Very Hard difficulty is not any hard at high and even mid-game character level, but early in the game, it can be challenging. And especially so for any V which intends to never kill a man (nor woman), i.e. kind of "pacifist". This is because means to inflict non-lethal damage are very limited early in the game, all the while V's health and armor are both very low.
But i still found one simple way to do it, so here goes.
Sandra's rescue mission: follow all optional objectives, i.e. be sneaky. All the enemies can be grappled and taken down non-lethally by V (and two of them, by Jackie), including the boss. After Jackie knocks out his 1st enemy (in the same time V knocks out another) - move both bodies away from the big room remaining enemies are in, as leaving those bodies where they are will alert the others, making it a bit harder to get behind them (but still doable).
Next, when arriving to V's home, go into long corridor going away from V's appartment. Not far from the corridor's end, there is a container with several hundreds eurodollars. This, plus eurodollars looted from Sandra's mission, should in sum be more than 1.5k (and we need that much).
Next, after some good sleep, proceed with Viktor's main story mission and its follow up - the talk with Dex. Once out of Dex's limo, V will be standing right next to the netrunner store which is the location of "the Gift" side quest from T-Bug. Get in, do the quest (freebies never hurt), but then also buy uncommon Whistle quickhack, which that netrunner shop always has available. It costs 1.5k.
And that's it. Now V can deal with almost all low-level locations / side missions, by means of using Whistle and/or Distract Enemies, to grapple and non-lethally knock out foes for experience, street cred and loot.
Few extra notes.
I did this with Intellegence = 3 V, and some "a bit higher level" enemies can't be Whistled as the hack costs more RAM than V has (4), but obviously one can always avoid such foes for the time being and return later, when at higher level, so Whistle would then work.
Don't forget Icepick lowers quickhack costs even without any extra perks.
While this way to play early game can be somewhat "tedious" and "slow", firefights actually tend to be even more problematic, early on. So, whenever detected (enemies' icons turning permanently red) - i recommend to not even attempt to shoot them, during early levels, but instead to sprint couple corners away. Most of the time, enemies get back to non-fighting state very soon, and more stealth action can then be taken.
Obviously, starting with Cool 6 helps with this way to play early game, but i also did it with a V starting with just default 3 points in Cool, and it's still very doable. In any case, it'll be a good idea to invest into Cool quite much early on (if any Cool increases is in the plan for this particular V overall, of couse). Because Stealth skill will be growing fast and it's bad to limit its growth by too low Cool stat.
At times, incendiary and poison grenades can also be useful, as both are non-lethal. Early game supply of those is very limited, however. Best used when going into some gang-police firefight to damage multiple gang members at once and right away.
Pax weapon mod (making any weapon non-lethal) is available from very 1st weapon dealer (in V's building), as are silencers. However, finding a weapon with a mod slot is not going to happen during early levels, rendering this method unavailable.
Victor sells a cyberware mod which renders all weapons non-lethal, but it comes with significant damage penalty and costs over 3k. Further, it can only be bought early on when visiting Viktor for very 1st time, as afterwards Viktor's wares will not be available until V pays him 21k back. All in all, i recommend Whistle way much more anyway, because of how weak early-level weapons are, too. Getting both - is possible (for example, can go to the market before seeing Viktor for the 1st time, to do that easy "fair cop" side mission for extra cash), but it's still 3k "lost" towards earning eddies for repaying Viktor, buying better cyberware and other "wanna get soon" things. I wouldn't go for it, as eventually a weapon with mod and silencer slots will be found or bought, and then Pax + silencer combo is more damage (and much cheaper) than that "all weapons non-lethal" mod.
Last and least, there are very few robots here and there in some few Watson side areas, and since they are robots, "thau shall not kill" does not apply. So, silenced revolver can be of help (to not alert other enemies). But on Very Hard, during early levels, it'd take very many shots to drop even most basic robot. Default Short Circuit hack is often impossible to use due to its cost being more RAM than early-game V has (especially if low Int). Therefore, keeping one's eyes open for looting any EMP grenades, and possibly even buying a few, can be helpful - obviously those deal a ton of extra damage to robots.
Good luck!
But i still found one simple way to do it, so here goes.
Sandra's rescue mission: follow all optional objectives, i.e. be sneaky. All the enemies can be grappled and taken down non-lethally by V (and two of them, by Jackie), including the boss. After Jackie knocks out his 1st enemy (in the same time V knocks out another) - move both bodies away from the big room remaining enemies are in, as leaving those bodies where they are will alert the others, making it a bit harder to get behind them (but still doable).
Next, when arriving to V's home, go into long corridor going away from V's appartment. Not far from the corridor's end, there is a container with several hundreds eurodollars. This, plus eurodollars looted from Sandra's mission, should in sum be more than 1.5k (and we need that much).
Next, after some good sleep, proceed with Viktor's main story mission and its follow up - the talk with Dex. Once out of Dex's limo, V will be standing right next to the netrunner store which is the location of "the Gift" side quest from T-Bug. Get in, do the quest (freebies never hurt), but then also buy uncommon Whistle quickhack, which that netrunner shop always has available. It costs 1.5k.
And that's it. Now V can deal with almost all low-level locations / side missions, by means of using Whistle and/or Distract Enemies, to grapple and non-lethally knock out foes for experience, street cred and loot.
Few extra notes.
I did this with Intellegence = 3 V, and some "a bit higher level" enemies can't be Whistled as the hack costs more RAM than V has (4), but obviously one can always avoid such foes for the time being and return later, when at higher level, so Whistle would then work.
Don't forget Icepick lowers quickhack costs even without any extra perks.
While this way to play early game can be somewhat "tedious" and "slow", firefights actually tend to be even more problematic, early on. So, whenever detected (enemies' icons turning permanently red) - i recommend to not even attempt to shoot them, during early levels, but instead to sprint couple corners away. Most of the time, enemies get back to non-fighting state very soon, and more stealth action can then be taken.
Obviously, starting with Cool 6 helps with this way to play early game, but i also did it with a V starting with just default 3 points in Cool, and it's still very doable. In any case, it'll be a good idea to invest into Cool quite much early on (if any Cool increases is in the plan for this particular V overall, of couse). Because Stealth skill will be growing fast and it's bad to limit its growth by too low Cool stat.
At times, incendiary and poison grenades can also be useful, as both are non-lethal. Early game supply of those is very limited, however. Best used when going into some gang-police firefight to damage multiple gang members at once and right away.
Pax weapon mod (making any weapon non-lethal) is available from very 1st weapon dealer (in V's building), as are silencers. However, finding a weapon with a mod slot is not going to happen during early levels, rendering this method unavailable.
Victor sells a cyberware mod which renders all weapons non-lethal, but it comes with significant damage penalty and costs over 3k. Further, it can only be bought early on when visiting Viktor for very 1st time, as afterwards Viktor's wares will not be available until V pays him 21k back. All in all, i recommend Whistle way much more anyway, because of how weak early-level weapons are, too. Getting both - is possible (for example, can go to the market before seeing Viktor for the 1st time, to do that easy "fair cop" side mission for extra cash), but it's still 3k "lost" towards earning eddies for repaying Viktor, buying better cyberware and other "wanna get soon" things. I wouldn't go for it, as eventually a weapon with mod and silencer slots will be found or bought, and then Pax + silencer combo is more damage (and much cheaper) than that "all weapons non-lethal" mod.
Last and least, there are very few robots here and there in some few Watson side areas, and since they are robots, "thau shall not kill" does not apply. So, silenced revolver can be of help (to not alert other enemies). But on Very Hard, during early levels, it'd take very many shots to drop even most basic robot. Default Short Circuit hack is often impossible to use due to its cost being more RAM than early-game V has (especially if low Int). Therefore, keeping one's eyes open for looting any EMP grenades, and possibly even buying a few, can be helpful - obviously those deal a ton of extra damage to robots.
Good luck!
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