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http://retrocast.ch.vu ###
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### Wolfenstein Weapons and Upgrades Guide v1.00 by Xiaopang ###
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1. About this FAQ
2. How to spend gold the most efficient way
3. Upgrades
3.1. Weapons
3.2. Veil powers
4. Purchasing suggestions for the minimalist
5. Legal stuff
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### 1. About this FAQ ###
######################################################################
While playing Wolfenstein I realized that the whole upgrade system
could be handled a lot more effeciently by the player if he had just
a few more informations about it. None of the sources, including
walkthroughs, actually had hints on the upgrade system. Furthermore,
the game constantly claimed that it wouldn't be possible to purchase
all upgrades and I wanted to check if that's actually true, so I ended
up developing strategies to make the most out of my budget. I soon
decided to put that into a FAQ, so that others could profit from it.
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### 2. How to spend gold the most efficient way ###
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The game tells you to use your gold sparingly, because there isn't
enough to purchase all upgrades. While this is true, this doesn't
mean that you can't acquire those upgrades through other methods:
1. Collecting all tomes will give you all Veil upgrades
2. Collecting all intel will give you all weapon upgrades
So in the end, you don't need any gold at all to get access to all
upgrades, but not spending any wouldn't be a fun way to play, because
you get the last piece of intel right before the end boss. However,
not upgrading the Veil powers is a way to go. You can acquire the
last tome pretty early in the mission "Radio Station". This way you
can still enjoy the full Veil powers in the last 3 of the 10 main
missions, plus all the side missions that you haven't done at that
point.
Here's the amount of loot you can get in each mission.
Main missions Gold Mission Bonus
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Trainyard : $3000 $500
2. The dig : $3000 $1000
3. Church : $3050 $1000
4. Farm : $3150 $1000
5. Hospital : $3150 $1000
6. Cannery : $3000 $1000
7. Castle : $3000 $1000
8. Airfield : $2950
Side missions:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Warehouse : $1500 $750
2. Officer's House : $1500 $750
1. SS Headquarters : $1650 $750
2. Paranormal Base : $1550 $750
5. Radio Station : $1500 $750
You don't receive payment for finishing Airfield or later levels,
because there won't be any black markets to spend it in. The list
doesn't contain how much you earn by collecting every piece of gold
in Isenstadt. Collecting all the gold in the game will allow you to
purchase all weapon upgrades with $1300 to spare. Knowing that,
you could pursue several strategies:
Strategy 1 - Get all upgrades in the game
---------------------------------------------------------------------
You will need to find all tomes and all gold. Only purchase weapon
upgrades and ignore Veil ones, as you will get them automatically
when you discover the last tome.
Strategy 2 - Get as many upgrades as possible by finding all tomes
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Most of you won't go through the hassle of finding each and every
piece of gold out there, or you just don't want to avoid Veil
upgrades for so long. Finding tomes is much easier, because they are
usually not as well hidden as gold, plus a humming sound gives them
away. Upgrade to your liking, but before you recover the last tome
make sure to sell all your Veil upgrades, because you will get them
all of them automatically. This way you get some money back for more
weapon upgrades while still getting full Veil powers.
Strategy 3 - Minimalist approach
---------------------------------------------------------------------
You don't care about getting all upgrades at all and also don't want
to look everywhere to find all the gold, but only pick up what you
find along the way? That's good as well. You don't need all upgrades
to get an enhanced gameplay experience. Check the next section to
get extensive explanations on the upgrades and how useful they are
and choose those that fit your style.
Regardless of the strategy you will pursue, follow these two hints:
- Never EVER sell upgrades. Doing that is always a loss, as you can
sell them only back for half what they cost you. Rather check out
the next section and choose wisely. If you're still not sure about
whether the upgrades will be useful to you, then find a checkpoint
to save your game (usually leaving the black market, or hide out
does that) and reload it if you think the upgrade isn't worth the
money. The only exception is if you want to get Veil upgrades early
on and also collect all tomes.
- Never discover the last tome in the game while still having some
purchased Veil upgrades! Sell them before getting that tome to get
some extra money!
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### 3. Upgrades ###
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The game offers you a whole lot of upgrades. While it's easy to judge
the usefulness for some, it's unclear how some upgrades will affect
your weapon or Veil power. So here's a list of all the upgrades:
3.1. Weapons
~~~~~~~~~~~~
MP 40
-----
Your first weapon that will accompany you right to the end of the game.
The fact that you can turn it into a silenced machine gun makes it
especially useful for silently taking out large groups of enemies
in a short time.
Recoil Compensator: Eliminates recoil. However, the gun has little
recoil already and if you're used to shoot in
bursts you won't see much of a difference in
gameplay. For those that empty a magazine into a
few enemies the result is visible though.
Silencer : Silences the gun, making your job a lot easier.
There's no reason to alert all enemies around the
corner, so get it! Highly recommended!
Drum Magazine : Doubles your magazine's capacity to 64 bullets.
Highly recommended!
Big Bore : Doubles the gun's power. Highly recommended!
Improved Rifling : Improves accuracy. Only useful if you use the gun
for more than medium distance fights.
KAR 98
-----
An excellent sniper rifle. Using the silencer allows you to take out
whole platoons from the distance without anybody being able to attack
or even detect you.
Improved Rifling : Improves accuracy. Not really needed since hitting
any body part will take down most enemies with a
single shot, even on hardest difficulty (including
Elite Guards). Other enemies such as scribes still
need a head shot to go down with a single bullet.
Anyway, the upgrade is awfully cheap, so get it.
Silencer : Silences the rifle. Even if enemies realize that
they're under attack by finding the dead bodies,
as long as you're far enough away with an
attached silencer, they will not be able to tell
where you are. That makes them easy targets,
because they will run around looking for you
instead of taking cover and shooting at you.
Highly recommended!
Stripper Clip : Replaces the single bullet loading mechanism with
a five-bullet one. This allows you to shoot more
rapidly and enables you to kill small groups in a
short time. Not needed if you merely use the
KAR 98 for sniping. If you also use it for active
long distance combat, then it's a must have!
Highly recommended!
Big Bore : Improves the rifle's power. This allows you to
shoot through enemies, killing several with a
single shot. This saves ammo, time and may be your
life! I managed to line up three enemies so far.
A shot through the chest was enough to take them
out. Also allows you to shoot off limbs.
Highly recommended!
Sniper Scope : Thanks to the scope's magnification you can even
snipe the farthest places in the game. It also
simplifies aiming a great deal, because the iron
sights of the gun don't do its purpose justice.
Highly recommended!
Bayonet : When did you ever plan on running around through
close quarters with a long distance weapon? You
guessed it - a close range upgrade for a long range
weapon is majorly useless. It does allow you to
kill an aware enemy with a single strike while
the normal melee attack might need 1-3 to take
him down. Still, why not shoot him instead? This
also takes him out immediately. Not recommended!
MP 43
-----
My favorite weapon! Once it's fully upraded it becomes a multi-
purpose weapon that allows you to deal with suddenly appearing large
groups of enemies just as well as clearing out the Nazi-infested streets
of Isenstadt, or scouting out unknown territory. Its large magazine
capacity and your 400 bullet pouch enable you to take on whole levels
without ever having to care about ammo.
Improved Rifling : Improves accuracy. Useful in combination with
tactical scope. Without the latter, the gun
is only useful for short distance combat and the
upgrade makes little sense.
Drum Magazine : Doubles your magazine capacity to 60 bullets.
Highly recommended!
Ammo Pouch : Doubles the amounts of bullets you can carry
to 400. Highly recommended!
Big Bore : Improves gun's power. Makes the gun twice as
powerful. Highly recommended!
Tactical Scope : The in-game description of this upgrade doesn't
do its usefulness justice! This is may be the
best upgrade in the whole game, because it
enhances the weapon like no other. You'll get
a scope that basically turns your MP into a
an automatic sniper rifle. Extremely useful in
close and long range fights alike. Thanks to
its magnification, your chances to hit are a
lot higher. That means that you'll need less
ammo to kill enemies. In return, you can kill
more without having to reload, helping you
through long firefights. Highly recommended!
It's expensive so start saving and buy it as
soon as it becomes available!
Recoil Compensator: Eliminates recoil. The MP43's recoil is a lot
stronger than that of the MP40, so this upgrade
is quite useful. Still, if you only shoot in
bursts, then your gameplay experience won't
differ much. Recommended.
Panzerschreck
-------------
A somewhat underused weapon. You get it in the first third of the game
(Farm), but you have to wait till you get to Downtown West to
get access to unlimited ammo for this baby. It's a strong weapon,
that can take out several enemies at once and even kills the
strongest among the Nazi-foes with only a couple of shots. However,
it's expensive to upgrade it to a level, where using it becomes
more fun and less of a nuisance. There are only 2 occasions
in the game, where you actually have to use the rocket launcher and
both times you can do it without any upgrades, so think twice about
pumping money into this weapon, unless you rely on it regularly.
Light Weight Build: Removes the blast shield and gives you iron
sights that only take up little space on your HUD.
While the in-game description might imply it,
this upgrade does not allow you to move faster
while aiming. Not really needed.
High Explosives : Increases the blast radius, but not the damage
as the in-game description claims.
Tried on a Heavy Trooper (the particle cannon
wielding enemy). It took two rockets to go down
with and without this upgrade. Only useful for
enemies that stand behind railings, but away from
other objects that could reflect blast damage,
such as walls. Not recommended.
Ammo Pouch : Doubles your rocket storage to 12. Recommended
for those who heavily use the weapon. Not
needed for casual users.
Stabilized Rockets: Stabilizes the rockets during their flight,
increasing range and accuracy. While rockets
are always a little off, it's not like they
are off by a big amount, so the gained accuracy
is unnecessary due to the blast radius. Only
when aiming at very far away enemies, the rockets
might be off by meters. However, the game mainly
is a tunnel shooter, so long distances are
very rare. Take Isenstadt as a reference. No
distance in the town is too big to influence
the accuracy so much that the blast radius
couldn't finish the job. The only place I found
where this upgrade would be needed is the hangar
in "Airfield". That is, if you rely on a rocket
launcher instead of a sniper rifle to take down
single enemies. Not needed.
Magazine : Loads three rockets at once, allowing you to fire
three rockets in rapid succession, making the
weapon behave more like old school rocket
launchers. Nice feature, but only recommended
for those that use the weapon for more than just
the necessary tasks.
Seeker Crystal : Adds homing capabilities to your rockets. Your
Iron sights will be replaced by a digital aim
that beeps whenever you aim at an enemy. After
that you can fire the rocket and forget about it.
Only useful for very mobile enemies,e.g. Rocket
Troopers. There's only one occasion in the game,
where this feature proves to be useful: In the
Zeppelin level you'll have to face attacks of
several Rocket Troopers while your surroundings
limit your movement and your ability to attack them.
But that's nothing a particle cannon couldn't
handle just as well, if not even better. It's a
sweet feature, but very expensive and only
available very late in the game, so the usefulness
doesn't do the cost justice. Not recommended.
Flammenwerfer
-------------
A great weapon! It takes down whole batches of enemies in a second
and uses only little fuel for the job. However, ammo is scarce and
you only get it late in the game, where close quarter fights are
few and long distance fights take over. This makes the flame thrower
more of a tool for special occasions, rather than a standard weapon.
Keep that in mind before pumping money into it.
Improved Fuel Pump: Increases the amount of time a single burst of
flames lasts. This is only in the milliseconds,
so this feature is hardly noticable and therefore
useless. Not recommended!
Expanded Tank : Doubles the fuel you can store. Recommended!
Carburation : Emits hotter flames, thus increasing the damage.
Not really needed, since almost all enemies go
down immediately. This includes Assassins and
Elite Guards. The only enemies that take a little
more are scribes. Should you run into one with
this weapon, it makes more sense to ignite him
which keeps him busy with putting out the flames
while firing away at him with your MPs. Upgrade
not recommended.
Pump Overdrive : Extends the range of the flame thrower. Very
useful, because you have to be pretty close
otherwise. However, in combination with Veil
powers this is not really needed.
Particle Cannon
---------------
This weapon resembles the Thunderbolt of Quake, but it is much more
powerful. It desintegrates enemies in seconds. Even the strongest
foes drop like flies while ammo consumption is very low. You get
the weapon early on in the game. Once Heavy Troopers start to roam
Isenstadt, you will have a steady supply of ammo, making this the
most powerful standard weapon in the game!
Particle Lense : Increases the weapon's range. I couldn't see
much of a difference with it. The cannon already
has a pretty good range. Not needed.
Veil Catalyst : Lowers the spin up time of the weapon from well
over a second to only a fraction of a second.
Too cheap not to buy it! Highly Recommended!
Improved Veil : Doubles ammo capacity to 200 cells, enabling you
Capacitator to mainly rely on the weapon throughout a level.
Highly recommended!
Beam Intensifier : Increases damage. Almost all enemies die with a
single beam (2-3 cells) including Elite Guards,
Assassins, Sniffers and Scribes. The weapon also
lacks the possibility to use less cells,
so you'll end up wasting just as much ammo
without thia upgrade. Not needed.
Flux Arc : Allows the beam to bend towards enemies. This
increases accuracy over longer distances. Still,
the beam is rather widespread, so that you'll
hit the enemy anyway, even without that upgrade.
Too expensive, for too little gain. Not
recommended!
Tesla Gun
---------
The Tesla Gun allows you to stun a group of enemies and eventually
electrocute them. However, the range is extremely small, ammo is
very scarce and it is not very useful against stronger foes.
Taking down enemies also takes a lot longer than using the flame
thrower, particle cannon, or merely the MP43 with Empower. There's
also only one location in the game, where you can find a battery
for the gun (as far as I can recall) and since no enemy wields this
weapon, you'll end up having to purchase ammo for it. The game could
have done well without the gun so in my opinion it is the most
useless weapon. You don't ever have to use it and if you don't plan
to, then don't waste your money on upgrades for it.
Upgraded Battery : Increases the ammo capacity. If you ever plan
on using the gun, then get this upgrade.
Step Transformer : Increases Damage. Since the weapon is even
pretty weak without out (compared to the other
guns), upgrade it if you want to use the Tesla
gun regularly.
MK2 Generator : Decreases spin up time by may be half a second
from a little over a second to a little below
a second. Not really useful. The difference is
too small and the spin up time still too big.
Also, you have to get up close to your enemies,
so you have enough time to spin up the gun.
Arc Nodes : Allows you to electrocute foes with a melee
attack. Just as with the Bayonette, this feature
is pretty useless. You already have a pretty
powerful melee attack which you'll end up using
very few times at best anyway. Electrocuting
the enemies this way kills them instantly. Not
really needed unless you plan on using the gun
regularly.
Coil Upgrade : Increases the number of arcs, allowing you to
kill more enemies at the same time. This saves
ammo and time, so upgrade this feature if you
use the gun often.
Current Induction : Allows the arcs to pass through multiple enemies.
Sounds useful, but the enemy A.I. sabotages this
feature. The most times you encounter lined up
enemies is when they don't expect you. Using that
with the Tesla Gun will be next to impossible,
because you'd have to sneak up on them. Also,
when a group is aware of you, they try to flank
you, so that everyone can take a shot at you,
effectively killing your chances to electrocute
more than one enemy with a single arc. Useless!
Not recommended!
Mdl. 24 Grenade
---------------
Grenades are a double edged sword. There is no indicator where they
will land, so trying to throw one through a window or up an elevated
enemy hide out can become frustrating, or even deadly if your own
grenades fall back on you. Still, if they land where they're supposed
to, they're not just an effective weapon, but also create enough fuss
to stop enemy fire, allowing you to regenerate health and pick off
fleeing enemies. Furthermore, you will find plenty of grenades on
basically every corner, making this an ever available, powerful
weapon.
High Explosives : Increases blast radius. Very useful, but also
very expensive. Unless you're the type of player
who always ends up in messy situations, where
only a single grenade can save your butt from
dying, you won't need this upgrade. Just use
more grenades.
Ammo Satchel : Doubles your grenade carrying capacity to 6.
Expensive, but recommended, because 3 grenades
are not enough thanks to the flawed aiming system.
Expensive, but recommended!
Fragmentation : Increases damage by adding shrapnel fragments to
grenades. I didn't see much of a difference, but
this is hard to judge anyway. It's pretty cheap,
so better get it.
3.2. Veil Powers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Keep in mind that you can't upgrade the Veil powers if you want to
get all upgrades. It's also not needed, because the game is far too
easy plus the basic Veil powers are pretty powerful already.
Veil
----
You're basic power and basic it is, because all of its features are
also supported by all other powers: Speeding up your movement,
making enemies easier to spot and allowing you to use Veil doors and
ladders. However, it only has minimal Veil consumption, making it
perfect for spotting collectibles and well hidden enemies in long
firefights.
Inner Light : Increases the Veil pool's capacity by 50%. This
allows you to use all powers a lot longer:
Veil 60s --> 75s
Shield 12s --> 15s
Empower 8s --> 10s
Mire 6s --> 9s
Very useful! Highly recommended!
Veil Sight : This allows you to spot enemies behind obstacles.
If you expect a Left 4 Dead-like view, you'll be
massively disappointed. You will only detect an
enemy by aiming at him, but that requires you to
know where he is which defeats the purpose of
the upgrade. It's most useful while using it with
the MP43's scope, because that allows you to see
most enemies around the center view of the screen.
For all other weapons it's basically useless.
It also doesn't work if there are multiple
obstacles between you and the enemy. This is one
flawed upgrade. Not recommended!
Inner Brilliance : Increases the Veil pool's capacity by another 50%,
effectively doubling it (compared to its original
size).
Veil 75s --> 90s
Shield 15s --> 18s
Empower 10s --> 12s
Mire 9s --> 11s
Very useful! Highly recommended!
Crystal Harmony : Quadrupels the speed of the Veil pool's self-
regeneration. Without the upgrade it takes 200
seconds to fully regenerate a pool of standard
size. With the feature it takes 50 seconds. Still,
that is far too long to be useful in a fight,
especially if you have doubled your pool's size.
Also, Veil pool recharging anomalies and Veil
canisters are scattered throughout each level.
There is not a single location, where there
wouldn't be any close by. So this upgrade is pretty
useless, unless you're pinned down with a depleted
Veil pool and you're too impatient to wait.
Not recommended!
Shield
------
Shields you from bullets and environmental hazards such as
electricity. Allows you to regenerate health while maintaining
your position. Apart from mire, this will be your most used power.
Reflective Crystal: Reflects bullets back at those who shot them.
Nice upgrade, but there's a probability involved.
Not every bullet is reflected, or not every
reflected bullet hits the enemy, so you'll only
see enemies go down on their own once in a while.
It's cheap and nice, but not really needed.
Upgrade if you have some extra money.
Reactive Crystal : Kills all enemies that touch your shield. This is
a very powerful feature that allows you to storm
into a room and kill everybody just by running
through it while still being invincible.
It takes down even the most powerful foes, except
for Heavy Troopers. Highly recommended!
Empower
-------
This power allows you to shoot through solid matter and shields.
You can also take down much stronger enemies with only a few shots.
Use it with your MP43 and you can take out even a tank with only a few
bullets, making your MP more powerful than the rocket launcher! In
the later missions all you have to do is to deliver stray fire upon
entering a room. Equipped with fully upgraded Empower guarantees that
most likely every enemy will be killed.
Piercing Crystal : Allows you to shoot through light material. Not
that useful, because enemies almost always take
cover behind stone obstacles. If they hide behind
crates then you can destroy those without this
upgrade anyway. In fact, I can only recall a
single wooden cover that you couldn't shoot
through without the upgrade. Only purchase if
you also want to buy the penetrating crystal!
Penetrating Crystal: Allows your bullets to pass through stone and
metal. Enemies that duck, or are shielded by
scribes don't pose a threat any more. Flame
thrower wielding enemies explode almost instantly,
as do tanks, Heavy Troopers, Rocket Troopers -
any enemy in the game except for bosses. This
makes playing the game a cakewalk!
Highly recommended!
Mire
----
Mire allows you to slow down time which enables you to evade bullets
while enemies practically stand still and have to eat your lead. It's
also excellent for evading hazards, slugs and going through weak,
flickering shields.
Slowing Crystal : Slows down time even more while also reducing
the total running time of the Veil power. Without
this upgrade you can use this power for 22
seconds (with doubled Veil pool), after upgrading
you only have 18. I couldn't see much of a
difference. MP43 bullets seemed to fly just as
fast as without this upgrade, so don't use it
unless you also want to buy the shearing crystal.
Shearing Crystal : Slows down time significantly to half its speed
compared to using the power without any upgrades.
It also halves the Veil running time (11 seconds).
Enemies that are nearby are destroyed instantly
when you activate Mire. This only works on close
distances though (may be a meter).
Highly recommended!
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### 4. Purchasing suggestions for the minimalist ###
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Some players just want to get into the action without collecting
gold and tomes. Still, you will be ending up with money nonetheless
thanks to the payment for each finished mission. Also, some gold
lies just right in your path, so it's basically impossible not to
find it. You earn $6500 in the main missions and $3750 in the side
missions. Assuming that you at least manage to pick up $1250 in gold,
which isn't hard to do) the resulting $11,500 would be spend most
wisely this way:
MP 40
-----
Silencer $500
Drum Magazine $500
Kar 98
------
Silencer $500
Sniper Scope $2500
MP 43
-----
Drum Magazine $500
Tactical Scope $3000
Particle Cannon
---------------
Improved Veil Capacitator $1000
Veil
----
Inner Light $1500
Inner brilliance $1500
Should you manage to end up with more money, consider buying more
upgrades for the MP 40, Kar 98 and MP 43, followed by upgrades for
Shield and Mire.
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### 5. Legal Stuff ###
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This FAQ is intended to be distributed through gamefaqs and I mean
solely through gamefaqs. If you have a Wolfenstein themed fanpage and
want to include my FAQ, then drop me a line and I might allow it.
General FAQ sites don't need to ask. The answer will be no, because
I don't have control over my stuff there.
Mail: Xiaopang (at) web dot de
ICQ: 162121961
Xiaopang, 12.09.2009
