_NVZN

A VIDEO GAME WITHIN A VIDEO GAME

NVZN (which is a stylized spelling of “invasion” rather than an acronym) is an augmented-reality video game where you use Aiden’s firearms proficiency to defend Chicago against multiple waves of constantly evolving aliens. It’s very popular in the Watch_Dogs universe, and if you have a spare moment in your career of deliberately antagonizing massive criminal enterprises, you can kick back and relax with a few rounds.

You can play NVZN anywhere in the game world by dialing into it from Aiden’s phone, but there are also several locations throughout the city where you can play it by interacting with its logo on the sidewalk. The game itself does not change from location to location, and you can in fact carry over your progress from one location to another if you choose to do so. What does change between locations is the amount of interference you get from traffic, local terrain, and random bystanders.

An ideal location for a round of NVZN is a quiet, clear area, as the aliens will hide behind or inside trees, cars, pedestrians, and other assorted objects whenever they can. Good places to play NVZN include the island underneath the expressway west of the Bunker, which is one of the most open and flat areas in Chicago; the undeveloped strip of land on the eastern side of the Brandon Docks, near the river; and the flat grassy area near the Bram Steffan Pavilion in the Loop. Low-traffic back alleys in downtown Chicago can also be great places to play NVZN.

TOTAL / 21 WAVES OF DIFFICULTY

You must reach Wave 5 to achieve credit towards overall completion.

SUCCESS & FAILURE

At the start of a game of NVZN, you have five lives, a virtual “pistol,” and 100 seconds on the clock. Your phone is disabled during NVZN, so you can’t hack anything to give yourself a leg up, and your weapons do not affect normally destructible objects on account of not being real weapons. But you can still sprint, climb over obstacles, and use Focus in the typical way.

To successfully complete a wave, you must destroy all aliens in the area within the time limit. Running out of lives or time will result in failure, which requires you to start from the beginning of the current wave but carries no other penalty. You can opt to quit out of NVZN after any normal wave, which will save your progress until the next time you decide to play.

You lose lives by being struck by aliens’ attacks, which is only a serious threat in the higher-level waves. Losing a life is indicated by a red flash around the edges of your screen. Lost lives do not regenerate between waves; the only way to get them back is to pick them up as random drops from dead aliens (see “Weapons and Pickups”).

In the early game, your real opponent is the clock, as the aliens are numerous, hard to hit, and often reproduce on the fly. In the late game, the clock’s a problem, but you also need to worry about being surrounded and blasted to bits.

When you finish a wave, you receive bonus points based upon the time left over, equal to 20 multiplied by the remaining seconds, rounded down to the nearest whole number.

ALIENS

The aliens in NVZN are virtual-reality constructs that appear from giant white wormholes. These wormholes disgorge a set number of Drones and the occasional Hunter before disappearing. Only one wormhole appears in the early waves, but more open in each wave as you progress until you’re dealing with four at once.

During each wave, a Drone that’s left alive will eventually evolve into a Hunter, after a set period of time that’s determined by the wave you’re in; the later the wave, the shorter the amount of time it takes before the Drone evolves. Evolution is also accompanied by the alien being briefly surrounded by a geodesic dome.

Aliens are not healed by the evolution process and are not invulnerable during it, but their new point value from their next form is assigned immediately. Thus, if you hit a Drone once and it starts to change into a Hunter shortly thereafter, it retains the damage from your hit but is only worth 150 points if you destroy it before it emerges from the cocoon.

The aliens in NVZN aren’t “real,” of course, and as such have a shaky relationship with actual objects in your environment. They often hide behind fences, float through parked cars, and duck behind pedestrians. This does not affect your ability to hit them but does mean they can be hard to see. This is a good reason to avoid playing NVZN in parking garages.

Drone

200 Points

Most aliens start as Drones, which are small, fast, harmless, and move in erratic patterns. You must learn how to lead a target to take them down. Don’t shoot at them; shoot at where they’re about to be.

Hunter

150 Points

Hunters are the first evolutionary form of the Drone. They’re slower and bigger, which makes them easier to destroy, but they’ll also go on the attack if given the chance. A Hunter’s primary form of attack is a heavily telegraphed lunge with its tail or firing explosive shots from its mouth.

If you’re watching a Hunter, it’s easy to tell when it’s about to attack you, as it turns to face you and elevates itself to an altitude that’s slightly above Aiden’s head. It’s very telegraphed and easy to dodge, but only if you see it coming. If a number of them attack you while your back is turned, they can strip all of your lives away very quickly.

If left alive, Hunters can randomly evolve into Queens or Pods. As a rule, however, a Hunter that has gone on the offensive against you won’t evolve at all. It’s either going to stay neutral and change up to its next form, or start firing at you and stay a Hunter until it’s destroyed.

Queen

250 Points

When Queens spawn, they attempt to latch onto any bystanders in your play area, where they remain still. Twelve seconds later, they birth one or more new Drones, with a new Drone appearing every six seconds afterward as long as the Queen remains alive. It’s easy to destroy the Queen before it has the chance to reproduce, unless you’re busy with other things at the time.

Since Queens are dependent upon their human “hosts,” they tend not to spawn if you’re playing NVZN in an area without civilian traffic. This is both a benefit and a drawback, since they’re worth a few more points than any other alien and they don’t actually attack you.

Pod

200 Points

While they do not attack directly, Pods can pose a serious threat to your time limit. They evolve from Hunters and immediately touch down on the ground, where they begin to grow and swell. If allowed to survive past that point, a Pod disgorges two to four brand-new Drones before falling over dead. From its initial evolution, it takes 12 seconds for a Pod to spawn Drones.

This does give you a chance at a few extra points, but if you’re already racing the clock this is a complication you may not need. Allow Pods to birth new Drones only if you’re confident in your ability to destroy them in time.

ALIEN HEALTH

A single Drone or Hunter has an under-the-hood “health” of 2, which is roughly equal to two clean hits from the standard NVZN pistol, or three from the fusion repeater. Pods and Queens have 3.

Starting at Wave 13, the health of Drones stays the same, but Hunters receive a 50 percent bonus to their health for a total of 3, whereas the health of Pods and Queens goes up to 4 or 5. At this point, it becomes crucial to have access to higher-damage weapons like the laser carbine, and to make every shot count.

WEAPONS AND PICKUPS

Your standard weapon in NVZN is functionally identical to your starting 9mm pistol. While it does not have to be reloaded and has infinite ammunition, it does relatively low damage per hit.

Any alien you destroy has the chance to drop a useful item, which falls to the ground below it. This item lasts only a few seconds before disappearing. At the start of a new game, your only available items from dead aliens are the fusion repeater and extra lives. You can add more items to this by successfully completing bonus waves.

Picking up a weapon automatically equips it. It lasts until its ammunition is exhausted, until you pick up a different type of weapon, or until you fail a wave and have to start over. You can only carry one weapon at a time, and you cannot voluntarily switch weapons.

Fusion Repeater

CAPACITY: 60

The fusion repeater is always available as a drop, even in the first waves. It fires much like one of the smaller machine pistols that Aiden can use in the main game, which means it makes up for a slight lack of punch per bullet compared to the pistol by being fully automatic.

This makes it an excellent weapon against Drones, since you can just fill their zone with bullets, and at close range, but you can burn through the clip in seconds.

If you ready the fusion repeater while you have the fire button held down, Aiden will waste a couple of rounds as he brings his gun up to the aim.

Ion Blaster

CAPACITY: 10

The “shotgun” of NVZN’s arsenal, the ion blaster does very little damage at anything other than close range. It’s not great in earlier waves when the enemies are a bit sparse, but around Wave 15, when you have to deal with multiple wormholes at once, it can be a decent way to clear out some space. It’s a frustrating weapon until you’ve got some practice with it.

Laser Carbine

CAPACITY: 12

The trade-off for the laser carbine’s power and accuracy is a low rate of fire, just as if you were shooting a sniper rifle from the hip. It does more damage per individual hit than any other weapon you have and is great for rapidly eliminating Hunters and larger aliens, particularly at long range. Drones are hard to hit with it, though, and just get more evasive as you climb into the higher waves.

Pulse Rifle

CAPACITY: 42

The pulse rifle occupies a middle ground between the repeater’s rate of fire and the ion blaster’s power, and is a good workhorse weapon at all ranges. To continue the comparison with the guns used in the main game, the pulse rifle is roughly analogous to workhorse assault weapons like the AK-47.

Smart Bomb

CAPACITY: —

A smart bomb explodes when you pick it up, destroying every alien within a short distance of Aiden. You receive full point value for all aliens that are destroyed in this manner, but the explosion has a relatively short range. In later waves, however, when you’re hip-deep in aliens from the word go, a smart bomb almost cannot help but destroy multiple targets.

Time Extend

CAPACITY: —

Pick this up to add 15 seconds to the clock. If there’s a limit to how much extra time you can get on the clock in a typical wave, it’s unlikely that you’ll get enough pickups in a row to reach it.

Extra Life

CAPACITY: —

This restores one missing life. It has no effect if you grab it while you have five lives in reserve.

WAVES

At the start of a new game of NVZN, you deal with one wormhole at a time, which will emit a handful of Drones before closing. The first five waves work along similar guidelines, although it’s common for a full-grown Hunter to appear at least once from a given Wormhole after Wave 3 or so.

Each wave after the fifth slowly modifies the aliens’ stats and behavior, making them faster, more durable, and quicker to evolve, as well as gradually opening extra wormholes. Hunters in particular go from a mild annoyance to an actual threat, as the period of time between their appearance and their first attack gets shorter with each wave after the fifth.

• Alien Speed: The general airspeed of a flying alien.
• Maximum Drones Spawned from Pod: Pods can spawn a variable number of Drones if they’re allowed to survive. They will always produce at least two, but that number increases as the wave level goes up.
• Hunter Rate of Fire: The “cooldown” in seconds between shots fired by a single Hunter.
• Hunter Attack Speed: The “cooldown” in seconds between flying lunges used by a single Hunter.
• Drone Evolution Speed: The time in seconds it takes a newly spawned Drone to evolve into a Hunter.
• Time to Attack: The time in seconds it takes a newly spawned Hunter to launch its first attack against the player.
• Maximum Simultaneous Hunters: The maximum number of Hunters that can exist simultaneously.
• Maximum Simultaneous Queens and Pods: The maximum number of Queens and Pods that can exist simultaneously.

There are essentially 22 waves in NVZN; the game extends beyond that point and will go on for as long as you can keep successfully completing waves, but the waves past 22 are mechanically identical. At that point, you’ll be dealing with small armies of fast, accurate, dangerous aliens who will surround you from the moment a wave starts and go on the attack very quickly upon appearing.

Wave 13 marks a serious difficulty spike. At this point, the aliens take more damage to destroy once they’ve evolved into a Hunter or better, which allows them to stay alive that much longer, which increases the odds that they’ll survive long enough to turn into something that can produce extra Drones. Every subsequent wave adds a slight boost to aliens’ stats until Wave 21. After that point, the aliens’ stats plateau.

BONUS WAVES

After every fourth wave of aliens, you automatically enter a bonus wave with a different set of rules. Your goal here is to achieve a certain score within set guidelines, using a new weapon or powerup to do so. You can complete a bonus wave either by reaching the set score or by destroying all of the aliens that are released into the area.

Either success or failure in a bonus wave adds your score to your current total, but success also unlocks the bonus wave’s new weapon or pickup as a possible drop from destroyed aliens from that point forward.

Aliens do not attack you during bonus waves and are generally worth more points than usual, but they also do not drop anything unless it’s required for the particular wave’s gimmick.

Starting a new game of NVZN wipes out your unlocked items from previously completed bonus waves. They do not persist between new games.

It is difficult to succeed in later levels without access to, at the very least, smart bombs and time extension pickups. You can get by, but by the time you hit Wave 16 or so, you’re going to want every edge you can get your hands on. In a real way, getting a high score in NVZN is all about how good you are at successfully completing bonus waves.

Ion Blaster Challenge

Earliest Wave: After Wave 4

Each dead Drone is worth 1,000 points, but you’re armed with an ion blaster and thus are most effective at very close range. You have 40 seconds. If allowed to evolve into Hunters, the aliens are easier to kill but are only worth 750 points.

The temptation here is to try to do all of your work close-in, but the Drones don’t make that easy. Try to engage the Drones from medium range, using the spread on the ion blaster to your advantage. If you can, weaken several Drones at once with the ion blaster’s spread before knocking them down one after the other.

Laser Carbine Challenge

Earliest Wave: After Wave 4

Each of the Hunters flying far overhead is worth 900 points. You must kill 9 of them with the 12 shots in the laser carbine in 42 seconds to clear the bonus wave.

There’s little you can do here but practice. The laser carbine is powerful but slow to fire, and you only have three “extra” shots before you’re unable to successfully complete the wave. One thing to look out for, though, is that the Hunters do not necessarily stay at long range. Several opt to get closer to the ground, where they’re much easier to hit. Don’t feel rushed by the timer; taking a couple of extra seconds to ensure a kill is preferable to wasting a shot.

Time Extended Challenge

Earliest Wave: After Wave 8

Four wormholes open up and disgorge a set number of Drones, who fly in quick but set patterns and are worth 400 points each. When destroyed, each Drone has a chance to drop an item that, when picked up, adds up to 15 seconds to the clock but cannot take the clock over 45 seconds.

The hardest part of this bonus wave is the first 20 seconds. If you cannot destroy at least two Drones in that period of time and collect at least one time extension, you’re in trouble. If you can, you’ll be just fine.

Pulse Rifle Challenge

Earliest Wave: After Wave 12

You must achieve 8,000 points in 42 seconds by destroying Drones, so you must kill 20 of them, but the Drones are flying together in a straight line from wormhole to wormhole. The easiest way to deal with them is to sprint in front of their formation and aim straight at them with the trigger held down, blowing them away one after the other from the front. Trying to hit them from the side is nowhere near as effective.

Smart Bomb Challenge

Earliest Wave: 12

As in the pulse rifle bonus wave, you’re up against a conga line of Drones moving quickly from one wormhole to the other, which are worth 400 points each. The difference is that you must destroy a couple of them with your standard pistol in the hopes that they’ll drop a smart bomb, which you must then grab at the right time to destroy as many Drones as possible. This is an easy bonus wave for as late in the game as it tends to show up, and it’s likely you’ll get through it on your first attempt.

THE Seven HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE ALIEN KILLERS

• Practice makes perfect. NVZN is a shooter that emphasizes twitch reflexes and situational awareness with a heavy element of luck, and it’s a different style of play from the main game. A learning curve is involved before you can excel.
• Play at night when you can, and in areas that have relatively few light sources. That makes it easier to pick out the brightly glowing aliens.
• While bystanders won’t pay much attention to you during NVZN, the world does not stop. Be careful of obstacles such as moving traffic while you’re playing NVZN, as they can do real damage to you.
• Lead your targets. Drones are surprisingly hard to hit, and dispatching them before they have the chance to evolve is the key to both survival and a high score.
• In later waves, the aliens actively try to surround you, and wormholes frequently spawn directly behind Aiden. Keep sprinting away to avoid being flanked.
• There’s no real penalty for failure. Don’t be afraid to try new tactics, move to a different location, or simply try again and hope for better weapon drops.
• The use of Focus is a double-edged sword. It makes it easier to hit Drones and distant targets by slowing down their movement, but over-reliance on it can shave seconds off of your time due to how Focus interacts with NVZN’s timer.

REWARDS

• Reach Wave 5 of NVZN: Auto Weapons Expert (Skill)