Tips and tricks for new players

[Kesslan]

So after playing for a good long while and trying various things out, it seemed to me that it was worthwhile making a small guide of tips and tricks for new players to the game to use as there's quite a few of you asking a lot of the same questions!


Cutting Drugs:
Cutting drugs is when you take a specific drug, and mix something in with it, usually with the intent to put more things into it (Such as Baking Powder or Sugar) to give you more to sell, thus 'diluting' the product. There are three ways to do this, the first way, which you start with, is the cutting mat which can't hold more than 30g of product pre-mix and looses a percentage every time you use it. This can only mix dry, powdered products.

The second way is with a mixer. Mixers come in various sizes and the largest currently is the large mixer, which can hold 300g. You obtain Mixers from the Pharmacy which you unlock around level 15 or so if I recall correctly. Once again, these can only mix dry, powdered products

The third way is a liquid mixing tray. You can purchase these in various sizes from the Pharmacy with the largest one holding 150g. When you mix a liquid you then have to dry or crystalize it using a dryer or crystalizer you can purchase from the pharmacy, again in various sizes. The two largest ones are the 250g Crystalizer and the 300g Dryer. NOTE: The dryer and the Crystalier are NOT the same. The Dryer is primarily used when you're wanting to take a mix you've made using liquid mix, and then grind it back into powder to use in mixes. The Crystalizer always adds the (Crystalized) property where as the Dryer usually adds the (Dried) property to the finished item (Though it -Can- in some cases tag it as Crystalized, but this is usually only with very specific, advanced mixes)




Grinders:
There are two grinders, the mortar and pestle and the coffee grinder. The first one you unlock around level 6 and you can buy from a lady in the market square near your starting area. The coffee grinder (As well as more mortars and pestles) can be purchased from the pharmacy once you unlock it. The coffee grinder holds 100g of product and the mortar and pestle holds 50g. Currently the Mortar and Pestle is superior as you don't loose anything when you grind with it, but it takes up about 4-5x more space than the coffee grinder, which causes a small percentage of loss that's random between around 0.5-3% or so. The big advantage of the coffee grinder is that it's a) Much more compact and thus ideal for small work areas and b) faster than mortar and pestle and also grinds twice as much at the same time.




Cutting Products:
With the exception of Acetone, you usually don't want to ever add more than 3g to every 10g of product when cutting until you learn what you're doing.

Acetone: This is used for liquid mixing only, and primarily is used when making Meth or when using Pot. You usually don't need more than 1g of Acetone when you mix, as the acetone 'dries off' when you're done mixing and put it in a crystalizer or dryer. That said there are a few cases where using more than 1g of Acetone is useful, as it can be used to 'dilute' the percentage of something or otherwise better control the percentage being mixed.

Baking Soda, Sugar and Salt: These are the three primary starter products you'll have to cut drugs with when you get started. Sugar helps the addiction, Baking soda basically just acts as a filler, and Salt will mostly be used as a filler but has other properties you want to use once you learn to do advanced mixing.

Ibuprofen: Note, there are TWO types of Ibuprofen in the game, and they are NOT the same. The first one you get access to is sold at the gas station along with the Baking Soda, Sugar and Salt. However to use it you need a grinder, which you can't get until level 6. This helps both stretch out your drugs, while also making them slightly more addictive. The second (and better kind) is from the Pharmacy. The quantity per box is smaller but you can buy more of it (up to 30 boxes at a time). Like the gas station Ibuprofen, you have to grind it before you can use it. This Ibuprofen is stronger however than the one you get from the gas station and generally shouldn't be mixed with the stuff from the gas station. (Or at least, it's not really worth doing)

Viagra, Paracetamol and Nebilanex: These are again pills you need to put through a grinder before you can use. Viagra is highly addictive and too much can cause people to OD. Paracetamol is kind of so so, helps make things more addictive but isn't anything too special, Nebilanex makes things more addictive, but also more dangerous to use, so be careful how much you put in. Mixing all three usually is bad as it tends to turn what ever you're making into pure poison.

Fentanyl: This is a later game additive you get from Eddie once you get to a high enough level (It's the last drug you can unlock to buy from him). You can't sell it pure as is, and it's intended to be used to mix with other drugs to make them more addictive. WARNING: Using too much Fentanyl in a product will KILL your clients very quickly.

Cutting drugs with other drugs!: This is where you start getting a little more advanced with your mixes. Putting things like Coke, Heroin, Meth and Amp into other, weaker drugs like Exctasy to make them more addictive. You can also the the reverse such as put Amp into Heroin or Coke to 'cut' the more expensive drugs with something that's cheaper but still addictive.



Getting around with all those drugs!:
So of course the big thing of the game is running around with all these wonderful drugs, and selling them for mad money so you get rich and can buy even more, better drugs (Or just, MORE DRUGS) and better equipment. First off here's a few neat little tricks!

Throwing Bags over walls:
This can be done to an extent, though certain methods are not intended by the game designers. As far as I can tell it's supposed to be normal that you can throw small bags over the walls and then just walk around to pick them up. The smaller the bag, the easier it is to throw over the wall. Note: How full the bag is, and how heavy the stuff in it DOES have an effect on how fast you can move while carrying it, and how far you can throw it!

You can carry two bags at once!
That's right! If you have one bag equipped, you can fill it with stuff, drop it on the ground, equip another bag, fill that, and then walk over to the first bag and pick that bag up! That bag will however be held in your hands, and prevent you from doing things like using equipment, jumping over walls or running (You can at best, walk at a swift pace while 'running' but you're quite slow). This is mostly useful when you're moving large quantities of drugs or money around from things like drops or from one safe house to another. In order to use your hands however to do anything more complicated than open doors, you have to drop the bag you're holding first, which you do by holding down the B key by default. Holding it down will drop the bag that's in your hands, and doing it a second time will drop the bag you have equipped to your bag inventory slot.

You can store bags inside of bags but be careful!
So yes, you can store bags inside of other bags, briefcases inside of briefcases. The last one defies logic as Briefcases have hard sides, but what ever it's a game. However, at present if you drop more than about 3-4 items out of a container onto the ground at the same time, some of them will vanish! In order to get around this its' best to move them from the bag into another container like a dresser or cupboard and then pull out however many you actually need. It think this is less a bug with the game and more a bug with the game engine.



ATMs:
You can deposit a fair bit of money into ATMs without triggering a DEA raid. This amount -appears- to increase with your level, but I'm not entirely sure what actually causes the increase. I've tested this slightly but not extensively. IE: early on you can deposit around 3-500 a day into the ATM without problems. I'm presently level 73 in my current play through, maxed out skills and I can deposit about 900 a day without any problems but early on 900 would risk bringing the DEA so I'm not sure what the actual limit is.


The DEA: How to tell if you're about to be raided!
Basically you'll see a black van with silver rims parked on the road closest to the hideout that's going to get raided. It WILL get raided at some point, regardless of if you're there or not. Beyond that DEA raids are very buggy right now, so not much else to say about that.


How to get La Bellena or Keniji for your gang:
First off, this is an either or situation, you can't work for one, then go work for the other. In order to get La Bellena you need to do several things which is as follows:

1) Keep your profile in the day time low. That means few to no drug deals, cash pick ups or other crime. You can do some, but don't let the stat get too high

2) Keep the quality of your drugs high. I personally recommend not going under 80% just to be sure (That means 10g of drugs for every 3g of cutting mix)

3) Make sure not to make your products to additive and that you don't get too many people dying from overdose. OD's are bad for your rep. Getting a few isn't the end of the world however, and it's often inevitable.

4) ??? Profit!

To get Keniji: Do literally anything else. Cut your drugs ruthlessly, OD the crap out of clients, run rampant in the day time. If you've done something wrong in the advice above, you'll get Keniji. He's the default for if you screw up something too much to get La Bellena.



Cutting your drugs for the gangs:
La Bellena accepts Coke that's no less than 70% pure. Keniji will accept Meth that's as low as at least 55% pure if you know what you're doing, but cutting it with just the cheap stuff like Salt, Washing Powder or Sugar you can get it to around 60% pure before he will complain. Keniji and La Bellena will each slowly order more and more drugs from you, though Coke is worth far more than Meth. The upside to the Meth you sell to Keniji is that he asks for more of it in larger, faster quantities than La Bellena asks for Coke.

Other Differences:
La Bellena asks for coke in 50g packages. He likes a low profile with low ODs on his drugs so it's generally best to mix the coke with just sugar, salt, diluted Washing Powder or baking soda.

Keniji asks for meth in 20g packages. He doesn't seem to care how toxic the mix is, but I could be wrong.