Hi everyone, it’s been a minute hasn’t it? I’ve been spending lots more time on my YouTube channel recently to stay aloof of negativity, but I really owe the success of my YT channel to the roots I developed here, so thank you to those who have been fans of my writing and have lent encouraging words in discouraging times.

With that rousing introduction, we’re back on the train: Adam Jensen. I released my full-length video guide this morning, so if that format is what you prefer, . There are things I talk about there as well that aren’t covered here, so it’s a great supplement if you want to learn even more about using Jensen. This post has two purposes:

1. Educate people about a largely misunderstood unit

2. Provide a space where people can share builds, strategies, and friend units.

Anyone who has watched my YT videos might know that I love finishers. I use them all the time, and often in times when I shouldn’t, and Jensen is far from an exception. As a “physical damage Emperor” of sorts, he’s quickly risen as one of my favorite damage dealers in the game, and hopefully I can show you why.

Pros

• His TMR is beastly, especially on himself, but also on other units like Light Veritas, Rico Rodriguiez, and possibly others.

• His ATK is absurdly high with plenty of room to grow when the stat percentage cap is raised.

• He has solid weapon options with strong ATK passives to back them up.

• Has access to 60% DEF break and 45% full breaks, where needed. He can also buff himself against machines by 100%, so RIP all the machines.

• Can buff resistance to breaks and status ailments, including charm and stop, which is nice where needed.

• Very tanky for a damage dealer. With his TMR equipped, he starts each match with an HP barrier, and he can throw them on himself at will. He can also use a skill to evade three physical attacks. Niche, but so handy to keep Nanoblade from resetting from an unwanted death.

• Speaking of Nanoblade, it’s awesome. It builds up to a 16x modifier, which is absurd once it’s spammable. With dualwield it builds in only six turns or so. It’s also superior to things like Emperor’s Fire From Below +2 or Sakura’s Quick Final Thunder for a few reasons we’ll get into below.

• His cooldown skills are hella fat. Typhoon Explosive System gives a turn-one AoE fire chaining move that can delete everything, Explosive Heat Blade provides strong finishing damage with a 100% fire imperil, and Remote Hacking decimates single target foes with a massive 17x modifier that also gives him a turn of 75% machine killer. BAM.

• His LB is freakin’ huge. Thought Ang was good with his 13x modifier? Ang, meet Jensen, the purveyor of a 20.8x modifier with a fat 100% thunder imperil. I know, I’m dressing things up a little bit and comparing apples to similar-but-also-not-the-same apples, but it’s a high enough modifier that Jensen can reach the “.”

• As an addition to his LB, he can also equip Fixed Dice. Yes, it gives me peptic ulcers to even mention the damn things, but they’re an option for Jensen, and a damn good one if the opportunity is right for it.

Cons

• His chaining moves are… unreliable. Typhoon does great damage, but can only be used once every seven turns or so, meaning you probably killed the thing you were attacking or you’re dead on the second turn. Great for OTKOs, but not great for sustain. Also, TESLA is garbage. Don’t even try calling it a “chaining” move; it breaks in the middle and is only six hits. Use this for imperil application and nothing else because the chaining will make you sad AF. Also good luck finding chaining partners, as sad as it makes me to say.

• No innate killers, only active killers which is annoying, but it works with his “bursty” damage playstyle.

• Dualwield finishers can have an uncertain future. I mean, he’s pretty damn amazing right now, but you never know what kind of foul nonsense Gumi is going to throw at us next.

How to Use Jensen

This section is going to be a little more robust than most “how to use” sections I write, mostly because Jensen isn’t the most intuitive with his skill priorities. First, let’s go over how you should use him as a chainer:

• Typhoon chain the enemy. If the enemy lives, abandon the quest and try something else.

Okay that was easy enough, now let’s look at finishing and solo damage situations. He basically has four different skills to choose from for finishing:

• Nanoblade

• Explosive Heat Blade

• Remote Hacking

• Limit Burst

These skills follow a priority system that can help you decide which one can give you the most damage for any given turn. Here is a quick flow, going from highest priority down to lowest priority:

• If Dualwielding: Remote Hacking → Explosive Heat Blade → Limit Burst → Nanoblade (low stacks)

Alrighty so there’s a lot of conditionals going on here. First, let’s address Dualwielding, which is my preferred way to use Jensen. Remote Hacking should always be used when available because it will provide more damage than any other finishing skill, including Jensen’s LB because with DW the hacking will hit twice and the LB will only hit once. Only use the LB if you need the 100% thunder imperil to go with your Nanoblade/Remote Hacking. Explosive Heat Blade is your next priority, but that’s only if your Nanoblade isn’t at 12x mod or higher (takes about four turns of using Nanoblade). If your Nanoblade is at 12x or higher, skip both Heat Blade and Jensen’s LB and just use Nanoblade and Remote Hacking when it’s available. That’s your max DW damage priority system.

• If Doublehanding: Limit Burst → Remote Hacking → Explosive Heat Blade → Nanoblade (low stacks)

If you are Doublehanding, use Jensen’s LB as much as possible. If your LB is leveled up and available, use it. Disregard cooldown skills, disregard Nanoblade, go full ham sandwich with the LB. It’s the highest damaging skill and you want to keep your LB bar empty so it can fill each turn. If your LB is not leveled, use Remote Hacking when it is available (as it is a damage gain over the unleveled LB), and continue to prioritize the LB above everything else. If the LB and Hacking are down, use Heat Blade, and if all three of those are down that’s when you should use Nanoblade. It’s unlikely, but in the event that you have a Nanoblade that gets to a 12x mod, then you can leave out Heat Blade entirely.

It’s worth noting that there are cases where you’d adjust these priorities, such as if you really need an imperil applied for an incoming burst of damage, or if you need to activate another support skill for whatever reason, but if you’re trying to maximize solo damage this is the priority system you want to follow.

About Nanoblade

Veteran players will likely know this about stacking abilities, but it’s worth mentioning for people who are still learning. Stacking abilities are usually reset under three conditions: auto attacking, dying (even with reraise), and defending. Fortunately, much like Emperor, Jensen is built with a ton of beef and additional skills to keep him alive:

• TITAN: Grants HP barrier (3500) for 3 turns

• Stealth Enhancer: Negate 3 physical damage taken for 3 turns

• Juggernaut Collective Agent: Grant HP barrer (2000) for 3 turns (auto-casts turn 1 with TMR equipped)

Fights like Elnath are great examples of how these skills can come in handy and preserve Jensen’s stacks by keeping him alive and avoiding the need to use Defend. Elnath’s final phase transition involves eating a buttload of AoE physical and magical damage, so you could try two different options: use TITAN with Jensen and have a physical tank eat the physical damage, or use Stealth Enhancer and have a magic tank eat the magic damage while Jensen evades the physical.

While these little tricky-doos aren’t super commonly used by Jensen or anyone else, if it can keep your stacks up and plugging away, they’re worth knowing.

Gearing

Remember that one time when I said that Jensen is better than stacking finishers like Emperor or Sakura? Here’s where we look at why that will often be the case (at least until we have 7 star versions of them to compare to):

• With DW Jensen’s attacks hit twice, and if he’s using FD instead his attacks benefit from damage variance. Emperor cannot currently dualcast, and neither Emperor nor Sakura can benefit from variance in any way

• Jensen isn’t locked to any particular element. In fact, he can equip a weapon for any available element in the game, allowing him to exploit any imperil or weakness. Sakura and Emperor are locked to their respective elements.

• Killer stacking is easier and more prevalent with physical damage dealers. For example, if Jensen were to go against a human foe, he could stack Man Eater+, Man Eater, and Diabolos (another 50% and 75%) for a total of 250% man eater. The best either mage finisher could do is 150% with Maneater+ and the corresponding magical killer on Diabolos. The ability to stack killers helps Jensen pull ahead even if his modifiers lag behind a touch at full stacks.

So with all that said, how should he be geared? With a 100% imperil built into his LB, Jensen certainly favors thunder damage, so . Lots of stuff can be swapped around, such as Sparky for Brontes, Omega Weapon for Onion Sword/Aigaion Arm, etc. The thing I love is that Jensen can flirt with (or even break) 2k ATK without any STMRs, and it will be even easier when the percentage cap is raised! This build is great for chunking through boss HP with quick Nanoblade stacking. If you want to use him for Typhoon chaining, just swap the thunder gun out for something nonelemental so you’re not mismatching elements.

It’s worth noting for new/mid-tier players that Jensen is extremely economical. without any 5 star base TMRs aside from his own, and no STMRs at all. That’s pretty freakin good, so if you’re a new player Jensen could be a masive help for you.

If you’re (a heathen) wanting to use a TDH build, it puckers my b-hole to say that you should use Fixed Dice and an external imbuer of thunder. This means you’d have to take Desch or (lawd forbid) Pritchard, whose existence in Deus Ex HR was more annoying than Navi in Ocarina of Time. If you decide to disgrace yourself use Fixed Dice, . I won’t lie, the damage is tantalizing, and it has my loyal eye wandering. Just don’t tell anyone I said that.

Synergies

In my opinion, Jensen has no need of synergies. If you’re going the TDH route you probably want Desch/Pritchard for external thunder imbues, but aside from that Jensen can mesh with any element, foe, or party. Flexibility and ease of building make him a fantastic contender in my book.

Jensen Mythbusting

This is the section where I address common questions about a unit that I hear in the DHT:

"I was chasing Viktor and got Jensen, what a troll unit."

Better not let Jensen hear you say that or he’ll John Wick your family.

"Jensen’s damage stacks too slowly/I have no need of a stacking finisher."

Is six turns slow? Remember when it took 2+ hours to beat Aigaion? Those were the days… yeah you can spare six turns I think.

Tips for New Players

Get his TMR from the raid, slap it on him. Get Aigaion Arm and Brontes as his weapons of choice as soon as you reasonably can, since you’ll use them on him for a long time. Lightning Saber is also a good alternative if you haven’t pulled a Brontes-Holding 3-Star Base Unit Whose Name Escapes Me.

The Crystal Ball

The Crystal Ball section looks at Jensen’s future and how he’ll likely fare in the long run. Since he doesn’t exist in JP, there’s not much to say. Enhancements could one day make him broken and the unit everyone wishes they had, or they might not. Time will tell! For now he’s a solid finisher/solo damage dealer that can get some great use for the coming months until we experience a significant difficulty hike in trials.

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Sorry for the long break. I’ve said it before, but I only write when I’m feeling it, and lately I’ve not been feeling it. It felt like one thing after another sent the sub into a tailspin, whether Gumi is to blame or not, and it makes it an awkward place for me to try and contribute positively. I’ve had a number of conversations about this subreddit and the mercurial nature thereof, and I’ve decided, at least for now, that what I love to do shouldn’t be hindered or drowned out by those who are voicing their opinions more loudly or negatively.

I think people have been given a fair number of reasons to be upset, so please understand that I am in no way disparaging people who are angry, frustrated, or just want things to be better. I’m a “silver lining” type of person who had to learn to tackle things like depression, so complaining and miserating are things that I’ve trained out of my behavior. For me, FFBE is just a game that I love. I don’t want to feel negative or pessimistic over a game. When things are bad, I just ease off the gas. When things are vibrant and fun, it’s pedal to the metal. Thanks for having me along for the ride, whether bumpy or open roads. :)

As always, if I’ve missed anything, please let me know so I can make edits.

If you're interested in reading my other boot camps, here are some links:

In the world of Deus Ex, the augmentation of the human body is the bleeding edge of science. Cybernetic implants and mechanical prosthetics transform humans into stronger, smarter, better versions of themselves.

Adam never asked to be augmented. But a clause in his contract resulted in him being reborn as a cyborg following a life threatening gunshot wound. The hunt for his attempted killers embroiled him in a global conspiracy involving none other than the Illuminati, and he put his unwanted augments to good use fighting his way through their agents to foil their schemes.

Physicals:

Striking:

• Can punch through , , and

Lifting/Grappling:

• Can lift and throw heavy objects like and

Agility:

• Thanks to his augments, Adam's are much quicker than an ordinary person's, though he

Durability:

• protects him from and

Augments:

Nanoblades:

• Adam has two concealed ceramic armblades which can extend up to from his

• Adam can launch his arm blades hard enough to

• Adam's blades are which he can trigger to

Projectiles:

• His Typhoon Explosive System can project a wide burst of which can

• His arm has which

• Can fire which

Hacking:

• Can hijack and , making them fire on their allies.

• , though he can only shut them down rather than hijacking them without directly interfacing with them up close.

Misc:

• Can or using the thrusters of his Icarus Landing System.  

• Can

• Can

• Can

Weapons:

• Adam has access to a wide array of firearms, which are powerful enough to and

• and

• Explosives such as and

• Configurable anti-personnel mines which can , release , or

• Non-Lethal and

Using Adam on WWW:

Adam is a jack of all trades owing to his immersive sim game origins and can do a whole lot, albeit limited by ammunition and in the case of his augments.

He's not quite as fast, strong, or durable as straightforward comic book bricks, but he's an excellent opponent for other action spy-fi characters like the , Black Widow, or Major Mokoto Kusanagi.

Pitting him against bigger emplaced forces he can infiltrate would also be fun---pit him against HYDRA, AIM, or some equivalent high tech bad guy group.

I was just passing by Hanzo spray, placed my own one and suddenly result was pretty good

Master Chief has the relevant armour mentioned in the RT. Both have all weapons available from their respective games. Mankind Divided augmentations are allowed for Jensen, based on what we know from trailers and footage.

Battle takes place in Detroit, outside Sarif Industries. The city is evacuated for unrelated reasons. Cortana is in contact with MC and Pritchard with Jensen.

Edit: Looks like I underestimated the armour for MC. Let's remove it to even things out.