Deathloop Slab Guide - what you should know

Deathloop is now out but there's still plenty about Blackreef and its four districts that are hidden away. One of the more interesting aspects of Deathloop gameplay is the Slabs, this is the term for the supernatural-like powers that Colt can collect as he travels loop after loop. In this Deathloop Slab Guide, we'll cover not only what each slab does, but also where you can find each of the slabs, and what upgrades you can find for them.

Slabs are powerful tools that can change up your playstyle. If you like stealth then short-ranged teleportation and invisibility might perfectly compliment you, whereas a "guns blazing" type might want the extra protection that Havok offers. On top of Colt's own Slab, Reprise, you can equip only two slabs into your loadout at a time and can only change these loadouts between districts. 

Deathloop Slab Guide - What are the Slabs?

The Slabs were created by Dr Wenjie as a way to power up each of the Visionaries, the slabs you find have the following names and abilities

• Karnesis - This is the slab of Aleksis, you can use this slab to throw around Eternalists and Visionaries as if you're wielding the force
• Shift - This is the slab of Charlie Montague, this ability works like Blink from Dishonored allowing you to teleport short distances
• Chain Link - This is the slab of Harriet Morse, this ability lets you tie the fate of multiple characters together. Once linked if you kill one then the other will also fall.
• Havok - This is the slab of Fia Zborowska, this ability coats Colt in a defensive field and also allows his physical attacks to hit harder
• Aether - This is the slab of Egor Serling, this ability lets you turn invisible for a brief amount of time. You will be seen if you get too close to someone though.

There is one other Slab that Colt does not get access to called Masquerade. This is the Slab that Julianna can use allowing her to change her look into that of another Eternalist, Visionary, or even Colt if you're going for the Dressing Down trophy in the PvP Protect the Loop mode. Unfortunately though playing as Colt Julianna will never drop this Slab.

Deathloop Slab Guide - Do I keep my Slabs?

After you pick up the slab as with any weapon or trinket you'll need to infuse your Slab with Residuum to keep it with you. Luckily though another side effect of killing a Visionary is that they drop a LOT of residuum. On average to infuse a Slab will take 15,000 Residuum but a Visionary can drop 12,000 and upwards. That paired with the free 3500 that you earn each loop should make infusing these extremely easy. There's also a quick way to get 6,000 Residuum from solving a quick puzzle once in Updaam.

Deathloop Slab Guide - Where can I find Visionaries?

As Slabs are only dropped from Visionaries the next question you might be asking yourself is when do each of these Visionaries appear around the District? Below is a list of all the times of day, and what districts each of the Visionaries can be found at. I've left out Dr Wenjie and Frank as they DO NOT drop slabs.

• Morning - Harriet (Karl's Bay)
• Noon - Fia (Fristad Rock), Charlie (Updaam)
• Afternoon - Fia and Charlie (Fristad Rock)
• Evening - Aleksis (Updaam), Egor (The Complex normally, if you destroy his research project earlier in the day then he'll be in Updaam)
• Visiting any location where a Visionary is will also give Julianna a chance to appear.

When you are fighting Julianna she'll normally have a randomized loadout and upon death will drop it. It might be that the first time you encounter and collect a slab is from Julianna instead of from the Slab's actual owner.

Deathloop Slab Guide - Can I have multiple versions of the same Slab?

After you've collected and infused a Slab for the first time there's no way to pick it up again. Instead, you'll start picking up upgrades for each slab. Much like how weapons can be upgraded with trinkets to affect their usage you can use these upgrades on Slab's to give them slightly different effects. You can only equip two Slab Upgrades at a time so it's worth testing out a number of them as well as combinations. These upgrades allow you to further specify just how you want to play Deathloop.

Below are some of the Slab upgrades I've collected so far:

• Nexus Slab
  • Protraction - Nexus drains your power at a slower rate
  • Attraction - Nexus projectiles home in on enemies until they become unstable
  • Parasite - When someone affected by Nexus takes damage, you regain health
  • Influence - Enemies affected by Nexus spontaneously create connections to other nearby
• Aether Slab
  • Erase - While Aether is active, killing an enemy doesn't leave a trace
  • Ghost - Aether doesn't consume Power while you're standing still
  • Phase - Damage doesn't deactivate Aether, and you suffer less damage while it's active
  • Flicker - Attacking while using Aether makes you appear briefly, but doesn't halt the effect
• Shift Slab
  • Airborne - Using Shift in mid-air briefly halts your fall
  • Reach - You can travel further - and higher - when using Shift
  • Swapper - Shift can be used to swap your position with that of an enemy. Get creative.
  • Dropkick - Kicking during a use of Shift produces a powerful (and dangerous) sonic boom

Just like Slabs, you'll need to infuse the Slab Upgrades too if you want to keep them, but the price of a Slab Upgrade to infuse is normally only 5,000 Residuum or so. Once again knowing that you're killing a Visionary at the same time you should have more than enough Residuum.