Prey (2017): Complete Guide

A spoiler-light guide to Arkane's Prey: how the neuromod system works, how to survive the early hours on Talos I, which abilities pay off, how to play stealthy or loud, and what the Mooncrash DLC and post-launch modes add.

Researched September 2026 — current as of the final update line (update 1.10 "Rogue Moon", September 2018, plus the Typhon Hunter update of December 11, 2018). Prey is no longer being updated; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

• Explore everything. Talos I is one interconnected station. Almost every locked door has a keycard, a code in an email or TranScribe, a vent, a window, or a GLOO-stair route around it.
• Read emails and listen to TranScribes. Door codes, safe codes, side quests and the locations of crew members are hidden in them. The game tracks all of it in the Data section of the menu.
• Everything can be a Mimic. A spare coffee cup or a chair that was not there before is suspect. Swing the wrench at suspicious clutter before you walk past it.
• The GLOO Cannon is your best tool, not your worst gun. It freezes enemies, puts out fires, seals gas leaks and electrical hazards, and builds climbable ledges anywhere.
• Recycle junk constantly. Recyclers turn junk into material, and Fabricators turn material plus a Fabrication Plan into ammo, medkits and neuromods.
• Fabricate neuromods. Once you have the Neuromod Fabrication Plan, exotic material becomes your main limiter on skill points. Keep exotic material for neuromods.
• Pick Hacking, Repair or Leverage early. These three human abilities open huge parts of the map. One of them is enough to start; eventually you want all three.
• Typhon powers have a cost. Installing many alien abilities makes station turrets see you as a Typhon. Plan around that or reprogram turrets.
• Save often, on multiple slots. Quicksave works everywhere outside of combat animations and there is no penalty for using it.
• Stamina matters. Sprinting, jumping and wrench swings drain it. Do not open a fight with an empty bar.

What Prey Is

Prey is an immersive sim set in 2032 aboard Talos I, a TranStar space station orbiting the Moon. You play Morgan Yu, a researcher who wakes up inside a looping test while the station is overrun by the Typhon, a shapeshifting alien ecology. Your brother Alex Yu, a helper robot called January, and a trail of recorded messages from your former self guide you through the station.

The structure is non-linear: you move between hub areas by elevator, airlock or a spacewalk around the exterior, and you can revisit almost everything.

Core Systems

Resources and crafting

Resource | Where it comes from | Used for

Junk items | Everywhere, bodies, trash | Recycling into materials

Organic, Mineral, Synthetic material | Recycler output | Ammo, medkits, food, gear

Exotic material | Recycling Typhon organs, some junk | Neuromods, advanced items

Fabrication Plans | Found in the world | Unlock recipes at Fabricators

Weapon Upgrade Kits | Loot | Upgrading weapons at any time

Suit Repair Kits | Loot, fabricated | Restoring suit integrity

Rules of thumb:

• Carry junk to a Recycler instead of leaving it. A full inventory of junk is normal.
• Recycler Charge grenades turn a group of enemies and objects into materials in one blast. Recycling 20 or more objects with one charge earns the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" achievement.
• Only fabricate ammo you actually use. Spend exotic material on neuromods first.

Health, suit, and status effects

• Health is restored by medkits, food and some abilities.
• Suit integrity absorbs some damage; repair it with Suit Repair Kits or Suit Repair stations.
• Status effects such as fire, electricity, radiation, bleeding and concussions have specific cures. Medical Operators heal you and can cure status effects.
• Psi powers Typhon abilities. Psi Hypos refill it.

Weapons

Weapon | Role | Notes

Wrench | Melee | Free damage against Mimics and weak targets; stamina-limited

GLOO Cannon | Utility / crowd control | Freeze, then finish with the wrench or a shotgun. Also climbing

Silenced Pistol | Precision | Solid all game when upgraded

Shotgun | Close burst | Best general Typhon killer for many builds

Huntress Boltcaster | Utility | Activates buttons and distracts; almost no damage

Disruptor Stun Gun | Anti-robot / non-lethal | Shuts down Operators and turrets; knocks out humans without killing them

Q-Beam | Beam weapon | Strong against Typhon once upgraded

Psychoscope | Scanner | Scans Typhon to unlock alien powers; tracks weaknesses

Grenades worth using: EMP Charge (robots, turrets), Recycler Charge (crowds and resources), Nullwave Transmitter (shuts off Typhon powers and damages Typhon), and Lure grenades for pulling enemies away.

Upgrade priority: put Weapon Upgrade Kits into one or two weapons you actually use. Spreading them thin is the most common way to end up underpowered. Fully upgrading a weapon earns "Cold Dead Hands".

Neuromods and Abilities

Neuromods are skill points. There are three human trees (Scientist, Engineer, Security) and three Typhon trees (Energy, Morph, Telepathy). Typhon trees are locked until you get the Psychoscope and scan Typhon enemies.

Human abilities worth buying early

Ability | Why it matters

Hacking | Opens safes, doors, computers and turrets without codes; later ranks unlock tougher locks

Repair | Fixes broken Fabricators, Recyclers, turrets, elevators and electrical boxes that block routes

Leverage | Lifts heavy objects, including crates that block doorways and shortcuts

Necropsy | Extra loot (especially Typhon organs) from Typhon corpses, meaning more exotic material

Gunsmith | More efficient weapon upgrades

Combat Focus | Slows time for a shooting window; strong for gun builds

Medicine | Better healing from medkits and food

Buy one rank of Hacking, Repair or Leverage first, then fill in the others before spending heavily on combat. Utility abilities pay back with loot, which pays back with more neuromods.

Typhon powers (after the Psychoscope)

Power | Use

Mimic Matter | Turn into small objects to squeeze through gaps and windows ("Shapeshifter" for 20+ unique objects)

Lift Field | Throws enemies and objects into the air; also a vertical traversal tool ("Tee One Up" for a kill on a Lifted enemy)

Phantom Shift | Leaves a decoy and moves you a short distance

Kinetic Blast | Area damage burst

Electrostatic Burst | Electric damage; excellent against Operators and turrets ("Ball Lightning" for dropping two Operators at once)

Superthermal | Fire trap

Psychoshock | Damages and suppresses the Psi powers of enemies; works on humans too

Mindjack | Controls enemies; frees mind-controlled crew ("Deprogramming" achievement)

Machine Mind | Takes over robots and turrets

Remote Manipulation | Grab objects and press buttons at range

Phantom Genesis | Turn a human corpse into an allied Phantom ("It's Alive!")

Check the in-game Neuromod screen for which of the three Typhon trees (Energy, Morph, Telepathy) holds each power; Mimic Matter and Phantom Shift sit in Morph, Kinetic Blast and Electrostatic Burst in Energy, and Psychoshock and Mindjack in Telepathy.

The trade-off: the more Typhon neuromods you install, the more the station's turrets and some systems treat you as hostile. Separately, the Nightmare, a huge Typhon hunter, begins actively hunting Morgan after a story point. If you invest in Typhon powers, fix or hack turrets later, or accept that they will shoot at you.

Build archetypes

Build | Core picks | Playstyle

Pure human "Security" | Hacking, Repair, Leverage, Combat Focus, weapon upgrades | Classic shooter with stealth; turrets stay on your side

Engineer / crafter | Repair, Hacking, Gunsmith, Necropsy, Leverage | Deploy and upgrade turrets, fabricate everything

Pure Typhon | Mimic Matter, Kinetic Blast, Electrostatic Burst, Psychoshock, Mindjack | Psi-heavy; carry Psi Hypos; turrets turn hostile

Hybrid | Human utility plus Electrostatic Burst and Psychoshock | Most forgiving on higher difficulties

Achievement notes: "No Needles" requires beating the game without any neuromod ability; "Split Affinity" requires one full run human-only and another Typhon-only.

Enemy Primer

Enemy | Threat | Counter

Mimic | Ambush, weak | Wrench, shotgun, Recycler Charge; "Mimic Massacre" for 5 kills in 5 seconds

Greater Mimic | Faster, tougher | GLOO then shotgun

Phantom (and Thermal, Electric, Etheric variants) | Main infantry | GLOO plus shotgun or Q-Beam; Psychoshock

Weaver | Spawns Cystoids and raises Phantoms from corpses | Kill it first

Telepath | Mind-controls humans | Use non-lethal options on controlled crew; kill the Telepath; Mindjack frees them

Technopath | Takes over machines | EMP Charge, Disruptor, then finish

Poltergeist | Invisible, throws you | Psychoscope reveals it; GLOO and shoot

Cystoid and Cystoid Nest | Explosive swarms | Shoot from range or burn the nest

Military Operator / corrupted Operators | Ranged robots | EMP, Disruptor, Electrostatic Burst

Nightmare | Hunter-killer | Hide, use the timer, or come back with a heavily upgraded loadout

Scanning each Typhon type with the Psychoscope reveals weaknesses and resistances in its info panel. Use it.

Area Outline (spoiler-light)

Talos I is revisited constantly, but the first visit order roughly follows this chain:

• Neuromod Division — tutorial, the Wrench, first Mimics, the start of the Yu story.
• Talos I Lobby — central hub; security booth, Morgan's office, first real decisions about routes.
• Hardware Labs — engineering area with Fabrication Plans and useful upgrades.
• Psychotronics — Typhon research; Psychoscope; unlocks alien powers. Not long after this, expect the Nightmare.
• Arboretum and Deep Storage — crew stories and major story beats.
• Crew Quarters — a big side quest hub; many named crew members.
• G.U.T.S., Cargo Bay, Life Support, Power Plant — utility zones with some of the most dangerous encounters.
• Fabrication Plant, Shuttle Bay, Bridge and the Exterior — the late game and the endings.

Crew locations: every living or dead employee can be found using station Security Stations and crew tracking. Locating them all gives the "Missing Persons" achievement.

Endings and Choices

• Prey has several endings shaped by your key choice near the end and by how you treated survivors along the way. Your choices about who you saved, whether you killed humans, and how you dealt with specific characters are all tallied.
• Killing human characters (including mind-controlled ones you could have freed) affects the ending tone. "Do No Harm" requires finishing without killing any humans.
• Stay through the credits. There is an important post-credits scene.

Difficulty and Post-Launch Modes

The June 2018 free update added three options to the base game:

Mode | What it changes

Story Mode | Easier combat for people who want the narrative

Survival Mode | Weapon degradation, other survival-style penalties

New Game+ | Keeps your neuromods and gear for a second run

New Game+ is the easiest way to experiment with Typhon powers without restarting your progression.

Mooncrash (DLC)

Mooncrash is a roguelike expansion set in a TranStar moon base, framed as a simulation you run from a KASMA-operated satellite. Key points:

• You play five different survivors. Each has its own escape route and abilities. Unlocking all five earns "Squad Goals"; escaping with all five in one run earns "No One Left Behind".
• Sim Points carry over between runs and buy starting gear. Finishing with a surplus of 50,000 or more earns "Cryptomancer".
• The Corruption level rises over a run, making enemies stronger and eventually forcing a reset.
• Moon Sharks roam underground; killing one earns "Apex Predator".
• The free "Full Moon", "Blue Moon", "Blood Moon" and "Rogue Moon" updates (2018) added cosmetic Operator skins, weapon skins and mimic pet hats, plus an "Abort Current Run" option.
• Typhon Hunter (December 11, 2018) added asymmetric multiplayer — one player as Morgan, up to five players as Mimics — plus VR "TranStar VR" escape rooms. It is free for owners of Mooncrash or the Digital Deluxe edition.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Hoarding materials and never fabricating neuromods. Neuromods are the real power curve.
• Ignoring the GLOO Cannon. It solves fire, electricity, gas leaks and verticality.
• Spreading upgrade kits across every weapon. Pick one or two.
• Killing mind-controlled crew. Knock them out with the Disruptor or GLOO, then kill the Telepath.
• Going full Typhon without a turret plan. Your own defenses will shoot you.
• Skipping emails. Codes and side-quest triggers live there.
• Fighting the Nightmare early. It is designed to be avoided until you are strong. Hide in a small room and wait out the timer.
• Running out of stamina mid-fight. Keep a buffer before engaging.

Advanced Tips

• GLOO stairs: shoot GLOO in a vertical line up a wall to create a staircase. Many "unreachable" vents and loot spots are meant for this.
• Mimic Matter shortcuts: turn into a small object to roll through gaps in security booth windows.
• Hack instead of code-hunt when you are in a hurry, but remember emails often hold extra lore and side quests.
• Recycler Charge efficiency: throw them into rooms full of junk and Typhon at the same time.
• Throwing objects: with Leverage, heavy objects deal real damage when thrown. It is a free weapon.
• Turret placement: carry repaired turrets into chokepoints before big fights; with Repair and Hacking upgrades they become strong.
• Q-Beam and Electrostatic Burst are the two most reliable answers to the late-game Typhon and Operator mixes.
• Kill Weavers first or the room keeps refilling with Phantoms.

FAQ

Is Prey (2017) related to Prey (2006)? Only by name. The 2017 game is a separate story and universe by Arkane Studios.

Should I use Typhon powers? Yes if you want a different playstyle, but go in knowing turrets will turn on you. A human-first first run with a few Energy powers is the easiest.

How do I get the Psychoscope? It is obtained as part of the main story in Psychotronics. Scanning Typhon with it unlocks the alien trees.

What does "Do No Harm" require? Finish the game without killing any humans. Mind-controlled crew count, so disable them non-lethally.

Is Mooncrash worth it? If you liked the base game's systems, yes. It is a replayable roguelike with its own story and several unlockable characters.

Can I still play Typhon Hunter? The update is still downloadable for Mooncrash or Digital Deluxe owners; how easy it is to find a match depends on your region and time.

Is there New Game+? Yes, added in the June 2018 update alongside Story Mode and Survival Mode.

Sources

• Prey on Steam
• Prey Steam news (updates 1.07 to 1.10, Typhon Hunter)
• Prey Steam achievements
• Prey (2017 video game) on Wikipedia