Glass-Shield Cloaking System returns as an augmentation in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided with many of the same features from Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It is useful for stealth mode and has the capability to get past laser systems when active.
Description
- The Glass-Shield Cloaking system allows the user to turn invisible for short periods of time. It achieves this by generating a carefully tuned, spherical, electromagnetic field that can control the refraction of light in the user's immediate vicinity. In essence, this field steers light around the user and returns it to its original path with a perturbation rate of less than 3%. Melee combat defeats the system and thus triggers deactivation.
- The Glass-Shield also renders the user invisible to laser security systems.
- Turn invisible for a short period of time. Movement significantly increases energy drain.
- Activation cost: 2 Praxis
- Activation: manual
- Energy consumption: high
Upgrades
Discreet Power Processing
- In order to process the electromagnetic patterns of the local environment on a millisecond-to-millisecond basis, the Glass-Shield Cloaking System draws energy through a discreet biocell energy processor installed in the user's brain. when first implanted, users can operate their cloak for only very brief periods. This can be improved through optimization of the EM field generator.
- Power the invisibility effect with biocell energy.
- Upgrade Requirement: Glass-Shield Cloaking
- Activation cost: N/A
- Activation: manual
- Energy consumption: high
Improved Cloaking Energy Use
- Optimization of the code that generates and controls the electromagnetic field can reduce the Glass-Shield's power requirements.
- One significant improvement alters the physical structure of the EM field by producing alternating vertical pillars of stronger electromagnetic activity. These pillars filter incoming and outgoing rays of light, much like breaks at seaports.
- The cloaking effect is the same but requires less energy, thus increasing the length of time the effect can be sustained.
- Increase the duration of the invisibility effect.
- Upgrade Requirement: Discreet Power Processing
- Activation cost: 1 Praxis
- Activation: passive
- Energy consumption: medium
Optimized Cloaking Energy Use
- Further optimization of the electromagnetic field-generating code allows the augmentation to identify the precise three-dimensional location within the EM sphere where alteration of light pathing is required to maintain user invisibility. The generator then limits its perturbation of the EM field only to those areas.
- Greatly increase the duration of the invisibility effect.
- Upgrade Requirement: Improved Cloaking Energy Use
- Activation cost: 1 Praxis
- Activation: passive
- Energy consumption: low
Cloaked Takedown Support
- Prior to this upgrade, any melee combat performed by the user will disrupt the cloaking effect. This is because the EM field generator must remotely sense the user's physical dimensions and extend the field only to encompass those expected dimensions. If the user comes into contact with another person, the generator cannot calculate the field size accurately and so terminates the cloak.
- This upgrade taps into the user's nervous system and sends constant digital pings throughout the body's synaptic connections, thus allowing for precise mapping and sensing of the user's physical location. Thus, when another person enters the EM field, the generator knows to ignore them and may perpetuate the invisibility effect.
- Execute combat takedowns without canceling the invisibility effect.
- Upgrade Requirement: Discreet Power Processing
- Activation cost: 1 Praxis
- Activation: passive
- Energy consumption: low
Notes
- In Human Revolution, a player could take advantage of how energy replenished to almost deplete a cell, then stop the cloak to recover the entire cell's energy back, then use the cloak again and repeat the process, effectively never running out of energy nor needing bars. This was fixed in Mankind Divided as now energy is a long, continuous line and the amount of energy recovered will always be less than what was used, even with upgraded augmentations.
- Picking objects, opening doors, and hacking items will not disable cloak.
- Succesfully ramming into an enemy using a charged Icarus Dash will not disable the cloak. Standard dashes, however, will disable the cloak.
- Enemies may still hear Jensen walking.
- Bumping to enemies will alert them instantly.
- Laser wires cannot detect Jensen while cloaked.
- Special Cameras in System Rift have a heat-based sensing system that can detect Jensen even when cloaked.
- The icon for the first upgrade is the same as the icon of the first upgrade of the Titan Shield. Their respective descriptions indicate that the power system is different between the two aug systems.
- Cloaked takedowns feature the exact same animations as normal takedowns. Certain animations look odd as they are meant for normal takedowns.
- With proper augmentations and upgrades, Jensen may defeat multiple foes while being cloaked.
- Amusingly, guests in London Convention Center do not seem to mind cloaked takedown on bogus Tarvos guards even if the guests watch Jensen’s performance.
- Activating the cloak in sight of a bogus Tarvos guard or Security Camera in the first section of the Apex Centre will immidiately cause them to go hostile. They will not go hostile if you deactivate the cloak in their sight. If you are going for the Foxiest of the Hounds achievment it is recomended that you cloak behind a wall, out of sight of a guard or camera, not doing so could instantly fail the achievment.
- There is a brief delay (0.3 seconds) after deactivating the cloak before it can be engaged again. Should Adam take damage, the delay increases to 0.8 seconds.
- It’s speculated the Glass Shield does not drains energy while manually Hacking a Computer or Panel, giving players great advantage in Stealth over it’s Human Revolution Counterpart as it still drains energy real time.