###################################################################### ### ### ### http://retrocast.ch.vu ### ### ### ### presents ### ### ### ### Wolfenstein Weapons and Upgrades Guide v1.00 by Xiaopang ### ### ### ###################################################################### 1. About this FAQ 2. How to spend gold the most efficient way 3. Upgrades 3.1. Weapons 3.2. Veil powers 4. Purchasing suggestions for the minimalist 5. Legal stuff ###################################################################### ### 1. About this FAQ ### ###################################################################### While playing Wolfenstein I realized that the whole upgrade system could be handled a lot more effeciently by the player if he had just a few more informations about it. None of the sources, including walkthroughs, actually had hints on the upgrade system. Furthermore, the game constantly claimed that it wouldn't be possible to purchase all upgrades and I wanted to check if that's actually true, so I ended up developing strategies to make the most out of my budget. I soon decided to put that into a FAQ, so that others could profit from it. ###################################################################### ### 2. How to spend gold the most efficient way ### ###################################################################### The game tells you to use your gold sparingly, because there isn't enough to purchase all upgrades. While this is true, this doesn't mean that you can't acquire those upgrades through other methods: 1. Collecting all tomes will give you all Veil upgrades 2. Collecting all intel will give you all weapon upgrades So in the end, you don't need any gold at all to get access to all upgrades, but not spending any wouldn't be a fun way to play, because you get the last piece of intel right before the end boss. However, not upgrading the Veil powers is a way to go. You can acquire the last tome pretty early in the mission "Radio Station". This way you can still enjoy the full Veil powers in the last 3 of the 10 main missions, plus all the side missions that you haven't done at that point. Here's the amount of loot you can get in each mission. Main missions Gold Mission Bonus ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. Trainyard : $3000 $500 2. The dig : $3000 $1000 3. Church : $3050 $1000 4. Farm : $3150 $1000 5. Hospital : $3150 $1000 6. Cannery : $3000 $1000 7. Castle : $3000 $1000 8. Airfield : $2950 Side missions: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. Warehouse : $1500 $750 2. Officer's House : $1500 $750 1. SS Headquarters : $1650 $750 2. Paranormal Base : $1550 $750 5. Radio Station : $1500 $750 You don't receive payment for finishing Airfield or later levels, because there won't be any black markets to spend it in. The list doesn't contain how much you earn by collecting every piece of gold in Isenstadt. Collecting all the gold in the game will allow you to purchase all weapon upgrades with $1300 to spare. Knowing that, you could pursue several strategies: Strategy 1 - Get all upgrades in the game --------------------------------------------------------------------- You will need to find all tomes and all gold. Only purchase weapon upgrades and ignore Veil ones, as you will get them automatically when you discover the last tome. Strategy 2 - Get as many upgrades as possible by finding all tomes --------------------------------------------------------------------- Most of you won't go through the hassle of finding each and every piece of gold out there, or you just don't want to avoid Veil upgrades for so long. Finding tomes is much easier, because they are usually not as well hidden as gold, plus a humming sound gives them away. Upgrade to your liking, but before you recover the last tome make sure to sell all your Veil upgrades, because you will get them all of them automatically. This way you get some money back for more weapon upgrades while still getting full Veil powers. Strategy 3 - Minimalist approach --------------------------------------------------------------------- You don't care about getting all upgrades at all and also don't want to look everywhere to find all the gold, but only pick up what you find along the way? That's good as well. You don't need all upgrades to get an enhanced gameplay experience. Check the next section to get extensive explanations on the upgrades and how useful they are and choose those that fit your style. Regardless of the strategy you will pursue, follow these two hints: - Never EVER sell upgrades. Doing that is always a loss, as you can sell them only back for half what they cost you. Rather check out the next section and choose wisely. If you're still not sure about whether the upgrades will be useful to you, then find a checkpoint to save your game (usually leaving the black market, or hide out does that) and reload it if you think the upgrade isn't worth the money. The only exception is if you want to get Veil upgrades early on and also collect all tomes. - Never discover the last tome in the game while still having some purchased Veil upgrades! Sell them before getting that tome to get some extra money! ###################################################################### ### 3. Upgrades ### ###################################################################### The game offers you a whole lot of upgrades. While it's easy to judge the usefulness for some, it's unclear how some upgrades will affect your weapon or Veil power. So here's a list of all the upgrades: 3.1. Weapons ~~~~~~~~~~~~ MP 40 ----- Your first weapon that will accompany you right to the end of the game. The fact that you can turn it into a silenced machine gun makes it especially useful for silently taking out large groups of enemies in a short time. Recoil Compensator: Eliminates recoil. However, the gun has little recoil already and if you're used to shoot in bursts you won't see much of a difference in gameplay. For those that empty a magazine into a few enemies the result is visible though. Silencer : Silences the gun, making your job a lot easier. There's no reason to alert all enemies around the corner, so get it! Highly recommended! Drum Magazine : Doubles your magazine's capacity to 64 bullets. Highly recommended! Big Bore : Doubles the gun's power. Highly recommended! Improved Rifling : Improves accuracy. Only useful if you use the gun for more than medium distance fights. KAR 98 ----- An excellent sniper rifle. Using the silencer allows you to take out whole platoons from the distance without anybody being able to attack or even detect you. Improved Rifling : Improves accuracy. Not really needed since hitting any body part will take down most enemies with a single shot, even on hardest difficulty (including Elite Guards). Other enemies such as scribes still need a head shot to go down with a single bullet. Anyway, the upgrade is awfully cheap, so get it. Silencer : Silences the rifle. Even if enemies realize that they're under attack by finding the dead bodies, as long as you're far enough away with an attached silencer, they will not be able to tell where you are. That makes them easy targets, because they will run around looking for you instead of taking cover and shooting at you. Highly recommended! Stripper Clip : Replaces the single bullet loading mechanism with a five-bullet one. This allows you to shoot more rapidly and enables you to kill small groups in a short time. Not needed if you merely use the KAR 98 for sniping. If you also use it for active long distance combat, then it's a must have! Highly recommended! Big Bore : Improves the rifle's power. This allows you to shoot through enemies, killing several with a single shot. This saves ammo, time and may be your life! I managed to line up three enemies so far. A shot through the chest was enough to take them out. Also allows you to shoot off limbs. Highly recommended! Sniper Scope : Thanks to the scope's magnification you can even snipe the farthest places in the game. It also simplifies aiming a great deal, because the iron sights of the gun don't do its purpose justice. Highly recommended! Bayonet : When did you ever plan on running around through close quarters with a long distance weapon? You guessed it - a close range upgrade for a long range weapon is majorly useless. It does allow you to kill an aware enemy with a single strike while the normal melee attack might need 1-3 to take him down. Still, why not shoot him instead? This also takes him out immediately. Not recommended! MP 43 ----- My favorite weapon! Once it's fully upraded it becomes a multi- purpose weapon that allows you to deal with suddenly appearing large groups of enemies just as well as clearing out the Nazi-infested streets of Isenstadt, or scouting out unknown territory. Its large magazine capacity and your 400 bullet pouch enable you to take on whole levels without ever having to care about ammo. Improved Rifling : Improves accuracy. Useful in combination with tactical scope. Without the latter, the gun is only useful for short distance combat and the upgrade makes little sense. Drum Magazine : Doubles your magazine capacity to 60 bullets. Highly recommended! Ammo Pouch : Doubles the amounts of bullets you can carry to 400. Highly recommended! Big Bore : Improves gun's power. Makes the gun twice as powerful. Highly recommended! Tactical Scope : The in-game description of this upgrade doesn't do its usefulness justice! This is may be the best upgrade in the whole game, because it enhances the weapon like no other. You'll get a scope that basically turns your MP into a an automatic sniper rifle. Extremely useful in close and long range fights alike. Thanks to its magnification, your chances to hit are a lot higher. That means that you'll need less ammo to kill enemies. In return, you can kill more without having to reload, helping you through long firefights. Highly recommended! It's expensive so start saving and buy it as soon as it becomes available! Recoil Compensator: Eliminates recoil. The MP43's recoil is a lot stronger than that of the MP40, so this upgrade is quite useful. Still, if you only shoot in bursts, then your gameplay experience won't differ much. Recommended. Panzerschreck ------------- A somewhat underused weapon. You get it in the first third of the game (Farm), but you have to wait till you get to Downtown West to get access to unlimited ammo for this baby. It's a strong weapon, that can take out several enemies at once and even kills the strongest among the Nazi-foes with only a couple of shots. However, it's expensive to upgrade it to a level, where using it becomes more fun and less of a nuisance. There are only 2 occasions in the game, where you actually have to use the rocket launcher and both times you can do it without any upgrades, so think twice about pumping money into this weapon, unless you rely on it regularly. Light Weight Build: Removes the blast shield and gives you iron sights that only take up little space on your HUD. While the in-game description might imply it, this upgrade does not allow you to move faster while aiming. Not really needed. High Explosives : Increases the blast radius, but not the damage as the in-game description claims. Tried on a Heavy Trooper (the particle cannon wielding enemy). It took two rockets to go down with and without this upgrade. Only useful for enemies that stand behind railings, but away from other objects that could reflect blast damage, such as walls. Not recommended. Ammo Pouch : Doubles your rocket storage to 12. Recommended for those who heavily use the weapon. Not needed for casual users. Stabilized Rockets: Stabilizes the rockets during their flight, increasing range and accuracy. While rockets are always a little off, it's not like they are off by a big amount, so the gained accuracy is unnecessary due to the blast radius. Only when aiming at very far away enemies, the rockets might be off by meters. However, the game mainly is a tunnel shooter, so long distances are very rare. Take Isenstadt as a reference. No distance in the town is too big to influence the accuracy so much that the blast radius couldn't finish the job. The only place I found where this upgrade would be needed is the hangar in "Airfield". That is, if you rely on a rocket launcher instead of a sniper rifle to take down single enemies. Not needed. Magazine : Loads three rockets at once, allowing you to fire three rockets in rapid succession, making the weapon behave more like old school rocket launchers. Nice feature, but only recommended for those that use the weapon for more than just the necessary tasks. Seeker Crystal : Adds homing capabilities to your rockets. Your Iron sights will be replaced by a digital aim that beeps whenever you aim at an enemy. After that you can fire the rocket and forget about it. Only useful for very mobile enemies,e.g. Rocket Troopers. There's only one occasion in the game, where this feature proves to be useful: In the Zeppelin level you'll have to face attacks of several Rocket Troopers while your surroundings limit your movement and your ability to attack them. But that's nothing a particle cannon couldn't handle just as well, if not even better. It's a sweet feature, but very expensive and only available very late in the game, so the usefulness doesn't do the cost justice. Not recommended. Flammenwerfer ------------- A great weapon! It takes down whole batches of enemies in a second and uses only little fuel for the job. However, ammo is scarce and you only get it late in the game, where close quarter fights are few and long distance fights take over. This makes the flame thrower more of a tool for special occasions, rather than a standard weapon. Keep that in mind before pumping money into it. Improved Fuel Pump: Increases the amount of time a single burst of flames lasts. This is only in the milliseconds, so this feature is hardly noticable and therefore useless. Not recommended! Expanded Tank : Doubles the fuel you can store. Recommended! Carburation : Emits hotter flames, thus increasing the damage. Not really needed, since almost all enemies go down immediately. This includes Assassins and Elite Guards. The only enemies that take a little more are scribes. Should you run into one with this weapon, it makes more sense to ignite him which keeps him busy with putting out the flames while firing away at him with your MPs. Upgrade not recommended. Pump Overdrive : Extends the range of the flame thrower. Very useful, because you have to be pretty close otherwise. However, in combination with Veil powers this is not really needed. Particle Cannon --------------- This weapon resembles the Thunderbolt of Quake, but it is much more powerful. It desintegrates enemies in seconds. Even the strongest foes drop like flies while ammo consumption is very low. You get the weapon early on in the game. Once Heavy Troopers start to roam Isenstadt, you will have a steady supply of ammo, making this the most powerful standard weapon in the game! Particle Lense : Increases the weapon's range. I couldn't see much of a difference with it. The cannon already has a pretty good range. Not needed. Veil Catalyst : Lowers the spin up time of the weapon from well over a second to only a fraction of a second. Too cheap not to buy it! Highly Recommended! Improved Veil : Doubles ammo capacity to 200 cells, enabling you Capacitator to mainly rely on the weapon throughout a level. Highly recommended! Beam Intensifier : Increases damage. Almost all enemies die with a single beam (2-3 cells) including Elite Guards, Assassins, Sniffers and Scribes. The weapon also lacks the possibility to use less cells, so you'll end up wasting just as much ammo without thia upgrade. Not needed. Flux Arc : Allows the beam to bend towards enemies. This increases accuracy over longer distances. Still, the beam is rather widespread, so that you'll hit the enemy anyway, even without that upgrade. Too expensive, for too little gain. Not recommended! Tesla Gun --------- The Tesla Gun allows you to stun a group of enemies and eventually electrocute them. However, the range is extremely small, ammo is very scarce and it is not very useful against stronger foes. Taking down enemies also takes a lot longer than using the flame thrower, particle cannon, or merely the MP43 with Empower. There's also only one location in the game, where you can find a battery for the gun (as far as I can recall) and since no enemy wields this weapon, you'll end up having to purchase ammo for it. The game could have done well without the gun so in my opinion it is the most useless weapon. You don't ever have to use it and if you don't plan to, then don't waste your money on upgrades for it. Upgraded Battery : Increases the ammo capacity. If you ever plan on using the gun, then get this upgrade. Step Transformer : Increases Damage. Since the weapon is even pretty weak without out (compared to the other guns), upgrade it if you want to use the Tesla gun regularly. MK2 Generator : Decreases spin up time by may be half a second from a little over a second to a little below a second. Not really useful. The difference is too small and the spin up time still too big. Also, you have to get up close to your enemies, so you have enough time to spin up the gun. Arc Nodes : Allows you to electrocute foes with a melee attack. Just as with the Bayonette, this feature is pretty useless. You already have a pretty powerful melee attack which you'll end up using very few times at best anyway. Electrocuting the enemies this way kills them instantly. Not really needed unless you plan on using the gun regularly. Coil Upgrade : Increases the number of arcs, allowing you to kill more enemies at the same time. This saves ammo and time, so upgrade this feature if you use the gun often. Current Induction : Allows the arcs to pass through multiple enemies. Sounds useful, but the enemy A.I. sabotages this feature. The most times you encounter lined up enemies is when they don't expect you. Using that with the Tesla Gun will be next to impossible, because you'd have to sneak up on them. Also, when a group is aware of you, they try to flank you, so that everyone can take a shot at you, effectively killing your chances to electrocute more than one enemy with a single arc. Useless! Not recommended! Mdl. 24 Grenade --------------- Grenades are a double edged sword. There is no indicator where they will land, so trying to throw one through a window or up an elevated enemy hide out can become frustrating, or even deadly if your own grenades fall back on you. Still, if they land where they're supposed to, they're not just an effective weapon, but also create enough fuss to stop enemy fire, allowing you to regenerate health and pick off fleeing enemies. Furthermore, you will find plenty of grenades on basically every corner, making this an ever available, powerful weapon. High Explosives : Increases blast radius. Very useful, but also very expensive. Unless you're the type of player who always ends up in messy situations, where only a single grenade can save your butt from dying, you won't need this upgrade. Just use more grenades. Ammo Satchel : Doubles your grenade carrying capacity to 6. Expensive, but recommended, because 3 grenades are not enough thanks to the flawed aiming system. Expensive, but recommended! Fragmentation : Increases damage by adding shrapnel fragments to grenades. I didn't see much of a difference, but this is hard to judge anyway. It's pretty cheap, so better get it. 3.2. Veil Powers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Keep in mind that you can't upgrade the Veil powers if you want to get all upgrades. It's also not needed, because the game is far too easy plus the basic Veil powers are pretty powerful already. Veil ---- You're basic power and basic it is, because all of its features are also supported by all other powers: Speeding up your movement, making enemies easier to spot and allowing you to use Veil doors and ladders. However, it only has minimal Veil consumption, making it perfect for spotting collectibles and well hidden enemies in long firefights. Inner Light : Increases the Veil pool's capacity by 50%. This allows you to use all powers a lot longer: Veil 60s --> 75s Shield 12s --> 15s Empower 8s --> 10s Mire 6s --> 9s Very useful! Highly recommended! Veil Sight : This allows you to spot enemies behind obstacles. If you expect a Left 4 Dead-like view, you'll be massively disappointed. You will only detect an enemy by aiming at him, but that requires you to know where he is which defeats the purpose of the upgrade. It's most useful while using it with the MP43's scope, because that allows you to see most enemies around the center view of the screen. For all other weapons it's basically useless. It also doesn't work if there are multiple obstacles between you and the enemy. This is one flawed upgrade. Not recommended! Inner Brilliance : Increases the Veil pool's capacity by another 50%, effectively doubling it (compared to its original size). Veil 75s --> 90s Shield 15s --> 18s Empower 10s --> 12s Mire 9s --> 11s Very useful! Highly recommended! Crystal Harmony : Quadrupels the speed of the Veil pool's self- regeneration. Without the upgrade it takes 200 seconds to fully regenerate a pool of standard size. With the feature it takes 50 seconds. Still, that is far too long to be useful in a fight, especially if you have doubled your pool's size. Also, Veil pool recharging anomalies and Veil canisters are scattered throughout each level. There is not a single location, where there wouldn't be any close by. So this upgrade is pretty useless, unless you're pinned down with a depleted Veil pool and you're too impatient to wait. Not recommended! Shield ------ Shields you from bullets and environmental hazards such as electricity. Allows you to regenerate health while maintaining your position. Apart from mire, this will be your most used power. Reflective Crystal: Reflects bullets back at those who shot them. Nice upgrade, but there's a probability involved. Not every bullet is reflected, or not every reflected bullet hits the enemy, so you'll only see enemies go down on their own once in a while. It's cheap and nice, but not really needed. Upgrade if you have some extra money. Reactive Crystal : Kills all enemies that touch your shield. This is a very powerful feature that allows you to storm into a room and kill everybody just by running through it while still being invincible. It takes down even the most powerful foes, except for Heavy Troopers. Highly recommended! Empower ------- This power allows you to shoot through solid matter and shields. You can also take down much stronger enemies with only a few shots. Use it with your MP43 and you can take out even a tank with only a few bullets, making your MP more powerful than the rocket launcher! In the later missions all you have to do is to deliver stray fire upon entering a room. Equipped with fully upgraded Empower guarantees that most likely every enemy will be killed. Piercing Crystal : Allows you to shoot through light material. Not that useful, because enemies almost always take cover behind stone obstacles. If they hide behind crates then you can destroy those without this upgrade anyway. In fact, I can only recall a single wooden cover that you couldn't shoot through without the upgrade. Only purchase if you also want to buy the penetrating crystal! Penetrating Crystal: Allows your bullets to pass through stone and metal. Enemies that duck, or are shielded by scribes don't pose a threat any more. Flame thrower wielding enemies explode almost instantly, as do tanks, Heavy Troopers, Rocket Troopers - any enemy in the game except for bosses. This makes playing the game a cakewalk! Highly recommended! Mire ---- Mire allows you to slow down time which enables you to evade bullets while enemies practically stand still and have to eat your lead. It's also excellent for evading hazards, slugs and going through weak, flickering shields. Slowing Crystal : Slows down time even more while also reducing the total running time of the Veil power. Without this upgrade you can use this power for 22 seconds (with doubled Veil pool), after upgrading you only have 18. I couldn't see much of a difference. MP43 bullets seemed to fly just as fast as without this upgrade, so don't use it unless you also want to buy the shearing crystal. Shearing Crystal : Slows down time significantly to half its speed compared to using the power without any upgrades. It also halves the Veil running time (11 seconds). Enemies that are nearby are destroyed instantly when you activate Mire. This only works on close distances though (may be a meter). Highly recommended! ###################################################################### ### 4. Purchasing suggestions for the minimalist ### ###################################################################### Some players just want to get into the action without collecting gold and tomes. Still, you will be ending up with money nonetheless thanks to the payment for each finished mission. Also, some gold lies just right in your path, so it's basically impossible not to find it. You earn $6500 in the main missions and $3750 in the side missions. Assuming that you at least manage to pick up $1250 in gold, which isn't hard to do) the resulting $11,500 would be spend most wisely this way: MP 40 ----- Silencer $500 Drum Magazine $500 Kar 98 ------ Silencer $500 Sniper Scope $2500 MP 43 ----- Drum Magazine $500 Tactical Scope $3000 Particle Cannon --------------- Improved Veil Capacitator $1000 Veil ---- Inner Light $1500 Inner brilliance $1500 Should you manage to end up with more money, consider buying more upgrades for the MP 40, Kar 98 and MP 43, followed by upgrades for Shield and Mire. ###################################################################### ### 5. Legal Stuff ### ###################################################################### This FAQ is intended to be distributed through gamefaqs and I mean solely through gamefaqs. If you have a Wolfenstein themed fanpage and want to include my FAQ, then drop me a line and I might allow it. General FAQ sites don't need to ask. The answer will be no, because I don't have control over my stuff there. Mail: Xiaopang (at) web dot de ICQ: 162121961 Xiaopang, 12.09.2009