please suggest pre-heist side quests

[Zoob Mer]

doing main missions, the game repeatedly reminds me I should have tousands of eddies. am I doing something wrong?

[Lucus]

my advice would be to do the NCPD scanner hustles. they are fairly easy provided you don't do the ones marked "danger high" when putting the mouse over the icon on the minimap. (those are ones not recommended for your current level).

[Rabidnid]

Originally posted by Zoob Mer:

doing main missions, the game repeatedly reminds me I should have tousands of eddies. am I doing something wrong?

It takes a few hours but you can make it to level 12+ and 300k before doing the heist.

[fauxpas]

Rush the Heist and do Watson side content afterward since Johnny makes a few appearances (not many but a few).

[Doombringer]

Money farming rate is a function of your level, you get a lot more money from mob drops at level 50 than at low level.
(at level 50 white gun drops sell for ~$288, and purples can be >2k each.)
(at low level white guns are like $24 or something...)

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by Zoob Mer:

doing main missions, the game repeatedly reminds me I should have tousands of eddies. am I doing something wrong?

If you just play the main questline then you're indeed seriously missing out.

It's not your fault though. See, the game has a tendency to always select one of the main storyline missions as soon as you finish something, and many side missions don't get announced unless you're near them. Which makes it easy to overlook that part.

Your best option is the map: check for yellow quest markers which are labelled as side-missions. Those could be anything. You'll also come across green squares with an exclamation marker inside; these are side-gigs which are given to you by the local fixer.

Warning though: different areas have different gangs, and some are more dangerous than others, also depending on your level. A good place to start is Watson and Westbrook (Chinatown in particular); here you'll mostly come across Tyger Claws and they're relatively easy to defeat. And make sure you pay attention the instructions given (and your mission objectives).

And finally: blue squares with 'NCPD' in 'm are requests for help to stop an assault in progress. Bear in mind that anyone can be doing the assault, it's not just gangs or wanted people. Many of these missions are easy: there are 3 - 4 hostiles, you take 'm out, look for evidence (either something in a box or a message on a computer) and you're done.

But always check out any shards you may find, because sometimes the evidence is stashed somewhere else.

Also don't underestimate these missions, even though they seem random(ish) and are usually pretty easy. Some of them come pretty close to a regular side-gig.

[Tokenn]

Originally posted by Zoob Mer:

doing main missions, the game repeatedly reminds me I should have tousands of eddies. am I doing something wrong?

Yes, pre-Heist you should do police scanner missions, Gang Activity, fights and some of Regina's gigs. You will pick up cash in many of them, also sell weapons and other pickups for cash at Drop points.

I like to go into the Pickup/Heist with Body 10, a nice array of weapons, Vik paid off and upgraded Kiroshi eyes, cyberdeck and Ballistic grip. You may also want a fund of at least E$10K to pay for the Flathead if you decide not to go the Militech route [Merideth]. E$50,000 will cover all that. It's a bit of a grind in the early game, but you'll have the experience and resources to get through some pretty tough fights, and you can hit the ground running in Act 2

[Silverbane7]

there are one or two of the gigs that are in the Watson area that Johnny pops up on, but they are few and far between.
i've tried this with him new (grumpy) and at best choom levels and i dont think it makes any difference to them.
and a couple of the Cyberpsycho's too, namely, the one at the docks and the ritual in Northside, so you might want to save those for after.
there is a side gig (not fixer given) at the docks in Northside he'll pull your leg before and talk after, so thats another one to wait for.

myself, since i use the 'Missing Persons : Fixers hidden gems' mod (which gives you an in game way to find all the hidden gems, Fixers give you text message based jobs to go find, configurable too, so if you dont want to get rep/cash/exp you can tweek or turn off)
i usualy go with a bunch of the NCPD points till i can go safely thru 'Monster Hunt' gig from Regina.
after which, she will start sending me to find these missing people, stashes or check on stuff.
(she gives me a 100 eddies and a tiny bit of exp in my setup)
i usualy go thru them till i have to stop (reccomendation due to a gig, so it will make sence) then go sort out the Heist.
go back afterwards and finish Watson (Regina, police, gems, local cyberwakkos) before i go out to Westbrook and Wakako

tbh, it would be nice if someone had a comrehensive guide on exactly which gigs, points of interest and so on, that he pops up at, for those of us that like to maximise our Silverhandosis :P
(it would also help those who dont want to interact with him, they could avoid those ones)

[tea]

i usually like to do a lot of the ncpd hustles at the top of watson, knowing i will probably not be likely to visit the place. i also like to do a couple of simple gigs, like the one near the leftest highway exit, next to a cyberpsycho. you can do some of them too but be prepared, some of them were tough for me (altho i did play on very hard so...)

[Northwold]

Originally posted by fauxpas:

Rush the Heist and do Watson side content afterward since Johnny makes a few appearances (not many but a few).

Just an opinion, but I've seen this advice given a number of times and I don't personally recommend it.

Yes, you could miss a few Johnny appearances by staying in act 1 and doing some side content, but almost none of them are pivotal (the only one I can think of that would really benefit from *not* being done in act 1 is the quest involving a kidnapped monk -- which adds a lot to the background of what happens to you later).

And if you don't do side content in act 1 and don't wander around at all, the opening plays very fast and, frankly, too fast for you to be emotionally engaged in the story. It then changes how the rest of the game's story arc *feels* later on in a not good way. I'm guessing the devs didn't anticipate that players who *weren't* in a rush would play that way and I feel doing so damages your immersion in the world.

I found four or five gigs for Wakako gave me a good feel for the world and a good feel for some characters in it before I went any further with the main story.

[Bogmore]

If you don't go to Vic you don't get your rewards fully, at least that used to be the case.

[Bjørn]

Originally posted by Rabidnid:

Originally posted by Zoob Mer:

doing main missions, the game repeatedly reminds me I should have tousands of eddies. am I doing something wrong?

It takes a few hours but you can make it to level 12+ and 300k before doing the heist.

I've started The Heist now (first playthrough), and I'm at lvl 10 with only about 15k eddies, basic lvl 1+ and 2 equipment mainly. Did a search to see the benefits of certain conversation options in the beginning, and saw this thread.

I understand the game has changed in the 2.1 patch since this thread, but is this something to consider still? Should I reload the game and do some more side missions and such before taking this?

(going to do that now anyway after reading this, but just curious )

What's so special about this mission since you need so much money and lvl 12?

I bought the DLC today as well, so I'm kind of eager to finish the missions required to get the new skill tree and such from it.

Thanks!

[Avy]

Before i started making my own NG+ maxed saves i usually did everything in Watson and got at least over lvl20 before the heist. Yay for Regina having most gigs of all fixers.

[yahboi1988]

I typically do 3-5 jobs for Regina and the "Flaming Crotch guy" side job while doing the prep work for "The Heist". Then I hit up a ripperdoc and get some upgrades before I rest and do the heist.

[Bjørn]

Thanks guys.

I've done the 'flaming crotch guy' (ouch lol) and lots of other things, a few of the cyberpsychos, but think I'll follow the advice of maybe double my level to 20 or something and get a lot of money before the heist.

Not sure why it requires high level and money, and I prefer not to look at walkthroughs, but I'm still getting used to all the mechanics, and it's a fun and beautiful game to explore and do things in. And I'd like to get and test out the monowire, as that sounds fun. Basically only using Overheat quickhacks on bad guys now, mainly.

Can I generally attack anyone of the gangs and other 'criminals' (the guys with yellow marks) I see around town not part of missions, or will that come back and haunt me later? I haven't seen any reputation mechanic in the game yet, I think.

[Avy]

Originally posted by Bjørn:

Can I generally attack anyone of the gangs and other 'criminals' (the guys with yellow marks) I see around town not part of missions, or will that come back and haunt me later? I haven't seen any reputation mechanic in the game yet, I think.

Gangs and corps now retaliate. Sometimes even right after you do some mission vs them.
Like yesterday i got that bot with "discount" at All Foods and just as i spawned bike to go to somewhere else... Maelstrom jumped me in their cars.