Strategy Primer: Hone your Stealth or Combat Skills in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

The Deus Ex series returns with Mankind Divided, and your choice of play style will once again affect the path you take through the game. Official guide author Michael Lummis shares his tips for quickly getting your tactics up to speed, whether you choose a stealth approach or a combat-heavy path.

Stealth Primer

The first rule of stealth is to be quiet and remain unseen. Jensen minimizes his noise by crouching and moving slower. Use this as an energy-free way to avoid detection.

Even regular walking gets your enemies to turn toward you at the last minute; they’ll be easy to silence with a Takedown, but you still get spotted and can lose some of your bonuses.

So crouch, move behind people, and get to places that aren’t being watched. That’s half of the stealth game right there! Once you know where people are patrolling and watching, it’s much easier to sneak around.

Just because you’re sneaking around doesn’t mean that you have to avoid confrontations. You can still get the maximum bonuses (and Trophies) for stealth while taking out targets. There are several tools for doing this. The best ones are the Tranquilizer Rifle, Stun Guns, and Non-Lethal Takedowns. These options are all quiet, safe for you and your victims, and award bonus experience for each person you take down.

To avoid detection while eliminating guards, hide and see which enemies are isolated in a given region. If they’re close to an unguarded area or aren’t being watched by anyone else, you can usually sneak up and use a Non-Lethal Takedown. There… instant XP, and the enemy is out of the fight!

The proper distribution of augmentations make it much easier to succeed as a stealth player. As we’ve said, they’re not required, but they give you much more room to slip up without having to restart a section.

VERY IMPORTANT AUGMENTATIONS (GET THEM ASAP)

• Cybernetic Arm Prosthesis (for Optimized Musculature and Punch Through Wall)
• Cybernetic Leg Prosthesis (for Klipspringer Jump Mod)
• Glass-Shield Cloaking
• Hacking Capture (At least level 3)
• Remote Hacking
• Sarif Series 8 Energy Converter (Peak Recharge Rate is very useful)

Combat Primer

Heavy firepower and good shooting win an awful lot of engagements. No matter what some people enjoy, there’s nothing wrong with taking a violent approach to your missions. Given a different set of augmentations, you can make Jensen into a walking tank. He’ll survive massive punishment and give back 10x what he takes. Runs with this style of play are faster by far. You lose some XP on individual kills compared to Non-Lethal play, but you can take out every target in each mission without skipping any content. That makes up for the difference, and sometimes means that killers make even more XP than stealthers (it really varies depending on how thorough stealthier players are).

This isn’t much of a run-and-gun type of game. You take damage quickly if you fight out in the open, so stay behind cover during all of your fights. Use walls, ledges, containers, and anything else with a hard surface to protect Jensen from damage. Watch out for lighter cover that can be destroyed by enemy fire and leave you exposed; if something looks flimsy, it’s not trustworthy as cover.

If you’re the one starting an engagement, get behind cover ahead of time and use a headshot to kill your first target. Long-range weapons like the Sniper Rifle are ideal for starting fights like this. Make that first shot count as a guaranteed kill.

Ironsights are a must. Firing from the hip has terrible accuracy, even with good augmentations. Use the Right Stick to get the reticle close to a target. Then, aim down your sights at the last moment, fire quickly, and let yourself duck back behind cover. This method lets you do most of your aiming when you’re still protected. You’re only exposed while aiming down your sights, so make sure that is the fastest part of the process.

VERY IMPORTANT AUGMENTATIONS (GET THEM ASAP)

• Cybernetic Weapon Handling
• Focus Enhancement
• Rhino Dermal Armor
• Sarif Series 8 Energy Converter
• Sentinel RX Health System
• Titan