Dead Space
- As soon as you get the starting weapon hit the Secondary Fire button to change its firing pattern from vertical to horizontal. It makes it much easier to dismember limbs with that gun.
- You can stomp on those green boxes with the little light on them to get extra health/ammo/credits.
- You can use literally the first gun you get for the entire game, upgrade it's damage ASAP and sell virtually everything you run into that isn't ammo/health.
- Generally it's a good idea to keep around 75-100 ammo for the first gun and around 2-3 health kits and atleast 1 canister of air for emergencies, sell everything else.
- The bank is nearly useless, don't worry about it unless you feel the need to stockpile extra health and other goodies. (though it is largely unnecessary)
- Upgrade your weapon first, then rig, then everything else, you will get more than enough to upgrade everything using only 1 weapon in a single play through if you're thorough and sell what you don't need to buy more power modules.
- When in doubt refer to the games thread, there are a few puzzles that can stump people.
- Stomp on every corpse you come across. If you don't know why, you will learn soon.
- Do NOT use your melee attack unless absolutely necessary. It should be a last resort only.
- If you're running out of ammo too quickly, try carrying fewer guns. The game drops ammo based on the guns in your inventory, so two guns = twice as much usable ammo as four guns. Find your favorites and stick with them.
- If you run away from Necromorphs, they will find a way into the room you're hiding in. They don't need to use doors.
- Every gun starts out feeling underpowered and useless, but becomes a ruthless death machine when fully upgraded (with the possible exception of the flamethrower).
- Make slow, careful progress through the levels. If you rush in blindly, you will die a LOT.
- Save often and in different slots, it's possible to get yourself into an impossible situation and it's a good idea to have an earlier save to revert to.
- Most of the time the only ammo drops will be for guns you have equipped. So if you have a Plasma Cutter and Line gun, you'll get ammo for each. If you have four weapons but only use two, you're going to pick up a lot of 'useless' ammo.
- Regardless of appearances, there is no real time limit to any part of the game - don't stress so hard.
- Ensure that you upgrade your primary weapon and suit before secondary weapon/stasis/kinesis.
- Get the Line Gun upgraded fairly early on, it's fantastic.
- Bring the Ripper Sawblade gun with you all of the time, the ammo sells for a lot and is plentiful and you won't get ammo if you don't bring it along. Yes, even if it is fairly shitty as a weapon. (Just focus on the Line, Cutter, and one other that sounds fun to you)
- Play on a harder difficulty than you want to. The game really isn't very difficult.
- Don't use the stupid autopilot thing that shows you where to go next unless you really are very lost. It really took away from the exploration and fun.
Another thing for Dead Space, you'll find that many people will say certain weapons suck and you shouldn't use them. The only weapon that is shit in Dead Space is the flamethrower, every other weapon has their use. I personally found the Plasma Cutter and the Assault Rifle to be my priorities, and switched to the Force Gun at the end for some shotgun action. However my brother is primarily using the Buzzer, something I completely ignored, and is doing fine. Basically the weapons boil down into these categories.
Plasma Cutter - Medium to long range, requires a fair amount of precision. Assault Rifle - Medium to long range, weak power at the start but upgraded it is extremely powerful and will dismember easily. Ammo is very easy to come across. Secondary attack eats ammo ridiculously fast but if you're surrounded it might save your life. Buzzer - Medium range. Extremely ammo efficient when upgraded as a single floating buzzsaw can be moved into multiple limbs. Force Gun - Close range ONLY. Seems fucking useless at first but to get the best out of this you gotta jam this gun in some necromorphs face first. The secondary fire is good against enemies stuck to the wall. Line Gun - Close to medium range. A very powerful weapon that makes a decent panic weapon. The line can disect multiple limbs and it has enough power to fire through multiple people. As the projectile moves relatively slowly long range may be a bit difficult. Secondary fire is amazingly powerful, just takes some timing. Contact Beam - Medium to Long range. I honestly haven't used this much, but the ammo is extremely expensive. However it has stupid amounts of power and would best be suited for brutes or narrow hallways full of baddies. Secondary fire is better than assault rifle secondary fire though in terms of clearing your immediate area. Flamethrower - Seems cool but it does not do the damage nor have the stopping power required of a close range weapon.
- I would advise you to buy most of the weapons to play with once or twice and figure out your playstyle.
- A lot of the weapons in this game are redundant and with your limited inventory it's easy to waste money on something. Playing the game for the first time is confusing because you don't get the guns all at once and the game doesn't really explain what they do.
- The flamethrower is useless, no stopping power whatsoever. Do not buy it.
- Plasma Cutter and Line Gun do the same thing, dismember. Pick one and upgrade it. The Ripper is the same way but it's a close-range weapon while the former two allow you to keep your distance.
- Contact Beam and Force Gun are good for getting Necromorphs off your ass, but are crap in terms of damage. VERY useful against those scurrying Necromorph swarm as it wipes them out in one hit so you will need one of these.
- Pulse Rifle is the only weapon in the game that acts like a gun (fires "bullets") and is reliable in that respect.
- I played through with Pulse Rifle/Force Gun/Line Gun/Ripper which suited me well.
- The most important thing to know about weapons in Dead Space is that you only get ammo for weapons that YOU ARE CURRENTLY CARRYING. Don't carry a gun that you aren't going to use since your inventory will just get cluttered with useless ammo. Its better to carry less guns if you aren't going to use the fourth one.
- The force gun is the best weapon, buy it and upgrade it ASAP. You may think it sucks at first, but it's awesome. You just have to be at a certain range for it to be effective. Too far away and it does nothing, but if you're too close it loses some punch too. Once you develop a feel for the range and where you have to aim on the enemy's body, you can kill most enemies in 1 or 2 hits. The best part is that it pushes enemies away from you and knocks them on their ass, giving you plenty of time to kill them at your leisure. The plasma cutter or line gun should be your second choice. The pulse rifle is decent, but not as good as the other two. The flamethrower is completely useless, and the contact beam is only good for the 2 bosses and those rare big guys. The ripper sucks, but is fun to use.
- Upgrading air, stasis, and kinesis is a waste until you have nothing else left to upgrade. All of the vacuum sections can be beaten with no air upgrades and no air canisters. You shouldn't need more than 60 seconds to beat any of these areas, and in the few cases where you do, there are oxygen rechargers all over the place. Any time you need stasis to pass an area there will be a stasis recharger nearby. Kinesis range is only useful in a few spots and should be the last thing you upgrade. You should sell EVERYTHING you find except the ammo for your 2 main guns, and one or two medkits. Use the money to buy nodes to upgrade your stuff. The only things you should be buying from the store are nodes and suits. Ammo and medpacks are a dime a dozen.
- Also, if you see a door that requires a power node to open, don't do it. All these rooms have inside is a bunch of ammo, which you shouldn't have any trouble finding elsewhere. It's not worth a node.(Counterpoint: I disagree, the rooms always (I think with one exception) contain goodies as well as ammo, from health packs to semiconductors, and the resale value at the store of all the contents of the rooms is worth the cost of a node. So at the very least you'll be able to sell off what you find and still come out even. Also, one of the node rooms contains a log for you to read!)
- Finally, don't worry about dying too much. You'll almost always restart somewhere that's within 30 seconds of where you died.
- Turn off Vertical Sync.
- Get used to the camera. The way it is zoomed in on Isaac creates a sense of claustrophobia. I both appreciated it and hated it.
- The last boss is a joke. Dodge a tentacle, dodge a missile, shoot at the same weak spots, wait for the tentacle to attack again, repeat until death scene.
- The death scenes are fun and gory. Dying in Dead Space is actually fun.
- Always keep a spare power node on you, specifically for the doors, and sell everything you don't need. Nine times out of ten the money you get from selling the junk behind one of those doors will be enough to buy another spare node, plus whatever schematics or ammo that's in there. You'll at least break even, so go for it.
- For the final boss, it takes 5 shots to destroy it's tentacle arms. What you want to do is shoot each one 4 times, then start killing them off. When he lifts you upside down it will only take one shot to each remaining arm to set yourself free. Use the Contact Beam at his chest to kill him fast.
- The Pulse Rifle sucks...alot. It's damage-per-shot ratio is horrid. Even when upgraded, by the time you've killed ONE goddamn monster you've just used up most of your clip. (especially the tougher black monsters later in the game) The ammo is relatively rare despite being such a weak, shitty weapon.
- The Ripper is probably the best 1-on-1 weapon, with amazing damage-per-shot. Even when slightly upgraded, only one or two shots are needed to kill even the tougher monsters. But it sucks against multiple opponents, and is near useless against bosses.
- The Force Gun is great, too. Fantastic against multiple opponents (which becomes a common situation later in the game)
- The Contact Beam gun is probably the best-anti boss weapon in the game. Even if you never upgrade the damned thing, it'll make boss fights easier. Also great for killing those goddamn Tentacles. You will need a steady aim, though.