Hints and Tips

Hints and Tips

This section contains playing tips you're not about to find in the manual, and that will greatly improve your capabilities.  

ONLY TWENTY SAVE FILES?
 
Save your game often!  Do NOT keep only one or two files and rid yourself of that bad habit!  Save games can get corrupt, or worse, the scenario in the game turns out to be horrible and there appears to be something wrong with your backup file (or it is okay, but three hours away from your current file). Save often, and in different slots.

MAXIMIZING EXPERIENCE
 
If you're a completionist looking to maximize Jensen completely, you'll want to get every single experience point in the game there is to get.

Explore all possible paths to get all traveler XP bonuses, and take out all enemies whenever possible, always using (multiple) takedowns whenever you have the chance, since takedowns are the most rewarding form of incapacitating enemies.  Also successfully hack every single device, and don't open doors from the inside; instead head back to the door to hack it, and never use codes; this maximizes your XP as far as hacking is concerned.

Always win Social Battles.  Save your game beforehand and reload if you lose one.

Sneak around!  You'll want to get every possible Ghost and Smooth Operator experience bonus that you can get.

HIDING/LOOTING BODIES
 
ALWAYS hide bodies out of sight.  Out of sight doesn't mean dragging a body around the corner, it means dragging it to a place where guards never come, such as behind a series of crates, in a hidden corner, etc.

Many guards hold a small sum of credits and ammunition, while some will even carry special items and Pocket Secretaries with background information or keycodes.  Always loot a body after taking someone out.

LURING GUARDS
 
Luring a guard will cause him to go into the "Alarmed State", but this does not prevent you from getting the Ghost and Smooth Operator bonuses.

Luring guards is often an excellent way to get guards to move away from their regular patrol patterns, luring them away from their comrades.

A good luring method is opening a door from the side.  You'll need to perform a takedown either very quickly as they enter the room (otherwise they will spot you and turn hostile), or you need to combine this with cloak.

An other way to lure guards is to shoot a silenced round (10mm, Tranq darts) in a place you want the guard to investigate.  Back away and take out the guard whenever possible.

There are more ways to distract guards, such as throwing with cardboard boxes or other objects available.  Just make sure they don't see you and it'll all benefit you, as long as you know what you're doing.

BUYING ITEMS & PRAXIS KITS
 
Always try to buy every single Praxis Kit you can from LIMB Clinics.  The Typhoon Ammo and Hypostim items from LIMB Clinics are also excellent.  Other good items to buy are Gas/EMP Grenades, the Silencer, and weapon upgrades (depending on which weapon you prefer).

SELLING WEAPONS, MAKING MONEY
 
Picking up a weapon if you already have that weapon will cause the game to trash the weapon and only give you its ammunition.  If you are, however, looking to make good money (and you are in a city hub or you will soon visit a city hub with traders), then drop your main weapon and carry the secondary copy to a dealer.  A Combat Rifle, for example, sells for a very decent 630 Credits, and a Tranquilizer Rifle or Shotgun is worth 750 Credits.  This is an excellent way to save credits for expensive Praxis Kits at LIMB Clinics.

TROPHIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

In order to get all trophies and achievements, normally you'll need to play through the game at least twice.  There are a few tricks you can apply to get everything in just one run, though.

Play on the hardest difficulty setting and never change this.  NEVER kill ANYONE, not even at the beginning, not in sidequests, and not indirectly (by enabling security bots or anything like it).  Bosses may be killed. In order to get some trophies/achievements for which killing is mandatory, save your game, kill the NPC (thus getting the trophy/achievement), and reload your game to continue with your main game.  Keep several save games at all times!

AUGMENTATIONS: GOOD, BETTER, AND BEST
 
Not every augmentation in Deus Ex Human Revolution is as useful as the rest, there's no doubt about it.  No one will argue that Strength or Jump Enhancement are less useful than Aim Stabilizer.  The question is, which augmentations are useful early in the game, and which ones can be activated later on, while maximizing the sufficiency of every single aug.

The lists below go over the augmentations that are best to get as soon as possible, ones that are good to consider halfway through the game, and ones you can leave alone until very late in the game when you have Praxis Kits left to spare.
 
  Remember, these are only guidelines.  You're free to spend all your Praxis Kits any way you like, just keep in mind that some paths are more rewarding than others.

  As you can see, the early in-game list only contains the essentials, so if you have any Praxis Kits left to spare, feel very free to use them for augmentations that allow you to maximize experience (such as the Reflex Booster, allowing for multiple takedowns)

  EARLY IN-GAME
 
  -  Hacking Capture 2 (& 3 4 if you want to maximize XP)
  -  Move/Throw Heavy Objects
  -  Jump Enhancement
  -  Cloaking System Level 1 (& 2)
  -  Carrying Capacity 1 (& 2)
 (-) Reflex Booster (only if you want to maximize XP)
 
  MIDWAY IN-GAME
  
  -  Hacking Capture 3 & (& 5 if you wish to maximize XP)
  -  Punch Through Walls
  -  Cloaking System Level 2 & 3
  -  Carrying Capacity 2 & 3
  -  Energy Level Upgrade 1
  -  Typhoon Level 1 (&2) (before the second boss)
  -  Run Silently
 (-) Dermal Armor Level 1
 (-) Icarus Landing System (when you reach a certain optional part in Hengsha that leads to a Hugh Darrow Ebook)

  ENDGAME
 
  - Hacking Capture 5
  - Typhoon Level 2
  - Dermal Armor Level 2 (& 3)
  - Recharge Rate Upgrade Level 1 & 2
  - Energy Level Upgrade Level 2 & 3
  - Hacking Fortify & Stealth 2 (& 3)
  - Aim Stabilizer

SECONDARY AUGMENTATIONS
 
The following augmentations aren't bad, but they are either very contextual and thus limiting their usefulness, they provide you with information that is already in this guide (or with useless information), or you simply won't benefit all that much from some of them.  It's recommended to only spend your valuable Praxis Kits on these when you've obtained the above augmentations already.

Social Enhancer:
I'd definitely recommend doing a playthrough with this at least once, simply because it looks pretty cool, but you will only be able to use it several times, and you can win Social Battles easily by reloading your game.

Radar System Level 2:
It sounds really useful, but the truth is that the radar already has excellent functionality, and this augmentation doesn't help you all that much.

Stealth Enhancer:
This includes Noise Feedback, Mark & Track 1/2/3, Last Known Location Marker, and Cones of Vision.  These augmentations might be useful for the less experienced player, but hardly come in handy for someone who already knows to stay out of sight, and where his/her foes are located at.

Hacking Analyze Add-On:
This has little practical purpose, and it's wiser to just improve your actual hacking skills.

Implanted Rebreather:
The Chemical Resistance can be useful at times, and this augmentation is probably one of the best of all secondary augmentations.  The Hyper-Oxygenation 1/2 can also come in handy for quickly traveling through hubs, but this is more a nifty little thing rather than a life-saving augmentation.

Recoil Compensation:
If you're heavily relying on combat measures, this augmentation has its uses (it improves your accuracy), but for stealth players it's not very important.

Smart Vision:
A fun addition, but never required.

Cooldown Timer & Flash Suppressant:
The Cooldown Timer is hardly useful, and the Flash Suppressant is very contextual.

Sprint Enhancement:
This only improves your running speed from 6.5 meters per second to 7.5 meters per second.  The Hyper-Oxygenation augmentations are far better.

Sprint/Jump/Land Silently:
These are extremely contextual.