Strife: How to Stealth Play

I didn't find any useful guides for how to play the game using the stealth mechanics as much as possible. This is an incomplete guide. I'm still working on it. Please feel free to modify and help out.

Strife: Quest for the Sigil (often just called Strife and The Original Strife: Veteran Edition) the Stealth mechanics are new to this era of gameplay and some say are considered experimental in the game too. So be aware that not all situations / maps are going to exactly allow you to play the stealth mechanic... But I'm going to attempt to try and explain some tricks so you can play as much as you can in the incognito awesomeness they portray you to be.

So when I say experimental. I mean there are weird things that make you automatically realize what I mean. For instance, you can be in a level where everyone believes your an average peasant, then a robot will squeal and start shooting at you. Don't panic! This is what this guide is for. Keep reading for more examples of how to bend the game to your shadowy wills.

First and foremost. To fully utilize this mechanic.... NEVER ATTACK or pull the trigger in any open spaces!!! Your guns makes noise! And doing so will attract attention - plain and simple.

Enemies that Automatically attack you on the spot no matter what.
Generally anything that is still human will not attack you unless they hear YOUR gun shots or see you attack anything etc. So if you need to dispatch a robot, take it around a corner where no one can see you and stab it to death. If you're playing on a harder level, this may become impractical... maybe... keep reading...
 * Stalker (Can be killed with dagger and quick movement)
 * Sentinel (Can be killed with dagger and quick movement from behind walls)
 * Ceiling Turret
 * Crusader
 * Reaver: When they die, they explode hurting you and alerting everyone within hearing range.
 * Inquisitor: (Boss)
 * Bosses (All)
 * Note: Templar don't attack automatically, but wanted to point out these can be killed with the dagger if needed, but can cause considerable damage doing so. (It ultimately comes down to your playing style.)
 * (note to show images)

Weapon Notes:

 * Punch Dagger: Can sometimes kill human enemies with 1 hit while not making noise. Damage increases when you upgrade your stamina so it will take some time to get to that ninja like skill level. (Note in The Original Strife: Veteran Edition, there is an upgrade that gives you super strength during the last third of the game. Be sure to get this if you want to continue trying stealth play at this point in the game. To get it, you must collect all 3 Talisman items.)
 * Poison Bolts: The Poison Tipped bolts are silent and can kill any human targets with a single hit. These are kind of rare to find. I recommend only using these when you need to make a kill from a distance. Everything else should be dagger kills. Also note that these don't work on robots. Note: Poison bolts can be purchased in town from Irale at a hefty 200 gold per 10 arrows. (Which is still better than a satchel for 125 for 2-3 arrows.)
 * ...**=All other guns are noisy and will attract unwanted attention. The trick here is to use these only when the big guns are needed and your cover is blown otherwise. For instance, you maybe surrounded by human guards. If you work your way around and hit each one while the other isn't looking or from around a corner with an arrow/bolt, you can clear the room. But in the case of a Reaver or a Crusader, you need to back peddle out of the room ASAP and get behind a wall... The reason is because all the human guards are still completely unaware that your a threat. Therefore, you can still run around being a spy and still kill the guards while a massive robot is trying to hunt you down. Once your satisfied, you can either move on ignoring the robot you trapped in a room, or take it out. I recommend luring it into a safe room/area that you know has no audio paths and taking it out.
 * Audio paths: These are air holes designed into each map to allow enemies a direct path for noise to reach them. This is a building trick used back in the old Doom series and is very effective in making enemies come to you once you fire a shot. These audio paths are viewable on your map and can be seen sometimes on the floor like a mouse hole in the wall or ceiling/wall. (Show image) So if you have to question if there's a audio path, use your map and looking for these signs. (audio paths maybe called something else)
 * The Rebel Soldiers from the Teleport Beacons does not appear to set off any alarms, however monsters that have been aggravated by the soldiers will also attack you. Could give you a big hand in dealing with levels you need to kill robots in. Just keep in mind the Soldiers will follow you around and may get in the way in tight spaces.

General Strategies

 * Never press attack buttons unless fighting has already started**.
 * A cool, obvious example of how bad the stealth is in this game. You can walk up to a pair of human guards (Acolyte) and instant kill 1 with the other watching (using a poison bolt or dagger) and the other guard will be completely oblivious to your deed. Use this to your advantage when you can. But sometimes when you dagger punch a human guard and only harm him, this will attract attention immediately from anyone within view. This isn't the end of the world as said before. Just stealth kill the next guard and look around to see if anyone else noticed. You should be good to continue.
 * Crossing a loading boundaries constitute a new map. So whatever you've done in the previous map for noises will not carry over. You can be in the middle of WW2 battle and when you cross over a loading boundaries, the guards will be oblivious to your threat in the new map. When you return to the previous maps however, the state you left it in, remains. So if your on the run from an alarm, the alarm will still be in effect. Also note enemies and allies will not follow you either.
 * If you cross a Yellow or Orange gate way, expect to sound the alarms. Never cross these. Find a different way first.*** (show image)
 * ..***= Sometimes there's no way to continue unless your cross these gateways. i.e. The first mission requires you to cross one of these and generally not a good level to stealth play as most of the enemies here are robots and you don't have much in health supplies.
 * Red Laser alarms: These are pretty easy to jump over. There shouldn't be a reason to ever set them off.

General notes:

 * Walking up to enemies/NPCs will not trigger bad effects. Even if your pointing a gun at their heads.
 * Beating the game in full 100% stealth is impossible. Unless you consider Boss maps not counting. But then your ruling on grey areas as those maps are partially in areas that can be stealth maneuvered. I also want to say, there is no benefit to playing the game in stealth, aside from reducing the enemy units on the map. There's only a few places it does matter and that's obviously the starting town as once you trigger the order to send troops, they'll never stop, almost creating a dead end effect.

Bugs:

 * Note that Strife: Quest for the Sigil vanilla has bugs creating dead ends via killing the wrong people. I'm building this off of Strife: Veteran Edition and based off difficulty 2.

Maps you cannot stealth play (or it's not fun to try with stealth / not worth it)

 * MAP01: Sanctuary
 * MAP09: Castle: Programmer's Keep (partial stealth then boss)
 * MAP31: Training Facility
 * MAP19: Fortress: Security Complex (more rebots than guards, plus they shove them in your face)
 * MAP15: Fortress: Administration (more robots than guards)
 * MAP16: Fortress: Bishop's Tower (partial stealth then boss)
 * MAP25: Catacombs: Ruined Temple (No stealth, all boss lol)
 * MAP14: Mines (Very hard but possible, note Reaver's when punched to death alerts everyone & there's a few, so not recommended one for first attempts. Also note ore will explode if shot by accident, also ending your stealth run.)
 * MAP23: Order Commons (Note: If you're trying to get a bad ending, then this area will become impossible for stealth due to bombing the shields. To get around this, look at the mines good ending guide above.)
 * MAP20: Factory: Receiving (more robots than guards)
 * MAP24: Factory: Conversion Chapel (Possible? First room robots, other rooms without Audio paths alerted everyone, maybe glitch)
 * MAP21: Factory: Manufacturing (Very hard but possible aside from boss room. Again lots of robots. Not recommended for first attempts.)
 * MAP22: Factory: Forge (1 Crusader at the start and 2 Reapers at the end. So this is possible to do. Use Teleport beacons to take out the Crusader once it cornered you in.)
 * MAP35: Factory: Production (Ouch...)
 * Under construction still finishing this stealth run (@3rd sigil piece)

If playing The Original Strife: Veteran Edition: Once you get the 3rd Talisman item and get your Super Strength. You can use this to help kill off the Templar rebots and harder. Templars die on a single hit and... well...it turns out EVERYTHING explodes / dies on the first hit. This can basically be a cheat method it's so easy. I haven't attempted it against bosses and Inquisitor yet.