Set in a bleak future where individuals are condemned to one million years of imprisonment from birth, Freedom Wars Remastered has you engaging in intense battles against ferocious monsters while completing various missions to reduce your sentence.
The path to freedom is fraught with challenges, as you’ll encounter numerous enemies along the way. Additionally, any minor misstep in the game’s main area, the Panopticon, can lengthen your sentence. Follow these strategies to conquer your foes and start cutting down the years you owe.
Focus on a Mission’s Primary Goal
During mission briefings, it’s crucial to understand the primary objective of your assignment. Once you complete the main goal, the mission concludes, which means you won’t have to deal with unnecessary enemies or resources at that point.
For instance, if your task is to rescue three citizens and bring them back for extraction, it’s often best to skip engaging with enemies (unless they pose an immediate danger) and concentrate on saving the civilians. After safely returning the third individual to the pod, the operation will wrap up, allowing you to finish more quickly.
Your mission completion speed is a key factor in your performance rating, affecting the rewards you receive. Thus, it’s advantageous to hurry through encounters.
Utilize Lock-on to Maximize Your Thorn
A unique feature of Freedom Wars is the Thorn. This tool not only allows for impressive movement throughout the environment but also comes with several combat functions.
When you lock onto an Abductor (by using the Left Trigger), the targeting circle changes colors. A yellow circle means that the body part you’re targeting can be used to pull the Abductor down, enabling you to deliver extra damage. Simply rapidly press the correct button to achieve this.
If the circle turns blue or red, it indicates that you can zip to that part of the Abductor and sever it. After jumping onto the creature with your Thorn, start mashing the button to cut. Severing a blue segment frees a citizen trapped inside, while cutting a red section removes a weapon and weakens the enemy’s combat ability.
You can toggle which part of the Abductor you’re targeting using the Right Stick.
Donate Selected Rewards for Sentence Reduction
After finishing a mission, you’ll see a rewards screen that showcases all the resources you’ve collected. You’ll then have the chance to donate some of these items for the Greater Good to further reduce your sentence.
While it may be tempting to donate everything early on to meet CODE Exam requirements, it’s advisable to hold back some items. These resources can be crucial for upgrading your gear, so giving away all of them after every mission could hinder your progress against tougher opponents. Strive for a balanced donation approach to ensure you keep the necessary items for yourself while working to reduce your sentence.
You can check how many years of your sentence your donations will reduce by looking at the bottom right corner.
Acquire Everyday Entitlements
The world of Freedom Wars is harsh; stepping out of line can lead to severe punishment, and any sign of inefficiency is considered a serious crime. Simple actions such as resting or moving around are forbidden in the Panopticon, and violating these rules will result in an increase to your sentence.
As soon as you gain control of your character, taking more than five steps in your prison cell incurs a penalty of ten years!
Fortunately, by proving yourself valuable as a Sinner, the oversight lessens. Completing missions will earn you Entitlement Points, which you can spend on Entitlements, granting you the freedom to engage in actions that were previously prohibited without facing penalties.
Make sure to focus on acquiring Everyday Entitlements so you can move around the Panopticon and interact with NPCs without being penalized for basic game actions like walking or conversing.
Bring Comrades on Missions
Before a mission begins, you’ll have the chance to choose comrades to accompany you. You can fill three additional character slots for each operation, allowing you to create a team best suited to tackle the mission at hand.
You can add characters to your team in the briefing menu.
Your comrades can take on roles like DPS, healers, or tanks and will support you in combat, even bringing you back to life should you fall. It’s easy to start a mission without a full squad, so be sure not to go in alone.
Having extra team members allows you to use Team Orders. Press down on the D-pad to instruct NPCs on specific tasks, like protecting civilians or focusing on a single target.
Enhance Your Gear with Modules
While you can level up individual weapons to enhance their statistics, the fastest way to boost your gear is by equipping modules. These small enhancements improve specific areas of gameplay, such as damage against staggered enemies or critical hit chances.
At the beginning of the game, modules can be obtained as quest rewards. With the loadout menu, you can equip them onto your weapons to benefit from their effects during battles. Feel free to experiment, as modules can be swapped across weapons without any negative consequences, allowing you to find your preferred style of play.
Upgrade Your Facilities
To acquire stronger combat equipment, you need to develop your facilities. In the Facility Management menu, you can improve your loadouts by leveling up weapons, increasing module slots, imbuing elements, and more. The quicker you upgrade, the easier it becomes to take on tougher enemies.
Facility upgrades can be purchased with Entitlements. Each time you enhance a facility, it unlocks new capabilities, such as crafting and synthesizing modules. This enables you to make the specific modules you need instead of relying on random mission rewards for upgrades.
Save Your Progress Regularly
Freedom Wars draws inspiration from games like Monster Hunter, so you must manually save your progress. This is done by interacting with your Accessory in your prison cell. Be sure to get a save permit before you close the game.
A good habit is to save after every completed mission or story progression. This will help you avoid losing significant progress easily.