Deck13’s The Surge 2 is here, bringing its sci-fi take on the Souls-like genre once again, only this time with a host of improvements. And it goes without saying, really, that this isn’t exactly an easy game. Not just because of the actual combat being a gruelling challenge, but also because it presents players with a lot of systems to keep track of, all of which are fairly complex. To make your trek through Jericho City a little easier, in this feature, we’ve compiled a few tips and tricks that you should keep in mind while you play The Surge 2. Without further ado, let’s get started.
BANKING SCRAP
The Surge 2, like its predecessor, uses a system that is a staple in the Souls-like genre, where your currency – called scraps here – gets dropped if you die, which means you have to go back to where you dropped it to retrieve it (and do so within a limited time). The threat of losing all the scraps you’ve accrued is always real, and permanently losing a huge chunk of scraps can come as a huge blow. Thankfully, The Surge 2 lets you work around it, by letting you store your Scraps in Med Bays. There is a risk/reward mechanic here- the longer you can go without losing your scraps or without banking them, the more scraps you earn. But if you’re not confident in your ability to hold on to them, it’s better to be safe than sorry and just bank your scraps.
SCRAP IN BOSS FIGHTS
There is an advantage to keeping at least some scraps on you even if you’re not confident in your ability to hold on to them. When you drop scraps, they send out healing pulses, so that when you go back to where you dropped them in go near them, they heal you. When you pick them up, it will heal you even more. As such, strategically dropped scraps can come in pretty handy in tougher fights- especially some of the boss fights.
FILL UP YOUR BATTERY POWER FOR BOSS FIGHTS
Here’s one more tip for boss fights, which should be obvious to those who’ve played The Surge before- before heading into a boss fight, make sure your battery power is full. Grind out some regular enemies to build up a few charges, because they’ll come in handy during the actual boss fight. On a side note, also make sure you have Energy, because owing to the fact that there is no replenishing healing item, you healing yourself depends on how much Energy you have.
DRONES
Drones are one of the major new additions that The Surge 2 makes to the combat loop, and they can be extremely useful- much more than you’d initially think, in fact. There’s several different kinds of drones, which come in handy in various situations, but especially during combat, they can be a huge help. You can use drones to deal some decent damage to foes (doing so from longer distances is especially helpful), while they’re also useful when you want to take out some pesky turrets. More importantly, drones also raw aggro, which makes crowd control a lot more manageable.
OMNI-HEALTH OBSERVER
This is a tip that applies more to the earlier sections of the game than anything else, but it still comes heavily recommended. You get the Omni-Health Observer Implant pretty early on, and keeping it equipped is super helpful. It tells you the health and status of whatever enemy you’re locked on to, and while that may seem like a simple thing, it’s information that is actually quite important, especially when you’re taking on multiple enemies at a time.
DISMEMBERING
Dismembering is the main selling point of The Surge 2, of course, so of course you’ll be doing a lot of it, but the trick is to use it well. You get loot from enemies depending on which parts of their body you dismember, and it’s a tactic that you should make full use of. Strategically target specific body parts to get that specific piece of gear, and pretty soon, you’ll be swimming in a formidable inventory of stuff.
REVENGE ENEMIES
Revenge enemies pop up on your screen as enemies with red skulls next to their health bars, and while that might make you want to run in the other direction, taking them head-on actually isn’t a very bad idea. These are regular enemies who’ve killed other players playing the game, and as such, there’s a special reward in it for you if you take them down. More specifically, killing these enemies yields a good amount of crafting material, which, as you can imagine, comes in pretty handy.
MAP
The Surge 2’s world is full of shortcuts and areas that remain inaccessible until you get very specific abilities or items. Navigating these areas is tricky as it is, made even trickier by the fact that there’s no actual map that you can pull out whenever you want. As such, spatial awareness in The Surge 2 is very important, especially because some of these gated areas lead to some pretty sweet hidden loot that you’ll want to get your hands on. Make mental notes of such areas, and make it a point to backtrack to older areas often, just to check if any of the paths that were previously inaccessible have now become open to you.