It’s not very long into Pragmata that you’re dropped into combat as Hugh Williams and his capable AI sidekick Diana, the titular Pragmata of the game, and you’ll need to quickly master the delicate balance between hacking the enemy robots and shooting them to bits that makes up the game’s combat.
Use Diana’s hacking abilities to render enemies Open to attacks (albeit a bit more aggressive in return for the convenience) and follow up with Hugh’s ever-growing roster of weaponry to take out the slew of enemy bots you’re up against in Pragmata. Mastering the balance early is the key!
Hack Enemies To Open Them And Deal Damage
One of the many things that separates Pragmata from other games like it is the fact that you’ll be working with Diana to hack enemies before Hugh fires his weapons to deal more direct damage, making for one heck of a combination of tech and firepower! Finding a balance between dealing damage with your hacking and using the best loadouts to get the most of your outright attack power is the key to moving smoothly across the moon and helping Hugh make contact with Earth.
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When you aim at any enemy, you’ll see that a grid appears on the right side of your screen, which is where you’ll control Diana as she works her way through the grid, completing a short maze to deal damage when hacking enemies in Pragmata. Though these grids start off relatively small and straightforward, you’ll find them growing and changing shape before long, adding obstacles and hacking nodes and more once you’ve gotten the hang of hacking.
Though you don’t need to hack an enemy to hit it, it’s not usually a bad idea to do so. Though Hugh can always use his weapons to fire on the hostile IDUS robots, you’ll be able to hack enemies to deal damage from afar and potentially even stagger them so they don’t hit you back. Hacked enemies are regarded as Open after being hacked and will be more susceptible to firepower damage from Hugh’s weapon units for a time.
You’ll need to balance your attention, though, since the robots do not freeze when you’re hacking unless you’ve used one of your weapons or hacks to keep them in place. Dodge enemies as you hack them to get the benefits of Opening them to additional damage to keep Hugh and Diana as safe as can be in a place as dangerous as the moon.
The mazes are completed when you navigate to the green mark on the grid to deal the damage Diana is charging up, with extra damage added per blue grid you pass through on the way, not to mention any of the various hacking nodes you’ve added to your loadout for each area. Land on the green grid space to launch the hack attack and follow up with the right kind of firepower to bring down the strongest enemies in Pragmata.
For a fuller look at a mechanic as dense as gradually more complicated as hacking in Pragmata, check out our Complete Guide to Hacking.
Units Are Both Weapons And Defenses
While getting a handle on hacking in Pragmata is definitely critical to your success in combat, it’s not the only element at play, since you’ll also have a variety of weapons for Hugh to use to provide backup for these hacks, following up on Diana’s computer-based damage with outright gunfire of his own.
Referred to as Units, there are dozens of unit types to unlock throughout the game, though they’ll all be categories as one of the four Unit Types in the game.
- On the top of the loadout screen will always be Hugh’s Primary Unit is a default gun that will always be around, consistently recharging after you’ve emptied the clip into the enemies at hand. You’ll receive different options as you progress the main story, and you cannot unlock new ones before progressing to said points.
- To the left on the loadout screen is your Attack Unit, the slew of more powerful weapons with more limited ammo you unlock as you progress. Each sector will have a handful of new weapon blueprints for you to find, unlock, and fabricate at the Unit Printer in the Shelter, and you won’t be able to add them to your loadout until you’ve printed them yourself. Once printed, these weapons can be added to your loadout at any time, and you can even upgrade them further from the Unit Printer as well.
- Opposite the D Unit on the right of your loadout in Pragmata is your Tactical Unit, an auxiliary unit that can provide a variety of assistance depending on which unit you’ve got slotted for each block. These will be your support units that can do things like freeze enemies in place, reduce your hacking grid size, and more. They’re far less one-size-fits-all than other parts of your loadout, so you’ll need to find which ones work best for your play style.
- Finally, the bottom section of your loadout screen is the Defensive Unit, a series of gear that offers a range of defense boosts that can truly make all the difference in combat. Cover Hugh and Diana with decoys and drones and so much more, using your limited ammo tactfully to make the most of each deployment.
Though you’ll always have a Primary Unit on every loadout, stopping to change Hugh’s loadout in Pragmata before boarding the tram to the next sector ahead will be the key to making the smoothest progress on your missions on the moon.
The earliest sectors in the game don’t leave much wiggle room, but as you unlock new gear or better hacks, you’ll want to ensure you’re changing Hugh’s loadout as needed before leaving the Shelter every time you venture out – what worked in one sector may not be best for the sector ahead.
As you unlock the schematics for new units in Pragmata, be sure to always print new units at the Unit Printer to allow them to be slotted onto your loadout permanently. While you’ll be able to restock on ammo and firepower periodically through enemy drops, especially tougher enemies in group fights where you’ll expend your best weapons quickly, it’s best to come prepared as much as possible off the top if you know what’s ahead.
You’ll find an exit back to the Shelter before every major fight in the game, so if there’s a relatively simple hack ahead and a nearby exit, it’s a good idea to go back to the Shelter to unlock new upgrades, perform Firmware Updates, save the game manually, and more.
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Loadout Overview
When you’re using the loadout screen in Pragmata, you may initially be overwhelmed by just how many options it seems like there are, but these customizable loadouts for every sector are here to help you tune combat more to your preference, since there’s no right way to play the game as long as you’re making progress through the story, after all.
The first section of your loadout screen in Pragmata is dedicated to customizing which units Hugh has on hand before venturing off for the next section of the sector exploration ahead. You’ll be able to change out your Primary, Attack, Tactical, and Defense units alike on this menu, with every item you’ve currently got unlocked available at a glance for you to compare and contrast. You’re initially only able to bring one of each unit type, but later upgrades will expand your weapon stock in Pragmata considerably as you progress the main story.
Below the units in the first section of your Pragmata loadout screen is where you’ll choose a handful of hacking nodes available off the bat when you enter the sector after the tram ride ahead. These are the yellow nodes you’ll see around hacking grids in the fights ahead, which you’ll pass through to gain all kinds of advantages to your hacking past just dealing good damage to the bots. You can use them to deal damage to multiple enemies at once, deal extra damage, confuse bots into fighting other bots on your behalf, and more.
The next section from the main loadout screen, between the weapons and hacking loadout and the finalization button where you opt to ride the tram is where you’ll equip the mods that give Hugh all kinds of stat boosts. There are four types of mods – Attack, Hacking, Defense, and Support – for you to choose from, so weigh up what kinds of perks you’d like to have for the area ahead. There are dozens of mods available, so mix and match to find what mod combinations work best for you.
Upgrades are available at the Unit Printer in the Shelter that allow you to equip both extra mods and extra hacking nodes on your loadouts as you progress the story in Pragmata. They’ll often cost both Pure Lunum and Lunafilament to unlock, but they’re more than worth the cost to do so, adding plenty of bonus capabilities to your loadouts that may just give you the edge you need in the tougher fights in the game.
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