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strategy:financial_investment

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Financial Investment

Some strategic decisions are financial investments in the sense that they cost credits in the present but give back more credits in the future. Financial investments can be compared by how many missions it takes for them to break even and then start producing a profit.

Investments are generally best made early in the campaign, so that there is more time to receive a bigger return on the investment, and because credits are generally more valuable the earlier you get them.

Anarchy upgrades

Upgrading an agent's Anarchy skill level to 3 or 4 gives more credits when that agent steals from guards, and upgrading to level 5 gives a chance to find more items which can be sold for credits.

The return on investment for Anarchy skill upgrades is difficult to calculate accurately, because it depends on how many guards you use that agent to steal from in each mission, which types of guards occur (as different types have different amounts to steal), and the mission difficulty level which also affects how many credits can be stolen. However, even a rough estimate shows that Anarchy skill upgrades take much longer than other financial investments to break even. The table below shows how long it takes to break even, assuming that you steal from three typical human guards at mission difficulty 2.

Beginner, Experienced Expert, Expert Plus
Anarchy 3 ~11 missions ~15 missions
Anarchy 4 ~10 missions ~13 missions
Anarchy 5 ~17 missions (expected) ~17 missions (expected)

Upgrading an agent's Anarchy skill is therefore not good as a purely financial investment, but can be worth it so that the agent can also use items with an Anarchy skill level requirement, such as Buster Chips or Paralyzers. Investments in Anarchy 3 and 4 are better if you choose Chief Financial Suite missions, where the Financial Executive has many more credits to steal than typical guards; and an investment in Anarchy 5 is also better if you steal Charge Packs or Med Gels to use them rather than sell them, and you otherwise would be buying them.

If you do not already have an agent with Anarchy 2, then upgrading to Anarchy 3 is more expensive and takes even longer to pay off; if you have more than one agent with an Anarchy 2 or higher, then it is financially best to upgrade just one of them, and use that agent to steal.

Econ Chip

An Econ Chip costs 800 credits and can be used at Consoles to gain credits instead of PWR. Buying an Econ Chip can be one of the best financial investments in the game, depending on how many Consoles you use it on; if used on just a few Consoles per mission, it has a reasonable return on investment, but if used greedily on every Console in every mission then it pays for itself almost immediately. Perhaps more importantly, buying an Econ Chip creates the opportunity for more good investments in Hacking upgrades to gain more credits when using the Econ Chip.

The table below shows how long it takes for an Econ Chip to pay for itself, depending on your agent's current Hacking skill level and the number of Consoles used for credits per mission. These times are calculated assuming a typical distribution of Console base PWR, and assuming the Econ Chip is used on the Consoles with the most PWR first. Note that the agent may also require a Speed upgrade to use the Econ Chip; the cost of upgrading Speed is not accounted for here, on the presumption that you would want to upgrade Speed anyway.

Hacking 1 Hacking 2 Hacking 3 Hacking 4 Hacking 5
1 Console per mission 5.3 missions 4.0 missions 3.2 missions 2.7 missions 2.0 missions
2 Consoles per mission 3.2 missions 2.3 missions 1.8 missions 1.5 missions 1.1 missions
3 Consoles per mission 2.3 missions 1.6 missions 1.2 missions 1.0 missions 0.7 missions
4 Consoles per mission 2.0 missions 1.3 missions 1.0 missions 0.8 missions 0.6 missions
5 Consoles per mission 1.8 missions 1.1 missions 0.8 missions 0.7 missions 0.5 missions
6 Consoles per mission 1.6 missions 1.0 missions 0.7 missions 0.6 missions 0.4 missions
7 Consoles per mission 1.6 missions 0.9 missions 0.7 missions 0.5 missions 0.4 missions
8 Consoles per mission 1.6 missions 0.9 missions 0.6 missions 0.5 missions 0.3 missions

Therefore, buying an Econ Chip is generally a very good financial investment, even if you do not use it on every Console. However, unlike other investments, using an Econ Chip costs more than just the 800 credits to buy it in the first place; you also don't get the PWR from Consoles. This can be fine in low-PWR-usage loadouts such as when starting with Parasite; however, it may be a deal-breaker in other loadouts.

Hacking upgrades with an Econ Chip

When you have an Econ Chip already, you can spend credits to upgrade your agent's Hacking skill in order to gain more credits when using the Econ Chip at Consoles. The table below shows how long it takes for each Hacking upgrade to pay for itself, depending on the number of Consoles used for credits per mission.

Hacking 2 Hacking 3 Hacking 4 Hacking 5
1 Console per mission 10.0 missions 12.0 missions 14.0 missions 10.0 missions
2 Consoles per mission 5.0 missions 6.0 missions 7.0 missions 5.0 missions
3 Consoles per mission 3.3 missions 4.0 missions 4.7 missions 3.3 missions
4 Consoles per mission 2.5 missions 3.0 missions 3.5 missions 2.5 missions
5 Consoles per mission 2.0 missions 2.4 missions 2.8 missions 2.0 missions
6 Consoles per mission 1.7 missions 2.0 missions 2.3 missions 1.7 missions
7 Consoles per mission 1.4 missions 1.7 missions 2.0 missions 1.4 missions
8 Consoles per mission 1.2 missions 1.5 missions 1.8 missions 1.2 missions

Hacking upgrades with an Econ Chip are therefore generally good financial investments, especially if you are using the Econ Chip on most or all Consoles in each mission. There are also significant positive side-effects: the upgrades also give you more PWR at Consoles when you don't use the Econ Chip (potentially even allowing you to use the Econ Chip at more Consoles), and the agent will be able to use items with higher Hacking skill level requirements such as EMP Packs or Portable Servers.

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strategy/financial_investment.1595853829.txt.gz · Last modified: 2020/07/27 12:43 by andrew