Diving deep into Arkane Studios’ Prey quickly shows players that the game doesn’t hold anyone’s hands. Despite being incredibly underrated, Prey forces you to survive in a hostile environment onboard the chaotic station of Talos-I, now overrun by Typhon organisms that have broken containment.
As Morgan makes their way through the station in an attempt to make it out alive, they’ll encounter a wide variety of enemies that slowly increase in deadliness. The Typhons in particular can be quite tough to deal with, especially for players who decide to opt-out of any Psionic aptitudes. However, for each Typhon type, there’s a specific strategy and weakness that can be exploited. Not included on this list are Typhons that cannot be fought such as the Apex and the Tentacle Nest.
9 Countering Elements
Before we jump into all the Typhon types, it’s important to cover the topic of elements in Prey. Mimics and Phantoms, the two most common enemies in the game, will appear in a variety of elemental types as you advance through the game and the difficulty increases. These types include:
8 Mimic - The Basic Typhon
The first Typhon witnessed in the game and fought early on is the Mimic. Mimics are small and fast, and in large groups can be a pain to deal with. As you progress in the story, advanced Mimic types like Greater Mimics, Voltaic, Thermal and Etheric ones will also start to appear, each with their own specialties.
Mimics take on the appearance of every day objects. If you see two identical objects side by side that look out of place and hear a slight ticking sound, a Mimic is hiding nearby. A hidden Mimic can be attacked by surprise and killed with one hit while it’s disguised by charging your melee hit with the Wrench to the fullest.
If the Mimic is out of hiding, the GLOO gun is your best friend. One or two shots of GLOO on a Mimic should be enough to incapacitate them, and then charge a single melee shot to kill them while they’re trapped.
7 Phantom - Typhon Brute
One of the toughest early game enemies are Phantoms. They hit very hard and can move around quickly. Depending on their elemental nature, a Nullwave transmitter might be necessary for the fight against them. Etheric Phantoms are particularly hard due to their ability to duplicate themselves, and Thermal Phantoms break out of GLOO much quicker than other types.
The best strategy is to use the GLOO gun to stun a Phantom and stick them in place. This will also prevent them from using their regular Kinetic Blast attack which is devastating in the early game. Once pinned, walk close range and shoot them in the head with a shotgun, which has a chance of staggering them to the ground and buying you even more time. Two shots at most should be enough.
6 Weaver - Strong Against Physical Damage
First introduced in Psychotronics, Weavers are floating wisp-like creatures that weave an orange and yellow-colored web of energy strands around them. Weavers will not initially take physical damage – not until their first layer of protection is broken. So pistols and shotguns aren’t the best options against them. Moreover, they can make aiming difficult due to the Fear status effect they inflict on the player.
The Q-Beam is the ideal weapon of choice here, despite being an expensive one to recharge. It also forces you to get quite close to the Weaver, but on the bright side, it’s unlikely you’ll trigger its Fear status effect. Beaming down a Weaver should be an easy task, though beware of the Cystoids that often float around it.
5 Cystoid - Annoying Pests
Where there’s a Weaver, there’s most likely also Cystoids and Cystoid Nests, as well. These annoying black critters that float towards you will pop and inflict radiation damage and tear away at your suit integrity. When fighting other enemies, these critters are the last thing you want to be worrying about.
Cystoids can be easily wiped out with GLOO gun shots, which will make them explode prematurely. Since they’re often encountered in zero gravity locations like the G.U.T.S., it can be hard to hit them with GLOO shots. If encountered somewhere else with actual gravity, the Huntress boltcaster is a great option and will also pull their attention away from the player.
4 Telepath - Controls Humans
The first Telepath you’ll encounter will most likely be in the Arboretum’s greenhouse, in which it holds several survivors as hostage. Telepaths on their own aren’t particularly scary other than its occasional blast attacks. However, if a Telepath has control over several human survivors, you’re in for a challenge. You can either kill the humans or incapacitate them with the GLOO gun or Nullwave transmitter.
The Telepath itself can be easily dealt with any of the firearms. The Pistol, in particular, is very useful against it since it allows you to keep your distance from it. If you get close enough, feel free to use the shotgun as well.
3 Poltergeist - Beware The One-Shot
No doubt one of the most frightening and toughest enemies in the game, Poltergeists will make their presence known with floating objects and other strange events. They have the ability to one-shot kill players by levitating them up in the air, so the first step is to keep moving when you hear a Poltergeist’s voice and a steady ringing, horror-themed music.
The first Poltergeist you’ll likely encounter is either at the Volunteer Quarters during a side mission or in the Crew Quarters lounge. Keep your distance from the Poltergeist, and when he shows himself, use your GLOO gun to pin him down. Keep an eye on the blue force field that appears underneath you whenever he’s about to levitate you up. The absolute best cheesy strategy is to bring a turret with you to a location you know you’ll have to fight one at since turrets can detect Poltergeists even when they’re invisible.
2 Technopath - Bring The Stun Gun
The Technopath is one of the mini-bosses in the game before becoming sort of a regular enemy. A major encounter will take place between one and Morgan when Morgan is tasked with fixing the elevator which is stuck at the top floor, the Arboretum. Technopaths deal with all things electricity, which makes them annoying to deal with but easy to counter.
The Technopath can be killed easily with the Disruptor stun gun. Charge on full shot at semi-close range, and you can stun-lock him almost permanently by dealing massive damage. You can even use an EMP charge to open up the fight, which will deal some damage to the corrupted operators as well.
1 Nightmare - Run, Fight, And/Or Die
The toughest enemy in the game, the Nightmare is massive in size and will hunt down the player relentlessly once you’ve completed the G.U.T.S. part of the game and first entered the Arboretum. When a Nightmare appears, a time of three minutes starts as well, during which you have to either run or kill it. The choice is yours, although killing it is usually a waste of resources.
If you’ve invested quite a few points in Psionic aptitudes, Nightmare spawns will be more frequent and aggressive. So far, the best fighting strategy is to use recycling charges against it, but this is simply a massive waste of otherwise useful resources. The better option is to hide in a location it can’t enter, such as a vent or an inaccessible room. Leaving the area also works, since the Nightmare can’t follow you through travel points but the timer will still continue to run.
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