Monte Carlo Musings (V 3.5-Redhead&Technicalities)

An unusual, thought provoking, and occasionally comedic commentary on the game written in a stream of conscious Gonzo Journalism style. Discover the history of Monaco (the country), character and gameplay observations, and general trends in the multiplayer aspects of the game. This guide treats Monaco as an imprecise science and seeks a big picture/holistic/thematic analysis of the game and how it should be played. I will upgrade it as need requires so feel free to offer suggestions, corrections, or comments!
NOTE THAT THIS IS CURRENTLY IN PROGRESS AND REQUIRES EDITING AND MORE INFORMATION. I plan on adding a lot more subject areas and A LOT more text.
July 14, 2013: 1.0 First Version Posted with HIstory of Monaco and Introduction and Character Titles
July 15, 2013: 2.0 Uploaded all character profiles except for the Redhead, Added Human Resource Section and General Gameplay
*Still need to proofread
July 17, 2013: 3.0 Added a section on time management. Adding other sections.
July 18, 2013: 3.1 Figured out how screenshots work. Beginning to add.
July 19, 2013: 3.2 Items added. More sections outlined.
July 20, 2013: 3.3 Some techniques added to glossary. 3.4 Mobs and Aggro added
July 23, 2013: 3.5 Added a full section on the Redhead (finally). Added cats to the mob section. Added RPG to the items section.

Introduction

AHHHH MONTE CARLO. THIS GAME IS MY OBSESSION.
Seriously though Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine is a good game. Why good you ask? WHY NOT? The game is a masterpiece of simplicity, a tour de force of gameplay, and the epitome of style. But don’t think that the simplicity necessary implies that it is shallow, and certainly don’t make the mistake that simplicity, gameplay, and style are separate from one another. In truth, they are all intimately combined. The style uses stark colours, line of sight, and symbols and icons to tell stories and guide the player. At first it’s very distracting and difficult to sift through, but in a short time you will be able to read each level like a book. I could explain how to read the screen, but that is best left to firsthand experience no? To be honest I won’t be discussing many technical aspects of the game. Who knows? I may even provide flagrantly wrong information (if I do please tell me so, in fact, I’ll take ANY suggestions). But, that’s the point. Monaco is a game with little chance and high margins of error that requires lots of experience to navigate. I don’t need a Political Science degree to say that, like Poly Sci, Monaco is an inexact science (I’m going for a poly sci degree anyways). I won’t give specific level strategies or achievement guides. Instead I will provide vital, tried, and true insight in what amounts to a mix of thematic analysis and philosophy. I will go class by class, highlight a few other details and general strategies, and discuss class chemistry and the nature of gameplay. Remember when we talked about the games simplicity? That’s really only a façade: in simplicity there is depth. Virtually anything can happen, and the game will frequently evolve/devolve into organized chaos. There will be a section on that. I promise you that you will learn something. If you already know everything, then at least you will walk away from this guide with an enlightened paradigm. This guide is equally accessible to all: amateurs will learn advanced tactics, and experienced players will discover new things. Go forth, get in, get out, get rich!
Note: I haven’t really read many guides, but the ones I have read dissatisfy me for their sheer lack of detail and innovation. I will be as thorough and new fangled as I can. And no I didn’t plagiarize from anyone so hop off it.

General Impressions of Gameplay

Monaco is quite playable on single-player, but it’s often difficult to finish levels perfectly and get every last coin. I think single player is more systematic and, because of that, less fun.
Multiplayer is always very fun. Teams of 2-3 tend to run very smoothly, but 4 is always fun too. The gameplay changes depending on how many players you have.
2 players might work well together or split up to be most effective. It probably allows for the best organization, but usually with 2 people you don’t need much organization.
3 players are similar to two players I would say, it’s a little harder to control and generally more mistakes are made.
4 players are absolute chaos. This is probably the most fun you can have with the game, and it’s bound to be a challenge. Organization is nigh impossible and most of the team synergy will be spontaneous and highly combustible. Also expect less items, since coins are split up more.

This is just a very skeletal overview of course, but you should get the gist. There is a decided lack of organization. I’m not sure why it appears, I guess it’s that a) most people don’t care and b) the gameplay is so simple and second nature that people respond more with instinct than planning.

And here’s the thing: generally, disorganization is fine. Half the fun of the game is when everything goes to hell and you have to practice damage control and piece your game back together. Disorganization is advantageous as well: one person’s plight can be your advantage. But by the same token one person’s plight can easily lead to disaster for you and your crew. It’s all about making judgment calls, and, sadly, I can’t impart that sort of thing with this guide. But I can give general practices and suggestions. For example, if your whole team is dead, make it a priority to revive a redhead first, that can give you a massive advantage in time (the redhead can revive the other too to save a total of 6 seconds, which can be the difference between triumph and unsavory death, but more on that later).

Anyways. Here are some good suggestions to avoid the overall chaos of Monaco.

0) Typing is better than VC. VC tends to lag games and isn’t always comprehensible. Typing is slower of course, but you can always hide somewhere. DON’T type unless you are perfectly hidden/safe. Typing in plain sight is a sure wait to die. For this reason you might want to have a mission control style character with you who can type orders while staying passive.

1) SOME Organization. Pure organization would probably work, but that is slow, meticulous, and mainly just comes down to politics. But don’t throw the buzzard out with the corpse. You can still partially organize. Divide labor up, or maybe team up with a class you have good chemistry with. Make sure that items are intelligently distributed, and make sure they are actually used correctly. You wouldn’t want a Cleaner with a tranquilizer, and you wouldn’t want to use EMP when the Hacker has 50 viruses up and running (unless of course necessity demands it: but how do we define necessity? You see, inexact science). Form general plans and amorphous goals like: “hey lets hit the basement before the top floor so we can get coins and therefore items.” Plan how to get around complicated traps. Generally, once the dust clears and the chaos calms you will have to go into DAMAGE CONTROL. Count the survivors and form a plan to get the rest back into action. Tell someone to hop in a bush or prepare and exit, say who revives who, etc etc. Give the newly revived people instructions so that they don’t die again. When you complete goals plan your escape: “hey purps bust out that wall and gents’ll start the car behind it.” So as you can see, organization comes and goes, here and there. Aside from this the only other time you really need to organize is if someone has a brilliant idea (more on those later). So here is a checklist of when you should organize:

• When deciding on item distribution and when to use items.
  
• When splitting up.
  
• When doing difficult rooms.
  
• When deciding where you will go next.
  
• When escaping.
  
• After the dust clears.

(Note that reviving isn’t ALWAYS a major priority, if you have a clear shot to a safe or are nearly done a goal you can put reviving off).

2) Die Smart, Die Apart (or not): Dying is another key aspect. When people revive you, they are essentially immobilized: they cannot walk through you. So dying in a bush sometimes is bad: the player reviving you might not be able to get into the bush. Because of this, you always have to be wary of where you die. You want to die in weird isolated places with few NPCs. Don’t run in the middle of the Discotheque and die, that is stupid. Die near a friend who is hidden, but be sure to not blow their cover. Which brings me to a major point: try to die apart. If you see a dying friend, don’t run up to him and blow all chances of one of you surviving. Don’t lead NPCs to a friend who is doing well or in trouble: what are they going to do to help you? Sure they have a shotgun they can help you, but you don’t want them to waste the shells when they don’t need to. There is only one case where it is ok to die apart and where you should in fact die apart and that is number 3 on this list. Sometimes it is legitimate to die. Image you have 1 tick of health left and need extra life to do something. Choose a weird place and die, and tell your friends where you are. If you die in a weird place with no NPCs you can get brought to half health free of charge. You can couple this with distractions if you are smart.

3) BANDAIDS. Can be used to insta-revive dead people around you. Some people don’t know this. They should…If you and friends are weak, die in a close area together. One person can insta-revive both of you lock stock and barrel. That saves a lot of time.

4) The Bathroom Theorem. NPCs lose interest in you as space is put between you. Generally they will look for you with each room they go through. Bathrooms therefore, which are generally rooms within rooms, are great places to evade people. Just be sure to run for the stall that isn’t locked and laden with people. If an NPC runs from a bathroom the guard he brings back has a tendency to check stalls, so be careful. Generally I like to close the stall and start peeing too. It's like AB+Down when you are catching pokemon, it just works!

5) Don't Make Waste. Don't have two people opening a door or a safe. Branch out and do different tasks. Even if it is only little things like recon, a diversified portfolio will yield best results.

More to Come…

The Underlying Flavour of Organization

The Real Currency of Monaco: Time

You can't come up with this stuff: so I'm sitting in here at the Library's Quiet Room. Its nice and calm. Then some lady comes in with a 9 year old (who was reading), a 7 year old who was idling, and a 4 year old who was screaming and pounding on windows right next to me. She kept taking him closer to her, only to have him run right back over to me and revamp his cacophony. After 20 minutes I walk outside and tell the librarian who follows me into the quiet room and tells the lady to silence the kids of split. The woman gets confrontation and starts asking me the librarian if I told on her and saying that I could have just told her to be quiet (I wasn't even looking at her, I was already back in my chair. I just shrugged). The lady left 3 minutes later, jingling her keys the whole time and I assume looking at me spitefully. I didn't respect her enough to watch her leave, so I'm not certain. But that is the point of this section. Make sure that you hammer things down in a timely fashion so that you can spend your time and get more quality in return.

Monaco, like life, is a game measured in time.
If you are playing seriously and trying to set records than time is an OBVIOUS concern.
If you are just playing casually and trying to have fun and not die every 5 seconds, time is also your concern.
Time is the ultimate resource in Monaco. It supercedes coins, items, and every other aspect.
The main purpose of items is to BUY time. By BUY time we mean either save you time or allow you to use your time in a more effective manner.
The main purpose of grabbing coins is to get items and have an actually feasible score (each coin you miss adds a lot of time to your score and if you miss groups of coins).
Items are expendable, coins are limited (hence why items are expendable), but time is infinite. You can take however long you need to do a level, although the longer you spend the more your chances are of screwing up. In this section we will talk about time, and how time is managed.
Even space is subordinate to time in Monaco. Space is the best guarentee of buying yourself time, and controlling your spacing will control the timing of NPCs.

Time is currency because it can be exchanged for actions. I spend 3 second opening this door, or 6 seconds reviving this team mate, its all about that. You are ALWAYS going to have to take actions, so you want to do them in a timely fashion that, in the end, BUYS more time. Some basic rules are as follows

• If viable, let a faster teammate take the actions in their specialty. If you see a Locksmith don't bother opening doors, look for other ways to be helpful. Using time efficiently and coordinating it based on roles is the first key to earning time
  
• Know when to sneak and when to run. While you are running you go way faster than any NPC, and are very slippery. While sneaking you can take more technical and slow actions with more safety. My standard plan goes: rely on sneaking to finish a floor, and running to leave the floor. Once you have every single coin on a floor you can simply run through the level with a good chance of success. Some people don't realize this, and will take the long, slow, stealthy way to escape. Alternatively, people may see lots of coins and items and get sloppy and forget to sneak. Know when to do both, and then begin interchanging them readily. Sneak around in a suit like a malicious lawyer and get ready to break into a run for cover when its over. Look at your surroundings and think about how much time you'll have.
  
• Know your NPCs. Alerting an NPC can take anywhere from 0-10 seconds. If you are good you can keep them in a sort of limbo where you hit and run before they notice. The question mark fills up at a steady rate that is determined by spacing and velocity. I say velocity because velocity has direction. If you run away from them they probably won't notice you any more. If you run towards them expect a faster reaction. Remember, spacing is subservient to time, use spacing to help to guage and control time. Sometimes it is good to alert a non-hostile NPC, that way they will go and take 5-10 seconds or so to alert a guard, at which point you can get the goods. Killing an NPC is always a good idea to buy time too, since you will buy the delay of having another NPC revive the dead ones.

How do we measure how well time is used to buy more time? I call this concept: QUALITY. Quality is being able to complete a room is least amount of time possible. You should be able to get all coins, get any items and bonuses you can, open any safes or registers, open any doors, and get any trophies, while avoiding alarms and NPCs that will slow you down. Any class can invest well in quality, some better than others. The mole tends to be wasteful unless played well. The pickpocket on the other hand can clear coins out in seconds while not creating any risk. The gentleman also tends to be the best at time management, as he can use his brief disguise to get a brief sudden advantage in terms of space and time that, in the long run, buys a LOT of time. Time spent can also become quality with synergy: have someone hold the ladder for you, or someone rush ahead to start the car.

The threat against Quality is RISK. Risk happens when you begin to take to long to complete a task. The longer you take, the more exponentially higher your chance of failure gets. As you begin to make mistakes and use items you will find yourself out of items. For this reason you want to invest in Quality: always try to make your moves smart and quick. When risk boils over you enter into FREEFALL. Now granted, some risk is good, and you can cultivate risk and make "mistakes" to buy you time. Think of it as a parabola. Playing it safe is good, but won't yield high results. Generally by employing a moderate around of risk can yield the most results. Too much risk can yeild a lot results, but enters the zone of FREEFALL. Once it crosses that threshold it's anyone's guess as to how long it will take to get your game back on the tracks. I tried drawing a model of this on paint, but it looked horrible and didn't make sense, and I can't get images to work on here anyways. So I digress for now. Just know that RISK is both good and bad depending on how much you employ. Knowing the limits of time and getting an idea for how long each action takes (which is pure experience) will enable you to take inventory on risk at any given moment. You can't control the risk of teammates, so if you see an especially risk taking teammate throw them a bone every once in a while and make sure they have a way out. Oh and one more thing, items buy you time, but they do it in such a way that they raise the threshold for freefall. Guns kill people who start trouble, Tranquilizers can buy you a minute in a pinch, the smokescreen just narrowly allows you to enter the freefall zone and get out of it. A major mechanic for the gentleman is that he can stay in a smokescreen and reset his disguise, which not only raises the threshold but completely defuses any risk.

The opposite of QUALITY and actualization of RISK is FREEFALL. Freefall is when you lose sense of time and are forced to act mostly on stupid instinct. Freefall happens when you start tripping over traps and/or are being chased. You can burn a lot of time with freefall and it can take anywhere from 5 seconds-1 minutes for dust to settle. Freefall happens in almost any level, but can be alievated with a few simple tips. Die in smart places away from NPCs to make revival a risk free proposition. Give a teammate bandaids if you expect to die, an insta revive is good. Freefall is arguably worse in 4 player, but if more players survive it then you can do damage control a lot better.

After the lady left the quiet room with her brats a song came on about remembering to wear your rubber so as not to have babies. Sometimes timing is simply: PERFECT

The Living Skeleton Key: The Locksmith

A doorknob jingles. “It’s locked” you yell as you get back to reading your paper while sitting on the toilet. Yet you see the lock beginning to turn by itself, smoothly and without a sound being made. In comes a burly man in blue holding a ring of keys and some tinker tools. He proceeds to silently beat you with a wrench and take your money. No one will ever find your body.

The Locksmith casts alohomora and opens doors as if by magic. He opens doors in 1/3rd (1 second) of the normal time, and he opens all other locked devices in ½ (3 seconds) of the time it takes others. That’s it. Like the Hacker both of his positions relate to the same skill. Also like the Hacker, his usefulness tends to be determined by the level: Locksmiths are better in levels with lots of locked doors. While advanced levels tend to have more safes, double locked doors, and other horrifying devices that the locksmith can unlock faster, you will find the Locksmith less and less useful in such level. Simply because he is outclassed. You should note however that he opens scan doors and electronic safes significantly faster than other classes. Sure, the alarm goes off, but he doesn’t waste precious seconds. There isn’t much else that the locksmith does well. He’s blue. He kinda sucks. He is almost never seen in online games. Why? The Mole. You get the Mole almost immediately, and the Mole is often better in every other way and is funner and simpler to play. But we shouldn’t let that disparage us from using the Locksmith. In the right hands the Locksmith can be one of the most cunning and successful team members. Think of him as the Batman of Monaco. Sure, he doesn’t have powers like the rest of the justice league. He only has mundane utility. Accordingly, his entire playstyle revolves around this. He isn’t exciting, or cool, or creative, just average. He specializes in mobility, and can shave valuable seconds off of an escape. The Locksmith, like Batman, has to plan ahead extensively. He still kind of sucks all things considered, but he can play key passive roles that are integral in planning and moving.

NPC strategy: the Locksmith doesn’t appear involved with NPCs, unless you consider the fact that he can counter the mechanic whereby NPCs lock doors they go through. The Locksmith can act as a vanguard or a behind the scenes actor, helping to open locked doors and scout out patterns without the risk of getting trapped. The Locksmith can’t face NPCs that well, but with a few seconds advantage he can outrun them through doors.

Teammate strategy: The Locksmith is most useful in a team setting. He works well with just about everyone except for the Mole, who, by definition, isn’t meant to go through doors. The Mole can often make the locksmith useless. The redhead can too. The fact is that the Locksmith doesn’t play well with a lot of characters. It isn’t that he’s useless, its just that often players don’t have the patience to follow locksmith plans. The Locksmith isn’t really meant for spontaneous play in the present tense. He is one degree removed as it were, indirect. He really doesn’t interact with anything in the immediate way that the mole might or that the cleaner or hacker might. He interacts with doors and safes. He is a master at pre-emption. A good locksmith would unlock all the doors in a region, create a distraction that will attract the attention of guards in that region, and then call his fellow capers over to the unlocked region.

Escape Strategy: Nothing out of the ordinary here. Being able to unlock doors can be pretty damn valuable and can shave critical seconds off an escape. When paired with smokes the locksmith can leave a room where shrapnel is flying and enter a new one in a smooth and subtle fashion. The Locksmith is especially good when he unlocks every door he finds ahead of time, that way he can navigate a veritable labyrinth with ease.

Trap Strategy: HA. The Locksmith sucks with traps. His only saving grace is that his door powers enable him to circumnavigate them sometimes. If you are lucky he can usually open safes and doors before security cameras might get him. On the bright side, the Locksmith can readily go through panel doors (he’ll trigger the alarm but he goes through them fast) and he can also disengage double locked doors very quickly, making him excellent either for springing double door traps or for getting people out of them.

Coinage: He can open ATMs, registers, and safes fast. Additionally, opening every possible locked door is useful for finding coins. Generally the Locksmith should pick his fights with coin grabbage and not push his luck. Remember, stick to the peripheries of levels, and don’t just run on in.

Items: The Locksmith should pass up wrenches since he can open most things easily. Guns attract a lot of attention, and the guards who come would just lock up doors. The Locksmith should play a decentralized game and try to keep guards dispersed and doors open. Tranquilizers can be useful for singling out pesky patrolling mobs and keeping them from re-locking doors. C4 doesn’t have much use for the Locksmith unless you plan traps. Since you stick to the sidelines and play a passive role bandages are always a friendly option. Smoke bombs are a fantastic option and they can usually allow you to get out of an emergency situation while still doing your job and opening difficult doors and safes. EMP is probably the most useful thing a Locksmith can have, especially considering that safes are usually guarded by tech. The Locksmith will generally be out of harm’s way, so disguises are not mandatory for him. However, a disguised Locksmith is a great ally who can readily wander anywhere to pick locks for you. Since he’s blue collar I find police disguises to be the most formal on him.

Hobo with a Shotgun: The Pickpocket

After returning to your hotel room after a fun filled night of drinks and slot machines you fall asleep. You discover in the morning that your wallet is missing and that your pocket strangely smells like monkey hands. Who took your wallet? Wait. You weren’t even drinking or doing anything fun last night. You just went to bed and forgot about your wallet. But that still doesn’t answer the question. Where is it? Like a pair of socks in a dryer, something in missing forever and the explanation likely defies all logic.

The Pickpocket is a poor yellow slob with a monkey named Hector. Hector is the best thief in the game because he can steal stuff without attracting attention. Even in the mission where Hector is apparently bleeding, he plays an A game that puts the Mole to shame. The Pickpocket’s ability is unique in that it is passive and yet ALWAYS operational: Hector will steal all coins in a radius. His secondary ability is that he can jump into bushes in 1/3 of a second instead of 1 second. He sounds as boring as the Locksmith doesn’t he? Like the Locksmith, Pickpockets can be uncommon online. In reality, Pickpockets are one of the best classes in the game and they cater to a special sort of rouge. The Pickpocket is sort of like a wildcard: a crossbreed between a jackal and a proletariat who gave up Bolshevism. The main gameplay mechanic is Hector. Hector can rapidly gather coins in a room with incredible ease. Though the radius is small, slight movements can distort it to large proportions and you can use Hector as a sort of remote controlled magnet on wheels that follows you and steals wallets. This gameplay mechanic is FANTASTIC though. Think about it. The Pickpocket is the ONLY class that can multitask. He can go into a room and do two things at once. You can hack while the monkey grabs all the coins. You can open a safe and immediately run to grab health knowing you’ll be fine money wise. Multitasking is a very hard skill to use and master because it stands so contrary to the gameplay of Monaco. You can hide in a bush while the monkey grabs all the money in the room. The Pickpocket may just be one of the hardest classes to master in this regard. Of course, Hector grants another bonus: the massive bank you’ll be rolling will mean that you probably have the best access to items period. Use this to your advantage. Let the Pickpocket use whatever item he feels most comfortable with. So basically you have a cool guy who has lots of item access, can clear out a room in a second without getting caught, and can jump in bushes while doing it. Choice.

NPC strategy: Hector steals coins without people knowing it, so you can basically just steal from people without having to risk touching them (which is a dead giveaway in Monaco). So really the Pickpocket specializes in NOT get entangled with NPCs. His ability to hide rapidly and get lots of items means that he can usually run circles and stay alive very well. He is ideal for a sort of hit-and-run style gameplay. He puts the bush in ambush.

Teammate strategy: The Pickpocket can do well on his own if you give him a good item and a lot of room to work. With the pickpocket on your team you can safely leave difficult coins behind knowing he will get them. The Pickpocket really does well with anyone. Locksmiths and Pickpockets clear out safes in no time, the Mole provides the Pickpocket with tunnels to sneak through, the Redhead can clean his path, the Gent can find coins, the Hacker can clear pathways, and the Lookout can afford the Pickpocket with a lot of flexibility. The only class neutral with the Pickpocket is the Cleaner. The Cleaner can steal from people and put them out simultaneously, so he almost does the Pickpocket thing better than the Pickpocket.

Escape Strategy: Lets call this section peeing in the bushes since the Pickpocket likes bushes and tends to hate bathrooms. He can enter bushes VERY quickly while still grabbing coins around him, thus allowing him to readily vanish. Bushes work great, anyone short of an exclamation pointed guard/police/agent/swat/dog won’t damage you at all. People will enter the bush to look for you and usually fail. Bushes are your best friend. You can basically just swing from Bush to Bush. You can even help friends escape by preparing bushes for them. Now bathrooms, and any room in general. They can be a problem to a careless pickpocket, or one short on time. Hector trails you, and the game registers him as a mob, so doors don’t close on him. Bathroom stalls are so small that just running in one won’t close the door. Some closets don’t close either. The trick to this is to turn around and try to center yourself and the monkey. This is a prickly oversight and something that can really screw up your game if you don’t pay attention.

Trap Strategy: The Pickpocket doesn’t do well with traps. Sure he can grab coins around them no problem and jump in bushes rapidly, but he really can’t disable them any better than anyone else. For this reason a Hacket pairs well with a Pickpocket. But of course, with such item powers, the Pickpocket can rely on EMP.

Coinage: Need I say More? The Pickpocket gets more coins than any class. PERIOD.

Items: More Coins means more items. Pickpocket should be given the best item accessible. Anything works well. Bandaids allow him to revive teammates a plenty, EMP can cause constant blackouts, Guns can leave lots of bodies, Tranquilizers are kind of useless to be honest, Wrenches can help him crack safe and doors faster, and C4 can really aid in mobility if you get my drift. Good old smoke can instantly protect him in a bush (If you are in a bush getting attacked you can use smoke to make guards lose you, even if you just stay still). Smoke also makes him very slippery in major open places. Since you can use items from Bushes, the Pickpocket has a compounded advantage. Since he can jump into Bushes he doesn’t need to shy away from loud guns. In fact, its perfectly sane to kill lots of people, hide in a bush, and kill those who come to investigate, rinse, and repeat. But that’s the problem. Should the Pickpocket just use all of his items like that or should he save them? It depends on how fast and wealthy the Pickpocket is. Regardless, it goes without saying that the Pickpocket can comfortably act as a sort of bastion on a team. He can hold his own and cover teammates with items. Disguises on the pickpocket can allow him to clean out wide open areas that you might find in levels like Discotheque Rouge.

Be Good for Goodness' Sake: The Lookout

Walking around. Guarding. Doing your job. You are the baconwinner, you bring home the bread. But you just don’t see those badguys. You hear about them, you head the pitter patters of their feet, you notice things missing, but they are long gone by the time you get there. It’s as if they know where you are…and what you are doing…maybe Santa is robbing us?

Ah the lookout. Monaco’s Mario. Not good. Not great. She has one of most distinctive and overpowered abilities in the game on paper, but in practice its not exactly that great. She can see every character on the map when she is sneaking or staying still, clearly giving her a passive slant while giving the other capers free reign to be more active. This ability shows red symbols that show where people are/how they move/etc. I honestly don’t find this terribly useful. I mean, if its there, great! If not, I don’t mind. It really doesn’t show which direction people are facing and I find its usually better to rely on level memorization and just plain line of sight (as long as you are careful with it). I feel like it clutters an otherwise simple and perfect visual output, and it leads to sloppy playing. If you look at the red icons you often don’t notice details or things around your character. After all, you can’t watch EVERY red icon, and you certainly can’t watch both the icons and your character. Plus what happens when the Lookout breaks out into a sprint? The images you rely on suddenly vanish, what do you even do then? The lookout is popular with inexperienced and early game players because she is pretty useful and helps you learn the game fast. In the hands of a n00b she can be very useful and make the n00b contribute way more than they would otherwise. In the hands of a pro she makes a very effective leader and planner, so much so that she doesn’t really have to give orders, she just lets them see where they are going. The lookout is who you play when your favorite character is taken, or if you find yourself to be the sleepiest and most cautious player. The lookout, like the locksmith, is primarily passive. You can’t move much to use her primary ability. Her secondary ability is a great evasive one: she can enter staircases and ladders and windows much faster than other characters. She can quickly move herself to safety where she can stay protected while keeping the heads-up. But her ability has a much more useful feature too. If she stays in windows, or stairs, or on ladder icons than other people can enter them immediately. So, like the Locksmith, she acts as a sort of Moses, ensuring the characters safe passage and rapid assistance as needed. To use this ability well, she should stay near teammates. A good lookout is a mobile one who keeps her nose clean. A good lookout is also a teammates best friend. She is truly one of the best leaders in the game. She can’t make great advanced technical plans and nail down the details, but she does a fine job at keeping everyone informed and alive.

NPC Strategy: Not much here. She can easily outrun NPCs by going in stairs or ladder/vents. Windows don’t provide much protection, but she can run through them pretty damn quick. She can also allow everyone to see ALL NPCs. This ability does not perfectly counter NPCs, but, after the Cleaner, it’s the second best guarantee. Keep tabs on NPCs, make sure that your teammates are aware of them, learn their patterns. The Lookout is EXCELLENT for new levels where you are unfamiliar with NPC distribution. She is also great for first time levels so that you can learn patterns.

Teamwork Strategy: The Lookout generally teams up well…with…well…anyone. Obviously her ability is more helpful the more teammates you have. She does great with the cleaner, who can really go to town on NPCs. She also does well with the Redhead and Gentlemen, who are both social characters who can plan much better when they know where everyone is. She helps the Mole to make more accurate tunnels, she helps the Hacker and Locksmith to avoid enemies. Her ability to evade and open up vents and stairs quickly goes great with the mobility of the mole and locksmith, and also helps characters with poorer evasion. I would say she only has neutral chemistry with the Pickpocket, but really she does great with the Pickpocket because she boosts his mobility beyond bushes and makes him a lot faster at getingetoutgetrich. So yeah, she pairs very very well with most characters. But that is the choice you might have to make. Its like playing the Medic in TF2: are you ok with others taking the glory?

Escape Strategy: Obviously, run to stairs. If you are playing multiplayer, it won’t change levels unless everyone is in, meaning that stairs are nigh perfect for evasion. Same thing with vents. She is seriously one of the best classes at getting out of harms way, and she can cover everyone else’s butt too. Remember to give yourself plenty of time and space with ANYTHING you do. You don’t want to have to run to get out of a trap. You want people to notice you only when you are centimeters from a ladder/stairwell/vent/window. You want your primary ability active as often as possible.

Traps: Nope. Useless against traps. At least, when they are not sprung. Once a trap is sprung she can tell you WHO is coming to answer the alarm and WHERE they are. She can even have your escape route ready. This is one of the lookouts major strengths, she can keep a team out of trouble, and, if they get in trouble anyway (which they will), she can get them out of it.

Coinage: Sure. She can get coins. Not well though. Not many coins in vents and stairwells. Oh well. She is probably among the worst at grabbing cash. But she’s not supposed to be good at it.

Items: Personally I sleep better at night knowing my lookout had bandaids. You can die anywhere and the lookout can probably figure out of way to save you without anyone batting at eye her way. Of course, sometimes its good to have bandaids on another character so that you can get the lookout alive. Once the lookout is dead you are as blind as a bat, and you can’t rely on her to help you escape unless she’s alive ASAP. Disguises generally are not required for the Lookout since she tends to shy away from conflict and is often out of view in vents.

Psycho Killer-Qu'est Que C'est: The Cleaner

There you are. Minding your business. Watching your safe. Can’t wait for your shift to end so you can leave. You hear footsteps and go to turn around, but the footsteps break into a run and the next thing you know you are being forcefully grabbed while a rag is forced into your face. The smell is abhorrent and chemical in nature---…You wake up. You don’t know where you are or what you were doing. You talk to the rest of the guards. As it turns out the same thing happened to them. It’s as if you woke up on the other side of a wormhole: where’d all the time go? You check your safe to find it unceremoniously ripped open with its safe deposits looted.

Note: They are making going to change the way the Cleaner aggros with a patch, so I will update with that

The Cleaner never really interested me. I’m not sure what it is about him, but the prospect of having a combat oriented class in a stealth game didn’t interest me very much. But he sure as hell is fun to play as and he is very useful in the right hands. The cigar is a nice touch too. The Cleaner uses chloroform to put people out for a few minutes. I won’t give you exact times, because you shouldn’t be watching your clock, you should be developing an internal sense of in-game time. I will just say that they go out for a WHILE, usually enough that you don’t have to worry about them: you will be done the room before they enter stage 3 (also known as REM) sleep. This ability has all sorts of applications and gives the Cleaner a near monopoly on dealing with NPCs. But it is not without its fine print. Mobs in the game have an alert meter. It starts as a question mark that fills fast if you are nearby and running. It fills slow if you are far and sneaking. When it fills up they go to a red question mark and then a red exclamation point. If you touch them, they immediately go to an exclamation point, and rushing up to them while they are watching you has the same effect. The cleaner must therefore be careful and plan his attacks well. You can’t just bumrush any old sap. You need to find angles of attack and make sure no one else is watching. Mobs get alerted by the sound of chloroforming to about half a question mark but only for a split second. You want to make sure they calm down before you hit someone else. You also want to make sure no one is watching: that is a dead giveaway. I like to play the cleaner like a viper. Walk around and take note of where people are. Choose your targets, slither up to them slowly, and then, when the angle is clear and you are close, rush them. Then find your next target. This isn’t just to turn NPCs off, you can legitimately use this ability to take them out of the game for a LONG while. Make a distraction or a trap and then lure NPCs in and go to town. The Cleaner’s secondary ability allows for him to heal in 1 second instead of 3, which means he can afford riskier and more combat oriented play.

NPC strategy: The Cleaner excels at this. Generally you can go in a room, knock people out, take everything, and move on. It’s simple, straight, and to the point. But you have to be careful with how you monitor NPCs. They are often fickle and all over the place, and the Cleaner has an extra high margin of error in dealing with NPCs, especially if he is inexperienced. You want to play a psychological and mousetrap style game at times. Pick off stragglers. Clean up problem areas. Lay a path for your team, or maybe even work with your team to solve problems. Sometimes you want to lead people into strange areas and then, when they give up the search, ambush them. Other times you can prey on people trying to revive those you freshly killed. If you have a teammate you just got killed you can easily put down the NPC who returns to his post. For this reason, the Cleaner should monitor patterns. Just be sure not to tangle with groups of close NPCs, and don’t attract too many into a trap. Since NPCs can hear you chloroform people you have to be wary and keep them separate.

Teammate Strategy: The Cleaner does good on his own, but he can be invaluable to teams. He is the only NPC oriented character who can expressly take down NPCs, so his skill is highly valuable. He works excellently with the Lookout and compliments the Hacker well too. All other classes he works well with. A redhead actually might be able to lure NPCs away, hide in a bush (thus leaving the NPC abandoned), and have the cleaner take out the NPC who is resetting its position. Useful no? The Cleaner would also work well with the Locksmith, you can quickly open doors for the Cleaner to work with. The Cleaner should stay physically away from the Mole, who has a tendency to attract attention to his general area.

Escape Strategy: A found out cleaner does best with straight out running. Sure he can hide, and sure he can wait it out, but a lot of times you won’t have those luxuries since you will usually be found out when you are close to an NPC. Don’t be afraid to get shot a few times at distance if you are running, just make sure you get them off of you. You can always heal when you have time to breath, since the Cleaner can heal fast. He certainly has enough time to use aid kits in-between mistakes.

Traps: The Cleaner is useless with traps. He can however work around them or at least buy time by taking out nearby NPCs who would respond to an alarm. For this reason the Hacker and EMP may be the Cleaner’s best friends, as they allow him to undermine both NPCs and Traps.

Coinage: The Cleaner doesn’t have anything special in regards to coins. Generally though the Cleaner has an incentive to take NPC coins since he can grab the coin and put out the target simultaneously. Just remember that NPCs with coins are always non-harmful until they get help. They aren’t major targets, but it’s just something to take note of.

Items: Arguably the Cleaner is one of the best users of items in the game because his primary ability is so universally useful. Anything that allows him to do this job better only compounds his worth. Bandaids give him a lot more staying power. Bandaids also enable him to save teammates fast, although he probably doesn’t need this since he can just chloroform anyone before doing revivals. Tranquilizers are useless since he can already put people to sleep. C4 is always a favorite and can bring lots of guards who can be put down. Guns can serve as a trapping distraction or for just plain blowing people away. Faster healing means that the Cleaner does well in shootouts. Smokes can allow him to work fast and take out small groups of enemies, so they should definitely be at the top of your list. An EMP equipped cleaner can do grievous amounts of harm and can grant you a virtual monopoly on level control. But the best item for the cleaner is the disguise. A disguised cleaner can literally gleefully run through crowds and knock anything out without anyone noticing. Sure the disguise may fade fast in plain sight, but if you stay out of sight you can put an entire floor to sleep. It’s as if he coats the disguise in chloroform before he wears it: that is just how effective it is.

Unifier of Berlin: The Mole

I was one of the few neutral observers on that fresh Berlin day in the 80's. I saw President Reagan and his supporters in blue. On the other side were Gorbachev and his red supporters wearing red. Reagan walked over to the wall and, knocking on it with each syllable, said “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Gorbachev grimaced over the wall, his thick glasses catching the sunlight, and he hissed out a shrill “NEVER.” It was silent, and the world stood on edge, the bombs would be flying any second now. Then something unexplainable happened. We all heard a loud voice shout “FREEDOM SPOON” and in one instant the wall exploded in a flash of purple. A rock hit Gorbachev’s head and gave him his trademark nasty bruise (The Soviet Union edited the bruise into every Gorbachev picture and Pravda began calling it his birthmark). Another rock walloped Reagan right on the temple and gave him his trademark Alzheimer’s.

AH YES. THE MOLE. EVERYONE LOVES THE MOLE. HE IS THE MOST COMMON CHARACTER IN THE GAME. Maybe it’s his color. Maybe his personality. Maybe it’s just the Kool-Aid Manchild glee of busting through walls. “OH YEAH!” This guy is the real deal. He can enter secret passages quickly and break glass cases in 1/3 of a second…yawn…His real talent is his nearly gamebreaking ability to bust out non-steel walls. He can turn a level into swiss-cheese in no time flat and can completely bypass doors, traps, and NPCs. He does great in levels with lots of walls, like the Hospital, and also into levels that have large empty wallspaces that he can sneak around in, like the Palace. Each hammer blow ultimately attracts plenty of attention though, and the Mole can quickly find himself in hot water. The key with the mole is to always plan ahead, or at least, improvise well. Lets say you start banging down a wall and someone sees you, but there is a table in the way. They will leave the room and follow your tunnel to where you now stand. You can then either a) go into your tunnel and go down the alternate escape route you prepared, or b) dig through the table into the room and do your thing. The mole is a really great character with a really great ability, that being said, a lot of n00bs like to play as him. This leads to disaster, as oftentimes they just get every guard in a 5 mile radius on their tail and then panic and don’t know what to do. Just work well, and work smart. Be quick, decisive, and know how to work with layouts and NPCs and you will do great. On a side note, the mole has the ability to break walls even if he is in a bush. Simply hop in the bush and bust down the wall. People will notice, but no one will come over if you stay hidden. In this way, you can make a lot of “free moves.” His biggest problem is being loud, but since being loud isn’t always a bad thing it’s very easy for a good mole to turn this into his loudest advantage.

NPC strategy: Like I mentioned earlier, NPCs when they know where you are will run at you. If they can’t reach you they will leave and find your tunnel. Patrolling NPCs will also wander into tunnels they see and search around at random, so be careful. You can fix this by making many different pathways in a major tunnel. If you are spotted try to immediately lower to the agro by retreating, little by little means a lot for the mole. Generally if you are spotted just die in your hole. The hole is almost always a safe place to be when tensions are low.

Teammate strategy: Work with teammates as much as you can. Dig holes for them, tell them where major highways are, etc etc. Teammates tend to avoid moles because of the noise, but they can use the mole as a mobile insta-distraction to make good headway. Moles work great with any class except for Locksmiths. Basically the Mole is a better locksmith (although together they can have fearsome mobility they won’t be able to coordinate well enough). The Lookout is actually superb with the mole, she can show him where people are in relation to his tunneling. She can also prepare escape vents for him when things get heavy. Also be willing to take suggestions from players on where to dig. If you have a bad mole on your team, try getting him to change classes or at least play smarter.

Escape Strategy: Expect to have to make lots of escapes, even more than the cleaner. You make noise and are a big target. Digging holes to escape is bad news, have pre-made holes for escape in multiple rooms. Chances are you will be able to just run away and hide in the labyrinth you made. When digging very long arteries try to dig a way out. Just remember, if you can get out, a mob can get in, so its often smart to have long supply lines so that when mobs come after you it will take them a while, leaving you with enough time to open your own bank. Another important gameplay goal of the mole should be to dig to the escape vehicle whenever he finds it. Just have a route dug to it as soon as possible, that way when you need to escape you can do so unhindered and without making more noise. A hole now is worth 3 holes later.

Traps: The mole would be useless against traps, but he can simply dig around them. He can even dig towards them and disable them temporarily. The mole generally does not fear traps, although he should always know what traps are on the other side of a wall.

Coinage: The mole can often dig to safes and piles of money and open them before anyone has time to respond, so he can almost do the Locksmith’s job better than the Locksmith. The Mole can also get some harder to reach coins too. I wouldn’t say that coins are a major goal for the mole. Focus on keeping everyone mobile.

Items: I’m not really sure if the mole needs items, but I guess they couldn’t hurt. He’s already loud, so I don’t see him having any trouble with guns. Tranquilizers can make for a slightly stealthier mole, though I don’t see the point it trying to remain quiet. Its really just a matter of trying to control being loud. EMP is fair, C4 seems irrelevant. Bandages can do some good on a mole. Smokes can give him enough time to bore new holes, and they can give you an edge when escaping. Disguises on a mole burn up pretty quick since hole making leads to staring, but they can make him smoother in open areas. Your main item should be your hammer.

You're Gonna Like the Way you Look: The Gentleman

“Bonjour” says the dapper bearded man in a suit as he passes by. “Aloha” you say in response. You smile to yourself and wish you looked that good. You then begin to smile and have a pleasant day because he was so nice. Then you start doing actual work again and forget about him for the time being. Just another face. Later when you go and check the vault you find that everything is missing and that there are skeletons inside. You’re not sure who did it, you just hope that sweet old gentleman is unharmed.

The Gentleman is sort of the everyman of Monaco. Whenever starting a floor or After 3 seconds of being out of sight he generates a 6 tick Disguise. A tick lasts a second in plain sight for each person watching. Basically this means that the Gent can count on a few seconds of free actions and movements, and if he plays his cards right he can keep resetting the disguise and keep getting free actions. He is highly mobile and usually has plenty of time to complete any action he needs to, making him the most flexible team member. His secondary ability is that he can start cars in 3 seconds, meaning that he should be the trailblazer when it comes to escaping. He can’t do any other actions fast though, and this is the main mechanic with him. The Gentlemen can’t really buy you time or save you time with actions. You don’t call in the Gentleman when you need something done in the fastest way possible. However, the Gentlemen is unique in that he uses time a lot better than other characters. He plays it safe and, when used correctly, readily turns time into quality. He can waltz into a room and play a pragmatic game close to the chest and get a lot done. For this reason, I don’t think that the Gentleman is much of a team player. He is best left to his own devices. Even when apparently doing nothing, the Gentleman still contributes to the team with his inside job style of recon and the promise of staying alive for emergencies. The key to playing the Gentleman is to take your time. Sneak, don’t run. That is, as long as your disguise is up. Learning disguise timing is, like learning how Mole holes play out, primarily a thing of experience and will require a lot of trial and error. Once you have it down though you will find that the Gentleman can actually open safes faster than a Locksmith or grab coins faster than a Pickpocket. He is capable of taking the direct route and by trading 3 seconds for a disguise he can get almost anything done. A good gentleman is extremely fluid and can constantly move and regenerate disguises while being both invisible and invincible.

NPC: The Gentleman, for being a social character, interacts very little with NPCs. The only interaction is the disguise. If one NPC is looking at him he will stay hidden for around 6 seconds. If more NPCs are looking at him he will stay hidden for less time. His disguise also evaporates faster if he is running and/or close. So really, all you need to know to play the gentlemen is how mob aggro works. Once you have that down you can basically have a never-ending disguise and work without fear of NPCs. Just be sure not to be seen WHILE your disguise is regenerating, otherwise it will come to halt and you may find yourself shorter on time than anticipated. It is actually possible to know when your disguise is being looked at and when it isn't. When it is black no one is looking at you and you can safely recharge. When it is white you are being looked at and the clock is ticking.

Teammate Strategy: The Gent tends to work best without others. He is the face guy and should try to put himself where others can’t be. He doesn’t need a lot of support since his ability to buy time can let him glide through rooms. He can work well with the Lookout, who keeps track of mobs, but the Gent can do recon fine on his own. He should play a close game, not a pre-emptive one. For this reason, the Gent works well with the Redhead. He can pick out targets for her. I suppose a gent-mole duo would also be good, with the mole making holes and the gent using them to infiltrate without fear. I would say that the Hacker and Gent work remarkably well together. The Gent can go where the Hacker can’t while the Hacker stays on the sidelines and hacks everything to make the Gent’s use of time even more efficient.

Escape: Its not so much a matter of escape, just waiting. The auto-disguise will make you perfectly safe. A good gentleman can go through a whole level without being on the run. But if you must be on the run the key is to put TIME, not space, between you and an NPC. Make sure you get your 3 seconds in, then you are pristine. For this, stick near walls. Especially be near them when your disguise is running out. The Gent can also start cars fast, so he should always lead the escape once the objective is met.

Traps: The gentleman’s Achilles heel, a tripped alarm will instantly blow your disguise and leave you vulnerable. Try your best to find a computer or use EMP, but generally you want to work with a Hacker. Traps can throw off your game, but remember, if you need to set off a trap go right ahead. Just make sure you can hide for 3 seconds afterwards.

Coins: The gents disguise lets him grab those pesky coins that NPCs hold. You will find that this is where a lot of the Gent’s quality comes in. Under perfect conditions and with a good player the gentleman can manage his time in such a way that he can grab coins almost as efficiently as a pickpocket. He certainly has a cushion to open safes.

Items: Smoke gives you a few seconds to find good cover, so the Gentleman like a good smoke. Actually, a smoke grenade lasts 3 seconds, so you can just use the smoke grenade and stay still and you'll get a whole new disguise. Neat huh? Bandaids can make him a powerful healer who uses longevity to keep a team’s momentum going. EMP helps with those pesky traps. If there is a single laser blocking your path feel free to use EMP to cross it. While it might seem like a waste, it saves your disguise and will allow you to convert less time into more quality. Guns are great with the Gent as they don’t blow his cover right away. You can actually shoot up a room and then wait for your disguise to reset before the cavalry arrives to investigate. Tranquilizers can be skillfully used by a Gent. Remember, any sleeping or dead enemy is one not looking at you, so you have even more space for your disguise to turn on. The tranquilizer puts people out silently, so it can make a reliable safe zone for a gentleman. C4 is also a great option on the gent as he can plant it in an open location and then retreat to recover his disguise while it blows up. Disguises are useless on Gentlemen; let your teammates have them. They may give you 24 ticks, but they won’t regenerate in three seconds, even if you are under 6 ticks. You have to use up the full disguise before you can recover ticks again, which means putting yourself in danger. Overall I would say items allow the Gentleman to control space better, so obviously they compound with good use of time. Taken together, the Gentleman can utilize space and time better than any other character.

One Man Y2K: The Hacker

Picture a well lit hallway. You are sitting there typing at a desk overlooking said hallway. Then your computer blue screens and the security cameras start acting funny. Then all of the lights start flickering and the power begins to fail. People begin to run around in panic and confusion, not sure what is causing the disturbance, and paperwork is flying haphazardly. As this meltdown is happening you see a green hoodied hoodlum frolicking through the hallways. Congratulations you’ve just met the Hacker.

The Hacker is capable of well, hacking. He can hack faster than any other class. Additionally, he can create viruses from outlets. Recent patches to the game made outlets more accessible, and also made Hacker viruses more responsive and fast. This buff turned the hacker from one of the most useless characters into one of the most useful, and the Hacker can now easily breeze through heavily secured levels. Of course, the Hacker is without any powers of evasion and can’t really interact with NPCs in any way, making him very handicapped once everything goes wrong. Additionally, the Hacker has to keep track of and risk time and energy to find outlets, which aren’t always easily accessible. The viruses themselves can be difficult to monitor, so don’t afraid to take your time if need be. Viruses blink for about 5 seconds before they finally disappear, so ALWAYS be on the lookout for blinking viruses. Remembering which outlets and computers you hit first goes hand in hand and will with the blinking virus clause and will allow you to keep a steady stream handy. I wrote this section first actually and now that I come back to it I notice how short it is, but I think that is the best way to explain the Hacker. There are really no complicated strategies. Just make a ton of viruses and wreak havoc. The Hacker is definitely the most straightforward class and while his job doesn’t have a lot of variety he can consistently deliver. His ability is also unique and powered to the point where, on some levels, it is almost mandatory to have a hacker. Hackers do their job without much thought and they do their jobs EXTREMELY well. Ever since the patch Hackers are capable of running entire levels.

NPC strategy: null and void. Hackers and NPCs do not get along. Try your best to avoid NPCs. Naturally you’ll gravitate towards the walls of rooms where outlets are more likely to be, so its doable. Working with a cleaner is a good idea.

Teamwork Strategy: Hackers work well with Gentlemen, Cleaners, Redheads, and Lookouts, all of whom can help him in the NPC department. Generally Hackers should make viruses and work around team members in order to protect them. Don’t be stingy with computers either, it doesn’t hurt to let each player make one or two viruses on a computer for their own use. Doing so actually frees you up a bit. Moles and Locksmiths can help you with your escape, but you shouldn’t be putting yourself in dangerous positions anyway. Pickpockets and Hackers don’t have much overlap.

Escape strategy: since you can manipulate and disable traps you usually have extra options for escape as long as you prepare. Just remember that every action you take in opening doors or hiding or using windows or secret passages will require the full amount of time. Working with any other team member is good as long as they can keep escapes open for you.

Trap strategy: 15/10 the Hacker can run circles around turrets and lay waste to security systems with ease. Although there are a few caveats. Viruses behave strange and differently depending on the trap they are disarming which, because of the simple graphics, isn’t always easy to deduce. Generally they can disable blink lasers for short periods, take over cameras, turn off alarms, open scan doors, and disable floor traps. Viruses that disable a trap will move on to the next one, other viruses might stay in a spot. Viruses with nothing to do will pile up and wait. Generally the radius isn’t terribly large and even with faster viruses there is still room for error, so be patient if you need to. The unfortunate thing is, often an elaborate security system will be so complex that you can’t possibly examine the whole thing and see how it’s going to turn out. Add into this phones, EMP, and other random variables and a lot can go wrong. Viruses will automatically go to ringing phones to shut them off, EMP will destroy all of your viruses, etc etc. What is the solution? MAKE A LOT OF VIRUSES. Get any computers you can and any outlets you can within risk. Having an army of viruses to disable opposition will give you the best possible chance of success.

Coinage: The Hacker has no special abilities to grab coins beyond being able to hack into ATMs. The Hacker can also get difficult to reach safes and coins by disabling nearby traps.

Items: Guns and the Hacker go well together as they allow him to match up against NPCs, but is it really worth getting the attention? I usually like a shotgun on the Hacker just in case. Tranquilizers may be a better option as it is silent and lasts about as long as a virus. I’m not certain how I feel about C4 either, since it might destroy outlets or pathways. Bandaids are always good and may allow the hacker to take more risks than he would normally be able too. Smokes also help keep the hacker safe and active. EMP is generally bad as it will disrupt your viruses and force you to recreate them. You want to avoid EMP and convince others not to use it unless required. EMP however may actually be put to good use by the Hacker: it could act as a sort of hard reset. It viruses misbehave the Hacker can simply shut down the system so that he doesn’t put himself in harms way: that way he could either follow through with his action or set up viruses again. EMP can also be a sort of extra insurance for viruses. Its often hard to keep track of viruses and they often cross paths and change so many times that you can tell which ones are fresh and which ones are going to vanish. Suppose you are pulling off a major heist and one of your key viruses dies and you are about to be made into swiss cheese by a turret. EMP could allow you to shut everything down when things go awry. It is the Hacker’s best and worst friend. Wrenches may be his second best friend. They can kill enemies silently OR can get the hacker out of an area pronto. Disguises can help the hacker a lot, especially if outlet placement is bad. You can use the disguise to hit all available outlets without fear.

Make Love, Not War: The Redhead

ALRIGHT ALRIGHT I'LL MAKE A SECTION. I'm expecting the redhead update, so I think I'll keep it short and sweet.

Bored, depraved, and stupid, you tromp down the hallway to punch the clock and drive home. Then something flickers in the corner of your eye. A voluptuous creature of immense and indescribable beauty. Harmless. Lovely. Helpless. Does she need her help? You're not sure, but being a slow witted creature you presume that her curvaceous and sensual frame could need a hand. She looks new here anyway. Maybe its the eyes. Maybe its the dress. Maybe its the luscious body. You help her through a door here, a door there, and watch her as she does...whatever she is doing...you really weren't paying attention. Before you know it guns are flying and everyone is chasing after her. In the ruckus she gets lost. Depressed, you decide to return back to real life, only to find yourself handcuffed moments later for aiding the enemy.

The Redhead. One of my favorite least favorite characters. Her ability is liberating and restraining. She can charm one enemy at a time. The floating red heart over her head will transport over the head of the first mob to aggro up. Her ability is stated to be "she can charm the angriest of enemies", but in reality she cannot charm a mob with a ! who is chasing her or trying to kill her. You have to really be careful of how she aggros. Even slight exposure to her might get an NPC to help you that you don't want. The NPC can open doors and scan doors for you, free of charge, immediately, no alarms. This seems useful, but in reality the NPCs don't keep up very well. They constantly run, and do so as half as fast as you, meaning in a quick escape they won't help with doors. So, as you can see, it is very easy to screw up. You can lose charmed mobs by hiding in a bush or stairwell, but this wastes precious time. I feel like the Redhead is sort of a greaseman...er...woman...she does great in tight spots and can neutralize some rooms entirely. But when things get too fast the Redhead simply fails to deliver. A cautious and brilliant redhead can waltz through levels, but she just can't handle a lot of the details and hard parts without proper prep. The redhead has the most room for fantastic and brilliant play, but she has [s]steep learning[/s] curves...er hem...STEEP LEARNING CURVES and her use varies wildly depend on levels and NPC placement. With proper support she can be one of the most devious and exceptional characters. Her secondary ability is that she heals in 1/2 the time, which is arguably THE most useful skills for multiplayer. When everything goes wrong, the redhead can track her targets, align her charms, and get people back up again in no time flat. I believe the Redhead is a team class that ripens with more and more players. We'll get into that...

NPC Strategy: She can charmed one person at a time. This charmed NPC will follow you, and you can shake him either by running away or hiding. I shouldn't say him. She can actually aggro ANY NPC, men, women, dogs...not cats though. Cats are evil. The NPC will open doors and stuff, but you have to allow them to keep up with you. The NPC can readily turn into a ball and chain in pursuits. Remember that once you have an NPC charmed all others will aggro normally. For this reason you might want to keep your charm free as often as possible, if not, ALWAYS. If you mess up or if a mob sees you in a place you don't expect the charm can save you. If you are being attacked by many mobs you can at least thin out the herd. Obviously you want to pick and choose rooms, the redhead does best in rooms with 1 NPC or with 1 NPC who is actually in the way while the rest are looking away. She can dominate these rooms. An important note: ALWAYS get the most powerful mob you can. If you are facing down a cop, an agent, and a watchmen, aggro the agent first. That does everyone a favor.

Team strategy: The redhead loves the lookout, the gentleman, and the mole. The lookout can find isolated targets, the gent can do hands on recon and handle details, and the mole can help the redhead to get moving and line up charms. Locksmiths are nearly useless with Redheads, but you must remember the following. Locksmiths can be there whenever you need them to be: mobs take time to chase you around. Locksmiths leave doors unlocked: mobs lock doors. In reality, the locksmith and redhead get along pretty well. The Cleaner can allow you to make a "honey trap" whereby you lure mobs away for him to gas. The Hacker is useful, but you can go through panel doors without his help. Neutral chemistry with pickpocket, although he can clean up more comfortably with mobs out of the way. The Redhead can revive people fast which is EXTREMELY useful. Friends can play riskier games and die anywhere since the redhead can heal them super fast.

Escape strategy: Choose the path of least mobs. A redhead can get doors open and neutralize the threat of mobs, so she is perfect for getting you from floor to floor or from area to area. The redhead escaping must be wary of the mob who follows her, as he will not always be fast enough to open doors. Not wasting your charm can often save you from the need to escape in the first place.

Trap strategy: The Redhead can handle panel doors. That is it. She can pair well with the hacker in that she can remove at least 1 NPC from a heavily trapped room. Oftentimes the Redhead doesn't need to rush through traps or worry about them: she can simply charm the person who answers the trap.

Coinage: Redhead can't really do anything great here. For this reason a pickpocket may be good to have around although he doesn't add anything to your own abilities.

Items: You are a healer, let someone else take the bandaids. C4 and RPGs can be good on the redhead. C4 especially since you might be able to trick a guard into getting gibbed. You can follow through by charming the one who checks the explosion. Tranquilizer and smokes would enable you to lose the person you charmed, although thats pretty much wasting an item. I suppose a tranquilizer would enable you to handle a more difficult multi-mob room. EMP can be very helpful and can get you through traps with poise. The Wrench is very useful for the redhead since you can reliable complete actions if your charmed helper cannot, although this is just wasting an item to compensate for bad play. The Redhead likes guns, and I especially like the idea of the Redhead carrying an SMG. They can reliably mow down 6 mobs in large radius that affords the Redhead extra room and flexibility. You can kill a group of mobs and then charm the investigator, or you can kill a group of mobs and then charm a survival. The Redhead, more than any other class, will need the space and time cushions provided by guns. Let her use guns whenever possible since they allow her to control the number of active mobs.

These are a Few of my Favorite Things: Items

Wrench (sometimes known as a Skeleton Key): Wrenches complete an action instantly. Basically they completely nullify time and turn it immediately into quality. Open a door, crack a safe, get out of an emergency situation, perform a kill. Wrenches enable melee attacks, which tend to be useless against gun toting NPCs unless you get the jump. The Wrench is highly versatile but I think it is easy to waste if you get impatient. The best wrench use is for emergency or to avert an emergency. Just know that while they wrench kill is silent, it will instantly alert ANY NPC in line of sight, so try to ambush. Recommended classes: Any but the Locksmith.

Trauma Kit (known by me as the bandaid): Life insurance in its purest form. Heals half health in a small radius. Use it when your team is together, like when you change floors. Don't be afraid to heal a friend who needs it, and remember that the trauma kit can revive bodies. If you have a friend with trauma kits try to die near others. It can greatly expand your own life as well, but its best left for altruism. Recommended classes: Any but the Redhead.

EMP: Causes a "rolling blackout." Like the power box, it shuts off power in an expanding radius, so don't rush it and remember their will be a few seconds delay for your friends. It only lasts like 5 seconds, but only the immediate area gets the full effect. It disables all traps, but I find that it is often an ineffecient means of doing so. Often you need to use 1 to get into the trapped room and 1 to get out. It also destroys whatever viruses are active. As a rule, only use it BEFORE you activate a trap. Recommended classes: Any but the Hacker.

Shotgun: Fires in a fan shape. 6 bullets. I'm pretty sure that it can only kill 6 people max. It can also fire through glass and leave windows open to walk through. Leaves bodies that NPCs will revive, and each shot will attract one guard mob to the spot where you shot it. Good for suddenly killing large groups of enemy. Since mobs can revive other mobs its kind of useless and often a waste. I usually just use one on the run to buy time. Recommended classes: Any.

SMG: Fires a stream that can be directed vaguely, I think close to 120 degrees. Bullets penetrate, but lack lethality at a certain range. I don't think it is very responsive. It's best use is causing havoc and killing droves of enemies, but its no more lethal than the shotgun. It does great on wide open levels or against tight clusters or lines of enemies. I think it is a more situation and pragmatic shotgun. It has a higher learning curve, but you'll find that the ability to curve your stream of bullets gives it the edge. Recommended: Any. Especially Redhead.

C-4: I was always apprehensive about C-4, but in reality it is superbly useful. It blows up a 5x5 square after about 4 seconds. It turns enemies into chunky salsa, but it can also kill you and even blow up your getaway van, so don't use it in a hurry. It can blow up anything except for steel walls and coins. It has 4 uses: blowing up walls, opening safes/chests/atms, killing mobs, and destroying traps. I generally find that it works well with any class, but different classes can use it in different ways. The mole might use it to open safes, the gent might blow up traps and turrets. Always make sure that you can hide after setting it, because the explosion will attract one mob (the cleaner can actually take out this mob, so C4 is a good trap). C4 is also particularly useful for creating passageways and bypassing tricky doors, just make sure you don't destroy bushes. Try to C-4 in ways that get lots of jobs done at once. And pull your shots: if you go in a room with a camera, a safe by the camera, and an alarm by the door, take out the alarm. It is least reliable for killing NPCs, so only use it if you are surrounded and about to die. That way someone can revive you while you do the team a favor by getting rid of NPCs. Recommended classes: Any.

Smoke Bomb (known by me as smokes): Produces a field of asbestos thick black smoke. I'm talking team rocket escaping with koffing smoke. Smoke reduces aggro dramatically and renders you invisible (as long as you are in the smoke, try not to wander out of smoke). It lasts exactly 3 seconds, which lets the gent put his disguise on. The Cleaner can use it to knock a few heads. A class can grab scattered coins without fear. You can use it to open doors, escape, or help with safes. If you are hidden in a bush and you are seen you can use this to go off the grid again. The key to smokes is to plan beforehand and know exactly what you will do with your time. 3 Seconds is a long while, so take your time with it and turn time into quality. Recommended classes: Pickpocket, Gent, Cleaner.

RPG (brand new): RPGs are usually hidden in innocuous or hard to reach locations. Basically a ranged C4. It seems to have less explosive radius, and I don't think it gibs guards. They are usually in hard to reach places, and when you pull the trigger it charges a shot for 2 seconds before firing it so fast you can't even see it. RPGs have all the same properties as C4 in how they aggro. I find the RPG to be highly useful for disabling traps in wide open spaces: you can simply blow the trap up. C4 is way more efficient, but an RPG is more reliable and less risky. Recomended classes: Mole loves RPG. He is often the only class that can reach them, and he can tunnel around to make a perfect shot that can disable pesky traps, permanently.

Disguises: Creates a 24 tick disguise around you and allow you to waltz in plain sight. Disguises are USUALLY played around important rooms, so be sure to do some recon before you just grab it. Wasting disguises will make a level much harder, so follow standard operating procedure: sneak, stay out of sight when possible, and work fast. You can combine a disguise with items to use your time more efficiently. Anything that makes noise will lower some ticks: guns, moling around, or alarms, so be careful. Disguises last across floors. The Cleaner can use a disguise to run right through people. When your disguise is running low don't be afraid to break into a run for cover. Alternatively, if you are being chased you can immediately run for the disguise and put it on for safety. Always monitor your disguise: when it is black you are fine, but it will begin to fall apart when white. They decrease faster if you are close, in the line of sight with multiply mobs, or running. Recommended Classes: Any, but the Gent and Mole don't really need them.

Mobocracy: NPCs

Aggro is the term used to describe how enemy NPCs react to the player character. The mobs of Monaco have several stages.

Ignorance (Nothing overhead): the mobs can’t see you

Curiosity (White ?): Fills up depending on how exposed/close/fast you are and how lighting is. It can increase slow-fast, but sometimes it goes up VERY SLOWLY and you might not even notice. Certain actions will automatically fill it partially (the cleaner knocking a nearby person out/loud noises), or fully (bumping into someone). It will readily and rapidly decrease when you are hidden, and you can force it to decrease with the use of smokes. Always be sure that you can get out of the line of sight before it fills up. Once the ? fills up you get…

Suspicion (Red ?): A white ? fills and begins to turn red and ultimately crimson. Mobs will actively investigate and prowl off of their designated routes. If you keep a fair distance you can often find cover before you are spotted. This is really the critical aggro stage: by the time it is activated you are probably done or at least underway on an action, so now is the time to hide or get out of dodge. When civilians tell guards to come investigate the guards will be in this stage. This is the threshold of RISK and FREEFALL, so getting the timing down can really make you a better player. If they notice you for long enough with a red ? then you get…

Alert (!): Represented by a red ! if you are in sight and a white ! if you are out of sight. If they have a Red ! they will actively attack you and follow you. If you hide in a bush or run into a room with this, they will still attack/follow. When they don’t see you it turns into a White !. The White ! is left at the last place they saw you, and they will go to this place and continue to look, so hide while the White ! is around. Once they call down they will go back to a question mark and then will go back to their posts. C4 and gunshots attract one mob to the spot with a white !

Mob Behaviors: When disturbed, mobs will always return to previous behaviors

• Sessile (stay in one area). Pretty obvious how to handle these guys
  
• Patrol (follow a specified route). Study their route, find corners and quirks to exploit.
  
• Escort (follow another mob, usually a dog or civilian). Try to take out the one in back first, they are usually the guard.
  
• Revival: Mobs will sometimes go to dead mobs nearby or in other rooms to revive them. This takes 6 seconds and they do it one at a time. This is the main use of guns: while killing people is irrelevant because of revival, the time you win is fantastic. Revived mobs will usually proceed to revive other mobs, so time runs out exponentially as they are revived.

Mob Vision: Mobs have long range vision that does bad with corners and crannies. Its often the case that you can run in a room and simply hide against a wall next to the door and be fine.

Mob Speed: Mobs normally slowly meander around at about half the speed of sneaking. They run sometimes at just above the speed of sneaking. This means running is a great way to outrun them (obviously) assuming you have a prepared escape.

Civilians: Harmless mobs. Either fat bald men in suits or blondes in dresses. They are pretty common. When alerted they will instantly go to a nearby guard and return to the place they saw you. The guards will only have a red question mark. You can use this to draw guards out of an area. Sessile civilians almost ALWAYS have coins on them.

Prisoners: Don’t aggro in any way. Wear bright orange.

Watchmen: Mobs in white suits. They do melee damage and are very common. They are easily out-runned and should not pose much threat. Their attacks do 2 damage, so they can kill you in 12 hits if you are at full health.

Police: Mobs in blue. They shoot at you with a pistol that takes away about 3 hp and can kill you in 8 hits. Might seem innocuous, but they can hit you at any range and are very dangerous.

Agents: Mobs in suits with SMGs. Frequently appear as guards or escorts. Do 5 damage with direct hits, but generally need to rely on closer range. Make distance and find cover to survive. They seem to be smarter than average mobs, though this may just be coincidence. I get the feeling they sometimes put more effort into searching, so be wary. Use their recoil to help your escape.

Gendarme (Swats): Wear black. Shotguns. Usually escort dogs. Nightmarish scary and loud, they can kill you in 2-3 hits and work in large groups. They are programmed to search every possible area in a given room, so study their pattern and make sure you keep a few steps ahead.

Doctors: Wear white. Carry tranquilizers. Very obnoxious. Deal 2 damage but put you out for a second or 2. They shoot every 4-5 seconds, so you can’t open safes or do long actions around them, and they can EASILY ruin an escape. Be very aloof of them.

Dogs: Deal 2 damage. Often followed by watchmen or swats. Dogs almost always patrol, and they are capable of coming across your “scent” and following it. Your scent is easily identifiable by your footprints, but dogs can also follow you even if you don’t leave footprints. Dogs don’t give up easily, so lose them and then run in a bush or vent. Running in short circles and long sprints are the best ways to throw them off. Just get time and distance on them.

Cats: Harmless but will stab you in the back faster than you can say "CRAP," cats are, without a doubt, the most dangerous mob in the game. Ok they aren't that bad...but they have some unusual behaviors. If you run on or near a cat they go MEOW. This MEOW has the same effect as an alarm, and 1 guard mob will run to the cat with high alert to check out what is wrong. Sneaking affords you some more space with the cat, but the cat will still meow if you get remotely close to it. Cats are strategically positioned in the middle of rooms or in tight spots with trophies. Unlike traps and mobs though, the cat IS IMMORTAL. YOU CANNOT KILL A CAT. The only solution to neutralize the cat is too kill every mob in a 1 mile radius, which is usually impossible. Cats are horrible demonic creatures who can ruin a heist entirely. Be careful around them...

Tesla Strikes Back: Electronics & Traps

Human Resources: Player Types

Players: No not characters, per se. These are the real life characters, the other players. Talking is very important, but try to be kind and suggest things. Instead of bombarding a bad Mole tell them some tricks that they might not know. Remember, your life could be in anyone’s hands, so you want to make sure that you don’t tick off anyone. I’m going to give a general overview of some of the types of players you will meet and how to handle/deal with them. Remember, customer service is the difference between employment and unemployment. Also Remember: these divisions are not clear. Someone may be multiple classifications, or someone might change over time or even from game to game depending on circumstances.

• The n00b: just bought the game, doesn’t know much, relies on instinct but will yield to the demands of better players if you are lucky. Be nice, and remember that it is a learning experience for them. A major subclass is the n00b-mole who just unlocked the mole and insists on playing as him because of the freedom spoon. N00b-moles are dead giveaways and will die countless times in laughable ways. If you see a n00b-mole I suggest you direct them to this guide.
  
• Cool gamer bro: the run of the mill player, be they casual or hardcore. They played the game and have experience with it and just play off of what they know. They might know ins and outs, they might not. Treat them with respect and let them do their own thing. They can either be VERY cooperative or highly uncooperative. They are probably the most common, generic, and variable. In a way, all players are cool gamer bros.
  
• Friends: friends are what we call two or more people who are playing on the same server and personally know one another. remember, friends are friends because they have fun. They might not exactly take the game seriously, but you can always expect them to work well together and communicate. A group of 4 friends is probably one of the best arrangements you can have.
  
• Mission Control: My specialty. Mission controllers are smart, suave, and smooth operators. They know the game inside and out and are constantly giving suggestions and opinions. They tend to be passive and try to generate ideas, but they can quickly become useless and/or obnoxious. If you know what you are doing try to ignore these people or calmly tell them you aren’t buying their product. If you are a n00b, take some notes. If your team has fallen to tatters and you are on the verge of losing listen to this guy, he can get you through anything if you let him. Locksmiths, Gentlemen, and Lookouts make good mission controllers.
  
• Experts: People who have beaten the game repeatedly and have a massive amount of experience and muscle memory for levels. They can sometimes come off as machines, but always reliably deliver on a high level. Trust in experts.
  
• Jokers: Kill the Batman ask questions later. They throw all plans to the wind and do their own thing. They are the trolls of Monaco. Be civil and polite with them, or kick them, or keep them on and have fun.
  
• Speed Demons: Love to speedrun the game. They will rush you through every level. Don’t be afraid to ask them to leave or slow down if you want, but usually a speedrun is a lot of fun.
  
• Role Players: Always fun, invite them on in. Respond appropriately.

Ok you get the gist right. Generally you can work just fine with ANY assortment of players and you can always get far by being civil and polite.

More to Come

History and Political Profile: Monaco

My sources are gleaned from many websites
Namely Wikipedia & Official Monoco Government Websites
Here is a short list of websites I looked at. Take is as a bibliography/further reading:
http://www.monte-carlo.mc/en/general/history-of-monaco/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Monaco
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monaco
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainier_III,_Prince_of_Monaco
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_II,_Prince_of_Monaco
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Carlo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Monegasque_Treaty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_Monaco

A note: We would use the word English to describe the people and language of England. For Monaco, the term is Monegasque.

What Monaco Looks Like[upload.wikimedia.org]
Where Monaco Is and how big it is[upload.wikimedia.org]

Antiquity
Monaco is one of the smallest countries in the world. It's a tiny little shred on the coast of France near Italy. No really, it has less than a square mile of land. The land is valuable as you might expect, and most of Monaco's history is based on the so called 'Rock of Monaco' which is basically a giant (ok, just small and valuable) peninsula jutting into the Mediterranean. The rock makes a pretty good fort/port, and was coveted and colonized for centuries. It was colonized by Greeks who also named it. The name came from the Monoikos, who were a Ligurian tribe that inhabited the rock. Ligurians are in the northwestern part of Italy nearest to France/Monaco, and the famous city Genoa is located there (although the Ligurian language and culture is practically extinct now). Although the name also may have come from the Greek name for the rock: Hercules Monoikos. It is believed that Hercules passed through Monaco, or at least, lived there for a short while, and a temple was built to his honor. His name is used for the modern port of the city: The Port of Hercules. His temple was never found, so who really knows. Monoikos means "Separate or Alone House" in Greek, a fitting name for a country as unique as Monoco. Later it came under Roman control and with the collapse of the Roman Empire Monaco was passed among different groups: goths, barbarians, and even the Byzantine Empire. After lots of hot potato Ligurians began to populate Monaco again and the Holy Roman Emperor intervened in the 12th century and gave Genoa suzereignty over Monaco (basically Monaco was a quasi-atonomous tributary state). A fort was built on the Rock of Hercules and so begins real Monaco history as we can understand it.

Renaissance
After escaping from a feud in Genoa, the Grimaldi family began to settle in Monaco. Francesco "The Malicious/Cunning One" Grimaldi dressed up as a monaco (that is the Italian term for monk, what a coincedence) and stormed the Fort on the Rock and took it over. There was still general squabbles and a lot of turbulence and leadership changes, but in the 1400's the Grimaldi's simply bought Monaco from the Crown of Aragon (basically the proto-Spain) and declared themselves Princes. They ruled well, got recognized as sovereign from Spain and France, and, except for a brief lapse of control during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Era they have ruled for over 700 years. After Napoleon fell Monaco became a protectorate of Sardenia (basically the larger kingdom that replaced Linguria). Naturally, Sardenia made Italian the official language, which would help to further develop Moneqasque culture as a combination of Italian and French. In 1861 the Grimaldi's signed a treaty with France that gave up 95% of their territory in exchange for lots of money and total sovereignty. It is here that modern Monaco took shape. Around this time the Monte-Carlo Casino was established. It was meant to keep the Grimaldis from bankrupcy, and it succeeded beautifully and became a powerful economic engine.

Modern
Monaco has undergone lots of weird changes in the modern era. In 1910 the Monegasque Revolution occured, and citizens demanded concessions for the economic and ethical problems of the country. The royal family accepted a constitution, although they were still quite strong.
Monaco faced a succession crisis around and during WWI. There was no proper heir to the throne. In the event that the prince died, a German royal would have taken the throne as per custom. France took away a greal of Monaco's independence with the 1918 treaty, and basically made it so only a native Monegasque or Frenchmen could take the throne and that, if it came to it, France would had the power to appoint the regent. In 2002 a third treaty with France gave Monaco full sovereignty over its dynastic affairs.
The two most recent leaders were Rainier III and Albert II. Rainier took power around 1950 and enacted many modern governmental, economic, and social reforms to Monaco. He even ousted Aristotle Onassis. Onassis was a Greek magnate who was a majority stockholder in the Monegasque gambling/tourist industry and wanted to push Monaco further down that road. Rainier restored the Grimaldi's place as the prime powers. He restored honor to the throne by revitalizing the country and giving up some authority to elected officials. Monaco's economy greatly diversified. He married the famous actress Grace Kelly, had three kids with her (Albert, Caroline, and Stephanie), and ruled until 2005. His son, Albert II, took over and has continued to remain active in being a prince and developing Monaco. He is generally well loved.

Other Fun Facts:
Someone once "Broke the Bank" at Monte-Carlo by discovering a bias in the roulette. A song was written about this.

Monaco is the wealthiest and most developed country per capita. It is also the densest populated country in the world. It is also heavily policed, with the largest police force per capita in the world.

Monaco is one of the smallest countries in the world, second only to Vatican City. Despite this, Monaco has been growing. It pours soil into the sea to "reclaim" land. It has grown 20% this way.

Monaco is a tax haven, with low and often nonexistent taxes

The icon of this review is the Monegasque flag. It bears the same colours as the Grimaldi family crest. It is almost the same as the Indonesian flag.

Despite its small size, Monaco hosts many racing events, most notably the Monaco grand prix.

Monaco is technically sovereign, but France is responsible for protecting it. Monaco has a very small military that mostly just guards the Grimaldis. Monaco, for all intensive purposes, aligns with French interests, and yes, they are in the U.N.

Its national-culture is a blend of French and Italian influence. Though the Grimaldi's are Italian, breeding and cultural diffusion has rendered them virtually French.

The Musee Oceanographic is a major Ocean Studies center in Monaco. Jacques Cousteau was the director of it for a while.

Monagasque leaders are very popular, and, despite being in a small country, have many connections with other leaders, probably on account of all the gambling/tax haven stuff.

Monte-Carlo is barred from citizens.

Monaco has 0% unemployment. Most of the workers in Monaco are actually French and Italian commuters.

Glossary w/ Techniques

This section is meant to define some terms that you may or may not be familiar with. It also defines techniques and how to do them.

Half-Laddering: When you are in a vent, you can't see what outside of the vent. With vent ladders, it seems like you are in either a state of in or out, but there is actually one where are in-between. Basically you are still occupying a ladder and can re-enter it to safety immediately, but you are also out of the space and can see out of it. It allows you to do extra recon. It can also be used on stairs and bushes. It is mostly useful for ladders, although it can be useful for stairs and bushes if you are trying to see how nearby NPCs react to you being in sight. As you can see, the Hacker is coming out of the vent but still occupying the ladder space and can easily re-enter it without doing any work. It requires a steady hand and a slight touch, but its very feasible.




Pick: When someone says “I’ll pick” it means they will be pickpocket. If no-one is pickpocket than “to pick” means to play a similar role and focus on coins. I’ve also heard it called “collecting”

It’s Crime Time!: A phrase that encapsulates the stealth and action of the game. This phrase means its go time.

We Out: Common phrase to express urgency to escape or to alert other members on cleaning out.

Cleaned Out: All the coins on a floor/level are taken.

Hitting: A verb used to describe an action that accomplishes a task. Hitting the power means turning it off. Hitting a safe means cracking it. Etc Etc.

Gibs: the chunky salsa that happens when mobs and C4 meet. To gib is to turn someone into chunky salsa.

Rez: A term that means revive or resuscitate. You might Rez a fallen player.

Ping: The lower the better. High ping means more lag. Ping and lag are often used interchangeably.

Smokes: Smokescreen

Bandaid: Trauma Kit

Class Names. You might have your own. I tend to use these if I am RPing. I personally call people by their class’s corresponding “flavor”

• Grapes/Purple-Mole
  
• Raspberry/Locks/Mario/Blue-Locksmith
  
• Cherry/Red- Lookout
  
• Orange/Risqué terms not fit for this guide-Redhead
  
• Yellow/Pick/Bananas/Monkey Boy- Pickpocket
  
• Teal/Old Spice/Dos Equis Guy/G/Gent-Gentleman
  
• Pinky/Pinko/Strawberry-Cleaner
  
• Green/Lime/Hack-Hacker

[D I S C A Y]

Nice bro, huge fan of monaco because all my brothers and sisters are obsessed with it so we have a blast together. Very interesting guide/essay.

[PleaseDoNotHitMe]

Nice guide, really detailed. I would say I'm definitely some sort of cross between an expert and a mission control xd.

[Spooky]

I don't always clean out rooms full of civvies and coins...but when I do...I prefer Dos Equis Guy.

[autocratrix]

Hey that's fine XD
Refer back to it as needed
You'll learn it all as you play the game regardless

[Ciparkits]

This truly is the best guide i've erer seen....(don't remember a word a read thou....)

[autocratrix]

It makes the game a lot funner. The game has such a unique and great premise its too good to pass up

[Chucklemaster]

didn't know anyone else did RP in monaco!

[Gats]

Very elpful thx :)

[autocratrix]

thanks I'll edit that at some point

[Mr. U]

Nice guide, but the gentleman's disguise actually will go back to six if it goes into the 6 to 1 range of a 24 tick disguise.