Phantom Doctrine
47 Achievements
GOG
The End? - Hard
Dismantle the conspiracy on Hard difficulty.
0.8%
How to unlock the The End? - Hard achievement in Phantom Doctrine - Definitive Guide
KinjoTheTaken
TrueAchievements
TrueAchievements
Since there cant be a specific guide to completing the game because of the amount of variables the game throws at, id rather offer my insights into hard mode. Currently in on the final chapter of the game and I also need to do an extended mode play through. Having the benefit of not playing the game on easy or normal and going straight to hard I have found this game rather easy albeit a bit confusing at times, Il try to explain.
The key to winning hard mode is Taking your time and making more money than you need. These 2 points go hand in hand, taking the time to perform tactical recon on every op and side op and going full stealth through missions will enable you to collect enough loot which you can sell to fund your extravagant PD lifestyle!
The 'hard' part of hard mode is predicated on the fact that the Danger meter is constantly increasing forcing you to move base regularly which costs money. Ergo by completing every operation at least through the first 5 chapters of the game will provide you with so much friggin loot and trade contacts that money no longer becomes an issue, since quests are radiant they will never end meaning you have infinite ability to farm resources. You can move base at will, buy as many agents and upgrades as you wish, body engineer as much as you want etc etc... Keeping agents on the forger at all times will eventually make you enough money per in game hour that it drastically out performs the games ability to make danger level a relevant factor as you can just up and leave wenever you want!
That being said, you will still need to be good at stealthing the missions, while although not really difficult it can become a pain if u are not stealth minded, luckily for me its my favourite genre which is why this game is a breeze for me. If you're not good at stealth fear not! You can abuse the games manual and autosave system to your own ends so there really is no excuse not collecting all loot and Intel on each mission and side op. Remember you cant dispose of bodies, so you know what, don't bother killing anyone! It doesn't affect anything other Than xp, use Distract and Breach to your advantage and this game wont give you much trouble.
Enemies do do more damage and take more damage so its important to train and body engineer your agent stats and abilities, once you do this, again it will outperform enemy defence and output. What I found useful is when in a situation u cant win, use a smoke grenade on yourself the enemy wont shoot what they cant see, this has saved my bacon a few times when trying to extract under heavy resistance, smoke lasts 2 turns and extracting takes 4 turns so smoke grenades are your best friend when retreating.
Stay in cover at all times, if it all goes tits up which is highly likely at some point then not getting caught flanked will keep you alive. A full action meter + full or half cover will stop you taking any damage for a turn, how cool is that! Engineering your agents to have health 135+ will enable you to hand to hand takedown any agent in the game meaning you don't have to risk setting alarms for gun fights just to kill that pesky agent which is stopping your mission progression, but to body engineer effectively you must constantly solve secret files and collect all intel from missions which will randomly give you the chemical compounds to do so. Hiring agents with high health is a bonus too.
Speaking of hiring agents, they increase your danger meter. To mitigate this, wait until your meter is already red before hiring agents. It makes no difference whether you are 1% or 99% red the chance of being raised and suffering losses are the same so as soon as you hit red, hire your agents, don't progress time, then opt for moving hideout, therefore youl never struggle for numbers in your ranks.
Those are my tips I hope u find them useful Il update it more once I think of more stuff or if u have any questions feel free!
EDIT, once you head to Grenada its the point of no return, the game ends upon completion of the mission, so get all ur shizzle done before heading to Grenada to battle Valhalla. It must be noted that I did this mission in complete stealth with breach n clear, so you don't need to go over board with the juggernaut armor expecting waves of enemies, just use trial and error if u make a mistake.
Having 3 agents with 2 fire points and at least 3 action points makes a big difference.
The key to winning hard mode is Taking your time and making more money than you need. These 2 points go hand in hand, taking the time to perform tactical recon on every op and side op and going full stealth through missions will enable you to collect enough loot which you can sell to fund your extravagant PD lifestyle!
The 'hard' part of hard mode is predicated on the fact that the Danger meter is constantly increasing forcing you to move base regularly which costs money. Ergo by completing every operation at least through the first 5 chapters of the game will provide you with so much friggin loot and trade contacts that money no longer becomes an issue, since quests are radiant they will never end meaning you have infinite ability to farm resources. You can move base at will, buy as many agents and upgrades as you wish, body engineer as much as you want etc etc... Keeping agents on the forger at all times will eventually make you enough money per in game hour that it drastically out performs the games ability to make danger level a relevant factor as you can just up and leave wenever you want!
That being said, you will still need to be good at stealthing the missions, while although not really difficult it can become a pain if u are not stealth minded, luckily for me its my favourite genre which is why this game is a breeze for me. If you're not good at stealth fear not! You can abuse the games manual and autosave system to your own ends so there really is no excuse not collecting all loot and Intel on each mission and side op. Remember you cant dispose of bodies, so you know what, don't bother killing anyone! It doesn't affect anything other Than xp, use Distract and Breach to your advantage and this game wont give you much trouble.
Enemies do do more damage and take more damage so its important to train and body engineer your agent stats and abilities, once you do this, again it will outperform enemy defence and output. What I found useful is when in a situation u cant win, use a smoke grenade on yourself the enemy wont shoot what they cant see, this has saved my bacon a few times when trying to extract under heavy resistance, smoke lasts 2 turns and extracting takes 4 turns so smoke grenades are your best friend when retreating.
Stay in cover at all times, if it all goes tits up which is highly likely at some point then not getting caught flanked will keep you alive. A full action meter + full or half cover will stop you taking any damage for a turn, how cool is that! Engineering your agents to have health 135+ will enable you to hand to hand takedown any agent in the game meaning you don't have to risk setting alarms for gun fights just to kill that pesky agent which is stopping your mission progression, but to body engineer effectively you must constantly solve secret files and collect all intel from missions which will randomly give you the chemical compounds to do so. Hiring agents with high health is a bonus too.
Speaking of hiring agents, they increase your danger meter. To mitigate this, wait until your meter is already red before hiring agents. It makes no difference whether you are 1% or 99% red the chance of being raised and suffering losses are the same so as soon as you hit red, hire your agents, don't progress time, then opt for moving hideout, therefore youl never struggle for numbers in your ranks.
Those are my tips I hope u find them useful Il update it more once I think of more stuff or if u have any questions feel free!
EDIT, once you head to Grenada its the point of no return, the game ends upon completion of the mission, so get all ur shizzle done before heading to Grenada to battle Valhalla. It must be noted that I did this mission in complete stealth with breach n clear, so you don't need to go over board with the juggernaut armor expecting waves of enemies, just use trial and error if u make a mistake.
Having 3 agents with 2 fire points and at least 3 action points makes a big difference.
1 Comment
Just to add a couple of pointers as well to help people with the stealth elements:
(1) When you take out a guard and cause an enemy to become suspicious and come to search for you, this isn't strictly true. They do not search for you per se, they make a beeline to the last location of the enemy you took out. Also, it is always an enemy agent that does this. Ordinary police officers and soldiers do not (they stick to their normal patrol routes). So if you know where the enemy agent(s) are, then you can easily predict where they are going so you can ambush them stealthily enroute.
(2) This alert stage only triggers once per mission, so if you intercept and take out the enemy agent, it ends this alert status and it won't trigger again as you take out other guards.
So you can essentially lure enemy agents toward you by taking out a specific guard, and then intercept them enroute. This is especially useful if the room where the enemy agent is, is full of other enemies that you can't take them all out stealthily. Just be mindful that enemy agents will destroy any remaining loot and intel as they travel, so try to grab as much of it first.
(1) When you take out a guard and cause an enemy to become suspicious and come to search for you, this isn't strictly true. They do not search for you per se, they make a beeline to the last location of the enemy you took out. Also, it is always an enemy agent that does this. Ordinary police officers and soldiers do not (they stick to their normal patrol routes). So if you know where the enemy agent(s) are, then you can easily predict where they are going so you can ambush them stealthily enroute.
(2) This alert stage only triggers once per mission, so if you intercept and take out the enemy agent, it ends this alert status and it won't trigger again as you take out other guards.
So you can essentially lure enemy agents toward you by taking out a specific guard, and then intercept them enroute. This is especially useful if the room where the enemy agent is, is full of other enemies that you can't take them all out stealthily. Just be mindful that enemy agents will destroy any remaining loot and intel as they travel, so try to grab as much of it first.
By Bleeding Pepper on 23 Jul 2023 18:10