Introduction (1.3)
Here is my revised Guide for Standard Schemes on the World Stage updated for version 1.3.
I have revised the data tables and my observations to reflect the new game mechanics implemented.
A word of warning, this guide also has a fair sprinkling of critique and opinions within that you may or may not agree with.
If you are already familiar with how standard schemes operate, I recommend quickly skimming the next two sections then get down to the charts and reviews to dig into the meat of this guide.
The appendices are there partially as a historical reference to previous versions of the game for reference and partially as an area to provide and promote suggested balance changes to these standard schemes to improve the game's overall balance and theme coherency. Whether or not you think my proposals are any good... well, I guess that's up to you, but I always appreciate constructive criticism. If I agree with your assessments, I will try to include them in this guide if appropriate.
Now on to the guide!
What Type Of Schemes Will Be Covered? (1.3)
There are currently 6 types of schemes that will be readily available on the world stage that repeat and respawn at regular intervals. They are:
Minion Cash Schemes
These schemes require minions to be sent out to the world to amass cash for your organization. They are all long-term schemes lasting from 60 to 135 minutes each, generating income significantly faster than the passive rate while also generating additional heat in the territory the scheme is taking place. These schemes can be useful, but you can easily run into heat management problems that can have the Forces of Justice (FoJ) breathing down your neck. At higher levels with multiple criminal organizations running, these agents can become a significant problem
Intel Cash Schemes
These Schemes generate very fast income over 10 seconds at a cost of 5 to 40 intel. However, these schemes will almost always end before the full value is gained because the massive heat generation will almost always lock down the territory first, and usually send agents straight to your door. Because of this, these schemes should only be used sparingly, if at all.
Minion Heat Removal Schemes
These schemes gradually reduce heat in a region by typically utilizing 3 deception minions for schemes lasting from 60 to 180 minutes each. With the vastly improved passive income rates at higher criminal organization levels , these schemes have become much more valuable compared to version 1.2 and earlier.
Intel Heat Removal Schemes
These schemes reduce the heat in a territory very quickly (10 seconds) at a relatively hefty intel cost (15 to 40). These are mostly useful in territories that you have gained a lot of heat in and want to reduce quickly to either prevent a lock down because you need to run more schemes for a main or side objective or to quickly drop heat in general to mitigate agent visits to your lair.
Minion Recruitment Schemes
These schemes will give you 5 minions in 10 seconds at the cost of either 5 intel or $10,000 to $50,000 depending on quality of minions recruited. This can quickly bolster your numbers for minion shortfalls, but is generally not exceedingly useful except in emergencies, especially if your training facilities are adequate.
Tourism Schemes
These schemes typically require 3 valets and 30 seconds. They will temporarily either increase or decrease the number of tourists that travel to your lair depending on the specific scheme. Personally, the only times I have ever used these schemes have been for very specific main and/or side objectives, or if I want to cycle it out so I can hopefully get a more useful scheme in its place. Tourists tend to be best controlled by good base layouts and room tagging so no more will be written about this kind of scheme in this guide.
I will also be adding a section regarding the passive incomes for criminal organizations as I feel they have become much more valuable now compared to previous versions of the game.
Concepts Used (1.4)
There are some calculated values that will be used in this guide to provide easy comparisons between schemes of the same level and to assist with figuring out which schemes are best for which situation you may find yourself in. New for v1.4, I have added a Passive Index.
Cash per 5 seconds - minion cash only
Cash per minute - minion cash only
Cash per payday - minion cash only
Cash per heat generated ($/heat) - all cash schemes
Cash per second ($/sec) - intel cash only
Maximum cash per intel used ($/intel) - intel cash only
Passive Index (minion cash only): This is a calculated value that takes the cash per 5 seconds value of the scheme and divides it by the passive income rate of its associated criminal organization. It tends to illustrate better than words those schemes that I consider badly over or under powered.
It also seems to show the intended gradual decline of the relative benefits of minion cash schemes compared to passive income as you upgrade your criminal organizations. This isn't a bad thing in my opinion, as your overall heat levels can easily cause very heavy responses by the forces of justice later in the game. This subtly nudges players into shifting their focus more into heat management while still allowing players to manage salaries well via the much improved passive incomes.
I will also be using a couple of abbreviations in this guide relatively often, so here is what they mean:
FoJ - Forces of Justice
CO - Criminal Organization: Typically followed by a number that indicates its level (CO-1, CO-2, etc.)
Minion Cash Schemes (1.3)
The following are 2 charts showing the values of minion cash schemes in the game and the relative efficiencies of the same:
Generally speaking, minion cash schemes can be very useful when used in moderation to help pay for large lair expansions at the cost of significantly higher heat gain which can be more difficult to manage.
As can be seen, HAMMER, ANVIL and SMASH all run at the same efficiencies each utilizing different minion types but after the 1.4 update took a serious nerf bat hit to rewards and cash efficiencies at the CO-3 level, PATRIOT tends to be a bit better in regards to cash flow except at CO-3 which is still broken, and SABRE now best in class or tied for best at levels 2 through 4.
However, the new adjustments made in v1.4 are perhaps broken still. SABRE is either overpowered or all the others are underpowered. My money is SABRE is overpowered at CO-2 and the others are seriously underpowered at CO-3. When the CO-2 SABRE outperforms every other faction's CO-3, its a pretty good bet that something is wrong here. Even at CO-4, SABRE and PATRIOT are overpowered compared to the other 3 at $1100/5sec vs everyone else's $775/5sec (42% better).
As it stands right now, SABRE territories are the ones you should focus on for minion cash if you want to go that way.
Intel Cash Schemes (1.3)
The following are 2 charts showing the values of intel cash schemes in the game and the relative efficiencies of the same:
I am personally not fond of intel cash schemes at all as they are currently implemented.
All intel cash schemes with one notable exception will max out the heat in any territory that runs one and guarantee a lock down unless you can cancel the scheme before the lock down occurs. Either way, you will rarely have an opportunity to gain the full reward for the scheme, making them significantly less valuable than is indicated in the game.
As can be seen, at the first 3 CO levels, PATRIOT, SMASH and ANVIL seem to have standard rewards, while HAMMER and SABRE have better rewards for their schemes.
This changes significantly at CO-4. PATRIOT and ANVIL maintain standard rewards, SMASH joins HAMMER for the best rewards, and somehow, after their fix, SABRE ends up with the single best standard intel cash scheme in the entire game instead of the worst because they adjusted the cash reward to match SMASH and HAMMER but kept heat at 90 as compared to every other faction's 200. SABRE's CO-4 intel is still broken and is now very overpowered.
Heat Reduction Schemes (1.3)
Heat reduction schemes have become more useful for different purposes now that investigators pose a potential threat to your lair. Keeping heat low in the differing factions will keep investigators at poor to average levels. This, in turn, will make keeping them in the cover operation much easier, provided you have good base design.
Minion Heat Reduction Schemes:
These schemes will gradually reduce heat in a territory over a long period of time. They are most useful for maintaining heat at or near zero over time while you are gathering passive income in territories you are not running other schemes in. They are not the greatest when it comes to reducing already high heat levels in a territory. They are always the same across the world stage at each CO level. They also become much more powerful mid to late game.
CO-1: 3 Workers, 1 hour
CO-2: 3 Valets, 1 1/2 hours
CO-3: 3 Spin Doctors, 2 hours
CO-4: 3 Counter Agents, 3 hours
Intel Heat Reduction Schemes:
These schemes rapidly remove all heat in the territory they are activated in over 10 seconds. They are most effective for dropping heat generated by other active schemes you have run there. This is useful if you either want or need to run further schemes in that territory and the heat generated would lock down the territory instead, or you want to return that territory into passive income mode and run a minion heat reduction scheme afterwards. They do tend to come with a hefty intel cost which you may want to budget before running your scheme chain. ANVIL territories have a reduced intel cost associated with these schemes with the exception of the CO-3 scheme that I can only assume is an oversight of the devs.
CO-1 Standard: 20 intel
CO-1 ANVIL: 15 intel
CO-2 Standard: 30 intel
CO-2 ANVIL: 20 intel
CO-3 Standard: 30 intel
CO-3 ANVIL: 30 intel
CO-4 Standard: 40 intel
CO-4 ANVIL: 20 intel
Minion Recruitment Schemes (1.3)
Each Faction will have minion recruitment schemes that allow you to gain 5-10 minions of the same level as the criminal organization in that territory with the exception of workers which will be available throughout the game. Workers are also unique in the fact that they are the only minions who are bought with intel instead of money. Which class of minions (muscle, science, or deception) will depend on the faction. All recruitment schemes take 10 seconds to complete.
Minion Locations
PATRIOT- Workers only
SMASH - Science only
HAMMER - Muscle only
ANVIL - Deception only
SABRE - All minion types, including workers
By Criminal Organization Level:
CO-1 to CO-4
Workers x10 - 5 intel
CO-2
Technician x5 - $10,000
Scientist x5 - $15,000
Guard x5 - $15,000
Valet x5 - $15,000
CO-3
Biologist x5 - $25,000
Mercenary x5 - $25,000
Spin Doctor x5 - $25,000
Socialite x5 - $50,000
CO-4
Quantum Chemist x5 - $35,000
Hitman x5 - $35,000
Counter Agent x5 - $35,000
Marital Artist - Not observed during testing but assume 5 for $35k
Opinions regarding these schemes:
Socialites are overpriced compared to all other minions. This might have been an oversight of the devs, or it might just be a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor about how high-maintenance those kind of people are...
Unless you have a shortfall of these minions, and you need replacements right away, I would avoid these schemes because training rates are reasonably fast. If you do need or want to hire minions, the higher criminal organizations offer them at a better rate compared to their salaries. Hiring workers on the world stage may be better than paying $10,000 per 5 in the lair if you have the intel to spare and want to save a bit of money, especially early game.
Updates To Passive Incomes, Minion Salaries, And Effective Heat Management On The World Stage (1.3)
In previous versions of the game, passive incomes for your criminal organizations weren't all that great, and typically you needed to run a lot of cash schemes on the world stage to have anything close to a good income. The following chart compares the new values of passive income over time versus those of previous versions.
As can be seen, the new CO-2 passive income is now the same as what the Old CO-4 passive income used to be. The new higher CO-3 values are triple that of the old CO-4 and the new CO-4 now generates 7 times what it used to.
Minion salaries have now increased compared to previous versions, but passive incomes have also now scaled to compensate. Level 2 minions have a standard salary of $500, Level 3 minions $1500, and Level 4 minions $3500. Each CO will now support the salaries of 12 minions of its level with passive income alone. If you have every CO leveled up to CO-4, you could theoretically support 276 top-tier minions on passive income alone! Odds are, you will at most need about 100-120 if you are running reasonably high powered (25-30 each).
The upshot of this is you can reasonably run about 12-15 COs passively at your minion level, and maintain the deception heat reduction scheme on them to provide all of your salaries without generating any heat (and actually slowly reducing heat) in those territories unless they are being camped by a super agent. This maintenance would need to be performed by you at a frequency of every one to three hours depending on CO level.
Most of the six super agents will cause heat to increase over time even while you are running deception minion based heat reduction. Early game, I found that no super agents did this, but as I completed side schemes and progressed the story, the rate of the super agent heat generation increased as well. Almost all of the super agents did with the exception of Steele. However, in all cases, heat buildup is still significantly slower than regions that are idle. You may want to occasionally run the intel heat reduction scheme on them then go back to deception heat reduction soon afterwards. Late game, it can be more beneficial to lure super agents to your base to clear them from the world stage for a while, especially Agent X and Symmetry as it seems they generate heat faster than the other supes.
Review: Four Schemes That Should Be Fixed (1.3)
Throughout this guide I have noted 4 schemes that are significant outliers of the general performance trends. These 4 schemes should probably be fixed sooner rather than later by the devs.
1) SABRE CO-2 Minion Cash Scheme - This scheme is overpowered for it's class. Rewards are almost twice as good when compared to every other faction.
2) PATRIOT CO-3 Minion Cash Scheme - This scheme is severely underpowered for it's class. Rewards are less than half when compared to every other faction at the same level.
3) SABRE CO-4 Intel Cash Scheme - A level 4 scheme that provides a paltry $1,200 and costs 40 intel and 90 heat? Seriously, WTH?
4) ANVIL CO-3 Intel Heat Reduction Scheme - Fails to stay in-line with all of ANVIL's other intel heat reduction schemes. Should cost 15-20 intel instead of the current 30. Right now it is more expensive to run than ANVIL's CO-4 intel heat reduction scheme.
These are the worst of the lot as the game stands now. At the end of the guide, I will have an Appendix that will address less significant outliers and provide a potential roadmap for better balance and consistency for standard schemes in general.
Faction Reviews And Observations As They Relate To Standard Schemes (1.3)
I have noticed trends within the standard schemes (with a couple of exceptions) that lean towards distinct themes for their related factions and the super agents who reside within. Three of the factions appear to have distinct cultures that correspond well with their super agents. The other two factions seem muddled in comparison thematically, but should be adjustable reasonably easily to provide solid correlations between those faction's standard schemes and the cultures that seem to reside within as personified by their super agents.
First, lets start off with the three that seem to work well thematically.
SMASH - Standard schemes overall that focus on science minions.
SMASH has lost its dominance on slow cash schemes to SABRE in this latest update. It has one above average intel cash scheme now, but other than that, it appears that most schemes run at an average output for the resources expended. Science is focused upon, which works well with Blue Saint's fondness for 'technicos'.
ANVIL - Standard cash schemes that focus on deception minions. Best intel based heat reduction schemes.
ANVIL seems to be a faction based on getting things done by using social means to do so. Its not what you know, its who you know. Every standard scheme in ANVIL uses either deception minions or intel, and the heat reduction gained using intel is typically better than any other faction. This works well with it's sneaky super agent, Symmetry.
HAMMER - Standard minion cash schemes focusing on muscle minions. Overall much better intel cash schemes.
HAMMER seems to have a very militant culture. Smash and grab intel cash schemes give better rewards, muscle minions are usually available to recruit, and their super agent, Atomic Olga, is the single best soldier at large on the world stage.
The other two factions seem to be muddled thematically compared to the first three.
PATRIOT - Overall above average minion cash schemes that produce better rewards using a mixture of science minions at the current CO and that of the one below at the cost of higher heat gains. All other schemes are standard rewards and expenditures.
PATRIOTs schemes seem to be slightly off both thematically and balance-wise. I can see having a significant heat increase caused by using some lower level minions that would make for somewhat sloppier operations in the field that can be picked up on by the FoJ. Giving them increased rewards for this is definitely counter-intuitive. Thematically, Agent X portrays a PATRIOT faction that is diverse, wealthy, freedom loving, and entitled. So why are the only minions available to be picked up there workers?
SABRE - Best overall cash schemes focusing on balanced teams of all 3 minion classes. Almost no downsides.
SABRE's thematic problems are almost exactly the opposite of PATRIOT's. SABRE is described in your interactions with Wrecking Bola as a faction with both great wealth and prosperity for the upper classes and great poverty with serious problems for the lower classes. However, the schemes give the greatest rewards, generally utilizing the most diverse expenditures. Minions of all types are also readily available in SABRE territories.
Honestly, if the standard schemes of SABRE and PATRIOT were swapped, both factions would have much more coherent themes in the game.
Thank You
I hope that you will find this guide useful, or at least informative.
This is the first guide I've ever created for steam, and any constructive feedback would be appreciated so that I can improve this guide, and use any lessons learned to make a better guides for this game or other games in the future.
Again, thank you for reading!
Appendix A: Rebalancing Logic For Proposed Suggestions
I have noticed significant wild swings in rewards, time, and heat levels for many standard schemes.
I have also noticed some thematic inconsistencies between certain factions.
Finally, I have found that intel cash schemes aren't very useful since the penalties significantly outweigh the rewards.
What follows will be the rationales behind my suggestions to improve balance and consistency among 3 classes of standard schemes. These are intel cash, minion cash, and intel heat reduction. Appendices B, C, and D will have the actual proposed changes.
Intel cash schemes
The main change for intel cash is to reduce the heat gained down to 90% of the maximum heat level for each CO level from 100%. This allows a player to have at least a hope of clearing the heat in a territory before it locks down. And it also allows the player to gain the full reward consistently. in my opinion, these are the biggest reasons I don't like intel cash schemes as they are currently implemented.
HAMMER's intel cash advantage would be reduced by half for all CO levels, so it will only be 2nd best at each level. This is because my proposed minion cash schemes have HAMMER as the fastest cash per time. However, there are disadvantages to using HAMMER minion cash as well. All other factions except ANVIL would have one CO level where it has the best reward. ANVIL is excluded because of its superior intel heat reduction schemes. The order in which each is best is the opposite of overall quality of my proposed minion cash scheme output between the three. So PATRIOT would have the best at CO-2, SMASH at CO-3, and SABRE at CO-4.
Minion cash schemes
I have created a couple of charts that incorporate lot of changes to the current minion cash schemes. The biggest source of changes will come in basing rewards and heat gain on SMASH having a standard reward and heat level in comparison to the others. All other faction schemes would have a varying reward spread of +20% to -10%, and a varying heat spread of +20% to -20%.
PATRIOT and SABRE have been swapped in my proposal to create more thematic correlation. The new SABRE scheme plan would also add deception and muscle based schemes so like the new PATRIOT (current SABRE), they would use all 3 minion classes, but unlike the new PATRIOT who use 2 of each class tiered at the same CO level, will not be as nearly good since SABRE's schemes would use three minions at the current CO level and three of the next lower level. I call this a substandard minion penalty since using worse minions should give somewhat poorer results.
Minion cash schemes use 3 interacting variables. They are cash per 5 seconds, run time, and heat gained. In order to have more consistency and a more intuitive scheme system, I have locked the run times to 60min at CO-1 and CO-2, 90min at CO-3 and 120min at CO-4. This allows for easier balancing between rewards and heat gained.
Rewards and heat gain are adjusted based on the minion classes used.
Science minions have no advantages or disadvantages, this is why I set my proposed SMASH schemes as being the standard, since they use the normal amount of science minions without having any minions below the CO level. This may end up making SMASH schemes less appealing since there is nothing at all special about them unlike the other 4 factions.
Muscle minions used in HAMMER schemes generate 20% more cash per minute, but also gain 20% more heat. Efficiency-wise cash per unit heat actually stays the same as that of SMASH, but the overall heat gain with muscle based schemes will be significantly faster than using the other two classes. Effective, but not very subtle. Sounds about right.
Deception minions used in ANVIL schemes generate 5% less cash per minute but also gain 20% less heat. This is justified by your deception minions greasing the right palms to get more of the FoJ looking the other way, but it affects the bottom line.
The new PATRIOT uses a balanced approach. As a result, the 3 classes also balance their advantages and penalties somewhat. This results in a 10% reward bonus with no penalties or bonuses to heat. This actually also increases cash to heat efficiency but to a much lesser degree than that of any solid deception schemes of the same level.
The new SABRE's use of lower level minions now also makes cash rewards not as lucrative as compared to the other single minion class faction schemes. Science based schemes give 5% less than SMASH. Unlike HAMMER, muscle schemes only give a 10% cash bonus but keep the 20% heat penalty. Finally, deception schemes still have the 20% less heat gained but lose 10% cash compared to ANVIL's 5% loss. If the minions used have a significantly lower salary, they should give significantly lower returns. You get what you pay for.
Intel heat reduction schemes.
My proposed changes would bring back the flat 50% discount ANVIL had in earlier versions of the game and reduce the standard CO-1 cost to being back on a linear track with the other CO levels.
Not everything needs to be complicated, right?
Appendix B: Proposed Minion Cash Schemes
Here are my charts for proposed minion cash schemes broken down by level and faction.
DO NOT USE THESE FOR CURRENT IN-GAME REFERENCE! These are merely so I can show what I believe the schemes should be like, and not what they actually are right now.
Appendix C: Proposed Intel Cash Schemes
Here are my charts for proposed intel cash schemes broken down by level and faction.
DO NOT USE THESE FOR CURRENT IN-GAME REFERENCE! These are merely so I can show what I believe the schemes should be like, and not what they actually are right now. These have far fewer changes than my proposed minion cash schemes do.
Appendix D: Proposed Intel Heat Reduction Schemes
The following is a revised list of intel heat reduction schemes that I am proposing for the game.
it makes intel heat reduction more linearly scaled. It also more or less brings back the pre-v1.3 ANVIL advantage of a 50% cost reduction.
CO-1
Standard: 10 intel, 10sec
ANVIL: 5 intel, 10sec
CO-2
Standard: 20 intel, 10sec
ANVIL: 10 intel, 10sec
CO-3
Standard: 30 intel, 10sec
ANVIL: 15 intel, 10sec
CO-4
Standard: 40 intel, 10sec
ANVIL: 20 intel, 10sec
Appendix E: Slow Cash Schemes V1.2
This is the old slow cash scheme data from version 1.2 and earlier. I've kept them in case anyone wants to compare them to the new minion based cash schemes which have some parallels.
Appendix F: Heat Reduction Schemes V1.2
I have also kept the version 1.2 heat reduction schemes available here in case anyone wants to compare to the new version.
Level 1 Minion
Standard: Heat -50, 3 Workers, 20 minutes
ANVIL: Heat -50, 3 Workers, 10 minutes
Level 1 cash/intel
Standard: Heat -50, $10,000, 10 seconds
ANVIL: Heat -50, $5,000, 10 seconds
Level 2 Minion
Standard: Heat -100, 3 Valets, 30 minutes
ANVIL: Heat -100, 3 Valets, 15 minutes
Level 2 cash/intel
Standard: Heat -100, $10,000, 20 intel, 10 seconds
ANVIL: Heat -100, $5,000, 10 intel, 10 seconds
Level 3 Minion
Standard: Heat -150, 3 Spin Doctors, 45 minutes
ANVIL: Heat -150, 3 Spin Doctors, 22.5 minutes
Level 3 cash/intel
Standard: Heat -150, $25,000, 25 intel, 10 seconds
ANVIL: Heat -150, $25,000, 25 intel, 10 seconds
Level 4 Minion
Standard: Heat -200, 3 Counter Agents, 60 minutes
ANVIL: Heat -200, 3 Counter Agents, 30 minutes
Level 4 cash/intel
Standard: Heat -200, $40,000, 30 intel, 10 seconds
ANVIL: Heat -200, $25,000, 15 intel, 10 seconds
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2465518839
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