####  System Shock 2 FAQ V3.1  ####        by d0om
            
            e-mail me at [email protected]
(The first 0 is a zero)

Note this FAQ should only be found at the following sites. If you find it else-
where please e-mail me. Thank you.

The latest version can always be found at gamefaqs.com

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To webmasters: e-mail me if you want to put this on your site please. So I know
where it is. Thanks.


This is my first FAQ so I'll try to write a good one. First though I would 
like to say that I do not recommend reading ahead in any hint guide or FAQ than
the bit which you are stuck on. System shock 2 is such an atmospheric game, that
knowing what is around the next corner can really spoil it. Anyway on with the FAQ.


If your stuck on somewhere I haven't covered yet, e-mail me. But first go to gamefaqs.com
and see if you have the latest version. If not, then see if I've answered it allready before
e-mailing me please, thanks.

Revision history
----------------
V1 Just got the character generation up and the first level
   I'll try to get deck1 and some weapons done soon.

V2 Engineering added and a few weapons. 

V2.1 added some more weapons + some of Hydroponics

V2.2 fisihed Hydroponics and added some of Ops. Also I spell cheaked it!

V2.3 Some OS upgrade info added.

V2.4 Some more stuff added

V2.5 Some minor changes

V2.6 Deck 4-6 info added

V2.7 Some more stuff added

v2.8 More OS stuff and general update

v3.0  New section added

v3.1 Update info on patch

Contents
--------
1.Character generation
2.Weapons
3.Walkthrough
4.OS upgrades
5.Tips on Charter Progression
6.Legal Stuff


1.Character generation
----------------------

At the start you get a choice of three branches of the military, this has a large 
significance on the early game. 

OSA
These are the psionic group they get Tier one ability for free.
Their tour of duty goes like this:
___________________________________________
Tier 2 ability, Cryokinesis +

Pscho-refective screen or
Kinetic redirection or
Pschogenic cyber affinity
__________________________________________
+2 Endurance or
+1 research or
+2 Psionic ability
__________________________________________
+1 strength, +1 Agility, +1 Cyber affinity +

Remote electron tampering or
Nuro-reflex dampening or
Psychogenic agility
__________________________________________

They also get a Psi-amp

I would recommend getting the Kinetic redirection, +2 Psionic ability
and remote electron tampering. This lets you get out of reach items, 
cast more powerful psionic powers and stop alarms (Very useful). 
An OSA character should make the most of their psionic powers. Getting
the tier 2 power heal should be their first goal. Research is also important.
They should use their cryokinesis to take out cameras and multiple enemies.
But beware of using all your Psi points as they only regenerate with a psi-hypo
and later on, a researched item.



Navy

They get +1 standard weapons for free

Here are their tours of duty:
________________________________________
+1 strength +

+1 modify or
+1 repair or
+1 hack
________________________________________
+2 standard weapons or
+1 maintenance (free maintenance tool) or
+2 cyber affinity
________________________________________
+2 Agility or
+2 Endurance or
+1 Research
_________________________________________
I like the navy the best. I would recommend choosing hack, cyber-affinity and 
research. This is because hack is extremely useful in the game, you get cheaper
and better goods from replicators, you can get turrets to fight for you and you
can open security crates. The cyber-affinity helps with the hacking and research
is important to do more damage to enemies and is also necessary for some objectives.



Marines

They also get +1 standard weapons for free

Here are their tours of duty
_________________________________________________________________
+2 agility or
+2 endurance or
+2 strength
_________________________________________________________________
+2 standard weapons or
+1 Heavy weapons, +1 Cyber affinity (free grenade launcher) or
+1 energy weapons, +1 Cyber affinity (free laser pistol)
_________________________________________________________________
+1 repair or
+1 modify or
+1 maintenance (free maintenance tool)
__________________________________________________________________
The marines are a good unit to join, you get a good stat, weapon skill and
technical skill. I would recommend getting the bonus strength for carrying things around,
then whichever type of weapons you like best and then maintenance which is vital
for energy weapons and also all other weapons apart from hand to hand.


2.Weapons
---------

The weapons are divided into four types, each requiring a different weapon skill and 
normally being associated with another stat or tech skill.

Standard weapons
----------------

Wrench---------This is the first weapon you get, it is quite powerful. A high strength 
   will increase damage and a high agility increases the fire rate. Pretty
   good for taking out hybrids, but for anything else, you'll want something 
   a bit better.

Pistol---------This require standard 1 to use. It is versatile, one shot of standard takes
   out a camera, and one AP round kills a protocol droid. Best to save the AP
   rounds for Maintenance robots if you can. If you don't have a laser pistol
   then use them for Protocol droids as well. The anti-personal ammo is good
   against annelid monsters. Quite reliable as well. The burst mode is 
   inaccurate but effective in a pinch. 

Shotgun--------This requires standard of 3 to use. It has two ammo types, normal and 
   antipersonnel. The normal is pretty all purpose, and the antipersonnel
   is good against fleshy targets. The triple shot does double damage, good
   if ammo is no problem, but bad if your trying to make every shot count.
   8 damage

Assault rifle--This requires standard of 6 to use. It is identical to the pistol, except
   it does over twice the damage, has a larger clip and can fire in auto rather than
   three shot burst. The auto is extremely powerful, it can kill anything in 
   seconds, as long as the right ammo type is being used. However, it uses a 
   lot of ammo, and the gun degrades in condition very quickly, so a high
   maintenance is essential. Note that it uses the same ammo as the pistol.


Energy weapons
--------------

Laser pistol--This requires energy 1 to use. Most of the following applies to all energy 
  Weapons. This gun has no ammo so there is no lugging ammo round or trying to
  find it, but you need a rechager. It is weak against hybrids and virtually
  useless against annelids, but good against cameras and robots. Maintenance is 
  vital to hold more charge. It is very reliable. The overcharge is useful
  against bigger robots, but remember that you can fire standard shots while
  the overcharge is reloading. (Assigning a key that you can remember to this feature 
  will help.)
  

Laser rapier--This requires an energy of 4 and agility 3. It is a hand to hand weapon and 
  has no ammo or charge and doesn't need any maintenance. It is very powerful
  and can kill most enemies in one or two swipes. Good against everything apart
  from annelid creatures which are resistant.

EMP rifle-----This is the best in robot killing. One shot from this will kill a
  camera or protocol droid and three shots kills most robots. Requires
  an energy of 6 to use. It is amazing against any robot or cyborg. The
  Overcharge mode does not have to recharge either and the weapon has a 
  high rate of fire. Normal shots use 2 charge, overcharges cost 20. 
  NB-does nothing to fleshy targets. Also, it requires a maintenance of 6 to
  use a maintenance tool on it.


Heavy Weapons
-------------

Grenade launcher--This requires heavy 1. It is the most versatile gun in the whole game.
      It has many different grenade types, frag, proximity, incendiary, EMP
      and disruption. The frag is an area explosion, the proximity detonates
      when something moves near it. The incendiary is good for flammable targets.
      By flammable targets, I mean most monsters that do not contain metal.
      the EMP grenades are really powerful against robots and cyborgs, but are
      rare. The disruption grenades are powerful but have an extremely small
      blast. Grenades can either detonate on contact, or bounce around. 
      Proximity grenades will 'stick' onto any surface when fired on contact
      mode.

Stasis field------This requires heavy 3 and strength 3 to use. It uses prisms as ammo.
      It can fire on two different modes, area and target. They both freeze
      what ever they hit, but area doesn't freeze them for as long. It does 
      no damage however and so is good as a retreat tactic, or to allow you
      to pummel them with your wrench.

Fusion gun--------Requires heavy 6. This Gun is an energy weapon. It does good damage to 
      robots, cyborgs and Hybrids, but little damage to Annelids. It uses prisims as ammo 
      and is basically a waste of Cyber modules. It is a good replacement for a EMP rifle 
      though if you have no energy skill, but it can also kill hybrids but uses ammo rather 
      than power. The stasis field generator and a laser pistol combind are really better       than this gun IMHO.


Exotic Weapons
--------------

I won't give too much away on these. 

Crystal shard-------Exotic1  Research 4  Best combat weapon

Viral prolifacator--Exotic4  Research 3  IMHO not worth the effort
 
Worm Launcher-------Exotic6  Research 6  Good, but a bit expensive in cyber
                                         modules, the EMP rifle but for
                                         alive targets. Make sure you
                                         use the right mode and remember,
                                         Hybrids and all their evolutions
                                         are HUMAN. (But psionic projections count
                                         as annelid.)

Note that throughout the game you will find beakers. DO NOT THROW THEM AWAY. Take them to 
the nearest pile of worms and drag the beaker onto the worms. These beakers of worms 
will stack. They are used as ammunition for some exotic weapons. Also, this worm ammo
can be duplicated with the appropriate psionic power. It is also good to throw into
a recyclatron as that yeilds a lot of nanites.



3.Walkthrough
-------------

Deck 2 Med/Sci
--------------

If your stuck at the very start then read the manual as it has a walkthrough up to the
first security room. If you can hack then try to disable the security. Instead of 
providing a complete walkthrough, I'll just address the key mission objectives. There 
will still be a lot of other stuff to see and do though not necessarily vital.

1 Go past the security room and then left, watch out for a camera, (if you don't have a gun
or hack then got to the Xerxes room, right instead of left, and search all the bodies 
for a pistol). Search the smoking body and get the power cell and game player :).



2 Recharge the cell by going to the recharger! it is straight out of where you started, turn
right and carry on past the lift and the through a door. Go past the chemical store room
(or in if you need a chemical to research) then go down the ladder and into the lower area.
Watch out for the two turrets if you haven't hacked security. There are explosive barrels 
near them if you want to fight them. Use the recharger.


3 Go back and put the recharged cell in the socket in the wall. Go through the bulkhead to 
med/sci 2.


4 The key card for the crew sector is left, past the medial table and regenerator, then
right, running past the camera, (or shooting it) and carry on until a radioactive bit.
Smash the window on the left and jump through. Watch out for a camera. Climb down the ladder
and pick it up.

5 The key card for the R&D sector is in the crew sector. Go past the OS upgrade station,
and down into the waterlogged area beneath, its on the far right hand side in a room called
Watts' room! Watch out for cameras

6 In R&D its pretty straight forward, watch out for cameras and carry on until you get to a lift, 
Watts is down there. Search for a log with the key code to engineering before you leave.

7 Go back to where the lift is and opposite is the maintenance shaft go down it.

Well done, You've done the first deck (Note I missed out all the guns and enemies on purpose
You should explore and find them yourselves) 


Deck 1 Engineering
------------------
 
1 Go to the engineering control room, left at the start and follow the passageway. Its locked,
  Polito tells you where to go.

2 Go through the maze, resting in the non-green (radioactive) bits to allow your 
  rad counter to go down. Rad hypos will help a bit as will speed boosters. enter 
  all the storerooms you can.

3 You will receive the code for one of the storerooms from Polito, this is the
  one with the rad suit in.

4 Get out of the coolant tubes and into an area with a replicater, a lift, a regeneration chamber
  and a camera. There is a security station inside the central room.

5 Go through the door with a ramp past the Xexes room and into a corridor. Go up the grav
  shaft to reach fluids control.

6 The code for fluids control is in Cargo bay 2. The key card for this is in cargo bay 1.

7 These are straight on the corridor and through a bulkhead.

8 Cargo bay 1 is unlocked, just hit the rubble with your wrench.

9 Security can be disabled from the control room, also there is a Recharger and some upgrade units.

10 Once you have the code from cargo bay 2, return to the fluidics control room.

11 The part is in the chemical storeroom (check your map) a log gives you the code.

12 Put the right part in the slot in the  top story of the control room by the cargo bays.

13 Go back to  fluidics control and reset the system.

14 Go all the way back to the start of the level and go back to the door that wouldn't open.

15 Go to both the nacelles and reset them, then reset the main engine (Up a lift).

16 Go to http://www.sshock2.com and download the patch. If you enter Hydroponics without
   it you will find it (nearly) impossible.

17 Return to the lift in engineering/med sci and go to the highest deck you can.


Deck 3 Hydroponics
------------------

This deck is nearly impossible without the patch, so go to http://www.sshock2.com 
and download it. (the old site no longer has the patch as LGS has now closed down and some bitches have reged the old URL and made it a pr0n site :/)

1 You need to find a way to get rid of the slime. Maybe a science officer left a log here
  Telling you what to do? It can be found if you turn right out of the lifts, and carry on.
  Watch out for the turrets and camera. A security station is to the left of the lift. 
  Choose a good OS upgrade and the check all the rooms on this corridor.

2 The vials of Toxin are in the room with both its doors locked. Notice there is a desk and 
  breakable window in the next door room. Climb in and smash the window. This was what the 
  patch corrects - without it you can't get through the window!

3 You don't actually need to get research as there is a labassistant in here and the vials 
  only need a skill of 1.

4 Go to a storeroom to get the needed chemicals. Check your chemical manifests to find which
  one has what chemicals.

5 Now you need to get some more vials. There is one if you turn left out of the lift and carry
  on until you get to the penultimate room. There are actually five vials. And one of the others
  is on the way to a regulator on a body.

6 Go to the Xerxes room and go through to the replicater. Then go up the ladder in the 
  nearby room.You should end up in a room with stuff growing in a cabinet. Go down the ramp and
  kill the guardian. Watch out for the emerging monsters. Place a vial in the regulator.

7 Go to the room up the ramp and smash the glass over a desk and climb into the attic. Watch out
  For the broken glass. Once you've looted the place go and step on the broken glass! There's a 
  laser pistol about here somewhere on a dead corpse.

8 The next regulator is in the cold area. You can get there by turning left off the loop you 
  dropped down on. Then going straight on (say cheese to the camera) and turning right.

9 Two down and two to go. You should now have a key card for another hydroponics sector
  if not go back and get it! Check your map and go to the door that you got the card for!
  Go through the bulkhead. And watch out for the camera in the room. There should be a 
  re-charger nearby. Down the corridor are some maintenance robots and a camera. There is a 
  security box down the corridor. The evironmental regulator is at the far end of the 
  corridor. Watch out for the trap. 

10  The last regulator is in the remaining setion that you havn't been to. The key card
was in the last regulator's area. This one is straight-forward. Just clear out
the top bit and then decend down and put the vial in the regulator.

11 Then leave the Hydroponics deck and go to ops to meet Polito.

Deck 4 Ops
----------

1 activate the bio-reconstrution unit. Search the crates and then try each buckhead.
only one will open.

2 Procead down the corridor to find (finally) Polito. 
  (That's your first objective complete!)

3 Not quite what you thought? If you found all the logs and stuff you could have figered it
  out all-ready.

4 The sim-units are located through the bulkheads in this cental room, two are through one
(the one with the bend in it) and one is through the other bulkhead.

5 The door in this sector has no sim-unit behind it, but it has some stuff that 
you need to re-program the sim-units. 

6 There are three sim-unit keys, each one for a differnt sim-unit.One is through each
bulkhead and the other is through this door. They are found on the bodies of
the red cyborgs. They run away from you, but will attack if cornered.

7 One of the Red Cyborgs is in a room with lots of falling explosive barrlles! Just keep on
  the move.

8 One is in what looks like a meeting room with chairs.

9 The sim units are: One is at the end of the non-bendy bulkhead, near a bulkhead which
  leads to the chemical storeroom. Its in a room along the corridor by the ramp which goes
  down to some eggs.

  One is in the bendy bulkhead, go to a large room with two ladders leading down, this 
  leads down to  another room which has "sim unit 3" in it. This is the one refered to
  in one of Malik's Logs.

  The last sim unit is also in the bulkhead with the bend in it. There is a turret on 
  the right at the end of a corridor, the sim unit is passed the turret and is in the same
  place as Bronson's dead body. 



Deck 5 Recreation
-----------------

Just a brief note here, the trannsmiter code is hidden in art terminals about the deck
the code is given in a way that there are two possibilities. The code is
[1, 4, 10, 6] or [1, 10, 4, 6] I can't remember which, try them both.

Also the crew key card is in the garden, the athletic key card is in the crew sector.
and an OS upgrade is in the mall.

The lift to deck 6 is in the middle of the crew sector.

There is an easter egg on this deck if you bring the basketball from Earth and score a basket
in the basketball court after turning the power on.


Deck 6 Control
--------------

Another fun deck full of nasties. Watch out for the rumblers and rocket lancher turrets.
Try to hack the turrets if you can and make sure you have something to hide behind if
you are going to fight them.

1 Simply go out the lift and through the only open door to the tram. If you are a hacker,
  return to the lift and hack security before running back to the tram and jumping on.
  That will help at the first tram stop!

2 Procead to the last tram stop and get out. Go through the bulkhead and watch the sence
  before you. You can't catch up with them, so don't try, you'll only be spotted by a 
  camera or something equally nasty.

You'll need to hack a replicator at some point on this deck, so you need either an ice-pick,
Hack3 or the psi-hack power.
           
The Rickenbacker
----------------

Brief note here as it seams to be a common problem, the hardest to find of the eggs is
hidden in the area with the series of narrow corridoors with the turrets in and the gravatonic
controls. An egg is hidden on the top floor behind a gas leak. This could well be the last one
your looking for if you have just one to go

The torpeado bay
Raise the left hand (from the control staiontion) torpedos twice and the right hand ones once, 
then jump onto the right hand ones, run across the gantry and onto the left hand ones. Then jump
onto the ladder. 

There are few recharchers on these decks, so bring batteries or have the electron cascade
psi-power.


The Many
--------

You will need either:
an assualt rifle with loads of Anti-Personel ammo
the worm launcher and a lot of worms
the Psi powers Pyrokinesis, localised Pyrokinesis and invisiblity
grenade Launcher with loads of incendry and disruption grendades + stasis generator

these should see you through the body of the many.

Last Level
-------

Without giving anything away, you should be able to complete this with virtually any set of
weapons, but you NEED either: a high hack skill OR 3 ICE-Picks OR the Psi-power psi-hack. 
You will find the level impossible (I think) without any of these items / ablities.

4. OS Upgrades
--------------

You only get 4 of these in the game, so choose them wisley. They offer unique
abilities and should be chosen to suit your character, either to enhance your
weaknesses or to enhance your strengths. Whatever you do, do NOT choose naturally
able. It is very poor in the long run. It might look good at the beggining, but it
is usless at the end. (Your getting 20+ cyber modules each objective past deck3).

Strong metabalism
This is bad. Rad and toxin exposure is normally only brief and a rad-suit will 
do a better job.

Tank
This one is quite good. On normal difficulty, it is like +1 endurance. But it is better 
than that on higher levels. Should only be bought with an edurance of at least 4. This is 
beacuse you could just buy a bonus endurance for a few cyber modules.

Pack rat
This is +1 strength for carrying only. It is compleatly usless is your strength
reaches 6 or 5 and you use an implant. Not very good.

Cybernetically enhanced
This is one of the best. It means you can have a +1 strength as well as
a +1 endurance implant. This efectively gains you pack rat and Tank. Of course
the power can run out but a high maintanance skill will help. Also some mid-game
implants of alien origin are usefull.
Also you can swap in out out any implants at will making it versitile.
NB There is an implant for each Statistic as well as Labassistant and the alien
   ones. Also, you cannot have two duplicate implants at once.

Pharmo Friendly
This should be the first choice for OSA. This is because they rely solely on
psi-hypos for power,and this increases that power. Replictor expert works well for
OSA as well.

Replicator Expert
This one is useful to all characters as it basically means more ammo/hypos from
replicators. It is not as good a discount as Hacking the replicator though, and
is best used in combination with a hacked replicator. With a hacked replicator and 
Pharmo Friendly an OSA can get a converison rate of nanites into psi points of
4 nanites to 3 psi points. This one is very usefull to OSA.

Smasher / Lethal Weapon
These Upgrades both increase H-T-H damage. Smasher gives a larger damage increase, 
but takes longer to attack. If you are going to be a H-T-H character, these are
definatley worth getting. Which one you get first is up to you, but I would recomend 
Smasher as it gives a larger damage bonus.


5.Tips on Character Upgrades 
------------------------------

This is just my personal opinion on the best charcter to play
it is also done with the benefit of hindsight and this charcter should be 
able to defeat all the enemies with ease.

Start as an OSA
Choose Psi-Pull, +2 PsiStat and neuro-reflex dampaning
When you start out, you will be able to get the hidden items which
litter then first few decks with your Psi-Pull.
DON'T Upgrade at the start, go uo the lift and out the door to get 4 more CyberModules
and then return to the upgrade place. You should get Hack as soon as possible so you can
get past turretts easily (OSA's weakness) and also the Adrenaline Overproduction. This 
is one of THE BEST Psi power in the game. WIth it you can kill a rumbler in 1 hit with a high
psi-stat and the two OS H-T-H upgrades. It will help you get through the first few decks without
using many Pis-Hypos as you only need 2 psi-points to kill a load of enemies. Remember to overload
it and you will be able to kill all Hybrids in 1 hit.

Get Localised PyroKinesis as well. This lets you kill large groups of enemines easily, but more
importantly it makes you immune to fire damage when active. This means you can turn it on and the 
protocol driods can't hurn you! Also robots exploding do only 5 HP damage so you can run up to them
and hit them with your wrench in realtive saftey.

Get reasearch if you are having trouble killing things as it ups your damage by 25%. To kill the 
Robots easily get a pistol and use  neuro-reflex dampaning and burst mode with AP ammo to take
them down.

You should upgrade your psi-power level when possible and remember NOT to destroy eggs without 
searching them first as useful organs can be obtained within.

6.Legal section
-------------------------------

You may freely distribute this FAQ as long as the following terms are 
met: 

1  You give me credit 

2  It is shown in it's full version nothing is taken out, changed or edited
   but it can be inserted into html code for example 

3  This fine print is included 

4  It will not be used to gain a profit by ways of selling or bartering

5  It will not be included on any book, magazine or CD or any other media 
   that is charged for 

6  You are responsible for getting the newest version 

7  Please don't link to this file directly, either upload it to your web page or
   link to the gamefaqs .html page that this file is on


This document is copyrighted (c) 1999-2002 d0om
All Rights Reserved 
 
e-mail [email protected]

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