Deus Ex: Invisible War Biomods Guide

Introduction

This document describes where the biomod canisters are available in Deus Ex: Invisible War and some notes and hints where useful. This is a work in progress. Numbered items are for the level of the upgrade (i.e. the number of canisters added to that slot). Let me know if you find any others or have any comments or additions by email.

Please note that this page contains some spoilers about the game, so don't read ahead if you don't want to know! That being said, I try to be specific about the locations while not giving away too much of the plot, where possible.

Comparison to Deus Ex

It's totally different, and a lot simpler. In Deus Ex you have augmentation canisters, which allow you to choose between one of two augmentations in a particular slot, and augmentation upgrade canisters, which allow you to upgrade the level of a particular augmentation. All canisters are identical. All of the augmentations have an associated energy cost. As far as I know, it's not possible to max out all of your augmentations in Deus Ex.

General Comments

In Deus Ex: Invisible War, there are only upgrade canisters to be found (except they are not called that, they are just called biomods). There are two types of biomods, regular and black market. These cannot be mixed in a particular augmentation slot, although you can have some black market augmentations and some regular augmentations. There are six slots. The first slot (F1) only contains a Light. Biomod canisters cannot be installed in that slot. For the other five slots, you select one of three possible augmentations at the time you install your first biomod into that slot. You can choose to install a black market biomod after you have a regular biomod, but then any previously installed biomods will be lost. This is not recommended. Use the following list of locations to plan for obtaining the desired augmentations. Not all of the augmentations have an energy cost. In this game, it is possible to max out all of the selected augmentations, since there are more biomods available and each augmentation only has three slots.

The first time I played the game, I had everything maxed out while I was still in Cairo (approximately 40% of the way through the game). In fact, I ended up with a total of 19 (!) left-over biomod canisters. You can't sell them or trade them or do anything other than use them. There are at least 16 black market canisters so you could equip yourself with all the black market enhancements, if you wished (not that there would be a particular advantage to that, but it could be a fun way to play). Note that you can only ever be using a total of 15 canisters (5 slots times 3 canisters) and there are at least 41 canisters available in the game. You can store unlimited canisters (as far as I can tell) so if you wanted to use one augmentation for the start of the game and another augmentation later on, that would be possible. Since there are so many biomods available, it makes sense not to buy biomods. The start of the game isn't too difficult, and you can save a lot of credits by not buying them off the Omar. That being said, getting to Level 3 of Neural Interface as early as possible is useful, there isn't all that much to buy with those extra credits anyway and you should have lots of credits if you do most of the side quests and a reasonable amount of exploring.

Note that passive biomods are always on, and do not have an energy cost.

Biomods

This is a complete list of all biomods in Deus Ex: Invisible War and some comments on each of them.

Light (F1)

This is the only choice for this slot. Note that there is no energy cost, unlike in Deus Ex. You can just leave it on for long periods of time if you are in a dark area.

Eye Biomod (F2)

Regeneration

I really like the regeneration biomod, which lets you convert energy into health. It's multi-purpose since it can cover for weaknesses against other types of damage, and, on a more practical note, it prevents you from having to reload as much, and with the long load times in DX2, that is a Good Thing. It also essentially frees up a slot or two for carrying stuff, since you don't have to bother with medkits or food.

  1. Basic healing
  2. Increased healing, decreased energy drain
  3. Maximized speed of healing process and further decreased energy gain.

Vision Enhancement

This is a really awesome-looking biomod. When activated, you see a glowing green shape of nearby targets. This can be very useful when going into hostile situations, since none of the bad guys will have the drop on you (not that they would to begin with, the AI is kind of weak).

  1. Enables night vision, enhances critical targets
  2. Organic targets are visible through walls. Decreases energy drain
  3. All targets and resources are visible through walls. Further decreased energy drain.

Spy Drone (BLACK MARKET)

Spy Drone lets you control a small flying camera, which can be used to snoop around corners, or attack bots. I'm not a huge fan of remote control attacks, but depending on your playing style it could be very useful.

  1. Acts as remote spy camera, can deliver EMP attack when detonated.
  2. Adds audio capability to camera and increases EMP attack and range, decreases energy drain
  3. Further increased EMP attack damage and range, works on organic targets too, further decreased energy drain.

Cranial Biomod (F3)

Cloak

Cloak is good if you enjoy a stealth style of play. I'm not a huge fan of this biomod since there are usually other stealthy ways to infiltrate buildings, such as ventilation ducts.

  1. Provides near-invisibility to organic enemies, until you fire a weapon
  2. Same as above but decreased energy drain
  3. Further decreased energy drain

Hazard Drone

This can be good if you don't have Regeneration or Health Leech. I think this biomod is a bit limited to be worthwhile.

  1. Protection from environmental hazards (radiation, biotoxins, etc.)
  2. Greater protection, decreased energy drain
  3. Even greater protection, further decreased energy drain, converts hazards into bioelectric energy

Neural Interface (BLACK MARKET) (PASSIVE)

This is a great biomod which allows you to hack into computers. There is no other way, other than getting the keycode, to access computers, so I would highly recommend this biomod.

  1. Can hack computers
  2. Hack security computers to control cameras, turn turrets on or off
  3. Can hack turrets to attack enemy targets

Skeletal Biomod (F4)

Aggressive Defense Drone

This provides protection from rockets and grenades. I find this to be useful towards the end of the game (Antarctica and afterwards) since it is exceptionally good for dealing with the Templar Paladins, who have Rocket Launchers. It's not particularly useful at the start of the game since none of the bad guys have rockets.

  1. Stops incoming rockets and grenades in midair
  2. Stops incoming rockets and grenades in midair at greater distances.
  3. Stops incoming rockets and grenades in midair at even greater distances

Thermal Masking

This is great for a stealth or hacker style of play. It could work well with Bot Domination, so you can sneak up on bots and gain control.

  1. Provides near-invisibility to bots and inorganic units, until a weapon is fired.
  2. Energy drain is decreased.
  3. Further decreased energy drain

Electrostatic Discharge (BLACK MARKET) (PASSIVE)

This biomod lets you generate EMP damage with the energy blade or other melee weapons. I like this at the start of the game for dealing with spider-bots without wasting ammo.

  1. Melee attacks give EMP Damage
  2. Increased EMP Damage
  3. Maximum EMP damage and short-term scrambling of bots

Arm Biomod (F5)

Strength Enhancement (PASSIVE)

This is great if you like the energy blade, for increased melee damage. Also the bonus of getting extra carrying capacity makes this a great choice for any play style.

  1. Some increased strength
  2. Greatly increased melee damage, throwing distance, carrying capacity (extra slot)
  3. Maximum melee damage, throwing distance and carrying capacity (another extra slot)

Biotox Attack Drone

If you are trying to go through the entire game without killing anyone, this might be useful. However, this seems to more or less duplicate the functionality of the boltcaster.

  1. Fires non-lethal biotox darts at all hostile targets
  2. Decreased energy drain
  3. Further decreased energy drain

Bot Domination (BLACK MARKET)

This is a fun biomod that lets you take charge of hostile bots. I suggest combining this with Neural Interface and Thermal Masking to to take full effect. Note that it takes some time to link to the bot, and you are vulnerable during that time.

  1. Enables first-person control of small bots, cameras, turrets
  2. Enables control of medium sized bots, increased domination time, decreased energy drain
  3. Control all bots, further increased domination time, further decreased energy drain

Leg Biomod (F6)

Move Silent (PASSIVE)

This biomod is very useful if you are playing a stealth style.

  1. Dampens movement sounds while walking, decreases fall damange
  2. Dampens movement sounds while jogging, further decreases fall damage
  3. Dampens all movement sounds, further decreases fall damage

Speed Enhancement

Extra speed can't hurt. With this enhancement, and say Regeneration, you can actually run through some levels, taking a little bit of damage, and just avoid fighting altogether, however that isn't exactly exciting.

  1. Increases movement rate and jump distance, decreases fall damage
  2. Further increased movement rate, further decreased fall damage
  3. Maximum movement rate, even further decreased fall damage

Health Leech Drone (BLACK MARKET)

This biomod creates a drone which allows you to regenerate health by absorbing energy from dead or living (when maxed out) organic units.

  1. Breaks down corpses for reconstructive healing. You get double healing from the unconscious
  2. Greater healing
  3. Can be used on live creatures, provides maximum healing.

Recommendations by Playing Style

Fighter

Stealth

Hacker

Locations

These are all the locations for biomod canisters that I've found so far. Please email me if you know of another location!

Regular Canisters (25)

Black Market Canisters (16)

The Omar in the North Medina have two black market biomods. They either give them to you for completing tasks, or you can buy them directly when you first meet them (850 credits with discount). If you don't buy them, they will give you one for spying on the Templars. I'm not sure if they will give you the second one for another task or not. If anyone could clear up exactly how this works that would be appreciated.

Feedback / Credits

If you have anything to add, let me know by email.

Thanks to David L., Nathan W., Dirk and P.T. for additions and corrections.

Deus Ex Index

Last updated: January 15, 2005