SteamWorld Heist 2 Walkthrough: Skip Every Naval Fight

The submarine is the progression

In Heist 2 the thing that moves you forward is not your crew — it is your boat.

The world map starts covered in fog, and you clear it in your submarine. Clearing it is how you discover locations, missions and secrets. There is no other way to find them.

So the loop is: sail, clear fog, find a mission, run it, return to a bar, spend, sail further. The missions are the rewards for exploring, not the other way round.

The regions, in the order the map opens up:

Why you should run from almost every naval fight

The Navy will attack on sight, and the official guidance on that is blunt: there is no shame in running away. You cannot save the world from the afterlife.

The reason running is correct is the penalty for losing:

If your ship gets wrecked, you respawn at the latest bar you visited — but any gallons you picked up are gone forever.

Gallons are your upgrade currency. A naval fight you lose does not just cost you the fight, it costs you the money you had already earned.

Your submarine gets better over time, and the upgrade list is worth knowing because it changes what you can do:

Note which one matters most: the speed boost is what unlocks new map, so it is an exploration purchase before it is a combat purchase.

When you do fight, it is about lining up your shots and manoeuvring — the enemies bring underwater mines, missile silos and flagships, and careful positioning is what keeps you alive.

The one escape where you must not flee north

Here is the inversion.

For the whole game, the correct response to a navy patrol is to run. But right after the boss fight in the Sunken Vault, a huge number of navy ships close in and you are chased out of the southern half of the map — and this is the one time you must turn around instead.

Because the katana is behind you.

• Go back to the Flooded Burrow bar, continue past it to the south-east, and use the whirlpool.
• The katana is in a box in the area it takes you to. A second whirlpool brings you back.
• If you flee north of the wall instead, you cannot get it again without starting a new game.

It is a unique Flanker weapon with 7 melee damage, +2 movement, and a passive that turns you invisible and immune to all damage for a turn on a killing blow. If the armada is too much, lower naval combat difficulty and naval enemy density in the custom settings — they reduce damage and numbers respectively.

See how to get the katana for the full route.

The three things you can lock yourself out of

1. The katana — missable permanently, as above.

2. The button in the last room of Royal Navy Intel HQ. It opens a door to more Epic Swag, and that item is a key item needed later in the story. The mission tip explicitly says you do not need to grab it now if it is too dangerous — but if you never come back for it, you have locked a story item behind a door you left shut.

3. Vanity hats you walked past. These are bought, not dropped, so they are not missable in the same way — but they are only sold at specific shops, and they cost Gallons you may have spent elsewhere.

The missions, and the two that behave differently

Mostmissions let you bring fewer bots to make them harder and faster. Two do not follow the standard rules.

Royal Navy Intel HQ (Angler’s Reef) — a Challenge Mission.

• Objective: gather the Intel. Bonus: evacuate in 10 turns or less.
• Once you grab the Epic Swag, the doors lock behind you and an alternate route opens up.
• There is a button in the last room that opens a door to more Epic Swag — and that is the story key item.

The practical read: grabbing the Epic Swag is a commitment, because it locks the doors. Clear what you want to clear first.

Cheville Stockades — a story mission, and a full crew is required. You cannot bring fewer bots the way you can elsewhere.

• It is your likely first meeting with wall turrets and loudspeakers, which buff enemies.
• It is a defence mission with a twist: you must protect Edna, who can be shot.
• The timers escalate: 1 turn, then 3 turns, then 10 turns.
• During the 10-turn timer you can send someone for the Epic Swag in a previously locked door — but opening that door triggers a loudspeaker turret.

Two more mission behaviours worth carrying into the rest of the game:

• Bones in the Ocean is your first encounter with the Rattlers, and the rule to learn there is that you can shoot through the smaller Rattler bots.
• Freighter Fight is a race against time. Open green doors freely, but think before breaching yellow doors — and know that killing the commander sounds an alarm and enemies flood in, so clear the loot before you do it.

Four habits that hold across every mission

1. Upgrade weapons before anything else. Weapon tier has a huge impact on damage output. Sink navy ships for Gallons to fund it.
2. Walk out of melee. There are no attacks of opportunity, so leaving an enemy’s melee range costs you nothing. Only Brawlers should be swinging.
3. Leave once the objective is done. The alarm system means infinitely spawning enemies, and hanging around to farm them usually costs you a star.
4. Reload early and often. There are no quicksaves, and your autosave only takes you two turns back. That is very little room to salvage a bad fight.

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