tips ive picked up on playing rage mode

[plant4]

IF YOU HAVE ANY TIPS NOT MENTIONED HERE, OR WANT TO DISCUSS SOMETHING, FEEL FREE TO COMMENT, BUT PLEASE BE CIVIL, THANK YOU :)
rage mode when you first drop into it feels very punishing, but just playing and learning eventually you will just get good enough, and start developing a "path" through the level
besides that, heres some things that have helped me (also major spoilers)

weapons:
-shotgun with choke & unfolded stock is a meat grinder
-homing grenades is generally just useful
-pistol one shots most cultists on headshot, and does a lot of damage with high accuracy
-rifle is just kinda bad (on like all difficulties)
-smg has no accuracy, and shoots confetti, but if you happen to be standing just close enough its really fun to use still
-dmr is not that useful, but good for specific situations
-bolt launcher deletes bosses
-minigun is good on open maps (crash site, unidentified structure) with homing
-grenades: rats, or if you have them vortex and rocket are hilarious (also with enemy spawn location knowledge mines are quite effective, demonstrated in patriarch fight)

weapon mods:
-incendiary is fun, but taking damage from burning corpses is surprisingly harmful, try the choke
-silencers: actually useful for dmrs, rifles, smgs, and pistols, where they arent always outclassed or not useful
-folded stocks: unfold, trust me, its worth it
-sights: dont, this game wasnt made for them
-homing: yes
-red dot: NO, it turns you from a stealthy assassin into a glowing target that says "shoot me" just dont, trust me.

game mechanics:
-you get less focus, so you'll need to start flicking headshots without it
-sliding is the most important movement mechanic, it helps you not take damage, and can knock over enemies
-stealth is incredibly useful whenever possible, and shooting lights with a silenced pistol is quite effective for keeping enemies off you
-ways to abuse maps: hostages on maps where you need to wait to complete an objective can help you stall, or for oil rig, just give you a free win, pandora institute section with 2 big boys has mesh in area before that you can shoot through, but AI's cant
-cloak is plentiful, and useful for crossing large distances, you'll learn through practice to use it efficiently and effectively, but it boils down to mostly: use it to grab someone or to dash in the open without being spotted
-focus is your ace in the hole, if things are about to go wrong, or you suspect death is near, pop it and blast everything before quickly leaving focus, or use it to line up a shot then unfocus and fire
-if you know where enemies will spawn, in a clump, go ahead and grenade it (useful on elevators in initial escape, and crash site drops), it usually takes out a majority of the squad

enemies:
-EOD suits: explosive tank on their back knocks them down, go in and aim for the face, their helmet isnt very reinforced, or just like 3 homing grenades should do the trick, also they resist shotgun damage so dont use shotguns if you have a viable alternative
-HVT: DMR still one shot head shots through helmets, otherwise just treat them like a somewhat extra chonky normal dude, they still die in 1-2 shotgun blasts
-normal dudes: shotgun. theyre squishy and die in silly ways
-shields: slide into them, or take them out before they spot you
-miniguns: if theyre squish, then squish them, if theyre EOD then good luck lmao, grenade them or just prepare to kill everything else, then perform a campaign of hit and run attacks.
-bosses: bolt gun. :) (MM is easy to dodge, enforcer is a ♥♥♥♥♥ imo, but homing grenades delete his armor immediately, flesh golem is an entire bolt gun magazine, and maybe a bit more if you miss accidentally, patty is bolt gun and ignore flesh golem, meth pillar is just yeeting grenades at elevators, for brain boi remember that you have a ton of hp kits in mid, for finale, idfk learn the attack patterns and stuff, incendiary can help you see him, but i still prefer choke my beloved)

secrets:
-if you go into a mission with TMod on, and then exit with the dev gun, vortex grenades, rocket grenades, or phys manipulator equipped, but with the cheat off, you can keep them and use them in a "legitimate run" also this unlocks vortex and rocket grenades in the supply caches, which is wonderful, as vortex grenades are probably the most powerful, and rocket grenades are funny
-if you're having trouble you can turn down the difficulty and come back later, once you have gotten a better grasp on the game or once youve gotten a weapon mod or something. its not illegal

[DuckieMcduck]

Cool tips, I got some more:

• Slide then grab enemies and pull their grenade pin with G as often as possible.
  
  • This is the cheapest way to get focus + stamina boost which is essential to stay alive, specially as it is also a free grenade
• Against most enemies, if you strafe them and circle while close they can't hit you. This is extremely useful against Juggernauts (EOD) and Patriarch, so save Focus for those
  
• Gas grenades will convert light armored enemies into jiggly boys. If they kill enemies, more jiggly boys spawn.
  
  • If there are no more enemies they'll chase you, but keep moving it's possible to avoid their attacks entirely.
    
  • You can kite groups of them then go invisible when you find more enemies to have them engage.
• Meat Golem can easily be ducked with side slides
  
• You can in fact Slide backwards with Left-Alt to trick a lot of enemies, which is not possible with Shift+Ctrl (found this out the hard way)
  
• At the final boss, Shotgun instantly deletes brains and destroying a brain reverts existing progress.
  
  • At the penultimate stage when all brains pop up, it's worth it to have a little bit of patience for the bar to fill up so you get to benefit from the reversion.
    
  • When Raven drops you a package, you can take your time killing all "Lawyer" enemies in the Arena. They'll stop respawning and you can deal with the final part more easily.
    
  • The stock minigun basically deletes the chopper.

[plant4]

ah thank you, i forgot those!

[~Ren~]

@ OP

I haven't tried this game mode yet as I'm still a new player but if you haven't considered it, maybe try putting together a guide, it will be easily accessible to other players then as this post will eventually be lost. Hint, hint

[Bizargh]

These all seem to reasonably line up with what I learned from RAGE enthusiasts during the Demo period and from watching All_Mighty's RAGE Deathless runs (What I believe is also called a "RAGE God" run).

I did find that the DMR was something of an Achilles Heel for the Mothman to the point that on my first experiment with it, all fellow TF27 members survived (It was either on Very Hard or Extreme). It proved a bit tricky to try it again on Rage, but I did achieve the same result after a few tries.
I'd always take it over the Assault Rifle as I've just never enjoyed using it in general (I feel it either needs an initial accuracy bump to let single shots be made accurately while still letting full-auto fire spread far like usual, maybe the one extra mag of reserve ammo & perhaps more attachments, with one thought of mine being an Extended 40-rd. Mag that could increase reload time as a trade-off akin to the Folding Stocks).

I generally didn't even use a muzzle on the Shotgun (The Incendiary could pose the risk of dead-grip triggers and the Choke might've been a bit too tight for something I just wanted to reliably hit and/or kill what was right in front of me in that split-second), but I unfold the stock simply out of habit. Perhaps recoil control isn't needed on a Shotgun, but it clears the screen up for you a bit more & perhaps makes dual-wielding a little less unwieldy, even though I'd say fold the stock if you're going akimbo in any other circumstance for maximum cool factor). Nevertheless, the Incendiary Rounds certainly helped me Break The Cycle and otherwise keep track of a nonetheless terrifying opponent.

I feel like I neglected the Bolt Gun to my detriment, as I used the Nail Rounds and failed to notice any impact comparable to it's reception and didn't fancy the burst fire of the Explosive Rounds compared to the Grenade Launcher's "One Tap, One BOOM!", perhaps not understanding that's where it's power truly lies regarding big targets like the Flesh Golem (Which I have yet to get a good reading on how much I'm hurting it or how best to hurt it most).

I definitely regretted choosing a Grenade Launcher over the Minigun with Smart Rounds for Horizon HQ, as I was not expecting the Lawyer Thugs to be able to survive a weapon so powerful that I killed myself with it often enough. I don't know about direct hits, so maybe the Homing Rounds can deliver the desired result, but the Smart Rounds give you that chance to clear what's around the corner without going around the corner. Still, packing a Shotgun & Grenade Launcher proved to be the most deadly thing to bring for most circumstances (Even if you have to keenly hold onto the Grenade Launcher for specific moments or opportunities for swift Focus recharges).

But, if there's anything RAGE Mode taught me, it's use your Focus very carefully or know your best opportunities to gain it. You're always going to want to have it when you find yourself in the worst of situations (Getting to the Patriarch with having no Focus on hand spare & whatever weapons I could scavenge made that fight quite the exhausting ordeal on my first go at it).

All-in-all, I'd consider RAGE a feasible difficulty to beat if you know precisely what you're doing & how best to prepare for it (Site 14 & Site 83 can be practically a breeze, meanwhile Pandora Institute's Courtyard, The Patriarch or Horizon HQ can take the piss if you're not prepared, but those unskippable scenes for Syndicate HQ that I hope are now skippable or I failed to notice that they were as skippable as other cutscenes were actually the only thing that brought me anything close to "Rage"), but for such a "You will die" difficulty, I do wish that they didn't attach Cheat unlocks to it, especially ones that would've greatly interested players that may otherwise struggle with the game or otherwise proved to be among the more fun ones. Attire, certainly. Achievements, fair enough (I wouldn't myself, but I guess Trepang Studios didn't want people with capture hardware or software to be the only ones able to prove the accomplishment).
Still, I think I'm happy with keeping it to Extreme as the "You get to see everything while keeping it reasonable", similar to DOOM's Ultra-Violence (Unless you're SIGIL or another DOOM .WAD looking to be a little harsher than others), Ace Combat & Project Wingman's Hard or Halo's Heroic Difficulty.