Overview
This is a guide to help you understand some mechanics of the game that not everyone is aware of…(ONLY SINGLEPLAYER AND COOP)
Armor
The armor in this (and every other game really) protects you from dying. But how good does it do its job?
The following lines explain how many hits some types of armor can take. In my personal opinion these are the most common suits in the game, so let’s take a look shall we?
DIFFICULTY: NORMAL
1. Full Stealth (Stealth Nanofiber Suit): 5 hits up close / 8 hits from far
2. Full Armor (Ceramic Plate Suit): 8 hits up close / 12 hits from far
3. Revenant Suit: 7 hits up close / 12 hits from far
DIFFICULTY: REALISTIC
1. Full Stealth (Stealth Nanofiber Suit): 3 hits up close / 4 hits from far
2. Full Armor (Ceramic Plate Suit): 4 hits up close / 9 hits from far
3. Revenant Suit: 4 hits up close / 8 hits from far
DIFFICULTY: PERFECTIONIST
1. Full Stealth (Stealth Nanofiber Suit): 2 hits up close / 2 hits from far
2. Full Armor (Ceramic Plate Suit): 2 hits up close / 3 hits from far
3. Revenant Suit: 2 hits up close / 3 hits from far
As you can see, when playing on perfectionist difficulty, there is little to none benefit to using the armored suits over the nanofiber one. According to me, the benefit you gain from the stealthiness of the latter suit, far outweights the extra miniscule protection.
Any other combination of armor components will have a mixed result.
Crossbow
The crossbow is the most essential weapon for anyone trying to master GHOST playstyle. But there are a few tricks that will make you get the most out of your crossbow.
1. Fit all the upgrades. That should come as no surpise.
2. The crossbow can shoot its arrows really far away if you compensate for the arrow drop. You will be able to put to sleep a bunch of enemies from across the map (in case you are playing Charlie’s missions) without them even notice you.
3. Unless you are playing on perfectionist difficulty, you should be able to execute helmeted opponents, provided that you use sleeping bolts. The bolt will take off the helmet and the gas should do the rest of the job. That works on Heavy infantry too.
4. Not only the sleeping or the shocker bolts are able to takedown enemies. If you are accurate enough, the EMP and Noisemaker bolts will anaesthetize your opponent only in the event that you hit them in the head and they do not wear helmets. Not only that, but the ability of that particular bolt will continue working. For exaple the noisemaker continues to make an noice, despite that it just took down an enemy.
5. The tazer bolt, won’t work when hitting a helmeted opponent in the head. In fact, it will only alert him of your presence (and/or location).
6. Any execution act on a helmeted engineer will result in their helment been taked off.
Sniper Rifles
Any Splinter Cell player should know by now that the sniper rifles are one of the go-to weapons in the game. But there is some attributes to them that not everyone is familiar with.
1. Snipers can one-shot headshot helmeted opponents, provided that you hit them in the front or the side-to-front part of their headwear. If you hit them in the back, it will just pop it (the helmet).
This works at any distance!
2. The SC-IS sniper rifle when equipped with armor piercing rounds, can one-shot bodyshot light armored bad guys if they are in the range of the weapon (the crosshair turns red when pointed at them). The rest of the snipers can do that to but the shot must not hit arms, only torso. This ability is only posiible when the difficulty is anything but perfectionist.
3. In spite the fact that you are able to one- shot headshot helmeted guys, the execution will not take that under considaration and the bullet will just pop the helmet off. You have to be the one taking the shot, not the PC.