As challenging as I remembered

[Ninth Hour]

I completed the first game's campaign on various difficulty modes, including Elite, and am really enjoying this sequel. On the default setting of Experienced, it feels quite well balanced.

The "timed" missions (i.e. the ones with Alarms, turrets, and unending reinforcements) remain my least favorite ones. And now with bonus objectives involving speed, this pressure is even more intense.

The Navy HQ Intelligence mission in Angler's Reef requires you to escape in just 10 turns, to meet the bonus objective, while the Out on Bad Behavior mission in Shiner's Cove requires you to reach a Cell Block within a certain number of turns, then survive the Alarm long enough to get out.

While I was able to get a high rating on both missions, completing them perfectly in the first run seems improbable, unless you did some grinding and had remarkable character builds and equipment.

In the case of Navy HQ, I grabbed all the loot and survived all the reinforcements but couldn't meet the bonus objective of escaping in 10 turns. For Out on Bad Behavior, I was able to grab the Epic Swag and one chest, but the others were too scattered and the enemy forces too dense by that point to linger any longer- I ended up leaving with only 20% of the loot (but did get the full Reputation bonus, for the bonus objective and Epic swag).

I assume that, if you want to get all loot and meet all bonus objectives in such a tight timeframe, your entire team needs Flanker levels and mobility enhancing items. Otherwise, I don't see how this can be accomplished.

But as much as I may grouse about such missions, I do find them an exciting part of the gameplay. The completionist in me just wishes I was better at them.

[letir]

Well, game called "heist" for a reason. You need speed and Flanker on the team if you want to get all the loot.

1. Speed is important. Not only it enable better positioning, with high enough speed you can run away from reinforcements or evac from half of the map. Jetpack open up additional paths and sometimes help traverse levels much faster. Beacon special can be invaluable in some missions.
2. High firepower is another requirement for the runs. If you can scrap most enemies in single action or kill several with one shot, it helps considerably. Getting more damage is first priority. Penetration abilities on weapons, AOE, several shots per round - anything goes.
3. Free actions are cornerstone of action economy. With free actions you can be much more flexible in the approach and speed up difficult zones. Free skills, free attacks, free movement, active or passive.
4. If your goal speicificly to collect difficult loot, you should definitly bring Flanker with extra speed items. This class have a lot of skills to go fast and collect everything. Poe, Barbara and Beacon are best for the role.

[Ninth Hour]

I agree with your points.

I brought Poe on both missions (as well as to every other) but she was my only Flanker. Just playing "naturally", with no grinding and no forewarning of what is to come, the speed challenge is steep. And that is even when everyone was armed with rare (Purple) Tier 1 weapons, which is what you would typically have at that point. If it were not for Poe and her ridiculous mobility (she currently has speed of 13), I might not have been able to grab the Epic Swag for some of the missions.

Again, my impression is that, on the first blind playthrough, completing these missions perfectly is unlikely. Either one grinds ahead of time (if you already know what they entail), to get the necessary Flanker levels on everyone or one comes back later in the game, when you are much better equipped and leveled.

I was aiming for the achievement of finishing the campaign by 35 days but I wonder if it is feasible if one tries to be a completionist on the first run.

[letir]

Well, you can abandon map with no reprecussions, so it possible to do "scout run", shuffle some things and then return later, if it's your thing. It's perfectly legal.

As my experience, Heist dosen't need that much grinding, besides natural bounty farming. Game placing a lot of emphasis on open world and all perks which come with it - you can search the map, get into new zones, collect all loot there and then return back to more challenging missions with better gear and more skills.

For example, by beating story related mission (which is much easer), you can obtain different things in the third zone:
1) Extra utility slot for the team from sub upgrade.
2) T2 rare engineer pistol for 300, which deal 6 damage and increase melee damage - you will not find pistol with more damage until late game.
3) T2 rare shotgun with 5 damage and 2 HP from easy duel mission.
4) T2 rare boots for 300 (12 rep needed), +2 speed - again, you won't get anything better until late game.
5) There is also medal +40% XP in the far east of second zone, after some minefields, challenging big ship and spiky obstacles.

This is just easy to get stuff. After you beat some missions and take more skills from differnt classes, Navy HQ will be cakewalk. Even secret epic loot will not be a problem anymore. And it's similar with other zones - with "right" sub build you can go way ahead, farm water/bounty points, discover all Argent's shops and get rare stuff even before you engage in first mission.