Crime Boss: Rockay City

Technical issues

• You can skip the shader downloading process by pressing escape, but you still have to let it finish downloading on the title screen.

General tips

• Any mission you complete benefits your overall level, Even the tutorial.

• The unlocks you get for leveling your overall Boss level can give you more options for the Roguelite campaign.

• There are plenty of missions you will only see in Roguelite and they are random. Completing the Roguelite campaign will unlock some of these "stories" for separate play, along with character cosmetics.

• Bots are capable (compared to other heist games) and you can direct them to carry loot or cuff people. They will then guard the area and cuff wandering civilians who are startled. They don't do so well finding cover when in combat or sneaking long distances without you around.

• There is a slide you can do by sprinting and crouching. Keep the sprint toggled so you can slide easily...but be aware it will almost instantly alert people seeing it in stealth.

Stealth tips

• If you can stealth a mission, it's usually best to do so.

• Get the top tier Ghost ability ASAP, it's a game-changer.

• Broken or lockpicked objects will alert passing patrols, even if they shouldn't notice it. Same for tossed bags.

• Breaking objects has a sound radius. Drills and saws have a sound radius that seems to be the entire map; you'll want to lock down all guards first, or have a blind angle to reliably catch the parade of curious guards walking toward your position.

• The brick is low-key the best tool for stealth, if you take things slow; you can lead almost any guard to a safe location. It also kills in one hit even if it bounces off something. Just don't let people/cameras see you throw it or other objects.

Combat tips

• Almost all characters, player and enemy, have relatively low health and high damage. This means the most dangerous times in the game are when you encounter a large group of enemies at once, such as the initial wave coming from vehicles.

• It is better to deal with cops dropping from helicopters or exiting their vehicle before they organize. You can destroy the cop cars with them inside if you are fast enough.

• It is more effective to move bags to a defensive spot, discard one, then switch to your main gun to clear a path.

• Objects that are flashing are explosive and have a massive damage radius; this also applies to vehicles. Listen for honking car alarms and be aware they sometimes can explode multiple times.

• Criminal "bosses" have health meters and feel like they're practically from another game, having to be whittled down. Heavies and robot enemies are similarly threatening simply because you can't kill them fast.

• Bots can kill civilians. If you are going for that 3-star urban legend run, you should probably try to get some human players with you.

• "Heavies" have a yellow air vent on their suits- shoot it to make them remove their helmets and become an easy kill.

Roguelite Campaign Basics

• This mode uses per-run permadeath (as do shorter mission sequences, like urban legends). It is better to escape from a mission, abandoning bags, than losing crew.

• You are allowed to fail missions. It sometimes means you need to pay more or take longer to make progress.

• Some missions, such as banks, start midway and may sometimes start loud. Look for a skull (loud) or eye (quiet) symbol adjacent to the main one for the mission.

• The investigation meter means you are on a semi-flexible timer to finish the campaign. You will get various opportunities to diminish the meter, but they are not reliable and will cost significant money.

• Killing detectives also reduces the investigation meter. Otherwise, they will turn the area they are in neutral after one day. Go loud in a mission near the detective's location and they will show up to fight you. Two scripted detectives appear in the "Import/Export" mission, a huge benefit to your run...be aware, killing them causes a strike in stealth.

• Prioritize "assets," bought at the office. These permanent upgrades are kept between attempts and increase Entourage XP, unlocking permanent boosts that make the mode significantly fairer. At least one asset, the supercar "goal", is repeatable.

• You can take weapons from dead people (such as Heavy cops) and it might be an upgrade worth discarding your weapon for. It's yours to keep for that day.

• Check the gear of people you can recruit. Some may have powerful items to share when you have not unlocked them yet.

• The Heat you gain over the day makes loud missions harder, and turf battles will spawn up to three bosses. If you're not confident in your abilities, stick to one or the other for the day: making money or spending it expanding turf. Turf battles are especially expensive and risky, so I recommend doing them first.

• Check for an eye icon on missions that indicate whether you can stealth it or it is immediately loud. It might change over time due to events.

• Failing character missions will usually kill the character for the campaign; beware, some (like Ranger) are quite nasty.

• Mission sequences tied to an enemy gang often give you the chance to wipe out that gang entirely (by giving up any other monetary reward).

Roguelite Map Strategies

• Don't fight every gang at once; defending against multiple attacks will rapidly drain your resources. If you isolate the gangs from each other, they'll all start attacking you. Check gang relations and weapon tiers by clicking their leader's picture.

• Never break a truce.

• If a gang is attacking from a given territory and you can take that land from another angle, their attack is nullified. This is an extremely powerful gambit for making rapid progress. It can work even if you have to take out multiple connecting turfs, but it gets very expensive. Note that you can't move through contested territory.

• Hielo (yellow) starts hostile and is usually a good first target. Cagnali (purple) is a particularly nasty fight, and taking her final area via a normal turf attack borders on unfairness.

Roguelite Campaign Tricks

• Finishing as many days as you can in campaign gives more Entourage XP than doing every mission, because of scaling and events.

• Entourage rewards that give extra crew slots, extra soldiers, and buffs to soldiers are especially valuable; Soldiers are as much a resource bottleneck as money in this mode.

• Taking Baker is a risk, but if you're confident you can stealth a mission, his 50% bonus (and lack of a cut) is fantastic. Just have him stay at spawn.

• Loans are an exploit to buy assets for day 1 starts. Those are permanent upgrades for future runs. When you can't afford the 200k assets, wait a couple days and make larger loans to buy the 400k assets.

• Alt-F4 won't get you out of a mistake, but you can end the game's process and you will restart the mission when you reenter campaign mode.