Playing as Deathstroke tips and tricks

Tricks to playing as Deathstroke that you probably didn't pick up from playing the Deathstroke challenge maps.

About this guide

This guide assumes an expert knowledge of challenge mode in Batman: Arkham Origins, and focuses on the details that pertain specifically to the Deathstroke playable character. Many great guides exist for Batman: Arkham City that can be used to familiarize you with the basic gameplay mechanics. Arkham Origins features slightly modified mechanics from Arkham City (not including obvious differences like playable characters and gadgets), and both Arkham Origins and Arkham City have many significant differences when compared to Batman: Arkham Asylum.

The most significant differences between Arkham City and Arkham Origins are:

• Performing a directed areal attack takes significantly longer to execute (see note in Combat section, below).
  
• Hitting a thug who is immune to projectiles with a quickfire projectile will break your combo.
  
• Other minor timing differences regarding attacks.

To play as Deathstroke, you must have the Deathstroke Challenge Pack. This comes free with pre-ordered copies of Batman: Arkham Origins. Xbox 360, and Playstation 3, and Wii-U versions can purchase the Deathstroke Challenge Pack as DLC. The PC version always comes with the Deathstroke Challenge Pack. Some newer copies of the console version come with it as well.

The Deathstroke Challenge Pack is not included in the Season Pass.

Deathstroke can only be played in challenge mode, not in the main story.

Upgrades

The following Story Mode upgrades will pertain to Bruce Wayne in addition to Batman.

Close Combat Upgrades

• Combat Armor 1.0
  
• Combat Armor 2.0
  
• Combat Armor 3.0
  
• Blade Dodge Takedown
  
• Combat Armor 4.0
  
• Critical Counter
  
• Special Combat Boost
  
• 
  
• Double Special Combat Move
  
  
• Ballistic Armor 1.0
  
• Ballistic Armor 2.0
  
• Ballistic Armor 3.0
  
• (Special Combo Multi Ground Takedown is enabled for Deathstroke regardless of whether it has been unlocked for Batman)
  
• Ballistic Armor 4.0

Invisible Predator Upgrades

• Increased Batarang Stun Time (applies to Ballistic Staff)
  
• Increased Batarang Damage (applies to Ballistic Staff)
  
  
• 
  
• Increased Smoke Volume (applies to Stun Grenade)
  
• Heat Signature Concealment System
  
• 
  
• Quick Silent Takedown
  
• 
  
  
• (Remote Claw is enabled for Deathstroke regardless of whether it has been unlocked for Batman)
  
• Remote Claw: Heavy Reel Ammo
  
• Remote Claw: Heavy Reel Ammo Capacity

Auxiliary Upgrades

• Freeflow Focus
  
• Freeflow Power Gadgets (applies only to Staff Slam and Special Combo Disarm and Destroy)
  
• Increased Smoke Duration (applies to Stun Grenade)
  
• (Special Combo Disarm And Destroy is enabled for Deathstroke regardless of whether it has been unlocked for Batman)
  
• Critical Strikes
  
• Batclaw Disarm (applies to Grapple Gun)

General tips and tricks

• Remote Claw and Neural Pellet have three charges each (indicated by the lines by their quickfire icon). Once you have used all three charges, you cannot use these gadgets again. In Combat maps, they reset to full charge at the start of a new round.
  
• Ballistic Staff fires in a straight line rather than in an arc. This means there are circumstances where Batman's or Bruce Wayne's projectiles might hit environmental obsticles despite having line of sight, but Deathstroke's would not. Conversely, Deathstroke's Ballistic Staff may hit nearby obsticles that Batman's or Bruce Wayne's projectiles would arc around.
  
• Deathstroke's Stun Grenade is effectivly identical to Batman's and Bruce Wayne's Smoke Pellet. Despite the name difference, no enemy in its area of effect is actually stunned, they are merely enveloped in smoke. Enemies with Thermal Goggles will quickly react by activating them to try to locate you through the smoke.
  
• Deathstroke's Grapple Gun is effectivly identical to Batman's Batclaw.
  
• Grapple Slam sends enemies flying on impact, and can be used to knock enemies off ledges or just send them away from the rest of a battle.
  
• A "damaged" version of the "Injustice" outfit exists, and can be seen in the character select screen if you go to challenge mode from within story mode (requires that Batman's Batsuit be damaged in story mode).
  
• Deathstroke cannot see enemy thugs' skeletons with his Tactical Vision ability, but he can see the skeletons inside nearby dead bodies that exist as environmental decoration.
  
• Enemies with attached Neural Pellets will show an indicator that displays the range of the Neural Gas, when viewed with Tactical Vision. This also makes it easier to keep track of which enemies are wearing Neural Pellets.
  
• Once a Neural Pellet has been placed, the quickfire Neural Pellet command will activate Neural Gas on all Neural Pellets. Additional Neural Pellets must be placed the slow way if you want to have multiple Neural Pellets in play at once.
  
• You can have multiple Proximity Bombs placed at once. (Usually in Combat situations, an enemy will step on your first Proximity Bomb before you have time to place a second Proximity Bomb.)
  
• A semi-sphere depecting the trigger radius for Proximity Bombs can be seen using Tactical Vision.
  
• Proximity Bombs can be manually detonated by using the Proximity Bomb gadget. There is no command to quickfire detonate Proximity Bombs, so the quickfire command will merely place another. All Proximity Bombs will be detonated simultaneously.
  
• Deathstroke slowly regenerates health over time when he has not taken damage recently. He will not regenerate any lost Combat or Ballistic armor. This perk of Deathstroke's is entirely useless for very skilled players, as they will not take damage in Combat challenges anyway, and they won't complete a Predator challenge slowly enough for the regenerated health to be effective.
  
• Deathstroke cannot glide or slow his fall. Dropping from a great enough distance will force him to spend a moment absorbing the shock of the fall. It will do no damage, but he won't be able to perform any other actions for a second or so.

Combat tips and tricks

• Grapple Slam takes roughly the same amount of time before it moves Deathstroke forward to his target as Batman's Batclaw Slam; however, after striking its target Deathstroke spends less time stationary and is less vaulerable to attack at his target's location. This means Grapple Slam leaves Deathstroke less vaulerable than Batman's Batclaw Slam.
  
• You can use the Grapple Gun on enemies who are immune to direct attacks, but you cannot Grapple Slam them.
  
• In Freeflow Focus mode, the Staff Slam deals extra damage, and Special Combo Disarm and Destroy will takedown enemies in addition to removing their weapon, eliminating the possiblity of another enemy picking it up. (Essentially, once your combo variation already includes Special Combo Takedown, Special Combo Disarm and Destroy is always preferable to Special Combo Takedown if you are in Freeflow Focus Mode, unless of course you intend for other thugs to pick up the dropped weapon later.) Deathstroke's gadgets are not otherwise affected by Freeflow Focus.
  
• Deathstroke's attacks slow down time between blows in a more significant manner than Batman and Bruce Wayne's attacks. This makes it easier to land Critical Strikes and Critical Counters. Playing as Deathstroke generally results in more time elapsing between button presses than Batman and Bruce Wayne. (For this reason, Deathstroke plays very differently from Robin from Batman: Arkham City despite having many of the same animations.)
  
• The Neural Gas from Neural Pellets will disorient all enemies adjecent to the enemy to whom the Pellet was attached. Watch to see when that enemy is in a dense crowd before detonating.
  
• Neural Pellets can be placed on grounded enemies, but doing so takes significantly longer than placing them on standing enemies. Take caution to direct the Neural Pellet to a standing enemy, or be far away from other enemies when placing it on a grounded enemy.
  
• Neural Pellets can effectivly serve as a counter an incoming attack if directed toward the attacker. In fact, it is best used as a counter to a single enemy attacking, since that way you will know that no other enemies can hit you while you are attaching the Neural Pellet. It can even counter attacks that are normally uncounterable (such as enemies with stun batons).
  
• Simply placing a Neural Pellet counts as a Gadget Variation, but does not count as a move for your combo. Activating Neural Gas from attached Neural Pellets counts as a move for your Combo, but does not add any Gadget Variation beyond having placed the Neural Pellet.
  
• Quickfire Neural Pellet can only be planted when you are within melee range of an enemy. Deathstroke will not close the distance to apply the Neural Pellet, however you will not break your combo by trying to place a Neural Pellet on a target that is too far away. Be sure to perform another action as soon as you notice the Neural Pellet fails. Performing a redirect over an enemy's head is a good way to reset the combo timer, and you will likely land close enough to a new enemy to plant the Neural Pellet (be sure that there are no enemies who will hit you before you can finish placing the Neural Pellet).
  
• Neural Pellet can be the most difficult gadget to use in your variation without taking damage. If you hare having a hard time with it, use it early in your combo so that if you take damage, your new combo will not need to include it. (Gadget Variation score counts total gadgets used in the round, unlike Combat Variation score which counts the maximum number of moves in a single combo. Combat Variation counts every gadget as the same move, so you can simply use the Ballistic Staff in your second combo.)
  
• Proximity Bomb will award points for every enemy that is within the detonation radius at your current combo multiplier bonus, but it will not add to your combo multiplier, and it counts for neither Variation Bonus, nor Gadget Bonus.
  
• The Super Powered modifier works differently in Combat maps than it does for Batman. Because Deathstroke has no Shock Gloves, the modifier allows Deathstroke to punch targets that the Shock Gloves would allow him to punch but it does not provide the other benefits of the gloves. You cannot counter stun batons or shields with the Super Powered modifier. Essentially, it works identically for Deathstroke as the modifier worked for all characters in Batman: Arkham City.
  
• Deathstroke's Directed Aerial Attack attack works the same as the move did in Batman: Arkham City, which is to say that Deathstroke will spend just as long on top of his final target as he would with a regular Aerial Attack. Because he does not linger on the new target like Batman or Bruce Wayne, he is not as vaulnerable after performing it. Deathstroke is essentially free to vault himself across the battlefield with impunity using this attack, as the act of performing the redirect will make enemies have to re-aquire his position and inturrupt any attacks they were otherwise going to perform. The only exceptions are when your target is next to an enemy with a knife who is already attacking (or a ninja with a sword performing a sword swipe attack), or an Enforcer who is in the middle of his attack. You should also take care that you do not throw yourself onto an armored thug or a thug with a stun baton, since the Aerial Attack will fail when used on such enemies.

Predator tips and tricks

• Pulling off vent covers (either by hand or via Grapple Gun) and prying them off from inside is much faster for Deathstroke than for Batman or Bruce Wayne. It happens nearly instantly once he has grabbed onto the vent, just as it did in Batman: Arkham Asylum when using the Ultra Batclaw upgrade.
  
• Proximity Bombs can be placed on weak walls to destroy them, but enemies on the opposite side of the wall will not detonate the Proximity Bomb. Manually detonating a Proximity Bomb on a Weak Wall will knock out enemies that are right on the other side of the wall (closer than is required for Batman's Explosive Gel). It is quite difficult to lure enemies close enough to a Weak Wall, and is much easier in the Knightfall Challenge Pack maps (only available for Playstation 3).
  
• Place a Proximity Bomb at the top of a ladder, by the edge. Wait for the enemy to be climbing up from the top of that ladder onto the surface with the Proximity Bomb, and manually detonate it before he is flat-footed. Allowing it to auto-detonate will result in the Proximity Bomb detonating when he is flat on the surface with the Proximity Bomb, which due to the angle of the explosion, will not always propel the enemy off the ledge. Blasting the enemy off the ledge and knocking him out will award the What Goes Up medal on appropriate maps.
  
• Neural Pellets can be attached to enemies without their noticing. If you use the quickfire command, the enemy will always turn around and notice, so it is important to sneak up behind and use the regular gadget when close enough.
  
• Proximity Bombs and Neural Pelletscan be detonated when perched on a Vantage Point, railing, or on a rope, but it is impossible to place them from such positions.
  
• As Batman and Bruce Wayne can do with the Smoke Pellet, you can throw a Stun Grenade at a group of enemies, or between you and a group of enemies to create a screen through which they cannot see, rather than only using it as a defensive escape move. Be careful of thugs with Thermal Goggles, who will figure out where you are after a couple seconds.
  
• Deathstroke has no gadgets or abilities to easily take down hostage takers. Approach them very carefully. If by chance the hostage taker is wearing a Neural Pellet, you can activate Neural Gas to give yourself a couple seconds to move in and take him out. Once the gas wears off, he will grab the hostage again.
  
• Deathstroke cannot perform an Inverted Takedown.
  
• Deathstroke cannot perform a Rope Takedown.
  
• Deathstroke cannot Zipline along ropes, and thus cannot perform a Zipline Takedown.

[Dr. Cheis]

I would start looking here for Arkham City guides. I recall finding some useful stuff there.

https://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/982135-batman-arkham-city/faqs

[elite_gang]

Very, very usefull guide
Are there any such guide like this for characters in Batman Arkham City?

[swan]

im a changed man and i act with kindness when talking to others

[swan]

dude i posted this about a year ago

[Dr. Cheis]

*they're

[swan]

seriously get a job, rob a bank or store if you think there boring

[Dr. Cheis]

You hiring, bobisland44?

[swan]

get a job

[Dr. Cheis]

Oops, I meant that as an exclamation point, not a question mark.

Thanks for the tip! I have updated the guide with this new information, fixed some typos, and clarified a couple of accidentally ambiguous items.

[Im2akillerfish]

Manually.