Now, we all know Heat Signature is a game of thinking outside the box, devising expert plans, watching how they go wrong, and then doing Plan B. With a bit of luck and a few tricks up your sleeve, you can get past any obstacle in Heat Signature. Throughout this guide, I'll show you some of those tricks.

I have divided the guide up into multiple sections to deal with certain things, such as armored guards, assassination missions, etc. I hope you find what you're lucking for, and I'm always happy to have comments, whether they be questions, things I've missed in the guide that should be added, or anything else! Hope you have fun :)

Missions where you steal a certain thing are some of the easiest you'll come across, but they get progressively harder and harder as you encounter things like turrets, armored/shielded guards, and a lot of locks you have to get past. On top of this, sometimes your employer will have you complete special clauses like "Silent" and "Ghost" clauses. These only add to your troubles!

Thankfully though, you still have the upper hand. With a wide array of gadgets and surprise on your side, you can get past your opponents and steal the item every time. Here are a few tricks to doing it:

Ye 'Ole Visitor
Useful for all clauses.
The Visitor trick is one of the simplest ones, and can be used on any mission, not just ones where you steal stuff. Take two Visitors (preferably ones that have a good amount of capacity if you're dealing with a very large ship), and then start teleporting in the direction of the box that contains the item. Use the first Visitor, then use the second. You'll notice that wherever you teleported the first time, the second Visitor will put you at that location, allowing you to teleport past guards, locked doors, turrets, and anything else! Continue this until you get to the box, take the item, and then just get out of there, using the Visitors again or this next trick:

Free-Falling... In Space
Useful for all clauses.
Have you ever wished for a quick escape from a ship? Ever been trapped by some angry guards with nowhere to go? Well, there might be one place to go...
You see those windows? Yes, the big glass ones. Did you notice they were glass? Yes, you did? GOOD!

Because glass is fragile. Throw a wrench at the glass, toss a longblade at it, shoot the glass with a gun, push a body into it, whatever you want. But the point is... you can break it.
And more importantly, you can jump out of it! Once you're outside of the ship, you can remote control your pod to come pick you up before you run out of oxygen. One easy escape: Done.

Ahh. Rescue missions. They're very similar to the 'Steal' missions, so there's a few tips over there that will help you with these missions to. The only difference from the 'Steal' missions is that you have the added weight of a body that you have to drag back. You can't use anything while you're carrying the body, no weapons, no gadgets, nothing. Thankfully, it's not too much of a problem. You can throw the body down temporarily, use whatever you need, and pick it back up again. It slows you down a bit, but not that much.
Have you ever thought if there was an easier way though, instead of having to carry the body all the way back to your pod? Well, wonder no more, for here are a few tricks to get you past the annoyance:

Swap-Till-You-Drop
Useful for all clauses.
Did you know that you could use a swapper on dead or unconscious bodies? Maybe you did, maybe you didn't, but do you realize that this means you can swap with the Rescue target? Ahha... Now there's an idea...
You can swap the target out of their main room where they're kept. The guards won't even notice. They can see the target's body on the ground, but they'll just ignore it.
Swap to get the target wherever you want, or to even escape some guards if they notice you. Just make sure you don't run out of charges...

Swap-Till-You-Drop... And a Vistor
Useful for all clauses if you're careful.
Same theory as the last trick, but with a Visitor added in. With a Visitor added in to a mix, you don't have to worry about where you get swapped to because you'll always be teleported back to the original point by the Visitor.
Just teleport using the Visitor to wherever you want the body (or guard, if you want to get one out of the way) to go, use the Swapper on them, and then wait as you get teleported back to the original point. You can even have the original point be where the body/guard is now, so you can pick them up or knock them out in secret, without other guards noticing. Lovely!

Capture missions are some of the most fun (and annoying) missions. We have a few main problems:
1. The Capture target is usually surrounded by other guards. We need to get him or her alone to easily knock them out.
2. We need a weapon that does not kill. What if you forgot to bring one? Well, we'll get to that.
3. We need to get to the Capture target, and they're usually all the way across the ship. Why can't they be closer? Hmph.

Luckily, we have solutions for all of these problems.

I Hear Something!
Useful for Bloodless, Pacifist, and Enigma clauses.
Guards are predictable. Did you ever realize that? They never truly do anything much out of the ordinary. They walk back and forth to do their errands, they chase after things they see, and... they always go to a gunshots location...
Sadly, they also sound an alarm when they hear a gunshot, but that's no matter if you don't mind to kill the captain or have already done so. Also, you can easily escape before you get captured if you're quick, but to the point.
You can use this predictability to your advantage. Fire off a gun where you know the target will hear you (evident by the ring around you when you're paused). If you can position yourself right, you can make it so only the target will hear you, allowing you to be alone and capture him or her. Even if you don't get just the target alone, you can usually make it so only a few of the guards come. This can also be combined with the next trick to easily subdue the target.

Need Some Space?
Useful for all clauses.
Remember that trick with the windows I talked about earlier? You can use the same thing here. Whenever you break a window, whether it be with a gun, a wrench, or anything else, it unleashes a huge force that sucks you into the void of space. Guards that are thrown into space get knocked unconscious, allowing you to pick them up with your pod.
So, it's simple. Get your target near a window, either wait for them to go near one on an errand or use the last trick near a window, and then just smash the window somehow. Your target can be picked up by your pod, which is especially easy if you have the Offworld Angel. Boom. Mission complete.

Flash
Useful for all clauses depending on which strategy you pick.
Just as I spoke about earlier, guards are predictable. After they see you, they need a moment to 'investigate' you before they sound the alarm or attack you. During this time, they'll usually run up to you or get their gun ready to fire. This hesitation gives you the advantage. Sadly, it's not much of a hesitation, so it's not that big of a benefit. If only there was a way to make the hesitation longer...
Oh wait, there is.
Slipstreams.

There are two ways to do this, quick and stealthy or quick and deadly. You take your pick. I'll explain both of them.

Quick and Stealthy:
That hesitation, now combined with your Slipstream, is quite a long time. Long enough for you to dart close to the guards, steal the key right from under their noses, and run off. If you're quick enough, they won't even have time to register you and call the guards. You can keep doing this until you get to the Capture target, subdue the target, and then run off again with the target in your arms. Just a warning, if guards see a dead or unconscious body, they'll sound the alarms whether they see you or not. Be quick, be stealthy, and good luck!
Disclaimer: Never try this with teleporting guards. It ends up bad.

Quick and Deadly:
The second way to do it is the deadly way, without worrying about stealth at all. Take some long blades or concussion hammers and active your slipstream. Now, run at the guards and unleash devastation upon them! The pause is so long, you can easily handle all the guards before they can react. Slipstream, Defeat, Repeat.

Getting flashbacks of Assassin's Creed yet? I hope not because this is nothing like Assassin's Creed. In assassination missions, you have to kill the target and escape. Sounds simple? Well, it's not quite that easy.
But you're smart, you have a plan to get past all the obstacles, right? Oh, no? Hmm. Well, maybe I have a few tips for you.

They Told Me There Were Cannons...
And yes, there are cannons. Ships have cannons, but did you know you can hijack those ships and use the cannons yourself? Now you do!
So, accept an assassination mission, not a timed one preferably, and get in your pod. Fly around until you find a ship that isn't the one mentioned in your mission. Go on that ship, take out all the guards around the console, hop into the console, and you now have a ship, fully under your control. You can fly around with it - similar to a pod, but much less agile - and you can also shoot the cannons!

Now that you have a ship, hunt down the ship that your assassination target is on.
You have two options, ram the enemy ship head-on and pray you don't die or shoot them with your cannons. Either way, just keep attacking the enemy ship until it says your mission is completed and you can go back to the outpost. You probably ended up blowing the target to bits or making them suffocate in the void of space. Pretty harsh of you.
If you decided to take the semi-safe route of shooting them with cannons, get ready for a full-on battle. You want to aim at the captain's room of the enemy ship, which disables both their movement and their cannons, allowing you to pepper them with explosives all you want. They will fire back, and they'll probably try to run away, so be prepared for both. If you get in close enough, you can put your cursor right over a specific room of the enemy ship and fire missiles that seek the specific room, so you literally can't miss. This is what the AI uses, and that's why their missiles always find their target. Use their same trick against them. Good luck.

Did You Expect That?
Have you ever wanted to take a bit of a risk? More of a risk than attacking a ship with your own hijacked ship? If you said yes, you're in luck.
By pressing T (the default control), you can launch yourself out of your pod. Not very useful on its own, right? However, you have these things called Swappers...
This only works if you know the exact location of the target, so you have to be very precise or this will all go wrong.
Get in your pod, figure out the location of the guard you want to swap with, go right up to the enemy ship, and launch yourself out of the pod. While you're in space, use the swapper on the location of the guard. You can't see the guard since you're outside of the ship, but you can still swap with them.
If you're good at this, you can swap with the assassination target and just have them suffocate in space. Simple, effectively, and only slightly risky.
Note: Pray the guard isn't on an errand. That makes things awkward. If you fail to swap with a guard, remote control your pod to pick you up.

Hijacking missions are one of the easiest to understand, and don't have clauses as far as I know. Their goal is simple:
Kill everything.
That's more or less the goal for hijacking missions. Subdue all the guards and then fly the ship back to one of the bases. Fairly simple... as long as you can deal with all the guards. Sometimes though, things get tricky, and you need a bit of ingenuity to complete the mission.

Hey, What Was Tha- BAM
Another example of a guard's predictability: If they catch a glimpse of you, they'll go to investigate. Let the guard catch a brief glimpse of you at the end of a hallway. He'll run over there, search around, and let him catch another glimpse of you a bit further away. Continue to lead him to a safe place and then knock him out without the other guard's noticing. Bingo.

Friendly-Fire
If you get in an awkward spot where multiple guards are shooting at you, you can sometimes turn the tables. Guards will always shoot if they see you (provided they have ammo). You can use this to your advantage by positioning yourself so that when a guard fires, he hits another guard in front of him.
And guess what?! The guards don't even care they just shot their own ally!

Thanks for reading the guide, and as I said at the start, I love to hear comments! It helps me know what the community is thinking of the guide and what needs improved on it.

I try to keep the guide up-to-date with accurate information, so expect the guide to be updated often. At the moment there are only five categories of tips and tricks for the basic missions, but I expect to expand on that.

Things Coming In The Future:
- Category on Armored Guards.
- Category on Shielded Guards.
- Category on Teleporting Guards.
- Category for Misc. Tips and Tricks.
- Tidy up the categories so you can better navigate to find the thing you want to counter.


Thanks once again! Safe travels and best of luck in your missions!