"The world of System Shock is a dark place. Giant corporations rule the people much the way that ancient monarchies did. The only law is their law, and the sector you live in determines who owns you. In such dark times information is the ultimate power, and those who control it can bring these corporations to their knees. You are a hacker- the equivalent of a pirate. You steal vital files and sell them to the highest bidder. Until you get caught and transported to a space station in orbit around saturn. It just goes downhill from there.

Citadel station is an orbiting mining/research platform owned and operated by TriOptimum. It is a state of the art facility that has recently fallen upon some "hard times". It is up to you to figure out what happened to the station, the crew, and why there is a little funny looking robot desperately trying to remove your liver through your nose.

If you want to know about the crew and the station, you have to look elsewhere.
If you want to keep your liver, read on." - Yogimus

  • Weaponeer the target. There are, loosely, three types of targets in System Shock:
    Creatures (various mutants without extra gadgets)
    Cyborgs (creatures with gadgets)
    Robots (machines)
    Various weapons affect these targets to varying degrees - I think that in fact each individual type of enemy is affected differently, and there's a random variable involved as well, possibly related to how solid the hit is. (On combat level 3, for example, a Security 2 robot will sometimes die to 3 magpulse shots, and other times it needs 4.)

  • Carry a generalist weapon as your default - something that is OK against anything you expect to meet. Switch to a specialized weapon as needed, and then back to the generalist weapon. Which weapon you use as the generalist weapon is, unfortunately, rather situational, depending on what you are carrying and how much ammo you have. The Skorpion is the best generalist weapon if you have a moderate amount of ammo for it. The key is to select a weapon for which you have a moderate amount of ammo, and which will hurt both creatures and robots. The importance of this tactic is mitigated by careful use of the next tip.

  • Organize your weapons list. Use right-click to pull weapons out of the list and drop them into the bottom to sort them. Then, with your generalist weapon at the top, you can stack the others below it in a known order - so you can TAB to them very rapidly. Thus, for example, I sometimes carry the Laser Rapier as my default weapon - massive damage against anything that is right next to me - and then stack the Magpulse and then an anti-creature/cyborg weapon next. So if I pop aronud a corner and meet a surprise at long range, the two best options are one or two presses of TAB away.

  • Keep an older weapon, for which you have loads of ammo, for blowing up cameras, crates that are in your way, etc. I tend to move in this progression: Lead Pipe -> ML-41 Pistol -> Magnum and/or Flechette

  • It is possible to hit targets when you can see very ittle of them. If you've spotted the cyoborg, but it's just out of sight around the corner, it may be worthwhile shooting at it anyway, to see if the program will register peripheral hits on it . I haven't decided if this is cheating or not; it seems cheap, but it can be very useful!

  • Use corners for cover whenever possible. Lean out only far enough so that you can barely see your target, and plug away until it's dead. Never rush out into any open spaces.

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