The Basics of Breach

In Breach, you have a persistent character (not Jensen) who is gaining XP and Praxis. The more missions you run, the more you accrue XP and are able to learn. Just as XP helps you develop your character, credits that you earn lets you purchase Booster Packs with random selections of equipment and consumables. This is at least as important as your set of augmentations because there isn’t any physical treasure to pick up in this game. If you don’t find something in a pack that you purchase, you don’t have it.

This means that gathering credits is very important, even more than in the main story. There are bonuses for beating missions the first time and for completing special goals in each one. However, simply grinding missions again and again won’t get you much at all. You have to be strategic about your approach to Breach if you want to rake in the cash.

Or, you can use the shop to purchase chipsets using real-world cash, and buy Booster Packs that way.

Mission Goals

Every server has a specific goal. There are four types of major goals: Extract, Eliminate, Collect, and Boss.

Extract is the most common type of server. You have to go through the area, interact with multiple Data Towers, and download information from them. Though you don’t need to use every single tower in the server, you must use the majority of them before extracting. Once you have enough data (as shown at the top of the HUD), you can leave by returning to the entrance of the server. Note that there are Data Towers in every server, but you’re only required to use them during Extract missions.

Eliminate missions give you a kill count to reach. The exit won’t unlock until you’ve defeated that number of opponents. Always bring some extra weapons to these because ranged kills are better for points in Breach. Get headshots to secure very nice bonuses to your score.

Collect missions have a required number of data fragments that you must pick up. Instead of being in Data Towers, the fragments are on the ground. They’re bright and shiny, so it’s easy to see them once you’re close. However, many fragments are hidden behind objects, suspended over gaps, and so forth. You need to search carefully to make sure that you get these little guys.

Boss missions send you against a more difficult target. These bosses require substantial damage to kill off, so take extra weapons and turn on your best augmentations for survivability and damage output. Bosses aren’t always heavies. Sometimes, they can be a normal type of enemy given extra power and advantages (like a sniper on a level with open jumps and good fields of view). Always take a run to analyze the boss’ area and figure out how to steal most of the boss’ advantages away.

Mission Restrictions

You have to worry about more than just your goals. Some servers have special restrictions that make it even harder to complete your mission goal.

Timer restrictions start the mission with an alert already in progress. Some doors might be sealed because of this, and there is a ticking clock at the top of the screen that counts down the entire time. That’s distracting, so it makes things harder in multiple ways. Try to relax, and remember that there is always enough time to get things done once you learn where to search in each server.

Stealth missions are even harder. These ones fail if you’re detected at any time. Enemies don’t even need to trigger an alarm; simply seeing your character is enough to immediately end everything. Bring stealthy weapons, equip augs like SILENCER_XY.aug and CLOAK.aug, and avoid as much trouble as you can.

The No Augmentations setting turns off most of your toys. Active augs are completely out, but at least some of your passive effects still come into play (better energy and health systems, for example).

Rewards

If you complete the mission goal and extract successfully, you’re given several things. There is a base amount of credits that you get for repeating each mission. This isn’t much cash, so focus more on the special rewards that are granted.

Mission Rewards

As you can see, there are several good ways to benefit from running each mission. High Score, Speedrun, and All Data Extracted are one time-only bonuses. They apply to each server and are then done forever once you’ve unlocked them.

Daily Completion is an important way to gather credits. The further you get into Breach, the more missions become available. These have the potential to get you a massive amount of credits every day that you play the game. Get good at running quickly through each area to finish it and get your bonus.

High Scores are one of the harder bonuses to get. You should use multiple Patches to increase your score multiplier. Find Patches that don’t get in the way of your specific run through an area so that it’s still not too hard to complete. For example, fast missions are still easy even if you lose health every second because you won’t be there for long. You can also take Hypostims to survive. Go slowly during High Score runs, and make every shot count. Enemies must be killed with headshots so that you get the maximum bonus for their deaths. You can use other methods (explosive cubes, augmentations, etc.), but these don’t always yield as many points, so watch your HUD carefully and experiment to see what gets you the best score. Get all data on the server. Destroy turrets and cameras. You get the idea. Never try to do a Speedrun and a High Score at the same time; they’re totally different animals.

Speedruns, shockingly, are all about getting the mission done quickly. You don’t want to go for every Data Tower. You don’t want to fight enemies unless you have to. Instead, you just want to complete the minimum number of goals and then extract immediately. Use Cheats to make everything as easy as possible. Never bother with Patches because your score is irrelevant. Make a separate run when it’s time to go for a High Score; they’re tracked independently.

All Data Extracted is something to work on while you practice for a High Score. You don’t care about hurrying, so search for every tower and make sure that you know where all of them are before you even think about a High Score run. Make a path that’s as fast as possible between all of these servers so that you can hurry through and get your points. That leaves more time for killing enemies.

Darknet files

There are additional rewards for completing Darknet Files. These are the conspiracies that you uncover as you make progress through Breach. They’ll involve contacting other Rippers and paying some credits up front, but they reveal the truth about the corporations. At the end of each story, you get a substantial bonus.

The Corporations

The different servers in this mode are tied to specific companies. As you intrude on each server, you’ll notice a theme that varies based on the company you’re hacking.

Tarvos Security has very traditional levels. There are sentinels, cameras, turrets, and chokepoints. These are usually very intuitive and require a mix of combat and stealth that matches the main story’s style of play. Use a strong weapon loadout and survivability augmentations to excel at these runs. Levels like these are gray in tone.

Versalife servers are stranger. They have vertical areas that are hard to explore. It’s possible to fall off of them and lose health, and there are a variety of hazards you must avoid, as well. Use jumping and dashing augmentations to give yourself a faster and easier time traversing these servers. Expect few sentinels, but a major force of drones, turrets, and robots. Hacking these makes life much easier. Versalife levels are a very light blue-gray in color.

Steiner-Bisley GMBH levels are wide open and depend on firepower to defeat you. Expect heavy enemies, large patrols, key weapon emplacements, but little subtlety. Go for raw damage output and survivability to win these intrusions. Stealth and careful play won’t get you very far here. These levels are orange in color.

Buying Packs

Between missions, go to the store and see if there is anything that you want to buy. This is where credits are exchanged for packs, keys, and ammo. At first, you want to put a considerable amount of credits into Standard Packs. Though poor in quality, they’re cheap and help you fill out your character quickly with a modest assortment of weapons and items. Once you have a basic selection of weapons, start saving up for more expensive packs. The brutal Ripper Packs cost more than 30 times what a Standard Pack costs, but they’re what you really want to save up for once you’re in decent shape. Ripper Packs have a chance of giving you incredible equipment. A-class equipment is common in them, and you have the best chance for getting S-class items! Every one of those that you get is a major addition to your arsenal. The extra weapon parts, Praxis, and firewall keys in those packs are filler, but at least they’re very expensive and useful filler!

Here are the items that are for sale.

Breach Store

The Effects of Rarity

Rarity influences the visual appearance and the attributes of the items you acquire in Breach. S is the highest rarity and yields the best bonuses. C is the lowest tier.

Weapons with higher rarity have a better starting point, and they also can be upgraded more times than their lower variants. This means that you can invest more weapon parts into a Combat Rifle (B) than a Combat Rifle (C). When you find a better version of something that you already have, consider trashing the old weapon for spare parts and using those to start improving your new gear.

If you already have a weapon that is fully upgraded, it’s not always worth switching to something that’s only one letter grade higher. In general, you should switch weapons earlier in your career, and start holding onto weapons much longer once you begin finding more Bs and As. Anything that is an S-rank weapon is worth your time, obviously.