Augmentation Guide

A comprehensive listing of all augmentations in the game, their effects, and strategy.

Forward

The Deus Ex series has had a long tradition of forcing players to make difficult choices in how to expand their character's abilities. Human Revolution is in many ways the most lenient of the three, and especially if you choose the New Game+ option you will be able to use all the game's augmentations freely. However, the early part of the game is a bit stingy and Praxis Points are vital commodities. This guide will examine each augmentation and state its full effects and implications on gameplay.

Cranial: Hacking

Hacking takes up multiple augmentation groups so I decided to give it its own section. There are more points to spend here than almost anywhere else, and its importance is clear by that fact. Unlike previous Deus Ex titles, hacking is used for keypads as well as computers, making this augmentation an infinite lockpick rather than just a way to turn off cameras. The hacking minigame rewards a fair chunk of experience. For the first time in the Deus Ex series, it is better to hack a computer than find a password. Points spent here will pay for themselves in the long run.

Hacking: Capture
Capture 2-5
Every computer and keypad in the game is rated between 1 and 5. If your capture augmentation does not match that rating, you can't hack the device.
The Capture augmentation has a second function. It reduces the chance to be detected when capturing nodes, making the hacking minigame easier.
Even combat heavy players will want to have Hacking 3 at least, using AUDs or passwords on the more difficult computers. This is always a good investment.

Turret Domination
In the original Deus Ex, accessing a security terminal with the password would give you total control over the turrets. In Human Revolution, it doesn't matter how you access the computer, you need this augmentation to muck with the turrets. Uniquely in the Deus Ex series, turrets in Human Revolution can identify you as a target without an alarm going off first. On the flip side, turrets are much rarer than they were in the other games. You won't have many chances to use this.
Disabled turrets won't target you, even if an alarm goes off. Subverted turrets, on the other hand, will target your enemies and be targeted by them in turn. This won't set off alarms, but the actions of other NPCs probably will, and you can probably say goodbye to the Ghost XP bonus. If you're trying a pacifist run, turrets are a liability. Cloaking is nearly as good for getting past them, and a lot more versatile besides.

Bot Domination
Read everything I said about turret domination and crank the "rarely useful" bit up to eleven. Bots on your side are a great help, but they just don't show up often enough.
Bots are usually in storage before they are activated, so you don't have to worry about avoiding them unless you set off an alarm. Stealthy players have even less of a reason to invest here.

Hacking: Stealth
Stealth 1-3
These augmentations reduce the chance of any action you take being detected by the system during the hacking minigame. That makes hacking easier since the security comes into play later. Don't bother until you have Capture 5, and only if you routinely have problems hacking. It's probably better to use nuke and stop viruses unless you're out of places to spend your points.
Notably, Stealth 1 only costs 1 point.

Hacking: Fortify
Fortify 2-3
When you fortify a node you add your Fortify rating to the node's rating, making it harder for the security system to capture the node. Fortifying also has a chance to reveal your hack to the system in the first place. Like capturing, the time it takes to fortify increases with node strength and decreases with augmentation upgrades. You start with Fortify 1 and are probably familiar with how useless it is. Fortify 3 is actually respectable, but Stealth 3 is even better.

Hacking: Analyze
Detection Feedback
The first "Hacking: Analyze" augmentation only costs one point to activate and already costs too much. What this does is add a tooltip that reveals the chance the system has to detect your intrusion if you try to capture any node you hover your mouse over. But the system already gives you that information when trying to capture an adjacent node. Further, since that chance is dependent only on a node's level, you are getting no useful information at all from this augmentation. And it doesn't do anything else.

Analyze all Datastores
This one is kinda neat. It's like peeking in your presents before you're allowed to open them. Still not worth the cost until you just don't have anything else left.

Cranial

Wayfinder Radar System
Radar 2
This one is a mixed bag. The radar doesn't get bigger, so the increased range comes at loss of detail. The real gem here is that everything is revealed automatically. If it's not on your radar, it doesn't exist.
And on a personal note, the existence of the radar in the first place is a travesty and an insult to the original Deus Ex. This is another crutch for those without situational awareness.

Computer-Assisted Social Interaction Enhancer
The CASIE aug. Absolutely vital for a few achievements and a fair number of bonus rewards. It costs two points, but it's really useful.
When in a conversation screen with someone you can use this augmentation on, a small window will appear labeled Alpha, Beta, Omega with three bars underneath each term. These bars will flash as the conversation progresses and the character reveals more personality traits. The more bars that flash, the stronger that trait. It doesn't matter how often a trait comes up, only which is strongest. At some point in the canversation, you will get a new option to activate pheremones. This will then ask you which kind of personality to target. Choose correctly, and you'll open up a new path. Be careful as sometimes that new path is a shortcut that cuts you off from XP.
This aug reveals even more information in the major social encounters, tips that can help you navigate through the usual options. It will also put up a graph with a line of dots going across it, as the conversation continues you can see how well you're doing on that graph. The higher the dots, the better.
Major social encounters also have pheremone options, but they don't always go as well as winning the encounter without using them. Notably, Zeke Sanders doesn't have any pheremone prompts when you talk to him in the Manufacturing Plant.

Stealth Enhancer
Noise Feedback
This thing's useless, but you need it if you want to buy anything else. It makes a circle on your radar screen when you make a noise. If you have the expanded range and can see the circle at all, you're being too loud.

Cones of Vision
More junk on your radar screen. If you have the expanded radar range this can be helpful, as the cones make it clear where people are looking on that tiny screen. Otherwise, this is a meh at best.

Last Known Location Marker
The marker appears in the world, not on your radar screen. Useful for players that like to lure enemies, because you know where they'll go to look for you.
Interesting note, on a New Game+ this augmentation will be in effect during the prologue.

Mark and Track 1-3
An often underestimated augmentation. You put your crosshairs over an enemy and hold "T" and a little triangle appears on their heads, with their distance from you in meters. The marker stays on them and you can always see it, even through walls, at long distances. Even when they're behind you. This is a great tool for tracking guards on patrol routes, and it doesn't cost any energy. You can even use your Smart Vision to mark targets through walls. The third upgrade isn't too useful, though, as tracking more than five targets at once only rarely comes up, and usually means you need to thin the herd a bit.

Eyes

Smart Vision
Wall-Penetrating Imager
Seeing through walls is always fun. Smart Vision highlights almost everything within 20 meters and is great when combined with Mark and Track or Punch Through Walls. While not a vital augmentation it is extremely useful.

Retinal Prothesis
Flash Suppresant
This makes you immune to concussion grenades and mines. They don't get used much by enemies, but pacifists that like to use them will want this aug so they don't blind themselves.

Cooldown Timer
The timer is added to your radar. You need to have actually seen the enemy on screen for a while before this will activate. It's mostly useless -- if you're a stealth player, just getting spotted is a failure. If you're combat heavy, they'll drop out of alert status when they die. Either way, this aug just doesn't add a lot of useful information.

Arms

Cybernetic Arm Prothesis
Punch Through Walls
Most maps in the game have a few places where the wall is cracked. These places can turn into doorways with proper use of explosives or this augmentation. If the Highlight Objects option is enabled (by default on lower difficulty levels) having this augmentation will cause these wall sections to be highlighted.
If an enemy is standing directly behind a wall when you punch through it, you will automatically snap his neck. This free takedown is always lethal and will disallow a Pacifist run. A very few times in the game an NPC will be close to the wall but not in place to be killed, these NPCs are knocked unconcious.
The number of paths and stashes this allows the player to access makes it well worth the investment. One such stash actually has a Praxis kit, so like hacking this augmentation pays for itself.

Move/Throw Heavy Objects
The constant energy drain of this augmentation is minimal, but be prepared to expend some energy bars if you need to quickly switch from moving the furniture to combat.
Control over your environment is valuable in all situations, but let's face it. There's nothing quite so fun as carrying a dominated turret into an enemy crowd or throwing a vending machine at a guy's head.

Carrying Capacity 1-3
Take a look at your inventory screen. Two more columns translates to a lot of ammo. Human Revolution is brutal on inventory space, and you'll never regret having these augmentations. On the other hand, they aren't quite as useful as other augs. Buy them when you need them, not before.

Recoil Compensation 1-2
These augs are vital for anyone that uses an automatic weapon. Stealth and pacifist players will probably get more use from a pistol, revolver, or sniper rifle and spend their points on more important augs. Combat players should pick at least the first of these early.

Aim Stabilizer
Aiming Motion Control 1-2
The most important aspect of this aug is that it eliminates shaking on sniper rifles. Every player will use one such weapon at some point, so this is a majorly important aug for those that have problems with combat.

Torso

Implanted Rebreather
Chemical Resistance
Gas traps are moderately common, and if you want to use gas grenades without killing yourself this is a must have.

Hyper-Oxygenation 1-2
With one point you sprint twice as long as normal, with two points you triple your sprint time. This is great for getting around Detroit and Hengsha. Not so useful in combat.

Sarif Series 8 Energy Converter
Energy Level Upgrade 1
An extra battery is always useful and lets you get value from the larger cryoboost packs. A good early buy.

Energy Level Upgrade 2-3
If you make frequent use of Cloak, these upgrades might be worth it. Otherwise, you can pass them over for later.

Recharge Rate Upgrade 1-2
Your first battery will recharge when empty. On lower difficulty levels you always recharge the first two batteries. On all difficulty levels a partially charged battery is refilled no matter which battery it is. These upgrades dramatically reduce the time that takes, making takedowns faster and safer to use. Get these as soon as you get anything else that drains your battery.

Typhoon Explosive System
Low Damage Varient
Push the button. Everyone within eight meters dies.
For something that is such a focus of the early game and gets brought up again and again, the usefulness of this weapon is incredibly subjective. Pacifists should look elsewhere. Snipers and stealth players can see this as a panic button. But if you like to charge into a room and leave carnage in your wake, this is your best friend.

Heavy Damage Varient
This version of the Typhoon is useful against bots and bosses. A late game pick, unless you want to give Barret a hug.

Back

Icarus Landing System
Wow this thing is nuts. JC Denton and Alex D were content with leg augmentations that could absorb the impact of a long fall, but Adam Jensen needs a magnetic parachute with an overblown animation.
The Icarus Landing System eliminates all fall damage, wether or not the animation plays. It also has an optional stun attack triggered by holding the attack button during the animation. This stun will be a nonlethal KO to very close enemies and knockdown enemies along a wider radius, which agressive players can follow up with a Typhoon.
The basic Icarus system is not loud but does nothing to make your fall louder or quieter. The Jump Silently augmentation eliminates the sound of the fall as far as the enemy AI is concerned, although the augmentation doesn't mute the audio of the animation. Stealth players do not need to worry about attracting extra attention.
The stun attack, however, is loud and cannot be silenced.
Stealth and combat concerns aside, this is a must have for exploration purposes, as mid-game maps will offer pathways that are lethal without it.

Quicksilver Reflex Booster
The double takedown is available fairly often and is by far the most efficient way of gaining experience from combat. A double takedown still consumes only a single energy bar, so it is a great way to manage your resources in a target rich environment.
A must have for stealth and pacifist players. The double takedown is the only way to silently eliminate two enemies at once.

Skin

Glass-Shield Cloaking System
Base Longevity
This cloak works against organics, bots, cameras, even laser tripwires. You still make noise which can alert guards, but you're nearly impossible to track or target. A combat player will want this to get from cover to cover. A stealth player will want this for every reason imaginable.

Longevity Upgrade 1
If you use cloak a lot you know you'll want this. The thing is an energy hog, after all. The question is not "is this aug useful?" but rather "do I want this or more energy?"
At base longevity and 2 batteries, you get 6 seconds of cloak. Three batteries turns that up to 9 seconds. Longevity Upgrade 1 gets you 10 seconds with the starting 2 batteries. If you use a lot of other augs that use power, like takedown, you'll probably want the extra battery first. If you already have three batteries, it isn't even a contest.

Longevity Upgrade 2
At 2 batteries, a 3rd battery will get you more cloak time than this aug.
A 4th battery with LU1 is roughly equal to LU2 with three batteries. If you have a lot of cryoboost stuff, get the extra battery. This is especially true on low difficulty when you always have 2 batteries ready; you can easily afford to power up your cloak with those items.

Dermal Armor
Damage Resistance 1-3
If you don't have at least some of these upgrades when you meet Barret, you're boned. It's winnable, but not easy. Unlike many augs you get increasing rather than diminishing returns at higher levels. (Trust me, I'm a math guy, the percentages here are sweet.)

EMP Shielding
This also provides immunity to electrified floors, which are extremely common hazards in the game. An excellent augmentation for explorers.

Legs

Cybernetic Leg Prothesis
Jump Enhancement
Simply put, you jump higher. You need it to buy the others and it's not bad on its own, but you can probably relegate this entire tree to the second tier.

Sprint Enhancement
Running faster is a boon to anyone that wants to charge in and punch a guy in the face!
Not that useful to most players, but combined with the hyper-oxygenation augs this is great way to get around Detroit without clawing your eyes out.

Run Silently
Now you're talking! The low energy cost works great with Cloak to make you an invisible man. A much better way to get close enough to punch a guy in the face.

Sprint Silently
Getting to your target faster means you use less energy getting there. Get this after cloak's longevity upgrades.

Jump Silently
This is hobbled by its high place in the tree. Death from above is always an awesome style, and this allows a stealth player to be very acrobatic, but it simply costs too much. Enjoy it in New Game+.

[Yogurt]

@Rich You have to hold down the jump button. If you tap it, Jensen does a small jump. If you let go of it mid-jump, Jensen immediately starts falling.

[Rich]

how do i use the jump augment? i can only jump 1 m still after buying it..?

[Yogurt]

For the 2nd boss fight, overheal yourself, throw an EMP grenade, and just empty an entire mag of bullets from the Heavy Rifle into her or two, then after she'll either die or be finished off by two shotgun shots

[Yogurt]

You can also cheese Barrett by stunning him with a stun gun (immediately switch weapons) pick up all 3 explosive barrels and chuck it at him, then fill his head in with some bullets and you can kill him in 10 seconds

[TroisGogot]

Just a note, there's a breakable in the barett boss room that lets u just cheese him. Break it, then hide behind it on the left side and fuck him up. No need for dermal.

[Yλroslλv]

I never asked for this

[Vodeni]

Thank you for the guide, helped me out a lot!

[Original Mid-Sneke]

I...forgot the button to start the cloak. I haven't played in that long.

[PrideGroupIsEvil]

is it possible to rotate objects? and i'm not talking about the player inventory

[Ryvaken Tadrya]

In general, the game only cares about two things: if you were detected (yes/no) and how many people you killed. Nonlethal takedowns are not really relevant either way, but leaving bodies (unconcious or dead) lying around can lead to alarms if you are not careful.

Unless you use an AUD or password, you cannot get past security beyond your capture level, no matter how many viruses you have. Likewise, most viruses are gained as bonuses from the hacking minigame. But I found them to be fairly abundant and sold off most of the ones I got after Detroit because I just never used them.

The reason I said to get capture 5 before stealth 1 is that the Capture augs decrease detection chance just like the stealth augs do, while also unlocking harder computers. And they cost 1 point each, so there's no reason to ever choose stealth over capture. (Unless you perform fortify actions, but you usually shouldn't bother with those until you're detected anyway).