How to Survive and Thrive in ‘Deus Ex: Mankind Divided’

Much like Human Revolution, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is all about choice — giving you many different ways to go about an objective, side quest, or the main story. These approaches are only available provided you have the right equipment and augmentations though, which makes your first few hours of the game crucial to building a successfully augmented super soldier. We’re here to help.

Play the Game on Max Difficulty

In Mankind Divided, you’ll have access to tons of different augmentation abilities and weapons much later in the game which can honestly make it a little too easy. While it may be more challenging during the early stages of the game, you should play the game on the highest difficulty in order to counteract the power you’ll have as Adam Jensen in the mid-late game. That doesn’t help you build out the best of the best, maybe, but it will make your time more enjoyable.

Sell Weapons You Don’t Use

You’ll find plenty of weapons lying around or on the bodies of enemies you deal with over the course of the game. When you pick up a weapon you already have in your inventory, the game will just convert it over to ammunition. But if you make trips and sell each of the weapons you find, you’ll start to amass a hefty profit early on.

Pick the Right Starting Augmentations

During the first few hours of the game, Jensen survives an encounter that leaves many of his augmentations damaged and forces him to undergo a reset. This reset will wipe many of the augmentations available to you at the beginning of the game before providing you with a set of Praxis Kits in order to restore them as you see fit.

Many of these augmentations are useful in their own specific way, but a few of them are much more crucial to you as a player starting the game:

Smart Vision: This augmentation grants access to an optical membrane that allows you to see humans and robots directly through walls. Not only does it give you a massive boost in situational awareness, but it can also be used to find hidden pathways and useful items through their camouflage.

LiDAR Mark-Tracker: Combined with Smart Vision, the LiDAR MT is an amazing tool for any approach to combat within the game. This augmentation allows you to mark up to 40 targets once completely upgraded, which will remain marked until you un-tag them.

Cybernetic Arm & Leg Prosthesis: Both of these upgrades are key to moving around items and getting around the game world. For your arms, you’ll want to immediately pick up optimized musculature, which allows you to lift and throw heavy objects. While this can be used for combat, you’ll really want to have it in order to open up pathways and access items hidden behind crates. As for your legs, just make sure to pick up the basic augmentation which allows you to jump much higher in order to ease navigation.

Glass-Shield Cloaking: While it may cost a lot of energy in order to use, this augmentation will save you in plenty of situations where you need to get from point A to point B without being seen early on. More importantly though, it renders you invisible to laser security systems, boosting your stealth capabilities early on.

Don’t Buy Ammunition

Ammo is expensive in Prague, and you’ll be wasting money by purchasing heaps of it during your first few hours with the game. If you take time to explore the world around you, you’ll find boxes of ammunition scattered all throughout that, if managed properly, can sustain you for most of the game.

Craft Items, Don’t Buy Them

From the very beginning of the game you’ll be able to craft a handful of items that allow you to recharge your batteries, hack through terminals with ease, and restock you offensive augmented abilities. If you decide to pick up the Micro-Assembler augmentation, you can break down extra weapons, ammo and other items into parts that can then be used for crafting.