Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
64 Achievements
100-120h
Pacifist
You completed Deus Ex: Mankind Divided without killing a single soul. Bosses are people, too.
4.1%
How to unlock the Pacifist achievement in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - Definitive Guide
You need to focus on using the following equipment:
-Pick-up Weapons: Tranquilliser Rifle, Stun Gun, Any weapon with EMP rounds (optional), EMP Mines.
-Augments: Energy Upgrade (VITAL), Hacking Tier Upgrade (VITAL), Jump Upgrade (VITAL), Tesla (optional), Glass Shield (optional), (Remote Hacking (optional and handy).
-Other items: Biocells, EMP Mines.
I went through the game using primarily Takedowns, the Stun Gun, TESLA, and the EMP10mm pistol (swapping between them but the first 3 all do the same job more or less).
Most Areas have obvious alternate paths (especially vents). If you get stuck in a situation where you cannot get past a guard/enemy because of their patrol path, use a throwable object to distract them, then move past. Another strategy is to use boxes to get to higher places rather than running in head first.
It is easiest to go through missions with as little takedowns (and evidence of your presence) as possible as there is less of a chance of patrolling enemies discovering your handiwork. Keep this in mind.
Helpful mission tips:
When you're first going to meet Koller you don't need to takedown any of the enemies. Also make sure you bribe/do the quest for the police officer on the second path leading to the Time Machine (Koller's place), as this will let you get past the guys at the front gate who can be a pain.
There are opportunities to use Biocells in certain missions to ease progress. If you are having trouble make sure to use them.
If you have plenty of Praxis kits and Biocells, upgrade Glass Shield to the max and you'll be able to fall back on it if you are about to be spotted.
DO NOT kill the vendor in Golem City that Otar wants you to kill (this unlocks a side quest-line so come back to this if this is your first playthrough).
In the GARM facility there is a large blue tunnel that can cut the area-time by a fair amount, keep an eye out for it.
In the boss fight with Marchenko, sneak around and locate the 3 security terminals which will let you disable all of his extra tech except for two of the flying drones. Make a save and test his patrol pattern. Then place an EMP mine where he is going to step, and then do a takedown.
I haven't tested this fully yet but I suggest not throwing knocked out NPC's off the map or using them as meat-shields. Obviously.
As far as I know there aren't any NPCs you need to save explicitly outside of the story to get this achievement. IE you don't need to quickly run here and stop NPC #857 from getting killed by a scripted event. Just don't kill anyone with your equipment/CQC/ etc and you should be fine.
If anyone has anything to add about specific parts in the game, feel free to write a comment. (If you still have questions, they may have been answered below!)
However, i still got the achievement. The game seems to not record deaths that aren't caused by you.
I figured that was worth mentionining.
The rule of thumb is to play the game with a stealthy approach, obviously with the appropriate build. Augs that focus on hacking, cloaking, awareness (Smart-Eye, radar augs) and accessibility (Leg and Hand Prosthesis) will offer you the chance to take the less travelled road and encounter the least enemies possible.
You want to keep your encounters with hostile NPC's to a minimum, since then the chances of you accidentally killing someone will drop significantly. Throughout your playthrough you should be patient, using cover and the Glass Shield as often as possible. Consider upgrading Jensen's batteries since your available energy at all times is the basis of this kind of playstyle.
Your go-to weapons will be cqc takedowns, the Tranq Gun and Tranq Rifle. The Rifle is actually the most useful out of the two firearms since it can be used from up close too. Personally I got this achievement using that one only, even though it has a scope that's supposed to not be convenient up close.
The last "tool" that you'll need is frequent saving. This is crucial to avoid voiding the achievement, since at the slight suspicion that you've killed somebody you can easily reload and try moving on non-lethally again.
If the non-lethal style is not your thing and you're struggling early on, focus on the Main Missions only. Side Missions may give you additional XP (and therefore more Praxis kits), but after a point the become a liability, especially after completing a good chunk of Main Missions and
To sum up, do a stealth build, play stealthily and patiently and save often. Please note that you need to be immediately responsible for somebody's death to void the achievement. Shooting, stabbing, blowing up and dropping people off balconies will void the achievement, but hacking Sentry Bots causing them to turn them against the enemy will not void it.
I knocked out literally everyone in the game, aside from the last mission (because I like saving both sides, and it's easier just to stealth-run through all those guys) and even though there were a few critters that were Zzz when I first knocked them out, and DEAD later, I still got the achievement.
Obviously, don't use the KILL switch on Viktor Marchenko at the end. I actually saved just outside the door so I could run through with the kill switch first (achievement), then go back in and knock him out.
How did I deal with Viktor? I just stealth-ran up to him (quiet feet, cloaked), shot him with a stun gun, then did a knock-out take-down. Easy peasy. If you wait too long, Viktor starts to seemingly randomly deploy his spiky TITAN as he's running around his boring path trying to find you. The stun gun doesn't seem to work through the TITAN aug, so just wait until he's not spiky.
As far as almost every other critter in the game, it's easy:
1) Hide behind cover, close enough to enemies that they can hear if you toss something.
2) Toss a box, printer, cone, random object you can grab and toss, against your cover.
3) Re-hide behind the cover and wait for the single enemy to come toward you.
4) Use the stealthy take-down from behind cover.
5) If you do it right, and no one sees you, you can then...
6) Drag the body off somewhere to hide it, quickly.
7) Rinse and repeat.
You don't often need to use the cloak for this method, but keep in mind, if you're going for the Foxiest of Hounds achievement on the same playthrough, it makes sense to disable cameras, turrets, robots and drones before you try this, especially if the camera/turret/robot/drone is going to be looking right at where you're going to be doing the take-down and/or dragging away into hiding.
Remember, though, that cameras/turrets generally have a 180° range (max), so if your mark is behind a camera, you might actually be able to pull it off if you approach/punch from the correct direction.
As others have mentioned in previous guides, SAVE OFTEN, like all the time.
With this specific achievement, it's all about not killing people, so just don't accidentally HOLD the take-down button, as that will insta-KILL the critter. Bad for this achievement.
I've seen other folks talking about using EMP rounds in the pistol, and although EMP rounds have a much lower damage (to make up for the EMP properties), they can still kill. I would not use any form of rounds, aside from stun gun and tranquilizer darts.
If you're going for a bunch of achievements all at once, you'll find that the stealthy-take-down-from-cover method will allow you to take care of 95% of the bad NPCs without killing them.
At a certain point in the game, you'll gain access to the recycling aug, and you will find that you can make a virtually unlimited number of biocells from weapons parts. Biocells allow you to max out your aug power bar, and with weapons tearing down to 30-50 parts per weapon, plus ammo, plus grenades, you should be able to sneak around/past/through most situations, if you feel like the take-down method I described above seems to daunting.
This game is weird, in that even with a maxed-out cloak, maxed-out battery/charger, you still only get a few seconds worth of "free" battery bar. So this is why you use cover-stealth-to-next-cover.
At the end of my first playthrough on Give Me a Challenge difficulty, I had 200 (!!) biocells, and 3000 weapons parts.
You need to focus on using the following equipment:
-Pick-up Weapons: Tranquilliser Rifle, Stun Gun, Any weapon with EMP rounds (optional), EMP Mines.
-Augments: Energy Upgrade (VITAL), Hacking Tier Upgrade (VITAL), Jump Upgrade (VITAL), Tesla (optional), Glass Shield (optional), (Remote Hacking (optional and handy).
-Other items: Biocells, EMP Mines.
I went through the game using primarily Takedowns, the Stun Gun, TESLA, and the EMP10mm pistol (swapping between them but the first 3 all do the same job more or less).
Most Areas have obvious alternate paths (especially vents). If you get stuck in a situation where you cannot get past a guard/enemy because of their patrol path, use a throwable object to distract them, then move past. Another strategy is to use boxes to get to higher places rather than running in head first.
It is easiest to go through missions with as little takedowns (and evidence of your presence) as possible as there is less of a chance of patrolling enemies discovering your handiwork. Keep this in mind.
Helpful mission tips:
When you're first going to meet Koller you don't need to takedown any of the enemies. Also make sure you bribe/do the quest for the police officer on the second path leading to the Time Machine (Koller's place), as this will let you get past the guys at the front gate who can be a pain.
There are opportunities to use Biocells in certain missions to ease progress. If you are having trouble make sure to use them.
If you have plenty of Praxis kits and Biocells, upgrade Glass Shield to the max and you'll be able to fall back on it if you are about to be spotted.
DO NOT kill the vendor in Golem City that Otar wants you to kill (this unlocks a side quest-line so come back to this if this is your first playthrough).
In the GARM facility there is a large blue tunnel that can cut the area-time by a fair amount, keep an eye out for it.
In the boss fight with Marchenko, sneak around and locate the 3 security terminals which will let you disable all of his extra tech except for two of the flying drones. Make a save and test his patrol pattern. Then place an EMP mine where he is going to step, and then do a takedown.
I haven't tested this fully yet but I suggest not throwing knocked out NPC's off the map or using them as meat-shields. Obviously.
As far as I know there aren't any NPCs you need to save explicitly outside of the story to get this achievement. IE you don't need to quickly run here and stop NPC #857 from getting killed by a scripted event. Just don't kill anyone with your equipment/CQC/ etc and you should be fine.
If anyone has anything to add about specific parts in the game, feel free to write a comment. (If you still have questions, they may have been answered below!)
(Highly Missable!)
This trophy requires that you complete the game using 100% non-lethal methods to achieve all of your objectives throughout the duration of the game. The non-lethal means available are non-lethal melee takedowns, Stun Gun, Gas Grenade/Mine, Tranquilizer Rifle, P.E.P.S. Aug, Tesla Aug, and Typhoon Non-Lethal Aug.
You must not have directly caused any NPC to die or killed any enemy from direct actions. Lethal methods are only permitted against robots or drones (they aren't human beings). Dead characters will have a "Skull" icon display when highlighted.
The following counts as a kill:
- Dealing lethal damage with a weapon
- Dealing lethal damage using the environment (electricity, gas, punch through weakened walls while enemy is directly behind wall, dropping unconscious person from sufficient height)
- Hacked and used a turret, drone, or robot to kill a NPC or enemy
- Using the Kill Switch to defeat Marchenko (see Laputan Machine trophy)
The following does NOT count as a kill for you:
- Doing the all Tutorials in Adam's first mission in Dubai
- You destroying robots and drones (careful here as some robots/drones can sound an alarm voiding Foxiest of the Hounds)
- The Police killing Drahomir at the end of Side Mission 01: The Golden Ticket
- Talos Rucker dying at near the end of Main Mission 07: The Rucker Extraction (story related death)
- Choices you make that cause other characters to die, but not directly by your hands or actions. For example, failing to protect Singh (see Singh No Swan Song trophy) during Main Mission 01: Black Market Buy wouldn’t have an affect on Pacifist.
- You failing to save the Delegates (if you failed, then you'll get a bad ending as a result)
This achievement will require that you complete an entire playthrough without ever having killed a single individual. During the first mission in Dubai, make sure you choose the "non-lethal" option when asked how you'd like to approach the situation. Here, you can pick between a Tranquilizer Rifle or Stun Gun.
During this opening mission, and moving forward throughout the game, you must be careful not to kill your enemies. There a number of gadgets and equipment items to deal with hostiles non-lethally (Tranq Rifle, Stun Gun, Gas Grenade, etc.), as well as the traditional non-lethal melee takedown. In my personal opinion, it's best to avoid contact altogether and simply sneak your way around enemies during missions. In addition, this is best stacked with "Foxiest of the Hounds." If you do happen to accidentally kill an enemy, you can reload your latest save and carry on.
Here a few additional tips for this achievement, provided by PowerPyx.
- Whenever you enter combat, there is a risk that enemies will throw frag grenades and kill one of their allies. If they die it voids the achievement.
- Shooting or triggering explosive traps can kill nearby enemies even when they are knocked out. If something explodes make sure no enemies were affected.
- Make sure to take extra care with knocked-out enemies. They can still die if you use something lethal near them.
- Enemies that are down will either show the “ZZZ” icon when they are sleeping or a red “skull” when they are dead.
- There is one unavoidable death; Talos Rucker will always die in Mission 7, regardless of your dialogue choices. This doesn’t affect the achievement, though.
- Story character deaths don’t matter. Your decisions will affect who gets to live and who dies (the same applies for optional mission objectives). But, because you won’t be killing these people directly, it doesn’t affect they achievement.
- Using Marchenko’s kill switch for the “Laputan Machine” achievement will kill him and void the achievement.
In order to take out Marchenko non-lethally towards the end of the game, you can use an EMP Mine to stun him. Once stunned, simply approach him and perform a non-lethal melee takedown. You can refer to the video below for visual guidance.
You can go through almost the entire game without knocking anyone out. If you accidentally kill someone, load your last save.
Please note the following:
-If you enter into battle, make sure that the enemy does not throw a grenade at you and does not hit his own ally. The death of the enemy will be counted towards you and the trophy will not appear;
-Shoting at explosive traps (running/throwing something at it) can kill nearby enemies. Make sure that the explosion does not hurt anyone;
-Even if you knocked out an enemy in a non-lethal manner, make sure that they are displaying “ZZZ” and not a red skull;
- Be careful with the bodies. A knocked out enemy can still be killed (thrown from a height, hit by an explosion);
-There are several plot deaths. They cannot be prevented. This has nothing to do with you, they do not affect the trophy;
-Using a special device to neutralize Marchenko, associated with the Laputan Machine trophy, will kill him. If you need this trophy, then save before the battle to roll back later.
I personally found myself in this situation. In the battle with Marchenko there are robots: a couple fly, a couple are bipedal. When I knocked out Marchenko, there was a biped next to him, who exploded himself after a couple of seconds. Instead of "ZZZ" a red skull was displayed. I had to replay the battle.
The fight is not difficult. It is enough to use one EM mine/grenade (the main thing is that he does not notice), approach him and press .
Recommended augmentations (download in this order): Cloaking, Super Vision, Hacking: Grab, Hacking: Stealth, Cyber Prosthetic Leg, Icarus Landing System, Cyber Prosthetic Arm (Wall Breaking, Optimized Muscle), Sharif 8 Energy Converter. This, of course, is all according to your wishes.