Best Starting Agents for Endless?

[dantexiong]

Has anybody tried playing with Faust, Brimstone and Central? That sounds like an insane game with an obscene amount of PWR and tons of danger.

Try Central and archive Prism.

Prism becomes full-time disguised, bring some booster chips, or bring a prototype chip, leave central in the exit zone as power generator. 

Get Bless as soon as possible, daemon won't last longer than 3 turns. Paradox only 1 turn.

[bobthe]

Has anybody tried playing with Faust, Brimstone and Central? That sounds like an insane game with an obscene amount of PWR and tons of danger.

 

I've done this combo a few times. It's a ton of fun. Best used in endless. Fool is basically broken if you have Central on your team. I also like to pick up Bless to ease the daemon pain as well, but once you get used to just having daemons installed all the time the huge power influx more than makes up for it. I've spent 20 power multiple turns in a row thanks to daemon generation late game in endless.

 

Once I get Fool I usually sell Faust in favor of another attack program. Fool + Central + default late game daemons provide more than enough power for just about any program combination. Hacking can supplment in a pinch as well. You often start maps with 20 power just from the initial daemons that spawn late game. I'm currently using this combo along with Oracle so I start every map revealing 5 cameras without having to go anywhere.

 

Even later in endless when Fool (which works as an EMP) only reduces shielded devices by 2, it's still -2 for a 5 power GAIN. Plus you can use it to insta-destroy drones that are vulnerable to EMP.

[Nxf7]

Even later in endless when Fool (which works as an EMP) only reduces shielded devices by 2, it's still -2 for a 5 power GAIN. Plus you can use it to insta-destroy drones that are vulnerable to EMP.

Interesting. If Fool works like an EMP, will it disable the heart monitors of shielded guards?

 

I was just thinking how convenient it might be to have an instant EMP program that could somehow target normal guards but sadly Fool probably can't target guards that aren't shielded.

[bobthe]

Interesting. If Fool works like an EMP, will it disable the heart monitors of shielded guards?

 

I was just thinking how convenient it might be to have an instant EMP program that could somehow target normal guards but sadly Fool probably can't target guards that aren't shielded.

 

That's an interesting question. You can't target non-shielded guards with it, so generally the answer is "no". I don't think it disables the heart monitor on shielded guards but I have not checked for that specifically.

[StaypuftMMM]

As mentioned briefly, if you have a favorite archived agent you ought to pick them at the beginning because they won't appear in Detention Centers later.  Personally, I'd rather rough it in the beginning for a better late game (when playing Endless).  

 

Having said that, my favorite agents at the moment are Archived Sharp, Derek, Xu, Archived Prism, Nika, and Internationale.  Depending on my playstyle, the 4 agents I end up with may vary, however, I always have to enlist Xu somewhere in the lineup.  While he is my favorite, I never start with him because like I said earlier, he can be found later.

 

Regarding starting programs, Seed fits me well and is something I keep even 15 days in.  I don't like having team members camping or needing to backtrack, so I don't play with portable servers.  Seed along with other power generating augments and gadgets has always been enough for me so far.

 

Haven't really tried out the much of the Contigency programs yet. 

Good luck out there.  Don't get spotted.

[bobthe]

I don't like having team members camping or needing to backtrack, so I don't play with portable servers.

 

While I generally agree, the Portable Server III gives enough power (2) to be useful even if you just activate it for a single turn after you're done moving and then pick it up at the start of next turn. Sometimes it's also convenient to set it up by the exit if you find the exit early since you know you have to come back there later anyway. Just set it up behind cover so the guards don't grab it and run off with it =) (yes that actually happens! I've had derek's teleporter stolen too lol)

[Redless]

Here are my thoughts. I've never played endless so it's likely that my valuation is wrong, but I want to get these down so I can see how my opinion changes later.

I think you want to look at who you want in the endgame. Here are agents that seem good IMO.

OF internationale

OF nika

OF banks

OF Xu

OF Sharp

A Sharp

A Prism

OF Prism

Central

Olivia

Derek

I think that the agents that seem GREAT to me are:

Xu

Both Sharps

Archive Prism

Both Gladstones

Derek

That's six characters together... Well in the super late game I think probably Derek isn't that crucial, nor Prism. So I would run the team:

Xu

Central

Olivia

Sharp (one or the other)

We need to get Central to start with. Probably we want to start with A. Sharp as well.

Then we kind of have to roll the dice a bunch to get the other two.

So I think, based on no experience, that A. Sharp and Central are the best starting agents.

[stefan3iii]

I've come back to the game to play the DLC content. Previously stacking Cloak IIIs was a game breaking strategy, if you had 3-4 cloaks per character it didn't matter what you did, could just run around the level with impunity. Have there been any balance changes, especially in the new longer endless mode that prevents this? Or do I need to force myself to limit myself to 1 cloak per character or something to keep things interesting?

[Nxf7]

I've come back to the game to play the DLC content. Previously stacking Cloak IIIs was a game breaking strategy, if you had 3-4 cloaks per character it didn't matter what you did, could just run around the level with impunity. Have there been any balance changes, especially in the new longer endless mode that prevents this? Or do I need to force myself to limit myself to 1 cloak per character or something to keep things interesting?

They changed cloaking 3 so it only stealths the user, but for 2 turns now. So if you get 4 on one agent it's still technically impossible to lose using perma invis cheese. Other than that there's a new drone that does a huge scan that gives a nearby guard an investigation point if it finds something, but that doesn't drop the invisibility early.

[stefan3iii]

They changed cloaking 3 so it only stealths the user, but for 2 turns now. So if you get 4 on one agent it's still technically impossible to lose using perma invis cheese. Other than that there's a new drone that does a huge scan that gives a nearby guard an investigation point if it finds something, but that doesn't drop the invisibility early.

 

Yeah that's how it was when I played, just have to play with a house rule like 1 cloak per character.

[DaveGold]

The guards have a grenade in endless that will hit even stealthy characters but they only get to throw it when they're hunting. There is also a daemon on about 1 in 5 missions that adds about 6 turns onto all your item cool downs including cloaks. Multiple cloaks will still be better than most other strategies, especially since so much other equipment becomes redundant in endless. Holocircuit overloaders are certainly unbalanced since the turn the best infiltration gear into some of the best weaponry as well.

[stefan3iii]

On 12/10/2015 at 3:43 AM, dantexiong said:

Try Central and archive Prism.

Prism becomes full-time disguised, bring some booster chips, or bring a prototype chip, leave central in the exit zone as power generator. 

Get Bless as soon as possible, daemon won't last longer than 3 turns. Paradox only 1 turn.

I'm with this guy, played Ironman Endless Plus with the new DLC to day 20, also with a rule of only one cloak per character allowed. Central is still ridiculous late game with her power generation, and Archive Prism is still the strongest character in the game no matter what mode you're playing in.

Wisp is still the strongest program I think, and Bless is the best way to deal with Daemons. With bless + central you'll view Deamons as a bonus rather than a curse, late game the easiest missions will be the ones where you get a daemon on every firewall because you can just hack everything immediately.

Final program build: Seed, Lockpick 2.0 (replaced Mercenary), Datablast, Oracle, Wisp, Bless

My only regret is playing with cloaks at all, even restricted to 1 per character they're just way too strong and make the game too easy.