Digital security offline. Preparing for analog failure. Let's Play Invisible, Inc.

Pretty much. Past three, you're either spreading your stat upgrades out too much or leaving someone behind, and the bonus inventory space also stops being so useful.

Conversely, you might find Nika or Internationale in there.

Double conversely, you might find Shalem 11 in there.

I usually prefer having a maximum complement of 4, but in a stealth game, too many cooks can easily spoil the broth.

And to elaborate on that second point dtsund mentioned (consider this a bonus update):

Any agents you start the game with get their initial augments, stat boosts, and equipment, but agents you rescue via detention center missions do NOT get starting equipment. (Derek, one of the DLC agents, is an exception, as without one piece of his starting gear, his augment becomes useless.)

Additionally, agents in detention centers are never their Archive versions. If you want one of them, you start the game with them. You also can't get two certain agents in detention centers outright, but we'll get to that much later on in the LP.

So, what agents are desirable to find in detention centers, and which ones would you consider starting with solely to ensure they don't show up in them?

• Prism and Internationale are probably the best agents to find in the wild. Both of them are valuable solely for their starting augments, which take zero preparation to get running, and get no gear outside of the default Neural Disrupter, and as I indicated, it's not very hard to just go find a Disrupter yourself.
• Derek gets an honorary mention as above, for starting with equipment even if rescued via detention center. For reference, since I didn't put him in the starting agent selection for reasons, Derek's augment lets him teleport to his Portable Teleport Beacon, which is an item he can throw to any location he can shoot at, and which Incognita can then later trigger for 4 PWR. While still good, it's a situational tool, and one that requires you to have 4 PWR to spare.
• Nika is also valuable even without her gear, but she loses a lot of her shine if you don't specifically have a Volt Disrupter. If you're heading into a detention center mission later, you bring a disrupter, but being able to attack twice a turn isn't very good if your weapon has a multi-turn cooldown.
• Decker, Rush, Banks and Olivia (like Derek, I didn't put her in starting selection) fill out the middle tier of agent usefulness. They don't start with all of their gear, no, but they start with generically useful stats and augments, so they're welcome to the team even if you don't have a weapon for them. (But you should probably get one.)
• Dr. Xu and Sharp are where things start to get less valuable. These agents tend to require you to build around their weaknesses to be useful, either with Dr. Xu's limited starting AP or Sharp's need for actual augments. If you rescue one of these guys late, it's probably not worth your time to keep them up to speed.
• Shalem 11 is one of your worst possible choices. The whole reason to take him as a starting agent is "he has a gun", which kind of falls flat when you're in a jail cell. He also shares the problems of the previous two, in that he wants a specific kind of thing (namely, a gun) in order to keep up with your team.
• But it can get worse, thanks to the addition of Draco. Draco is only viable as a starting agent because he begins play with a lethal weapon. Remember, he can't upgrade stats normally, he has to kill guards to do it. So unless you entered the level with a lethal weapon you're okay with giving him, Draco is as much of a liability as the previous three agents without the possibility of making him work anyway. (And even if you do get a lethal weapon, that's just making a new problem to fix the old one, because killing guards raises the alarm level like nothing else. At least Shalem can work with nonlethal guns.)

I'd say hit up the detention center. Odds are we'll find someone decent at this point and it'd be better to find them sooner rather than later so we know what gear and programs to look for.

Let's put it this way: if each agent were exactly as useful as the last, your first additional agent is a 50% bonus, and the second one is only a 33% bonus. But like dtsund and Kalir say, they're not: everyone is competing for equipment, upgrades, and augments, and those get spread pretty thin on a team of three (especially augments when Sharp is on the team).

I assume, though, that you aren't forced to bring any particular agent you recruit to the team? Like, you aren't necessarily required to bring Sharp, even though he's been liberated. In that case, isn't the marginal utility question determined not by the number of agents on your team, but by the diversity of agents on your team? If you rescue Internationale on the next mission, it seems like a greater increase in utility than rescuing Sharp was on the previous mission, since Internationale scales better than Sharp initially and fills a different role in the party.

Further, agent synergy would suggest that the second and third agents represent increases in marginal utility, not decreases, as (for example) bringing Dr. Xu and Banks together make it possible to perform maneuvers that would be impossible with individual agents.

I realize that you wouldn't be guaranteed Internationale (far from it) which does mean that another rescue would, in the balance, potentially result in negative utility. But I certainly think that's far from mathematically certain.

You bring all agents you have rescued on each mission, unless they get lost in the field, either by them getting shot and not getting rescued, or by you aborting the mission while they're still out there.

These agents can be found later in rescue missions, but honestly going to all that trouble to reroll agent selection, especially when detention centers might instead hold escort missions, is, like giving Draco a lethal weapon, creating a new problem to fix an old one.

And honestly, later on, you DO want all four agents on hand. But the point being made this early is that it would slow us down far too much to go for the fourth agent as early as this. Remember, if we hadn't gone to the trouble of buying a Thermal Disrupter before hitting the detention center, Sharp would be unarmed. And that hit our wallet REALLY hard.

That's true, but only because Internationale is the best character in the game, with Sharp filling out the middle of the pack.

In general, getting an additional agent doesn't allow you to finish missions too much more quickly: while more agents equals more actions per turn equals faster exploration, you're just as often bottlenecked by Incognita's PWR (especially in Kalir's setup, where he regularly needs to wait for Mercenary to reset). Even if you're not, you're only exploring more quickly if you spread out, which means you'll need to spend turns getting everyone to the exit at the end. It is a speed savings, but not in a linear "I have 8 more AP per turn" sense.

The bigger deal with having more agents is safety. Kalir hasn't gotten deep into guard-juking tactics, and I don't want to steal his thunder, but a short version would be that if a guard is heading towards Agent A, you can have Agent B draw his interest. You can also have Agent B incapacitate a guard who's got Agent A in his sights when Agent A would normally have no way to escape. Finally, worst case, Agent B can just drag nearly-dead Agent A to the exit if the worst should happen.

That sort of redundancy makes it extremely useful to have a third agent (especially in the worst-case scenario where one of your agents is downed -- you have to drag not just the downed agent but also her inventory to the exit), but I personally find the fourth agent to be unnecessary. A typical (non-DLC) campaign consists of about 8 missions before the final event, and the first one is always the same, so taking two agents limits your ability to gather other resources.

Yeah, that was my thought - that at least up to three, and probably four, agents would be exceptionally useful as far as making new tactics vs guards possible, which is a significant upgrade however you slice it. I totally get the expense (and more opportunity for error) issues, though, and I definitely agree that pulling another agent in does not seem like unqualified success. Especially if you get a spacewaster.

I assumed from the fact that we don't have Strongjaw Noircoat from the first mission on the team that you could choose who you went into any given mission with.

That's just the tutorial -- Mr. Jaw isn't on the team today.

Understood!

Thank you for the elucidation! By all means, let this rip-snorting cyberjumper of a game continue!

(This LP is excellent)

We haven't had much experience with augmentation in practice, so this will be a good test drive for them. And with Sharp on board, if we give him both of them, that's +1 KO to his melee attacks right out of the gate.



And now that we're on difficulty level 2, the corporations do actually have some differences between themselves, so we'll be facing more tailored challenges from here on out.



Thank you, mister team player.



Sharp puts his Hacking score to use by doubling the efficiency of this console here. Which, hey, I won't complain, but +1 PWR from one console... probably isn't gonna do a lot in the long run.



And literally the first thing we see is the teleporter?



Well this mission is going to go in interesting directions.

That right there is a FTM Scanning Amp, and it is THE reason you need to move fast (or in our case, have the stars align) when hitting FTM facilities. Remember how at alarm level 5, the corporation pinpoints one agent location? As long as this thing is active, it does that EVERY alarm level.



Ordinarily this is a two-part process: hack the device, then have an agent handle it personally, same as with a safe or most objectives. However, this one has an extra step. See that red border around the device? That's a daemon. We don't know what type of daemon, but whatever type it is, it could do some serious damage if we hack it here and now.



Dr. Xu cares about precisely zero of this and punches it right the hell open.



It's not a mandatory objective to disable this and seize the tech, but hey, free tech.



The other daemon-guarded thing we could see, amusingly, was the daemon database. Unless you hack this or rely on stuff like Decker's ability, daemons are all unidentified to start with. But hey, we don't care, cuz we shot whatever daemon WAS guarding the database for a measly 1 PWR. Hunter and Seed, everybody.



I, uh... I think I bugged out the warning about the FTM Scanning Amp by breaking into it literally before the enemy got a turn. This ordinarily displays before that happens. No, there aren't multiple such amps... in this facility.



We also hit the console database to give us a slightly better idea of where to go.



Dr. Xu heads towards the safes because of course he does.



Sharp is going exactly the wrong way, considering he's the team hacker, but hey, may as well scout while he's around.



I almost regret already having used Mercenary so much.



It's hard to tell, but Sharp's room isn't safe to enter outright. And we can confirm that it's under human surveillance. Which is good, if they're patrolling.



Dr. Xu finds an excellent room to throw a shock trap on and never look back.



HEY SHARP YOU'RE GOING THIS WAY NOW



Unfortunately, this site's under pretty heavy surveillance. In addition to the normal rank-and-file guards, we have the DLC-exclusive Pulse Drone overlooking the area.

Pulse drones, as well as functionally similar camera drones, are the baby leagues of drones, bearing no weapons and being even weaker against EMPs than usual (most drones get KO'd, but for these little guys its lethal). Pulse drones have two unique features: they refuse to be distracted from whatever they're searching for, and at the start of each of their turns, they send out a pulse covering a 5 tile radius around them (read: 5 AP radius ignoring terrain, so it's not square, but more roundish). Any agents not behind a wall in that radius get effectively caught on camera.



That said, they can still be hacked, in which case we get to drive the drone around and use its sensors for our own delicious needs.

Also I have never wanted an alarm level so badly in my career of playing this game, and my favorite power generation program is Dynamo.



Oh well. More stuff to theoretically buy.

The Titanium Rods augment is considerable, giving +1 KO with melee weapons when installed, but... well, while that plus the augment grafters would let Sharp hit almost as hard as a Paralyzer-backed blow, it just seems kind of... dull, y'know? Maybe later.

Two new gadgets: the EMP Pack II does what Dr. Xu's hand does, but with an area of effect and a cooldown. You also need a decent Hacking score to pull it off. Sharp's one point shy of using it. In the right situation, these things are lifesavers, but we already have Dr. Xu, and he's better than one of these nine times out of ten. Unless you're making a habit of hitting Sankaku facilities, but that's not happening for a while for us.

We also have the Buster Chip II. Buster Chips are handy gadgets that let an agent with sufficient Anarchy break down firewalls by themselves, without relying on Incognita. Higher level chips come with both more firewalls broken AND higher cooldowns. The MK II sits at a reasonable 3 firewalls, and like the EMP, Banks is only one point off from being able to wield it. I'll probably give her that point after this mission, too.



First things first, though. Let's be careful approaching the augment grafters.



Probably gonna regret this later, but I have no idea how long Dr. Tony "I only have 7 base AP" Xu is gonna take down there.



Bah, what a mess.



Doing this while I have a clean shot on at least SOMETHING there.

Dr. Xu is gonna stay right here and get a clean observation on the guard around here.



Oh boy, Elite Security!

This guy is armored, so Dr. Xu's default Neural Disrupter doesn't do anything to him. We're stuck carefully stepping around his patrol path and not doing ANYTHING to alert him to the doctor's position.



Screw it, we need more intel on the enemies in that half of the world.



Welcome to the team, small round buddy.

While under our control, we can move drones around within the limits of their (hidden) AP. They can open and close doors, and their movement doesn't raise guard suspicions in any way. They're excellent scouting tools! There's one drawback, though, in the form of that number above the drone. Once those turns pass, it drops where it is while the mainframe reboots it. Any guards that see this will become suspicious and investigate, and regardless of this, the drone is effectively in a state of a 1-turn KO. It comes back online next turn fully alert.



Still worth it just to see what exactly is down this hallway.



Meanwhile, Sharp books it to the first grafter like a kid in a candy store.



The first function any augment grafter provides is the ability to add an augment slot to an agent not named Sharp. This KOs the agent for 2 turns (so probably don't do this if everyone else has already escaped), but adds the slot instantly. Lategame, this is most of what you'll use these things for.

The second function, and what we're actually going to do, is install an augment specific to that machine for free. In this case...



We fix up Sharp with a Net Downlink. Three times a turn, whenever you claim a mainframe device for yourself, Net Downlink awards the agent in question 2 AP. This is an incredibly powerful scouting augment, letting you hurry past a camera-viewed area you took for yourself to speed up observations.



And it's a good thing we took that one first.

The first time you activate an augment grafter in a cybernetics lab mission, the corporation gets to reactivate several mainframe devices. And they just so happen to have reactivated the cameras behind Sharp, forcing Banks to pick a direction and cutting Sharp off from the elevator until we get them Mercenary'd again.



Given this sudden turn of events, I decide to buy the Buster Chip II and have Banks join Sharp. Yeah, I should save most of my credits for now, but I NEED some method of breaking firewalls that doesn't consume loads of PWR. (It doesn't do anything right now. Shut up.)



Dr. Xu confirms a camera ahead of him, adding more headaches for us.



Even with Seed AND Abacus backing us up, we're cutting into our power reserves far too harshly. And it's only going to get worse.



It is going to get SO MUCH WORSE. There's no way in hell I'm making Dr. Xu backtrack through the entire facility and back again just for that one safe, we're making Incognita do it.



But I do want that safe, so get to work on clearing a path, guys.



To make matters more hilarious, the safe contains a Paradox daemon. Incognita, being smarter than Wheatley, will be delayed from hacking for a while when this daemon gets activated. You can still spend PWR on other things, like the T.A.G. Pistol, but you're out of luck when it comes to program support.



This is just getting stupid. Why do you need double cameras literally EVERYWHERE, is the FTM Scanning Amp not enough? (Clearly the answer is no.)



At least our progress isn't completely walled off.



Here, have an annoyingly thorough look at everything of importance in the facility as of this moment.



Dr. Xu heads in after the elite security, and discovers not just a safe, but a secondary server guarded by a Labyrinth daemon. Labyrinth reduces all agent AP by 2 while it's in effect, which isn't really extremely dangerous, but it is annoying as hell and probably my overall least favorite daemon.



I shoot it in the face and it dies. Can't actually access it yet, but next turn it's a whole other story.



The downside here is that now the higher security is actually starting to make Alarm Level 2 dangerous.



We can break into the secondary server no problem, but the safe from before, well...



First things first: ugh, this selection.

Overdrive is a passive program, like Abacus and Seed, which decreases the cooldown on programs that have it (like Hunter) by 2, in exchange for increasing power cost on all programs by 1. Hell no.

Parasite is usually my go-to breaker, but honestly with our current setup I'm just not feeling it. Yeah it's more efficient, but we're already spending too much time waiting for Mercenary. And we're heading to a server farm soon either way.



You'll note Sharp's AP is now 10 as opposed to the standard 8. Net Downlink at work. (It doesn't help here.)



Next turn, I crack open the other grafter and discover it has Distributed Processing available. Each copy of this installed on any agent grants a coinflip for 1 PWR at the start of each turn. Most of the time, this isn't worth the trouble, and if you get this on a grafter you ordinarily convert it into an augment slot instead. But A: we're still having PWR problems, and B: we have Sharp and therefore more than enough space to take this. GET IN

Now, from where we're sitting, the Pulse Drone looks like too much of a risk to spend on, right?



But as it just so happens, the AP Sharp gets from it being hacked is enough for him to silently get from the augment grafter to this terminal, where he easily recoups the PWR loss AND gets behind cover to boot. It is truly Cyborg Time now.



In unhappier news, ARE YOU FOR REAL THERE'S NOTHING OVER HERE I WASTED DR. XU'S ENTIRE LEVEL AND WAY THE HELL TOO MUCH POWER FOR THIS



Banks quietly commiserates. Very quietly.



Yeah I'm shooting the daemon on this safe, too. It's been long enough and we need to re-hack the cameras blocking Banks and Sharp from the teleporter.



The good news is that drones can be stolen from like guards. Instead of creds, though, they have excess PWR cells!



We still have to wait a turn, but this costs us less overall.



Yeah you have fun with that, loser.



FINALLY.



Dr. Xu rejoins the land of the living in time to keep an eye on the reinforcements.



Meanwhile, Sharp finishes up his explorations and prepares to test out his new, heavier machine body against this guard.



Works well.



Problem is, the other guard is due to backtrack into there any second now, so Banks is going to provide him a good reason not to.



Hm, that's not nearly as much KO time as I'd have liked. Go do something about that, doc.



That works.



The rest of the crew finishes up, and we're good to start leaving. (I totally forgot I could buy Titanium Rods at the nanofab there. Not hugely torn up about it though.)



I'm the best at ambush.



Next alarm level rolls in, as do reinforcements, but everyone's close enough to make it to the elevator, no trouble.



Xu has to earn it, though.



That was an okay haul. Sharp's new augments are nice, and the Buster Chip will be nice, and the creds will be nice. Not really super exciting, but decent.



At least this time we didn't alert the whole stage by virtue of half of it being USELESS



Really want to go ham on upgrading stats, but I know better. At the very least I'll probably bring Banks up to Anarchy 3, but first.



Dude we literally just bought a higher-end version of this. (We could sell him that version and buy this one off of him to have an immediately usable option for Banks, but no.)



Whee setting-building. I dunno the exact details of the war mentioned here, but the aftermath of it is that national governments have been all but replaced by the four corporations we're up against. The funny part is that while they're pretty clearly bad guys for US, the game never really goes out of its way to establish exactly what kind of malevolent activities they conduct vs. the world at large, aside from potentially price hiking augments. I recall someone saying of Netrunner that both the runners and the corps tend to see themselves as the good guys in their conflict, even if the runners usually present the more morally-convincing side. (Until you run Gabriel Santiago against Jackson Howard's brainstorming suite. Then the runner is a dick.)

I mean, there's not much room for doubt that the corps are basically evil here. But still, it's an interesting thought.



Anyway, we're probably gonna hit Plastech next. The main breaking factor here isn't the travel time (it's barely a noticeable difference either way) but the fact that both K&O locations are actually elevated in their security, and we REALLY don't have the kit to take that on right now, fancy-schmancy augments notwithstanding. So to the server farm in Lima we will go!

Next Time: Joshua B.

Maaaaan, I'm pretty sure Parasite would complement your current setup fantastically. You're waiting around because of PWR use, and Parasite is the most efficient firewall-breaker there is; sure, it's slow, but you can fall back on Mercenary in those times when you can't wait. And because you'll have been using Parasite instead, it'll still be cheap.

I think FTM is probably the easiest corporation overall, but I imagine that all those cameras would be rough if you're relying on a shady band of missionaries for all of your hacking.

I like our current kit, but we'll see what all we can cook up here. Once we're done with this place, Incognita will be either fully equipped for all five of her program slots, or we'll have enough money left over to make a real killing at the nanofab vestibule right next door.



Hope you're ready, Plastech, cuz we're gonna steal all KINDS of tasty data!



Now now, children.



Right off the bat, we find a guard telprot. We're not heading in here for the rest of the game.



Oh, this is new.

Without the DLC, missions have exactly two objectives by default, and unless you're fighting off a FTM scanning amp, that remains constant. The Contingency Plan DLC includes a number of side missions that let you try for a secondary goal. They usually pay off pretty handsomely, but depending on your situation, you might not care for it. I still haven't encountered all of them, having had the DLC for a very brief span of time, so we'll see where this takes us.



Oh, hello.

So, this isn't quite the iconic guard Plastech is known for, but it's still a new and exciting threat for us to handle. Siren 1.0 lives up to its namesake, because any time it either sees an agent or gets KO'd, it increases firewalls for all kinds of nearby mainframe devices by 1. Depending on your loadout, this can either be mostly harmless or really really dangerous. For us, and this early in the game, it's about middle of the road. Long as Siren doesn't get caught by something already at 2 firewalls, we're golden.



But we ARE gonna have to deal with it, thanks to their genius pal walking right into Banks' fist.



Tempted to EMP the databank, but as I still have no idea what exactly it does, I'll just have Dr. Xu get in position to manually work with it. Sharp will just have to handle the Siren for us.



Mercenary cracks that sucker open right quick...



And I missed Central's message. But basically, she's gonna send Dr. Xu and the rest a worm to scrub the databank while also scouring for data we can actively use to help ourselves. It takes a bit of time to run through, during which the agent should probably at the very least keep the screensaver from coming up, but hopefully not too long.



I don't have Sharp tag the guard here because agents only get one attack a turn unless their name is Nika. If he tagged the guard, he'd lose the ambush, and the siren would get off TWO alerts: one from seeing someone, one from the inevitable following KO.



But we've already hacked everything within range, so we're safe.



So, the databanks challenge. See that meter down in the objectives list? That's not for this terminal in particular, no. That's how many databanks there are total. At each one, we have to have the agent working on it for a number of turns indicated by the display above the databank. One of three rectangles is cleared, so Dr. Xu has to stay there for two more turns before this one's wiped.



Moving right along, Sharp scouts ahead and spots another likely camera.



And AARGH I forgot to upgrade Banks' Anarchy score before this mission. Oh well, we'll do it next mission.



Good, top-quality, very clear coast. A+ would write shanties about again.



What the fnatz is that supposed to mean?



Ah well. Dr. Xu finishes up his terminal, and the crew is now free to move on.



This should keep that entire area in check for plenty of time.



Aight, let's buy some new progs.



Oh. That's what he meant. Say hi to Shopcat, boys and girls. And check out that program loadout, moreover! Daaaaaang.

Shade reduces the sight range of guards, which gives your agents a lot more wiggle room at long ranges. Nice and all, but we can do better.

Rapier is just as strong an early game option as ever, but combining it with Seed is a BAD idea. If we wanted, we could get rid of Seed and Mercenary, use this plus Abacus, and call that good enough, but that's altogether too much build futzing, and when Dr. Xu is on your team you can't afford to use Rapier seriously. Parasite, though, we'll probably actually pick up this time.

Wildfire is unfortunately the only program for PWR gain in this entire lot. And it's not bad, honestly, if that's your only concern! It's a once per turn boost of +5 PWR... but activating it raises firewalls by 1, globally. If you're using Nika on your team, it's hilarious, and it can combo with a certain program type we haven't seen here in REALLY silly ways, but we just can't make a good case for Wildfire with our crew.

Daemon Sniffer is a nice, easy way to scan for daemons. 3 turn cooldown and no PWR cost, and it reveals all daemon types you can see in the mainframe. Only problem is I can't justify buying that when we're already equipped with Hunter, and we care less about daemon types and more about what that daemon is guarding. Some people might like it, but we're passing it up.

Fool is the cheapest one on this list for a reason. You can use it to reboot devices regardless of firewall strength, which is great! You can shut down cameras, drones, safes, lots of things with naught but a single click. But it has two major flaws. The first is that using it at all installs a daemon, which is already a major risk unless you're specifically built to handle daemons. The second is that it makes all daemon types last an extra turn as a passive effect, so even if you're using Fool sparingly, you're still making the game actively harder for yourself. On the other hand, if you're running Brimstone without Faust for some reason, this becomes a bit more attractive.

Rogue is one we seriously do want. For 2 PWR and a 2 turn cooldown, Rogue will reveal the location of a safe we haven't seen yet on the level. On teams without Dr. Xu, this isn't really worth buying and clogging Incognita's memory banks with. But we have Dr. Xu. This is an excellent way to tell us "HEY NERD GO THIS WAY AND LOOT THIS THING."

And finally, Bless is a passive program like Abacus and Seed, whose only effect is to lessen the time we spend dealing with daemons by 1 turn. And much like Shade or Daemon Sniffer, it's a nice effect that some players might want, but which we are ultimately passing by.



The unfortunate downside to all of this is that we have to sell off Abacus to make room for the things we want to buy.



Let's hope dtsund was right, and Parasite will lessen our PWR woes without exacerbating our turn woes. I very briefly reconsider Wildfire, but all of our PWR problems are due to mainframe devices. Wildfire is much more trouble for us than it's worth.



Shopcat rewards us for our generous patronage by spawning multiple daemons throughout the level.



It's all right, Monst3r. Sure, more daemons suck...

But that's well worth the information that just got leaked to us.

That said, daemon-spawning is one of the biggest threats to a Parasite user. Remember, you can't remove a parasite once it's attached to a mainframe device.



And we just got broadcasted the location of a camera, as well as two safes, in the level, and we have the means to neutralize the daemons installed within them.



You're all right by us, Shopcat.



We start breaking out Parasite as well, throwing two of them down on the camera and the database for a meager 1 PWR.



And what should we find along the way but a second databank?



Dr. Xu will be there momentarily. Banks is probably gonna be hacking this next databank.



Meanwhile, all those parasites gave Sharp a case of the Gottagofasts.



Woo, new daemons! Guess how many of these I intend to actually trip.

Echo reboots a device Incognita has captured, effectively returning it to the corporation's control after a turn. Depending on what they select, this can be annoying. Best case scenario, they recapture a safe you already looted. Worst case, a camera overlooking all your agents while they're waiting for a guard patrol.

Chiton grants all guards a point of armor while it's active. Which, with things as they stand, means that Sharp is the only one of our team who could reasonably fight guards at all. But that's on the console database, which we honestly don't care that much about anymore.



Daemons can't trigger if you just EMPunch the safe they're installed on. Nice security NERDS



As for the rest of what Shopcat installed, the only other new one is Siphon, which inflicts additional PWR drain when triggered. This is probably one of the harshest ones we can be hit with on our build. Our only methods of PWR gain right now are consoles and Sharp's Distributed Processing augment, and the latter is slow and unreliable.



However, I'm totally willing to take an Echo or two to the face if it means a chance for NIFTY GOODS.



I parasite the nanofab and Mercenary the safe, which gives Sharp a little bit of spending money to work with.



BAH. I've seen more dangerous daemons in my login screen!



Oh no Dr. Xu has to do exactly what he was doing anyway or he might attract one of the guards' attention!



Well this was a waste of time.

Gel Injectors are a pretty neat-sounding augment on paper, and if you're running Rapier they're excellent. They increase the agent's AP by 3, but their max AP goes down with each alarm level. The big problem with this is that you usually want the exact opposite, more AP at higher alarm levels to get to safety faster. But again, if you're running Rapier, Gel Injectors let you move through levels at blinding speeds.

The Thermal Disrupter I is exactly what it sounds like so I'll ignore it. The Ventricular Lance is a cooldown item that grants the agent it's used on an extra point of armor-piercing on any attacks they use that round. It's nice to have, sure, but for most agents they'd just as soon take a stronger basic weapon, or an augment that provides armor-piercing with whatever they're specialized in using. That said, it does stack with any augments, and while the armor-piercing augments DO stack, putting more than one on an agent is usually a waste of precious augment slots.

Finally, Smoke Grenades are a thrown consumable. Thrown items can land in any square you can shoot at, and smoke grenades create a massive cloud of smoke that blocks line of sight. Obviously, using this near a guard will get their attention, but if you need to make a quick getaway, this could be a lifesaver. Not, uh... not one I'd bother buying, probably.



No big deal, we'll save our dosh for the nanofab vestibule coming up.



Oh nice. While getting the second databank accessible, Incognita turned the Echo daemon on it into a Fortune algorithm, generating even more creds.

I once saw a post on the Steam forums for the game, detailing a potential exploit they'd discovered involving daemon reversals. Their argument was that as long as you could mitigate alarm levels early on, and you could continually generate daemons (through any number of methods, such as Fool or Faust), you could potentially farm daemon reversals, since there are no daemons that lower your supply of credits. Done this way, you could amass theoretically infinite amounts of credits via Fortune.

The person who discovered this tried to make a case for this being a reason for daemon reversals to be removed (or at least be a difficulty option), arguing that games are the most fun when the player does everything in their power to win, and providing such a clearly overpowered yet blatantly dull option for players makes the game badly designed.

Of course, this would involve, y'know, staying on a level 1 mission long enough to trigger multiple daemons, let alone multiple daemon reversals, let alone singling out Fortune rather than other daemon reversals, enough times to generate credits to actually make the exploit worthwhile. And even though NetHack has actually fixed their version of this exploit, I stand by the claim that "the punishment for pudding farming is pudding farming". If you're really going to that much trouble to win the game, to the point where you stop having fun despite pursuing the optimal path... honestly, that's on you.



Anyway, the guards are finally starting to wander around. If we're lucky, the Siren will trip the trap and the other guy will manage to completely miss this happening.



Banks gets to work on the next databank, with basically nothing to pressure her.



I haven't really broadcasted it, but I have been trying out Rogue with regularity, and in doing so I discover a safe with a Fractal daemon on it. Fractal doesn't do anything dangerous itself, but it DOES create two new daemons on previously unguarded mainframe objects. This still isn't a huge deal most of the time, but it CAN be if you're running Parasites, as discussed earlier.



Meanwhile, Sharp discovers the final databank.



I throw a Parasite on it by reflex, learning the lesson that if you're running Seed, the program you use first in a turn matters! I'll have to unlearn that habit REAL QUICK.



Unlike the other two databanks, this one is actively guarded, and we aren't immediately forced into fighting the opposition. So Sharp sets up a tag for now...



And notices a pulse drone further down. We are SO hijacking that.



Yay, the guards cooperated!

At this point, we have the whole map uncovered. And yes, it is basically a completely linear level, which works very much to our benefit.



Alarm level 2 rolls around, putting Mercenary's cost back to 0 but also ramping up security across all the safes over here.



Rogue confirms that there's no more safes in the level. This is the first program I've seen that'll let you use it but also just say "haha nope that's all she wrote". There's a couple others that grey themselves out if there's no further targets, even unseen ones.



Nothing for it, Sharp's gonna have to take this guy down.



Banks finishes on her end of the world, freeing her up to catch up with Sharp.



She's gonna try to steal from this guy while Dr. Xu moves on to the safes.



As for Sharp, well, no time like the present for this.



We need to rehack the pulse drone to ensure his safety, but that ain't no thang.



Dr. Xu traps the door behind himself, which means Banks has to take a slightly circuituous route to get to the guard, but meh, we got time.



Go sit down and think about what you've done, young lady.



Banks heads to the downed guard and first punches him to reset the KO meter to 2, then paralyzes him to bring it up to 5. That should be more than enough time.



Sidequest complete!



Same as the stuff from the FTM Scanning Amp, probably.



You cannot hide from King Radical. Ha ha ha. Gimme dem nukes.



Yeah that's right! We cleared this mission by alarm level 3! LINEAR LEVELS ARE SUPER EASY, GUYS.



And look at all these creds we have to spend at the nanofab vestibule!



Not to mention Incognita's completely kitted out and it is a thing of beauty.



Nothing like a well done mi-- hold up, that's new. Logs?



Whaaaaaaat

Guys I had NO IDEA THIS WAS IN THE GAME. This is a bucket of delicious tasty lore and I AM WILD ABOUT THIS

...So of course it centers around friggin' Shalem 11. I cannot escape this asshole no matter what I do.



Still, we're totally doing any more databanks we find from here on out.

I also take Banks and Sharp up to Anarchy and Hacking 3 respectively...



And set Dr. Xu to Speed 2. This doesn't make him actually any faster than the others, mind, but he can now totally use low-end cloaking rigs and stims just fine.



Here Monst3r, have this stupid thing.



There we go. 2K creds going into a Nanofab vestibule is a pretty solid amount.



Not much that's new from Central, just keep on truckin'.



But we're right next door to the Nanofab Vestibule. And once we're done with that, we'll move on to Day 3 and will have a few more options available.

Unless the mission list gives us much better choices, we're probably going to finally hit the K&O Detention Center. But we'll see, won't we?

Next Time: Toolbox

assassin: "no guys stop freaking out look i was paid to do this"
everyone: "oh ok let's just move on then, say assassin guy, want some punch?"
assassin: "sure, thanks"

I think I love this.

Golgo 13.

Getting a guard's attention can be very helpful sometimes, but I wouldn't pay 350 for a one-time use of that privilege.

Honestly, now is as good a time as any for a shopping spree. We still have inventory and stat constraints, but even so, we should be able to get a lot of nice gear out of this mission.



Huh, wonder if Central gave Incognita a sense of humor.



Shut UP, dude, we're here for the doctor and Banks!



Now go out there and get shot for my amusement.



Now that we've got Rogue on our side, we're going to spend a lot less time blindly fumbling for safes and skirting too close to alarm level 6, which is the cap.

Also, it's imperative that I scout as much as I possibly can with this loadout. Firewall breaking is important, but if I see something that needs Hunter, I need to use that either first in the turn, or not at all.



Not to mention the slow but steady PWR consumption of our trusty T.A.G. Pistol. Between those, we're gonna need to find a good number of terminals to keep up.



Hey look, Banks is getting so good at stealing from guards, she gets a bit of extra cash whenever she does! That's not very MUCH cash, and if someone else gets to the credchip first that bonus is never applied, but it adds up.



Sharp's Net Downlink continues to be handy, letting him swing clear past the main hurdle of the area into delicious cover.



But I can ALSO use it to scout the entrance near Banks and confirm the threat level inside, while at the same time letting him take cover behind the console.

Inside the room, right next to the camera proper, is a stationary camera drone. Unlike pulse drones, these guys emit a constant field of view, and only rely on their scanners when pursuing a target. But also unlike pulse drones, you can distract camera drones from their post via visual trickery, like doors or catching their peripheral vision.



I decide to just hack the little guy outright and throw a Parasite on the camera behind it.



It helpfully confirms that the rest of the path this way is pretty dangerous.



Next turn rolls around, and Banks puts her newest skill to use! The Buster Chip cracks the secondary server open and gives her free access, all without a single point of PWR spent. This makes her the second best safecracker behind Dr. Xu, and naturally allows her to do things even he can't with this.



I'm pretty content with our current program selection, but browsing never hurt anyone. And yes, this is a Shopcat-operated terminal too, but we only ever meet her face-to-face (?) during server farm missions.

Aces is a pretty considerable option for us, decreasing the armor of all tagged guards for a turn. Sharp's basically gonna tag anyone he can see, so having him handle that sets up a lot of opportunities for Aces to let anyone else do what they have to do. But is it good enough to warrant selling the things I already have? ...Nah.

Ping is in much the same boat, although it's considerably more general purpose. Very economical in terms of PWR, less so in cooldown, but what it does is create a noise that can be heard from a pretty long distance away. Anyone that hears it will head over to investigate the origin of the sound unless a better use of their time comes up. This is a great way to take the heat off of an agent when they're in trouble, or to create a quick opening for slipping past, but the cooldown is still really harsh.



This room's got a guard overlooking it, so I'm not gonna make Sharp run that way. He can just take cover and be happy with it.



May as well take this camera.



Whoops. Yeah, uh, try not to let drones shutdown in plain sight of guards!



Kay you're getting on my nerves. Go to future jail.



Dr. Xu's enhanced strength means that he can easily pop out, take the guard down, and drag him back into the start area without any fuss whatsoever.



Meanwhile, Sharp is getting curious about the door here.



Yeah we're leaving that to Dr. Xu.



Tagged, and now we have to decide what to do with the elite walking around. Dr. Xu needs to get in there before a new calendar system is invented, after all.



Sharp is well-equipped enough to do just that.



Eh, may as well. Banks is on her way to unlocking the nearest door, but no harm in carrying it right now.



Dr. Xu finishes his jail and starts towards his work.



Banks unlocks the security door here, which on the surface seems like an excellent idea, right?

Well, it's not a perfect plan, but we'll reveal that later.

The drone gets rehacked and we find out that Sharp should really be the one handling this side of the world.



So yeah! The guard's patrol route has changed now that he can access the door that was previously locked off. This is why you might not want to unlock doors if you can help it. Yeah it lets your agents run around more freely, but it lets the guards do likewise, and they can get unpredictable if granted too much room to move.



Nobody here at all I dunno what you're on about go back to your iPhone.



Haven't found the nanofab vestibule yet, remember.



The drone confirms that while there's a lot for Incognita to play with here, there's virtually nothing for humans to do.



The real thing we want here is the power supply, but that daemon is bothering me. We'll come to a consensus once Dr. Xu gets started exploring.



And the guard returning to his post gives him a lot of room to work with.



So yeah screw it! The only route past the beams is through that room, so we Hunter the daemon and Banks is free to roll on in and do whatever she plans on doing.



Starting with keeping this guy down.



So here's the problem with tagged guards. Their route updates if it becomes impossible for some reason, so the guard abruptly decides to switch doors based on Sharp's movement.



But when I put Sharp inside this room to take cover, the guard changes his mind AGAIN, putting Sharp somewhere where he can do nothing but raise the alarm.

I have no idea how much impact on this the security door had, but either way BLEEEEEH.



At least Dr. Xu has plenty of room to stealth around like a maniac.



NICE PERIPHERAL VISION YOU GOT THERE LOSER.



Ah, man, this feels just like old times, doesn't it?

So, in the event you're about to fail a mission by guardshot, and you have no rewinds nor other options to retreat to safety, you can give your agents, as their final action, some last words. This is basically resigning the mission, which unless you have level retries on, is game over... BUT IT IS SUCH A NEAT WAY TO HANDLE THE MECHANIC.

I'm bringing this up because for as many times as I get caught at gunpoint I don't think we're going to experience this.



I had just enough AP the turn before to park Sharp right next to the door, giving him an easy out for this situation.



I hack the camera drone again, less because I want to keep it and check and more so Net Downlink has another chance to trigger.



CUZ THIS IS WHAT ITS LIKE WHEN WORLDS COLLIIIIIIIIIIIDE



No nanofab over here either, but we're narrowing down our choices pretty sharply.



Okay, y'know that TF2 image of the Spy with all the cigarettes in his mouth?

Imagine that, but with AA Batteries.

That's Sharp right now.



As for Banks, she found a nanofab. Not THE nanofab, but it sells things all the same.

I forgot to screenshot the stock in full, but it was mostly not worth mentioning. The augment was the Skeletal Suspension, which improves dragging speed pretty helpfully. But again, unless you're Sharp, why bother with an augment slot for that?

Also had a Thermal Disrupter I, which as it just so happens, only KOs guards for a single turn. WEAK.



Sup chief, keep on.



That basically tells us where the nanofab vestibule is, doesn't it?



Sharp doesn't like those guards converging nearby. The alert one was the one Dr. Xu threw in jail, remember?



WHEN IT'S TIME TO SHOP WE WILL SHOP HARD



Rather not trip that daemon without knowing it. Thankfully, Dr. Xu discovered the daemon database a ways back, so we can crack that sucker open and figure out the opposition.

KNOCK KNOCK IT'S THE FUTURE AND I GOT BAD NEWS FOR YOU



Here we go.

Portcullis weakens the impact of breaker programs, basically setting them all to 1 firewall break apiece. Most times this doesn't matter, but there are a few programs that really hate this one, Mercenary among them. We're shooting this one.



The stock here is... a little more underwhelming in a lot of departments than I'd have liked. But we'll still be spending a TON of dosh here.

First, augments. The only new one is the Kinesiology Brain Chip, one of four DLC chips. Basically, these automatically set the agent's stat to the maximum possible... in exchange for limiting that max to 3. This one affects Speed, which is almost considerable for Dr. Xu, except I already spend 600 creds on upgrading his speed normally. This would be a waste of 200 creds and an augment slot.

Weapons-wise, we got two new things and a few that aren't new. The Plasma Gun is the cheapest lethal weapon in the game, and the one Draco starts with, but it has no armor piercing on it. I wouldn't touch it under most circumstances, and certainly not when there's a Hand Cannon.

But the real thing I want here is the Drilling D.A.R.T.. The D.A.R.T. series of guns are basically nonlethal ranged options, which is great! And they tend to have pretty high armor piercing to boot, with the Drilling D.A.R.T. being no exception with 2 innate armor piercing. I'm totally buying this thing, it'll be a great way to keep my agents safe.

Gadgetry isn't a total lost cause, but the only thing that's really attractive is the Stim I. Stims increase agent AP when used, but tend to have a pretty sharp cooldown. Still, even the basic model gives 4 AP, which is plenty. Dr. Xu is the only agent with a speed stat that lets him use this, but he IS gonna use this.

The only thing here I haven't discussed either a version of or the actual thing is Cry Baby, a DLC item. Like the Flash Pack, you throw it and can then remotely activate it in the mainframe. Unlike the Flash Pack, doing so causes a noise, much like Ping, which can distract guards. Also unlike Flash Pack, the cooldown isn't a giant monster of "screw you". Neat, but I'll probably pass.



First, I'm installing this augment on Dr. Xu, cuz it's a good augment.

You don't need augment grafters to install, they just do it for free. Still, nanofab vestibules aren't too bad if you're trying to hunt down neat augments.



Then I buy the Drilling D.A.R.T. and the Stim I. I want to give Sharp the Skeletal Suspension, but I'll probably leave that to Banks.



Sharp is a little busy at the moment to go get it himself.



Now that we've found the vestibule and bought what we needed, she's going to have to act fast to get it there.



I'm not installing it on her, there's almost certainly a better option later down the road. Which means she'll have to carry it, which means she'll be encumbered again.



Right, doctor. You snuck through here once, you can do it again.



We'll wait here for his approach, then head for the door, easy peasy.



This somewhat complicates matters.



We need to move NOW if we're gonna get out of here without wasting ammo.



We're still a shadow in the corner for this guy, but we're close enough to homebase.



But I got a little bit cocky.



Banks, you head off first, you're carrying heavy and valuable things.



WHAT NO THERE'S NO PROFESSORS HERE CLASS IS OVER FOR THE DAY GO DO YOUR HOMEWORK



Dr. Xu slams the door in their faces, throws on a Shock Trap, and gets the hell out of there.



This didn't buy him MUCH time, but it bought him enough.



He gets in position to cover Banks' escape.



Take it, ya friggin' cybergoon.



Really need to get Sharp a Penetration Scanner and Predictive Brawling as his next augments though. Then he starts REALLY being a melee terror.



Reinforcements start pouring in now that we've basically told the entire facility we're here.



No concern of ours, though!



Don't worry, Central, these will be some VERY useful additions to our supply.



Two augments, two cool pieces of gear.

Nobody else has much new to say, so we're gonna go hit K&O's detention center next. At this point, we're more than ready for a new addition to the crew. But we're getting an early start on the next security level, so let's hope we're not biting off more than we can chew.

Next Time: Rototurret

The next mission we do is gonna take us to Day 3, which brings us up to security 3. So we may as well get a headstart on it and dive into a security 3 mission first.



We shan't waste a single digit.



Sharp says something here, having assumed the show is all about him. Dude we are headed to the detention center precisely because the show is NOT all about you.



Anyway if memory serves, this is the first mission we're doing at Kelfried and Odin, so we'll have to be cautious.



Yeah we are firing off Hunter at the daemon database, not even a question.



Also hack it with Mercenary, get a few parasites off, the usual.



Early on in missions, you need to have a hair trigger with your ambush stance. It's very easy for a guard to walk in from who the hell knows where and be like "this isn't the detention chambers!"



Looks like we're in the clear, though.



There's the telprot.



Banks decides to expedite the process of hacking the laser grid personally. (Spoilers: I basically never use the path it obscures.)



Oh, that's interesting.

Felix is a rare daemon in that it has a beneficial side effect. While Felix is active, all safes have double security, BUT they also grant an extra 10% credit yield. So it's not that great of a side effect, but if you have Dr. Xu, suddenly HIT ME IN THE FACE



More nanofabs, you say? Don't mind if I do!



INNA FAEC



8 firewalls is nothing to sneeze at, mind you, but who cares when we can literally ignore the whole of that?



And that netted us a whopping total of 474 credits from this safe.



Banks loiters around, humming nursery rhymes.



Sharp finds a kind of annoyingly blind room.



Dr. Xu, on the other hand, has found the actual opposition. Getting flashbacks to that first mission at Plastech.



Oh hey, a turret.

K&O's specialty is their automated turret defenses, which shoot to kill at any agents within range. They're basically always on overwatch. I have no idea what happens to an agent dumb enough to walk into the range of a live turret, because I've never been that kind of dumb. However, you'll note they don't have any dim red in their visual cone, much like cameras. So it can be easy to mix up the two.



There are two locations to hack the turret at: either the turret itself, or the adjacent power supply. The power supply just disables the turret (and can later re-enable it), while the turret will change its targeting to fire at guards instead of agents. A particularly cavalier or lucky player might set up a turret to keep guard spawns in check and cover their escape. This one's in a pretty poor position to do anything but serve as cover, however.



Likewise with this turret.

You CAN shoot the turrets if you have a lethal weapon, but are you REALLY gonna use ammo on those?



This turret is guarded by a Castle daemon. This is one of the daemons that raises firewalls. Castle chooses a single target to give 3 layers of firewall, so make sure all other priority targets are well and truly hacked before tripping Castle.



Lot of stuff over here. Almost considered another Drilling D.A.R.T. for the new agent.

The Cloaking Rig III is miles away from the paltry Mk I from earlier. It lasts for a full two turns, provided the agent doesn't attack. D'you have ANY IDEA what you could accomplish with two turns without anything being able to see you? If Dr. Xu's speed was two points higher, he could use this, but that's a LOT of investment that only pays off later down the road.

The Buster Chip IV is, like all Mk IV items, exclusive to the DLC and only a once-per-mission item unless reloaded with a Charge Pack. It requires one point of Anarchy more than Banks has, but it breaks through 8 firewalls in one shot. Yeah we could've taken that safe legit if we had one of these!



Dr. Xu has to plot his path very carefully to get past here and into the next room while avoiding notice.



Sharp, not so much.

In the end, I decide that having Dr. Xu backtrack all the way over here wouldn't be worth it, and simply have Incognita open the safe for Sharp. Plus...



This gives Dr. Xu enough leeway to get into the next room! The cells themselves should be just up ahead.



This complicates matters.

Spec Ops are unique to K&O facilities, and are equipped with special goggles that provide a massive 180 degree range of vision. This lets them threaten a huge amount of space, whether patrolling or stationary. Ranged weapons are almost a necessity to take them down.



So it's a good thing Dr. Xu has one, otherwise he'd be certainly caught once the other guard comes back in! Even if the Spec Ops doesn't see him now, the earlier guard would easily spot him.



Rogue comes up empty for safes, which isn't surprising. Now all we need to do is get Dr. Xu into the detention chambers alive.



Can't drag the spec ops into a good hiding spot, so we're going to use them to make sure the guard's looking exactly the wrong way when he enters.



Why not use the Shock Trap? Because if I did, he'd drop down in plain sight of the other patrolling guard. If I'm getting a body discovered, I'm minimizing the amount of trouble it causes.



Works as planned. Other guard runs in, looks around for the intruder but misses him completely.



Due to recent events, I'm having Sharp go back to the nanofab.



GIMME YOUR LUNCH MONEY, JOCK



We'll need this Charge Pack. Dr. Xu has only one shot left, and if he's out when that Spec Ops wakes up, we're in bad shape.



Thankfully, Banks makes it to the scene, Paralyzer in tow, and we're out of danger for now.



THIS IS LEVEL 3 SECURITY'S POWER

Yes, they have the obligatory captain, plus a pulse drone and Spec Ops watching Nika very carefully.

Which means we're totally picking up a Volt Disrupter as soon as we can.



Banks keeps the reinforcements at bay.



I'm not risking anything more than I have to. Dr. Xu readies his EMPunch against the pulse drone...



And it dies. The PWR cell is intact, but that drone is now out of the picture for good.

Fun fact: you can't drag drones around the way you can guard bodies! So even if I cared to, I couldn't hide this drone anywhere more convenient.



Who's this loser? Ignoring him.



So, we're gonna bait this guy over, Shock Trap the door, and then we have no choice but to use Dr. Xu's last shot to take out the Spec Ops.



Now that I notice, the Spec Ops doesn't seem to have dull red except at the very far edges of their vision. Could be an unexpected source of danger if you go in thinking they're a camera in tight quarters.



Tripping this for two reasons. First, I'm trying to get a daemon reversal, because I already hacked everything else and don't care about Castle. The second is because NET DOWNLINK IS REALLY GOOD YOU GUYS.



Oh no that disabled turret is more dangerous than ever before.



With nothing else to spend our remaining PWR on, Sharp begins tagging guards with abandon.



Dr. Xu takes his shot...



And Nika joins the team proper!



Like Dr. Xu, Nika begins play with no extra stats. But honestly, her augment, the Adrenal Regulator, is one of the best in the game. Whenever she attacks anything with anything, she gets 3 AP (this DOES STACK with Predictive Brawling, but that only works in melee). What's more, she gets a second attack action a turn! This requires specific weapons to be effective (all our current Disrupters have a cooldown), but even with a single one of these, she's a force of nature worthy of respect. We're gonna try getting her a Volt Disrupter as soon as we can.

But everybody has to start small.



Despite the high guard concentration, we're making good time on this mission!



Sharp makes it to Dr. Xu with his Charge Pack...



And he immediately reloads his D.A.R.T. with it. That's two more instances of hide-saving.



Now, the escape route. The fastest way to the telprot is through the security door, so Banks will want to go first. But that original guard is still patrolling freely, and there's nowhere good for her to get to the door from here.



I'm going to try to use the minimal cover of the lamppost to sneak closer. I could also have her loop around the long way, but I'd rather not chance encountering the new guard.



For some reason, this doesn't work. I mean, flavor-wise, it makes total sense, but I would've thought the lamppost would actually provide cover!

Thankfully, there IS a way to determine this in the UI which I may have missed. You've noticed that rectangular prism that pops up whenever I mouse over a tile? Each face of the prism, if moving there provides cover, will have a little eyeball/shield icon.



Guess we're using that reload sooner than expected.



Now that we've no need for stealth, Banks can sprint over to the guard, Paralyzer him, and steal his money, while still having enough AP to reach the door.



Tide's coming back in. We need to wrap this up.



NYOOOOOOM



Dr. Xu pulls out the stim, and we make it to the end, no problem.



We'll do that, sure.



So, this is the first mission where we've taken a Cleanup Cost. Basically, every guard you kill, whether meaty or machiney, costs Invisible, Inc. some money. It's not so large a cost that you can't afford to do it, and I think it mostly affects your Net Worth (score) anyway. But killing isn't easy even with a penalty, so don't sweat it if you have to do it.



I start off by giving Nika the same stat array as Dr. Xu, which just so happens to make her the overall fastest character at 9 AP. This should also make her generally useful in the field even without gear.



DAWN OF THE FINAL DAY

24 HOURS REMAIN



Eventually, we'll be able to trace down this network for Incognita. Sure hope so, anyway.



We've got a couple of choices to go with here, although I'm most likely going either for the new Plastech Cybernetics Lab or their Nanofab Vestibule.

A new mission type popped up over in FTM territory, the Security Dispatch. These missions contain a high security locker holding a piece of valuable gear. Most of the time we'd have to buy it from the nanofab, but the item in the Security Dispatch is completely free. It's great if you don't have money but need gear. Worst case scenario, you can't use the item, so you sell it for a fortune.

Next Time: Janus 1.0

We've done this before and don't have nearly as many credits to spend, but we're not going too fancy. Just some kit for Nika to get her up and running, really.



Incognita becomes more and more helpful by the day, it seems.



Unfortunately, a few of the single-person quotes are pretty dull.



Nika needs SOME kind of weapon, and a half-empty Drilling D.A.R.T. is better than nothing.



Helpful.



Okay, that's nice and unintimidating. We can go with an early Rogue, then.



Hope you brought your hiking gear, doc.



Sharp leverages the Net Downlink boost to move up and scout even further...



While Banks puts her buster chip to work.



Nothing new here. Wave to Abacus, kids!



Keep it moving, crew. Faster we get through without being noticed, the better.



Okay, that's a thing. If we can confirm it as a one-off room I'm totally trapping it.



No dice, but plenty of cards.



You guys SURE we hit a security level 3 facility?



I kid you not, we found the objective and exit before we encountered a single guard. We could probably clear the mission before alarm level 1.



But leaving all those riches to go to waste? UNTHINKABLE.



If I was smart I'd probably cut my losses and call it good, but I'm WILD ABOUT CREDS



Come on Nika, you need a good Volt Disruptor.



Excuse you? What is this garbage?

So first: yes, that is a Volt Disruptor IV. Remember earlier how I said Mk IV gear was once a mission? This totally defeats the purpose of having a Volt Disruptor at all unless you're vomiting Charge Packs. Plus, 5 PWR a swing is way more than I want to pay for. Unfortunately, most Volt Disruptors aren't much better. The one Nika begins the game with is best, at only 2 PWR per swing, whereas a normal Volt Disruptor I costs 3.

There's also a Thermal Disrupter IV, which is actually considerable for the sheer armor-piercing (5, I think) and the efficiency with which it spends PWR to do so. I'm at the very least grabbing a Neural Disrupter II for her, but I think the rest of our spending here is gonna be cool augments.

The Hologram Projector is tempting, though. It's basically the cardboard box of the game. Throw it, and it creates an illusory bit of cover for agents to hide behind. It's extremely efficient and recharges quickly, but the generator is a fair bit noisy, and any guard that gets close will investigate.

I think I've covered the other gadgets to a degree. New augments: the Cryptology Brain Chip is the Hacking version of the Kinesiology one. Auto-sets Hacking to a max of 3, which is pretty dang good for non-hackers if they don't have a better augment to take.



But I'm more interested in the Reactive Moyomers, which are the reverse of the Gel Injectors, and what I'm giving Nika. Her maximum AP gets decreased by 2, but this goes up by 1 per alarm level, which means that while Dr. Xu and Sharp will be doing the bulk of the scouting, she'll be the one saving everyone's bacon with extreme levels of speed later on, ESPECIALLY with her existing AP boost on attacking.



I also grab Predictive Brawling for Sharp. Could give it to Nika, but I came up with a plan for her, one that doesn't involve punching. Madness, you might say!



I'll explain, of course, in due time. Note the complete lack of threat from the rebooted devices.



Sharp is now one augment away from completing his list and getting another +1 KO.



Nice -2 AP you got there Nika. (No, there's no guards in this room either.)



You aren't gonna make this easy, are you.

Thankfully, the guard's only watching the door through the corner of his eye. If I was SMART, I'd have Dr. Xu run down the lane to lead his interest as far as possible, then ambush him. Spoilers: I did not do this.



So, here's my brilliant plan.

Nika can attack twice a turn, which is great if your weapon supports this! The problem is that outside of her starting weapon, very few do, and those that do are extremely PWR-hungry.

The T.A.G. Pistol, despite being something you probably wouldn't give to a fighting maniac like her, totally fits within this set! This lets her do a kind of support-scouting job, tagging guards as she passes them for a boost in the way Dr. Xu or Sharp might get a boost out of Net Downlink.



Because I am not smart, I went for the door-trap. Not only does this KO the guard close enough to other enemies to get their attention...



But I got the attention of Elite Security, whose armor renders them completely safe against Dr. Xu's current weaponry.



So I basically have to get the body to a safe spot before they turn around and catch wind of what we did. Not my finest moment.



Still beats THIS incoherent mess of a safehouse.



My backup plan works out, and the heavy-armored fella plans to go away, buying me time to deal with the other two stationary guys there.

Yes, that's four enemies within 4 squares of each other. Screw you too, Plastech. You haven't even pulled out your signature guard type, you're just being a dick in a BORING way.



This is what people meant by the problem of having four agents at once. Everyone contributes something, yes, and I want everyone up there to keep the team safe, but I'm also taking up a lot of space, and you can't walk through friendlies like in Fire Emblem.



I CAN take this guy down, Sharp and Nika both have melee weapons capable of it, but it's still a good idea to rob them blind first.



Again: if I was SMART, I could park the drone in the infrared beam up ahead, leave these two guards alone, and loot the hell out of those safes with barely any opposition. Note the door past the beam, and recall that enemies standing (or laying) in a beam's path deactivate it.



I am not smart. I am going to knock this guy out and be proud of myself for my bad decision.



More elite security, because Plastech knows I'm running an LP and are holding back on their cooler guards just to insult you and everyone else. It's not even to their benefit that much.



Still want to get another chance for a halfway decent Volt Disrupter, so I'm hitting this thing.



Nika as T.A.G. Master confirmed.



Confirmed as HELL.



Now, you might say "Kalir, don't be hard on yourself. Hindsight is 20/20, and while you did have safer options, those would've required paying a great deal of attention when you likely had other priorities to worry about!"



Nope, I really am being that dumb. So, I tag this drone and hack it...



And then move it out of the lasers, hitting Nika with the alarm level raising outright. This is by far the least damning result, but that was still really stupid of me. For my idiocy, I am rewarded with the location of the power supply.



Bah, cameras in the safe room, of course.



Overwatch doesn't blow your cover, but if you're in ambush/overwatch and a guard gets you in overwatch without getting attacked, and you attack a second guard, you get shot during their turn. This isn't very common, but it can happen. Happened to me once.



Alarm level 2 is here to remind us that Mercenary has, at this point, become a prohibitively expensive tool even with the reset in its cost.



I use Rogue first, partly to make sure I didn't overlook anything, and partly because Parasite having a cost of 0 isn't out of the ordinary at all.



That's all the terminals I care for hijacking.



Even without a Volt Disrupter, Nika is more than happy to punk a dude in heavy armor.



With 3 parasite breaks in the next turn, Dr. Xu and Sharp get +6 AP before their turns start proper. Which is very nice.

WHERE THE HELL WAS THIS FOR THE LAST TWO DAYS

So, the Portable Server III. Portable Servers are Hacking-specific gear that has to be deployed in a location. Once deployed, they provide a steady gain of PWR. This model is insanely powerful, generating 2 PWR a turn. And Sharp's only one Hacking point away from being able to use it! But there's a catch: any guards that discover the server will disrupt the connection, ending your PWR gain. And if you deploy it in a far-off corner of the level, you can't guarantee you'll be able to recover it by the time the mission ends. So the general rule for deploying them is to find the exit, find a good out-of-the-way space next to there, and set up shop.

I think I want this badly enough to spend the dosh from literally every safe in the next room on it. And that's taking into account that Sharp can't even use it yet.



Move quick, guys! There's a LOT of unconscious guards gonna wake up soon.



There's one daemon guarding the safes. Jolt recovers a point of KO damage for every non-pinned guard on the level, which is harmless in some situations but an excellent way for us to die here.

Guarding the power supply, on the other hand, is Modulate. This one increases the PWR cost of all programs we use by 2 for a few turns, which is pretty painful for most people. For us, it's not too bad, since we've got other uses for PWR and our programs aren't so essential to non-hacking progress. Someone running Wisp or Ping with regularity would find Modulate extremely painful.



Still need quite a few creds to buy that Portable Server, but I'm not leaving the level without it.



The hazards of ally-blocked movement. Banks can't spend any more AP to move, so he has to take the long way around to pin the guard.



HURRY UP AND CRACK THOSE SAFES.



I decide to go ham and just Mercenary the damn thing open to speed things up. We won't need most of that PWR anyway.



Banks also chips in with her Buster Chip.



Unfortunately, rather than money which is awesome and cool, the last safe contains a lame and boring Med Gel.



The camera drone is back and mad as hell, so we parasite it to ensure it doesn't cause huge problems.



More hilarious shenanigans. Look at all that AP Sharp has! Look at how little Banks has! Look at how annoying this is for everyone!



More in hindsight theatre: I could've sold the med gel to pay for the last bit for the Portable Server, rather than giving up my hard-earned Drilling D.A.R.T. that would probably be way more useful in future scenarios.



But I didn't. So this. Now we just need to have everyone head out as quickly as they can.



Hell, Nika can leave right now. Just bop this guy on the nose and speed off merrily.



And so she does.



The main reason I might do a thing like this is to ensure that if I flagrantly fail the mission and everyone gets caught, I can keep things going. Granted, having one underequipped fresh agent rather than a team of four this late in the game is, uh... pretty bad. But it's good to know.



I excuse Nika from class early, leaving the other three plenty of time to get there before the telprot recharges.



The drone discovers the downed elite. I politely ask it to pin him where he lays.



Sharp liked that trick Nika did so much that he's going to do it again on his next turn.



WELCOME TO USELESSTOWN, ENJOY YOUR STAY



Banks and Dr. Xu can just move in normally, while Sharp can use the boost from Predictive Brawling to speed in effortlessly himself.



Sure hope I can actually use that server to good effect. That thing cost me a lot. But hey, even outside of that, we got some rad augments.



My poor, poor wallet.



Even if I sell the med gel Dr. Xu is carting around, it's still not enough for Sharp to use the Portable Server yet.



Not for lack of trying, though.

So, more choices. We can reach as far as the Sankaku mission and still have time to do a second mission. I want to wrap up with the FTM Security Dispatch mission, to see if I can replace the Drilling D.A.R.T. we lost, but in the meantime we have a few choices. The Plastech Cybernetics Lab and the Sankaku Executive Terminals are both pretty tasty things to try for, and neither one takes so much time that we'll be S.O.L. for reaching the security dispatch before our time runs out.

I leave it open to you.

Next Time: Mr. Li