Hey there! After playing the game for many hours, I slowly came to discover things that weren't clearly explained by the game itself or wished someone had told me. Even Google didn't provide much to go off of and even half a year after I started this guide, it still isn't that easy to find information online.

So, to make lives a little bit easier, I decided to write my own guide! There are several other guides available with this purpose in mind, but I hope to throw my own spin on things to make it stand out on its own.

If you see anything that's incorrect, needs adjustment, or should be added, please comment and let me know. If you like the guide, hate the guide, or just find it so-so in quality, please consider giving it a rating. Once this gets enough ratings, the total average score will actually be visible and not just a few gray stars. Staring at me. Taunting me with its uncertainty.

Just be aware that the guide might be a LITTLE outdated as the game has been updated quite a few times since its initial publication and editing the guide oddly seems to take more time than actually writing it did.

Anyhow, let's get started.

Outside of the difficulty settings you would expect, there are also several modifiers that can change how hard things can get for you. Keep in mind that all of these are set upon starting a new game and (as of v0.3.4.1) cannot be changed mid game.

There's Permadeath and non permadeath. I'm not extremely familiar with permadeath mode, so corrections might be necessary.

In non permadeath mode, there will always be a cyro bay available to respawn in. If you die, you can be assured that you will be able to come back. In permadeath mode, cyro bays and cyro cores become MUCH more important. If you die and don't have a cyro bay with a functional cyro core within it? You'll come back, but you wont be able to get your belongings back unless you run back to where you died and loot your old body. That's my understanding of it, anyway. Please give a better description in the comments if you have played this mode and know how it works.

Seekers, as mentioned later in this guide, are useful meatshields. Unfortunately, it seems that you defecated in the wrong guy's bush and can push the Seekers up from neutral to hostile. They will attack you on sight, even if you've done nothing wrong. Considering how durable these guys are, this isn't for the faint of heart.

With this mode on, your character has decided that he doesn't care if he's in a futuristic society. He's going to punch things in the face until they stop moving no matter the cost! Ranged weapons are now unavailable and only melee weapons can be found or crafted. Be aware that as of v0.3.4.1, there are only two melee weapons available.

The last three options allows you to set a few more things to either be harder or easier than the default. Enemy damage, enemy toughness (chance of getting knocked down), and your hunger/thirst degrades.

This should be pretty quick, but I figured I should be as thorough as possible.



You've got your health on top. No brainer there.

Next up is your energy. This is used for firing weapons and repairing your assorted structures. It's critical you keep how much energy you have in mind when considering if you should fight or flee. If you don't have any energy cells (used to restore energy), conserving what you have is highly recommended. Sure, you COULD beat your foes down with your bare hands...but that's risky business. Especially if there's more than one hostile trying to beat you down.

Hydration and nourishment is next. Keeping both high and healthy keeps you, likewise, healthy. As of me writing this, I'm not entirely sure what benefits they grant you, but I can say that letting them drop too low is very adverse to your health. I don't recall what said adverse effects are now, but I'll update this to reflect reality as soon as I'm informed. Suffice to say, starvation or dehydration is bad news.

Like many survival games with RPG elements, you can gain EXP as you play. In the event of your untimely demise or the use of a functional cyro pod, the experience you've gathered in life will be added to your total. If you have enough, you'll level up and be able to acquire some nifty passive attributes. While these can have a huge impact, I suggest against purposefully dying just so you can spend what you got and instead just finding a cyro bay. While these bonuses start out just kind of nice, later passive bonuses become immensely useful and can even improve the performance of some equippable gear.

Fatigue is also something that's not clearly shown. You become more and more fatigued as time goes on, reducing your maximum stamina. That means if you let yourself get too tired out, you won't run as long and you can't punch as much. Reducing your fatigue is fairly easy. You can either use a consumable item (will go into those later) or use a bed to sleep (more on that later too). It's not a disaster if you let your fatigue max out, but it could be the difference between life and death in a critical moment so...better to keep that particular stat as low as you can.

You're inevitably going to piss something off in P.A.M.E.L.A., so knowing how to fight is in your best interest.

Generally speaking, the less time you spend in the face of a mutated crazy person, the better. Still, if you find yourself fighting hand to hand, there are a few things to keep in mind. First of all, as of writing this, there are two melee weapons you can use: the Warden's Fist and the Butcher's Blade. Using these will make much shorter work of your foe than your bare hands, although they both require energy to actually use. Second, charge attacks are your friend. Using a charged melee attack lunges you forward, allowing you to keep some distance while you wait for an opening. Not only that, but charged attacks can cause your enemy to stagger which can interrupt their own attack and give you yet another opening to strike. Plus they do more damage, which is always a bonus.

You can use a non-charged melee attack for a quick jab, which is useful for when you have a limited stamina pool or when you don't have time to charge a punch up. If you have a large pool of stamina and you're against a weaker enemy such as Degenerated, just spamming quick jabs until they keel over is also very effective.

Remember to block whenever possible; especially if you have an energy shield equipped. It will reduce (or prevent if you have a shield) any damage from being applied to you and some shields have a bonus effect when struck.

This is pretty simple. Just point, shoot, and aim for the head. Just remember that ranged attacks always consume energy and, as pointed out in the stats section of the guide, you might want to consider not shooting and using energy up if you can't get your energy back up again soon. There is a catch, however. There's something called resonance which increases every time you fire. If it maxes out and you don't let it cool down before firing again, you'll take some damage. Unless you have a VISR Mitra, you wont have a clear idea of just how high your resonance is beyond the amount your weapon is sparking up.

Too much to handle? Not prepared for a fight? Well, good news, friend! If you see a tall, lanky android walking nearby, you've got yourself the perfect meatshield. These androids are Seekers (I'll get into all NPC types later) and they're tougher than all individual infected. Since infected will attack whatever non-infected is closest to them, simply put a Seeker between them and yourself and bam! Instant fighting companion! Just be careful to not hit the Seeker yourself. They're not something you want to fight if you aren't looking to fight one and to not expect them to help you when the Stalkers come knocking. They'll give zero ♥♥♥♥♥.

Also, if you find yourself being hastled by the more nanite afflicted variety (such as Shades or Revenants), you can try and also utilize standard enemies (Degenerated, Afflicted, Reapers, and Widows) as the two groups really don't get along.

Note: All weapons have upgrades to reduce energy cost, increase damage, and overall improve weapon effectiveness. I'll mention any upgrades that either significantly change how the weapon operates or add new features.

• Arc Welder - Dorsal Weapon
  Fires a jolt of electricity at your target that has a chance of stunning. Can be upgraded to fire a ball of electricity which clings to whatever surface it lands on and deals AoE damage around it. Can be upgraded to increase stun chance/duration and add the chance of the primary attack arcing to another enemy.
  
• Butcher's Blade - Dorsal Weapon
  A melee blade which functions much like your basic melee attack. Lunges forward a good distance with its secondary attack, combos strikes for additional damage, and can be upgraded to deal 50% additional damage to enemies below 25% health.
  
• Subverser - Fore Weapon
  Fires poison or sleep darts to apply special effects to enemies. Can be upgraded to also fire rage darts or apply the effects of the darts in an AoE.
  
• Warden's Fist - Fore Weapon
  A melee holographic fist that pummels enemies. Unleashes a burst of energy to knock enemies down as its secondary. Can be upgraded to stun with its secondary and ignore 50% of enemy armor.
  
• Javelin XT - Dorsal Weapon
  An energy crossbow that fires a chargeable bolt as its primary and a short range conical blast as its secondary. Can be upgraded to deal double damage to unaware enemies and to always stun an enemy when hit with a fully charged bolt.
  
• Kinetic Mortar - Dorsal Weapon
  A literal mortar launcher that fires a kinetic blast which staggers enemies as its primary and emits a jet of superheated gas as its secondary. Can be upgraded to add a DoT effect to its secondary and to enable overcharging on primary attack to increase blast size.
  
• Surgical Laser - Dorsal Weapon
  Fires a precision "laser" as its primary and unleash a burning overcharged beam that applies a DoT as its secondary. Can be upgraded to penetrate through targets and to reduce cooldown from charge attacks by 50%.

• Nanoflex
  Provides a large amount of maneuverability and reduces noise production at the cost of total armor. Comes with a set bonus of making you +25% harder to be spotted by ennemies. Paired well with Tonal Silencer.
  
• Security
  Gives a balance of maneuverability, noise production, and total armor. Comes with a set bonus of taking 10% less damage from Seekers and Stalkers.
  
• Tricarbyne
  Gives a maximum amount of armor at the cost of maneuverability and noise production. Comes with a set bonus of 10% Force.
  
• Hazmat
  Allows you to enter areas heavily infested with nanites without suffering as much damage. I'm not certain of the set bonus yet, but I assume it totally negates nanite cloud damage. A special note for this armor: it requires containers of nanites. You get these containers of nanites by killing Shades and Revenants. You can find more information on them later on.

• Ceaseless Shield
  Has a chance to refill on depletion that improves per upgrade.
  
• Repercussive Shield
  Reflects a portion of blocked damage back to attacker which increases per upgrade.
  
• Vanishing Shield
  On depletion, turns user invisible for a period of time which is improved per upgrade.

Note: All items marked as Active require you to press a button to get the advertised effect.

• Chondrial Converter - Utility 1 - Active
  When activated, it converts hit points into energy. Can be upgraded to reduce health consumed, increase energy gained, and finally add a 25% chance of consuming no health.
  
• Kinetic Amplifier - Utility 1 - Active
  When activated, boost force of all weapons by 25% for 15 seconds. Can be upgraded to increase force, duration, and finally do 10% additional damage to stunned enemies.
  
• Sonar Pulse - Utility 1 - Active
  Creates a pulse which highlights enemies through walls. Can be upgraded to have its range and duration increased and, finally, partially blind all highlighted enemies for 5 seconds.
  
• Overclocking Module - Utility 2 - Passive
  Increase damage dealt with all attachments by 5%. Can be upgraded to have a higher damage bonus and, finally, add a 10% chance to cause the target to go berserk.
  
• Reuptake Assist - Utility 2 - Passive
  Add a chance for a weapon to fire without consuming energy. Can be upgraded to increase the chance of negating energy consumption and, finally add a 15% chance of negating resonance buildup.
  
• Voltaic Accelerator - Utility 2 - Passive
  Increase fire rate of weapons. Upgrade to increase the bonus and, finally deal 20% additional damage on first shot after using an energy cell.

• Cyano Reprocessor - Passive
  Slightly increase energy capacity and add a slow energy recovery rate over time. Upgrade to increase capacity, improve rate of recovery, and, finally, add a 20% chance to triple recharge rate on final shot before energy depletion.
  
• Impact Catalyst - Passive
  Moderate increase to energy capacity and convert percent of incoming damage into energy. Upgrade to increase capacity and conversion rate. Further upgrade to double conversion rate if health is below 50%.
  
• Massive Reservoir - Passive
  Large increase to energy capacity and increase energy efficiency when above threshold. Upgrade to increase energy capacity, reduce threshold, and, finally, add ability to recover 20% of energy last used over 5 seconds.

Note: Gadgets are upgraded via the engineering menu.

• Agility Amplifier: Increases overall ability and speed. Increases bonus per upgrade.
  
• Commerce Module: Grants discount when using kiosks. Stacks with the genome effect Mercantile.
  
• Defiant Sigil: I'm not sure about this one. The description suggests that it might be a modifier to increase difficulty in some way. The specifics elude me. It can also be upgraded which will most likely increase the effect.
  
• Nano-Cipher: Decreases difficulty while hacking. Upgrade to improve this bonus.
  
• Obfuscator: Grants a chance of no security being deployed to your location on a failed hack.
  
• Tonal Silencer: Decreases chance of enemies noticing you. Can be upgraded to improve this effect. I do not believe this bonus applies to Stalkers.

• Flashlight Modifiers: If you have trouble getting around in the dark, getting one of these is a must. There's three different types found in the "Other" tab of your crafting menu. One increases the range of the light at the cost of coverage, one increases coverage of the light at the cost of range, and one hits a nice middle ground.
  
• VISR Mitra: This is EXTREMELY nice to have, although not necessary. This item, once equipped, will give you a basic HUD. The current time will be displayed at the top. On the bottom, your shield's health will be displayed along with your overall health, your inventory space, a listing of your utility 1 item, a listing of both of your equipped weapons (with the weapon you don't currently have out grayed out), your current resonance buildup (very nice to have a visible meter for that), and your current energy.

The game has several weapons, although you'll find there isn't a huge number to chose from. If you're lucky, you might find some as you make your way out of the medical facility you start out in. As of me writing this, all equippable gear is exclusive to one slot type or another. Some weapons can only be placed into the dorsal slot, some only into the fore slot, etc. They don't have a proper description outlining what slot they are exclusive to, but picking the item up in your inventory will highlight the slot they qualify for. And just a heads up, as you use a weapon, it builds up resonance which, if pushed beyond maximum, will damage you after firing. You can tell when you need to let the weapon cool down when it's sparking and emitting a loud repeating beep.

Something to get as soon as you can is a shield. While blocking with your arm does help, a proper shield is far more effective. Obviously a weapon is a good investment, but remember that even the melee weapons burn through energy as ammunition. As to which to equip, that's up to you and depends on your playstyle. I recommend looking through what's available and deciding yourself.

Also, remember that all of the items you can equip can be upgraded. Armor is upgraded through the engineering menu which can be accessed by clicking the little Engineering tab in the inventory menu or by hitting C (the default shortcut). Weapons and gear are upgraded a little differently. To upgrade, first you need to find upgrade cores. You can see how many you have in your inventory menu (). To use them, click on the object you want to upgrade. You'll see a description of the item on the right side of the screen. There should be a tab there which will display the menu proper. From there you can select the item on the upgrade tree you want to activate. Just remember that you need one upgrade core of the corresponding quality (based on color) to actually get it.
Upgrading your weapons and gear is very important, as reducing energy consumption or increasing damage output can have a major impact on your overall survivability.

Also, don't worry too much about getting cybernetic enhancements until you can survive reasonably well without them. As they are lost upon death, you don't want to become overly reliant on them.

Unlike the equippables, I'm not going to list ALL consumable items here. There's an ever growing already long list and I don't hate myself enough to spell it all out. I'll make note of any special items as we go along, though.

Food is food. Big surprise there. Food keeps your hunger down and your body healthy. Not much else to say there.

While just as simple as food, just a few notes. ALL drinks hydrate you. Yes, even alcohol which in the long term would, in reality, dehydrate you. What's more, something like coffee or an energy drink will reduce your fatigue in addition to hydrating you! Hurray for additional utility!

These generally are focused on restoring health, but there are a few exceptions. Adrenaline shots will reduce your fatigue, Supra Hypos restores your health and reduces your fatigue, and...okay, there's two other medical items I've found but never had a use for. Bandages and Bone Refabricators. Bandages will stop bleeding, but so will Medi Hypos (the standard healing item) and Supra Hypos. Bone Refabricators will repair all of your bones without a visit to a healing station, but...well, as of me writing this, I've never actually encountered that as a problem. This will likely be expanded upon in the future (this is an alpha after all), but as of this moment they can probably be ignored. Maybe they come into play more so on a higher difficulty setting than what I'm running on. Let me know if I'm wrong on this!

I'll get to the power in a later section, but I thought I'd introduce you to two critical items here before we get there. Just so you know what I'm talking about when we get there. One is called a Maintenance Key which is used on an emergency battery and the other is a Cyano-tube Repair Kit which is used on damaged Cyano-tubes. Both are found across the world and both have a direct impact on the zone's power consumption. More on that later, but suffice to say...using these items? It's a very good thing.

Do note, however, that the Cyano-tubes are fairly rare to find in containers. They are far more commonly found from vending machines.

Giving these a quick mention here, but I'll go into more detail in the City Utility section. These are used to repair cyro bays. Nothing else currently, just that.

Unlocks an augment for purchase at a Genesis Station and (from my experience) can usually only be obtained from a kiosk for a pretty large sum of money, but they can also rarely be found in containers and on enemies. Once you pick a coupon up, it will automatically unlock a random augment from the store and will not appear in your inventory. Be sure not to buy a coupon once you have all of the augments unlocked. More on augments in City Utility.

These are used to increase your maximum inventory space. I'm sure you've noticed those massive empty voids above and below your initial inventory space. Taunting you with their very empty presence. Well, compute cells will unlock those squares so you can actually utilize them! They come in several variants. Be aware that once you have unlocked all 130 spaces in your inventory, these items will do NOTHING! Don't use them if you have all of your inventory space unlocked! Save them for the recyclers instead.

As some of the general utilities found in the city are only available if powered, let's first discuss...

Because the city's infrastructure hasn't been very well maintained as of late, no sector can continuously use power without eventually running out and shutting down. To adjust how much power a sector is using, you'll need to find a power breaker. These are slender, beeping terminals which will display as a light bulb in a triangle on your map (). You can use these to switch between standard (100% power consumption), emergency (50% consumption), and shut down (0% consumption). Some things like kiosks and genesis stations require at least emergency power to operate. As of now, I'm not sure what benefits running at standard power offers you outside of making your environment a little less dark.

As I mentioned, eventually power is going to run out. Because of this, you're going to want to find a Power Station. You can use power stations to view the power status of other districts and, most importantly, pull power from the Eden's central reserves. Don't worry about perminently losing power to the central reserves. Unlike the power of individual districts, the power from the central reserves will regenerate over time. These terminals appear as a little lightning bolt inside of a triangle on your map ().

My advice to you is to shut down the power of any district you're entering for the first time and only turn it back on when you absolutely need to.

Sure would be nice if the districts could hold more power, right? Well, good news hypothetical questioner! They can! Sprinkled throughout each sector are emergency back-up batteries that will add to the maximum power for the sector that it's in! The bad news is that none of them are active. You're going to need to fix that.

Maintenance Keys will activate a battery and will be removed upon doing so (hence its inclusion in the consumable section). These keys aren't too uncommon and only take up two squares of inventory space. I've found that it's always a good idea to have one, two, or even three keys with me when exploring a new area. Just in case I happen to stumble upon a battery.

As you were enjoying your newly found reserves of power, I bet you were cursing how quickly all of that sweet, sweet energy depletes. Again, good news! This is a result of critical city infrastructure being horrifically damaged! Okay, that might not sound like good news, but it is because you're able to repair said damaged infrastructure! Cyano-tube repair kits, as mentioned in consumables, are capable of repairing the damage and increasing efficiency for the sector it was located in.

However, there is something of a catch. For one, as mentioned in consumables, these aren't too common to find laying about in containers. Your best bet is to find them being sold in kiosks. The other catch is their size. Unlike the keys, these are very bulky. They take up a 2 by 3 (if my memory serves correct) in your inventory. This is devastating when initially starting out due to your limited inventory space and even with everything unlocked can add up.

Unless you have a lot of space to work with, I suggest stashing these somewhere safe and coming back for them when you're hunting for tubes to fix.

The following do not require any sector power to function

These are respawn points that you can use on the off chance something manages to kill you. They can also be used to immediately spend genome points without getting yourself killed first. There are four bays as of me writing this: Ark Medical (where you start), Arcadia Towers, the Garrison, and Nirvana. These areas have different overall difficulties which I've listed in order from lowest to highest.

While Ark Medical starts out functional, the other three require you both find and repair using a Cyro Core. Keep in mind that each cyro core takes up an area of 2 by 2 in your inventory, so you're better off only carrying one around if you plan on finding and activating a cyro bay. It is VERY unlikely you're going to loot one in your travels, so you will likely need to build one using an Equipment Bench.

All of the cyro bays are safe to spawn inside of as no enemies of any kind (should) spawn within. The real danger, of course, is getting from where you died to where you need to be. While the cyro bays might be ideal for ducking in to hide from enemies, the fact of the matter is that the enemies will still be outside of that bay once you open those doors. And if you're respawning, you'll have none of your gear.

For areas based out of Northern Oasis, I suggest spawning in the Garrison bay. For southern Oasis, I suggest Arcadia Towers. Both have a relatively quick transit from cyro bay to elevator to the outdoors. If you're in Ark Medical anyway, use that bay. Likewise for Nirvana. I'm not sure which bay to use yet if you happen to die in Western Oasis, but locating your body and reclaiming your items is going to have the added complication of getting a new set of Hazmat gear, so I'd say that getting there quickly is the least of your problems.

These will totally heal you for a price. No matter what your ailment, you'll leave happy and healthy. It wont feed you or provide a complementary beverage, though.

Eventually you're going to find a locked door that can't be hacked open. In order to open these doors, you need to find a data card directly associated with the door. These aren't too hard to find so long as you utilize your scanner. The areas behind the locked doors usually contain something special, but you're bound to be disappointed once in a while.

The following require the sector to be on at least emergency power to function

As the name suggests, these are shops you can spend money on. Kiosks will sell different items depending on its color, although sometimes they'll have a wildcard thrown in. In general, red kiosks sell medical items, teal(?) kiosks sell food and drinks, light blue(?) kiosks sell less common items, and yellow kiosks sell very uncommon items. You can reduce the sale price of kiosk items with the commerce module gadget or with a genome upgrade (the things you can spend overall exp on) called Mercantile.

Want some quick cash? Have some junk you want to get rid of? In that case, Recyclers are your best friend. Simple activate, move whatever items you want to recycle, and receive cash in return. These can be found all over Eden, although they are fairly uncommon down in Nirvana.

Who doesn't want to be a cyborg, am I right? Well, Genesis Stations allow just that! Once an augment is unlocked with an augment coupon, you can apply said augment at any Genesis Station. While costly, these augments can apply some really nice perks. There is one major downside, however. If you die, you also lose your augments and have to re-purchase and apply them. Genesis Stations can be found in the Promenade as well as in Nirvana with the former being the safest to get to.

All of this can be found in your datapad in the encyclopedia, but I'll give a quick overview regardless. Especially for one enemy in particular which I am making a point to describe.

Non-Aggressive

These androids are totally harmless. The infected ignore them, they wont attack you, and generally don't do anything but stand around or walk aimlessly. If you destroy one, they'll have some items to loot...but be aware that if you attack one, they will alert security and you could end up with more enemies to deal with.

Much like the Sec-RT, they're mostly harmless. The infected do attack these things, so in a pinch they make a good distraction. And, again, like the Sec-RT, while they do contain loot, they will also alert security if attacked.

Neutral

They're the mechanized police force of Eden. They will generally leave the infected alone unless the infected either attacks them first or scans the infected and determined to be in need of a good smacking. They'll leave you alone unless you do something illegal in their presence. If this happens, a containment field will pop up around you, at which point in time you can either leave the field, thus provoking the android, or allow yourself to be arrested and brought to the Garrison's rehab ward. Sometimes, due to poor pathing, you'll be marked with the containment field but the Seeker will be unable to reach you. When this happens, just leave the field and deal with the consequences. Or run, that works too.

Hostile

These ugly mutants are the most common enemy type and the most easily dispatched or avoided. While they do have a brisk run speed, they're easy to outrun if needed.

These citizens look fairly normal until they see you. At this point their faces twist unnaturally and they'll charge at you face first. These guys are much faster than the degenerated and are far more aggressive in their attacks, so be prepared to dodge and block as necessary.

Reapers (male) and Widows (female) are very easy to spot as one of their arms glows brightly and will scream loudly upon seeing you. They're very durable, deal a decent amount of damage, and while you can outrun them, they tend to be persistent in the chase.

Extremely Hostile

Stalkers spawn every night at 20:30 (8:30 pm) and will despawn at 6:00 (6:00 AM). These guys are a real pain and I cannot advise against fighting one directly enough unless you're prepared and know you can take one on. These guys are the primary reason why I thought of making a guide in the first place, although they're thankfully far more managable than when I started.

• There is a loud alarm which will sound shortly before they start spawning within at least 10 meters of you.
  
• They are invisible and only de-cloak upon taking damage, attacking, or when inside of a disruptor field (more on that last one in a later section)
  
• They ALWAYS know where you are and will hunt you endlessly until 6:00 hits.
  
• They're just about as durable as a regular Seeker
  
• Only three can spawn and go after you at any one time, but the number spawned in a night is determined by the number of genome points you have spent. The exact formula for this is spent genome points divided by 3.5 and rounded down. As a result, you will only have to start worrying about these guys after you have spent 4 points.
  
• The absolute maximum that can spawn are 20 stalkers which will reset to 0 if you die on permadeath mode. If you die in non-permadeath mode, they will stop spawning and the number spawned the following night will be halved.
  
• Once you have killed all Stalkers in your current light level, a new Stalker will spawn.
  
• Unlike Seekers, Stalkers can be targeted by turrets.

So how do you handle these guys? You have one of three options. The first is to use a portabed to sleep on. So long as you aren't awake when they spawn, you're safe. This method is, unfortunately (as of 12/16/2018) unreliable as you cannot go to sleep while in combat and the game is often poor at determining when you aren't actually in combat. If you run past an enemy, aggro it, and don't kill it, there's a chance the game wont register that you outran it and not allow you to sleep. A work-around is to go to your bed, return to the main menu, and then load the game back up. Doing this will despawn whatever was chasing you and allow you to sleep.

The second is to find a ledge off the ground and just wait the night out. The higher off the ground the better. Boxes, hedges, whatever you can find. Because the game's pathing is still fairly primitive, they will just shuffle around and be unable to reach you. You can also hide in the cyro bays in Arcadia Towers and Nirvana as the Stalkers are unable to spawn within the cyro bays and can't open the bay doors. Just be sure you don't accidentally open the doors for them as, if the door is open, they can pass through just fine. Obviously this method, while effective, is annoying and boring. It's also questionable as to how safe this is since the developers recently gave androids of this type ranged abilities so...use at your own risk.

The third is to get to whatever fortifications you have set up and fight them off! Now that the stalkers can't spawn as close to you as they used to, it's far less likely for them to spawn inside of your base, giving the impression that these jerks are somehow teleporting in past your walls. A combination of turrets and disruptors are really your best bet if you're going to bunker down. That and hitting them with everything you got.

Shades are annoying, but very managable. They're these black, thin creatures that give off nanite gas so...hard to miss. Visually, that is. The issue with these buggers is that they turn to gas and bolt all over the place before rapidly coming out of hiding to hit you. Thankfully, this isn't too difficult to dodge or simply block. Adding a repercussive shield is also handy since you don't have to stop blocking to deal a bit of damage to them. They can get pretty overwhelming to handle in large numbers, however, so be warned that fighting them with light armoring might prove deadly. Considering how skiddish they are, I suggest relying on either melee strikes or very powerful ranged hits.

They look just like the shades, except they fly. Oh, and they're annoying as heck to kill. They constanly hover around which makes their already slender forms even more difficult targets to hit with ranged weaponry, their hitbox (as of 12/16/2018) only registers hits to their lower body (further reducing the size of a target you have to hit), have ranged attacks with a small mount of splash damage, and, if all of that wasn't bad enough, they appear to spawn up to three Shades at a time. They also have a pretty good chunk of health to top it all off. So, just to recap, they're hard to shoot, spawn plenty of adds that are good at zerging, have a good chunk of health, and constantly move away from you in difficult to predict motions which makes ranged attacks even harder.

I've found the best solution is to rush them. Just charge in face first and smash them to hell and back. Obviously, this isn't exactly a great solution for players not wearing heavy armor and I'm not certain how good the Hazmat armor is at repelling damage so...do it if you think you can get away with it.

(All relevant fields will be added soon(TM))
This is literally where you start the game, so you should have no problem locating it.

Located on the second floor of the main lobby. Once in the main lobby, just continue moving north west until you reach it.

Coming Soon!(TM)

Coming Soon!(TM)

Coming Soon!(TM)

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Located on the 6th floor on the opposite side from the medical bay. Simply walk around the stairs and make your way to the other side. It's located inside of a business called "New Life Genetics Clinic".

Very easy to locate. It's located on the 6th floor immediately to your left as you reach the floor via elevator or stairs.

To reach this power station, simply take the central stairs or elevator to the 4th floor. Move around the stairwell to reach the western most wall. The power station is located on the path into the emergency stairs. Be sure to bring a maintenance key as there is a backup battery right next to it.

• L7 Unit 74: An apartment located on the eastern wall of the 7th floor.
  
• L7 Archives: A small locked room located at the back of the library on the 7th floor.

As of now, nowhere. Despite several locations with decent access to sunlight, the fact that these locations are only open to the sun via windows means that you'll only get bad coverage. For now, I'd recommend stearing clear of this place.

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(All relevant fields will be added soon(TM))

This location can be overlooked at first as it requires going in the opposite direction of many of the other points you're likely to be drawn to early in the game. There are four entry points into the Promenade. Three are located in Arcadia Tower on Three separate floors. One on the 2th floor along the western wall, one is on the third floor on the western wall, and the other is on the 4th floor along the northern most wall. The third route is through Origin Station. Simply move north through Origin Station, then continue taking stairs up until you reach it.

This is impossible to miss as not only is it one of the largest shops in the Promenade, but it also has a giant GENESIS sign over the entrance. Simply go to the lowest floor of the Promenade and make your way south. Like I said, you can't miss it. If you are just going to the Promenade to use the Genesis station, use the entrances found in Arcadia Tower's second floor or Origin Station. Both will open up to the Genesis building first thing.

This is very easy to find, albeit potentially out of the way depending on where you are. Simply go to the top most floor on the western side. It's the last building moving south.

Simply walk along the outside wall of the Genesis building to reach its rear. The power station is along the wall behind the building.

Coming Soon!(TM)

Despite there being a GIANT glass ceiling, I was unable to find anywhere in the Promenade that had good sun exposure. Still, if you were determined to set up here, there's several spots you could set up. Just about any of the shops would be a good place to set up as the limited space around the door means you can get away with fewer energy walls. There is one spot, however, which would be one of the best spots in the game if not for the lack of sun exposure. Directly behind the medical center, there is an area with a backup battery. It should be fairly easy to locate the first time because of this. What makes this spot amazing is that the only way in and out of the nook is a door that is covered by a non-player built shield wall. That is to say, this shield wall cannot be destroyed and requires no energy to function. I'm not sure if Stalkers can pass through this barrier, but if not? If nothing else, this would make an excellent outpost. As I said, the major downside of this spot is the lack of sun coverage. If you can look past that, however, this spot is infinitely defensible.

Coming Soon!(TM)

(All relevant fields will be added soon(TM))

This one is very easy to find and quick to get to, but it depends on where you are entering from. Start by entering Origin Station from the western most point of Oasis to where the small Bio-Stera building is located as described in the Power Station directions for Oasis. Enter Origin Station. Hug the northern wall as closely as you can and then move north. Move to the left of the stairs and continue hugging the wall. If you keep taking this path, you should eventually reach the door to the power room. Be sure to bring a maintenance key with you as there is a battery right next to the power station!

• Bathroom: Why, yes, somebody did take the time to put a bathroom behind an unhackable locked door just to hide a few of their fancy stuff. Shhh...it's not weird. It's located on the upper floor on the north eastern walkway closest to the Promenade enterence.

Exploring Origin Station, I wasn't able to find anywhere that registered as having good lighting conditions except for a single spot. It's the restaurant called Foursette. It has a single way in and out, although you can get into the building by jumping over the railing attached to Oasis. There is a power switch for Origin Station right outside of it. I'm not sure how much I would recommend this location as the actual space exposed to light is very slim, so you would need to be very efficient with where you place your solar chargers and hydroponics.

This area is among the smallest of the different districts and is mostly just useful for the large number kiosks clustered into it.

(All relevant fields will be added soon(TM))

Okay, from what I've seen, a TON of people have a hard time finding this. Eventually I'll make a video showing how to get to the power station, but for now you'll have to deal with text directions. There's without a doubt other routes to get there, but this is the route I usually take.

To start with, head as far west as you can until you reach the main entrance of Origin Station. You'll know you're in the right place when you see a building in the center of the area for the company Bio-Stera Technologies. Head to the side of the small Bio-Stera building with the unblocked door and look south. There should be a stairway marked as a route to the Garrison. There should be a decent sized building that also appears to belong to Bio-Stera Technologies in front of you now. Continue to follow the path south and take the first right as you pass the building, than an immediate left up the stairs. If you hit a dead end before seeing the stairs, don't worry. Just turn around, the stairs should be on your right.

Keep following the winding path until you are forced to either continue East or turn South. Continue East. Immediately after you pass the arch, you should see an Ark Medical Clinic enterance that opens up underground. If you walk past the ramp down, the Power Station should be immediately in front of you. Here's a screenshot of what you should see as you approach:

There ya go! I hope that helps!

Coming Soon!(TM)

Oasis is probably one of the best districts to build a base in (in my opinion anyway). It's the central most location to all other districts, just about everywhere you set up will have an opening for sunlight, and there are a lot of established structures you can claim which will reduce the number of walls you have to set up.

I'll add more areas worth looking into later on, but the spot I went with is the medium sized Bio-Stera building mentioned in my directions to the power station. It has one way in which can be covered with a single door, has plenty of room, a power breaker inside, one kiosk inside on the second floor with another right outside, is only a short run away from the power station, a balcony with full exposure to sunlight, and said balcony is attached to an easy to access little outcropping on the western wall that the Stalkers both can't get up to and spawn on which is useful in the event they breach your defenses and you have to run somewhere safe. It also has good sun exposure, so it's a nice long stretch to put down hydroponics if you'd rather keep the balcony uncluttered. The only issue I've had with it thus far is I've had a few infected spawn inside of the building, although that seems to be a rare occurrence.

There's another location close to Arcadia Tower I initially set up which is similarly easy to close up with plenty of sunlight and contains a recycler, but lacks anywhere you can really escape the Stalkers if they get past your defenses and is fairly far from any power breakers. There are a few other locations I saw, but I'll detail those on a later date.

• Smack dab in the center of Oasis is a shard of nanites. I have only seen Shades spawn out of it, but you should still give it a wide berth if you can help it.

This zone is probably a death trap. I say probably because as I'm writing this, I'm still gathering the comonents to get a full set of fully upgraded Hazmat gear. Never enter this area without that hazmat gear because I'm pretty sure the air itself can kill you.
(All relevant fields will be added soon(TM))

Coming Soon!(TM)

Coming Soon!(TM)

Are you insane? No, seriously, are you insane? Why would you want to set up a base in there!? Do you know what sort of creatures are roaming around that section of Oasis?!

Fine, fine. I'll see if I can find any notable, defensible locations you could set up shop. Don't say I didn't warn you though.

Coming Soon!(TM)

(All relevant fields will be added soon(TM))
Located on the 6th floor to the north. It's pretty easy to spot on your map once you're on the 6th floor. Thankfully, thanks to the addition of an airlock, the large cyro bay is actually a safe location and worth fully exploring for loot and goodies.

This one took a little searching for me to find due to how layered this area is. First, take an elevator or the stairs to the 5th floor. Then move around the circular center towards the north most set of rooms. You should have to pass a blast door of some sort. If you have to go past three passive forcefield doorways laid out next to one another, you know you're in the right place.

Move further into the area, past those forcefields. Keep yourself moving west as you move forward, and the power station should be fairly visible both on your screen and on your map.

Main Armory: Located on the 4th floor. I personally found the key in what I think was the command room on the 5th floor, on the lower portion below where the power station is.

Coming Soon!(TM)

• On the ___ and ___ floors (note to self, note down which floors have the contamination next time you play), there's a bit of a nanite problem. Okay, a pretty significant problem. If you aren't ready to fight revenants or shades, you should steer clear. If you don't have a hazmat suit, don't attempt to loot the area.

(All relevant fields will be added soon(TM))

Considering it's about as difficult to get to Nirvana as the Power Station in Oasis, I figured I'd add this in. If you follow my directions to the Oasis Power Station, you can do one of two things. At the intersection immediately before the Power Station that split East or South, go South instead and just continue to follow the path. You should eventually see the neon sign for Nirvana up ahead. If you instead go East towards the Power Station, just continue down the path and try to continue making turns that would take you South. The latter of the two I need to actually walk down to get more accurate than that.

Coming Soon!(TM)


I'll give a more detailed description later on, but I can at least get you moving in the right direction from memory. Once you finish descending on the elevator and step out, walk around the central building you end up in and look for a ramp down. One of those ramps should lead you right up to the Power Station.

Coming Soon!(TM)

Nowhere. There is literally nowhere in Nirvana I would recommend establishing a base. I'm sure there are plenty of defensible locations in Nirvana, but the lack of sunlight makes it impossible to recharge Ion Batteries and infeasible to grow crops. Anyone that seriously builds down in Nirvana is insane.

Nirvana is a HUGE area with a lot of ground to cover. If there's anywhere in particular here that stood out to you, please post a comment detailing it...just keep in mind that item spawning is generally random, so there's no guarantee that a cool item you found is going to spawn at the same place for everyone else.

Due to the size of Nirvana, it's entirely possible to arrive early in the day and not finish exploring even as night begins to fall. Due to the danger of the Stalkers, be sure to either bring a Portabed with you just in case so you can sleep past their spawn range, find a safe spot off the ground to hide out, get into the Cyro bay (as that's one of the few safe places you can hide from them), or get out of Nirvana before 10:00 PM. It's a huge area, so whatever you decide on doing, be quick about it.

I'm giving base building its own section entirely since I believe this feature will be heavily expanded on in the future and splitting things off now will make later edits easier.

As of the time of me writing this, making anything too complicated isn't really necessary. Infected can be easily dispatched at the door and while Stalkers are a big threat, it's not impossible to handle them without an established base. As of now, bases are really only useful as a common point to craft items, store excess gear, collect water, grow crops, and a spot to bunker down in the event you want to risk taking the Stalkers head on. It's unlikely you'll be spending much time in your base. And considering how much space these buildable structures take up in your inventory, it's probably for the best you keep all of these off to their own little space.

Also note that due to how Ion Cores function, it is HIGHLY inadvisable building a base within Nirvana or any location with little to no access to sunlight. While Nirvana might be pretty to look at and some locations are downright screaming to be occupied, the only way to recharge your ion cores is either by upgrading them (which can only be done twice) or by just making a new one all together. You also can't grow anything without sunlight there unless you have a very specific planter that can only be very rarely found or crafted via upgrading a standard planter. While all zones with very little to no unslight are not advisable, Nirvana is the worst offender since travel times between anywhere in Nirvana you could establish yourselves back to the surface is quite large. Consider yourself warned.

As a final note, if you use your ping ability (holding R), the range of all field emitting structures will be displayed. useful for when you're trying to figure out how far away from a power relay you can build.

These are essential for any base. You can't have a base without the items listed here.

This is the heart of any base. It emits a circular area around it which powers any device within with the exception being that it will only power player made structures. You can reduce the power drain on a single relay by building additional relays. A structure will split its energy consumption between however many power relays are operational and within range. They take up 2 by 4 inventory spaces and aren't something you'll need to carry around much. These are very rarely found laying about the world, but I've run into a few behind locked doors.

These are the oversized batteries used by Power Relays. They can be upgraded and probably should be as it increases their capacity. These are also a rare find out in the world, but, much like Relays, are often found behind locked doors. Note that they are at 100% capacity when crafted and will instantly recharge to max when upgraded.

These are currently the only means of recharging Ion Cores outside of upgrading. They require sunlight to function and its for this reason that making a base in an area that does not receive sunlight is inadvisable. Upgrading a Solar Charger improves the rate at which it charges Ion Cores. Much like the Relay, the Charger takes up 2 by 4 spaces and can sometimes be found in locked rooms. If you need a means of determining where to build a charger, looking at your AARM's will show lighting conditions on the fight right side underneath the time.

While there are a few items you can craft unassisted, there are far more that qualify as "Latent Blueprints" and are unavailable without a particular structure. In order to utilize these crafting structures, they must both be powered and close to the player.

Note: In order to craft any of these (or upgrade items for that matter) you will need crafting components such as plastic or adhesive. You can either find these on enemies, in storage containers, or from salvaging an item. Some materials are more rare than others, so it pays to horde materials when possible.

Required to make the following: Hydroponics Small, Portabed, Shock Trap, Storage Container Small, Water Condenser, Emergency Lamp, Solar Charger, Disruptor, Small Canteen, and Crafting Table Mk II.

Required to make Hydroponics Large, Storage Container Large, Defender Turret, and Equipment Bench

Required to make all weapons, armors, utility items, gadgets, flashlight lenses, shields, and the Cyro Core

A base of operations isn't very useful without something to keep enemies out of it. Keep in mind that as of me writing this, none of these seem to guarantee that enemies won't spawn inside your base. I might be incorrect on this and the placement of your structures has a direct effect on enemy spawning, but until I hear otherwise I think it's safer to assume otherwise. If you have evidence to the contrary, let me know.

This will allow you to pass through, but not enemies. Be warned that unlike the shield pylon, this cannot be upgraded. If you need a wall, use the pylons.

Just as it sounds, this structure generates a solid energy wall and can be upgraded to increase the hitpoints of said wall. In order to actually generate a wall, however, you need to link one shield pylon to another or to one side of a Shield Door. You can create a link by holding E on a shield pylon and then selecting the Link option. Once selected, look to whatever you want to link it to and left click.

This is a single use mine that will detonate when an enemy gets too close to it. Be warned that while only an enemy can activate it, it WILL damage you. While this can be upgraded to do even more damage on detonation, I'm not sure how useful an upgrade would be given it can only be used once. Consider only regularly using upgraded mines once you no longer have any items or structures that can be upgraded. Otherwise you're just pouring resources into a single use item.

Does exactly what you'd expect. Targets and shoots any infected or Stalker that enters its range, although it seems incapable of targeting Seekers. Can be upgraded to deal more damage.

Generates a field that will disable any cloaking technology in range. This is currently the only method of passively disabling the invisibility on Stalkers. Can be upgraded to increase the radius of the field.

Tired of relying on scavenging to survive? Want to make your base of operations a little bit more habitable? Look into getting a few of these under your belt!

This is one of the very few placable structures that doesn't require power. Once placed, you can interact with it and sleep for a given period of time. Be warned that you will become more hungry and thirsty as you sleep, so don't go to bed on an empty stomach! Also keep in mind that you cannot sleep if you are in combat. If you aren't actively in combat but the game does not recognize this, return to the main menu and load the game back up. You should now be able to use the bed without issue.

Just what it sounds like. It's a light source that can be upgraded to increase how much area gets lit up.

As you play through the game, you'll eventually come across seed packets. To use them, you'll need hydroponics. Simply interact with the hydroponics, add fertilizer (can be obtained by salvaging food or water), and let it grow. Higher quality fertilizer will reduce the time to grow. The larger hydroponics will also yield more produce. You need sunlight in order to make the plants grow, so don't try building these in an area with bad lighting. There is a variant of the hydroponics with a built in UV light which allows it to be built anywhere, but it cannot be crafted and seems to be fairly hard to come across. Don't rely on finding one as it might be a while if you find even a single one of these.

Passively collects water that can fill a small or large canteen. Can also be upgraded to increase the rate water is gathered. Be sure to activate the condenser once you put it down as it wont do anything deactivated.

It's simply a movable, placeable container you can shove your junk into. Handy if the area you're setting up doesn't have usable containers inside it in the first place.

Emits a signal that can be seen when looking at your map. The marker currently cannot be given a special name, so all visible markers created by beacons will look identical. If you get lost easily, this is a very useful tool to remember where you set your base up.

• 5/25/18: Created the vast bulk of the guide.
  
• 5/??/18: Added some additional content to the guide between the 25th and the 31st. I don't remember what, so...use your imagination!
  
• 5/31/18: Made significant modifications to the entry on Stalkers (which I had previously and incorrectly called Night Seekers) and any other mention of them to reflect changes they made to the game that I missed on the 24th. I also filled out the entries on Oasis Station and the Promenade, finished all of the entries on items you can equip, and began exploring areas for viable base locations. Also made a few modifications to make the guide more accurate to recent updates.
  
• 6/1/18: Continued filling out details for district information.
  
• 6/25/18: Added set bonus for Nanoflex Armor.
  
• 6/29/18: Fixed the spawn time of Stalkers
  
• 12/16/18: Added the power station location to the garrison as well as a locked room location, cleaned up the bullet points for Stalkers as well as included additional information, added descriptions for the Revenants and Shades, added information on the Hazmat suit, added the set bonus for Tricarbyne armor, separated standard neutral and hostile NPC's from the extremely hazardous ones by giving the latter its own group, did a general sweep of the whole guide for details that are no longer correct due to patches, and probably more that I've missed..
  
• 3/29/2020: Minor update to the perma-death section. I saw an explanation in the comments and thought it was vital I add it immediately.