One of the most important parts of the Deathloop experience is unlocking, equipping and upgrading slabs. If you’ve played Arkane’s Dishonored series, slabs in Deathloop are essentially the powers from that game that Colt can equip in Blackreef to help him break the loop. For the most part, players can unlock slabs by killing Visionaries, which are Deathloop’s boss characters that reside in different districts at different times during the day.
Once players collect a slab from a Visionary corpse, they can then use the Residuum they’ve earned up to that point to infuse the slab in between runs, which will unlock it on a permanent basis across future loops. Once a slab has been collected and infused, it’s also worth going back and killing the same Visionaries multiple times so that you can receive upgrades for their particular slab. Once the slab upgrade has been infused it will also be unlocked for permanent use across future runs, so they’re well worth hunting down.
In this guide, we’re going to run through all of the different slabs in Deathloop and the upgrades we’ve found so far.
Havoc
The Havoc slab is unlocked by taking on Fia Zborowska in the Fristad Rock district at Noon. The easiest way to get it is to sneak up and snap her neck to remove her from the equation, by stealthily making your way through the facility. The Havoc slab will give Colt more damage output and reduce the amount of damage he takes, which is very useful for when you’re tackling multiple enemies at once. Upgrades include Withdrawal, which allows you to leech power when you damage enemies.
Shift
The Shift slab is unlocked by taking down Charlie Montague in the Updaam district at Noon. You’ll have to head to his little LARP palace and work your way through the proceedings until you get to the top. Shift is basically Blink from Dishonored, and it allows Colt to teleport between positions on the map, so it’s very useful for traversal. Just watch out for Charlie’s erratic movements and try to lock him down with an explosive to get the slab. Upgrades for Shift include Airborne, which allows you to hang in the air for a while to mitigate potential fall damage and reach tricky locations.
Nexus
Nexus is my favourite ability in Deathloop, and you can get it from Harriet Morse in the Morning at the Karl’s Bay district. She’ll be dipping her followers in poison when you find her, and Colt will have to make it into the back room of her facility and take her down to retrieve the ability from her corpse. This is another holdover from Dishonored and allows Colt to link enemies together so that they all take damage in tandem when you shoot them. This means you can turn one headshot into three! Upgrades for Nexus such as Attraction make it so that the projectiles home in on enemies.
Karnesis
Karnesis is the hardest ability to collect in Deathloop as you have to head to Updaam in the Evening and figure out which wolf-mask wearing partygoer is Aleksis Dorsey. It’s worth it though because once you get it you’ll be able to chuck Eternalists around with your mind powers, Psychonauts-style. Upgrades for Karnesis include Zone which lets you blast multiple foes at once.
Aether
To unlock the Aether slab, you need to find and kill Egor Sterling at The Complex district during the Evening. The power itself allows Colt to turn invisible briefly, with the power bar draining as you move. The benefit of this power is it lets you sneak up on enemies and dodge turrets and sensors. Be careful though, as you can’t just stand in direct sight of an enemy even when invisible, as they will see through your disguise eventually. Killing Egor to get it is quite tricky, as he will constantly phase in and out of reality. Use traps and try to lure him to take him down. Upgrades like Erase will make it so that enemies killed while using Aether won’t leave a trace.
