Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 character development provides a number of options to boost your gameplay experience; while none are required in order to beat the game, many will add unique and interesting methods for completing your objectives.
The perks under Mask and Recon are going to be useful for a variety of playstyles, whether you prefer to stay stealthy or not. Let’s break them down, starting with the ones you should get first.
Mask and Recon perks in SGW Contracts 2: What should you get first?
Augmented Eyesight
Augmented Eyesight adds a thermal vision mode (“Predator mode”) that can be toggled on and off. This perk really shines in classic contracts, especially on the second mission, where foliage can obscure enemies. This is especially true if you are struggling with a jammer in the neighborhood that’s preventing you from tagging targets.
Target Tracking Plugin
The Target Tracking Plugin is the savior of stealthy players everywhere: All you have to do is periodically toggle mask mode, and enemies within 25m of you will be tagged. Even if jammers are nearby, it’ll give you a bit of warning that someone is creeping up on your location. Combine this with the next perk to make it even better..
Environment Chip
Environment Chip just makes mask mode even better: By boosting it’s effective range another 20 meters, perks like Target Tracking Plugin will now give you an even wider buffer for marking enemies that are close by. Unfortunately, this one will probably be a later-game choice given it’s cost, but if you complete enough challenges early on you should be able to grab it fairly soon without too many sacrifices.
Other useful Mask & Recon perks in SGW Contracts 2
Tag Sensor
Tag Sensor is something that should definitely be considered in the mid-game, or earlier if you can grab it. Enemy snipers can be a real headache, especially in classic contracts where you’ll be spending more time stealthily infiltrating a base and may not be able to catch their locations easily.
Predator
20% faster movement isn’t going to be a game-changer, even on Deadeye difficulty, but if you’re trying to complete some extra challenges, this one will give you a slight edge in getting around a base stealthily, or getting behind foes quickly to take them down. It’s a shame that you’ve got to pick up 2 fairly worthless perks in order to unlock it (Cat’s Grace and Lighter Equipment)
Astro Lens
Really, all you want this one for is the extra zoom on your binocular mode in the mask. Continuous zoom is “ok” as well, but you’d be fine if this perk didn’t end up leading you toward other critical perks, such as Target Tracking Plugin and Environment Chip.
What about the other Mask & Recon perks?
While I noted previously that you can complete the game without using any perks, there are some that are only slightly above useless.
Pretty much all the Movement perks can be skipped in your first run-through; Predator is useful in completing challenges stealthily, but that’s about it.
X-Ray Vision and Detector Upgrade really have exceptionally limited value; I wouldn’t even recommend picking them up. Detector Upgrade is something that can barely be useful in some classic missions, and X-Ray Vision is almost entirely useless since it relies on you having tagged a target beforehand.
Combat Engineer would’ve been more useful had more mines and vehicles been a thing, but in Contracts 2, the few times you encounter them you can either avoid them (in the case of mines), or easily take them out through a variety of other means (such as barrels or EMP bullets).
Cameraman is.. Well, it’s just “OK”. I only had one instance where it might’ve been useful, and that was on the second to last contract.. And I ended up finishing it just fine without it.