I finally got my first "Live Odyssey" video guide completed and it's now available to view on Youtube, complete with a brand new intro/outro and improved audio recording. Most of the transcript is available in the description of the video but I'll add the key points here. I'll be adding to this series with a definitive infiltration guide to follow shortly and then deeper-dive guides into various settlement types and missions and even stealth-based combat and additional advance combat guides at a later date. And anything else I think might be useful (requests can be considered).
I hope you like it and find it useful! Here's the video:
Source: https://youtu.be/TmdS6Hwg-1o
This is the content, roughly transcribed with some parts not included:
One of the key skills in Odyssey, and one aspect I absolutely love about the expansion, is its stealth mechanics. This guide explains it all!
This is what you’ll learn:
- You’ll learn why stealth is important in Odyssey and why you need to use it (this is in the video only)
- You’ll get an understanding of the concepts and rules around how stealth and detection works
- You’ll also learn what you can do to avoid detection by NPCs.
The stealth mechanic follows this basic process:
- Detection (and how you should avoid it)
- Reaction (what happens when you're detected)
- Escalation or Resolution (what can happen beyond the reaction)
- Resetting (how you can evade aggressive NPCs to reset them and try again)
- Always remember: If an NPC cannot see you, they will not react to you. If an NPC cannot see you, they may still be able to hear you. And how far away from an NPC you are matters.
- Aggressive NPCs (for example scavengers) will react to you at the maximum visual range if they have line of sight to you. The range of this is around three circles on the radar in good light and close to two circles if dark and they’re using a flashlight, much less if not.
- When you are not visibly breaking a law, non-aggressive NPCs will react to you at the minimum visual range (which can be gauged roughly by the red circle on the radar).
- When you get within the red circle, guards will attempt to scan you for bounties or stolen/forbidden goods. When you get within the red circle from workers, they will greet you.
These are the things you are not allowed to do in any settlement:
- Attack someone
- Carry any weapon (unholstered)
- Steal any item
- Trespass into restricted areas
- Scan someone who has a bounty or use any of the illegal modes on your tools
- Use your cutter or activate any panels that will set off an alarm
- If you wish to remain undetected, it's important that you do none of those actions in visible range of any NPC at a settlement.
- If an NPC is aggressive towards you then they will continue to hunt you down until either of you die or you continuously remain out of their visual range for around 30 seconds or so. If you can remain hidden for long enough then they will cancel their search for you and return to their usual patrol route.
- It's not allowed to carry any weapon so you need to holster these when they're not in use. When a non-aggressive NPC sees this then they will warn you and tell you to put it away. So long as you do this quickly enough, they will leave you alone. If you do not do this or if they spot you doing it again, they will immediately turn aggressive.
- When a guard scans you, you must remain close to the guard to allow them to complete their scan otherwise they'll automatically attack you. Watch for the message on your HUD and listen out for the audible cues. If you have a bounty or if you are carrying a traceable stolen item, or if you're carrying a mission item intended to sabotage operations in anyway, they will turn aggressive and attack you.
- If a worker spots you trespassing, they will warn you and if you exit the restricted area, they'll let you off with that warning. If you do not comply or if they see you committing any other visible crime then they'll turn aggressive immediately.
- When a settlement NPC turns aggressive, they will shortly begin to radio for assistance. If they do this and you don’t stop them in time, and the settlement alarms are enabled, the alarms will sound and the settlement will attack you.
How do you avoid detection?
The basic approach you should always take is:
- Don't get seen (use the environment to hide behind and use the rooftops)
- Be as quiet as you can. Crouch or walk and try to avoid making too many sounds close to NPCS if you're doing something wrong!
- If you're carrying something you shouldn't, avoid guards at all costs.
- Stay behind any NPC if you wish to remain undetected. Stay crouched!
- Remember to disable alarms!
I'll be adding more related video links to this topic and keeping it updated as things progress!
The second video in this series is now published and is called The Definitive Guide to Infiltration:
Source: https://youtu.be/dCADkGY9CR0
I've added it here as it follows on nicely to the Stealth guide. I won't add the full transcript here, it's a longer video (there's a ton of content to fit in for this topic and I tried to keep it as concise as I could). This is what is covered in the video:
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:17 Gaining an understanding of the settlement layout
2:35 Gaining access
4:51 How to effectively clone IDs
6:00 How you disable the settlement alarms (and why this is useful)
7:26 Optional: Disable the settlement’s Authorisation Scanners (and what this does)
7:59 How to complete your objective
8:09 General Scavenging
8:28 Assassinations
9:14 Remove the Power Regulator
10:13 Heist/Sabotage mission objectives
11:02 What to do when things go wrong
13:08 Outro
In future, I’ll be going into more detail with some guides focusing more on individual mission objectives and also how to use stealth and infiltration for combat. If you're interested in seeing these, please do subscribe (although I may post about them here too!)
