The first thing you are gonna do is deploy. Basically you get the map view, and can scroll about it. Where you click is where you start.

When you click, you plummet to the ground... then stand around being confused for a bit.

Before you click, look around the map a bit. It’s not huge at this stage. Find the buildings (the blocky rectangular shapes). If you point at them, some of them will contain stuff (look to the bottom left of the screen to see what).

My advice, land on (you don't take falling damage, so throwing yourself off the roof is not a biggie) or near (if you don't wanna take my word for it yet) the one that has the most stuff. These (the list on the bottom left) are terminals. You go to them to get and do stuff. You will be visiting them a lot, so it’s handy to know where they are.

The key terminals you will need (at this point) are... Backup (use it to respawn back here when you die. YOUR FIRST POINT OF CALL UPON STARTING THE GAME [You will continue to respawn at that terminal until you tag another one]), Weapons (you need one! You buy them here. I’ll get more into this later), Armour (helps, but don’t spend all your cash on it up front), Quest (get one, do it, come back for another. Rinse and repeat), Energy (top up your energy for cash), Health (top up your health for cash). And finally, Workshop. You want to put kit together? You do it here. (This will make sense later)

(Nb. There are other Terminals, but don't worry about them yet)

So pick where your gonna drop, click, fall and then scurry into the safety of the building. Find and click on the Backup Terminal (yes, spend the cash)... them bimble about and check out the other terminals.

Health
When you run out of health, you die and will be respawned at the location of the last backup terminal that you used. You will lose one component from your inventory, 10% of your Credits and start with only 25% health and 0% energy (which will slowly build up to 25%).

If you lose health, it will automatically (slowly) be restored up to 25%. To increase it further you must visit a Health Terminal or use Health Packs (available from Consumables Terminals).

Energy
When you run out of energy, you can no longer do anything that requires energy (e.g. reload Energy Weapons).

If you use energy, it will automatically (slowly) be restored up to 25%. To increase it further you must visit an Energy Terminal or use Energy Packs (available from Consumables Terminals).

These are the numbers that indicate how good you are at different things. As a general rule, the higher the number... the better you are. Press P to see your Stats and spend any Skill Points that you have earned.

• Credits – How much money you have. Earned by doing quests and spent at Terminals.
• Convert Points – Used to ‘repower’ buildings with grey terminals. Earned by dealing with Purple buildings and shooting down the Grey Surveyors (flying things).
• Weight – How much you can carry

You cannot spend your skill points to improve those three. These, you can...

• Stamina – Your Health. The higher the number, the slower you die.
• Defense – How much damage you soak when hit (reduces the amount of damage taken).
• Energy – Your Energy. The higher the number, the more Energy you have to use.
• Agility – Increases how much you can carry (up’s your max Weight)
• Guns – How good you are with Firearms (increases damage)
• Melee – How good you are with Swords and stuff (increases Damage)
• Stealth – How good you are at sneaking about (bad guys will spot you slower)
• Prestige – How much you are loved (lowers prices at terminals and ‘enables followers’ [Not tried this yet])
• Programming – How good you are at technical stuff (‘Better chip modification results’ [Not tried this yet])
• Consumables – Increases the benefit of consumables (get more from Health and Energy packs)
• Pilot – You can fly stuff (‘Unlocks and strengthens flying vehicles’ [Not tried this yet])
• Stealing – How good you are at being naughty (get more when stealing)

I almost jumped straight into ‘Weapons’. But figured that you ought to know this first.

Kit... Weapons, armour, chips and stuff are made up of 'parts' or Components. Some terminals sell fully assembled kit. All sell components (appropriate to the Terminal type. Don't expect Armour parts on an Energy Terminal).

What you need to be aware of, is that unless you have the fully assembled version (all the bits are pretty colours, no bits are grey and outlined... and when you ‘mouse over’ it doesn’t say Incomplete in red letters) it isn't gonna help.


If it ain’t complete, it won’t work.


This is where the Workshop Terminals come into play. If you have a bunch of components that you can stick together, you can only do it at a Workshop Terminal.

Run up to one and use it. Then just click on the components and drop them on each other.

A couple of points to note...

Combining components does not (from what I have noticed) reduce their encumberance. You may have freed up a box in the backpack, but they still weigh what they did. Weight is your problem, not bagspace.

Once done, it can be undone. If you find a spankingly gorgeous and ultra rare component, and attach it to a piece of worthless tat... Don't fret. There is a mechanic for breaking stuff apart (thanks to phr00t for putting me straight on this). You can swap parts about to your hearts content, at a Workshop Terminal.

There are three types of weapons that I have come across (so far).

Energy Firearms (guns) – They shoot stuff. When the gun is empty, it will reload using a chunk of your energy. If you run out of energy, you run out of shots. (You can restock your Energy at Energy Terminals)

Ballistic Firearms (guns) – They shoot stuff too. When the gun is empty it will reload using ammunition that you have bought from one of several terminals and are carrying in your inventory. If you run out of ammo, you run out of shots (You can restock your ammo at most Weapons Terminals and Consumables Terminals).

Melee Weapons (pointy sticks) – They don’t need ammo. You hit people with them.

Each weapon is made up of a number of components. The number of components varies between weapon types. Each component has a variety of Stats attached to it. Some apply to your stats, some apply to the weapon and some are just bonuses. Which are which are denoted by the colour of the text.

• Grey – Weapon Info (Attack Speed, Range, Damage, etc.)
• Pink – Shot/Attack Info (Ammo used per shot, Cooldown)
• Light Green – Stat Boost (applied to your stat ONLY WHEN THAT WEAPON IS BEING USED)
• Blue – Shield Damage (what % of the damage is applied when hitting shields)
• Dark Green – Bonuses (chances for Stun, Reflect Shots, etc.)

NOTE: The stat boost for weapons is not applied by simply equipping it (putting it in one of the Held boxes). You only get the bonus if it is the weapon that you currently have out.


I must confess, I have not tried Melee weapons yet. But when it comes to guns I prefer Ballistic. Energy is limited at this point. If you miss a few times, you may find yourself running out of energy for reloads and having to run screaming. But get a Ballistic Weapon that doesn’t require you to spray ammo, and a couple of stack of the shootable stuff (ammo... duh!), and you're golden.

Armour is useful, but not essential during the earlier parts of the game (get a weapon first!). If you hadn’t already guessed, it protects you from incoming damage. But it is also handy for boosting your Stats too.

It comes in three varieties... Head, Body and Legs. Each of these are made up of two components. Each component has a Defense stat (and probably some other stats and benefits too). These are added to your Stats when the Armour is equipped (placed in one of the Installed boxes on your Inventory screen (found by pressing I).

You get them from the Quest Terminals. They not only give you something to do, but they reward you with Skill Points and cash. Do them. Do them lots.

What there is, kinda sucks.

I'm not having a pop... a good tutorial is an artform. And people can work stuff out, right? You want it on a plate? Buy a triple A, and pay to get a DLC that allows you to make your armour pink.

Messages pop up sporadically to tell you stuff. Don’t just click through them, read them. Some of them suggested to me that I had found something that they were talking about. I hadn’t. But when I did, I wasn’t going in clueless.

Just cos it isn't imediately relevant, doesn't mean you shouldn't read it.

If you look at the map, the play area doesn’t look that big. It’s bigger. You've just not gone there yet.

Also it doesn’t appear to include some of the stuff that the tutorial tells you about. It doesn’t. But what you can see is not all there is.

You may feel the urge to go dashing off exploring and expanding the map. If you want to... Go for it. You will die. But you will have fun before you do.

Take yer time. Do some Quests. Get more stuff. Then go out there, discover all of the scary stuff and then... warn me about it.

I’ll add more if I can be arsed. If I got something wrong, let me know in comments and I will fix it next time I add something... if I do.
Huggles,

Me
xxx

This is where I thank people for providing info that I didn't have, or for pointing out my glaring errors.

Yeah, it's a quick name check for people that helped make this what it is (or as I call it, sharing the blame)...

phr00t
CobaltNinja