How do you play Deus Ex GO? Here’s our beginner’s guide!
Montreal-based developers Square Enix are back with their latest in the mobile GO franchise — Deus Ex GO. Based on the Deus Ex universe, you play as agent Adam Jensen on a stealth mission to uncover a secret terrorist plot. You don’t have to know anything about Deus Ex to enjoy Deus Ex GO. Though the characters and dystopian cyberpunk atmosphere will be familiar to fans of the franchise, the gameplay is completely different than previous titles.
Deus Ex GO is a turn-based puzzle game wherein you must solve grid-based puzzles and avoid getting caught by enemies as you work your way through each level. There are plenty of obstacles to get in the way, including motion-detecting turrets and hacking stations that let you control the space around you.
If you’re new to Deus Ex Go, or perhaps new to Square Enix’s entire GO franchise, we’ve got all the information you need to get to the bottom of the terrorist conspiracy.
- How Deus Ex GO game mechanics work
- How to avoid enemies
- How to use augmentation
- How to hack the computer systems
- How to play weekly puzzle events
- How to earn achievements for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
- How to use the Puzzle Maker
How Deus Ex GO game mechanics work
Playing as agent Adam Jensen, you’ve been tasked to infiltrate a compound to find and protect a person-of-interest named Novak, while also looking for information that will help you uncover who is behind the terrorist plot. You do so by sneaking around different rooms, trying to avoid getting caught by guards, turrets, robots, and other traps. To do so, you must be very precise and strategic with your every move.
The game is turn-based, in that every time you make a move the bad guys also move. This mechanic is something you must keep front of mind throughout the game.
Your movement is restricted to specific pathways, marked in white with nodes indicating a spot that Jensen can stop at. How you navigate the pathways are the key to getting out alive.
To move, tap the nearby node you want to move to. Each move you take counts as one turn, and immediately following your move, any baddies with preset or active move patterns will take their turn. Hacking computers and activating your augmentation counts as a turn for the player, but does not cause the enemies to move.
To earn the Mastermind achievement on each mission, you must complete each level perfectly with the minimum number of moves required to pass the level. If you complete all Mastermind achievements, you earn special rewards to be used in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Getting killed or deciding to restart a level does not count against you. Rather, Deus Ex GO is a game that rewards trial-and-error as you work out how to take out — or sneak past — the enemy.
How to avoid enemies
As you play through Deus Ex GO, you immediately understand the importance of stealth. Often times enemies are only activated when you walk into their line of sight. Sometimes you are required to get their attention to progress through a level but unless you know you’ll be able to get a jump on them or lead them into a trap, it’s best to try and be as stealthy as possible.
Guards
Guards are humans with superhuman augmentation armor called “Titan Shields.” When a guard sees you, he activates his shield and runs at you. You’ll know when a guard has activated his Titan shield because he immediately turns glowing red, along with the path ahead of him. You can’t kill a guard when his shield is activated, so don’t bother trying.
As soon as you cross a pathway that a guard is facing, he sees you and starts running. If his next move lands in the space you are occupying, you’re toast.
Because the game is turn-based, you can get out of his pathway before he reaches you. Once out of his sight, he’ll just turn around and go back the way he came. When he gets back to his guard post, he will deactivate his Titan shield, making him vulnerable to attack. Guards also have the ability to disconnect hacked lines, so if your pathway from the computer to a hackable platform is in the path of a moving guard, he may disconnect the connection before you’re able to cross over.
You may not be able to defeat a guard head-on, but you can sneak up on one to take him out. As long as you are on a pathway that he is not facing, you can sneak-attack him. That includes walking up right next to him on a sideways path.
You can also hack the computer systems on many levels to get turrets to do your bidding. When an unsuspecting guard ends up in the connected path of a hacked turret, he’ll go down instead of you.
Later on in the game you will run into guards that will cover multiple paths at one time. Each turn will cause them to switch their focus from one path to the next. At certain points, a single wrong move will determine whether you succeed or fail.
Bots
There are several different types of different forms.The first form you run into are stationary and face one direction. You can cross their path, but if you get within one space of them they will take you out. Later in the game, you will run into walking bots that patrol a stretch of pathway. Much like guards, you are unable to take out the walking bots head-on and must resort to using turrets or otherwise trapping them to disable them.
You can also destroy bots by sneaking up on them. Similar to guards, if they are not looking down the pathway you are on, you can smash them to bits from behind or sideways.
Turrets
Turrets will mow you down as soon as you move into a path they are facing. They don’t move, but they don’t need to. You can’t destroy turrets, but you can take over control of them by hacking a computer system. When you do, you can make them friendly to your cause. This can be very useful for picking off unsuspecting guards that happen to be in the way. Remember, when a guard’s Titan shield is active, he is invincible, even to turrets.
You can also use Turrets to your advantage without needing to control them. If you move down a pathway that is parallel to a guard and perpendicular to a turret, you can time your movement so that a guard blocks the bullets fired as you cross its pathway.
Later in the game, you will come across mortar turrets, which launch three lobbed bombs at the node in which they first make sight of you. You are able to hack these mortar turrets and change the direction that they face, but they will only fire at the player. However, if you time things right…
How to use augmentation
As you make your way through the game, sometimes your cunning and strategic moves simply aren’t enough to get past the enemy — fortunately, Jensen is a super-powered human with the power of augmentation.
The augmentation powerup looks like a blue pyramid, and are strategically placed throughout levels when required. Simply move to the node where the powerup is located to collect it. Augmentation won’t trigger automatically, so you’re typically wise to save it until the time seems right. It will appear in the upper right corner of the screen, simply tap the icon when you are ready to use it.
Early on, the main use for augmentation is invisibility. When you tap the augmentation icon, a blue hexagon will appear under your character’s feet. Tap your character to trigger the effect.
You can then move freely into a new node while remaining invisible to any nearby enemies. You will stay that way until you move again. On your second move after initiating the invisibility augmentation, the effect goes away and you are visible again. If you are within any bad guy’s line of site, you may be in for a beating. By the same logic, if you bump into an enemy while invisible, the jig is up and you will be attacked.
Later on, augmentation powers can be used to remotely hack into the computer system and even take out enemies at a distance.
How to hack the computer systems
After you’ve completed a few early levels, you’ll occasionally see computers available for hacking, which are marked on the level in yellow. They can be used to take control of turrets, activate or deactivate special tiles on the floor, and change the firing direction of mortar bots. Strategic use of a computer may be crucial to making it through a level, or defeating an enemy blocking your path.
To activate a computer, walk into the node that it occupies (marked in yellow) and tap your character. You will enter hacker mode, which shows you your available options for controlling objects in the room.
To take control of an object, drag your finger from the computer to the object. In the later stages of the game, you will need to take care with how you draw your connections.
You can take control of a turret, which will make it friendly to you and instead shoot at guards. It won’t shoot at you if you cross a hacked turret’s pathway.
You can take control of special tiles on the floor which allow you to progress to the finish. These are major puzzle mechanics and it is important to understand when to hack a tile and when not to.
If you hack a tile at just the right moment, you can cause a guard to be stuck behind it, allowing you a clear path to the exit. If a guard is standing on a tile when it disappears, he will be frozen on that node until you make the floor tile reappear.
Rotating tiles will cause bots to move down an alternate pathway. They will also open up new pathways to help you get to an exit.
Guards can reverse your hack job on an object, so watch out. If you are standing on a disappearing tile when a guard disables your hack, you die.
This is where timing is key. If you plan your moves properly, you can get past a tile before the guard gets to it.
How to play weekly puzzle events
In addition to Story mode, players can take place in weekly puzzle events. These are special missions that only last one week. If you complete all levels in the mission within the specified amount of time, you might earn a special reward that can be used in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.
These weekly puzzle events are significantly more difficult than the puzzles in Story mode. It is a great opportunity for players that have completed the story to continue playing the game.
How to earn achievements for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
In a smart move to get fans of Deus Ex excited about the mobile game, Square Enix has included a reward system that will let players earn skill points, called Praxis Kits, in Deus Ex GO.
When you connect your Square Enix account to Deus Ex GO, you can send your Praxis Kits over to the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided game, where they can be assigned to your augmentation tree.
There are currently five Praxis Kits available to earn in Deus Ex GO. You can get two for completing Story mode, one for clearing every level with the Mastermind achievement, one for completing the first puzzle week event, and one for completing the second puzzle week event.
It is possible that Square Enix will add more Praxis Kit rewards as time goes by, especially as a reward for completing weekly puzzle events.
How to use the Puzzle Maker
Square Enix has confirmed that a Puzzle Maker feature will be added to the game a few months after the initial release. Once the new feature goes live, we’ll make sure to update this guide with the rundown of how to make your own epic Deus Ex GO puzzles.
