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C h r i s L e e ' s
U l t i m a t e S S 2 A n a l y s i s v 1.6
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The officially latest (as well as latest, official) version of this
FAQ/Guide can be found at www.gamefaqs.com.
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Table of Contents
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A word on navigation: to jump to a specific section, simply use the
'FIND' command (CTRL-F) and type in the 5 letter key next to the
section (doing only the 3 numbers within the brackets will probably
send you to a random section of the guide).
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1. Introduction and Contact Info (aka What the hell is this?) [100]
2. General Notes (aka What other guides won't tell you!) [200]
a. Stats [210]
b. Damage bonuses [220]
c. Difficulties [230]
d. Cyber Modules [240]
e. Character Creation [250]
f. Weapon Durability [260]
3. Standard Weapons [300]
a. Wrench [310]
b. Pistol [320]
c. Shotgun [330]
d. Assault Rifle [340]
4. Energy Weapons [400]
a. Laser Pistol [410]
b. Laser Rapier [420]
c. EMP Rifle [430]
5. Heavy Weapons [500]
a. Grenade Launcher [510]
b. Stasis Field Generator [520]
c. Fusion Cannon [530]
6. Exotic Weapons [600]
a. Crystal Shard [610]
b. Viral Proliferator [620]
c. Annelid Launcher (aka Worm Launcher) [630]
7. Technical Skills [700]
8. PSI [800]
a. Tier 1 [810]
b. Tier 2 [820]
c. Tier 3 [830]
d. Tier 4 [840]
e. Tier 5 [850]
9. OS Upgrades [900]
10. Researchable Things [A00]
11. OSA on Impossible Difficulty [B00]
a. A Word on PSI Hypos [B10]
b. OS Upgrades [B20]
c. Technical Skills [B30]
d. Stats and PSI [B40]
e. Tactics [B50]
12. Character Concepts [C00]
13. Bestiary [D00]
a. Damage Table [D10]
b. Annelids [D20]
i. Annelid Egg [D21]
ii. Annelid Grub [D22]
iii.Arachnids [D23]
iv. PSI Reavers [D24]
c. Swarms [D30]
i. Swarm [D31]
c. Half Annelids [D40]
i. Hybrids [D41]
ii. Rumblers [D42]
iii.Monkeys [D43]
d. Half Mechanical [D50]
i. Assassins [D51]
ii. Midwives [D52]
e. Mechanical [D60]
i. Turrets [D61]
ii. Robots [D62]
iii.SHODAN Avatar [D63]
f. Basic [D70]
i. SHODAN Shield [D71]
g. SHODAN [D80]
i. SHODAN [D81]
14. Appendix: Molecular Transmutation Analysis [E00]
a. The Equation [E10]
b. The Table [E20]
15. Final Notes [F00]
a. Conclusion/Special Thanks [F10]
b. Resources [F20]
c. Endnotes and References [F30]
c. Legal Disclaimer [F40]
d. History [F50]
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1. Introduction and Contact Info (aka What the hell is this?) [100]
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System Shock 2 is one of THE most entertaining games ever created.
Period.
That wild assertion being said, it surprised me how low the level of
discourse was for a game that is so amazingly complex. Guide existed
with gross errors, huge fallacies, and oversimplifications.
Thus I felt I had a mission to produce a high-quality (can you feel
the pretension yet?), in-depth analysis of everything System Shock 2
has to offer.
I must warn you: this is NOT a walkthrough. If you want to find
out where every cybermodule is, this is not the guide for you. If you
do want to see just how useful everything is, then by all means, this
is for you.
If you want to grab a hold of me, pop me an e-mail with the subject
line beginning "SS2 FAQ: " and send it to:
simulcra@uchicago.edu
WITHOUT the underscores. This is just to prevent auto-parsers from
nabbing my e-mail address for SPAM. So, the final e-mail should be
an 8-letter word followed by @uchicago.edu.
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2. General Notes (aka What other guides won't tell you!) [200]
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So there's a lot of basic information that most guides won't tell you
and are fairly important to know.
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2a. Stats [210]
Strength: each point gives you 3 extra inventory slots, plus
increases melee damage.
How much extra damage you deal with a melee weapon is determined as:
Strength Score Bonus Damage
1 0
2 1
3 2
4 3
5 4
6 6
7 10
8 15
Note that this damage is dealt after any multiplicative bonuses to
your weapon, as otherwise it'd just be ridiculous (8 Strength with
maxed Wrench would do absurd damage per hit).
Endurance: each point reduces toxin/radiation and PSI Burnout
damage and increases Health.
How much damage you take from toxins, radiation, and burnout is
determined as:
Endurance Score Environmental Damage
1 100%
2 94%
3 85%
4 73%
5 58%
6 40%
7 20%
8 1%
Normal burnout damage is 3 damage per tier of PSI that you burned
on.
Agility: each point increases movement speed, fall damage
reduction, and reduces weapon kickback (only matters for Standard and
Exotic Weapons).
Movement speed is modified in the following way:
Agility Score Movement Speed Factor
1 1.20
2 1.30
3 1.40
4 1.50
5 1.60
6 1.70
7 1.85
8 2.00
PSI: each point increases PSI points and PSI effectiveness (see
Difficulties section for PSI Points and specific PSI powers for more
details). For most purposes, PSI is capped at 8, although a few PSI
Abilities (Remote Circuitry Manipulation, Molecular Transmutation,
Advanced and regular Cerebro-Stimulated Regeneration, and Metacreative
Barrier) count as high as 10.
Cyber-Affinity: each Cyber-Affinity reduces the number of ICE nodes
during a technical task by 1 (so a Cyber-Affinity of 6 means you have
6 less ICE nodes with which to deal) and also increases your success
at a technical task by 5%.
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2b. Damage Bonuses [220]
Investing in weapon skills increases damage with the weapons of that
category. Specifically, each skill level above the minimum skill
needed for a weapon gives you a 15% bonus per skill level.
So, if you a have a pistol (minimum Standard Weapons 1) and have
Standard Weapons 3, you'll have a 30% damage bonus with the pistol.
This means that weapons that require a skill level of 6 for weapons
will never get a damage bonus this way.
In addition, aside from any other bonuses, the first modification
you make to a weapon gives it a 10% bonus. The second modification
increases the bonus to a total of 25%. However, melee weapons
cannot be modified so they can never get this bonus damage.
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2c. Difficulties [230]
Depending on your difficulty, various things change. The most
apparent is the cost in cyber modules of various abilites. In
addition, how your HP and PSI Points are calculated change, Replicator
costs change, and how frequently enemies drop loot changes.
On Normal, abilities cost according to this table:
In addition, maximum HP is 30 + 5 x Endurance. Maximum PSI Points
is 5 + 10 x PSI.
On Easy, cybernetic module costs are 85% of Normal, rounding down.
Maximum HP is 45 + 10 x Endurance. Maximum PSI Points is 10 + 16 x
PSI. Furthermore, Replicator prices are 85% of Normal.
On Hard, cybernetic module costs are 139% of Normal, rounding down.
Maximum HP is 24 + 3 x Endurance. Maximum PSI Points is 3 + 8 x PSI.
Replicator prices are 125% of Normal. In addition, enemies have a
30% chance of not even checking their loot tables upon death. (So,
if an enemy has a 50% chance on their loot table of not dropping
anything, first the game checks to see if the enemy checks the loot
table (30%). If the check is successful, it drops nothing.
Otherwise, the game checks the actual loot table (in which there's a
50% chance that it still won't drop anything).)
On Impossible, cybernetic module costs are 179% of Normal, rounding
down. Maximum HP is a paltry 7 + 3 x Endurance. Maximum PSI Points
is 1 + 5 x PSI. Replicator are 200% of normal. Enemies have a 75%
chance of not even checking their loot tables upon death.
On Multiplayer, cybernetic module costs are 139% of Normal, rounding
down. Maximum HP is 24 + 3 x Endurance. Maximum PSI Points is 10 +
16 x PSI.
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2d. Cyber Modules [240]
This is an important point of reference for anyone who wants to
plan their character in advance; there are 870 total cyber modules
in the game.
Note that there are *no* cyber modules hidden within crates although
there are still some in areas generally accessibly only by a hackable
keypad or some such (but generally logs exist that reveal the code
of the keypad). So you don't have to worry too much about getting
Hack so that you can get all the cyber modules in the game.
Remember: the game requires you to have Research 1 and to be able
to hack a Replicator. The game gives you a non-cyber-module solution
to both by providing you with a LabAssistant implant (which gives you
Research +1) as well as several ICE Picks (which gives you a free
hack).
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2e. Character Creation [250]
Alot of behind-the-scenes happens when you're creating a character.
In addition, it's worth noting that not ALL paths are created equal.
While you get bonuses for free during character creation, those same
abilities are going to cost you hard-earned cybernetic modules once
you board the Von Braun. So, sometimes, when you know you're going to
get several choices eventually, you should opt for the one that gives
you more cybernetic modules for free, especially on Hard and Impossible
difficulties, where the discrepency in free modules between choices
grows.
All cybernetic module equivalences are for Normal difficulty.
Multiply by .85 for Easy (rounding down), 1.39 for Hard (rounding
down), and 1.79 for Impossible (rounding down) to get values for those
difficulties.
MARINES: simply by choosing this path you get Standard Weapons +1 for
free (worth 12 modules).
Year 1: All choices are worth 11 modules.
Year 2:
a) +1 Energy Weapons, +1 Cyber-Affinity: worth 15 modules. You
also begin the game with a poor condition (2) Laser Pistol
in your inventory.
b) +1 Heavy Weapons, +1 Cyber-Affinity: worth 15 modules. You
also begin the game with a poor condition (2) Grenade Launcher
in your inventory with a full clip of Fragmentation Grenades.
c) +2 Standard Weapons: worth 14 modules.
Year 3: All choices are worth 10 modules, but with +1 Maintenace,
you also begin the game with a Disposable Maintenance Tool in
your inventory.
CONCLUSION - You can get a maximum of 48 free cybernetic modules.
NAVY: simply by choosing this path you get Standard Weapons +1 for
free (worth 12 modules).
Year 1: All choices are worth 13 modules.
Year 2:
a) +2 Cyber-Affinity: worth 11 modules.
b) +1 Maintenance: worth 10 modules. You also begin the game
with a Disposable Maintenance Tool in your inventory.
c) +2 Standard Weapons: worth 14 modules.
Year 3:
a) +1 Research: worth 10 modules.
b) +2 Endurance: worth 11 modules.
c) +2 Agility: worth 11 modules.
CONCLUSION - You can get a maximum of 50 free cybernetic modules.
OSA: simply by choosing this path you get Tier 1 PSI for free (worth
10 modules). You also begin the game with a PSI Amp in your inventory.
Year 1: All choices are worth 26 modules.
Year 2:
a) +2 PSI: worth 11 modules.
b) +1 Research: worth 10 modules.
c) +2 Endurance: worth 11 modules.
Year 3: All choices are worth 13 modules.
CONCLUSION - You can get a maximum of 60 free cybernetic modules.
In the end, the biggest difference is between Navy/Marines and the
OSA. This basically means that if you plan on getting PSI at some
point in the game at all (especially the abilities offered by the OSA
path), you should probably become an OSA. On Impossible, this is
18 more cybernetic modules for free over the Navy, choosing solely
optimal paths.
On Normal and Easy, you can afford to be "wasteful" with your
cybernetic modules; the difference matters little in the end and plays
mainly into your short-run goals. If you want to be able to research
as soon as possible and get that 25% bonus against hybrids asap,
that's fine. Or maybe you're going to get Research anyway, but you
want +2 Endurance so you'll have better early survability.
On Hard, you have to weigh your choices a bit more. The difference
can be as much 20 cyber modules (inefficient NAVY versus efficient
OSA), which is enough to boost a stat up two levels or get a Tier 4
PSI ability, all of which matter a whole lot more than Normal or Easy
since you have comparatively less of them (stats and PSI). Still,
even here, the difference is not nearly as pronounced as Impossible,
and it really ultimately works down to the character concept you have.
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2f. Weapon Durability [260]
Just a note: in the following weapons section, treat all durability
as if you were rounding up for purposes of what is displayed in-game.
That is, if you have a weapon at 9.5 durability, it'll show as "10"
in-game. Likewise, .9 durability is "1".
Yes, that's right. Durability is stored as a decimal with 3
digits of precision (so up to 2 decimal places). You only get to see
the integer part of it, but that's all you really need to know.
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3. Standard Weapons [300]
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Standard Weapons are, without a doubt, the single most powerful path
of training you can take in System Shock 2. With proper management of
ammunition types (so you use the right ammo on the right enemies),
almost NOTHING will ever stand in your way. Not only is it absurdly
powerful, but it's also the easiest for which to obtain ammunition.
In fact, you may be stunned by the lack of challenge you face in the
end-game if you take this path. If you want this game to be more than
a walk in the park, I wouldn't take standard weapons past level 3
(for shotguns).
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3a. Wrench [310]
Prerequisites: None
Damage: 7 (9 with Smasher)
Damage Type: WeaponBash
Assessment (4/5): Despite not having any prerequisites, the Wrench
is a standard weapon. Which means if you max out Standard Weapons,
you'll get a total of a 90% bonus to damage.
The Wrench will pretty much be the meat of your offense for most of
the early game. Dealing WeaponBash damage, it'll deal full damage
to most everything and half damage to robots. With certain Hard
difficulty builds and on Impossible difficulty, this will be the
workhorse of your offense.
However, its weakness is in the fact that it's so basic. There
are other weapons that will do better in any task you need it do to,
although the wrench is the most cyber module-effective (in other words,
free).
DANGER: The wrench does *not* damage SHODAN. Take care to have a
SHODAN-damaging backup weapon on hand if you plan on going all out
with wrenching.
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3b. Pistol [320]
Breakability: At durability 1.0, will have a .5% chance of breaking,
increasing linearly to a 5% chance of breaking at
durability 0.0. Loses .1 durability per shot.
Maintenance/Repair: 1/1
Repair Difficulty: 20 Nanite cost, Base Failure 70%, Base ICE 3.
Modify #1: Increases clip size (12 to 24). Damage increased by 10%.
Difficulty: Modify 1 required, 20 Nanite cost, Base Failure 70%,
Base ICE 2.
Modify #2: Reduces reload time by 2/3. Damage bonus increased to a
total of 25%.
Difficulty: Modify 3 required, 35 Nanite cost, Base Failure 90%,
Base ICE 4.
Assessment (3/5): Early on, this is a terrible weapon. Ammo is
rare and the Pistol is in fact weaker than the wrench. Moreover, the
Pistol degrades quite quickly, especially in the triple-shot mode.
However, once ammo becomes more common and once you've been able to
develop the ability to quickly switch to the appropriate types of
ammo (Standard ammunition is not quite efficient), the Pistol becomes
quite an effective tool for dispatching tough enemies. Although,
you should be able to do quite well with a wrench in most cases,
although the Pistol is a nice way to dispatch Protocol Droids, turrets,
and all other forms of tough monstrosities.
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3c. Shotgun [330]
Breakability: At durability 1.0, will have a .5% chance of breaking,
increasing linearly to a 5% chance of breaking at
durability 0.0. Loses .1 durability per shot.
Maintenance/Repair: 2/3
Repair Difficulty: 35 Nanite cost, Base Failure 85%, Base ICE 4.
Modify #1: Cuts reload time by 2/3. Damage increased by 10%.
Difficulty: Modify 1 required, 25 Nanite cost, Base Failure 75%,
Base ICE 3.
Modify #2: Cuts kickback by 2/3. Damage bonus increased to a total
of 25%.
Difficulty: Modify 3 required, 40 Nanite cost, Base Failure 100%,
Base ICE 5.
Assessment (4/5): Shotgun ammunition is plentiful (just make sure
to unload the shotguns found off Shotgun Hybrids). It's not really
necessary to upgrade from the Pistol until you start facing off
against harder enemies than just Hybrids and Monkeys (so maybe once
you hit Operations deck).
Using Pellets isn't terribly effective since the ammo, instead of
doing one shot of 6, it deals a scatter of 6 shots of 1 damage each.
So, you have to be quite close to the target, otherwise you'll only
hit a target marginally, although this has the side effect of
giving a small area of effect spread.
However, at best, the Shotgun is a way to transition from the Pistol
to the Assault Rifle. When the Pistol starts getting too weak, the
Shotgun keeps your damage level up while you can re-stockpile ammo
for the Assault Rifle.
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3d. Assault Rifle [340]
Ammunition/Consumption: Bullets/1 per shot, clip size of 36.
Fire Rate: Primary Mode - 2 shots/sec, Secondary Mode - nonstop
cascade of 10 shots/sec.
Reload Time: 1 second
Projectile Speed: Very Fast (300)
Breakability: At durability 1.0, will have a .5% chance of breaking,
increasing linearly to a 5% chance of breakign at
durability 0.0. Loses .05 durability per shot.
Maintenance/Repair: 4/4
Repair Difficulty: 25 Nanite cost, Base Failure 100%, Base ICE 5.
Modify #1: Reduces reload time by 2/3. Damage increased by 10%.
Difficulty: Modify 2 required, 40 Nanite cost, Base Failure 85%,
Base ICE 4.
Modify #2: Increases clip size (36 to 72). Damage bonus increased
to a total of 25%.
Difficulty: Modify 4 required, 60 Nanite cost, Base Failure 110%,
Base ICE 6.
Assessment (5/5): *The* most powerful weapon in the game. Period.
Ammunition is plentiful (and available since the beginning of the
game). As long as you use the right type of ammuntion (again,
Standard isn't terribly efficient), you should be able to mow through
enemies easily. Rumblers will fall in five quick shots WITHOUT ANY
BONUSES CALCULATED IN. Wow.
You should never have to use the secondary mode, since it offers
very little bonus except a temporarily heightened damage per second
rate. Maybe if you've got three Rumblers charging at you, this'll
be your best bet for surviving the fight and ending it quickly.
On Impossible mode, despite however expensive it is to get this
skill, it's almost definitely worth it. Unlike the Grenade Launcher,
ammunition is available freely without having to resort to Replicators,
and it's the cheapest to duplicate (even not using Molecular
Duplication). Plus, it makes your wrench all that much more powerful
in the process.
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4. Energy Weapons [400]
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Energy Weapons, like Exotic Weapons, are highly specialized. They
focus on doing massive damage to robotic creations (most of them do
Energy, which does double damage against robots, but half damage
against organic and semi-organic creatures). Unfortunately, Mechanical
and Robotic enemies are much less frequent then organic creatures.
However, this is made up for by the fact that ammunition for Energy
Weapons is essentially infinite, since you can instantly recharge all
of them by visiting a Charger. If you're not near one, you can just
use a Portable Battery or Electron Cascade (PSI power) to buy yourself
time.
More than anyother weapons category, Energy Weapons benefit from a
high Maintenance. Maintenance increases the maximum charge that can
be stored by 10 per Maintenance, which is hugely significant. The
last thing that you want to happen is to run out of charge in the
middle of a fight.
DANGER: DO NOT TAKE THIS AS YOUR ONLY METHOD OF OFFENSE; THE BODY
OF THE MANY IS ALL ORGANIC AND LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE WITH JUST AN EMP
RIFLE. It is remotely possible with just a lasier rapier, but close
to impossible with just a laser pistol (unless you do a *lot* of
nimble footwork and backtracking to the recharge station... which
becomes impossible after a certain point).
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4a. Laser Pistol [410]
Fire Rate: Primary Mode - 3 shots/sec, Secondary Mode - 1 shot
per 3 seconds.
Reload Time: n/a (can't reload; recharge at a Recharge Station)
Projectile Speed: Fast (100)
Breakability: At durability 1.0, will have a .5% chance of breaking,
increasing linearly to a 5% chance of breaking at
durability 0.0. Loses .05 durability per shot.
Maintenance/Repair: 1/1
Repair Difficulty: 25 Nanite cost, Base Failure 75%, Base ICE 3.
Modify #1: Increase storage capacity by 50% (stacks on top of
Maintenance bonuses). Damage increased by 10%.
Difficulty: Modify 2 required, 20 Nanite cost, Base Failure 75%,
Base ICE 2.
Modify #2: Decreases energy consumption by 33% (rounding down).
Damage bonus increased to a total of 25%.
Difficulty: Modify 4 required, 35 Nanite cost, Base Failure 95%,
Base ICE 4.
Assessment (2/5): The Laser Pistol isn't that great of a weapon.
Its Primary Mode is weaker than the Pistol (which is already weaker
than a Wrench). Its Primary damage is so low that any bonuses you
get from Weapons skill, Modify, or OS Upgrades basically make no
impact whatsoever in your kill power.
Its overdrive mode (Secondary Mode) is, however, much better
if slightly inefficient. It'll be a fast way to deal with robotic
creatures or if you're in a hurry to take down a turret.
Otherwise, the Laser Pistol is primarily for taking out Protocol
Droids, Cameras, and for doing the finishing touch on exploding
Robots. Maybe if you've got no other choice, you can use it to take
out turrets.
The Laser Pistol, however, does make up for all these deficiencies
by being very sturdy (twice so than the Pistol) and having almost
limitless (essentially free) ammunition.
Remember: Energy does half damage against Spiders and PSI Reavers,
but double damage against all fully mechanical things.
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4b. Laser Rapier [420]
Prerequisites: Energy Weapons 4, Agility 3
Damage: 11 (14 with Smasher)
Damage Type: Energy
Assessment (4/5): The Laser Rapier is a VERY powerful weapon. It's
easily and quickly accessible (as early as Engineering). It deals
huge amounts of damage so that you can still use it against fully
organic targets to good effect. When you come up against a robotic
target, you can take them down *lightning* fast.
Its shortcoming is that it's not as universally useful as either
the Wrench or the Crystal Shard (or for that matter, the PSI Sword).
If you do plan on going dedicatedly melee, this should be, at best,
just a short stop on the way to the Crystal Shard (and you might
just be better off skipping it completely for Cybernetic Module
efficiency). In addition, because the Laser Rapier is at level 4
of your Energy Weapons, you'll only get a 30% bonus to its damage
from maxing out Energy Weapons, versus 90% and 75% for the Wrench
and Crystal Shard, respectively (a maxed out Laser Rapier still out-
damages a maxed out Wrench, all things being equal).
So, all this makes the Laser Rapier the second-best melee weapon in
the game. Where does it fit in? Melee builds can skip this over.
PSI builds (aside from pure PSI builds) can use this, since this gives
the PSI user a great answer to robotic creatuers until the EMP Rifle
becomes available, and it also becomes a replacement for a Wrench.
Unless it complements your build, don't go out of your way to get this,
but if it does, it's a very strong weapon.
NOTE: The Laser Rapier has a larger range than the Wrench. It also
has a slightly different sweep, so be sure to adjust your melee-ing
appropriately.
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4c. EMP Rifle [430]
Prerequisites: Energy Weapons 6
Damage: Primary Mode - 10 (Area of Effect of radius 10 ft),
Secondary Mode - 15 (Area of Effect of radius 15 ft)
Reload Time: n/a (can't reload; recharge at a Recharge Station)
Projectile Speed: Medium (70)
Breakability: At durability 1.0, will have a .5% chance of breaking,
increasing linearly to a 5% chance of breaking at
durability 0.0. Loses .15 durability per shot.
Maintenance/Repair: 6/2
Repair Difficulty: 35 Nanite cost, Base Failure 95%, Base ICE 4.
Modify #1: Increases storage capacity by 50% (stacks on top of
Maintenance bonuses). Damage increased by 10%.
Difficulty: Modify 3 required, 25 Nanite cost, Base Failure 80%,
Base ICE 3.
Modify #2: Decreases energy consumption by 50%. Increases
projectile speed by 50%. Damage bonus increased to a
total of 25%.
Difficulty: Modify 5 required, 40 Nanite cost, Base Failure 100%,
Base ICE 5.
Assessment (4/5): At first glance it seems like the EMP Rifle is
a very inferior version of an Assault Rifle. EMP damage hurts ONLY
robotic and mechanical creatures and doesn't do a thing to organic
creatures. However, there is no kickback (kickback is only for
Standard and Exotic Weapons), so any frantic firing can be done with
precision. In addition, the Secondary Mode can easily deal with clumps
of powerful robots and does massive damage, due to its massive kill
spread. Plus, since it's powered by charge, ammo is essentially
limitless and free.
However, it does nothing whatsoever to organic enemies. Good for
multiplayer friendly fire cases, but this makes the Energy Weapons'
main weakness even more painfully clear. Second, it's rare for
tough robots to cluster (when was the last time you fought two or
more Assault Bots at once, and how close were they to each other?),
so the Secondary Mode is limited to just a high-damage mode most of the
time, though it also means you can be less precise with aiming. In
addition, you need a Maintenace of 6 just to fix this baby, but
if you're going full Energy Weapons, you might as well max out your
Maintenance anyway to get full benefit out of your weapons.
To sum it up, as long as you know the weaknesses of the Energy
Weapons, you won't be disappointed with this final-tier weapon.
Robots will die so insanely quickly that you won't even have time to
blink. For an efficient anti-robotic/mechanical attack, look no
further.
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5. Heavy Weapons [500]
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Heavy Weapons are hard hitting. If Standard Weapons are agile,
mobile, and precise, Heavy Weapons are the opposite. However, like
Standard Weapons, alot of the power for Heavy Weapons comes in knowing
when to use the right ammo at the right time, but even moreso, since
each weapon carries a special task.
Like Exotic Weapons, ammunition is suitably rare (although grenades
are relatively cheaply available), so unlike Standard Weapons, one must
seriously analyze when to use them over the Wrench.
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5a. Grenade Launcher [510]
Prerequisites: Heavy Weapons 1
Damage: 20 (Fragmentation), 10 (EMP/Incendiary/Proximity),
35 (Disruption) (all with Area of Effect of radius 10 ft,
Disruption with an Area of Effect of radius 5 ft)
Ammunition/Consumption: Grenades/1 per shot, clip size of 8.
Fire Rate: 1 shot/sec.
Reload Time: 1 second.
Projectile Speed: Medium (80)
Breakability: At durability 1.0, will have a .5% chance of breaking,
increasing linearly to a 5% chance of breaking at
durability 0.0. Loses .1 durability per shot.
Maintenance/Repair: 2/2
Repair Difficulty: 40 Nanite cost, Base Failure 75%, Base ICE 3.
Modify #1: Increases clip size (8 to 11). Damage increased by
100% for some grenades [sic].
Difficulty: Modify 1 required, 25 Nanite cost, Base Failure 75%,
Base ICE 2.
Modify #2: Increases projectil speed by 50%. Reload time reduced
by 2/3. Damage bonus increased to a total of 128%
for some grenades [sic].
Difficulty: Modify 3 required, 35 Nanite cost, Base Failure 110%,
Base ICE 4.
Assessment (5/5): This weapon rocks. It starts off strong and
keeps getting better. In addition, a 60% bonus thanks to a maxed
out Heavy Weapons skill means you completely demolish enemies with
its wide array of grenade types. In Primary Mode, grenades explode
on contact, in Secondary Mode, grenades bounce around for a while
before exploding (or arming).
However, it's very difficult to decide when to actually use it;
the ammunition, while not as rare as Prisms or Worms, is rare in
any given type. So, while you may be carrying 50 grenades, 10 might
be Frags, 10 EMP, etc. The Area of Effect also doesn't really come
into play into the later sections of the game when enemies are
more clustered.
That aside, as long as you can use the right ammo for the right job
(and unlike Standard Weapons, the normal Frag, and later Disruption
grenades are good all-purpose weapons) you will positively demolish
enemies to smithereens with the greatest of ease. Even if you don't
plan on using the Fusion Cannon, this weapon still makes it worth
getting 6 in Heavy Weapons.
NOTE: There is a glitch (in your favor) whereby the first
modification of the Grenade Launcher increases damage by 100%, not 10%.
This means, with all bonuses, a single Frag grenade can one-shot about
anything save for Rumblers. There is another glitch in which
Disruption Grenades do not get bonuses, which is in a way good for
game balance, considering the first glitch, since a fully upgraded
shot with a Disruption Grenade will one-shot anything in the game.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
5b. Stasis Field Generator [520]
Prerequisites: Heavy Weapons 3, Strength 3
Damage: Primary Mode - Stasis Freeze, Secondary Mode - Stasis Freeze
(Area of Effect of radius 10 ft).
Breakability: At durability 2.0, will have a 1% chance of breaking,
increasing linearly to a 10% chance of breaking at
durability 0.0. Loses .2 durabilty per shot.
Maintenance/Repair: 3/6
Repair Difficulty: 60 Nanite cost, Base Failure 105%, Base ICE 4.
Modify #1: Increases projectile speed by 100%.
Difficulty: Modify 2 required, 25 Nanite cost, Base Failure 90%,
Base ICE 3.
Modify #2: Reduces prism consumption by 50%.
Difficulty: Modify 4 required, 40 Nanite cost, Base Failure 115%,
Base ICE 5.
Assessment (2/5): Unlike every other weapon, this actually deals
no damage. Instead, it stuns an enemy and holds them in place for a
few seconds, giving you time to prepare another attack or just
to run away. The Secondary Mode consumes more prisms but grants an
area of effect, allowing you to freeze several enemeis in place.
There are a few times when this might be useful; highly agile
Cyborg Assassins messing with you, a group of Rumblers are chasing you
down, etc. However, more often than not, your efforts are better
spent actually attacking the enemy at hand, especially since the
hold time is not always long enough to get safely away.
In an emergency, though, it works fine. Still, prisms are suitably
rare that you need to use this only for emergencies anyhow.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
5c. Fusion Cannon [530]
Prerequisities: Heavy Weapons 6, Strength 4
Damage: Primary Mode - 20 (Area of Effect of radius 10 ft),
Secondary Mode - 30 (Area of Effect of radius 12 ft).
Breakability: At durability 2.0, will have a 1% chance of breaking,
increasing linearly to a 10% chance of breaking at
durability 0.0. Loses .2 durability per shot.
Maintenance/Repair: 3/4
Repair Difficulty: 40 Nanite cost, Base Failure 100%, Base ICE 5.
Modify #1:
Difficulty: Modify 4 required, 35 Nanite cost, Base Failure 85%,
Base ICE 4.
Modify #2:
Difficulty: Modify 6 required, 50 Nanite cost, Base Failure 115%,
Base ICE 6.
Assessment (3/5): *This* is your final weapon? Considering how much
ass the Grenade Launcher is kicking at this point, you have to
seriously wonder what role this even plays into your arsenal. The
projectiles are very slow (ridiculously slow in Secondary Mode), prisms
are uncommon, and the damage type is Energy, which means it's best
against robots.
However, this does give you an alternative weapon (ironically) to use
against groups of weaker enemies that you wouldn't find worthy of a
grenade. It's also better suited for big hulking robots than an
EMP grenade (provided you have it on Secondary Mode, and robots are
too slow to dodge even this slow of a projectile). You've got to
put those prisms to work anyhow, and I would much rather use it trying
to kill a group of Hybrids or Midwives instead of using a grenade.
=======================================================================
=======================================================================
6. Exotic Weapons [600]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Exotic Weapons are the reverse of Energy Weapons - specializing in
dealing with organic targets. This inherently makes Exotic Weapons
more powerful since organic targets are much more frequent than robotic
targets. However, more than any other weapons category, Energy Weapons
balances out any power with massive amounts of risk vs reward. At
its most powerful settings, you can easily kill yourself. Ammunition
is rare (until you learn Molecular Duplication). The projectile
weapons suffer from massive degradation per fire, break much easier,
and have painfully massive kickback (although you'll soon see kickback
doesn't matter *too* much for Exotic Weapons).
Continuing with the idea of being the reverse of Energy Weapons,
Exotic Weapons require Research (as opposed to Maintenance) to be
used at all. In fact, this is the only reason you'll ever need to take
Research up to 6 (although you can "cheat" and get it up to 5 and use
a LabAssistant implant).
Ammunition comes in the form of Worms. To get them, find
small or large beakers and drag them over a pile of worms that you
may come across, and you'll automatically get a sample of them. As
far as I can tell, no replicator sells beakers. If you're seriously
considering making extensive use of the Viral Proliferator and
Annelid Launcher, I *highly* recommend getting the Tier 3 Molecular
Duplication PSI ability, as otherwise you have no way of "purchasing"
more Worms (no Replicators sell beakers). With Molecular Duplication,
you can use it on a collection of worms you have in your inventory
to create five more worms for 120 Nanites.
DANGER: NO EXOTIC WEAPON DAMAGES SHODAN, INCLUDING THE CRYSTAL
SHARD. You *must* have an alternative weapon (be it Cryokinesis or
just a Pistol) if you want to beat the game.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
6a. Crystal Shard [610]
Prerequisites: Exotic Weapons 1, Research 4 (Yttrium)
Damage: 12 (27 with Smasher)
Damage Type: WeaponBash
Assessment (5/5): The Crystal Shard is the ultimate melee weapon.
You may think that it's only slightly better than the Laser Rapier,
and even that's under dispute since the Laser Rapier can deal double
damage to certain enemies. However, since the Crystal Shard is only
a level 1 weapon, you can get a 75% damage bonus, versus the Laser
Rapier's 30%, if you max out the Weapon Skill.
Like the wrench, the Crystal Shard works equally well against
everything, except against robots, in which case it'll do half damage.
Be warned that for some strange reason, the Crystal Shard does not
damage SHODAN. Yeah, you read that right. It does kaput.
Otherwise, the Crystal Shard is one of the best weapons you can
have. Even if you never plan on using any of the other Exotic Weapons,
with all the damage bonuses from weapons skills, the Crystal Shard
can absolutely demolish, especially when combined with a high strength
and Adrenaline Overproduction.
The Crystal Shard has a wierd quirk about it. First of all, it
technically deals only 15 damage with Smasher, but the Crystal Shard
deals both normal and Smasher damage with a Smasher attack (for a
total 27). Second of all, you get *twice* your strength damage
bonus to the Crystal Shard per swing (see endnote 1).
NOTE: The Crystal Shard has the longest range of all the non-PSI
melee weapons (roughly similar to the PSI Sword). It also has a
dramatically different sweep (it tends to hit targets dramatically
better to the left of the targetting cursor). Adjust melee strategy
accordingly.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
6b. Viral Proliferator [620]
Prerequisites: Exotic Weapons 4, Research 3 (Technetium, Tellurium)
Ammunition/Consumption: Worms/2 per shot, clip size of 8.
Fire Rate: 5 shots/sec.
Reload Time: Instantaneous
Projectile Speed: Slow (50).
Breakability: At durability 2.5, will have a 1% chance of breaking,
increasing linearly to a 10% chance of breaking at
durability 0.0. Loses .3 durability per shot.
Maintenance/Repair: 4/4
Repair Difficulty: 50 Nanite cost, Base Failure 115%, Base ICE 6.
Modify #1: Increases clip size (8 to 18). Damage increased by 10%.
Difficulty: Modify 3 required, 50 Nanite cost, Base Failure 95%,
Base ICE 5.
Modify 2: Reduces worms used per shot (2 to 1). Damage bonus
increased from 10% to a 25% bonus.
Difficulty: Modify 5 required, 75 Nanite cost, Base Failure 125%,
Base ICE 7.
Assessment (3/5): First off, the Viral Proliferator fires very
differently from all other weapons. If you just click the fire button,
it'll explode right in your face. Instead, once you press down the
fire button, you'll launch a projectile, and when you release the fire
button, the projectile will explode wherever it is.
This odd way of firing has its strengths and weaknesses. There is
no cooldown (like the EMP Rifle), so if you're on the Anti-Annelid
setting, you can fire this willy-nilly at point blank range and destroy
anything nearby. Unlike the Grenade Launcher, this precision aiming
will allow you to control exactly where you want the projectile to
explode, possibly taking out several enemies from quite a distance away
(since the projectile keeps going until you detonate it or it runs
into something). On the other hand, this form of aiming is difficult
to get the hang of, and if you do, it's ultimately a much slower way
of firing at anything at a relatively significant distance.
That aside, you load the thing up with worms (which you get by using
Beakers on those piles of worms you see everywhere). Then, you set
the setting (much like you change firing modes) to either Anti-Annelid
or Anti-Human. With the right aiming, you'll be able to demolish the
majority of enemies in the game, although really you'll be hard-pressed
to waste the precious ammo on Hybrids or Monkeys. Also, be warned that
accidentally letting an Anti-Human blast go off right near you will
almost assuredly grant instant death.
Furthermore, each shot degrades the weapon *insanely* fast. Plus,
it has a chance of breaking much earlier compared to other weapons.
In addition, the kickback is atrocious. However, if you can master
all these risks, then Spiders, Rumblers, PSI Reavers, and the like
stand no chance against you. Especially if they clump up.
Remember: Anti-Annelid will do 4x damage to anything purely
Annelid and 1x to generic organic targets. Anti-Human does the same,
except for humans, but also dealing 2x damage to partially human
targets. However, remember that you yourself are the only pure human
in the game, so watch out for that explosion. Moreover, despite their
appearances, Rumblers are actually half-human.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
6c. Annelid Launcher (aka Worm Launcher) [630]
Prerequisites: Exotic Weapons 6, Research 6 (Molybdenum, Selenium)
Damage: Primary Mode - 25 (Area of Effect of radius 7 ft), Secondary
Mode - 25 (Area of Effect of radius 5 ft).
Ammunition/Consumption: Worms/4 per shot, clip size of 8.
Fire Rate: 5 shots/sec.
Reload Time: Instantaneous
Projectile Speed: Very Slow (25).
Breakability: At durability 2.5, will have a 1% chance of breaking,
increasing linearly to a 10% chance of breaking at
durability 0.0. Loses .3 durability per shot.
Maintenance/Repair: 4/5
Repair Difficulty: 35 Nanite cost, Base Failure 110%, Base ICE 5.
Modify #1: Increases clip size (8 to 18). Damage increased by 10%.
Difficulty: Modify 2 required, 50 Nanite cost, Base Failure 95%,
Base ICE 5.
Modify #2: Increases projectile speed by 100%. Damage bonus
increased from 10% to a 25% bonus.
Difficulty: Modify 4 required, 75 Nanite cost, Base Failure 125%,
Base ICE 7.
Assessment (4/5): Holy crap! This weapon is powerful. First
off, unlike every other weapon in the game, the projectiles of this
weapon *home*. And no, you don't have some funky firing mechanism
like the Viral Proliferator. There is a cooldown, but for god's sake
it HOMES. Meaning as long as the enemy was somewhere in your sight
when you fired it, this baby will seek it out and hit it (with a
nice explosion at that). Which means you can pull off neat tricks,
especially in the Body of the Many, where you're just running past
enemies, only turning to fire off a shot, later hearing a satisying
"RAAAGHR!" as the homing projectile took out a PSI Reaver.
Look at those damage numbers. Against a pure, Annelid target,
you'll do 4x normal damage, which is a base of 100 damage. 143 with
Sharpshooter and both Modifications, and that still doesn't count the
25% bonus from researching organs. That's simply ridiculous. This
means you can one-shot all but one PSI Reaver in the game (there is a
Greater PSI Reaver, which will take 2 shots to take down).
Risk vs reward. A misfire while in Anti-Human mode guarantees death.
The weapon degrades insanely quickly and breaks very easily. The
kickback is atrocious, although you don't need to reaim too precisely
with a homing device. On the one hand, the lack of a firing
mechanism like the Viral Proliferator means you don't have as much
control over the explosion, but on the other hand you can spam willy-
nilly those *HOMING* shots. Deal with all the risks and your reward
is becoming a virtual nuclear weapon against all things organic.
WARNING: The Annelid Launcher's *massive* worm consumption rate
means not only that you should hoard worms beforehand and make
extensive use of Molecular Duplication, but also limit its use to PSI
Reavers and clusters of Rumblers. In addition, the Annelid Launcher
DOES NOT HOME on the protective nodes around the Brain of the Many,
so make sure to either have the Viral Proliferator on hand or another
backup weapon.
Note: A good strategy is to have both the Viral Proliferator and
Annelid Launcher on hand. Save the latter for insta-killing PSI
reavers and for swarms of spiders, and maybe if you're dealign with
multiple Rumblers at a time. Use the former for any other organic
target, as the Viral Proliferator is *very* efficient for its ammo use.
Also because you'll need an alternate weapon for reasons described
above.
=======================================================================
=======================================================================
7. Technical Skills [700]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
As a general rule, for tasks involving "success," each level of a
technical skill reduces the difficulty (chance of failure) by 10%,
each level of software reduces the difficulty by 10%, and each CYB
reduces the number of ICE Nodes by 1 and redues the difficulty by 5%.
Be warned: Hacking Software and any inherent Hack/CYB do *not* factor
in to the difficulty reduction when using Remote Circuitry
Manipulation.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Modify: Modify is an interesting skill in that it's usefulness
correlates completely to the number of players in a game. In a Single
Player game, there are enough French-Epstein devices that, with proper
weapon maintenance and prioritization, you will never need to pick this
skill up (for example, there's no need to modify a Pistol when you'll
eventually be getting the Assault Rifle). However, in Multiplayer
games, the number of F-E devices is split up between each player, which
reduces the number each player gets, especially when you consider
four players in a game (which translates into one F-E device per
player).
This means that in a Multiplayer game, someone is going to have to
pick this up. Likewise, it starts making Tinker a more attractive
OS upgrade since not only are Nanites more sparse since they are
effectively split between players, but also using up Nanites on
modifications is a painful sinkhole.
Repair: An interesting ability that generally is considered
worthless. On the one hand, picking this up means you can get (many)
weapons much earlier in the game, like Shotguns, Laser Pistols, or
Grenade Launchers. This also means you can repair some keypads and
Replicators, though most Replicators aren't worth the effort and most
keypads have a workaround. Unfortunately, in most cases, getting a
weapon earlier doesn't mean too much since at those points in the
game: they're not easily maintainable and well supplied with ammunition
(or in the case of the EMP Rifle, proper targets) at the time.
In addition, if you have a high maintenance, you'll never ever need
to worry about good repair.
Then again, having a good repair *will* mean you can get those
weapons early. Which is nice because getting a Fusion Cannon early
can be wonders since you've already started stocking up on prisms.
And having a good repair means you don't have to worry about the
nanite cost spent on maintenance tools, since you can just repair
anything that breaks... although it's bad if a weapon breaks in the
midst of combat (hint: keep a wrench handy). Unfortunately, you don't
get any good side effects like Maintenance, and, unlike French-
Epstein devices, Autorepair units are far more common.
Like Modify, Repair becomes more valuable in multiplayer. There are
less Nanites and less Maintenance tools to go around, so repairing
may become inevitable.
Maintenance: Very good. How high you take it is a different
issue, since only the EMP Rifle requires a Maintenance higher than a
4 to maintain. The most immediate result of having a higher
Maintenance is to increase the efficiency of your Disposable
Maintenance Tools, although this is highly subject to diminishing
returns. (Restoring a weapon's condition by 2 instead of 1 is a much
larger gain than the difference between a recovery of 6 instead of 5.)
In addition, if you have a good repair, you'll never ever need to
worry about good maintenance.
However, the secondary effect of maintenance is that it increases
the maximum Energy you can store in Implants, Powered Armor, and
Energy Weapons, equal to an extra 10 per Maintenance Level. If you
don't have Electron Cascade (a PSI ability), this GREATLY increases
the effectiveness of the very quickly draining Power Armor, reduces
the trips you have to make to a charger, and extends the efficiency
of your Portable Batteries. If you DO have Electron Cascade, it then
greatly increases the efficiency of the PSI power, although this is
highly subjected to diminishing returns as well.
The short of it, though, is that unless you go the Energy Weapons
route, it's hardly ever worth it in Hard or Impossible to go past
4.
Hacking: The most useful technical skill. Even if you somehow (by
use of Anti-Entropic Field) make a PSI Hybrid that never uses
Maintenance, unless you make a dedicated PSI or a PSI Hybrid with the
emphasis on the "PSI" part and get Remote Circuitry Manipulation,
you probably will want to get this.
True, you don't *need* it. There is a game-crucial moment when you
need to Hack, but there are ICE Picks for that. And despite the
niceness of loot in security crates, you can use an ICE Pick on the
occasional high security crate if you so choose.
However, being able to disable security (level 1), hack ubiquitous
mundane security crates (level 2), replicators (level 3), and turrets
of all sorts (level 4) brings about a level of advantage that cannot
be disputed. There are many builds that can live without it, but
why would you? Even just a Hacking of 4 is relatively affordable on
non-Impossible difficulties and it adds so much to your survivability
that it's too hard to deny.
As for a Hack of 6, the only two things in the game that require
a Hack of 6 are High Security Crates and your MFD Player. There aren't
too many High Security Crates, but their loot is downright sweet.
If you can't afford it, then you can probably stop safely at Hack 4,
although you miss out on the extra 20% chance of success.
Do note that if you hack a turret that is right next to another,
both will immediately open and fire at each other, even if security is
disabled. If you want and are able, you can toss a Hazard Suit in
between them (doesn't work for Laser Turrets Mk II due to their
ceiling placement) so that you can hack the other turret in the mean
time, since the Hazard Suit is large enough to block fire.
Hacking your MFD player will make available all games and give
you a very nice start in Overworld Zero: you'll begin the game
with a Potion and a Spell (click on the star and in a direction, and
you'll fire a very powerful weapon, just remember that it's single-
use).
Hacking becomes much more effective in Impossible as there is a huge
disparity between how high unhacked Replicator prices are and how low
hacked Replicator prices are. For example, a Med hypo costs 60
unhacked, 30 hacked. A PSI hypo costs 150 unhacked, 80 hacked.
The difference is phenomenal.
Research: A very nice technical skill. At the very least, you're
required to have level 1 Research, although there is an implant
that accomplishes that. Researching organs is very nice since it
yields you a 25% damage bonus with any weapon, PSI or not, to them.
However, if you just consider that, there's hardly a reason to go
past 3. You'll already be able to research every organ, the PSI
booster, and the two Annelid Organs. Why would you want to go past?
Well, if you're into Exotic Weapons and funky Implants. Other than
that, it's hardly justifiable.
=======================================================================
Psycho-reflective Screen: Gives you 15% damage reduction for 20
seconds plus 30 seconds per PSI.
Analysis: The damage reduction is so negligible that most of the
time it just ends up being a rounding error. Moreover, the duration
is so short that the only time you'll set this up is right before a
fight. That time is better spent actually dealing damage.
NOTE: All PSI armors (Psycho-reflective Screen, Energy Reflection,
PSycho-reflective Aura) stack with each other and with normal armor.
Score: 1/5
Neuro-reflex Dampening: Eliminates all weapon kickback for 1 minute
plus 20 seconds per PSI.
Analysis: It's not that hard to deal with kickback, and sufficient
Agility deals with that anyway. Furthermore, only Standard and Exotic
Weapons are affected by kickback, and only Exotic weapons have a
truly severe kickback problem. Then again, full-auto Assault Rifle
with this enabled is quite vicious.
Score: 1/5
Kinetic Redirection: Pulls an object toward you for 1 second per
PSI.
Analysis:A useful ability since you can get it for free for training.
If you can get it for free (going OSA path), get it. Otherwise,
not worth it. There are a few places you can use it to great extent,
but nothing you'll ever absolutely need.
Note that if you ever see cyber modules seemingly out of reach,
you will always be able to reach it somehow; you can't use Kinetic
Redirection to grab cyber modules from afar.
Score: 3/5
Psychogenic Agility: Increases your Agility by 2 for 2 minutes plus
1 minute per PSI.
Analysis: A *very* great ability. This is an essential Tier 1
ability, and you should have it active at all times. It will
increase your movement speed significantly and has the side effect of
reducing damage from running into things or falling.
Score: 5/5
Psychogenic Cyber-Affinity: Increases your Cybernetic Affinity by
2 for 2 minutes plus 1 minute per PSI.
Analysis: If you plan on getting Hacking or any other technical
skill (which is almost a necessary unless you're scrimping and getting
Remote Circuitry Manipulation at Tier 4), this is a very, very important
skill, reducing your ICE node exposure andimproving your success rate.
However, this isn't an ability you need to keep on all the time like
Agility, just right before a technical task.
Score: 4/5
Projected Cryokinesis: Launches a projectile that deals Cold damage
equal to 3 + PSI.
Projectile Speed: Medium
Analysis: If you don't start off with OSA, it's almost pointless
since whatever weapon you pick up (and you can always pick up a Pistol
since non-OSA paths start off with Standard Weapons 1) is most likely
more efficient and more effective than this. However, for PSI users,
this is an essential ability, ranging from taking out cameras,
detonating robots and turrets, and taking out eggs from a safe
distance. It is also the most efficient PSI damage power you'll get,
all things being equal.
Just for comparison to the other PSI damage powers, with PSI 8,
you'll do 11 damage per PSI point. Note that this PSI damage is the
only one capable of hurting fully Mechanical enemies, at full strength
too!
Score: 1/5 (non-PSI), 4/5 (PSI)
Projectile Speed: Medium
Remote Electron Tampering: Reduces security alarm timers by 5
seconds plus another 5 seconds per PSI.
Analysis: A very bad ability. You should either not be setting off
alarms, or you should be able to find Security Consoles with enough
ease that you can disable alarms faster than this ability can do it.
Score: 0/5
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
8b. Tier 2 [820]
*Learning Tier 2 grants you 4 bonus PSI Points.*
Anti-Entropic field: Weapons do not degrade or break for 10 seconds
plus 20 seconds per PSI.
Analysis: Hardly worth the modules. Maintenance/Repair will take
care of any problems, and only Exotic Weapons degrade so much that you
may even begin to consider to use it as a pre-combat buff. If the
duration lasted much, much longer, then it might be worth it.
Score: 0/5
Adrenaline Overproduction: Increases melee damage by a factor (that
is, multiplied by) a number based on current PSI:
PSI Damage Factor
1 1.13
2 1.52
3 2.17
4 3.08
5 4.25
6 5.65
7 7.37
8 9.32
The effect lasts for 10 seconds per PSI (see Endnote 1).
Analysis: A *very* good ability. On Easy or Normal, a Melee-based
character can tear through the biggest enemies in two to three swipes
with sufficient PSI. On Hard/Impossible, melee-ing will become such a
primary tool that this becomes a very valuable ability.
Note that the damage multiplication is based on *current* PSI, so
overloading has no effect on the damage multiplication (other than
a longer duration). Thus, the only way to get up to an effective PSI
of 8 is by having a PSI of 6 and having both an implant and a booster or
Wormskin armor. Or by having a PSI of 4-5 and having all of the above.
Score: 4/5
Neural Decontamination: Radiation absorption reduced by 80%. Lasts
10 seconds plus 5 seconds per PSI.
Analysis: There are enough anti-rad and anti-toxin hypos that you'll
never need this. If, however, you're playing multiplayer, then there
aren't enough Hazard Suits to go around, so you might want to consider
this.
Score: 0/5 (Single player), 1/5 (Multi-player)
Cerebro-Stimulated Regeneration: Heals 2 Health per PSI.
Analysis: Very effective healing. PSI hypos can equal several
med hypos, however, this is too slow to use in extended battles
effectively, so it's mainly good for post-battle healing. Or, in a
pinch, ducking around a corner and popping off a heal against a slow,
lumberingly huge enemy (like a Security Bot).
Cerebro-Stimulated Regeneration is one of few PSI abilities that
count a PSI higher than 8 (up to a total of PSI 10).
Score: 5/5
Psychogenic Strength: Increases Strength by 2 for 2 minutes plus 1
minute per PSI.
Analysis: Not nearly as good as Adrenaline Overproduction, and
unlike Agility, it's not nearly worth the investment or the PSI points
to keep it up.
Score: 2/5
Recursive Psionic Amplification: Increases your PSI by 2, but
doubles the PSI Point costs of all abilities. Lasts 10 seconds plus
10 seconds per PSI.
Analysis: On Easy or Normal, this greatly increases your killing
power. On Hard or Normal, this greatly reduces your efficiency, which
matters alot more.
Score: 2/5
Localised Pyrokinesis: Deals 5 Incendiary damage every two seconds
for 15 seconds plus 8 seconds per PSI. Also grants immunity to
Incendiary damage for the duration of the effect.
Analysis: The damage it deals is far too slow for anything higher
than Normal difficulty, although if you have the cybernetic modules to
spend, you can combine this with Photonic Redirection (use this first)
to deal damage invisibly. Very useful in high-clustered areas such as
the Body of the Many.
NOTE: A quirk about this power is that it also bestows immunity to
Incendiary damage for its duration. Incendiary damage is rare, but it
shows up in the form of exploding robots (Protocol Droids and other
robots as they die). Also, do note that this is *the* most efficient
PSI damage ability in the game, provided a good number of "hits"
actually hit an enemy. Unfortunately, melee builds would be better
off with Adrenaline Overproduction, and non-melee builds have better,
less-risky ways to deal with enemies than this slow ability.
Score: 4/5 (Easy or Normal), 1/5 (Hard or Impossible)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
8c. Tier 3 [830]
*Learning Tier 3 grants you 6 bonus PSI Points.*
Molecular Duplication: Has a 30% + 10% per PSI chance of duplicating
a non-PSI hypo or clip of ammunition for some Nanite cost.
Analysis: A *very* strong ability, getting even stronger on Hard and
Impossible difficulties. It duplicates ammo and hypos (except for PSI
hypos) equal to the cost of a hacked replicator on *Normal* difficulty,
meaning massive discounts for Hard and Impossible difficulties. You
can also duplicate things you couldn't normally buy at a Replicator,
specifically PSI Boosters (20 Nanites) and Beakers filled with Worms
(120 Nanites for a clip of five). In fact, for pursuing an Exotic
Weapons path, this ability is almost required.
Keep in mind, though, that you should factor in the cost of the PSI
Hypo you're goign to have to buy to refill your PSI points. Since this
ability costs 3 PSI Points per shot, you should either increase the cost
of anything you buy by 3/20 (without Pharmo-Friendly, 1/8 with) of the
cost of a PSI Hypo at a replicator. If you don't have Hack on Normal,
or if you're just on Hard or Impossible, it's still a really good deal.
Score: 5/5
Electron Cascade: Recharges 20 per PSI units of charge to an energy-
based item (implants, energy weapons, and power armor).
Analysis: A *very* strong ability, even stronger if you plan on
pursuing Energy Weapons. Even if you don't, this ensures your implants
and Power Armor will always stay charged at full power. Increased
Maintenance will help increase the efficiency of this ability by
increasing the maximum capacity of your Energy-based stuff.
Score: 5/5
Energy Reflection: Grants 50% Energy damage immunity for 20 seconds
per PSI.
Analysis: Not that great except on Easy or Normal difficulty.
NOTE: All PSI armors (Psycho-reflective Screen, Energy Reflection,
PSycho-reflective Aura) stack with each other and with normal armor.
Score: 2/5
Neural Toxin-Blocker: Grants 100% Toxin immunity for 10 seconds
plus 5 seconds per PSI.
Analysis: Unless you're having alot of trouble avoiding getting
infected by eggs or Spiders, this is completely useless.
Score: 1/5
Enhanced Motion Sensitivity: Shows the location of all nearby
creatures for 30 seconds per PSI.
Analysis: Marginally useful, a bit more useful in combination
with Proximity Grenades or External Psionic Detonation so that you
know when to set traps without having to rely on hearing the enemy
a few seconds in advance.
Score: 1/5
Projected Pyrokinesis: Launches a projectile that deals Incendiary
damage equal to 5 + 2 per PSI.
Projectile Speed: Medium.
Analysis: A really good weapon for a dedicated PSI user. It deals
double damage to purely organic creatures and half-organic creatures,
so the fact that it does nil to purely robotic and half to half-robotic
(different from half-organic), which are far rarer, makes this quite
devastating.
Keep in mind that on a damage/PSI Point basis, on a general level,
Projected Cryokinesis is far more efficient. However, there are so
many enemies against which Projected Pyrokinesis does double damage
that in reality, Projected Pyrokinesis is more efficient. However,
this is like using the proper ammo for the job. It'd be very dumb
to use Pyrokinesis against a Camera or even a Cyborg Assassin.
Although, even if Cryokinesis is more efficient, Pyrokinesis deals
its damage so much absurdly faster that it makes up for its
efficiency loss by giving you effective healing by not giving
enemies the chance to hurt you as much, if any.
All else considered, however, this is nigh-useless for non-PSI
users. Furthermore, Adrenaline Overproduction is much more effective
when you can Melee safely anyway. Always use the right PSI power for
the right situation. Given the right situation, though, this shines.
For reference sake, with PSI 8, this will do 7 damage per PSI Point,
although this climbs to 14 damage per PSI Point against Annelids and
Half-Annelids.
Score: 0/5 (non-PSI users), 5/5 (PSI users)
Psionic Hypnogenesis: Target partially organic creature is
pacified for 20 seconds per PSI. If the target is damaged, it will
prematurely end the effect.
Projectile Speed: Slow.
Analysis: Surprisingly amazing, especially for higher difficulties.
Enemies respawn anyway (sometimes at insane rates), and at Hard and
Impossible, they don't drop items nearly as often, so it's not a very
good use of your resources to keep on fighting the respawns,
especially when you're dealing with Rumbler respawns. So, for 3 PSI
Points, you can effectively "win" fights against Rumblers or even
minor, yet annoying, enemies.
Also, in fights involving multiple tough organic enemies, this gives
you crowd control; ie two Rumblers against you is tough, but reducing
it to one Rumber at a time makes the battle much more manageable. In
addition, using this to hold a Cyborg Assassin in place while you get
off a good attack can be very vital. Just be careful about the slow
speed of the projectile.
Score: 5/5
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
8d. Tier 4 [840]
*Learning Tier 4 grants you 8 bonus PSI Points.*
Photonic Redirection: Makes you invisible for 5 seconds plus 5
seconds per PSI. Activating a PSI ability or using a weapon will
prematurely end the effect.
Analysis: Incredibly powerful, for the same reason as Psionic
Hypnogenesis, especially in the last few levels where enemies are
incredibly dense. For 4 PSI Points, you effectively "win" the next
few battles. If you have the cybernetic modules to spare, you can use
Localized Pyrokinesis in advance and run around and damage enemies
while still invisible.
For Hard and Impossible difficulties, it's almost definitely worth
just getting PSI to get this ability, as this is a HUGE life and time
saver in areas like the Body of the Many.
Note: It's rare, but it happens, but spiders seem occasionally
capable of still seeking you out while invisible. In addition,
some of those capable of still seeking you out are still capable of
attacking you. It only tends to happen if you were at any point
not invisible while you were in their sight and then went invisible.
Score: 5/5
Remote Pattern Detection: Shows the location of many different
items, like nanites, ammos, hypos, and implants. Lasts 1 minute per
PSI.
There is a very similar effect to this PSI ability - having played
the game once before. Memory (or a good strategy guide) is more
effective than spending cyber modules on this.
Score: 0/5
Electron Suppression: Disables a purely robotic target for 3
seconds per PSI.
Projectile Speed: Slow.
Analysis: Only really useful if you're heavily PSI and need to buy
yourself some time (since robotic creations are the hardest with
which for PSI users to deal). Note that unlike Psionic Hypnogenesis,
hitting the robot won't make them "wake up," so this is as much free
damage as you can squeeze in.
Score: 2/5 (Non-dedicated PSI users), 4/5 or 5/5 (Depending on how
completely you dedicate to just PSI)
Psychogenic Endurance: Increases your Endurance by 2 for 2 minutes
plus 1 minute per PSI.
Quite nice. When it wears off, you'll lose the extra hitpoints
you gained to begin with, but you won't be dropped below 1 HP.
However, unlike Tank (the OS upgrade) it doesn't scale effectively with
difficulty. While it helps no matter what, it's still only a small
gain on Hard or Impossible. Just hope it doesn't wear off in the
middle of a tough fight.
Note that because you can never be dropped below 1 HP when this
ability wears off, this effectively gives you some "buffer" health.
If you used this on Hard, for example, there is no difference between
having 1 health and 7 health, since when this wears off you go
straight down to 1 health anyway, so it's health you don't have to
worry about.
Score: 4/5
Molecular Transmutation: Lets you turn a clip of ammo or a single
hypo into Nanites. The yield is an equation based on your PSI, the
size of the ammo clip that you're transmuting, and a factor based
on the item itself.
Analysis: In some case more effective than the Recycler you pick up,
but the "profitability" of it decreases as difficulty increases since
PSI hypos (which are your fixed costs) increase in cost. In most
cases the Recycler is more profitable, but some things (especially
Grenades and Prisms) are immensely profitable targets for Molecular
Transmutation (see the Appendix for a more thorough analysis).
NOTE: Because your nanite yield depends *heavily* on your PSI stat,
boost it up as far as you can before transmuting things. In addition,
this is one of few abilities that count PSI past 8 (up to a total of
10 PSI).
Score: 4/5 (Easy or Normal), 2/5 (Hard or Impossible)
Cerebro-Energetic Extension: Turns your PSI Amp into a powerful
melee weapon (18 Standard damage, 24 with Smasher upgrade). Lasts
10 seconds per PSI. While it's active, however, you cannot use
PSI abilities.
Analysis: It's quite a weapon, but if you want to use Adrenaline
Overproduction (since there are no other ways to boost the damage,
since the PSI Blade doesn't fall into a weapon category to be
upgraded), you have to use it before you use this.
Keep in mind that a fully upgraded Crystal Shard or Laser Rapier
(against a robotic or semi-robotic enemy) is far more damaging than
this. Then again, this costs a lot less, cyber-module wise, then
having to pick up the appropriate weapons (and in the case of the
shard, research) skill. In addition, unlike the Crystal Shard or
the Wrench, the PSI Sword will actually damage SHODAN, at full
strength.
Score: 3/5
Remote Circuitry Manipulation: Lets you Hack using half your PSI
stat, rounding up, for both your Hack skill and your Cybernetic
Affinity stat. Nanite costs are instead taken from PSI. Hacking
modifications (software, OS upgrade, any inherent Hacking stat) are
ignored. The same is true for Cybernetic Affinity
Analysis: Only useful if you're heavily PSI-dedicated. True for
two reasons - a) you need an INCREDIBLY high PSI for this to be
remotely useful b) if you aren't heavily PSI dedicated, you should
already have Hacking anyway. Even though you only use half your
PSI as your Cyber Affinity and Hack, it is possible to hack at a
Hack level of 5 by getting yourself an effective PSI of atleast 9.
This is one of few PSI abilities that actually count a PSI score
higher than 8 (up to a total of 10 PSI).
With the right plan, even on Hard, you should be able to get this
early enough to make good use of it. On Impossible, though, this
becomes an expensive Nanite sink, since it'll eat up your PSI points
like nothing else and PSI hypos are not cheaply obtainable by Molecular
Duplication. Nevertheless, dedicated PSI users should definitely go
for this, simply because the payoff of being able to hack is so great.
Since Remote Circuitry Manipulation is a PSI ability, it has the
nice side effect of giving you range; this means you can Hack things
from a distance, as long as you're aiming correctly. Being able to
hack a turret from down the hall is very nice; you can be behind a
pillar, lean to the side, quickly activate this ability, and lean back
behind the pillar and still be able to hack the turret. In some cases,
you can hack directly through walls and windows. Just be warned that
while you have range, it isn't *that* long of a range.
Note that on Impossible, your PSI will probably be much lower, and
therefore even the most basic hacking tasks will be extraordinarily
hard to accomplish.
Score: 0/5 (Non-PSI users), 5/5 (Dedicated PSI users)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
8e. Tier 5 [850]
*Learning Tier 5 grants you 10 bonus PSI Points.*
NOTE: Tier 5 is almost out of affordability for Hard and
Impossible difficulties, so this is really for consideration for
Easy and Normal. You can, if you want, afford these nonetheless with
a completely dedicated PSI approach, although be prepared to make
significant sacrifices in other areas, especially on Impossible.
But some of these powers are just so powerful as to be worth it.
Advanced Cerebro-Stimulated Regeneration: Heals 5 Health plus
an additional 5 Health per PSI.
Analysis: Ridiculously fast healing, but incredibly inefficient.
In addition, even on Normal difficulty, this will still generally heal
in excess of the amount of health you actually have. This is best for
emergency heals on Normal and Easy.
Advanced Cerebro-Stimulated Regeneration is one of few abilities
that count a PSI higher than 8 (up to a total of 10 PSI).
Score: 2/5
Soma Transference: Transfers 10 Health from target partially
organic creature to yourself, plus an additional 5 per PSI over 5.
Analysis: Ridiculously amazing. Only damages organic
creatures, but when it does work, you will never die. Although,
honestly, on any real difficulty (Hard or Impossible) you should be
good at avoiding damage that this isn't THAT powerful. But then
again, just one use is generally enough to fully heal yourself at
the expense of the enemy on these higher difficulties. However,
this is the least efficient damage ability in your disposal...
although it may just be a price to pay for virtual immortality.
NOTE: Soma Transference allows you to bypass a Metacreative
Barrier, which allows for some combo opportunities. It also lets
you strike the Brain of the Many without having to destroy the
protective stars.
Score: 4/5
Instantaneous Quantum Relocation: When used, sets a teleporation
marker. If used again, transports you to that marker and clears it.
Press ALT-T to clear an existing transportation marker.
Analysis: I find it very difficult to find a use for this. I
can't! You can do some neat party tricks, such as killing yourself
on the tram in the Rickenbacker, or messing with the last monologue,
but otherwise useless.
If there was a PvP multiplayer option, though, this would be an
amazing ability. Maybe if you and a friend want to duke it out in
Med/Sci or something, this would be a very strong escape ability.
Score: 0/5
Imposed Neural Restructuring: Target non-robotic creature becomes
hostile against all non-human creatures. Lasts for 10 seconds per
PSI or until damaged by a human.
Projectile Speed: Medium.
Analysis: Ridiculously useful for multi-Rumbler fights, but on
some enemies, it's just not PSI-efficient. Rumblers, Spiders, and
Cyborgs are good targets for this (just make sure they're not alone
as otherwise it's a waste).
Remember that unaffected enemies still view you (the player) as
a relatively high priority, so they may still go after you if they
were already attacking you to begin with, even while being attacked
by their former allies.
Score: 4/5
Metacreative Barrier: Creates a wall that has 150 Health plus an
additional 50 per PSI over 5. The wall lasts for 4 minutes or until
destroyed.
Analysis: If you're about to die and need to buy some healing time,
you can try to quickly erect a wall to block out an enemy. Other than
that, it's not terribly useful. You can try to use it to avoid
combat, but Psionic Hypnogenesis or Photonic Redirection are far more
useful and the enemy has a much greater ability of remembering that
it's out to get you when you use the Barrier.
NOTE: You can use Soma Transference through a Metacreative Barrier,
but doing this costs so many PSI points its rarely worth it. Plus,
Soma Transference already essentially gives you immortality, what more
do you need? In addition, Metacreative Barrier is one of few abilities
that count PSI past 8 (up to a total of 10 PSI).
Score: 2/5
External Psionic Detonation: Creates a PSI proximity mine that will
explode for area of effect damage of type PSI equal to 30 when anything
comes within range. The mines last for 4 minutes.
Analysis: Deals double damage to Spiders and the PSI Reavers, but
otherwise it's terribly inefficient for not that much faster killing
power over Projected Pyrokinesis. Still, setting up a few of these and
instantly killing a Rumbler is a great, safe way to end a fight.
It's strength, however, lies in its Area of Effect. Even doing
double damage to a single spider means that Pyrokinesis will still be
more PSI effective. However, two or more spiders means that you'll be
doing way more damage per PSI.
For reference sake, the damage dealt is independent of PSI; a flat
30. This means that regardless of PSI, you'll do 6 damage per PSI
(per adversary in area of effect). Against Annelids, this is 12
damage per PSI. This is also the only PSI damage ability that deals
full damage to Half-Mechanical creatures (Midwives/Cyborgs);
Cryokinesis and Pyrokinesis both do half damage. So, for this ability
to be PSI-efficient, you should be attacking either Half-Mechanical
creatures, more than one Spider/PSI reaver at once, or more than three
Half-Annelid creatures (like Hybrids) at once.
Score: 3/5
Psycho-Reflective Aura: Grants 60% damage reduction for 10 seconds
plus 20 seconds per PSI.
Analysis: A bit ironic. It's use is best for Hard and Impossible
when this damage reduction is sorely needed, but it's hard to afford
for Hard and impossible to afford on Impossible (atleast without
sacrificing many skills and abilities). But then again, the damage
reduction is MASSIVE. Even with just wearing Light Combat Armor or
Worm Skin Armor, combined with this, SHODAN will deal almost negligible
damage to you.
NOTE: All PSI armors (Psycho-reflective Screen, Energy Reflection,
PSycho-reflective Aura) stack with each other and with normal armor.
Score: 4/5
=======================================================================
=======================================================================
9. OS Upgrades [900]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Strong Metabolism: Damage from radiation and toxins reduced by 25%
This ability is nearly useless. Unless you're a complete moron,
the occasional anti-toxin hypo/anti-rad hypo should be more than
enough to deal with any problems you may have.
Score: 0/5
Pharmo Friendly: Extra 20% benefit from all hypos
One of the strongest abilities you can get, although more so for
strong (but not dedicated) PSI users. On Hard and Impossible, this
squeezes so much efficiency out of every hypo that it's almost a
necessary. Med Hypos will heal 12 Health (2 per second) and
PSI Hypos will heal 24 PSI Points. Those extra points go a long
way.
You may think that this essentialy means that Hypos simply cost
16.67% less at replicators, due to increased efficiency. Because of
this, this may seem worse than Replicator Expert, since that gives
you a 20% discount on everything. However, a huge percentage (in
fact, sometimes a majority) of the hypos you have are *found* not
*bought*, as such, you are actually saving even more Nanites by
not having to need a Replicator as much.
PSI users will probably get the most out of this since other
character types have other ways of healing aside from just
Med Hypos. However, completely dedicated PSI users will probably
be better off Replicator Expert as you'll just simply be buying
SO MANY PSI Hypos than you'll be finding.
Score: 5/5
Pack Rat: 3 extra inventory slots
Useless if you plan on maxing out Strength or plan on getting
5 Strength and using a BrawnBooster Implant. It may be useful on
Hard or Impossible when you need to squeeze every cyber module
and still need inventory space, but honestly you should be able
to manage your inventory decently.
Score: 1/5
Speedy: Movement speed increased by 15%
Quite nice for strafing attacks, for speeding through levels, and
for ducking in and out of safe spots. Not game-breakingly amazing,
but far from useless.
Score: 3/5
Sharpshooter: Ranged, non-psionic weapons do 15% more damage
Very nice. One of the strongest upgrades, although only if you
actually pursue decently into ranged weapons. Although, on
Impossible difficulty, you'll be doing so much of your work via melee
attacks, that you may be better off with melee upgrades.
Score: 4/5
Naturally Able: 8 extra cybermodules
HORRIBLE. The amount this upgrade gives you is less than 1% of the
total amount in the entire game. Very small. On low difficulties,
abilities cost so dirt cheap that you don't need it. On high
difficulties, you need to be so efficient with your upgrades that this
has no place in your character development.
In my opinion, they should have made this upgrade scale with when
you take it up. If it's your first, it yields 8, if it's second it
yields 16, if it's third it yields 32, and if it's fourth it yields
64. Maybe then it has late-game use.
Score: 0/5
Cybernetically Enhanced: Allows use of two implants at same time
An amazing ability. You can't stack the two same implants at once,
but stacking a BrawnBoost and an EndurBoost is nice. This ability is
made even more amazing if you have good Maintenance.
Almost any character plan can be made better by adding this
upgrade. This one is a must.
Score: 5/5
Tank: Increases maximum HP by 5
An upgrade that actually scales in effectiveness with difficulty.
On Easy or Normal, Endurance is dirt cheap to increase and yields
more than 5 HP per point. On Hard or Impossible, Endurance becomes
far harder to afford and yields much smaller returns. On Hard and
Impossible, this upgrade reflects a larger percentage of your HP
so that this becomes a better upgrade as the game gets harder.
Score: 2/5 (Easy/Normal), 4/5 (Hard/Impossible)
Lethal Weapon: Increases hand-to-hand damage by 35%
On Easy or Normal, this is an excellent upgrade if you choose to
pursue a Melee-based character, although poor otherwise. On Hard or
Impossible, this becomes much more important as more of your fighting
takes place with a Wrench or the Laser Rapier. In some cases, this
might be better of a choice than Sharpshooter, even without pursuing
a Melee-based character.
In any case, always take Lethal Weapon before Smasher. It's
slightly more effective in damage and is faster to execute. If you
do take this on Hard or Impossible without dedicating to a Melee
path, make this your first upgrade so you get the most out of it.
Score: 4/5
Security Expert: +2 hacking skill applied only to security computers
If you're a hardcore hacker, you don't need this at all. If you're
a full PSI hacker (using the 4th tier ability), this won't help you
at all. This is useful, however, if you're splashing a bit of Hacking.
Nevertheless, there are generally better choices.
Score: 2/5
Smasher: You can execute overhand attacks with melee weapons
As you prepare to swing your melee weapon, if you keep the attack
button held down, you'll lift the weapon upwards and swing down.
You'll do the second damage listed for each melee weapon (which
is slightly less than the 35% you can get from Lethal Weapon). If
you're doing a Melee-based character, this is a must. Otherwise,
this is a pretty specialized upgrade.
On a side note, the Smasher changes your plane of attack (vertical
instead of horizontal). This changes the angle of your attack, so it
might be harder to aim at first, but it's easy to get the hang of it.
Stacking Smasher and Lethal Weapon is vicious.
NOTE: Because of the Crystal Shard's odd Smasher damage glitch, if
it's worth getting Smasher as quickly as you can if you plan on going
all out Crystal Shard melee. You should still get Lethal Weapon first
since you'll be meleeing with the Wrench for quite a while before the
first Crystal Shard.
Score: 1/5 (but 5/5 if you're Melee-based)
Cyber Assimilation: Can find items off destroyed robots that heal 15 HP
A very nice upgrade. Unfortunately, it doesn't work off Protocol
Droids. This gives you a way to get free healing after fighting tough
enemies. However, on Hard or Impossible, you should be avoiding getting
hit as much as possible, so you may find better options.
Then again, fighting Security Bots and Assault Bots are viciously
hard to do with just a Wrench, and being assured of a healing item
when many (on Hard) or most (on Impossible) monsters drop absolutely
nothing is quite nice.
Score: 3/5
Replicator Expert: Replicator items cost 20% less
A VERY useful upgrade. If you're going to get this, get this as
early as possible so you can save as much Nanites as possible. This
is perhaps most useful on Hard or Impossible when replicator items
cost more.
Score: 5/5
Power Psi: Burnout no longer damages you
Burnout is rarely a problem. It's only useful if you use Tier 4/5
powers, which charge up very quickly and may be hard to use without
burnout. However, this limits its use to Easy and Normal, since
Tier 5 is almost out of reach of Hard and Impossible affordability.
However, if you're going for a completely dedicated PSI approach,
this ability will probably become much more valuable, as not only
will you be able to afford Tier 4/5 abilities, but you will also
probably spend alot of time burning out on Tier 5 abilities (as the
timing is dramatically shorter than Tier 4 abilities). Burning out
on just one Tier 5 ability is *very* bad for your health on Hard or
Impossible.
Score: 2/5, 4/5 (for completely dedicated PSI users)
Tinker: Nanite cost for weapon modification down by 50%
In Single Player, there are enough French-Epstein Devices that,
with careful planning, you never actually need to do modifications.
In Multiplayer, there aren't enough F-E Devices to go around,
and someone will actually have to pick up Modify. In the process,
it becomes effective to modify weapons whenever possible to get
immediate benefit. With that regard, Tinker becomes a better
deal the more players involved (especially since Nanites get split
amongst the players).
Score: 0/5 (Single Player), x/5 (Multiplayer, where x is
the number of players involved)
Spatially Aware: Automap always filled in for every level
Completely useless. Seeing the entire map is rarely useful, and
having a good memory or a good walkthrough is better than wasting an
OS upgrade.
Score: 0/5
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Since you're only allowed to have four OS upgrades, these are some of
my recommended paths to take to get best use out of your upgrades
(listed in order to take). Remember, just because I like these paths
doesn't mean they'll necessarily work for you.
Melee-based: Lethal Weapon, Smasher, Cybernetically Enhanced, Speedy
PSI-based: Pharmo Friendly, Replicator Expert, Cybernetically
Enhanced, Speedy (Hard/Impossible) or Power Psi (Easy/Normal)
Hard Difficulty Psi-Hybrid: Lethal Weapon, Pharmo Friendly,
Cybernetically Enhanced, Tank
Impossible Difficulty: Lethal Weapon, Replicator Expert,
Cybernetically Enhanced, Tank
=======================================================================
=======================================================================
10. Researchable Things [A00]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
High-level researchable things deserve their own category simply
because they involve risk vs reward; instead of giving you a flat stat
or ability bonus, they give you quirky perks.
Annelid Armor: Requires Research 3, Technetium and Hassium
Provides +20% damage reduction, +2 PSI, and 30% toxin/radiation
resistance. Has no stat requirements other than the research,
although it will constantly drain away your PSI while using it.
One the one hand, this essentially gives you free overload on all
your PSI abilities (since most PSI abilities tend to get capped
at 8, so at a PSI of 6, just rapidly activating PSI with this on
still gives you a benefit of 8). On the other hand, it gives you
only as much defense as Light Armor and also constantly (if slowly)
drains away the precious resource for any PSI user - PSI.
On Hard or less, this drain and low defense is negligible.
The drain is slow, and you can afford more PSI hypos with relative
ease. In addition, you have enough health to survive huge attacks.
On Impossible, having only 20% damage reduction at such late points
in the game is near-suicidal and PSI hypos are prohibitively
expensive. But then again, instantly overloading your PSI abilities
(and removing the need for PSI boosters and PSI implants in most
cases) is really just that nice.
Note: the drain rate is about 1 PSI Point per 30 seconds.
Availability: First on the Rickenbacker.
WormBlood: Requires Research 4, Copper
There's absolutely no reason why you have to keep this installed.
If you see a pile of worms, just swap out the implant and use it.
It's always nice to have another way to heal, so if you're already
building up Research for some reason (maybe Exotic Weapons), there's
no reason to not research it and leave it in your inventory.
Availability: First on the Research deck.
WormMind Implant: Requires Research 3, Cesium
This is essentially a further 25% damage reduction after armor
effects have already been calculated. For a non-PSI user, this
will translate into an actual 12.5% additional damaage reduction
when using Power Armor, for a total of 62.5%.
However, for those wanting something more durable and consistent
than Power Armor, this effectiveness varies. For dedicated PSI
users stuck with Light Armor, this essentially means upgrading
to Heavy Armor for free. For those stuck on Medium Armor, it means
upgrading to a slightly weaker Power Armor for free (47.5% damage
reduction). For those using Heavy Armor, it means a slightly better
version of Power Armor (55% damage reduction).
If you don't use PSI at all, this is an excellent implant because
it puts your PSI Points and PSI hypos to use. If you are a PSI
user, your PSI Points are more effectively used by Cerebro-
Stimulated Regeneration, or even by Advanced Cerebro-Stimulated
Regeneration.
Availability: First on the Operations deck.
WormHeart Implant: Requires Research 5, Cesium and Hassium
This gets a lot of undeserved bad press. Toxin immunity isn't
something to write home about, but it's something. However,
healing 1 HP every 30 seconds is huge. Free healing, although it's
best for Hard or Impossible when this 1 HP reflects a much larger
percentage of your health pool, is always amazing. If you're already
getting up to Research 4 for some reason, you can just tack on a
LabAssistant and get this researched and put it to good use.
Just remember. Taking this off or letting it run out of charge
will inject alot of bad toxins into your blood. Either monitor the
charge or have some anti-toxin hypos handy.
Availability: First on the Command deck.
=======================================================================
=======================================================================
11. OSA on Impossible Difficulty [B00]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This deserves special mention. This is not a partial-OSA approach,
this is a completely dedicated PSI approach on Impossible difficulty.
If you don't think that's hard, go ahead and try it. I'll wait.
Back so soon? You've got many things working against you. Your
wrenching is already less effective than a Navy's or Marine's (no
starting Standard Weapons skill), and you're not going to be spending
anything to improve it (save for one OS upgrade). All your offense and
utility will come from a Hypo that's ridiculously expensive and much,
much less common than even a Prism.
This section is aimed at making clear alot of things you need to
know about any PSI-related approach on Impossible. You can generalize
some of this to other difficulties and other PSI-based builds as there
is alot of useful PSI-related information here.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
11a. A Word on PSI Hypos [B10]
PSI Hypos are your life. If you run out, you die. Well, maybe not
early on, where you can just Wrench your way through life, but you
have no chance in hell of just Wrenching your way through the Ricken-
backer. You *may* find an Annelid PSI Organ (fully recovers PSI),
which you must HOARD. Using one when you only have around 30 total
PSI Points is a waste. You should save it until you have maxed out
your PSI stat and achieved access to *all* tiers for a total of 61
PSI and only when you've completely run out. Of course, on Impossible
difficulty, each Annelid Egg (that is capable of being searched like
a crate) has only a 1.25% chance of yielding one. Which means you can
easily go the entire game without ever finding one.
Your PSI Hypo consumption will dramatically increase the further
you go into the game. All the more reason to horde the ones you
get on Med/Sci, Engineering, and even Hydroponics. You don't *need*
to use PSI too much (other than to destroy cameras, eggs from a
distance, and deal with pesky turrets). However, once you start
dealing with swarms of (Security/Assault) Bots, Cyborg Assassins,
Rocket/Laser Mk II Turrets, Rumblers, waves of Annelids... you need
those PSI Hypos, and you'll be using them faster and faster with
each deck.
Hoard everything. Why? PSI Hypos are freaking expensive. 150 a
pop. But, for the love of god, *DON'T* buy any until Operations
(more on this in a bit). And by "Hoard everything" I mean exactly
that. Bullets. Beakers that you've filled with worms. Even those
Magazines and Potted Plants (when you have room). Once you get to
Ops, you need to hack (either with ICE Pick or with PSI Ability)
the Replicator near the Command Center for a Recycler. Turn
everything that's not a Speed Booster, Rad/Toxin Hypo, Med Hypo,
Med Kit, an Implant, an Annelid Organ, or a PSI Hypo/Booster into
Nanites. Constantly recyling *EVERYTHING* you find will be
*absolutely* crucial to your ability to outpace your PSI Hypo
consumption, in addition to any PSI Hypos you find normally. In
addition, the Replicator you just hacked for a Recycler *also*
happens to sell PSI Hypos, which now only cost 80 nanites. Stock up.
Starting with Command, the hacked price of PSI Hypos goes up from 80
nanites to 100 nanites. Doesn't sound like much, but that's a 25%
increase, which means 20% fewer hypos for you. If at all possible,
(when you're still on Command deck) go back to the Replicator just
by the Elevator on Engineering to buy hypos. Once you get to the
Rickenbacker, though, you're pretty set with 100-a-pop PSI Hypos.
PSI Hypos on Command and on the Rickenbacker are *RARE*. I don't
know why the game designers decided this, but both the increase in
hacked prices for them and the increased rarity of PSI Hypos means
you need to be absolutely careful about PSI efficiency. And that
makes it much more important that you stay on top of Recycling
everything you can possibly find. An individual nanite here or there
might not mean much, but over the course of one deck can mean 2 PSI
Hypos.
As you can tell, getting Replicator Expert will be your best
friend. About 80% of all PSI Hypos you consume will be things you've
bought, so that 20% discount is significant. However, Pharmo-Friendly
will also be your best friend. While most of your PSI Hypos will be
bought, you will never ever be buying Med Hypos, so getting an extra
20% bonus from them will go a *very* long way. Plus, even if you
*only* bought PSI Hypos, the extra 20% bonus effectiveness roughly
means a 16.66% discount in replicator price, just from efficiency.
Which you choose is ultimately up to you, but having atleast one of
the two is *absolutely* essential.
PSI Hypos in the Body of the Many are plentiful, and Nanites and
things that recycle well into nanites (huge beakers filled with
worms, huge amounts of prisms, huge ammo clips) are plentiful. Plus,
most of the level is within a quick access to a Replicator that you
can hack for 100 Nanite PSI Hypos. Stock up as much as you can here
as there are NO replicators after the Body of the Many.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
11b. OS Upgrades [B20]
As mentioned before, either Replicator Expert or Pharmo-Friendly
are absolutely essential for your guaranteed survivability.
What else are vital?
Well, while this section isn't dedicated to telling you EXACTLY what
you need to do, this is one thing you MUST do in almost ANY Impossible
difficutly situation.
Get Lethal Weapon first.
Yeah, you heard me right. No matter what route you take, you will be
doing lots of work with your Wrench. And as a completely dedicated PSI
user, your Wrench is your only effective way of dealing with the various
Bots (Maintenance, Security, Assault) and Cyborg Assassins. If you've
ever tried fighting these with just a Wrench, you know how hard it can
be, especially against Cyborg Assassins. You *need* the +35% damage
as otherwise you simply can't fight these guys with any remote
effectiveness. Moreover, so much of your offense will be made up of
Wrenching things that the +35% pays off over the entire course of the
game.
So what else is good?
Cybernetically Enhanced, Tank, Power PSI, and Cyber Assimilation
are all good contenders for the other two OS upgrades (in adddition
to the possibility of the doing the other of the Replicator
Expert/Pharmo-Friendly choice).
Cybernetically Enhanced is almost certainly a must. You'll have
the ability to recharge things at will, and having two implants is
so very good for your survivability, and for most of the game after
taking this, you'll probably have a BrawnBoost and a PSIBoost implant.
Tank is a good last upgrade, but keep in mind that if you're
choosing between this and Cybernetically Enhanced, you can almost
get the same effect by just getting Cybernetically Enhanced and
plugging in an EndurBoost into the extra slot.
Power PSI is a contender for a last upgrade as you'll start picking
up Tier 5 abilities which are *very* easy to burn out on and also
*very* painful to do so. However, if you plan on getting Annelid
Armor, you don't want this at all as Annelid Armor gives you instant
overload with maxed out PSI.
Cyber Assimilation is terrible for a last upgrade (as there are NO
more robots after the last upgrade station), but good for a third,
as you'll be fighting many, many robots after the third station,
and without Cyber Assimilation, every single robot battle is a
negative result: the costs far outweigh the benefits. This way,
though, you can recoup a 15-health healer that you can carry around
or, in a pinch, turn into a Nanite with a Recycler.
So, in the end, this is the OS upgrade path you want to follow.
First: Lethal Weapon (no question about it).
Second: Replicator Expert or Pharmo-Friendly.
Third: Cybernetically Enhanced, Cyber Assimilation, or whichever
you didn't take as your Second upgrade.
Fourth: Tank or Power PSI. If you didn't take Cybernetically
Enhanced as a third, then you almost definitely want it here instead.
For reference, I did Lethal Weapon, Pharmo-Friendly, Cybernetically
Enhanced, and Power PSI.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
11c. Technical Skills. [B30]
Yes, there is room for some technical prowess. Research 4 is a must
simply because WormHeart is just that good of an end-game implant.
(You'll also need a LabAssistant implant to research it as it needs
Research 5.) This also means you'll have access to Annelid Armor and
WormBlood. WormBlood is so important as you'll be able to turn those
piles of worms (after you're done harvesting them with your beakers)
into valuable health. Annelid Armor can give you instant PSI
overloading, which is just ridiculously powerful.
Apart from that, you'll probably want Maintenance of some kind, since
you'll be relying heavily on implants and Power Armor. Get as much
as your build can afford, but remember to leave some leeway in case
you miss a cyber module or two.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
11d. Stats and PSI [B40]
PSI 6 is mandatory. No questions asked. Apart from that, get
Strength 3, no questions asked, because it gives you access to Power
Armor, which is 50% damage reduction available on Hydroponics. This
is ABSOLUTELY essential to your ability to survive run-ins with Cyborg
Assassins and other dangerous foes.
Apart from that, I recommend getting whatever Agility and Endurance
you can afford (generally getting it up to 3 is the most your build
can afford). 3 or 6 extra Health may not sound like much, but trust
me, there'll be plent of times you'll escape a battle with 1-2 health
and thank god for that extra endurance. Agility is important because
it lets you chase down those damn Cyborg Assassins and strafe ranged
attacks.
By the way... if you can help it, reload an auto-save game instead
of letting yourself respawn at a station. Losing 10 nanites every
so often will deprive yourself of several PSI Hypos over the course
of the game. Plus, dying costs you even more PSI Hypos as all your
implants are still losing charge (meaning in the time it takes to
run back to where you died, you lose more charge, which means having
to recharge them with PSI sooner), and all your PSI Buffs (namely
Agility and Endurance) wear off.
As for PSI Abilities... first off, you need to get every single tier.
Not only does this mean you'll get the maximum possible of 61 PSI
Points (which makes the Annelid PSI Organ very good), but because
you're not going to have any non-PSI weapons, you NEED Tier 4 and Tier
5 stuff to guarantee your ability to survive the last parts of the game.
As for individual abilities - Projected Cryokinesis is essential
(anti-Camera, anti-Turret, anti-Egg). Psychogenic Agility is one of
the most important buffs in the game. Cerebro-Stimulated Regeneration
is vital as it lets you turn PSI Hypos into massive amounts of health.
Believe it or not, Neural Decontamination (80% rad resistance) is vital,
but not until you get to the Body of the Many - the radiation pools will
murder you otherwise; you have poor Endurance and little health. If
you're good about keeping the Hazard Suit around, though, you don't need
it.
Projected Pyrokinesis will be your best way of dealing with Spiders
and Rumblers for most of the game. Psionic Hypnogenesis is your only
answer to swarms of organic guys as well as your only answer to Cyborg
Assassins. Electron Cascade is important as there aren't enough Recharge
Stations or Portable Battery drops to keep your implants/Power Armor
charged at all times.
Electron Suppression is your only answer against the huge bots.
Photonic Redirection is your BEST ability on hand for anything starting
with the second part (Pod 2) of the Rickenbacker onwards. In fact,
Photonic Redirection is the skill that makes this build possible on this
difficulty. (On Hard or less, you can try the game without this ability,
and it would be quite a challenge and quite a new approach, but I firmly
believe that the game is actually impossible without this ability on
Impossible difficulty.) Psychogenic Endurance is your other important
buff. And Remote Electron Tampering is a high-priority Tier 4 ability;
hacking is so important to your survivability. Mainly hacking
replicators, but also some turrets and crates.
At the Tier 5 level, there's more room for flexibility. I would
highly recommend Imposed Neural Restructuring, Soma Transference, and
Psycho-Reflective Aura. These three abilities will make you near
unstoppable in the Body of the Many. Invisibility from Photonic
Redirection *can't* always work, as you need to bust through membrane-
doors, and doing so will invoke the wrath of many, many creatures around
you. In addition, some spiders are actually able to attack you despite
being invisible (if you were at any point uninvisible while they could
see you). Using INR on a Rumbler and then going Invisible again is very
effective, and the virtual immortality that Soma Transference gives you
is powerful. (Which is why, I believe, on Hard or less, playing the
game without Invisibility is possible and probably very fun, as Tier
5 abilities are just so amazing and fun.) However, Soma Transference
does have a very important use for the battle against the Brain of
the Many (more on this later). Psycho-Reflective Aura is almost vital
if you want to use Annelid Armor against SHODAN... otherwise, SHODAN
will just eat your paltry health alive. If you're so inclined, you
can also think about External Psionic Detonation, if you can get it
early enough, as it is then your best answer against 2 or more spiders,
3 or more Hybrids, and a good answer to a hard-to-wrench group of
Midwives or an answer of some kind to Cyborg Assassins (a solid hit
with two Psi Mines will kill an Assassin instantly). At the very least,
you'll want Soma Transference, but again, this Tier is a bit more
flexible in what you should get.
In the end, my build looked like this (yours may vary):
For a total cost of 823 Cyber Modules. I actually ended the game
with exactly 0 Cyber Modules left over (Aura was my last purchase), so
I clearly missed a few, most likely in the Rickenbacker or in the Body
of the Many, as I was mostly Invisible and just trying to speed my way
through. Similarly, you should probably leave some room in your build
or some low priority goals, as you too may accidentally skip a cyber
module here and there.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
11e. Tactics [B50]
Some general notes...
Leave 200 Nanites open and available. The sympathetic resonator you
HAVE to purchase on Command deck costs 200 on Impossible... and you
don't want to be like me, scrounging through all the decks for anything
I can recycle because I forgot about how expensive it was.
Don't Hack every crate you come across, or every Replicator. PSI
Hacking is *very* expensive as just one attempt on a crate can cost you
9-14 PSI, which (with no OS upgrades counted) is 67.5-105 Nanites of an
unhacked PSI Hypo replicator. You should only Hack replicators and
turrets that are strategically advantageous. Moreover, you should
save before any crate hacking so that you can reload in case the
fruits of your labor aren't worth the effort. Plus, never ever hack
security. By the time you get PSI Hack, security is very hard to hack
and you won't be able to hack security for any long periods of time.
Speaking of strategic turrets, one turret you *must* hack is the
one where you'll end up fighting Korenchkin. (If you don't know, then
you really shouldn't be playing Impossible yet.) You should never
have to fight a PSI Reaver at any point in the game with this build,
and they are truly anti-PSI opponents as they are immune to both
Hypnogenesis and Imposed Neural Restructuring. Plus, Korenchkin's
PSI attacks do nothing against turrets, so that turret will still be
around to be your new buddy.
You can "glitch" out the AI of Cyborg Assassins and big Bots by
running forward into them while attacking. This will make them
try to back up a bit instead of attack you, but it doesn't always
work, especially on Assault Bots.
Soma Transference is your best friend at the Brain of the Many.
You'll probably be invisible and surrounded by wandering PSI Reavers
(which are immune to INR and Hypnogenesis). You can try just INR-ing
Rumblers, watching them take out a few Reavers before dying, then
INR-ing their replacements, but this is not PSI efficient (and you
want lots of PSI hypos to spare for the battle against SHODAN, I'd
say ilke 6-7). Instead of trying to shoot the floating stars with
Pyro or Cryokinesis and then taking out the brain, just do a fully
charged Soma Transference on the brain twice to kill it. It'll bypass
any protection, and just in case you get hit by a PSI Reaver's blast
before you kill it, you'll heal up the damage again and you'll be
good to go.
As a testament to how rare loot drops are - I, personally, went
the entire game without finding a single Monkey Brain organ to
research (that's quite impressive considering how many Monkeys there
are in the game). Because of this, you lose significant resources
in every single battle. In Hard, and especially Normal, there's
a good chance you could recoup some of the effort you put into the
fight from the loot on the monster, but not so on Impossible.
As a result, once you deal with a level's initial monsters, you're
probably better off disabling or skipping respawns instead of fighting
them (especially cyborg assassins), if you can help it.
=======================================================================
=======================================================================
12. Character Concepts [C00]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
These are character concepts that either I've played, heard/read
about, or theorize would be fun to play. Credit is given where
appropriate.
Standard Characters - These are the general archetypes that most
players ever choose. They select a path and then pursue the theme
of that path until the end of the game, maybe splashing a bit into
other stuff.
Complete PSI - No weapons skills, just PSI. I detail further about
a Complete PSI approach on Impossible difficulty in the previous
section.
Melee/Ninja - Only melee weapons. You can have PSI abilities
that complement your melee abilities (Psychogenic Strength, Agility,
Endurance, Photonic Redirection, Adrenaline Overproduction, etc.) as
well as Ninja-esque tech skills (mainly Hack). On Normal, you can
easily progress from Wrench to Laser Rapier (great against Bots)
to Crystal Shard. On Hard or Impossible, you'll have to either stick
with the Wrench or pick either Energy Weapons or Exotic weapons,
as you won't be able to afford getting all. Basic inspiration from
the Strategy Guide. Getting good with this sort of build on Normal
is good training for all builds on Hard/Impossible (Where being
good with a Wrench is vital to survival). NOTE: Make sure you
have a ranged weapon of some kind as otherwise the Brain of the Many
and SHODAN (unless you Hack her) are literally impossible.
PSI-Energy Hybrid - Perhaps the most effective OSA combination: a
mixture of good PSI skills (no Tier 5) and Energy Weapons. Your
PSI skills make you excellent against non-robots, your Energy
Weapons make you fierce against robots and partial robots. Make
Energy Weapons a high priority as getting the EMP Rifle on
Hydroponics, just in time to deal with Cyborg Assassins, is quite
nice. Prohibitively too expensive on Impossible difficulty without
significant sacrifices on the PSI-side (and you never, ever want
to skip out on Invisibility with this build, as Energy is near
useless in the Body of the Many).
PSI-Warrior Hybrid - You use standard weapons, but you use PSI to
back them up; neuro-reflex, anti-entropic field, psycho-reflective
aura, etc. Taken from the official strategy guide.
Annelid Mimic - You use a wrench and basic PSI up until you start
getting exotic weapons. Then, you exclusively use exotic weapons
and annelid armor/implants and PSI abilities that complement them
and make you more... alien-esque (stat enhancers, INR, Soma,
Invisibility). Basic idea taken from the official strategy guide.
The Antipodal Navy - Energy Weapons and Exotic Weapons. Hack,
Maintainence, Modify, Research. You'll be the best anti-Robot and
the best anti-Alien guy alive; similar philosophy to the PSI-Energy
Hybrid. Just be warned to horde those worms... you'll be using them
alot in the Body of the Many.
The Alcoholic OSA - For those who want a challenge without resorting
to Hard/Impossible. You're relatively dedicated to PSI, but you can't
help but drink alot of booze (which heals 1 health but drains 3 PSI).
The Smoker - For those who want a challenge unrelated to PSI.
You've been trying to quit for years... but you just can't help
smoking a pack when you can (which drains 1 health).
The Redneck - You can only use a shotgun, you smoke and drink alot,
and you have no PSI, but have lots of skills to make sure your shotgun
is always in top form (high maintain, repair, and modify). You'll
probably have lots of leftover cyber modules with which to beef up
all your stats. Remember, a maxed Standard Weapons is still good
for letting you beef up your shotgun damage. A good multiplayer
concept as this character picks up skills that will benefit everyone
playing.
=======================================================================
For various creatures, I'll list their "wrenchability," which is
really an assessment for those on Hard and Impossible difficulty on
proper tactics/difficulty in using your wrench on these guys.
Note that some creatures will drop stuff not normally on their loot
tables; these are specific creatures and do not occur on random
respawns. For example, there is a Shotgun Hybrid that will drop an
Implant, and there is also an Arachnid that will drop a PSI Hypo.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
13a. Damage Table [D10]
Throughout the weapons and PSI sections, you'll notice I mention
what types of damage various weapons and certain PSI abilities do.
Here's where it all comes together. Some damage types are best against
certain creature types. Maximize your efficiency.
NOTE: Pay careful note to which damage types do not damage SHODAN,
Annelid, and (if you won't be able to hack well) Basic, as you will
*have* to damage these to beat the game.
The Table is displayed such that each cell is a multiplier (1 means
the damage is done normally, 2 means that double damage is dealt, etc).
*These are damage types only available to enemies, but they do have
the possibility of hitting other enemies (via area of effect or
misfires) so their appropriate damage modifiers are shown.
(see endnote 3)
Though it won't come up too often, Humans (namely you and any other
players if you're doing multiplayer) are also vulnerable in specific
ways. Humans take 4x damage from Anti-Human attacks and High Explosive
attacks (so if you ever feel like killing your friends in a hurry...).
Humans also take 2x damage from Energy-based sources, but only .5x
damage from Armor Piercing sources. Humans take normal damage from all
other sources except for Anti-Annelid, Soma Transference, EMP, and PSI,
all of which do no damage to humans.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
13b. Annelids [D20]
.......................................................................
i. Annelid Egg [D21]
Health: 10
Damage: None
Damage Type: n/a
Speed: n/a
Loot: (Toxic/Grub/Swarm) 30% of Annelid Heal Organ, 5% of Annelid
PSI Organ, 65% of No Loot (only if inspecting the egg
before destroying it); Grub and Swarm eggs drop the
appropriate organ (100%) when destroyed.
Wrenchability: It's generally a really bad idea to wrench the
eggs unless they've already released their
contents, especially Toxic Eggs.
If you walk slowly up to an egg, you'll be able to inspect it
(like a security crate) without it opening, although various eggs
have various activation ranges (how close you need to be for it
to release whatever it contains). In general, you'll be able to
creep up to Toxic and Grub Eggs, but Swarm Eggs tend to have
pretty large activation ranges, so you'll probably have to deal with
the Swarm first before you can actually check the egg.
Black eggs drop nothing and cannot be inspected. They are there
solely for story purposes.
.......................................................................
ii. Annelid Grub [D22]
Health: 5
Damage: 1
Damage Type: Anti-Human
Speed: Medium
Loot: None
Wrenchability: Really easy, as long as you've gotten handy at
knocking out monkeys.
By the time you come upon grubs, you should be handy enough at
hitting small targets (from all those monkeys) that they shouldn't
pose much of a problem. One hit from almost anything (except for
a Laser Pistol) will kill it.
Be warned that some Grubs will leap really high into the sky to
attack you.
.......................................................................
iii.Arachnid [D23]
Health: Baby - 10, Adult - 60, Invisible - 60
Damage: Baby - 2 plus mild Toxin, Adult/Invisible - 10 plus heavy
Toxin.
Damage Type: All - WeaponBash
Speed: All - Fast
Loot: 20% of Organ, 80% of No Loot
Wrenchability: You can use a non-wrench on these guys as Adults
and Invisibles are very jumpy and hard to hit
once they start jumping around, moreover, just
getting hit once will inject *alot* of bad toxins
into your blood stream. Sure there are plenty
of Anti-Toxin hypos, but eventually it just
becomes more cost effective to just shoot the
damn things.
Spiders are annoying, plentiful, and tough. Their normal damage
isn't that bad, but the toxin they inject is supremely annoying,
as basically only death will get rid of it if you have no
Anti-Toxin hypos left. Invisible Spiders aren't actually
invisible, and if you are the slightest bit aware, you'll be able
to see these guys, especially since the chittering sound Spiders
make is *very* easy to identify.
.......................................................................
iv. Brain of the Many [D24]
Health: Defense Node - 10, Brain - 100
Damage: None
Damage Type: n/a
Speed: n/a
Loot: None
Wrenchability: Impossible. You *must* have a ranged weapon here.
In case you don't know by now, you shoot the three Nodes first,
then pummel away at the Brain, all while the Many's reinforcements
march in by the dozens. The hardest part of this fight are the
many Rumblers that will keep respawning. As long as you have
sufficient Agility, you'll be able to outrun them.
Be sure to take out the PSI Reaver brains, especially since the
Greater PSI Reaver here (the only one in the game) will basically
kill you in one hit on almost any non-Easy difficulty. Don't deal
with any other creatures, as by killing one, you end up with about
two more to replace it.
If you have Soma Transference, the battle gets a whole lot
easier, as just a few quick activations will bypass the Defense
Nodes and kill the Brain really quickly (as well as healing
yourself in the process).
.......................................................................
v. PSI Reavers [D25]
Health: Brain - 10, Normal - 120, Greater - 200
Damage: Normal - 5, Greater - 15
Damage Type: All - Anti-Human
Speed: Brain - Immobiles, Normal/Greater - Medium
Loot: Normal - 75% of Organ, 25% of No Loot; Greater - 80% of
Organ, 20% of No Loot.
Wrenchability: Very hard, aside from the Brain. By now you should
be pretty handy with some other weaponry.
PSI Reavers aren't too hard, once you know how to fight them.
You should *never* go after them until you knock out their Brain,
as otherwise they just respawn. Fortunately, despite being
super-deadly, their accuracy leaves something to be desired.
There's only one Greater PSI Reaver in the game, and he's
guarding the Brain of the Many. You'll be able to tell which it
is as the Greater PSI Reaver is much larger and quite darker than
normal PSI Reavers. Be *very* careful dealing with him, as one
direct hit from him on non-Easy (especially Hard and Impossible)
can kill you from full health.
Sounds intimidating, but their slow speed, the vulnerability
of their Brain, and the relative inaccuracy and slow speed of
their projectiles does not make them that hard.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
13c. Swarms [D30]
.......................................................................
i. Swarm [D31]
Health: 36
Damage: 1 per 2 seconds
Damage Type: Anti-Human
Speed: Fast
Loot: None
Wrenchability: Impossible, nor do you want to kill them with a
weapon, in most cases.
Just run around (careful to not activate any more swarm eggs)
until they die. If you have a Viral Proliferater, you can try
and kill them, just for the novelty of it. (Don't use the
Annelid Launcher, as it'll require 8 worms to kill a Swarm.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
13d. Half-Annelids [D40]
.......................................................................
i. Hybrids [D41]
Health: Pipe - 12, Shotgun - 24, Grenade - 15
Damage: Pipe - 10, Shotgun - 4, Grenade - 10
Damage Type: Pipe - WeaponBash, Shotgun/Grenade - Standard
Speed: Medium
Loot: Pipe - 2 of the following: 20% of 5 Nanites, 5% of a Med
Hypo, 25% of a Soda Can, 5% of Organ, 45% of No Loot;
Shotgun - Guaranteed shotgun with 1 Chambered Slug (no
matter the difficulty), plus 2 of the following:
10% of 6 Rifled Slugs, 20% of 5 Nanites, 10% of a Med
Hypo, 25% of a Liquor Bottle, 5% of Organ, 30% of No Loot;
Grenade - 2 of the following: 10% of a Med Hypo, 15% of
3 Frag Grenades, 15% of 5 Nanites, 5% of Organ, 25% of
Cigarettes, 30% of No Loot
Wrenchability: Unless you're swarmed, you should *always* wrench
Hybrids. Always.
Pipe Hybrids will be immensely hard the first time through the
game, but once you learn to weave in-and-out, they're a piece of
cake. Grenade Hybrids aren't too bad, because they're very slow
about throwing their grenades, and generally you can run up to
one and hit them before they get a throw off, since the moment
you hit a Grenade Hybrid, it interrupts them if they were
throwing anything. In fact, the hardest hybrid is probably the
Shotgun Hybrid. You can't strafe their attack (they seem to have
pinpoint accuracy most of the time), so you're almost guaranteed
to get hit atleast once, which can be very, very bad on
Impossible difficulty, especially since being hit doesn't interrupt
their shots (unlike Grenade Hybrids).
.......................................................................
ii. Rumblers [D42]
Health: 220
Damage: 20
Damage Type: WeaponBash
Speed: Fast
Loot: 30% of Organ, 70% of No Loot
Wrenchability: It's like a Pipe Hybrid on drugs. If you *really*
need to, you can weave in and out and take down
Rumblers, but unlike Pipe Hybrids, their attacks
come out very fast and hurt *alot*. Hopefully
you have more powerful weapons by now.
The Rumbler is not so bad when you realize that it can't attack
and run at the same time. Thus, if you have a ranged weapon, you
can just run circles around the rumbler and fire away. However,
with melee weapons, being so close to the Rumbler means they can
stop for a split second, let out an attack (which comes out fast
and isn't always expected) and start running again.
Unless you've *only* been going Energy Weapons, you should have
a good answer to Rumblers by the time you see your first one.
Even the Laser Rapier works decently, so long as you're *very*
good with your footwork.
.......................................................................
iii. Monkeys [D43]
Health: Blue - 10, Red - 12
Damage: Blue - 10 range (small Area of Effect), 4 melee;
Red - 15 range (large Area of Effect), 4 melee.
Damage Type: Blue - Cold, WeaponBash; Red - Incendiary, WeaponBash
Speed: Medium
Loot: All - 30% of Organ, 30% of Chips, 40% No Loot
Wrenchability: Get good at wrenching them. These guys are
generally not worth any ammunition.
The most surprising thing about Monkeys is the fact that their
projectiles have Area of Effect to them (even though your
equivalent PSI attacks don't). For this reason, getting even
partially hit by a Pyrokinesis attack from a Red Monkey can be
quite painful. On the other hand, their projectiles *will* hurt
enemies, especially the Pyrokinesis (which will do double damage
to organic targets). So, if you can put a Hybrid between you
and the monkey, you can use the Hybrid as a meat shield while you
get into position to knock out the monkey.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
13e. Half-Mechanical [D50]
.......................................................................
i. Assassin [D51]
Health: Normal - 60, Red/Virtual - 48
Damage: All - 10
Damage Type: All - WeaponBash
Speed: All - Fast
Loot: All - 20% of 5 Nanites, 5% of 20 Nanites, 75% of No Loot;
Red - Additional guaranteed Sim Chip (story-related drop).
Wrenchability: Very hard. One trick is to move forward into them
while attacking, which will generally make them
try to move backwards instead of attack you.
Probably the hardest enemy in the game, simply because nothing is
particularly good against them, they move lightning fast, and their
attacks come out quickly and accurately. On Impossible, you can
be killed in just a few seconds from full health. Your best chance
is AP ammo or an EMP rifle, but you still need to keep your
reflexes up when encountering more than one at a time.
.......................................................................
ii. Midwife [D52]
Health: 36
Damage: 5 range, 5 melee
Damage Type: Energy range, WeaponBash melee
Speed: Medium
Loot: 20% of Portable Battery, 5% of 20 Nanites, 10% of a Med
Hypo, 25% of Organ, 40% of No Loot.
Wrenchability: In fact, recommended. Their melee damage is
lower than their ranged damage, and their ranged
damage isn't particularly easy to avoid, unlike
their melee swipes.
One of the creepiest enemies in the game. They can be dispatched
quite easily if you charge them, as their melee abilities are poor
compared to their ranged. Also, their Energy attacks will harm
other enemies, so take advantage of enemy positions to exploit
Midwives to harm your enemy.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
13f. Mechanical [D60]
.......................................................................
i. Turrets [D61]
Health: All - 48
Damage: Slug - Three shots of 2, Laser - Three shots of 5,
Laser Mk II - 7, Rocket - 10 (Area of Effect).
Damage Type: Slug/Rocket - Standard, Laser/Laser Mk II - Energy
Speed: n/a
Loot: Slug - 50% of 6 Standard Bullets, 50% of No Loot;
Laser - 50% of Portable Battery, 50% of No Loot;
Others - Nothing
Wrenchability: Slug, Laser, and Rocket Turrets have a very slow
turn around speed, so you can essentially just
circle strafe around a turret. Make sure to
have a back-up ranged weapon, since they explode
upon destruction.
Turrets will be the bane of your existence. The Laser and Laser
Mk II Turrets do double damage against you, so they can easily do
away with you in seconds, if you're not careful. Fortunately,
Slug and Laser turrets are highly inaccurate (but don't push your
luck too much). Laser Mk II's are rare, which is good since
they're highly accurate and fast to acquire you. Rocket Turrets
are mainly deadly because it's super hard to strafe their attacks
or take cover behind something (they have huge area of effect).
Hacking turrets is great, but rarely will it ever actually attack
your enemies, but the few times it does is a godsend. Having a
Rocket Turret take out a PSI Reaver for you, or a Rocket Turret
take out a swarm of Shotgun Hybrids is just amazing.
.......................................................................
ii. Robots [D62]
Loot: Maintenance - 2 of the following: 30% of Maintenance Tool,
10% of Rad Hypo, 50% of 20 Nanites, 10% of No Loot;
Security - 2 of the following: 15% of 10 Prisms, 5% of
Iridium, 80% of No Loot;
Assault - 2 of the following: 15% of 10 Prisms, 30% of
Portable Battery, 55% of No Loot.
Wrenchability: The biggest problem is closing the distance with
them, as Assault and Security Bots can easily
kill you before you get into melee range. Once
in whapping range, circle strafe while pushing
into range, and they'll be generally too busy
trying to back up or acquire you as a target to
retaliate.
The most interesting thing about these bots is that the Assault
Bot doesn't do *that* much damage. However, with each upgrade,
they fire faster and more accurately. Security Bots have the best
chance of flat out killing you before you have a chance of
responding, as their attacks are almost instantaneous and fairly
accurate. Assault Bots have greater inevitability over you: they
fire their shots very quicky, and even if you strafe their attacks,
they explode in a huge area of effect. They are, however, tough
as nails, so if you don't have any EMP Grenades/Rifles, AP ammo,
or a Fusion Cannon, you're going to be in for a pretty extended
fight.
.......................................................................
iii. Protocol Droids [D63]
Health: 20
Damage: 15
Damage Type: Incendiary
Speed: Fast
Loot: None
Wrenchability: If you get within melee range, they explode. So,
not wrenchable.
The bane of your early life. You won't have much in the way of
ranged answers, and your health pool will be on the shallow end.
15 damage (especially if all you have is Light Combat Armor) is
a massive chunk of your life (an almost guaranteed one-hit kill
early in Impossible). However, there is a slight delay between
when they stop moving and when the explode, so you can try and
trick them into exploding and run out of their explosion range
quickly, but this is a very risky strategy.
Later on, they just become annoying ammo sinks, because they
will always remain an enemy that you just can't melee or even
avoid effectively.
.......................................................................
iv. SHODAN Avatar [D64]
Health: 100
Damage: 12
Damage Type: Energy
Speed: Medium
Loot: None
Wrenchability: A bad idea for many reasons, the biggest one being
that you shouldn't even have to fight the Avatar.
Fearsome. Powerful. And also instantly regenerates after being
killed. However, you don't have to even fire a single shot at the
Avatar, as that is not how you kill SHODAN. So, as long as you're
constantly on the run, the Avatar will never be able to land a
shot on you.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
13g. Basic [D70]
.......................................................................
i. SHODAN Shield [D71]
Health: 140
Damage: n/a
Damage Type: n/a
Speed: Special
Loot: None
Wrenchability: As there is a huge pit around the shields, melee-
ing the shields is impossible.
There are six of these surrounding SHODAN's core. Unless you're
good at Hacking and hack the three security terminals, you'll need
to blast through these shields. However, the shields are
constantly rotating, so you'll probably be hitting lots of
different shields. However, each shield is a distinct color, so
if you're good enough, you can just shoot the same shield over and
over to get rid of it, and then just shoot SHODAN through the
breach in the shields.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
13h. SHODAN [D80]
.......................................................................
i. SHODAN [D81]
Health: 125
Damage: 16
Damage Type: SHODAN
Speed: n/a
Loot: None
Wrenchability: SHODAN is immune to both the Wrench and the
Crystal Shard, but if you have either the PSI
Sword or Laser Rapier on hand, you can just
jump over the pit surrounding her and wop her a
few times.
Either disable or destroy the shields surrounding her and then
unleash everything you have. SHODAN's missiles have a huge
area of effect, so stay on the move while attacking her.
=======================================================================
Thanks to the official Prima Strategy Guide for providing this
helpful info.
[(.8 + .2 * PSI) * n * factor] = Nanite Yield (see endnote 2)
Where PSI is your PSI stat (up to a total of 10 instead of 8), n is
the minimum of (objects in the stack, objects in a standard clip of
the stack type), factor is a multiplier dependent on the type of
item you're transmuting, and [ ... ] truncates decimal values (a floor
function).
n needs a bit more explaining. Whereas with recycling, you'll
recycle the entire stack in one go (bye bye 150 bullets), Molecular
Transmutation only affects a "clip", or however much is left in the
stack, if it's less than a normal clip size. For bullets, a clip is
6. For hypos, organs, and medical kits, a clip is 1. If you are
trying to transmute less than the clip size (4 bullets, for example),
it instead uses however many objects are in the stack for n (so n = 4
instead of n = 6).
Now, recycling yields 1 nanite per object. So you may think that
Molecular Transmutation is almost strictly better (as it will
always more nanites than the equivalent amount yielded by a recycler).
However, you have to keep in mind that Transmuting costs you PSI
Points, and those PSI Points will cost you Nanites to replace via PSI
Hypos. So to compute the profitability, you have to take that into
account.
If you have Pharmo-Friendly, set bonus to 4, otherwise set it to 0.
Cost is 75 Nanites unhacked and 40 Nanites hacked before Command deck,
75 Nanites unhacked and 50 Nanites hacked after Command deck. If you
have hacking available, use the hacked price, otherwise use the normal
price. If you're on easy or normal, set difficulty to 1. If you're
on hard, set difficulty to 1.25. If you're on impossible, set
difficulty to 2. If you have replicator expert, set discount to .8,
otherwise set it to 1. The final result is how many nanites each use
of Molecular Transmutation is going to cost you.
On normal, with everything optimized, cost is
[4/24 * 40 * 1 * .8] = 5 Nanites
On impossible, with just pharmo-friendly and pre-Command hacking,
cost is
[4/24 * 40 * 2 * 1] = 13 Nanites
To get your profit, simply subtract your Cost from your Nanite
Yield. So let's say you have a PSI of 10, you're on impossible with
only pre-Command hacking available, and you're transmuting a clip of
Frag Grenades (which have factor = 8 and have a clip size of 3):
[(.8 + .2 * 10) * 3 * 8] - [4/20 * 40 * 2 * 1] =
67 - 16 =
51 Nanites
Compare to what a Recycler would've yielded (6 Nanites) and you've got
yourself a nice return. However, getting 10 PSI is essential for
profitmaking, and with only 1 PSI, most items won't be profitable with
everything optimized on Normal.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
14b. The Table [E20]
Of particular note, at PSI 10, clips of Frag Grenades and Prisms are
immensely profitable, no matter what difficulty you're on (base yield
of 67 Nanites and 49 Nanites, respectively).
Worms and Non-standard bullets are closer calls and require some
optimization of cost on higher difficulties (base yield of 22 Nanites
and 25 Nanites, respectively). PSI Hypos are also relatively
profitable, but why would you, since you'd have to transmute 4 hypos
to buy another (at the very least, not counting Impossible difficulty).
Other Grenades are are very close to profitable, but definitely
require optimaizations on all difficulties to pay off (base yield of
21 Nanites). Everything else is just not worth the effort.
If you don't have PSI of 10, you should either wait or use Moleuclar
Transmutation on Frags and Prisms, as otherwise you'll most likely just
lose Nanites over the alternative (I highly recommend running your own
variables through the equation so you don't screw yourself).
=======================================================================
=======================================================================
14. Final Notes [F00]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
14a. Conclusion/Special Thanks [F10]
Kudos go out to DSimpson (for his excellent guides). Without
DSimpson, I never would've felt compelled to try to write something as
awesome as his.
A moment of silence for Looking Glass Studios. May you rest in
peace. A hats off to Irrational Games. May you have many years of
prosperity ahead of you.
Thanks to all the hardcore SS2 fans that have made it possible for
me to continue my unhealthy obsession after upgrading to Windows XP.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
14b. Resources [F20]
ttlg.org - An excellent resource for anything you could ever want
for anything related to Looking Glass Studios. At the very least,
they have links to stuff that will let you run System Shock 2 on a
newer OS.
Special thanks to d00m from ttlg.org for feeding me some cool info
on the Crystal Shard and Adrenaline Overproduction.
shocked - A system shock 2 editing tool I used to extract some
non-obvious information.
System Shock 2: Prima's Official Strategy Guide - an uncanny example
of a thorough, well-done official guide. Lots of non-obvious
information is in this book (such as changes made to the game after
the manual was made and not mentioned in the readme), and this was the
source for the Molecular Transmutation equation and all the enemy
stats.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
14c. Endnotes and References [F30]
Assume that non-obvious information not noted by endnote is
information that I've researched myself. If you feel that I have
erroneously not cited something within the guide, please let me know
by e-mail (I may have missed something as the citations were done
retroactively, after 150k worth of text was written).
(1) http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1186168#post1186168
courtesy of d00m.
(2) Equation and Table from Official Strategy Guide, pp 72-73.
(3) Damage Table from Official Strategy Guide, p 81.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
14d. Legal Disclaimer [F40]
I am not affiliated with Looking Glass/Irrational/EA in any way, and
any information I provide should be treated as third party information.
Therefore, Looking Glass/Irrational/EA cannot be held responsible for
any misuse of information provided herein, and I cannot give a full
guarantee that the information provided herein is 100% accurate.
Therefore, no party, that is, Looking Glass/Irrational/EA/Me, cannot
be held responsible for any problems that may result in the misuse of
information or use of faulty information; the best reparation that can
be made in the latter case would be for me to correct the faulty
information so that it is accurate.
In addition, you (the party reading this) are free to distribute this
work freely on the internet and in any other media as long as credit is
given to the original author (Chris Lee).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
14e. History [F50]
3/22/2006: v 1.6 completed.
- Added some details on Crystal Shard, Adrenaline Overproduction,
and Smasher.
- Added Endnotes and References section as well as adding a few
citations.
3/22/2006: v 1.5 completed.
- Fixed some minor inaccuracies and grammatical glitches.
- Fleshed out Bestiary.
- Completed Molecular Transmutation appendix.
- Greatly expanded all weapons sections.
- Fixed some errors in Difficulties section.
3/11/2006: v 1.2 completed.
- Fixed some minor inaccuracies and grammatical glitches.
- Added extra stuff to Character Concepts.
- Added some extra information throughout the guide.
- Greatly expanded PSI section.
- Greatly expanded Stats section.
3/9/2006: v 1.0 completed.
- Need to complete Modify/Bestiary sections.
=======================================================================
=======================================================================
The Stinger
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"With only a few short years of evolution, they've been able to
conquer this starship, mankind's mightiest creation. Where were we
after forty years of evolution? What swamp were we swimming around in,
single celled and mindless? What if SHODAN's creations are superior to
us? What will they become in a million years, in ten million years?
What's clear is that SHODAN shouldn't be allowed to play God. She's
far too good at it."
- Prefontaine
=======================================================================
