Evil Genius

Intro/Super Agents

• The game has two islands. Except for having to build a new base, not much changes on the second island. You retain your notoriety, money, number of minions, henchmen, stolen loot items and world map progress. You can only miss out on optional objectives.

• Super Agents (heroes) will make their very first appearance based on your Notoriety, but repeat appearances seem to be random and are not based on your Heat on the world map. Neutralizing and incarcerating them should be your number one priority. Especially John Steele, he can use an ability that messes with the alarm and sets all doors to level 1. The former stops when he is knocked out, you'll have to reset the doors manually (you can pause for that).

• You gradually unlock optional objectives to get rid of Super Agents on the second island. On the first island prevent your Notoriety from getting too high, stick to Acts of Infamy that have some kind of reward.

Henchmen

• The more Notoriety you have, the more henchmen that can be recruited on the world map. You have multiple choices each time, and the ones you don't pick will still be available later.

• Jubei (Maxmillian has him from the start): A really solid fighter, he can take out Super Agents on his own if you use his two special abilities in conjunction to get the drop on them. Make sure that you tag the target before teleporting, otherwise Jubei will stop attacking after using Eviscerate.

• Lord Kane (Shen Yu's starter): Kane has a special ability called Smooth Operator, which is a social attack. Once a social attacks begins, the target will be stuck until it finishes. On top of that Smooth Operator is glitched and it will FREEZE the target until Lord Kane has reached him/her. This allows even basic minions to knock out Super Agents.

• You probably want to avoid Red Ivan: He uses a rocket launcher and he WILL blow up parts of your base. If you do recruit him you want to keep him on the world map, because he is excellent at stealing money.

Building

• Avoid making parts of your room inaccessible/blocked. Agents will use those to tunnel in your base and start destroying things. Having objects that block each other also means that they can't be repaired and researched by science minions.

• Don't trap your main entrance. It only takes one inattentive minion to set off a chain reaction that sees half your work force dead or dazed. Instead, build a small secondary base, fill it with non-lethal traps and seal off the outer door. Agents go in, spend ages in there, and by the time they get out they are ready to leave the island.

• Build shacks outside and then just put a security door on them. This will attract agents and keep them occupied. Put the shacks in corners of the map, but don't put them in the path between your base and the depot/helipad.

• The totem pole pieces (optional objectives on the first island) will drain stats until the pole is completed, so store them in the Freezer until you have all the pieces.

• Sometimes minions get stuck dropping off an agent in a holding cell. Temporarily move the cell to a different spot to fix it.

Management

• There's a config file that lets you adjust the maximum number of minions (by default it's 100). Increase that to make the game a little easier. Or just cheat and give yourself money, that way you can focus on your island instead of having to look at your minions on the world map every 2 minutes.

• If a minion deserts due to low Loyalty, you can capture them, release them from their cell after a few seconds, and they'll go back to working for you. They run at max speed when deserting, but if you double click them they'll stop to salute you, even as twenty guys beat them up. This doesn't work for minions who desert because of a certain Super Agent ability.

• Once you've researched freaks, you can create them by tossing body bags into the Biotanks. If you want to get rid of freaks, tag them for weakening.

Research

• The key to research is obtaining research devices: (1) You steal one of three research devices on the world map. (2) You research the other two research devices in your base (so the ones you didn't steal). (3) Once you've got all three devices and have stolen the Mercury Mirror loot item (a mission in Australia), you will EVENTUALLY research the fourth research item, Biotanks. It can take a while. (4) At the start of the second island you are given research item #5, 6 and 7.

• For some reason your scientists might not study the right buildings to get all three original research devices. This means you will miss out on the fourth research device (and a lot of improved items). For me this "bug" fixed itself on the second island, but just in case, here is reference to which buildings the scientist need to study to obtain these research devices. Impact Stress Analyzer -> a normal door. Giants Laser -> a security camera. Centrifuge -> a power generator. You can put a door and camera in your Laboratory so your science minions won't miss them. The power generator can be trickier, and that is why I recommend stealing the Centrifuge on the world map to start your science adventure. I don't remember in which territory it spawns on the world map, but keep looking for it.

Moving to the second island

• Once you've completed all the main objectives on the first island, you'll be given a button on the world map to travel to the second one. Your minions will pack up your loot items and run towards the depot. Make sure the loot items are in rooms your minions can access. There seems to be some kind of hard limit to the amount of loot items you can transfer, so hopefully you didn't steal all of them thus far.

• You want as little Heat as possible before the move. That way you don't have to deal with bothersome agents while leaving the first island AND shortly after arriving on the second island.

• Having a lot of money before you leave the first island is a great boon. You can build the second island base of your dreams (press P to pause so you can design in peace). Having 3 million in the bank will last you quite a while. Note that you won't have all that money at the start of the second island, you need to build a separate store room inside your new base for all that money to start appearing.