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Steamworld Heist 2has plenty of difficulty settings, letting you make it as easy or as challenging as you want it to be. Whether you’re playing on a casual setting or going straight to a punishing gauntlet campaign, you can set yourself up for success by following some key guidelines right from the start.
These beginner tips will ensure that your crew is always ready for whatever dangers the Navy and the Rattlers have in store for you. Be sure to keep them in mind as you sail the seas in search of adventure and glory!
Rush New Crewmates To Level 3
Level 3 in any Job is an important threshold, so it’s vital that new recruits get there as soon as possible. It’s usually easiest totake advantage of their starting levelsand get them to Level 3 before you consider moving them to a different class.
It’s also a good idea to have a good weapon ready for newly-recruited crewmates, as they’ll usually start with a bottom-tier pea shooter.
Reaching Level 3grants the character an additional Cog, letting them assign more Skills once they switch Jobs. This makes it much easier to keep all their hard-earned abilities while they’re learning new ones in a different role.
Complete As Many Missions As You Can Before Resting
Once a crewmate participates in a mission, they’ll beunavailable for further duty until you sleep at the local Bar.As tempting as it might be to dock right away and get your best party members back, the game really encourages you toexhaust everyonebefore turning in for the night.
Teammates who need rest alsocannot change their equipment, meaning any gear they have is locked to them until the next day and can’t be shared.
Sail around looking for missions that your remaining crewmates can complete; they can use the extra experience, and you can use the extra loot. Once Bounties are unlocked, you’ll also getmuch better rewardsat the end of the day for completing more missions in a single stretch.
Lost Hats Come Back After A Mission
A fun but entirely cosmetic mechanic in Steamworld Heist 2 isshooting off hats; a character who is just barely missed by a shot flying over their head may have their chapeau sent flying! you may recover an enemy’s hat toadd it to your collection, and a hatless ally who picks up a hat (their own or someone else’s) will put it on.
If you have to choose between recovering your precious hat and staying in cover,survival and the mission come first.Evacuating the mission area without recovering a crewmate’s lost hatwill not cause the hat to leave your inventory; you can re-equip it the next day after resting. This has to be done manually, though; the crewmate will remain hatless in the meantime.
There’s A Map In The Menu
While a minimap at sea would certainly be welcome, you’re not completely without navigational tools as you explore in your submarine. The pause menuhas a map of the surrounding area, which can help get your bearings if you become lost or turned around.
The map can also be usedwhile walking around inside the subto see which crew members have something new to talk about.Look for ellipsis marks over their headsto indicate an available conversation.
Roam The Seas For Plunder
Take your time while sailing from one location to the next. There’s a lot to explore, especially once you reach larger areas of the world like Arctica. You’ll almost always be rewarded for your efforts withnew locations, hidden missions, or floating treasure.
Even if you’ve already explored an area thoroughly, it’s worthtaking the scenic routeat the start of a new day.Enemy ships respawn overnight, giving you new opportunities to sink them and collect the Gallons they’re carrying. You canrack up a lot of extra cash this way, as long as you don’t bite off more than you can chew.
Trade Bounties For Gallons
Trading in your Bounties at the end of the day can offer some enticing rewards, includingnew weapons and submarine upgrades. However, there’s something to be said forjust taking a large lump sum of cash, and some Bounties offer hundreds of Gallons all at once! Combined with your take from missions and salvage at sea, that’s usually enough to hire a new crewmate or buy a shiny new piece of high-tier gear.
Each Bounty can only be a limited number of times, indicated by the number of dots on its label, but new ones become available as you progress the main story.
Destroying Your Own Cover Is Hard, But Not Impossible
Cover in Steamworld Heist 2 is destructible, and depending on your team composition a large part of your strategy can revolve aroundsimply blasting enemy cover to smithereensbefore gunning the bad guys down. Of course, you’ll want to be sure that you don’t leave yourself with nothing for your own crew to duck behind when the enemy decides to fire back!
It’s important to note thata crewmate can’t directly hit the cover that they’re currently hiding behind.That means that Flankers with shotguns, for example, don’t have to worry about accidentally smashing their protection while blasting foes at a low angle. It does, however, mean you need tobe careful of ricochets and explosions, which can still leave you out in the open if they take the last few HP off your cover.
Recruit Chimney As Early As Possible
If you happen upon a burly pink bot seeking employment,hire her immediately.Chimney is a phenomenal asset to your crew thanks to herresilience as one of the few characters who starts as a Brawler.With Hard Shell as part of her starting skill suite, she has a level of survivability that the rest of the team can’t match.
Chimney gets even better once you have a Personal Upgrade Terminal and can unlock her signature ability,Tit-For-Tat.Whenever Chimney takes damage, her attacker suffers two damage right back, no matter how far away they are. Combined with her defensive abilities (and maybe a Repair Kit), this lets her potentially take out swarms of weak foes without even lifting a finger!Getting Chimney on your crew should be an early priority in any campaign, regardless of difficulty.
