Stealthing
Stealthing is the process of attacking another player and making sure they do not know who attacked them, this displays as for example: Someone hospitalized you.
Stealthing
So, how do you achieve a stealthed attack? Your stealth is checked on a turn by turn basis, decreasing your chance of stealth based on the parameters of that particular turn. If a single turn decreases your chance of stealth, it cannot be recovered during the attack (I.e. Only your lowest achieved stealth turn is used). This mimics someone being revealed over time; the opponent isn't going to forget if you've somewhat revealed yourself on a previous turn.
There are 9 different parameters of which you'll need to excel in at least a few of...
Weapon stealth level
All weapons now have stealth levels between 0.0 and 10.0. Most guns have a pretty low stealth level, with melee generally being higher, although when weapon mods are available it'll be possible to substantially increase the stealth level of guns. This was certainly the hardest part of the project due to the concept being so subjective - everyone has their own opinion. We tasked several committee members with applying scores to each weapon for things like... Noise, commotion, barrel length, ammo used, range, visibility, concealability, size, weight, collateral damage, usage complexity e.t.c and then averaged them out to produce a final stealth score. These scores are visible when viewing a weapon's info.
The stealthing capabilities of kicking and punching are unknown as of now.
Weapons with both good Stealth, damage and accuracy
| Item | Damage | Accuracy | Stealth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diamond Bladed Knife | 60 | 62 | 7.1 |
| Macana | 57 | 62 | 7.4 |
| Scalpel | 56 | 52 | 8.7 |
Weapons with the Highest possible stealth (above 8)
| Item | Damage | Accuracy | Stealth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scalpel | 56 | 52 | 8.7 |
| Poison Umbrella | 35 | 49 | 8.5 |
| Pen Knife | 21 | 45 | 8.5 |
| Butterfly Knife | 24 | 55 | 8.3 |
| Swiss Army Knife | 23 | 52 | 8.4 |
| Fine Chisel | 16 | 50 | 8 |
Dexterity difference
Dexterity still plays an important role. Having much more than your opponent will increase the chance of stealth, and vice versa: If your opponent has far more dexterity than you do, your chances will be reduced. Having loads of dexterity does not guarantee stealth however - someone with very low dexterity can still achieve it by meeting other criteria, and someone with loads of dexterity using a very unstealthy weapon will most likely not be stealthed.
Face masks
Using head armor which covers the face will increase your stealth a bit. It's not essential but it certainly helps - just like in real life.
Some amour or clothing pieces now have the Masked property in their description, which should play a part in stealth. Even the Balaclava has it.
| Items that have this property | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Item | Base armor | ||||||||
| Motorcycle Helmet | 30 | ||||||||
| Welding Helmet | 34 | ||||||||
| Balaclava | N/A | ||||||||
| Medieval Helmet | 25 | ||||||||
| Bandana | N/A | ||||||||
| Kabuki Mask | N/A | ||||||||
| All Masks given through missions & special events | N/A | ||||||||
Note: The armor values displayed are just averages, there's a variation in how strong / weak the item can be.
If you find additional items with this property, feel free to add them.
Stealth merits
Stealth merits are still a thing, and can be upgraded up to 10 times. They will help out a lot if you're willing to specialize in them. Each upgrade increases your stealth level by 0.2.
Amount of turns
If an attack continues on for a long time, this can be detrimental to stealth. It's not a huge factor, but certainly worth taking into consideration.
Temporary weapons
A player's stealth is increased if an opponent is under the effect of a temporary weapon such as a Flash Grenade, Smoke Grenade, Pepper Spray and Tear Gas so long as the temporary weapon was used on the first turn of the fight.
Temporary weapons and their stealth levels
All non-damaging temporary weapons have a stealth rating of 10.0. Temporary weapons that do damage have stealth ratings under 10.0.
| Item | Stealth |
|---|---|
| Book | 7.5 |
| Brick | 7.3 |
| Claymore Mine | 3.3 |
| Fireworks | 4.3 |
| Grenade | 4.0 |
| HEG | 3.8 |
| Molotov Cocktail | 3.9 |
| Nail Bomb | 3.0 |
| Ninja Stars | 7.6 |
| Snowball | 7.9 |
| Stick Grenade | 3.6 |
| Throwing Knife | 7.9 |
| Trout | 7.3 |
Company bonus
There are two company specials that can reduce opponent chances of stealth. Rumors (Hair Salon) and High-fidelity (Music Store) have a substantial impact. On the flip side, there's also Dramatics (Theater) and Deafened (Music Store) that can still 100% guarantee your stealth in exchange for job points.
Education bonus
There is one education course (Forensic Science) which slightly decreases opponent stealthiness.
Weapon Mods
The Suppressor mod can increase your chance to stealth significantly. However this comes at the cost of damage.
The Light mod reduces an opponents chance to stealth significantly. This goes with its ability to reduce accuracy, potentially increasing the number of turns an attack takes.
Stealth Meter
Since the release of Attacking 2.1 a display was added to show your chance at stealthing a fight.