Deus Ex: Human Revolution

2011-09-01 07:36:55 pm

It's been a long while since last I felt like speed running a game (the last one being Resident Evil 2 last year) but DX:HR is proving to be a blast to play, and even tons of fun to plan and execute a speed run of.

I have the beginning of the game plotted up to the end of the first Detroit city hub section, and would love to discuss routes, methods, builds, etc. on this game if anyone else is interested.

Decided to post this in PC since it's undoubtedly the fastest platform to beat it on thanks to the numpad for keypad codes among other factors.

Thread title:

Vhatever

Edit history:

Vhatever: 2011-09-01 10:48:53 pm

2011-09-01 10:44:00 pm

I just did my first playthrough on hardest difficulty. A big question what difficulty you plan to do it on. Speedrunning games on easy to me is the most borring thing in the world. Usually just comes down to exploiting some time saving mechnic(s) over and over and no real skill. If I was playing on easy, I'd probably rush the stamina and run speed augs(and later probably dermal plating), while if I was going on the harder settings I'd probably go straight to upping stealth. Invariablly someone finds a shortcut that saves massive time in the game, so I'd probably give it awhile before thinking too much into it. Nothing like planning your entire route through an entire stage to later to find you can skip it entirely. I think a priority though is to find out all the shortcuts. The wall punch shortcuts, jumping upgrade required shortcuts, strength upgrade shortcuts, etc. I played mostly a stealth character who did not have any of these until pretty late in the game. So maybe doing a playthrough prioritizing these skills can show any significant time savings over the course of the came. Icarus landing upgrade too.

I must say this game has a ton of variables -- do I try to get some more exp so i can get aug X before I get to stage Y, or should I just run as fast as possible and skip all exp and hope even though I'll be less effective at stage y the time savings makes up for. The tons, and tons of possibilities in this game really make it a difficult one to make much of a clall on so early, but i'm pretty sure run speed, icarus, stealth, jump and strength upgrade will be prime targets for time savings. This comes back to the question of game difficluty of course.

I just did my first playthrough on hardest difficulty. A big question what difficulty you plan to do it on. Speedrunning games on easy to me is the most borring thing in the world. Usually just comes down to exploiting some time saving mechnic(s) over and over and no real skill. If I was playing on easy, I'd probably rush the stamina and run speed augs(and later probably dermal plating), while if I was going on the harder settings I'd probably go straight to upping stealth. Invariablly someone finds a shortcut that saves massive time in the game, so I'd probably give it awhile before thinking too much into it. Nothing like planning your entire route through an entire stage to later to find you can skip it entirely. I think a priority though is to find out all the shortcuts. The wall punch shortcuts, jumping upgrade required shortcuts, strength upgrade shortcuts, etc. I played mostly a stealth character who did not have any of these until pretty late in the game. So maybe doing a playthrough prioritizing these skills can show any significant time savings over the course of the came. Icarus landing upgrade too.

I must say this game has a ton of variables -- do I try to get some more exp so i can get aug X before I get to stage Y, or should I just run as fast as possible and skip all exp and hope even though I'll be less effective at stage y the time savings makes up for. The tons, and tons of possibilities in this game really make it a difficult one to make much of a clall on so early, but i'm pretty sure run speed, icarus, stealth, jump  and strength upgrade will be prime targets for time savings. This comes back to the question of game difficluty of course.

Deet

2011-09-02 04:30:37 am

I would love to see this run.
Not using the cover mechanic would probably speed up a lot of things.
As previous poster said; jump, sprint speed, strength and icarus are probably the most useful. Cloak and/or silent running are good if you care about not being detected, though sneaking when you could be running will obviously be slower.
On the other hand, the game is a lot less random if you aren't detected because the enemy patrols, cameras and turrets always move the same way.

Vhatever

Edit history:

Vhatever: 2011-09-02 07:20:18 am

2011-09-02 07:19:42 am

Some things also to consider/focus on other than looking for shortcuts in an earlyplanning speed run in this game.

Silver tongue or no silver tongue? You can bull rush through the police station, and you can instantly end your dialogue with zeke in the early missions, but would you be better served spending a minute or two getting silver tongue instead, for the 1k exp bonus. Really that goes back to at what point in the game what specific augs you need for optimal speed. To ghost/smooth operator or not is another question in the same vein. I think I could have saved theoretically about a minute off the first mission(plant mission) if i had just rushed through it. However, instead i mnaged to get smooth operator and ghost bonuses throught the mission, which by the end probably netted me about 2k extra EXP.

This brings up the possibility that it might actually be the optimal speed running in the game may be playing stealth early on and transition to more aggressive style later on.
Weapon caches, places where large amounts of ammo are store are going to be important stoping points on harder difficulties. Noting them would be a good idea. If you play on a harder setting and go mostly stealth, you might have to be building your weapon supplies up to fight a boss your won't see for half a game. Additionally, locations of those auto unlocker devices will be important, too. as I'm sure some of the best pathways involve cracking a couple locks.

Some things also to consider/focus on other than looking for shortcuts in an earlyplanning  speed run in this game.

Silver tongue or no silver tongue? You can bull rush through the police station, and you can instantly  end your dialogue with zeke in the early missions, but would you be better served spending a minute or two getting silver tongue instead, for the 1k exp bonus. Really that goes back to at what point in the game what specific augs you need for optimal speed. To ghost/smooth operator or not is another question in the same vein. I think I could have saved theoretically about a minute off the first mission(plant mission) if i had just rushed through it. However, instead i mnaged to get smooth operator and ghost bonuses throught the mission, which by the end probably netted me about 2k extra EXP.

This brings up the possibility  that it might actually be the optimal speed running in the game may be playing stealth early on and transition to more aggressive style later on.
Weapon caches, places where large amounts of ammo are store are going to be important stoping points on harder difficulties. Noting them would be a good idea. If you play on a harder setting and go mostly stealth, you might have to be building your weapon supplies up to fight a boss your won't see for half a game. Additionally, locations of those auto unlocker devices will be important, too. as I'm sure some of the best pathways involve cracking a couple locks.

Lex Crunch

Edit history:

Lex Crunch: 2011-09-02 08:02:09 am

2011-09-02 07:52:15 am

Alright, here's my template:

- Gotta play on Give Me Deus Ex. Easy mode allows you to bum rush through a lot of stuff and would make it overall very uninteresting.
- So far, I figure the build will be primarily based on stealth, at least in the beginning. I've tried what I think is every route through every stage in Detroit, and found that GlassShield cloaking is the fastest way through, especially in DRB territory. It will also get you past laser grids and other automated security very easy. I'm hoping I can scrape by with just one point so I can quickly move on to other things, and just rely on munching down Snickers bars to get my energy back if I need to cloak for that long.
- Absolutely no Silver Tongue. You can't skip those damned negotiation texts, and all that time simply isn't worth even 1,000 EXP. My EXP pool will instead rely on meager Traveler bonuses and massive Ghost / Smooth Operator / Getting Things Done bonuses. I actually have great routes planned for the plant mission that will grant you both Ghost and Smooth Operator at the measly cost of like three or four seconds due to crouching as opposed to sprinting.
- I'll have to find the code to as many keypads as possible to both avoid hacking, and get the fastest route. For instance, you can finish the Police Station mission in seconds by taking the sewer entrance using the code 2599. The morgue room keypad has a code, too, I think, but I don't know what it is yet if it has one.
- This would be a segmented run, too, segmented with saves in between missions right after Faridah drops you off, ideally. I'm not ready for a straight single-segment yet, screw that noise.

I'd talk more about the specifics, but I've got school in ten minutes.

Alright, here's my template:

- Gotta play on Give Me Deus Ex.  Easy mode allows you to bum rush through a lot of stuff and would make it overall very uninteresting.
- So far, I figure the build will be primarily based on stealth, at least in the beginning.  I've tried what I think is every route through every stage in Detroit, and found that GlassShield cloaking is the fastest way through, especially in DRB territory.  It will also get you past laser grids and other automated security very easy.  I'm hoping I can scrape by with just one point so I can quickly move on to other things, and just rely on munching down Snickers bars to get my energy back if I need to cloak for that long.
- Absolutely no Silver Tongue.  You can't skip those damned negotiation texts, and all that time simply isn't worth even 1,000 EXP.  My EXP pool will instead rely on meager Traveler bonuses and massive Ghost / Smooth Operator / Getting Things Done bonuses.  I actually have great routes planned for the plant mission that will grant you both Ghost and Smooth Operator at the measly cost of like three or four seconds due to crouching as opposed to sprinting.
- I'll have to find the code to as many keypads as possible to both avoid hacking, and get the fastest route.  For instance, you can finish the Police Station mission in seconds by taking the sewer entrance using the code 2599.  The morgue room keypad has a code, too, I think, but I don't know what it is yet if it has one.
- This would be a segmented run, too, segmented with saves in between missions right after Faridah drops you off, ideally.  I'm not ready for a straight single-segment yet, screw that noise.

I'd talk more about the specifics, but I've got school in ten minutes.

Vhatever

2011-09-02 08:15:29 am

Segmented, hard, and using passwords from previous runs. all important information. I'm not a big fan of using passwords and such gained from other playthroughs, but that's besides the point. I'd have to agree that prioritizing stealth will be priority on hard. I'm not sure you are aware or not, but also a good addition to such a run would be the pistol upgraded with silencer, laser, and and the armor ignore mod. Speaking of which, where do you get that armor ignore mod? I forgot where I got it. I found that weapon combo absolutely devastating in my playthroguh the game playing stealth on hard. Often times you can clear entire rooms with fast head shots without alerting anyone.

Deet

2011-09-02 08:26:47 am

If a mission requires heavy use of cloaking, since you might not spend much time looking for energy refill items, it might be a good idea to invest in faster recharge time.
You don't actually have to find a note with a key to use it so all you have to do is memorize it for that segment.
Wouldn't segmenting it by the autosave system be better? shorter segments could mean you can optimize more, though there'd be more loading times which is less entertaining to watch.

As for the police station: i imagine reaching the door in the sewers takes more time than walking in though the front door.

The armor-piercing system upgrade can be found behind your TV in your apartment, but i dunno how useful the 10mm is later on.

Vhatever

2011-09-02 08:47:10 am

I did some mock speed running in my hard playthrough on some of the later levels, and often what I would do is run through an area with cloak, get to the next area and while I'm waiting for my energy to recharge I just kill a couple people on my pathway with head shots and then start running, and often times it nearly doubles the rate which I can clear through the missions. Basically, kill while recharging. Find which areas are best to kill, and which areas are best to invis. I was't wasting my energy bars or anything, so maybe that would complicate things on optimal speed. Does anyone know what happens if you fight the russian guy without getting the chip "upgrade" when you come back to china? I wonder if you get constant interference and shorts and whatnot and how that boss fight goes without your system being all scrambled. It's probably the most time consuming boss fight, especially on hard. He can kill you in one burst on hard even with all dermal plating upgrades.

Deet

2011-09-02 09:11:03 am

if you don't get the chip upgrade you can use your augs and your HUD isn't screwed. as far as i remember, the glitches stop after that fight.

Vhatever

2011-09-02 09:36:09 am

I wonder if that system scramble shuts off your dermal plating and that's why his blast was so deadly even with full dermal. hmm.

Carcinogen

Edit history:

Carcinogen: 2011-09-02 10:17:46 am

Carcinogen: 2011-09-02 10:14:42 am

2011-09-02 10:14:01 am

I actually just finished that fight this morning. Don't get the chip upgrade so you can use Typhoon instead. I got the chip upgrade and wound up having to get the automated turret from outside so I could catch him in an AI loop; if you can get him to jump over the center barrier repeatedly, he won't throw grenades =p

I'm 100% certain this game is going to make me a less interesting person. It has consumed my life ever since I started playing.

I want to commission someone to draw Adam Jensen ogrishly beating down people with one hand while ravenously consuming Cyberprotein Bars with the other.

Onin

2011-09-02 10:43:05 am

I already found the easiest way to kill the third boss:

Toss 5 frag wall mines into the room. Reload until he hops right into them. Instantly dies. Smiley

Also found a youtube vid showing the easiest way to do the final boss: Auto-hack a small device at its back, and just laser-beam her to death. Takes around 50 seconds to complete.

Vhatever

Edit history:

Vhatever: 2011-09-02 10:46:14 am

Vhatever: 2011-09-02 10:44:33 am

Vhatever: 2011-09-02 10:44:32 am

2011-09-02 10:43:41 am

It wasn't his grenads that ever gave me problems, it was his shotgun plasma thing he has. He would burst me down in one second if I exchanged fire with him outside of cover. You were playing on the hardest setting, right?

Ya i actually found the laser kill thing by accident trying to figure out what the hell you are supposed to do on that weird boss. Heh.

Onin

2011-09-02 10:54:48 am

You can search youtube for a mock speedrun of the first missions (he had a cracked beta, hence so early and hence incomplete).

As for the first and second bosses, the first should be very easy to get down by stunning him with anny of the various items around the room (gas canisters, explosive barrels, even fire extinguishers) and straight up rushing him down while he's stunned. Preferably shotgun with the double-burst mod, if that's easy to acquire.

I've yet to find a reliable way to kill the second boss easily. A friend of mine suggested Typhoons, but that's an expensive aug for nothing but one bossfight.

Vhatever

2011-09-02 11:32:14 am

I havent tried it, but I think the fastest way to kill the second boss will be to get into a walled portion the room and put EMP mines on either entry to your location, keep the heavy rifle humming at high revs so its ready to fire and then just wait for her to walk into one, then unload the entire clip if you have the cooling mod or just until the rifle goes hot. Then she should either be dead or near dead. Alternatively, you can pop her with the stun gun and do something similar with the heavy rifle or the shotgun. When you stun her with the stun gun, she stays dazed for like 10 seconds. You could probably even just chuck a ton of frags on her, too. 5 mine templates and 5 grenades aren't exactly easy and non-time consuming to come by, btw. You have to get the items( and have them taking up space in your inventory) to use them.

Carcinogen

Edit history:

Carcinogen: 2011-09-02 11:55:44 am

Carcinogen: 2011-09-02 11:54:35 am

2011-09-02 11:53:27 am

You get Typhoon very early on, so it'd actually be good for every boss fight. I'm keeping it around for that reason =p

When I beat the game, I'm going to plot out my EXP for the most direct route through the game and see how many Praxis I get by the time I get done. Personally, I think we should start with figuring out event switches before anything else since there's no one 'right way' to complete objectives... Although the biggest given is to get every password possible for every door. I've looked at so many doors along the way realizing that if I had the code, it was the most direct route through it, and you can save so many Praxis by not learning the Hacking tree.

Deet

2011-09-02 11:58:42 am

the wikia has (i think) all of the codes and passwords, at least the ones you can actually find ingame.
http://deusex.wikia.com/wiki/Keycodes_%28DX3%29
http://deusex.wikia.com/wiki/Passwords_%28Deus_Ex%3A_Human_Revolution%29

second boss is trivial if you have a stun gun and some explosives, you can just stun -> reload -> toss grenade -> stun. of course, you can throw more than one, but i haven't tried doing it that way.

Vhatever

2011-09-02 01:08:12 pm

Keep in mind that the boss fights will probably take up less than 5% of a full speedrun before you get too married to the typhoons.

Onin

2011-09-02 01:17:48 pm

Vhatever's point, indeed. I doubt that Typhoon will save you more time than any of the path creating augs, especially when there are plenty of abusable weapons, grenades or whatever.

You can pick up at least 3 frag wall mines during the mission in the DRB territory, you can buy one template from a vendor, so I don't think finding enough mines to blow up Namir will be difficult, and seeing how hard the fight otherwise can be it's probably easily worth the time. I'm not sure how many you'd need; the wiki suggests 4 grenades kill him, so 4 wall mines may be enough.

Carcinogen

2011-09-02 02:42:18 pm

Consider that you'll also have to spend some seconds to collect these weapons, whereas you can buy Typhoon Ammo at LIMB Clinics. I wanna test it out for myself, and that's what I'm going to do now that I've finished my first playthrough. You may be right, the animation is pretty slow, but you may be in excess of Praxis at some point.

Vhatever

Edit history:

Vhatever: 2011-09-02 03:37:37 pm

2011-09-02 03:35:34 pm

I'd be curious what the real damage of the typhoon is against bosses, actually. On the hardest setting, armored enemies have a ton of armor. an armored cop outside of sarif building took 14 shotgun blasts at point blank range to kill, but was killed with one full powered typhoon. Also, you are forced to go to a limb clinic on the first main stage of the game, and you can buy 5 typhoons at that time. When I played through on ahrd before I killed everyone and looted everything before I took on bosses, so I'm really not sure how much firepower you are gonna need to take down the bosses. It might exceed the amount of ammo and weapons you can easilly acquire on a streamline speedrun, thus the extra bang from typhoon may help out. Basically don't write off typhoons, though I'm still somewhat dubious to their use.

Lex Crunch

Edit history:

Lex Crunch: 2011-09-02 04:47:27 pm

2011-09-02 04:43:33 pm

I'll share what I know and have experienced on the subjects touched upon while I was away at school:

- Silenced armor piercing pistol would be invaluable. It's great for killing just about anyone you may need to quickly and stealthily. I actually used it to skip an event trigger by killing the cop outside the convention hall after you take care of business with Taggart.

- That wall mine tactic sounds pretty cool for the third boss, but the way I did it was whittle him down with laser blindfire using the laser cannon you find in a garage just before the fight with him. Thing about the laser is that it has no blindfire spread, so you can fire it perfectly straight every time, and when you do, he just sits in one spot cloaked trying in vain to hit you with plasma rounds.

- Best way to fight the second boss is to use the heavy machine gun they give you in the room before, and blow up the computers to electrocute the floor, but only if you have the shock resist upgrade. I doubt I'll be able to invest in that, so if I can't the, best way that I know of is in fact that Stun Gun + Grenades method, or some other heavy damage weapon.

- My strategy for the first boss is to start off with an EMP grenade you find in the room with the big mech, then unload double blast shotgun rounds into his face until he stops blindly throwing grenades, then finish him off with armor-piercing pistol rounds. Piece of cake.

- Honestly, I have never ever used the Typhoon, but I doubt it would be worth the investment. Worth a shot, though, I suppose, especially since I've got nothing beyond the first 20% of the game plotted out. Does the animation freeze time or make you invincible as in the takedowns like I think it does?

- So far, I haven't had a problem with energy boost bars. You can find them lying around while waiting for scripted events to wrap up and let you leave. The decision on what to level between more efficient energy use and energy recharge is going to be a tough calculation, though.

- Going to need that Icarus Landing System for sure, even if only to completely bypass any opposition in the pods square in Sheng Ha after you give the hacker his passcard.

- As much as it pains me, I'll have to avoid using takedowns if I want to speedrun this game. I love takedowns so much, but they're too random and take too much time as opposed to simply clicking with the pistol or stun gun and passing them as they fall.

I was disappointed when they patched straferunning and sprinting in a recent patch. Don't get me wrong, it's good that they did, but that means I may actually have to spend praxis on that junk.

I'll share what I know and have experienced on the subjects touched upon while I was away at school:

- Silenced armor piercing pistol would be invaluable.  It's great for killing just about anyone you may need to quickly and stealthily.  I actually used it to skip an event trigger by killing the cop outside the convention hall after you take care of business with Taggart.

- That wall mine tactic sounds pretty cool for the third boss, but the way I did it was whittle him down with laser blindfire using the laser cannon you find in a garage just before the fight with him.  Thing about the laser is that it has no blindfire spread, so you can fire it perfectly straight every time, and when you do, he just sits in one spot cloaked trying in vain to hit you with plasma rounds.

- Best way to fight the second boss is to use the heavy machine gun they give you in the room before, and blow up the computers to electrocute the floor, but only if you have the shock resist upgrade.  I doubt I'll be able to invest in that, so if I can't the, best way that I know of is in fact that Stun Gun + Grenades method, or some other heavy damage weapon.

- My strategy for the first boss is to start off with an EMP grenade you find in the room with the big mech, then unload double blast shotgun rounds into his face until he stops blindly throwing grenades, then finish him off with armor-piercing pistol rounds.  Piece of cake.

- Honestly, I have never ever used the Typhoon, but I doubt it would be worth the investment.  Worth a shot, though, I suppose, especially since I've got nothing beyond the first 20% of the game plotted out.  Does the animation freeze time or make you invincible as in the takedowns like I think it does?

- So far, I haven't had a problem with energy boost bars.  You can find them lying around while waiting for scripted events to wrap up and let you leave.  The decision on what to level between more efficient energy use and energy recharge is going to be a tough calculation, though.

- Going to need that Icarus Landing System for sure, even if only to completely bypass any opposition in the pods square in Sheng Ha after you give the hacker his passcard.

- As much as it pains me, I'll have to avoid using takedowns if I want to speedrun this game.  I love takedowns so much, but they're too random and take too much time as opposed to simply clicking with the pistol or stun gun and passing them as they fall.

I was disappointed when they patched straferunning and sprinting in a recent patch.  Don't get me wrong, it's good that they did, but that means I may actually have to spend praxis on that junk.

Nihilus

Edit history:

Nihilus: 2011-09-02 04:48:14 pm

2011-09-02 04:45:54 pm

Boss 3 speedrun Cheesy

First attempt at recording so I'm sure it could be faster, anyone know a way to make him jump sooner?

Lex Crunch

2011-09-02 04:49:03 pm

No way, you can seriously do a lethal takedown on this dude? I would never have tried. I mean, you can't even takedown Boss 2 when she's stunned.

Nihilus

2011-09-02 04:49:37 pm

Only right as he jumps over a wall, but yes, 2ez