MJ12 Commando

MJ12 Commandos are elite troops equipped with electrically powered combat armours. The armour, codenamed "Obsidian", was invented in MJ12 laboratories in Hong Kong and Zürich. Its equipment include:


 * integrated rebreather, making them invulnerable to poisonous gas
 * heat-dispersing microcore foam, protecting from fire and plasma
 * ballistic shielding
 * two 7.62mm machine guns and short range rocket launchers
 * various scanning devices

All of this is powered by standard bioelectric cells. Detachments of the Commandos have been assigned to guard important Majestic 12 facilities and to support major assaults on bases of organizations opossing MJ12.

Tactics
Commandos are the most dangerous humanoid enemies in Deus Ex. Up close they use twin machineguns which do significantly more damage than the assault rifle carried by most human enemies, and at range they switch to rocket launchers. While the rockets have small damage radius and don't do nearly as much damage as a normal LAW or GEP gun rocket, they fire much faster.

Furthermore, true to their armor's description, they're utmost resistant to knock-out attempts with the Baton as well as completely immune to poison gases and take only half damage from fire-based weapons(this includes the Plasma rifle) as well as tranquilizer darts. The Obsidian also greatly increases their survivability and they have 250HP in all body locations, meaning you will need to be at least Advanced in Rifle/Pistol weapons skill to take them out with a single headshot from a sniper rifle/mini-crossbow. Commandos never retreat from combat.

As such it's best to dispose of Commandos without entering an actual fight with them. Sneaking behind them and attacking with the Dragon's Tooth Sword will kill them instantly. They can also be knocked out with the Riot prod even at Untrained, assuming you hit them in the back. Assault shotgun is effective assuming your first shot will be a headshot. Of course, any sort of explosive such as a LAM or the Gep gun will kill them instantly.

If you're forced into a firefight with Commandos try to keep them at a distance. The rockets are damaging, but travel relatively slowly and can easily be avoided just by strafing. They do have a splash damage hovewer, so try not to have a wall behind your back when using this tactic. If you have the Aggressive Defense System augmentation at level 4, just activate it the Commandos will kill themselves with their own rocket splash damage.