Part 1: Orientation

1. Orientation

The opening quest, in Downtown. Dylan leaves his cell in the Oldest House with the Aberrant, the weapon that changes form, meets Zoe at a hotel on the edge of a chasm, follows a vision of Jesse into the first Fault, and ends against the Artist, the Resonant of Downtown. Rewards: 1,000 Source, a Living Shard, a Reset Item and the Untapped Badge 11-60 Artifact.

• 1

  Leave the Oldest House

  Take the Aberrant, which pops Assigned to Accept. Follow the corridors with green-lit doorways. At the security gate, go into the room on the left and press the button to open it. Through the large metal doors is the first elevator, and the combat tutorial starts with the first Hiss. Go upstairs, follow the "Thomas Street Exit" sign, take the next elevator and interact with the opening in the wall to step outside. Lore items along the way are optional.

• 2

  Meet Zoe at the Hotel Building, and the first Aberrant form

  Head southwest toward the hotel, fighting through the street and the alleys to its right and then left. After the next group of enemies you choose your first Aberrant form; the three on offer are Strike, Glaive and Cleave. Keep climbing around the buildings, using the dodge to clear the wider gaps, until you reach Zoe in front of a huge chasm.

• 3

  Investigate the Alley, and the first Fault

  Follow Zoe into the alley and jump across the buildings, keeping the birds overhead in sight, to the building where they stream in through a window. Interact with the TV inside: it takes you into the Fault. Platform through to a building like a car park and talk to Jesse at the railing.

• 4

  Complete the Ritual: Double Jump, Elevate and Rush

  The ritual hands you three movement powers and then makes you use them: Double Jump (jump again in mid-air), Elevate (hold jump to hover, release to drop) and Rush (hold dodge while running to sprint). Carry on to the last TV and interact with it to leave the Fault, then take the path that has opened to find a vantage point.

• 5

  The source of the Patterning: the Artist

  Clear the enemies in the way and jump across the rooftops toward the patterned area; climb the structures on either side to the gallery building, go in, and interact with the door at the back to start the fight.

  • At range it hurls debris at you, cars and waves of rock along the ground. Dodge sideways and close in.
  • Up close it swings a pair of traffic lights, either down on you or sideways. Dodge both.
  • Midway healing pickups appear and the boss rises out of reach. Climb the floating platforms that appear and hit the glowing weak spot to bring it back down.
  • Last phase: rocks fall from above along the line it slides on. Step aside before you chase it.

  Killing it pops Artistic Liberation. You wake in The Gap for the upgrade tutorial, where you choose your first combat ability: Barrage, Volatile Anomaly or Shield. Shield soaks up damage up to the size of your Power meter and can be used for a Shield Bash. The choice pops Parautilitarian and ends Orientation.

2. Welcome to Manhattan

The first main mission. Dylan agrees to help the FBC, with Zoe as his handler, and the city opens up: a map, the Central Checkpoint, the Watchtower and the FBC Field Office. Rewards: a Living Shard and the Level 1 Keycard (Security Clearance Level 1).

• 1

  The Mapping Pylon

  After the scenes with Zoe and Pope, leave the Oldest House. Jump onto the rooftops to the south and turn on the small radio transmitter. Three smaller dishes have to be aligned to match the angles of the dish on the large tower; then activate the central tower to reveal the map. This also starts the side quest Notes: Mapping the New New York.

• 2

  The Maintenance Worker and the power boxes

  Go southeast to the marked area and clear the Hiss there; two collectibles are marked in that zone. To fix the power, hit a charged power box with a melee attack to take its charge and carry it to the next box quickly, because the charge does not last. The second box opens a garage with the Maintenance Worker's body (you can report it to Zoe) and a crate. The next box is on a rooftop by some green containers; the last is at the front of the checkpoint. Placing that charge brings in Hiss: kill them all to power the Central Checkpoint.

• 3

  Meet Zoe at the Watchtower

  Take the elevators up into the checkpoint and walk on to Zoe in the Watchtower. Talking to her starts two quest lines: Defeating Resonants and the next main mission, Evacuation Procedures. The Resonants have their own page.

• 4

  Clear the Supply Route

  Activate the Fast Travel door nearby and take the elevator underground. In the open room with power boxes, take the charge from the lowest level and carry it upward, then across the room. A large group of Hiss follows, with a named miniboss among them that has more health and altered attacks. Leave by the door marked FBC FIELD OFFICE.

  • Power Upgrade Point. In a crate in a side room of the power-box room.
  • Health Upgrade Point. In a crate in the room on the left just before you step back outside.
• 5

  The Security Keycard

  Head northeast to the VERCONN building, which is the FBC Field Office. A soldier stops you at the security booth; what you answer does not matter, Zoe talks you through. Go up the steps inside and take the Security Keycard from a desk. That ends Welcome to Manhattan, and the same pickup is the first objective of Evacuation Procedures.

• 6

  Collectibles you can take now: Downtown and Central

  With the map up and power boxes understood, these need nothing you do not have yet. Carrying a charge is the same melee trick as at the checkpoint.

  • Downtown, Secret Hideout. Enter the Atlantis Restaurant, the one with the green entrance, from the street; interact with seven objects in this order: the wall box, the radio, the dark coffee maker, the white coffee maker, the soda machine, the microwave and the fridge.
  • Downtown, Dog. On a roof in the southwest corner; the toy is on the next roof to the left of the dog.
  • Downtown, Dylan's Sketchbook. At the Lookout Point construction site: put the beach chair and the umbrella on the blue tarp.
  • Downtown, Testing Facility. Through the pipe at the construction site that leads east: move five objects into the middle, where they turn into soda machines.
  • Downtown, Taxi. North of the deserted road checkpoint, on the main road, in the traffic jam.
  • Downtown, Freeze Frame Camera. Carry a charge from the Power Core Station northwest along the outlined path to the camera's door.
  • Central, Freeze Frame Camera. From the Watchtower fast travel point go all the way downstairs, into the open storage room at the side, and climb through the hole in the ceiling.
  • Central, FBC Taskboard. Just outside the Field Office entrance: talk to the agent there. This is the board that makes the others appear, one per zone; seven boards in all, and any 20 of their 42 FBC Tasks count.
  • Central, Dylan's Sketchbook. In the southwest corner, through a street door into an apartment building: the puzzle is placing musical instruments.
  • Central, Secret Hideout. The Wear'Em & Wash'Em laundromat: destroy the red barriers, then solve the washing-machine puzzle (six columns).
  • Central, Dog. On a rooftop in the east; the toy is at the end of the alley below, in the direction the dog is facing.
  • Central, Dylan's Sketchbook. In the eastern half: inspect the Cat Picnic tarp in the corner of the yard of a blue house.

  Left for later: in Downtown, a Sketchbook on the Rooftop Oasis (needs Reach), a Freeze Frame Camera behind an ability barrier (needs Shift and Ground Slam) and the Taskboard inside the Oldest House (after the Central board); in Central, the Testing Facility and the Taxi on the Patterned Factory side (Part 2) and a rooftop Freeze Frame Camera (needs Reach, Part 3).

3. Evacuation Procedures

The second main mission, started by the talk with Zoe at the Watchtower. Tremors are coming from the Evac Building, and somebody is still inside. Rewards: a Living Shard, the Agent Uniform, the Level 2 Keycard (Security Clearance Level 2) and Rescue Mission (bronze).

• 1

  Reach the Evacuation Zone, and the orbs outside

  If you have not picked up the keycard in the Field Office yet, do it first. Then go southeast from the Central Supply Route Station along the open road. Hiss orbs outside seal the Evac Building and have to be destroyed before you can go in; the sources do not agree on how many (three or two, see the note at the foot of the page). The ones described:

  • In front of the building, in the middle of the area: follow the red trail of floating objects.
  • Southwest of the building, in an alley south of the street corner. A big group guards it with two healing orbs among them; kill those first. Take a charge from the Power Core Station marked on the map to the box on a rooftop; it opens the garage the orb is in.
  • North of the building, by floating enemies with shields. Kill them and jump to the orb from a nearby rooftop.
• 2

  Floors 12 to 15

  Take the left elevator to the 12th floor and follow the only path into a large room; clear it. Go south down the hallway with the blue light, follow the scaffolding through the building, and destroy the Hiss orb in the next room to open another elevator. Ride it to the 15th floor.

  • Health Point crate. On the left on the way through the building, before the orb room.
• 3

  Locate the Survivor, and get Arish out

  Run through the long red room; it starts a flashback. Follow it to the end and talk to Arish, then leave the room and retrace your steps to the elevator. Arish opens it, and another Hiss orb blocks the way: destroy it and talk to Arish, who gives you the Level 2 Keycard. Use it on the nearby door, go back to the room full of Hiss, destroy the orb there and kill what it spawns. Level 2 doors around that room hold materials.

• 4

  Escape the Building

  Leave by the hallway with the yellow light, call the elevator and ride it to the Ground Floor. In the lobby, the door opposite the Customization closet has a SHUM Arcade machine, optional. Walk out through the lobby to finish the mission and pop Rescue Mission. Next is Arish's Briefing, in Part 2.

4. Part 1 Completion

✅ Before Leaving the Evac Building...