Stealth and noise - August 6, 2015

Daily posting, on the topics of stealth and noise.

In Gachduine, enemies not in combat see in a semi-circle at about standard Pistol attack range in front of them. Some enemies have triple this sight range, namely enemies with Rifles equipped, Phantoms and Spectres. Combat will begin and/or enemies will join in combat if they see one of your party members, Drones or Golems, if they see another enemy who is currently in combat or if they are attacked. If an enemy is hit to begin a battle, the battle will be a pre-emptive one, and your team starts with their Speed Counters half full.

Each Stealth Competency slightly lowers enemy sight. 20 Stealth Competencies will cut most enemies' sight in half, and 40 will blind them completely (though snipers, Phantoms and Spectres will still see quite far, even at those Stealth levels). Since these enemies are very difficult to stealth past, another strategy may be able to pass by them: noise-making.

Certain weapons, such as the Rocket Launcher, Behemoth, Barrels, C4 and Chainsaw are considered Loud, and draw enemies towards the source of the noise (generally, the user, but includes the rocket from the Rocket Launcher).

The Sonic Ball Competency draws enemies to a location some distance away from where the user is facing (or until it hits a wall), making it a good way to make a long distance noise while not damaging any enemies to begin combat. Investing points in the Sonic skill tree can boost overall noise radius (to draw more enemies to one spot) and can boost uses of Sonic Ball (default is 3). The Scatter Competency makes enemies run AWAY from all noises.

C4 has a lot of ammo and does not need a target to detonate/make noise, nor does your character have to be anywhere near the C4 or enemy when detonated, making it ideal for at least one character to have for dungeons, at least, early on. Especially early on, enemies such as Phantoms and Miners can best be dealt with by not having to fight them at all. Assuming, of course, they are part of the dungeon and not part of a boss battle.

Stealth cannot be used for boss battles, with the exception of the Combat Knife's Monster of the Dark Competency and the Cimmerian Call Extreme. These abilities reduce all in-combat enemy Speed Counters to 0 and puts them in a state of pre-emptive stun until their Speed Counters fully charge. While in pre-emptive stun, enemies are vulnerable to the Combat Knife's 5x unseen modifier and Stealth Damage Competencies will work.

Since this state is only available until the enemy's next turn, your Monster of the Dark user either needs to be faster than their target in terms of Speed Counter gains or have a character or two able to keep them stunned for multiple stealth hits. A good choice for this is a Chainsaw with Stun Competencies to keep a long stunlock going (and even more Stealth hits). Even better is a character with the Stealth Saw Competency, which allows Chainsaws to use Combat Knife modifiers, allowing the stunlocker to also take advantage of Monster of the Dark.