Patch 2.1 Adam Smasher boss fight

[MaxHeadroomS]

This might be a bit controversial but hear me out.

The new patch gave us the edgerunners feeling with a much better boss fight, but in the case of hard and very hard modes the boss fight isn't really that difficult, with a broken setup you can even call it easy to some extent. This leads me to suggest some tweaks to this boss fight in particular and make Adam Smasher faster with his attacks and more precise, that way we can really get closer to lore accurate Smasher, this is considering how V is already a powerhouse that will defeat smasher at the end but that doesn't mean it needs to be easy by any means.

I would appreciate input on this topic from the players and people who follow the tabletop game.

 

[Dominaimperia]

It was impossible for me to kill him before patch 2.01 on my second playthrough. I was using Toxin grenades (as that's his vulnerability) along with Nerotoxin Dagger (which is MENTAL in all other content) & O'Five Sniper Rifle. I had to give up on Hard during my second playthrough on female V and I'm dreading revisiting it with the new changes. it's those blasted adds in the middle phase that make me have to redirect my focus but every time I go for them AS fires off his rockets which I avoid but not before I'm getting F.U.B.A.R.'d from 180 degrees worth of adds : [

 

[Netrunner2go]

they really have a hard time in balancing.... from easy one-shot up to unbeatable for certain builds its quite frustrating.

 

[Bassist117]

It was impossible for me to kill him before patch 2.01 on my second playthrough. I was using Toxin grenades (as that's his vulnerability) along with Nerotoxin Dagger (which is MENTAL in all other content) & O'Five Sniper Rifle. I had to give up on Hard during my second playthrough on female V and I'm dreading revisiting it with the new changes. it's those blasted adds in the middle phase that make me have to redirect my focus but every time I go for them AS fires off his rockets which I avoid but not before I'm getting F.U.B.A.R.'d from 180 degrees worth of adds : [

Try a different build then. I beat him in under 5 min on very hard with Bluefang/Stinger/Scalpel+Apogee plus crit cyberware. O'Five seems like kind of a ridiculous choice since you won't be able to dodge anything while using it

 

[Netrunner2go]

Apogee is the no brainer build of 2.0 even more if played melee and shouldn’t be the one which everything is balanced around - Netrunner & Berserk builds need way more skill to face Smasher atm.

 

[Zem]

Speaking of his vulnerabilities, I remember scanning him recently during the Heist and he looked resistant to hacking, fire, electrical, and whatever the skull icon means. I thought that was chemical/poison and its value was higher than electrical. But everywhere online it says his weakness is chemical. I hate that it's so hard to find a definition for the various scanner icons you see when scanning an enemy. Some are obvious. Some aren't.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

As a sneaky netrunner, I find the Adam Smasher fight impossible on very hard (I think the best I did was reduce his health to 63% which doesn't end phase one of the fight). I managed the rest of the game fine but I don't have the reflex attributes to dodge his attacks, I don't have the tech weapons to cheese it, and despite 100%ing the game, I don't have any chemical weapons. I tried breaking line of sight to sneak attack him but it's just not doable because he effectively teleports on top of me.

Reminds me of how Deus Ex: Human Revolution was before they jerry-rigged a sneak option into the game with Director's Cut. Feels like something similar needs to be done with this fight.

All that said, the fight is pretty easy on normal mostly because I can tank thanks to health regen.

 

[RekontVerlon]

Even interesting to hear that, i haven't played the 2.1 version. i'll be glad if the Smasher is challenging at level 50.

I'm just planning on getting through the game without the dashes from the reflex tree.

 

[Zyad_Apo]

As a sneaky netrunner, I find the Adam Smasher fight impossible on very hard (I think the best I did was reduce his health to 63% which doesn't end phase one of the fight). I managed the rest of the game fine but I don't have the reflex attributes to dodge his attacks, I don't have the tech weapons to cheese it, and despite 100%ing the game, I don't have any chemical weapons. I tried breaking line of sight to sneak attack him but it's just not doable because he effectively teleports on top of me.

Reminds me of how Deus Ex: Human Revolution was before they jerry-rigged a sneak option into the game with Director's Cut. Feels like something similar needs to be done with this fight.

All that said, the fight is pretty easy on normal mostly because I can tank thanks to health regen.

You can sneak and do takedowns on him (twice I think) using the memory wipe quickhack and distraction. It will down his hp to around 50-60% with the first takedown and then to 5-10% with the second takedown.
You'll just have to finish him with a couple of short circuit or shoot him until he's completely down. And nice detail is that CDPR did have takedown animations specific for Adam Smasher.

It may require a couple of attempt though

 

[Netrunner2go]

40-50% dmg per takedown on very hard?…

 

[Zyad_Apo]

40-50% dmg per takedown on very hard?…

See for yourself

Not my video, but I tried it using this technique and it worked

 

[MartineDee]

Partybreaker time.
Can Adam get more rockets? And can he shoot them in longer and wider bursts?
Can he get perma-invisibility and x3 boost on sandevistan speed?
Can he also get a gatling gun that never needs reloading?
Can he get x4 the health?

One more request.

Can V adopt that Cerberus thing as a pet and bring it to that final fight? Plus a pack of pina coladas.

Ah, nice to joke every now and then. Nah, that last one was a joke. But, for the rest, I want a stronger Adam.

 

[Dominaimperia]

Try a different build then. I beat him in under 5 min on very hard with Bluefang/Stinger/Scalpel+Apogee plus crit cyberware. O'Five seems like kind of a ridiculous choice since you won't be able to dodge anything while using it

I get you. While the sniper rifle does seem logistically unsound for a close up 1st half fight it was working great during the first 40%-50% of the fight because hitting his weak spot caused him to stall. I really feel my Neurotoxin build is awesome and am scared if I change the point distribution (as I made her before PL talent changes) I won't get it set up right again. Plus I'm a Scrooge and don't wana pay for redistribution points lol.

 

[Netrunner2go]

See for yourself

Not my video, but I tried it using this technique and it worked

If this is intended to work like this it’s just stupid… why patching him to Edgerunner lvl if you can simply bypass his buffs in such a cheesy way?… or is it just another oversight?

edit: I could understand if it would be possible for the last 10% like a finisher because the rip-off animation looks kinda cool. But beating him with only 2 takedowns from the get go… dunno what to say

 

[vvk]

I also had a lot of difficulties on max difficulty with Adam (to the point I was cheating especially when fighting him solo in the hidden ending ) BEFORE but it was an easy fight after 2.1 patch. I guess it was my setup prior to 2.1. The way I beat him (with Panam) on 2.1. was by simply leveling to lvl 60 and activating my Berserk cyberware (no damage taken while active) + Sasquatch's Hammer to stun him so I can throw a few grenades. Rinse and repeat until he is done.

It was impossible for me to kill him before patch 2.01 on my second playthrough. I was using Toxin grenades (as that's his vulnerability) along with Nerotoxin Dagger (which is MENTAL in all other content) & O'Five Sniper Rifle. I had to give up on Hard during my second playthrough on female V and I'm dreading revisiting it with the new changes. it's those blasted adds in the middle phase that make me have to redirect my focus but every time I go for them AS fires off his rockets which I avoid but not before I'm getting F.U.B.A.R.'d from 180 degrees worth of adds : [