Complete your first encounter with Dr. Babylon and learn the ropes in Agents of Mayhem with the first part of our complete guide, covering every episode in the G.I. Joe meets Saints Row open-world action game.
The first three eponymous agents are introduced in the opening mission — Hollywood, Hardtack and Fortune have their own special abilities and strengths, and you’ll learn what those are as each character becomes playable. I’ll also provide tips for new enemy types and strategies for boss battles to make life easier on every Agent out there.
Here, you’ll find tips and advice for the first three missions of the game. Instead of breaking down each section of the walkthrough by mission, we’re putting the entire “episode” up — an episode consists of 2-3+ missions, and usually ends with a big boss battle against one of the lieutenants or leaders of LEGION. This first set of quests is a little different, but we’ll dig into the wider game proper soon.
Table of Contents
- Episode 1 – Operation: Spin-Off
- Special Episode – Operation: Raging Arrow
- Episode 2 – Operation: Heaven Sent
- Special Episode – Operation: The Morning After
- Episode 3 – Operation: Star Power
- Special Episode – Operation: Dimensions of the Ninja
- Episode 4 – Operation: Machine Man
- Episode 5 – Operation: Red Queen
- Episode 6 – Operation: Madhouse
- Episode 7 – Operation: Damocles
Episode 1 – Operation: Spin-Off
Mission – Knock Knock
Welcome to Agents of Mayhem! Starting off, we join Hollywood – the standard protagonist and cocky hero of the team. Let’s do a quick overview of his skills.
NEW AGENT: Hollywood
- Weapon: An upgradeable Assault Rifle that’s accurate at medium range. Spend points to increase the magazine size!
- Special: Rifle-mounted grenade that causes a large explosion that can be augmented with other gadgets.
- Mayhem: The Blockbuster power enhances Hollywood with four stacks of Fortify and causes constant damaging explosions in close proximity.
- Traversal: Hollywood can dash and air-dash.
- Specialization: Hollywood does increased damage to armored (yellow health bar) opponents, Golems, Weather Dominators, Hate Machines, and Ice Barrage Launchers.
Basically, Hollywood is a great all-around pic for a hero, and his extra anti-armor abilities make him great for boss fights. His mayhem explosions rip through opponents that crowd around him.
But enough of that tutorial stuff. Follow the waypoints through the following rooms and you’ll learn a little bit about Specials and Mayhem skills. Shoot the control panel, and say hello to our first enemies.
NEW ENEMY: Helltroopers – The standard soldier of LEGION. The Helltroopers are the most common opponent. They’re armed with an assault rifle and grenades. They take cover, and they take more damage if you aim for the head. You’ll kill so many of these guys, it isn’t even funny.
Try out your grenade launcher and Mayhem ability on the incoming enemies, then continue into the next chamber. Interact with the computer terminal and the “Dominator” thing will start going nuts. Shoot the computer thing on the upper floor ahead, then just shoot the reactor a whole bunch before running straight to the rendezvous point. It’s time to give another hero a try.
NEW AGENT: Hardtack
- Weapon: An extremely short range shotgun that packs a whole lot of power. Don’t worry, it can be upgraded to shoot at slightly-longer range later. Kills most default difficulty enemies in one hit.
- Special: The Teleharpoon auto-targets enemies and teleports their stunned-selves directly into Hardtack’s shotgun range. You’ll get some upgrades, including the ability to send targeted enemies teleporting toward bad guys then exploding.
- Mayhem: Hardtack unlocks mines that can be launched and remotely detonated. You only have a limited amount, but they do stick to enemies.
- Traversal: Hardtack can dash on the grand, and can climb up walls with a single harpoon pull.
- Specialization: Hardtack starts with anti-armor capability, and later unlocks bonus damage against Golems, Weather Dominators, Hate Machines and Ice Barrage Launchers.
Hardtack is the slow and powerful brute of the original three Agents. Run around and shoot the targeted computer stuff until Helltroopers appear. Waste them and move on to the rendezvous. Next up, we’ll meet Fortune.
NEW AGENT: Fortune (and Glory)
- Weapon: Unlike Hardtack and Hollywood, Fortune doesn’t need to reload her dual pistols. They overheat instead, so don’t hold down the fire button too long. She does bonus damage to stunned enemies.
- Special: Launches a grenade-like projectile that explodes, causing damage to enemies (and bonus damage to stunned enemies) in the area.
- Mayhem: Fortune deploys her drone Glory to stun up to 3 close-range enemies at once. Yup, this can be upgraded.
- Traversal: Like Hollywood, Fortune can ground dash and air dash.
- Specialization: Fortune’s weapons are more powerful versus shields, and she can unlock the ability to automatically complete Easy or Medium hacks.
Defeat the incoming soldiers with Fortune’s cool abilities, then hack your first terminal Hack challenges are very self-explanatory – just press [Cross / A] when the hand hovers over the orange zones. Get the center for bonus XP. There’s no penalty for failing. Get to that rendezvous afterward to unlock the Swap Agents ability.
Swap Agents: Now you can swap between three agents – three agents of your choice later in the game. Press [Left] or [Right] on the D-Pad to swap. Defeated Agents will automatically swap, and swapping agents will allow other damaged agents to heal over time. If you’re hurt, swap before your agent goes down!
Defeat the Helltroopers in the next room, then rush to face off against the evil Dr. Babylon. Here’s the first boss fight, so get ready!
BOSS – Dr. Babylon
Dr. Babylon shields himself in an invulnerable shield and summons swarms of minions. Press [Triangle / Y] to scan the area and spot where the incoming enemies are coming from. Deal with them, and the invulnerable shield will lower.
Babylon is surprisingly powerful. Tank his abilities with Hardtack – he’ll launch a slower-moving energy back you can dash away from. Dashes are the only way to dodge his erratic energy attacks, and if you don’t, your heroes will get chewed up fast. Swap to a fresh hero when their health drops to dangerous levels.
Spam your specials on Babylon – Hollywood and Fortune are particularly powerful. When he loses enough health, he’ll retreat, bring up the invulnerable bubble, and summon more easy-to-defeat goons. After a little more damage, Babylon will retreat.
Grab the Mayhem Fleur as you exit to fill the current character’s Mayhem meter and revive any downed agents. Look for these when fighting to stay on your toes in dangerous situations.
Leave down the crumbling hallway to complete your first mission and enter the city of Seoul.
TIP: After completing story missions or agent missions, your current team will always collect one random gadget each. You’ll also earn some cash and XP. The harder the difficulty, the more cash and XP you earn.
Mission – Welcome to Seoul
Here’s a quick mission. Follow the Zero Point Dynamo in the city of Seoul – even when it moves. Use your new traversal skills – you have a triple-jump and air-dashes for a reason. You can also a steal a car. In the alley, you’ll encounter a new enemy type.
NEW ENEMY: Blitztrooper – These female furies are agile double-pistol killers that stay low and move fast. When they jump, they’ll blanket an area in bullets. Keep your distance and use explosive AoE to take care of them.
Follow the Dynamo to the fountain park further down the street next. Hop in a car to drive the distance – it isn’t too far, and Helltroopers are waiting at the pavilion. When the Blitztroopers are down, a new enemy will appear.
NEW ENEMY: Golem – This miniboss type enemy soaks up damage. He shoots explosive rocks in sets of three that cause slow if you’re hit, and stomps the ground to launch a shockwave straight forward. Target the core instead of the “head” for bonus damage.
Swap to Hollywood for increased damage and unleash his grenades / Mayhem to bring this thing down. His Mayhem ability devastates Golems.
REWARD: For completing this mission, you’ll also unlock an Upgrade Core. These can be collected by completing Wreck Room challenges, or after collecting 10 shards in Seoul. Use them to unlock core upgrades – each agent has three.
Mission – To The Ark
Before moving on to Episode 2, we’ll need to return to the Ark. Start by scanning to spot a nearby TTX elevator. These lifts are marked in green when scanned, with arrows pointing straight up. Ride up and follow the waypoints around the pavilion.
The waypoints lead you to a good view of the Tranquility Temple. Even from this high vantage, you can drop down without taking damage. Remember – Hollywood and Fortune can air-dash, Hardtack can wall-climb, and all three have a triple-jump.
Interact with the purple marker to unlock the teleporter ability. Now, open your HUB menu and select ARK in the center to instantly transport back.
TIP: The Ark is a great place to visit, and more capabilities will unlock as you progress. Use the Wreck Room for training, R&D to produce Gremlin or Legion tech, or manage your squad at the armory.
First stop – the Armory. Here, you can swap gadgets, use upgrade points, use cores on upgrades, use LEGION tech or view agent abilities. You can do all that from the Squad menu in your HUB, but only for your currently selected agents. You can select all your agents in the Armory.
Second stop – R&D. At the R&D shack, you can use materials to build Gremlin tech. These are special limited-use items you can craft. Sometimes they’re weapons, sometimes they’re buffs. One useful Gremlin tech item disables LEGION alerts. Open the loot crate at R&D, then build the Gutterball Gun schematic. Equip Gremlin tech in the Inventory menu on your HUB.
Last, talk to Persephone in her large office. She’ll send you to Friday in the central control tower. Use the terminal here to select missions or Warp Points and return to Seoul.
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