A quick explanation about the other game modes (Shifter and Biomod)

[Liliana]

So, shifter and biomod are third party mods which generally function as a vanilla plus sort of thing. For everyone's reference, shifter adds the following things:

Swappable Augs. You can swap out and replace augmentations, in case you managed to bone yourself with a bad choice

New and or Improved Augmentations: Some really bad augmentations got buffed, and others got totally reworked.

Alt-Fire: A new key can be bound (is unbound by default) to use a new fire mode for several weapons. If the weapon does not have alt fire, this toggles the scope instead-I bind it to Middle Mouse. For instance, you can throw combat knives

Unique Weapons: Special, one spawn only weapons are scattered throughout the game, which are like the other guns, but better. I'm adding a list of their locations to the bottom of this post. They're not too generally hard to find, though-just poke around people who would have high quality weapons.

Additional skill points: Shifter awards additional XP for violence, and for sneaking.

And harder A.I. Shifter's A.I. is a lot more brutal than vanilla, so keep this in mind. Enemies also have randomized equipment, so i've been shot by a terrorist with a Plasma pistol before. It was not pleasant.

Biomod is built on top of shifter, and changes some things. The majority of these are changes to the augmentations, making most of them automatic, and only draining energy when they trigger, like the muscles allowing you to lift objects. Others are buffed or combined with other augmentations. It also adds Pickpocketing, a new autosave, the ability to mantle ledges like in Thief, and Achievements.

If you don't know which to use, play normal first. They do advise it, after all.

You can toggle the new or old soundtrack in the sound settings menu, and use what you prefer.

Hope this helps!


**SPOILERS**

Unique weapons and locations, taken from the wiki:

Paul's Blackjack: He took a baton, and filled it with lead shot. Simple enough. It does 6 extra damage compared to the standard baton. It's in his apartment on your first visit to Hell's Kitchen (on pacifist runs only), on his body if he dies, and in the lobby of the 'Ton of your last visit.

The Boomstick: Jock's special sawed-off shotgun, it fires 3 times as many pellets as the standard sawn off, but does half damage per pellet. It's more accurate, shoots faster, and reloads faster too-and like the regular sawn off, you can use alt fire to pump more shells into the chamber. It's in Jock's Apartment in Hong Kong. The area is a bit difficult to reach-try leaping off a nearby building through the windows.

The iLAW: You know that rocket machinegun the MJ12 Commandos use? It's that. It's in the MJ12 lab under Hell's Kitchen, but only when it's collapsed when you visit the place later. It's under some rocks. There's also one in the Versalife building on your second visit.

Jackhammer: It's a quad auto-shotgun. Smuggler is a bit of an evil genius, no? Reloads take forever and you're spitting out four shells per shot and everyone will die and you're out of shells. But you can have it. It's apparently where the robot in smuggler's hideout is, but only when you visit during the last visit to hell's kitchen.

Magnum: Do you feel lucky, Punk? On the bed next to Juan Lebedev, it's an upgraded pistol. It makes tons of noise, has high recoil, and can't be silenced, but does huge damage for a single inventory slot.

Lo Bruto: JoJo Fine is an idiot, but he has good taste in guns. His unique silenced pistol does more damage, although it has higher recoil, a longer reload time, and has fewer bullets. He carries it at all times, so killing him when he shows up at the "Ton is the only way to get it.

Precision Sniper: Fast firing time, and a special scope which highlights targets. You can find it in the foreman's shack when you first get to Paris, on top of the very first building.

Prototype Nanoswords, Versions 1, 2, and 3: Several versions of the Dragon's Tooth sword still in development. The gimmick here is that they have better damage, but swap between states where they deal varying amounts of damage. 1 has the most, but is the least stable, switching fairly quickly. Version 1 can be found on top of a shipping container near smuggler's hideout on your last visit, or on the unconscious body of Agent Sherman, some ♥♥♥♥ in the MJ12 base, depending on if paul survived or not. Paul carries one as well, but good luck taking it from him. Mark 2 is on the scientist corpse at the very end of the sunken tunnel secret in Hong Kong, and Mark 3 is in the captain's quarters of the ship you board.

Toxin Blade: Smuggler is again an evil genius. This combat knife does the same thing a shock prod, although it will murder people you stab with it, rather than just stun them, so keep that in mind. Apparently it's nano-toxin, but we don't care about that. It's under Smuggler's pillow on your first visit.

The Skull Gun: Because everyone knows this is a good idea. When escaping UNATCO, it's in the vending machine in the break room, or on Gunther's corpse in Paris. It also comes with another augmentation too, so if you're lucky, you get two on the same slot and laugh all the way to the bank.

Railgun: It shoots through walls, and sees through them too. Takes the Plasma ammunition, and you can find it in the house of a weapons smuggler in paris. Walton Simon also carries one.

[oddeyedl]

Thanks man!

[Liliana]

Bumping this so it doesn't get lost in the confusion, to help answer these kinds of questions.

[dunbaratu]

I was wondering what those were. The game UI never explains them on the screen where you select them and I think it should, at least in summary.

I just started on "normal" not knowing what these meant, but as I've played the normal game through before about 4-5 times, I think I'll abort and start over with one of these. I've played the normal game enough.

[J o n e x]

Biomod has such an unappealing name that I decided to play Shifter first. But now that I've read your explanation and understand the added features, I feel compelled to start a new Biomod playthrough!

[MrHoudini]

How do I activate these mods in Revision. I have Revision installed, the map textures are there but the Shifter and Biomod addons(augs, points for kills etc) are not there. :(
Am I missing something?

[Liliana]

You need to go into the options menu, and turn them on. Do be aware that you need to use a new save, and it won't load saves from a different mode. It's under game options, in the settings tab from the pause menu, to clarify.

[MrHoudini]

oh right. Jesus, im blind...
Thank you. So I can only have one of them active at once(bio, or shift) or.. how does it work?

[Liliana]

Yeah, you can only have one at a time. Biomod has everything from Shifter, and some new things of it's own, while Shifter just doesn't have the Biomod stuff in the game, and Normal is just the new level design, with no other mechanics changes.

To mantle objects, invest in Biomod's athletic's skill. It's a little finnicky.

[MrHoudini]

Okey, so to have the most stuff operational, I should use Biomod?

[Liliana]

Yep, biomod has the "most" mod stuff. It's actually implemented pretty well.

I'm not sure I mentioned it, but there's also 10mm EX ammo, and Dragons Breath shotgun shells floating around, but I haven't found any yet.

[MrHoudini]

Cool. Thx for the info dude :)

[[LUE] BigBoct]

In the old maps, you need to complete Liberty Island and Castle Clinton nonlethal to get the Blackjack at the first Hell's Kitchen visit. Not sure if that was changed.

Also in the old maps, if you kill the Castle Clinton detachment and Anna compliments you, she'll leave two boxes of Explosive 10mm on your desk for when you get back from the airfield mission.

[dunbaratu]

Playing Biomod - is there documentation on what the "challenges" are? It's a bit annoying to only find out about them because a message appeard when I failed one of them, without having even been trying to accomplish them in the first place because I had no idea they even existed or what they were. The moment when I fail the special challenge is usually my first indication that the challenge even existed in the first place.

[J o n e x]

Originally posted by dunbaratu:

Playing Biomod - is there documentation on what the "challenges" are? It's a bit annoying to only find out about them because a message appeard when I failed one of them, without having even been trying to accomplish them in the first place because I had no idea they even existed or what they were. The moment when I fail the special challenge is usually my first indication that the challenge even existed in the first place.

Just pause the game with Esc and look for "Challenges".

[J o n e x]

I've found another unique weapon in Jock's apartment. On the table next to "The Boomstick" you can find "Jock's Pistol" which is basically a 10mm pistol with a silencer attached. There's also an "Elite Assault Rifle" carried by elite MJ12 troops at the Naval shipyard. It's an assault rifle with improved stats, a lasersight, and a scope.