Heavy firepower and good shooting win an awful lot of engagements. No matter what some people enjoy, there’s nothing wrong with taking a violent approach to your missions. Given a different set of augmentations, you can make Jensen into a walking tank. He’ll survive massive punishment and give back 10x what he takes. Runs with this style of play are faster by far. You lose some XP on individual kills compared to Non-Lethal play, but you can take out every target in each mission without skipping any content. That makes up for the difference, and sometimes means that killers make even more XP than stealthers (it really varies depending on how thorough stealthier players are).
Gunplay
Skilled gunplay is the most important technique for this style of play. Fast reflexes, good aiming, an eye for headshots, and proper ability use determine whether you win or lose your engagements.
This isn’t much of a run-and-gun type of game. You take damage quickly if you fight out in the open, so stay behind cover during all of your fights. Use walls, ledges, containers, and anything else with a hard surface to protect Jensen from damage. Watch out for lighter cover that can be destroyed by enemy fire and leave you exposed; if something looks flimsy, it’s not trustworthy as cover.
If you’re the one starting an engagement, get behind cover ahead of time and use a headshot to kill your first target. Long-range weapons like the Sniper Rifle are ideal for starting fights like this. Make that first shot count as a guaranteed kill.
When enemies realize what’s going on and start to pour into your area, switch to a faster weapon that can handle combat from multiple ranges. Combat Rifles and Battle Rifles are great at this. If you’re near a chokepoint that forces enemies to come to you, switch to a close-range weapon like a Tactical Shotgun and punish everyone who comes through the door or runs around the corner.
Ironsights are a must. Firing from the hip has terrible accuracy, even with good augmentations. Use the Right Stick to get the reticle close to a target. Then, aim down your sights at the last moment, fire quickly, and let yourself duck back behind cover. This method lets you do most of your aiming when you’re still protected. You’re only exposed while aiming down your sights, so make sure that is the fastest part of the process.
Attachments
The stock weapons aren’t that amazing. They’re effective enough, but all of them need some love to become truly deadly. This is done in two different ways. You find parts all over the game world. These craft special types of ammo or are used to improve a weapon’s stats. Use these parts on your favorite weapons (and don’t ever sell the weapon that you’re improving). You can improve most weapons’ basic stats and sometimes add different firing modes to them, as well.
The second way to improve weapons is to add attachments. There are silencers, lasers, holosights, and scopes. Lasers and holosights are great for non-sniping weapons. Anything that you have to handle quickly should get these attachments. Scopes are what you put on your longest-range weapons so that you can hit targets under extreme conditions with high reliability.
You find attachments in some of Prague’s stores, but they’re also available in weapon rooms at certain facilities. Search areas carefully when you find lockers, safes, and other valuable containers. Sometimes you get great items without having to pay a single credit.
Heavy combat characters should have an improved rifle and shotgun. This lets you handle any range of combat with full efficacy. Once you get more room in your inventory, it’s best to have a Tactical Shotgun or Devastator, a Combat Rifle, and a Battle or Sniper Rifle. Though costly to carry three large guns, it’s wonderful to have ideal short, medium, and long range weapons instead of forcing one rifle to handle everything at medium and long range.
Ammo Types
Regular, EMP, and Armor Piercing ammunition is available for most weaponry. Use Regular ammo most of the time; it’s great for headshots, kills humans easily, and doesn’t cost much. Use Armor Piercing to fight off enemies wearing helmets and to damage foes in Exo Suits, drones, etc.
EMP ammo disables electrical systems, so save that for robotic targets and augmented enemies using their systems to survive your attacks, go invisible, and so forth. Disrupt their systems with some fast weapon, and then switch to a high-damage gun with Regular or Armor Piercing ammo for the kill.
Grenades
Save grenades for attacks against groups. Either throw them at a cluster of enemies that don’t know you’re in the area, or hold them for big battles that force you behind cover. When you’re hiding and there are too many enemies to worry about, throw the grenades to kill or disable a few targets as you buy time to run or get additional kills against the remaining foes.
Mines
Use grenades and a mine template to lay some nasty traps. This takes way more time than most attack setups, but it’s exciting and funny to lure enemies toward the traps and see them step right on a Fragmentation Mine. Yikes.
Suggested Augmentations and Equipment
You need very different augs to make a wonderful combat build. Invest in lethality, survivability, and only a few extra ways to get around. You don’t need to find side routes because the front door is always an option, no matter how well guarded it is.
Very Important Augmentations (Get Them ASAP)
- Cybernetic Weapon Handling
- Focus Enhancement
- Rhino Dermal Armor
- Sarif Series 8 Energy Converter
- Sentinel RX Health System
- Titan
It looks like there aren’t too many things that you need, but many of these are going to be costly purchases with multiple augs in each category that you must buy. Take Rhino Dermal Armor super early; it’s a lifesaver that even outdoes the Sentinel RX Health System. Master those two for incredible survivability, and then build out from there so that you get more lethality over time.
Save Titan for late in the game, when enemies begin to have all sorts of augmentations and firepower of their own. During the early- and mid-game, nothing can touch you if you’re armored and tough in the first place.
Good Augmentations (Mid- or Late-Game Purchases)
- Cybernetic Arm Prosthesis (for maximum carrying capacity)
- Hacking Capture (Level 2 or 3, main for fun and XP)
- Icarus Landing
Add to your carrying capacity so that you can hold more ammo and gear. With more space, you can occasionally grab an extra weapon just to bleed off spare ammo of unused types. For example, you might find a Pistol and use that for part of a level to save on higher caliber bullets while using 100 rounds that you’ve saved up for your handgun. Then, you can drop the Pistol or sell it the next time you reach a store.
This build is rough on inventory space. You often have multiple guns, Biocells, Hypostims, Painkillers, grenades (not essential), and possibly a bit of computer software, too. Also, bring a Multi-Tool wherever you go. For most of the game you won’t have a high Hacking Capture skill, so it’s great to have a device that breaks into a high-level system. If you find an awesome safe that has something great inside of it, break in with your Multi-Tool. It’s totally worth the expense. Purchase replacement tools when you’re in Prague.