Emma's deception ability helps a lot. You don't need a massive casino to be able to deal with most early agents. In fact, I did so well that I wasn't able to capture enough agents to torture for information and halfway through the game I sold off a big chunk of my casino.
"boss the casino is simply too effective, we're not getting any agents back here to capture." "Blast! Foiled by my own genius." It is annoying to need to specifically tag agents for capture when your cover operation is running really well. The patch that just hit today is toning down how effective the casino is though, we'll see how big of a change was made.
Also, consider their superweapon. Ivan's creates fires that can devastate your base if you don't have lots of minions and fire extinguishers. Max's just turns people into gold, so you can sell them.
But max's also leaves statues which can be annoying to sell. Ivan's is definitely something you need to plan for. Ivan gets a scheme after using his super weapon so it may be better for giving money.
@@zakmackay Annoying? I love them! I have a massive collection of the best ones in my Hidden Sanctum, all arranged in little displays. There's the dabbing wall, the "Ideal minion wall" (One of each minion in neutral position), "the assault" (guard minions running positioned around the trojan horse), "people that dared" (terrified looking ones arranged behind my desk) and a bunch more. I eagerly scout each one my weapon creates to see if it's worth adding, move it if it is, mark them for sale if they aren't. It's the reason I basically cannot play anything besides max because I couldn't bear not having my beautiful statues, lol.
The statues are annoying to find on larger bases and can be used as evidence by investigators if you don’t sell them. The fires are easily combated and automatic without you having to do anything
Ivan has a higher DPS than anyone else in the game. No, not his rocket launcher. Did you know that he has a ranged attack like Max? He fires his fist, sometimes twice, which deals something like 100 damage. I’ve had him delete Atomic Olga and her squad with just Ivan.
Yeah zalika is really strong and i love how she restores smarts to science minions. You can research so much faster and save a LOT of money on amenities for smarts and morale restoration for science minions. Keeping zalika's sanctum and your lab close together basically makes you a research machine. She's also pretty strong in combat and putting out fires helps stop saboteurs on their tracks.
I was so pumped when he mentioned Zalika first and then he said "At the bottom" and I was like: 'feels bad man -_______-' She's still fun, but I'm getting to that "research gate" that he mentioned. It doesn't really matter as I went with the one I thought was most interesting.
@@TeddyNinja Yeah, she's not super horrible. Her ranged attack is pretty cool: Shooting a death ray out of her wrists or drone. her ability to instantly put out fires and repair has saved my armory and barracks from getting wiped out since I didn't have any extinguishers nearby. But I'll probably try playing through Max's campaign next.
I think you missed on on Zalika has a really good ranged weapon. Combined with Eli and his silver pistol, you can make mince meat of even super agents as long as they are tide down with fodder minions.
I think Zalika might be the best I've played so far. Her abiliy restores science minions' smarts while doing research and her repair ability also puts out fires. All research is also cheaper and V.O.I.D. lets you steal research. Ivan is Terrible. He is all right in combat, but his rocket launcher damages everything including objects. But the worst thing is H.A.V.O.C.. Every time you use it it sets fire to the base, usually the control room, reactor room, vault and barracks.
Great meta analysis. I love Max for one major reason: To collect gold trophies of fallen rivals and deck out my inner sanctum and killbox with them gives me a gratifying feeling of PURE EVIL.
Max *does* have a bonus effect to his work harder ability, like everyone else, any minions within his vicinity require less salary. Not really sure how effective this is but it’s there, could just stand in a big crowd to save money or something :/
Here's hoping, but not expecting as Riot seems to have completely ignored what was good in the old game. Knowledge of what draws heat, full trap customization, and freaking God damn priority levels and time clocks.
I love zalika, fires in rooms with power plants can get out of control really fast. Also science buff is nice, intel is the best thing to keep stacked. I pretty much only send minions on the fast 10s, high value schemes and always have a full vault.
I think an important part of their buff auras is how they accomplish what they say they do. Because all of them besides Maximillian give all minions that enter the aura a buff that persists for some time after they've left. Ivan, gives an armor buff that not just improves how many hits your combat minions can take and thus how much damage they do before falling, but also improves the survivability of non-combat minions. Zalika gives them a buff that makes researching regenerate rather than drain stamina, so it essentially removes the need for science minions to rest, which admittedly still suffers from her main drawback of not giving a special benefit to anything besides research, but lets her do a *lot* more for research than the description implies. Emma, I haven't tried yet, but I'm guessing she dispenses a buff that increases minion spotting power, which could be pretty handy if you parked her at a major intersection or at the cafeteria of your base to set it off before taking her back to wherever you need her, which would let out a bunch of super-spotters all over your base, and while that's still only that useful in the late game, it's still a lot more useful than the description implies.
I love how Emma clearly doesn’t necessarily need the spider chair. She just uses it anyway to look intimidating. Ivan is also pretty great because he actually respects his minions unlike the other geniuses In his ending cut scene, you can see him salute first which in the military is a form of respect
For sure, you can also use your genius as little or as much as you want. I have a save where my genius is Emma and she is on permanent desk duty, in another one I've micro managed Ivan through almost every combat encounter I've had.
@@TeddyNinja Yeah, I'm still on my first playthrough with Max, just trying to get my head around optimal room sizes and shapes, and how much space all the items take up. Looking forward to a non tutorial playthrough with Ivan for sure.
you do realize how good repairing everything in your vicinity is, right? and she has a laser attack. plus, she's one of the few geniuses that doesn't kill everyone on the planet instead of ruling it, Emma kills everyone, max turns everyone to gold, and Ivan blows up a bunch of the world , Zalika mind controls everyone, not killing everyone, but controlling them instead!
Really? Hmm so salaries get paid out at the end of an in game "day" so you can shrink that payout with his ability. Armory could be a good location to catch a lot of guards, so could the lab because scientists are over paid. I guess the casino is also a good spot if you have a bunch of high level minions wandering around.
Also, Max's minions have very slightly lower salaries overall. For example, hiring a Valet as Red Ivan costs $375/day, but hiring the same Valet as Max costs $337/day.
I wish they would add a character creator so we could make our own Geniuses. They could add it in an expansion where we make a new Genius and have to beat the Genius we finished the first campaign with as the final boss.
That would be pretty great, either to be able to make your genius or if they changed the quest to pick your first henchmen to give you a character creator for them.
I fucking love Red Ivan. Voice by Brian Blessed, does loads of range damage and pretty sold in combat. Total beast. Finally beat the game on Hard Mode with him as my Genius.
First thing (due to never being patched) Emma was head of S.A.B.R.E. not H.A.M.M.E.R. as she was John Steele's original handler (before Penny Foxworth who was the secretary) and I don't think Rebellion realized how useless her do it now power is. A Large Work Force for Max is only good of the special minions, as due to patching you can research everything in the second chapter allowing Zalika to hit that wall early on, and it really only buffs story mission research speed and every science tier after the first as you can only research 1 thing at any given time making her science minion cost reduction useless. I personally believe Emma is the true rank 1 as each Genius has their own story and Max is literally committing unintentional suicide, turning the world into gold, Red Ivan is being a Conqueror, Zalika isn't really any special as she's just trying to prove she's the smarted and really isn't doing that good of a job, but Emma is different, she's basically what would happen if John Steele from the first game (who could 1 shot anything short of a henchman) turned bad, and he comes back from the dead to personally deal with Emma only to get captured again (if you wanted him to be launched with your doomsday device in EG1) and then be framed as the evil genius. Emma is just tired of evil always returning, so she decided to be the one behind it all. Their abilities alone is not enough to decide who is the best (A Large Work Force Does not Allow you to go beyond the minion limit of 300 which is easy to reach very early on in the game it just allows you to start with more minions than any other genius, additionally work harder has a mini buff of reducing minion payment when minions are in it for Max but it's super limited and his gold generation is so OP that it's useless)
From a lot of play as Ivan on normal and a bit of max on hard Ivan is my favourite BUT he’s not great, old school rocket launcher doesn’t work as often as it should, it gives you the rockets but he’ll rarely fire it, instead he’ll charge into melee and require a lot of micro if you want to make use of it. Max’s training ability is awesome and definitely his highlight, training multiple tier 3 minions in an instant is a great time saver when it comes to needing specific units. Deception is absolutely necessary on hard, you don’t want to fight agents because they will bodybag your entire workforce and Mean olga and even investigators will annihilate you. Dropping your 70 minion workforce to 11 annihilate (granted mostly workers) so Emma doesn’t seem so bad based on her passives, just bare in mind damaging traps restore agent resolve. After playing as Ivan I’ve learned to appreciate the power of repair and instantly putting out fires. I think it’s actually an amazing ability and one you will be using for those “oh S***!” Moments, especially when you begin to make grand rooms like dedicated power rooms, training rooms or labs that catch fire and everything burns likely resulting in the lost of more than just a few power, training and other items. I think it’s important to cover the super weapons they get and the downsides to firing them. Max’s MIDAS will turn some of your workforce to gold, not bad as minions can be replaced and retrained made easier by his ability to instantly train. Ivan’s Havoc sets fires. Place as many goddamn fire extinguishers as you can, your power room will thank you as will your money vault speaking of which the money vault can catch fire too so near your vault as well. I have almost destroyed my base firing the secret weapon on more than one occasion. Not sure of zalikas or Emma’s hopefully someone can add
Zalika builds a doomsday device named V.O.I.D. in her campaign. When fired, Heat will be lowered in the targeted region - the exact amount depending on the level with which the V.O.I.D was fired - and a Science node will spawn in the region that, when performed, will complete a random research option that has yet to be completed, the tier of research completed correlating with the level used for the V.O.I.D. Level 1 will complete any research up to Tier 3 Level 2 will complete any research up to Tier 4 Level 3 will complete any research up to the final tier (5) Note that if there is no unfinished research in the given tier, and no pending mission or side-mission research, it would appear the device has no additional benefit other than lowering Heat.
The Zalika V.O.I.D. the device will turn some of your minions into V.O.I.D. sect members and they will be appearing passive so you will need security all-around your layer if you don't want to lose random 5 worker minions + the one that turned. The turned minions get a boost in stats and are harder to kill. Emma's VENOM the device will turn some of your minions into aggressive minions the same as Zalika VOID but less powerfull as they don't get boosted. Ivans HAVOC sets fires and might destroy devices, just that. "JUST THAT = half of your base in flames" Max MIDAS tuns random minions into gold. I don't know if you can sell them but Max passive makes that into just nothing more than an annoyance, not a problem.
@@cristianalvarez5803 well dang, seems like Max's doomsday device is the only one without any big drawbacks.... I'm not at that point in Zalika's campaign, but not sure if the V.O.I.D is worth it.
Little note, the buffs from the "Do it now" abilities linger after the units leave the radius, at least that's how it works for Red Ivan. That means that you can just stand at a chokepoint and all units passing through will get the combat buff, which is how I like to handle things with Ivan when a large force is coming and I can't use my Rocket Launcher. I personally prefer Ivan because my vaults are often full without much efforts and I usually don't lack minions either so Max isn't as good for my playstyle as Ivan. I like Ivan as you can rely on him if minions aren't good enough in combat on their own.
Ivan is the most powerful genius by far. Up to the point that gameplay-wise I am almost ready to recommend picking somebody else, since Ivan is pretty close to trivializing the fighting part of the game. Rocket launcher allows you to defeat squards of agents, including super agents, without even needing to rely on henchmen or minions. Don't tell me about collateral damage - if you are smart, you will not wait for them to enter your Lair, but rather meet them at the entrance where the rockets won't destroy anything of importance. Making minions tougher in combat regularly comes in handy at all stages of the game, although when you get multiple henchmen, it becomes of less importance. If you get henchmen that can hold packs of enemies in one place (like Fugu does with her 2nd skill), grouping up the enemies to devastate them with the rocket launcher becomes even easier. Still, as easy as it gets, shooting the rocket launcher probably gives the most satisfying feeling out of any ability of any character in the game, henchmen included. Other geniuses have useful stuff at their disposal, but being able to easily defeat invaders is something that allows you to disregard everything else, mainly not care about heat rather than managing it. I would put Emma to second place, because her gameplay involves interaction with henchmen and generally lets you manage the global map more easily. Max is third place, bonus to gold is a 1)boring thing 2) not really important because getting gold is very easy in this game. Instant training is a useless perk, especially for somebody who should be able to simply afford more training objects for minions. And, Zalika... simply worthless. There are milestones in the main story that prevent you from going deeper into the science tree before you reach them, and unless you are trying to rush (and skip all the side content), you will be able to develop all technologies with any genius way earlier than you hit those milestones. Ability to put out fires is a quality of life skill which will come handy after you fire the Doomsday Weapon. Sure, this happens often enough, but even without instantly gushing out the fires the worst thing I have seen so far is a single generator being destroyed in the lair, and a few decorations in the casino. So it basically means nothing other than being able to instantly stop the uncomfortable feeling of your base burning. Character-wise, I have always been a fan of Max since the first game, as the most stereotypical and charismatic villain. I would have never thought there could be anybody more fitting than him for the role... But this time Ivan steals the show, leaving Max at 2nd place. I must also say that I liked the original Max somewhat more than his new incarnation. Emma seems interesting and I would place her either tied with Max, or slightly behind him. Zalika... Well, seems outright boring compared to the rest of the cast. You can see it on the genius selection screen already, where all other characters instantly show their captivating and EVIL personalities, while Zalika fails to catch up.
Any tips on how to get more loot in the start of the game?0 Aside from: The Declaration of Independence. The Sands of Time. Flying Pig Ride. The Maple Syrup Bottle. And The Statue of Liberty Torch.
Emma's buffs are bonkers most infiltrators come through near my kitchens after the trap hallways an all the minions have tier 4 spotting combined with some tier 5 cameras it's pretty hard to get through Or even into seeing how effective her casino can be just make sure to give the valets there own private mini lair everyone caught in here will take extra skill damage combined with some ice traps this will do you most the game an waste alot of agent time whole they try explore every room first before going into a heavily watched main base
Emma + Eli is probably my favorite EG + Henchman start. Double silver tongue, double revolver is very powerful Gets even sillier once you get Fugu or Ming
@@TeddyNinja Iris is a great tank thanks to that ability, though sometimes getting the enemies to attack her over other minions could be tricky. Would be nice if they make her generate more aggro while shield mode is up Her camera ability would be more useful if you could tell her to stay in one place. I sorta solved that problem by building a henchmen table at my entrance.
max is the early game (especially since the large work force thing actually is just +5 workers at the start) whilst emma is the late game red ivan and i guess zalika are both just , there even then i'd ague that the +5 minions that max has is not as big of a buff as people may think , although the bonus gold (via paying 10% less salary) is welcome
I think the super weapons need to be taken into account, I HATE dealing with fires, so Red Ivan is last place for me (plus splash damage in your own base is a bad idea), Emma isn't bad but isn't good, I don't want a genius fighting or near it so her boost to abilities is limited for me, so probably 3rd, but her voice acting is much more fitting of an EG, so tied 2nd? Max is always top because of that training ability, his super weapon and his late game execution method
I would rank Ivan at the top. Super strong in combat, makes minions better at combat, and as a character he is just so much fun XD Also I think he gets the best ending.
Great point, you could leave emma in the armory if you want to run really tight security. I've found I prefer leaving her in the inner sanctum because she is garbage in a fight and I placed the armory next to my base entrance. I use my henchmen to point out disguised agents for my guards.
I would say that Maximilian is the 2n best evil genius and Red Ivan the 1r. That's why: 6 tier 5 soldiers landing? just use the rocket launcher and kill them with just 2 out of 4 missiles. Agent X in your base? Rocket launcher! Massive wave of agents? Rocket launcher. His base stats are just stupid because he has the same range as soldiers and does 45-50 damage per shot and his fire rate is too fast. He fought alone against 5 investigators tier 4 and he won alone with more than half health (from 200 health not upgraded to 115) My strategy is to make one path where all agents come into the base and put him right before the entrance of the base and that prevents any disguised agent from entering. After the path, there won't be any door that will go directly into a security room so all intruders and minions have to get throw the security room and Ivan to get in or out the base. Then set the security room as an area to make agents go so they just don't get throw while you are away, if they get aggressive then Ivan is right there to kill them. (You don't protect Ivan, Ivan protects). If lots of agents come then use the rocket launcher while they are on the path so the agents are into one big group. Super agents with 300-400 hp die with all 4 rockets from Ivan so they are not a problem. And right near the security room, I build Ivan's seat in a private layer to allow him to recharge stats after fighting or to allow him to get away if he gets too hurt. And get all the security minions guns as the path doesn't allow more than 2-3 minions to fight 1 agent at melee range so I have 30 security minions with guns + Ivan + rocket launcher = EZ defense. Because you don't have door security minions don't need to get throw the door to fight and they will have more time to prepare and get in place to shoot. And sometimes if agents are fighting in a door the minions get their pathfinding mess up.
Yeah fights get messy with doors and lots of melee combatants, open spaces and guns are definitely the way to go. Ivan's range damage and attack speed are both pretty crazy.
Not to mention, for anyone who likes to prioritize soldier units, Red Ivan is the way to go. Is quite fun watching bunch of mercenary mow down super agent with their machine gun XD
Nice little tier list! Wanted some opinions and I liked how you portrayed yours. I would've probably enjoyed small gameplay clips to portray what you're saying. For the breakdown it was perfect to stay on the screen. But for example, Red Ivan's friendly fire could potentially end up killing your own minions and that's something I was unaware of and got curious about.
Also, it's important to consider the campaigns and superweapons. For example, Red Ivan's superweapon sets fire to half your base when fired, which is bad.
I wanted to say, while I think Ivan's combat abilities are really good, they are a pain to use. Pretty much only his long ranged attack is any good, but he insists on running up to the enemy and throwing a single punch every 5 seconds when the enemy has already landed 3. And don't even get me started on the rocket. If the enemy is so much as near a door, half the cool down will be used putting the thing away, opening the door, then taking it back out again, then putting it away again to go and melee the enemy anyway. It is infuriating, just to do as much damage to your own minions and furniture as you do to the enemy. It's not even worth it, when 2 rocket fists have been enough to capture pretty much every enemy in my experience. But again, it is just as agonizing to do that as it is to use the rocket. If you play as him, I recommend a tanky henchman to send in first to any battle so Ivan can actually keep his distance and get a shot off.
My experience exactly! It would be less frustrating if destroyed items offered a "replace all" option, or pathing was better around doors, or minions replenished faster. As it is, I see the carnage in my base as a lot of uninteresting micromanagement I'm going to have to do to get things cleaned up.
@@TeddyNinja Agreed. I think pathing when in combat needs to be reworked in general. I've had times where my Evil Genius was taking too much damage and I had to retreat, so I tried to move them behind my traps, but they always tried to run back to the enemy, even when on low health, so I just had to spam the move here button until the trap activated. It would also be nice to be able to tell your minions to retreat when in combat, because if I'm waiting for them to get to a trap, or even to get in front of a camera, and some minions intercept them on the way, it just wastes my time and their lives. And yes, a replace all button would be amazing, especially when going through and replacing all the decor items destroyed after using HAVOC
Hmm, Polar brings a lot of frustrations. She's as bad as Emma in a fight, none of her abilities are that interesting, and her super weapon will freeze your entire base forcing you to spam furnaces and space heaters. Obviously if you want to play her campaign it's fun, but putting her competitively against the other geniuses she's probably last.
@@TeddyNinja hardly. Passive is pretty good, morale drops slower for everyone. Not to mention later research makes hot/cold problems pretty nonexistent. I've been firing ZERO pretty consistently and haven't noticed any drop in morale due to cold. She doubles working effort with one ability and then pops another to speed it up even more. I don't need to put my genius in combat as that's what henchmen and minions are for. + her inner sanctum looks the best
8:00 Found that out waaaaayyy too late friend. I’m one of the few unlucky bastards who played his first game as Zalika. And after watching this video I regret my second play through ( which I’ve already started BTW) being Emma... wah wah
I guess you didn't mention it cause spoilers, but I feel Ivan has a pretty big disadvantage compared to the rest when it comes to the drawbacks of firing his superweapon.
Yes! Setting off fires in your base is so annoying. I also feel like his campaign makes you spend a ton of time gathering ammo for the superweapon, more than the other guys.
My personal thoughts 1st - Max 2nd - Ivan 3rd - Emma 4th - Zalika Just finished watching the video seems we have the same thought But there is still other things to consider such as super weapons Max Max is superior in that category because its cool when theres gold statues everywhere and i love that Some find it annoy not me i actually have a collection room full of all different gold statues just missing Hitman, Martial Arts Specialist, and Counter Agent Ivan Sets your base on fire destroys everything causes chaso Zaliko Kills my minions not cool zaliko not cool Emma Never played as her Thats my opinion
On purely min-maxxing criteria, Max's ability to instant train minions, coupled with a super weapon that basically funds the worker rehire cost, and passives that are beneficial throughout the entire campaign, esily makes him the best genius in terms of raw numbers. Ivan follows up, simply because combat is the biggest chokepoint next to training, and having cheaper muscle, on top of minions that can take down agent waves quicker and with less casualties is again, an all game benefit. Where I disagree with the list is I'd say Zalika is abover Emma. While Zalika's research benefits do have a cut off point, her ability to instant repair largescale fires/sabateur attacks is useful in some capacity, while all of Emma's perks are, quite frankly, worthless. As mentioned, a proximity for minions to have additional benefit to see through disguises is useless when Emma herself can see through it, and even if you have her buffing camera minions, how often is the disguise that sneaks through one tier above what the minon would normally see? A well run casino completely negates this, and and being able to more easily stop disguised agents doesn't mean you're not going to need a muscle team to deal with the soldiers that will eventually come regardless. Likewise with her heat reduction on the world stage. Heat mostly only builds when Super Agents are in the area, and I doubt anything Emma offers will dent that, which means you'll mostly be running long-term heat reduction missions anyway, just like every other genius. So again, this ability is all but worthless from start to finish. All that said, in terms of coolness, Zalika is way, way up there for me. Emma a close second, and are the only two worthy of being called "Evil Genius". Ivan is pretty funny, but once a henchman, always a henchman. And Max... Sorry, bro, all the money in the world doesn't make you cool.
The most pay offs of old relationships we get is with the Emma campaign and her missions with John Steele Senior. I've got a video on it if you want to check it out.
She is really cool with how you can choose her upgrades throughout the campaign. It makes me wish they had updated the other geniuses with similar mechanics.
@@TeddyNinja huh i never knew! I'm still really new to EG2 I only recently learned to make multipurpose rooms. I'm doing my first run on easy to get a feel for the game
Honestly I don't even really like Emma, I never use her abilitys at all but I pick her for the soul reason of her look and feel. Like she fits in with the rest of your arsenal where others really don't I guess it would be better if your lair was all themed around your genius, I.E Ivan would have Soviet war time era computers and whatnot for his science lab for example of a room and instead of a ninja for say, he would have a close combat specialist soldier? Same stats just different skin. Henchmen wise I do kinda wish they all had their own set of unique henchmen just cause I find it odd to an old samurai man jubei working for science tech girl but that's just me. Meanwhile Emma being an ex super agent or whatever just feels most fitting for the current set up with her world knowlage of stuff. So she kinda fits both the formal swav of Eli but also the high tech hacker woman of jan etc.
I agree, I wish the different geniuses had more things in the lair themed around them other than just the inner sanctum. Also, Emma has my favorite story line of any of the geniuses.
@@TeddyNinja I also just made a quick forum on how I'd personally fix each genius to make them more viable in places. I was hoping you could take a look and tell me what you think since you're definitely more knowlageable towards these types of games then me who's doing this as baby's first base builder. An example is changing zalikas repair skill to giving her nearby Ally's a shield buff which acts as bonus hp for 15 seconds or till depleted by the enemy to add a little more cellophane to their paper mache health bar. Full forum here: steamcommunity.com/app/700600/discussions/0/3126038156539073075/
Max is by far the worst, his abilities are incredibly useless, I'm not really sure why they made him that bad maybe they ran out of ideas idk but he needs to be changed.
With Max I'm in the end game and don't even have to do money making schemes his passive gold income is so high. I like not having to micromanage things :)
@@singed420snowinit9 haha, no geniuses have any problems with anything in the end game, it's just a matter of picking what you want them to handle on their own so you can focus on the other elements of the game.
Emma's deception ability helps a lot. You don't need a massive casino to be able to deal with most early agents. In fact, I did so well that I wasn't able to capture enough agents to torture for information and halfway through the game I sold off a big chunk of my casino.
"boss the casino is simply too effective, we're not getting any agents back here to capture."
"Blast! Foiled by my own genius."
It is annoying to need to specifically tag agents for capture when your cover operation is running really well. The patch that just hit today is toning down how effective the casino is though, we'll see how big of a change was made.
cant you just build a couple of those PCs that passively boost intel? they also have an ability that increases intel production too
Also, consider their superweapon. Ivan's creates fires that can devastate your base if you don't have lots of minions and fire extinguishers. Max's just turns people into gold, so you can sell them.
But max's also leaves statues which can be annoying to sell. Ivan's is definitely something you need to plan for. Ivan gets a scheme after using his super weapon so it may be better for giving money.
@@zakmackay Max's superweapon also gives schemes. And those schemes give at least $250k on lowest power.
@@zakmackay Annoying? I love them! I have a massive collection of the best ones in my Hidden Sanctum, all arranged in little displays. There's the dabbing wall, the "Ideal minion wall" (One of each minion in neutral position), "the assault" (guard minions running positioned around the trojan horse), "people that dared" (terrified looking ones arranged behind my desk) and a bunch more. I eagerly scout each one my weapon creates to see if it's worth adding, move it if it is, mark them for sale if they aren't.
It's the reason I basically cannot play anything besides max because I couldn't bear not having my beautiful statues, lol.
@@imcaligula1287 I would love to have them and arrange them. But seeing random minions in my hallways I don't like and its annoying to clean up.
The statues are annoying to find on larger bases and can be used as evidence by investigators if you don’t sell them. The fires are easily combated and automatic without you having to do anything
Ivan has a higher DPS than anyone else in the game.
No, not his rocket launcher. Did you know that he has a ranged attack like Max? He fires his fist, sometimes twice, which deals something like 100 damage. I’ve had him delete Atomic Olga and her squad with just Ivan.
Haha, what is it Ivan says? "I used to go into battle with a rocket launcher and come out covered in blood!"
@@TeddyNinja "Now my rocket launcher days are over. Mostly."
there's an achievement for engaging Atomic Olga in a fist fight with Red Ivan. Also, ALL Geniuses have ranged attacks.
even emma
I like firing Red Ivan's RPG at an agent, and then see Jubei fall on the floor form the explosion and regain a straight back
Emma's spotting ability is useful for augmenting minions operating security stations so that boosts your cameras
1:44 If I was about to change into a golden statue i might dab as well...
...or try mooning the guy who shot me.
Haha, and there's always the classic double bird.
@Azariah Yosef why the fuck would you want to do that? it's an invasion of privacy
Tier list for campaign
Max 10:18 > Ivan 9:22 > Emma 8:36 > Zalika 7:34
Zalika's repair is the best ability in the game. When saboteurs come and set everything on fire, the recovery time is far shorter when playing Zalika
Saved me from that plenty of times. It can get out of hand quick if you are like me and forgot fire extinguishers near my power plants.
Yeah zalika is really strong and i love how she restores smarts to science minions. You can research so much faster and save a LOT of money on amenities for smarts and morale restoration for science minions. Keeping zalika's sanctum and your lab close together basically makes you a research machine. She's also pretty strong in combat and putting out fires helps stop saboteurs on their tracks.
@@gamer1X12yes I was a red Ivan lover but then I saw people playing zalika so I tried it out and it is my favorite
I was so pumped when he mentioned Zalika first and then he said "At the bottom" and I was like: 'feels bad man -_______-' She's still fun, but I'm getting to that "research gate" that he mentioned. It doesn't really matter as I went with the one I thought was most interesting.
Yup, at the end of the day you're the genius, you can work with any of these guys.
@@TeddyNinja Yeah, she's not super horrible. Her ranged attack is pretty cool: Shooting a death ray out of her wrists or drone. her ability to instantly put out fires and repair has saved my armory and barracks from getting wiped out since I didn't have any extinguishers nearby. But I'll probably try playing through Max's campaign next.
I think you missed on on Zalika has a really good ranged weapon. Combined with Eli and his silver pistol, you can make mince meat of even super agents as long as they are tide down with fodder minions.
I think Zalika might be the best I've played so far.
Her abiliy restores science minions' smarts while doing research and her repair ability also puts out fires.
All research is also cheaper and V.O.I.D. lets you steal research.
Ivan is Terrible. He is all right in combat, but his rocket launcher damages everything including objects. But the worst thing is H.A.V.O.C.. Every time you use it it sets fire to the base, usually the control room, reactor room, vault and barracks.
Great meta analysis. I love Max for one major reason: To collect gold trophies of fallen rivals and deck out my inner sanctum and killbox with them gives me a gratifying feeling of PURE EVIL.
My Innersactum is filled with trophies if you know what I mean...
Max *does* have a bonus effect to his work harder ability, like everyone else, any minions within his vicinity require less salary. Not really sure how effective this is but it’s there, could just stand in a big crowd to save money or something :/
Here's hoping Shen Yu is a dlc someday. He was my favorite
Yes! so many great DLC opportunities.
Mine too.
Or the stipendium oc (search
Stupendium like me)
Here's hoping, but not expecting as Riot seems to have completely ignored what was good in the old game. Knowledge of what draws heat, full trap customization, and freaking God damn priority levels and time clocks.
Well, there's a campaign pack in the season pass, maybe when that drops?
I love zalika, fires in rooms with power plants can get out of control really fast. Also science buff is nice, intel is the best thing to keep stacked. I pretty much only send minions on the fast 10s, high value schemes and always have a full vault.
I think an important part of their buff auras is how they accomplish what they say they do. Because all of them besides Maximillian give all minions that enter the aura a buff that persists for some time after they've left.
Ivan, gives an armor buff that not just improves how many hits your combat minions can take and thus how much damage they do before falling, but also improves the survivability of non-combat minions.
Zalika gives them a buff that makes researching regenerate rather than drain stamina, so it essentially removes the need for science minions to rest, which admittedly still suffers from her main drawback of not giving a special benefit to anything besides research, but lets her do a *lot* more for research than the description implies.
Emma, I haven't tried yet, but I'm guessing she dispenses a buff that increases minion spotting power, which could be pretty handy if you parked her at a major intersection or at the cafeteria of your base to set it off before taking her back to wherever you need her, which would let out a bunch of super-spotters all over your base, and while that's still only that useful in the late game, it's still a lot more useful than the description implies.
I love how Emma clearly doesn’t necessarily need the spider chair. She just uses it anyway to look intimidating.
Ivan is also pretty great because he actually respects his minions unlike the other geniuses
In his ending cut scene, you can see him salute first which in the military is a form of respect
With the new update max does get a specialisation on work harder as his minions will require lower salaries
i like Ivan since he seems to have a jolly personality when happy and he hits like a truck.
What I like about it, is that you can play differently depending on the genius you pick. In the first game, it didn't really make much difference.
For sure, you can also use your genius as little or as much as you want. I have a save where my genius is Emma and she is on permanent desk duty, in another one I've micro managed Ivan through almost every combat encounter I've had.
@@TeddyNinja Yeah, I'm still on my first playthrough with Max, just trying to get my head around optimal room sizes and shapes, and how much space all the items take up. Looking forward to a non tutorial playthrough with Ivan for sure.
@@darrenjpeters nice, Ivan is great for non tutorial start because they make you start fighting sets of 5 investigators right away.
you do realize how good repairing everything in your vicinity is, right? and she has a laser attack. plus, she's one of the few geniuses that doesn't kill everyone on the planet instead of ruling it, Emma kills everyone, max turns everyone to gold, and Ivan blows up a bunch of the world , Zalika mind controls everyone, not killing everyone, but controlling them instead!
More evil = better
Zalika is the most evil because she removes free will. That's a worse fate than death
Zalika is my favorite by far
I did learn that max's work harder does have a secondary effect of reducing the salary cost of whoever he is ordering.
Really? Hmm so salaries get paid out at the end of an in game "day" so you can shrink that payout with his ability. Armory could be a good location to catch a lot of guards, so could the lab because scientists are over paid. I guess the casino is also a good spot if you have a bunch of high level minions wandering around.
Also, Max's minions have very slightly lower salaries overall. For example, hiring a Valet as Red Ivan costs $375/day, but hiring the same Valet as Max costs $337/day.
I wish they would add a character creator so we could make our own Geniuses. They could add it in an expansion where we make a new Genius and have to beat the Genius we finished the first campaign with as the final boss.
That would be pretty great, either to be able to make your genius or if they changed the quest to pick your first henchmen to give you a character creator for them.
I fucking love Red Ivan. Voice by Brian Blessed, does loads of range damage and pretty sold in combat. Total beast. Finally beat the game on Hard Mode with him as my Genius.
First thing (due to never being patched) Emma was head of S.A.B.R.E. not H.A.M.M.E.R. as she was John Steele's original handler (before Penny Foxworth who was the secretary) and I don't think Rebellion realized how useless her do it now power is. A Large Work Force for Max is only good of the special minions, as due to patching you can research everything in the second chapter allowing Zalika to hit that wall early on, and it really only buffs story mission research speed and every science tier after the first as you can only research 1 thing at any given time making her science minion cost reduction useless. I personally believe Emma is the true rank 1 as each Genius has their own story and Max is literally committing unintentional suicide, turning the world into gold, Red Ivan is being a Conqueror, Zalika isn't really any special as she's just trying to prove she's the smarted and really isn't doing that good of a job, but Emma is different, she's basically what would happen if John Steele from the first game (who could 1 shot anything short of a henchman) turned bad, and he comes back from the dead to personally deal with Emma only to get captured again (if you wanted him to be launched with your doomsday device in EG1) and then be framed as the evil genius. Emma is just tired of evil always returning, so she decided to be the one behind it all. Their abilities alone is not enough to decide who is the best (A Large Work Force Does not Allow you to go beyond the minion limit of 300 which is easy to reach very early on in the game it just allows you to start with more minions than any other genius, additionally work harder has a mini buff of reducing minion payment when minions are in it for Max but it's super limited and his gold generation is so OP that it's useless)
Can we see a henchmen tier list next?
100% it's already in the works ;)
@@TeddyNinja Minions are had str and weakness for example Merc is uprgaded version of Guards they more strong and can take a hit.
@@kurniawaniwan2638 we are talking about henchman not minions.
I'd imagine Jubei would be S tier. Flow is stupidly overpowered, he can solo super agents in like 3 hits.
From a lot of play as Ivan on normal and a bit of max on hard
Ivan is my favourite BUT he’s not great, old school rocket launcher doesn’t work as often as it should, it gives you the rockets but he’ll rarely fire it, instead he’ll charge into melee and require a lot of micro if you want to make use of it.
Max’s training ability is awesome and definitely his highlight, training multiple tier 3 minions in an instant is a great time saver when it comes to needing specific units.
Deception is absolutely necessary on hard, you don’t want to fight agents because they will bodybag your entire workforce and Mean olga and even investigators will annihilate you. Dropping your 70 minion workforce to 11 annihilate (granted mostly workers) so Emma doesn’t seem so bad based on her passives, just bare in mind damaging traps restore agent resolve.
After playing as Ivan I’ve learned to appreciate the power of repair and instantly putting out fires. I think it’s actually an amazing ability and one you will be using for those “oh S***!” Moments, especially when you begin to make grand rooms like dedicated power rooms, training rooms or labs that catch fire and everything burns likely resulting in the lost of more than just a few power, training and other items.
I think it’s important to cover the super weapons they get and the downsides to firing them.
Max’s MIDAS will turn some of your workforce to gold, not bad as minions can be replaced and retrained made easier by his ability to instantly train.
Ivan’s Havoc sets fires. Place as many goddamn fire extinguishers as you can, your power room will thank you as will your money vault speaking of which the money vault can catch fire too so near your vault as well. I have almost destroyed my base firing the secret weapon on more than one occasion.
Not sure of zalikas or Emma’s hopefully someone can add
Emma's VENOM turns some of your minions hostile and you're forced to kill them.
Zalika builds a doomsday device named V.O.I.D. in her campaign.
When fired, Heat will be lowered in the targeted region - the exact amount depending on the level with which the V.O.I.D was fired - and a Science node will spawn in the region that, when performed, will complete a random research option that has yet to be completed, the tier of research completed correlating with the level used for the V.O.I.D.
Level 1 will complete any research up to Tier 3
Level 2 will complete any research up to Tier 4
Level 3 will complete any research up to the final tier (5)
Note that if there is no unfinished research in the given tier, and no pending mission or side-mission research, it would appear the device has no additional benefit other than lowering Heat.
The Zalika V.O.I.D. the device will turn some of your minions into V.O.I.D. sect members and they will be appearing passive so you will need security all-around your layer if you don't want to lose random 5 worker minions + the one that turned. The turned minions get a boost in stats and are harder to kill.
Emma's VENOM the device will turn some of your minions into aggressive minions the same as Zalika VOID but less powerfull as they don't get boosted.
Ivans HAVOC sets fires and might destroy devices, just that. "JUST THAT = half of your base in flames"
Max MIDAS tuns random minions into gold. I don't know if you can sell them but Max passive makes that into just nothing more than an annoyance, not a problem.
@@cristianalvarez5803 yes you can sell the Golden trophies
@@cristianalvarez5803 well dang, seems like Max's doomsday device is the only one without any big drawbacks.... I'm not at that point in Zalika's campaign, but not sure if the V.O.I.D is worth it.
Little note, the buffs from the "Do it now" abilities linger after the units leave the radius, at least that's how it works for Red Ivan. That means that you can just stand at a chokepoint and all units passing through will get the combat buff, which is how I like to handle things with Ivan when a large force is coming and I can't use my Rocket Launcher. I personally prefer Ivan because my vaults are often full without much efforts and I usually don't lack minions either so Max isn't as good for my playstyle as Ivan. I like Ivan as you can rely on him if minions aren't good enough in combat on their own.
I love how Zalika and Emma are pissed because they're low on the list and Ivan and Max are happy because they're at the top
Something you missed about Zalika is that she also boost intel generation done by science minnions
Really? I didn't know that!
Ivan is the most powerful genius by far. Up to the point that gameplay-wise I am almost ready to recommend picking somebody else, since Ivan is pretty close to trivializing the fighting part of the game. Rocket launcher allows you to defeat squards of agents, including super agents, without even needing to rely on henchmen or minions. Don't tell me about collateral damage - if you are smart, you will not wait for them to enter your Lair, but rather meet them at the entrance where the rockets won't destroy anything of importance. Making minions tougher in combat regularly comes in handy at all stages of the game, although when you get multiple henchmen, it becomes of less importance. If you get henchmen that can hold packs of enemies in one place (like Fugu does with her 2nd skill), grouping up the enemies to devastate them with the rocket launcher becomes even easier. Still, as easy as it gets, shooting the rocket launcher probably gives the most satisfying feeling out of any ability of any character in the game, henchmen included.
Other geniuses have useful stuff at their disposal, but being able to easily defeat invaders is something that allows you to disregard everything else, mainly not care about heat rather than managing it. I would put Emma to second place, because her gameplay involves interaction with henchmen and generally lets you manage the global map more easily. Max is third place, bonus to gold is a 1)boring thing 2) not really important because getting gold is very easy in this game. Instant training is a useless perk, especially for somebody who should be able to simply afford more training objects for minions. And, Zalika... simply worthless. There are milestones in the main story that prevent you from going deeper into the science tree before you reach them, and unless you are trying to rush (and skip all the side content), you will be able to develop all technologies with any genius way earlier than you hit those milestones. Ability to put out fires is a quality of life skill which will come handy after you fire the Doomsday Weapon. Sure, this happens often enough, but even without instantly gushing out the fires the worst thing I have seen so far is a single generator being destroyed in the lair, and a few decorations in the casino. So it basically means nothing other than being able to instantly stop the uncomfortable feeling of your base burning.
Character-wise, I have always been a fan of Max since the first game, as the most stereotypical and charismatic villain. I would have never thought there could be anybody more fitting than him for the role... But this time Ivan steals the show, leaving Max at 2nd place. I must also say that I liked the original Max somewhat more than his new incarnation. Emma seems interesting and I would place her either tied with Max, or slightly behind him. Zalika... Well, seems outright boring compared to the rest of the cast. You can see it on the genius selection screen already, where all other characters instantly show their captivating and EVIL personalities, while Zalika fails to catch up.
Any tips on how to get more loot in the start of the game?0 Aside from:
The Declaration of Independence.
The Sands of Time.
Flying Pig Ride.
The Maple Syrup Bottle.
And
The Statue of Liberty Torch.
Does anyone know what the Side affect is for firing Zalikas Superweapon? as I can't figure it out
Emma's buffs are bonkers most infiltrators come through near my kitchens after the trap hallways an all the minions have tier 4 spotting combined with some tier 5 cameras it's pretty hard to get through
Or even into seeing how effective her casino can be just make sure to give the valets there own private mini lair everyone caught in here will take extra skill damage combined with some ice traps this will do you most the game an waste alot of agent time whole they try explore every room first before going into a heavily watched main base
Emma + Eli is probably my favorite EG + Henchman start. Double silver tongue, double revolver is very powerful
Gets even sillier once you get Fugu or Ming
That's awesome! (have you tried IRIS with her shield + heal ability?)
@@TeddyNinja Iris is a great tank thanks to that ability, though sometimes getting the enemies to attack her over other minions could be tricky. Would be nice if they make her generate more aggro while shield mode is up
Her camera ability would be more useful if you could tell her to stay in one place. I sorta solved that problem by building a henchmen table at my entrance.
@@lv83bloodknight Also works great in the combo Emma + Jubei
I Maximilian abilities never worked in Evil Genius one but now he's the best character in two
max is the early game (especially since the large work force thing actually is just +5 workers at the start) whilst emma is the late game
red ivan and i guess zalika are both just , there
even then i'd ague that the +5 minions that max has is not as big of a buff as people may think , although the bonus gold (via paying 10% less salary) is welcome
You should mention their combat abilities a bit more im terms of melee / ranged dps. Also- talk about what their super weapons do?
I think the super weapons need to be taken into account, I HATE dealing with fires, so Red Ivan is last place for me (plus splash damage in your own base is a bad idea), Emma isn't bad but isn't good, I don't want a genius fighting or near it so her boost to abilities is limited for me, so probably 3rd, but her voice acting is much more fitting of an EG, so tied 2nd?
Max is always top because of that training ability, his super weapon and his late game execution method
I would rank Ivan at the top. Super strong in combat, makes minions better at combat, and as a character he is just so much fun XD
Also I think he gets the best ending.
Very cool, I'm about to go for Ivan's ending myself actually. (right now my favorite story line is actually Emma's)
If Emma used her power next to the people operating cameras would that make the cameras see all disguises
Great point, you could leave emma in the armory if you want to run really tight security.
I've found I prefer leaving her in the inner sanctum because she is garbage in a fight and I placed the armory next to my base entrance. I use my henchmen to point out disguised agents for my guards.
@@TeddyNinja if you run that way, split the armoury. Cameras near the sanctum, guard tables near the entrance.
exactly my thought as well. central
camera hub, safely tucked away @@ulfjohnsen6203
I would say that Maximilian is the 2n best evil genius and Red Ivan the 1r.
That's why: 6 tier 5 soldiers landing? just use the rocket launcher and kill them with just 2 out of 4 missiles. Agent X in your base? Rocket launcher! Massive wave of agents? Rocket launcher.
His base stats are just stupid because he has the same range as soldiers and does 45-50 damage per shot and his fire rate is too fast. He fought alone against 5 investigators tier 4 and he won alone with more than half health (from 200 health not upgraded to 115)
My strategy is to make one path where all agents come into the base and put him right before the entrance of the base and that prevents any disguised agent from entering. After the path, there won't be any door that will go directly into a security room so all intruders and minions have to get throw the security room and Ivan to get in or out the base. Then set the security room as an area to make agents go so they just don't get throw while you are away, if they get aggressive then Ivan is right there to kill them. (You don't protect Ivan, Ivan protects). If lots of agents come then use the rocket launcher while they are on the path so the agents are into one big group.
Super agents with 300-400 hp die with all 4 rockets from Ivan so they are not a problem. And right near the security room, I build Ivan's seat in a private layer to allow him to recharge stats after fighting or to allow him to get away if he gets too hurt. And get all the security minions guns as the path doesn't allow more than 2-3 minions to fight 1 agent at melee range so I have 30 security minions with guns + Ivan + rocket launcher = EZ defense. Because you don't have door security minions don't need to get throw the door to fight and they will have more time to prepare and get in place to shoot. And sometimes if agents are fighting in a door the minions get their pathfinding mess up.
Yeah fights get messy with doors and lots of melee combatants, open spaces and guns are definitely the way to go. Ivan's range damage and attack speed are both pretty crazy.
Not to mention, for anyone who likes to prioritize soldier units, Red Ivan is the way to go. Is quite fun watching bunch of mercenary mow down super agent with their machine gun XD
Nice little tier list! Wanted some opinions and I liked how you portrayed yours. I would've probably enjoyed small gameplay clips to portray what you're saying.
For the breakdown it was perfect to stay on the screen. But for example, Red Ivan's friendly fire could potentially end up killing your own minions and that's something I was unaware of and got curious about.
For sure, I want to get an updated video when I've got more experience with everyone in the late game portions of their campaigns.
Also, it's important to consider the campaigns and superweapons. For example, Red Ivan's superweapon sets fire to half your base when fired, which is bad.
I wanted to say, while I think Ivan's combat abilities are really good, they are a pain to use. Pretty much only his long ranged attack is any good, but he insists on running up to the enemy and throwing a single punch every 5 seconds when the enemy has already landed 3. And don't even get me started on the rocket. If the enemy is so much as near a door, half the cool down will be used putting the thing away, opening the door, then taking it back out again, then putting it away again to go and melee the enemy anyway. It is infuriating, just to do as much damage to your own minions and furniture as you do to the enemy. It's not even worth it, when 2 rocket fists have been enough to capture pretty much every enemy in my experience. But again, it is just as agonizing to do that as it is to use the rocket. If you play as him, I recommend a tanky henchman to send in first to any battle so Ivan can actually keep his distance and get a shot off.
My experience exactly! It would be less frustrating if destroyed items offered a "replace all" option, or pathing was better around doors, or minions replenished faster. As it is, I see the carnage in my base as a lot of uninteresting micromanagement I'm going to have to do to get things cleaned up.
@@TeddyNinja Agreed. I think pathing when in combat needs to be reworked in general. I've had times where my Evil Genius was taking too much damage and I had to retreat, so I tried to move them behind my traps, but they always tried to run back to the enemy, even when on low health, so I just had to spam the move here button until the trap activated. It would also be nice to be able to tell your minions to retreat when in combat, because if I'm waiting for them to get to a trap, or even to get in front of a camera, and some minions intercept them on the way, it just wastes my time and their lives. And yes, a replace all button would be amazing, especially when going through and replacing all the decor items destroyed after using HAVOC
What about Polar
Hmm, Polar brings a lot of frustrations. She's as bad as Emma in a fight, none of her abilities are that interesting, and her super weapon will freeze your entire base forcing you to spam furnaces and space heaters. Obviously if you want to play her campaign it's fun, but putting her competitively against the other geniuses she's probably last.
@@TeddyNinja hardly. Passive is pretty good, morale drops slower for everyone. Not to mention later research makes hot/cold problems pretty nonexistent. I've been firing ZERO pretty consistently and haven't noticed any drop in morale due to cold.
She doubles working effort with one ability and then pops another to speed it up even more. I don't need to put my genius in combat as that's what henchmen and minions are for. + her inner sanctum looks the best
Max is my favorite, because he was my first in the original game
Polar?
8:00
Found that out waaaaayyy too late friend. I’m one of the few unlucky bastards who played his first game as Zalika. And after watching this video I regret my second play through ( which I’ve already started BTW) being Emma... wah wah
I never got to pick my evil genius the game just started with Max…
I guess you didn't mention it cause spoilers, but I feel Ivan has a pretty big disadvantage compared to the rest when it comes to the drawbacks of firing his superweapon.
Yes! Setting off fires in your base is so annoying. I also feel like his campaign makes you spend a ton of time gathering ammo for the superweapon, more than the other guys.
My personal thoughts
1st - Max
2nd - Ivan
3rd - Emma
4th - Zalika
Just finished watching the video seems we have the same thought
But there is still other things to consider such as super weapons
Max
Max is superior in that category because its cool when theres gold statues everywhere and i love that
Some find it annoy not me i actually have a collection room full of all different gold statues just missing
Hitman, Martial Arts Specialist, and Counter Agent
Ivan
Sets your base on fire destroys everything causes chaso
Zaliko
Kills my minions not cool zaliko not cool
Emma
Never played as her
Thats my opinion
On purely min-maxxing criteria, Max's ability to instant train minions, coupled with a super weapon that basically funds the worker rehire cost, and passives that are beneficial throughout the entire campaign, esily makes him the best genius in terms of raw numbers.
Ivan follows up, simply because combat is the biggest chokepoint next to training, and having cheaper muscle, on top of minions that can take down agent waves quicker and with less casualties is again, an all game benefit.
Where I disagree with the list is I'd say Zalika is abover Emma. While Zalika's research benefits do have a cut off point, her ability to instant repair largescale fires/sabateur attacks is useful in some capacity, while all of Emma's perks are, quite frankly, worthless.
As mentioned, a proximity for minions to have additional benefit to see through disguises is useless when Emma herself can see through it, and even if you have her buffing camera minions, how often is the disguise that sneaks through one tier above what the minon would normally see? A well run casino completely negates this, and and being able to more easily stop disguised agents doesn't mean you're not going to need a muscle team to deal with the soldiers that will eventually come regardless.
Likewise with her heat reduction on the world stage. Heat mostly only builds when Super Agents are in the area, and I doubt anything Emma offers will dent that, which means you'll mostly be running long-term heat reduction missions anyway, just like every other genius. So again, this ability is all but worthless from start to finish.
All that said, in terms of coolness, Zalika is way, way up there for me. Emma a close second, and are the only two worthy of being called "Evil Genius". Ivan is pretty funny, but once a henchman, always a henchman. And Max... Sorry, bro, all the money in the world doesn't make you cool.
I only picked Ivan cause Russia
Also I realized Ivan and Emma might know each other cause they both been in hammer
The most pay offs of old relationships we get is with the Emma campaign and her missions with John Steele Senior. I've got a video on it if you want to check it out.
I quite like Polaris.. polar? the oceans dlc one
She is really cool with how you can choose her upgrades throughout the campaign. It makes me wish they had updated the other geniuses with similar mechanics.
@@TeddyNinja huh i never knew! I'm still really new to EG2 I only recently learned to make multipurpose rooms. I'm doing my first run on easy to get a feel for the game
Honestly I don't even really like Emma, I never use her abilitys at all but I pick her for the soul reason of her look and feel. Like she fits in with the rest of your arsenal where others really don't
I guess it would be better if your lair was all themed around your genius, I.E Ivan would have Soviet war time era computers and whatnot for his science lab for example of a room and instead of a ninja for say, he would have a close combat specialist soldier? Same stats just different skin. Henchmen wise I do kinda wish they all had their own set of unique henchmen just cause I find it odd to an old samurai man jubei working for science tech girl but that's just me.
Meanwhile Emma being an ex super agent or whatever just feels most fitting for the current set up with her world knowlage of stuff. So she kinda fits both the formal swav of Eli but also the high tech hacker woman of jan etc.
I agree, I wish the different geniuses had more things in the lair themed around them other than just the inner sanctum. Also, Emma has my favorite story line of any of the geniuses.
@@TeddyNinja I also just made a quick forum on how I'd personally fix each genius to make them more viable in places. I was hoping you could take a look and tell me what you think since you're definitely more knowlageable towards these types of games then me who's doing this as baby's first base builder.
An example is changing zalikas repair skill to giving her nearby Ally's a shield buff which acts as bonus hp for 15 seconds or till depleted by the enemy to add a little more cellophane to their paper mache health bar.
Full forum here: steamcommunity.com/app/700600/discussions/0/3126038156539073075/
I wish this game came to switch
that would be pretty sweet. It'll be on the Valve Steam Deck though when that releases :)
Max is by far the worst, his abilities are incredibly useless, I'm not really sure why they made him that bad maybe they ran out of ideas idk but he needs to be changed.
With Max I'm in the end game and don't even have to do money making schemes his passive gold income is so high. I like not having to micromanage things :)
@@TeddyNinja Gold isn't a problem in the end game at all unless you really screwed up.
@@singed420snowinit9 Exactly :) I love Maxcorp investments just taking care of everything.
@@TeddyNinja I wasn't agreeing with you, all the geniuses have no money issues end game.
@@singed420snowinit9 haha, no geniuses have any problems with anything in the end game, it's just a matter of picking what you want them to handle on their own so you can focus on the other elements of the game.
my favorite is emma
Emma is best
Fite me :p
Agreed
Emma is anti-spy.