Prey might seem familiar. You may have seen all of its components before, just not quite in this arrangement. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy, or that you’re going to know what’s going on right away. And that’s a beautiful thing. Prey is all the right kinds of perplexing and complicated.

So suit up, it’s time to get your first day of work started.

Table of contents

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• First Day on the Job
• Put on your TranStar uniform
• Get in the helicopter on the roof
• Report to the testing center
• Put on your TranStar Uniform
• Break Out
• Escape from your apartment
• Get to the main lobby
• Play your way
• Everything you know is about to change
• An Office with a View
• Access the video file
• The museum
• Upstairs
• Level 1
• Security Office / Security Station
• Level 2
• I.T. Department
• Staff Lounge
• Human Resources
• Trauma Center
• Level 3
• Teleconferencing Center
• Hardware Labs
• Sales Division
• Neuromod Division
• Simulation Debriefing Room
• Volunteer Quarters

First Day on the Job

Put on your TranStar uniform

When you first wake up in your apartment, you really only have one task — to put on your new uniform. That’s it. Technically, once you’re dressed, you can leave. But getting dressed isn’t the only thing you can do in here.

Start with your uniform — it’s hanging on the back of the door. Then, make your way around the room. This is going to introduce you to a couple concepts that are going to come up a lot in the game, namely picking up everything and checking computers.

We’re not going to walk you through each and every thing to pick up, so just make it a habit to check every drawer, cabinet and trashcan as you go. There’s a bunch of food in the kitchen, nothing in the bathroom and some spare parts in the workshop area. There’s also some plastic tubing and frayed wire in the nightstand (no comment).

We’re also not going to mention reading material very often. There’s a lot of it that adds color and background to the story, but it’s not immediately important to you — you’ll find a bunch of books in the living room, for example. We’ll only be calling out important notes (ones that contain things like passwords and key codes).

As you pick up everything not nailed down in the apartment, make your way to your computer. You’ll type in your password automatically (it’s a nod to the Fermi Paradox which is in no way foreshadowing, we’re sure). There’s not really anything to see — just a couple of work-related emails — but checking every computer is a habit you should pick up.

Get in the helicopter on the roof

Head out of your apartment and into the hallway. This is a good time to get in another good habit — closing doors behind you. This advice will make sense soon. When you get into the hallway, turn to the right and look at the fish tank. There’s nothing to do with it. It’s just a good thing to take note of.

Turn to the left and head down the hall. Stop and chat with Patricia Varma. She’ll make small talk, but if you keep pressing the talk button, you’ll exhaust her dialogue options and she’ll drop a couple of really interesting lines that are not confusing at all. This is another great habit to develop.

Keep going around the corner to the left and take the elevator to the roof. There’s nothing to explore or pick up up here, so just climb into the helicopter and enjoy the ride.

Report to the testing center

After the helicopter lands, head through the only door available to you. Go inside, and talk to the floating science operator.

Take the elevator. Talk to your brother, Alex, and proceed into the testing rooms. During testing, there are no wrong answers.

Put on your TranStar Uniform

When you first wake up in your apartment, you really only have one task — to put on your new uniform. That’s it. Technically, once you’re dressed, you can leave. But getting dressed isn’t the only thing you can do in here.

Start with your uniform — it’s hanging on the back of the door. Then, make your way around the room to pick up anything that’s not nailed down. That’s weird. Wasn’t the bottle of wine and the note on the counter before? Now they’re on the shelves over to the right side of the kitchen. Huh.

Make a quick loop to pick up all the same stuff as before, then go check your email. You’ve got a few new messages, and they’re not terrifying at all.

Get out of your apartment and turn left. Head for Patricia Varma. Maybe she knows what’s going on. Oh. Take the wrench from the floor next to her, then check her pockets.

You may also notice that the hallway is a dead end now. Which is weird, because it wasn’t yesterday. Er, today. You’ll get a call from the enigmatic January around this point, who will tell you that you’re not Groundhog Day-ing and reiterating that you really should leave.

Break Out

January’s call will start the next main story section of the game.

Escape from your apartment

Hey, remember that fish tank we told you to admire? Go hit it with your wrench. Don’t worry about the fish.

Get to the main lobby

Now that you’re out of the apartment and in the simulation lab, you can wander around some. There’s stuff to pick up and a little exploring you can do, but we’re going to take you the direct way. Feel free to wander (there’s only one way out). We’ll be here when you find your way back.

Turn left when you land, and follow the edge of your apartment around to the left. Your goal is the door in the cage in the back right corner. When you get close to it, though, you’ll meet your first as-yet-unnamed crawling black goo monster. You can track it down and hit it with your wrench a bunch if you’d like, or you can just rush into the cage and close the door behind you.

Head through the wall panel on the left and turn right immediately to find your exit. Once again, there’s a lot of wandering you can do (and it fills in some super interesting tidbits about your world), but there’s nothing to pick up, so we’re going to continue through the exit. Feel free to explore — we encourage it, in fact. When you’re ready to leave, just look for the (surprisingly easy-to-miss) big, red exit sign.

This will bring you out to the (fake) helipad on the roof. You can smash through any of the glass windows, but there’s nothing to pick up here either. Head into the TranStar building when you’re ready.

The security station is open this time (and nothing else is), so head in there. Poke around on the computer if you want to see more about how your entire life is a lie, apparently. Turn around, and grab the medkit off the wall to the left of the door, then go through.

You’re on the other side of the glass in the testing rooms this time. Wait. Wasn’t there only one chair in testing room B? Meet the mimics. Because literally anything might want to kill you in Prey. Yay!

Continue straight ahead to the next exit. Right before you get there, turn to your right to pick up a TranScribe off the desk. Listen to your brother say some weird stuff, then head up the stairs. Once again, your goal is directly ahead of you — the decontamination room — but there’s some interesting stuff (and another mimic) off to your left.

Things don’t go great when you get in the decontamination room. When the doors open, empty Jovan’s pockets and grab the medkit off the wall.

Play your way

Your job is to get through the door directly ahead of you (and there’s a bunch of stuff to explore and pick up around you). You have two options: You can find the keycard to open the door, or you can use an air duct to circumvent (HVAC pun) the door.

There are a few mimics in here, so be careful while you explore. Keep an eye out for two of something close together — it’s not always a mimic, but it pays to be careful. While you’re facing the mimics in a relatively controlled environment, it’s a good time to practice charging your wrench swings. Hold down the swing button for a few seconds, and then let go when your target is in range. You can usually take out a mimic with one good hit. And that’s important because they do a lot more damage than you expect. A drawn-out exchange is just going to drain your health and stamina and damage your suit.

The keycard to the door is in Dr. Bellamy’s office. Take the first right down the hall, then turn right again to find it. Just be careful, because there’s probably a mimic inside. Get the keycard off the desk, then you can just walk right out the door (after you’re done exploring).

The other exit is to use the air vents. When you’re at the locked door, turn right and look above the tape drive. There’s an access panel to open that will drop you into the hallway beyond.

Follow the hall in front of you around to the right. There’s a few things right in front of you — a corpse, a new weapon and a mimic. The mimic will likely notice you before you get a chance to do anything, so handle it with your wrench. Then you can loot the body and pick up the GLOO cannon (and some ammo for it).

Everything you know is about to change

After you’ve handled the mimics, take a quick circuit around the room to pick up anything you want, then head for the neuromod on the far side of the room.

Back by where you picked up the GLOO cannon, there’s a security room that requires Hacking I to get into. If you use the neuromod you just picked up to unlock that skill, you can get inside for a weapon upgrade kit (that you can’t use until you unlock the Gunsmith or Lab Tech skills later). Since you can’t do anything with it yet, and because there’s nothing else inside the room, we really can’t recommend doing this. But, you can come back later, and knowing it’s there is going to give you an edge.

When you’re ready, head through the door with the big green button to enter the Main Lobby. Turn left once you’re past the loading screen, and loot the corpse. There are two more neuromods in the briefcase on the couch.

Continue into the Main Lobby and head down the stairs on your right.

An Office with a View

The lobby is your starting point for the rest of the game, so there’s a lot going on here. This early in your game, it’s also a dangerous place. We’re going to walk you straight to your destination — which is how we recommend doing it — and then we’ll talk about what else you can explore afterward.

Access the video file

Your goal is your office, up on the third floor. Sweep the lobby for junk to pick up (you’re going to find a use for all that crap in just a minute), but watch for mimics. You’re also going to find your first couple of turrets. Don’t panic when you see them. They’re only looking for aliens. In fact, you should pick them up and deploy them near you. This will let you use them for backup if and when you find the lobby’s mimics.

Behind the (broken) elevator, there’s a reception desk — it’s opposite the Shuttle Bay. Go behind the counter for a medkit and the Trauma Center keycard.

The museum

On the left side of the lobby, there’s a museum. Bring a turret along when you go check it out. Go through the door closest to the station’s big windows, and check the first case to find another neuromod. Be careful, though — there’s a phantom in here, which is a really tough enemy you haven’t seen yet. Use your GLOO cannon and your shotgun (and use the turrets for backup). It’s a tough enemy — it’s got a one-hit kill ranged attack, and it’s fast (and creepy as all heck).

If you’re not in the mood to fight for your life, you can crouch to sneak into the room stealthily. You should be able to avoid the confrontation altogether. Or, you can just skip this neuromod for now and come back later.

Upstairs

Head for the stairs in the back right corner of the lobby. You’ll run into a mimic posing as a trashcan on the second floor. Keep heading up.

On the third floor, head into Bianca Goodwin’s office directly across from the door to the Executive Offices (on the right side of the hallway). You can check her computer, but more importantly there’s another Trauma Center keycard on her desk in case you missed the one downstairs.

Head behind the reception desk outside of your office and check the computer. The password is written on a sticky note in the corner of the monitor because humans will never change. If you check Jason’s email, you’ll learn the code to your office door — 0451.

You can ignore the room to the left of your desk for now (we’ll come right back to it) and head straight for your desk. Check the safe in the wall to the right your desk for the GLOO cannon ammo fabrication plans and a(nother) weapon upgrade kit. At your desk, pick up the Teleconferencing keycard and the neuromods (on the left side of the monitor), then turn your attention to the computer.

Check your email, then back up a menu and access the utilities. There’s a video file for you to watch. We won’t talk about what happens. Just turn around and watch the Looking Glass.

And that’s it. But there are still more to explore. There are rooms and floors of Talos 1 that you can wander around in, mimics and phantoms to destroy and lots of fun loot to find.

After you get to your office, it’s time to explore the rest of the lobby. In this guide, we’ll show you all of the rooms.

Level 1

Security Office / Security Station

Ironically, the Security Office is the easiest to get into. There are two approaches to gaining entry — you can find the keycard in the I.T. Department, or you can crawl through a vent.

To get to the office, head to the back right corner of the lobby. There’s a hallway with stairs down labelled, helpfully, "Security." If you have the keycard, just walk right in. If you don’t, climb up the large, yellow pipe that runs along the wall in the hallway. Take that pipe through the air vent, which will drop you into the office.

On the front desk, pick up Elias Black’s Fatal Fortress character sheet for Captain Stabfellow (he’s got "chestnut brown hair and huge muscles") and a weapon upgrade kit. From Elias’ computer, download the area map for the Talos 1 Lobby.

Next is Chief Sarah Elazar’s office. Grab the shotgun and shells off of her desk, then read the note stuck to her lamp — it has the code to the holding cell off to your left. Check her emails while you’re here. Then, check the religious book. There’s a quote inside from Judges 5:26. Enter the code 0526 to open the safe — you’ll find some grenades and other goodies inside.

Now head to the holding cell. Shoot the mimic posing as the dead man’s chair, then check the note on the desk in front of him to pick up the "Stolen Neuromods" optional objective.

Level 2

I.T. Department

On the second floor — on the left side when you enter the lobby, or the east side of the map — is the I.T. Department. There’s only one way inside, which is with the (also ironically easy) Hacking 1 ability. Before you go barging in, it’s a good idea to set up a couple of turrets outside (or just inside) the door because there are two phantoms inside.

Try not to blow up the explosive canisters, though. You’ll be using those in a minute.

Head into the workshop on the right to pick up some spare parts. There’s a computer console on the right side of the room with the Security Office keycard.

Continue through I.T. to find a door that leads to the Staff Lounge.

Staff Lounge

There are two ways to get to the Staff Lounge. The first is by going through the I.T. Department. The second is by jumping onto the balcony between the lounge and I.T. — either from the hanging sculptures in the middle of the lobby or by running along the ledge from the either of the stairs.

Take care of the mimics before you explore too far into the lounge — there are three of them. To the left of the door is a recycler. And the kitchen cabinets and the refrigerator are full of food. (Don’t pick up the food — just come back here and eat it straight out of the cabinets when you need to heal. That way, you won’t waste inventory space on cans of tea or apples.)

Human Resources

There are also two ways into HR. The obvious way is to upgrade to the Leverage 3 ability and move the barricade — but this will require a lot of valuable neuromods. The easier way is to grab an exploding canister — like the ones in the I.T. Department across the hall — and drop one on the couch blocking the door. Shoot the canister, and the explosion should knock over the barrier, letting you inside.

There are some FlexiFoam darts on one of the desks in the bullpen area. After you find them, head for the office on the right side of the room. There’s a mimic inside, so be careful. After you kill it, grab the medkit off the wall and the suit chipset off of the desk to the left of the computer.

Trauma Center

There are at least two keycards for the Trauma Center — one is at the reception desk on the back side of the elevators, and the other is in Bianca Goodwin’s office on the third floor (two doors down from your office). There’s a lot to find in the Trauma Center, but you’ll also have to face a phantom and super strong, on-fire version of a phantom to get to them.

Use any turrets you have around and the explosive canisters littering the Trauma Center to handle the Typhons — you’re not going to do well in a head-on fight. Once they’re out of the way, start picking up anything not nailed down. Here are the highlights:

• There’s another copy of the area map on the computer at the reception desk out front.
• Mathias Kohl’s office is on the left side of the Trauma Center. Check his email for the Quarantine keycode.
• The medical technician’s office — on the wall behind the reception area — has a bunch of spare parts and other bits of recyclable stuff.
• To the right of Regina’s computer — which is on the desk between the glass room and the wall where the medical technician office is — you’ll find the medkit fabrication plan.
• Check the corpse in the middle of the glass room for a neuromod and some other items.
• You can summon an operator from the big green dispenser in the back. If you talk to it, you’ll get completely healed. If you keep talking to it, it’ll tell you a joke. We recommend stopping talking before you get to that point.
• Check the lockers for a psi hypo and some other goodies.
• There’s another psi hypo in the closet next to the Quarantine area.
• There’s one more psi hypo through the door into the Quarantine area.
• Use the keycode you got from Mathias’ email, then handle the mind-controlled patient in Quarantine. There’s nothing to pick up inside, but he’s left some interesting graffiti on the wall.

Level 3

Teleconferencing Center

You picked up the keycard for the Teleconferencing Center from your desk in your office, and the entrance is right across from the Executive Offices (where your office is). There are several mimics that will jump you as soon as you open the door, so have your gun (or a turret) ready.

There’s really only one thing to pick up in here — the silenced pistol next to the corpse right inside the door. Just make sure you’re grabbing the pistol and not a mimic.

Continue through the Teleconferencing Center to get to the (entrance to the) Hardware Labs, and to find the bridge across the lobby to the Sales Division.

Hardware Labs

The actual Hardware Labs are through the door and behind a load screen. But there’s a small room off to the left before you get there that has a couple things to grab. There are a couple spare parts on the desks — which is good, because there’s also a broken recycler.

Sales Division

After you pass through the Teleconferencing Center, you can turn right and take the walkway across the lobby. There’s no code or keycard required to enter the Sales Division, so you can just walk in — but you shouldn’t. Open the door carefully and keep an eye out to your left for a phantom.

You can sweep the entire floor for a few things to pick up, but the important stuff is off to the left side of the room in the separate offices. The first office, Kelly Randoph’s, has a mimic pretending to be a chair to deal with. The fight is worth it, though, because behind her desk is our favorite weapon — the Huntress Bowcaster (it’s a Nerf crossbow). It won’t deal any damage, but it can be used to get Typhon’s attention. If that’s something you’re into.

The second office belongs to Yuri Kimura — whose name you might recognize from the note in the holding cell in the Security Office. You can check her email and read the file on her desk, but the important thing is a case with four neuromods.

Neuromod Division

Simulation Debriefing Room

When you watch the message from yourself in your office, you can walk up to the Looking Glass and look around the holographic room you’re recording in. If you look to the left, you’ll see an old version of the whiteboard in the Simulation Debriefing room with the safe combination before it was erased — 5150.

Make your way all the way back to the simulation room — you’ll have to backtrack all the way past the helicopter landing pad. Go into the debriefing room and open the safe for the psi hypo plan, a suit chipset and some other goodies.

Volunteer Quarters

You learn the keycode for the Volunteer Quarters in the Neuromod Division from Bianca Goodwin’s email — she’s in the Executive Offices two doors down from your office (it’s the same place you pick up (one of) the Trauma Center keycards.

When you get back there, your first job is to get to the second floor. Make yourself a staircase with your GLOO cannon or go repair the grav lift you passed earlier. Work your way around the second floor to find the Volunteer Quarters.

Inside, the path and the rooms on the right side will take you through the volunteer quarters where there’s a lot of food to pick up. There’s also a Typhon poltergeist (which is a lot scarier than difficult to fight).

The interesting path is straight ahead of you. Go through the door on the left wall and into the "authorized personnel only" room. Clear the room of it’s contraband (especially the recycler charge grenades in the right corner), then turn your attention to the desk. Grab the disruptor stun gun fabrication plan from the desk, then crawl through the air vent behind the desk.

You’ll need to make yourself another GLOO staircase to get out of the next room. Climb up and to the left to find your way to Fabrication. There’s a suit chipset on right side of the desks in the middle of the room.

Be careful here — there’s a Typhon technopath in the main fabrication room. Your goal for coming here is in the room with the technopath, so you don’t have a lot of choice — unless you just want to wait until you’re better prepared. But just know that if you take it on, it’s a very, very, very hard fight. If you’ve got the abilities (and the practice), stealth will serve you well here to keep you from using all of your bullets and medkits.

Before you leave this first room, there’s a couple turrets in here with you that you can use in the coming fight. Head out the opposite side of the room from where you came in and drop to the lower floor. Set up your turrets and then look around in the storage room for a few explosive canisters — you’ll probably need these in the fight as well.

If you choose to fight or to avoid, hiding under the desks in the main fabrication room is your best approach. And use the grav lifts in the corner to escape the technopath’s attention (and deadly, deadly ranged attack). Regardless of how you handle the technopath, your goal is the body of Fredrick Steele over by the crane on the right side of the room. He’s got the keycard for Holden Graves’ office upstairs.

Get back upstairs to the second floor (basically right above Fred’s body) to find Graves’ office. Check his emails and use the utilities menu to unlock the storage vault downstairs (it’s got a ton of exotic material inside).

Check the conference room attached to the office to find the neuromod fabrication plan and a transcribe to listen to. Then check the whiteboards for some disturbing information.