Get to Grips the Loop Mechanic, UI, & Lead System
There are a lot of different systems and mechanics to learn during Deathloop’s linear tutorial section, and when the game finally lets you loose on Blackreef it can be a little confusing as to where to start. Our advice is to really spend a bit of time digging around Deathloop’s UI and get to grips with how to track Visionary and Arsenal Leads, as well as Discoveries.
What you’ll want to do is pick an area of Blackreef, track a Visionary, and not only go and take them out but explore and investigate everything. Deathloop’s story only progresses when Colt investigates his environment and locates various clues, called leads. Read every note and play every cassette recording you find. The more you investigate, the more waypoints will be available to help you uncover more of the story. You don’t literally have to read everything, just make sure you at least investigate them.
A good starting point (after taking out Wenji at The Complex as part of the tutorial) is Karl’s Bay; go and take on Harriet in the morning. You can read our guide on how to kill her easily. Again, though, do make sure you thoroughly investigate her office and read everything you can. From there, we recommend taking on Charlie in Updaam, and then Egor at The Complex. Charlie has a safe room at the top level of Condition Zero with lots of good leads, and there’s more to learn from Egor’s den after killing him.
Learn to Infuse Trinkets, Slabs, and Weapons
Deathloop tips and tricks
You will learn about infusing gear early on in Deathloop during the tutorial and after you have killed Wenji for the first time. Still, it’s so easy to forget to infuse your gear after successfully running a region of Blackreef, so make sure you are not only picking up Trinkets and other useful gear when you’re out exploring but also infusing them when you get back to The Tunnels.
One key thing to keep in mind is that if you happen to pick up a Slab upgrade, either by killing a Visionary for a second time or by killing Julianna and picking one up from her that already have, these also need to be infused otherwise you will lose the upgrade.
Get Your Hands on the Best Guns
There are 13 different firearms to use in Deathloop, with most available in three different tiers of quality: grey, blue, and purple. There are one or two gold-colored weapons, too, which are among the game’s most powerful.
However, gold weapons aren’t necessarily the best. In fact, we found that there are one or two purple variants of standard weapons that are particularly good. For our money, the Vopat Trencher shotgun, Rapier handgun, and Pepper Mill machine gun in either blue or (ideally) purple are solid choices. You can also add weapon Trinkets to boost their performance even further.
Twinfinite has put together a list of best weapons in Deathloop that we recommend you check out. Obviously, you’ll want to have a play around with all of them and see which works best for you, but there are certainly a few to keep your eye on finding and making sure you infuse — the one pictured above, in particular, is extremely good.
Kill Egor and Charlie to Get Aether & Shift Slabs
Deathloop tips and tricks
As we mentioned earlier, two Visionaries worth killing early on in Deathloop are Charlie and Egor, not only because there are lots of good Leads scattered around their whereabouts to help you advance the story but also because they possess two of the game’s best Slabs. The Aether (invisibility) and Shift (teleport) are arguably the best two abilities in the game and they make the rest of the missions so much easier if you have them. You might even consider running these assassinations twice right off the bat just to get the upgrades for each as that makes it even easier still.
Here’s a guide on how to kill Charlie easily. Here’s another on how to kill Egor easily.
Use Your Hackamjig
Regardless of whether you prefer to play stealthily or aggressively, the Hackamajig is such a useful tool in Deathloop and it’s one you really ought to get yourself familiar with. It can be used to take down turrets and alarms, as well as opening seemingly blocked doors and also distracting Eternalists. Keep an eye out for the Trinket that increases the speed with which it can hack as that is massively helpful both in and out of combat.
Alerting Enemies Isn’t the End of the World
Deathloop tips and tricks
Unlike in previous Arkane Studios games, Deathloop isn’t weighted as heavily towards stealth. While we would certainly advise always starting a run of any Blackreef area with the intention of staying hidden, don’t worry if things go awry. It actually doesn’t matter all that much if you’re spotted; Eternalists will only alert enemies very close by to them, and even when startled it’s easy to quickly slash at them with your machete before you need to be concerned about being discovered by others.
In fact, you can actually run through entire areas and totally blow your cover before finding somewhere to hide and wait a very brief amount of time for things to settle down. It’s not the most graceful way to play but it means you can boost through regions of Blackreef quickly without the frustrating of getting bogged down dealing with Eternalists. This is important given that you will be running through each region at least three or four times, likely much more.
Learn How to Deal With Julianna
Julianna will do more than hurl abuse at you over the microphone. Periodically, and later in the game very frequently, she will ‘go on the hunt’ and actively seek you out. Most of the time, she is AI-controlled, but if you have your game set to online mode it will sometimes be another player. In any case, you’re going to have to learn how to deal with Julianna quickly and effectively, especially as invasions —AI or player-controlled-, often occur at the most inconvenient moments.
One key thing to know about Julianna is that she uses a Masquerade Slab ability, which allows her to take on the appearance of an Eternalist. She almost always uses this ability, but she can sometimes appear with other Slabs, such as Shift or Aether. In any case, once she has turned up, find a vantage point and look out for her movement, which tends to be more erratic than run-of-the-mill Eternalists. You will also see flashes of Residuum when she’s using her abilities.
Also, listen for Julianna. It’s often hard to tell whether she’s near or far away, but if you can hear her clearly she’s obviously very close. Use this to gauge your strategy of taking her down.
Of course, you don’t always need to take on Julianna. You can also run away or just get on with your objective and hope you don’t run into her; typically, AI-controlled Julianna engages you in open areas of the sandbox, and so sometimes you can be sure that if you slip inside a building she won’t necessarily follow. This certainly isn’t always the case, but more often than not standing out in the open attracts her more quickly.
To escape from Julianna, or just to leave an area after she has invaded, requires you to go and hack the region’s antenna. This is marked on your map, and hacking it is very simple using the Hackamajig. Just make sure you keep in mind that this is something you will need to do before leaving a region, and so leave yourself enough health to safely get everything done. You wouldn’t want to lose precious Residuum, Trinkets, Slabs, and anything else you have picked up along the way!
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