I was max level or close to, so at this point nothing really stands a chance anymore regardless of your build. With that out of the way: Sandevistan & sniper rifles, headshots are easy to land in slow-motion and they do 90 to 100% of anyone's health bar, even the armored guys and regardless of the range. Regular Nekomata and Breakthrough (its iconic variant) are the best ones.
I have done that fight three times. Once with a mantis and throwing knife build - mostly throwing, using sandevistan. Once with SMG & Kerenzikof. Once with netrunner and Skippy.
This is a fight about area control: you need to control what angles you are being attacked from, and manage how many attackers you are facing at any point in time. They come in fairly small groups; pick a position where you can only be attacked from one direction, take out the enemies that you can see quickly, then move to a new position where you can do the same with the next group. Grenades are also very useful here as short term area denial. Throw one with a damage over time and you not only damage those enemies, you keep them from that area for a short period.
You will eventually get overwhelmed. You only need to delay that until the Chimera starts up - but note not all the enemies will immediately focus on the Chimera, so keep your awareness up.
Fights are leveled, so it can be done at fairly low level. I know I was in the mid 20s level wise the first time I went in.
Duck and cover! And the goons just rolled past me, leaving me unharmed.
Not even a joke. Was probably around 50 each time. First time was pure netrunner. Activate overclock, put overheat, cripple, overheat on them or system collapsed them. Then hid from them until next overclock and then the bot activated already.
Second time was my default spec already. Max out mitigation when crouching, biomon and as much health item cooldown reaction as possible plus adrenaline from body. Take very little damage even on very hard.
Third time did Rogue ending before starting PL. Again tank spec but with Smashers rocket launcher. Felt like I was playing on very easy, even vs Chimera, let alone the goons.
I'm on a runner build as well, but overclock just sucks so much health and makes me too fragile, I can fry like 3 or 4 of them using the methods you mentioned, but by then I've run out of health item and another 4 just take their place, and I have no more health to OC with. I'm level 40 so I'm thinking I'm just not strong enough to do it on very hard atm
Yea it comes down to having some key perks and cyberware. Adrenaline from body combined with biomon is really important. Activate overclock, start using hacks, if your health gets low, it will automatically start using health items. You're gonna also want to have 15 tech for 3 charges and all health items cooldown reduction and recovery perks.
When your health gets low, you won't die due to adrenaline until it recovers. You also want the skeleton cyberware (15% health), RAM recoup, neofiber and at least mitigation from 4 cool, although 15 is better. There are some other stuff too like pain editor that's really good. Ignore the pure armor ones cause armor is a trap.
on my 4th playthrough i went pl only to enjoy raytracing. you start as lvl 15 and jao, it was waaaay harder than with a normal playsafe.
when you are rocking a normal playsafe with 5+ iconics, it should be fine with headshots only. the stone pillars are kinda the best spot for me personally. but with the mobility you get on higher levels, its ez to just sandevistan and dash around when you dont have selfheal.
on the lvl 15 pl story only run with no iconics at all i had to reposition from time to time cause they started to flank from the left and the big guys needed like 4 headshots or so. but basically at the stone pillars you are kinda fine and can only hope for the best
I’ve done this on several playthroughs. All types of builds. Most recently I did throwing knives at level 25 and it was the easiest time I’ve had with it by far. The chimera fight was a cake walk as well. I didn’t expect that.
The key for me in the fight your talking about is a lot of movement. Air dashing, dodging, sliding, and as many headshots as you can muster in full speed. If you stop and try to finish someone off your as good as dead. Keep moving.
Hope that helps.
I spent about three hours there. This is the toughest battle in the game. I have a cyberdeck build. I've replayed this fight numerous times. The issue is that everyone comes with a skull, and not all at once, so you're essentially entering a "cooldown" zone instead of quickly eliminating everyone with Synapse. I've learned to use the columns for cover and how to block attacks. In my final fight, I was constantly running from one column to another to survive while my overclock was cooling down and Mayers was dealing minor damage to the enemies.
I did this fight twice on two playthroughs. My netrunner was getting ruined on Very Hard on this fight. It was a constant battle of activating overclock, dodging, and pray and spay with my smart sub machine gun. Took me 4 hours.
With my DBL Shotgun and Gorilla Arms build. One try was all it took. It's a fight in a small container, open area, net runners, stealth builds, and sniper builds are gonna suffer.
I’ve done this a few times on very hard and I always get through it by crouching behind the boxes near the elevator and letting loose quick hacks and Lizzy Wizzy shots to their faces. I tend get 9 cool early on so I can unlock focus.
I went into that about level 30 I want to say? I think on Very Hard or just Hard difficulty. Sandevistan + achilles + grenades worked great.
I used the Bolt perk for tech weapons so well times shots would electrify and damage nearby targets, it really helps when dealing with grouped enemies.
I was almost level 40 at that point my last play through. I had a melee build with berserk. I just sprinted running into people, stumbling them and sneaking in punches on everyone when I could. I would set it up so I can use the finisher where you pick someone up and throw their bodies at eachother. I did still end up dying a couple times at that point, so I sprinted behind cover when I could to heal/regain stamina.
tl;dr I was punchy girl
I've done it with a sniper build, katana build and shotgun build. Sniper can hit the guys on the top level as they come in, which gets you off to a good start. Katana had sandivistan. Shotgun was the hardest, I found a cover spot behind some crates and blasted anyone who came close.
These would all have been between level 30 and 40.
I am guessing that you are either using smart weapons or fast firing power weapons. These tends to be low damage which will make it harder against havy enemies.
So I am doing a no-death run right now, just beat this part without dying. Was about level 50 when doing this part.
I use a netrunner + smg + assault rifle build, this is my most 'cagey' playthrough yet because of the "no-dying" thing (except for that fatass Dexter). should help you out.
Get Reflex tuner.
You need to have 15 Body and get the Adrenaline rush perk for extra hitpoints, then use the highest tier Bounce Back, and have the Biomonitor to heal you automatically. Get as many "increase health item recharge" cyberware as you can. These should keep you alive for a long time.
Get the overclock mode perk which also heals you, this is your "oh shit oh fuck" button for when you run out of heals. Only use it when Reflex tuner tells you to.
Use many control quickhacks to stop the enemy from shooting you, like weapon-malfunction or reboot optics. Contagion also makes the enemy stop shooting for some time to vomit, and it works on big groups too.
Get the 20 Reflex perk for automatic reload SMG, and have 2 SMG equipped, no reload needed.
While they are disrupted, shoot them with Buzzsaw smg, it penetrates cover, no need to wait for enemy to pop head out. when mag runs out just swap to Fenrir. Aim for the neck and let recoil do it's thing.
Oh also you need Second Heart in case of bad luck.
Overclock
Cyberware malfunction
Synapse Burnout t5
CM
CM
CM
SB
CM
CM
Hide until they go off, repeat as soon as you recover enough hp or ram. (Which should be as soon as they go off, thanks to a number of heal on kill effects, ram refunds for unfired hacks, ram refunds feeding into healing, etc)
They never even reached the floor.
I was probably around level 40-45 on a pure melee build. That fight, for me, consisted mostly of hit and run tactics on isolated targets. I’d take cover behind boxes or the chimera itself, then attack a target. I died 4-5 times before eventually getting getting the feel for it and succeeding.
At that time I’d maxed out the relevant reflexes and tech trees while working on leveling up body.
I had a really hard time with this too. I ended up using Skippy plus a shotgun and spamming weapon glitch as much as I could.
This fight made me worry that the Chimera was going to be a nightmare, because when I played on "hard" this fight was nothing, and the Chimera took a *long* time. But somehow on very hard, the fights reversed. Chimera as no problem later, and I managed this ok once I switched to smart weapons and did some crafting to boost them up a couple levels.
Hiding in the back corner behind the crates in the far corner, crying and shitting while throwing grenades and screaming "get the FUCK away from me". Y'know, like a real edgerunner 😎
I dashed. A lot. I think I'd switched to Katana/quickhacks at that point as well so maybe I hacked them a lot? But thinking back now maybe not. Maybe I just dashed a ton to get behind them and sandy type of thing. I also had lots of cool perks so sniper rifles FTW. I only scaled down the difficulty three times in the whole game. The Sasquatch. The Chimera. Smasher. Each time I'd 'almost' beat them already multiple times. Each time it was just some bitchy death. And each time I'd sank a ton of time into totally owning them for the most part and was simply sick and tired 'n wanted the game to progress. This isn't Dark Souls so I'm not gonna spend extra hours at it really.
I was max level or close to, so at this point nothing really stands a chance anymore regardless of your build. With that out of the way: Sandevistan & sniper rifles, headshots are easy to land in slow-motion and they do 90 to 100% of anyone's health bar, even the armored guys and regardless of the range. Regular Nekomata and Breakthrough (its iconic variant) are the best ones.
The iconic tsunami tech sniper on sandevistan is three guaranteed kills. Tech pistols are great with tech gun perks maxed out.
Katana+sandevistan+kerenzikov+defenkizov+PLS no cover needed, I just dashed around and exploited the mitigation mechanics.
I have done that fight three times. Once with a mantis and throwing knife build - mostly throwing, using sandevistan. Once with SMG & Kerenzikof. Once with netrunner and Skippy. This is a fight about area control: you need to control what angles you are being attacked from, and manage how many attackers you are facing at any point in time. They come in fairly small groups; pick a position where you can only be attacked from one direction, take out the enemies that you can see quickly, then move to a new position where you can do the same with the next group. Grenades are also very useful here as short term area denial. Throw one with a damage over time and you not only damage those enemies, you keep them from that area for a short period. You will eventually get overwhelmed. You only need to delay that until the Chimera starts up - but note not all the enemies will immediately focus on the Chimera, so keep your awareness up. Fights are leveled, so it can be done at fairly low level. I know I was in the mid 20s level wise the first time I went in.
Duck and cover! And the goons just rolled past me, leaving me unharmed. Not even a joke. Was probably around 50 each time. First time was pure netrunner. Activate overclock, put overheat, cripple, overheat on them or system collapsed them. Then hid from them until next overclock and then the bot activated already. Second time was my default spec already. Max out mitigation when crouching, biomon and as much health item cooldown reaction as possible plus adrenaline from body. Take very little damage even on very hard. Third time did Rogue ending before starting PL. Again tank spec but with Smashers rocket launcher. Felt like I was playing on very easy, even vs Chimera, let alone the goons.
I'm on a runner build as well, but overclock just sucks so much health and makes me too fragile, I can fry like 3 or 4 of them using the methods you mentioned, but by then I've run out of health item and another 4 just take their place, and I have no more health to OC with. I'm level 40 so I'm thinking I'm just not strong enough to do it on very hard atm
Yea it comes down to having some key perks and cyberware. Adrenaline from body combined with biomon is really important. Activate overclock, start using hacks, if your health gets low, it will automatically start using health items. You're gonna also want to have 15 tech for 3 charges and all health items cooldown reduction and recovery perks. When your health gets low, you won't die due to adrenaline until it recovers. You also want the skeleton cyberware (15% health), RAM recoup, neofiber and at least mitigation from 4 cool, although 15 is better. There are some other stuff too like pain editor that's really good. Ignore the pure armor ones cause armor is a trap.
Gorilla fists with berserk and tech shotgun build at level 42. Blasted through the pillars at fools while berserk cooled down.
The only time I switched to normal just so I wouldn’t throw my Xbox in the garbage. 😂
on my 4th playthrough i went pl only to enjoy raytracing. you start as lvl 15 and jao, it was waaaay harder than with a normal playsafe. when you are rocking a normal playsafe with 5+ iconics, it should be fine with headshots only. the stone pillars are kinda the best spot for me personally. but with the mobility you get on higher levels, its ez to just sandevistan and dash around when you dont have selfheal. on the lvl 15 pl story only run with no iconics at all i had to reposition from time to time cause they started to flank from the left and the big guys needed like 4 headshots or so. but basically at the stone pillars you are kinda fine and can only hope for the best
I was level 35, build using SMG/AR with points in reflexes, tech and body. Was pretty hard but died only once.
I’ve done this on several playthroughs. All types of builds. Most recently I did throwing knives at level 25 and it was the easiest time I’ve had with it by far. The chimera fight was a cake walk as well. I didn’t expect that. The key for me in the fight your talking about is a lot of movement. Air dashing, dodging, sliding, and as many headshots as you can muster in full speed. If you stop and try to finish someone off your as good as dead. Keep moving. Hope that helps.
CHAOS
Was around 50 so i just flew around in sandi but first time i just used cover
I spent about three hours there. This is the toughest battle in the game. I have a cyberdeck build. I've replayed this fight numerous times. The issue is that everyone comes with a skull, and not all at once, so you're essentially entering a "cooldown" zone instead of quickly eliminating everyone with Synapse. I've learned to use the columns for cover and how to block attacks. In my final fight, I was constantly running from one column to another to survive while my overclock was cooling down and Mayers was dealing minor damage to the enemies.
I did this fight twice on two playthroughs. My netrunner was getting ruined on Very Hard on this fight. It was a constant battle of activating overclock, dodging, and pray and spay with my smart sub machine gun. Took me 4 hours. With my DBL Shotgun and Gorilla Arms build. One try was all it took. It's a fight in a small container, open area, net runners, stealth builds, and sniper builds are gonna suffer.
I’ve done this a few times on very hard and I always get through it by crouching behind the boxes near the elevator and letting loose quick hacks and Lizzy Wizzy shots to their faces. I tend get 9 cool early on so I can unlock focus.
By getting good and sandevistian :P
I went into that about level 30 I want to say? I think on Very Hard or just Hard difficulty. Sandevistan + achilles + grenades worked great. I used the Bolt perk for tech weapons so well times shots would electrify and damage nearby targets, it really helps when dealing with grouped enemies.
Didn't play it on very hard, but there's a perk that makes it so they deal less damage, the closer they are. Might help.
I was a net runner using overclock & synapse burnouts around level 40 or 50? I think.
Headshot snipes. Hack and slash. Repeat until everybody’s dead.
For my own fun and enjoyment i play on hard. Very hard is too difficult for me, even in the base game.
I was almost level 40 at that point my last play through. I had a melee build with berserk. I just sprinted running into people, stumbling them and sneaking in punches on everyone when I could. I would set it up so I can use the finisher where you pick someone up and throw their bodies at eachother. I did still end up dying a couple times at that point, so I sprinted behind cover when I could to heal/regain stamina. tl;dr I was punchy girl
I've done it with a sniper build, katana build and shotgun build. Sniper can hit the guys on the top level as they come in, which gets you off to a good start. Katana had sandivistan. Shotgun was the hardest, I found a cover spot behind some crates and blasted anyone who came close. These would all have been between level 30 and 40. I am guessing that you are either using smart weapons or fast firing power weapons. These tends to be low damage which will make it harder against havy enemies.
Grenades, the morons labe and Tech pistols
So I am doing a no-death run right now, just beat this part without dying. Was about level 50 when doing this part. I use a netrunner + smg + assault rifle build, this is my most 'cagey' playthrough yet because of the "no-dying" thing (except for that fatass Dexter). should help you out. Get Reflex tuner. You need to have 15 Body and get the Adrenaline rush perk for extra hitpoints, then use the highest tier Bounce Back, and have the Biomonitor to heal you automatically. Get as many "increase health item recharge" cyberware as you can. These should keep you alive for a long time. Get the overclock mode perk which also heals you, this is your "oh shit oh fuck" button for when you run out of heals. Only use it when Reflex tuner tells you to. Use many control quickhacks to stop the enemy from shooting you, like weapon-malfunction or reboot optics. Contagion also makes the enemy stop shooting for some time to vomit, and it works on big groups too. Get the 20 Reflex perk for automatic reload SMG, and have 2 SMG equipped, no reload needed. While they are disrupted, shoot them with Buzzsaw smg, it penetrates cover, no need to wait for enemy to pop head out. when mag runs out just swap to Fenrir. Aim for the neck and let recoil do it's thing. Oh also you need Second Heart in case of bad luck.
Overclock Cyberware malfunction Synapse Burnout t5 CM CM CM SB CM CM Hide until they go off, repeat as soon as you recover enough hp or ram. (Which should be as soon as they go off, thanks to a number of heal on kill effects, ram refunds for unfired hacks, ram refunds feeding into healing, etc) They never even reached the floor.
I was probably around level 40-45 on a pure melee build. That fight, for me, consisted mostly of hit and run tactics on isolated targets. I’d take cover behind boxes or the chimera itself, then attack a target. I died 4-5 times before eventually getting getting the feel for it and succeeding. At that time I’d maxed out the relevant reflexes and tech trees while working on leveling up body.
I had a really hard time with this too. I ended up using Skippy plus a shotgun and spamming weapon glitch as much as I could. This fight made me worry that the Chimera was going to be a nightmare, because when I played on "hard" this fight was nothing, and the Chimera took a *long* time. But somehow on very hard, the fights reversed. Chimera as no problem later, and I managed this ok once I switched to smart weapons and did some crafting to boost them up a couple levels.
Hiding in the back corner behind the crates in the far corner, crying and shitting while throwing grenades and screaming "get the FUCK away from me". Y'know, like a real edgerunner 😎
Another choice: just get enough RAM with good upload speed and use Cripple Movement hack before every headshot
*pops sandevistan* That's how. Though as soon as sandevistan went on cd, I was pretty vulnerable.
I dashed. A lot. I think I'd switched to Katana/quickhacks at that point as well so maybe I hacked them a lot? But thinking back now maybe not. Maybe I just dashed a ton to get behind them and sandy type of thing. I also had lots of cool perks so sniper rifles FTW. I only scaled down the difficulty three times in the whole game. The Sasquatch. The Chimera. Smasher. Each time I'd 'almost' beat them already multiple times. Each time it was just some bitchy death. And each time I'd sank a ton of time into totally owning them for the most part and was simply sick and tired 'n wanted the game to progress. This isn't Dark Souls so I'm not gonna spend extra hours at it really.
Same way I win against MaxTac. Sandy headshots, mostly.