32 Tips To Help You Survive Prey's Punishing Difficulty

Prey is not a gentle game. One might even go so far as to call it brutal – especially in the opening hours, when you're considerably weaker than the foes you'll come up against. Have no fear though: We've suffered countless deaths to learn a plethora of tips that will help you survive your journey through the Talos-1 space station.

Weapons
1. If you come across a weapon in the environment you already have, like the pistol or gloo cannon, you can still take that weapon's ammo for yourself. If you have room in your inventory, you can also take them to a recycler and harvest some crafting materials.

2.The gloo cannon is more than an enemy immobilizer. You can also use it to create bridges and stairs, as well as a way to cover up environmental hazards like electric cables and fires.

3. Ammo is scarce, and the bigger Typhon can be bullet sponges. In these instances, your wrench is your best friend. Invest some neuromods into Impact Calibration early on to help make enemy encounters less of a pain.

4. Early on, you get a crossbow that shoots toy bolts. These bolts deal no damage to enemies. However, you can use the crossbow to fire bolts through windows and gaps in order to hit buttons behind locked doors, thus giving you access to places you need to get to.

5. The various grenades you come across and can craft in the game are a godsend, especially the Recycler Charge, which not only kills nearly any Typhon in its blast radius but also turns them into materials to be used with the Fabricator.

6. Experiment with combining your skills and weapons to maximize your damage. For instance, immobilizing an enemy with the gloo gun will increase the amount of damage a bullet from your silenced pistol can do. The same principle applies to stunning rogue operators with an EMP blast. 

Exploration
7. Drinking from water fountains heals you. It's one point per sip, but you can keep doing it until your health is completely full. It takes a while because there's a recharge between each sip, but if you're running low on medkits and food, this is a valid option.

8. Make judicious use of Prey's quick-save function. The game doesn't autosave that much, and all it takes is one mistake to rob of you a significant chunk of progress.

9. Interact with every computer terminal you come across. Most of them are filled with key info, like codes for safes and armories, or offer hints about where items may be. There are also usually a couple of computers in each area that will let you download a map for that level of Talos-1. Do that.

10. Mimics are enemies that can take on the shape of any mundane object in an environment. Eventually you get an upgrade that lets you see them more easily, but until then you're better off whacking any object you want to grab first just to make sure, especially if it's a medkit or gun just lying in the middle of nowhere. Slap that sucker before you grab it.

11. Sometimes you'll enter a room and see objects falling to the ground. Nine times out of ten, those objects are mimics. Either avoid them or rush over and slap them before they transform back into their true form to deal them extra damage. Keep an eye out for things that don't logically make sense, such as three shoes grouped together or a pair of trash cans tucked under a desk.

12. Got a couple of nasty enemies chasing after you? Lots of doors have manual locks that you can press that seals them behind you, locking most monsters outside. However, be aware that there's also a good chance that you can lock yourself in a room with something much more dangerous than your pursuers. I found that out the hard way once when the entire room turned into a field of mimics that descended upon me.

13. Choose your battles.  If you try to play Prey like a conventional first-person shooter, you will likely die often and horribly. In the early hours of the game, if the monster is bigger than you, the chances are good you won't survive a full-on assault. Instead, use your wits. Stick to the shadows and try to draw enemies into conflict with turrets.

14. Small flying drones known as operators roam Talos-1. Corrupted operators will attack you. However, uncorrupted ones will heal you, repair your armor, or even restore your psi points depending on what model they are. Be sure to use these often to save on your restorative items.

15. Be sure to do optional objectives. Not only do these side missions net you neuromods, weapons, plans, and other goodies, but you might even unlock a secret ending by doing one.

16. Always be looking for new paths, whether they're vents or ceiling grates. If you're at a dead end there's almost always more than one way to get where you need to go.

17. Snacks are great to have because not only do they immediately grant health, they also have a brief regeneration for you that gives you even more health. Alcoholic drinks also recover health but they make you weaker against enemy attacks while you're drunk, so use those as a last resort.

28. Be on the lookout for chipsets. These give you buffs, like raising your chance for critical damage with your wrench, and are all over the Talos-1.

19. Pay attention to your surroundings. Scuffmarks on the ground can lead to an unexpected cache of goodies – that is, until you start to expect them. Be sure to look under things, too, such as movie-theater seats, under raised platforms, or anywhere else.

Continue to page 2 to learn how to deal with the toughest enemies in the game and how to craft the most useful items.

Combat
20. If you want to try and be a badass who doesn't use neuromods or alien powers, that's a certainly a viable choice that has consequences. Enemy encounters will be harder, but turrets won't shoot you (because you're completely human) and you won't be pursued by a giant monster that occasionally pops up otherwise.

21. Experiment with your powers. Again, you don't need to worry about wasting your neuromods, because you can always grind out resources to make more.  Personally, I found that having points in Leverage, Mimic Matter, and Phantom Shift was a great combination that allowed me to find alternative paths to my objectives and escape from deadly enemy encounters quickly.

22. If a strategy against a foe isn't working because you're not making a dent in their health or have limited supplies, it's better just to go scavenge, upgrade your powers, and come back later.

23. One enemy type, Cystoids, are a pain because they're essentially suicide bombers that rush you and detonate. Kinetic blast takes care of them pretty easily.

24.Corrupted robots explode upon death. If you take one out with your wrench, get away from it ASAP.

25. Later on, you run into other survivors. Yay! Unfortunately, they're mind-controlled and will rush toward you, exploding and dealing lots of damage. Your best bet is to use the stun gun when they get in range to take them out immediately. How you deal with humans is reflected in the ending you receive in Prey, so think twice before killing one of those crazed scientists. 

26.Leverage is a great power because not only does it let you move heavy objects so you can uncover new paths, but you can also throw said objects at enemies during fights. This creates another combat option for you to use that doesn't drain ammo or your psi meter.

Crafting and Supplies
27. Recyclers and Fabricators are going to be your best friends in this game. Recyclers let you transform junk and objects you don't need into materials you can use at the Fabricator to create weapons, ammo, and other valuable objects. Whenever you find one of these two machines, memorize where it is. 

28. Don't worry about saving your neuromods so much. They're not a limited supply. You eventually gain the ability to make them at Fabricators.

29. Always be picking up junk. Always be recycling, as often as possible, so you have materials to make ammo at the Fabricator.

30. Be sure to grab the medkit fabrication plans from the medbay in the Hardware Labs. You're going to need them.

31. You won't be able to harvest Typhon corpses entirely until you acquire the necropsy skill. Fortunately, corpses stick around for quite a while, so you can loot their remains long after they're dead. In other words, don't feel like you're permanently missing out on a valuable resource when you first start.

32. Increase your inventory size ASAP. You will often be up against the limit as you scavenge for materials, ammo, health packs, and weapons, so the sooner you invest in the suit modification neuromods the longer you can explore without having to go back to the recycler to clear your inventory.

You can read our review of Prey here and can check out our archived stream on Prey here.