Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
64 Achievements
100-120h
I Never Asked For This
You completed Deus Ex: Mankind Divided on the highest possible difficulty. Hats off. Details for this achievement will be revealed once unlocked
0.4%
How to unlock the I Never Asked For This achievement in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - Definitive Guide
Pre-requisites
1) You must complete one playthrough in order to unlock I Never Asked For This difficulty.
2) You must have at least one empty save slot before starting this difficulty, otherwise you won’t be able to save. This is because the 11 save slots the game allows are spread across all of your playthroughs. So if you have all 11 filled up with saves from an earlier playthrough, you’ll need to delete at least one of them.
3) Please Note: You cannot start this difficulty via New Game +.
Requirements
1) I Never Asked For This is a ‘Permadeath’ mode. Simply put, if you die, you have to start the entire game again.
2) However, you are allowed one save slot and you can save as often as you like in that one slot. This means that you don’t have to complete your whole playthrough in one session.
3) But, if you die, that save file is automatically deleted and you must start the game again.
MOST IMPORTANT ADVICE:
Your save file will only be deleted if the animation of you dying (i.e. the screen shaking, turning red, Adam slumping down) is completed. At this point a message will appear on screen telling you that your save file has been deleted.
So, the second that you die – immediately Dashboard Quit the game or switch off your console – whichever you prefer. If you do this before the animation completes, then when you load up the game, your save file will be left untouched and available to use.
Difficulty
1) This matches Give Me Deus Ex difficulty.
2) Enemies spot you quicker and you make more noise - this is particularly an issue during the curfew stage of the game while navigating the streets of Prague.
3) Waypoints do not appear on your HUD, so you must remember the way or bring up the map.
4) Objects no longer have the white edging around them that indicates they can be interacted with. So you must spot everything naturally.
5) Please Note: Killing enemies and getting detected does not void this achievement.
My Aug Build
My playthrough took 5 hours and 11 minutes and I prioritised the following build:
• Social Enhancer – 2 Points – Enables you to win all dialogue challenges and spare some fights.
• Hacking Capture – 6 Points – upgrade the left path to level 5.
• Smart Vision – 2 Points – helpful to see through walls and know enemy placements.
• Energy Convertor – 10 Points (Maxed Out) – Links to the constant glass shield strategy below.
• Remote Hacking – 3 Points – helpful for closing windows, disabling cameras and turrets.
• Icarus Landing – 2 Points – helps throughout – plus you don’t want to die from fall damage on a permadeath game!
• Glass Shield – 5 Points (Maxed Out) – all focused on extending its duration.
• Leg Prosthesis – 2 Point – to enable you to jump high.
Overarching Strategy:
I adhered to the following 6 principles throughout my playthrough:
1) Do Main Missions only. Avoid all side quests and ‘Places of Interest’.
2) Fully upgrade Hacking, Energy Converter and Glass shield.
3) Buy, Collect and Craft as many Biocells as possible.
4) Always loot in safe areas. You want crafting materials so that you can craft Biocells, and you want credits to be able to buy biocells. I sold all lethal firearms, alcohol and ammo to the vendor in Jensen's apartment building to build up my funds.
5) The basic strategy is to stealth your way past everyone using the Glass Shield – sometimes just brazenly crouch walking through entire fields of enemies. For example trigger Glass shield, and start stealthing through enemies and when your cloak is about to expire, hold Y and pull LT to refill your energy bar. Release Y and carry on as you were. This makes the sections in the Dvali Theatre and London exhibition centre far easier.
6) Having the use of Leg Prosthesis, Icarus Landing and Glass Shield for access to alternative paths, based on the situation.
If anyone has any queries please comment below and I'll respond as quick as I can.
Useful Comments - Updated 02/09/2016
SignatoryStar pointed out that you can re-enable the missing HUD elements (waypoints etc.) in the options menu.
The key here is to save frequently, collect and use biocells wisely, and generally keep up a stealthy playstyle that'll give you no trouble. Cloak past enemies and look for hidden paths that'll guarantee a Ghost bonus for every other objective.
I personally completed this non-lethally, but the option is up to you.
Also, keep stock of Multi-Tools, which will limit your chances of failing a hack and also make life easier on the final level.
Please do state any issues before downvoting, and happy Deus Ex-ing!
A couple of notes and hints on getting this achievement. It's not step-by-step, because that would be a walkthrough for the entire game:
1. You cannot unlock this mode until after completing the game once. Use the first playthrough to thoroughly explore, learn ways of beating different parts, doing side quests and other achievements, etc.
2. You cannot do this mode as a NewGame+, unfortunately.
3. Stick to a stealthy approach. While I'm sure someone will do it with all guns blazing, not getting into fights is an easier way to avoid death. The only weapon I used the entire game was the tranq rifle, and even that maybe only 3-4 times. Everything else was avoidance or stealth takedowns.
4. On that note, the only purchases I made the entire game were extra praxis kits and some biocells. The biocells are very nice for late in the game when you want to do long cloak runs and you can use them to keep regenerating energy on the fly. I never purchased any hacking gear, and only used a handful of them (a few nukes and one stop) in the very final missions to save a little time. Never used any medication, any grenades, or anything else. Grab easy to carry/sell items and books for the extra xp when they're convenient, but don't waste time with unnecessary exploration (that's what the first playthrough is for).
5. You don't have to do this as pacifist or foxiest of the hounds, although avoiding bodies and alarms is generally a good idea.
6. Just stick to the main missions; avoid time-consuming and dangerous sidequests. The only sidequests I did were the ones that involved getting the neurocalibrator, and in retrospect I could have skipped those as I didn't really need it the way I ended up using my praxis points.
7. I always keep a handful of praxis points unused in case of emergencies (e.g., not realizing the order I need to unlock some powers in based on the path I'm trying to follow). Invest your praxis points in at least one level of cloaking (levels 2 and 3 when you've got a nice surplus), get your hacking up to at least level 3 and a point or two in stealth hacking as well. Battery recharge upgrades are nice, but can wait until later. Basic radar upgrades (range and vision cones) are absolutely essential; lidar tracking and the enhanced vision which reveals special and hidden objects are useless.
8. Icarus Landing is critical...it allows you to move around certain areas very quickly by jumping through elevator shafts and the like and prevents you from accidentally dying if you fall off a ledge or ladder (which happened to me at least once in my first, non-permadeath playthrough). You'll also want the rebreather to allow you to move through poisonous gasses. The electricity-resistance upgrade is too expensive (requires 4 praxis points in armor which you don't otherwise need) and can be skipped.
9. Break through walls and move heavy objects are both good investments. Jump is nice, although you can get through most of the playthrough before it becomes necessary/useful so I'd hold off on this until moderately late in the game.
10. The only experimental aug I used was remote hacking, and not until fairly late in the game. As mentioned already, I never used augs like dual-takedown or armor or lidar tracking or casie, so could have just disabled any of these without bothering with the neurocalibrator.
11. For the major fork in play path, I choose the bank heist because I thought it was easier, but your mileage may vary.
12. At the end of the game, go after Marchenko first and use the kill-switch to make it easy (unless you're desperately trying to do Pacifist as well). The reason to do him first, is if you try to save Brown and the others first, you have to get by all of the mercenaries twice (coming and going), while you only have to get past them once if you start with Marchenko.
13. Save often, but carefully. Don't save in a place where you might have trapped yourself. If you set off an alarm (more often than not), you're better off reloading immediately than hoping it will go away. If you're in any danger of dying at all, reload immediately: don't be a hero!
14. As with the other endgame achievements, this one won't actually unlock until the very end of the credits, so go find something else to do for the 10 minutes they roll while waiting for it to unlock.
The save isn't changed to dead until the death animation is complete, giving you time to Alt+F4 on death and reboot the game without loss.
This achievement will require that you complete the game on the “I Never Asked For This” difficulty level. This difficulty will only unlock after you have completed the game at least once. It can be initiated via the Main Menu provided you have at least one open save slot.
Set to the "Give Me Deus Ex" difficulty, the twist here is that it's essentially a permadeath mode; you have one life and when you die, you will restart the game from the beginning. It's recommended then that this difficulty should be played stealthily, perhaps stacked with the "Pacifist" and "Foxiest of the Hounds" achievements. Sneaking past most enemies during your missions lessens hostile combat and thus reduces the chances of death during this playthrough.
TIP: As noted by RomanAround, your save file will be deleted once Jensen's animation of dying is complete. At this time, a message will appear on the screen informing you that your save file has been deleted. There's a trick, though: before this animation is complete, you can quickly "dashboard quit" out of the game. When you reload your playthrough from Main Menu, your save file will be intact, allowing you to carry on.
You can refer to "Pacifist" and "Foxiest of the Hounds" for additional stealth-based tips, but just remember that on this playthrough, you should ignore all collectibles and all side missions. By focusing on the main story missions alone, you can complete the game in as little as five and a half hours and avoid unnecessary objectives that might get you killed.
Here are a few additional, worthwhile tips provided by RomanAround:
- Fully upgrade Hacking, Energy Converter and Glass-Shield Cloak.
- Skip every side quest and Point of Interest in the game.
- You only have on manual save slot, there are no auto-saves in this mode.
- Buy, collect, and craft as many Biocells as possible.
- Always loot safe areas for additional crafting materials (to craft Biocells).
- Sell lethal weapons, ammo, and alcohol to the vendor in Jensen's apartment complex (to buy Biocells).
- Make sure to unlock and fully upgrade the Leg Prosthesis, Icarus Landing and Icarus Dash augs for access to alternative paths, based on the situation.
The achievement will finally unlock once the credits roll provided you completed this playthrough successfully without having ever died.
I take no credit for this video. I found it when I was going for this and it is incredibly helpful. I bought what they bought, looted what they looted etc. As I didn't need to speed run, I also did a bit of searching in some areas so I ended up with extra biocells and praxis kits which helped a little more. I also got Foxiest of the hounds using this video:
(Highly Missable!) (Difficulty)
The highest difficulty “I Never Asked For This” (permanent death mode) is available after completing the game once. This trophy unlocks after the ending cutscene that reflects on events and any choices that you made throughout the course of the game.
Auto-saving is disabled, you have only one life and you are limited to one save slot. It should be noted that you cannot change the difficulty of this mode once it has been selected. You can save as many times as you want on the single save slot, but if you die that save file is deleted and is no longer accessible. There is a work around to this by backing up the save to a USB flash drive or uploading the save to Cloud Save Storage, but the general idea is be as stealthy as you can be and save at every opportunity. You can also press the whenever you're about to die or get killed, then close the game application so you can restart it. This will also stop your save from being deleted.
Use this thread for Video Walkthroughs: Step-by-Step Platinum Walkthrough
I advise you to combine it with the following trophies: Pacifist and Slick.
This difficulty level is different in that if the character dies, you will have to start the game again. Therefore, after each mission, save either to a flash drive or to the cloud.
Complete the game by completing only story missions, without being distracted by side missions, this will be much easier and faster.
Playing in stealth shouldn't cause any difficulties at all, because... They either don’t shoot at you at all, or you load up immediately if they notice you.