SteamWorld Heist II: 10 Best Tips for Beginners

If you pride yourself on your sniper skills, SteamWorld Heist II is the best place to show off what you’ve got. It gives you multiple scenarios to line up the perfect shot, even challenging you with ricocheting bullets on walls and obstacles. The combat is, indeed, quite a blast as you scamper from ship to ship, looting bounties and treasure. However, it can also become quite tricky to beat, especially as the levels begin to grow more demanding. Don’t worry, though, as we’ve compiled SteamWorld Heist II: best tips for beginners to take off the training wheels and dive into the Great Seas, unafraid.

10. Be Wary of Upgrading Just One Job

SteamWorld Heist II has six jobs (or classes), namely flanker, reaper, sniper, boomer, brawler, and engineer. It’s tempting to assign a job to a specific character and then upgrade them as you progress. However, the gameplay is structured a little differently, and characters can become specialists in more than just one job. It can be confusing at first, but experimenting with the different combinations of classes does pay off on the battlefield. You can have snipers who fire accurate shots while also being able to inflict destructive damage. However, you may want to switch out classes when you’ve upgraded them to level three. That way, you gain more slots to assign new skills. 

9. Explore, As Always

Captain Leeway sits out nearly all missions. Instead, you’ll use him to explore the decks, from the bars to other secret locations. The bars are rest points where your crew recharges. It’s also the place to buy upgrades and talk to NPCs. Otherwise, you’ll be steering your submarine in open water, fighting enemy ships. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for new locations and loot. Another place to keep a close eye on is the actual missions. The environment will have lots of interesting spots. You can discover places to take cover or walls to ricochet bullets. In some cases, you can shoot a hanging rod to drop on enemies. 

8. Make Use of the Map

The best part is that you don’t need to venture out into open water without a map. You can pause the game to pull up a map that shows the areas around you. It can help you pinpoint points of interest. Alternatively, the map can help you find your way back to the bar if you get lost. 

7. Feel free to Customize the Difficulty

It would be a waste to complain that the game is hard and toggle the difficulty to match your skill level. SteamWorld Heist II has a whopping five difficulty options, namely story, moderate, experienced, veteran, and elite. The story is the easiest, and you can play leisurely, while the elite is for veteran players to challenge themselves. But the game takes a step further by offering customization options to toggle the settings you prefer. Later, when you’ve mastered a level, you can come back and raise the difficulty. That’s something else that you may shy away from, but even on the elite difficulty, you don’t get any penalties for dying.

6. Make Money As Best As You Can

As pirates, your primary goal, most of the time, will be to stack up on treasure. You’ll raid enemy ships and make as much money as you can. Be sure to push yourself and complete missions to earn rewards. During the “Bounties” missions, you may be tasked with stealing all the swag on the enemy ship. Besides being a blast, the rewards you gain come in handy when leveling up.

5. Make Use of Cover

Sure, your character can dip into their defense skills and abilities to survive. But often, your best defense will be taking cover. SteamWorld Heist II is, after all, a stealth game. Sometimes, you won’t want to alert enemies to your presence, or they will come in your direction in waves. 

4. Line Up the Perfect Shots

Enemies, too, will take cover. This will protect them from shots fired in a straight line. But lucky for you, SteamWorld Heist II allows ricocheting bullets off walls to catch enemies off guard. Further, you can make use of a laser-like line that shows you the path the bullet will take. So, be sure to take your time to line up the perfect shot. If you’d like to jump into combat guns blazing, there’s an option for that, too. Simply blast enemies’ cover using grenades, a bazooka, or other powerful weapon. You’ll discover some environments are destructible, and blowing them up can sometimes be the way to go. However, causing too much commotion will come at a price, whether alerting enemies to your position or sustaining damage from explosions. So, be sure that your crew is safe and ready to defend themselves.

3. Watch Out for Stray Bullets

Keep in mind that enemies can line up perfect shots against you, too. That’s right. Enemies can also ricochet bullets off walls to catch you off guard. So, while you’re busy taking them out, remember to also keep a keen eye on enemy positions near you that can take you out.

2. Keep a Close Eye on Enemy Positions

Before we round up the best SteamWorld Heist II tips for beginners, you, of course, need to know your enemies. While studying enemy positions, you also want to take note of when they are in groups. It can create the perfect opportunity to take out multiple enemies using a grenade or bazooka. 

1. Water is Pretty Precious, Use it Wisely

It’s in the name, and SteamWorld Heist II is determined to emphasize the value of water by making it the primary currency for trade. You can earn water in multiple ways, including defeating enemy ships or completing missions. But once acquired, you want to spend it wisely. You’ll want to prioritize buying new recruits to add to your ragtag crew. Then, continue to upgrade them and boost their combat abilities with better gear.

So, what’s your take? Do you agree with our list of the best SteamWorld Heist II tips for beginners? Are there more tips we should know about? Let us know over on our socials here.