Soldier only run

[sarlok]

I was trying for some extra challenge and decided to attempt a run where I never picked up any of the other characters than the soldier. I used only the Uber Damage option. You can avoid picking up the support agent if you never activate the first beacon in the tutorial. I just finished the run today with most missions complete. I just wanted to post this to let you know it's possible in case anyone else wants to try for some extra challenge. I think the single most useful item in the game for this run is the FRED system.

[Gillsing]

Did you also use the F.R.E.D system with the WetCorp Selfdestruct?

[Caldor]

But seems there are more than a few missions / places where you need two people to get into a facility, and where it is best if they can hack? So you just force hack these places? Because it seems if you fail the soldier will die, and being on his own a more than 50% chance of him dying seems like a problem. Especially with no one around to get him back up. But I guess that is where the FRED system comes in then?

[sarlok]

Gillsing, I didn't use the Wetcorp self destruct on this run. I used it on a two man run, but on this one I found it better to use either the iron lungs, the one that gives you +health/armor, or the energy generator V2. The energy generator is what I finished with. It gives you enough energy to pop rage and harden at the same time. It also allows you to run farther and recharge faster, which was needed to hit both access points of the door to the Dracogenics tower. I barely made that one (the sprint legs weren't available to me in this game).

Caldor, I did force hack a lot of things. One of the first things I did was hack all the ATMs in each zone that I got to. Since I planned on dying a lot, I knew I needed the income. You'll just have to try several times to get all the ATMs. You will need to buy at least two of the district passes unless you want to brute force it, but I didn't want to try that.

As far as hacking during the missions, there isn't any mission that you need hacking more than level 1 to open the facility door, so it's not too bad with 39% chance of success. A few tries and you're in. Any other higher level hacking points can all be bypassed another way. FRED is essential to that so you can wait until the enemies go back to patrol and then respawn right at the hack point and try again. A grenade also solves lots of closed gates and turrets.

There are a few missions you just can't do. Some have two security panels you need to hack to open the facility door, but the time that they stay open is so short that you just can't hack both and run in. The Eternals train depot or the CSA in downtown are two that are nearly impossible. I say nearly because you could use an extra person picked up for another mission to hack with a 1% chance of success and eventually get it, but it's just not worth it constantly waiting for them to get out of the hospital after a failed attempt.

The agent I missed the most is actually the support agent. Missing world scan means that you can't find some of the people you need to talk to. Some of them you can, but there are a few that are impossible without it. You also can't get any researchers except for a few that you rescue from facilities. Assassinations you just have to start killing every civilian in an area until you kill the right one.

[Caldor]

Wow, that does sound challenging. Still... the soldier has some good options with the grenades and being able to hardwire. I think it would be more challenging with the Infiltrator or the Hacker. Probably most challenging with the Support agent, not even sure it would even be possible with that one. Everything he does seems to rely mostly on other agents getting better, the skills do not really help him that much. So I think the difficulty would be: soldier, hacker, infiltrator and support as the most difficult. The hacker can probably get far with hacking, hijacking and disrupting.

[sarlok]

Or I could try a one-man iron man run. That would be pretty insane as you'd never stay alive long enough to actually build up skills. I also did a 2 man iron man run with the soldier and support; I didn't pick up the hacker or infiltrator at all. The only missions I did on that run were the Ronin droid facilities, missions that didn't require entering any facilities (like assasination), and the final mission. I brute forced through the district checkpoints. So basically I just had the starting uzi, pistol, and FRED. One of the Ronin missions gives you another gear, I got the silencer. So a 2 man, no-skill, starting gear+FRED run is possible. I'm pretty sure that you could do almost the same as a 1-man, but you'd need either the sprint legs or the energy generator V2 to get into the dracogenics tower. Infiltrator would probably be the worst for that run. No world scan for missions, no level 1 hijack and hack, no good starting skills, heavy weapon penalty, and low health. Maybe I should try it.

[Rakesh]

Wow - I'm lost for words, given how abysmal I'm at combat in this game and how I stealth through everything, I cannot imagine doing missions with just one agent and the combat agent at that!

[Caldor]

yikes... that sounds pretty impossible. Iron man and only one to two agents? Seemed the only thing making that possible was FRED almost no death penalty.

[Creamysmooth]

Total respect.

[sarlok]

Doing these types of runs makes you see just how powerful the FRED system is. The Wetcorp self destruct is also a lot of fun, but not really needed. Another very powerful tool with these runs is just the silencer. You can blast down doors and generators without attracting any attention until they explode. But you don't get the silencer by default if you don't pick up the hacker, so it's something else you have to work and have a little luck to get.

[Disky]

Impressive!

[Caldor]

Sure does give new ideas on how to try and play this game. Last time I played with the full team, but had all options enabled, so uber damage + iron man + that option to get max skill points in slow time on the hacker. And I also decided to not use the black market at all. Both to avoid some errors that seem might occur that makes missions impossible to complete, but also to make the game a bit more difficult.

The soldier is probably the best / easiest agent to use to solo the game with only one agent. His skills makes him able to be very versatile. I guess stealth kills actually requires a weapon with a silencer, making it even more challenging with just one agent.

Come to think about it... how would you even play the game with one agent, when you cannot send agents away? Seems you would have to get the agent you want to solo with , but then leave the other agents at the relay every time?

Maybe I can find a way to disable agents in the save game file to make it easier trying this with other agents than the soldier.

[sarlok]

You can "stealth kill" without a silencer in that you can still one-hit kill an unsuspecting enemy with alt-click, but any nearby patrols will hear it and come to investigate, so you have to be ready for a fight or find a good place to hide. You could kind of play with one of the other agents by just getting the rest killed and not ressurrecting them. I don't know if you can travel between districts with dead agents though, so you may have to revive them for that. If you're brute forcing through a checkpoint, I'd consider it fair to get your one agent in on his own first and then have the others get in.

[Caldor]

Ahh, never think I tried stealth killing with no silencer. It would still be a stealth kill, since you sneak up on the enemy and kill him, but it would not be silent so the stealth part ends when killing the enemy.

[sarlok]

You can also kill stealthily by kicking someone to death. Low health enemies and civilians can be done that way. It doesn't alert anyone unless they see you.

[M0ntS4intM1chel]

Originally posted by sarlok:

...Assassinations you just have to start killing every civilian in an area until you kill the right one.

And now you closed the circle between Syndicate and Satellite Reign.