Tips and Tricks

[bullinshop]

Tips and Tricks

Hi everyone! This is just a general collection of tips/tricks I've collected in my first 17 or so hours with the game. I'll be back to update as I find more!

General

- The menu UI isn't quite clear about the fact that it operates like overlays (similar to Steam/XBOX) - but thinking about them like overlays can make life quite a bit easier.

- Statuses (thirsty, hungry, bleeding, etc.) are described in detail by clicking into the 'F' menu and then clicking on the 'Person' overlay (third from the left).

Navigation

- All businesses/places of public knowledge are searchable with the magnifying glass button at the top left-hand corner of the 'F' screen. Helpful for quick navigation.

- If you have a previously plotted route that hasn't yet been cleared, plotting a new rote (via evidence or the map) will clear that previous route, and won't route to the next location. Simply click the 'Plot route' selection twice in this circumstance and you'll get what you need.

- Floors are labeled in the UK tradition, with 'G' (ground) being the floor built on the ground and '1' being the first floor above ground level. Additionally, all buildings have 13th floors (afaik).

- Use the map liberally while you're crawling through ducts - it's very helpful for navigating to the correct entry/exit.

- If you can't reach a duct entrance, try stacking some boxes. There are almost always a few lying around.

Gear/Upgrades

- Snyc-Disks upgrade your abilities whereas sync-disk vials increase [the effectiveness of the already installed sync-discs themselves. Install the discs first, then use the vials for upgrading the effect of the disk. You can do this at any sync clinic by looking at the pillow on any of the beds.

- Increase inventory space ASAP (you can get Sync-Disk rewards from side-missions)

- Additional lock picks (hairpins/paperclips) can be found pretty much everywhere, just keep an eye out. In particular, they tend to spawn behind desks/counters so the back of restaurant counters will sometimes net you 4-8 lock picks for free (and no one minds if you take them)! They're also purchasable at city hall, so if you're flush on cash just buy a set of 30 and be on your merry way.

- Doorjambs and newspapers are worth their weight in crows.

- Truncheons are super helpful for arrests (you'll need handcuffs as well, of course), especially when there is an onlooker at the apartment/work. Welcome to the truncheon club!

Investigation

- Turn off the security cams/lasers by accessing the floor or businesses breaker box/panels before you do whatever it is you're going to do. Just do it. I promise it's worth your time not to get caught/blasted to smithereens.

- It's relatively easy to escape/disappear - so as long as you're not going for 100% stealth don't be afraid to break and enter, knock out the residents, eat their food, shower in their shower, towel off, steal their precious items, and then continue with your quest. It's not likely you'll be caught anyway.

- Don't forget about CCTV records. Most buildings have them somewhere between the 4th-8th floors, whereas businesses will have them on their security computers. They only keep for 24 hours though, so if you want those records get them while they're hot!

- There's a computer in city hall with information on every resident in the city (usually right off the lobby). Don't be afraid to use it if you're stuck or trying to complete missions in a hurry.

- If your quest asks you to arrest someone, all you have to do is cuff them (there's no way to drag them back to city hall). As long as the rest of the details are filled in, you can turn in the quest and they will then show as arrested.

- If you need to wait for your targets to move, restaurants are a great place to do it because of the easy access to food and drink.

- Sometimes the data you receive from the quest giver isn't quite correct, don't let small errors muck up your investigation (I believe this is intentional, and could be expanded upon in the upcoming content release Cheats & Liars)

- If you've got a phone number and some lock picks then you have a location. Call the number from a phone, find that phone's router box and look to see where your call went. Once you arrive at the target location, break into that location's router box and it will tell you the exactly apartment/room that the call was routed to.

- It's easy to cuff someone if you can catch them off their guard, so if you can catch the perp sleeping or sneak up behind them - great! If you can't, you probably need to give them a bonk. Pro tip: if the perp answers your knock at their door, you can rush in and cuff them before they have the chance to turn around if you're quick.

- For vague quests without a lot of details about the perp, CCTV footage can be your greatest ally. Looking for a brown haired, tall person with a large build? The profiles on CCTV will help you narrow down your investigation if you're persistent enough.

- Seems obvious, but the names of the murder cases are related to their solutions (i.e. - the 'Corpo Butcher' case will always be connected to the workplaces of the victim/perp).

- Suitcases are a single use situation. Use them to get the info that was passed along, and then feel free to ditch them in the street instead of cluttering up your inventory.

- Your fingerprint scanner works on boot prints too! Helpful for gathering evidence to pin the murderer at the crime.

- Flicking on/off lights can be a helpful way to temporarily move citizens around when you need them in or out of a particular room. Combine with doorjambs for extra fun time.

- For 'Demo' jobs, break the windows (office chairs are particularly helpful), smash anything breakable (dishes, pots, containers), and throw food/coffee/soda on the furniture and floors. Unfortunately it's doesn't look like you can light anything on fire (yet).

[Nova225]

- Seems obvious, but the names of the murder cases are related to their solutions (i.e. - the 'Corpo Butcher' case will always be connected to the workplaces of the victim/perp).

This is not 100% true. The names are procedurally generated from a list of possible names (so a valentine killer will never be a corpo killer, as an example). But some names are shared across murders. As an example, I had a toy car serial killer case that was named as "The Corpo Butcher", but he had absolutely no relation to either victim (he was a bar hand near where they worked).

That being said, there's currently only 4 specific murder styles:

1. "Ritual" murders. Body is surrounded by a red ritualistic circle. Evidence for the murderer is a crumpled ball of paper with an anagram of he killers first initial and last name and their fingerprints. Murderer is usually someone the victim was close to, so it's usually someone in their address book.

2. "Corpo" murders. Body is unremarkable, writing on wall may say "PUT A PIN IN IT". Always a business card with the killers fingerprints at the scene. Murderer is always coworker.

3. "Valentine" killer. Body is surrounded by a heart and writing on the wall will be "Victim first name + first initial of murderer forever". Lipstick will usually be at the scene with fingerprints. Victims cruncher will usually have a few v-mails complaining about being stalked and may have a brief description of the murderer (usually build or hairstyle). Murderer is usually someone the victim was close to, so it's usually someone in their address book.

4. "Toy Car" killer. Body is unremarkable, a single toy car with the murderers fingerprints will be somewhere near the body. Sometimes wall writing saying "Death to the New Generation". Notoriously the toughest cases to solve because the murderer will have no relationship with the victims. You need to ask around and check CCTVs for this one and even check for weapon and toy car sales.

In all cases, assuming the writing on the walls didn't glitch out somehow, you can use the writing style as an extra piece of evidence. The writing style will match the murderers writing style.

Additionally, murders happen in real time between citizens. Your murderer will go to shops to get their calling card (like toy cars) and weapons (if the weapon got lost at the scene) find their target, and murder them. Murders only come up on your police scanner if another citizen finds the body and reaches a phone to call the enforcers. If nobody finds / sees the body, then no murder will be reported to you. This also means you can find murders spontaneously before they get reported, or even see one in action.

Lastly, keep an eye out for people running in the streets when it's not raining. They're either trying to mug you, report a found body from a murder, or even the murderer themselves going to / from their target.

[Hemlet]

Originally posted by bullinshop:

- Suitcases are a single use situation. Use them to get the info that was passed along, and then feel free to ditch them in the street instead of cluttering up your inventory.

Suitcases are worth 50 crows a piece, so pawning them is also an option.

[bullinshop]

Originally posted by Hemlet:

Originally posted by bullinshop:

- Suitcases are a single use situation. Use them to get the info that was passed along, and then feel free to ditch them in the street instead of cluttering up your inventory.

Suitcases are worth 50 crows a piece, so pawning them is also an option.

Ty for the tip! Mind if I add it to the original list?

[bullinshop]

Originally posted by Nova225:

- Seems obvious, but the names of the murder cases are related to their solutions (i.e. - the 'Corpo Butcher' case will always be connected to the workplaces of the victim/perp).

This is not 100% true. The names are procedurally generated from a list of possible names (so a valentine killer will never be a corpo killer, as an example). But some names are shared across murders. As an example, I had a toy car serial killer case that was named as "The Corpo Butcher", but he had absolutely no relation to either victim (he was a bar hand near where they worked).

That being said, there's currently only 4 specific murder styles:

1. "Ritual" murders. Body is surrounded by a red ritualistic circle. Evidence for the murderer is a crumpled ball of paper with an anagram of he killers first initial and last name and their fingerprints. Murderer is usually someone the victim was close to, so it's usually someone in their address book.

2. "Corpo" murders. Body is unremarkable, writing on wall may say "PUT A PIN IN IT". Always a business card with the killers fingerprints at the scene. Murderer is always coworker.

3. "Valentine" killer. Body is surrounded by a heart and writing on the wall will be "Victim first name + first initial of murderer forever". Lipstick will usually be at the scene with fingerprints. Victims cruncher will usually have a few v-mails complaining about being stalked and may have a brief description of the murderer (usually build or hairstyle). Murderer is usually someone the victim was close to, so it's usually someone in their address book.

4. "Toy Car" killer. Body is unremarkable, a single toy car with the murderers fingerprints will be somewhere near the body. Sometimes wall writing saying "Death to the New Generation". Notoriously the toughest cases to solve because the murderer will have no relationship with the victims. You need to ask around and check CCTVs for this one and even check for weapon and toy car sales.

In all cases, assuming the writing on the walls didn't glitch out somehow, you can use the writing style as an extra piece of evidence. The writing style will match the murderers writing style.

Additionally, murders happen in real time between citizens. Your murderer will go to shops to get their calling card (like toy cars) and weapons (if the weapon got lost at the scene) find their target, and murder them. Murders only come up on your police scanner if another citizen finds the body and reaches a phone to call the enforcers. If nobody finds / sees the body, then no murder will be reported to you. This also means you can find murders spontaneously before they get reported, or even see one in action.

Lastly, keep an eye out for people running in the streets when it's not raining. They're either trying to mug you, report a found body from a murder, or even the murderer themselves going to / from their target.

This is all super fascinating. I'll condense and re-word and add to the list! Didn't realize the murders were actually happening in real time, but I have seen people running outside of rainy conditions...

[Isabelle]

Originally posted by bullinshop:

Originally posted by Nova225:

This is not 100% true. The names are procedurally generated from a list of possible names (so a valentine killer will never be a corpo killer, as an example). But some names are shared across murders. As an example, I had a toy car serial killer case that was named as "The Corpo Butcher", but he had absolutely no relation to either victim (he was a bar hand near where they worked).

That being said, there's currently only 4 specific murder styles:

1. "Ritual" murders. Body is surrounded by a red ritualistic circle. Evidence for the murderer is a crumpled ball of paper with an anagram of he killers first initial and last name and their fingerprints. Murderer is usually someone the victim was close to, so it's usually someone in their address book.

2. "Corpo" murders. Body is unremarkable, writing on wall may say "PUT A PIN IN IT". Always a business card with the killers fingerprints at the scene. Murderer is always coworker.

3. "Valentine" killer. Body is surrounded by a heart and writing on the wall will be "Victim first name + first initial of murderer forever". Lipstick will usually be at the scene with fingerprints. Victims cruncher will usually have a few v-mails complaining about being stalked and may have a brief description of the murderer (usually build or hairstyle). Murderer is usually someone the victim was close to, so it's usually someone in their address book.

4. "Toy Car" killer. Body is unremarkable, a single toy car with the murderers fingerprints will be somewhere near the body. Sometimes wall writing saying "Death to the New Generation". Notoriously the toughest cases to solve because the murderer will have no relationship with the victims. You need to ask around and check CCTVs for this one and even check for weapon and toy car sales.

In all cases, assuming the writing on the walls didn't glitch out somehow, you can use the writing style as an extra piece of evidence. The writing style will match the murderers writing style.

Additionally, murders happen in real time between citizens. Your murderer will go to shops to get their calling card (like toy cars) and weapons (if the weapon got lost at the scene) find their target, and murder them. Murders only come up on your police scanner if another citizen finds the body and reaches a phone to call the enforcers. If nobody finds / sees the body, then no murder will be reported to you. This also means you can find murders spontaneously before they get reported, or even see one in action.

Lastly, keep an eye out for people running in the streets when it's not raining. They're either trying to mug you, report a found body from a murder, or even the murderer themselves going to / from their target.

This is all super fascinating. I'll condense and re-word and add to the list! Didn't realize the murders were actually happening in real time, but I have seen people running outside of rainy conditions...

it isnt just the murderers happening in real time. every single NPC and their actions is fully simulated and tracked at all times.

[Cooperal]

Here's a fact that I couldn't believe I missed for the best part of three playthroughs. You can reassign your number hotkeys by hitting a number while mousing over an inventory slot.

I like to put my melee weapon on 1 and camera on 2, leaving the watch and fingerprint scanner where they are.

I actually played the game for a while just ever so slightly bummed out over the incorrect understanding that setting items to hotkeys wasn't a thing in this game.

[Pwincess]

I discovered this morning that if you have the "Unknown Person" card on your board but it has a picture on it (to be clear you dont need a photo - just their face in your journal -
it was info from a briefcase), you can just ask around and people will tell you where they've been seen (seems to be their home and workplace) - and if you go ask around there, somebody will eventually cough up their name and some other rando factoid (name and, oddly enough, blood type and medication when I asked this morning)

[Bubber]

Thanks Mate!