Arena Encyclopedia

Your one-stop-shop to all Arenas info in Project Nexus

♥---Welcome---♥

This is a comprehensive guide of the game's features.
Compiled both from information of other guides on steam,
and my personal experience with the game after finishing it six+ times.

This guide attempts to help first time players,
do ask in the comments if you'd like me to cover something specific.

THIS GUIDE CONTAINS MINIMAL SPOILERS.

This guide will be updated whenever there is new updates.

The guide is also getting filled out more as I have time to write.

planned

• game basics that you should know if you read the dialog boxes
  
• tips for all missions
  
• tips for all contracts
  
• full gameplay of every contract from start to end as NOOB
  
• all imprints

Dictionary:
Arena, Infiltration, and Siege refer to types of missions
Missions refers to all arena levels.
Contracts refers to linear levels accessed via the bus-stop.
A waveset is all the waves from starting a mission to being forced out of it by the game.

With that said, the rest of the guide is split into categories, please skip things that are of no use to you, and good luck on your journey of Madness.

Starter Tips

Being proud doesn't get you anywhere.

Your first few levels will be hard, so if you have issues just bump down the difficulty to easy.
You don't earn any XP or money for failing a wave anyways, so it's just wasted time.

Your main goal at the start is to get experience.

So get in there and kick a little ass in the Sleep-walker training program before you take on armaddas of trained mercenaries.

Weapons don't dissapear if you throw them away during a mission.

Don't be afraid to use your weapons to their full potential, and when they're useless?
Throw em' at your enemy!

The same applies to death,
if you die, mission progress gets reset, but all your weapons stay with you.
Unlike in Project Nexus Classic

You can unlock abilities without going to the gym area all the time.

By pressing I to open your inventory,
you can equip weapons without opening the storage chest,
aswell as train abilities by switching to the other tab.
You can also use this to switch weapons between waves while deployed.
You can also use this menu to see what skills your hirelings have,
and to give them weapons and armor.

Don't unlock Ranged Core 1

If you want to keep your Tacticool 60° grip on your gun.
It isn't very practical, but damn does it look cool.
If you're having trouble hitting shots you can upgrade it... i guess.

♣---Character stats---♣

Focus skills (What you lose, and what you get.)

If you have a Focus on a particular genre of murder,
you gain twice the stat points from unlocking its abilities,
aswell as getting 3 extra abilities to unlock.

However if you are Weak in a skill, you lose out on all level 3 skills.
aswell as not getting ANY stat points for unlocking it's abilities.

---

The special abilities you unlock for having Focus in a skill are:

(unarmed)
A focus into fisticuffs lets you

• Always STUN enemies in 10 punches.
  
• Dodge Tackle enemies.
  
• Guard against bladed attacks with just your hands.

A weakness in fisting will lock

• Core 3 Unarmed (second fastest unarmed animation set)
  (the first being Hank's! That's a lil bit of trivia for ya!)
  
• Revelator (attacking enemies in cover knocks them to the floor)
  
• Dash Attack, Heavy (no dropkicks... :< )
  
• Punch Enervation (punching enemies prevents their tac from recharging)
  
• Counter, Charging (counter enemies that are charging or leaping (vamps/mercs/deltas)
  
• Counter, Melee (counter melee weapons of your own size)

(melee)
A bruteish dedication to sticks lets you

• Knock away weapons of enemies with smaller sticks than yours
  
• Block bullets
  
• AND deflect bullets with more precision than the average Madness OC

Those more civilized will miss out on

• Core 3 Melee (the fastest melee animation set)
  
• Blade Chef (sharp weapons go faster as your combo increases)
  
• Dual Wield, Advanced (dualwielding melee weapons larger than Medium size)
  
• Follow Through (heavy attacks deal full damage to enemies after one is already hit)
  
• Zip Attack (your footsies range improves greatly after getting 10+ combo.)
  
• Riposte (ability to attack right after parrying enemy attacks)

(ranged)
Being a gun-fu master lets you

• Run around without losing any accuracy
  
• Gain confidence and hit more shots whenever you hit an enemy
  
• Always hit, even if someone tries to dodge.

If you aren't a gun-nut you'll be unable to

• Core 3 Ranged (Limited to +2 magazines with slightly worse accuracy)
  
• Auto-fire correction (Recoil auto-corrects on automatic weapons)
  
• Dual wield, Advanced (dual wield any size guns in your hands)
  
• Shotgun Blastoff (point blank shotgun kills will send enemies flying in gore)
  
• Deadeye (grazing hits can destroy corpus)
  
• Pin Down (your shots will slow down enemies)
  (budget version of Agent's special perk)

(athletics)
Going pro in parkour inexplicably lets you

• Throw swords right trough multiple heads
  
• Jump over the heads of your enemies
  
• Sprint with such reflexes that you dodge bullets coming from behind

Those whose favourite sport is couching aren't able to

• Core 3 (Dodge faster)
  
• Dash-Fire (Shoot while sprinting)
  
• Tactical Master (2nd Tac-bar now always active no matter the situation or your Tac)
  
• Shuriken Arc (shurikens home towards enemies, and Hook weapons boomerang to you)
  
• Throw Big Weapons (throw big weapons like regular weapons)
  
• Fall Roll (negate falldamage by spamming space when falling)

Take these into consideration when picking your

Origins! (The classes)

---

Noob:
You know em, you love em.
This is the average nevadian.
Nothing special about them.
They can do anything everyone else can.
But they can't get anything perfect.

The one thing they can get perfect is fashion sense.

The perfect class for when you've done everything else, OR when you're starting out!

---

Agent:
This pistol specialist is one of the most powerful Imprints in the game.
Each pistol shot that hits in the sweetspot completely stops your opponents for a short amount of time, allowing for great crowd control.

This doesn't extend to SMGs, or any other higher power weapons.
(Shotgun pistols are also out! Sorry folks!)
This doesn't mean you can't use them ofcourse,
they're still as capable as any other imprint's.

Along with which you get the bonus of not getting attacked on sight during infiltration missions,
allowing you to execute the first chunk of enemies in a level with no threat to yourself!
(except when your Hirelings bump into somebody *cough*)

Comes with a snazzy suit and tie. Aswell as some absolutely banger glasses.
(Most people start as this guy, good fashion sense folks!)

---

Experiment:

With its acrobatic prowess this bozo becomes extremely proficient at unarmed combat.
Just remember to equip yourself with the newest glove weapon whenever you unlock one.

Remember to make use of Head Vault as it is your most powerful form of evasion.

---

Mercenary:
While excecuting somebody,
if you hold Shift you bribe them instead of killing them, and they turn to your side.
This only works on DAZED enemies,
not when doing stealth executions.
Enemies that you can bribe have a blue outline.





Succesfully bribed enemies get a little purple heart above their head,
and you get X$ taken out of your bank account.
(Amount seems to scale with enemy type and health)


At the end of a wave they leave the level, so don't bribe people near the end.

---

Tinkerer:
The only origin which's skill functions outside of missions.

Let's you put any* modification on any* weapon in your Workbench.
*any as covered by game balance.
One of the most broken classes at any point in time.

(One time you could even access the Magiturge's special items as Tinkerer)

---

Patient is a Joke.
My only tip is don't play him.

If you don't wish to heed my warning-



Here's the conditions for the Imaginary Friend to spawn, from the big man himself.



The Friendly only spawns if:

• You have lost one corpus or are only on one corpus.
  
• You've killed 30% of the enemies in the wave.
  
• Your current corpus is at-least 30% damaged.

OR

• A chance of 15% for the Friend to spawn when you request a support squad.

OR

• You are 30% into the last wave and the friend hasn't spawned yet.

Your friend spawns with a random weapon based on how high a level your core skills are.
These weapons don't help make the friend any more useful
because it is incapable of using half of them correctly.

Personally? Wouldn't say it's worth it, but you do you.

---

Disquited

- Can execute with any melee weapon at any time
- Can teleport short distances between enemies

Excels at unarmed and melee,
his mask can NEVER be taken off.


He just looks kinda goofy.
I like him.

---

Offering

All thrown weapons pierce trough enemies.
Sometimes spirits of those you've killed will come to aid you in battle.
Use flashbangs for essentially Infinite Health.

Any enemy that get's stunned
can be excecuted for +1 corpus!

---

Massive:
These absolute units of muscle can
gain up to 10 health chunks.

You can only put your points
into strength or endurance.

I really recommend putting atleast a quarter
of your points into endurance just so you don't become a turtle.

With every single skill unlocked you grow in size.

His charge attack is replaced with a EXTREMELY powerful dashtackle move.
Only the quick charge deals damage,
a long charge is a jump that's only purpose is to move you around.

This origin is MADE for unarmed,
when combined with the stronger gloves his charge tackle becomes an instakill on most enemies.

---

Magiturge:
This origin gets its very own dialogue,
so don't skip any textboxes!

The magiturge has access to a special area
with items which are purchased for Boon Tokens.
These include:
- Wands
- Staffs
- Books of curses
- Wizard Drip
- Robotic Weapons
Magiturge's biggest weakness is his encumbrance.
Ever heard of 40 endurance agent?
Get ready for 60 endurance Magiturge.
At most you will have 10 encumbrance,
so use it wisely.

Wait... what about attributes?

I might've kinda forgot about these in the first draft.
Either way, to view what each sub-attribute does just hover over it with your mouse!
These increase according to your main skills, each from a different pair.

♦---Level Tips---♦

Note:
I recommend checking out the guide linked below,
as it features lots of small fun trivia along with the important stuff.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2660533184

Sleepwalker Program

Technically the first level, and also the only one that doesn't kill your crew.

You read that right, your 3 5 man squad of hirelings can't die in this mission,
so it's perfect for getting them up a few levels before deploying them into real combat.

On your first playtrough of this level (if you're somehow having issues with it) you should

just start Yeeting ░░░░.

Yup, just throw all those handy weapons your enemies start bringing in after the first wave,
it works absolute wonders, as all the holograms die in one or two hits even if you have no skills.

Generally, focus on avoiding getting ganked by backpeddaling.

Be aware that you start the game with three weapons in your inventory.
A plank, a pistol, and throwable rocks.

Pilot Episode

The first story mission of the game.

It's not difficult by any stretch of the word. But right now you have almost no abilities.
You'll be a bumbling bag of packing peanuts, but you can still send your enemies packing.

Remeber you can equip the free weapons from your inventory.
Which include, a pistol, a board, and the most useful of them... thirty rocks.

Those pebbles will help you deal with bigger groups of enemies.
Two hits and they're out!

Save the pistol for when you get into the building.

Everyone in this stage wields blunt melee weapons, up until the last room.

Don't forget to utilize the "Throw everything" tactic.
Apart from being fun, it's effective at getting rid of melee enemies without wasting ammo.

CAREFUL WITH THE TRAFFIC

When you reach the elevator room with two guards in it, press the button and dodge to the floor.
It can save you a corpus if your luck isn't the best.

The last room has 4 gunmen, 3 more run in after you kill everyone inside.
They shouldn't be much of an issue, as you can onetap them with any of the pistols the others drop,
and cover is plentiful in here.

After you kill everyone in the last room, the mission ends.

Pit Stop

Your second mission, and your first Siege mission of the game.
Unlocked after Pilot Episode.

Your goal is to protect four gas pumps,
you lose a fourth of the money you'd get from the mission if one gets destroyed.
half if two get destroyed, a quarter if three get destroyed,
and the mission FAILS if all the gas pumps get destroyed.

Bandits will attack in waves.
Some will attempt to break the barrier on the right side of the level,
which allows more enemies into the level at once.
While most of them will focus on either you or the pumps.


Word of caution, zombies appear on wave 3.
They come from the ground randomly around the map, stay sharp and don't get swarmed.

At the end of the third wave a G03LM will show up,
avoid its attacks by dodging around it, and stay behind its back.

---

You have a gun in your inventory which you can equip, aswell as throwable rocks.
Don't forget to use them.

Try saving your ammo as much as possible,
only use it to deal with the zombies, and to deal with people attacking the pumps quickly.

Story tip:

If you go to the cafeteria, you can unlock hirelings right after the second wave of this mission.
What you need to do is
1. Increase hireling cap in caffeteria and talk to Bossman
2. Finish Wave 1
3. Talk to Bossman again and summon recruits
4. Finish Wave 2
5. Congrats! There are new hirelings waiting in the lobby!

The Foundry

Unlocked after finishing Pit Stop.
This is the first Arena in the game.

After the first waveset, this arena gets Stage Hazards!

Everything marked in red will be set aflame every few seconds.
Try to keep your hirelings out of them.
You can tell when they're about to activate by small sparks coming out of them.

You can also kick enemies off the bottom conveyor belts, which is very fun.

Tips:
Stay on the top platform,
only jump off when you need to refill your tac-bar or regen health.

You can completely parry all the Merc rushers!
Just press right click when they jump at you and they'll go flying!
(You have to be unarmed or wielding a one-handed weapon.)

Push enemies into the flames when the opportunity comes,
there's a high chance they will run head first into a flame wall and kill themselves.

Gas Canisters and other garbage will fall off the top of the map constantly.
The gas canisters are quite difficult to set off without the use of melee weapons.
Just make sure to pay attention so you don't accidentally blow yourself up with one.

The Goods

The second story mission.
Quite difficult for your first time trough.

As soon as you get off the bus, you are attacked by a pair of mobsters.
They're armed, but not that dangerous,
(as long as you deal with them before they can start shooting you.)
They're a warning of what's to come.

Prepare for an ambush!
As you continue windows will break with three mobsters behind them,
at the same time a couple of gangsters will rush you.
Don't forget to aim at their feet, and not their heads.
In this game, aiming at the feet is how you aim for the head.

The road ahead is blocked, so take the overpass.
I recommend you pickup a SMG on the way, as there will be quite a few enemies coming after you.

Careful with fire!
After you get down, two mobsters will ambush you.
One of them has a molotov which will ragdoll you if it hits.
So try to get rid of him before he has the chance to throw.


Getting to the indoor section,
which will be the rest of the mission.

You'll see a group of mobsters chatting.

If you kept the molotov,
now's a good time to intrude on the conversation.

⠀⠀⠀;)

Coming trough the next door you have a chance to get a sneaky execution in.
Be careful though.

Just down the hallway is a big, open room with the first Button Man.
These guys wield two tommy guns, making them extremely deadly.
Prioritize them, and use cover when you can.

After you've got past him, you will notice a box dropped out of a truck.
Don't open it. Heal up first.
Opening it causes the door to the next room to open.
But suprise! Another ambush!
Out will come a second button man, with a couple goons in toe.
With the Tommy guns the other button man drops, he shouldn't be much of an issue.

Passing onwards, you'll see another medkit which isn't boobytrapped.
However after you clear the first wave of mobsters,
another Button Man will come at you from behind.

The next room is the final one, in which you have to defeat

The Chefs

The Chefs are a trio of enemies.
Mario wields a giant cleaver.
Luigi wields a pizza, which he will constantly throw at you.
N̶̙̊ṵ̷̓l̶̩͆l̴͕͐ wields two spatulas, working the same as every rusher enemy.

Get rid of Luigi first, as he's the only one which can attack you at the same time as the others.
Deal with Null second, he's the more dangerous of the melee enemies.
Kill Mario last, the massive cleaver makes it easy to dodge his attacks.

Afterwards, just head into the freezer, and pickup your tech.


Mario will popup again,
you have no choice but to hire him for his amazing meatballs, and even better weapon store.
He even lets your troops level up beyond level 15! Truly amazing!

Finishing this mission also unlocks Troopers!

Fast Track

This is the first Infiltration mission of the game.
It's unlocked after the second story mission.
It's one of the moderately difficult stages during your progression.

The enemies here have guns, a few have melee weapons.

I recommend saving your guns until after the first wave.
As the difficulty and amount of enemies quickly goes up.

At this point you should have a few hirelings at your disposal,
give them some nevada protectors, it'll be enough for them to survive most of this mission.

---

For the first wave, I recommend staying on the roof, keep your hirelings up with you aswell.
If you start running low on health or TAC-Bar, jump down, you'll be fine. usually.

For the second wave, try staying on one side of the room as long as you can, taking out as many enemies as you can. Once they start closing in on you, run to the other side, and repeat.
If you've unlocked charge attacks by this point,
its a good idea to wait behind the boxes with an attack ready for the enemies to come to you.

For the third wave is usually where you will start losing HP on your first playtrough.
a HalfMAG agent appears here, when charging particles appear under his legs, DODGE.
He will charge towards you very quickly and if he hits you you will get dizzied,
this opens you for an execution which takes a full corpus from you.

The fourth wave can be easily cheesed by staying on the roofs and killing the enemies climbing up to you. If they happen to get up to you, just jump down, get to the other roof, and repeat. Another HalfMAG appeares here,
he should be relatively easy to kill with all the weapons dropped by the rest of the enemies.

Slaugher Time

Probably the second easiest, and most profitable arena in the game.
Unlocked after completing Fast Track.

Most of your enemies only have their fists, and you can easily defeat them.
Even just with the basic fist/melee abilities.

No enemies in this level use normal bullets, making your Tac-Bar useless.
Rely more on dodging and your own legs.
If your agility is trashy, grab a shield.

In the later waves you will see a HalfMAG Unit with a rifle.
It fires a lot of projectiles, just run around it in circles and smack/shoot it when you can.
(Tip: If you stand inside it's gun it can't hurt you)

---

This is the first mission with clothing that you can buy exclusively only while in it.


Now get out there and entertain your fans!

Haunting at Nevada House

The second Siege mission of the game.
Unlocked alongside Slaughter Time.

This one is honestly just time consuming.

The enemies come slowly, almost none of them have guns.
However those that do are very inefficent with them.
It's worth nothing that there are "spitter" enemies,
which don't carry weapons, but do use ranged attacks.

---

The only thing you have to "worry" about in this level is not letting anyone destroy the gates.

If the gates happen to break, grab some planks from the room on the left and patch them up.

Don't let the outside enemies near the table in the middle room.
If they succesfully activate it the mission fails.

Suprisingly, this level doesn't contain any zombies during it's required waves.
Even though it takes place in a hounted mansion.

Tip:
There are vents on both of the edge rooms which allow you to teleport between them.
You probably won't be needing these.

Hard Sell

Being unlocked after the third story mission, alongside "The Murder Room"
This is the mission which will make you want to give up on Arenas
and pernamently delete this game.
Don't worry, I have some tips to help you avoid doing exactly that.

TL;DR: Bring lots and lots of explosives and guns.
Even as Melee/Fist classes, I always do this mission with explosives and SMGs.


Main Objective: Keep the hooded men off your box of goodies.
It's the worst, most fragile thing in all of existance.

Thankfully it's protected by a metal casing which your enemies
have to hack if they wish to shoot it into pieces.
(And they really want to shoot it into pieces)

---

Your priority targets:
The hackers, your main trouble, they are the only one's which can unlock the box.
Deal with them with hand grenades, rocket launchers, whatever explosives you want.
You can't damage the box, so keep them off of it by any means.
(The box doesn't reset locks between waves)


The demolitionists are a mild annoyance,
they let in more enemies into the main room at once
by planting charges on the walls.
If there are any Hackers on screen, just ignore them and focus on the Hackers.

---

General tips:
Keep all of your hirelings AND yourself in the main room.
If they run away they're just gonna get themselves killed,
and if you run away, the box is already destroyed.

You can get rocket and grenade launchers from the Chefs.


If one of the walls get destroyed don't forget
you can fix them between waves using the "Scrap".

Please don't attempt to fix them during a wave.
It's a bad idea.

---

There's also more exclusive drip in the left room!

Fickle Friends

Is the third contract mission of the game.

This is what most people consider the hardest stage,
but it's really one of the easiest if you come prepared!

So here's your Vampire Hunting Checklist ♥

Skills!	Description
Improvised Weapons	This one is the easiest to get, in the second tier of unarmed. Allows you to execute the vamps with any tiny sized weapon.
Counter, Charging	Allows you to counter the Vampires' deadly leaps! Just right click as they're coming at you without a weapon equipped to toss them into the sun!
Snap-Dodge	A good alternative to Counter, Charging, but requires more precision.

Weapons!	Description	Price
Welding Torch	Deals fire damage, which instantly takes out any vamp who's corpus is broken by it.	$74
Nexus Laser Pistolette	Also acts as a fire weapon, great budget option for ranged builds.	$709.99
Any other of the fire based weapons	Anything that's down in the "Chilli Hot" section of the Black Market	$ ???
Light Ring Set	If you are the Magiturge , you can acquire the fists of fire with this glove set.	Something more valuable than money.

As for the actual level:
I recommend you steal some extra torches from the Toughs when you can!
Make sure to save your fire weapons for the Vampires, and once those run out, start countering.

Supplies might get a bit scarce in the last quarter of the level,
but there's a good few weapons hidden in the backgrounds of the streets if you pay attention!

Good luck Vampire Hunting ;)

Nexus Core Facility

The pre-final mission of arena mode.
It definitely lives up to it's name in difficulty.

It's a 5 wave long infilitration mission,
with each wave having more and more agents armed to the teeth chasing you down.
The amount of enemies in this mission is obscene, but we're all used to that aren't we?

The plan to kill em' all?
Do it like we always did, and bring guns. Lots of guns.

Between each wave you can switch out your weapons,
buy enough of your preferred type of bang before you go in.

Make sure your Hirelings are well armored, they'll need the extra defense.
Don't forget you can also heal your Hirelings by commanding them to use the medicine cabinets.
(You have to open the cabinets for them)

I can't stress this enough, you need firearms for this mission.
There's a reason the USA makes 7 million a year.

---

This mission contains multiple GOL3Ms, but they'll be the least of your worries.
Your real enemy, are the shield boys.
They can block essentially every bullet you fire at them,
and their shields only break after an obscene amount of bullets or melee swings.
To defeat em', you have to kick them like
you're practicing for your role in the next Sparta movie.
Then pummel them full of lead, preferrably from a shotgun.

Speaking of the shield boys, if you can carry them, bring shields aswell.
They block bullets with almost the same efficency as the shield boy's shields.
Plus they work great when retreating from GOL3Ms and Nexus officers armed with shotguns.
(You don't have to use shields with melee/fists, they work fine with pistols and smgs.)

---

Generally, try to keep with your squad.
They'll tank bullets for you. And hopefully, if you get lucky, they won't die.

My favourite weapons:
As with every mission in this game, bringing a LMG or explosive rifle will make it much easier.
My favourite would have to be the PKN with a 150 round magazine.
It's something any class can make. Quite cheaply too. (Aprox $28k)
Just don't stop shooting.

Here's one of my loadouts I finished this mission with.

Remember to restock your ammo between every wave

Good luck.

?---Game Mechanics---?

Buying Weapons and Clothes

After completing PILOT EPISODE, Bossman will give you a little tour of the new hires.

Along your way you will meet the legendary Q-Bert, the worst weapon salesman in Nevada.
He is tucked directly under the left side of your Helipad.

If you want new weapons? Speak to Q-Bert!
(Marked with A#&!?HOLE on the diagram below)
He sources new weapons every time you finish a mission or contract!



Something else Q-Bert brings with him however, is a CLOTHING COLORIZER!
(Marked with SOLUTION on the diagram above)
Arguably a severely more useful tool for your company, which allows you to change the color of your clothes using Color Swatches, which themselves can be purchased later.

Tip:

Choose which part of the clothes you want to paint using the arrow next to the color swatches.


You can also turn off certain parts of some clothes with the TOGGLE section.

Death Quartets and a Barbershop

Along with Q-Bert, comes our beloved Skinner!



This G03LM doubles as the grim reaper's worst enemy AND a hair stylist.
He will single-handedly revieve you and all of your hirelings,
whenever an unfortunate fate befalls you. Bullet wounds, Decapitations, The whole roster.

Unfortunately for you, you always get revived first, so your hirelings have to wait in line.
Either you can fast forward their resurrection by giving your dear barber some fiat motivation,
or wait out the 15 minute timer to let him do the work on his own schedule.


If you however have the cash to spare, you can save in the long-term by buying a CLONER!
Each Cloner skips the wait timer instantly for one of your Hirelings.


You do still need to take them out yourself though,
don't leave them there for too long, they'll get wet and soggy.



















Oh right,
he also gives you and your hirelings hair.

Only with consent though.

Enemy Types - WIP

There are four primary types of enemies.
Normals, Tac-Bar Users, Half-MAGs, and Brutes.
And MAGs. but those act like regular grunts just scaled up with extra health so they are irrelevant
All of which have different variations.
Here's a list of descriptions, and ways to deal with them.
(work in progress)

---

Normals:

The more "normal" citizens of Nevada, mostly untrained.
Weak alone, dangerous in numbers.

Grunts:
These are your everyday Nevadians.
Weak, inneficent with weapons, and incredibly fragile.
One good uppercut is enough to cut their life short.

Agents:
Initiates in the A.A.H.W start here.
Stylish glasses, a gun, and not a bit more.
Cover exists for a reason, but not cover cover, walls. Walls are your friend.
Hide and let yourself heal up if your torso is filled with just a few too many bullets.

Patients:
The mad folk of Nevada get strapped up into safety-jackets
and left in padded rooms until they go even crazier.
They only attack in close range with their head and by dropkicking you,
Counter them and watch em' fly!
if you happen to rip off their jacket, they'll gladly start using their hands too.

---

Tac-Bar Users:

These are the more experienced (or more augmented) PMCs of Nevada.
The main thing tying them together is the fact they can sometimes dodge your bullets.

Engineers:
They think they're special, but they're really not.
They have a PHD in mechanical engineering but they're about as skilled in combat
as your average agent.
They've got tougher armor and can dodge a few bullets,
but the fourth shot from anything is bound to hit.

SOLDATs:
These monocular warriors can dodge most attacks you throw at them.
Either pummel them with bullets till not even their glasses can help them.
Or just stab them. It's hard to dodge a knife that's already in your gut.

---

Brutes:

The only enemy variant with a canonical name
Everyone here is atleast 6'4'', but usually much taller.

GO3LMs:
These massive genetically modified lads are normally invulnerable.
Thankfully however, they have very bad temper.
If you slap their backs a few times, they'll try to rip you into pieces,
too bad their big arms don't have the dexterity you do.
Dodge out of the way, and rip their helmets off!
Then they're easy target practice!

Controlling your crew

Please refer to this incredible guide by Wiawyr for advanced control of your crew
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2628999552

Important things:
You can bring up to 5 hirelings with you on a mission.
Your hirelings never die pernamently, instead going to the medbay.
You can pay to heal them immeadietly, or wait 15 minutes to lower it to a fraction of the price.
You can also buy Cloning Pods.

• 2000$ for the first
  
• 4000$ second
  
• 8000$ third
  
• 20000$ fourth

these let you ressurect your hirelings as soon as you get out of a level
for the lowered price you'd normally get for waiting 15 minutes.

You can hold Control to give your hirelings instructions for where to move and stand.
LMB=Move there
MMB=Stay there
RMB=Select which hireling to command (works both on models and on name list)

Weapon Workshop

After finishing the second story mission, you unlock a very useful table in several locations.
The first place you will notice it's right next to your quartermaster, behind your storage chest.
This workshop allows you to upgrade your weapons with attachements that:

• Increase damage
  
• Make your guns look cooler
  
• Increase accuracy
  
• Change ammo types
  
• Increase magazine size
  
• Reduce recoil
  
• Silence your weapons

This is also where you make use of The Tinkerer's origin feat.
You unlock more attachements as you finish missions.

These attachements cost very little to add and give you back your money if you remove them.
They do however also add to the size of the weapon, so if you want to dual-wield modified pistols, you need to be able to hold normal sized weapons.

One thing to note that isn't explained the best ingame:

Ammo Types

Ammo types!
Regular rounds are well. regular.
This is all ammo without a special suffix.

DD or DumDum rounds are
equivalent to hollowpoints.
Deals more damage to enemies without armor.

Armor Piercing rounds are the opposite of DDs.
Deals more damage to enemies with armor.

Explosive rounds deal damage
in a small radius around your target.

BlackMarket Weapons

These are the weapons that can only be bought from the Chef's blackmarket.

This is the list of those that I have seen so far.

---

"Normal"

BREN
The starter's LMG.
It's quite harmful in it's default state.
You can also attach a 75 round magazine to it.

"Popular among the
budget concious factions within nevada."


PKN
Boasting a 150 round magazine at 650RPM,
this thing shreads trough everything.



NexTek 6000
Looks menacing, but doesn't hurt more than the PKN.
Fires at 750RPM with a 150 round magazine.


Nevadean Assault Weapon Model 2500
Boasting a 150 round magazine at 900RPM,
this thing shreads trough everything
your ammunition, very quickly.
"IT'S A MACHINE GUN. HOLD IT DOWN."


Minigun
500 Rounds. All deadly.
$1,186,465
(As of V1.03 the price has dropped
significacntly to just a bit over 600K)


Thanks to May for giving me their save file
with this weapon unlocked.

Mhati-999
This high power anti-tank rifle
is the pinnacle of Nevadian engineering.

"You may be asking yourself,
"But there aren't any tanks in Nevada?"
this rifle is the reason why."

---

Explosive

NexTek98
The cheapest explosive weapon in the game.
Fires a single grenade before needing to reload.



N32 Launcher
The classic rotary grenade launcher, I'm sure you've seen it before.

A decent weapon.

Fourpack
The basic rocket launcher.

With extremely fast reloading,
and great explosion radius,
it's a great mid-game investement.


N-1 Heavy BA-Zücker
The big brother of the Fourpack.


"Promising an enormous drum magazine,
flat trajectory out to a kilometer,
filled with highly explosive material weaved with antipersonel shattering shell.
Do not use Indoors."

---

Electric

Slayer Knife (Shock)
Occasionally shocks whoever it hits.

Comes in a cool shade of blue.





Nevadean Dozer Model E
With a constant voltage coursing
between the bayonets attached to the rifles tip,
this rifle electrifies all of the shots fired from it.

"It needs 1.21 gigawatts just to fire once!"



The 6-4 Electric is a cross between
the Nevadean Dozer Model E,
and the regular Nevadian 6-4.

Good for the variety.
Proposes a significantly higher rate of fire
than the Nevadean Dozer Model E.

---

Icepacks

Cryo Pistol
Has a chance to apply a COLD effect to your enemies with each hit.
COLD enemies move & attack slower for a short period of time.

This collection of guns were originally made for preserving food.
Very useful for the cannibals out there.






Cryo Rifle
Acts identical to the Cryo Pistol,
but in automatic rifle form.



Heavy Cryo Thrower
is a real mouthful of a name.
I just call it the Icethrower.

Acts identical to Cryo Pistol,
except in heavy weapon form.

Rather underwhelming,
has a lot of ammo but is extremely hard to use.

---

Chilli Hot

Slayer Knife (Fire)
Burns trough everything it touches.

Don't touch the tip.





Flamethrower
It spits fire.
What else could you want.



Firebug
It spits thermite.
This is the "what else" that you wanted.



Nexus Laser Carbine
Your average, normal, laser rifle which shoots plasma.

Inflicts fire damage.
A pretty decent midgame rifle.

Nexus Laser Rifle
"It was made less to impress other people
with a mastery of science and more to inciderate them."

Inflicts fire damage.
Direct upgrade to Laser Carbine.
A great endgame rifle.



Nexus Heavy Laser Rifle
A great looking gun,
that's suprisingly dissapointing to use.

Inflicts fire damage.
The only burstfire rifle in this game.
Always has a "modified" status.

---

Dissonant

Slayer Knife (Dissonant)
It instakills anything it corpuses.
Away to the shadowrealm with you!

One of the best melees in the game.


Dissonance Lancer
It instakills anything it corpuses.
The rifle equivalent for dissonant weapons.
Weakest of the Dissonance weapons.



Dissonance Scattergun
It instakills anything it corpuses.
Great against vampires.
(The Shotgun equivalent for dissonant weapons)



Dissonance Cannon
It instakills anything it corpuses.
It also explodes.
Great against anything that was once alive,
or plans on being alive in the future.

Boon tokens

What are those orange baseballs you're getting? I wondered that too.

After you finish the contract Fickle Friends,
you can exchange these for new colors for your clothes, your skin, your blood, and Alphaware.
Fence is the one who you can purchase these "Color Swatches" from.


He also sells three special weapons.
Tricky's Stop Sign

Jeb's Binary Sword

The Star Wars Sword Nexus Blade

These also cost boon tokens.

---

How do you get more tokens?

There are three ways:

1. Finish missions for the first time on hard.
This gives you two boon tokens for each mission.

2. Hunt down endless wave drones.

These drones only spawn in endless arena waves. (Waves after completion of level)
They spawn on all difficulties but their spawnrate is vastly increased on Hard and Madness.
You can find them misteriously teleporting into the arena trough the floor.

3. The Heist. This is the fastest way to earn boon tokens.
After finishing the third contract (Fickle Friends),
Fence will prompt you with an offer to rob a bank.
You can find this mission unlocked at the Bus Stop.

WARNING: To get tokens you need to play on Hard difficulty and higher.

WARNING: Boon tokens do not transfer between Imprints

But as of V1.03,
color swatches that were unlocked stay unlocked between imprints.

Known bugs

Infinite Money*

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2621003946
This bug is limited to the Tinkerer origin, and requires you to finish the Slaughter Time arena.*

Infinite Money, No Tinkerer

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2628365065

Door clipping

If you dash trough a doorway in the storymode, you clip out of bounds, sometimes being able to walk on the background, sometimes falling out of the world.
In arena mode a wall behind the door usually stops you.

Madness Difficulty Easy Unlock

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2630394569
TL;DR: Finish a mission on easy or normal, then launch it on hard and exit it.
This will make the game think you finished it on hard and unlock Madness.

○---THE END---○

For now...
The guide is still being updated, expect the rest of the level tips very soon.
If there's anything else you'd like me to cover or generally help with please write a comment.

Thanks to these folks
(in no particular order)

• legomenleboss for the ability info
  
• Angel for emotional support
  
• HumanGrunt[humangrunt.newgrounds.com] for his MPN Flash Sprites
  
• Wiavyr for NPC control info
  
• S4ky for money glitch
  
• May for their wonderful set of insightful guides.
  And the artwork! ♥

Good luck on your journey to complete Madness!

Artwork

An accurate illustration of "The Corner" where every contract in arena mode happens.

---

Thumbnail Made by May

Extra Guides worth checking out

---

May's series of guides, ranging from beginner to New Game+

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2632839367
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2633378450
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2635285318

---

While making the focus skills I referenced this guide, go give them a like will ya?
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2630255946

---

If you're into the modding side of things,
check out my new guide to get kickstarted on your new mischievous deeds.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2664043208

[7Lien7]

I have a question! Let's say you get all the skills in the game.

How can you increase you're attributes after that?

[Explo⁧⁧☄]

Woo another comment another two sections added.
Keep commenting if you want to remind me to expand this further.

[Explo⁧⁧☄]

You equip them in the Colorizer or at the Loft Mirror

[Karrick Howlett]

How do you equip different color swatches?

[>:(]

Thx man, cheers

[Explo⁧⁧☄]

It does not disable achievements.
There is no workshop yet... but you can download it through the link at the very bottom of the guide- or coincidentally if you're reading this right after I post it, directly above my comment.

Cheers and have fun.

[>:(]

i understand NEM is a mod of some kind, do i download it thru workshop? if so will it disable achievements? I'm a completionist but the sound of a tank hiring just sounds so fucking cool man

[Explo⁧⁧☄]

Unforunately so.
Only normal grunts, unless you use NEM, which allows hiring special characters.

[>:(]

Quick question, so the hirelings are only Normal type grunts, right? Can't get a massive hireling?

Also screw whoever thought the vampire mission is a fun idea, completing it isba nightmare

[TheOneTrueDoggo :3]

Oh neat didn't know that