Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Augments and Energy

[StriderShinryu]

Upon finishing DEHR, I found myself wondering about 2 things that ended up seeming very inconsequential to me. The issue is that they really seemed like they should have been more important.

First, Augments. Even the game loading screens warn you that you won't have enough points available to buy every single Augment in your playthrough so you have to choose carefully (rawr!). Yet, at the end, I had a stack of 10 points knowing I'd not bought all of the LIMB clinic kits and probably hadn't found all of the hidden kits either. After about halfway through the game, I barely even entered the Aug screen at all because I already had everything that I wanted/needed. Anyone else find most of the Augs nearly useless while others were almost required? Was it really down to play style or were many of the Augs just not designed to be worthwhile purchases unless you had points to waste?

Second, Energy. Other than takedowns, which the one initial cell was enough for, I didn't see much use for Energy and such I never upgraded beyond my first battery cell (though I did max out the regen rate). Energy was a pain to fill, so maybe it's not a huge deal that more cool/useful things didn't demand high energy usage, but I still found it a bit disappointing that the one resource you really have to manage didn't do more for you. Anyone else find this the case, or was it more my reserved playstyle that dovetailed into natural low Energy use?

 

[Ascarus]

clearly some talents were useless and unnecessary (e.g. icarus landing system) while others were indispensable (e.g. cloak). although the latter would be dependent on play style. another example of an augmentation that i wasn't overly impressed with was the typhoon. while it was a neat toy, it proved to be largely useless in my opinion.

that said i found the upgrades to energy refill increases to be very helpful, but having more than 3 energy batteries was worthless. hell for the most part, i only ever kept one fully charged and it served me for pretty much the whole game.

 

[ZeroMachine]

clearly some talents were useless and unnecessary (e.g. icarus landing system) while others were indispensable (e.g. cloak). although the latter would be dependent on play style. another example of an augmentation that i wasn't overly impressed with was the typhoon. while it was a neat toy, it proved to be largely useless in my opinion.

that said i found the upgrades to energy refill increases to be very helpful, but having more than 3 energy batteries was worthless. hell for the most part, i only ever kept one fully charged and it served me for pretty much the whole game.

Actually, that Icarus Landing System was invaluable to me. I sprung many a badass ambush on guys using that thing.

Conversely, I found the cloaking system to be an absolute waste of my time, and I did a stealth playthrough on Give Me Deus Ex.

That's why I love the game so much. Two people finding different abilities to have completely different levels of value.

Fuckin' love that game.

 

[DustyDrB]

At about midway, I had all the augs I wanted. So I started getting things like the lung augmentations and the "see through walls" one.

Energy is integral for stealth players, though. It becomes harder (or more tedious) as the game goes to be able to pick your spots to move so you aren't seen. The cloak and energy cells go hand-in-hand, and were the two things (along with hacking: capture, of course) that I maxed out. A full upgraded cloak gives you 7 seconds of cloak time per energy cell. I tried not to let any one cell deplete, but it happened sometimes. I stopped performing takedowns not too far into the game because I wanted to conserve energy cells.

Other augmentations become surprisingly useful. I went through most of the game with the jump enhancement and Icarus landing system, and acquired the "move heavy objects" aug later. This really opened up levels for me. I skipped through two whole floors in the TV station with the Icarus landing system by jumping a long ways down an elevator shaft (and got some nice Pathfinder XP for it).

There are some augmentations that I think are next-to-useless, though:
-HUD and radar upgrades (the vanilla radar already shows you all enemies in an area and what direction they are facing). I never needed to upgrade this.

-Flash Suppressant: I remember one flash bomb the entire game. It was down a set of steps in the Restricted Area and no enemies were around. So...

-Hacking: Fortify: There is a higher detection rate for using it. It's much better to just put all the points into Hacking: Stealth and go through a terminal unnoticed (if you do get noticed, just back out and try again. The chances are low that you'll get caught quickly twice in a row). I hacked the Hangar 18 one (hardest terminal in the game) without Fortify and without any viruses.

-Hacking: Analyze: I just don't see the point. It provides you some risk/reward-related info but it's not that valuable.

 

[Thespian]

It's a great game, and it's funny because, to me, energy was damn invaluable, I maxxed out my energy cells.

"Okay, first I'll X-ray through the wall, then I'll cloak to sneak up behind him, then I'll melee his ass from behind..."
And then I'm left staring at him, hitting the melee button with no energy.
More awkward than the time me and that guard had the same outfit!

But yeah, you totally didn't need all the augments. To be honest, I hoped they would be more interesting than just upgrades to what you already had. The first two I saw were Typhoon and Cloak, and I expected a lot more akin to those two, i.e, giving you a whole new ability instead of making regular skills work better.

I love the strength aug, though. I couldn't have made it through the game if I couldn't lift dumpsters and vending machines. X-ray vision also helped. It terrified me hearing those little R2-D2/ED-209 hybrids whirring around the hallways if I couldn't see them.

 

[PatrickXD]

Well my favourites were things like the Icarus Landing System and the Double Takedown augs, so I didn't use a whole lot of energy. But on my second playthrough I used both silence and cloaking in order to run through rooms of guards unscathed, and this severely drains cells. It really depends upon your playstyle but I agree for the most part, many people will not need a lot of energy to get by. To be fair, though, this is a recurring problem with every game in the series.

 

[ZeroMachine]

At about midway, I had all the augs I wanted. So I started getting things like the lung augmentations and the "see through walls" one.

Energy is integral for stealth players, though. It becomes harder (or more tedious) as the game goes to be able to pick your spots to move so you aren't seen. The cloak and energy cells go hand-in-hand, and were the two things (along with hacking: capture, of course) that I maxed out. A full upgraded cloak gives you 7 seconds of cloak time per energy cell. I tried not to let any one cell deplete, but it happened sometimes. I stopped performing takedowns not too far into the game because I wanted to conserve energy cells.

Other augmentations become surprisingly useful. I went through most of the game with the jump enhancement and Icarus landing system, and acquired the "move heavy objects" aug later. This really opened up levels for me. I skipped through two whole floors in the TV station with the Icarus landing system by jumping a long ways down an elevator shaft (and got some nice Pathfinder XP for it).

There are some augmentations that I think are next-to-useless, though:
-HUD and radar upgrades (the vanilla radar already shows you all enemies in an area and what direction they are facing). I never needed to upgrade this.

-Flash Suppressant: I remember one flash bomb the entire game. It was down a set of steps in the Restricted Area and no enemies were around. So...

-Hacking: Fortify: There is a higher detection rate for using it. It's much better to just put all the points into Hacking: Stealth and go through a terminal unnoticed (if you do get noticed, just back out and try again. The chances are low that you'll get caught quickly twice in a row). I hacked the Hangar 18 one (hardest terminal in the game) without Fortify and without any viruses.

-Hacking: Analyze: I just don't see the point. It provides you some risk/reward-related info but it's not that valuable.

You hacked 18 without viruses? Damn, man. That takes luck.

Also, I would always suggest just one radar upgrade, that extends the range. But the one where it shows cone of vision or where you can mark people? Overall, I find them useless.

 

[DustyDrB]

At about midway, I had all the augs I wanted. So I started getting things like the lung augmentations and the "see through walls" one.

Energy is integral for stealth players, though. It becomes harder (or more tedious) as the game goes to be able to pick your spots to move so you aren't seen. The cloak and energy cells go hand-in-hand, and were the two things (along with hacking: capture, of course) that I maxed out. A full upgraded cloak gives you 7 seconds of cloak time per energy cell. I tried not to let any one cell deplete, but it happened sometimes. I stopped performing takedowns not too far into the game because I wanted to conserve energy cells.

Other augmentations become surprisingly useful. I went through most of the game with the jump enhancement and Icarus landing system, and acquired the "move heavy objects" aug later. This really opened up levels for me. I skipped through two whole floors in the TV station with the Icarus landing system by jumping a long ways down an elevator shaft (and got some nice Pathfinder XP for it).

There are some augmentations that I think are next-to-useless, though:
-HUD and radar upgrades (the vanilla radar already shows you all enemies in an area and what direction they are facing). I never needed to upgrade this.

-Flash Suppressant: I remember one flash bomb the entire game. It was down a set of steps in the Restricted Area and no enemies were around. So...

-Hacking: Fortify: There is a higher detection rate for using it. It's much better to just put all the points into Hacking: Stealth and go through a terminal unnoticed (if you do get noticed, just back out and try again. The chances are low that you'll get caught quickly twice in a row). I hacked the Hangar 18 one (hardest terminal in the game) without Fortify and without any viruses.

-Hacking: Analyze: I just don't see the point. It provides you some risk/reward-related info but it's not that valuable.

You hacked 18 without viruses? Damn, man. That takes luck.

Also, I would always suggest just one radar upgrade, that extends the range. But the one where it shows cone of vision or where you can mark people? Overall, I find them useless.

Not really, I just took an indirect path to the goal (forgot what the name of it is). Most of the nodes I hacked had only a 15% of detection, with a couple that were 55%.

 

[ZeroMachine]

Not really, I just took an indirect path to the goal (forgot what the name of it is). Most of the nodes I hacked had only a 15% of detection, with a couple that were 55%.

Now, this brings up something interesting that didn't click- what difficulty did you play on?

I played on the toughest, and I swear every hackable at the start was 5. That, even with all the stealth, is a 55% chance.

Do hacks get tougher at higher difficulty, was I just too tired to notice easier paths, or did I just get really unlucky with a bug?

EDIT: Every hackable on Hangar 18, not throughout the entire game. That would blow.

 

[DustyDrB]

Not really, I just took an indirect path to the goal (forgot what the name of it is). Most of the nodes I hacked had only a 15% of detection, with a couple that were 55%.

Now, this brings up something interesting that didn't click- what difficulty did you play on?

I played on the toughest, and I swear every hackable at the start was 5. That, even with all the stealth, is a 55% chance.

Do hacks get tougher at higher difficulty, was I just too tired to notice easier paths, or did I just get really unlucky with a bug?

I played on Give Me Deus Ex. Did you upgrade Hacking: Stealth? I didn't notice most of the level 5 terminals having a higher chance of detection, or even being a longer hack. For example, there was a level 2 (or 3? I forget) in The Hive that gave me some problems. It was one of the terminals where you had to work your way through two separate branches to two different goals. So I don't think the terminal's class determines how hard it is to actually hack it. The class is just a skill check that opens or shuts the door on you from the start.

Blah: I asked a question you answered in your post (regarding Stealth). I remember for the Hangar 18 terminal, the most direct route has a higher detection chance.

 

[ZeroMachine]

Not really, I just took an indirect path to the goal (forgot what the name of it is). Most of the nodes I hacked had only a 15% of detection, with a couple that were 55%.

Now, this brings up something interesting that didn't click- what difficulty did you play on?

I played on the toughest, and I swear every hackable at the start was 5. That, even with all the stealth, is a 55% chance.

Do hacks get tougher at higher difficulty, was I just too tired to notice easier paths, or did I just get really unlucky with a bug?

I played on Give Me Deus Ex. Did you upgrade Hacking: Stealth? I didn't notice most of the level 5 terminals having a higher chance of detection, or even being a longer hack. For example, there was a level 2 (or 3? I forget) in The Hive that gave me some problems. It was one of the terminals where you had to work your way through two separate branches to two different goals. So I don't think the terminal's class determines how hard it is to actually hack it. The class is just a skill check that opens or shuts the door on you from the start.

I had it fully upgraded, that doesn't change the grade of the nodes.

Ah, well, I may have just missed something XD still hacked it no problem. Just had to load in the Nukes and Stops.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I maxed out my number of batteries, but since they didn't RECHARGE, I felt like they were a waste of time. Since I knocked out everyone I could, I was constantly running on only my first battery. The only time I needed all of them were the few sections where I needed stealth. There needed to be a way to recharge your batteries without having to eat something. It drove me nuts.

There are some augs that I never touched, and others I bought just for fun that turned out to be surprisingly helpful. For instance, I bought the "Electricity has no effect on you" aug just because I didn't want to waste the ten seconds trying to stack crates on the water. Little did I realize that it would make the final level, and boss, a total cakewalk. Same with the gas lung thing.
One that I bought thinking I would need and totally ended up regretting was the walk silently one. It's great that I can now walk instead of crawl up behind an enemy, but it does me no good if I don't have enough energy to knock him out because walking silently drains my energy.

As for the Icirus landing thing, if you want all the trophies, you NEED to get that one by the time you get to China. One of the books is at the bottom of an elevator that the fall will kill you if you don't have.

 

[Zhukov]

clearly some talents were useless and unnecessary (e.g. icarus landing system) while others were indispensable (e.g. cloak). although the latter would be dependent on play style. another example of an augmentation that i wasn't overly impressed with was the typhoon. while it was a neat toy, it proved to be largely useless in my opinion.

See, funny thing, I loved my icarus system, but refused to use cloak, despite playing stealthy-style.

(Random thought: who the hell names a soft-landing device after a guy who fell to his death?)

OT: Yeah, I was a bit miffed that was able to buy nearly all the augs. By half way through the game I had everything I wanted. I'm pretty sure that if I had been intentionally trying to get the most XP then I would been able to afford every single one.

Didn't have a problem with the energy system.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

The only thing that really baffled me was the fact that I could upgrade the number of energy cells I have, but they don't recharge on their own...

 

[The Reverend]

I found myself always saving my praxis points until I found a situation that would be made easier if I had a certain augment, but the only ones I ever found useful were the hacking stealth ones and the Icarus, possibly the lifting one too. Everything else is just gravy IMO.
Im gonna see if I can go through the whole game on the hardest difficulty without spending any praxis points!

 

[Bribase]

I found all of them useful except for the wall punching and aim steadying.Of course there are augs that fulfill the same roles, leg augs provide similar stealth effects to cloaking, radar augs and x-ray vision clash with mark and track.

 

[Stall]

The extended energy bar is very useful. It's near impossible to get Good Soul on a pacifist/foxiest of the hounds playthrough without all five bars. It can also greatly simplify otherwise tricky stealth situations, as combining the silence with the cloaking system can be sort of taxing and you need another cell to do takedowns. It's mostly useless for people not playing stealth, but it is definitely handy for the stealthy types.

The single most useful augment in the game is with NO doubt the EMP/electricity immunity. That one trivializes so much of the game it isn't funny. Second place would go to the radar upgrade, since it is quite nice. And third is probably the cloaking system, as even with one point it still can be pretty invaluable, as it lets you get around the laser barriers and cameras with ease.

As for the bad ones, the x-ray vision one is worthless. You can see everything on the mini-map perfectly with the upgraded radar, and you get the laser rifle so late in the game that it's mostly pointless. Most of the stealth augments are worthless (I did a pacifist/foxiest of the hound playthrough without any of those stealth enhancements). The only useful hacking augments are the capture software and stealth. Punching through walls is so situational that it is worthless.

Overall, there are a few good ones, more bad ones, but mostly ones that are just situational or meh.

clearly some talents were useless and unnecessary (e.g. icarus landing system)

The landing system is useful. There is a good, healthy number of shortcuts you can't take without it and it expedites travel a fair bit as well. It's just mostly situational.

 

[Woodsey]

The only thing that really baffled me was the fact that I could upgrade the number of energy cells I have, but they don't recharge on their own...

They do unless you empty them.

They're more for back-up to make tricky situations easier.

 

[higgs20]

clearly some talents were useless and unnecessary (e.g. icarus landing system) while others were indispensable (e.g. cloak). although the latter would be dependent on play style. another example of an augmentation that i wasn't overly impressed with was the typhoon. while it was a neat toy, it proved to be largely useless in my opinion.

that said i found the upgrades to energy refill increases to be very helpful, but having more than 3 energy batteries was worthless. hell for the most part, i only ever kept one fully charged and it served me for pretty much the whole game.

they aren't the most useful things but i once sprug an awesome ambush by shooting out a window i was standing on landing in the middle of a group of enemies, stunning them all and then using the typhoon to take them all down in one go.

it wasn't exactly stealthy but it made me feel pretty bad ass.

but i did find that even though i maxed my energy cells i was very rarely had more than one cell filled purely because they didn't recharge after a take down so it seemed a bit pointless to fill them unless i actually needed them.

 

[Evil the White]

-Flash Suppressant: I remember one flash bomb the entire game. It was down a set of steps in the Restricted Area and no enemies were around. So...

I think that one is designed in the same vein as half of the EMP resistance one, i.e. not suffering any consequences of your own grenades if you were too close.