Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
C h r i s
L e e ' s
U l t i m a t e
S S 2
A n a l y s i s
v 1.12
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The officially latest (as well as latest, official) version of this
FAQ/Guide can be found at www.gamefaqs.com.
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Table of Contents
----------------------------------------------------------------------A word on navigation: to jump to a specific section, simply use the
'FIND' command (CTRL-F) and type in the 5 letter key next to the
section (doing only the 3 numbers within the brackets will probably
send you to a random section of the guide).
----------------------------------------------------------------------1. Introduction and Contact Info (aka What the hell is this?) [100]
2. General Notes (aka What other guides won't tell you!) [200]
a. Stats [210]
b. Damage bonuses [220]
c. Difficulties [230]
d. Cyber Modules [240]
e. Character Creation [250]
f. Weapon Durability [260]
3. Standard Weapons [300]
a. Wrench [310]
b. Pistol [320]
c. Shotgun [330]
d. Assault Rifle [340]
4. Energy Weapons [400]
a. Laser Pistol [410]
b. Laser Rapier [420]
c. EMP Rifle [430]
5. Heavy Weapons [500]
a. Grenade Launcher [510]
b. Stasis Field Generator [520]
c. Fusion Cannon [530]
6. Exotic Weapons [600]
a. Crystal Shard [610]
b. Viral Proliferator [620]
c. Annelid Launcher (aka Worm Launcher) [630]
7. Technical Skills [700]
8. PSI [800]
a. Tier 1 [810]
b. Tier 2 [820]
c. Tier 3 [830]
d. Tier 4 [840]
e. Tier 5 [850]
9. OS Upgrades [900]
10. Researchable Things [A00]
11. Managing Impossible Difficulty [B00]
a. General Tips [B10]
b. Full OSA [B20]
i. A Word on PSI Hypos [B21]
ii. PSI Hypo Economics [B22]
iii.OS Upgrades [B23]
iv. Technical Skills [B24]
v. Stats and PSI [B25]
vi. Typical Build [B26]
vii.Notes/Tactics [B27]
12. Character Concepts [C00]
13. Bestiary [D00]
a. Damage Table [D10]
b. Annelids [D20]
i. Annelid Egg [D21]
ii. Annelid Grub [D22]
iii.Arachnids [D23]
iv. PSI Reavers [D24]
c. Swarms [D30]
i. Swarm [D31]
c. Half Annelids [D40]
i. Hybrids [D41]
ii. Rumblers [D42]
iii.Monkeys [D43]
d. Half Mechanical [D50]
i. Assassins [D51]
ii. Midwives [D52]
e. Mechanical [D60]
i. Turrets [D61]
ii. Robots [D62]
iii.SHODAN Avatar [D63]
f. Basic [D70]
i. SHODAN Shield [D71]
g. SHODAN [D80]
i. SHODAN [D81]
14. Appendix: Molecular Transmutation Analysis [E00]
a. The Equation [E10]
b. The Table [E20]
15. Final Notes [F00]
a. Conclusion/Special Thanks [F10]
b. Resources [F20]
c. Endnotes and References [F30]
d. My Works [F40]
e. Legal Disclaimer [F50]
f. History [F60]
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1. Introduction and Contact Info (aka What the hell is this?)
[100]
----------------------------------------------------------------------System Shock 2 is one of THE most entertaining games ever created.
Period.
That wild assertion being said, it surprised me how low the level of
discourse was for a game that is so amazingly complex. Guide existed
with gross errors, huge fallacies, and oversimplifications.
Thus I felt I had a mission to produce a high-quality (can you feel
the pretension yet?), in-depth analysis of everything System Shock 2
has to offer.
I must warn you: this is NOT a walkthrough. If you want to find
out where every cybermodule is, this is not the guide for you. If you
do want to see just how useful everything is, then by all means, this
is for you.
If you want to grab a hold of me, pop me an e-mail with the subject
line beginning "SS2 FAQ: " and send it to:
s___i_m__u_l__c__r_a@uchicago.edu
WITHOUT the underscores. This is just to prevent auto-parsers from
nabbing my e-mail address for SPAM. So, the final e-mail should be
an 8-letter word followed by @uchicago.edu.
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2. General Notes (aka What other guides won't tell you!)
[200]
----------------------------------------------------------------------So there's a lot of basic information that most guides won't tell you
and are fairly important to know.
----------------------------------------------------------------------2a. Stats
[210]
Strength: each point gives you 3 extra inventory slots, plus
increases melee damage.
How much extra damage you deal with a melee weapon is determined as:
Strength Score
Bonus Damage
1
0
2
1
3
2
4
3
5
4
6
6
7
10
8
15
Note that this damage is dealt after any multiplicative bonuses to
your weapon, as otherwise it'd just be ridiculous (8 Strength with
maxed Wrench would do absurd damage per hit).
Endurance: each point reduces toxin/radiation and PSI Burnout
damage and increases Health.
How much damage you take from toxins, radiation, and burnout is
determined as:
Endurance Score
Environmental Damage
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Normal burnout damage is 3 damage per tier of
on.
100%
94%
85%
73%
58%
40%
20%
1%
PSI that you burned
1
10
12
10
3
2
5
3
6
20
5
3
8
8
8
30
8
4
12
15
15
50
12
5
25
30
36
75
20
6
50
50
50
-
get several choices eventually, you should opt for the one that gives
you more cybernetic modules for free, especially on Hard and Impossible
difficulties, where the discrepency in free modules between choices
grows.
All cybernetic module equivalences are for Normal difficulty.
Multiply by .85 for Easy (rounding down), 1.39 for Hard (rounding
down), and 1.79 for Impossible (rounding down) to get values for those
difficulties.
MARINES: simply by choosing this path you get Standard Weapons +1 for
free (worth 12 modules).
Year 1: All choices are worth 11 modules.
Year 2:
a) +1 Energy Weapons, +1 Cyber-Affinity: worth 15 modules. You
also begin the game with a poor condition (2) Laser Pistol
in your inventory.
b) +1 Heavy Weapons, +1 Cyber-Affinity: worth 15 modules. You
also begin the game with a poor condition (2) Grenade Launcher
in your inventory with a full clip of Fragmentation Grenades.
c) +2 Standard Weapons: worth 14 modules.
Year 3: All choices are worth 10 modules, but with +1 Maintenace,
you also begin the game with a Disposable Maintenance Tool in
your inventory.
CONCLUSION - You can get a maximum of 48 free cybernetic modules.
NAVY: simply by choosing this path you get Standard Weapons +1 for
free (worth 12 modules).
Year 1: All choices are worth 13 modules.
Year 2:
a) +2 Cyber-Affinity: worth 11 modules.
b) +1 Maintenance: worth 10 modules. You also begin the game
with a Disposable Maintenance Tool in your inventory.
c) +2 Standard Weapons: worth 14 modules.
Year 3:
a) +1 Research: worth 10 modules.
b) +2 Endurance: worth 11 modules.
c) +2 Agility: worth 11 modules.
CONCLUSION - You can get a maximum of 50 free cybernetic modules.
OSA: simply by choosing this path you get Tier 1 PSI for free (worth
10 modules). You also begin the game with a PSI Amp in your inventory.
Year 1: All choices are worth 26 modules.
Year 2:
a) +2 PSI: worth 11 modules.
b) +1 Research: worth 10 modules.
c) +2 Endurance: worth 11 modules.
Year 3: All choices are worth 13 modules.
CONCLUSION - You can get a maximum of 60 free cybernetic modules.
In the end, the biggest difference is between Navy/Marines and the
OSA. This basically means that if you plan on getting PSI at some
point in the game at all (especially the abilities offered by the OSA
path), you should probably become an OSA. On Impossible, this is
18 more cybernetic modules for free over the Navy, choosing solely
optimal paths.
On Normal and Easy, you can afford to be "wasteful" with your
cybernetic modules; the difference matters little in the end and plays
mainly into your short-run goals. If you want to be able to research
as soon as possible and get that 25% bonus against hybrids asap,
that's fine. Or maybe you're going to get Research anyway, but you
want +2 Endurance so you'll have better early survability.
On Hard, you have to weigh your choices a bit more. The difference
can be as much 20 cyber modules (inefficient NAVY versus efficient
OSA), which is enough to boost a stat up two levels or get a Tier 4
PSI ability, all of which matter a whole lot more than Normal or Easy
since you have comparatively less of them (stats and PSI). Still,
even here, the difference is not nearly as pronounced as Impossible,
and it really ultimately works down to the character concept you have.
----------------------------------------------------------------------2f. Weapon Durability
[260]
Just a note: in the following weapons section, treat all durability
as if you were rounding up for purposes of what is displayed in-game.
That is, if you have a weapon at 9.5 durability, it'll show as "10"
in-game. Likewise, .9 durability is "1".
Yes, that's right. Durability is stored as a decimal with 3
digits of precision (so up to 2 decimal places). You only get to see
the integer part of it, but that's all you really need to know.
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3. Standard Weapons
[300]
----------------------------------------------------------------------Standard Weapons are, without a doubt, the single most powerful path
of training you can take in System Shock 2. With proper management of
ammunition types (so you use the right ammo on the right enemies),
almost NOTHING will ever stand in your way. Not only is it absurdly
powerful, but it's also the easiest for which to obtain ammunition.
In fact, you may be stunned by the lack of challenge you face in the
end-game if you take this path. If you want this game to be more than
a walk in the park, I wouldn't take standard weapons past level 3
(for shotguns).
----------------------------------------------------------------------3a. Wrench
[310]
Prerequisites: None
Damage: 7 (9 with Smasher)
Damage Type: WeaponBash
Assessment (4/5): Despite not having any prerequisites, the Wrench
is a standard weapon. Which means if you max out Standard Weapons,
you'll get a total of a 90% bonus to damage.
The Wrench will pretty much be the meat of your offense for most of
the early game. Dealing WeaponBash damage, it'll deal full damage
to most everything and half damage to robots. With certain Hard
difficulty builds and on Impossible difficulty, this will be the
workhorse of your offense.
However, its weakness is in the fact that it's so basic. There
are other weapons that will do better in any task you need it do to,
although the wrench is the most cyber module-effective (in other words,
free).
DANGER: The wrench does *not* damage SHODAN. Take care to have a
SHODAN-damaging backup weapon on hand if you plan on going all out
with wrenching.
----------------------------------------------------------------------3b. Pistol
[320]
Prerequisites: Standard Weapons 1
Damage: Primary mode - 4, Secondary mode - 4 x 3 shots
Damage Type: Standard, Armor Piercing, High-Explosive
Ammunition/Consumption: Bullets/1 per shot, clip size of 12
Fire Rate: Primary mode - 2 shots/sec, Secondary mode - 3 shots 3
times/sec.
Reload Time: .5 seconds
Projectile Speed: Very Fast (300)
Breakability: At durability 1.0, will have a .5% chance of breaking,
increasing linearly to a 5% chance of breaking at
durability 0.0. Loses .1 durability per shot.
Maintenance/Repair: 1/1
Repair Difficulty: 20 Nanite cost, Base Failure 70%, Base ICE 3.
Modify #1: Increases clip size (12 to 24). Damage increased by 10%.
Difficulty: Modify 1 required, 20 Nanite cost, Base Failure 70%,
Base ICE 2.
Modify #2: Reduces reload time by 2/3. Damage bonus increased to a
total of 25%.
Difficulty: Modify 3 required, 35 Nanite cost, Base Failure 90%,
Base ICE 4.
Assessment (3/5): Early on, this is a terrible weapon. Ammo is
rare and the Pistol is in fact weaker than the wrench. Moreover, the
Pistol degrades quite quickly, especially in the triple-shot mode.
However, once ammo becomes more common and once you've been able to
develop the ability to quickly switch to the appropriate types of ammo
(Standard ammunition is not quite efficient), the Pistol becomes quite
an effective tool for dispatching tough enemies. Although, you should
be able to do quite well with a wrench in most cases, though the
Pistol is a nice way to dispatch Protocol Droids, turrets, and all
other forms of tough monstrosities.
----------------------------------------------------------------------3c. Shotgun
[330]
Prerequisites: Standard Weapons 3
Damage: Primary mode - 8, Secondary mode - 16
Pellet Damage: Primary mode - 1 x 6 scattered shots, Secondary
mode - 2 x 6 scattered shots
Damage Type: Standard, High-Explosive (Pellets)
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4. Energy Weapons
[400]
----------------------------------------------------------------------Energy Weapons, like Exotic Weapons, are highly specialized. They
focus on doing massive damage to robotic creations (most of them do
Energy, which does double damage against robots, but half damage
against organic and semi-organic creatures). Unfortunately, Mechanical
and Robotic enemies are much less frequent then organic creatures.
However, this is made up for by the fact that ammunition for Energy
Weapons is essentially infinite, since you can instantly recharge all
of them by visiting a Charger. If you're not near one, you can just
use a Portable Battery or Electron Cascade (PSI power) to buy yourself
time.
More than anyother weapons category, Energy Weapons benefit from a
high Maintenance. Maintenance increases the maximum charge that can
be stored by 10 per Maintenance, which is hugely significant. The
last thing that you want to happen is to run out of charge in the
middle of a fight.
DANGER: DO NOT TAKE THIS AS YOUR ONLY METHOD OF OFFENSE; THE BODY
OF THE MANY IS ALL ORGANIC AND LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE WITH JUST AN EMP
RIFLE. It is remotely possible with just a lasier rapier, but close
to impossible with just a laser pistol (unless you do a *lot* of
nimble footwork and backtracking to the recharge station... which
=======================================================================
5. Heavy Weapons
[500]
Maintenance/Repair: 3/6
Repair Difficulty: 60 Nanite cost, Base Failure 105%, Base ICE 4.
Modify #1: Increases projectile speed by 100%.
Difficulty: Modify 2 required, 25 Nanite cost, Base Failure 90%,
Base ICE 3.
Modify #2: Reduces prism consumption by 50%.
Difficulty: Modify 4 required, 40 Nanite cost, Base Failure 115%,
Base ICE 5.
Assessment (2/5, Multiplayer 3/5): Unlike every other weapon, this
actually deals no damage. Instead, it stuns an enemy and holds them
in place for a few seconds, giving you time to prepare another attack
or just to run away. The Secondary Mode consumes more prisms but
grants an area of effect, allowing you to freeze several enemeis in
place.
There are a few times when this might be useful; highly agile Cyborg
Assassins messing with you, a group of Rumblers are chasing you down,
etc. Its duration is similar to a really low PSI Electron
Suppression, but paired with a quick switch a Grenade Launcher or
Fusion Cannon, it could be all the time you need to dispatch a mass of
enemies. Plus, with both modifications, for limited use its prism
consumption is pretty frugal.
Ultimately, though, it tends to work solely for emergencies (like
the aforementioned example of running into a group of Cyborg
Assassins). Unfortunately because of this, it's so specialized in
when you'll need it, that you'll rarely be busting it out. Moreover,
by virtue of how good the Grenade Launcher can be, you may end up
better off shooting a suitable Grenade instead.
A special note for multiplayer: this actually becomes quite a good
support weapon. This won't stun your friends, so you can use it to
freeze monsters and let them do the dirty work without worrying about
accidentally killing off your friends with a grenade or fusion blast.
NOTE: PSI Reavers seem to be immune to this weapon.
----------------------------------------------------------------------5c. Fusion Cannon
[530]
Prerequisities: Heavy Weapons 6, Strength 4
Damage: Normal Mode - 20 (Area of Effect of radius 10 ft),
Death Mode - 30 (Area of Effect of radius 12 ft).
Damage Type: Energy
Ammunition/Consumption: Prisms/Both Modes - 2 Prisms, clip size of
40.
Fire Rate: Normal Mode - 1 shot/sec, Death Mode - 1 shot/2 secs.
Reload Time: .2 seconds
Projectile Speed: Primary Mode - Slow (60), Secondary Mode - Very
Slow (24).
=======================================================================
6. Exotic Weapons
[600]
----------------------------------------------------------------------Exotic Weapons are the reverse of Energy Weapons - specializing in
NOTE: The Crystal Shard has the longest range of all the non-PSI
melee weapons (roughly similar to the PSI Sword). It also has a
dramatically different sweep (it tends to hit targets dramatically
better to the left of the targetting cursor). Adjust melee strategy
accordingly.
----------------------------------------------------------------------6b. Viral Proliferator
[620]
Prerequisites: Exotic Weapons 4, Research 3 (Technetium, Tellurium)
Damage: 15 (Area of Effect of radius 10 ft).
Damage Type: Primary Mode - Anti-Annelid, Secondary Mode - AntiHuman
Ammunition/Consumption: Worms/2 per shot, clip size of 8.
Fire Rate: 5 shots/sec.
Reload Time: Instantaneous
Projectile Speed: Slow (50).
Breakability: At durability 2.5, will have a 1% chance of breaking,
increasing linearly to a 10% chance of breaking at
durability 0.0. Loses .3 durability per shot.
Maintenance/Repair: 4/4
Repair Difficulty: 50 Nanite cost, Base Failure 115%, Base ICE 6.
Modify #1: Increases clip size (8 to 18). Damage increased by 10%.
Difficulty: Modify 3 required, 50 Nanite cost, Base Failure 95%,
Base ICE 5.
Modify 2: Reduces worms used per shot (2 to 1). Damage bonus
increased from 10% to a 25% bonus.
Difficulty: Modify 5 required, 75 Nanite cost, Base Failure 125%,
Base ICE 7.
Assessment (3/5): First off, the Viral Proliferator fires very
differently from all other weapons. If you just click the fire button,
it'll explode right in your face. Instead, once you press down the
fire button, you'll launch a projectile, and when you release the fire
button, the projectile will explode wherever it is.
This odd way of firing has its strengths and weaknesses. There is
no cooldown (like the EMP Rifle), so if you're on the Anti-Annelid
setting, you can fire this willy-nilly at point blank range and destroy
anything nearby. Unlike the Grenade Launcher, this precision aiming
will allow you to control exactly where you want the projectile to
explode, possibly taking out several enemies from quite a distance away
(since the projectile keeps going until you detonate it or it runs
into something). On the other hand, this form of aiming is difficult
to get the hang of, and if you do, it's ultimately a much slower way
of firing at anything at a relatively significant distance.
That aside, you load the thing up with worms (which you get by using
Beakers on those piles of worms you see everywhere). Then, you set
the setting (much like you change firing modes) to either Anti-Annelid
or Anti-Human. With the right aiming, you'll be able to demolish the
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7. Technical Skills
[700]
----------------------------------------------------------------------As a general rule, for tasks involving "success," each level of a
technical skill reduces the difficulty (chance of failure) by 10%,
each level of software reduces the difficulty by 10%, and each CYB
reduces the number of ICE Nodes by 1 and redues the difficulty by 5%.
Be warned: Hacking Software and any inherent Hack/CYB do *not* factor
in to the difficulty reduction when using Remote Circuitry
Manipulation.
----------------------------------------------------------------------Modify: Modify is an interesting skill in that it's usefulness
correlates completely to the number of players in a game. In a
Single Player game, there are enough French-Epstein devices that,
with proper weapon maintenance and prioritization, you will never
need to pick this skill up (for example, there's no need to modify a
Pistol when you'll eventually be getting the Assault Rifle) - though
this is less true on higher difficulties where you'll run into less.
However, in Multiplayer games, the number of F-E devices is split up
between each player, which reduces the number each player gets,
especially when you consider four players in a game (which
translates into roughly one F-E device per player).
=======================================================================
8. PSI
[800]
----------------------------------------------------------------------8a. Tier 1
[810]
*Learning Tier 1 grants you 2 bonus PSI Points.*
Psycho-reflective Screen: Gives you 15% damage reduction for 20
seconds plus 30 seconds per PSI.
Analysis: The damage reduction is so negligible that most of the
time it just ends up being a rounding error. Moreover, the duration
is so short that the only time you'll set this up is right before a
fight. That time is better spent actually dealing damage.
NOTE: All PSI armors (Psycho-reflective Screen, Energy
Reflection, Psycho-reflective Aura) stack with each other and with
normal armor.
Score: 1/5
Neuro-reflex Dampening: Eliminates all weapon kickback for 1 minute
plus 20 seconds per PSI.
Analysis: It's not that hard to deal with kickback, and
sufficient Agility deals with that anyway. Furthermore, only
Standard and Exotic Weapons are affected by kickback, and only
Exotic weapons have a truly severe kickback problem, and even those
have such specialized aiming mechanisms that this PSI ability is of
debatable merit). Then again, full-auto Assault Rifle with this
enabled is quite vicious for anyone with less than amazing Agility.
Score: 1/5 (possibly 3/5 with Standard)
Kinetic Redirection: Pulls an object toward you for 1 second per PSI.
Analysis: A useful ability since you can get it for free for
training. If you can get it for free (going OSA path), get it.
Otherwise, it's probably not worth it. There are a few places you
can use it to great extent (in fact, if you don't have an autorepair
unit or Hack 6, it may be your only way to get a Fusion Cannon), but
generally nothing you'll ever absolutely need.
Note that if you ever see cyber modules seemingly out of reach,
you will always be able to reach it somehow; you can't use Kinetic
Redirection to grab cyber modules from afar.
Score: 3/5
Psychogenic Agility: Increases your Agility by 2 for 2 minutes plus 1
minute per PSI.
Analysis: A *very* great ability. This is an essential Tier 1
ability, and you should have it active at all times. It will
increase your movement speed significantly and has the side effect
of reducing damage from running into things or falling.
Score: 5/5
Psychogenic Cyber-Affinity: Increases your Cybernetic Affinity by 2
for 2 minutes plus 1 minute per PSI.
Analysis: If you plan on getting Hacking or any other technical
skill (which is almost a necessary unless you're scrimping and
getting Remote Circuitry Manipulation at Tier 4), this is a very,
very important skill, reducing your ICE node exposure andimproving
your success rate. However, this isn't an ability you need to keep
on all the time like Agility, just right before a technical task.
Score: 4/5
Projected Cryokinesis: Launches a projectile that deals Cold damage
equal to 3 + PSI.
Projectile Speed: Medium
Analysis: If you don't start off with OSA, it's almost pointless
since whatever weapon you pick up (and you can always pick up a
Pistol since non-OSA paths start off with Standard Weapons 1) is
most likely more efficient and more effective than this. However,
for PSI users, this is an essential ability, ranging from taking out
cameras, detonating robots and turrets, and taking out eggs from a
safe distance. It is also the most efficient PSI damage power
you'll get, all things being equal.
Just for comparison to the other PSI damage powers, with PSI 8,
you'll do 11 damage per PSI point. Note that this PSI damage is the
only one capable of hurting fully Mechanical enemies, at full
strength too!
Score: 1/5 (non-PSI), 5/5 (PSI)
Remote Electron Tampering: Reduces security alarm timers by 5 seconds
plus another 5 seconds per PSI.
Analysis: A very bad ability. You should either not be setting
off alarms, or you should be able to find Security Consoles with
enough ease that you can disable alarms faster than this ability can
do it.
Score: 0/5
----------------------------------------------------------------------8b. Tier 2
[820]
*Learning Tier 2 grants you 4 bonus PSI Points.*
Anti-Entropic field: Weapons do not degrade or break for 10 seconds
plus 20 seconds per PSI.
Analysis: Hardly worth the modules. Maintenance/Repair will take
care of any problems, and only Exotic Weapons degrade so much that
you may even begin to consider to use it as a pre-combat buff. If
the duration lasted much, much longer, then it might be worth it.
Score: 0/5
Adrenaline Overproduction: Increases melee damage by a factor (that
is, multiplied by) a number based on current PSI:
PSI
Damage Factor
1
1.13
2
1.52
3
2.17
4
3.08
5
4.25
6
5.65
7
7.37
8
9.32
The effect lasts for 10 seconds per PSI (see Endnote 1).
Analysis: A *very* good ability. On Easy or Normal, a
Melee-based character can tear through the biggest enemies in two to
three swipes with sufficient PSI. On Hard/Impossible, melee-ing
will become such a primary tool that this becomes a very valuable
ability.
Note that the damage multiplication is based on *current* PSI, so
overloading has no effect on the damage multiplication (other than a
longer duration). Thus, the only way to get up to an effective PSI
better, less-risky ways to deal with enemies than this slow ability.
Score: 4/5 (Easy or Normal), 1/5 (Hard or Impossible)
----------------------------------------------------------------------8c. Tier 3
[830]
*Learning Tier 3 grants you 6 bonus PSI Points.*
Molecular Duplication: Has a 30% + 10% per PSI chance of duplicating
a non-PSI hypo or clip of ammunition for some Nanite cost.
Analysis: A *very* strong ability, getting even stronger on Hard
and Impossible difficulties. It duplicates ammo and hypos (except
for PSI hypos) equal to the cost of a hacked replicator on *Normal*
difficulty, meaning massive discounts for Hard and Impossible
difficulties. You can also duplicate things you couldn't normally
buy at a Replicator, specifically PSI Boosters (20 Nanites) and
Beakers filled with Worms (120 Nanites for a clip of five). In
fact, for pursuing an Exotic Weapons path, this ability is almost
required.
Keep in mind, though, that you should factor in the cost of the
PSI Hypo you're going to have to buy to refill your PSI points.
Since this ability costs 3 PSI Points per shot, you should either
increase the cost of anything you buy by 3/20th (without
Pharmo-Friendly, 1/8th with) of the cost of a PSI Hypo at a
replicator. If you don't have Hack on Normal, or if you're just on
Hard or Impossible, it's still a really good deal.
Score: 5/5
Electron Cascade: Recharges 20 per PSI units of charge to an energybased item (implants, energy weapons, and power armor).
Analysis: A *very* strong ability, even stronger if you plan on
pursuing Energy Weapons. Even if you don't, this ensures your
implants and Power Armor will always stay charged at full power.
Increased Maintenance will help increase the efficiency of this
ability by increasing the maximum capacity of your Energy-based
stuff.
Score: 5/5
Energy Reflection: Grants 50% Energy damage immunity for 20 seconds
per PSI.
Analysis: Not that worth it except on Easy or Normal difficulty,
where this is cheap.
NOTE: All PSI armors (Psycho-reflective Screen, Energy
Reflection, Psycho-reflective Aura) stack with each other and with
normal armor.
Score: 2/5
Neural Toxin-Blocker: Grants 100% Toxin immunity for 10 seconds plus
5 seconds per PSI.
Analysis: Unless you're having alot of trouble avoiding getting
infected by eggs or Spiders, this is completely useless.
Score: 1/5
Enhanced Motion Sensitivity: Shows the location of all nearby
creatures for 30 seconds per PSI.
Analysis: Marginally useful, a bit more useful in combination
with Proximity Grenades or External Psionic Detonation so that you
know when to set traps without having to rely on hearing the enemy a
few seconds in advance.
Score: 1/5
With the right plan, even on Hard, you should be able to get this
early enough to make good use of it. On Impossible, however, even
if you do prioritize this and get it early, this becomes an
expensive Nanite sink, since it'll eat up your PSI points like
nothing else and PSI hypos are not cheaply obtainable by Molecular
Duplication. Nevertheless, dedicated PSI users should definitely go
for this, simply because the payoff of being able to hack is so
great.
Score: 0/5 (Non-PSI users), 5/5 (Dedicated PSI users)
----------------------------------------------------------------------8e. Tier 5
[850]
*Learning Tier 5 grants you 10 bonus PSI Points.*
NOTE: Tier 5 is almost out of affordability for Hard and
Impossible difficulties, so this is really for consideration for
Easy and Normal. You can, if you want, afford these nonetheless with
a completely dedicated PSI approach, although be prepared to make
significant sacrifices in other areas, especially on Impossible.
But some of these powers are just so powerful as to be worth it.
Advanced Cerebro-Stimulated Regeneration: Heals 5 Health plus an
additional 5 Health per PSI.
Analysis: Ridiculously fast healing, but incredibly inefficient.
In addition, even on Normal difficulty, this will still generally
heal in excess of the amount of health you actually have. This is
best for emergency heals on Normal and Easy.
Advanced Cerebro-Stimulated Regeneration is one of few abilities
that count a PSI higher than 8 (up to a total of 10 PSI).
Score: 2/5
Soma Transference: Transfers 10 Health from target partially organic
creature to yourself, plus an additional 5 per PSI over 5.
Analysis: Ridiculously amazing. Only damages organic creatures,
but when it does work, you will never die (short of an outright
insta-kill hit from a Greater PSI Reaver). Although, honestly, on
any real difficulty (Hard or Impossible) you should be good at
avoiding damage that this isn't THAT powerful. But then again, just
one use is generally enough to fully heal yourself at the expense of
the enemy on these higher difficulties. However, this is the least
efficient damage ability in your disposal... although it may just
be a price to pay for virtual immortality.
A nice quirk about this ability is the fact that it's
instantaneous, a welcome change from the slow moving projectiles you
get on earlier Tiers.
NOTE: Soma Transference allows you to bypass a Metacreative
Barrier, which allows for some combo opportunities. It also lets
you strike the Brain of the Many without having to destroy the
protective stars.
Score: 4/5
Instantaneous Quantum Relocation: When used, sets a teleporation
marker. If used again, transports you to that marker and clears it.
Press ALT-T to clear an existing transportation marker.
Analysis: I find it very difficult to find a general use for
this. I can't! You can do some neat party tricks, such as killing
yourself on the tram in the Rickenbacker, or messing with the last
monologue, but otherwise useless.
However, I *can* think of a very specific, limited applications
for this. In the body of the many, you can set a marker right next
=======================================================================
9. OS Upgrades
[900]
----------------------------------------------------------------------Strong Metabolism: Damage from radiation and toxins reduced by 25%
This ability is nearly useless. Unless you're a complete moron,
the occasional anti-toxin hypo/anti-rad hypo should be more than
enough to deal with any problems you may have.
However, it is important to note that once you get to Impossible,
the piddling radiation damage that gets through in between anti-rad
hypo doses becomes significantly more painful, and you'll find
yourself hard-pressed to deal with Toxic Eggs and Annelids without
getting infected. Only then can I see a real use for this, but
honestly there's probably something wrong with your character setup
if you are choosing this over something else.
Score: 0/5, 1/5 (Impossible)
Pharmo-Friendly: Extra 20% benefit from all hypos
One of the strongest abilities you can get, although more so for
strong (but not dedicated) PSI users. On Hard and Impossible, this
squeezes so much efficiency out of every hypo that it's almost a
necessity. Med Hypos will heal 12 Health (2 per second) and
PSI Hypos will heal 24 PSI Points. Those extra points go a long
way.
You may think that this essentialy means that Hypos simply cost
16.67% less at replicators, due to increased efficiency. Because of
this, this may seem worse than Replicator Expert, since that gives
you a 20% discount on everything. However, a huge percentage (in
fact, sometimes a majority) of the hypos you have are *found* not
*bought*, as such, you are actually saving even more Nanites by
not having to need a Replicator as much.
PSI users will probably get the most out of this since other
character types have other ways of healing aside from just
Med Hypos. However, completely dedicated PSI users will probably
be better off with Replicator Expert as you'll just simply be buying
SO MANY PSI Hypos than you'll be finding.
Score: 5/5
Pack Rat: 3 extra inventory slots
Useless if you plan on maxing out
5 Strength and using a BrawnBooster
Hard or Impossible when you need to
and still need inventory space, but
to manage your inventory decently.
Score: 1/5
Strength or plan on
Implant. It may be
squeeze every cyber
honestly you should
getting
useful on
module
be able
far harder to afford and yields much smaller returns. On Hard and
Impossible, this upgrade reflects a larger percentage of your HP
so that this becomes a better upgrade as the game gets harder.
Score: 2/5 (Easy/Normal), 4/5 (Hard), 5/5 (Impossible)
Lethal Weapon: Increases hand-to-hand damage by 35%
On Easy or Normal, this is an excellent upgrade if you choose to
pursue a Melee-based character, although poor otherwise. On Hard or
Impossible, this becomes much more important as more of your
fighting takes place with a Wrench or the Laser Rapier. In some
cases, this might be better of a choice than Sharpshooter, even
without pursuing a Melee-based character.
In any case, always take Lethal Weapon before Smasher. It's
slightly more effective in damage and is faster to execute. If you
do take this on Hard or Impossible without dedicating to a Melee
path, make this your first upgrade so you get the most out of it.
Score: 4/5, 5/5 (Impossible)
Security Expert: +2 hacking skill applied only to security computers
If you're a hardcore hacker, you don't need this at all. If
you're a full PSI hacker (using the 4th tier ability), this won't
help you at all. This is useful, however, if you're splashing a bit
of Hacking. Nevertheless, there are generally better choices.
Score: 2/5
Smasher: You can execute overhand attacks with melee weapons
As you prepare to swing your melee weapon, if you keep the attack
button held down, you'll lift the weapon upwards and swing down.
You'll do the second damage listed for each melee weapon (which
is slightly less than the 35% you can get from Lethal Weapon). If
you're doing a Melee-based character, this is a must. Otherwise,
this is a pretty specialized upgrade.
On a side note, the Smasher changes your plane of attack (vertical
instead of horizontal). This changes the angle of your attack, so it
might be harder to aim at first, but it's easy to get the hang of it.
Stacking Smasher and Lethal Weapon is vicious.
NOTE: Because of the Crystal Shard's odd Smasher damage glitch,
it's worth getting Smasher as quickly as you can if you plan on
going all out Crystal Shard melee. You should still get Lethal
Weapon first since you'll be meleeing with the Wrench for quite a
while before the first Crystal Shard.
Score: 1/5 (but 5/5 if you're Melee-based)
Cyber Assimilation: Can find items off destroyed robots that heal 15 HP
A very nice upgrade. Unfortunately, it doesn't work off Protocol
Droids. This gives you a way to get free healing after fighting tough
enemies. However, on Hard or Impossible, you should be avoiding getting
hit as much as possible, so you may find better options.
Then again, fighting Security Bots and Assault Bots are viciously
hard to do with just a Wrench, and being assured of a healing item
when many (on Hard) or most (on Impossible) monsters drop absolutely
nothing is quite nice.
Score: 3/5, 4/5 (Hard/Impossible)
Replicator Expert: Replicator items cost 20% less
A VERY useful upgrade. If you're going to get this, get this as
early as possible so you can save as much Nanites as possible. This
is perhaps most useful on Hard or Impossible when replicator items
cost more.
Score: 5/5
Power Psi: Burnout no longer damages you
Burnout is rarely a problem. It's only useful if you use Tier 4/5
powers, which charge up very quickly and may be hard to use without
burnout. However, this limits its use to Easy and Normal, since
Tier 5 is almost out of reach of Hard and Impossible affordability.
However, if you're going for a completely dedicated PSI approach,
this ability will probably become much more valuable, as not only
will you be able to afford Tier 4/5 abilities, but you will also
probably spend alot of time burning out on Tier 5 abilities (as the
timing is dramatically shorter than Tier 4 abilities). Burning out
on just one Tier 5 ability is *very* bad for your health on Hard or
Impossible (and will probably just kill you straight out in
Impossible).
Score: 2/5, 4/5 (for completely dedicated PSI users)
Tinker: Nanite cost for weapon modification down by 50%
In Single Player, there are for the most part, enough FrenchEpstein Devices that, with careful planning, you never actually
need to do modifications.
In Multiplayer, there aren't enough F-E Devices to go around, and
someone will actually have to pick up Modify. In the process, it
becomes effective to modify weapons whenever possible to get
immediate benefit, creating a sort of feedback loop of benefit.
With that in mind, Tinker becomes a better deal the more players are
involved (especially since Nanites get split amongst the players),
though you won't need more than one person with Tinker. The
Multiplayer nanite cost savings can be truly dramatic depending on
what your allies use. Just a single attempt at a second
modification on an Exotic Weapon costs 75 Nanites, so a few failed
attempts and you've already saved enough nanites to buy, say, a clip
of 20 Prisms.
Score: 0/5 (Single Player), x/5 (Multiplayer, where x is
the number of players involved)
Spatially Aware: Automap always filled in for every level
Completely useless. Seeing the entire map is rarely useful, and
having a good memory or a good walkthrough is better than wasting an
OS upgrade. If for some reason you still feel compelled to get this,
don't get it as your third or fourth OS, as the automap for the
Rickenbacker is pretty useless, and there is no automap once you enter
the Body of the Many.
Score: 0/5
----------------------------------------------------------------------Since you're only allowed to have four OS upgrades, these are some of
my recommended paths to take to get best use out of your upgrades
(listed in order to take). Remember, just because I like these paths
doesn't mean they'll necessarily work for you.
Melee-based: Lethal Weapon, Smasher, Cybernetically Enhanced,
Speedy
Should be self-explanatory - you get the two melee OS upgrades,
you'll be able to plug in two implants (Strength and Endurance?
Strength and Agility?), and you'll be super fast to weave in and out
of fights.
Energy Phreak: Lethal Weapon, Cyber Assimilation, Sharpshooter,
Cybernetically Enhanced
For a concept that depends majorly on Energy weapons. Lethal Weapon
helps out your Wrench and later your replacement Laser Rapier. Cyber
Assimilation is there because you can easily dispatch robots, so that
15 health is a free goody. Sharpshooter improves your EMP and your
Laser (mainly its overload mode). Cybernetically Enhanced lets you
take advantage of that high Maintenance and exploit two implants to
good effects.
PSI-based: Pharmo Friendly, Replicator Expert, Cybernetically
Enhanced, Speedy (Hard/Impossible) or Power Psi (Easy/Normal)
You can get a more detailed look at what would make a good PSI-based
OS path in section <<B20>>, but this a general all-purpose idea.
Pharmo-Friendly and Replicator Expert extend the efficiency of your
PSI Hypos, you'll probably have Electron Cascade to help sustain two
implants, and depending on whether or not you'll be likely to have
Tier 5 abilities you get Power Psi to minimize killing yourself from
burn out or Speedy to help you race around enemies while charging up
your PSI abilities.
Multiplayer Techie: Tinker, Sharpshooter, Replicator Expert,
Cybernetically Enhanced.
This is sort of themed into a character who provides a support role.
Tinker means the other players and you can recklessly pick up new
weapons and discard them when they break and still enjoy lots of
modifications. Sharpshooter for offense, Replicator Expert to be an
effective mule for other players, and of course Cybernetically
Enhanced because why not?
Impossible Difficulty: Lethal Weapon, Replicator Expert,
Cybernetically Enhanced, Tank
A generall all-purpose Impossible path. Lethal Weapon because
Wrenching things is your main game plan. Replicator Expert for
efficiencies in buying what you can no longer loot off enemy corpses
as well. Cybernetically Enhanced because of its good payouts. Tank
because 5 health is a huge chunk of your life on Impossible.
=======================================================================
=======================================================================
10. Researchable Things
[A00]
----------------------------------------------------------------------High-level researchable things deserve their own category simply
because they involve risk vs reward; instead of giving you a flat stat
or ability bonus, they give you quirky perks.
Annelid Armor: Requires Research 3, Technetium and Hassium
Provides +20% damage reduction, +2 PSI, and 30% toxin/radiation
resistance. Has no stat requirements other than the research,
although it will constantly drain away your PSI while using it.
One the one hand, this essentially gives you free overload on all
your PSI abilities (since most PSI abilities tend to get capped
at 8, so at a PSI of 6, just rapidly activating PSI with this on
still gives you a benefit of 8). On the other hand, it gives you
only as much defense as Light Armor and also constantly (if slowly)
drains away the precious resource for any PSI user - PSI.
On Hard or less, this drain and low defense is negligible.
The drain is slow, and you can afford more PSI hypos with relative
ease. In addition, you have enough health to survive huge attacks.
On Impossible, having only 20% damage reduction at such late points
in the game is near-suicidal and PSI hypos are prohibitively
=======================================================================
11. Managing Impossible Difficulty
[B00]
----------------------------------------------------------------------The designers weren't kidding when they named this "Impossible." If
you don't have the basic tactics/strategies down, a familiarity with
the game, and a solid character concept ahead of time, you'll find
yourself really believing that the difficulty is impossible.
Fortunately, I'm here to help you.
----------------------------------------------------------------------11a. General Tips
[B10]
You should get intimately familiar with how your wrench works and how
to optimally use it against virtually every enemy in the game. You
may think I'm kidding, but as I once heard said, System Shock 2 on
Impossible isn't a sci-fi/horror first person role-playing game, it's
a wrench simulator that lets you simulate hitting all sorts of things
with a wrench.
Why the wrench? Loot is obscenely rare (you can easily go the
entire game without getting organs from a given enemy type),
replicators are ridiculously overpriced, and the wrench is something
that everyone has access to and doesn't require any cyber modules to
use effectively. And, for the most part, most of your enemies can be
vanquished with some nimble footwork and good use of the wrench (refer
to the Bestiary, section <<D00>> for a detailed, creature-by-creature
breakdown).
As a result, Lethal Weapon becomes perhaps the single best and most
important OS ugprade you can get on Impossible. Get it first and as
quickly as you can afford to, it's just that absolutely important for
getting through the game.
Robots can be dealt with fairly easily if you simply know how to deal
with their AI. If you keep circling them back and forth while hitting
them with the wrench, they'll generally spend all their time trying to
turn instead of trying to shoot you. Of course, you still want a plan
to finish them, as the explosion they give off can stil kill you.
----------------------------------------------------------------------11b. Full OSA
[B20]
This deserves special mention. This is not a partial-OSA approach,
this is a completely dedicated PSI approach on Impossible difficulty.
If you don't think that's hard, go ahead and try it. I'll wait.
Back so soon? You've got many things working against you. Your
wrenching is already less effective than a Navy's or Marine's (no
starting Standard Weapons skill), and you're not going to be spending
anything to improve it (save for one OS upgrade). All your offense and
utility will come from a Hypo that's ridiculously expensive and much,
much less common than even a Prism.
This section is aimed at making clear alot of things you need to
know about any PSI-related approach on Impossible. You can generalize
some of this to other difficulties and other PSI-based builds as there
is alot of useful PSI-related information here.
.......................................................................
i. A Word on PSI Hypos
[B21]
PSI Hypos are your life. If you run out, you die. Well, maybe
not early on, where you can just Wrench your way through life, but
you have no chance in hell of just Wrenching your way through the
Rickenbacker. You *may* find an Annelid PSI Organ (fully recovers
PSI), which you must HOARD. Using one when you only have around
30 total PSI Points is a waste. You should save it until you have
maxed out your PSI stat and achieved access to *all* tiers for a
total of 61 PSI and only when you've completely run out. Of
course, on Impossible difficulty, each Annelid Egg (that is
capable of being searched like a crate) has only a 1.25% chance of
yielding one. Which means you can easily go the entire game
without ever finding one.
Your PSI Hypo consumption will dramatically increase the further
you go into the game. All the more reason to horde the ones you
get on Med/Sci, Engineering, and even Hydroponics. You don't
*need* to use PSI too much (other than to destroy cameras, eggs
from a distance, and deal with pesky turrets). However, once you
start dealing with swarms of (Security/Assault) Bots, Cyborg
Assassins, Rocket/Laser Mk II Turrets, Rumblers, waves of
Annelids... you need those PSI Hypos, and you'll be using them
faster and faster with each deck.
Hoard everything. Why? PSI Hypos are freaking expensive. 150
a pop. But, for the love of god, *DON'T* buy any until Operations
(more on this in a bit). And by "Hoard everything" I mean exactly
that. Bullets. Beakers that you've filled with worms. Even
those Magazines and Potted Plants (when you have room). Once you
get to Ops, you need to hack (either with ICE Pick or with PSI
Ability) the Replicator near the Command Center for a Recycler.
Turn everything that's not a Speed Booster, Rad/Toxin Hypo, Med
Hypo, Med Kit, an Implant, an Annelid Organ, or a PSI Hypo/Booster
into Nanites. Constantly recyling *EVERYTHING* you find will be
*absolutely* crucial to your ability to outpace your PSI Hypo
consumption, in addition to any PSI Hypos you find normally. In
addition, the Replicator you just hacked for a Recycler *also*
happens to sell PSI Hypos, which now only cost 80 nanites. Stock
up.
Starting with Command, the hacked price of PSI Hypos goes up
from 80 nanites to 100 nanites. Doesn't sound like much, but
that's a 25%; increase, which means 20% fewer hypos for you. If
at all possible, (when you're still on Command deck) go back to
the Replicator just by the Elevator on Engineering to buy hypos.
Once you get to the Rickenbacker, though, you're pretty set with
100-a-pop PSI Hypos.
PSI Hypos on Command and on the Rickenbacker are *RARE*. I
don't know why the game designers decided this, but both the
increase in hacked prices for them and the increased rarity of PSI
Hypos means you need to be absolutely careful about PSI
efficiency. And that makes it much more important that you stay
on top of Recycling everything you can possibly find. An
individual nanite here or there might not mean much, but over the
course of one deck can mean 2 PSI Hypos.
As you can tell, getting Replicator Expert will be your best
friend. About 80% of all PSI Hypos you consume will be things
you've bought, so that 20% discount is significant. However,
Pharmo-Friendly will also be your best friend. While most of your
PSI Hypos will be bought, you will never ever be buying Med Hypos,
so getting an extra 20% bonus from them will go a *very* long way.
Plus, even if you *only* bought PSI Hypos, the extra 20% bonus
effectiveness roughly means a 16.66% discount in replicator price,
just from efficiency. Which you choose is ultimately up to you,
but having atleast one of the two is *absolutely* essential.
PSI Hypos in the Body of the Many are plentiful, and Nanites and
things that recycle well into nanites (huge beakers filled with
worms, huge amounts of prisms, huge ammo clips) are plentiful.
Plus, most of the level is within a quick access to a Replicator
that you can hack for 100 Nanite PSI Hypos. Stock up as much as
you can here as there are NO replicators after the Body of the
Many.
.......................................................................
ii. PSI Hypo Economics
[B22]
PSI Hypos are so fundamental to your character that you should
really base most of your decisions on maximizing your PSI Hypo
uses. After all, nanites are effectively a finite resource, so
once you're out of nanites and PSI Hypos because you've been
casting all the PSI stat buffs at every opportunity, you're pretty
boned.
To that matter, PSI buffs that may have been good to have pretty
active on Hard or less become high-cost decisions. Is it *really*
necessary to have Psychogenic Endurance on all the time, knowing
full well that each use consumes 1/5 (1/6 if you have
Pharmo-Friendly) of a PSI Hypo? Do you *really* want Power Armor,
knowing that once you get to higher decks, that 1% charge loss per
5 seconds will result in you having to keep it maintained with a 3
PSI point cost Electron Cascade? Do you really want two implants
(for the same reason) provided by Cybernetically Enhanced?
Similarly, should you really use 3 Pyrokinesis attacks to take
out an Arachnid when you could use almost half the PSI point cost
by hitting them with Hypnogenesis and then powering up with
Adrenaline Overproduction? Or a third of the cost by just
whapping them with Hypnogenesis and hoping not to run into them
again? This line of reasoning is far more situational (for
example, with better PSI stat and a researched organ, you could
take out an Arachnid with 1 Pyro hit and 1 Cryo hit instead of the
far more expensive 3 Pyro hit option). Nevertheless, such
reasoning should be an important part of your play, as reckless
PSI use has undesirable consequences later on, such as when you're
staring down a charge of several Rumblers and you get the
horrifying notice: "Psi Hypo: none found in inventory".
.......................................................................
iii. OS Upgrades
[B23]
As mentioned before, either Replicator Expert or Pharmo-Friendly
are absolutely essential for your guaranteed survivability.
What else are vital?
Well, rules that apply to other builds on this difficulty also
apply here, so get Lethal Weapon first.
As a completely dedicated PSI user, your Wrench is your only
effective way of dealing with the various Bots (Maintenance,
Security, Assault) and Cyborg Assassins. If you've ever tried
fighting these with just a Wrench, you know how hard it can be,
especially against Cyborg Assassins. You *need* the +35% damage
as otherwise you simply can't fight these guys with any remote
effectiveness. Moreover, so much of your offense will be made up
of Wrenching things that the +35% pays off over the entire course
of the game.
So what else is good?
Cybernetically Enhanced, Tank, Power PSI, and Cyber Assimilation
are all good contenders for the other two OS upgrades (in
adddition to the possibility of the doing the other of the
Replicator Expert/Pharmo-Friendly choice).
The effectiveness of Cybernetically Enhanced is debatable presumably you'd want an EndurBoost as one of the implants (as
your health is spectacularly low). In this case, you're better
off with Tank, which gives you a better yield and doesn't cost PSI
to recharge every so often. Of course, this doesn't preclude the
option that you may want an EndurBoost and Tank together, or you
may be using other implants whose effects aren't replicated by
other OS upgrades (such as a PsiBoost and a WormHeart).
For reasons hinted at above, Tank is a great upgrade here - it's
almost worth 2 Endurance and doesn't have the same exorbitant
cyber module cost, nor, like an EndurBoost implant, will it
consume PSI every once and a while to get recharged. But
depending on your Endurance, Tank can represent upwards of a 50%
boost in your health, which is absolutely outstanding to say the
least.
Power PSI is a contender for a last upgrade as you'll start
picking up Tier 5 abilities which are *very* easy to burn out on
and also *very* painful to do so (in fact, you may just end up
dying if you manage to burn out). However, if you plan on getting
Annelid Armor, you don't want this at all as Annelid Armor gives
you instant overload with maxed out PSI.
Cyber Assimilation is terrible for a last upgrade (as there are
NO more robots after the last upgrade station), but good for a
third, as you'll be fighting many, many robots after the third
station, and without Cyber Assimilation, every single robot battle
is a negative result: the costs far outweigh the benefits. This
way, though, you can recoup a 15-health healer that you can carry
around or, in a pinch, turn into a Nanite with a Recycler.
Considering that you may not even have more than 15 health for a
while, and you'll have substantially less access to med hypos by
virtue of being unable to hack for most of the early game, that
kind of healing is massive.
So, in the end, this is the OS upgrade path you want to follow.
First: Lethal Weapon (no question about it).
Second: Replicator Expert or Pharmo-Friendly.
Third: Cybernetically Enhanced, Cyber Assimilation, or
whichever you didn't take as your Second upgrade.
Fourth: Tank or Power PSI. If you didn't take Cybernetically
Enhanced as a third, then you almost definitely want it here
instead.
STR
AGI
END
PSI
CYB
4 Research
Tier 1: Projected Cryokinesis, Psychogenic Agility, Kinetic
Redirection
Tier 2: Adrenaline Overproduction, Cerebro-Stimulated
Regeneration, Neural Decontamination
Tier 3: Projected Pyrokinesis, Psionic Hypnogenesis, Electron
Cascade
Tier 4: Electron Suppression, Photonic Redirection, Remote
Circuitry Manipulation, Molecular Transmutation
Tier 5: Imposed Neural Restructuring, Soma Transference,
Psycho-Reflective Aura
OS Upgrades: Lethal Weapon, Pharmo-Friendly, Replicator Expert,
Tank
Equipped with: Annelid Armor, WormHeart, Wrench/PSI Amp
Or maybe you want to strip away some more PSI abilities and the
PSI Wall low priority target so that you can get Hack 2 (and thus
maybe you'll take a different OSA training path so you can get
Psychogenic Cybernetic Affinity instead of Kinetic Redirection).
Perhaps you aren't a fan of the micromanagement necessary to take
advantage of Hypnogenesis + Adrenaline Reproduction, etc.
.......................................................................
vii. Notes/Tactics
[B27]
Leave 200 Nanites open and available. The sympathetic resonator
you HAVE to purchase on Command deck costs 200 on
Impossible... and you don't want to be like me, scrounging through
all the decks for anything I can recycle because I forgot about
how expensive it was.
Don't Hack every crate you come across, or every Replicator.
PSI Hacking is *very* expensive as just one attempt on a crate can
cost you 9-14 PSI, which (with no OS upgrades counted) is 67.5-105
Nanites of an unhacked PSI Hypo replicator. You should only Hack
replicators and turrets that are strategically advantageous.
Moreover, you should save before any crate hacking so that you can
reload in case the fruits of your labor aren't worth the effort.
Plus, never ever hack security. By the time you get PSI Hack,
security is very hard to hack and you won't be able to hack
security for any long periods of time.
Speaking of strategic turrets, one turret you *must* hack is the
one where you'll end up fighting Korenchkin. (If you don't know,
then you really shouldn't be playing Impossible yet.) You should
never have to fight a PSI Reaver at any point in the game with
this build, and they are truly anti-PSI opponents as they are
immune to both Hypnogenesis and Imposed Neural Restructuring.
Plus, Korenchkin's PSI attacks do nothing against turrets, so that
turret will still be around to be your new buddy.
You can "glitch" out the AI of Cyborg Assassins and big Bots by
running forward into them while attacking. This will make them
try to back up a bit instead of attack you, but it doesn't always
work, especially on Assault Bots.
Soma Transference is your best friend at the Brain of the Many.
You'll probably be invisible and surrounded by wandering PSI
Reavers (which are immune to INR and Hypnogenesis). You can try
just INR-ing Rumblers, watching them take out a few Reavers before
dying, then INR-ing their replacements, but this is not PSI
efficient (and you want lots of PSI hypos to spare for the battle
against SHODAN, I'd say like 6-7). Instead of trying to shoot the
floating stars with Pyro or Cryokinesis and then taking out the
brain, just do a fully charged Soma Transference on the brain
twice to kill it. It'll bypass any protection, and just in case
you get hit by a PSI Reaver's blast before you kill it, you'll
heal up the damage again and you'll be good to go.
As a testament to how rare loot drops are - I, personally, have
on several instances been able to go the entire game without
finding a single Monkey Brain organ to research (that's quite
impressive considering how many Monkeys there are in the game).
Because of this, you lose significant resources in every single
battle. In Hard, and especially Normal, there's a good chance you
could recoup some of the effort you put into the fight from the
=======================================================================
12. Character Concepts
[C00]
----------------------------------------------------------------------These are character concepts that either I've played, heard/read
about, or theorize would be fun to play. Credit is given where
appropriate.
Standard Characters - These are the general archetypes that most
players ever choose. They select a path and then pursue the theme
of that path until the end of the game, maybe splashing a bit into
other stuff.
Complete PSI - No weapons skills, just PSI. I detail further about
a Complete PSI approach on Impossible difficulty in the previous
section.
Melee/Ninja - Only melee weapons. You can have PSI abilities
that complement your melee abilities (Psychogenic Strength, Agility,
Endurance, Photonic Redirection, Adrenaline Overproduction, etc.) as
well as Ninja-esque tech skills (mainly Hack). On Normal, you can
easily progress from Wrench to Laser Rapier (great against Bots)
to Crystal Shard. On Hard or Impossible, you'll have to either stick
with the Wrench or pick either Energy Weapons or Exotic weapons,
as you won't be able to afford getting all. Basic inspiration from
the Strategy Guide. Getting good with this sort of build on Normal
is good training for all builds on Hard/Impossible (Where being
good with a Wrench is vital to survival). NOTE: Make sure you
have a ranged weapon of some kind as otherwise the Brain of the Many
and SHODAN (unless you Hack her) are literally impossible.
PSI-Energy Hybrid - Perhaps the most effective OSA combination: a
mixture of good PSI skills (no Tier 5) and Energy Weapons. Your
PSI skills make you excellent against non-robots, your Energy
Weapons make you fierce against robots and partial robots. Make
Energy Weapons a high priority as getting the EMP Rifle on
Hydroponics, just in time to deal with Cyborg Assassins, is quite
nice. Prohibitively too expensive on Impossible difficulty without
significant sacrifices on the PSI-side (and you never, ever want
to skip out on Invisibility with this build, as Energy is near
useless in the Body of the Many).
PSI-Warrior Hybrid - You use standard weapons, but you use PSI to
back them up; neuro-reflex, anti-entropic field, psycho-reflective
aura, etc. Taken from the official strategy guide.
Annelid Mimic - You use a wrench and basic PSI up until you start
getting exotic weapons. Then, you exclusively use exotic weapons
and annelid armor/implants and PSI abilities that complement them
and make you more... alien-esque (stat enhancers, INR, Soma,
Invisibility). Basic idea taken from the official strategy guide.
The Antipodal Navy - Energy Weapons and Exotic Weapons. Hack,
=======================================================================
13. Bestiary
[D00]
For various creatures, I'll list their "wrenchability," which is
really an assessment for those on Hard and Impossible difficulty on
proper tactics/difficulty in using your wrench on these guys.
Note that some creatures will drop stuff not normally on their loot
tables; these are specific creatures and do not occur on random
respawns. For example, there is a Shotgun Hybrid that will drop an
Implant, and there is also an Arachnid that will drop a PSI Hypo.
----------------------------------------------------------------------13a. Damage Table
[D10]
Throughout the weapons and PSI sections, you'll notice I mention
what types of damage various weapons and certain PSI abilities do.
Here's where it all comes together. Some damage types are best against
certain creature types. Maximize your efficiency.
NOTE: Pay careful note to which damage types do not damage SHODAN,
Annelid, and (if you won't be able to hack well) Basic, as you will
*have* to damage these to beat the game.
The Table is displayed such that each cell is a multiplier (1 means
the damage is done normally, 2 means that double damage is dealt, etc).
Type
Annelid Swarm Half-Annelid Half-Mech Mech Basic SHODAN
.......................................................................
Anti-Annelid
4
1
1
0
0
0
0
Anti-Human
0
0
2
1
0
0
0
Armor Piercing
.5
0
.5
2
4
1 1.25
Cold
1
0
1
.5
1
1
1
Droid Fusion*
1
0
1
1
1
1
0
Soma Transference
1
0
1
1
0
0
0
Electricity*
EMP
Energy
High Explosive
Incendiary
Psi
Standard
WeaponBash
1
0
.5
2
2
2
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
1
4
2
1
1
1
4
2
1
1
.5
1
1
1
4
4
2
.5
0
0
1
.5
1
0
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
1.5
.5
.75
1
1
1
0
*These are damage types only available to enemies, but they do have
the possibility of hitting other enemies (via area of effect or
misfires) so their appropriate damage modifiers are shown.
(see endnote 3)
Though it won't come up too often, Humans (namely you and any other
players if you're doing multiplayer) are also vulnerable in specific
ways. Humans take 4x damage from Anti-Human attacks and High
Explosive attacks (so if you ever feel like killing your friends in a
hurry...). Humans also take 2x damage from Energy-based sources, but
only .5x damage from Armor Piercing sources. Humans take normal
damage from all other sources except for Anti-Annelid, Soma
Transference, EMP, and PSI, all of which do no damage to humans.
----------------------------------------------------------------------13b. Annelids
[D20]
.......................................................................
i. Annelid Egg
[D21]
Health: 10
Damage: None
Damage Type: n/a
Speed: n/a
Loot: (Toxic/Grub/Swarm) 30% of Annelid Heal Organ, 5% of Annelid
PSI Organ, 65% of No Loot (only if inspecting the egg
before destroying it); Grub and Swarm eggs drop the
appropriate organ (100%) when destroyed.
Wrenchability: It's generally a really bad idea to wrench the
eggs unless they've already released their
contents, especially Toxic Eggs.
If you walk slowly up to an egg, you'll be able to inspect it
(like a security crate) without it opening, although various eggs
have various activation ranges (how close you need to be for it
to release whatever it contains). In general, you'll be able to
creep up to Toxic and Grub Eggs, but Swarm Eggs tend to have
pretty large activation ranges, so you'll probably have to deal with
the Swarm first before you can actually check the egg.
Black eggs drop nothing and cannot be inspected. They are there
solely for story purposes.
.......................................................................
ii. Annelid Grub
[D22]
Health: 5
Damage: 1
Damage Type: Anti-Human
Speed: Medium
Loot: None
Wrenchability: Really easy, as long as you've gotten handy at
knocking out monkeys.
By the time you come upon grubs, you should be handy enough at
hitting small targets (from all those monkeys) that they shouldn't
pose much of a problem. One hit from almost anything (except for
a Laser Pistol) will kill it.
Be warned that some Grubs will leap really high into the sky to
attack you.
.......................................................................
iii.Arachnid
[D23]
Health: Baby - 10, Adult - 60, Invisible - 60
Damage: Baby - 2 plus mild Toxin, Adult/Invisible - 10 plus heavy
Toxin.
Damage Type: All - WeaponBash
Speed: All - Fast
Loot: 20% of Organ, 80% of No Loot
Wrenchability: You can use a non-wrench on these guys as Adults
and Invisibles are very jumpy and hard to hit
once they start jumping around, moreover, just
getting hit once will inject *alot* of bad toxins
into your blood stream. Sure there are plenty
of Anti-Toxin hypos, but eventually it just
becomes more cost effective to just shoot the
damn things.
Spiders are annoying, plentiful, and tough. Their normal damage
isn't that bad, but the toxin they inject is supremely annoying,
as basically only death will get rid of it if you have no
Anti-Toxin hypos left. Invisible Spiders aren't actually
invisible, and if you are the slightest bit aware, you'll be able
to see these guys, especially since the chittering sound Spiders
make is *very* easy to identify.
.......................................................................
iv. Brain of the Many
[D24]
Health: Defense Node - 10, Brain - 100
Damage: None
Damage Type: n/a
Speed: n/a
Loot: None
since the
basically
Don't deal
with about
Speed: Fast
Loot: 30% of Organ, 70% of No Loot; I believe the first one you
encounter in Recreation is guaranteed to drop an organ.
Wrenchability: It's like a Pipe Hybrid on drugs. If you *really*
need to, you can weave in and out and take down
Rumblers, but unlike Pipe Hybrids, their attacks
come out very fast and hurt *alot*. Hopefully
you have more powerful weapons by now.
The Rumbler is not so bad when you realize that it can't attack
and run at the same time. Thus, if you have a ranged weapon, you
can just run circles around the rumbler and fire away. However,
with melee weapons, being so close to the Rumbler means they can
stop for a split second, let out an attack (which comes out fast
and isn't always expected) and start running again.
Unless you've *only* been going Energy Weapons, you should have
a good answer to Rumblers by the time you see your first one.
Even the Laser Rapier works decently, so long as you're *very*
good with your footwork.
.......................................................................
iii. Monkeys
[D43]
Health: Blue - 10, Red - 12
Damage: Blue - 10 range (small Area of Effect), 4 melee;
Red - 15 range (large Area of Effect), 4 melee.
Damage Type: Blue - Cold, WeaponBash; Red - Incendiary, WeaponBash
Speed: Medium
Loot: All - 30% of Organ, 30% of Chips, 40% No Loot
Wrenchability: Get good at wrenching them. These guys are
generally not worth any ammunition.
The most surprising thing about Monkeys is the fact that their
projectiles have Area of Effect to them (even though your
equivalent PSI attacks don't). For this reason, getting even
partially hit by a Pyrokinesis attack from a Red Monkey can be
quite painful (and may mean instant death on Impossible
difficulty). On the other hand, their projectiles *will* hurt
enemies, especially the Pyrokinesis (which will do double damage
to organic targets). So, if you can put a Hybrid between you and
the monkey, you can use the Hybrid as a meat shield while you get
into position to knock out the monkey.
----------------------------------------------------------------------13e. Half-Mechanical
[D50]
.......................................................................
i. Assassin
[D51]
Health: Normal - 60, Red/Virtual - 48
Damage: All - 10
Damage Type: All - WeaponBash
Health: 20
Damage: 15
Damage Type: Incendiary
Speed: Fast
Loot: None
Wrenchability: If you get within melee range, they explode. So,
not wrenchable.
The bane of your early life. You won't have much in the way of
ranged answers, and your health pool will be on the shallow end.
15 damage (especially if all you have is Light Combat Armor) is
a massive chunk of your life (an almost guaranteed one-hit kill
early in Impossible). However, there is a slight delay between
when they stop moving and when the explode, so you can try and
trick them into exploding and run out of their explosion range
quickly, but this is a very risky strategy.
Later on, they just become annoying ammo sinks, because they
will always remain an enemy that you just can't melee or even
avoid effectively.
Note that since Localized Pyrokinesis gives you effectively
immunity to Incendiary, a potentially effective means of dealing
with a group of these (like in the Engineering Cargo Bays) is to
just switch it on and then run amongst them.
.......................................................................
iv. SHODAN Avatar
[D64]
Health: 100
Damage: 12
Damage Type: Energy
Speed: Medium
Loot: None
Wrenchability: A bad idea for many reasons, the biggest one being
that you shouldn't even have to fight the Avatar.
Fearsome. Powerful. And also instantly regenerates after being
killed. However, you don't have to even fire a single shot at the
Avatar, as that is not how you kill SHODAN. So, as long as you're
constantly on the run, the Avatar will never be able to land a
shot on you.
----------------------------------------------------------------------13g. Basic
[D70]
.......................................................................
i. SHODAN Shield
[D71]
Health: 140
Damage: n/a
=======================================================================
14. Appendix: Molecular Transmutation Analysis
[E00]
----------------------------------------------------------------------14a. The Equation
[E10]
Thanks to the official Prima Strategy Guide for providing this
helpful info.
[(.8 + .2 * PSI) * n * factor] = Nanite Yield (see endnote 2)
Where PSI is your PSI stat (up to a total of 10 instead of 8), n is
the minimum of (objects in the stack, objects in a standard clip of
the stack type), factor is a multiplier dependent on the type of
item you're transmuting, and [ ... ] truncates decimal values (a floor
function).
1
1.5
6
6
6 Nanites
6 Nanites
1.75
5 Nanites
Worms
12 Nanites
Slugs
1.25
3 Nanites
Med Hypo/
Healing Gland/
PSI Organ
2 Nanites
Medical Kit
2 Nanites
Anti-Rad Hypo/
Anti-Toxin Hypo/
Speed/Strength Booster 3
2 Nanites
PSI Booster
2 Nanites
PSI Hypo
2 Nanites
(see endnote 2)
Of particular note, clips of Frag Grenades, Prisms, Worms, and
Non-standard bullets are almost always preferable to recycling with a
reasonable PSI, no matter what difficulty you're on. PSI Hypos are
also relatively profitable, but why would you transumte them? You'd
have to transmute 4 hypos only to buy another anyway. Everything else
seems to not be worth the effort except on lower difficulties with
some combination of Pharmo-Friendly and/or Replicator Expert. In
fact, at Normal difficulty with PSI 10 and Pharmo-Friendly or
Replicator Expert, everything is profitable and superior to Recycling.
If you don't have PSI of 10, you should either wait or use Molecular
Transmutation on Frags and Prisms, as otherwise you'll most likely just
lose Nanites over the alternative (I highly recommend running your own
variables through the equation so you don't screw yourself).
=======================================================================
=======================================================================
14. Final Notes
[F00]
----------------------------------------------------------------------14a. Conclusion/Special Thanks
[F10]
Kudos go out to DSimpson (for his excellent guides). Without
DSimpson, I never would've felt compelled to try to write something as
awesome as his.
A moment of silence for Looking Glass Studios. May you rest in
peace. A hats off to Irrational Games. May you have many years of
prosperity ahead of you. (Addendum: judging from how well BioShock is
doing, guess they've got it made.)
Thanks to all the hardcore SS2 fans that have made it possible for
me to continue my unhealthy obsession after upgrading to Windows XP
(and then as I moved to Gentoo Linux).
----------------------------------------------------------------------14b. Resources
[F20]
ttlg.org - An excellent resource for anything you could ever want
for anything related to Looking Glass Studios. At the very least,
they have links to stuff that will let you run System Shock 2 on a
newer OS.
Special thanks to d00m from ttlg.org for feeding me some cool info
on the Crystal Shard and Adrenaline Overproduction.
shocked - A system shock 2 editing tool I used to extract some
non-obvious information.
System Shock 2: Prima's Official Strategy Guide - an uncanny example
of a thorough, well-done official guide. Lots of non-obvious
information is in this book (such as changes made to the game after
the manual was made and not mentioned in the readme), and this was the
source for the Molecular Transmutation equation and all the enemy
stats.
----------------------------------------------------------------------14c. Endnotes and References
[F30]
Assume that non-obvious information not noted by endnote is
information that I've researched myself. If you feel that I have
erroneously not cited something within the guide, please let me know
by e-mail (I may have missed something as the citations were done
retroactively, after 150k worth of text was written).
(1) http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1186168#post1186168
courtesy of d00m.
(2) Equation and Table from Official Strategy Guide, pp 72-73, though
several entries were incorrect and were manually fixed.
(3) Damage Table from Official Strategy Guide, p 81.
----------------------------------------------------------------------14d. My Works
[F40]
1999 Mode Guide (Bioshock Infinite)
Clash in the Clouds Guide (Bioshock Infinite: Clash in the Clouds DLC)
Heart of Fury Guide (Icewind Dale 2)
Party Creation Guide (Baldur's Gate)
Party Creation Guide (Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition)
Populous II Guide (Populous II)
Thief Guide (Baldur's Gate 2)
Ultimate Analysis (System Shock 2)
Ultimate Oblivion FAQ (The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion)
----------------------------------------------------------------------14e. Legal Disclaimer
[F50]
I am not affiliated with Looking Glass/Irrational/EA in any way, and
any information I provide should be treated as third party information.
Therefore, Looking Glass/Irrational/EA cannot be held responsible for
any misuse of information provided herein, and I cannot give a full
guarantee that the information provided herein is 100% accurate.
Therefore, no party, that is, Looking Glass/Irrational/EA/Me, cannot
be held responsible for any problems that may result in the misuse of
information or use of faulty information; the best reparation that can
be made in the latter case would be for me to correct the faulty
information so that it is accurate.
In addition, you (the party reading this) are free to distribute this
work freely on the internet and in any other media as long as credit is
given to the original author (Chris Lee).
----------------------------------------------------------------------14f. History
[F60]
08/08/2013: v 1.12 completed (minor).
- Updating my works.
10/27/2011: v 1.11 completed.
- Added section highlight my works.
7/13/2008: v 1.10 completed.
- Fixed more typos.
- Fixed Grenade Launcher clip size.
- Revised Fusion Cannon assessment.
- Added Fusion Cannon modification information.
- Updated Stasis Field Generator assessment.
- Revised Heavy Weapons synopsis.
- Clarified WormHeart description (you can still have Toxins put
into your bloodstream)
- Formatted PSI/Technical/Impossible sections for greater
uniformity and readability.
7/08/2008: v 1.9 completed.
- Fixed various typos.
- Found some errors in the transmute table.
- Updated Special Thanks section.
- Fixed a typo with WormBlood (should be 10 not 15 Health).
- Reformatted Impossible section.
- Fleshed out OS path suggestions.
7/06/2008: v 1.8 completed.
- Fleshed out Impossible section.
- Fixed some various typos.
- Expanded some sections.
- Added some modification info for Fusion Cannon (more forthcoming).
3/22/2006: v 1.6 completed.
- Added some details on Crystal Shard, Adrenaline Overproduction,
and Smasher.
- Added Endnotes and References section as well as adding a few
citations.
3/22/2006: v 1.5 completed.
- Fixed some minor inaccuracies and grammatical glitches.
- Fleshed out Bestiary.
- Completed Molecular Transmutation appendix.
- Greatly expanded all weapons sections.
- Fixed some errors in Difficulties section.
3/11/2006: v 1.2 completed.
- Fixed some minor inaccuracies and grammatical glitches.
- Added extra stuff to Character Concepts.
- Added some extra information throughout the guide.
- Greatly expanded PSI section.
- Greatly expanded Stats section.
3/9/2006: v 1.0 completed.
- Need to complete Modify/Bestiary sections.
=======================================================================
=======================================================================
The Stinger
----------------------------------------------------------------------"With only a few short years of evolution, they've been able to
conquer this starship, mankind's mightiest creation. Where were we
after forty years of evolution? What swamp were we swimming around in,
single celled and mindless? What if SHODAN's creations are superior to
us? What will they become in a million years, in ten million years?
What's clear is that SHODAN shouldn't be allowed to play God. She's
far too good at it."
- Prefontaine
=======================================================================