Ghost player clone advice?

[halfmonkey]

I never finished the first game- encountering the control bugs that would almost always get me killed on the ledges and balconies, so I gave up on it fairly early. Since hearing that the controls were tightened, I picked up this sequel and am enjoying it. I love the challenges of a "never-seen, no-kill" reward-type stealth game and this fits the bill.

The problem I'm having is that I'm starting out the third mission chapter and realizing that I haven't barfed up a single clone yet (beyond one I spawned accidentally during the poorly worded "item wheel" tutorial, that is.) Am I doing myself a disservice by not using clones?

What's the best way to use them if I'm trying to ghost a level?

[Zarjin]

Clones are not necceccary at all during the game, and their use requires knowledge of where and when to use them. For example using them the same way as in prologue suggests you to get in the building at the start aka: make clone, drop chandelier, destroy clone is a good tactic. If you've got clone talents with the poison smoke is also helpfull for when you want to enter areas where guards are clustered togeather but that makes sound and can get you detected so its a niché. Or then just cocoon teleport over a ledge you cant be arsed to climb over (hint:Boss levels).

[D'zen]

Even if clones are not required during the gameplay, yes, this is a great and fun power to use with a pretty great upgrades in it's skilltree. As the game said, with their help you can escape from all the sticky situations. You can do a huge amount of different things with their help, such as:

-- distracting guards with different objects or with the clone itself to clear the path for you;
-- creating clones on distance (on other side of the hole that you can't jump over) and teleporting to him;
-- being unkillable when your clone exists (guards will kill you, but you will reappear on the clone's place);
-- being able to be in two places at a time -- leave the clone somewhere, then do some actions in one area, teleport to your clone and do your things there;
-- grab one guard with a clone, jump down on second one's head and during your fall, kill the third one with a spike;
-- cover the whole area with 5 or more guards with smoke and sneak through them unnoticed;
-- make both Styx and your clone invisible while controling your clone;
-- kill the guards without any traces by sacrificing your clones and dissolving the corpses with an acid cloud;
-- etc.

Styx's cloning abilities are really great and powerful in this game, which I do like a lot.

Also, one tip about the first game: as I understand, you was cucked a lot of times by not knowing the game controls mechanic: hold Shift key and let Styx fall down from the edge by walking over it and he will grab it and if you are holding Space after the jump Styx will grab the edge and won't instantly climb on it. Let it one more try now, when you know this.

[halfmonkey]

I will definitely try out these things, but doesn't the clone getting spotted ruin the Shadow rating?
Either way, the "teleport to clone" option seems like the one I'd get some use out of.

Thanks for the tips and I will have to play the first again with more patience.

The problem wasn't that I didn't know what to do. It was that half the time the controls didn't respond properly, resulting in a lot of missed grabs and unwanted jump/fall deaths.

[Innocent]

Originally posted by halfmonkey:

I will definitely try out these things, but doesn't the clone getting spotted ruin the Shadow rating?
Either way, the "teleport to clone" option seems like the one I'd get some use out of.

Thanks for the tips and I will have to play the first again with more patience.

The problem wasn't that I didn't know what to do. It was that half the time the controls didn't respond properly, resulting in a lot of missed grabs and unwanted jump/fall deaths.

Yes that was a very common complaint from the first game. I got into the habit of quick saving before a tricky ledge attempt, I feel it's ok to save-scum when you're just really making up for bugs. If you can do that, you'll find the first game is an amazing one too. While I like Styx 2 and find the controls much better, I think I liked the setting of the first more :)