Developed by Mundfish, Atomic Heart takes you along the story of Major Comrade Sergei Nechaev who is sent to Facility 3826 after the launch of a new device that allows humans to remotely interface with robots malfunctions, causing robots to turn into a state of murderous rampage. Now it’s up to you to get to the bottom of it all.
This FPS action RPG has been compared in similarity to Bioshock, Wolfenstien, and Fallout. It includes an interchangeable mix of first person melee and first person shooting, along with special abilities like telekinesis.
Whether you’re playing the game for the plot, combat, or the twins, here are 10 helpful tips to get your Atomic Heart adventure beating, and some things the game just might not tell you.
1. Scan Your Surroundings and Enemies
You might not think twice about a basic tool such as your scanner. In Atomic Heart, it’s the first device given to you, and for good reason: it can make or break your future move. Scanning can be most useful in areas you’re exploring for the first time. But it’s best to constantly scan your environment to highlight helpful resources such as loot containers, quest items, and collectibles that can be easy to miss or hidden behind walls. Feel free to always be on the hunt to pick these things up, any lootable containers you find that exceed space in your inventory will automatically be sent into storage.
Scanning can also not only detect enemies, but it can also reveal their strengths and weaknesses - which can be particularly important for fighting against bosses. Plus, you can find out what materials you can expect to get for defeating them, and see if it’s worth your while.
Here’s a quick run-down of the colors that will pop up in your scanner and what they mean:
- Blue: Lootable containers
- White: NPC or objects you can interact with (like save stations and computers)
- Orange: Enemies nearby
- Purple: Key items related to the mission you’re on
2. In Some Situations; Choose Running Over Fighting
Atomic Heart is not for the faint of heart. (heh) You’ll quickly realize that certain situations can be ruthless with hordes of robots where it might just be best to run for the hills, unless you HAVE to fight. You’ll have to remember that there are cameras covering all grounds and robots ready to gang up on you anywhere at any time.
Even if you decide to clear an area of enemies, a swarm of drones will fly over to repair them all and bring them back to life. You might be able to slow the process, but more drones will keep coming. But when you run away, the robots eventually give up, the alarm level will drop, and you can explore the area again leisurely.
3. Disable All Robots In One Area
It might seem like there are endlessly respawning enemies most of the time. Thankfully, every area of the map in Atomic Heart has a HAWK drone over it, which is responsible for commanding all the robots in a specific area. This gives you an opportunity to sabotage it and turn off all the robots in a large area for a while.
How it works is you have to ascend into the security tower connected to the HAWK relay, and hack into a nearby camera to unlock the door. Once inside the HAWK relay, select the option called “Relay Overload” to blow up the turbine powering the HAWK, making all of the robot activity in the area stop completely - including cameras too. Repair drones will eventually fix the turbine, but now you can freely explore without having to worry for a long time.
4. Use Energy Weapons For Melee
At first, energy weapons for melee might seem obsolete in Atomic Heart. But before you go disassembling all those weapons, it’s smart to keep a strong one in your inventory starting from the early stages of the game for a variety of combat choices. Once you reach a certain boss type enemy, it’s even more crucial to have one on hand as this boss is very resistant to all other forms of damage - at least the first time you encounter it.
Nobody likes chipping away at an enemy's health bar practically microscopically, and you don’t want to waste all your ammo because ammo is limited enough across the map. Make sure you have a good melee weapon with damage upgrades ready. You can also recharge energy swiftly by engaging in melee combat.
5. Perfect One Skill
Atomic Heart gives you the thrilling opportunity to learn a handful of skills, like telekinesis, shok, polymeric shield, and many more. However, you can only have 2 equipped at once. Test each of them out in the beginning, and pick a particular skill you enjoy most and focus on powering it up. This way, you can have that skill be overpowered and useful in combat, rather than upgrading each one over time. The frostbite skill is often a great one to go with because it has the ability to freeze enemies in place for a short amount of time, which can be highly advantageous in crowds.
6. Craft and Equip Cartridges
Cartridges can be crafted at your convenience to utilize elemental damage on the fly. They can be fire, electric, or ice, and depending on an enemies weakness, these can be super helpful in battle. While they’re only temporary, they can be great to always have a few in your backpack because they avoid you having to take up an active skill slot. For example, you can use cryo cartridges to easily freeze enemies itself. It might not be totally obvious at first, but you have to get the cartridge gun upgrade for it first in order to equip it.
7. Upgrade Your Storage Early
One of the most essential upgrades you can get in the character menu is storage with the “Neuro-Compression Tactical Backpack”. There are 2 storage upgrades which are a little pricey, but getting both of these will double the amount of stuff you can carry. Having more space in your backpack is life changing because at a certain point in the game, you’ll start burning through resources like crazy.
You’ll need all the space you can get to store all the guns, ammo, healing items, and more you need to survive. Limited bag space can hold you back from things like larger weapons and their dedicated ammo. Don’t forget, you’ll also need storage for disassembling items to make them into something else.
8. Disassemble Items For Additional Resources
Throughout Atomic Heart, you’ll eventually likely acquire more stuff than you can carry on you. A great way to clear up some space and make use of your gathered belongings is by disassembling things you’re not using in storage. Recycled resources can then be used on the things you actually want and need in your gameplay. There’s no point in holding onto things like ammo for weapons you don’t plan on using. Also, items can provide crafting materials of all rarities, so you might just have the materials needed on hand for a weapon or consumable that you’re saving up for, and simply just need to break items down.
Also, in this game, you have the redeem to switch up your gear as you please. So don’t be afraid to disassemble your weapons for one that’s more intense against bosses as you can always craft and upgrade without any penalties.
9. Look For Testing Grounds
Testing grounds are optional, dungeon-like areas that hold useful resources like rare materials, blueprints, and more. These places are where you can find some of the best weapon mods in Atomic Heart. You’ll find 3 chests hidden away in each one that contain one or two weapon mods, and you’ll walk out with at least one that’s very powerful.
Testing grounds might be difficult to access at times, but often worth the time it takes to hunt down. Some testing grounds can be hidden very well and require some additional problem-solving to access by completing a puzzle (which robots can still attack you during, BTW). Testing grounds are not a lot of hard work once you locate them and a fun diversion from the main story.
10. Always Explore Off The Beaten Path
You might not think you can explore a lot, especially with those laser fences around almost every corner. But certain areas are surprisingly open with a whole lot of stuff to do in them. Off the main quest, you can find boss areas, mini dungeons, and more. Sometimes, going into different areas helps you discover items and equipment that can only be found this way. You might end up way off track and nowhere near the main objective, but that’s the fun part of it! Plus, you can use this as an opportunity to increase your power before moving forward.
In Atomic Heart, don’t ever feel like you can’t go beyond the path you’re told to be on to progress in the story. Use the open world to your advantage and venture off to your heart’s content.
Nothing is worse than taking on an army of killer robots unprepared. Atomic Heart might seem like a familiar game if you’ve played Bioshock before, or you might think you have this shooter game under control from experience. But this game’s strategic approaches are a bit different, so try new things, learn from your mistakes, and go on to survive the dangers of Facility 3826.
If you’ve started your adventure in Atomic Heart, tell us in the comments what tips or tricks have helped you the most! 🤖
