After listening to Giant Bomb's Game of the Year discussions, and hearing Austin's intense fervor over this game, it sounded like something I'd been looking for. I bought it the day after the Steam Winter Sale ended, but I'm glad I did because I'm enjoying the game so far!

I'm on the Beginner difficulty, and I just finished a mission that was very critical for Incognita. I haven't lost anyone so far, and most of the missions feel like I'm barely scraping by. I would appreciate any tips and some heads up on any mechanics that weren't fully explained. I also have a few questions:

Is it feasible to beat this game on all difficulties without losing a single agent, or are you expected to lose people eventually?

What's up with the drones? Can you only move them around after hacking them?

What's the most efficient mission type order? In terms of taking on missions to get money, buying items and upgrades from terminals, rescuing/recruiting new agents, etc.

Thanks :)

This game is all about playing the moment. I could be wrong, but I never found an efficient mission order type because I always ended up picking missions based on what I needed more at the time. I almost always needed something, but I would just think "How effective will I be after this mission if I have no money/upgrades, etc".

As for tips, the biggest thing I wish I learned earlier was to pick your battles in all aspects. I fucked up a few missions before I learned that I shouldn't try hacking everything, or tacking out every guard, and so on.

I think what you said about mission type order might be true, but I really wish I did the missions to get more agents on your team right away. Having 4 agents on my team much earlier would've saved me a few restarts. Also, I was told to have a security card ready for the mission type where you have the opportunity to collect a lot of money, but I'm not sure where you get the security card from.

The 'barely scraping by' feeling is normal. If you don't already, stick with Internationale as you learn the ropes; her wireless hacking ability is almost necessary. I find losing agents to be fairly rare, except for the final mission where you go all in and sacrifice if need be. Mission order depends on the locations in which the missions are generated due to the hour management, so very much on-the-fly approach to planning, although whenever you get a vault mission, prioritize it. You gotta jack a brainchip from a high value target to get the vault key, though. Its a specific mission type, typically precedes vault missions. I'd put cybernetic implants at a secondary priority. Usually good to hit up one of each mission. The late game drone plants are pretty rough, I tend to avoid. Kill surveillance cameras as early as possible. The Seed program is indispensable: Reduces pwr cost of the first program used any turn by 4, so you get two Lockpicks per turn. Really boosts the versatility of the hacking.

Yeah, Internationale is my most valued agent. If she dies, I always restart. Her wireless hacking saves tons of AP, and I get more Power when I hack with her.

What are the missions called where you have to jack a brainchip to get a vault key? I've been wanting to do the vault missions, but avoided them because I can't find which mission I need to do first to get a vault key.

By kill surveillance cameras, do you mean hack them or shoot them out with guns? I haven't ran into any lethal weapons yet. Is it random when you get them?

I have a fairly simple question: How do I know if a wall is a wall or if it's a floor to ceiling window?

@rikiguitarist: They're the 'Chief Financial Suite' missions. You gotta knock out and perform a brainscan (not brainchip, been a while since I played) on the financial officer to extract a code. You can use that code to access the money vaults, or access vaults in some cybernetic labs to get the more powerful implants. Hack the surveillance cameras, guns are always a last resort. You'll find them on some guards and safes, type tends to be random. You can also buy them at the nanofab terminals. But they have a limited number of shots, 2 or 3 I think. You have to buy ammo packs to reload them.

My main tip would be to learn how the guards operate. I used to be very cautious about not ever alerting guards, but once you get a feel for how cover works you'll get a lot more confident about evading the guard that's coming into the room you're currently hiding in. Consider this: Spending 4-5 turns carefully waiting for a guard to get out of the way is often riskier than alerting the guard and taking him out because ideally you want to be done with the mission before the alert level gets too high. Sometimes it's worth luring a guard into a room, let's say by opening the door, and then KOing him and leaving him there. Obviously it doesn't apply to every situation but for me it made the game much easier in general.