Freelancer - Permanent unlocks: when and how?

[TommyEV]

As far as I know, it was said that there would be permament unlcoks after all. Are there?
If so: when are we given the chance? Should I be "saving up" during the missions or it is no mercer based?

Thanks

[Kunovega]

EDIT:

There's 3 category of items

1. House clutter ~ there are items in every room around the house, they respawn between missions, you never lose these. You have knives, blunt weapons, distraction items, even a banana to cause slips and battery to cause accidents, fiber wire, etc.

2. Wall collections ~ these are not lost when you lose a campaign or switch difficulty, but are at risk of being lost if you leave them behind in a mission on the ground or die. You don't lose these for losing a campaign and you never lose the ones left on the wall. You can only lose the ones you have with you if you die.*

3. Tools table ~ Everything on the tools table is lost if you lose a campaign or change difficulty, whether you had it with you or not (it's also used up if it's a single use item like a syringe or explosive)

Now realize: You can lose a campaign (and your entire tools table) without dying.

And: You can die (and lose what you are carrying) without losing the campaign.

If you do both at the same time, you have both effect you.

Anything you lose can be found again or bought again, you are only ever offered items that you don't already have, so the more full your wall or tools table, the faster you'll see the missing items again to replace them.

*(well, technically you're injured and escape but you know what I mean).

[TommyEV]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

Mastery unlocks are permanent, this includes a few weapons on the wall and the house decorations (and every room has an item in it that you can bring on missions that respawns, like the battery in the garage, etc.)

Beyond that wall items (other than mastery unlocks) are only lose if you bring them into a mission and leave them on the ground or die while carrying them. If they are on the wall when a campaign is failed, you keep them and you keep them between campaigns even when switching from normal to hardcore.

Beyond that is the tools table, the tools table is wiped if you fail a campaign or if you switch hardcore/normal, this doesn't effect the wall items only the table.

Thank you. I wasn't that sure about the wall.

[Kunovega]

Personally for the majority of missions I only use the house spawned items like the stethascope for fiberwire, the coin and emetic mushroom from the forest, the battery, the knife on the shed, pretty much every room has a permanent item in it, even the bathroom has a newspaper, etc. There's even a nail in the forest for lockpicking.

The only reason to bring a wall item is for a very specific bonus objective, like if you need an "epic" knife instead of a normal one, this way you only really risk 1 wall item at a time. And tools table just look at as disposable, that stuffs cheap to replace anyway and the bulk of it is single use poisons and explosives anyway.

[TommyEV]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

Personally for the majority of missions I only use the house spawned items like the stethascope for fiberwire, the coin and emetic mushroom from the forest, the battery, the knife on the shed, pretty much every room has a permanent item in it, even the bathroom has a newspaper, etc.

The only reason to bring a wall item is for a very specific bonus objective, like if you need an "epic" knife instead of a normal one, this way you only really risk 1 wall item at a time. And tools table just look at as disposable, that stuffs cheap to replace anyway and the bulk of it is single use poisons and explosives anyway.

Yes, I'm starting to notice those details.
So there won't be any point in which we unlock, for example, a silenced pistol, right?

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by TommyEV:

Originally posted by Kunovega:

Personally for the majority of missions I only use the house spawned items like the stethascope for fiberwire, the coin and emetic mushroom from the forest, the battery, the knife on the shed, pretty much every room has a permanent item in it, even the bathroom has a newspaper, etc.

The only reason to bring a wall item is for a very specific bonus objective, like if you need an "epic" knife instead of a normal one, this way you only really risk 1 wall item at a time. And tools table just look at as disposable, that stuffs cheap to replace anyway and the bulk of it is single use poisons and explosives anyway.

Yes, I'm starting to notice those details.
So there won't be any point in which we unlock, for example, a silenced pistol, right?

EDIT:

Since it was changed after the closed testing, all wall items can be lost, unlocking them from mastery (or DLC) just gives you your first one and then puts them into the items pool so you can buy or earn them back again if lost.

[TommyEV]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

Originally posted by TommyEV:

Yes, I'm starting to notice those details.
So there won't be any point in which we unlock, for example, a silenced pistol, right?

I'm pretty sure there's a mastery for it, maybe level 40? I'd have to relook at the mastery list.

But really, a silenced pistol is super common once you finish your first syndicate, the assassins all carry one. That's the only one I normally put at risk unless one of the bonus objectives says "legendary pistol" and then you have to either skip that bonus or risk one your expensive ones, I got the goldballer (legendary) from completing a syndacite, sometime after getting the ghost sniper for another.

But again, unless you need those for objectives, use the room trash. As you get a higher gear rating, the common trash becomes easier to carry more of it, it's all high gear numbers.

Good to know. I'm actually starting my second syndicate so I'll probably see it now!

[TommyEV]

Some more questions, if you don't mind:

1) Assuming I have found decent gear for that campaign and I don't care much about getting credits/mercers, does completing conditions also give more XP towards mastery? Or other than making the game more fun and all, they wouldn't be important in that particular run?

2) Does weapon rarity matter other than for some conditions, as you mentioned? If i find a legendary weapon I can lose it just the same, right?

3) In the first contract of my second syndicate I managed to buy a Sieker for just 4k credits. It felt like an absolute steal. Was it? It has helped a lot in the next contracts. Then on the very next contract the Kalmer was like 30k.

3.1) Do prices increase as the campaign goes on? Or are the available items (and their prices) random?

Tahnks again!

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by TommyEV:

Some more questions, if you don't mind:

1) Assuming I have found decent gear for that campaign and I don't care much about getting credits/mercers, does completing conditions also give more XP towards mastery? Or other than making the game more fun and all, they wouldn't be important in that particular run?

i've barely paid attention to this but I think you get XP for every bonus completed, it seems to be roughly tied to the amount of mercers you earned, I couldn't tell you hard numbers I barely look at it.

2) Does weapon rarity matter other than for some conditions, as you mentioned? If i find a legendary weapon I can lose it just the same, right?

Outside of required conditions rarity is mainly gear rating, rare things have lower number gear ratings so you can carry more at once if you wanted to. A common pistol might be a 4, a legendary is a 1.

The advantage to leveling up and having a higher personal gear rating is that rarity isn't as much of a crutch so you don't need to put those rare items at risk as often since you can carry the higher gear rating common junk more easily.

3) In the first contract of my second syndicate I managed to buy a Sieker for just 4k credits. It felt like an absolute steal. Was it? It has helped a lot in the next contracts. Then on the very next contract the Kalmer was like 30k.

One goes on the tool table, the other goes on the wall. Two different risks as explained before, you can lose your tools table entirely for failing a campaign or changing difficulty. The wall item is only at risk when brought with you.

The additional advantage is being able to carry both as they are separate items, you could bring something like 4 dart guns if you have them all.

3.1) Do prices increase as the campaign goes on? Or are the available items (and their prices) random?

Not something I've tracked intentionally but I believe prices are static, it's just mostly based on rarity. Tools table is cheap, wall is more expensive and the more rare the more expensive as the gear rating is lower. (and the payouts for using them when asked to do so are higher on the bonus assignments)

This all really comes more into play if you've moved beyond your first couple of campaigns and especially into hardcore where special assignments become mandatory instead of optional, you straight up can't proceed without having most of the wall unlocked and failures where you lose legends can be crippling.

I mean, it's intentionally hard, just stick with normal until you have the permanents unlocked, which at that point you're really only playing to screw around as there's nothing left to do but see how easy it is to fail when some set of impossible randoms get lumped together.

The hardcore I just failed gave me a required 2 minute time limit for 4 targets on not just opposite ends of the map but also underground, also suit only, and the time limit included getting the targets and escape. I know the map, even just walking to the targets and then to the exit, forget actually trying to hide wouldn't have been possible inside of two minutes due to the floor setups in the way and the "doors will remain locked" option that was also turned on for that mission.

You're going to fail eventually, it's all just mitigation and planning to see how far you can go in the mean time.

[TommyEV]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

3) In the first contract of my second syndicate I managed to buy a Sieker for just 4k credits. It felt like an absolute steal. Was it? It has helped a lot in the next contracts. Then on the very next contract the Kalmer was like 30k.

One goes on the tool table, the other goes on the wall. Two different risks as explained before, you can lose your tools table entirely for failing a campaign or changing difficulty. The wall item is only at risk when brought with you.

The additional advantage is being able to carry both as they are separate items, you could bring something like 4 dart guns if you have them all.

So that's the nuance. i hadn't noticed but it all makes sense.

Tahnks again for the help.

[TommyEV]

A couple of questions, since you are more experienced!

Is the item outside the safehouse randomly chosen from a rusty nail or rusty crowbar or both are there and I didn't find them?

Regarding items you find:
- Weight AND rarity is a wall item.
- Weight and "freelancer tool" is fot the tool box.
- But what happens with items with just weight? For example a normal hammer from the crate that has a weight of 3. How is it different, for example, from the icicle (with no rarity nor weight).

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by TommyEV:

A couple of questions, since you are more experienced!

Is the item outside the safehouse randomly chosen from a rusty nail or rusty crowbar or both are there and I didn't find them?

Regarding items you find:
- Weight AND rarity is a wall item.
- Weight and "freelancer tool" is fot the tool box.
- But what happens with items with just weight? For example a normal hammer from the crate that has a weight of 3. How is it different, for example, from the icicle (with no rarity nor weight).

The outdoor forest is random items both in what spawns and where, you can exit to menu and come back in and it will change.

What I've seen so far in the woods and around the lake front: rusty nail, emetic poison mushroom, coin, rusty crowbar. There might be more, they all change locations and not all of them spawn every time.

The rooms in the house all seem to be consistent respawn, I've only seen the forest/lake front be random.

If it just has a gear rating it's only there to limit you while taking it out of the safehouse into a mission, it means it doesn't get collected on the wall or on the tools table. Only items with rarity are collected.

Gear rating by itself is just the limit of what you carry when leaving for a mission, like you never "collect" the battery from the garage, but you can take it with you if you have the gear rating space to carry it.

(previous posts edited to be more accurate)

[TommyEV]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

Gear rating by itself is just the limit of what you carry when leaving for a mission, like you never "collect" the battery from the garage, but you can take it with you if you have the gear rating space to carry it.

I understand that but unless I'm missing something, items like a hammer (not the clawhammer with rarity) can be found in crates and have weight but they don't return with you to the safehouse so the weight is meaningless, isn't it?

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by TommyEV:

Originally posted by Kunovega:

Gear rating by itself is just the limit of what you carry when leaving for a mission, like you never "collect" the battery from the garage, but you can take it with you if you have the gear rating space to carry it.

I understand that but unless I'm missing something, items like a hammer (not the clawhammer with rarity) can be found in crates and have weight but they don't return with you to the safehouse so the weight is meaningless, isn't it?

Gear ratings during a mission don't matter, it only matters what you leave the safehouse with.