Human power priority list

[Black Captain]

My first run I did exclusive human power build. I ran through maybe 40% of the game until I made a decision which powers would be best early on before commiting a build. Not that this post is obviously my opinion and based on:
1. Comptetely a human power only run.
2. Wanting access to the most locations as soon as possible.
3. Boosting the power of weapon damage.
4. Stealth play.
5. Saving all the humans.
6.Being frugal in using resources while maximizing resource gain.
7.Other unlisted things.

I thought about writing a guide, but I'll leave it to others to finesse the related information. Below is my commentary on all of the human skills.

Hacking : I recommend immediately getting hacking. There are many level 1 doors/safes in this game, and possibly just as many lvl 2 and 3 doors. At level 3, you will be able to turn most robotic enemies into permanent allies. Level 4 isn’t really necessary and the robots you can hack at level 4 exist only for the terminal parts of the game.

Conditioning: A prerequisite for other useful skills.

Metabloic Boost: It’s almost a better healing skill than physician. Doubles hp gained off of any food/drink and provides a longer well fed buff that heals you over time. Great for spot heals, saving med kits, or damage mitigation in big fights. I recommend picking it up.

Physician. Definitely worth picking up as medkits don’t heal a lot and are lifesavers early to mid game. I play very frugally using medical droids for bulk healing. You will get more bang out of your medkits if you up to lvl 2, but if you play more conversatively or ration out your food, level 2, or even using medkits alone, becomes redundant.

Necropsy: Almost completely useless on a human power only run. You can recycle the psikits and get exotic material. Had I known this earlier, I wouldn’t have wasted the neuromods. With this skill be prepared to end the game with 60+ exotic material cubes…

Leverage: One the best powers in the human tree. The sooner you get it, the sooner you get access to blocked areas, shortcuts, and free damage+ knockdowns. Pretty much a required skill to 100% this game.Edit: Semipalmated Plover provided me an example where you can use the recycler to destroy items in a blocked path. As such, leverage becomes either a way to save recyclers (which isn't necessary) or a weapon. There are areas that can be most easily accessed by stacking items. You can also build complex structures to protect your turrets or pathways which becames useful in areas with high traffic.

Repair: This skill IS optional, but very useful. At least lvl 2 repair for fixing electric junctions (though you can bypass all of them). Level 3 makes a single turret a murder machine which can save you spare parts in repairing the heinously fragile regular turrets. At least with repair one you can fix Grav Shafts, Fabricators, and Recyclers for convenience. Level 1 repair is only worthless at the start of the game. I DO NOT recommend picking this skill up early unless you are planning capping to Repair 3 for the turret fortification as soon as possible.

Gunsmith: If you get this skill, you have to get to lvl 2. Extremely useful skill when using security weapons (shotgun, pistol, and stun gun).

Suit Modification Value depends on your value of inventory space and suit upgrades. The inventory space at level 1 is good enough. @ lvl 2, it’s better. @ lvl 3, it’s unnecessary. The value is really in suit upgrades which are great def defense and convenience.

Dismantle: Only useful if you are constantly repairing things and need spare parts. If you aren’t repairing anything or repair sparingly, don’t pick this skill up.

Materials Expert: The bonus 20% more resources will help over the long run but only matters if you are planning on using the fabricator a lot (for neuromods or gun ammo).

Lab Tech: Pretty unnecessary as tech weapons function reasonably well without upgrades /many upgrades.

Impact Calibration: Worth it when you want to save ammo, aren’t using typhon powers, or wrench only runs. Lvl 3 is only useful for wrench only runs as the damage boost isn’t much, rarely happens, and you aren’t likely use wrenchs more anything more than initial stealth attacks or finishers.

Firearms: Worth the upgrades. Crits happens often enough and the damage multiple stacks with other skills. Makes the shotgun a nightmare buster and the pistol a phantom killer.

Toughness: Useful at all levels but you can pick how much hp you feel comfortable with. Lvl 3 provides a completely unnecessary amount of health.

Stamina: I didn’t put any points in this. I think this is only useful for speedruns or wrench-only runs.

Mobility: I didn’t find any use for this other than for speed runs.

Combat Focus: A completely OP, novice-friendly skill that is unnecessary for anything more than the achievement related to it or if you want produce the highest possible damage numbers. If that, is the case, might as well boost it to level 3. I completed the game without using this skill. I would saves your neuromods unless you want easy-mode.

Stealth: This skill is useful at all levels if you care about stealth (I did). Level 2 makes it that you can run up to mobs facing you and still get a stealth attack off or hack a robot. Depending on your playstyle would still recommend at least up to level 2. If you don’t stealth, obviously avoid the skill.

Sneak Attack: At least lvl 1. The damage you do is insane and it works for any weapon. This can also work if you stun an enemy that doesn’t notice you allowing you to stack sneak attack damage. This skill provides the largest boost of damage a la your first attack even over fully upgrading a gun.

Psionic Aptitude: Almost pointless if you aren’t skilling in Typhon powers. Will be of more value when you are.

Neurostimulant: Only useful if you are using Typhon powers. There are other ways to restore psi. I would think this skill has use only in big fights or when you aren’t running weapons.

Psychotroincs: Useful to unlock more chipset slots in your psychoscope. On a human power only run, you can avoid it, though I put 1 point in as there were some benefits in equipping 4 related chipsets.

Rank
They are loosely ordered by importance. A (#) is my recommendation on what skill level you want to reach in the related skill. A (#+) is a sign of upgrades higher than the listed number are also useful. A "() +" [plus outside or w/o parenthesies] shows that the skill or its upgrades have varying use based on the playstyle of the player or limited usefulness in the higher rank of skill. A skill with "0" is a skill I'm doing the opposite of recommending. Note, certain skills have no numbers or "+" meaning the skill has no additional ranks.

Attitude Adjustment REQUIRED Tier (High)
Hacking (3) +
Conditioning
Materials Expert:
Metabloic Boost:
Physician. (1) +
Repair: (1+)
Gunsmith (2) (Only if you plan on using security weapons))

AntiRad Tier (Moderate)
Leverage: (2+)
Suit Modification (1)+
Sneak Attack: (1)+
Stealth: (1+)
Firearms: (1+)
Impact Calibration: (2)
Toughness: (1) +
Dismantle

Push the Fat man Tier (low)
Combat Focus: (1) +
Psionic Aptitude (1)
Psychotronics (1) +
Necropsy 0
Stamina: 0
Mobility: 0
Lab Tech +
Neurostimulant 0


I hope that helps all your human iterations out there.

[Semipalmated Plover]

I agree with nearly everything you said.

One point about Leverage for getting in to blocked areas though... you can use recycle grenades to get into those areas. I've got by without any points in leverage and got into each blocked off area with that method. It's pretty much all i use recycle grenades for actually. I'm swimming in them.

[Black Captain]

Originally posted by Semipalmated Plover:

I agree with nearly everything you said.

One point about Leverage for getting in to blocked areas though... you can use recycle grenades to get into those areas. I've got by without any points in leverage and got into each blocked off area with that method. It's pretty much all i use recycle grenades for actually. I'm swimming in them.

That is such a good point. I completely forgot about recycler nades in my gameplay saving them for getting resources or scrapping them. There are places you can get to by stacking objects and climbing them. But you are right. For every non-combat use of leverage save for building forts for turrets and stacking plaforms, you can use the recycler. Leveraged lvl 2+ items, in my opinion, are better weapons than the recycler.

I love that the devs provided players so many was to access different locations and play the game.

[Semipalmated Plover]

Originally posted by DuWryght:

I love that the devs provided players so many was to access different locations and play the game.

Yeh it's great. So much replayability with different builds.

[Morgian]

I did not pick up hacking (I suck at this kind of minigame) and got still into most places, so I have to call it optional (my biggest disappointment in Prey).

I bought the hitpoints last, in the Shuttle Bay, and you don't really need them. They allow for a kamikaze approach on some things, though.

Mobility is great, even though it is a comfort ability. I really liked to be able to sneak quickly through patrol patterns in the last part of the game. I would also love to have the chip from the treasure hunt much sooner for it's movement bonus alone ;)

The wrench skills were pretty much useless (for me), but weapon damage and upgrades rocked. A fully upgraded stunner is fantastic in the last part of the game, the shotgun is always good.

I picked up combat focus as an afterthought around the cargo bay, but it quickly grew on me. That is one powerful ability and you can go toe-to-toe with a nightmare, if you have that and a fully modified shotgun. If you want to spend the shells instead of hiding. It is not strictly necessary, but I would call it extremely useful. It allows to hit fast and tricky to hit enemies like the greater mimics and poltergeists, which are not the strongest opponents, but a pain in the ass.

I picked up suit modification and leverage first, since they were useful in all games like this. Being a packrat, having suit at maximum was essential :) I had also way more chipsets than space for them. I wonder, if similar chipsets are adding up...does thermal resistance put in twice give double the effect? Leverage was a bit disappointing, because many level 3 objects are kinda "stuck" or cannot be moved/carried around because there is too little space for them. They also tend to fall if placed anew and I found no way to turn them up while holding them. So I could not build a "stair" out of objects. Still, I will miss it as typhon :)

I wonder how tough playing as typhon is already, because all the comfort abilities are human.

[Vardis]

Originally posted by Morgian:

I wonder, if similar chipsets are adding up...does thermal resistance put in twice give double the effect?

You can't put in two of the same chipset, unfortunately.

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

Mobility is actually VERY useful for getting to places you otherwise couldnt. Even better when you get the jetpack boost later in the game. Grav shafts may as well be stair cases and you can jump from one floor to another without skipping a beat.

[RCMidas]

Excepting Typhon runs, I rush Necropsy straight away. You'll always end up with more body parts than psi-hypos for recycling, so it lets you make a helluva lot more neuromods. No need to wait nearly so long to upgrade anything, plus you get to upgrade more without needing to grind so much.

Otherwise, I'd agree with you.

[FeelZeSchadenfreude]

Generally for human runs I plan the early game around rushing the neuromod fabrication plan in the fabrication lab attached to volunteer quarters, which generally requires repair 1 to fix the grave shaft. Necropsy early on is useful due to mimic tumors giving you a bit of everything to recycle. It, plus Materials Expert and Dismantle, are the most important long term resource skills.

As for the combat skills, most important are Combat Focus and the sneak attack skills. Then the various upgrade skills, and in particular upgrade the range of the stun gun.

[Animeye]

For human only runs, getting more neuromods than you need is pretty simple.
Start of game you'll want to prioritze hack (I believe you need hack 2 to open your path to fabrication). Once you have your hack + bolt caster, you can get into Hargrave's office and get neuromod fabrication started.
Recycler and Necropsy aren't required, but will ultimately speed up your rate of getting powers, so are probably worth it early on.
Beyond that, it becomes "focus wherever makes sense at the moment". Maxing hacking early will help (hack corrupted operators to save some ammo). Combat Focus, Repair, the healing upgrades, and the health upgrades make the world a bit safer.
By the time you are escaping deep storage you will have the essentialy maxed out and just blowing whatever mods you get on things like stamina upgrades

[dedrach]

Priority for only human power game run is upgrading weapons and more stanima/hp/jumping higher, at least for me, this combination made "nightmare" diffuclty pretty ez after some time in game :S

[黒崎⊛一心]

Late side note: You don't really need leverage or a recycling grenade to get into blocked areas. As of like 1.9-1.10 (this is when I bought it so I don't know about previously) you can pick up a chair or light objects like an operator chassis and nudge heavy objects out of the way or glitch it into big containers, in which it will place itself under the heavy object and begin to move it or tip it.

[XTS]

I just found a second DFA (falling on enemy).. I installed the second one. Any chance it'll work better now? Why Two?

NVM I see it alternates the install. So, what do I do with the second one? I suppose nothing. I can't even find it. But it is in my chipset section. I don't see it in inventory.