Deus Ex: Human Revolution

When Sarif offers you a choice of weapons, I recommend the tranq rifle (choose nonlethal-ranged). It's the only scoped weapon you'll get for a while.

In my previous hint I recommended choosing the tranq rifle from Sarif, because it's the only scoped long-range weapon you get for a while. However, if you have the director's cut, an actual sniper rifle can be found early on.

Contrary to what the tutorial implies, you don't have to sneak up on someone to do a takedown. Also, unless you are roleplaying an asshole, there is no reason to do a lethal takedown, ever.

The EMP shielding aug actually makes you totally immune to electricity, so you can walk through electrified water and such.

When hacking, if you capture the red security node, the hack succeeds and you automatically get all the bonus nodes. It's not always possible, tho.

Hacking basics: capture the nodes that are unlikely to be detected first, and if you are detected disconnect and try again. Once you have to start hitting nodes with high detection chances, fortify everything you've got as you start the capture process, and try capturing / fortifying several nodes at once before the trace starts. A good hack is a mixture of planning out your path to have as much stuff in the bag before a trace starts as possible, and frantically juggling your capture and fortify options once the trace starts.

Resist the urge to hack every terminal you see just for the XP. You'll quickly get bored.

Yes, there are some useless augs. The stealth enhancers and hacking analyzers are all total crap, while the flash suppressant, gas immunity, and sprint boosters are marginal at best.

If you plan to do a completely non-lethal takedown run of the game, a) bosses don't count and b) the intro where you only have a gun, it tells you how to kill people, and gives you no non-lethal options does count.

Though the non-lethal achievement is a bit buggy, in theory if you don't get experience for killing people, they don't count as a kill for the achievement. That means people caught in a bot explosion / people who somehow manage to kill themselves.

Your last unit of energy automatically recharges, but only the last unit. Getting the faster recharge aug just makes that last point recharge faster.

The CASIE aug unlocks a couple more dialog options, so if you wanna talk your way out/into stuff consider getting it.

The bosses are bullet sponges. They are not, however, explosive sponges. A bunch of mines/grenades/gas canisters will ruin their day.

On the same note, the Typhoon augmentation ruins bosses in 2-3 activations. It's also instantaneous and makes Jensen invulnerable for the duration.

The third boss will
counter your takedown attempts and do a lot of damage - UNLESS he's jumping over a wall as you do the takedown, in which case it's an instant win button.

The non-lethal takedown is the most xp efficient way of dealing with enemies, at 50 xp per downed bad guy (125 for two guys at once with the double takedown upgrade). The next most efficient way is a headshot from the tranquilizer rifle (30 xp for a non-lethal takedown + 10 xp for a headshot). Whether you're going for the pacifist achievement or are trying to maximize your Praxis kits, these are your best options.

You can backtrack through any mission / hostile area. So you can stealth your way through up to (and including) the boss, get all the ghost and no-alarm experience, then go all the way back to the start to knock everyone out and loot all the stuff (the exception being Sarif's manufacturing, where you can't knock people out after the boss, but can still loot stuff and get exploration xp).

You get "Ghost" xp if you get to your goal without any human or bot enemies being certain they saw you (i.e. going into "Hostile" status), any cameras going red, or any enemies seeing a body. ANY bodies spotted by the enemy that send them into "alarmed mode", including bodies the player didn't cause, will void the ghost xp.

You will visit Detroit and Hengsha twice each. Any side missions you didn't complete the first time will be gone the second time. Other than that, nothing else changes. If you didn't get a goodie cache the first time, it will be there on your second visit.

In Detroit, stay away from the Convention Center until the plot sends you there. You'll get in a pointless fight if you go there early.

Breaking through walls unlocks a lot of new routes in the game so its surprisingly not worthless.

The punch-through-walls aug costs one Praxis, and there are *two* places where breaking a wall gets you a Praxis kit, so it's a no-brainer. (You can break weakened walls without the aug, but they're not highlighted, so that may or may not be considered cheating).

Enemy guards (whether conscious / alive or not) will turn off laser grid sensors as they pass through.

Anything that damages or destroys a camera will trigger an alarm - with the exception of an EMP blast. Anything at all that damages a laser will trigger an alarm.