Overview
A brief explanation of how DLC items work and which can only be redeemed once.
Importing DLC Items In-Game
If you bought any DLC items for Mankind Divided, and you tried to claim them in-game, you may be wondering about the warning that pops up about doing so making said items permanently unclaimable. Here’s the real deal, straight from Eidos dev Poticha:
Durables (Weapons, Skins, Augmentations) are not one-time use. They will automatically be available in all of your playthroughs, once you have downloaded and installed them.
What this means is that there are two kinds of DLC items in Mankind Divided: consumables and durables. Durables, like the Elite Sniper Rifle, are permanent items that can be imported into a game once per save, so if you redeem a durable on one playthrough and then start a new game, you can redeem it again in that new save. On the other hand, consumables can only ever be imported once into one game save and then never imported into another save again. This is because there is an in-game microtransactions store, very much like those in the Deus Ex: The Fall app and TF2’s Mann Co Store, and they promote spending real world money on small boost items you could just as easily earn in-game, or cheat into it if you’re really desperate. But I haven’t even used the Praxis Kits I got for preordering Digital Deluxe; I haven’t needed them yet, and I’m too scared I’ll misuse them all on the wrong save.
By the way, this also applies to redeeming Breach Software for credits at the Tech Noir. You can auto-redeem them for c300 each, but once you do, you can’t redeem those Breaches for credits in any other save you make EVER again. The Breach mode items you redeem them for are fine though, because Breach mode only ever has one save.
Item Management Tips
Here are some tips for managing your items:
1. Timing is key
If you’re sure you want to use all your Praxis Kits now, do it at the very start of the game in Dubai and save there. Or, if you can’t or won’t use them in Dubai, do a perfect non-lethal non-alarm ghost run of Dubai, where you hack everything successfully on your first try, take out all the guards, grab every item you see like a kleptomaniac and as many guns as you can carry, grab the triangle code and the ebook, take out the signal booster, unplug the battery AND keep Singh alive, then save. Then make sure you locate and backup your save on other hard drives and cloud storage, and never delete it. If you’re past Dubai, but you still want to use them, you should still import them all into the save of your choice and triple-backup the save for posterity, but first you should make sure you haven’t done anything like set off an alarm or killed someone or something else that could jeopardize whatever achievements or endings you hope to gain from your playthrough. And if you want to unlock the permadeath I Never Asked For This mode, the Praxis Kit starting save you should make needs to be Give Me Deus Ex [Hard Mode], or else you won’t have them when you do a full playthrough on that difficulty. The folder you need to backup your saves from is C:Program Files (x86)Steamuserdata*your user ID*337000
2. Conservation
Don’t import the guns into your game until you really need them. The storage menu in your side-bar is like free inventory slots, and once you take guns out of storage, you can’t put them back in there. This is important to keep in mind since your inventory is already pretty limited as-is, so you should wait until you have all the inventory expander augs to start flooding your space with fancy weapons. As BHunterSEAL pointed out, you can also use Jensen’s home computer to unlock 3 secret wall stashes with 8 additional storage slots each, in case you need to use the weapons now and stockpile them for later.
I completed the Dubai mission, saved Singh, and got the stealth bonuses with the standard-issue Tranq Rifle and standard takedowns. But even if you want to use one Elite weapon as your go-to weapon the whole game, you should still wait until Prague, because there you can sell your looted standard firearms to gun-runners early on, freeing up space and earning you plenty of additional credits.
[As a general tip for the whole game after Dubai, you should sell spare guns whenever you can, and never pick up guns that you already have with you. Doing so will only put their ammo into your inventory, and erase the spare copy of that gun. It’s like that in pretty much every Deus Ex game. So unless you’re hard-up on ammo for that kind of gun, don’t pick it up. See my brief Selling Guns in Prague guide for additional details.]
3. Permadeath ruins Consumables
Don’t import consumables into I Never Asked For This difficulty, if you even can. More likely than not, you’re gonna die in that game mode, and the permadeath will destroy all the Praxis Kits you paid good money to buy.