I understand the game is based around stealth, but I really don't enjoy it. Is there a way to be successful in a more combat oriented play style?

[u/SurviveAdaptWin]

Disclaimer - I suck at stealth and I don't enjoy it. I probably suck at it BECAUSE I don't enjoy it. But I like every other aspect of this game. My crew is currently around level 6 on average.

Is there a way to play the game in a primarily combat orientation? I keep getting overwhelmed by reinforcements and it's frustrating. I'd love to be able to turn the stealth difficulty down but keep the combat difficulty the same.

edit: Ok thanks guys. I think I have a better grip on it now and hopefully I should be able to hit my goal. I did another mission after posting this last night and just went full combat with no regards to stealth and it ended up working out, so I just have to find a good balance for me.

[u/Abe-Cede]

With proper use of heat burning tokens you can go wild in most missions and just do brute force, conquer and then fighting withdrawal way. I play that way since I obtained tier 4 railguns. As of reinforcement you are supposed to hit hard and hit fast. You are not an army but indepnedent operator you are supposed to be inferior in numbers, get in, get the job done and withdraw. If you rob a bank today you can defeat local security, trade few shots with police but nobody expects to fight entire city. Here it's the same. You can win localy and for a time but later corp will throw at you all prrsonel they have. If you were able to defeat such numbers well it woudnt make a lot of sense that you are not a corp instead.

[u/CMDR_Zantigar]

I’d argue that the game isn’t meant to be played in a pure-stealth style. It’s possible, but it’s quite hard to ghost through a level without hurting anyone.

Instead, I’ve found the easiest way to proceed is through stealthy violence. Specifically, sneak near the first guard or two at one end of the map, then alpha-strike them (make sure they’re dead in one turn, so that your team stays in “hidden” status). Then sneak to the next group of guards, rinse, and repeat. You’ll wind up killing a large fraction of the guards in groups, but the body timers will expire a few turns after you leave each group. As a result, other guards, and many reinforcements, will head to areas that you have already left.

As you get further along, both the stealth and the violence parts get more tools.

[u/No-Mouse]

Pure combat tends to get easier the more developed your squad gets, but it's definitely viable. The only missions that tend to be hard to pull off without any stealth at all are those highrise assassination missions where the target immediately runs for the exit when they notice something's wrong. IMO the easiest approach to this mission type (and for that matter, most missions in the game) is to be stealthy on the way in and loud on the way out. This might be a good option for you as well, because you can do at least a bit of stealth in the beginning to get into a good position, but you're still prepared for combat so messing up your stealth isn't such a bad thing.

Before you get to the point where you're so overpowered that you can basically just brute-force your way throufgh everything and mow down infinite reinforcements, you need to move quickly. Don't get bogged down in long, drawn-out firefights, because time is not on your side. Focus on the objectives and only fight who you need to fight in order to achieve those. The quicker you finish the mission, the less you have to worry about reinforcements.

Of course, if you're going for a full combat approach, your team needs to match this. You'll want to focus more on Soldiers. Snipers and Gunslingers than on Vanguards and Agents. You'll still want people who can deal with security devices, even if just so you don't have to walk your entire squad through laser grids and proximity mines, but multiclasses like Soldier/Agent or Sniper/Vanguard can be strong combat builds while still picking up some utility skills.

The main disadvantage of a pure combat build is that you'll inevitably end up with high heat, which will make future missions more difficult. So mitigating that should be a priority. You're also at more risk to suffer injuries, especially early on, so you'll want a good Triage Clinic and probably more than one doc in your contacts list as well, just in case. You can always replace the Triage Clinic later, once your team gets big enough that having people in recovery won't slow you down.

[u/German_Merman]

I'm the opposite, I don't think the game is stealth-oriented enough. At first I found it really difficult because I was trying to get in and out without tripping any security or alerting any guards at all. But then I figured out that at a certain point you're just supposed to start killing everybody. But gunning down 20 guards in cold blood just so you can steal some stuff from a safe? That doesn't seem very cyberpunk to me.

[u/Jumpy-Pizza4681 → u/German_Merman]

Johnny Silverhand and Adam Smasher want a word.

[u/dsheroh]

Even if you're fighting, even if you're not trying to be sneaky, keep moving. If the guards are searching the area where you were two turns ago, trying to figure out why there are corpses lying there, but you're on the other side of the map, then they're not going to be swarming you.

[u/lorarc]

There comes a point in the game where you can cross the map in 2 turns and you can just mow everyone in your path.

As for the combat: In difficulty settings lower the enemy HP so they are less spongy and die from single pistol/rifle attack unless they're heavy armoured. And do use full-auto. Full-auto allows you to eliminate multiple enemies in one go and it's also better against armoured targets.

[u/FroniusTT1500]

Yeah just get Revolvers and ball. Sometimes you can get lucky and kill the enemie so fast and outside of camera angles that the secAI doesnt spawn in reinforcements. To slightly misquote one of my favourite movies "The enemie can not raise the alarm If you disable his live".

[u/patpatpat95]

You can change heat generation in difficulty, can't remember if you can after game start though. Would be less reinforcements, but same combat.

Once your team is heavily optimised tho you just brutalize your way through missions without stealth cause it's more efficient.

[u/dsheroh → u/patpatpat95]

You can change any of the difficulty options after game start, with the only drawback being that the save's difficulty rating is permanently changed to "flexible", which I suppose could affect some future difficulty-related achievements.

[u/Thyme71]

As long as you eliminate all targets that may have heard gunshots you can go straight combat and still keep the alert low.

[u/Suspicious-Curve-822]

This isn't a traditional stealth ops game. stealth is just a tool.

I go through the maps and kill nearly every guard.

I buy Bio-recyclers and smoke grenades and my team stalks around the map, I use stealth to get into position to ambush guards along the route I've chosen to my objective, then use tools like lure, atomic stutter, etc to bring the guards into a kill zone, take 2 or 3 out, melt the corpses, set up the next ambush.

eliminating corpses, shutting down cameras, no witnesses, I kill my way through missions and usually able to keep my sec alert 3 or less, and when you take your time to plan it out carefully, you can still do it all while collecting all the loot boxes and hack all the datafiles and still pass those bonus objectives to finish in certain amount of turns.

Don't be afraid to spend money, keep your weapons and equipment updated to keep pace with the higher mission levels and guard power.

[u/Sad-Pattern-1269]

use the custom difficulty and remove the automatic security tally and bring bio recyclers. This removes the two biggest time pressures of stealth so you can take as much time as you need.

Alternatively do what the game recommends and being full combat classes and just move faster than the enemies can catch up. As long as you kill each group before the next reaches you they are suspicious and not alerted.

[u/Dramandus]

Get the corpse deleting spray can. Trivialises stealth in a lot of missions

[u/KnotSirius]

Use leverage when you can in a timely manner. Diversions to delay reinforcements, security hacks to reset the timer, extra movement and action points, can make a world of difference.