep in mind that concussion nades are immensely more helpful than damage ones. You will need a deck in one of the missions tough, so be aware of that.
Cyberware:
Head: Cerebral booster +1int for skill checks
Eyes: Alpha eyes for 6% extra accuracy
Body: Adrenal Contractor +1AP for no cost whatsoever
Arms: induction datajack you need this for smartlink, which is 6% extra accuracy.
Other Arm: Auto Injector Hyper its +6% accuracy, basically
Legs: Enhanced articulation +1Dodge +1 Quickness. That equals +3% accuracy per leg at 0.5 essence per leg.
The way the missions play is such that you can cyber up almost in one step midgame.
8 Companions.
There is much freedom here as all choices are solid. A couple of pointers tough:
Blitz:get the deck upgrade cos that is strictly better than the leg cyber. His personal reward should be the box, not the software.
Eiger: the sniper line is mostly better. Steyr aug is strictly better than the nade she would get.
Glory: getting the heal ability is striclty better than the alternative.
Hartfeld manor 1
difficulty: easy
recommended team:-
decking: yes, but Monica will do it
recommended stats:
Karma reward: 5
This is the starting mission. Its pretty straightforward, however, it is worth noting a few things:
- start at the lower left enemy (where the terminal is)
- you can send in the drone from the jack-in room to the big room
- There is a summoning point in the big room. Activate it, then fall back to the smaller room.
Kesselhaus Hotel & Nightclub
difficulty: easy
recommended team:-
decking: no
recommended stats: 3 int, 3 cha
In mission karma possible: 4
karma reward: 8
You start out on the bottom floor. There is a party going on, but you need a key to the elevator to find your goal. Chat with Frank for the key. You can Chat up Silke, and she will give you a subquest to retrieve her items. Do so and then persuade her to go to rehab. This should net you extra karma.
Once upside you can explore the floors. There is a fight on the second floor waiting for you, however, you can go to the 3. floor first, then drop down to the closed off area. This will give you larger room to operate. Talk to the guy who is locked in with the corpse. Suggesting to freeze the dead guy will result in extra karma.
There is a tough fight on the 4th floor, where some people have an illegal organ transplant operation going on, but it yields good loot.
Blitz will show up and ask you to raid the vault. Agree. The vault has his drone, which will make him that more effective. To enter the vault, you will need to pass some resistance. Get a BuMoNa kit, you will need it. Luckily there is one nearby. Once you open the door the autoturret will shoot at you ,probably killing you. Send in Blitz to self-destruct the automatic defenses.
Lodge mission
difficulty: easy
recommended team: –
decking: yes
recommended stats: 5 int 5 decking, security etiquette, +cyberdeck
karma reward: 2
You should get this mission as soon as possible. You can skip all battles with a bit of decking but YOU NEED A CYBERDECK! (And probably some programs) Blitz is unavailable in this mission. Chat up the guards, if you are smart enough, you can plant fake data into their computers, and also kill them without a fight. The fake data will prevent a fight later on. Grab the +2 charisma suit (you did save up nuyen, right?)
Once upside, use your hacking talent to hack the Ubahn access. This will skip another fight. Side with the mage, then finish the mission.
Humanis
difficulty: medium
recommended team: glory, eiger, dietrich
decking: no
recommended stats: 3 willpower, 4 cha, 4 decking
Mid mission Karma: 4
Karma reward: 8
Skip the first battle for 750 nuyen. This might seem steep, but it will make the last fight more manageable.
Going into the complex you will find 2 turrets. It is tempting to set them to kill your enemies, however, Id advise to not do so, because they will activate both mobs.
Once you are in, if Dietrich is part of your team, you have the option to recruit Alexander. Do so, he is a lot better than any of your team this early, and makes the run easier. Make use of any spirit spawning points with Dietrich. There is a drone pop-in place for the second fight as well.
MKVII
difficulty: easy
recommended team: blitz+any
decking: no
recommended stats: apparently it is now 3 biotech (was 4 biotech)
mid mission karma: 3
karma reward:10
This is a very easy and fun mission, unless you fail to kill off the rigger, then its reload time. The MKVII is a buldoser, the enemies don’t really have a chance. Make sure Bitz is rigging into the MKVII, as this will give it 4 AP instead of 3. Always target the rigger first. I found the melee options more reliable than the minigun.
I recommend delivering the prototype to the Loge, but if you don’t want that, you can fail 1 Loge quest and still get their reward.
Gesundbrunnen
difficulty: trivial
recommended team: eiger
decking: no
recommended stats: 4 cha
mid mission karma: 1
Karma reward: 4
This is a mission that can be done without any fights, not even decking. It also yields extra karma if you give the parched ork on the entrance some beer.
Adenauerplatz
difficulty: easy
recommended team: eiger, glory, blitz
decking: not necessary
recommended stats: 1 drone control , 5 decking
In mission karma: 1
Karma reward: 2
Outside hack the door or send in the drone to short it, then enter.
Once inside, you have a fight with 3 drones on your hand. Not too hard. You will meet Philipp, be friendly to him. He will send you off to kill Billy, the basilisk.
Killing Billy is a tough fight, best results are reached if you use the enrance as a choke point. Use barriers to slow him down. AP nades also work wonders. Deal with the hellhound behind you first.
Once he is dead, make sure to download the show for Philipp. This will prompt him to help you out with his drones later. Exiting will trigger an unwinnable (or at least really hard) fight, the best option is to leg it. Philipps drones are invaluable decoys here. Put your own drones to hold position too, to attract gunfire.
Sewers
difficulty: hard
recommended team: eiger, glory, dietrich
decking: no
recommended stats: 4 decking
In mission karma: 4
Karma reward:4
This is the first hard mission, as gohuls are fast and hit hard. Use Dietrichs aura to make gohul hits less painful, this makes it a lot more manageable. Damage reduction pills also help. Make sure you find the corpse of Viktor and the manual for extra karma.
You do not have to pay Ezkibel, you can blackmail him for free without any ill effects.
Lose ends
difficulty: hard
recommended team: glory, eiger, blitz
decking: yes
recommended stats:
Mid mission karma: 3
Karma reward: 8
This mission is not very easy. Some drone popping possible on the floor level. Eigers long range is invaluable here, as she can hang back and shoot into the other rooms. Falling back and drawing out enemies is a viable option. Use barriers freely.
Once you reach the top floor, Blitz should cram up to reach the docking point early. Locking down reinforcements is very important, and time is of the essence. The rest of the team should concentrate on defending him. Basilisks can be set free. but it wont really help much.
Once all enemies are dead, you can go ahead and shoot the target. If you kill him outright, you get more karma (he had it coming anyhow)
Azetecnology
This is a 2 part mission.
Part 1
difficulty: trivial
recommended team: blitz+whatever
decking: yes
recommended stats: 4 cha, 3 int, eti corporate
This is the other mission possible without any fights. You should concentrate to get more karma.
Use your charms on the first guy to get karma, eti corporate the other guy for more karma. Use decking to get badge.
Security will let you hack, Blitz should have no problem doing it, then leg it.
Part 2
difficulty: medium
recommended team: blitz, eiger, glory
decing: yes
recommended stats: 6 cha, 4 decking, eti security, 6 body
Start out by going south, and help out the soykaf shop owners. If you do not have the cha required, you have no option but to betray them, so make sure you have the +2 cha suit on.
Talk to the LTG worker to get inside the building.
Once inside, hack all you can , and grab the uniforms. This requires some good timing, but its not very hard. cha 6 will allow you to skip all fights for a while. 6 body will convince the blood mage that you are insider. They will let you do your thing, up until the point where you hack a node in the matrix. Make sure you talk to the clones first (saving their sorry ass results in more karma). Leave an esp at every node, but do not hack them yet. Position your crew, then instead hack all nodes at once. Once the alarm springs, start killing mages, then leg it ASAP. Eiger can long range some barrels to slow down reinforcements, and barriers work wonders too.
Apex rising
difficulty: hard
recommended team: blitz eiger glory
decking: yes
recommended stats: 5 cha 5 int
The first part of this mission is medium difficulty, there are some spirits to kill, and some mages, but nothing serious. The second part is more troublesome.
Talk to Ulrich, cha him to give 250 nuyen per amulet. Go up to the second floor. Kill all guys for amulets (you can skip these for an easier time, but at this point you should be able to handle them)
Do the mission, you probably wont have the stats for Janets rig so your best bet is to spend some nuyen for the transmitter from the guy on the first floor. He also sells cram, so make sure your supplies are plentiful.
Once you are in the basement, decide wether you free Apex or kill it. This is a “dont die until ” type of mission. There is no tricks to this fight. Use barriers freely, ap damage is king. Every reinforcement wave will have 2 guys that go straight for the nodes, make sure you get them first, then the drone, then all others.
Hartfeld manor 2
difficulty: hard
recommended team: glory, eiger, blitz
decking: yes
recommended stats: whatever
Not much to this one. If you talked with Absithe enouh, have int 7 biotech 7 spellcasting 7, and watched all dvds, you might persuade vauclair to abandon his plan. Otherwise its pretty straightforward. Make sure you use everything available to you. Blitz should hack the vents, while 2 other teammates go for the manual overrides. 1 should stay and defend Blitz.
Personal side missions
Do these ASAP to get the most out of the rewards. All these are easy except Blitzes.
Eiger side mission
difficulty: easy
decking: no
recommended stats: decking 5 +cram
Skip street fight by going an the alley
Get in by decking, fight the guys there.
Once you go out the other side, the guy starts to run away, cram up and stun him. You can get a rifle for eiger or a nade. The rifle is really good IMHO, but you can substitute it with a loaned other rifle, so do whatever.
Glory side mission
difficulty: easy/hard
decking: no
recommended stats: decking 5
Get in, save the ranger, examine the tv, examine the fridge, examine the van
Convince Martha to join (the mission is a LOT harder without her)
Take out the spirits (robodoc is not as good here, spirits are immune to ap damage), otherwise pretty straightforward. You can tell which spirit is the real thing because the others do no damage. Focus on it.
If you want to kill the guy, and not save the initiates, Martha will not fight with you and the mission is harder. The reward for saving them is also better, so no point really.
Blitz side mission
difficulty: easy/hard
decking: no
recommended stats: decking 5
karma reward: 2
This mission is a lot easier if you kill Hasenkamp, but the reward sucks ballz, while the other is much better, so I do not recommend it.
If you decide to help him, here are some tips for the battle:
The turrets and their nodes are on the same spot irl as in the matrix
Sadly, you can not outfit blitz for this mission, so he will be 1 esp down
Summon esps and run for the turret node on the right down direction (closest to your guys in meatspace)
Make sure the down turrets do not go over again. The exploder esp can make a trap for the other guys esp, and the attacker can make sure he does not move much
outside:
Nades are good, especially ap nades, so it would be best if you saved your robodoc and all his nades for this fight. The enemy likes to clump up.