Probably Stolen How to Spot Augs Guide

Augs are people taken over by a rogue AI chip in their brain. They shop like anyone else, but what they’re really after is raw materials to fabricate new chips and medical supplies to implant them in new victims. You’re expected to deal with them yourself: calling Security doesn’t work, because the Augs have hacked Security’s comms and leave before anyone arrives. Shoot only when you’re sure.

The Aug threat starts on day 12. Take the Aug Menace starting perk and it starts on day 1.

What to look for

The Augmented Identification Guide sorts the signs into two groups.

Things you can see:

• Unusual Pupils
• Uncanny Expression
• Visible Aug Chip

Things you notice in how they act and talk:

• Unnatural Stillness
• Twitching
• Outfit Not Matching Their Faction
• Robotic vocabulary
• Overly Formal Phrasing

An outfit that doesn’t match the customer’s faction is easy to miss, so compare what they’re wearing with who they say they are.

How Augs talk

Augs haven’t mastered normal human speech, and the lines get more obvious the less effort an Aug puts into its disguise. These are real lines from the game:

• Careful Augs sound almost normal: “Picking them up for a friend.” or “I am stocking up.”
• Some slip mid-sentence: “This unit has— I mean, I need some.”
• The worst barely try: “Initiating communication. I am a normal human.” or “Requesting supplies. A host is awaiting augmentation.”

Listen to how they state their budget. A normal “I have 80 credits.” is fine. Machine phrasing such as “Budget allocated: 80 credits.”, “Allocated funds: 80 credits.” or “I have 80 credits available for this acquisition.” is a warning sign.

Their shopping list is a tell too. Augs ask for medical supplies to prepare a “host” or “subject”, and for materials for a “fabrication run” or “replication”.

Confirming a suspicion

The Aug Scanner (base value 200 credits) confirms whether a suspect is an Aug with 100% accuracy. It’s worth buying before you start shooting people on a hunch.

On the Bargain screen you can also Threaten (Aug): accuse the customer of being an Aug and threaten to shoot them unless they give you better prices. Only use it when you’re confident, because against a normal customer the accusation always fails and costs you reputation.

Shooting an Aug

Security pays a bounty for every Aug you eliminate. It starts at 100 credits on day 12 and rises by 1 credit a day, up to 250. Model Citizen raises it by 50% and Convict cuts it by 25%. With Aug Menace, the count starts on day 1 instead and every bounty pays 25% more.

Each kill also earns reputation on Mark Up (Normal): +8 with Security and +2 each with the Lower Levels, the Black Market and the Revolution. Model Citizen and Convict change these gains by the same percentage as the bounty, and difficulty scales them: x1.5 on Price Gouge (Cozy), x0.75 on Thin Margins (Hard), x0.5 on Red Ink (Challenge). Every kill also pushes back the Aug presence on the station (see the table below).

Shooting the wrong customer

Shooting someone who turns out to be human adds a Manslaughter charge to Security’s case against you: 250 crime value before day 25, 500 from day 25 and 750 from day 50. From day 25 on, that single charge is past the 300 that turns a fine into Incarceration.

It also costs reputation with every faction that cares. On Mark Up (Normal):

Difficulty scales these losses: x0.5 on Price Gouge (Cozy), x1.25 on Thin Margins (Hard), x2 on Red Ink (Challenge). One wrong shot wipes out the Security reputation from two kills and can land you in a cell, which is why the scanner pays for itself.

Letting an Aug go

An Aug that leaves your store alive grows the Aug presence on the station, and a contact will tell you the next day that one visited. The presence starts at 15. On Price Gouge (Cozy) and Mark Up (Normal), Security sometimes warns you at the start of a day that an Aug is likely to visit, so be ready. Harder difficulties give no warning.

If the presence reaches 100 on Thin Margins (Hard) or Red Ink (Challenge), the run ends with the Augmented ending (see the Rent, Buyout and Endings guide). With Aug Menace, it ends the run on every difficulty. On the other difficulties, a full presence doesn’t end the run.

Keep the presence down and the problem goes away. From day 62, once the presence is back at 0 and you’ve held a Business Permit for at least 25 days, the Aug threat ends for good. Aug Menace runs never get that reprieve.

Aug presence by difficulty

On Thin Margins (Hard) and Red Ink (Challenge), a kill does far less to push the presence back than an escaped Aug adds, so don’t let suspects walk out the door.