Satellite Reign - Spiritual successor to Syndicate (Kkstr)

No point in hacking everyone -- regular civilians have lower stats. Assume the harder they are to hack, the better their stats.

Hijacking military operatives is a good way to pull ahead of the tech race (big stat bonuses) and they also work as extra firepower/meat shields. Highjacking can also help with stealth approach as you can take 2 guys offline almost instantly (hijack one and instagibb the other with your infiltrator). Just be aware you don't get to keep the weapons from hijacked operatives even when you send them back for cloning.

Scanning civilians really serves to identify researchers; I never came across a civilian with better stats than a military operative.

You gain experience by completing objectives, whether you go in quiet or loud.

I would suggest first priority skills to increase are Hardwire, Hacking, Cloak, and Highjacking (to level 2 or 3 at least). At least one level in Master Thief also becomes useful to give your Infiltrator access to high vents.

To me, the most critical piece of gear is the proxy hacker. That essentially allows any of your agents to hack things, a particularly useful skill for the cloaking Infiltrator.

Cool, thanks for the tips. I spent some time doing some research and after playing a bit more tonight, I feel like i'm doing ok.

I've got level 4 hacking and level 2 hijacking. My soldier is good for the stealth kills. Feel like I should be using the infiltrator for this. Don't think I'm using her to the best of her abilities.

I've got 8 scientists and done all of the downtown missions except for the big compound. Did the Wyvern one, but the other one still haven't touched. Got some upgrades, but no major weapons yet. At least I have all the ATMs hacked, so I'm getting a steady stream of income. Still wish I sent the hacker in instead of my infiltrator.

Overall though I'm really enjoying it.

I'm fairly certain you can get both the hacking and infiltrator rewards if you just send your hacker in.

I hijack enemies all the time (great way to stealth "kill") and send them back when I'm through with them. That gives me binders full of them I can leaf through -- some with better stats than others.

Nevin73 wrote:

To me, the most critical piece of gear is the proxy hacker. That essentially allows any of your agents to hack things, a particularly useful skill for the cloaking Infiltrator.

My infiltrator has a proxy hacker and my hacker has a cloaking device.

Double the posts!

Yeah I just checked and my rewards for the downtown bank read cash: $6000 and Downtown ATM siphons 140%: Acquired

Don't forget to send the soldier in as well to blast the vault and get even more cash. Be prepared for a fight when you leave though.

(This was meant to be just an edit post and I messed up.)

I wasn't very good with using the soldier for stealth kills, the infiltrator gets a sprint boost which can help with timing as it gives you more flexibility.

As a general tip, as you unlock new districts you should get the beacons and ATMs/bank as highest priorities for money and fast travel. It also provides information on available jobs in the district so you can work on the easier compounds first.

stupidhaiku wrote:

Yeah I just checked and my rewards for the downtown bank read cash: $6000 and Downtown ATM siphons 140%: Acquired

Don't forget to send the soldier in as well to blast the vault and get even more cash. Be prepared for a fight when you leave though.

(This was meant to be just an edit post and I messed up.)

Ok, how did you do this? I went to the same bank last night a second time after I initially got the 6k by sending in the infiltrator. The second time I got my hacker in there and she got nothing.

I've got all the beacons and atm's done in the first district. But I'm just needing to do those last 3 areas in that one giant complex before I can move to the next district. What's the best way of getting through those checkpoints? They look very heavily fortified with guys that are more armoured than me.

Just finished it. Last mission was intense but fun.

If you get the passes they'll let you right through the checkpoints. Just don't stray away from the walkways.

I'm not sure how it worked, I just sent the hacker into the main door. The entry in the dossier says "They'll never see this one coming. Good work with the siphon . . . etc." I also have an entry for the soldier making a mess of the vault. Is there any intel to purchase? Sometimes they'll lead to other paths or ideas so you should always get them, they're cheap usually.

Ending spoiler:

Spoiler:

I love that the title of the game is a play on words from the ending.

Finished up all the main areas in the first district. I need to get some funds together so I can move to the next area.

BlackSabre wrote:

Finished up all the main areas in the first district. I need to get some funds together so I can move to the next area.

In most cases, you can get security passes without paying exhorbitant fees by following the quest lines.

Spoiler:

For the first security pass I think you have to actually muscle your way through the security check because you only have the means to bypass the first scanner, yet the quest involves travelling to the second district. I thought it was a bug but it is possible to hold off the opposition and hack the final doors open if necessary. Also, if you have been diligent in upgrading your hijacking skills, you can also use this opportunity to hijack higher level operatives with better stats - you can use them to force your way past the security mechanisms.

I was able to get passes for all of the security checkpoints. I was actually wondering if I was missing part of the game by not muscling my way through.

I went in guns blazing and got through to the Industrial area. Now though I feel like I'm definitely needing some more firepower. All the research stuff I got in the first area have been for pistols and basic augs. Really need some high powered stuff to get me through. Getting a lot tougher and having to rely on stealth a bit more.

Oh, you get the firepower eventually, don't worry. But stealth is still usually the way to go.

I found that you are usually behind the power curve when you first start a district and then overpowered by the end of that district. When infiltrating a compound, try not to trigger guard spawns - most obvious trigger is detection by operatives or cctv, but enemies also spawn from shooting cameras and failing to take out a drone or operative about to increase the alertness level.

Also, consecutive increases in alertness will cause the strength of spawning operatives to increase. Try taking advantage by finding an easy spot to trigger spawns near a beacon and then hijacking the better operatives; that way you can gain up to 5
extra meat shields/firepower for storming compounds; or, take advantage by making sure you don't escalate alertness near the same spawn point so that they don't keep increasing in strength.

Well I've now cleared both the Downtown and Industrial districts and made my way to the beginning of the Grid district. I've pretty much just rolled my way through the checkpoint instead of buying passes. Having hijacking at level 5 really helps.

I've finally got some better gear and discovered the black market dealer who I can buy extra stuff from. He's got some better weapons which I need to save up for to buy the prototypes. I assume the prototypes are random from playthrough to playthrough?

So I have body armour equipped on my soldier and support, but not my hacker or infiltrator, yet when i exit out of the equipment screen, my hacker and infiltrator actually have body armour... any reason for this? Bug?

Some leg and arm augs provide armor as well.

Ah! That would be it. So how come that doesn't regenerate then, or it does, but only when I go to the spawn points?

Armor is only at spawn points.

You can get upgrades where armour will recharge in the field, but it is much much slower than health or shields.

IMO you'll get more mileage out of pursuing shield upgrades in priority to armour (faster replenishment rate means they tend to sponge more damage in a prolonged compound infiltration). Also, my experience was that you are better off pursuing augs which don't give bonuses to health and armour as they offer unique benefits which can change your tactical approach (including the one that lets you hack via any operative).

Oh and a big tip on firefights - don't be afraid to use grenade consumables - when enemies fall, they drop ammo crates that can be used to replenish ammo and grenades without having to run up to an ammo chest/beacon.

Or just lob grenades haphazardly into the compound from spawn. I was guilty of that a few times in my run through.

Ah, never knew you get more from ammo crates. In that case I'll be throwing more of them. I just finished some more research and have some more weapons available such as the plasma rifle, so I should be good to go.

The other trick, if you are content to run with 5 hijacked operatives at once, is to grab the Dracogenic Commanders who come with shielding and grenades - can help with quick and deadly splash damage. Especially right in front of enemy spawn points about to churn out tough opponents (cheesy but effective as Stupidhaiku points out).

So I just beat this. Basically did this pure stealth. Avoiding open combat at much as possible. Really enjoyed it. Wished it had a new game plus or something. Never really played the original syndicate so this was pretty fresh for me.

My only complaint is the limits on saving. Let me quick save whenever even if I'm in the middle of a base. Also like the research and gear. That said most of it was useless due to stealth. Except for a few of the items that basically render some classes unnecessary. Really only the soldier or infiltrator is needed. Everything else can be done via items.

Still a really good game. On sale I think on steam for the current winter sale.

I put this on pause, mostly to grind out MGSV.
Now that I'm pretty much done with it, I'm going to try to get back on this.

Got this for Christmas. It is incredibly intimidating! I'm generally scared of this sort of RTS-ish control style (an option to pause and issue new commands would make this a lot less stressful for me) and the text explanations of all the systems and story and objectives are quite dense. This feels like a PC game straight out of 1994, for good and bad. I've cleared out maybe two thirds of the Downtown objectives. I think this is going to be a slow and long journey, but I'll keep trying. From skimming up thread, it sounds like I need to hijack people more often--I basically just did it the one time the game told me to.

Yeah don't be afraid of losing agents as you can hijack a limitless supply. It's cheesy but you can escalate the security level near a spawning waypoint until they send the highest level of operatives you can recruit. At higher levels the base stats of a hijacked agent is like a low grade guy fitted with the best implants so you'll really notice the performance difference.