Deathloop: Slabs guide — How to acquire powers and upgrades

Apart from the Reprise self-revival mechanic, Deathloop has other special abilities that you can obtain. These are acquired from some of the AEON Visionary bosses in the game. Julianna, in particular, has a chance to drop the ones held by others if you manage to take her out whenever she’s hunting you. Here’s our Deathloop guide to help you with the Slab powers in the game.

Note: For more information, check out our Deathloop guides and features hub. Likewise, please be reminded that this guide contains minor spoilers.

Deathloop guide – How to acquire Slab powers and upgrades

As mentioned above, Slab powers in Deathloop come from specific Visionary bosses, including Julianna. Ideally, when you receive a new Slab power for the first time, you’ll want to infuse it immediately.

Also, Colt can only have two Slabs at any given time while undertaking a mission. So, if you see something that you don’t have yet, you can replace a power that’s already infused (i.e., it’ll get dropped on the ground). Then, infuse the new one that you just obtained when possible. Our goal is to infuse the default variants so that any subsequent duplicate that we receive turns into an upgrade perk for that skill. For instance, if you infused Aether already, then anytime you get it again from Egor (or Julianna), you’ll get Aether upgrade perks instead (i.e., no energy depletion if Aether is active and you’re standing still).

Note 1: If you replace an infused Slab with something else, it’ll always reappear in your loadout menu when you start another daily cycle/loop.

Note 2: Wenjie and Frank don’t have their own unique Slab powers. But, you can still receive Residuum from their warped corpses. In Frank’s case, you can even acquire the Constancy Automatic golden weapon.

Karnesis

• Effect: Telekinetic slam and toss.
• Visionary boss: Aleksis
• Location: Dorsey Manor – Updaam (evening)
• Related mission: Devouring of the Lambs

Karnesis is decent since it complements a fast-paced playstyle. You’ll get into the thick of the fray, slamming, swiping, and pushing enemies around you. Unfortunately, if you’re a fan of stealthy gameplay, then this isn’t a good pick at all (unless you’re very aggressive when moving around).

Havoc

• Effect: Defense buff and increased kicking power.
• Visionary boss: Fia
• Location: Fractured Image – Fristad Rock (noon)
• Related mission: You can go here at noontime to look for pictograms/disable the reactor.

I’m not quite sold on the Havoc ability at all. Again, if you can silently eliminate your foes, there’s no need to toughen your defenses. Oh, and AI soldiers can sometimes act wonky, so you wouldn’t need to worry about them too much.

Shift

• Effect: Short-range teleportation.
• Visionary boss: Charlie
• Location: Condition Detachment – Updaam (noon)
• Related mission: Space Invader

Shift is probably the best Slab power in Deathloop. Sure, the teleport has a fairly short range, but you can extend this if you get a duplicate that unlocks the Reach upgrade. The Airborne upgrade, meanwhile, briefly halts your fall if you cast this while in mid-air.

This becomes invaluable when you’re traversing various areas in the campaign. It’s also extremely important in PvP (whether you’re the hunter or the hunted). Having a better vantage point to spot your target (or hide from your rival) helps you achieve success.

Nexus

• Effect: Links the health of enemies so they all take damage at the same time.
• Visionary boss: Harriet
• Location: Hangar 2 – Karl’s Bay (morning)
• Related mission: Chaos Theory

One of my main problems with this ability is that, by the time you use it, you’ll know that multiple enemies have surrounded you. It might be helpful during certain situations (i.e., Dorsey Manor party or when you kill an AEON boss and every mob gets alerted). In most cases, though, you’re better off just shooting or stabbing foes.

Aether

• Effect: Temporary invisibility
• Visionary boss: Egor
• Location: Array Y – The Complex (evening) or Dorsey Manor – Updaam (evening)
• Related mission: Lost In Transmission (Duel) or Lost In Transmission (Array Sabotage). The latter causes Egor to attend Aleksis’ party so you can eliminate him there.

Similar to Shift, I also like the Aether Slab power in Deathloop. Again, stealthy gameplay is complemented by this ability. It’s bolstered further by the fact that one upgrade, Ghost, prevents you from consuming energy if you’re invisible and standing still. Imagine taking out a target, then disappearing from sight, only to reappear again when you shoot another hostile. Lather, rinse, and repeat, like a ninja who trolls opponents.

The only downside is that you don’t want to get too close to enemies, especially AEON bosses. They can still detect your presence while you’re moving or sprinting. They might not fire immediately, but they’ll know that someone’s there.

Deathloop is available via Steam and its official website.