Parasite vs Lockpick 1.0 - Judgement


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Frankly, I prefer Fusion-Lockpick over Fusion-Parasite. I know parasite is theoretically better, it's just that I feel it dosen't fit my play style well. I did 1 run with it and got past 2 buildings then I got caught and died. I unlocked fusion that run and have been rolling Fusion-Lockpick ever since. I know blade and rapier are bad (the latter more than the other) but I just can't like Parasite for what it is.

Enough of my opinion, I want your opinion on Lockpick or Parasite; and why?

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I know this isn't the debate, but rapier is excellent if you know how to use it.

 

On topic, I don't think either is really better, they just play differently. Parasite trades turns for PWR and is great in early levels but not so much is later levels where ICE can be quite high and you have much more mainframe devices. Lockpick is steadily reliable, but is still PWR consuming in the long run.

 

Personnaly, I don't think any single program is good on its own, whatever you choose to start with, you have to couple it with something else. Lockpick's advantage is that it alleviates some of this pressure by being good on its own for a long time, whereas with parasite and rapier you have to prioritize getting an additional hacking program.

 

My favorite pair is rapier and lockpick 2.0. Rapier is excellent at alarm level 0, good at level 1 and at level 2 you switch to lockpick 2.0, which is very efficient.

 

Parasite and data blast would probably be very fun to play as well.

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*sigh* I thought this war was over...

But, to be serious here, I preferr parasite over lockpick. Every time. I mean, our play styles could differ. You could be the kind of person who enjoys running through a level, taking down guards left and right. While I am the kind of person who is cautious, and usually waits around, and takes his time.

But, that's just a thought.

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I prefer Fusion-Rapier and equally didn't like Lockpick and Parasite: after billion unsuccesful attempts that I have before beating story mode first time and unlocking another programs I feel lockpick too boring and routine, good for start and understanding basics of course, but after that, no-o-o; Parasite side effect that forcing to slow down and wait turns to get something just doesn't fit to strategy that I prefer
and about fusion, actually I start regulary choosing it as starting program only after coming of Nika's modded volt disruptor
that's what I wanna say: there is no theoretically better combination, but different gameplay styles with different pros and cons
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Parasite is technically far more efficient, but the fact that there's a minimum 1 turn delay can be a bit tricky. On later levels, while the PWR usage is efficient, the time needed becomes increasingly a problem. That is compounded by the escalating PWR costs and number of hackable targets on later levels.

 

Rapier and Lockpick have similar problems- they work well on earlier levels where the number of targets are low and you can explore most of the level early. Later levels, rising alarm levels or just the sheer number of targets and firewalls to overcome makes them power inefficient.

 

Ultimately your Incognita strategy has to mesh with your agents. If you have tech specialist, they can supplant excessive power use with consoles and you probably want to max their hacking skills. If you go really efficient with Incognita programs, you can probably afford less focus on hacking and maybe even do something crazy like taking Banks and Nika.

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I prefer Rapier and Power Drip myself...  I have had too many cases where a syphon Daemon kills the power I was reserving for Fusion, and suddenly I'm without power till I can find a console.

 

And rapier can work better than you may expect for late game.  Multiple endless modes, and my most recent story mode, were both examples of games where all I had was rapier, and I still got through Sankaku extremely guarded levels just fine...  In those cases, Dr. Wu is a huge help, and hacking/portable servers can provide enough power to carry you...  as long as you do not delay. 

 

In fact, late game after hitting a server farm or two, I tend to sell power drip/fusion , as portable servers and high hacking can more than compensate for it, and a 5th program is a nice thing to have.

 

But as to parasite Vs. lock pick? Lock pick. Solid and reliable, whereas the turn cost of parasite can be deadly if you need to get past a drone NOW.

 

that's my opinion.  

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*sigh* I thought this war was over...

But, to be serious here, I preferr parasite over lockpick. Every time. I mean, our play styles could differ. You could be the kind of person who enjoys running through a level, taking down guards left and right. While I am the kind of person who is cautious, and usually waits around, and takes his time.

But, that's just a thought.

What prefering Lockpick over Parasite has to do with "running through a level, taking down guards left and right"? Lockpick is simply better with Fusion, while Parasite works better with PWR Drip as it's more cost-efficient program. Fusion produces more than enough PWR to let you use Lockpick without problems.

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Hi,

 

The only problem I see with parasite is that its effect triggers at the start of your turn and not at the end of it. So basically you have a problem when you want to hack a drone (because it can still move before being hacked) and at every alarm trigger.

 

For example being in a room with a camera when new cameras are raised by the alarm : if you can't hide from the camera, then you won't have time to hack it, the camera will notice you and then be hacked, same with firewall being raised, if you hack with parasite on the last turn of lvl 1 alarm, you lose a turn because firewalls are upgraded and then parasite triggers.

 

I play the most with parasite and power drip, i think lockpick might be better if your strategie is to upgrade hack, playing with Internationale or having a Distributed Processing augment (50% to have 1PWR at the start of each turn), but i'm not too sure about the other abilities giving PWR.

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