NEW CHOOMBAS GUIDE TO NOT GETTING ZEROED

With the wonderful influx of new players and seeing a few posts about difficulties in the very early
game, I thought this step by step guide for baby mercs might be helpful to some.
Obviously none of this is news to people with hundreds of hours in the game. But for new
players, and those unfamiliar with shooters or open world adventure games, there is a lot to take
in. For those who just want to progress easily through the game and beat everything without a lot
of struggle while figuring it out, this is one path to get you there in relative ease and comfort.
DIFFICULTY
The game gets quite easy by the mid to high levels regardless of your play style. At level 50 and
when fully geared, a well-built V will do a staggering amount of damage even against enemies
on Very Hard difficulty, with the only noticeable difference being that it is easier to die when not
paying attention vs. lower difficulty. Also, the game can be played successfully with almost any
build that you throw together, and it is hard to come up with any build that just won't work at all.
That said, the early levels and first 5-10 hours can be challenging and frustrating for a new player
even on Casual difficulty. Not to worry because this eases up once you are past those early
levels. And this step-by-step guide will help you get past any early game struggles with a
minimum of fuss.
This is not the only build that can be very easy to play. It is just one approach that will work
reliably against all enemies and encounters, which you can use to glide through the game your
first time through, while figuring out what other builds you might want to try on future
playthroughs.
CHARACTER CREATION
Life Path and gender have no impact on combat performance so pick whatever. For this build, we
will focus on three attributes, which are Body, Intelligence, and Technical Ability. Other attributes
open up many different playstyles, and this build uses only a couple of basic but strong
techniques.
You have seven starter points to allocate at the start. Put three points each into Body and Int, and
the last point into Tech.
HITTING THE STREETS
After the brief tutorial sequence that covers your first gig and meeting some of your best friends
in NC, you are turned loose on the streets of Watson. At this point you can pursue the main story
missions directly, or you can roam the starter district (one of several) and engage open world
encounters.
You don't have to clear the map in Watson before moving on with the main story, but if you want
to you can, and there is enough XP available to get you to around Character Level 17 and Street
Cred 20. After finishing the first major story mission you should be near level 20 if you did
everything you could before then. It's not required, however, and story missions can be cleared
with ease regardless of your level. You do not need to have a good build, or even any build at all,
to get through the first major plot point mission.
The rest of this guide assumes that you decide to spend some time roaming Watson, doing some
encounters, and leveling up a bit.
STARTER WEAPON
Regardless of what build you want to work toward, a good weapon can carry you a long way until
it starts to come together. The first thing you should do is get yourself a Rostovic DB-2
Satara tech shotgun. This is a frequent drop from many enemies in Watson, and you also will
know the crafting schematic for it by default. The common version can be crafted right away if
you have the materials, and the uncommon (green) pattern is unlocked at Crafting skill level two.
This shotgun hits super hard at low levels even with no perks or skill bonuses, and holding down
right trigger until it fires will allow it to penetrate walls and obstacles to hit enemies behind. It also
has a high chance to stagger and knock down enemies, giving you some space to maneuver or
reload. It will carry you quite a way until netrunning becomes viable.
STARTER BUILD
The new character build has six points in Body, six points in Int, and four points in Tech. As you
gain your first two levels, put one point each into Body and Int to raise both to seven. When you
get your first two perk points, put one point each into the Regeneration and Epimorphosis perks in
the Athletics tree under Body.
As you level up further, you will put the rest of your perk points for the first dozen or so levels
into Quickhacking under Int. The perks you want are: Biosynergy (3 points), Bloodware (3), Forget
Me Not (1), Daisy Chain (3), Signal Support (2), Subliminal Message (2), and Hacker's Manual (1).
Netrunning skills are an easy focus for a first playthrough because they ramp fast in power as
you gain a few levels, need nothing in the way of gear besides a passable cyberdeck, and the
available hacks provide ample options for encounter control, along with high damage even
against even the toughest enemies. The build also stays strong throughout the game against
everything you will face.
As soon as you unlock Hacker's Manual, craft yourself a copy of the Overheat quickhack. To do
that, you will need some components, which you can get from a netrunner vendor in Kabuki, or
from hacking access points.
You start the game with a couple of quickhacks which are Short Circuit and Reboot Optics. One
of the earliest side jobs you get leads you to a netrunner in Kabuki Market who gives you Ping,
which you can forget about for now (but the job is useful because it shows you where the vendor
is).
As you roam the world, you occasionally will see access points that look like little black control
panels with a red interaction icon. The netrunner's side job shows you how to hack one. Hack
these whenever you find them because they give you components to make more quickhacks
with. It's fine if you can't get all three daemons uploaded, just try to find the path for the third
(longest) sequence, which gives the most components.
You also can buy some uncommon (green) quickhack components from the same netrunner
vendor, which are pretty cheap once you have some eddies.
When you have both Short Circuit and Overheat, and as soon as you have at least 6,000 eddies
saved, you can buy a green Biotech Sigma Mk.1 cyberdeck from the ripperdoc in Kabuki Slums
(Allen Street fast travel). This will give you three quickhack slots and useful RAM regeneration,
which will help to cast quickhacks more often.
From this point forward, you will put all attribute points you get as you level up into Intelligence,
until you reach 20 Int.
BASIC NETRUNNING
By around level six you should have enough points into Int and enough perk points to have most
of the Quickhacking perks mentioned above, along with a green deck, Short Circuit, Overheat,
and Reboot Optics. With your basic netrunning build pulled together, here is how to start fights
with maximum safety and ease.
When you approach an encounter, look around for a corner to hide behind or a high vantage
point like on a roof, ledge, overpass, containers, etc. so you can get a view of enemies without
being in their direct line of sight. Also crouch to make yourself harder to spot.
Edge around until you can see one enemy clearly, then use Breach Protocol on them to reduce
the RAM cost of casting quickhacks on his group.
Now cast Overheat on that enemy, wait until his health is low, and then cast Short Circuit. With the
damage bonus from Int that you have by level six, this combo should be enough to kill most
enemies before you are revealed. Some enemies may die just from the Overheat damage. On
lower difficulties you may even be able to one shot enemies with Short Circuit.
After you cast the second quickhack on an enemy, you will see a Vasyan Upload progress bar. If
that upload completes, then it means your location will be revealed and enemies will run to you.
The way to stop it is to focus on one enemy at a time and kill them with your hacks before the bar
fills.
As long as you kill each enemy one at a time without being revealed, and stay out of the line of
sight of others, they will not attack you but will just wander around being alerted and not knowing
where you are. Work your way through the group until they are all down, then go in to pick up the
loot and objective.
If any enemies discover and rush you, try to get around a corner or behind cover and angle
yourself to engage them one at a time if possible. If you are pressed, or when only one enemy is
left, cast Reboot Optics on the nearest enemy and then shotgun them while they are blinded. Just
try as best you can to take them one at a time and stay behind cover.
You also will pick up a lot of grenades from enemies and containers, which can help with
knocking down and killing groups. Just toss a few whenever you have them to fend off rushing
packs.
For tight spots, keep some Bounce Back Mk.1 stims on hand. You can craft these from common
mats, which you get from scrapping abundant gear and weapon drops. You also will find plenty
of these and other stims laying around the world.
Early on it's helpful to visit your apartment often for the sleeping and showering buffs, which give
bonus skill XP and boost your health regen in combat.
This same basic stealth netrunner routine will continue to work throughout the entire game with a
few variations for certain enemies.
EASY FIGHTS
In the very early game (levels 1-5 or so), only go around the map and look for Assault in
Progress and Reported Crime scanner hustles (NCPD icons). Avoid ones that say Suspected
Organized Crime or Cyberpsycho for now. The assaults and reported crimes tend to be easy
encounters with only 3-5 enemies but give very good XP to level you up.
You can skip gigs for now, and you should avoid anything that says DANGER in red text when
you hover over the icon for the encounter. You can do those later on when you are high enough
level that there is no danger alert on them.
You will level up quickly gaining more perk points and lots of Street Cred. At Street Cred 12, you
can get a rare (blue) Biotech Sigma Mk.2 deck from Robert Rainwater, in Kabuki Market (near
the roundabout where you found the netrunner vendor). You also can pick up the School of Hard
Knocks perk in Quickhacking at Int 12, which lets you upgrade your hacks to blue versions that do
more damage.
Synapse Burnout is a useful rare hack as a more effective execute to follow up Overheat. Beware,
however, that it is a lethal hack, so don't use it on targets that you only want to disable.
All of the early game encounters can be handled with careful staging using the basic stealth
runner approach. You might need to scout a bit for certain locations to find the best spot to
engage.
HARDER FIGHTS
When you are ready to take on harder enemies like cyberpsychos and the minibosses
in Organized Crime areas, make yourself a copy of the Cyberware Malfunction quickhack. This
powerful hack will disable enemies' abilities to dodge and dash and all of their annoying
cyberware attacks for a long period (around 45-60 seconds), during which you can burn them
down with Overheat, Short Circuit, and your shotgun. Just use cover or stay out of range of their
weapon attacks until they die. Make sure you also have plenty of stims on hand.
Another useful technique especially with gigs and Organized Crime areas is to hide outside the
encounter area or across the street and scan for any surveillance cameras you can see. Use
the Camera Control hack to take the point of view of that cam. Now you can cast hacks on any
enemy that the camera can see. You can tab through all available cams in the area and pick off
enemies one by one the same way as discussed above and clean out an entire facility before
you enter. Then walk right in and pick up all your stuff. Just be sure to kill enemies before the
detection routine uploads, because they still can locate you through the camera network.
CHROMING UP
Cyberware generally is not required for a netrunning build through the early and mid game, and
even can be skipped in the late game without losing much. A few pieces can be helpful though.
 Subdermal Armor is a nice boost to armor.
 Synaptic Signal Optimizer  boosts max health.
 Mechatronic Core boosts damage against drones, which can be annoying.
 Self-ICE can cancel detection uploads if enemies take more than one or two hacks
to kill.
 Biomonitor is a nice early game cheat death proc for when you get rushed or
sniped.
 Tyrosine Injector doubles the time for Breach Protocol if you find the minigame
tricky to complete.
 Gorilla Arms melee backup and give a helpful bonus for early game Body checks.
 Reinforced Tendons because who doesn't love double jump.
When you reach Body 12, you can equip Fireproof Coating and Supra-Dermal Weave for
immunity to burn and bleed. Burn immunity is especially helpful since it means you can ignore
enemy netrunners, which only ever will attack you with Overheat. Together
with Detoxifier (requires Body 10) and the Insulator perk in Engineering, these will make you
immune to all status effects.
NOTE: The Detoxifier only is availabe from a particular ripper who may not sell it to you if you are
mean to him at a certain point in the story. If you can't get that ware, then an
epic Antivenom pants mod can take its place.
LATER GAME
As you level up and get stronger, replace your gear with abundant drops you will find on
enemies. Keep an eye out for higher level and quality versions of the DB-2 Satara to upgrade
your weapon. You also can craft a new one easily from the default patterns that you learn by
leveling up crafting. Later on there also is a rare pattern for this weapon you can buy from
weapon vendors.
Clothing can be whatever you pick up from enemies that gives you more protection. It won't be
needed much if you don't get detected often. While leveling you can just wear whatever has the
highest armor value and scrap the rest.
At Street Cred 30 you can upgrade to an epic (purple) Biotech Sigma Mk.3 deck, and at SC40 you
can get the Netwatch Netdriver Mk.5 legendary deck. There are other neat decks in the game but
these are good all around choices.
Continue putting all of your points into Intelligence and Quickhacking until you reach Int 20. Other
notable perks are Hacker Overlord and Bartmoss' Legacy for making epic and legendary hacks.
Some of the epic hacks can be fun to play with like Cyberpsychosis, Suicide, and Detonate
Grenade. System Reset also is nice as a ranged non-lethal takedown move.
Once you can craft legendary Short Circuit, you will become unstoppable. The legendary version
of the hack has a passive proc that adds bonus shock damage to all your critical hits with
weapons, which will be frequent with a shotgun since it fires multiple pellets per shot. At that
point you may not even need to hack much any more, but you still can if you want.
With max Int and legendary hacks you will kill almost everything with one cast
of Overheat (humans) or Short Circuit (drones and mechs). The combo of passives from
legendary Overheat, Cripple Movement, and Sonic Shock turns Overheat into a full lockdown of
any enemy and stops them from alerting others.
After you run out of points to put into Int and Quickhacking, put the rest of your points
into Tech and Body. Tech will give you perks to craft legendary clothing and weapons,
and Body has many perks in Athletics to boost your heath and health regen and reduce damage.
You also can take some of the shotgun damage perks in Annihilation to boost your weapon
damage.
As you level up Tech and Body you will find they open many doors giving you alternative
approaches to gigs and some story encounters. Having a high Body stat also is nice for making a
certain series of side jobs with lots of fist fighting easy to clear, although you may want to wait
until you are high enough level that they lose their danger alerts.
You also can pick up some perks in Breach Protocol like Compression and Head Start that make the
hacking minigame much easier to complete with all three uploads instead of only one or two.
Other daemons like the ones that turn off all cameras and turrets in a network also can be nice to
have. The Bladerunner perk in Engineering is useful for even more damage to drones.
The combo of stealth hacking and shotgun should carry you through the rest of the game. If you
want super easy mode, get a legendary Smart Link and legendary Kang Tao L-69 Zhou smart
shotgun, which together with legendary Short Circuit will shred everything at close range.
Feel free to also play around with any other smart weapons you find. They can be very effective
with a good smart link and don't require aiming at all as long as you are within their lock on
range. Really any weapons can be good thanks to the ample damage from legendary SC procs,
so play around with anything you pick up that seems like fun.
Continue clearing encounters on the map for XP, do the main story whenever you feel like it, and
play with any hacks or iconic weapons that you happen to unlock.
Your last few points can go into Cool for some useful perks like Assassin in Ninjutsu and Cold
Blood.
And remember, when Militech says they just want to talk . . . they're probably lying
Equipment and Access barriersDoes everybody have the correct technology and devices?
Possible security risks
Easy to misinterpret information
Can seem emotionless as it is easy to lose tone through technology
Possible language barriers
Harder to comprehend for the older generation
Cyber bullying
Connectivity/Technology Issues
Not always sure who you communicate with