My Stealth Kill Tips

Mutant Year Zero General Discussion
1

some minor spoilers

This game is focused around stealth. That said, here are my tips for stealth kills. I split this into Organic and Robot Stealth Kills

Organic Stealth Kills

  1. Basic Math: add up the base dmg of your silent weapons to determine if you can take an enemy (duh). Factor in armor by negating the amount of enemy armor x3 from your base dmg. When you scope out patrols use that base dmg to weigh which patrols you can kill in a single round. Sometimes you have to kill easy patrols to get in closer to the objective, but if you can, try to save these sure kills for later to charge up your mutations. This is especially true if youre going to face a boss at the end and you want all your Mutations charged up.

  2. Add Mutations: Your big Stealth Kill Mutations are Hog Rush, Twitch Shot and Skullsplitter. These skills let you kill units that are above your base silent weapon damage. You should be using these mutations in almost every encounter.
    Hog Rush lets you knock out an enemy, allowing you to attack it for two rounds. This is your sure kill if your dmg x2 can take the enemy, BUT it doesn’t work on tanks or large robots.
    Twitch Shot lets Bormin and Selma fire twice, but with a -25% hit penalty. Twitch Shot is always a gamble even at 75% chance to hit. One or both shots can miss.
    Skullsplitter is a sure kill if the crit dmg adds up to the remaining enemy health. I usually save Skullsplitter for the last shot.

  3. Passives and Items: You can also use the passive skills Silent Assasin and Alpinist in combination with the headgear Aristo Hat and Fertility Crown to give yourself up to 100% crit chance. This is better than Skullsplitter because you can have 100% hit and 100% crit.

Robot Stealth Kills
From the very first encounter with a robot on the High Road you’ll find out that robots are tough to kill. You’ll also realize that med bots can swing the tide of any fire fight with resurrection and are therefore a priority. Fortunately you are given many items and skills to deal with robots and all of them can be used for stealth

  1. EMP Grenades: These are self explanatory in how they work. However, one cool thing about EMP grenades is that they are silent (according to the game). As long as another unit’s awareness circle does not overlap the robot, you can use an EMP grenade without alerting anyone. This gives you time to burn the enemy down with your silent weapons. Because of the low base dmg of your silent weapons, it pays to get Zapper Artifact skill (Extend EMP Grenade Effect by 1 Turn). Personally I had alot of EMP grenades at the end and only used them for unexpected turns in fire fights.

  2. Skills: Circuit Breaker acts like an EMP grenade for 1 turn, but has a 25% chance to miss so it is a gamble. Once you have Farrow you have two Circuit Breakers.

  3. EMP Damage Modules: Along the way you will get the Noatun-EMP30 (20% chance to disable robotic enemies) and two Elysium-EMP 50s (50% chance to disable robotic enemies). That’s alot of chance to disable a bot and you should use them to your advantage. I’m not 100% sure where to get both 50% EMP dmg modules, but I believe you get one at the Metal Fields.

  4. Rotation: when youre stealth killing robots always have Farrow and Dux in your squad. Give Bormin’s (or whoever your third squadie is) a silent weapon with an EMP dmg module. Let Bormin be the first shooter to give yourself a chance at a free EMP bot disable. Always give Bormin the 50% chance EMP dmg module when you find it and then, once you get it, the second 50% EMP dmg module to the 2nd shooter to give yourselve another chance if Bormin’s doesn’t work. Once you have both 50% chance EMP dmg modules, the 20% chance module isn’t worth equipping on the third person. The 3rd shooter should always be Dux or Farrow, whoever has Circuit Breaker off cooldown OR, as a last resort whoever is carrying an EMP grenade. So the rotation should look like this:

  • 1st shot: Bormin with 20% or 50% EMP dmg module
  • 2nd shot: Dux or Farrow with with 20% or 50% EMP dmg module and Circuit Breaker on Cooldown
  • 3rd shot: Dux or Farrow using Circuit Breaker or EMP grenade

SOME SPOILERS
By the Time you get to Grave of the Ancients your rotation should look like this:

  • 1st shot: Bormin with 50% EMP dmg module
  • 2nd shot: Dux or Farrow with 50% EMP dmg module and Circuit Breaker on Cooldown
  • 3rd shot: Dux or Farrow using Circuit Breaker or EMP grenade

If you plan it right, you can take the entire Grave of the Ancients with only Stealth attacks and EMP stunlocks. Just make sure you step away from the large MIMIR Z600 robot to avoid splash dmg as it explodes.

Your EMP modules can reset the EMP stunlock on robots that are already stunned so it’s usually a sure kill once you stun it.

Get Cheeky: In this post apocalyptic world, all enemies are extremely nearsighted and deaf. Earlier I mentioned the awareness circles of the enemies. If a circle does not overlap another enemy, even if the second enemy is at the edge of the awareness circle but not overlapping, you can stealth kill that enemy using the methods above. Make sure Hog Rush doesn’t push them into an enemies awareness circle.

SPOILER
There was only one exception to that rule at the Sealed Gate, final fight with the Med Bot and Mimir Z600. For some reason stealth killing the Med Bot alerted the Mimir Z600. I disabled the Med Bot and threw an EMP grenade at the Mimir Z600.

Corrections and comments welcome! Thanks!