Freedom Wars Remastered has come, and this once-exclusive game for the Vita is now available for the wider market. It's not the most in-depth hunting-style game out there, but it has a distinct charm for those willing to dig in.



A calamity has befallen humanity, and nations all around the world have fallen to ruin. A few major cities remain, and were reformed into prison-states called Panopticons. Resources are extremely scarce, and collaboration between these last bits of humanity is minimal. Panopticons have opted to fiercely compete with each other in a bid for survival, even going so far as kidnapping each other's citizens to steal manpower and expertise.

Within each Panopticon, there are two primary classifications of residents: Citizens, the engineers, scientists, and doctors who work tirelessly for the benefit of the Panopticon and given relative freedom, and Sinners, who have committed the crime of being a drain on resources and given massive prison sentences with minimal rights.

Sinners are given the opportunity to fight out on the field to find resources and perform rescue operations. Those who successfully provide wealth and prosperity to their Panopticon get reductions to their sentences and maybe, one day, become a Citizen.

Each Sinner is accompanied by an android called an Accessory, who act as personal prison wardens and combat partners. They are expensive units, so opposing Panopticons often attempt to steal Accessories as well.

These kidnappings of Citizens and Accessories are often done by giant robots called Abductors, which grab and store their victims in bright orange pods to bring them home for "re-education". As a Sinner, it's your responsibility to free captured resources and return them to your Panopticon.

Now, go forth, Sinner, and contribute to the Greater Good!

Honestly, not much of substance. This is mostly just a port with improved graphics and some quality-of-life changes. If you played the original, this will be a very familiar experience.

• Gameplay and cutscenes now feature an English dub
  
• Players can optionally switch to the original Japanese dub
  
  • This only applies to human NPC dialogue. Accessories and Percy Propa still use English text-to-speech. See the Technical Fixes and Adjustments section for a way to change all dialogue to Japanese while keeping English text and subtitles.
• Some Accessory speech can be customized to whatever you want; a feature previously exclusive to the original Japanese version
  
• The game now runs up to 4k resolution at 60 frames per second
  
• Higher-resolution textures
  
• Individual controls are fully customizable instead of relying on presets
  
• All cosmetic DLC content is now present in the base game
  
• "Deadly Sinner Mode" that features greater difficulty and heavier penalties for rules violations
  
• Thorn Master Augmentation removed and instead implemented into base moveset; actions can be animation-cancelled by using the Thorn
  
• Base run speed has been increased
  
• Added casual PvP matches with customizable rulesets
  
• Panopticons are now based on Japan's prefectures instead of major cities around the world
  
• Weapon upgrading and modification has been simplified
  
• Negative modules no longer exist
  
• Lifesteal and Critical damage are no longer mutually exclusive
  
• The addition of late-game "yellow mark" weapons that have a random stat boost
  
• Facilities overhauled into a more streamlined system
  
• Other minor changes that have yet to be cataloged

During character creation, you have a decent amount of options for customization. It's just physical features for now... clothing and accessories can be customized later, especially when you earn the right to unlock more. Don't fret about getting anything perfect—soon enough, you can fully re-customize everything, including your name and body type.

You also choose your home Panopticon. You will represent that location for online battles and rankings. In the original 2014 Vita version, choices were major cities across the world, such as London, Anchorage, or Madrid. In this remastered version, the choices have changed to the 47 prefectures of Japan.

Your choice in home Panopticon is effectively aesthetic only - it doesn't change the story or give you significantly unique rewards for high online rankings. If you're worried, consider the fact that being in the top Panopticon might give you rewards once a week equivalent to what you can obtain in one or two missions. It's really not that important. Once you've progressed enough in the story, you're able to talk to an NPC to change your home Panopticon.



Each home panopticon emblem has their own unique differences. For example, Anchorage had a golden yellow background and Madrid had a wine-red background. Others have gradient backgrounds or alternate sigil colors. The prefectures in Remastered will have similar differences.

There is a significant chance that Tokyo will be the most popular Panopticon and it will become the #1 rank, so if you're only after the online rewards, you could choose that. Otherwise, I recommend picking a different, lesser-known prefecture for a different aesthetic that few will see.

You can equip two weapons at a time. There is no "best" loadout, as each weapon has their strengths and weaknesses. Experiment with each weapon type to find what works for you.

All melee weapons can pierce through and hit multiple targets, but Light Melee rarely has the range to do so. Only a few ranged weapons are able to pierce through multiple targets.

Some weapons have "EZ" in their name, which indicates they are simple to use. This doesn't mean they are inherently weaker—they're just straightforward without drawbacks or gimmicks.

A few NPC Sinners and Accessories use weapons that you do not have access to, like fist weapons and handguns. It's unfortunate, but it gives those particular characters a unique flair, perhaps something to bring them along for.

Light Melee are balanced all around, attacking for reasonable damage. Light melee weapons are the only weapon type that can directly sever Abductor limbs while clinging onto them. Other weapon types will have to use a Flare Knife combat item to cut off parts.

Heavy Melee are slower, but deal more damage. They have wide swings that can hit multiple parts at a time, making them particularly effective at DPS with the right positioning.

Polearms attack quickly and have decent range, allowing you to target specific parts from a safer distance. They have particularly strong charge attacks and perform well while airborne. Their basic charge attack throws the polearm, allowing them to be a semi-ranged weapon.



Assault Rifles are straightforward conventional weaponry, like SMGs and Sniper Rifles. They're simple and reasonably effective in most situations. They're the only ranged weapon category that can fire while clinging to walls with your Thorn.

Autocannons are heavy weaponry including more unconventional methods of damage. These are machine guns, flamethrowers, laser beams, and flechettes. They are too large to be fired while clinging to walls. One support Autocannon shoots webbing to trap small enemies.

Portable Artillery are the catch-all category for explosives - grenade launchers, rocket launchers, and missile launchers. They have less ammo than other categories but deal high AoE damage to compensate. They are too large to be fired while clinging to walls. A few have homing capabilities.

Lv. is a weapon's upgrade level, from 1 to 10. It's a rough estimation of its strength, though that varies based on other aspects of the weapon.

Power is its actual damage. This should usually only be compared to other weapons of the same type, as the damage per attack, and in turn damage per second, depends on the weapon moveset.

Attack Type is used for damage calculations when it hits a target. Some enemies are more resistant to certain damage types. The categories are Cutting, Piercing, Impact, and Projectile. Note that Impact is more akin to "blunt damage", and is not related to Impact Damage % described below.

Rarity goes from 1 to 8 and determines how many module slots a weapon has. Modules modify a weapon's properties in a variety of beneficial ways. Refer to the Appendix: Modules for a list of effects.

Impact Damage (%) determines how powerful it is at staggering enemies. The higher the value, the less hits it takes to incapacitate. This is usually blunt weapons, explosives, and any weapons upgraded into the Impact Advanced weapon path. Remember that it is not related to the Impact Attack Type.

Critical Chance (%) and Critical Multiplier are rather self-explanatory. Some weapons have a chance to deal bonus critical damage. Both of these stats can be increased via upgrades and modules.

Chance of Absorbing Health (%) and Health Absorbed (%) indicate lifesteal weapons - they sometimes heal you when you inflict damage.



Firing Mechanism is how a ranged weapon fires.

• Full Auto fires continuously while the trigger is pulled.
  
• Semi-Auto fires a single shot when the trigger is pulled.
  
• 3-Shot Burst fires three shots when the trigger is pulled.
  
• Multi-Lock weapons lock onto enemies while aiming down sights up to a set maximum. Pulling the trigger while locked on fires as many shots as you've locked on to. Pulling the trigger with no lock acts like Semi-Auto, firing a single non-homing shot.

Clip Size is how much ammo the weapon can use without reloading.

Max. Rounds Carryable is a multiple of Clip Size - the total amount of ammo you carry at once.

Effective Range (m) is how far in meters your weapon still deals full damage. Past this range, your weapon will either deal less damage or no damage at all.

Scope Remarks describes the scope, or lack thereof.

• None indicates no scope, though they will still zoom in slightly and center the screen while aiming down sights.
  
• Telescopic indicates a scope, which zooms according to the Scope Zoom value.
  
• Lock Finder indicates a homing weapon with a Multi-Lock firing mechanism. It otherwise functions similar to None.

Ammo Supply Rate (%) is the exact percent of Max Rounds Carryable gained from picking up a small ammo box in the field.

Impact Effect (Vs. Humanoid) indicates how humanoids are affected when hit with this weapon. They can be None, Weak, or Strong in effectiveness, which determines how long the effect lasts.

• Stagger stuns the humanoid in place.
  
• Lift throws the humanoid into the air.
  
• Scatter throws the humanoid away from the blast.

Headshot Multiplier is how much extra damage humanoids take when headshot.

Weapons can have elemental damage for supplemental effects. The base value of elemental damage can never exceed 100, though you can go past that limit with weapon modules.

Fire damage is strong against Ice, and can ignite abductor components for additional damage over time for 30 seconds.

Ice damage is strong against Lightning, and can freeze abductor components to weaken them and cause that part to take 50% additional damage.

Lightning damage is strong against Will'O, and builds up a charge that eventually paralyzes the enemy.

Will'O damage is strong against Fire, and builds up a charge that causes a damaging explosion on abductor parts. Particularly effective at breaking off abductor parts.

Each Sinner can equip a Thorn, a thick energy wire wrapped around their arm. They can be aimed and thrown in order to latch onto things. Depending on what's hit, the Thorn will pull an item to you, pick up a fallen ally, let you cling to a wall or Abductor, or even force an Abductor to fall over. Thorns come in three types, all of which have different special effects.

• Binding Thorns are red and represented by a sword icon.
  
  
  • It's extra effective at toppling Abductors.
    
  • Charge level 1 places a trap that can bind a humanoid for several seconds.
    
  • Charge level 2 shoots a projectile.
    If it hits an Abductor, it binds it in place for several seconds.
    
  • Augmentation increases bind time.
• Shielding Thorns are white and represented by a shield icon.
  
  
  • Attaching to allies reduces any damage they take.
    
  • Charge level 1 grants a defense boost for the user and nearby allies.
    
  • Charge level 2 creates a defensive wall that physically blocks damage.
    The wall can be destroyed if it takes enough damage.
    
  • Augmentation increases the duration of the wall and defense buffs.
• Healing Thorns are green and represented by a cross icon.
  
  
  • Attaching to allies rapidly recovers their health.
    
  • Charge level 1 fires a cone of healing that removes status ailments.
    
  • Charge level 2 plants a tree that heals allies nearby.
    The tree can be destroyed if it takes enough damage.
    
  • Augmentation increases health recovery rate and the duration of the healing tree.

Increasing the level of each type of thorn increases the thorn length and Thorn Gauge capacity.

Thorns may seem familiar—they're comparable to Monster Hunter Rise's wirebugs or Toukiden 2's Demon Hands. With the original release in 2014, Freedom Wars was the first to have this kind of feature. It's hard to know for sure if Freedom Wars inspired these games to use a similar concept, but it's nice to think it may have had an influence.

Partway through the story, after you unlock facilities, you will earn the right to create and equip Augmentations. These allow you to customize yourself further in a similar way that skills in other hunting-style games work. These bonuses vary from increasing health and defense, status ailment immunity, increased scope distance, and more. See the Appendix: Augmentations section at the bottom of the guide for the entire list.

Each Augmentation has a cost to equip, in proportion to how strong the effect is. When you first unlock Augmentations, you can equip only one with a cost limit of 3. Fully upgraded, you are able to equip up to five different Augmentations at a time, with a cost limit of 15. You can stack Augmentations with similar effects, like Defense and Defense +, but multiples of the exact same Augmentation do not stack, so equipping two Attack + only gives the benefits of one.

You can bring items with you into Operations to support your playstyle. This can include healing items, extra ammo, grenades, buffs, debuffs, and more. You can find a full list in the Appendix: Combat Item section near the bottom of the guide.

You can equip four different Combat Items at a time, and your Accessory can bring one. Your Accessory won't use their Combat Item unless you issue a command to do so.

Should you use up your Combat Items, you're free to pick up Care Packages around the battlefield to obtain more.

BENKEI are deployable turrets that fire automatically. You can only have two deployed at the same time; using a third will destroy the oldest one.

You cannot have more than three mines placed. Using a fourth destroys the oldest mine. However, Decoy Mines are a separate category. You can have three mines and three decoy mines deployed at the same time.

One interesting Combat Item type is the Thrusterboard. They function as hoverboards that stay at a set elevation. You can move around on Thrusterboards, but you cannot attack while moving.

The official term in this game is "Operations", though you'll frequently hear them referred to as missions, assignments, or hunts. The terms are mostly interchangeable.

Operations are the main focus of the game, so let's go into detail about them!


Basic Operations are your offline, main story progression missions.

Special Operations are harder missions that may appear once every five missions you complete, indicated by a red alarm when you return to your cell. They can be saved up to be played later. You can hold a maximum of 15 Special Operations. You usually only get one attempt per Operation before it disappears from the list. If you want to play them again, you'll have to complete other missions to get one to reappear. You can find a good explanation of each Special Operation mission here.

Showdown Operations are simple missions that pit you against a single Abductor. They have no field resources to pick up, so just focus on combat.

Practice Battles are just that - practice. Use these to learn about the game and test out your skills and equipment. It's a single-player mission meant to simulate PvP combat.

Vs. Operations are actual PvP combat missions against other players.

Invasions are online-mode missions that require a Invasion Permits to take on. You obtain one permit every 15 minutes.


Citizen Reclamation requires you to rescue citizens from enemy abductors and bring them to RRU (Resource Reclamation Unit) pods.

Locate Citizens is a fight against opposing sinners to retrieve as many citizens as possible. Bring citizens to your RRU pods while preventing your opponents from doing the same.



Harvest Resources asks you to pick up a certain amount of resources off the field. They will be pink instead of the standard green.

Reach Objective is self-explanatory: reach the specified area. Most operations of this type require defeating enemies to open locked doors to proceed.

Liquidation means defeating a certain amount of specific enemies.

Eliminate Enemy specifically targets enemy Sinners. Defeat enough to deplete their Sustainability. Opposing Accessories do not count.

Citizen Protection involves taking a beacon to an indicated area while protecting your allied Abductor.

Seize Control is a King-Of-The-Hill style mission where you must possess more control points than the opponent when the timer runs out.

Stealth missions require you to reach your destination without being detected.

Cell Garden is special; there are no enemies and you have no equipment. You must solve navigation puzzles and collect all resources within the time limit to succeed. You can extend your time limit on each attempt by buying Entitlements.

Between Operations, it's a good idea to spend time equipping a proper loadout for yourself and your Accessory.

You can equip two weapons at the same time. The most conventional loadout is to have a melee weapon and a ranged weapon, but there's nothing stopping you from having two melee or two ranged.

If you bring two ranged weapons, you'll have two distinct ammo pools, so you're able to fully use up the ammo of one, swap to the other, deplete that, then grab an ammo pack for a full restore on both.

Accessories have infinite ammo. It's recommended to give your Accessory a powerful gun to take advantage of this.

You have the option of purchasing items and weapons at various shops around the Panopticon. Progressing through the story unlocks more stores and expands their variety of items for sale.


Once you progress far enough and unlock the right to do so, you can use facilities to craft or upgrade equipment and augments. More details can be found in below sections and appendices.

When you're ready to begin an operation, access the Personal Responsibility Portal in your cell.

While looking through operations in the Contributions Directory menu, press the Intel button for details on what enemies you'll face and what resources can be found on the ground. Use this to strategize for upcoming battles and find materials you need.

Most missions won't have intel available until you complete them for the first time.

Early on, NPCs will be assigned to join your operations automatically. When you progress far enough, you will be allowed to choose who you want to bring with you.

Each character has their own equipment loadouts and AI quirks to differentiate themselves as allies. For example, Ann, Beatrice, and Marie retrieve and rescue Citizens without having to be ordered to do so. Meanwhile, Nina, Hal, and Natalia are particularly effective at defeating enemy Sinners.

Some characters are good at being aggressive and tend to sever Abductor parts faster than others, while some are better at focusing on healing or reviving you or other allies. Bring everyone along at least once, and see how they perform. Once you're familiar enough, you can tailor your party to complement your playstyle.

Special Note: Operations 5-1 and 5-2 are mutually exclusive. Finishing one locks off the other. This decision is semi-permanent until the end of the main story.

Let's go over the UI in combat.



TOP LEFT

• The blue icon in the corner of the screen is the operation's Sustainability, which is how many times you are able to be redeployed after being incapacitated. If you successfully complete a mission with 20% sustainability or less, it will incur a sentence penalty. If it reaches zero, the operation is considered a failure. If you are knocked out, there's a limited time where other characters can revive you. If they do so, it does not count against Sustainability.
  
• The red icon is the enemy Sustainability. In this mission example, the enemy has infinite respawns.
  
• Below the Sustainability icons is the mission timer. If it hits zero, that's mission failure.
  
• To the right of the Sustainability icons is an indicator of how many Citizens need to be rescued.

TOP RIGHT

• On the top right of the screen is your radar, which gives you a small-scale indicator of enemies, allies, and items of interest around you.

RIGHT

• On the right side, messages appear for items, parts, and materials acquired.
  
• Just below that is your Combat Item selection. In this case, the player has no Combat Items equipped.

BOTTOM RIGHT

• In the corner is your weapon selection, swapping between the two weapons you brought into the mission.
  
• Above that is your lock-on prompt, which aids in aiming your Thorn and ranged weapons.

BOTTOM LEFT

• On the bottom left is your health bar. Your HP will slowly regenerate over time. You can regain health faster by using medicinal items, or hiding behind cover.
  
• IBARA is your Thorn Gauge. Using your thorn will deplete the meter. This bar will slowly regenerate while the thorn is not in use. If the bar is blue, your charged Thorn ability is off-cooldown and can be used. If the bar is white, your Thorn charged ability is on cooldown and cannot be used until enough time has passed.

LEFT

• On the left side of the screen is your mission messages. These give updates on the current situation, such as when Abductor parts are broken or when allies go down.

FIELD ICONS
These icons, instead of being constants on your UI screen, are instead tied to objects in the field.

• On the left is an indicator of an un-rescued Civilian.
  
• In the center of the screen, the player's Accessory is down. They have a prompt for reviving it.
  
• The small downward-facing triangle near the top right helps point where small enemies are. Blue triangles indicate allies.
  
• The small exit-sign icon near the radar is the RRU. Carry the Citizen there to rescue them.

If you go down, the only people who will revive you are Sinners and your own Accessory. Other Sinners' Accessories will not assist. NPC Sinners will respawn without penalty, but their Accessories will stay down until you or their associated Sinner picks them up. Choose your revival priorities accordingly.

Throughout the field are various items that you can acquire. You can either run up to them and pick them up directly, or use your Thorn to grab them at a distance.

Large ammo boxes restore all of your ranged weapon ammo. Small
ammo boxes will restore an amount based on your Ammo Supply Rate %. Ammo boxes will respawn five minutes after they are picked up,
or five seconds if they were picked up while you were already full.

If you pick up an ammo box while online, it despawns for everyone, not just you.
Please be considerate and only take ammo boxes when actually needed, so other players can replenish ammo too.

Picking up ammo boxes automatically reload your weapon, so you can skip the animation.

Care Packages vary in color, signifying what combat items they provide.


Care Packages respawn like ammo boxes do - after five seconds if you were already carrying the max amount of the item, or five minutes if you didn't.

Field resources are indicated by a green glowing spot with particles flying upwards. Pick them up for various materials. Each mission has a pool of possible resources, visible from the Intel screen when choosing an operation. When you deploy in the field, the resources are picked randomly from that pool.

If you're looking for something specific, check the Intel. Due to the random nature of spawns, you may find multiples of what you need, or none at all. It might be necessary to repeat missions if you're unlucky.

You can give orders to your Accessory in the midst of combat. Some, like "Destroy Parts", are best used for tactical advantage to various situations. Other commands, like "Carry Citizens", allow you to focus on other things while your Accessory carries out a mission objective. Support your Accessory, and your Accessory will support you.

If you order your Accessory to pick up items, they will stop once there are no more that they can access. They're not equipped with Thorns, so anything on a ledge will be out of their reach. This includes picking up items or reviving you if you die on top of a platform.

You can also issue orders to NPC allies by opening the same command menu, hitting the button to swap to Team Orders, then choosing your desired command.

Watch your teammates to make sure the commands you've given are actually helping. The NPCs are helpful, but aren't all that intelligent. They can get stuck on terrain quite easily.

While attacking Abductors, different body parts can be damaged. You can focus down a limb or weapon to destroy it, or even sever it directly with Light Melee weapons or a Flare Knife item. It's generally easier to cling onto Abductors while they are standing up. Latching onto specific parts to sever is harder while they're knocked down, since the parts can be bunched together.

When parts fall off, the loot is not automatically obtained. You must walk over them to pick up the piece and receive rewards. Abductor parts can disappear during reinforcements, so don't dawdle.

Dealing enough damage to an Abductor's pod will knock it down and allow you to approach and free a Citizen trapped inside. Either you, your allies, or your Accessory can carry the Citizen back to the Resource Reclamation Unit for rescue. The RRU will be marked with an "Exit" icon. Beware, anyone holding a Citizen will be relentlessly pursued by the Abductor. Keep in mind you can still dodge while carrying a Citizen.

You can run while carrying a Citizen, but your ability to turn left or right is severely limited. You'll have to alternate walking and running to make any necessary turns. If you hit an obstacle while running, you'll drop the Citizen.

When you complete all objectives, a timer appears as a countdown to extraction. You have the option to skip directly and end the mission immediately, or spend the extra time to gather any items that are nearby.

If it's a Citizen reclamation mission, you can even rescue an extra Citizen or two outside the mission requirements to add them to your Citizen list.

At the end of each mission, you receive rewards. Generally, the faster you complete a mission, the more rewards earned. For each reward, you have the option to receive it, or donate it to your Panopticon to reduce your sentence and raise Gross Panopticon Product (GPP), which increase your Panopticon's ranking in the online leaderboard.

For the most part, I recommend keeping materials while progressing through missions. You can donate later when you know what materials you don't need or if you're repeating missions over and over. You can also use extra materials to craft into Combat Items for a bigger sentence reduction when donated. You can always donate items while in your cell.



You must donate any materials highlighted in red, as the Panopticon has not given you the right to keep them. Failure to do so will be considered a crime and increase your sentence. Thankfully, the game marks them all for donation automatically. Just be careful not to accidentally keep any while going through the menu. You can earn the right to keep items from the proper Entitlement unlocks.

As a further reward for successfully completing an operation, you will also receive Entitlement Points. These are used to purchase Entitlements at the Window on Liberty in the "Claim Entitlements" menu. Entitlements vary from in-world conveniences such as the right to take five or more steps within your containment cell, to gameplay benefits such as weapon unlocks and more command orders to give in combat.

Finally, part of the rewards for mission completion will be a sentence reduction, plus extra if you donate materials, minus any infractions incurred.

Don't forget to purchase Entitlements! The sooner you purchase the Right to Retain Items of Rarity Level 2/3/...etc, the sooner you can use those materials for upgrades.

• You are freely able to customize your controls in the Options -> Control Settings menu.
  
• Enemy Sinners and Accessories sometimes drop their weapons when defeated. If you pick them up, you keep the weapon if your mission is a success. It's a good way to try out different weapons early on, or use as fodder when upgrading other weapons.
  
• Don't worry about weak points or damage types for small enemies; they will go down without much effort from any attack.
  
• However, don't discount small enemies entirely. They can deal unexpectedly high damage if you ignore them. Some explode on death, so don't get too close.
  
• If your Accessory goes down, pick them up as soon as you can. If not, they can get captured. This unlocks a Special Operation mission to retrieve them.
  
  • There is an achievement to have your Accessory captured, and another for completing a mission to retrieve a captured Accessory, so you might want to let it happen at least once.
• You can use your Thorn to revive allies at range, regardless of Thorn type.
  
• Be smart about using your Thorn. Abductors become more resistant to thorn grapples with each successful immobilization. It's better to knock them down right before they use a powerful attack, or to stop them from chasing a Citizen.
  
• When locking onto an Abductor body part, the targeting ring color changes.
  
  • A red targeting ring indicates that it can be severed by using a Light Melee weapon or a Flare Knife combat item while clinging to it with your Thorn.
    
  • A yellow targeting ring indicates that this part is easier to topple the Abductor with.
    
  • A blue targeting ring is the Abductor Pod. If the Abductor is knocked down, the pod is vulnerable to Gauge Break. Cling onto the pod with the Thorn and use Gauge Break to inflict heavy damage, often destroying the Pod in the process.
• Some abductors are equipped with shields that block ranged attacks. Knocking them down temporarily disables the barrier, and it's highly recommended to focus down its shield generator to permanently remove it. Melee attacks and Anti-Abductor Mines are not stopped by barriers.
  
• While latched on to an Abductor part, you are somewhat safe from many of its attacks, but watch its body language. Eventually, it will try to knock you off, whether by slamming you on the ground or grabbing you directly. Try to jump off before you take damage and get knocked off. If you're skilled (or lucky), you can grab right back on.
  
• It should be obvious, but it bears saying: Abductors are easier to fight after severing parts, especially weapon attachments.
  
• Weapon and shield attachments generally have lower health than limbs, so they're easier to destroy first. However, if you're feeling confident, you can save time by severing the body part at the joint to break off the limb and all attached parts at once.
  
• While cutting off parts, you deal a base amount of damage even without pressing anything. You'll do slightly more damage if you just hold the button, and you do the most if you mash the button.
  
• Directly severing parts is useful in early game, but once you reach the end-game, it's often easier and faster to focus down specific body parts with your weapons.
  
• If you struggle at aiming ranged weapons, don't forget that you can lock on. If you're using an Assault Rifle, you can also attach your Thorn to your target - you will automatically aim down the Thorn. The Attack: Connected augmentation specifically boosts your damage while doing so.
  
• Keep an eye out in the environment for anything glowing blue. It could be a power generator with warning symbols on it, it could be Will'O storage rods, it could even be a collapsed pile of old Abductor parts. If your Ibara Gauge is low, attach your Thorn to them for an instant recharge.
  
• You can shoot down incoming rockets and missiles to prevent them from hitting you.
  
• The dodge is passable, but ultimately not very good. It's often better to run or utilize the Thorn to pull yourself to safety. Proper positioning helps.
  
• Every basic operation has a secret objective for a bonus reward. See the Appendix: Operation Special Rewards section below for details.

All-Purpose

• Bring a weapon that targets its elemental weakness if you can. Their naming scheme is somewhat deceptive.
  
  • The "generic" Abductor is Will'O element - it is weak to Electricity and resists Fire
    
  • The Heat Resistant Abductor is Fire element - it is weak to Will'O and resists Ice
    
  • The Cold Resistant Abductor is Ice element - it is weak to fire and resists Electricity
    
  • The Electric Resistant Abductor is Electric element - it is weak to ice and resists Will'O
• They can come with different weapon attachments to vary their movesets, but they all have a head laser that causes a delayed explosion at their target.
  
• If you're in front of a Bipedal Abductor and about to get hit by its arms or weapons, you can run between its legs to evade.
  
• Severing both arms will cause them to become more erratic and unpredictable. It's recommended to destroy the head laser before both arms are cut off.
  
• Learn to recognize when they're about to run around like crazy. It's a good opportunity to use the Thorn on their leg and start pulling it down.

Artillery

• Prioritize destroying the head to stop its more dangerous explosive attacks.

Carrier

• They often have circular blades on the back. Destroy them to disable their blade attack.
  
• The pods are especially vulnerable to Gauge Break when the Carrier is knocked down. Cling onto the pods to easily destroy them.

T-Type, Ramosa

• Electric Type. Weak to Ice and resists Will'O.
  
• Resembles a tiger, and is quite nimble. Be prepared for a movement-heavy fight.
  
• Due to its moveset, the safest area is behind its back legs.
  
• It can leap forward and grab targets in its mouth, dealing constant damage until the held victim escapes or dies.
  
  • It often runs away if it has someone in its mouth. Attach your Thorn to keep up with it.
• Severing the wings removes its ability to fly.
  
• Severing its front limbs disables its front claw attacks. It will still be able to move normally as if they were still attached, but it will stumble if it tries to jump too much.
  
• The pod is on its underbelly, making it a difficult target. The T-Type can hit you while underneath it, so be careful if attempting to melee from below. You can damage the pod by attacking downward through its back.

S-Type, Paradoxa

• Ice Type. Weak to Fire and resists Electricity.
  
• Resembles a heavily-armored spider. When dealt enough damage, it will jump into the air and shed the armor as an AoE attack. It becomes faster once it loses the armor.
  
• Its various webs and rockets can be dodged or blocked by taking cover behind obstacles.
  
• Free webbed allies with melee attacks. Small arms fire won't be enough.
  
• You can disable the web attacks by destroying the two back cannons.
  
• Don't bother using your Thorn to knock it down. It gets back up rather quickly.

C-Type, Peltatum

• Permanently flies around, so bring a strong ranged weapon.
  
• Has a circular body with eight coffins with chains attached. The chains do most of the attacks for the fight. The statue on its back is considered its head.
  
• As it takes damage, the chains will detach and fly around. Each chain can be pulled down with thorns. You can temporarily disable the chains by damaging them, but eventually they will be revived when the C-Type roars. The chains can only be destroyed by damaging their respective coffins.
  
• The main body can pull in targets beneath it before it slams down, dealing massive damage. This can be avoided by using the thorn to get away, or by clinging to its topside.
  
• It can inflict poison with a purple glowing charged attack.

D-Type, Dionaea

• Fire Type. Weak to Will'O and resists Ice.
  
• Resembles a western-style dragon. Expect a formidable fight on ground and in the air.
  
• Sever the wings to disable its ability to fly and reduce the hitbox of several of its attacks. Consider the wings a high-priority target.
  
• Its tail can grab, dealing damage to its victim until they escape or die.

• Watch your dialogue choices with authorities, even in optional conversations. Responses that are rebellious, lazy, or unpatriotic to your Panopticon can result in penalties. One woman in red will penalize you 100 years if you say you haven't memorized the People's Charter. A man in red will give you 20 years just for speaking with him.
  
• If at any time you forget what you need to do to continue the story, open the map. The top right corner of the screen will display your current objective.
  
• Some customization options are harder to find.
  
  • In the Request Image Overhaul menu (i.e. character customization) there is a Style button. This toggles between variations of your currently-selected customization, so you can change to different styles of the same outfit, such as adding or removing a jacket. You can also change color palettes.
    
  • You can give yourself heterochromic eyes by pressing the "Right Eye Only" button while customizing eye color.
    
  • You can change the menu background color by selecting Options -> Display -> PRP Background Color -> Match Eye Color. Note that this matches your Accessory's eye color, not yours. Remember, you are always being watched.
    
  • Your voice determines your bar code pose in online lobbies.
    
  • The Customize Accessory option when you speak to your Accessory in your cell lets you modify not only the commands you can issue, but what they say in response. You're able to freely type in a word or phrase, and the text-to-speech will vocalize it. This feature was previously exclusive to Japan in the Vita version.
  
• As mentioned in the Combat section, it's possible for you to lose your Accessory if it goes down in battle and gets captured. You will be assigned a temporary Accessory until it's retrieved in a Special Operation. Most of the time, you will have to complete the mission yourself. However, if you're lucky, there's a chance that other players online will rescue your Accessory for you.
  
• If you rescue other players' Accessories, they will become backup Accessories for you to use if you ever lose your own. So, it's possible for you to temporarily use other player Accessories, and for other players to use yours.
  
• You can lock weapons so you won't accidentally lose them. You can lock Spare Accessories so they'll be kept forever. You get a copy; you're not stealing other people's Accessories!
  
• You can trade items with many NPCs around the Panopticon. You might just find a use for those Non-Existent Non-Resources after all.
  
• If you're not planning on using Combat Items early on, equip 1 of an item in each slot anyway. If you pick up Care Packages out in the field, you'll keep the extras for free. Your loadout will automatically bring only 1 each mission, so it's a low-maintenance way of gaining supplies throughout your playthrough.
  
• Near the end of the main story, you will be given four choices. Pick whichever one you like, as you'll eventually be able to earn the rest of them.
  
  1. Path of the Warrior: Gain a bunch of XL weapon modules.
     
  2. Path of Preservation: Gain a bunch of high-end citizens.
     
  3. Path of Other Pasts: Revives Hal or Ann and unlocks their respective mission (either 5-1 or 5-2).
     
  4. Path of Alliance: Obtain 8 weapons. They will be 1 of each weapon type. Every one of them will have a random yellow "bonus" in one of their stats.
  Whatever you choose, your next wish will automatically be the next one down (e.g., Choosing Path of Other Pasts first will give you the Path of Alliance as the second wish, then the Path of Conflict as the third, etc.)
  To unlock the second wish, you must earn 10k EP, then return to the three people to get Operation 8-1. Upon completion, talk to them again to receive your second wish rewards.
  For the third wish, earn 20k EP and complete Operation 8-2.
  For the fourth wish, earn 40k EP and complete Operation 8-3.
  
• After the above, continue to reduce your sentence to unlock Operations 8-4 and 8-5.

Once you've progressed enough in the story and unlocked the relevant entitlements, you'll be able to build, upgrade, and gain benefits from facilities. These allow you to input materials in order to manufacture items, forge and upgrade weapons, and create augmentations.

You upgrade facilities by buying the appropriate Entitlement. Weapon upgrades and other features are limited by your facility level.

• Upgrade Weapons, as you might expect, increases the stats of weapons. Different weapons, even of the same type, can have different stat growth patterns.
  
• Add Element lets you modify a weapon's elemental affinities.
  
• Increase Module Slots increases a weapon's rarity, which expands a weapon's amount of module slots.
  
• Manufacture Modules crafts weapon modules for customizing your weapons.
  
• Synthesize Modules combines multiples of the same module into an upgraded version. This is the only way to obtain XXL-size Modules.

• Manufacture Augmentations crafts Augmentations for you to equip and enhance your character. You can reference the Appendix: Augmentations section for a complete list. Augmentations require specific ingredients to make, with the most useful ones requiring many rare materials. Since Augments with the exact same name don't stack effects, you only truly need to make each one once.
  
• Increase Augmentation Slots alternates between increasing your number of Augmentation Slots or your point limit for Augmentations.

---

Every time you rescue a Citizen in an operation, you will earn a favor from them. If you rescue the same Citizen multiple times, you'll be able to use them more. Pressing Request Citizen Support asks a Citizen to work on a facility request. The benefits they give depend on their aptitude in a certain field.


Each Citizen has a rank describing their skill for each of these facility requests, from A (best) to E (worst). The most relevant skill for the current request will be highlighted in blue.



Facility Manager is always relevant, as every facility request requires Entitlement Point expenditure. The discount is percent-based, so it's not as important for low-level upgrades when the cost isn't that large. High-aptitude facility managers can save you thousands of points for later, more expensive facility functions.

Two of them, Arms Design and Med Support, are used to determine if the Citizen meets the minimum requirement for the facility request. If you're increasing the number of modules on a weapon from 1 to 2, a D-aptitude Arms Designer will do just as well as an A-aptitude Arms Designer. The same applies to upgrading your Augmentation slots. Basically, there's no point using up an A-aptitude Citizen on a D-level task unless you have no other choice.

Arms Agency is a little different in that the better the Citizen's skill, the higher chance of success for merging weapon modules. Still, the overall idea still applies - save your higher-skilled Citizens for merging the more powerful modules, as failure on those would be a greater loss.

Therefore, when requesting citizen support, press the sort button on the list for the aptitude you're looking for. Use a Citizen with the least aptitude that can still perform the task. Make sure you're not using one that's an A or B in another task you might use later. Then check their Facility Manager aptitude and decide who to use based on how much of a discount they offer.

Once you've upgraded your Augmentation Slots, Med Support no longer has a purpose, so you can ignore that column when considering what Citizens to use or keep.

Early on, you'll be relying on the simple Weapon Upgrade option to increase your weapon's level and improve its effectiveness. Once it hits level 5, on next level up you'll be asked if you want to change to an Advanced model. If you're planning on using an Advanced weapon, there's no point in upgrading the base weapon to level 7 and beyond; it will confer no further bonuses once you advance it. Advancing returns the weapon to level 1, with a specialization of your choosing: Impact, Fire, Ice, Electro, or Will'O.

A standard, non-advanced weapon has no restrictions other than having a maximum of 100 total element, in any combination. However, it will have lower base power and it is harder to reach the element cap without the bonus that elemental weapons do. Using a level 10 non-advanced weapon is not recommended.

An Impact Advanced weapon deals extra impact damage to stagger Abductors more often, but it cannot have more than 50 element total on the weapon. The elements can be any combination.

Fire, Ice, Electric, or Will'O elemental Advanced weapons can have 100 total of its corresponding element, but all other elements have no effect.

So choose based on your needs: Impact is now a bit more utility but average damage, while Element weapons deal the most damage against anything that doesn't resist them.

Stuck on materials? Search for missions that give them out as rewards or field materials to pick up. If you're unlucky (or impatient), you can buy what you need from the Fraternity Headquarters.

Continue upgrading the Advanced weapon's level. You'll likely get stuck at level 7, after which you'll have to complete Retribution missions to get the materials to upgrade to 8, 9, and 10.

You don't need to worry about optimizing much while playing through the main story. Early on, try different weapon types and see how they match your playstyle. Upgrade the ones you like, and they'll be a solid basis for your endgame loadout.

Increase your weapon's level to the point where you choose what weapon upgrade path you want. Most people prefer the Impact type, but you can use whatever best suits your needs. Then level it up some more to level 10 as you obtain the materials.

To obtain weapon upgrade materials for levels 8, 9, and 10, you must complete Retribution missions, which are the Special Operations numbered 100 to 109.

With the remastered version, you don't need to worry about element and module inheritance. Craft the modules you like, and upgrade duplicates to create powerful modules to slot into your weapon. Upgrade weapon slots as needed.

Once you have an advanced level 10 with all the slots filled with fully-upgraded modules, your weapon is as best as it can possibly be. It's up to you if you want to create more for other element types, but I highly recommend at least making good weapons for your Accessory, too.

When you reach late-game, you can sometimes find weapons have a yellow marker that indicates a bonus separate from everything listed above. You cannot transfer this bonus to anything else, so what you get is what you're stuck with. Due to how rare and random this bonus is, it is not recommended to delay upgrading your main weapon in case you get a yellow-marked weapon of your choice. The chances are too low that you'll find what you're looking for.

• Impact and Ice are the two most popular effects against Abductors, as Impact staggers Abductors and is harder to come by, while Ice can freeze parts so they take 50% extra damage.
  
• Will'O is a close third, as the explosion is particularly useful for breaking parts.
  
• Electro is a good way to lock down Abductors, especially if everyone brings along Lightning weapons. However, paralyzed Abductors stand in place rather than fall over, so it's harder to hit more desirable parts.
  
• Fire is generally not recommended, as the damage-over-time effect isn't as useful as the other effects that other elements provide.
  
• Elements aren't particularly important against Sinners.
  
• In the original game, there was a localization error in the modules for Clip Size and Max Rounds Carryable: the two were mixed up, so Max Rounds Carryable increases Clip Size and vice versa. This was fixed in the Remastered version.
  
• There's no need to add any ammo-related modules to your Accessory's weapons, as they have infinite ammo.

• Power Up is universally useful, and should always be included on your weapon.
  
  • The exception to this is the Creamy Screamy, which is more for crowd control and element buildup.
• Carryable Ammo Up and Clip Size Up are strongly recommended if you use your ranged weapons for a reasonable amount of time, though you can get away with not using them if you bring enough AMMO Packs and pick up more in the field.
  
• Movement Speed Up is useful on heavy weapons that slow you down. It's also useful on your Accessory's weapon. The faster they run, the faster they can reach you if you go down. If you like to give your Accessory the Harvest Materials command, it'll have them finish that task much sooner.
  
• Critical Chance Up and Critical Damage Up are synergistic; using one makes the other especially effective.

If a mission has infinite enemy Sinner respawns, you can farm them repeatedly for more drops.

NPC allies can complete mission 6-4 all on their own, especially Ann, Beatrice, and Marie. Good for AFK farming citizens.

Your million year sentence is a slog to get through, but there are some methods to hurry things along.

This is for people who want to do it the "intended" way.

1. Craft and equip Contribution Booster, Contribution Booster +, and Contribution Booster ++ Augmentations for bonus sentence reduction from Operation rewards.
   
2. For solo farming offline, people generally find mission 7-5 the best, as it can be completed quickly for a relatively high sentence reduction.
   
   • Focus fire on the shield generators. You can use Binding Thorn Charge 2 to speed up the process.
     
   • Once the shields are down, focus on aiming for the neck. Remember, you're here to kill it as fast as possible - don't worry about destroying any other parts.
3. For multiplayer online farming, create or join a group that's farming Special Operations. These missions grant the highest sentence reduction rewards.
   
4. Alternatively, you can farm Code 6/7/8 missions online. If you're lucky enough to find a room where someone is doing these missions for the first time, you will receive the First-Time Completion bonus!

Don't forget to donate any excess materials for additional sentence reduction.

With the removal of Item Crafting, combat item donation is no longer viable for sentence reduction. However, a new method has been discovered to quickly grow entitlement points and reduce your sentence without doing missions.

It requires access to Citizen's Promenade 8-A000, so you need CODE level 8 to begin.

Step 1: Collect 100 Non-Existent Non-Resources. You can find good amounts of them in the Cell Garden puzzle rooms.

Step 2: Craft the Discount Coupon augmentation and equip it.

Step 3: You need 12,600 Entitlement Points to start. Either save up from completing missions or donate items until you meet this minimum.

Step 4: Travel to the Fueling Station and buy as much Sodium Chloride as possible.

Step 5: Travel to Citizen's Promenade 8-A000 and run to the far corner. Speak to the Citizen, Olesya, and hand over 30 Sodium Chloride. You can't talk to them again immediately; to make exchanges faster, take a few steps away then back to talk again. Give as much as you can.

For every 30 Sodium Chloride exchanged, you will receive:


Step 6: Return to your cell and donate the above items. By donating them all each time, it should be fast to find them again in the menu since they'll always be at the bottom of their respective list. You will receive more Entitlement Points than you spent. Repeat steps 3-6 as much as you like.

Since this method grows exponentially, you'll be able to clear your sentence in a matter of hours, even as a Deadly Sinner. When you're done, you'll have more than enough EP to buy every Entitlement, a full stock of Combat Items, and still have plenty to spare to buy rare materials from the Fraternity Headquarters.

Credit goes to ななひゃっこ for initially finding the method, and Shirayuri Yukihime for bringing it to the community's attention.

Most people will never get that far, as it's an incredibly long grind. However, should you succeed in fully reducing your sentence, this is what happens:
You get a special message from Percy Propa:
Congratulations, sinner!
You finally did it!
Your million-year sentence has been served in full!
You're free!
We never thought for a minute that a forgetful degenerate such as you would even come close to working off your entire debt to society...
So congratulations on proving us all wrong!
You're now a fully fledged, bona fide, card-carrying second-class citizen! Hooray!
Your new status comes with the following amazing entitlements...

• You may now dress in beachwear and Accessory-Issue clothing, and your Accessory may wear Prisoner-Issue Clothing
  
• You may wear new hats, masks, other characters' headsets, and miscellaneous accessories
  
• You may now use the Second-Class Citizen Sticker Set
  
• You may now use the Club palette
  
• You may make use of an additional 26 call signs
  
• You may use 15 new poses for your rap sheet

Now, for the future joy and prosperity of your Panopticon, it's time to get out there and give it your all!
For the Greater Good!
...
Oh, I nearly forgot. You're not being transferred anywhere this time. You're staying right where you are.
We're trying to find you a better cell, we really are, but I'm afraid there's nothing available right now.
Don't worry though—the minute another second-class citizen bites the dust, you're top of the list for an upgrade!
You may then continue to play with your new rewards. Funnily enough, it's still possible to get years added to your sentence via dialogue with NPCs.

By having a fully-served sentence, you now contribute a small extra bonus reduction to your target's GPP when completing Invasion Operations online.

One of the new options in Freedom Wars Remastered is Deadly Sinner Mode, a form of hard mode. You can access the Deadly Sinner Application via the Window on Liberty. Penalties for rules violations are harsher, item donations aren't as effective at reducing your sentence, many essential entitlements now cost eight times as much, Sustainability limits are lower, and unexpected events may happen during missions. Essentially, it's various adjustments, big and small, to make the game harder in different ways.

However, with higher risk comes higher reward - you have faster access to high sentence-reducing operations. You can revert back to normal mode at any time by rescinding your application.

If you submit an application to become a Deadly Sinner, you forfeit some basic Entitlements, if you've already earned them:

• Right to Run
  
• Right to Rest
  
• Right to Remain Silent
  
• Right to Unsupervised Activity
  
• Right to Retain Items

You'll notice that the Window on Liberty now has a red, bleeding eye, and you have a similar icon next to your sentence display above your head. You are able to buy some exclusive cosmetic Deadly Sinner Entitlements, namely stickers and titles.

During operations, you may encounter "anomalies" that make your mission harder. This can take the form of more powerful opponents, more enemy reinforcements, or time limit reductions. Be on your toes, Deadly Sinner. The path to atonement can be perilous.

These unexpected events are semi-random. I once had multiple Abductor reinforcements on a mission, failed, then tried again. The second attempt had no reinforcements.

Once you have the right to leave your cell, you can talk to your Accessory to Request Cooperation. This allows you to create or join an online lobby. Public lobbies are free to join, though it depends on the host whether you're able to post your own missions or not. Private lobbies are an option for playing with friends, though you'll need both the passcode and the lobby slogan to join.

While in an online lobby, you can talk to Natalia to select operations. If you complete a story mission you haven't reached yet, you will receive a "Proof of Operational Non-Failure", which is essentially a ticket that lets you skip doing the mission in single-player.

You can't really progress through the game together with friends, since you need to talk to NPCs outside of the lobby to unlock missions. Lobbies are best used when everyone is somewhat progressed so there's a larger variety of missions to play and materials to farm.

A mission type unique to online lobbies is the Invasion Operation. These are semi-randomized PvE missions that let you target other Panopticons. If you succeed, you will reduce that Panopticon's GPP (Gross Panopticon Product), which influences online rank.



Invasion Operations require Invasion Permits to start. You obtain one every 15 minutes, and can hold up to 20 at once. That means you'll be fully stocked every 5 hours. The permits required depends on the difference between your Home Panopticon's rank and your target's. If your target Panopticon is more than 5 ranks higher than yours, it costs 5 Invasion Permits. Otherwise, if you target something weaker or around your level, it only costs 1.

Only the person posting the quest spends the permits, so if you rotate who starts the Invasion Operation, you can easily do Invasions back-to-back indefinitely.

Though it costs more to target high-ranking Panopticons, they are also at higher risk. They're at the top of the list by default, and they have a higher Plunder Penalty percentage, a bonus added to anyone who successfully fights against them. You get a GPP damage boost based on how quickly you complete the operation, and if you've completely cleared your sentence, you get an additional small bonus added to the total.

You can open a lobby and do Invasion Operations solo. Any empty slots will be filled by NPC Sinners and their Accessories.

You don't need to do anything special for fights against NPC Sinners, but Player vs. Player is a different beast. It's not the most popular game mode, but it's still something to consider for a change of pace. Here are some tips to help you succeed in PvP matches.

• In general, defense is better than offence.
  
  • You get much more benefit from Health and Defense Augmentations than attack boosts. Thorn-boosting Augments are also beneficial.
    
  • Use the Shielding Thorn. The defense boost from its Level 1 charge is much more useful than anything the Binding Thorn or the Healing Thorn can provide.
    
    • The Healing Thorn can be effective for especially coordinated groups, but don't rely on it for random battles.
      
    • Remember, you can revive people with your Thorn no matter what type it is.
• Learn to use your Thorn effectively to maneuver around the map and dodge.
  
• Don't forget your Thorn can cling to walls. You can use this to your advantage to approach, attack, and escape from unexpected angles.
  
• Assault Weapons, Light Melee, and Polearms tend to be the most popular weapons in PvP, though you shouldn't restrict yourself to those options if you prefer something else.
  
• Critical weapons tend to perform better than Lifesteal. You won't out-heal an opponent attacking you, but a big crit at the right time could knock them out faster than they expected to heal or escape.
  
• Bring First Aid Kit +, First Aid Kit, and Adrenaline as your Combat Items. Staying alive is critically important, and First Aid Kits scale well with extra health and defense. Adrenaline helps boost your damage. The fourth item can be anything to help your playstyle. Definitely bring AMMO Pack + if you're relying on your guns more than melee.

While there's plenty going on in Freedom Wars, some details and lore can easily go unnoticed.

• Whenever you confirm or accept forms such as claiming entitlements, a thumbprint appears on the bottom right corner of the screen. This was done with your actual finger on the PS Vita's touchscreen. Those playing on the Steam Deck are still able to use their thumb to accept documents, but on PC and modern consoles, it's a vestigial visual detail.
  
• Accessories are cyborgs made from synthetic materials or human corpses. Their blood is blue liquefied Will'O. The "chokers" on their necks are voice synthesizers. Looking closely, you can find volume buttons.
  
• Accessories receive broadcasts in the form of binary signals, which they use to convey orders to Sinners. It's possible to intercept these messages and inject false orders.
  
• The Accessory you started with in the beginning cutscene was crushed by the Abductor after you were knocked out. That's why you were assigned a new one. Unbeknownst to your Panopticon, your old Accessory was recovered, repaired, and sold to a different Panopticon by the Fraternity.
  
• Your Accessory starts off cold and impersonal, but it becomes more friendly towards you as you reduce your sentence.
  
• Will'O is the prevalent form of energy. It powers everything, from Panopticons to Abductors.
  • Your Thorn is made of concentrated Will'O energy.
    
  • The black rectangular boxes stores the Will'O used for your weapons, combat items, and Thorn. The blue smoke when you swap weapons is the Will'O disassembling your old weapon and reforming your new one.
    
  • It's attached to your back via an attractive force stronger than magnetism. It can be forcefully pulled off, but doing so is excruciatingly painful.
• Every human emits a Will'O "signature", which is used to uniquely identify individuals and determine friend or foe.
  
• When obtaining weapons, combat items, and ammo, you're not really picking up a physical object, but rather a 3D projection of Will'O created from blueprints stored in your black box.
  
• Uwe and Elfriede have their unique fist-type weapons because they obtained the entitlements to do so. Other Sinners have already taken up all the maximum allowed fist-weapon entitlements, which explains why you are unable to wield them.
  
• Citizens are genetically engineered to be short and weak. This lowers the amount of resources they require and decreases their ability to fight should they think of resisting against their Panopticon. This has the downside of making them easier to capture.
  
• Conversely, Sinners are engineered for combat and little else, so people tend to believe that Sinners are unintelligent brutes.
  
• In nearly all cases, couples are chosen by the Panopticon for procreation. Relationships between Citizens and Sinners are possible, but rare.
  
• A Sinner's daily schedule involves 6 hours of sleep and 16 hours of contribution with up to two hours break.
  
• The bland and tasteless food served to Sinners is made of synthetic material optimized for providing energy and hydration. The details behind creating this food is classified. Some black markets offer illegal supplies such as sugar, salt, and alcohol. Higher-ranking Sinners may get entitlements to enjoy lightly-flavored foods.
  
• The Hourai Panopticon is a major producer of sugar, so its antagonistic relationship has caused a severe shortage within the League of Panopticons.
  
• Many Sinners wear headphones for combat communications and receiving orders and announcements from their Panopticon. They also play music, which means that the game OST can be considered diegetic.
  
• Three idol groups were created to aid in propaganda. You can hear their music in-game, or on youtube. 1 2
  
  • The Contribution Girls are a set of three Accessories, named Panna, Opti, and Connie, a play on the word "Panopticon".
    
  • The Contribution Guys are a set of four Accessories, named Will, Gii, Alto, and Yuu, a play on the phrase "We gaze at you", which can be seen on some posters and graffiti around the game.
    
  • The Contribution Lady is a set a two Accessories, named Grace and Heine. There's no known wordplay for their names.
• The real-life concept of a panopticon was created in the 18th century. The idea was to maximize surveillance of prison inmates using the least amount of resources. A ring of prison cells is built around a central tower with a corrections officer inside. The prisoners are unable to see inside the tower and do not know when they are being watched, so they are incentivized to behave as if they are being observed at all times.
  
• Very few actual panopticons were built, but they have been used in various forms of media as metaphors or for social commentary, such as in Persona 5 and, well, Freedom Wars.
  
• "Panopticon" is derived from the Greek word panoptes, meaning All Seeing.

For more spoilery details, mouse over the black bar below:
                                                                                                               

• On High believes that if any individual Panopticon gets too strong, it may threaten On High's authority. It manipulates events to ensure that all Panopticons are on the verge of collapse, just barely scraping by. This is to keep their attention focused solely on survival. When a Panopticon becomes more stable or has too many resources, On High targets them for attack to put it back in place. This is the source of Retribution missions.
  
• On High created most of the technology we see in-game, including Will'O. Panopticons use weapons and Abductors they've salvaged from On High attacks.
  
• The C-Type Radion Blinding Light Alpha is the only abductor where the Panopticon’s variant is stronger than the On High version.

By completing a special condition during an operation, you receive an extra bonus reward. You can only receive each reward once, so don't count on farming these repeatedly. You can receive the reward by talking to your Accessory and selecting "Claim Deliveries".

In cases of rounding numbers, the final result will round to the nearest digit. If this is lower than 1, it will round up to 1. This can be seen when increasing clip size of small clip weapons, or trying to increase the damage of the Creamy Screamy Jr.

Due to rounding, some of these numbers may be approximate; I did my best to calculate the correct amount where applicable.

You can stack multiple modules of the same kind, but they must be different sizes. Bonuses stack additively.

Looking for a specific part and don't know where to find it? Chances are you'll find what you need below. Remember, when looking through operations in the Contributions Directory menu, press the Intel button for details on what enemies you'll face, and what resources can be found on the ground.

Destroy the indicated part for a chance to receive the associated item.

Elemental Resistant Coating and Plating match the elemental type of the Abductor. For example, Heat Resistant Coating will only drop from Heat Resistant Abductors. The generic Abductors are Will'O element, but will not drop any ※ marked parts.

Some people are experiencing severe issues while running the game. One potential solution:

                                 

1. Navigate to your game installation directory. It's usually something like: Steam > steamapps > common > FREEDOM WARS. You can quickly access this location by right-clicking the game in your Steam Library, Properties, Installed Files, then click the Browse button.
   
2. Rename start_protected_game.exe to something else, but keep it aside as a backup.
   
3. Rename START.exe to start_protected_game.exe
   
4. The game should now run without anti-cheat, which may increase performance. However, this fix is for single-player. You will not be able to play in a multiplayer lobby.
   
5. If you want to revert the changes, you manually change everything back, or have it done automatically by right-clicking the game in your Steam Library, Properties, Installed Files, then click the "Verify integrity of game files" button.

A different solution suggests that the game's Vsync isn't working properly for NVIDIA machines. Open your NVIDIA app or Control Panel, then in graphics settings, add Freedom Wars (it should be called START.exe), then limit the game's frames per second to a multiple of your monitor's refresh rate. Keep Vsync on in-game.

There's two different methods to have all dialogue, including Accessories, to be in Japanese, while retaining your own language for UI text and subtitles. I've tried these fixes myself and confirm that they work, however, it also can cause communication errors online. Reverting back to my original language allowed me to resume playing online without issue.

Method 1:

1. Navigate to your game installation directory, inside the "master" folder.
   
2. Rename jpn.eaf to something else, but keep it aside as a backup.
   
3. Rename your language file to the Japanese one. For example, change eng-us.eaf or eng-gb.eaf to jpn.eaf.
   
4. Right-click the game in your Steam Library and enter Properties. In the General tab, change Language to 日本語 (Japanese).

Method 2:

1. Navigate to your game installation directory, inside the "master" folder.
   
2. Rename your own language sound files to something else, but keep them aside as backup. There should be three of them. For example, sound_eng.eaf, snd_acc_eng.eaf, and snd_acc_eng.cpk.
   
3. Rename sound_jpn.eaf, snd_acc_jpn.eaf, and snd_acc_jpn.cpk to match your own language.

This other Steam Guide shows the process in more detail. Give it a look!
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3404477050
Whichever method you use, the game should now have Japanese voiced dialogue with text in English. If you need to revert the changes, rename everything back manually, or go into game properties and verify integrity of game files to have Steam do it automatically.

Unfortunately, Steam sometimes deletes guide images without warning. This has been happening for years, and the pattern of what stays and what gets lost is inconsistent. If this guide references a missing image, or it seems like an image should be somewhere but there isn't, that's probably what's happening. Let me know in the comments and I'll re-upload a new copy.

While a lot of information in this guide is from my own experience, there are still some resources to rely on for more specific details.

The Freedom Wars Wiki[freedomwars.fandom.com] is a large repository of information, though it's far from complete. A lot of appendix tables are based off this data.

A lot of the English wiki's information was translated from the Japanese Freedom Wars Wiki[seesaawiki.jp]. There's more in-depth information here.

The r/FreedomWars subreddit wiki for numerous crowdsourced information and testing, such as more detailed Augmentation and Combat Item effects, good farming missions, and optimal sentence reduction strategies.

Arkia's GameFAQs Guide[gamefaqs.gamespot.com] for extra detail on gameplay basics, between-mission facilities, and other miscellaneous tricks and tips.

ssyykkiiee's GameFAQs Guide[gamefaqs.gamespot.com] for information on weapons, materials, abductor parts, and other miscellaneous tricks and tips.

Freedom Wars Lore and Facts with information compiled by MasterThief_99, Reset_Tears, koiL90, and kei[kei.tumblr.com].

The Temporary solution for crash and JP Voice thread in the Steam discussion forums for Technical Fixes and Adjustments section. Thank you, loampo and Rxzlion!

Derpy for the elemental cap on weapons.

Helix for finding the NPC that lets you change your home Panopticon.

Nearaji for pointing out that Steam Deck users are able to use the touchscreen for accepting documents.

Kude and BRainFission for pointing out that weapons in the game have standardized into Rank 1 Normal Growth type.

Scei for information on yellow-marked weapons and what you obtain from choosing the Path of the Warrior.

These two threads (1[gamefaqs.gamespot.com] 2) for discovering the new difference between Impact and Elemental Advanced weapons.

This post with more information on the effects of Deadly Sinner Mode.

Part-Time Prick for relaying the info that one of the weapon-farming missions no longer drops weapons.

ななひゃっこ for discovering the item donation feedback loop, and Shirayuri Yukihime for bringing it to the community's attention.

You have my deepest appreciation for getting this far and reading my guide.
Good luck out there, Sinner, and may you ever strive for the Greater Good!

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