Nonviolent Heist Missions

[Teh Smoo]

I've had some success picking on lawless factions. They seem to have a lot of bounties, which pays for gas. No mission, just murder. And YOU don't get a bounty for picking on them.

I just have to ninja around until I can scan someone and get into CMD, then rush a guy and disable the alarm. Once the alarm is down, no reinforcements arrive, and I can disable turrets and kill people at my leisure. SRV is also very efficient at clearing places. Then, you loot it all and you're done.

Unless the server kicks you (IN SOLO) for no reason, and suddenly all the loot and data is gone. Great, my only reason for doing this nonsense, and it clears because of a glitch beyond my control? Pah.

 

[HRDiagram]

Do you want help?


Can you rememeber where? If they looped once then that tends to be "it" in my experience. I've had workers walk right past a containment case as it was happily counting down to open and it wasn't an issue but if they are never far enough away to let you open it without them hearing that then that's an issue.



My first "guide video" about grabbing power regulators without getting a fine/bounty (and the power regulator can be used in upgrades etc):

Source: https://youtu.be/uu6hkG1wo5c


I then did one on infiltrating an industrial complex, useful for getting materials (but there are also missions in these locations too):

Source: https://youtu.be/y0JK88j2dn0


There are some more but that should be enough to get you going with (apologies for the low quality mic, that's since been remedied!). As I said, I'm going to put together some updated versions at some point. I had written a big post about stealth and it had a long bullet list of "dos" and "don'ts". It's now lost because the alpha forum was archived but I kept the text saved locally.

This is it... It's long, a lot of it was me "working stuff out" and may be out of date now (I just skimmed it and definitely, there's some of it that's either not spot on or out of date and this is about raiding a settlement just for mats, not doing a heist mission - though once I'd worked all this out, doing those was a lot of fun). So be aware of that...

• Stolen materials work for upgrading.
• The Maverick suit is great for infiltration. It has the largest carry space (the most important part if you're looking for stolen materials), the power lasts for ages and you shouldn't need weapons at all (and for Covert assassinations I am sure the two weapons will suffice, but I'll check back on that when I try one - edit: I've now completed a covert assassination and you only need use the Overcharge energylink attack to kill the target, provided you get them before they raise shields).
• Settlement guards or workers will take an interest in you if they see you. Guards will take an interest no matter where they see you but I got the impression workers are less bothered unless you're in a building.
• If you're carrying any device or gun this is a quick way to get shot. Keep your items holstered at all times, until you need them.
• Crouching is, as with many games, the default way of "sneaking".
• Light level does seem to have an impact on whether you get spotted. Crouching has no impact if you're in a well-lit room and NPCs will spot you from further away. Equally, darkness doesn't protect you fully if you're right in front and too close. Crouching and keeping to the shadows as much as possible is key. Line of sight is the primary factor.
• If you passive scan any NPC (hover your crosshair over them, no action required) then they'll appear as a grey dot on your radar (top-left). This is a really important part of infiltration because you can better track the movements of NPCs if they're visible on your radar. Passive scanning doesn't alert NPCs in any scenario but if you want to remain undetected you still want to do this when well hidden. I call this "tagging" an npc.
• The best way to navigate any settlement is via the roof-tops (this is well documented by now I think) or the perimeter of the settlement. I've found that even flying through the air directly above guards will usually keep you undetected, though I don't tend to risk this when I can avoid it.
• The best way to jump for as long as possible is to jump once and then, as you reach the peak of the jump, tap the jump key lightly once, then again and keep doing this in a measured way. Don't spam it and don't hold it down. This lets you jump much, much further. A quick sprint before the first jump will also give you more air time as will, obviously, jumping from a higher point initially.
• The NPCs tend to follow a set route through the settlement. Workers will mostly be located in buildings and all of them have their own exact path they will always take on infinite loop. Learning these paths is essential.
• Guards follow different routes to workers and some guards will be inside but they're equally predictable once you learn the path (and they tend to be more predictable... you expect a guard outside a building to patrol the front of the building, they don't tend to deviate much from this).
• The odd worker will route from one building to another - these can often provide an unwelcome interruption that you're not prepared for as these routes tend to take a longer time and so aren't easy to spot quickly. Tag these outdoor workers if you see them. There are usually no more than one or two per building so you can learn their routes as well.
• If an NPC begins to walk from a static position, you can usually be certain that they'll maintain that route and not suddenly stop and turn around.
• You can reliably sneak behind them, quite closely.
• You can get away with sneaking to the side of NPCs, if you don't linger and the light level is low enough.
• In rare scenarios, you can sneak right in front of NPCs and they won't spot you but I get the distinct impression that you definitely need to be in a very dark corridor or location for this to work.
• At one point, I got too close to an NPC that was looking right at me. I was in the shadows but I was certain I'd get spotted. They were only a level 1 worker and I actually heard them say "Huh, you can go anywhere in the galaxy and you chose to come here" or words to that effect. I can't be certain but it gave me the impression that they spotted me but maybe were too low level to care (and I didn't hang around to find out, I ducked right back out of sight). If this is actually coded in, I'd be really impressed. It felt very life like.
• If an NPC spots you, their icon on the radar will change from grey to yellow.
• At this point they'll run to confront you. If you've cloned an ID or are trespassing, or have stolen items then this will result in them turning red and raising the alarm/shooting you.
• It's possible to evade the latter if you get away quickly enough. But once they're red, that's it. They'll stay that way until you leave or die.
• If you can manage to evade them still, get to a dark and concealed location, then they may stop the hunt for you. But they'll remain red on the radar and my guess is this just means they'll engage you on sight from then on.
• Resetting the instance clears all of these states (but fines/bounties will persist). If the infiltration has gone properly wrong and the settlement is trying to kill you then don't fight back! Put your shields on and sprint to the nearest exit (and for this reason, always know where that is!) Once you get outside, immediately jump and boost to the roof of the building you were in (or the nearest one). Get to a position that is as high up as possible and out of line of sight of any skimmers/turrets and guards. Crouch and escape to the main menu (you will need to wait 15 seconds but so far, I've never died doing it this way).
• You get fined for most transgressions except if you open fire or kill anyone, in which case you'll get a bounty (even if you kill them silently with the overcharge attack)
• You can pay off fines at your ship immediately, if the settlement let you land there.
• Bounties will need to be cleared the usual way.
• If all you want to do is get loot and data, you need not deactivate any alarms (this is necessary for some infiltration missions though - particularly if you need to interact with any controls). But I've found the CMD (Command) building is a great place to get your cloned ID from.
• Cloning IDs is what you need to do to get free access through security doors. To do this, you will need to use the Analysis tool in the cloning mode. This is illegal so you shouldn't attempt it out in the open. You should always do it when crouched and your target is unaware of you. It's got a really short range (about 5m) so using it requires patience. In my case, I found a perfect mark for my clone on the Manufacturing base.
• The general idea of cloning IDs is you first access a 0 security location, clone the ID of someone who has level 1, go to a level 1 location and clone the ID of someone with level 2 and so on. I found this wasn't necessary at Huntley Manufacturing. You can easily find a level 3 worker and clone their ID under the right circumstances (and you can do this 100% of the time at this particular settlement)
• If the CMD building has windows, you can try to spot a high-level worker from the outside, safely crouched in the shadows. I've found this is often on the second floor (outside). All you need is to find a window where such a worker walks past. Learn their pattern if you need to.
• I've found using the clone tool will not alert your target so long as you remain undetected. That means you need them to be stationary (so wait until they reach a stop point in their route). Ideally, you want this to happen where it's not possible for any other NPC to route by and spot you. This is why I found the window method so useful.
• The crosshair will turn from red to green when your target is in clone range. Hold fire until the bar fills up. Holster the tool and get out of there as soon as it's finished. If you're on a roof, just jump up and boost to the top.
• If it's your first time at any particular settlement, you will want to find a console as soon as possible. These can be found outside but at Huntley, there's one perfectly placed just inside the first IND (Industrial) building, right after you leave the CMD building's roof.
• The reason you want a console is to rapidly take note of all the relevant locker PINs to get really quick access to them later on. Make sure the coast is clear, stand up and use the console. Use your ears for any outdoor routing NPCs that might be wandering in, but otherwise if you properly scouted the location of the console you should be clear to take your time at this point (if not, find another one).
• You'll want to note the PINs for any lockers in IND buildings and Labs (or CMD/STO I guess, depending on the settlement). I just write them all down. If you need an outside container for a mission then you can get that here but I ignore these because these don't contain the materials I hunt and the materials they contain are abundant in most scenarios. That is, you don't need to steal them unless the mission dictates.
• This is also a good time to check the location of the data points.
• If you've done the right thing and learned the basic layout of the whole settlement, then you should have a good idea where each building is (i.e. PWR, CMD, IND, STO, HAB and so on). Using the console, you can highlight any single point, be it data point, locker, container or ammo/health/grenade box. This will place an orange marker on the compass (top of the screen). It'll also show the distance.
• This is where you can use a bit of deduction to determine which building is which (particularly useful if there are two IND buildings, or two Labs as there are at Huntley).
• Alternatively, you just highlight the points that interest you and leave it on. You'll see all of the orange markers on your compass and this will help you find the data points and industrial/research lockers much easier. It'll also help you decide if it's really worth risking detection to infiltrate certain rooms. Not every room is worth visiting, knowing which ones to leave is important and will save you a lot of time.
• Edit: this doesn't appear to be strictly true. Some locker pins appear to change. It looks like they alternate between two numbers so note additional alternatives down when this happens. You only ever need to do this once per settlement (the PINs are static per settlement - i.e., they won't be the same at another settlement even if it's the same layout). So, it's not important for the console to be included in your final route.
• The next part is the really challenging part... Learning a route and practicing it. I failed a lot at this part initially. It helped me to understand most of the above points through trial and error. I'd actually suggest that now is the best time to do this, rather than wait until it goes live. You stand to lose nothing right now.
• After an hour or so I now have an efficient route through the whole settlement that nets me 3 industrial data points and 4-5 lockers (a mix of research and industrial).
• I left a lot of lockers untouched, particularly the small and unlocked versions. These should be freely available on missions where you've got the authority to loot them, so I'd suggest they’re a waste of time when infiltrating. That said, some are unique to the type of settlement so you might want to check every locker you pass just in case they have some items you don't yet have (and so can trade for at the bar).
• When you're done, you can exfiltrate if you want to but I just quit to the menu and load in again. This takes you to the front of the settlement, near to your ship.
• This always spawns you with a tool equipped and sometimes there's a guard in front of you so be ready to holster and retreat to your ship. The guard never engaged me but I never hung about to find out.
• At this point you can board your ship and replenish/restock/offload goods (if you used Apex, don't board it but you can call it to offload items and get extra consumables if you need).
• You can then re-run the whole thing again, or hone your route/try additional buildings if you're still at this stage.
• I took about 10-12 restarts before I'd got it down. But now I reckon I will learn the next settlement type much faster. Knowing all of the above helps me to react if something unexpected happens too.

A couple of side notes I would add from my (limited) experience.

When I have a chance, in order to clone the identity of a higher level NPC, I try to scan them through the windows (especially on the first floor), or from the roof windows (when available, most of the time they won't notice me as they generally don't tend to look up).

Once inside a crowded building with high level clearance, if I notice a guard, I clear my cloned identity (with the function available on the wheel): I am inside so I can move around freely to recon the area, and be scanned at leisure with no fear of retaliation.
Once aware of the pathing, clearance level of the NPCS, etc. then I act.

 

[ferus]

Avoiding settlements is basically like avoiding planets in Horizons. Kind of worse, actually... you actually have space in Horizons.

Yes, that's why it is all the more frustrating.
I will wait until FDev fixes the buggy AI and the ridiculous number of scans and perhaps I will try again.
(I had an NPC with either a ridiculous FOV and/or a godlike hearing that somehow detected me cloning her profile from outside while her back was turned to me.)

I am not saying missions can't be done it's just the C&P system always results in death (usually mine). There is no in-between.
Killing someone has the same result as moving 1 mm over the restricted area line or taking a copper wire from a shelf.
If there was a warning first on trespassing or a countdown (like there is with a restricted perimeter around drones on planets), or three strikes, or if at least the faction relationship would be taken into consideration then it would be much better.
Right now it's just death for everything.
And zapping someone unseen and immediately receiving a bounty is another thing that makes it unnecessarily difficult and simply not fun.

Also taking some items immediately flags them as stolen with a message that they will be discovered by a security scan despite Piers claiming in twitch stream that illegal actions will only be marked as illegal when someone sees you doing them. So clearly things are not working properly yet and I hope some of these things will be fixed soon.

Because it's these "small" things that make me not want to go to settlements at all.

 

[RyuStaar]

I wonder how good milkman was at Elite when he first started. Or Flight-assist off?

My point is, basically everything is is hard in the beginning when you don't understand it, or how it works. This includes real life skills as well. What is sad to me is some person trying a mission once, and giving up instantly when they fail. It's called learning. God forbid you don't get handheld through everything in life. Guess what? some people like solving problems, and gameplay based around it. I was lost when I first started Elite Dangerous Horizons ( When I started playing Elite) , but I watched youtube videos and read guides. I find the more complex the game is the harder it is to learn off the bat. It's ok OP, cry about how you are not handheld enough. I think there is a Mario game or something coming out soon

 

[Milkman76]

I wonder how good milkman was at Elite when he first started. Or Flight-assist off?

My point is, basically everything is is hard in the beginning when you don't understand it, or how it works. This includes real life skills as well. What is sad to me is some person trying a mission once, and giving up instantly when they fail. It's called learning. God forbid you don't get handheld through everything in life. Guess what? some people like solving problems, and gameplay based around it. I was lost when I first started Elite Dangerous Horizons ( When I started playing Elite) , but I watched youtube videos and read guides. I find the more complex the game is the harder it is to learn off the bat. It's ok OP, cry about how you are not handheld enough. I think there is a Mario game or something coming out soon

This has nothing to do with not understanding how the game works.

2005 Eve Online player here. I know learning curves, and I understand challenging mechanics. That isnt this. Try to understand.

If its meant to be so brutally 'dangerous' and that's your reasoning as to why the game is broken, then why 1) did the CEO apologize for the game being broken and 2) why does FDev put more and more "assist" devices into the game to help people? lol I've flown unassisted for 5000 hours, but I see that some people needed some help. Your comments about 'crying' and it being too hard dont even make sense.

 

[Domikazi]

This has nothing to do with not understanding how the game works.

2005 Eve Online player here. I know learning curves, and I understand challenging mechanics. That isnt this. Try to understand.

If its meant to be so brutally 'dangerous' and that's your reasoning as to why the game is broken, then why 1) did the CEO apologize for the game being broken and 2) why does FDev put more and more "assist" devices into the game to help people? lol I've flown unassisted for 5000 hours, but I see that some people needed some help. Your comments about 'crying' and it being too hard dont even make sense.

The CEO was addressing the performance issues and the sever issues. Not the game play. Most people like the stealth game play, myself and a lot of people on this thread included.

Fact is, you just aren't as good at the game as you want to believe you are, despite many people telling you. But its everybody else, right? Not you, of course.

 

[Ydiss]

There's no doubt that the learning curve for Odyssey is much sharper than that of the original live game in 2014. The tutorial helps with the basics but doesn't explain all the nuances of infiltration. And I don't think it should really, it's too much to squeeze into that. What is needed is more "tamer" missions of that nature at threat 1.

A stealth tutorial would be great though. Actually walking you through the process and explaining the rules. If Fdev want to throw me their dev assets and scripting tools I'll knock one up for them

 

[CMDR Myrrhth]

I agree the stealth is really engaging and not broken as far as I can tell (except I might have been seen through a wall a couple of times.) It's quite difficult and I failed alot at first but I got noticeably better each time I tried.

I'm interested if it's possible to create distractions, like setting off an alarm in another building so you can access your mission target without resistance. Looking forward to trying out a few ideas when I get a chance to play again.

 

[Ydiss]

I agree the stealth is really engaging and not broken as far as I can tell (except I might have been seen through a wall a couple of times.) It's quite difficult and I failed alot at first but I got noticeably better each time I tried.

I'm interested if it's possible to create distractions, like setting off an alarm in another building so you can access your mission target without resistance. Looking forward to trying out a few ideas when I get a chance to play again.

I'd like to be able to deactivate atmospherics forcing the workers to rush to it and turn it back on. That's one thing that needs to be a thing.

 

[CMDR Myrrhth]

I'd like to be able to deactivate atmospherics forcing the workers to rush to it and turn it back on. That's one thing that needs to be a thing.

I thought that was a thing in the Alpha? I noticed they don't seem to care now.

 

[Ydiss]

I thought that was a thing in the Alpha? I noticed they don't seem to care now.

I don't think so, it's only ever been there to support restore missions.

 

[Milkman76]

The CEO was addressing the performance issues and the sever issues. Not the game play. Most people like the stealth game play, myself and a lot of people on this thread included.

Fact is, you just aren't as good at the game as you want to believe you are, despite many people telling you. But its everybody else, right? Not you, of course.

Nice brand protection -- "People who complain about the obviously broken game are just not as good at the game as they think they are."


I would laugh a lot harder at you if real money hadn't been spent.

 

[RyuStaar]

Nice brand protection -- "People who complain about the obviously broken game are just not as good at the game as they think they are."


I would laugh a lot harder at you if real money hadn't been spent.

well my man, reality is subjective to the person who perceives it.

My reality is performance has been pretty good ( definite room for improvement), I am enjoying almost all the mechanics of settlements and have put about 25 hours into the expansion, just finished upgrading all my suits to G2.

So no the game is not "broken" for me, it has bugs but in spite of that it's still and 8/10 for me which will turn into at 10/10 if/when they fix bugs and performance.

Go ahead and keep stomping your feet with people that don't agree with you. It's crazy but people have different experiences??

 

[Deleted member 115407]

I was pretty sure that the overload of the energy tool counted as "lethal" damage. Has anyone successfully completed these missions?

I tried once already to be sneaky and clone someone without them seeing me, but the AI behavior is so erratic, that it's difficult to gauge the timing and I got busted and the whole place aggro'd on me.

The second time I got scanned, passed. Walked down the hall and then ran back past the guy again and he tried to scan me a second time, like 10 seconds later and since I was running, I was already too far past him and the whole place aggro'd on me. This is starting to become a chore.

They are doable. They take patience.

1. Disable alarms
2. Steal the stuff
3. Make sure no one sees you doing bad stuff

 

[Milkman76]

well my man, reality is subjective to the person who perceives it.

My reality is performance has been pretty good ( definite room for improvement), I am enjoying almost all the mechanics of settlements and have put about 25 hours into the expansion, just finished upgrading all my suits to G2.

So no the game is not "broken" for me, it has bugs but in spite of that it's still and 8/10 for me which will turn into at 10/10 if/when they fix bugs and performance.

Go ahead and keep stomping your feet with people that don't agree with you. It's crazy but people have different experiences??

Reality isnt subjective the way you want it to be, "my man."

Vast majority of people have a long list of issues, and steam reviews + gaming media also reflect this.

M-m-mmaybe the mostly negative reviews on s-ssteam are just mobs of people who dont live in your same subjective reality, friend. Its so CrAzY that on these forums, where people paid to manage the community reside, there would be controversy about this.

 

[Ydiss]

Just did a nonviolent heist I've not done before, went well and was fun. Didn't take me 5k hours to learn.

 

[RyuStaar]

Reality isnt subjective the way you want it to be, "my man."

Vast majority of people have a long list of issues, and steam reviews + gaming media also reflect this.

M-m-mmaybe the mostly negative reviews on s-ssteam are just mobs of people who dont live in your same subjective reality, friend. Its so CrAzY that on these forums, where people paid to manage the community reside, there would be controversy about this.

Ok dude. You know my own experience better than me.

You just want to scream and yell and have a tantrum.

I should know better than to bring philosophy to idiots on the forum. My experience has been perfectly acceptable for me. I'm sorry that your experience was negative, but mine has been immensely positive. I'm not going to tell you that your experience isn't bad, just like you shouldn't tell me my experience isn't good. I know I can't view life through the lens of your beliefs and experiences, so I'm not going to even try to tell you how to think about the game.

My only thing is I wish you would try the game a bit more before starting defensive arguments on the forum about game mechanics that clearly work for the people that spend the time figuring it out. If the game runs poorly for you I am genuinely sorry but it works acceptably for me

 

[smbell]

I've been trying to apply a lot of the information from this thread, especially from @Ydiss I'm getting somewhere with it for sure. I'm getting pretty good at actually getting into the settlement/buildings with the proper clearance and avoiding detection.

I've still not completed a non-violent heist yet, but I'll get it eventually.

My last failure was trying to get an item out of one of the computer container things in industrial production. No matter whether anyone was even in the room, as soon as I hit open to wait for the timer, everyone came running over from other places.

I haven't tried to disable the alarms, but that didn't set off a settlement alarm, it made a small red light alarm on the actual machine itself.

Tried that one about 15 times by re-logging, still wasn't able to do it. The only way I could see was to open it, get everyone aggo'd and run away, then try to sneak back in and grab the item with the whole base after me. Doesn't seem like that's how it was intended to be done.

I will succeeed.

 

[Ydiss]

I've been trying to apply a lot of the information from this thread, especially from @Ydiss I'm getting somewhere with it for sure. I'm getting pretty good at actually getting into the settlement/buildings with the proper clearance and avoiding detection.

I've still not completed a non-violent heist yet, but I'll get it eventually.

My last failure was trying to get an item out of one of the computer container things in industrial production. No matter whether anyone was even in the room, as soon as I hit open to wait for the timer, everyone came running over from other places.

I haven't tried to disable the alarms, but that didn't set off a settlement alarm, it made a small red light alarm on the actual machine itself.

Tried that one about 15 times by re-logging, still wasn't able to do it. The only way I could see was to open it, get everyone aggo'd and run away, then try to sneak back in and grab the item with the whole base after me. Doesn't seem like that's how it was intended to be done.

I will succeeed.

Honestly, I'd disable the alarms first. I always do that with these types of missions.

 

[Milkman76]

Just did a nonviolent heist I've not done before, went well and was fun. Didn't take me 5k hours to learn.

Some of us take 5000 hours just to learn nonviolent heist missions, yes. That's the entire context, and you are very clever, arent you.

Goodness, the lengths unpaid people... will go to defend an utterly broken product -- broken in ways 98% of those who have purchased the game can see. Some people just like to stick their necks out in front of oncoming trains because they like it? Im not really sure.