Prologue | Mission 1 - Revelations Styx: Shards of Darkness Guide
Last update: 17 March 2017
You begin the game in your hideout. Get out using a hole in the wall - use crouch. Reaching the first target of the mission should be quite easy - only some manual skills are required. Mind you that almost every place has alternative exits and entrances - there are numerous paths you can take (if you can spot them).
Reaching the first mission marker is a cakewalk. During your first playthrough, you will receive some simple prompts from the game itself. If you forget any of these hints, check the Suggestions section in this guide.
Players keen on secrets can find special s on each map. They can also indulge in side quests, which also have a form of "collectables" - in this mission; you need to find 8 posters.
After using the rope to get to the target building, and when you complete the rope swinging tutorial, go behind a small building near the wall, where you will find: 1st and 1st poster.
From now on, you will be encountering enemies. There are a couple ahead - wait until they separate and kill them (unless you're interested in achievement for not killing anyone). If you hold the assassination button you will perform a silent attack, which does take some time to be performed, but doesn't alarm other enemies. Near the first enemy, you will spot on the wall - 2nd poster.
You can easily bypass the second enemy - he's looking the other way and doesn't move. Be careful not to alarm him by moving objects such as chairs, buckets, etc. The objects that might alarm enemies can be easily spotted in the amber vision.
Don't enter the building via the main doors - go around to the back instead. On your way, you can get the 3rd poster, which is hanging on a wooden support.
When you find yourself at the back of the building, the game will teach you how to bypass guards safely. It will use two guards as an example. The skill you learn here will be used throughout the whole game - it will allow you to deal with enemies safely and quickly. Make a clone that you can control (in order to do that, you need cocoons, which can be created after unlocking a skill or found around the gameworld). The clone will only exist a certain amount of time only. Take it to the roof after walking around your enemies and knock down the cage to distract them. Release the clone and enter the building through the hole.
After opening another door (this action also produces noise!), you will find two enemies. According to the game's tutorial, you can add poison to food or water. First you have to check which guards actually drink water or eat, since other wise (and I think we both agree on that) there's not much point in poisoning any of those. While you might be able to quickly snatch a document without getting rid of the enemy, there's also the 2nd lying on the table in front of it.
Take the stairs up, another stairs are behind the barracks. Don't use the door - go out to the balcony, and jump into the room through a window. Before yet another staircase, you can take 4th poster. On the stairs (right side), you will see 3rd . Instead of engaging the rest of enemies, you should work out a better vantage point for the future - use the chest to jump into the attic and use the beam to cross the corridor.
In the room at the end of the corridor, you will find the 5th poster (as well as the 4th in the corner), and three enemies. Two of them are standing under the chandelier, which can be tied off and precipitated on them both, while simultaneously taking out the light (if you don't want to kill them, wait until they move). To knock down candle sticks or other hanging objects, you also can use the darts crafted at a workbench.
Outside, you will see the main target - the tavern. Approach it, stick to the left side, near the rocky wall, you will find the 5th (on a cage). When jumping on ropes, remember to do that in the erect stance. Jump onto the rope and slide down on it. Your target will now be collecting three caskets containing money from three floors of the building. The best way of doing that is to get in, snatch the casket, exit and approach the next floor from the outside.
Caskets with soldiers' pay
Let's begin with the lowest floor. Just use the ropes hanging above the floor, until you reach the third one, from which you can jump through a window. Hide underneath the table and wait until the guard leaves. You can take the first casket.
Lying on the crates there, will be the 4th (1). Get one floor up by jumping onto the crates near the door - there's a narrow passage underneath the floor. Near the exit, wait until the guards stop talking, take the 4th poster from the table and take the stairs to the next floor.
When you get to the first floor, open first door on the right. Behind them is the 7th (1) lying on a crate as well as a picklock on the bed. Exit via the open window. When you reach another window, which is barred, you can climb higher and get inside unnoticed. If you jump down on the carpet, you won't make any noise - in case you do, you can hide in the wardrobe. Take from the room the second casket, 7th poster, and the 8th , which lies on the night table next to the bed.
Get back to the top floor (climb the wardrobe next to the bed) and exit. Now proceed to the latter, separated part of the building - walk on the roof. On your way, you will encounter the last, 8th poster that hangs on the wall of the building on the roof. There are stairs leading to this small building, and they start on a lower floor. Hang on those stairs' handrail and descend down, to the floor where the last casket is.
There are many unbarred windows leading to the room. You will be the most interested in the one shown above, located not 3 meters from the casket. You can wait for the guard - he approaches the window now and then, which is a good opportunity to get rid of him. When you do, get inside and grab the 3rd casket and flee through the same window. You don't have to kill the guard, however: you can just sneak inside and approach the table with the casket from a side - underneath it, there's a hole in the wall. You just have to lean out and snatch the casket when the guard is away.
You can, however, enter deeper into the room, where the 9th is. It's lying on the crate, near the guard leaning on the beam next to the door. The last, 10th can be found on the opposite side of the room. Next to the rope that can take you out of the room, there ale the door to a small bedroom - the collectable is on the bed there.
Now get to the roof of the building, where an evacuation spot is. From the window near the casket the path of exit can be seen - it's marked by handles embedded in walls, which will lead you straight to the balcony, allowing to end the mission.