lent day 3: success in Invisible Inc (with the extended DLC)
So i have a game in Endless Mode and a game in Endless Plus mode that i can now run infinitely unless i make a really stupid mistake. Here's what i feel are the most key components to beating the game after *murmur murmur* hours of gameplay.
Initial configuration:
Doctor Xu is an absolute must. The ability to crack open safes and to permanently kill certain drones without the use of any PWR or other resources is the most powerful thing in the game, esepcially as firewalls increase in later stages of the game. Sure, that gets nullified somewhat when objects become EMP resistant, but it's still useful enough.
As far as the second player goes, there are a few good choices, but my favorite choice is Derek for his teleport ability - the biggest benefit to teleporting is that if one of your team is KO'ed, then if Derek picks your fallen comrade up and teleports, then said fallen comrade also gets teleported. Because of this, i almost always drop Derek's teleport beacon close to the exit transporter.
As far as programs, Lockpick 1.0 is my choice for hacking and Seed is my choice for PWR. Someone somewhere once posted some equation about the difference between Seed versus the "gain one PWR every turn" model or something, and it sold me, and yeah, i've never looked back.
Priority Incognita Items:
The most valuable Incognita program hands down is Wisp. It becomes pretty quick work to tag all of the guards on a level, and knowing their every move without having to waste AP to observe their movements every single turn is more than worth it. At one point in one of my games, three of my agents were down due to extremely unlucky circumstances, and with my one remaining player, i was able to drag everyone to the exit and escape the level in no small part due to Wisp showing me the pathways as they opened up.
The second most valuable Incognita program is Oracle, particularly in combination with Seed. Especially in later levels when cameras can have 6+ firewalls that would consume more than half of your PWR and/or over a long period of time, Oracle with Seed allows you to deactivate every single camera for practically no PWR at all and in no time at all.
After those two, my next choices tend to be Lockpick 2.0 and Hunter.
Priority Augments:
The two most valuable Augments are 1) Distributed Processing because even a 50% of generating PWR every turn is a no brainer even with Seed, and 2) Reactive Moyomer because even when the security level hits the "max" of 6, every cycle of security level beyond that will add another AP to the teammate that has the augment. At one point, two of my agents had over 25 AP to start each turn, particularly because i kept on moving back and forth against "advance tracker" beams.
Priority Items:
Buster chip IV, Cloaking Rig III, and the Mono Molecular Rail Gun. The first two are simple enough to understand, but i'm a big fan of the Mono Molecular Rail Gun despite the weight because it's a pretty big deal to have a weapon with 2 bullets that can knock out a guard for 5 turns, particularly in Day 5+ when the alarm tracker will raise guard's armor. Charge packs are a dime a dozen and are worth the inventory slot used, particularly if you have Reactive Moyomer installed.
Priority Missions:
Server Farms to try to get Wisp and Oracle
Hostage Rescues to incrase your party size
Vault Access Card retrieval for money missions or Augment missions locked rooms.
The aforementioned money mision and augment mission.
Initial configuration:
Doctor Xu is an absolute must. The ability to crack open safes and to permanently kill certain drones without the use of any PWR or other resources is the most powerful thing in the game, esepcially as firewalls increase in later stages of the game. Sure, that gets nullified somewhat when objects become EMP resistant, but it's still useful enough.
As far as the second player goes, there are a few good choices, but my favorite choice is Derek for his teleport ability - the biggest benefit to teleporting is that if one of your team is KO'ed, then if Derek picks your fallen comrade up and teleports, then said fallen comrade also gets teleported. Because of this, i almost always drop Derek's teleport beacon close to the exit transporter.
As far as programs, Lockpick 1.0 is my choice for hacking and Seed is my choice for PWR. Someone somewhere once posted some equation about the difference between Seed versus the "gain one PWR every turn" model or something, and it sold me, and yeah, i've never looked back.
Priority Incognita Items:
The most valuable Incognita program hands down is Wisp. It becomes pretty quick work to tag all of the guards on a level, and knowing their every move without having to waste AP to observe their movements every single turn is more than worth it. At one point in one of my games, three of my agents were down due to extremely unlucky circumstances, and with my one remaining player, i was able to drag everyone to the exit and escape the level in no small part due to Wisp showing me the pathways as they opened up.
The second most valuable Incognita program is Oracle, particularly in combination with Seed. Especially in later levels when cameras can have 6+ firewalls that would consume more than half of your PWR and/or over a long period of time, Oracle with Seed allows you to deactivate every single camera for practically no PWR at all and in no time at all.
After those two, my next choices tend to be Lockpick 2.0 and Hunter.
Priority Augments:
The two most valuable Augments are 1) Distributed Processing because even a 50% of generating PWR every turn is a no brainer even with Seed, and 2) Reactive Moyomer because even when the security level hits the "max" of 6, every cycle of security level beyond that will add another AP to the teammate that has the augment. At one point, two of my agents had over 25 AP to start each turn, particularly because i kept on moving back and forth against "advance tracker" beams.
Priority Items:
Buster chip IV, Cloaking Rig III, and the Mono Molecular Rail Gun. The first two are simple enough to understand, but i'm a big fan of the Mono Molecular Rail Gun despite the weight because it's a pretty big deal to have a weapon with 2 bullets that can knock out a guard for 5 turns, particularly in Day 5+ when the alarm tracker will raise guard's armor. Charge packs are a dime a dozen and are worth the inventory slot used, particularly if you have Reactive Moyomer installed.
Priority Missions:
Server Farms to try to get Wisp and Oracle
Hostage Rescues to incrase your party size
Vault Access Card retrieval for money missions or Augment missions locked rooms.
The aforementioned money mision and augment mission.