Perfect Dark/Walkthrough

Introduction

This page lists gameplay features and strategies for Perfect Dark that should be noted during the walkthrough. One important feature is that each level is very different across difficulty modes.

Agent mode

• Agent mode is the easiest mode.
• Enemies do very little damage to you and only have half health.
• Weapon pickups are given a lot of ammo.
• There are at most 3 objectives in each level, sometimes even less.
• There are two shield items available in most levels.
• Gameplay is suited to be easy.

Special Agent mode

• Special Agent mode is a harder mode.
• Enemies do more damage to you and have more health.
• Weapon pickups are only 75% that of Agent mode.
• There are usually 4 objectives in each level.
• There is one shield item available in most levels.
• Gameplay has a few additional challenges making it tougher.

Perfect Agent mode

• Perfect Agent mode is the hardest mode.
• Enemies do a lot of damage to you and have full health.
• Weapon pickups are only 50% that of Agent mode.
• There are usually 5 objectives in each level.
• There are no shield items in any level.
• Gameplay has even more challenges making it very tough.

In the walkthrough, each level will be covered in order of difficulty, Agent, Special Agent, Perfect Agent. Each difficulty walkthrough will assume you have already played the easier difficulties for the same level.

Cheats

Each mission, other than the bonus ones, has the potential to unlock two cheats. The first cheat is unlocked by beating the mission on any difficulty. The second cheat must be unlocked by achieving a target time on one particular difficulty. A walkthrough will be given for achieving this time, and will assume you have already played the same difficulty for the same level.

Strategies

Brightness

It is very important that the brightness (gamma) is turned way up in the options menu. There are many dark spots throughout the game where it is important to see in them. Furthermore, one particular spot becomes extremely difficult to get past, even after reading walkthroughs, if the brightness is not turned up. This spot will be mentioned in the walkthrough.

Auto-aim

You may use auto-aim to assist yourself throughout the game. However, you are not required to use it and there is one spot in the game where having auto-aim makes it harder. This spot will be mentioned in the walkthrough.

Pause menu

The pause menu brings up useful information, such as mission and objective overview, and allows you to switch items, even those which do not show up on the quick menu! Pausing is also good for a breather.

Speed strategies

These strategies are important for target time cheats but can be used for normal playthroughs as well.

• By strafing left or right while moving forward or backward, your character moves diagonally, about 40% faster than either just strafing, or just moving forward or backward. You must have a controller with a good thumbstick. If it is worn out, it will not work perfectly.
• Using the pause menu stops the clock, so it is faster using it to switch items than trying to use the quick menu.
• The clock does not run during cutscenes, even though some events do.

Crouching

Not only does crouching make it harder for the enemies to hit you, but it improves your accuracy. Even automatic weapons fire perfectly straight when crouched.

Enemy behavior

Especially on higher difficulties, it is important to take advantage of enemy behavior.

• If enemies want to come to you, let them (usually). It's much easier to kill them and protect yourself this way.
• Enemies regularly engage in predictable shooting cycles, where they shoot a burst and then leave themselves open to be shot.
• Enemies cannot move and shoot at the same time, and it takes them some time to stop and fire.

Head shots

Don't worry about getting head shots. Most of the time, just aiming right at their chest gets them. Remember that they stop dead if you're shooting them. Unless they have shields.

If you are in need of ammo though, and you aren't in a firefight, then you can try doing a headshot.

Ammo type

Be aware that different guns can share the same ammo type and thus use the same ammo. If two guns share the same ammo type, you should use the better gun, no matter how much ammo there is.

There are some instances where you lose a weapon. Remember that you don't lose the ammo, and if you pick up the same weapon later, you still have all the ammo, plus any additional ammo from the pickup.

Check out the Weapons page for more information.

Weapon secondary function

Many weapons have their unique secondary function. Check out the Weapons page for information on secondary functions. One of the most important functions is Disarm (secondary function of unarmed), and a number of situations benefits from using this.