Taken into account that Tezctlan shoots green piss now!

Let's start with how you could've got sent back to the main menu. Being dealt too high a damage value (enemies can crit!), stun-lock from pain or taking hits to a bad spot were probably one of the contributors that lead to your untimely demise. Below are a few examples of this.

Originally posted by Captain Sugoi:

I had one mission where I fought enemies that didn't one shot me. The next mission I run a different character on an easier planet and get cut down by a laser rifle.

Originally posted by Simacan:

I've not been playing super long, but I encountered my first quasimorph crossbow guy... Percy, full health, full impact armor with a chainmail vest, no wounds, tunnel rat with a level on the immune-system defence buff.. One shot. Litterally the thing just shoots me once, I was even behind cover so there was a chance to miss inherently. But its first shot was a one hit kill on me.

(from the feedback channel of the quasimorph discord server)

(from SsethTzeentach's review)

Armor and taking cover can only protect you so much until enemies start using more dangerous weapons.. Or until the wound system starts favoring enemies.

Originally posted by Patchon Rei dos Pokémons:

I'm 100% certain players get more wounds than npcs.
Shoot endgame realware guys with their guns? They take almost no damage cause their armor is busted and get like 2 maybe 3 wounds at most.
They do the same to you? You take no damage ebcause youre wearing the same armor but get like 3 or 4 bleeding wounds + a "scratch".
And dont get me started on how many times i got 2 wounds (not counting scratches) while having + 90 defenses from getting shot with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ course vkt.
Im wearing top tech in armor available, im a walking tank, but some 9mm peashooter breaks my leg?

And no, the above statement isn't bogus. I still received 4 different bleeding wounds from a faking nailgun at 50+ pierce res. Thus, in order to avoid getting game over'd more, we should avoid getting hit at all! But how do we do that?

The first thing that might come to mind would be to simply 'dodge' the gigantic saw blade flying towards your head. But that isn't a reliable option since carrying anything at all will affect your dodge chance and.. why would you want to put yourself in a position where you risk getting hit by the saw blade at all? I do not understand your noob mind. The game gives you the option of sprinting to get a WHOPPING 3 ACTION POINTS (also known as AP) to

1. Move one tile to position yourself (assuming you were in sneak first to open the door WITHOUT using AP)
   
2. Attack!
   
3. Move behind a corner to break LOS / attack again if you're VERY confident you won't end your turn receiving fatal damage

all in 1 turn!

For example..
https://youtu.be/vYYvPzJmY9Y?si=OP3VdGz_jzDLBI-_
Just in case you didn't register what happened:

• Sneak + wait a turn to check for enemies out of LOS
  
• Open door with sneak
  
• Move 1 step into doorway with Sprint 1
  
• Attack with Sprint 2
  
• Use Sprint 3 to break LOS with enemies that might attack once my turn has ended

Simple, right? Yes, it's rough on the calories and it reduces your accuracy, but it's better than taking a chemtrail shot to the knee.

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If you've read some of the other guides here on steam, you would've come across one guide advising you to explore using sneak. Don't do this later in the game. You're just begging for a merc to no-scope your arm clean off with a sniper rifle. What you should do instead to traverse long hallways or big rooms you HAVE NOT CLEARED is:

1. Go into walking / sprinting
   
2. Spend Walking 1 / Sprinting 1 & 2 covering tiles you haven't cleared
   
3. Spending Walking 2 / Sprinting 3 by waiting so that you don't end your turn walking into enemy vision range

If you spot an enemy, you can either attack or spend the last AP trying to move out of vision range. Point is, you ideally want to be able to attack enemies while making it hard to land a hit on you!

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Also, you don't have to always use sprint when engaging a room. You can also use the walking stance to do the following:

1. Sneak + wait a turn to check for enemies out of LOS
   
2. Open door with sneak
   
3. Go into walking stance
   
4. Blast the most menacing enemy in sight / Shoot blindly and hope you hit someone out of your vision range if the room is just that big
   
5. Close the door to break LOS
   
6. Wait in sneak to check if someone is near the door when your turn ends

But really, the game becomes pretty easy once you've mastered the 3 stances (sneaking, walking, sprinting). Play around with them!

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But now that you know that doors can be opened in sneak without using any AP, there is something I must tell you. You must not sneak up to doors when there is someone right next to it or you will get ambushed.

"but why? doesnt it not take any AP and therefore not give the enemies a chance to attack?"

Because!

• Enemies can wander into and open doors
  
• If there is a gunman right behind the guy who opened the door for them, they're going to get a free shot off of you when your turn ends and are within their LOS

So instead of sneaking up to the door, you should wait a turn in sneak a tile to the side of the door. Once the goon is 1 tile away from the door (or you have confirmed that they're sleeping at the door), change to walking to use 2 AP to move up to the door in 1 turn.

If that isn't clear:

Blue lines represents enemy vision range if they opened the door
Green circle represents spot you should wait a turn in with sneak to detect enemies

Right click on the door to select the context menu and select "Block".
Please excuse the cruddy GIF quality :(

Just remember that enemies can break down the door if you aggro them.

https://youtu.be/3-t0aVjJjjY?si=pMiMnkl9th5gfHG-

The game can throw situations at you that you're not prepared to deal with, so having grenades can help even the odds.

Some of the nades you can get are:

Tips

• Grenades explode instantly when they land in fire.
  
• RGD-20s and Eyes of Wrath excel when used alongside hit-n-run tactics. Chuck 1 or 2 in any room you don't like, run away, and finish off any stragglers after they go off. Just remember the big *BOOM* might attract attention from nearby rooms.
  
• Alternatively.. you can also use grenade launchers to fire and set off nades immediately. But don't use it in narrow corridors. You have been warned.
  
• Barring the fact SST-2s are made of literal droppings, they're great for giving you more time to deal with the more dangerous enemies and are an absolute menace when followed up with fire.
  
• M24s and Molotovs not only cook Tezctlan, but also burn up spider poison! Although it's better to use dragon volleys for that.
  
• Grenades can land 1 tile behind/front of your intended target.
  
• Technically not a grenade, but if you can land your throws with a heart, it can 1-shot most enemies despite its listed damage. Don't ask how. patched out
  
• Enemies can throw grenades too :)
  https://youtu.be/BRBhlgpiKV8

Now that you're a pro at room clearing, let's cover some of the elements a room can have.

Any furniture in the room (exploding barrels included), can be used as cover but in my experience, anything that has pierce chance or shoots lots of bullets won't care about them and it's not like they reduce damage received by a significant amount. That said, don't bother shooting at someone hiding behind cover unless you have anything that pierces.



Once that unpaid worker with a saw gun gets near one of these it's gameeeee oveeeerrr for them! Shoot these things and run away if you don't care about grabbing the loot in the room. The ensuing flames won't do anything to enemies with fire resistances of about 13 or higher. Chemical spills from the vats won't affect entities with high poison resistances as well.


Be wary of shotgun users when standing near these! While you won't path into them, enemies with knockback (also throwback) can knock you into them.

No cigs / booze? :eyebrow_raise: Well, I hope you enjoy seeing eldritch horrors emerge from the bodies of your fellow man. Starting off with the:

Unlike the OG Robin Hood on Earth, these things have nothing good to freely give the poor (aka you) except Nails of Pain that WILL HURT. Huck a grenade as they're phasing in or abuse sprinting around corners. Just DON'T end a turn within their LOS. I don't care how sturdy you think that container you're hiding behind is. Their Crossbows have ZERO issue piercing through CONCRETE barriers. Walking away until you can't see them and blindly shooting in their general direction till they die works too.

Note: Also comes in 2 more flavours, unarmed or with a melee weapon.

For something in a rickety wheelchair, they are surprisingly able to outrun you at 3(!!) AP per turn! They probably won't murk you in 1 turn, but expect to turn into roadkill in a few more if you don't focus them down.

2 AP melee goon.

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Shoot them the same way you shot the 30 other melee enemies on the previous floor.

Confusing them with their melee cousins will be the last mistake you make if you let them zap you with their shiny stick at point blank. Btw, the beam can crit for more than 100 COLD and has more than 100% accuracy. :)

They explode on death and inflict a wee bit of poison. Not very dangerous if you have Sorbets on hand.

3 AP per turn! But they usually deal next to no damage as long as you aren't naked. That said, as with any enemy in this game, I wouldn't risk getting hit by anything in this game.

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Sometimes a 2 AP melee goon. Same thing with Torso Gaming and Midget Monster but more dangerous since they can use tools instead of limbs to slap you.

WARNING! WARNING! Don't let their funny lookin bamboo guns and vitamin deficient appearances fool you! These things are ranged, can have 2 AP and WILL SEVERELY wound if not ONE-SHOT IF you don't have late game cold resistant armor! DO NOT ENGAGE IF THERE ARE MORE THAN 2 OF THEM WITHIN 4 TILES. IF A GANG OF THE 2 AP VARIANT DEADEYES HAVE SET UP A FIRING SQUAD RIGHT OUTSIDE THE DOOR YOU JUST OPENED, DO NOT TRY TO MELEE OR SHOOT. YOU WILL HAVE A BAD TIME. USE GRENADES OR BLOCK THE DOOR.

Note: As of 0.7, these guys deal poison damage now, effectively making them less inzane if you up your poison resistance. Whether you can comfortably tank their green piss shots with enough poison resistance now I'm not sure. Just know that their rifles can liquefy RealWare personnel (which don't have decent poison resistance) if the entire burst of green piss hits.

Speaking of Venus quasimorphs, if you've decided to take on the duty of ridding the system of the Tezctlan infestation, an issue you would've encountered is the scarcity of ammo for your guns since all they use are the gavvakhs.

There's also these things.



3 AP and a giant axe that will hit you like a freight train. Oh, and every enemy has stupid good hearing + armour and hp that is strong enough to eat a couple shots. And there's many, MANY quasimorphs lurking around every corner..

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Yes, I know Carnage pattern doesn't have poison res but it's a placeholder until I find a reliable armor combo

Due to aforementioned ammo scarcity, you'll have to use melee I'm afraid.

Armor that protects you from poison seem like an obvious candidate, but might come at the expense of other resistances. One armor set that comes to mind is the Eliminator set. It has decent pierce, cut and fire resistance & high poison resistance, but has 0 blunt resistance. Will you have more trouble with the melee goons bludgeoning / cutting you up or the scurvy deadeyes trying to turn you into a pool of acid? Pick your poison (lol) resistances based on that.

For weapons, any heavy hitting melee weapon will do. Another guide creator by the name of "Fatass" recommends the moon blade, but I've been more successful in killing Mistresses in 1 swing with their own halberd. That said, the knockback can be a problem. (Knocking back a Serpent Mouth quasimorph when you want to be in melee range for the kill is bAD). Your second weapon should be what you fall back to in the event that there's 2 Aspiring Mistress nanoseconds away from sinking their halberds into your chest. As such, melee weapons that attack multiple times per AP like the jackhammer Crusher, are preferred so that your life won't depend on the 95% accuracy cap that all weapons have. If you choose to have a third weapon, something that sets stuff on fire works well!

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By now, you would've been made aware of the MANY 2/3 AP enemies that Tezctlan has. On their own, they aren't too hard to deal with! The real problem is detecting them beforehand to fight in a favorable position. So what you're going to do is bait enemies out of the room they're hiding in by,

• Peaking the corner (and by peaking the corner I mean standing at the side of the door until something gets tired of you having a cheeky wank lmao) I am not responsible in the event you let an Aspiring Mistress chop off your legs because you didn't take their existence into account
  
• Shooting a gun
  
• Smacking someone with melee

Once you do either of the 3, move just far enough that you can comfortably see enemies jump into your LOS and not be able to hit you. Decide your next course of action based on what turns the corner.

There is also a safer and more efficient way! Killing them all with FIRE.

• Throwing thermal grenades
  
• Setting stuff on fire with Dragon Volley (80% burn chance)
  
• Setting stuff on fire with the phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range (20% burn chance)

IF you decided to do any of the above, you can just run away and wait for large hordes to burn to death lol!! Thermal nades do this better, but you can bring more Dragon Volleys than nades. Also, remember how I mentioned enemies can hear nades go off? If you throw a nade in a room connecting multiple rooms and don't let anything see you, everything within hearing range will rush over to and STAY(!!) at the source of the explosion, fire / poison tile or not. May or may not be patched out with 0.7 :(

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Now that I've basically taught you how to play Hotline Miami 2, you must be aware of where you decide to lure enemies. Why? Well...

Originally posted by GreedRecycler:

Always look check behind you in a firefight, mission against Tezctlan was going well, then got snuck up and hit by two cold blasts, instantly killed me.

Because for some ungodly reason, every enemy has ungodly hearing. 2-3 AP lunatics with the !!HUGE!! axe aren't uncommon and can cut you a new behind if you let them. Spider packs can also body block you as you kite enemies with their 4 AP and the poison they leave behind can block potential escape paths. So yeah, always hunker down near areas you have cleared when luring so that the Xipe Totec 5 rooms away doesn't get the jump on you.

TheDarkoko's guide https://pixeldungeon.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:TheDarkoko/Pro_as_heck_guide_to_Sniper - for inspiring me to create this guide for Quasimorph

boxboardcard - for helping me come up with alternate names for the quasimorphs

Tomato Gaming - for making funny noises while streaming this game & introducing other amazing games I wouldn't have heard of

Magnum Scriptum - for making Quasimorph

..and YOU for bothering to make it this far :)