The fourth game in the always-superb Deus Ex series is now out. We’ve finished Mankind Divided and we loved it. It’s a pretty tough game. Consequently you’re going to want to get your Augmentations back ASAP, especially that cool Punch Through Walls power, and that’s not even mentioning the excellent new Augs available.
Luckily your pals at GameWatcher are here to get you fully upgraded in no time at all. Let’s begin our _Deus Ex: Mankind Divided _ walkthrough with a Guide To Levelling!
Say David, couldn't you have just given me access to all my powers immediately? No?
Praxis Kits
Let’s start with the basics, since upgrading in Mankind Divided works different to most games. XP still exists but when you gain a level you don’t get upgrade points to stick into stats, you get a Praxis Kit. Instead of bumping “Charm” up a point you buy physical Augmentations to help Jensen.
In general 1 Praxis Kit upgrades a currently unlocked piece of tech, say to upgrade your X-Ray Vision to see useful objects as well as people. 2 Praxis Kits are generally required to unlock a new Augmentation. While there are no standard stats in Mankind Divided there are Health and Armour Augs you can upgrade, but remember the Strength Aug doesn’t make you hit any harder, it just allows you to carry more stuff!
Koller here will get you fixed up
Choose Augs Wisely
This is good advice for any RPG, but you rarely get shut out of being able to lift vending machines and punch holes in walls if you choose your upgrades poorly in other RPGs. This goes double for the start of Mankind Divided, where shockingly Eidos Montreal pull a Metroid Prime on our asses and de-power Adam Jensen after the first mission in Dubai. To compensate they at least give you a few extra Praxis Kits to start off, but then identifying what cool powers you don’t have now requires care! Punching through walls? X-ray vision? Better hacking skills? Improved health and/or armour? Personal cloak? All in the beginning level, all gone when you reach Koller’s chop shop.
What Type of Player Are You?
The first important question you have to ask yourself when getting Praxis Kits is, what should I spend it on? Or more specifically, how do you want to play Mankind Divided? Deus Ex is all about player choice, not just narratively but in terms of gameplay too. Therefore you have to decide just how you’re going to play the game.
Do you want to go all out into action, taking on all enemies and putting them down? Do you want to avoid encounters, sneaking past and ghosting missions? Do you want to hack every terminal and keypad, perhaps turning cameras, turrets and bots against your foes? Or do you want a mixture of all of these?
Will you punch old dudes while they're writing emails?
Once you’ve decided then you can see what Augmentations you need to go for. Here’s what I would go for, but obviously the choice is yours:
Action: ‘Sentinel RX Health System’ (“Health”) and ‘Rhino Dermal Armour’ (“Armour”) should be your basics for obvious reasons. There are 9 upgrades for Health and 4 for Armour so decide which you need more – you probably want general protection over stopping electricity damage. After that ‘Cybernetic Weapon Handling’ (the gun) might be useful to pump some Praxis into, and the experimental Titan aug will stop all damage so that’s a must.
Stealth: Smart Vision is a must for tracking enemy movements, and doesn’t really need an upgrade. ‘Glass Shield Cloaking’ is tremendously helpful for obvious reasons, and the experimental ‘Icarus Dash’ will bring back fond memories of Dishonored. ‘Leg Silencers’ (in the feet) aren’t as helpful as you might expect though, especially as you need to activated them.
Hacking: There are four Augs dedicated to hacking. ‘Hacking Capture’ is vital, allowing you to both hack harder terminals and access enemy machines as you upgrade it. ‘Hacking Stealth’ is useful as it slows detection, but ‘Hacking Fortify’ only worry about if you’re serious about this hacking business (I was and never upgraded it once). Finally the experimental ‘Remote Hacking’ is useless on Level 1 (hack TVs and radios, woo) and essential on Level 2 (hack cameras, bots and turrets even without the appropriate ‘Hacking Capture’ level).
Pick ‘N’ Mix: Mixture’s probably the hardest, since you’ll really have to read Aug descriptions carefully to work out what you need first. ‘Smart Vision’ you should always have on Level 1. ‘Icarus Landing’ prevents all fall damage and makes you look cool doing so. ‘Cybernetic Arm Prosthesis’ (Strength) lets you increase your inventory space, lift heavy objects and punch through walls. Health and Armour should get a few points, and the ‘Sarif Series 8 Energy Converter’ (Power) allows you to use your Aug powers more often. Oh, and have ‘Instant Takedown’ (in Strength) and ‘Reflex Booster’ to let you do melee takedowns (lethal or non-lethal) on one or more opponents.
All Augs. You're welcome.
Unlock or Upgrade?
The second important question is “upgrade or unlock?” As mentioned while upgrading an Aug slot (even doing multiple pathways within that Aug) only costs 1 Praxis, yet unlocking a new Aug costs 2 Praxis. Consequently this becomes a case of deciding what you need and when you need it. For example, after the power reset on my first playthrough I forgot to add Smart Vision, so I saved up 2 Praxis points for that straight. Hacking bots and turrets may seem useful, but you won’t encounter any for a while so save that upgrade for later.
Furthermore don’t be tempted to unlock everything. Work out what you need or truly want and go for them. I mean, if you’re playing non-lethally it’s pointless being able to fire your Nanoblade from a distance. Finally, remember that the new Experimental Augs cannot be activated all at once (unless you go on the optional mission to do so) and will glitch your systems if you try to unlock all of them straight away. Patience is a virtue.
Shop!
Shop
The thing you have to remember about Praxis Kits is that unlike traditional RPG upgrade points they’re actually physical objects in the Deus Ex world. Consequently they’re available to buy in stores in the same manner as Biocells, Stim Injections, weapons and ammo.
There are a number of sellers in Prague although only a few carry Praxis Kits. One is in Adam’s building, on the floor below his home selling out of an apartment by a few nice men armed with machineguns. Check out their stock without getting into a firefight and it’ll be under “Consumables”. Usually he has two in stock which get restocked at various points in the game. They cost a pretty 10,000 credits each though, so get hoarding.
Search everything!
Obsessive-compulsive types have this one easy. Basically if you see a drawer, safe, or locked locker, check it. Yes, all of them. This is for two reasons. Number one: money. As mentioned in the point above, Praxis Kits are available in certain shops but for a wallet-melting 10,000 credits, so you need every credit you can steal and every sellable item you can carry. You might want to upgrade your inventory for this reason alone.
Number two: as mentioned Praxis Kits are physical items, so if you’re really lucky you can actually find some hidden around the world. Unlike most regular items they’re almost certainly in important hard-to-find locations, like safes, lockers belonging to important characters etc. Anyway, get searching.
You can find rewards everywhere.
Explore
Didn’t I just say that one? No, this is getting Praxis Kits the old-fashioned way: by earning them. And the easiest, simplest, non-dangerous way of getting XP is by exploring. You may want to bust in through a door guns blazing but if you spot a vent just explore it a little and you’ll get some free Explorer XP points - even if you go back immediately and don’t use it. Hacking everything is also a good way to earn XP, even if you’re not good at it.
Non-lethal
Sad to say, but the XP bonus for keeping folks alive is always a little more than putting them in the ground. You get the same points for taking anyone down, either by Stun Dart or a bullet in the brain, but if they’re alive you get a ‘Merciful’ bonus that acknowledges that it’s a little bit harder to be a good guy. The downside is that they can be woken up, but it’s worth it for the XP. Plus you can kill them after you get the bonus of course…
Mercy!
Play Deus Ex Go
Alright, this is kinda a last resort but it’s this or spend some real money on some crappy microtransactions. Deus Ex Go is a fun puzzle version of Deus Ex out now on mobile platforms and I can highly recommend it, but most importantly for this guide there is a total of 5 Praxis Kits which you can unlock for use in Mankind Divided. Yes it costs money too (£3.99/$4.99) but at least you get a proper cool extra game for your trouble.
That’s all for now, join us soon for some more helpful hints for getting to grips with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided!
