2. Metro: Last Light General hints and tips

Controls of game (when you see Equipment Inventory means that you'll need hold LB and Weapons Inventory means that you'll need hold Y):

You'll need 3 playthroughs (the last one is part of one DLC, called Ranger Mode) for this game, play another 4 short DLCs and replay a few chapters of main game for collectibles and remaining achievements. The reason for 3 playthroughs is that one run requires no kills for Shadow Ranger achievement, while the other run requires large amounts of kills for other achievements, and the last run is for the hardest difficulty of the game, called Ranger Hardcore. In order to survive the game without killing any humans, it is pretty much necessary (but not obligatory if you have a good experience in FPS) to play the first time on Easy or Normal. It is simply too difficult to be in the line of fire during a rail section without being able to move or defend yourself.

For make things easier I'll writing the 1st playthrough for easy difficulty. So don't forget: when you select New Game in menu you have (or "you have the option to", nothing is mandatory, obviously) to choose Original Mode > Easy (and Ranger Mode > Ranger Hardcore in your 3rd playthrough).

After a few days the game was released it was discovered that you can kill in your first run and even that way get the achievement for not kill everyone in the game, reducing your number of playthrough to 2, because you can move your Preferences file to another HD (or pendrive) before the final mission of the game, but I will maintain this Walkthrough in 3 playthroughs.

You need to know about rules for Shadow Ranger achievement, given by 4A Games Testers. See in the next page.

Follow this tips for your 1st playthrough:

- Stealth knockouts are crucial. First note: you CAN knock a guard out from the front. Just spam the X button and hope he isn't able to shout first. Sometimes you won't be at the right angle, so make sure you hit him as soon as possible.

- Some achievements will require you to have not raised any alarms, but the game does not tell you whether or not an actual alarm has been raised. Guards can comment to themselves about a noise, but it isn't usually until they start firing that you know you've lost it.

- The good news is that if you fail the entire stealth part, you can replay that level later, or reload last checkpoint, depending of which part of mission you are.

- Some people have claimed that a single kill will ruin Shadow Ranger, even if you reload the checkpoint or the level. Metro support disputes this and says that a reload will cancel the kill. But after that the testers of 4A Games posted new rules for this, you can see in the next page. To be on the safe side, only use non-lethal knockouts.

- Something else to keep in mind is on the level Bandits, where the rails run through the entire level. If you knock out a guard and they fall onto the track, he may later be killed when a train goes down the track. Make sure that you are careful about your knockouts.

- Note: certain "kills" will not count against Shadow Ranger. The prologue will not count. Taking filters off guards in deadly environments will not count, even if you're basically killing them. (Suspend your disbelief.) Shooting your main enemy (ONLY your main enemy) in Red Square will not count, but to be safe do not shoot until you reach the stairwell. Also, during the last mission, destroying the tank will not count (but be careful about the troops around the tank, just in case) and killing ONLY the riot guards and the flame thrower will be acceptable. Killing any other troops in the finale will count against you. Sorry for a few spoilers but is need to understand the requisites of this achievement.

- Turn off every light whenever possible. Not only are there achievements involved, but it also makes it easier for you to sneak. Even when you are playing to kill, stealth will be your friend, even more in the 3rd playthrough.

Tips for game in general:

- Pay attention in the audio of the game, because if you look directly to a NPC (Non Playable Character) you'll hear the normal audio, but if you look to another side and the NPC keep talking the audio will low considerably, making you almost stop hearing the guy/woman talking, so be careful. Anyway, you always can look to the subtitles, but I think that this is a little bug of the game itself.

- Talking about audio, a little resource that have in many games and have in this too is that if you've been seen for some enemies the audio of the game will raise and will come back to be low only when you defeat all enemies in the area that you're seen, or if you have lucky, only when you can escape from sight of them, so be careful in the game and watch out for the audio, that will help you a lot.

- You can see in your watch if you can be visible by others humans/monsters, if your watch displays a blue light you can be visible. See the image below.

- One ending achievement is Redemption. In order to earn this, you need enough moral points (you know you've gotten a moral point when you see a white flash and hear a characteristic sound) to affect the ending. However, you won't know how much is enough. It is also possible to lose moral points (by killing and such). Listen to as many conversations as possible, as many of these will give you points. You do not need all of the moral points in the game, but you definitely need most of them. I'll list the link to you see all moral points to do the 2 achievements for the both finals.

- Another useful tip is that the time mark in your watch denoted how much time for your filter do you have. 5 minutes is the maximum time for each filter, and whenever you get more filters in the game your time in your watch will be accumulate, until 59 minutes and 59 seconds (I tested). If your time goes to 1 minute your watch will beep. If your time goes to 0 second and you run out of filter you will be suffocating until death! Artyom will do a disturbing sound!

- Another important thing is that if your mask receive too much damage her will broken and you'll need change for a good mask, if you not change quickly you can die by radiation, even if you have many filters.

- Talking about mask don't forget to preserve your mask when you are in some areas that don't need use them, like some levels that you stay inside of buildings or other facilities. I say this because I often caught myself using the mask and even breaking lead many shots, then realized I was using and it was late. So don't make this mistake, the masks in this game is not so common like filters, weapons and ammo.

- If you jump to other pages in this walkthrough and don't follow the order you can get some minor spoilers of the game itself, nothing to worry about.

- Finally, there are many achievements that are chapter based. You can select your chapter later to redo these achievements if you didn't get them the first time. You can go to Metro: Last Light Walkthrough Page 5 - Levels 11-15, and see some this remaining achievements. I would simply focus your energy the first time on "good ending", Shadow Ranger and Musician achievement.

This game is very good and certainly you don't get sick for playing multiple times.