Mad Max Tips and Tricks

What's (not) In This Guide

I want to respect your time and I want to enrich your experience, not spoil it, so this guide does not contain anything that is already explained adequately within the game.

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Story Vs. Open World

The progression curve is wonky. You're not expected to 100% (or even 50%) each area as you discover them. The storyline has you revisit the starting areas, and the order you unlock things (especially Max's reputation/legend tree) makes more sense if you speed through the storyline instead of "preparation for" each main mission. Just doing a little sandbox and all the side missions (wasteland missions) is enough to make you reach the end of Max's legend tree well before finishing the campaign.

So knowing the above, if you want to unlock Archangels at least somewhat close to the progression of your custom Magnum Opus, you'll need to focus on defeating Top Dog Camps all across the wasteland before the other types of camps.

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Difficulty

This is a hilariously easy game. You can make it harder by equipping worse gear than you have unlocked for Max and the Magnum Opus, and by choosing to not unlock skills or build stronghold projects that you think would make things too easy.

Not getting free ammo, health, and fuel every time you enter a stronghold goes a long way towards making it feel like resources are actually scarce in the wasteland.

Scrapulances, sandstorms and camps that you've defeated (which periodically give you scrap) together yield so much scrap that looting scavenging locations and destroyed vehicles isn't worth your time. This is definitely a game in which you DO NOT have to systematically loot everything.

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Melee Combat Mechanics

Here's how the melee system works:

Fury MeterHeavy strikes, combo finishers, perfect parries, and kills increase the Fury meter, which is displayed in the upper right.

Max enters Fury mode automatically when the meter becomes filled, during which the meter slowly drains. Further Fury-generating events in Fury Mode will add more time to the meter. Fury Mode ends when the meter is drained.

If you defeat all nearby enemies before the meter runs out, you keep the remaining Fury, it does not reset between fights, nor when you enter/exit a vehicle, nor does it deteriorate over time.

Normally, Max cannot cancel heavy strikes, combo finishers, or the beginning of a swing with a melee weapon, but he can cancel them in Fury mode by parrying or rolling.

Fury mode also increases Max's melee damage and strike speed.

Combo MeterMax's successful attacks and parries build up a combo multiplier that is also displayed in the upper right of the HUD. The combo multiplier resets to zero if too much time passes, if Max takes damage, or if he attempts to parry at the wrong time.

Higher combo multipliers increase the value of each Fury-generating event.

Core Combat LoopRegular punches do more damage per second than heavy strikes, but heavy strikes build Fury faster. When (if) you upgrade you melee damage, heavy strikes become irrelevant against the standard mooks, because outright killing them will generate Fury faster and more safely.

Heavy strikes are best used when you've singled out an elite enemy from the pack and you are certain you won't be interrupted.

Combo finishers are best used in the same situation as heavy strikes (you won't be interrupted), but they remain useful against all opponents regardless of equipment upgrades.

So most of the time the best strategy is to throw regular punches, then parry as necessary to maintain your combo, or roll to avoid damage that you wouldn't be able to parry.

There are other nuances to melee combat, but where's the fun if I tell you everything?

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Vehicle Mechanics

Ramming damage is affected by speed, weight, armor, and the ramming power of a bumper. Differences in weight are particularly noticeable for side ram damage.

Frontal armor is almost exclusively determined by your bumper. Side and rear armor is exclusively determined by your 'armor'. Belly (skid-plate, jumps) armor is determined by your handling statistic.

The handling statistic also determines your ride height, which effects your control and top speed over rough ground. I can't tell if there's any real reason to use a low ride height.

All a Harpoon Slam does, is slightly pull the target towards you when you boost. Side-ramming often does the same damage as a harpoon slam, without the limitation of needing a bumper to attach to.

Tire grinders' and flamethrower's damage scales with your speed. At low speeds, flamethrowers are only useful against jumpers and people on foot, but at high speeds they're like stronger grinders with more range.

The sniper rifle does not penetrate targets. Don't try to shoot through a car to hit its driver, or its gas tank.

If you run out of gas, your engine doesn't die. You're just forced to drive slowly. It's still better than walking.

In the settings, there is a "vehicle roll helper" option. When off, if you roll over, the game will roll you back on your wheels after a second or two. When on, the game will more aggressively prevent you from landing on your roof in the first place. Helper off is more realistic (I mean... you still magically flip back on you wheels), but turning it on might let you race death runs more aggressively.

Chumbucket's buggy is immune to collision damage with the terrain. It's excellent for jumps and extreme off-roading.

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Death Races

To restart a Death Race that is in progress, simply exit your vehicle.

Don't hesitate do use your shotgun in Death Races. It's practically required in at least two of them.

When you boost, you briefly speed up, but slow down again afterwards. Once you reach a certain speed, boosting actually hinders your acceleration. In races, boost is best used to accelerate from low speeds, to avoid being side-rammed while passing an enemy, and to negate the speed and acceleration malus when driving offroad.

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Vehicle-Related Tips

You can access the garage from the escape menu at almost any time to hot-swap Max's and the Magnum Opus's equipment on the fly. Most of the time you can even do it in combat.

Most vehicles try to avoid head-on rams at the last moment. You can combine the time-slow while aiming a weapon with a side-slam attack to make a last-second adjustment and do head-on rams more consistently.

Don't hesitate to quick-repair vehicles when Chumbucket isn't around. Scrap is easy to come by.

Similarly, don't sweat miscellaneous scrap dropped from Scarecrows or vehicles. You might want to loot enemies you defeated on foot though, since they can carry ammo.

You can outrun or get out of the path of a sandstorm. The sandstorm 'proper' doesn't trigger until the clouds roll over you, and the clouds only cover part of the map as they travel across the wasteland.

Most of the "kill a certain vehicle a specific way" challenges can be easily completed by pulling the required vehicle from a stronghold and calling the Magnum Opus to you with the flare gun. They don't have to be occupied by an enemy to complete these challenges.

Yes, you can run over land mines when they haven't been revealed, and yes, enemy vehicles can also trigger them, but it's pretty difficult to get them to actually drive through a minefield. On foot, however...

Sometimes food tries to run away. Don't chase mice on foot, just run them over with the Opus. Or use your shotgun, I guess.

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Other Tips

There is a section in the main menu with all the loading screen hints and tutorials nicely organized into an encyclopedia, of sorts. There's some rather useful information in there. Eg:

Birds tend to circle in the sky over food.

Your screen briefly flashes with different colors to indicate when you can see a sniper, when he has seen you, when he has alerted his buddies, and when he's about to fire.

The War Crier buff increases enemy resistance to damage and their aggressiveness / attack frequency. Not sure whether or not they actually do more damage.

The camp alert status is similar to the War Crier buff. Exterior defenses attack more frequently and are slightly more resistant to damage. A War Party will also be summoned when the camp goes on alert.

Consumables are meant to be consumed. Don't forget the tools at your disposal. Shotgun, shivs, flamethrower, sniper rifle, fuel cans, thunderpoon... don't save them for a rainy day, use them to spice things up as you grind through the open world.

There is Goomba Stomping in Mad Max. Falling on somebody will damage them. The opposite is true as well, so don't stand under ladders and ledges.

There is a simplistic stealth attack you can use against unalerted enemies from behind. Running or having your flashlight on will immediately alert everyone in the area, though.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I guarantee you that a hundred and sixty days ride that way, there's nothing but salt.

Pic Dump

Such a photogenic game

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2092681105

Tips and Tricks