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

I think she's passive-aggressively saying "Get me some food soon, meatbags."

I don't know. Is she as good as Jamie Jaren?

Cybernetics Lab, I say.

This sounds like a good plan. We need one more aug to get Sharp fully kitted out, right?

Man FUCK Sharp.

Go wherever it is we're more likely to find what we need to make Nika the terrifying living implement of death and destruction she was always meant to be.

We are just number one buddies with Plastech, aren't we? Maybe we'll actually see their signature guard type for once in our lives, that'd be nice.



Central and Incognita are still saying things, but it's things we've heard before. This should be a fairly routine mission.



We've seen so little of these characters, and already we know their personalities quite well, don't you think?



This is a common trend, apparently.



So is this. No way around it but to beat the hell out of the guy.



Between Banks ambushing him, then her Paralyzer, then the Shock Trap I'm throwing on the door, this guy is going to do literally nothing the whole game. No mainframe devices nearby for him to bolster, either.



You lose, good say sir, et cetera.



And just for that extra screw you, Nika tags him on the way out. Plus, hey, free AP.



Should also help a bit to keep the eventual reinforcements in check if they swing in from there.



Banks starts unlocking doors left and right for the crew.



And to literally nobody's surprise, the safes are way the hell off there.



Not touching that with anyone but Sharp.



Bah, that Siren kept us holed up for too long. Not as long as they'll be holed up though.



If Sharp had that one extra point of Hacking, he'd start looking for decent places to set up the portable server right about now. His current room is okay, but the guard elevator makes it risky.



That was quick.

So while I want to get Sharp his final augment and that extra KO point, I also want to make sure we don't neglect our other agents. Banks hasn't gotten an augment yet the whole game, and I have zero problems with giving Nika or Dr. Xu extra augment space so they can rock even harder.



Yaaaaaay this console isn't useless.



I'm starting to wonder if level generation took a field day for this campaign. Super easy main objectives with a side of high security actual safes, almost constantly.



I mean yeah, Elite Security in the augment grafter room, but he's literally facing the wall and Nika just tagged him.



Meanwhile Dr. Xu's got two cameras, a camera drone, and a guard to deal with, to say nothing of the security on all those safes he'll need to punch.



Our buddy from earlier is back on his feet and walking the wrong way, so that's nice.



The extra room next to the augment grafters has nothing but a single guard in it. I have Nika run to a safe spot from which she can tag him with impunity.



Banks then runs up next to him to steal his stuff.



Unfortunately, I close the door behind him, because if I don't do that now I'll have to leave it open or risk getting his attention again, and his sightlines could prove troublesome.

TURNS OUT, this gets his attention anyway. So I scrap the whole dang plan and just knock him out.



The game noticed I liked Net Downlink so much, so it's offering that at the augment grafter. That's nice and all, but I think I'd rather not give that to literally every agent I have. It's juuuust a tad homogenous, y'know?



Unfortunately, one of the few daemons in the level is guarding the nanofab here, so I'll have to deal with it somehow. Rubiks is the alternative to Castle: instead of raising one object's firewalls by a lot, it raises everything's firewalls by 1. Nine times out of ten, Rubiks is more dangerous than Castle. However, Castle is more dangerous later on if you haven't yet found everything critical you need to hack.

Siren's gonna hit the trap, and we've already confirmed a complete lack of mainframe devices to bolster. Plastech is really bringing their C-game this campaign.



This grafter had a Paradox daemon, but I shot it, leaving Banks free to Buster Chip it.



So at first glance, this seems a bit of a bust. Sharp already has both of these augments and they can't stack, so his final slot remains unused.

But if you're a true hero, you can already see what my plan is here.



Banks takes the elite's money and leaves his passcard. He'll probably just idly wonder where he left his wallet. Concerned, sure, he'll post a request at lost-and-found. But at the end of the day, he'll shrug and bear it. He'll make that money up. Just has to go another week or so without that thoughtful gift he was gonna give his niece.



Anyway, my plan is this. First, I have the augment grafter operate on Nika, which KOs her for two turns and reboots several mainframe devices.



They choose to activate every camera around Dr. Xu except the one that matters.



Starting to burn a lot of the PWR we have left here...



Well, I can do some shenanigans. As it just so happens, the path here offers a pretty decent selection of blind spots for Dr. Xu to walk through.



With the boost from Net Downlink, I can get to a safe spot well ahead of the pack, giving me a chance to safely observe if anyone else is in this region.



I mean yeah the camera drone can do it too I guess.



While that happens, Nika finally recovers and installs Predictive Brawling. This is almost as good as a Volt Disrupter. It doesn't matter so much that she lacks a good way to leverage her multiple attacks, because now any time she punches someone, she gets a whopping 9 AP for her trouble. That's more than most characters start their TURNS with.



Right, okay, just more safes. And we FINALLY took down all the security save for that one guard.



No time like the present.



Nika's gonna watch over the exit to this room and ensure the telprot remains safe. At the moment, her Neural Disrupter is strong enough to take down anything Plastech can field.



I could've had Banks do this, but meh, effort.



Sharp keeps the drone down so it can't reboot at the least opportune moment. It's not really a danger, though. Yeah it could increase the alarm level, but the nearest guard who could do anything about that is miles away, and would run into Nika first.

Also WHAT THE HELL WHY DOES THAT CONSOLE PROVIDE 7 PWR NO WONDER WE WERE HAVING STARVATION ISSUES



The guard from earlier woke up, too. No doubt they're going to snitch about their pal slacking off to their bosses later.



AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA



Not, y'know, that we NEED that much PWR. If Mercenary's costs are high enough that that's how much we need, we're either desperate or showboating.



I was gonna bring in Banks to assist, but between Parasite and Dr. Xu we're basically set here, so she can get a headstart on going back.



The reinforcements arrive and matter precisely not at all.



Huh. Y'know what, sure, we'll take a Buster Chip. That's low enough in level we can upgrade somebody's Anarchy score to wield it no problem. And like I said earlier, Anarchy 2 is a good number for basically everybody to have.



I lock the drone in. While drones can't be KO'd by Neural Disrupters, Shock Traps work just fine. And just like EMPs, this will be lethal to the camera drone.

The nanofab's only thing of value is a Hand Cannon, which I seriously consider for Nika for emergencies, but eventually decline. Partly because I'm gonna need to upgrade Sharp's Hacking and a few other stats after this mission, and partly because we're hitting a security dispatch next, so we're getting free gear anyway.



Banks took Nika's shift while she was at the nanofab.



I end up hacking the drone anyway, but more for the AP boost from Net Downlink than to actually keep it at bay.

Think fast, Banks.



I have everyone else start in for the exit in positions that maintain cover.



SHOULD'VE ASKED YOUR BUDDY TO STOP TEXTING HIS SISTER ABOUT HER DAUGHTER



Can't run everyone into the telprot immediately, unfortunately. But I can confirm that there is literally no threat to the team for the rest of the mission.



Banks and Sharp get in first, Dr. Xu holds the guy down...



And next turn they pile in and take off.



Straightforward and honestly kind of boring.

Okay, screw it. I'm just gonna spoil it. Plastech's iconic guard, WHICH HAS NOT SHOWN UP DESPITE US HITTING ALMOST NOTHING BUT PLASTECH FOR THE WHOLE GAME, is the infamous Modded Mk I.

Modded guards have two abilities that make them a severe threat as long as they live. The first is that they'll passively recapture mainframe devices as they patrol, same as a reboot would, picking one device within 6 squares. They tend to prioritize cameras, which is reason enough to eliminate them.

But the fun doesn't stop there. Should you KO one, rather than just going to sleep like any other guard, his consciousness enters the mainframe as a daemon, possessing a random device. Trip that daemon, and if the guard is still out, they pick a new device. This goes away if the guard revives. Plastech facilities are normally VERY DANGEROUS for Parasite users, since one unfortunately timed Modded can send a slew of daemons your way.

Ah, but what if you were to use Hunter on the daemon generated? As it just so happens, that not only kills the daemon, but the Modded guard as well! Which, in turn, triggers their Heart Monitor. This means that for our group in particular, killing Modded is uniquely easy compared to any other non-camera-drone guard in the game. Whether this is worth the alarm level compared to the mainframe hassle depends heavily on your team. In our case, I'd totally take it. 1 PWR and a few alarm levels is way easier to deal with than constantly reviving devices and a storm of daemons.



Angry spoiler tangent over. Sharp gains Hacking 4, letting him use the Portable Server and HOPEFULLY putting an end to our PWR problems.



Nika gets Anarchy 2, which lets her use the Buster Chip Dr. Xu found.



And Banks reaches Anarchy 4, not so much because she has something she needs to use, but because we MIGHT find something, and hey, no real reason not to.



So, curiosity. For the vanilla game outside of cutscenes where they appear in person, Central and Monst3r both have radio-style filters for their voice acting (save for when Central is in this screen, since you're sharing the jet with her, presumably). The Contingency Plan DLC has an odd habit of forgetting to do this quite a few times, so you hear them at their normal voices. This is mostly jarring for Monst3r, since he so rarely shows up in person, and his audio distortion is heavier.



But that's not important. And oddly enough, neither is the fact that we have exactly 1 hour before Incognita is supposed to kick the bucket. We effectively have one more mission, and time no longer factors in, before we're dropped into what would ordinarily be the final mission. But since we left the Contingency Plan DLC on, we'll be doing extended endgame, so we'll have a bit of a twist on the usual plan.

In short: ignore everything I said above, because for now it's business as usual. Next up, we're heading back to FTM territory for the Security Dispatch.

Next Time: Successful Demonstration

"Expect hardened resistance" doesn't mean a damn thing. We're gonna break into their lockers, take their stuff, maybe take a few incriminating photos, and they'll... well, they'll probably do better than Plastech's been doing. Bleh.

And I only just noticed it after uploading screenshots, but we've now done an equal amount of missions in FTM and Plastech territory! Wacky.



Final mission. After this, we NEED a way to keep Incognita running.



At least she's in good spirits.



I'm not sure what Dr. Xu is looking for in particular, but in the corners of the lore they set up, he's basically one of the most dangerous individuals to give an Internet connection to. "Information security", for him, is just two words that point to where the interesting bits are.



Anydangfreakinway, we're not gonna have to spam Rogue all mission, guys!



Still, y'know, doing it. But we don't HAVE to.

Also, we get started on hacking the non-safes in the area. Between Dr. Xu, Banks, and the new Buster Chip I bought for Nika but completely forgot to use, we're doing juuuust fine.



Well, except for the three guards in exciting different flavors.



Plus a friendly reminder that hey, we're in FTM territory, get on that scanning amp already.

Support guards... I'm not totally sure if they're FTM exclusive, but I can only recall finding them here. In any event, they rely on flash grenades to force agents out of areas they could be hiding in. They're pretty good at throwing them in areas to clear out lots of agents at once, and while you do have one turn to not get grenaded, that often means booking it THROUGH their line of sight. Still, these guys are only a major threat if you let them see you.



Nika gets right to work with her tagging.



The one guard she doesn't tag, she keeps a close eye on. Their patrol routes all basically overlap, meaning that we have little choice but to plow through them. Vexing, but doable.



We can afford to take our time, since they're not overlooking anything critical.



Banks is probably gonna do something about that secondary server just to check out the wares. Not that I need new programs, but this is an LP. I need to showcase things. You understand.



So she cracks the security right open.



And here's a program I very seriously considered ditching Hunter or Rogue for.

Oracle is similar to Rogue in that it reveals a random camera on the floor. Unlike Rogue, it doesn't just reveal it, it breaks all firewalls on it and gives it to you. This isn't a temporary thing either: unless the mainframe reboots it, you keep that camera. Needless to say, this effect is very strong, but it shines most in FTM facilities, where finding the scanning amp early is critical. That said... though it IS nice, Rogue is too essential to our team's playstyle, and I've grown used to never having to deal with daemons.



Rogue reassures me in the validity of my choice by revealing the objective. Turns out the secure locker there is exactly where the kit we're looking for is hidden! Go us.

It's not a complete walk in the park, though. The locker is guarded by quite a few security measures. It's always locked by a door requiring a passcard, which means you'll either need to lift one off of a guard (hope you got an Anarchy specialist) or have Banks do it. And on top of that, it has a laser grid in front of the door to boot, so you'll want to find the power supply and cut that as soon as you can.



Meanwhile, this nanofab is... wait a second...

That's a Volt Disrupter I. SOLD.

In fact that's so dang exciting and so immediately bought that I totally forget about the Shock Trap III in stock, which is very much worth consideration alongside the Volt Disrupter. See, most Shock Traps only affect the door itself when opened, and there's rumors/evidence that your own agents can get caught in the backlash. Shock Trap III solves both of these problems. Sure, it has a PWR cost to deploy, but when it triggers, it KOs guards within a 5 tile range of the door. This is INSANE. Remember the Flash Pack from earlier and how the 12 turn cooldown basically made it worthless? Shock Trap III is that except GOOD.



The good news about the Frogger guards is that thanks to the cubbyhole-riddled design of the room, Dr. Xu can abuse the hell out of cover along the southern (?) wall. Also hey there telprot. We'll need to find a place to set up the Portable Server around here.

OH RIGHT, CUBBYHOLE-RIDDLED DESIGN.



Nika prepares to tag the third guard as he leaves the room, while at the same time hiding herself away from prying eyes.



Ding!



Sharp finally gets to take that 6 PWR he wanted badly enough to wait on a Parasite for several turns. Eh, not like he's needed elsewhere right now.



Time to start slam jammin'.



And with the windfall of AP we get as a result, we can bodycheck that guy clean into the next room behind cover, no problem.



Only a console in the next room, and once Sharp gets that server set up, we won't need it. Probably.



Meanwhile Banks is going to steal from everyone... but there's a catch. If we just rob from them both right now and call it there, then she'll be seen by the elite guard, and neither her nor Dr. Xu has a good way to fight them off. Sharp can, but he's off wasting time somewhere else, and Nika is in the complete wrong spot to help.



So first, we steal from the support guard.

Then we knock him out and paralyze him, and have Dr. Xu drag him by the nanofab. This way, Banks can snatch his wallet and everyone can make a clean getaway before he knows what's up.



And we shouldn't have to trawl the whole level for safes, either!



But unlike all those Plastech missions, FTM is actually doing work here, and their scanner tells everyone "HEY FREE DOC HERE GET HIM WHILE HE'S HOT".

Okay, not EVERYONE, but the elite security.



And Nika's Volt Disrupter doesn't have the kick we need to get past his armor. She's gonna need some means of armor-piercing for that thing soon.



Sharp has to handle him for us, most likely delivering some kind of jackass one-liner about our inferiority, earning him a murderous look from Nika, a sarcastic eye-roll from Dr. Xu, and a complete lack of Banks' attention.



Anyway, hunting down consoles sucks. Let's play with some real PWR.



Since Nika's in front of the door holding two of the guards and has 0 AP, Dr. Xu has to pass her his Shock Trap. It requires no skill investment, so she can operate it just as well as he can. Take note of that: not every bit of starting gear is so lenient.



Some characters that start with gear and a stat boost tend to require a matching stat investment. Decker's Cloaking Rig, for example.



Anyway, I think we're in pretty good shape now.



Dr. Xu wants that tasty, tasty safe up there, but we're juuuust shy of the AP needed to reach it.



The obvious solution takes me a while to remember, during which I have Banks steal even more stuff.



And since Nika isn't around to tag the guy, I just go for the plebeian method of spending an AP to observe.



Right, here we go. Nothing new or threatening as far as daemons go, but AP is AP.



Don't like leaving an agent out of cover, but he's got some nearby enough.



YEP WE'RE HACKING THAT



Aw, I wanted to tag that guard too. Sorrow abounds.



Much better.



The Frogger brigade is getting back up, though. Gotta move quickly!



Here's the vault door. The power supply to that laser grid was in the room we threw all the guards, so that's been done for a while. All we need is Banks to open the door and to break into the locker and we can go!



One thing I've noticed about security dispatch vault layouts is that they almost always have one or two empty rooms nearby for agents to hide out in. Which is pretty nice.



Oooh, that's painful.



Nika, you'll have to make sure things down here don't get out of hand. You can do it!



At this point I would like to draw your attention to Mercenary's PWR cost. It's at a whopping 12 right now, and we're STILL able to swing it around. That Portable Server is doing WORK.



Unfortunately, we're eating an alarm level and another scan regardless of what we do, so I'll give the enemy one more turn where that's not the case.



Sharp can stand by for the prize in the box.

I'm guessing since it can be scanned as a safe with Rogue, you could totally use an EMP to bust it open. In fact, if you have a non-Xu EMP pack, you could do double, hitting the laser grid and the locker with one pack and cutting your exploration time down sharply.



Parasite can go on for now. I'm not afraid of Jolt triggering, we've already got loads of guards waking up soon, and if we really need it, Hunter's going to be ready soon.



Unsurprisingly, the scanning amp reads Dr. Xu again.

Which makes me wonder: does it always detect the closest agent? I know you can detect it via the sound it makes, similar to secondary servers and their SICK BEATS, but if I'm right, both times Dr. Xu was closest to the scanning amp. Should take notes on that in the future and see if that holds true.



Anyway, we don't have the time for fine guessing. Nika starts keeping the guards in check.

Also, the tooltip is covering it a bit, but see that white arcing line? That indicates where the guard would be throwing their grenade. They have an unlimited supply, but they don't throw them every turn. Course, he won't be throwing anything for a while.



With that dealt with, Dr. Xu can solo the new friend no problem.



Excuse me sir, have you seen a terminal on this floor?



Nika's a little pinned down at the moment, and everyone's pretty far off. If either guard decides to look in her position, we're going to have to drag her to the elevator. It's not far off, but it'll SUUUUCK.



Gimme the bits! The BITS, the BITS, the BITS!



Sharp finally gets into the locker, and...



...oh me oh my I did not expect this.

So aside from the sicknasty creds, we also got the Flurry Gun. This is the only lethal weapon in the game that DOESN'T need ammo, which is already a great start, and the 2 levels of armor piercing are even better. It has a few drawbacks, of course. It costs 4 PWR to start firing, and once you end the turn you activated it in, it disables for the rest of the mission to avoid a nuclear meltdown (warfare escalation, yo).

The devil is in the details, though. For that one turn it's active, it can be fired any number of times. This sounds great on paper: even with the alarm level skyrocketing as you kill guards en masse, that could save all kinds of pig meat types. But at this point I must remind you that most agents, unfortunately, only get one attack a turn. Using the Flurry Gun for most teams usually involves awkwardly passing it between agents, or just taking your one attack and being happy because it's on the agent with the Anatomy Analysis augment.

Except Nika.

Nika can attack twice a turn. With this thing, she gets two long-range kills a mission, for only 4 PWR. She's keeping her T.A.G. Pistol for day-to-day use, but this just made her our emergency rescue agent.



If only she had it on hand right now. That would be great.

And that's STILL not maximum cheese with that thing. Maximum cheese requires another, DLC-exclusive item to pair with it. And if I'm really lucky, we'll even get to see it.



Thankfully, Sharp alerting the guard with his theft means he totally missed both Nika and the Portable Server.



He's still on his way and that sucks, yes, but turning his back on Nika was our beautiful, beautiful opening.



She throws on her fancy new Volt Disrupter for starters...



And with that KO, everyone else is safe and she has enough AP to get into position...



To switch to the Neural Disrupter, which has enough punch to bring down even the elite security guard.



Be sure to pick up your luggage at the carousel, and thank you for flying Invisible, Inc.



Again, camera drone is not a threat at all and I just want free AP.



CALLING IT "FLIGHT" OF THE VALKYRIES IMPLIES GRACE AND DISTANCE. THIS IS THE FLYING ELBOW OFF THE TURNBUCKLE OF THE VALKYRIES.



And Nika can be first back into the telprot even after running back and forth across a medium-sized room fighting guards.



Good work, team.



We finished before alarm level 2 and cleared all objectives. You've done me proud as hell.



Neither would I, Central.



Yeah we alerted literally everybody there, but that just happens sometimes with FTM, grin and bear it.



Dr. Xu doesn't have enough stats to match everyone yet, so I give him a slight speed boost.

Monst3r totally missed our mission report and offers to sell us a Cooker. Comparable to the Hand Cannon, but what it lacks in ammo capacity it makes up for with its point of armor piercing. I'd probably use this as my main lethal weapon given a choice and a vacuum for agent capabilities.



All of Nika's cool weapons are taking up too much space, so I leave the Buster Chip in storage for now. Truth be told, I didn't even think to use it.



You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?



So despite the SecNet response, we still haven't pinpointed the hub of their traffic, which would ordinarily mean game over, ocean end. But Monst3r's got an ace up his sleeve: not a permanent solution, but enough to buy us a bit more time, which is really all we need. This also throws his lot in pretty clearly with us, despite him most likely getting a better payout and survival odds if he just lets us die.



So yay, new plan! In the heart of Russia, we'll hit the K&O Research Facility and see what they can do for Incognita.

Buckle in, kids, this ride's gonna be a long and bumpy one.

Next Time: Ghost Branch

"Zero hours remaining" is a funny thing in Invisible, Inc.

So this is a new thing. And we haven't had much experience with K&O, so we'll be off our home turf for the moment. Not a huge problem, they're straightforward enough, but still could pose a risk.



Hang on for a little longer, Incognita.



The squad beams in like they usually do, and...



We're joined by our merchant pal in short order!



So this is kind of a checkpoint for the reservoir R&D then? Okay, fair enough. Let's steal away!



Oh, and since this is effectively extended endgame now, we're in a slightly different scenario. They still have looting like crazy as a secondary objective rather than standard, but so it goes.



Monst3r joining us isn't just for show, mind you. Even though he enters play the same as if he'd been selected right out of the gate (spoilers by the way, you can choose Monst3r as a starting agent once you beat the game) he remains as viable as ever at this point. He has the highest base Hacking score in the game, although Sharp currently surpasses him, and two very nice pieces of kit. His Fabricator Multithreading gives him a discount on all nanofab purchases, and his Overclocked Neural D.A.R.T. has a whopping 3 points of armor piercing on it, which is unheard of outside of high-end Thermal Disruptors. But there's a catch. Even with the standard high cooldown of Neural D.A.R.T.s, the overclocking job makes the gun install a daemon whenever fired. Hope you have Brimstone!



Incidentally, Monst3r's survival is a requirement here. I don't know what happens if he can't get through, but regardless, he needs to make it to the end of the level before the rest of the crew. I'm going to keep him as safe as possible until then. And while some parties would need to use him to get the most out of consoles on the level... we have Sharp. We're good.



Remember, K&O sites have turrets to deal with intruders! Maximize caution, bro.



Yeah come over here. Nika will help you.



This is a surprise to literally nobody at this point.



So, Nika will dunk this guy and head off that way to investigate while the rest of the crew heads the other way.



This is how taking cover works, right?



Everyone's behind cover for the elite's entrance...



And Banks spies one of the thingies we need for the objective.



So that's simple enough. Someone has to hit this switch at the same time as the other switch. I mean, they have to deal with the elite AND the flack guard. This is K&O's answer to Siren 1.0: the guard gains a point of armor whenever they're KO'd or alerted. Encountering them early sucks, but what sucks more is encountering them in an area where you'll have to fight them repeatedly.



But if anyone can take on an elite and a flack guard solo, it's Nika, so she tags the guard for that little bit of extra AP to start.



Then she peeks through the door and checks his travel route. Unfortunately, as is he basically sweeps the whole room, and there's nowhere good to ambush from. (See also: Banks paralyzing the downed guard.)



So what I end up doing is opening the door to bait him out, where he'll stare at the terminal and do nothing with it until Nika runs in and blindsides him. She'll have more than enough AP to get him, drag him into the switch room, and standby for a while. Plus, this gives her Reactive Moyomers time to warm up.



Oh hey, support guards AREN'T FTM exclusive. They're just comparatively high end.



Sharp scouts a bit himself and finds more security doors, as well as lethal lasers. Let's NOT trip that thing, eh?



There's your chance, Nika. Hit it.



NYOOOOOM



The flack guard's armor has gone up, but she can still fight him if she absolutely has to... one more time. After that, we'll need Sharp or Monst3r to help.



But for now she can sit on the dude and idly break his fingers to pass the time while the rest of the crew moves on.

Another support guard, and one who is probably the smartest guy here about his job. There is no way into that room that he won't notice, and that's the only room that doesn't have a lock on the door going out.



Speaking of locks, I throw one on the door here. Nika can undo it if she needs to leave.



This patrol route is nice and manageable. Let's dance around this area and see what we can cook up.



That's a good start. We'll hit both of those in one turn and then Nika can leave.



Browsing the nanofab too, even if Monst3r will be doing the buying.

I don't know if I've covered Anatomy Analysis yet, but in short, this lets you ignore the heart monitors installed on all living guards, meaning you can kill them without raising the alarm level! It costs 3 PWR each time you do it, which is often the far lesser of two evils. The only problem is that if I'm installing this on one of our crew, it's going to Nika, and she needs another augment slot before I do that. And I'm not wasting valuable inventory space lugging this around until then.

I will, however, totally buy that Volt Disrupter and give it to Nika. Armored guards are becoming distressingly common around here, and I'll want a renewable way of fighting them off.

Only other thing here worth looking at is the EMP Pack IV, which hits a whopping 8 square radius, but it's not THAT critical for me. Could be used to set up a Flurry Gun combo or murder half of a Sankaku facility, I guess. But again, inventory space is at a premium (which is why I'm not picking up the Shock Trap III either).



I have Banks hide out in the switch room for now, but she needs to go open the door that's being patrolled at.



"Banks, where did you get a Flash Grenade?" "...I don't know."

In her standard looting of the guards, she discovers a spare Flash Grenade! We can definitely use this. It puts Banks over her limit for carrying items, but hey, free grenade.



Need to disable that turret before we can progress, but it looks like a relatively clear coast aside from that.



I also want that facility database hacked. I mean, we're already pretty certain of the layout as a whole, but better safe than sorry, am I right?



So I parasite it and the two access switches. Now I just have to wait.



Alarm level 1 rolls along and poses zero threat to us.



Aha, confirmation that lamps DON'T provide cover. No big deal though. We'll just use this desk instead.



Monst3r gets to the nanofab and check out those tasty, tasty prices. I buy the Volt Disrupter II so we can give it to Nika once she gets back.



Banks joins him on the other side, and I totally forgot to give him the grenade. Eh.



Right, it's go time.



Nika and Dr. Xu both switch the consoles on...



And we're good. Just gotta find that teleporter and leave now.



Fun fact: the support guard is only able to see into Sharp's current room via peripheral vision. If that door were unlocked or that laser grid disabled, we could even walk right up to the guy and smack him down.



I'm not seeing an easy way to get the crew through this room without KOing the guard, though.



We'll come back to that, though. Nika begins her escape!



Spare some AP, buddy?



Whoops, physical comedy!

Yeah, uh, make sure you don't just click for an agent to run through a trapped door. Have them stop in front, untrap it, and then leave.



No real harm done right now, but even so.



Dr. Xu is gonna stick around back here to relock the door once his trap recharges unless I find something better to do with my time.



Either way, we need to start actually moving. Banks has the door unlocked, so we can exit.

Yes of course the turret is disabled what do you take me for.



Everybody at the door to get ready...



Oh no, the grenade is too heavy and Banks needs to wait for the guard to get closer again.



Nobody's getting close on this side of the world, at least.



Sharp makes it to cover no problem, but Nika and Monst3r are going to have to wait and swap Volt Disrupters for a bit.



Flack guard's back.



SLAM-JAMMED!



Here, hold this thing.



The room ahead is refreshingly empty! And we're getting close to quite a few safes, too.



We check our Maddens and confirm that we're still at no threat from them.



Still want to act fast, so a-hacking we will go.



We're gonna need this PWR.



Crew keeps moving, careful to stay hidden in the event of ambush.



I also throw out fifty kajillion parasites on all those turrets cuz why not?



Okay fine I'll take this one.



Hm, that's vexing. Kind of wish I didn't just throw out fifty kajillion parasites now. (Or at the very least, that I did it earlier.)



They're starting to go actually useful directions down there. Hm.



I got overconfident! I got overconfident!

Yeah that's a camera drone that has Sharp clean in its sensors. He can't be shot by it, but that's a small consolation compared to the alarm level speeding up.



I could hack it, but that would cost almost all of my remaining PWR, and I need that to get into the room with all the safes! Other options include shooting it with the Flurry Gun, or waiting for Dr. Xu to ambush it with his EMPunch, neither of which I really like.



Instead I opt for a mild distraction. Not much, and not especially helpful since Sharp still can't do anything about his predicament, but it'll buy us a turn.



At least he's able to confirm the exit's ahead and mostly unguarded.



Not letting any more agents get seen than is absolutely necessary.



But yeah, Sharp had nowhere to hide in that room, so this was more or less an inevitability.



I tag the drone for the hell of it...



But Sharp has no choice but to move away from the crew, drawing the support guard from earlier to his position without telling the camera drone where his allies are.

It's cool, we got this.



WHY YOU TRYING TO SPY ON MY CREW ANYWAY, YOU SOME KINDA VOYEUR, I DON'T TAKE KINDLY TO NO VOYEURS, NO SIR



The good news is that my screwup sending the alarm level skyhigh reset the cost of Mercenary while deploying a new guard way the hell away from the rest of us.



Which means I finally get the camera drone off my damn back, and it confirms the level's exit over yonder.



Sharp, go get us some PWR just in case. Everyone else, loot what you can and run like hell.



Hm. Could give this to Monst3r for now, or sell it later, but either way I guess we're keeping it.



Nika has so much AP that she can move completely offscreen of her current position (ignore the fact that you can freely zoom in/out with the scroll wheel) and still have AP left for scouting.



Another flack guard. Glad it wasn't this guy who was alerted, that would've posed problems.



Everyone else is basically good to go, Sharp just needs to catch up.



I'm pretty sure Monst3r can take the telprot alongside other agents, but I'm not 100% on it, so I warp him out solo first.



Pointless looting woooooo



Go right on ahead, we'll be there shortly.

Don't worry about the warning. This model of teleporter doesn't shut down after activation.



Monst3r's safe, so now everyone else has to get out.



Everyone but Sharp can pile right in and beam out immediately after he does.



Sharp has to wait a turn by himself. He doesn't mind at all.



Well, that was a bit tense, but nothing out of the ordinary.



But there's a catch. We don't GET to go back, upgrade stats, deal with Monst3r, etc. We doin' this NOW, son.



More good news. We made it to our destination, sure...



But not only are we in totally foreign corporate waters, but we have a strict time limit with regards to how fast we can clear this mission. And just like before, Monst3r has to survive and escape first, ideally with the quantum reservoir.



I'm not going to play that mission right now, this update's been plenty long, but I am gonna take care of some bookkeeping.



Inventory shuffling, storing this med gel here for later, you get the idea.



Now the A game is gonna bring its A game. Get hype, get ready, get a snack. We'll be here a while.

Next Time: Off the Grid

I just saved my game. That's not a letdown, that's me taking a well-deserved break.



So, first thing we do is look out the door, and... hang on, lemme rotate the level so we get a better look.



There we go. The grey and yellow uniform there signifies this is an OMNI guard. OMNI is the actual corporation (maybe) that handles this site (and the SecNet root spoilers not really it's kinda obvious), but what they actively do isn't really explained. Ordinarily, these types of guard are encountered in the endgame mission only, but here they make a brief appearance. There are exactly three types of OMNI guard, each of which is an incredibly dangerous obstacle unless you know what you're getting into.

In this case, the OMNI Harbinger is one built to counter hyper-aggressive strategies that Nika or Shalem 11 players might use. Even if you KO them, you'll increase the alarm level, and killing them makes it positively skyrocket. Additionally, their patrol routes can be defined by the level generation to span an absolutely stupid length of the stage. Tagging and careful observation are your best defense against Harbingers.



So yeah, REALLY glad I have a T.A.G. Pistol.



Not sure if he's coming into the starting room, so I have everyone get into position to hide. Sharp looks for a good spot to set up the Portable Server, because we'll be using the teleporter here to return to the jet once it arrives, and this is a perfect level for abusing the Portable Server for that reason. (Plus, dang, check out all that cover we can give it.)



Despite what Monst3r says, we won't actually experience any faction-specific foes here. No FTM scanning, no Plastech hackers, just these guys. These guys are PLENTY, though.



Dr. Xu keeps tabs on the new guy from his hiding spot, and the results are not promising.



Sharp sets up the Portable Server, because the sooner that thing's up and running the better.



Unfortunately, I hadn't accounted for the harbinger taking a slight turn to the right once he entered, so I have to pick it back up. Lame.



Nika's gonna tag this new one as he enters, and then everyone's gonna run out and start looking for safe paths.



There's a few scientists here as well. I don't think they carry anything, and when confronted they flee to the nearest guard telprot, so they're mostly just extra cameras that have legs instead of cords.

What's more noteworthy in this room would be the other two OMNI guard types. OMNI Soldiers have the highest base armor in the game, at 3. The only thing we have that can do anything to them at all is Monst3r's D.A.R.T., and since that spawns a daemon on use, it's not ideal. If you haven't been keeping up with your armor-piercing gear, these guys force you into stealth, hard.



On the other end of things is the OMNI Protector. These guys use a powerful EM barrier, which gives them armor equal to the number of firewalls the barrier has. Naturally, this gives them a unique weakness, in that you can then hack away their barrier (or EMP it) to render them completely vulnerable. Additionally, they gain an extra AP for each firewall they have, so these guys are exceptionally mobile. So against teams that have been lax on their hacking strength, Protectors are the most dangerous foe.



Apparently in earlier versions, there were even more ridiculous OMNI guard types, including ones with 360 degree vision and ones that ignore the Overwatch setup phase all other guards have in favor of shooting on sight. These three types are all OMNI has, though, and frankly that's more than enough.



Right, they're tagged, everybody out NOW.



If I really wanted to, I could have Dr. Xu enter the large room without the door alerting any other guards or scientists. But I have no idea how many guys are in there, and cover looks extremely sparse. Better not risk it yet.



Since the Harbinger is walking off to face the corner as per standard protocol, we're moving everyone that can get past them up and out of the teleporter room.



Naturally, Banks takes a souvenir.



Oh hey guys we found the mission objective. Rogue is p. good.



Sharp re-deploys his Portable Server, since it's well-hidden here and will be super easy to pick up once he leaves.



Dr. Xu found a comparatively unguarded side route, but Banks needs to get in there to help open it up. Once we do that, we should have smooth sailing for a while.



The crew moves up, except for Sharp since there's nowhere good for him to stay.



May as well get started on this now. We'll likely need the AP boost in a bit.



Surprise! Extended endgame changes up the alarm levels on you with barely any warning.



From now on, all alarm levels will have that red cog around them, which indicates the extended endgame alarm effects. For the first alarm level, everyone changes up their patrol paths, same as if they'd just beamed onto the floor like the old alarm level 3. (Which, in turn, means the corporation starts with all cameras on.)

So now that room full of dudes is way harder to predict. At least the guards we tagged should remain standard.



Since the crew isn't presently at risk of discovery, Nika gets ready to tag the hell out of whoever comes through the door.

Look at that Protector go. If my math is right, they're moving with 13 AP total. Which means their base AP would be 5, which isn't very much, but remember, guards can sprint just like agents can, and they don't care about the noise they make at all.



Well that's good news. We can just hit the objective and leave, no problems whatsoever.



Welcome to Stealth Madden Hell.



I don't know if scientists as a whole don't generate items/creds or if Banks just was unlucky here.



Thankfully, Nika confirms that she's in no actual danger, and all it costs is her almost being unable to make it to safety.



Thankfully, diagonal half-cover is more than enough to avoid notice. Apparently, anyway.



The central room is proving far too innavigable, so Banks is going to have to follow the Protector and scientist in.



Meanwhile, Dr. Xu gets to avoid the notice of two enemies at once. If the scientist sees him, the panicked shouting will sure as hell notify the Protector.



This should work.



I almost want to KO this guy, but he's not actually posing a threat right now, and that daemon might do even more damage.



Sharp and Nika don't have anywhere better they can go right now, so I guess they'll stay here.



Y'know what? I haven't seen like ANY cameras here. I'm hacking the pulse drone so it can scout for me.



There's one. It's overlooking a part of the level that does not matter to us at all, but there's one.



And there's another up ahead. Huh.



I'm learning so many things with this gun.



Oh wait he's just gonna stay there, looking at the wall? BEAUTIFUL! Sign me the hell up for that.



This patrol route is a little harder to work with. The scientist and the Protector are pretty much gonna watch each others' backs unless I act fast.



So I get Dr. Xu to take down the scientist for starters.



Then I throw a shock trap on the door to catch the Protector. After Banks comes in, mind you.



I'm also bringing Sharp along, because he actually has some inventory space right now.



Dunked and PUNKED.



Today on Completely Reasonable Alarm Levels...



Alarm Level 2 for the rest of the game has a permanent Chiton effect across the board. Banks' and Dr. Xu's Neural Disrupters are now inventory clutter. Nika can't KO anyone here stronger than a scientist. OMNI Soldiers are literally invincible.

So hey, no pressure.



The fun and games aren't over yet, either. Next level we're gonna have a LOT of security to deal with. The good news is that the patrol routes have largely settled following Alarm Level 1, so we're not too scared of getting ambushed.



Even so, Nika's probably gonna keep holding this position. There's a lot of cover for her to work with.

I decide to hack some of the firewalls on this guy for no real reason other than that I can. Don't just think you can effortlessly keep Protectors neutered by hacking them with Buster Chips or Parasites, either: as long as they don't have a Parasite active on them, they'll auto-reboot their systems after a few turns to restore their firewalls to their original strength.



Start moving, Sharp. You got a LOT of ground to cover.



Oh what drones can't peek? LAME.



In that case I'll park it right here for now.



Oh hey.

Validate does exactly what it says on the box, spawning a new guard at the elevators when triggered. I'm not 100% clear on the behaviour of this guard, but I'd be willing to bet they come in hunting, so if you're not ready for a new and unpredictable hostile guard, leave this one alone.



CHECK OUT HOW INSANELY LUCKY THIS OMNI HARBINGER PLACEMENT IS. LIKE HOLY DANG. And this is a guy we tagged earlier, too.



Dr. Xu pulls the scientist right next to the elevator so he can have a quick and unobtrusive exit. He might be a black market academic, but he's not heartless.



Remember early on, where I said agents that have no cause to move from where they are can spend spare AP to scout out guard movements? Nika does this now, because this is one of the few instances where I haven't tagged literally everything on the level.



Scientist gets up hollering like a madman. This doesn't generate noise for guards to investigate because reasons.



I hack this power supply for no real reason other than that I can and it gives Sharp more AP. Plus, the Portable Server is giving us more than enough PWR to keep up.



Hm... nope, sorry, that's just a hair too inconvenient.



HERE COMES THE CHOKE SLAM



We have confirmed both the location of our objective and that Monst3r is secretly a HUGE NERD.



Anyway, same deal as usual. We need to hack the terminal nearby, and then have an agent manually fiddle with it to open the security door. The Siphon daemon is not a threat to us at all.



The only reason I don't trip it literally right now is because we're at the next Alarm Level momentarily, so Mercenary will reset.



Parasite on the re-activated drone for the hell of it.

You might've noticed Monst3r has just been casually hanging back all mission. Turns out that's the generally safest plan for him here! Past Alarm Level 2, his signature gun stops being as useful since it can't take down the guys you really want eliminated for it, so the less he moves from the teleporter, the better.



Still the same kind of threat here, but delayed one alarm level in exchange for a stronger basic effect.



The damage we'd done to the firewalls here is already undone, but by now, Hunter's recharged, so we don't care as much.



No real opposition remains. We just need to take the doodad and leave.



Only reason I'm not having everyone leave right now is to cover his escape in case things turn sour. I don't expect them to, but better to stay safe, no?



I could have him sprinting and probably should, but even if he does, we still have three turns to wait before Central arrives.



Meh, it's a bit overkill, but there's not much reason not to.



Right, here we are.



Hooray, objective claimed, and nobody has to die.



Let's pack up and head out, crew.

Aw, I feel a little disappointed I couldn't get to this sooner. Oh well, we need more inventory space first.



Not to mention I really don't feel like breaking all of that down.



As Sharp progresses further back, I stagger the rest of the crew to cover his escape.



We can now use the telprot to start getting people out of there. Monst3r is a mandatory escapee, and we need the tech, so Sharp also has to make it. But we're gonna pull everyone because of COURSE we are, have you seen how pro I am?



Nika takes care of the last real obstacle in front of our escape, the scientist that picked the patrol route just outside of the teleporter.



Dr. Xu sets up an anticipatory Shock Trap in case anyone tries entering the room from the unexpected side of things.



And Monst3r leaves.

Do note at this point that Monst3r leaves here for good, and he takes all of his gear with him when he does. Conversely, that means if you really wanted his unique D.A.R.T. you could steal it from him before he heads off, but again, inventory space relative to actual need.



This is the last new effect, by the way. Alarm levels 5 and 6 are the same as ever.



This counts as a double dose of a Jolt and Watchdog daemon, with the latter being as permanent as the Chiton daemon.



This means literally nothing to us right now, and honestly even once we do start in earnest it won't be a huge thorn in our sides. In any event, Dr. Xu heads off now, since he's basically contributed all he can to the cause.



The Protector's going to revive soon, so Sharp primes his EMP pack for the hell of it. At the end of our turn, it'll go off, disabling the Protector's barrier outright and thus denying them much AP to track us down (in case they're headed that way).



Gimme your AP nerd.



Tempted to have Nika run back and shoot him since it won't give us any alarm levels, but nah, no real reason to.



Whoops forgot to not have Banks end her turn in front of a chokepoint with 0 AP. Eh.



I'll park the drone right here so nobody notices the shutdown and gets suspicious.



Yes, search that square and no further, sir.



Not actively pointless: that AP lets Nika pick up the Med Gel we left there earlier.



Sharp grabs the Portable Server, and we leave without any fuss.



I'd like to point out that we hacked a grand total of ONE console in that mission and not once did we ever hit PWR issues. A properly deployed Portable Server is insanely good.

Granted, this mission was kind of an anomaly in a few ways, but details.



DAWN OF A NEW DAY



48 HOURS REMAIN



So yeah, here's the new rules for extended endgame. First, the new alarm levels. We all already know them from this mission, but that was just a warm-up. Which is probably the reason for the mandatory 20-turn waiting period, to ensure you're familiar with all the new things.

Second, we have a new primary objective. Each mission, we HAVE to find and recover a new battery for Incognita, or we're dead in the water anyway. Remember, the quantum reservoir is effectively an emergency raft, and we have to actively work to keep it afloat.

Finally, the good news: Incognita has one more slot for a new program to play with, so we'll want to keep our eyes peeled for a good auxiliary thing. Aces or Oracle would both be good ideas, but they're not the only ones. We'll see, though.



Oh, and the missions we have access to have shuffled completely.

From what we have available, it's honestly hard to say what we want. Unfortunately, the closest objectives are also higher security than the current average. From our current options, we could try the Plastech Cybernetics Lab to see if we can get Sharp topped off or find Nika a good armor-piercing augment, we could hit the Chief Financial Suite highlighted in the hopes the Cybernetics Lab might have a second set of grafters, or we could try one of the two Server Farms and get Incognita her new program, although the close-by K&O one is a bit more dangerous. Personally, I'm thinking we hit the Financial Suite followed by the Cybernetics Lab, but I'm open to suggestions.

Next Time: Posted Bounty

Invest in some strength and hit up either the nanofab or the executive terminals. At this point in Contingency Plan, you want to get some armor piercing weapons or shock traps.

The main tiebreaker for going for this one over the other mission types is that it's both a new mission type AND dealing with a new corporation. This isn't throwing my run under the bus for the sake of showcasing, mind you, this is still a legitimately good idea on its own merits.



First, some stat boosts. Most of my agents get a bit of extra Strength to properly hold everything they can, but for Banks I spring for Anarchy 5. This means that in addition to her usual high bonus creds, she ALSO gets a minor but significant chance to find additional goodies when searching. Enemies searched by an agent with Anarchy 5 are flagged as "Expertly Searched" so you know you aren't missing anything vital.



I also indulge in a bit of inventory cleanup. Nika's Neural Disrupter is given to Banks, whose old one, being a bland Mk I with not a single point of armor-piercing, gets sold to Monst3r.



At this stage the only one without an armor-piercing weapon is Dr. Xu, and we'll try to do our best to fix that when we get a chance.



Monst3r has new dialogue every time you bring open the sales screen... and for quite a lot of different other things, too. I remember buying back a thing I sold him, which had him chide me for my indecisiveness to the tune of "first you want it, then you don't, then you do". Followed by an exaggerated sigh, of course.

Monst3r's voice actor is pretty good.



And yeah, like that chat between me and dtsund indicated, the popup was covering a nanofab mission, also in Sankaku territory. Like hell am I going to a nanofab mission with a meager 660 creds.



Not to worry, we'll have creds for days after this.



I am a little worried for Banks' long-term well-being. Just a little.



Anyway, welcome to Sankaku Heavy Industries! So far, it's pretty standard, but we haven't actually seen much yet.



Data for my "Rogue picks the closest safe to reveal" theory continues to accrue.



Quite a few cameras here, too.



May as well get this done. It's not very high priority, so a Parasite will more than suffice.



Ordinary security guard and camera drone here, no surprises yet...



Kind of inconvenient patrol paths for them though, but that camera overlooking this room we should be able to handle.



I stand corrected.

Sankaku's signature enemy type is the Obake Drone, built for surveillance and combat. They can be identified by their telltale plastic-sounding steps. And unlike Plastech, Sankaku immediately fields V2.0 as well, which comes with a layer of armor to boot. Much like camera drones, they can't be KO'd via disrupter, but they have a few other weaknesses, such as a lack of audio sensors, hackability from the mainframe, and susceptibility to EMP effects (although those don't instakill it).



Can't tag it with the meaty guard in the way, so I make do.



Oh good, most of the terminals are relatively close and bunched up.



Unfortunately for us, the security on the Obake is a bit harsh for us right now. Not impossible, but it's up there. And we'll certainly want it out of the way so we can get to the nanofab and the safe down there.



I start moving agents up so they can sneak past when the coast is clear.



Tag you along the way, why not.



Unfortunately, I've miscalculated. The Obake is overlooking the exit, and they don't have the peripheral vision problem guards have.



Well, it's not the situation I was expecting to break this sucker out in, but if the shoe fits...



Nika fires off two volleys, taking down both drones without alerting anyone around. And since the drones obviously lack heart monitors, their destruction doesn't raise the alarm level. Costs us 8 total PWR to do, mind you, so it's not like it was cheap.



But that should save us a lot of headaches in the long run. Having an angry Obake V2.0 chasing you through the level demanding you hack it at every turn isn't the best situation in the world to be in.

Also, it's a bit hard to see, but next to it on the ground is another Sankaku staple, the Sound Bug. Since drones lack audio sensors, these are the main thing stopping you from just sprinting pell-mell through their facilities. Should they detect unauthorized sounds (which conveniently includes drone weaponry, preventing you from easily turning them against the guards), they raise the alarm level and nearby guards come to investigate.



Shooting drones doesn't harm their backup power cells none.

Hrm. Not the best selection, is it?

I mean yeah, the Thermal Disrupter IV is fairly unreasonable, punching through up to 4 levels of armor for only 1 PWR apiece, but that's a once-per-mission thing unless you shell out for more Charge Packs on top of that. We'll save the creds for the missions where we get a bit more choice.



Anyway, we had to use the Flurry Gun already, but so far this mission is going well. Note that Dr. Xu can disable the Sound Bug as well as the safe with his EMPunch. Dr. Xu is uniquely suited to Sankaku facilities for the sole fact that he can fight things here head-on if he absolutely has to.



Top us off over here, we were running a bit low.



Nika remembered her Buster Chip this time, so she can help with the looting, but that door down there. More forced guard encounters isn't a thing I like to see.



Yeah whatever Dr. Xu can hold onto that.



Yeah we're taking this guy now, before the alarm level makes him a brick wall.



Swoosh! Effect trails make EVERYTHING cooler.



This isn't a huge concern to me because we've probably already eliminated half the guards here.



Oooh, what's over here?



Oh hello.

Akuma Drones are the heavy units of Sankaku. They tend to boast higher-than-average firewall strength and have an innate armor level of 2, so if you need to take one down, bring your heaviest weaponry in turn. They also have a 150 degree visual range, which isn't quite as good as the Spec Ops of K&O (Akuma drones can't see directly to their sides, Spec Ops can), but is still really good, and needless to say their scanners are top of the line as well. The good news is that they move very slowly, only getting about 4 or so AP each turn, so if you see one, usually your best bet is just to stay out of its range and let it do whatever.



Oh that'll be nice. In case you haven't guessed, Sankaku tends to have a LOT of stuff to hack.



And here's the reason you want Anarchy 5 on someone. That's an EMP Pack II that guard was hiding. Y'know how much one of those costs normally? I don't. But instead of the game saying "yeah you get a chance to buy this thing for a total of too many creds", it just falls into Banks' lap at no charge. HEY SHARP WE GOT A NEW TOY FOR YOU YOU GIANT NERD



Sharp will probably have to go pick it up on the next turn. But hey, he's got plenty of inventory space.



Nika, meanwhile, discovers another Sankaku drone, this one being the Null Drone. These guys are upgraded camera drones in two ways: first, they aren't quite as vulnerable to EMPs, and can take them like a KO effect no problem. Second, they prevent you from doing anything to hack devices within 4 tiles of them. If you want to hack those devices, you first need to get the Null Drone out of the way. Like camera drones, though, they are unarmed, so being spotted isn't the end of the world.



Expertly searched! Yay.



That's two EMP Packs. The main reason to double up on same-typed gear is to get around cooldown types, but EMP Packs are situational enough that I probably won't bother keeping both, and will sell the Mk I to Monst3r after this mission. Plus, like we mentioned, Dr. Xu does most of the EMP work for this crew anyway.



Looks like the Akuma's headed for Nika's position, and with how slow it moves, the room will be under its watchful sensors for a long time. Fortune favors the bold!



There's our mission. All we gotta do is wallop the guy and have an agent standing by while Incognita pokes his brain for a few turns.



How fortunate that alarm level 1 has prompted him to join us on this side of the world!



LENS FLARED!



You need to keep an agent close, but that doesn't mean the executive needs to stay in the same place. And most of the time, his office has loads of cover, so even a scrawny agent can drag him somewhere safe for the duration of the scan.



The guy also carries an obscenely large cred stash, which I am going to wait for Banks to handle, obviously.



Nika lugs the guy behind this gaudy pedestal, but the Akuma will easily scan her location if she stays there, so she'll need to keep moving.



Banks is going to have to wait a while before she can join her galpal.



Between those two being stuck and Sharp staying on the elite so he doesn't wake up and start shooting us, Dr. Xu is left to explore the rest of the level by himself.

Sharp's got two guards in his room, though, so he can't stay put forever.



Oh hello, alternate objective. Don't forget, if we don't bring a battery back home, Incognita won't live to see the mission results screen.



Dr. Xu dumps the card in the box and snags the power cell. That was clean.



Nika punches the executive again, not because she needs to (once the scan starts the guy's KO time goes up pretty sharply anyway), but because it gives her a large AP boost because Predictive Brawling and Nika.



Using this, she can get even further away from the incoming Akuma and scout out the door at the far end of things, confirming that we won't get a good chance to use the Portable Server this mission. No big loss, though.



I don't know if memetic defense training is a real thing, but I can't help but imagine this guy logging into a VR sim to fistfight Shrek now.



Anyway, we need to handle the big guy somehow. And let's not forget the Null Drone providing backup.



Sharp also needs to get a move-on, so he pulls a Nika to smack the guy for AP...



And then yanks him over to this empty room. Thanks to his recent Strength upgrade, he can actually cover that kind of distance in one turn.



Oh I needed that.



I spend the PWR early to get the daemon database hacked. Yeah, we're running on empty here, but between Seed and the alarm level nearing an increase (meaning Mercenary resets in cost again), we can afford to run on empty.

That Portcullis daemon is still a bit intimidating even considering we've hacked almost everything, though.



Whoa wait what? Hold up, we're only at Alarm Level 2.



You didn't think this mission would be as easy as pinning an unarmed guy, did you? Nope, that enforcer has a fixed destination and it is his current location.

In some situations, this would be an actual risk. But that's clear at the other end of the level, so eh.



Meanwhile, with the current dangers on hand, my plan is this. Dr. Xu ambushes the Null Drone to start...



This doesn't kill it, but it takes it offline long enough for Banks...



To exploit the hell out of the Akuma's blind spot, stealing a hefty amount of PWR and tagging it with the Buster Chip. That should do enough damage that we can incapacitate it fully before it reaches the office.



I have no idea the exact range on the Akuma's scanners, but I'm not about to test it when we can have Nika just lug the executive into the teleporter room.



Still gonna keep an eye out because there's no real reason not to.



Guard from earlier wakes up, and in grand tradition, picks the exact wrong direction to gallivant off to.



Still need to try to do something about the Akuma, but we have a little more time. Remember, they only have 4 AP, so it can't actually hit its destination tile just yet.



The guard discovers Nika's handiwork from earlier, far too late for it to matter.



Yeah check out that visual range. Akumas might move slow, but they are serious contenders.



But by now, Hunter's warmed up again, and it only has 1 firewall remaining. Welcome to the team!

Take note down in the actions corner, by the way. Drones DO have an Overwatch action available, but you can't take it while commanding them. Which only makes sense in this case: you only can control Obake and Akuma drones for 1 turn, after which they shut down. I do know there's the Leash program to extend drone control by 1 turn, though. Maybe using that you can set them to Overwatch? I dunno. One thing you CAN do with Akumas (but not Obake) is kick down doors intentionally! Why you would do this, I don't know... but you can!



Now we can actually buy things.

Cycle is a really weird PWR gain program. At the start of each turn, it first sets your PWR count to 0, and then it awards you 3 PWR. This is a passive program, so it happens each turn, and in fairness having Seed means we could actually use it. That plus the Portable Server and Sharp's Distributed Processing gives us a LOT of potential each turn. Of course, wiping your PWR reserves every turn is, how you say... very bad. If I had an Econ Chip on hand so I could use consoles more flexibly, I'd consider it.



Aces, on the other hand, I will absolutely buy. It's a little situational, but we have a good way to tag guards, and we need more armor-piercing across the board. This thing might not see MUCH play, but in the right situation, this could very well save our lives.

Right, we should be safe for now. Everyone hurry past the Akuma before it reactivates.



Incognita finishes her objective as well.



The Vault Access Card is used for two mission types. First and most obviously, it lets you get into the high-security part of Vaults, where you can loot even more dosh than usual. Second and more importantly for us, it allows access to the additional machines in some Cybernetics Labs, which means more chances to get the Penetration Scanners we oh-so-desperately want.



I hack the nearby Sound Bug, so Banks and co. are free to book it to the teleporter room.



Banks gets an extra 200+ credits from the guy as well as his meds, because why not, really.



Dr. Xu gets most of the way there as well, but Sharp sticks back so he can drop an EMP on the Akuma, keeping it down for one turn longer.



He then has enough AP, even with sprinting, to just barely reach the executive.



Guys, Predictive Brawling is PRETTY GOOD.



Back in business! Business as usual! Usually... that... doesn't happen?



Yeah, we kinda ate it with the cleanup cost here. Killing two drones kinda sucked... but hey, we could've done way worse.



For now, I throw the card in storage while I sort a few extra things out.



Oooooh.

The Biogenic D.A.R.T. is being sold at a remarkably opportune time: we have the creds to afford it and the need for it too. The KO damage isn't very high and it's got a hell of a recharge time, but you can't deny that armor-piercing ranged KO goodness.



Yes, you can sell off Vault Access Cards if you need to. And on very rare occasions, Monst3r may even sell them TO you.



For now, though, I just give it to Dr. Xu, so now he can join the crew and say he has armor-piercing weaponry too.



Not a whole lot of plot development here, just telling us stuff we already knew. What's interesting is that Central's deadpan sarcasm here seems to actually intimidate Monst3r a bit. She might not make a show of it, but she is a seriously dangerous person.



Back to the map, though. Now that we have a pretty decent cred stockpile and some actual inventory space, the nanofab's not a bad option. I still want to reach the cybernetics lab eventually (maybe this time Plastech will actually put forth some real resistance) but it's not so large a priority that we need to waste extra time hitting it first. Especially not now that we picked up Aces, that was a decently lucky find.

Next Time: Sure Gamble

Just popping in to say that due to this LP, I purchased a copy of Invisible Inc and I am enjoying it quite a lot.

TMBG reference? Or is that phrase in common use?

Just taking a quick second to point out that yeah, this is the only mission whose difficulty actually matches the day we're on. Everything else on the board is at level 5 security. No way in hell we're heading to FTM territory right now though.



The nanofab mission is the closer of the two missions we actually want to try right now, but again, we're dealing with a very real chance of having to bypass the objective itself in favor of just racking up as much dosh as we can, solely because of inventory space. But we'll see what we can do.



Ah well, we'll do what we can.



Fighting the power. Or becoming the power. Whatever works, really. Long as we don't die.



Lets start off nice and easy. Branch out, tag what we can, et cetera. Don't forget that our new Aces program will give us a definite edge if we really need to fight.



Not much activity yet, so we'll get Rogue running a few times.



That was quick.



Nika can just keep an eye on the door for us while the rest of the lot raids that room.



Probably gonna need this sooner rather than later.



Just like Dr. Xu can EMPunch sound bugs, Buster Chips let agents hack them directly. It's really hard to see them outside of the mainframe interface though.



Null Drone is being pretty protective of a lot of things, I think it might just be faster to hack it.



Hacking this camera too, not that it's at all useful to us.



Oh dear, that's a problem.



Hard to see on account of the map, and I even missed it outright initially, but yeah, that's an Akuma in there. That is way the hell too early to have to bait out an Akuma, and sneaking past it here will be basically impossible.



WE'RE BLOWING IT UP, IT'S WORTH IT, IT'S SO WORTH IT



You all have probably noticed the hell out of this, but I'm really putting Mercenary through its paces lately! Turns out being this far in the game, you need to keep spending on your firewall breakers more or less constantly.



Tagging the Akuma here, although only one of our weapons can hurt it.



Here's the nanofab we don't need to clear the mission. All stuff we've already seen again, and at this point, again, only the EMP Pack IV is really considerable for Sharp. Inventory space aaaaargh.

But me being the complete genius tactician I am, I don't buy it here, because reasons?



Right, everyone get in cover and hide from the Akuma's scanners.



Scanners effectively follow line of sight, but are stopped by walls, so they're really only good for detecting agents hiding behind cover. And since drones don't use them unless actively hunting or they've just reached their investigation point, they're rarely actually an issue.



Are you CEREAL. Well that's gonna be fun to go for.



Right, time to face off against an Akuma and win.



Stepping into its line of sight gets us an instant alarm level and sends it into Overwatch. The Null Drone also turns to observe us, of course.



But Nika has a Flurry Gun. We're winning this fight.

Note that she's firing next to a sound bug. Guards' weapons might be genecoded, but all the stuff we can get comes with silencers, so we can avoid tripping sound bugs.



And because we have the PWR and attack to spare, we kill the null drone too.

Yay we can steal a Buster Chip I from it. Nika does so, purely to offload her already-used one.



Remember, Alarm Level 1 changes up guard patrols now, so Dr. Xu is basically making sure nobody comes in to interrupt us while we hack away.



Hm... that'll be tricky, but it's not an impossible foe.



Here Nika, start going through and getting us those tasty data files.



Oh man who's it gonna discuss this time? It's like Crimbo morning!

...Nah, we still gotta find all three. But still. I'm excited about this!



Nika's busy, so we'll let Sharp handle the scouting.



That last safe in the corner was the last one we scanned, so I think we can safely say Rogue pinpoints the closest safe at this time.



Hm... we could probably set up the Portable Server behind the console in the databank room.



Banks is gonna go pawn off the hardware from the Akuma, then head up that hallway and unlock some doors for everybody.



Lot of drones down there. No Akumas at least, but still, that's some dense drone packing.



YAY 125 CREDS ALL FOR US



Setting up here.



And Nika finishes her hacking right as Alarm Level 2 rolls around and Elite Security walks in. THIS IS WHY YOU ALWAYS END YOUR TURNS BEHIND COVER.



More trash to sell/swap out I guess? Okay.



Aces brings up the same kind of window as a daemon reversal, apparently. Good to have that, so you know exactly how long your extra armor-piercing is active.



Nika immediately cashes in her windfall of AP by getting spotted by a camera at the teleporter.



Oh nice, that's an excellent spot for a databank.



Another null drone and the Obake V2.0 from before, eh?



Oh hell no I'm not going to stack two layers of Chiton at once.



Let's just see where these two plan to go.



That... is REALLY inconvenient. I could MAYBE get into there from this angle, make a purchase or two, and duck out. But those drones just have a really awkward patrol path, even if the endpoints are just staring at walls. If it wasn't for the null drone, I'd maybe consider just sneaking past.



Haha you think that daemon is something I am going to trigger ever.



All right Sharp, time to put the EMP packs you've been carting around to good use. Except... that's a touch too close to the nanofab, I won't want to put it offline too.



Perfect.



The EMP takes out both drones for a brief time and unlocks the safe behind him.