Character Generation
At the start you get a choice of three branches of the military. This has a large significance on the early game.
OSA (Psionic)
The psionic group — they get Tier One ability for free plus a Psi-amp. Recommended tour choices: Kinetic Redirection, +2 Psionic Ability, and Remote Electron Tampering. This lets you get out-of-reach items, cast more powerful psionic powers, and stop alarms.
An OSA character should make the most of their psionic powers. Getting the Tier 2 power Heal should be their first goal. Research is also important. Use Cryokinesis to take out cameras and multiple enemies. Beware of using all your Psi points — they only regenerate with a Psi-hypo or, later on, a researched item.
Navy
They get +1 Standard Weapons for free. Recommended choices: Hack, Cyber-affinity, and Research. Hack is extremely useful — you get cheaper goods from replicators, can get turrets to fight for you, and can open security crates.
Marines
Also get +1 Standard Weapons for free. Recommended choices: bonus Strength for carrying things, whichever weapon type you prefer, then Maintenance which is vital for energy weapons.
Weapons Guide
Standard Weapons
- Wrench — Your first weapon. High strength increases damage, high agility increases fire rate. Good against Hybrids.
- Pistol (Standard 1) — Versatile. One shot takes out a camera, one AP round kills a Protocol Droid. Save AP rounds for Maintenance Robots when possible.
- Shotgun (Standard 3) — Two ammo types: normal (all-purpose) and anti-personnel (good against fleshy targets). Triple shot does double damage.
- Assault Rifle (Standard 6) — Over twice the pistol's damage with a larger clip. Auto fire is extremely powerful but uses ammo fast and degrades quickly. High Maintenance essential. Uses the same ammo as the Pistol.
Energy Weapons
- Laser Pistol (Energy 1) — No ammo needed, but requires a recharger. Weak against Hybrids, virtually useless against Annelids, but good against cameras and robots.
- Laser Rapier (Energy 4, Agility 3) — Hand-to-hand weapon. No ammo, no charge, no maintenance. Very powerful — kills most enemies in one or two swipes. Good against everything except Annelid creatures.
- EMP Rifle (Energy 6) — The best robot killer. One shot kills a camera or Protocol Droid, three shots kills most robots. Does nothing to fleshy targets. Requires Maintenance 6.
Heavy Weapons
- Grenade Launcher (Heavy 1) — The most versatile gun in the game. Ammo types: Frag, Proximity, Incendiary, EMP, and Disruption. Proximity grenades stick to surfaces when fired on contact mode.
- Stasis Field Generator (Heavy 3, Strength 3) — Freezes targets but does no damage. Good as a retreat tactic or to freeze enemies while you pummel them with your wrench.
- Fusion Gun (Heavy 6) — Good damage against robots, cyborgs, and Hybrids but little against Annelids. A Stasis Field Generator plus Laser Pistol combo is generally better.
Exotic Weapons
- Crystal Shard (Exotic 1, Research 4) — Best combat weapon.
- Viral Proliferator (Exotic 4, Research 3) — Not worth the effort.
- Worm Launcher (Exotic 6, Research 6) — Like the EMP Rifle but for living targets. Remember: Hybrids and all their evolutions are HUMAN, but psionic projections count as Annelid.
Tip: Throughout the game you will find beakers. Do not throw them away! Drag beakers onto piles of worms to create worm ammo. These stack and can be duplicated with psionic powers. Also good for recycling into nanites.
Walkthrough
Deck 2: Med/Sci
- Go past the security room, then left. Watch out for a camera. If you don't have a gun, go to the Xerxes room (right instead of left) and search bodies for a pistol. Search the smoking body for a Power Cell.
- Recharge the cell at the recharger — go straight from start, turn right, past the lift, through a door, past the chemical storeroom, down the ladder. Watch out for two turrets if you haven't hacked security.
- Put the recharged cell in the wall socket. Go through the bulkhead to Med/Sci 2.
- The Crew Sector keycard is found by going left past the medical table and regenerator, then right past the camera, continuing until a radioactive area. Smash the window on the left, jump through, climb down the ladder.
- The R&D Sector keycard is in the Crew Sector. Go past the OS Upgrade station, down into the waterlogged area beneath — it's in Watts' Room on the far right.
- In R&D, proceed until you reach a lift. Watts is down there. Search for a log with the key code to Engineering before you leave.
- Go back to the lift area — opposite is the maintenance shaft. Go down it.
Deck 1: Engineering
- Go to the Engineering Control Room (left at the start). It's locked — Polito tells you where to go.
- Navigate the coolant tube maze. Rest in non-radioactive areas to let your rad counter drop. Rad hypos and speed boosters help.
- Polito will give you the code for a storeroom containing the Rad Suit.
- Exit the coolant tubes into an area with a replicator, lift, regeneration chamber, and camera. There's a security station in the central room.
- Go through the door past the Xerxes room, up the grav shaft to Fluids Control.
- The code for Fluids Control is in Cargo Bay 2. The keycard for Cargo Bay 2 is in Cargo Bay 1.
- Hit the rubble with your wrench in Cargo Bay 1 to enter.
- Get the repair part from the Chemical Storeroom (a log gives you the code).
- Install the part in the slot on the top story of the Control Room near the cargo bays.
- Return to Fluids Control and reset the system.
- Go back to the start and through the previously locked door.
- Reset both nacelles, then the main engine (up a lift).
Deck 3: Hydroponics
- Find the science officer's log (turn right from the lifts) explaining how to remove the slime.
- The Toxin Vials are in a room with both doors locked. Climb in through the breakable window of the adjacent room via the desk.
- Research the vials (only requires skill 1 — there's a Lab Assistant nearby).
- Get chemicals from the storerooms (check your chemical manifests).
- Collect additional vials — there are five total scattered across the deck.
- Place vials in each of the four environmental regulators across the deck.
- The regulators require keycards found throughout the sectors. One is in the cold area (left off the main loop). Watch out for traps near the regulators.
Deck 4: Ops
- Activate the bio-reconstruction unit and search the crates. Only one bulkhead will open.
- Proceed down the corridor to find Polito. Not quite what you expected!
- Locate three sim-units through the bulkheads. You need Sim-Unit Keys from red cyborgs (they run away but attack if cornered).
- One red cyborg is in a room with falling explosive barrels — keep moving.
- Another is in a meeting room with chairs.
- The sim-units are: one near a bulkhead leading to the chemical storeroom, one down ladders to "Sim Unit 3," and one past a turret near Bronson's body.
Deck 5: Recreation
The transmitter code is hidden in art terminals around the deck. The code is 1, 4, 10, 6 (or possibly 1, 10, 4, 6 — try both).
The Crew Keycard is in the garden. The Athletic Keycard is in the Crew Sector. An OS Upgrade is in the mall. The lift to Deck 6 is in the middle of the Crew Sector.
Deck 6: Command
Watch out for Rumblers and rocket launcher turrets. Hack turrets if you can and make sure you have cover.
- Exit the lift, go through the only open door to the tram. If you're a hacker, disable security before running to the tram.
- Proceed to the last tram stop. Go through the bulkhead — you can't catch up with what you see, so don't try.
The Rickenbacker
The hardest-to-find egg is hidden behind a gas leak on the top floor in the area with narrow corridors and gravitonic controls.
Torpedo Bay: Raise the left-hand torpedoes twice and the right-hand ones once. Jump onto the right-hand ones, run across the gantry onto the left-hand ones, then jump to the ladder.
Bring batteries or have the Electron Cascade psi-power — rechargers are rare on these decks.
The Many
You will need one of the following loadouts:
- Assault Rifle with lots of Anti-Personnel ammo
- Worm Launcher with plenty of worms
- Psi powers: Pyrokinesis, Localised Pyrokinesis, and Invisibility
- Grenade Launcher with Incendiary and Disruption grenades plus Stasis Generator
Final Level
You should be able to complete this with virtually any weapon set, but you absolutely need either: a high Hack skill, 3 ICE-Picks, or the Psi-power Psi-Hack. The level is impossible without one of these.
OS Upgrades
You only get 4 OS Upgrades in the entire game. Choose wisely.
- Naturally Able — Do NOT choose this. It looks good early but is useless late-game.
- Strong Metabolism — Bad. Rad exposure is normally brief and a Rad Suit works better.
- Tank — Quite good, effectively +1 Endurance. Best with Endurance of at least 4.
- Pack Rat — +1 Strength for carrying only. Useless if Strength reaches 5-6.
- Cybernetically Enhanced — One of the best. Allows two implants simultaneously, effectively giving you both Pack Rat and Tank. Very versatile.
- Pharmo Friendly — Should be the first choice for OSA characters. Increases Psi-hypo effectiveness.
- Replicator Expert — Useful to all characters. Best combined with hacked replicators. With Pharmo Friendly, an OSA gets a conversion rate of 4 nanites to 3 psi points.
- Smasher / Lethal Weapon — Both increase hand-to-hand damage. Smasher gives more damage but slower attacks. Get Smasher first for the larger damage bonus.
Recommended Character Build
Start as OSA. Choose Psi-Pull, +2 Psi Stat, and Neuro-Reflex Dampening.
Don't upgrade at the start — go up the lift and through the door to get 4 extra Cyber Modules first, then return. Get Hack as soon as possible to handle turrets (OSA's weakness). Get Adrenaline Overproduction early — one of the best Psi powers in the game. With a high Psi stat and both OS hand-to-hand upgrades, you can kill a Rumbler in one hit.
Get Localised Pyrokinesis to kill groups of enemies and gain fire immunity — Protocol Droids can't hurt you and robot explosions only deal 5 HP damage.
Get Research to increase damage by 25%. For robots, use a Pistol with Neuro-Reflex Dampening and burst mode with AP ammo. Remember not to destroy eggs without searching them first — useful organs can be found inside.
